The Commercial
A few hours ago.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Jun-young. Long time no see. What's up?"
Ryu Seongun, Minah's father, had received an unexpected call from his longtime friend, Song Jun-young.
"Hey, Seongun. How've you been?"
After trading a round of brief pleasantries, Seongun cut to the chase.
"So what made you call all of a sudden?"
"Come on, man. Does an old buddy need an excuse to call?"
"You usually do."
Seongun knew him too well.
"...Fine, you got me."
Figures.
In recent years, Jun-young had been so swamped with work that he had stopped showing up to their group reunions altogether. It was impossible not to suspect he had an ulterior motive.
"So, look... it's about Minah."
"Huh? Uh... Minah? What about her?"
Why is he bringing up Minah...?
That little troublemaker had been causing nothing but chaos lately. Seongun tensed, worried she had pulled some stunt behind his back that he hadn't discovered yet.
"Have you ever thought about letting her do a TV commercial?"
"A... commercial?"
Relief washed over him first—at least it wasn't the kind of disaster he had feared. But the proposal came so far out of left field that his brain temporarily stalled.
"...Care to run that by me in detail?"
"You know I work at an ad agency, right?"
"Yeah."
"Well, we just landed the contract to produce the commercial for Shinseong Group's brand-new smartphone."
"Seriously? That Shinseong?"
"I know, right?! I could hardly believe it myself!"
Seongun had heard Jun-young's agency was riding a massive wave of growth lately, but he had no idea they were landing accounts this big. He couldn't hide his surprise.
"Man, congratulations! You're treating me to a seriously expensive dinner next time, you hear?"
"Of course."
After offering his congratulations, Seongun steered the conversation back to the matter at hand. "Anyway, you want Minah in that commercial?"
"Yeah. We need a child actor."
"Okay, I hear you, but... I've gotta ask."
"Ask what?"
"Why Minah?"
He understood the need for a child. But with countless other kids out there—and plenty of established, professional child actors to choose from—why single out Minah?
"...Are you seriously asking me that?"
"Huh?"
"Out of every kid I've ever seen, including actual child actors, Minah is hands down the prettiest and cutest."
"...Wait, really?"
"Dude! You're her dad, stop playing dumb!"
"Well... I mean, I know she's cute and pretty."
Seeing her face every single day dulled the novelty, but Seongun was well aware of his daughter's looks. Just the other day, when he had tried to scold her for another prank, the mere sight of her downcast, puppy-dog expression had melted his anger away before he could get a single lecture out.
"Still... just because of that...?"
"Yep."
That kid is bound to cause absolute mayhem on set, and you want to cast her...?
There was, however, one crucial detail Seongun had overlooked: the last time Jun-young had seen Minah in person was when she was five years old.
Lately, he had only seen her in photographs. On top of that, both men had been too busy with their careers to keep in regular touch, making this phone call their first real conversation in ages. There was no way Jun-young could possibly know what kind of terror Minah had grown into.
"All right... got it. I'll talk to Minah first."
"Thanks, man. I'll text you the details about the shoot."
"Sounds good."
"Let's definitely grab dinner soon."
"For sure."
"And that's the whole story."
I digested Dad's explanation along with the text message on his screen, summing it up in my head.
"So... they're shooting a smartphone commercial, and the concept is 'a smartphone for all ages.' Uncle Jun-young thought having me play the child role would look great on screen, so he reached out. Right?"
"Spot on."
"And on top of the appearance fee, Shinseong will give me a brand-new smartphone as a gift?"
"Yep."
"And my scene lasts five seconds at most?"
"That's what he said."
Saying it out loud and mulling it over once more led me straight back to my initial verdict.
"There's literally no reason to say no."
Still, one lingering question nagged at me, so I pressed Dad on it.
"Wait, if I say yes, am I just guaranteed the part?"
Even if the screen time was short, a commercial for a massive conglomerate usually involved auditions to select a child actor. So why had they sent an outright casting offer instead of an audition notice?
"Ah, that's because your role is just 'a daughter tired of waiting at home who video-calls her mom on her way back from work.'"
"...Wait, what?"
"Basically, anyone could pull it off, so looks are pretty much the only thing they're judging."
"Ah... so that's why..."
Lookism strikes again...
I guess it really was true: if you're born pretty enough, you'll never starve.
"Are you sure you're okay with having your face on TV, though?" Dad asked.
