I'll Help You
Life has a way of handing you moments like this. Times when you never meant any harm and still walk away misunderstood, with someone ready to hate you for it. That was exactly the situation I was in.
I had shown up at the time PD Oh Seok-ho had given me.
The schedule had even changed on the way over, filming shoved forward, and I had only just made it—my road manager driving so hard we nearly got flashed by a speed camera, rolling in on a razor's edge as the sky was starting to brighten.
That, of course, was entirely my problem. I had no idea what time Oh Hye-jung had arrived on set.
From what she said, I could piece together that she had gotten here two hours early, greeted the PD and the crew, and said hello to every actor as they trickled in.
"I'm sorry. I'll make sure to arrive earlier next time."
I didn't offer an excuse.
Making excuses here would only give her more to grab onto. I kept my head down and apologized as thoroughly as I could.
Watching me apologize seemed to take a little of the edge off her.
"I haven't been an actress that long myself, but don't get full of yourself just because you landed a lead this young. I've seen plenty of seniors crash and burn that way."
"Yes! I'll answer that with the best performance I can give!"
"...Right."
The answer came out so full of energy that Oh Hye-jung looked faintly thrown.
A rookie was supposed to wilt when a senior dressed them down. Then someone would pat them on the back and talk them back up—that was half custom at this point.
If a much more senior actor did the comforting, people could start treating them like a thorn in the side, so it usually fell to a senior close in years.
I was like that. Every actor around my age was like that. But this kid...
She put a little steel into her eyes, looking at me standing there without a shred of deflation.
"Next time, get here earlier. Go on. PD Oh keeps staring this way."
The truth was, Oh Hye-jung had already heard about my personality and how I conducted myself.
The industry was a small pond. Get even a little famous, or get a reputation for being difficult, and the rumors spread overnight.
When someone had a decent character, the way I supposedly did, those stories traveled a little slower.
Photos on social media can be faked, and rumors have a way of swelling in the retelling.
She hadn't been able to believe any of it until she saw it with her own two eyes.
She had reason. Back when she had been cast in a bit part in one of writer Park Ja-wook's dramas, she had even heard people ask what they were supposed to do if she showed up with actual street thugs in tow.
"Then I'll see you on set, sunbae Oh Hye-jung."
"Yeah. Go on."
Watching me bow and break into a run toward PD Oh Seok-ho, Oh Hye-jung pressed her lips together.
"Why do I feel like I did something awful?"
"Well... because you did?"
"...What?"
She turned a savage look on her manager.
"I-I mean... Actress Lee Jiwoo's call time was... an hour later than this. It got moved up because of today's schedule change."
"And when was that?"
"Uh... only a few hours ago, I think?"
Oh Hye-jung clenched her teeth.
"Then why are you telling me this now?!"
"B-because... you didn't ask..."
"Ah, shit!! What is she supposed to think of me?!"
"What would she think... that you're a psycho senior... ngh—!"
In that instant her anger hit the top of her skull, and she smacked him in the arm.
"You call that something to say right now?! Everything that happened today—I'm telling the CEO all of it!"
"Hey... please! Anything but that!!"
The manager bowed over and over, groveling so hard his hands might as well have been feet.
Oh Hye-jung's anger, however, was not about to ebb. She did not so much as blink.
On any other day she would have let it go around now.
"Not today. Absolutely not!"
Go Eun-hye, Jin Joo-hwa, and a handful of other top-tier or highly visible actors already looked on me kindly.
My social media had also recently broken a hundred and fifty thousand followers. Oh Hye-jung's sat at a paltry ten thousand or so.
And those she had earned by flooding her feed with photos for her tough-unnie concept. To the public, she already was the girl with the attitude.
The second a rumor got out that the tough unnie had chewed out a kid who was still soft and kind...
No. No, no, no...
Getting run out of the industry would only be a matter of time.
"I-it'll be fine... I heard Actress Lee Jiwoo has a good personality, you know? She won't go around saying anything."
Oh Hye-jung stared at him, then jabbed a finger into his ribs, hard, over and over.
"And. How. Would. You. Know. That!!"
Back on set.
A few days ago I had started in the hallway as the leader of a delinquent pack. This time I was sitting at a desk.
A new semester. A new classroom, new friends to make—Kang Mirae was swollen with anticipation.
Unlike Lee Bohyun, the role I had stood in for, Kang Mirae was relentlessly positive, the kind of character who pumped fighting spirit into everyone around her.
Underneath, though, she carried a thick, private fear. The brightness was a little forced. That was the character too.
This is hard. Getting that across properly is going to be hard.
I closed my eyes slowly and activated the trait.
Look Only at Me! (D)
Immersion increased by 30%
Role — Kang Mirae
Kang Mirae's memories, her personality, the way she thought—all of it stamped itself into my head.
