Curiosity
One peaceful winter day at Pure Orphanage, where everyone was savoring their break in their own way.
"Hwaaam…."
I sat in a corner of the orphanage library, staring at the ceiling, drained from staying up late watching Rune Breaker videos on my phone.
The quiet chatter and laughter of kids drifted in from all around.
I would have loved nothing more than to head to a PC bang or crawl into bed for a nap, but the orphanage schedule was the problem.
During the school term they left us free, but over break we were forced to sit through things like group reading time.
I could have thrown a tantrum and refused, but I wasn't an actual child.
The second I turn twenty, I'm drinking….
I killed time with vague daydreams like that.
Just as I was thinking I might as well pick up some boring fairy tale, a sharp clap cut through the air.
Clap!
"Attention for a moment~."
The crisp sound of applause jolted me out of my half-faded daze.
It was Kim Seul-ah, one of the life guides alongside Yun Hyeon-mi. Standing next to her was a neatly dressed man.
"A famous movie actor is here today to give us a fun talk!"
Before Kim Seul-ah had even finished speaking, the kids started buzzing.
"No way… it's Seo Hyeon-woo…."
"Huh? I think I saw him in Unending Love?"
"Wow… he's so handsome!"
He did have the kind of looks that naturally drew every eye in the room. The sort of face that wouldn't look out of place on a TV show, a drama, or a movie.
…Who?
While everyone else sat open-mouthed in awe, I alone rolled my eyes around, trying to get a handle on the situation.
Seo Hyeon-woo.
A famous Korean film actor who, at twenty-nine, had swept awards and risen to stardom.
The reason a man like that had come to Pure Orphanage was simple.
There's no child actor I like….
None of the child actors he'd seen measured up.
"Hyeon-woo, Ye-sol would still be fine enough…."
"No."
Even the director he'd worked with for years had hoped he'd settle for someone adequate, but Seo Hyeon-woo was a perfectionist. He had no intention of compromising.
Plenty of people had ruined themselves with that kind of "pointless stubbornness," but Seo Hyeon-woo was already a major success — and still riding high.
"…I'll just go look for someone myself."
No one could break his resolve.
Convinced that child actors raised in comfortable homes could never properly play a child from a hard background, he started hunting on his own. There was that film Capernaum, after all, which had cast real refugees and become a hit. He'd been deeply impressed by it, and that only strengthened his conviction.
But after some time — street casting, lectures at elementary and middle schools — his efforts had produced nothing.
Please, let there be someone here.
In the end, he'd resorted to casting at orphanages.
Orphanages were public institutions run by the state, so getting in for private purposes was extremely difficult. Still, Seo Hyeon-woo had eventually sent official documents and, drawing on the professional trust he'd built over the years, secured permission to visit a few of them.
Once the talk began, Seo Hyeon-woo asked his first question.
"Is there anyone here who dreams of becoming a movie actor?"
Answers of "Me!" and "I want to!" rose from all around. Among them were kids nursing the vain hope — he felt a little sorry for them — that they might catch his eye and get cast.
Seo Hyeon-woo took note of a few children. Ones with pretty faces, or ones who seemed uninterested in him.
He continued the lecture as practiced, pitching it to their level, until he spotted one child whose gaze stayed fixed on empty air the entire time.
He could have ignored her and moved on, but she was pretty enough that the indecisive director would have cast her on the spot.
No matter how pretty she is… she has to be able to act.
A striking face could be a weapon. But the world was full of pretty people. Another director or actor might have tried to cast her immediately, but Seo Hyeon-woo despised people who relied on their looks alone, so he had no such interest.
"All right, then — how about we take turns standing up and doing the performance you're most confident in?"
The lecture was nearly over. He smiled through empty applause and empty praise, and the turn of the child whose name tag read Han A-yeon drew near.
When Han A-yeon quietly stood, eyes turned toward her — especially the boys'.
At this point kids usually fell into one of two types: flustered by the sudden attention, or thrilled and excited.
"……Do I really have to act?"
But Han A-yeon answered in a flat tone, looking straight at him.
For a moment, goosebumps rose on his skin.
Have I found her?
He steadied the flicker of uncertainty and pressed on.
"Is it because A-yeon doesn't like acting?"
