The first place to reply was Minchodan’s group chat.
Hanjo [Our NewBlack must... have multiple lives..?]
Hanjo [hehe, haha]
LB [Apologize profusely]
LB [Ah damn, I slept through everything today]
Rex [You were sleeping soundly earlier]
I burst out laughing as I watched Street Boys shower curses on us.
When my indignant friends protested, I said, “Then why don’t you send it to your acquaintances too?” and they thought it was a good idea and were thrilled.
And then.
It turned out that Street Boys had a similar reaction.
Hanjo [It really was fun though]
Hanjo [This is nothing like I expected when they said a web drama had co out;]
Giwon [I’ve never seen anything like this 0_0]
Not only Street Boys but everyone was saying it was fun and fresh.
Jiho, our maknae, grinned and fired heart emojis everywhere in response to ssages praising him.
Ziiiiiing—
His phone continued to vibrate nonstop.
“Humhumhum~”
It seed like he had so many friends that he was getting ssages from soone new almost every five seconds.
We watched in amazent.
“You... how many people did you tell?”
“Beats . Maybe three hundred? I’m not really sure.”
They say the maximum number of relationships a person can maintain is around a hundred. Our maknae was clearly not human.
I turned my gaze to my own phone, watching him excitedly reply to friends.
“Let’s see. I’ve probably sent it to everyone I could think of....”
Except for Taehyun, who hates scary things, and the pretty boys next door who would reply with four-letter words, it looked like I’d covered almost everyone.
Just then.
Yeonhu [Jiho watch the web drama]
Yeonhu [Masterpiece agreed]
Soon excited reactions landed in our and TeenSpirit’s group chat.
“How did they see it?”
“They said we sent them the link...?”
On closer inspection, it was the sa link we’d sent to Street Boys.
Our maknae chuckled.
“This is the six degrees of separation rule. Everyone is six links away.”
I smiled, watching the link spread like a chain letter.
That opening was terrifying.
Not only us but comnts on Tube were full of people screaming.
-Not scary at allㅋㅋㅋ I’m sleeping with my mom tonightㅠㅠ
-Luckily it’s a web drama.. if I’d seen it in a theater I’d have knocked over a popcorn bucket for sure
-I can’t watch scary things but this is so fun ㅅㅂ but what’s the protagonist’s na
-The sound design... oh man... don’t watch with earbuds, every crack makes freak out
-It’s not that scary? But the atmosphere itself is chilling
-I love this kind of thing, my heart’s pounding right now hehe I’m so happy
We weren’t the only scared ones. Everyone was shivering at that shocking opening scene.
-Who’s the writer..? Doesn’t seem like a web drama writer
-The way they dropped those hints is on another level
-This is better than most TV dramasㅋㅋㅋ
-It’s a web drama but the directing feels perfect... and Jiho acts so well
As we scrolled through comnts, we suddenly rembered the question we’d forgotten in the excitent.
“Jiho.”
“Yes?”
“But how did Writer Sleep end up here?”
That was what we were most curious about. Sleep had been one of 2015’s top dramas, with excellent ratings. It had won Best Drama and Best Screenplay at the Arts Awards’ TV division. A writer of that caliber would surely be in demand—why choose a web drama for her next project?
“Oh, that.” Jiho said.
“She already wrote her next work earlier this year.”
“She did?”
“Yeah. It didn’t do well, so no one knows about it—it was on cable. It’s called Om.”
I checked online and indeed found an exorcism drama called Om (Ω) that aired earlier this year. The screenplay credit said Bae Yejin—Sleep’s writer.
“I didn’t even know that existed.”
“It bombed hard.”
Looking at the ratings—considering it was on cable—they were dismally low.
“At first it got great reviews. Famous seniors even appeared.”
“So why did it flop...?”
“Around episode six or seven it went off the rails. Suddenly there was a love line and the dialogue got cheesy.”
It turned out the director of Om had ddled with the script without permission, so a dispute arose. The production company and channel sided with the director and replaced the writer mid-season.
“That can happen...?”
“It’s common in drama. If directors know how to write, they interfere a lot.”
“Even soone as successful as Sleep can get treated like that......”
“Apparently unless you’re a super-star writer with connections, it’s a directors’ world. Whoever has more industry network wins.”
Because of that, she was replaced in episode eight by a writer more to the director’s taste.
“I think she got burned out. Even if she wanted to write another genre piece, after the ratings collapse and being forced off, it must have «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» been hard.”
“Once you slip up here, you’re out......”
“And directors with connections spread rumors. It even hurt her prospects for new projects.”
Things were tangled, but...
“I heard Director Cho went to her and signed her. He just acquired a production company.”
