A Senior's Welcome
This was bad.
The crew bustled about without a moment to enjoy the bright spring weather. A woman watched them with a faint flicker of pity. Her hair looked freshly blow-dried, as if she'd just come from the salon, and in her hand she held a script for The Days We Had.
The door clunked open.
"Hye-jung, are you sure about this? Accepting this drama?"
Her chief manager — a man who looked like he was running on half a brain — climbed into the car. Oh Hye-jung turned from the window and reset her expression.
"I already told you. If it's Writer Park Ja-wook's work, it'll succeed no matter how many scratches it picks up along the way."
"That's true, but until it does, you're going to get dragged through all kinds of gossip. That's..."
"Enough. I chose this project. And I've always wanted to work with Writer Park Ja-wook again."
"Ah, right. You had a bit part in one of Writer Park's dramas before."
"...A bit part?"
Oh Hye-jung's brow furrowed at the word.
Of every project she'd appeared in since her debut more than five years ago, Writer Park Ja-wook's drama had been the biggest success. Whether by chance or fate, Writer Park had picked her personally. After that shoot, more people started recognizing her, and more offers started coming in.
Oh Hye-jung crossed her legs and lifted the script in her hand.
"Look at this. See here?"
"Uh... yeah?"
"What's written here?"
"The Days We Had... Oh Hye-jung."
"That's right. My name is on this. There used to be nothing like this... and it's all because Writer Park Ja-wook gave me a role. And yet..."
She jabbed a finger into her manager's forehead.
"And you dare call that role a bit part? That was the turning point of my entire career."
The role she'd played back then had been Delinquent Number One — the enforcer who stood beside the supporting-role gang boss and tormented the protagonist. Even now, if she closed her eyes, she could still feel the temperature of that set, the air, the atmosphere — even the lines.
"Ah... sorry. I didn't know. I was managing a different actor back then."
"Haa... watch yourself."
"Got it. So what role did Writer Park give you this time? I haven't heard yet."
"Ah... it's not that big a part. I play a nouveau-riche school bully who clashes with the protagonist. Since it's set in the early 2000s... more of a street punk than an iljin, I guess."
"Isn't that the same thing?"
"Tsk!"
At Oh Hye-jung's sharp rebuke, the manager ducked his head. Watching the fight drain out of him, she shook her head and changed the subject.
"Anyway, I heard they recast the lead. Do you know who it is?"
"Ah... that was definitely... hang on, I wrote it down somewhere."
The manager rummaged through his pockets, finally located his phone, and flipped open his notes.
"Found it. I wrote it here. The name is... Actress Lee Jiwoo."
"Ah... Lee Jiwoo..."
Oh Hye-jung's teeth clicked together. Seeing her face turn venomous, the manager hunched his shoulders.
"S-sorry. You... you don't like Actress Lee Jiwoo."
"Who said I don't like her?"
"So you like her, then?"
"That's not it either. I just... don't care for her."
She'd already seen Jiwoo's acting in Ghost Singer. No matter how strong the PD and the directing staff were, anyone who could overshadow the rest of the cast and become the talk of the town clearly had real talent.
But.
"She succeeded too young. I hear she's still in high school? Kids like that always have their noses in the air. That's all that bothers me."
"Y-yeah... I can see that. I get how you feel... Ah, a car's coming in. I should have the plate number written down too..."
The manager flipped rapidly through his phone notes, hunting for the plate number.
"If it's JO Entertainment... that's Actress Lee Jiwoo's car."
"Oh, is that so? A five-year senior is already here waiting, and the newbie's only just crawling in?"
Oh Hye-jung watched the van roll into the parking lot and let out a short, scoffing laugh.
Interesting.
"Jiwoo, we're here."
"...Khh—"
I'd stayed up analyzing the script so late I hadn't even noticed the sun coming up. Kang Ho-yeon had all but dragged me to the salon, and now I was asleep in the van so deeply someone could have carried me off without my noticing.
"Khh—"
I was tired enough to be snoring, just a little. Kang Ho-yeon looked at me with a mix of pride and pity — so young, and already working this hard. She would have liked to let me sleep, but that wasn't an option.
"Jiwoo. Wake up. You have to get up now."
"Khh... mmph... where are we?"
I blinked awake and looked around. The van had stopped. Kang Ho-yeon was turned around in her seat, watching me.
"Ah... we're here?"
"Yeah, we just pulled in. Wipe that drool first and go say hello."
"Yes..."
I stretched both arms over my head, working out the stiffness of sleeping in a van. I'd fallen asleep in an awkward position; there wasn't a spot from my shoulders to my neck, back, and waist that didn't ache.
The door slid open. I stepped out.
Crew members hurried in every direction, looking thoroughly overworked. With the lead recast, even the footage they'd already shot would have to be done over. There was almost nothing they could salvage... most of it had been Ahn Soo-jin's scenes.
"Hello! I'm Lee Jiwoo, newly cast as Kang Mirae! I look forward to working with you!"
I bowed deeply toward the crew. The first person to greet me was PD Oh Seok-ho.
"Oh~ Jiwoo! You made it! Right on time! Though... looks like you slept in the car?"
