The Commercial
Ever since I'd been on the receiving end of Mom's threats, my crisis-detection instincts had been running at full power, so I'd spent the whole stretch lying low and behaving myself—which was when Uncle Jun-young called for me.
“Minah! Can you come out here for a second?!”
“Mom, you're coming too?”
“Of course.”
“Okay.”
Once Mom and I stepped out of the waiting room, Uncle Jun-young led me over to where a crowd of people had gathered.
Ah. Looks like it's all the staff, rounded up in one place.
Apparently the plan was to introduce me around.
“Everyone! This here is Minah. I trust you can all see why I fought to cast her, right?”
Though honestly, none of this was necessary.
“Yeah, I chatted with her earlier—she's sharp as a tack. Brought in a good one.”
“Is, is that so?”
I had, after all, already speedrun greetings with every last staff member on my earlier lap of the set.
“Ah—is the lady standing in the back perhaps Minah's mother?”
“Yes…! That's me. Minah's mom.”
“Wow, I'm genuinely jealous. A daughter as cute and well-behaved as Minah.”
“Well-behaved, haha…! Yes…! She certainly is!”
For the briefest instant, I saw Mom's eye twitch at the word well-behaved.
Oh dear….
Apparently Mom was running dangerously low on magnesium.
I'll have to make her eat her almonds when we get home.
“I want a daughter like Minah too… Can you imagine how happy my life would be?”
“Tell me about it… If I had just one pretty, well-behaved daughter like Minah, I'd want for nothing….”
“Haha… hahaha….”
The only conceivable reason Mom's laughter sounded so robotic was that she was bashful and flustered from all these strangers complimenting me.
Mm. That's it, that's definitely it.
There was no possible other explanation.
“Well, this turned out pointless. Here I thought you'd gathered everyone to brag about Minah.”
“She's not even your niece—you said it yourself, she's your friend's daughter. What is there to brag about?”
“Hey! With Minah, the only thing missing is the bloodline—she's a genuine niece, I'm telling you!”
Uncle Jun-young looked at me as if requesting backup, and since that was too funny—
“That's right! Five whole years since we last saw each other, and even today's reunion was strictly for business—but I am absolutely his niece.”
“Minah…?”
I met Uncle Jun-young's gaze and beamed sweetly right back at him.
“BWHAHAHAHA! This kid is hilarious, I'm telling you!”
I had, after all, just built my uncle up and knocked him flat in the space of two sentences—and Kim Joo-hwan, the director of this commercial, loved every second of it.
“Thank you. You're pretty funny too, Director!”
“Huh? Funny how? I haven't done anything.”
“Your face is funny.”
So I tossed a light jab at the director as well.
“Pfft!”
“Hrk—!”
…Everyone's enjoying this way too much, though?
The reactions around me were warmer than I'd anticipated.
“My face is… funny?”
“No, no—I meant it's so handsome it's a treat for the eyes!”
“Huh…?”
“I've never seen anyone this good-looking in my whole life!”
“Is, is that so…?”
“Really!”
Obviously a bald-faced lie.
But true or not, what did it matter? That's just how the working world operates—everyone plays along.
“BWHAHAHAHA! Man! Today I'm going to shoot the most beautiful footage of Minah in my entire career!”
“Hahahaha! Thank you!”
“I'm in a good mood! Here—go buy yourself something tasty!”
Huh? Pocket money on top of everything?
The unexpected turn briefly threw me off balance, but the moment I caught the bright yellow gleam of the bill sliding out of Kim Joo-hwan's wallet, astonishment flipped into open admiration.
“Wow! Amazing! They say handsome men are generous with money too—and it's actually true!”
“BWHAHAHAHA! You think so?!”
Score!
Fifty thousand won, acquired.
The fun with the staff carried on, and little by little, shooting time rolled around.
“Alright, everyone's got their lines memorized?”
“Yes!”
“Then we'll start with our Minah and actress Kim Hee-sun!”
“Yes!”
Apparently today's commercial worked by filming one team per age group and editing the clips together afterward.
So that's why he'd warned me there might be some waiting involved.
Though the goodwill I'd bought from Mr. Joo-hwan earlier might have had a hand in it, too.
“Minah.”
The moment my name was called for the first slot, Mom—somehow more nervous than I was—clutched my shoulder to deliver her words of wisdom.
“Don't be nervous. And trying your hardest is… probably not the way to go. But don't do your usual thing… either. Just do it in moderation. Got it?”
…What is that even supposed to mean?
She looked serious enough that ignoring her felt unwise, so I gave a vague nod and went off to be filmed.
Ryu Minah, huh….
Watching the girl stand waiting for her cue, Joo-hwan sank into thought.
Judging by looks alone, there was no talent in the country that could touch her….
Every other attribute could be patched up through effort. Not looks. Looks belonged entirely to the realm of pure, inborn talent—the one thing hard work could never fully supply.
And her temperament, too.
