Stealing the Spotlight
I had checked the stats of every freshman here, and aside from Do Gyeo-ul, not a single one had Focus above B rank.
Not that I could expect Do Gyeo-ul to acknowledge me over something like that.
One look at the expression she wore as she stared at me was enough — a faint but unmistakable hostility was seeping out of her.
Fine. To her, I must have seemed like something strange, arriving together with the top scorer of the entrance exam.
"Suit yourself. But unless it's a play, you'd better pick something you're confident in."
The Focus stat of the professor standing before me was a full A+.
Which meant only one thing.
I have to win her recognition.
I bit back a smirk that almost slipped out.
Thank goodness the first mission is an easy one.
Conviction welled up in me — I could pull this off on the first try.
I launched straight into the performance without a word of preamble. The key was to make the audience speak for themselves.
If Do Gyeo-ul is an actress who knows the stage...
Yes — I was an actress who knew the audience.
There had been countless days during my theater troupe years when I couldn't stand on the stage myself and could only watch from out in the dark.
But thanks to that, I learned exactly which scenes pull an immediate reaction out of a crowd.
After all, no one grasps those things better than the observer.
And as it happens, I know one film that was blazingly popular around this time.
Seven million total admissions.
A rating of 9.2.
It handed Rookie of the Year to both of its leads, swept Best Screenplay and Best Score — and with critics and the public unable to stop talking about it, it felt like it had blown past the ten-million mark.
One famous critic's take had circulated around the internet for quite a long time.
Perfect. I couldn't have chosen a better piece.
The interior of the lecture hall was still a bit restless, attention drifting toward Do Gyeo-ul as she returned to her seat.
Which means it's time to steal that attention back.
I slowly raised my right foot — then brought it down with a slam.
THUD!
A short, sharp resonance rippled out to the far corners of the room. Startled by the sound, the unsettled atmosphere of the lecture hall sank into stillness in a single breath.
And just like that, a natural stage was set — as though someone standing at the front were about to startle the whole room.
40% of the audience has begun focusing on you!
Current audience: 38
The moment the performance truly began, the status window popped up before my eyes.
Forty percent?
It meant that not even half of the people here were focusing on me. Not even half.
But still...
Good.
There was nothing to worry about. I had complete confidence I could bring every last one of them to a hundred percent.
Do Gyeo-ul turned her gaze away for a moment and looked out over the audience.
The gazes of admiration and longing directed at her were so familiar by now that they stirred nothing in her at all.
Pathetic.
The only thing that bothered Gyeo-ul was the freshman who had taken the stage alongside her.
Just who did this girl think she was, standing shoulder to shoulder with her while Myeong Je-ha — the salutatorian — sat down there in the seats?
That was when it happened. With a resounding thud, the girl who'd gathered everyone's attention opened her mouth for her first line.
"You... don't you want to do me a favor?"
Gyeo-ul, who had felt nothing, found herself faltering for just a beat.
...That voice projection?
It was a detail anyone who'd done a fair amount of acting would catch immediately.
Without a microphone...
Even though it was an ordinary, everyday line, the projection rang through the entire lecture hall — the voice of someone who had lived on the stage for years.
She wasn't the only one who noticed, apparently. Myeong Je-ha, seated in the very front row, lifted his eyes toward the lectern.
He stared at his phone the whole time I was acting, but for her...
An emotion she couldn't suppress surged up her throat without warning.
Han Yeo-reum, playing it cool, recited her next line as she moved her feet as if walking toward some destination — as though the lectern had transformed into a wide, open schoolyard.
"No way, it really looks like you want to say yes..."
With just two lines, Gyeo-ul recognized which work Han Yeo-reum was performing.
Of course I recognized it. How could I not?
Yeo-reum was reenacting, beat for beat, the performance of the actor who had played the lead.
Gyeo-ul had studied that film too, so there was no way she could miss the details. A sharp spike of curiosity pierced her.
"Suit yourself. But unless it's a play, you'd better pick something you're confident in."
It was a film that had only recently premiered. Geum Bit-gang had stressed that they should choose something they were confident in.
And yet Yeo-reum had chosen the newest release — there had to be a reason for that.
...Why did she pick this one? Out of all those works, of all things...?
Before long, listening to the dialogue, Do Gyeo-ul understood exactly why Han Yeo-reum had chosen this film.
A Korean coming-of-age romance about the awkward first love of twenty-year-olds. Its trailer had played everywhere for weeks, so there was probably not a single person in this room who didn't know the scene.
Even the trailer comments showed it was a film everyone had poured themselves into.
An audience watches a play while being swayed by their own subconscious... and that's how they immerse themselves.
And theater, of all stages, was the one that demanded the deepest immersion from its audience.
