She Killed It
She killed it.
The reason Seol Soyoung’s acting suddenly hit a wall.
It was easier to think of it as a time bomb that could have gone off at any moment finally exploding.
Whether for good or ill, she had been shouldering everyone’s expectations all at once. That meant she had been carrying, without quite realizing it, the constant pressure to always be perfect. And then some lunatic had gone and declared that whoever played Gyeoul would automatically nail the role, jacking those expectations up to the absolute maximum.
Ah. For the record, that lunatic was me.
Looking back, the person who had piled the heaviest burden on her was probably me. I had shoved the female lead role onto a girl who had only just stepped into the world of acting, and I had kept saying, almost unconsciously, that I was counting on her.
Honestly, I had simply thought it was natural. The Seol Soyoung I had watched in the drama Flower-Like Couple was always perfect, elegant, and beautiful.
But that had been a massive misunderstanding.
The woman in the drama had started her career in relatively low-profile supporting roles, slowly building her craft, then matured at breakneck speed after a string of unexpected accidents. And the Seol Soyoung standing in front of me now? Some no-name writer had appeared out of nowhere and dumped the female lead on her from day one, so she was already at maximum pressure—and she hadn’t even lived through those accidents yet. Right now she was still just a pure-hearted girl with flowers blooming in her head.
I had been demanding that this unfinished young woman deliver the fully formed Seol Soyoung I remembered from the screen.
Well, up until the NG disaster she had played Gyeoul perfectly the way I imagined, so I hadn’t been completely wrong…
Fuck it. Just admit it.
I had been wrong, and I owed her an apology. If I didn’t lighten her load even a little, I knew I would keep regretting it for a long time. That was why, when we talked on the phone, I had told her I would take responsibility for her entire acting career.
And for the record, I hadn’t been bluffing.
“Eunwoo.”
Just then, as the set bustled to get ready for the next take, Producer Na came looking for me again.
“Did your talk with Soyoung go well?”
“More or less.”
“That’s a relief. Ah—if it isn’t too forward of me, may I ask what you two discussed?”
Producer Na looked at me with open curiosity. There was nothing worth hiding, so I told him straight.
“Do whatever she wants—just enjoy the acting.”
“……?”
“I’m the one who dragged Soyoung into this drama. So I told her if there’s anything she doesn’t like, she can run away or raise hell however she wants. I’ll take full responsibility for everything.”
“What on earth are you—”
Producer Na couldn’t finish the sentence. But when I kept my firm stance, his expression grew serious as well.
“Writer 927.”
He switched to my pen name.
“Then how exactly do you plan to shoulder Soyoung’s responsibility in her place?”
“Well… that’s something you and I will have to put our heads together on from now on.”
“……Excuse me?”
One sentence from me and the serious look vanished from his face in an instant.
“Why me?”
“Huh? We’re a fated partnership now, aren’t we? And if Soyoung causes any problems for the drama, the biggest losses fall on Studio NMIX, right?”
“That’s true enough, but…”
“Then if you don’t want bigger losses, you’ll just have to cover for her with me somehow. Oh, and by the way, Producer.”
I left it at that. The next script I planned to sell him would almost certainly star Seol Soyoung again, so we might as well keep working well together from here on out.
But why was he suddenly breaking into a cold sweat? His face looked like he’d just walked into a tiger’s den and given up all hope…
Eh, not my problem. I decided to ignore it.
At that moment the set, which had been buzzing with last-minute preparations, fell completely silent the instant the director called for action.
The climax of episode 15 began with Haon, who had recovered his past-life memories, meeting Gyeoul as she slowly faded after severing the curse of reincarnation.
If their shared past could be summed up in a single word, it was “tragedy.”
Haon and Gyeoul had first met during the Japanese occupation. In that era Haon ran a teahouse called Violet, a place that mixed Korean atmosphere with Romanesque architecture. The signature drink was coffee, only recently introduced to Joseon—essentially an early form of instant coffee made by stirring coffee grounds packed inside sugar cubes into hot water. The bitter-yet-sweet brew had been loved even by the king, and teahouses serving coffee had begun to multiply. Violet was one of them.
Naturally, coffee was far too expensive for commoners, so most of the customers were from yangban families. One day the precious young lady of the prestigious Han clan—Han Gyeoul, curious about the coffee she had only heard rumors of—visited Violet.
“Does it suit your taste?” past-life Haon asked, approaching her.
Gyeoul looked at him with intrigued eyes. “A tea that is bitter yet so sweet… You are the one who made something this delicious?”
“Haha. It’s nothing so grand. As long as you have coffee grounds, even a young lady like yourself could make it easily.”
“Truly?”
Back home Gyeoul tried to brew coffee exactly as Haon had taught her, but she could never recreate the taste he had given her that day. So the very next day she marched straight to him and demanded an explanation.
“You deceived me,” she said, frowning.
“Deceived… you?”
“Yes. Deceived. I made the coffee exactly the way you taught me, yet it tasted nothing like what you prepared for me before.”
Past-life Haon smiled as if a mischievous idea had struck him. “Ah, that’s because I added a special ingredient only I can use. With that, of course it tastes good.”
“Wh-what on earth is it?”
“LOVE.”
“LOVE…? How does one obtain that?”
Their bond began right there. From the first meeting Haon had already been interested enough in Gyeoul to approach her and ask if the tea suited her, yet she carried a dangerous secret far removed from ordinary life. The noble-born Gyeoul had become a righteous army fighter of her own will, determined to save a homeland sliding toward ruin. When Haon learned of it by chance he desperately wanted to stop her, but she refused firmly. Because he wished her unharmed, he could only help her from the shadows.
