The Reading Session
At Blizzard Entertainment’s underground cafeteria, once lunchtime rolled around, the name on everyone’s lips was unmistakably Han Seo-jun.
At one table tucked into a corner, where three employees sat facing one another, his name came up in the very first breath.
“I really thought Han Seo-jun would never be able to renew his contract. Seriously, you never know what life has in store, do you?”
“Exactly. Just a few days ago, it looked like they were already scheming to kick him out, even though his contract still had ages left on it.”
The red-haired woman spoke before she had even lifted her spoon, and the bob-haired friend chimed in as if she’d been waiting for the opening.
“It’s all money in the end. His looks were on a whole different level, so they’d milked him dry with endorsements, and once the buzz started wearing off, they were probably ready to wash their hands of him. But after that audition clip aired on TV, all those acting-skill rumors died down in a heartbeat.”
The man across from them gave a snort, and the red-haired woman listening in paused with her chopsticks half-raised.
“Still, it wasn’t just the video. Honestly, didn’t he get a little help from Jang Hoyoon and Lee Eun-hye too? I mean, they’d been known as a lovey-dovey married couple for more than ten years, and then out of nowhere they announced a divorce.”
“Right? The timing was almost too perfect. But seriously, wasn’t that shocking? Up until not long ago, the two of them had been doing commercials for home appliances all sweet and cozy...”
As the two women talked, the man swallowed the food he’d been chewing and lifted one corner of his mouth.
“That was money too. Even if they were hurling insults and threatening to kill each other when it was just the two of them, they’d still be holding hands in front of money and smiling like nothing had happened. Honestly, money’s hilarious, isn’t it? Comedy doesn’t even begin to cover it.”
At his words, the two women exchanged glances and let out little snorts of laughter.
“Still, I’m honestly wondering what I just saw. Even when I watched Han Seo-jun’s audition video, I kept rubbing my eyes and thinking, Is that really real?”
The bob-haired woman, who had been chattering away while looking at the man, turned her gaze to her friend.
“You thought the same thing, didn’t you? That was really the Han Seo-jun we’d just seen in that drama not long ago, right?”
“But I think they probably tampered with the video a little. The technology’s so good these days they can make something so polished even experts can’t tell. The manager probably thinks the same, right?”
“That’s a given. If you believe whatever you see, you’re an idiot.”
After saying that, the man changed his expression and shrugged.
“Still, there’s that saying about the body never betraying itself, right? You need a certain baseline to even be worth fixing. Han Seo-jun must’ve worked hard in his own way. He had a fire under his feet. His contract was about to expire, and if they kicked him out like this, there’d be nowhere to go. Maybe not at a small agency, but any big one would turn its back on him, so he finally realized it: ‘At this rate, I won’t have a place to stand.’”
At his words, the red-haired woman’s eyes narrowed.
“Even so, there are limits. And if it were just acting, I’d say fine, but what about singing and dancing?”
The man, who had been moving his chopsticks, gave a light chuckle and nodded.
“That too, I guess. It’s like making a fresh character, clearing the tutorial, and then checking the next day only to find they’re already max level.”
At that, the two women both burst out laughing.
“Oh my god, that analogy is insane. It’s so painfully accurate!”
Over the table where laughter had erupted, the sounds of chopsticks and spoons clinking together carried on brightly.
Whatever anyone said, today’s main dish in the cafeteria wasn’t kimchi stew.
It was Han Seo-jun.
***
The matter of extending his contract by another two years had already been settled.
Today, together with his team manager, he had come to Team 1’s office to sign the papers.
Hwang Dong-jun, who opened the door and went in ahead of him, clicked his tongue under his breath.
And the moment Seo-jun swept his eyes across the office, he immediately understood why.
Lee Hwa-young was sitting lazily in the seat of honor on the sofa.
The team manager he was actually supposed to meet, who’d said over the phone that he’d be arriving soon, was nowhere in sight yet.
Hwang Dong-jun’s expression stiffened with open displeasure at the sight of her.
“What brings you here at this hour too, Actress Lee Hwa-young?”
Keeping some distance from her, Hwang Dong-jun sat down on the edge of the sofa and spoke.
