Buying the Dip
Geumhwa Arts High School Acting Department was an actor-training game. Five beautiful girl protagonists appeared in it, and each of them carried exactly one strength and one weakness when it came to acting.
The goal was to push each heroine's strength as far as it would go, carefully shore up her weakness, and raise her into a proper actress.
And the very first protagonist unlocked the moment the game began was Lee Hana.
Her defining trait was that she was a genius of method acting. She performed as if she herself had become the character, which meant her ceiling was extraordinarily high. Every protagonist in Geumhwa Arts High School Acting Department had a strength, but even among them, Lee Hana might have stood alone.
In exchange, one of her weaknesses is catastrophically fatal.
Playing her meant concentrating less on maximizing the strength and more on covering the weakness. Flip that around, though, and it meant that if you patched the weakness properly, Lee Hana became a monster of an actress. She was a world apart from Son Yuna, whose talent was strictly middling.
That was why, in the original, the two of them ended up in an acting showdown with a lead role on the line, and Lee Hana won in a rout.
Son Yuna: Why! Why, of all things!
Son Yuna: Why don't I have any talent!
Son Yuna: Why is it only you…!
Son Yuna:This isn't fair!!
Faced with Lee Hana's genius, Son Yuna's heart gave out, and afterward she chose to drop out of school. In that sense, I—now living as Son Yuna—could not help finding Lee Hana's existence uncomfortable.
Hmm. Best to stay clear of her if I could.
"All right, we've each done our introductions, haven't we? Then could you spare your teacher a little attention?"
Homeroom teacher Oh Yeo-jeong brought her palms together with a sharp smack.
"Our Class 1-13 is going to gather here in Classroom 3 for every morning assembly. We'll be doing morning exercise, vocal practice, and attendance, so I expect every one of you to be here when assembly starts."
"Which means you absolutely have to bring your gym clothes every single day! Got it?"
She said it with plenty of energy.
The Professional Actor Class was split into three classes per grade. For the first-years, that meant Class 1-11, Class 1-12, and Class 1-13. The second-years and third-years were set up the same way: classes 11, 12, and 13 were the Professional Actor Class.
Lee Hana and I were in Class 1-13. Of the remaining protagonists, two would be in Class 1-11 or Class 1-12, one was currently a second-year, and the last one wasn't at this school yet.
"The thing is, I still haven't memorized all your faces and names. So starting now, we're changing seats! For the time being, I'd like you to sit in attendance-number order."
A perfectly reasonable demand, from Oh Yeo-jeong's point of view. Even a homeroom teacher could hardly be expected to have every student's face memorized from the first day of school.
And so all of us changed seats—except I had overlooked one thing.
Korean names line up by initial consonant, in an order every Korean knows by heart. After the consonant for g comes n, and after n comes d. That much is common knowledge. The problem is what comes immediately after s.
My name is Son Yuna. Son, plain as day. The protagonist's name is Lee Hana. Lee, just as plain. And in that order, the consonant that begins Son is followed directly by the one that begins Lee.
Seats filled from the front by name, which planted me at the very end of the third row. The fourth row, right beside me, filled one student after another with surnames that started on that next consonant. The result—
"Hello. It looks like we're seatmates. Please take care of me from now on. Hehe…"
A girl, greeting me politely from the seat right next to mine. In Korea, classmates the same age usually drop the formalities. She used them with me anyway, because her character setting was the girl who speaks politely.
A girl with the air of scattering cherry blossoms. I had been paired with Lee Hana.
Tch. Of all the surnames to be stuck with, it had to be Son…!
"I heard your introduction earlier! Your name is Son Yuna, right?"
Lee Hana, seated beside me, edged into conversation. I felt a small sigh coming on. True to a protagonist, she had a personality like sunlight. Gentle with anyone, kind, incapable of hating people, and eager to be friends with everyone. The sort who would take a loss herself if it meant helping someone else, and upright all the while. A character worthy of the lead, through and through.
What am I supposed to do with this…? Ignore her? In a modern society gone cold, a girl as hopelessly good as Lee Hana would be nothing short of a role model. For me, that was exactly the uncomfortable part. Why is everyone else an individualist except you! Being seatmates doesn't mean you have to say hello! Practice some healthy individualism—if somebody greets you, just lightly ignore them! I was practically choking on the urge to say it. And yet—
"…Yeah. My name's Son Yuna. You're Lee Hana, right?"
"Yes, that's me! You remembered my name! I'm so happy!"
"Is it really something to be happy about? You remembered mine too."
