Bonus 1 of 2. Thanks, Flow!
A few months later.
Taylor, along with Nick, came into Korea at Gyeong Chanhyeon’s request.
“Wow…”
The clean airport actually looked nicer than the LA airport.
It made her marvel without even thinking, because it was completely different from the Korea she had pictured in her head.
Of course, because Gyeong Chanhyeon himself gave off such a neat, polished impression, her image of Korea as a country had already improved a lot.
But on top of that, with the airport itself giving off such a bright, lively atmosphere, Taylor looked quietly excited, as if her expectations were rising.
“What is it?”
“It’s way better than I expected.”
After finishing the entry procedures and heading out to the waiting area, a driver Gyeong Chanhyeon had sent was already there, and following the driver’s lead, Taylor and Nick immediately headed to the new CG company that was about to be born.
When Taylor could barely keep her eyes open from the long flight, Nick beside her spoke.
“The facilities will be okay, right?”
“Director Gyeong Chanhyeon is someone we can trust. He’s the first person who trusted us. If it’s him, he wouldn’t have done this halfway.”
In response to Nick’s question, Taylor answered with a faint smile.
“Hmm… That’s true.”
“Let’s close our eyes for a bit. He said it takes about an hour.”
Maybe it was the comfort of the luxury sedan and the fatigue from the long flight, but the moment Taylor closed her eyes, she fell straight into a deep sleep.
“We’ve arrived.”
At the driver’s words, Taylor slowly opened her eyes.
“Huh…?”
A building that could not even be compared to the place they used to work.
Windows that looked like they would not allow a single speck of dust, and a grandeur that seemed like it would not tolerate even one cockroach.
In front of a building where “luxurious” did not even begin to cover it, Taylor asked the driver, flustered.
“H-here?”
The driver beamed at her question and replied.
“Sixth floor of this building. Director Gyeong Chanhyeon is waiting as well.”
“Yes! Haha. Thank you.”
“I’ll take your luggage to where you’ll be staying. I’ll be back at the right time.”
“Ah, I can do it myself…”
“No, ma’am. Director Gyeong personally asked me to.”
“Okay…”
When Taylor opened the car door and stepped out, a sight completely unlike what she had expected spread out before her.
A dense forest of buildings packed tight.
The Korea she had seen in <007 Die Another Day> felt like some total countryside where people farmed with oxen, but this was a completely different view. Taylor looked around and let out a hollow laugh.
As she wondered what on earth Hollywood thought Korea was like, Nick spoke first beside her.
“Aren’t we going in?”
“Is this really South Korea?”
“Then would it be North Korea?”
At Nick’s words, Taylor let out a small laugh and walked into the building where she would be spending her future.
“How long has it been since I rode an elevator?”
“Such a clean smell…”
Making a big fuss, Nick and Taylor took the elevator and arrived on the sixth floor.
Then, seeing Gyeong Chanhyeon first thing, they waved their hands.
“It’s been a while! Director Gyeong!”
“It has. Was the trip here okay?”
“It was great! And this building is seriously amazing!”
“Haha. Come on in first.”
Smiling, Gyeong Chanhyeon guided them inside, then paused in front of the logo at the entrance of the company.
.
When she noticed that logo, Taylor blinked.
“Don’t tell me the name too…”
“Yes. The corporate representative names are listed as me and my friend, but in practice, it’s a company that runs on Ms. Taylor’s skills.”
“…”
Taylor swallowed hard and stepped into the new MILM, full of anticipation.
“Wow…”
A space that could not even be compared to the old MILM, where fluorescent lights would flicker because a few had gone out.
That sticky feeling that used to cling to your feet was gone, too.
Partitions for each person. And a new computer at every individual station.
“It must have cost you a fortune…”
“Think of it as an investment. You’re going to make us far more than this investment cost, right?”
At Gyeong Chanhyeon’s words, Taylor nodded with a bright smile.
Her smile was as bright as the sun drawn on her clothes, and Gyeong Chanhyeon found himself smiling naturally, too.
“We also set up a server room, so you can check what each other makes right away. You said if we do that, the work speed will go up even more, right?”
Nick and Taylor looked over everything carefully, even the server room, at the completely transformed work environment, their mouths hanging open.
“Is it okay?”
“It’s way better than most CG companies in the U.S…”
Taylor said, looking at Gyeong Chanhyeon with sparkling eyes.
“I think it’d be best if Ms. Taylor handles hiring personally. I don’t really know what skills the people we hire should have.”
“Yes. Just leave it to me. They said the things we had made in the U.S. will take a few weeks to arrive. In the meantime, I’ll finish everything you asked me to do.”
“For today, just rest well, and I’ll ask you starting tomorrow. To be honest, I brought you here today so you could take a look around. I’m relieved you like it.”
Taylor nodded again and again as she spoke.
“I’m the type who repays a favor properly. Just trust me and leave it to me, Director!”
“Haha… Yes.”
After introducing MILM to Taylor and Nick, I returned to Seonghyeon Productions.
As soon as I walked into the office, Junseong asked.
“So? They said it’s okay?”
“They said it’s better than most U.S. companies.”
“Well, with how much we put into that place. Thank God.”
Junseong let out a sigh of relief, like he truly meant it.
“Did you read the whole script?”
Over the past few months, it was not only the CG company MILM that we had prepared.
The script for our next project, a space opera.
The first person to read that completed script was Junseong.
“The story itself is fine. Space politics between future planets. Hidden conspiracies, the protagonist breaking through them. It’s definitely not the kind of story only kids would like.”
Even as he spoke about the content, Junseong frowned as if something still bothered him.
