Episode 21
“….”
Han Yeo-reum said nothing. She hung her head low, her shoulders trembling faintly. Ju Jun-seo looked down at her—and kept looking, waiting for her to lift her head. But instead of raising it, she slowly reached out and grabbed hold of his shirt.
“Don't go.”
It was unlike any vocal delivery she'd shown so far—a fragile voice, as if every word were dissolving into the air and scattering. Ju Jun-seo's heart dropped with a heavy thud. For a moment, his throat bobbed.
“...Huh?”
The small hand clutching his shirt tightened. The pristine white fabric crumpled carelessly in her grip.
“Don't go....”
Ju Jun-seo simply stayed still. Just as the script dictated, he watched her without any action at all.
What do I do?
He tried to recall the lines he had memorized.
SCHOOL — ROOFTOP (SUNSET BACKDROP)
CHAE-WON: (Looks at Jun, choking back tears.) Don't go.
JUN: (Quietly gazes down at her.) ….
CHAE-WON: (Bursts into tears and says it once more.) Don't go....
This moment had already gone far beyond the simple letters printed on the script page. It existed on a completely different plane from the vague impression that she was "a good actress" which he'd had while watching her all this time.
Then it happened. Han Yeo-reum raised her head. A deep sunset glow, almost too dazzling to bear, spilled across her face.
“...!”
Ju Jun-seo bit his lip without realizing it. That tear-soaked face was not Han Yeo-reum's. It was Pi Chae-won's—the face of a girl who had just sensed the parting to come.
Ju Jun-seo stroked her hair, exactly as the script instructed. It was a gesture he'd performed several times already; he'd grown somewhat used to touching her hair. But for the first time, Ju Jun-seo did something that wasn't in the script.
“….”
For Pi Chae-won, who was shedding tears in silence—he slowly brushed her cheek with his fingers. In that instant, he saw himself reflected in her eyes. It felt like standing at the center of a runway, like the whole world had ground to a halt and left him standing there as its protagonist.
“CUT!!!”
Director Jjang's cut sign rang dully in his ears.
The wrap party was held at a samgyeopsal joint near the school. Over the sizzle of grilling pork belly, Director Jjang's enormous voice reverberated through the place.
“Alright!!! Everyone worked so, so hard! Especially our actors—thank you for performing like you'd leapt straight out of the script!”
The gathering—which included the writer of Parfait Cherry Heroine and even Team Leader Seong from JC ENM—was swept up in excitement.
“Everyone stand up and say a few words! Hm? Before we raise our first toast~.”
Director Jjang beamed nonstop. At his cue, Ju Jun-seo, who had been sitting quietly across the table, slowly rose to his feet.
“...I know I had plenty of shortcomings, but thank you for guiding me through it.”
“Ooh~. Look at that humility!”
Laughter burst out all around at Director Jjang's theatrics. Next up was Han Yeo-reum, seated right beside the director.
“How am I supposed to say goodbye? I don't wannaaa~.”
Unlike Ju Jun-seo, Yeo-reum had grown genuinely close with the crew, and she put on a playful, mock-crying act. The crew members teased her back with a chorus of don't cry!
“This was my first set ever, and you all gave me such wonderful memories—thank you. Please don't forget me, and call me again next time!”
“Ahh~. Like I'll ever get to call someone as big as Han Yeo-reum again!”
At the lighting director's playful hype, Yeo-reum gave a mock-shy little shrug of her shoulders. Without a drop of real alcohol even taking effect yet, the atmosphere had already caught fire like madness.
“...I learned a lot. Truly....”
The last to speak was Chu Ga-eul. Unlike her first day, her words had grown fewer and fewer as the night went on. In the momentary hush that followed, Director Jjang raised his glass high.
“To the success of Parfait Cherry Heroine!”
“CHEERS!!!”
From the toast onward, the crew members who'd been grinding away on set all this time unleashed everything, as if soaked in pure delirium. Bottles of every shade—green and brown alike—littered the table in dizzy disarray. The meat kept coming without end.
This one, it's definitely going to be a hit!
It was the best kind of atmosphere—the kind that arises when everyone in the room has absolute faith in the project's success.
Ah, the taste of being the protagonist.
So sweet. Sweet to death, honestly. I'd been running all over the place collecting toasts from Director Jjang and everyone else in sight, and it had me completely frazzled.
“I watched a few of those clips, and... it was really just—you were exactly the Chae-won I'd imagined....”
So the writer can't hold her liquor, huh. Crying is her starter move. I gave the writer, who was sniffing and sobbing in sheer emotion, a quick hug.
“People on set had nothing but good things to say about you? You're going to end up one of those actors famous for heartwarming anecdotes.”
Team Leader Seong of JC ENM—my hoobaek's junior, the benefactor who'd offered me the audition—filled my glass only halfway as she encouraged me.