He did not help for long. While Gyeoul fled after a mission, Haon threw himself in front of the bullet meant for her and took it instead. They managed to shake off their pursuers in a remote forest, dragging their wounded bodies.
Yet—
“Stay with me!” Gyeoul cried, supporting the bleeding Haon as he slipped toward death. “I will save you no matter what!”
Past-life Haon smiled faintly. “…Young lady. Do you know? You resemble a certain flower I know. It seems I have been completely captivated by that flower.”
“…May I ask what flower it was?”
“It was far too hot and dangerous, yet bright and beautiful. Like a flame. …Young lady. Will you make one last promise with me?”
At the word “last,” Gyeoul bit her lip. She too sensed it instinctively—that the life of the man who had shielded her from her own mistake was nearly over.
“…What must I do?”
So she could only nod. She stopped supporting him and helped him lean against a great pine nearby so he might rest more easily.
Past-life Haon looked at the Gyeoul sitting opposite him. “If the world ever becomes peaceful and your cause is no longer needed, will you live then not as a flower that simply falls like a flame, but as one that blooms again when spring comes? You were born so beautiful—it would be a waste of that face.”
He slowly looked around, then smiled faintly at a flower blooming nearby.
“If possible, a violet blooming brightly everywhere would be even better. Do you know the flower language of the violet?”
“…LOVE, is it not?”
“Haha. So now you properly understand the meaning of LOVE. Come to think of it, the first time we met you asked me how one obtains LOVE. But my LOVE… I believe it was already yours from that very moment.”
Cough—! Cough—!
Black blood poured from Haon’s mouth as his limit finally arrived. Seeing it, Gyeoul cried out urgently.
“I understand, so stop talking! I will live however you wish, like that flower—so you must watch me with your own two eyes!”
“…I wish that too. If the world ever becomes peaceful, I would like to taste coffee you made yourself at Violet, together with you.”
Tears welled in one of Gyeoul’s eyes. “If you say it tastes bad then, I will truly hit you.”
Past-life Haon slowly closed his eyes. “You are beautiful when you smile. So do not cry. As long as you do not commit some great wrong against me, that will never happen. Even if you put poison in that coffee, I will say it tastes good. Probably…”
With those final words, Haon’s flame went out completely.
Han Gyeoul continued fighting for her country afterward, and at the flower-like age of twenty-three she met her death. Yet somehow she was reborn in a Joseon that had gained independence, carrying every memory of her previous life. From that moment the curse began… and only now had it finally been broken.
“Gyeoul!”
With Namgung Hwan, who played Haon, calling her name, the filming of Scene 98 began.
The place where Gyeoul stood was deeply familiar and longed-for to the Haon who had recovered his memories. It was the same forest where, in the past, he had taken the bullet meant for Han Gyeoul and met his death. And there, in front of the great pine that still stood unchanged after all the years, Gyeoul waited. Yet her form was growing steadily more transparent now that the curse of reincarnation had been lifted. Feeling her strength drain away, she sank to the ground.
Seeing it, Haon rushed to her.
“…You promised me you would live like a flower that blooms again when spring comes, yet here you are living like a flame once more.”
Gyeoul’s eyes widened at his words.
“You… remember?”
“What does that matter now? What matters is that you are leaving me.”
Looking at Haon’s sorrowful face, Gyeoul smiled faintly. With great effort she raised a hand and caressed his cheek.
“I only lived like the violet you wished for. Do you know the flower language of the violet?”
“Of course it’s…”
“LOVE. Love. Yes—every word you taught me. That is why I decided to sever the curse with my own hands. Because I love you. Because I did not want you to suffer the pain I felt.”
Hearing her true feelings, Haon could not open his mouth. He could only gather her into his arms as she lost the strength even to hold herself up.
“Haon.”
Gyeoul called his name softly. The feeling was a little strange. In the past she had called him “sir,” and in this life mostly “you.” Thinking about it, this was the first time she had properly spoken his name. And for that reason, she regretted it terribly.
“Haon. Was the coffee I made for you delicious?”
“Coffee… you mean?”
“Back then you told me. That someday you wanted to taste coffee I made.”
“Ah…”
Haon let out a sigh as the old conversation returned to him.
“It was terrible. So feel free to hit me as much as you like.”
He said it with a completely straight face.
“…What?”
“You said if I claimed it tasted bad you would truly hit me, did you not?”
The man who had once declared he would call it delicious even if she put poison in it was simply sulking at her.
“Aha.”
Realizing that, Gyeoul felt relief inside.
“Liar.”
“What? Are you calling me a liar right now?”
“Of course.”
Because she had put love into that coffee exactly according to the recipe he taught her. There was no way it could have tasted bad.
“Haon.”
Gyeoul sank into the happy memories they had shared. At the same time, knowing their parting was only moments away, the sadness was almost too much to hold back tears. It was an unbearably complicated feeling. Yet she could not stop the tear that slipped down one cheek, so she forced herself to smile brightly.
He had said her smiling face was beautiful. So this farewell would end not with tears, but with a smile.
“I love you.”
With those final words, Gyeoul vanished completely.
……
Something strange happened. Even though the actors had finished every line, the set remained so silent not a single breath could be heard. Even cinematographer Go Dongbin, the “God of NG,” did not call cut after the dialogue ended. Or rather, he simply could not.
“Ha…!”
Watching Seol Soyoung’s performance from a distance, Eunwoo let out a disbelieving breath. And about the acting she had just delivered, he thought to himself:
Fuck. She killed it.