Prologue
There was a game called Geumhwa Arts High School Acting Department.
Games about raising idols were common enough. But if you stopped to think about it, had there ever really been one about raising an actor? In that sense, Geumhwa Arts High School Acting Department was a rather peculiar title.
You attended Geumhwa Arts High School alongside five girls. You chose one of them to play, and little by little she grew into an actress. That was the heart of the story.
Strangely enough, the studio behind it was foreign. Even so, the translation was excellent—a full Korean dub, and the localization handled with real care besides. People mistook it for a Korean game often enough that it hardly seemed strange.
The game was enormous, too. You could call it a masterpiece, and no one could fairly object.
What I kept the closest eye on was the cast—the shape of the characters themselves.
Of everyone who appeared in Geumhwa Arts High School Acting Department, I had fallen hard for one of them: Son Yuna.
"I-I can't accept this...!"
"I was supposed to be the lead...! That role is mine!"
"So why?"
"Why, why, whywhywhy, why!!!!"
"Why were you the one they cast?!"
A villain, mind you.
Son Yuna. She had aspired to be an idol, failed the audition, and in the end applied to the Professional Actor Class—a villainess. Her face was lovely, as you'd expect of someone who had chased that dream, but her talent as an actress was merely average. She wasn't rich in knowledge of the craft, either, and as the scene made plain, she was flawed as a person. All she ever did was preen, trusting in her looks and nothing else.
She locked horns with the protagonist over who would be cast as the lead of a drama and, naturally, lost—crushed by the gap in acting. After that she made a lonely exit. A dime-a-dozen third-rate villain. There was nothing else to say about her.
"Still... I think she's the prettiest one."
Maybe it was because I liked menhera characters. Whatever the reason, that third-rate villain, Son Yuna, sat far closer to my heart than any of the five protagonists.
"Is there no way to play as Son Yuna?"
What if she was actually a hidden character? Clear some special achievement, and maybe she would unlock.
Clinging to that thought, I played Geumhwa Arts High School Acting Department for a long, long time. I filled out every achievement there was. Son Yuna was never unlocked as a playable character.
Tsk. Nothing to be done.
"Guess all I can do is hope they add her in a DLC someday."
I gave up and closed the game—then fell asleep, and woke to find I had become Son Yuna.