“Why else would I come? I got offers for commercials and a new project, so I came. I’m waiting on scripts. If one looks good, I’ll sign.”
Lee Hwa-young wrinkled the tip of her nose and laughed as if the whole thing were beneath her.
Her gaze moved from Hwang Dong-jun to Seo-jun with easy elegance.
“The drama I’m filming now ends at the end of this month. It’s an MBS weekend series, and you know it’s currently number one in viewership among all dramas, right? It airs right after the weekend news, so it’s prime time.”
“I see.”
After glancing at Seo-jun’s impassive face, she curved one corner of her lips.
“Have you watched it?”
“Pardon? Watched what?”
The question had come so suddenly that the words popped out before he could think.
For a moment she frowned, then immediately drew a smile across her mouth.
That shift in expression was artful, honestly.
He had to give her credit for the acting.
“What do you think? Your Dawn Is Darker Than Black. Don’t tell me you haven’t watched it even once?”
“I’ve been a bit busy lately. I was planning to binge it when I had time.”
“I haven’t watched it either.”
Hwang Dong-jun cut in lightly, and Lee Hwa-young narrowed her eyes, letting out a slim, biting smile.
“Did anyone ask whether you watched it?”
“...”
Back when he had been Do Hyun-woo, before he became Han Seo-jun, there’d been no TV in his one-room apartment.
Every now and then, he’d only watched clips on YouTube, things like “Scenes Where Actors Nailed the Performance.”
After becoming Han Seo-jun, he hadn’t even had the luxury for that.
“Well, there’s no need to watch it anyway.”
That was not the answer he’d expected.
He’d thought she’d be irritated, but instead she wore a calm expression.
“Why? I thought you were going to use it to promote the drama. That reaction’s pretty fresh.”
Before he could say anything, Hwang Dong-jun let out a short laugh.
Lee Hwa-young wrinkled her nose and tilted her head slightly.
Then she turned her gaze back to him.
“Because there’s nothing useful in watching it. What if you watch it and end up staring at the wall because of the acting? Aren’t you starting filming on that Netflix miniseries soon? Even if the singing and choreography are the focus, it’s still a drama in the end. There’ll be plenty of acting scenes, so it’d be a problem if you picked up some trauma for no reason, wouldn’t it?”
“...”
“Or maybe you already have trauma, so it’s fine?”
How shameless.
Who was it that had once looked at him with a pitiful face and complained that his acting wasn’t improving?
The same person who had downed a can of beer in one go and said, “I think I really don’t have any talent.”
“I’ve gotten over it. I’m fine now.”
“...Really?”
Lee Hwa-young opened her eyes a little wider and stared at him.
She looked like she was barely holding back laughter.
“Ha... honestly.”
With a sigh, Hwang Dong-jun clicked his tongue again.
“Humans really are funny when you think about it. Don’t you think?”
He tossed the words out with a touch of mockery and then let out a heavy breath.
“What is?”
“You keep saying it’s not true, that you can’t believe it, but then once I prove it to you, you still talk as if you didn’t see a thing with your own eyes. You’re not believing the truth; you’re believing only what you want to believe. That kind of attitude is rotten to the core.”
As Hwang Dong-jun barked the words, Lee Hwa-young narrowed her eyes.
“Oh my! Why are you scolding me about it?”
Even as her brow twitched, she kept that sly smile at the corner of her mouth.
“I believe it, you know. There’s still a long way to go, sure, but he really has stopped being a total wooden performer. Singing and dancing too... hmm, I think he’s just barely escaped being tone-deaf and a complete clumsy disaster.”
“...”
At her words, Hwang Dong-jun shook his head and flung himself back against the sofa.
Unbothered by his reaction, Lee Hwa-young reached out and tapped the phone lying on the table with her fingertip.
“Ugh, why isn’t he here yet?”
She clicked her tongue, then turned her gaze back to Seo-jun.
No, to be precise, to the script in his hand.
“What is that tattered thing you’re holding?”
“...Ah, this?”
Seo-jun looked down at the script in his hand and spoke.
“It’s the script for the miniseries I’m about to start.”
“You always carry the script around with you?”
