How a Loan Shark Survives as an Actor — Episode 7
The day of the table read for Space of You and Me.
The reading wasn't scheduled to start until the afternoon, but I'd been killing time at a café near the meeting spot since early morning.
Along, of course, with Yoo Seul-ho's manager, Hyun Jin-gae.
"Ha, I'm seriously screwed if I miss that golf appointment."
Hyun Jin-gae grumbled to himself beside me, but I paid him no mind. He'd been whining all morning that he had a golf game with some director — Shin or Sim or whatever his name was — and that I'd have to go to the reading alone. I'd told him that unless he wanted to play eighteen holes with one arm, he'd better quietly come along.
"A manager skipping his actor's schedule is the real disaster here. What's the big deal about missing one round of golf?"
"Hey, you know Director Shin too! I'm doing this for your sake, alright? If I show up and don't kiss his ass, it blows back on you!"
"Don't pin it on me. You just want to play golf."
"No, I don't—"
"Really? You'd swear it on one of your arms?"
"……."
When I directed my gaze at Hyun Jin-gae's right arm and asked, he trembled all over and shut his mouth. Then he muttered sulkily, a bit of a pout on his face.
"Go back to playing nice roles once this drama's over. This thing's eating you alive…."
Apparently he still thought I was acting this way because of all my practice. I couldn't tell if he was naive or just plain dim.
Think whatever you want.
Once he switched agencies I'd never have to see his face again, so any misunderstanding he carried was his problem, not mine. I let it slide.
Leaving the manager's grumbling behind, I took a seat facing the café's front window and stared hard at the building where the meeting was being held.
From early morning, the place had been a whirlwind of activity — mostly men and women in their twenties, staff by the look of them. They bustled in and out of the building in a constant stream, and I studied their comings and goings with careful attention.
"Shouldn't we head in soon anyway? Only an hour left."
"No. We go in twenty minutes before."
"What? Hey, then why'd we show up this early? I figured you came out ahead of time to manage your image or something."
The manager wore a baffled expression, but I didn't bother explaining. If Yoo Seul-ho were still a rookie, sure — showing up early, helping the staff, greeting the cast, all of it would have been the obvious move.
But not a single actor in this drama had more experience than Yoo Seul-ho.
Meaningless credentials or not, the numbers matter.
Some might call it a pointless pissing contest, but in my experience, the attitude you display determines how people treat you. Plenty of people already looked at Yoo Seul-ho with contempt, and if I came groveling to score a few brownie points on top of that, I'd only look twice as pathetic.
In this situation, arriving early wouldn't read as "Oh my, look how diligent he is" — it would read as "He has to grovel like that because he can't act."
When the cards are stacked against you, the best play is to walk in twenty minutes early: polite enough, unremarkable enough. Just right.
"If I'd known we'd be sitting here doing nothing all morning, I'd have brought a book. What a waste of time, seriously."
"You don't read books, hyung."
"I read plenty of books!"
"Want to swear it on your right arm?"
"……."
Hyun Jin-gae hastily clamped his mouth shut and turned his back on me like a sulking kid. Thankful for the silence at last, I went back to watching the building.
If I'm only going in twenty minutes before, why bother showing up this early at all?
Because, as they say, know your enemy and know yourself, and you'll never lose a hundred battles. I had the cast list for the drama memorized cold, but I had no idea who any of the crew were. So I kept an eye out for who came and went most often, who ran the errands, and quietly put faces to names.
"Let's head in now."
Twenty minutes before the reading — I sprang to my feet.
"Whew, finally. Aigoo, my poor back."
I started walking without waiting for Hyun Jin-gae to work the stiffness out of his body, and behind me came the shout, "You disloyal little punk. Hey, wait up!"
Ignoring him, I quickened my pace and, just as a woman in her early twenties was about to enter the building, held the door open for her.
"Oh, thank you…. Huh?"
The woman, who'd been mumbling to herself with an exhausted face, went wide-eyed the moment she got a good look at mine.
"Hello. Does this go up to the seventh floor?"
"Uh, y-yes."
I plucked the box out of her arms without ceremony, told her to come along quickly, and introduced myself before she could stammer out a protest.
"I'm Yoo Seul-ho. What's your name?"
"Oh… me? My name?"
She blinked a few times, then told me it was Lee So-eun.
The busiest of all the staff, probably the youngest — Lee So-eun.
I murmured the assessment to myself while flashing a bright, sunny smile on the outside.
"Looking forward to working with you, So-eun."
"Yes, yes…."
"Hey, wait for me!"
Hyun Jin-gae came rushing up in a huff, and the three of us took the elevator together. While the manager scrambled to put on a respectable front the instant he noticed Lee So-eun standing next to me, I chatted away the whole ride up — small talk about things I couldn't have cared less about.
By the time the elevator reached the seventh floor, the woman's face had brightened considerably.
"So that's what's trendy these days? I had no idea. How do you know all this stuff, So-eun?"
"I follow social media, read industry newsletters. Reading the trends is part of the job, so I have to!"
"Wow, that's genuinely impressive."
"Oh, it's nothing, really…."
The woman who'd spoken in a weary voice just moments ago was now beaming, her face full of pride. Watching her wariness crumble in an instant, I walked with her into the reading room.
"Hello, everyone."
I gave a light bow to the actors who had already arrived and, reading the room, set the box I was carrying down on a table in the corner.
"I'll just put this here."
"Yes, please! Aah, thank you so much. That thing weighs a ton."