"W-well, but you're seriously beautiful, Yuna! Even during introductions I wondered if you might be a celebrity. It made me a little happy that someone that pretty remembered my name. Hehe…"
She said it looking faintly shy. The standing rule, once you possess a villain, is not to get tangled up with the protagonist. I hadn't particularly wanted to get involved with Lee Hana either. Nothing for it. A change of approach was in order.
"They say even sleeves that brush count as a bond."
I held a hand out toward her.
"Same class, and the seat right next to mine—that's more than an ordinary bond, isn't it? Let's be friends. I'm counting on you."
"Ah…! I'm the one who should be counting on you! Let's be close! Hehe…"
Lee Hana took my hand, and we shook. There was a famous line like that in some movie, wasn't there. Keep your enemies closer than your friends. If I had no choice but to get tangled up with Lee Hana, then I might as well just become her friend.
Classes at Geumhwa Arts High School ran in a slightly peculiar way. It was a high school, and yet it used a credit system like a university. After morning assembly—morning exercise, vocal practice, and attendance—you simply went off to whichever lectures you wanted to take. Aside from assembly and the required courses, the same class rarely gathered.
For that reason, once the entrance ceremony was over, I was sitting in a lecture I had registered for ahead of time.
"That concludes orientation. I'll post the assignment online, so have it done by next week."
It was only orientation, of course, so the lecture was over in fifteen minutes. I stood up. The girl who had been sitting beside me immediately drifted after me. For the record, that girl's name was Lee Hana.
"There's already an assignment on the first day, Yuna! What if it's a hard one…?"
"It won't be that hard. This teacher's famous for giving easy assignments."
"Huh? Really? How do you know something like that?"
"I heard a little."
A lie, obviously. I only knew because I had played Geumhwa Arts High School Acting Department more times than I could count. Which lectures were easy. Which ones were the real gems. Which ones triggered special events. I knew.
"But why is this place on a credit system? Most high schools have a fixed timetable."
"Because a lot of the students are already working as actors. With a fixed schedule, juggling a career and schoolwork at the same time gets rough."
That was how I explained it. It was only the in-game story, of course. In reality, the developers had simply decided to set it up that way. The protagonist had to stumble through every kind of event and get naturally tangled up with all sorts of people, and from the devs' side a credit system was far more convenient.
"I see! You know so much, Yuna! Hehe…"
Lee Hana laughed, bright as clear weather. We had gotten close during the seat change. And all we had exchanged was a handful of words.
To put it kindly, Lee Hana had always been an easy character to befriend. She was the protagonist, after all. To put it unkindly, you would have to call her an easy girl. On the community sites she had even been stuck with the meme the girl whose number you can get without trying. Show her a little kindness and she took to you at once. I intended to use that.
Right now is the bottom.
Each of the protagonists of Geumhwa Arts High School Acting Department had one strength. Lee Hana's genius stood furthest above the rest, which made her the one most likely to become a great actress. There is a saying, isn't there. The world runs on money, power, and connections.
I had already enrolled in the Professional Actor Class. Walking an actor's path was the only option left. If that was the case, what happened if I became friends with the Lee Hana who would one day be a great actress? Son Yuna's bad-ending route would disappear, and I would come away with a solid connection besides. Right now was the moment to buy Lee Hana coin…!
"What are you doing after this, Yuna? I've got a lot of time before my next lecture."
"I've got a free period too. I was going to get lunch."
"Oh, that sounds nice. Let's eat together! Do you know where the cafeteria is?"
"I know where it is. Follow me."
Do someone a favor while they're still weak, and you get it back many times over later. Lee Hana was a downy new chick of a freshman who had only just entered Geumhwa Arts High School, but I was a long-steeped veteran of Geumhwa Arts High School Acting Department. When it came to knowledge of the original, I was well stocked. If I used that to teach her this and that about the school, our sunshine protagonist would repay the kindness one way or another, and the road ahead would get easier.
And so the two of us arrived at the cafeteria. I claimed a reasonable spot and took out my lunch box.
"Oh? You brought a lunch box, Yuna?"
"Yeah. Gotta save on food money."
"You're so diligent! Mornings are such a blur—packing a lunch must be hard!"
"…Not really?"
I tilted my head. Packing a lunch wasn't particularly hard. I opened the lid.
"Uh…? Yuna, this is… what is it?"
"Fried rice. Why?"
Frozen fried rice, four minutes in the microwave that morning. All I had to do was tip it straight into the lunch box, so it was absurdly simple. And I had saved on food costs besides. A win for everyone involved, wasn't it?
"Eh…?"
I had no idea why. Lee Hana was wearing a thoroughly flustered expression all the same.