"Eh, why not?"
If I were an adult, I might have hesitated, but right now I was just a ten-year-old kid. Even if a few random passersby recognized me on the street for a little while, nobody would remember ten years down the road.
"It's all good life experience."
Besides, the minor inconvenience of being recognized was a risk well worth taking.
Getting my hands on a smartphone right now completely blows that risk out of the water.
Just look at Mom, who hadn't uttered a single word. Ever since Dad mentioned the free smartphone, she had been wearing an expression like she'd swallowed a lemon.
"Minah's dad, isn't Minah way too young to have a smartphone?"
Knew it. She probably wasn't planning on buying me one until middle school at least...
"Well, Minah's pretty mature for her age, isn't she? As long as she uses it in moderation—"
"You haven't forgotten 'that incident,' have you?"
"...Of course I remember."
Ugh. I have zero defense against that one.
Truth be told, I had briefly owned a feature phone a couple of years ago.
Only for it to be confiscated after a single month.
The full story went like this:
What the hell?! There's literally nothing to do on this thing!
Somehow, I had managed to wrangle a feature phone out of them, but that 2G relic was far more restrictive than I remembered. It had games, sure, but the free ones were essentially ten-minute demos. The moment you used any data, extra charges piled up instantly. And if you wanted Wi-Fi? The brick didn't even have Wi-Fi capability in the first place.
Am I really supposed to live like this...?
Then came the reality check—and with it, the mentality of a modern civilized person who had already tasted the fruits of future tech. A phone you couldn't play games on was an offense against nature.
Haha, this is awesome!
So I went on a shopping spree, buying every game I wanted and treating NATE like my personal playground. Naturally, I knew this would rack up additional charges. I went into it fully prepared for eventual doom.
It'll be fine.
The bill wouldn't arrive until next month anyway. I figured I had a solid month of fun ahead of me, shielded by the invincible armor of being an adorable little kid.
Yeah. I was naive. Painfully naive.
The fallout was far worse than I had anticipated—mostly because I was completely clueless about telecommunication rates back in this era.
I mean... how was I supposed to know the bill would be THAT insane?!
I had seen the price tags on the games before purchasing them, so I knew what to expect there. But the packet data fees didn't just exceed my estimates—they blew past the realm of my wildest imagination.
'Ryu Minah!!!'
When the billing statement dropped like a tactical nuke the following month, Mom and Dad unleashed a fury of biblical proportions. I got chewed out within an inch of my life, and my phone was promptly confiscated.
I didn't have enough intel, and I acted way too recklessly...
In that sense, the incident had left me with a vital life lesson: always crunch the numbers beforehand, and only pull stunts you can actually survive.
"I wasn't planning on buying Minah a smartphone until high school," Mom stated flatly.
...Wait, what? Excuse me?!
Thud!
"High school?!"
Thinking my ears had deceived me, I shot up from my chair and slammed both hands onto the table.
"Of course. Not with your criminal record."
Hearing Mom's icy, unyielding tone, certainty struck me like lightning.
"I'm doing the commercial! I'm definitely doing it! Don't you dare stop me!"
If I didn't seize this chance right now, I would literally have to wait until high school!
"Uh, yeah... okay. So I'll tell him you're in?" Dad asked, startled.
"Hold on! Minah's dad, you really need to think this through! Doing the commercial is one thing, but either we take the smartphone or we don't accept it at all!"
Mom frantically tried to stop him, but I believed in my father. There was no way he would buckle under pressure like that.
"Come on, if she's doing the gig, taking her phone away is a bit much," Dad countered gently.
I knew I could count on you!
"Hear, hear! Preach!"
"Wouldn't it be better if we just keep an eye on her and guide her to use it properly?"
"Exactly! That's what I'm talking about!"
I clung to my reliable father's side, nodding and cheering along with all my might—
"Then... you wouldn't mind if I manage it so she can't play games, download weird apps, or do anything like that, right?" Mom asked, narrowing her eyes.
"Huh...?"
Wait, what kind of—
"Sounds fair to me," Dad said.
"Dad...?"
"Oho~" Mom smiled.
"Wait, no, no, Mom?!"
"As long as I have full control over it, I don't care if she uses it."
"M-Mother?!"
I snapped my head toward Dad, eyes practically begging for salvation.
"...Sorry, kiddo. My hands are tied on this one."
His answer shattered my last ray of hope.
...My world came crashing down.