That was how the web drama Shin-i was born. We listened fascinated to these behind-the-scenes stories, and then Jiho looked at his phone and laughed.
“Oh, a call from the writer!”
“Go answer it.”
“Okay. Writer~ Yes~ Hahahaha!”
We all smiled at our maknae’s jubilant chat with Sleep’s writer, as if to say we’d hit the jackpot.
Biju smiled and said, “I’m glad it’s going well.”
“Right? Writer Sleep is doing great. And the CEO......”
I bet right now he was in his office, laughing as the web drama’s views climbed. This was the company’s first success in a new business. Though it was only day one, online montum looked good. But the best part for us was...
“Hehehehe.”
The attention pouring in for our maknae’s acting.
I smiled as we read posts appearing online.
“Should we screenshot this? Soone on a blog compared Jiho’s acting to Officer Heo’s.”
“Let’s capture it.”
Junhyun and Biju eagerly took screenshots of the review. Ri Hyuk, with a proud look, was liking comnts on Tube praising Jiho.
Everyone had their own reason to celebrate the web drama’s success, but for us it was that our maknae was getting the spotlight.
-Acting can co later~
He loved acting most, yet always postponed it for group activities. He once turned down offers from the actor team’s manager. Even when Officer Heo’s role in Sleep brought attention, he declined every script that ca after.
He said he was fine, but passing up opportunity is never easy. That’s why seeing our maknae shine as the lead was so heartwarming. I just hoped it’d keep going well.
“Ehehehe! What do you an—Writer wrote it all~ Oh, hyungs? You don’t need caos~ Leave it to !”
I actually hoped it wouldn’t get too big.
That night.
One topic dominated online: the new web drama Shin-i.
‘What is Shin-i anyway?’
So discovered it via real-ti search trends. Others saw posts on Facebook’s What to Watch Today page saying ‘Crazy hype for the web drama ddd’.
-I watched Shin-i episode 1, it’s hilariousㅋㅋㅋ
-NewBlack’s web drama is trending across communities
-Just saw Shin-i, it’s epic
People who went online to surf found conversations about Shin-i everywhere.
‘Is it really that scary?’
The hype made curious too. After the 17-minute viewing ended...
‘Wow......!’
Viewers joined discussions with others. Drama fans were in a frenzy.
-Why is Shin-i so good???ㅠ
-I just searched—writer of Shin-i is Sleep’s writer??
-Personally I prefer this to Sleep
-I got hooked on a web drama
-The ending has such impact... the narration and finale gave chills;
-Who’s the director? The framing and color grading are amazing
anwhile, edited GIFs of Jiho flooded in—especially the one with the subtitle [The Man Who Stood Still in Ti]. His propped-chin gaze, eyes like ancient trees staring forward, had a srizing pull.
-A line or two off and it'd be emo cringe, but Jiho totally nails it
-The shift in his tone is incredible... starts like a high schooler, then transforms in mid-episode
-He was truly godlike
-He’s nothing like Officer Heo in Sleep, so differentㅋㅋㅋ
-How does Jiho bring lines to lifeㅠㅠㅠㅠ
-Anyone know his character’s na..? Why don’t I know itㅠ
Everyone was in awe of Jiho’s performance. His character was implied to be a mber of a secret organization investigating strange phenona, an ageless being living for millennia.
‘I’m so curious what happens next.’
Why was he living as a high school student? What was his true identity? What was that magic he used? Theories and bait flew around.
On idol communities, posts analyzing Jiho’s acting appeared.
[Subjective Review of NewBlack’s Two Acting mbers]
A blogger wrote this; I’m sharing because it highlights differences
(This doesn’t an one is better)
They compared GIFs from Magic School, Alien Family, Sleep, and Shin-i to analyze both mbers’ acting.
-It may be early to judge with just episode one... but I see interesting patterns in NewBlack mbers’ recent acting paths.
-Uju’s style is close to slice-of-life. She molds herself to the role. You can see that in Kim Uju. In contrast, Jiho is the opposite. His gestures in Shin-i are very distinctive.
They praised Jiho for completely transforming into a character unrecognizable as himself. Though their approaches differed, the review concluded that having two talented actors in one group was rare.
SUPLEs agreed.
-I get what they anㅋㅋㅋ
-Conclusion: our kids are geniuses
-Love analyses like thisㅠㅠ definitely see the difference
-Trolls, get lost
SUPLEs chased away troublemakers trying to stir conflict by asking who was better.
Anti-fans posted that comparing to existing web dramas was unfair, but it didn’t make much impact. The results spoke for themselves.