She shrank from no one, turned on the charm for everyone, and had a sharp eye for reading the room besides. Even earlier, she'd been steering grown-up conversations with a poise that didn't belong to a child.
Exactly the sort of talent who'd become a massive star.
As an actress, though—who could say.
It wasn't that Joo-hwan looked down on her. He was simply weighing her competitive edge.
Child acting is all early specialization these days, after all.
However dazzling her visuals or winning her personality, an actor still had to act well. Measured against children who'd been training professionally since around age five, his conclusion was only the obvious one.
And with that final thought, Joo-hwan swept away his stray notions and gave himself over to the work.
“Alright… ready. Action!”
The instant Joo-hwan dropped the sign, Minah's entire bearing changed.
What…?
The child who, mere seconds ago, had been all bright smiles and set-wide good cheer now looked drastically, unmistakably downcast.
“When's Mom coming home….”
Did she add her own spin to the setup?
In the script, Minah's role amounted to precisely this much:
A daughter who waits at home for her mom to get off work, can't hold out any longer, and video-calls her.
The shoot opened with the scene of Minah placing that call to Hee-sun—and she appeared to have layered her own interpretation over the moment.
And it's not as if she's simply wearing a sad expression, either.
Her eyelines were clean. Her gestures, unforced. And all of it wove together into that heavy, drooping atmosphere—the mood itself was commanding.
“Oh! Right!”
Midway through her moping, as if struck by a thought, Minah picked up the smartphone and began placing the call.
Ring, ring…
A few seconds later, the connecting tone cut out, Hee-sun's face filled the screen, and her voice came through—and Minah's gloominess vanished without a trace. She looked so happy that the whole room seemed to brighten around her.
“Mom!”
…Seriously, why is she this good?
It was a role with barely a line to speak of; Minah had been cast on her face alone, her acting ability never so much as considered. And yet here she was, delivering a performance that anyone—anyone—would call genuinely skilled. Joo-hwan found himself properly thrown.
I've watched plenty of actors get chewed out on set for failing to pull off exactly that….
The whiplash of her emotions flipping on a dime, for one. And the way those emotions reached out and landed on everyone watching, crisp and certain, for another.
More than anything, I can't take my eyes off her.
And that was with actress Kim Hee-sun playing opposite her—not that Hee-sun was competing at the moment; she'd appointed herself Minah's personal spotlight-holder.
Even allowing for a partner actively boosting her, a presence this vivid from the one performing was something Joo-hwan hadn't felt in a long, long while.
“Mom! When are you coming!?”
“No! We're eating together when you get home!”
Truly natural….
Naturalness was the great wall for the majority of child actors—indeed, for anyone dismissed as a terrible performer. On set there was a camera in your face and a ring of staff studying your every move; the pressure, or plain unfamiliarity, stiffened people up almost without fail.
And this kid is pulling it off….
On what was, for her, the very first day.
“Mm! See you soon! Love you!”
Click.
“Cut!”
At the sound of Joo-hwan's call, the blazing joy drained out of Minah's face, and the grin she'd worn while goofing around earlier came straight back.
Good grief… she's the real deal.
Naturally, there were plenty of technical shortcomings, plenty of rough edges to grumble about.
But weighed against the fact that this was her first day, that she had never once studied acting, every one of those flaws was covered. No—covered didn't begin to describe it. This was an absurd level.
And if she actually trains properly from here on?
He couldn't begin to imagine what she might produce.
Reflecting on how sorely he'd undervalued her before the shoot, Joo-hwan revised his assessment of Minah sharply upward—then, as she and Hee-sun came over, played the footage back for them.
“Minah.”
“Yes?”
“I'll be honest with you. You were really good.”
“Really?”
Joo-hwan caught the small, pleased lift of her shoulders at his praise.
But still….
It pained him, yet he believed in saying what needed saying, and stated it firmly.
“That gloomy acting at the beginning, though—I don't think it suits our commercial.”
“Hmm… I knew it.”
“Huh? You knew?”
“Mm. The whole spot has this cheerful, warm, family-together feel, and if even one second of gloominess leaks in… I did think it might clash with what you had in mind, Director.”
When her reasoning matched his own to the letter, Joo-hwan made no attempt to hide his astonishment.
“Then why did you do it?”
“I still wanted to try. It's a kind of ad-lib, right?”
“Whoa!”
Back before the shoot, during their chat, she'd asked half in jest whether ad-libs were allowed—so she'd been seriously mulling it over this entire time.
And I'd written it off as a joke.
His fondness for the girl climbed another notch.
“In that case, do we have to shoot it again?”
“We could, sure. But a take like this can be fixed in the edit—no need.”
“Hmmm….”
Watching her mull it over, Joo-hwan asked, “Do you want to shoot it again?”
“Yes.”
“BWHAHAHAHA!”
Her instant answer, without a sliver of hesitation, set him off into booming laughter, and he reached down to ruffle her hair.
“That's it! That's what an actor does!”
“…I'm not an actor, though.”
No—you're going to be one.
Somehow, Joo-hwan found himself certain of it.