5
# #5
“What?”
Something unbelievable was happening.
“W-What is this? Am I possessed by a ghost? Have I finally gone insane?”
Scratch, drag… scribble, screech! Multicolored highlighter marks and words written in pen were appearing on the paper by themselves.
After certain words were highlighted in red, comments would sometimes appear beneath them in black. I stared blankly at the sight before hurriedly opening the previous script file.
“This handwriting… It’s exactly the same as Jaehyun’s.”
And it wasn’t just the handwriting.
He had highlighted his own lines in yellow and always written three lines of comments consisting of his thoughts, points for improvement, similar scenes, and so on. For every scene, he had even researched the setting and atmosphere and attached notes to the pages with Post-its.
“Could this be… a script analyzed by Jaehyun?”
That was impossible.
No, seeing words appear before my eyes and Post-its materialize out of nowhere was impossible too… but, to begin with, Jaehyun had never appeared in <Case File 0223>.
“…….”
It felt as though the dead Jaehyun was showing me the way.
“…Fine. So you want me to act this badly, huh?”
I gave a bitter smile.
“Just don’t be so shocked that you fall over when I do too well.”
---
‘The day has finally come.’
Today was the full script reading for <Case File 0223>.
“Hello! Goodness, am I a little late?”
“Not at all. You arrived right on time. It’s been a while, Do-hyun.”
Unable to find anywhere to stand among the crowd, I wandered around before quietly taking the seat with my name on it.
<Current Hyun-Jae (Lee Rae-hyuk)>
‘This kind of place is incredibly intimidating. I did my best to practice before coming, though.’
Thanks to the strange phenomenon that seemed to be related to Jaehyun, I had managed to memorize the script without any trouble, and as for the acting…
It wasn’t nearly as terrible as I had expected.
But there was no guarantee that other people wouldn’t think it was terrible.
“There are really a lot of people today….”
“Crime dramas usually have a lot of characters.”
As I listened to the conversations around me, I glanced at actor Han Do-hyun, who played the protagonist of <Case File 0223>.
‘Oh, it’s Han Do-hyun.’
Han Do-hyun was one of those young male actors whose name frequently came up whenever famous actors were mentioned. He was friendly and incredibly sociable, so he was busy greeting the actors he knew in his booming voice.
There were plenty of other actors whose faces or names I recognized as well. Han Do-hyun was so enthusiastic that he went around greeting nearly all thirty actors individually.
“Oh! You’re our drama’s only child actor, right?”
“…Hello, I’m Current Hyun-Jae.”
“I’m Han Do-hyun. Nice to meet you, Jaehyun.”
“You can speak casually with me, senior.”
Thump. He held out his hand even though we had never met before, so I accepted the handshake while hiding my awkwardness.
“Oh, really? Then I’ll speak comfortably.”
“…Pardon?”
“You were in , right?”
Han Do-hyun smiled broadly with his neat and polished appearance.
“Yes, that’s right.”
“You worked hard. I’ll be rooting for you.”
I bowed slightly and watched Han Do-hyun walk away, secretly wiping away a cold sweat.
Not “You’re good,” but “You worked hard”….
Short conversations could be heard around me. Several actors looked startled after noticing my name tag.
“Lee Rae-hyuk? Wasn’t Kim Sawol supposed to play that role?”
“Apparently? Well, casting changes at the last minute sometimes.”
“Mr. Soo-kyung.”
Cameras also rolled during script readings. Not always, but behind-the-scenes footage was sometimes uploaded to the media afterward. Because of that, even though the actors seemed to have plenty to say, they were careful about what they said.
‘I don’t really need to worry about it, but I can’t help being conscious of it. I should just pretend I don’t care.’
Even after the scheduled time had arrived, the reading still hadn’t begun. There was one empty seat.
“…Can we get in touch with actress Lee Dam-seol?”
“No… Her manager said twenty minutes ago that they might be a little late because of traffic, but we haven’t been able to reach them since.”
“We all came by car, though.”
The atmosphere among the director and staff was becoming tense.
An actor being late was both common and uncommon. Apparently, one of the lead actors, Lee Dam-seol, was running late.
“Let’s just start for now. Everyone has schedules to keep.”
The director finally stood up to begin the reading, clearly conscious of Lee Dam-seol’s empty seat. But the moment he picked up the microphone, the door opened.
Clatter!
“S-Sorry for being late….”
“Our lead actress, Lee Dam-seol, has finally arrived, haha! It happens. Please, take your seat.”
Lee Dam-seol had originally been a member of a famous female idol group before the group disbanded and she transitioned into acting.
Thanks to that, Lee Dam-seol had striking features that seemed to brighten the room even from a distance.
She had a very apologetic expression but a cold-looking face as she took her seat. Her manager, who had a disgruntled expression, glanced at her before quickly retreating behind the staff seats. It was obvious the two had argued, but the director simply smiled and began the reading.
“Before we begin, please introduce yourselves and give us a brief statement. Shall we start with Do-hyun?”
“Yes, sounds good.”
The director handed the microphone to Han Do-hyun, who was sitting closest to him.
“Hello, I’m Han Do-hyun. I’m thirty-three this year, and this is actually my first time playing the lead in a drama at the age of thirty-three, so I’m quite nervous. Some of you may be meeting me for the first time, while others may already know me. You all know what I’m like, right? So please take good care of me!”
True to his friendly and confident personality, Han Do-hyun started things off with a cheerful atmosphere. Next, Lee Dam-seol, who had arrived late, picked up the microphone with a faint smile.