And right now, the setting is...
It was identical to the film's own backdrop. There could be no better conditions for an audience to sink into a performance. Yeo-reum was using the stage as freely as if it belonged to her — as if the whole room had become hers.
It was the exact opposite choice from the one Gyeo-ul herself had made, pinning the crowd in place with expression alone from a single spot.
"Let's skip class together! Just this once!"
It was an ingenious selection — far too clever to call improvised. Like someone who had studied the stage endlessly for this exact moment.
For the first time in her life, Gyeo-ul looked out at the audience feeling as though the lead role had been stolen from her.
...Right now. They're all...
The atmosphere was completely different from when she herself had performed moments ago.
Are they... smiling?
Yes. They were smiling. Even Geum Bit-gang.
"If you don't skip, you're a traitor!"
Han Yeo-reum turned around. It was time for the film's iconic scene — the heroine's hooking moment that left everyone breathless.
Slow motion... and then chasing right after them.
Everyone waited, grinning, for Yeo-reum's next movement.
Close-up.
Gyeo-ul knew the scene too.
That was the moment.
"Hurry up and come with me."
Exactly as it played in the film.
An illusion took hold — as if Han Yeo-reum's face were enormous, stamped into her very pupils.
That single instant, which should have been nothing more than copying the same scene, the same movement, the same line as the original actor.
Gyeo-ul was certain of it.
...It's the same. It's clearly the same...
Not one person in this room would remember the original actress.
...What is that?
It was as if the film's protagonist had always been Han Yeo-reum's role to begin with.
What is that?
Watching it, Gyeo-ul felt an indescribable wrongness settle over her.
When Yeo-reum glanced back over her shoulder with a radiant smile, her face leapt instantly into view. Sunlight streaming through the open windows lit her up like a spotlight.
"Woo! Now that's acting!"
"It's the Dae-ye-jong first love~!"
The instant Yeo-reum finished, applause erupted across the room. Not even a moment of silence was allowed.
My heart pounded furiously, mimicking the boom of a war drum.
Yes. This is what I wanted to receive...
These very eyes, this very applause.
Just as Professor Geum Bit-gang fixed her gaze on me —
100% of the audience is now focused on you!
Current audience: 39
The performance has concluded successfully.
▶ Current warmth of the space (15°C): [F]
The status window appeared.
"Have you seen that movie? I've seen it twice."
"No, but now I kind of want to go see it."
Everyone traded comments with their neighbors, recalling their memories of the film — as if Do Gyeo-ul's performance from moments before hadn't even registered.
Everyone must have hit a movie theater at least once after the college entrance exams.
It had landed perfectly. The atmosphere in the lecture hall, unlike before, was brimming with life.
Professor Geum Bit-gang said nothing, merely tilting her head to send us back to our seats. But I could tell she was more than satisfied.
Because —
[Mission: Capture Everyone's Gaze]
The first step of a star! Among freshmen brimming with passion for acting, you have succeeded in imprinting yourself upon them.
Success Condition:
✓ You have been acknowledged by a person with Focus of B rank or higher.
Rewards:
🎁 [Recognition] increases.
🎁 [Random Skill Draw Ticket] granted.
The notification confirming my first mission had appeared.
"We speak with our expressions! We convey with our voices! We show with our bodies! That is theater. What you all must learn from here on is how to claim a space."
Professor Geum Bit-gang glanced at me for a moment.
"Like the performance just now — you have to forge your fundamentals solid, all the way down to your footwork. So that you can sweep the whole room without it ever feeling forced."
I stowed the Random Skill Draw Ticket into my inventory, squirming with the thrill of it.
...Yes. This is it.
This was the me I had yearned for so fiercely.
Thud. Thud. A pleasant heartbeat spread through my whole body.
Everyone, come on, clap a little louder for me.
I didn't show it on my face, but deep down a greedy hunger for more recognition came bubbling up, wave after wave. How long had it been since anyone acknowledged me? To anyone watching, my performance had clearly drawn the bigger reaction — bigger than Do Gyeo-ul's, of all people's.
Classmates in the front row began turning around to shoot me knowing looks and quick eye contact.
Do Gyeo-ul was among them.
Do Gyeo-ul. Did you get a good look?
I sent her the exact same eye greeting I'd given the other classmates.
The acting you worked so hard to steal from me.
She stared at me silently for a moment, then turned away again — without so much as a flicker of reaction.
Keep that poker face polished. I don't like you either.
As my clenched fist trembled, something suddenly flashed through my mind.
Come to think of it... I had the feeling I'd seen something strange in the status window earlier.
Final audience count: 39
...Huh?
Sure enough — the audience count in the status window had gone up by one somewhere in the middle.