He Saw the Acting
So I'd seen it — the acting.
After Mom switched off the light and left, the room fell silent.
I pulled the blanket up over my nose and stared blankly at the ceiling, letting the day's events play back through my mind.
So I've gained the ability to see acting?
And not just any acting — the perfect performance I'd only ever imagined while watching the screen had unfolded right before my eyes.
Even now, the child actor's lines and movements kept surfacing in my head, one after another.
Somewhere along the way, without my even realizing it, my body had memorized the words and motions it needed to deliver.
Perfectly, at that.
I didn't know what triggered it, but if it kept happening, it would be as good as gaining an acting mentor for life.
Acting, huh...
After I quit baseball in my past life, nothing had ever held my interest again.
So for a long time, all I thought about was making a living.
If I did this, I'd earn more; that job paid better by the hour — that was the shape my life took.
Then somewhere along the way, I ended up working as an extra on dramas and films.
The hulking gangster looming behind the lead actor, the pedestrian shuffling past with an A-frame carrier on his back in a period piece — that was me.
The other extras waited around, shot their one scene, and left. But I saw acting there.
Every time someone came on screen, I watched them living a different life — a different character, a different emotion, a different place to stand.
They laughed cheerfully one moment and wept the next; sometimes they raged on someone else's behalf.
It was a life I'd never had, showing emotions they revealed to no one — not even themselves.
If I could live that many different lives...
I found myself wanting to try it.
For the first time since baseball.
It was the first time since quitting baseball that I'd wanted to do anything at all.
Right. I don't know who sent me back in time, but I'll treat it as a gift — and in this life, I'm really going to give acting my all.
With that thought, I burrowed deep under the covers.
Tomorrow was an important day — the day I'd save my teacher. I needed to sleep early.
*****
It was the day of our field trip to the traffic park near the kindergarten.
While we were lining up at the entrance, I spotted the kindergarten bus parked in the lot.
The teachers were busily unloading luggage nearby.
Teacher Jo Ha-rin of my class was heading toward the bus, too.
Now's my chance!
I slipped out of the line and ran for the bus.
I got there ahead of her and planted myself in her path.
"Hm? Ha-jin, what are you doing here? Go back and get in line."
Instead of answering, I spread my arms wide toward her.
"Hug me, please."
Flowers bloomed on the teacher's cheeks as her smile stretched from ear to ear.
"Aha, Ha-jin wanted a hug from Teacher? Well then, a hug you shall get!"
And she swept me up in a tight embrace.
The happy drumbeat of her heart and her warm heat wrapped around my whole body.
While the two of us were busy with that, another teacher stepped into the bus and came out carrying a box from the back seat.
In my past life, Teacher Jo Ha-rin had slipped on the bus steps while unloading luggage and broken her leg.
She was the teacher I'd been especially attached to, and I couldn't bear the thought of watching her get hurt.
So I'd turned on the charm to buy her some time — and it looked like it had worked.
Twenty years had blurred the memory, but it had started coming back to me a few days ago.
Crying at the sight of the ambulance. Begging Mom to take me to the hospital visit. Scribbling wobbly letters on her cast. The closer the accident date drew, the clearer it all became.
And yesterday, it clicked for good.
The accident had happened in the parking lot, on field trip day.
This could set off a butterfly effect for all I knew.
But I had no regrets.
Because I'd gotten to see my teacher's face, bright with laughter, as she held me.
That butterfly effect, however, came looking for me faster than I expected.
*****
After wrapping up the field trip and heading home from work, Teacher Jo Ha-rin couldn't stop smiling.
Ha-jin, who had kept his distance for the past few days, had asked her for a hug.
It had been strange, after all — the little boy who used to trail after her everywhere suddenly acting all shy and distant.
But was Ha-jin always that handsome?
The impression of an adorable little tyke got slathered over with a layer of looks that shouldn't have been possible.
She'd felt momentarily dizzy, but it passed quickly, so she brushed it off as nothing.
"If you're not gonna use the fridge, move."
"Oh."
Her brother — home for the first time in days — stood in front of her, scowling.
"I figured you'd set up housekeeping at the broadcasting station. Imagine my surprise that you actually come home."
"I was on my way to grab some clothes anyway. I'm out of things to wear."
"Do you run the station by yourself? What could you possibly be so busy with?"
"I'm cleaning up the mess some crazy bastard left behind."
"Mess?"
A PD on a children's program had been caught taking bribes from parents to cast their kids in child roles.
With cast changes unavoidable for such external reasons, the higher-ups decided this was the moment for major surgery.
"But why are *you* the one cleaning it up?"
"Beats me. When the brass says dig, you dig."
Grumbling, he cracked open a can of beer.
Jo Ha-rin fetched one too and sat down beside him.
"Which show?"
"Wagle Wagle Kindergarten."
"Wow, my kids absolutely love that show."
"That's exactly the problem. It's the flagship of 3TV — and he took bribes, cast kids who couldn't even manage the basics, and got the viewers cursing. If that's not a mess, what is?"
"So they told you to fix it?"
"I made a deal with the CP. If this goes well, he'll put my name first in line when the drama department openings come around."
"Ah, so that's why you pounced. No wonder you ended up on some kids' show."
"My teeth are already in it, thanks. Can you believe how shallow the child actor pool is?"
