Peninsula: I can steal the luck of disgraced celebrities

In late August, the summer heat in Seoul had not yet dissipated.

On the night of the premiere of "Sungkyunkwan Scandal", Lim Ji-hoon, Seo Hyo-rin and Song Joong-ki sat in the activity room in front of the TV, waiting for the first episode to air.

Lim Ji-hoon sat on the far left, and Song Joong-ki sat on the far right.

The three of them had just finished filming and hadn't changed out of their costumes yet.

"The fried chicken is here!" Park Min-young walked in carrying two large bags.

She opened the bag and distributed the fried chicken and cola to everyone.

Then he squeezed between Lin Zhixun and Xu Xiaolin.

"It's about to start! It's about to start!"

"Senior Min-young, what if we get our costumes dirty while we're eating in them?"

"Then you don't need to eat any more; give me your portion too!"

"Hey! No!"

Park Min-young pretended to steal Seo Hyo-rin's fried chicken.

The sofa itself was small, and when the two of them wrestled around, Lin Zhixun and Song Joong-ki were squeezed and felt very uncomfortable.

"Stop fooling around, the first episode is about to start."

—This is Song Joong-ki's advice.

"Stop messing around, or I'll shake all your Cokes flat."

—This is Lin Zhixun's advice.

At 9:55 p.m., the TV series officially began.

The four of them watched the show while eating fried chicken and drinking cola, and complained about each other's acting skills and appearance.

"Park Yoochun is quite handsome in period costume."

"Song-ki looks so cool in period costume."

"Min-young, you're even less feminine than Song Joong-ki when you dress as a man."

The last sentence was said by Lin Zhixun, and he directly attacked two people with one sentence.

Park Min-young was sitting next to Lim Ji-hoon. She reached out to snatch the fried chicken from Lim Ji-hoon's hand, but Lim Ji-hoon dodged her.

What are you doing?

"Don't eat the fried chicken I'm treating you to. You don't deserve it."

"Wasn't this fried chicken a return gift for the support truck from last time?"

"I'm not paying it back! These days, the debtor is the boss."

As the four of them bickered and joked, the first episode ended, and everyone went back to their respective rooms to go to bed.

On the third day, the ratings for the first episode came out.

In the activity room, Lin Zhixun was chatting with Choi Sulli on his phone.

Kim Won-seok burst in and excitedly shared a photo with Lim Ji-hoon, which was a screenshot of real-time data from TNS and AGB.

TNS nationwide 7.7%, AGB nationwide 6.3%.

Lin Zhixun glanced at it and casually replied, "It's alright."

The drama "Bad Guy," in which he played the male lead, had a premiere rating of 11.7%, while "Sungkyunkwan Scandal" only had a 7.7%. It must be Park Yoochun who dragged him down.

"Not bad?" Kim Won-seok's voice rose half a tone.

"Do you know the ratings for 'Dong Yi' and 'Giant' which aired in the same time slot? 'Dong Yi' got 24.7% and 'Giant' got 22.3%."

"Both are long-running Monday-Tuesday dramas with over thirty episodes each, boasting an incredibly solid audience base. To achieve nearly eight points in such a competitive environment, what more could you ask for?"

"I said it was alright," Lin Zhixun said vaguely, "I didn't say it was bad."

In early August, "Giant" achieved its highest viewership rating of 20.7%, and Kim Soo-hyun played the childhood version of the male lead.

This can be considered the first time the two of them have faced off directly.

Kim Won-seok had a bellyful of lecturing words stuck in his throat, and in the end, he could only plop down on the sofa.

He actually knew in his heart that the reason why Lin Chih-hsun's reaction to the ratings was so indifferent was because his previous drama was too abnormal.

The ratings for the last three episodes of "Bad Guy" soared to 24.8%, almost crushing other dramas in the same time slot.

However, that was due to the nationwide gossip effect brought about by Han Ga-in's divorce scandal, which is an unrepeatable, isolated event.