“Hello, I’m Lee Dam-seol. I’ll continue to work hard. Thank you.”
Unlike Han Do-hyun’s lengthy introduction, Lee Dam-seol’s was extremely brief.
She seemed to have an introverted personality, but unfortunately, she repeatedly responded in ways that clashed with the situation, causing the atmosphere to grow awkward.
Fortunately, the following actors’ introductions completely covered up the small crack. If I had been sitting beside Lee Dam-seol, I probably would have felt rather uncomfortable.
Quite some time passed before it was finally my turn.
“Now, our only child actor, right? Actor Current Hyun-Jae?”
“Wow!”
“He’s really young. He looks even younger than the character he’s playing.”
“I heard he’s one year younger.”
Clap, clap, clap!
Amid the sudden applause and cheers, I swallowed my embarrassment. All I could do was feel sorry that there was a man in his late twenties hiding inside me.
“Hello, I’m Current Hyun-Jae. I….”
I wondered what I could say without becoming a laughingstock, but perhaps humility was the best approach here.
“I still have a lot to learn as an actor, but since I have the honor of being here with actors who have more experience in life and acting than me, I’ll do my very best so that I don’t become a burden. I look forward to working with all of you.”
“He called them his life seniors. That’s cute….”
“…Thank you?”
Being called cute at this age was something everyone except me found amusing.
Once the reading began, I concentrated nervously while watching the other actors perform.
“Park Jin-sung, you son of a—”
The protagonist played by Han Do-hyun, Kim Dong-yeon, was a detective who was firmly on the side of justice.
He was the character who drove the entire story for all twenty-four episodes as he pursued the final villain, Park Jin-sung. He was quite literally the central axis of the drama.
‘As expected, I can see the flow. It’s as though the red flow is being absorbed into his firm voice.’
The other lead, Lee Dam-seol, played Baek Seol-hyun, a fellow police officer who didn’t get along well with protagonist Kim Dong-yeon at first but eventually became his greatest source of support.
When Lee Dam-seol’s first scene approached, I looked at her curiously.
Unlike the other actors, who were deeply focused, her eyes seemed unusually vacant.
“…Ms. Lee Dam-seol?”
“Oh, yes. Where were we?”
“…Scene 32.”
The director answered with an expression of mild disbelief, and Lee Dam-seol continued the reading without showing any embarrassment.
“Hey, Kim Dong-yeon. I’m telling you, that’s a completely useless obsession.”
“How can something involving a person’s life be a useless obsession? You’re a police officer. Aren’t you? Huh, now that I look at you, maybe being a police officer doesn’t suit you.”
As Episode 1 neared its end, my turn to speak finally approached.
‘Honestly, it really is difficult. There was a reason all those other actors avoided this role.’
The character I was playing was the seventeen-year-old murderer, Lee Rae-hyuk.
Lee Rae-hyuk was the typical psychopathic criminal character familiar to the public. At first, his young age and close relationship with the protagonists narrowed the emotional distance, but in Episode 3, the truth about him would be revealed, making him a major twist character.
‘The scenes themselves are written in an extremely difficult way, too. In many ways, I really am important to this drama….’
Soon, it was time for Lee Rae-hyuk to appear.
“Ha… Damn it. He couldn’t have been swept away by the water, could he? How am I supposed to open this?”
The scene showed Kim Dong-yeon standing in front of a high school in the rain, searching through a drain for evidence that had been swept away.
“Damn… Can’t you see anything?”
As expected of a famous actor, Han Do-hyun began the scene smoothly.
Everyone’s eyes turned toward me. Some were nervous, while others were filled with anticipation.
Here, I was Lee Rae-hyuk, and Han Do-hyun was Kim Dong-yeon.
“Excuse me, Mister Police Officer. What are you looking for?”
My voice was clear and youthful, but it still needed a certain quiet, heavy sense of wrongness.
I didn’t simply watch the faint flow I could see before me.
“Would you like me to help you look?”
It would be more accurate to say that I pulled it toward myself so I could make it mine.
Han Do-hyun suddenly began accelerating the rhythm of his performance slightly.
Kim Dong-yeon, who had turned around to look at me, hesitated before answering.
“Whew, sorry, but… I’m in the middle of something important.”
“Something important?”
Lee Rae-hyuk asked again.
The reading room was bright, warm, and completely dry. Because of that, I had to put even more effort into creating the right atmosphere.
I watched Han Do-hyun regulate his breathing as though he were speaking to someone while enduring the pouring rain.
“Yeah. Since it’s raining, use this. You’re walking around without an umbrella. You’ll get cold.”
“…Should I help you look too?”
“Huh? Uh, sure. Then could you hold this for a moment?”
Whether it was an ad-lib or not, Han Do-hyun’s line was slightly different, but there was no problem with it.
“Just stand there holding that umbrella.”
“…….”
And so Scene 67 ended with Lee Rae-hyuk standing there blankly while holding the umbrella.
He had barely spoken many lines, yet the atmosphere in the room changed dramatically.
“Oh… Oh?”
The writer’s deeply satisfied expression made it clear just how perfectly I had embodied Lee Rae-hyuk.
Especially Han Do-hyun, who had acted opposite me, stared at me with an expression of genuine surprise that was completely different from what I had expected. I avoided the attention focused on me and glared down at the script.
‘Huh….’
This wasn’t supposed to happen.
‘Why is this fun?’