“But reading it as text, I can’t really tell how it’ll turn out. Up until now, most of the movies you made were driven by story and directing, but this time… it’s an area of computers you can’t directly control…”
“That’s why we went to this much trouble. It’ll work out.”
“It has to. Phew… Tomorrow, right? Meeting the chairman?”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
With his hands clasped, Junseong stretched his arms straight out. He rolled his neck wide and groaned.
“So tomorrow’s the day we put a period on all of this. But you, are you really going to persuade him like that?”
The persuasion method we had prepared for months.
To open Chairman Lee Jungho’s ears, a man who would not be persuaded easily, there was no choice but to gamble.
“He’s the type who won’t tolerate taking a loss, even if it’s his own kid… We can make him open his ears, sure, but if it fails… you know, right?”
“…”
The CG creators. With Taylor and Nick, success was definitely possible. But the fundamental problem was money.
Junseong and I had shaken our pockets out until even the dust fell out to build MILM, and because of that, we had no actual film production budget.
With Junseong’s proposal already rejected, persuading Chairman Lee one more time might be impossible.
But if we overcome this obstacle properly… we might make a film that works worldwide.
As I sat there blankly, thinking, Junseong tapped the desk with his finger, as if he did not like the plan.
“Ugh. Whatever. It’s all over now. I’m leaving it to you tomorrow. I haven’t even seen the universe Taylor supposedly made yet, so I can’t feel fully sure. I’m just going because I trust you. You bastard, I can’t even tell if you’re a speculative pick or a real investment.”
His nonsense made me laugh.
“Just trust me. I’ll bring good news.”
The next day.
The chairman’s office at KMD Group headquarters.
Chairman Lee Jungho held a golf club and practiced his swing, sorting through the thoughts swirling in his head.
No matter how he looked at it, the CG industry did not seem to have any investment potential.
You could simply use an outside company, so he could not understand why they insisted on building a CG company themselves.
But his son Lee Junseong and Gyeong Chanhyeon had even poured their own money into it and made a company.
And when he heard they were even bringing in foreigners he had never seen before, he found it absurd.
“Ahem…”
As one thought led into another, Chairman Lee set the golf club down, sat in his chair, and lit a cigarette.
Then the intercom rang, and his secretary’s voice came through.
– Chairman.
“Ah, they’re here?”
Yes. Shall I bring them in right away?
“Yes. Do that.”
After taking one deep drag from the cigarette, Lee Jungho stubbed it out in the ashtray.
“What kind of story did he bring this time…?”
Every time Gyeong Chanhyeon came to secure investment, he brought up an interesting story and hooked his ear.
But this time, it was hard to be hooked so easily. The scale was on a completely different level from the investment amounts so far.
Knock, knock.
“Come in.”
The door opened, and Gyeong Chanhyeon entered. After bowing at a ninety-degree angle in greeting, Chairman Lee smiled brightly and pointed to the sofa.
“You’re here, Director Gyeong. Sit there.”
“Yes, Chairman.”
Gyeong Chanhyeon placed a thick script on the table first.
“That’s your next project?”
“Yes, Chairman.”
“Haha. I’ll read it later. So, this time, the investment amount is quite large. I’m not even sure it’s worth that much.”
Gyeong Chanhyeon answered with a bright smile.
“But that much will come back to you.”
“Haha. As always, take away the guts and you’re a corpse. So, how is the CG company going? Junseong sold the KMD stock he had, and you sold yours too, I hear?”
At Lee Jungho’s words, Gyeong Chanhyeon answered with an awkward smile.
“Yes. We used it all to make the CG company.”
“Hah. Do you really think that technology is worth that much? No matter how I think about it, I can’t understand it.”
As if he were very curious about what Gyeong Chanhyeon had to say, Lee Jungho asked,
“Yes. I believe the future film market could be dominated by CG.”
“What…? There hasn’t even been CG in your works until now. Your budgets were at most about three billion won. And you know this too, don’t you? Most domestic films with CG have failed.”
Lee Jungho continued, as if he could not understand.
“Big-budget blockbuster films, especially ones with CG like you’re talking about. Is there even a single successful example?”
“There isn’t, yet.”
“Look at films like <Are You Ready?>, <The Little Match Girl’s Miracle>, and <Yesterday>. The more CG they use and the more money they spend, the more it feels like they fail.”
Listing films that had failed before, Lee Jungho emphasized that CG films were expensive and still could not succeed at the box office.
“Yes. Those films are like that.”
When Gyeong Chanhyeon nodded, Lee Jungho did not miss it and said,
“Don’t you think people want the real thing? Rather than a fake made by computers.”
At Lee Jungho’s words, Gyeong Chanhyeon smiled.
“A fake that looks real. A real thing that looks fake. Out of those, I believe what people want is a fake that looks real.”
“…?”
“If a chunk of iron plated with gold and pure gold painted black were lying on the ground, what do you think people would pick up?”
“…They’d pick up the gold plated iron, thinking it’s real gold.”
“Yes. That’s right.”
When Gyeong Chanhyeon spoke with a gentle smile, Lee Jungho also laughed, as if drained.
“Fine, let’s say a fake that looks real works, just like you say. But then…”
At the unfinished end of his sentence, Gyeong Chanhyeon listened intently, his eyes tightening with focus.
“Why did you decide to make a CG company yourselves, at that cost? From where I stand, it’s an incredibly foolish thing to do.”
“Ah…”
As Gyeong Chanhyeon trailed off with an ambiguous smile, Lee Jungho continued with a faint smile.
“If my words were too harsh, I’ll apologize. But I truly can’t understand it. There are outside companies everywhere with full facilities, so what’s the real reason you’re doing this, even hiring foreigners?”
Space opera, you say?
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