Apparently, they were short one kid to play alongside the animals.
"Three kids got in through bribes. We've kicked them all out and filled two slots, but the last one just isn't working out."
"If it's Wagle Wagle Kindergarten, there should be a line of kids begging to be on it."
"The two new ones are little girls — total dolls. Trying to match them, the pool's even thinner than it was, and now we're short a boy."
She sighed out her woes and took a long swig of beer.
"Oh no, your disease is flaring up again, isn't it? You've been dragging kids in, going 'this doesn't make a picture,' and cutting them."
Jo Ha-rin knew exactly why her brother was like this.
Jo Seung-hyun, a PD in the entertainment division, was the type who lived and died by what the camera captured.
He scrutinized every last prop, cutting out anything with a rough edge and pulling in more of anything lacking until it hit the perfect angle.
The set dressing, and of course the looks of the cast, were all 'critically' important considerations.
Even on a tiny TV screen, he was pathologically obsessed with visual harmony.
Thanks to which he became one of the absolute best PDs for visual composition.
But that habit hadn't gone anywhere, even with a children's program in his hands.
With two doll-like little girls on board, he needed a boy so good-looking that you could seat him between them and his face wouldn't be overshadowed.
If her brother was going on like this, the girls' beauty had to be no joke.
"Who are the two?"
"Classified. You're practically press — you definitely can't know."
"How am I press?"
"You're a kindergarten teacher dragging a busload of loyal viewers of our show around. And how am I supposed to trust a gossip vacuum like you?"
"Tch."
Even so, Ha-jin kept drifting back to the memory of the boy she'd held in her arms a few hours ago.
"What if someone has the face — does it matter that they're not an actor?"
"As long as they're not scared of the camera, they're fine. There are scenes that call for acting, but we've got three child actors with legit drama experience — we can just use them. Right now, looks are what matter most."
"Well then, there's a genuinely gorgeous little boy in my class. Want to take a look?"
In that instant, PD Jo Seung-hyun's eyes went wide.
Because no one knew better than he did that to Jo Ha-rin, kindergarteners were simply creatures to be cherished.
Not once, not ever, had she talked up a kid from her class the way she just had.
And praise for a child's looks? That was a first.
"Just how handsome does a kid have to be to get *that* out of your mouth?"
"See for yourself. You think I'd bring this up if it weren't something?"
The boy, she said, had zero acting experience — just an ordinary kid.
He wasn't expecting much, but honestly, he was curious.
"When do you go in?"
"Tomorrow. I slept in the editing room on a cot and my whole body's a wreck. Tonight I'm sleeping properly."
"Then give me a ride to the kindergarten in the morning. I'll show him to you then."
"Deal."
And so, without Ha-jin ever knowing, his informal audition was scheduled.
The next day —
"The kindergarten bus will be here any minute, park over there."
"Nah, I'm good. I'm just taking one look at the kid and heading out. Come point him out to me."
"Once you see him, you'll change your tune."
Yeah, right, she thought to herself, fighting a laugh.
He saw gorgeous faces at the broadcasting station all day long — and some random civilian, a six-year-old no less, was going to steal his eyes?
With that thought, PD Jo Seung-hyun sipped his morning coffee.
"Oh, there he is! Ha-jin!"
As Jo Ha-rin hurried out to greet him, he caught sight of a small figure from behind.
Hm?
Hearing the teacher's voice, the boy slowly turned his head.
Or maybe time had simply slowed down for PD Jo Seung-hyun.
And then, the moment his eyes met the boy's —
"......"
PD Jo Seung-hyun's world came to a dead stop.
HOOOONK!
"What do you think you're doing parking right there?! Move it, now!"
"S-sorry! Oppa, move the car, quick!"
The blaring horn set time flowing again.
PD Jo Seung-hyun hastily parked the car in the lot and came scrambling over.
"You — youyou, uh... ah... right! A-a person, you're a person, right?"
"Yes?"
As he stammered and fumbled over his words, Jo Ha-rin gave him a look of pure pity.
"Oppa. Stop looming there with that scary face of yours and at least tell him who you are."
"R-right. I'm... um, I make TV shows at the broadcasting station. You like Wagle Wagle Kindergarten, don't you? I'm the one who makes it."
"Ha-jin, you were surprised, weren't you? This is Teacher's older brother — he's a PD at the broadcasting station. Oh, you're wondering what a PD does? Well..."
"Yes! Forget 'mister'... PD Jo Seung-hyun. From now on, call me PD Jo."
The siblings had been so busy gabbing about themselves that his brain had completely melted.
Even twenty years ago, his face had barely changed — so he must have just looked old from the start.
So it was true that he'd made a children's show, too.
PD Jo Seung-hyun.
The man who shuttled between KBC's education and entertainment divisions for ten years before his talent bloomed spectacularly at a cable channel.
He was the one who had single-handedly lifted cable and general programming drama ratings above those of the terrestrial networks, with his unique subject matter, fresh direction, and meticulous visual detail.
So a man like that had been right beside me all along.
"Forget all that — let's talk right now. Your mother's home, isn't she?"
"Oh, come on, Oppa. What's the rush?"
"You're telling me this isn't urgent? Have you *looked* at that face?"
And just like that, I left an unforgettable mark on the future star PD.