"It's not that. I'm just not good at it."
"Still, if you try once, you might find you can do it…."
He deliberately pushed. To gauge her reaction — though the problem was that the other party was far too young. Even so, Seo Hyeon-woo was already intrigued.
Those eyes.
That look of someone acting to hide annoyance was not the look of a ten-year-old.
"…I'm sorry."
She cut the offer short just as cleanly and sat back down — a reaction you didn't see every day.
Before the atmosphere could freeze, Seo Hyeon-woo smoothly moved on to the next child, then pulled a deck of cards from his pocket.
As agreed with the orphanage beforehand: if he found a child he liked, he would use a method that avoided singling one kid out and making the others feel left behind.
He would rig the draw with card magic — something he'd practiced as a hobby.
"All right! I've watched all of your wonderful performances! And finally — the person who draws the winning card will get a chance to visit an actual movie set!"
Shff-shff.
With a flourish of deft hands he shuffled the deck, then stepped forward and began handing out the top cards one by one.
A tour of a movie set….
Just hearing it sounded like a hassle. Still, a set visit might be a decent chance to satisfy some curiosity.
It would have been, at least.
[ WINNER ]
…If only I hadn't been the one to draw it.
If someone asked me what I was good at, setting aside the polite answers, I was an ordinary person with nothing much to say.
…If I had to name something, gaming?
Either way, I was about as far from the performing arts as a person could get. Just imagining myself delivering a disastrous performance was enough to make me cringe on the spot.
That was why I'd brushed off Seo Hyeon-woo's request.
Which made the present situation extremely, thoroughly bad.
"A-yeon drew the winner? Don't be too disappointed, everyone — give a round of applause to our lucky friend!"
Kim Seul-ah put on a bright voice, trying to soothe the kids who looked dejected at not being chosen.
…?
My eyes met Seo Hyeon-woo's behind her. The fake smile on his face looked thoroughly pleased.
Does that even make sense?
Roughly fifty kids had attended the talk. Probability-wise, two percent.
…Higher than I thought.
The moment I started comparing it to gacha rates from various games, it suddenly felt plausible.
Seo Hyeon-woo had come to the orphanage in the middle of winter break. That meant I could skip a day of the orphanage schedule for something like a movie-set tour without any real problem.
I'd lost a day's worth of gaming, but looking on the bright side, I'd saved today's PC bang time — so I could play more tomorrow.
One unusual detail: Yun Hyeon-mi, the person who looked after me most at Pure Orphanage, was coming along. That was only natural. Living at an orphanage, parents weren't going to materialize out of thin air, and sending a kid alone was a bit much — so Yun Hyeon-mi, the closest thing I had to a familiar face, was tagging along.
…How was it that the only person I was close to at the orphanage was one of the teachers?
I found myself questioning my own social skills all over again. It was partly by design, but still.
"Hello. I'm Yun Hyeon-mi."
"Nice to meet you. I'm the actor Seo Hyeon-woo."
After a brief exchange of introductions, we climbed into a luxury sedan. Seo Hyeon-woo took the driver's seat. I sat behind him, Yun Hyeon-mi holding my hand tight.
"You okay, A-yeon? You're not getting carsick or anything?"
"…Ah, no."
"Mm. Keep looking at your phone, then."
I happened to be searching the internet for information on Seo Hyeon-woo. In short: he'd started with short-film roles, built his career bit by bit, then one low-budget film exploded and his outstanding acting carried him from success to success. Lately there were rumors he'd been cast as the lead in an anticipated project called Until Out….
…A child actor?
The man who should have been filming right now was driving the car in front of me, and there were more rumors that casting the child actor for that very film was hitting a wall.
Well, I'd more or less expected it. Drawing a winning card for a set tour was one thing, but there was no need to bring only me. Picking a few kids within a manageable number would have been more natural. The whole card-draw business had probably been a way of being considerate to the other children.
Honestly, now that things had gone this far, a single "I don't want to" from me would end it. Child actor? Casting? If the kid said no, what could they do? It wasn't as if I had parents who could force me to act.
Honestly, though… I'm curious.
My abysmal acting skills aside, I'd never set foot on a movie set in this life or the last. So I was going along without complaint, purely to satisfy that curiosity.