"...Excuse me? What do you mean?"
"You've got a drool mark on your cheek. Kind of hard to miss."
"...!"
What? There's still drool on my face? I pulled out my phone and checked myself with the camera app. There it was — a drool stain on my cheek. I dabbed it away as gently as I could, trying not to ruin the makeup I'd just gotten. Once it was gone, I looked back at PD Oh Seok-ho.
"Ahaha... I was analyzing the script and ran out of time... I'm sorry."
"Don't worry about it. We're the ones who should apologize. What was supposed to be a two-week shoot turned into three months. And the schedule's so tight we'll basically be on a forced march..."
PD Oh Seok-ho couldn't quite hide the bleak look on his face. Dramas never had the generous schedules films did, and once shooting started the story kept getting rewritten, making it hard for actors to lock onto their emotions. That was especially true of newcomers and child actors. Plenty of them didn't last and simply fled, which was why leads were almost never given to child actors or rookies.
PD Oh Seok-ho felt a flicker of the same anxiety — that I might run too.
She's a rookie. And even if she's a bit older, she's still a child actor.
To PD Oh Seok-ho, anyone who wasn't an adult counted as a child actor — a kid. He wiped the gloom from his face and greeted me as brightly as he could.
"It's fine! You still look young, and that's the kind of slip you only make at your age!"
"Ah... thank you."
My shoulders sagged a little at having made yet another mistake. I didn't let myself dwell on it, though.
I'll just work even harder. Hard enough for Senior Ahn Soo-jin's share, too.
There was only one reason I had joined The Days We Had. I meant to carry the drama to success in Ahn Soo-jin's place — to show that even a victim of school violence could overcome the world's unfairness and stand tall again.
That's why I talked so much with Writer Park Ja-wook about all of this.
My shoulders squared again, and I moved off to greet the other actors.
That was when a middle-aged woman appeared, draped in luxury brands and wearing earrings even more enormous than usual. Writer Park Ja-wook.
"Ah... Writer Park. You've come. What brings you here today..."
"What else would bring me? I came to see my actors' faces, of course."
Writer Park Ja-wook swept her gaze across the set until her eyes met mine.
"Ah, Writer. This is Actress Lee Jiwoo, who'll be playing Kang Mirae."
PD Oh Seok-ho tried to introduce me and ease the atmosphere.
But.
"Hello, Writer. It's been a day."
"So it has. My actress... looking at your face, it seems you didn't sleep properly last night."
"Ahaha... the new script you gave me was so interesting I ended up reading it all the way through without realizing."
"Of course. I wrote it myself, after all. And... I had a certain someone's help."
Writer Park Ja-wook lifted her sunglasses slightly and looked me straight in the eye. Every actor, every PD, even the CP — none of them could hold her gaze. They looked away or dropped their eyes. Weaklings, every last one of them. And then, among all those people, the one person who had appeared before Park Ja-wook and was different.
Lee Jiwoo.
Park Ja-wook took her sunglasses off the rest of the way and held out her hand.
"You're my actress now. From today on, I'm counting on you. Understood?"
"Yes. I'll work hard. I won't drag your name through the mud."
"...What are you two talking about right now?"
The man in charge of the set, PD Oh Seok-ho, was thoroughly lost in a conversation only the two of us seemed to understand. A new script? Written yesterday? What on earth were we talking about?
"Um... PD Oh. This came in this morning..."
A staff member's voice cut in. Beside him stood a crew member with an awkward expression, a bundle of papers in hand.
"What's that?"
"Ah... this seems to have arrived this morning. We were so busy rebuilding the set we didn't notice. We just got the call and had it sent over by courier. It looks like Writer Park revised the script."
"You've got to be... haah..."
PD Oh Seok-ho shook his head, looked at Writer Park Ja-wook, and swallowed what he wanted to say.
If something like this happens, tell me sooner. Seriously...
He let out a sigh and handed the new scripts off to the crew.
"Hand those out to everyone. And let's start getting ready. Tell them we start in ten minutes."
"Yes, sir."
"Writer. If something like this was happening, you could have contacted me first."
"Sorry. I had something interesting happen yesterday. Thanks to that, this will be a better work, which means more good things on PD Oh's résumé. That's not a problem, is it?"
"That's not the issue..."
It didn't actually seem like a major problem, so PD Oh Seok-ho let the sentence die.
"Just tell me right away if this happens again."
"Fine, I understand. Now go on."
"Alright then, Jiwoo — we start in ten minutes. Go say hello to the other actors."
PD Oh Seok-ho turned and walked off.
With time so short, rather than greeting every actor one by one, I headed for the one I'd be facing the most in today's shoot.
I knocked on the car door. It slid open to reveal a woman with her arms crossed and an irritated look on her face. Actress Oh Hye-jung stared at me.
"Who do you think you are? Do you know what time it is? Showing up now? Think your senior is a joke? Or do you figure you can do whatever you want now that a newbie's the lead?"
"That's not it. I'm sorry."
"In my day, you showed up at least two hours early and went around bowing to everyone... Haa. This is exactly what's wrong with kids these days."
Apparently, the first impression was already a disaster.