"No problem. It was lighter than my manager here, at least."
"Pfft—haha, thank you!"
As the woman thanked me over and over in a cheerful voice, the eyes of everyone in the reading room turned our way. I pretended not to notice, made a little fist-pumping gesture at her in a silent fighting!, and turned around at a leisurely pace.
"Hello. I'm Yoo Seul-ho."
With that, I greeted the male actor standing closest to me. The bright, easy energy from the woman's laughter was still lingering in the air.
"Ah, yes! Nice to meet you, sunbae-nim!"
Thanks to that, my first exchange went off warmly, and the friendly atmosphere began drawing more people toward me.
"Hello, Yoo Seul-ho sunbae-nim. I'm Heo Eun-hye, a rookie actress."
"Nice to meet you. I enjoyed your last film. Time on the Hill, right?"
"Oh my gosh, yes! How did you know? Hardly anyone's seen that…."
Drawing on what I'd researched in advance, I steered the conversation toward as friendly a place as possible. However these actors usually felt about Yoo Seul-ho didn't matter. What mattered was that, right now, in this very moment, the mood was warm and the air around us rang with easy laughter.
"Haha, really?"
As I joked and chatted with the people around me, the occupants of the reading room naturally split into two camps. There were those hovering at the edge of my circle, waiting their turn to greet me — and then there were Woo Jun-seo and his lackeys, planted in the corner, pointedly pretending I didn't exist.
Right on schedule.
Maybe because our last conversation had ended on such an ugly note, Woo Jun-seo had abandoned the sweet-junior act he'd been playing so well and was now deliberately snubbing me. His face radiated open resentment, and the lackeys beside him kept sneaking glances my way, watching for his reaction.
A senior walks in, and a junior stays glued to his seat?
In an industry as steeped in hierarchy as this one, that was especially unforgivable. Woo Jun-seo surely knew it too, and watching him stubbornly stay seated, I swallowed a laugh.
Well, he's the lead, so he figures he doesn't have to answer to anyone.
Frankly, if he wanted to hand me the moral high ground, I'd take it.
Excusing myself briefly from the group, I headed toward Woo Jun-seo. As I approached him with a smile, I could feel every gaze in the room following me.
"Jun-seo, it's been a while. You made it home alright that day?"
At my smooth greeting, Woo Jun-seo gave a curt, careless nod.
"Yes. I did."
"Good to hear. I really enjoyed getting to trade notes with you at the end there."
The words were barely out of my mouth before one of Woo Jun-seo's eyebrows shot up in a sneer. I ignored it and turned a familiar nod to the lackeys beside him. Unlike the ones who exchanged stiff, awkward hellos while glancing at Woo Jun-seo for permission, one particularly scrawny man broke into a big, booming laugh.
"Seul-ho! Long time no see. Been keeping well?"
The laugh was so loud it bordered on uncomfortable. Meeting those oddly oily eyes, I answered with a smile calibrated to exactly the right size.
"Oh, sure. You too?"
Park Sang-in. Twenty-five, male actor. My research had shown one overlapping credit with Yoo Seul-ho. I'd come assuming they'd at least be acquainted from sharing a set — I just hadn't expected them to be on banmal terms.
Park Sang-in shot a quick glance at Woo Jun-seo, then grinned theatrically and said,
"You still taking those acting lessons?"
"Sorry?"
"Come on, you were going on about how you needed to take acting classes. Said you had no idea how to even play a role. Well, lucky for you this part's an easy one, huh."
The air went cold fast. It was a blatant dig at Yoo Seul-ho, and everyone knew it. Watching the corner of Woo Jun-seo's mouth curl up ever so slightly, I smiled back.
"You're right. My acting's a complete mess."
"…What?"
"But there are some really talented actors around me this time, so that's a relief. I've got a lot to learn. I'll be picking your brains, yeah?"
"Uh, well…. Sure."
The exchange fizzled out with Park Sang-in forcing an awkward laugh. Still smiling, I strolled back toward the group I'd been talking with earlier.
"Sunbae-nim, did you know? Among the new releases this season—"
This time, people came at me with noticeably warmer attitudes than before. Their expressions carried something that read almost like pity — the way you might look at a classmate being picked on.
Honestly, Park Sang-in wasn't even wrong.
But in the workplace, even a true statement lives or dies by how you deliver it. Park Sang-in had apparently decided that with not a single actor in the room on Yoo Seul-ho's side, he was free to sneer openly. The problem was, a first impression made right in front of your eyes isn't so easily dismissed.
No matter how much hate Yoo Seul-ho got online, no matter how pathetic people thought he was — if the Yoo Seul-ho standing right in front of them was smiling warmly and getting along with everyone, openly tormenting him was never going to look good.
Caught off guard by the unexpected mood, Woo Jun-seo's face twisted, and he stalked out of the room. When the lackeys — Park Sang-in included — scrambled after him in a panic, I let a beat pass, announced I was going to grab a drink, and stepped out as well.
"Ah, damn it. What the hell was that."
As I walked quietly down the corridor, Woo Jun-seo's irritated voice drifted around the corner.
"You worked with Yoo Seul-ho before, didn't you? Is he normally that thick-skinned? Talks back and everything?"
Park Sang-in fumbled out a reply in a rush.
"No, no. I told you, remember? Total pushover! That's exactly why I recommended him to you!"
One of my eyebrows arched slowly upward.
Ah.
So it was you.
The rat who'd served Yoo Seul-ho up to Woo Jun-seo on a platter.