“Practice matters.”
“...Ah.”
Without bothering to hide her condescending expression, she twitched one corner of her mouth.
“Our actor sleeps with the script on his bedside table even at night. He doesn’t just run around having fun like some people.”
“Do I look like I’m playing around?”
“No. I’m just saying.”
At Hwang Dong-jun’s shrug, Lee Hwa-young snapped her head away as if dismissing him entirely.
Her eyes were full of irritation.
No, with the way those two got along, were they really planning to appear together on some drinking variety show?
The moment alcohol got involved, they looked ready to grab each other by the hair.
That wouldn’t just be a slip of the tongue. That would be a full-scale disaster ending up in the news.
“You do know not every Netflix original is a hit, right?”
Lee Hwa-young’s slightly mocking voice cut again into Seo-jun’s ear as he kept his eyes on the script.
If she was bored, she could play a mobile game or something.
What was she trying to say with all this?
“There are plenty of works that sink to the bottom of the sea and are forgotten. Not that I’m hoping that happens to Possessed by a Trash Idol Friend, of course. Actress Jang Mi-ran is in it too, so it has to do well.”
So what’s the point?
Did she hate him, or did she just hate the sight of Hwang Dong-jun?
Slowly, she got up from the sofa, moved around the back of it, and came to sit in the seat beside him.
“How about we do a reading together? It’s better than muttering to yourself. I’ll give you the other side’s lines.”
“No. I’m fine.”
“A very junior actor should say ‘thank you’ when a senior offers help. Saying ‘I’m fine’ just means you’re stubbornly digging in your heels.”
As she tossed out the words, Lee Hwa-young snatched the script from his hand in one swift motion.
“...!”
“What are you doing?”
More dumbfounded than he was, Hwang Dong-jun shouted in outrage.
Still ignoring them completely, she flipped open the script, which was blackened with fingerprints and bent at the corners, and let a sneer curl on her lips.
“...Hah...”
“...!!”
“Sometimes actors whose heads don’t work do this sort of thing. They can’t memorize their lines, so they scribble all over the script and plaster it with highlighter.”
She clicked her tongue and tilted her head.
“There were kids like that at school too, right? The ones who didn’t study and only made their notes look flashy. I’m absolutely not saying that’s you, Han Seo-jun.”
Ah... seriously.
There was bluntness, and then there was just being impossible.
When had her personality twisted itself this badly?
“Do you know the content?”
So absurd it was almost funny, and before he knew it, a laugh slipped out of him instead of irritation.
“Oh, of course I do. Actress Jang Mi-ran is playing the birth mother who gave birth to the protagonist. I even played the other lead opposite her, you know? She was some nasty woman from the Miss Korea pageant who was trying to sell off her own son.”
Then if you want to do a reading so badly, maybe you should just play that role.
It was practically made for Lee Hwa-young.
“Then why don’t you take that role as my partner and read the lines?”
“No. I’ll pass. It doesn’t suit me very well. I heard the protagonist’s adoptive parents are kind like angels, so let’s have me play the foster mother.”
“...!”
Her fingers stopped as she flipped the page and traced it.
“This seems good. Scene 15, inside the first-floor living room. We’ll use this one. Come sit next to me. It’ll be easier to look at together.”
“I’ve already memorized that far.”
“...You have?”
She shot him a skeptical look.
“Well, if that’s true... then let’s begin.”
There was a bright smile in the corner of Lee Hwa-young’s mouth.
Her expression was so confident it was practically saying she was about to teach a lesson to some beginner.
Honestly, that attitude made sense.
Not long ago, he really had been a hopeless actor.
With a smug look on her face, she opened her mouth.
“Oh my, son~ You’re home early today. If you’ve got time, how about having a cup of tea with Mom for a bit? I was planning to prepare some pear tea to soothe your throat...”
She delivered the line with a surprisingly convincing rhythm, a faint smile touching her lips.
It was the textbook picture of an actor doing a script reading.
Her face was bright, her tone cheerful.
But as his foster mother, she looked far too young, and far too beautiful.
All at once, he understood again why people went looking for Lee Hwa-young.
Then I should probably answer her seriously too.