Focus on the good-anecdote angle... does that mean she's planning to hype me up virally once the press releases go out?
Without an agency, even a single article or one viral push is precious currency for me. I gave a deep bow of thanks and downed the glass. After that I made the rounds—the lighting director, the sound team, and who else was it... anyway, I went and greeted each of the faces I'd grown familiar with over those shooting days.
“I've seen a loooot of actors in my day, you know~. Yeo-reum-ssi, you've got it. Already showing. Your sprouts are coming in all golden~!”
Is that... supposed to be a good thing?
“No wait, that's not it... not it. The sprouts are—colorful! All rainbow and bright~!”
He's drunk.
The flushed-faced crew members were multiplying one by one. Needing to catch my breath, I slipped outside for a moment.
What a strange feeling.
Had I ever felt like this after a shoot wrapped? No. Not once, not ever. That bittersweet ache of slowly saying farewell to a role that had truly become one with you. I closed my eyes for a moment to savor the aftertaste—
“Hey.”
“Whoa, you scared me.”
—so much for savoring it. I turned my head toward the voice to find a swaying Chu Ga-eul staggering toward me.
“What?”
She'd been drinking alone in the corner earlier. If she gets this sloppy, she should stick to cider. Before I knew it, Chu Ga-eul was right beside me, grabbing hold of my arm.
“You....”
Chu Ga-eul's eyes welled up. She sucked in a long, deep breath with a sharp ssseuup—
“You were good.”
“Wow. A line I never saw coming.”
Chu Ga-eul clung to my arm, tears streaming down her face, all while kicking the ground in irritation, bang bang.
“A parachute hire, of all things, dammit. Why do you have to be, good at acting, and... and make me... huuuuh....”
The staggering Chu Ga-eul kept crying her eyes out. But hold on—there's a wildly jarring word in there, isn't there? Parachute?
“Hey. What parachute? I don't even have an agency.”
“Right. No agency, and yet, dammit... why are you so good....”
“You'd better not go around calling me Han Yeo-reum the parachute hire. There's no agency to do damage control for me, you know.”
“Right.... I'm different from you, who doesn't even have an agency... I'm with LM Entertainment... so that means, that means....”
Somewhere along the way, the sorrow in Chu Ga-eul's eyes had given way to pure fire.
“Next time we meet... I'll be better than you... I'll work myself to death, so much harder... until you feel exactly like this....”
So she can do method acting too. Where on earth did she channel the spirit of some pitiful heroine from a shoujo manga?
Looks like she still hasn't broken out of Hina.
Must have been something Hina did to her on set. It's over—why is she still like this? I gave Chu Ga-eul's shoulder a few absent pats.
“Whatever works for you.... Yes. Fighting.”
“You're so annoying... seriously, I thought you'd be terrible, but... your voice! How are you this, good at it, huh?”
Listening quietly, this is all just praise for me, isn't it? Not that I'm complaining. Soothing her along, I asked as casually as I could:
“Which part especially?”
“Uh... today at the final shoot, how you got even Ju Jun-seo into the emotion—that was the most....”
I kept milking Chu Ga-eul's praise medley after that. Watching her like this, she was kind of cute, actually.
Just as I was enjoying myself to the fullest, her manager came to take her away with an apology—and I was finally, gloriously alone again.
Now then, time to properly savor the aftertaste—
—I never got to. Without so much as a footstep, Ju Jun-seo appeared in front of me. I thought he'd come out for a smoke, but his purpose seemed to be me. Judging by how he just stood there in silence, staring only at me.
“Did you perhaps come here to compliment me too?”
“...What.”
“Something small happened just a minute ago. So why are you here?”
Ju Jun-seo stared down at me for a moment. And in that moment, the Snob Scales inside Han Yeo-reum's mind began clicking away once more.
Come to think of it, the party mood was really nice, wasn't it?
They'll probably head to the second round soon—so if the two rookie actors ran out to buy ice cream for the crew, it would make an absolutely adorable little scene.
“Let's go buy some ice cream.”
“...Uh. Sure.”
Come to think of it, I do owe Ju Jun-seo one. My screen time grew thanks to him, after all. Good vibes, good vibes. I beckoned to Ju Jun-seo, who had meekly followed me to the convenience store.
“You can have corn, senior.”
“….”
“But if you reach for the Baskin-B*tchin' tub, we're going to have a problem.”
Tastes awful.
Sickeningly sweet, truly. Ju Jun-seo, who had lived his whole life without letting a single thing like ice cream touch his lips, took a perfunctory little bite of the sugar lump Han Yeo-reum had recommended.
He was carrying the ice cream bag in silence on the way back to the party, and only after arriving did he hesitate, then finally force out a word.
“...Um.”