When the immersion settled, I looked around the classroom set. A moment ago it had felt alien, nothing like a real classroom. Now a little excitement was starting to catch.
"We're set~"
PD Oh Seok-ho's voice carried from across the room. The other actors were ready.
"Cue!"
The signal dropped, and the classroom door slammed open.
Lee Bohyun stepped through the open door, swept the room once, and her eyes found mine.
"Hi?"
A hand stretched toward my face and gave a little wave.
I hesitated, not quite sure the greeting was meant for me—and in that sliver of a pause, Lee Bohyun's hand fisted in my hair.
"Aaah!"
"Our friend here... has a pretty weird personality, huh? I say hello first and you just sit there staring... or do you just not want to take my greeting?"
The venom in Lee Bohyun's words came flying. Kang Mirae smiled without letting the smile slip.
"Ah—hi. I didn't know you were talking to me. What's your name? I'm Kang Mirae. Nice to meet you."
"You're... interesting."
Lee Bohyun's mouth curled, just a little, like a child who had found a fascinating new toy.
The texture was close to when I had shot this before. And it was also completely different.
If I had played it as a kid who had sincerely discovered a toy, her performance was a schoolyard predator packed to the brim with malice.
The classroom door slid open, and Kim Jaejun walked in—Kang Mirae's childhood friend, her closest one.
"Hey, what are you two doing!"
"You..."
The first reunion with Kim Jaejun, who would become Lee Bohyun's first love.
And then.
"See you later, friend?"
"My name is Kang Mirae. I'll say it again, in case you forgot."
"....Fine."
Kang Mirae had been chosen as Lee Bohyun's toy—the kind you were not allowed to run from, and not allowed to break.
Except for Oh Hye-jung and me, this was everyone's second time shooting the scene, so we got through it without any real trouble.
The biggest question mark, if you had to pick one, was whether two people could immerse themselves in roles with completely opposite personalities in the space of a few days.
PD Oh Seok-ho watched our performances with worry written all over his face.
"Okay—cut!"
The result satisfied him.
"Wow... that's something else. Being able to deliver acting at that level in just a few days?"
"I was worried too, but thank god. If we keep this up, we can finish without a problem."
He was not the only one thinking it.
The leads and supporting players, the crew, the production and distribution people who had hauled their tense, heavy selves onto the floor after trouble had already broken out twice—every last one of them landed on roughly the same thought.
This drama's going to be a hit.
Off to the side, one staffer was watching me without looking away.
He was a man who had seen a posting for quick cash and applied without thinking twice.
His face was a map of bruises and cuts, as if someone had worked him over, and one eye was swollen almost shut.
Nobody wanted to hire a day laborer whose face was a mess of bruises, but the schedule change had left the people on site with no choice.
"Wow... celebrities really do live in a different world."
At least five people attached themselves to a single actor, fussing over them, lining up the next call time, handing out praise like it cost nothing.
He was standing in the same space, and he still felt like he was standing alone.
"Hey! What are you doing! We need to move to the next location, so get going! And every one of those pieces of equipment is expensive, so you drop them and you're dead!"
An already furious voice snapped at him from the side.
The man snatched up as much gear as both arms could hold and ran.
That was when it happened.
"Nngh...!"
A white bolt of pain lit up his ribs, and he went down hard on his face.
The equipment in his hands hit the floor in a crashing clatter and went rolling.
"What the hell are you doing! Ha... shit... of all the people to show up, we get this guy... What are you going to do about this! Do you have any idea what this stuff costs?!"
"I-I'm sorry..."
The man could only bow and keep bowing.
"Sorry doesn't fix it! Ah, for real. We're already drowning... Hey. Get lost. And you're paying for everything that broke, so you'd better know that... fuck... this is why I said to look at people properly before you send them."
"I-I'm sorry... but I have to work... I don't have any money..."
"I said get lost!"
The man dropped to his knees and begged. The staffer swore and started checking the equipment scattered across the floor.
Almost nothing was actually broken. Not enough, honestly, to bother billing him for.
But a scratch had landed on the most important lens.
A stopgap repair would get them through today's shoot. Tomorrow's, or the day after's, would take a serious hit.
And every delay, every bit of damage, would come due... The man dropped his gaze without meaning to.
There was no one coming to help him anyway.
"Hey. Do you know how much this costs? This one lens is worth way more than you'll make on this job!"
"I'm so... sorry..."
"What's going on?"
My voice cut in.
The staffer looked at me and waved it off as nothing, but I had already heard the whole thing.
"Are you all right?"
"Ah... yes. I-I'm fine, but..."
"You should go to the hospital first."
"N-no... I don't have the money for that..."
"Tsk. Just go. I'll cover the hospital bill. And."
I dropped my voice so that only he could hear it.