-Shin-i... 1 million views in one day
-[OH Column] Shin-i, a new frontier for web dramas
-Real-ti search Shin-i... NewBlack’s Jiho starring web drama
Shin-i’s almost short-film quality thrilled the general public.
-Jiho’s acting is so goodㅋㅋㅋ I forgot about NewBlack while watching
-I’m so happy there’s sothing worth watching againㅎㅎㅎ as a horror fan I love this
-I never thought Korean drama could do this
-Why are networks sleeping on this? Hire them now
-I watched episode one and imdiately thought it needs seasonsㅋㅋㅋ
As SUPLEs delighted over weekly Thursday anticipation, others were equally thrilled.
Lemon Entertainnt’s CEO office.
Under bright lights, a middle-aged man with a shining forehead smiled.
“How is it?”
“Wow......”
Writer Bae Yejin of Shin-i stared at the tablet in disbelief.
“Are web dramas always this reactive?”
“No, it’s not typical.”
Director Cho, making tea at a distance, smiled.
“I’ve never seen such a response from episode one since I entered the industry.”
“I’m so surprised. I never imagined this.”
Shin-i had been planned as her next work after Sleep but failed to secure a TV slot. CPs at networks usually said, “This won’t appeal to the public,” and wanted a derivative of Sleep. That’s why she agreed to make a web drama—Lemon Entertainnt’s studio LM was the sole investor and wanted to enter web dramas.
‘Well, it’ll get so buzz...’ she thought, with low expectations for her script.
But it blew up spectacularly.
She knew the true reason for Shin-i’s success from episode one wasn’t the big budget, great director, or her script—it was a third factor.
CEO Park Kyuh o smiled contentedly.
“Our kid is popular, isn’t he?”
“Yes, it’s incredible......”
It was genuine admiration.
‘This works?’
Just by casting Jiho, episode one was a hit.
To be precise...
“Our platform is almost like its own service: NewBlack TV.”
“Exactly.”
Director Cho replied.
“With foreign subscribers included, we must have around ten million subscribers. It lives inside Tube but is effectively a huge content platform.”
They’d only posted teasers and trailers on NewBlack TV, with no other promotion, and still achieved this.
“That’s why we’re in this business. Managent is important, but we need new revenue streams.”
His fox-like features smiled.
“As you know, even if we continue managent, the chance of finding talents like NewBlack is virtually zero. They’re extrely rare......”
“I’ve heard that a lot.”
“And their potential is still vast... I don’t know where they’ll be in a few years.”
A departnt head nearby joked that it felt like ten years had passed, and everyone smiled in agreent.
He offered her tea as a handso man clasped his hands.
“The key is this. We hold a gem whose value grows daily... shouldn’t the setting for that gem match its worth?”
“Right.”
“To support these kids in the future, we must grow too. We need to be the best company to support them so that in five years they still choose us.”
I understood. The plan was to elevate the company’s competitiveness to match NewBlack’s rising stature, so their golden opportunity wouldn’t sit idle.
“And the start is dia business. As I said, we have an excellent platform, so we’ll use that first.”
She listened, entranced by their growth strategy—beginning with NewBlack TV, rivaling many cable channels, then expanding into variety and drama content.
If it went as planned, in a few years Lemon Entertainnt wouldn’t be a simple agency.
As objective projections and smooth rhetoric lulled her, she felt amazent.
‘They really know what they’re doing...’
She admired how they planned synergy to elevate NewBlack further. It was a win-win.
Director Cho finished and asked, “What do you think—would you work with us?”
“.......”
“There’s no rush. Feel free to consider it.”
They were offering her an exclusive contract to join the company’s infancy.
‘Is this the person I thought he was?’
As she recalled the director she’d clashed with, Director Cho smiled, waiting.
“...All right.”
When the Sleep writer gave her positive answer, they smiled and presented a new contract.
CEO Park Kyuh o laughed.
“Oh, what a good day. Haha.”
As the friendly CEO thanked her warmly, ziiiiiing—
The departnt head checked his ssages, then whispered urgently to CEO Park.
“Uh, uh... already?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Hahaha, it’s this late already.”
CEO Park jumped up and hurried to a mirror. He diligently wiped his hair with a wipe, then spritzed mouth spray, and solemnly neatened his sideburn.
Buttoning his shirt fully, he looked like a youth excited for a date.
“Who’s the important guest coming?”
“Yes. Haha.”
He laughed, then dashed off like he was greeting a VIP.
She blinked.
‘What the—’
She asked Director Cho, who smiled calmly as if nothing unusual.
“...He really is the CEO?”
“Yes.”
While he and the departnt head gazed off into the distance, the Sleep writer blinked.
A giggle sounded like an echo, and she realized:
‘The true power in this company is NewBlack...!’
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