"Sungkyunkwan Scandal" is different.

This drama has no melodramatic revenge plots, and there are no extramarital affair scandals either on or off screen.

It tells the story of a group of young men in Confucian robes during the Joseon Dynasty who fall in love and carry out reforms.

KBS positioned it as a "youth historical drama," and its target audience from the beginning was not housewives who had the remote control, but young women who only had free time after 9 pm.

"Aren't you going to look at the reactions online?" Kim Won-seok asked, still unwilling to give up.

"Then I'll look into it later."

No sooner had Kim Won-seok left than he started browsing the web on his computer.

DCinside is South Korea's largest online forum, similar to Baidu Tieba in China.

Within an hour of its premiere, discussions about "Sungkyunkwan Scandal" climbed into the top ten trending topics in the drama category.

Keep in mind that this drama has only aired two episodes, and the main characters haven't even officially entered Sungkyunkwan yet; most of the time has been spent laying the groundwork for their characters.

However, almost all period dramas of this era were about kings, generals, and palace intrigue.

The sudden appearance of a drama about a twenty-year-old Confucian scholar falling in love and engaging in "avant-garde politics" is like pouring an iced Americano into a bowl of soy sauce soup.

"Are you crazy? The male lead in a period drama doesn't wear pants, just an open robe? Who designed this look? I want to kowtow to him."

"Are Lin Chih-hsun's abs real or just props? If they're props, please tell me the prop maker's name, I want to give him a bonus. If they're real, please tell me Lin Chih-hsun's phone number."

"Park Min-young looks cute in men's clothing."

"Park Yoochun oppa looks so handsome in period costume!"

Lin Zhixun raised an eyebrow as he looked at the comments.

Discussions about him are already showing a tendency to overshadow those about the male lead, Park Yoochun.

This phenomenon is very strange.

Park Yoochun is a former member of TVXQ and has a huge number of loyal female fans. His fan base will be happy if his popularity is surpassed by a supporting actor in the first week of a drama's premiere.

Soon, "Cassiopeia" began to fight back.

"Lin Chih-hsun's acting skills are just so-so. He's just an 18th-tier nobody who rose to fame through scandals."

"I specifically looked up actress Lin's scandals... Hmm, the one about Han Ga-in's husband is really interesting."

"Although, Oppa's face is still pretty good! Acting skills can be improved over time!"

However, these attacks were quickly drowned out by another wave of noise.

Because besides the fans, there is another group of viewers who don't care about TVXQ or the scandals, they only care about one thing.

When did Jie'ao and Nülin get together?

Soon, the group devoured the "Cassiopeia".

Knowing that there was such a plot twist, the "Cassiopeia" actresses all switched their allegiance to Lin Chih-hsun.

On the campus forums of three top universities—Seoul National University, Yonsei University, and Korea University—the number of discussion posts about "Sungkyunkwan Scandal" even exceeded the number of post-Olympic debriefing posts.

Someone posted a long article on a BBS analyzing the Confucian allusions in the drama and the political background during the reign of King Jeongjo of Joseon, demonstrating the historical knowledge of screenwriter Kim Tae-hee.

Some people have created a thread specifically to analyze the visual language of Moon Jae-in's "semi-open costume".

"His unruly attire stands out awkwardly among the Confucian robes of Sungkyunkwan University, because he is the only one who is unwilling to be disciplined by the system. The director uses his clothing to suggest his inner struggle."

This is probably to the point that even the director himself would nod in approval.

After Lin Zhixun finished scrolling through the last page, his phone vibrated twice in his pocket.

It was a message from Choi Sulli.

[Peach: Hahaha! Luna unnie just watched your action scenes in "Sungkyunkwan Scandal," and she rolled around in bed afterward!]

[Lin Chih-hsun: What about you?]

[Peach: I didn't roll around!!!]

[Lin Chih-hsun: I wanted to ask if you've watched this drama.]