The Muse, the Beauty Parlor, and a Barely-There Newbie
Before heading out for the location shoot, I sat down and made a list in my head.
“…Where do I even start?”
When I'd been an extra, I'd never had to think about anything — not the car, not the lodging. But now I was traveling on my own, and on top of that…
“…Hair and makeup. What am I supposed to do about that?”
Without an agency, the crew was the problem. How was I supposed to solve this one?
“Do the artists who work at the broadcasting station dressing rooms… come along? No, right?”
I deliberated for all of a moment, then didn't hesitate to contact Myeong Je-ha.
— Staff? That's what you're worried about?
“Of course it is… The only makeup artist I even know is Director Dokgo Gyeol, and I can't exactly ask her to travel for a location shoot! And I have no idea how to find a travel-capable artist among people I don't know.”
Searching on X turned up nothing on the subject. Well, to be fair, he'd had an agency from the very beginning — maybe this simply never crossed his mind? I was sighing and about to give up when Myeong Je-ha spoke.
— Then: please take care of our actress's staff. Try saying it.
“Yes! Please take care of her!!!”
Delighted laughter burst through the receiver.
— Now just follow my instructions exactly.
In a voice laced with amusement, Myeong Je-ha walked me through exactly what to do.
“So… they'll really come along as my actual staff, the two of them?”
— I'm telling you they will.
I couldn't quite believe it, but for now I did as I was told.
Dokgo Min had been living for one thing only: the end of the semester. Summer. The finest season for shooting in natural light — the deep blue sea, colors so crisp they practically rang out, and green woven through it all…
“Unnie, I landed two shoots?”
Unbelievable. It was entirely Dokgo Min's overwhelming aesthetic eye to blame. She'd chosen her muse too well — in less than half a year, the whole world seemed to have noticed.
Dokgo Min sank to the floor of her studio in despair.
“Han Yeo-reum's twentieth summer comes around exactly once….”
And I can't capture it? Impossible. Ever since the white lily and phalaenopsis project, she'd been sketching out a peach concept for summer — and now tears welled up in her eyes.
“The location shoot is for a role as a writer who moved to the countryside to farm. They said I can wear comfy clothes and just act natural….”
Han Yeo-reum's words lodged themselves in the dazed photographer's ears. Countryside. Comfy clothes. Natural feel.
A scene bloomed in Dokgo Min's mind. A white tee in a fabric that swayed like water, hair swept up into a single loose knot, Han Yeo-reum sunning herself with faintly sun-blushed cheeks, a sky-blue ice cream held in that hand…
Just as Dokgo Min's stats began to sparkle—
“But honestly, I doubt I'll show up well on camera at all. I checked, and there's not a single salon anywhere near the shoot.”
“? Why does that matter?”
“I don't have an agency or a dedicated staff, remember. Worst case, I'll just have to pop into some old beauty parlor.”
Beauty parlor.
The instant the word landed, Dokgo Min's beautiful mental image shattered like dropped glass. A jagged crack split right through the creative soul of an artist who'd been dying to shoot something, anything, on location.
“And Director Dokgo Gyeol can't come with me either, so… I'll just have to manage on my own somehow….”
Han Yeo-reum's pitiful, heartbreakingly destitute gambit struck again, this time in an upgraded version. Before Dokgo Min's eyes rose the image of Han Yeo-reum in the hands of a beauty parlor.
A stretched-out Saemaul logo tee, greasy hair scraped back, a face slathered in heavy shading, sunning herself in the blazing heat — a bottle of makgeolli dangling from that hand…
“AAAGH!!!”
Dokgo Min bolted out the door. Behind her fleeing back, Han Yeo-reum smiled.
At that very moment, Dokgo Gyeol was uploading photos of Yeo-reum to social media — the dazzlingly made-up Yeo-reum from her recent turn as Influencer 1 in Faster Than the Law.
“Even by my own standards, that color palette was genius…. Good, good.”
She was just picturing the film's release — the whole world gazing at Han Yeo-reum and sighing, as expected of Dokgo Gyeol—
BANG!!!
Dokgo Min came scrambling through the door, looking completely out of her mind.
“Unnie. Unnie unnie unnie. Go on the trip. You HAVE to go!!! You have to go, I'm telling you!!!”
Dokgo Gyeol answered with bored indifference.
“How much?”
By nature, a money-monger's questions began with a zero and ended with a zero, and nothing else.
Dokgo Min rolled on the floor. Dokgo Gyeol didn't even bother to react — this was hardly a one-day affair. And then, precisely three seconds later:
“AAAGH!!!”
Dokgo Gyeol, having received a detailed projection of Han Yeo-reum's horrifying future appearance, screamed along with her.
The shock was so great that Dokgo Gyeol took to her sickbed in spirit. The money-monger had, after all, already completed her investment — opening up a fifty percent discount and a pay-later system for the rising star Han Yeo-reum.
“No. Absolutely not. This level of terror….”
Dokgo Gyeol deliberated. Cheongdam's number-one artist tagging along on a rookie's location shoot was, on its face, beneath her standing. And with no agency to speak of, the girl would obviously be running herself ragged doing everything solo.
My market rate… and look how far I finally raised it….
Maintaining her own premium was part of a number-one's duty. Dokgo Gyeol took a slow, deep breath, summoned the thought of money, and steadied her heart. Pressing one foot firmly on her cousin — who was still rolling around on the floor — to pin her in place, she thought about Han Yeo-reum.
If I — Dokgo Gyeol, of all people — travel out to care for a rookie who has nothing to her name… everyone will think I've lost my mind. But.
The view count for Pachehi's finale was quietly creeping toward seven million. And ALAB, the brand Yeo-reum advertised, had seized the number-one spot in sales on the Olive Young app.
Which means—
Director Gong had rewritten his screenplay for Yeo-reum, and word was spreading everywhere that Jegal Rok — the broadcasting world's money-titan — had his eye on Han Yeo-reum.
Then my eye for spotting a future star and caring for her from her rookie days will be on full display!
And so the money-monger Dokgo Gyeol made up her mind to travel.
Thus Han Yeo-reum — a brand-new rookie without even an agency — succeeded in claiming Cheongdam-dong's number-one makeup artist as her own personal staff.
The first scene of the location shoot was a woman trudging up to a house, dragging a heavy suitcase behind her. After one rehearsal to confirm her blocking, they rolled straight into the take.
“Yeo-reum-ssi — standby!”
I drew a deep breath. A life of exhaustion and weariness. The very first step of coming down here to escape people who used me like a tool. I filled my eyes with the right degree of fatigue — someone who'd left home that morning and finally arrived at an unfamiliar place.
“Take one—!”
Clack! The snap of the slate rang across the set.
“Ready, action!”
At Director So's voice, I tightened my grip on the suitcase handle — hard enough that the veins stood out across the back of my hand.
Rattle. Rattle.
The suitcase wheels groaned over the unpaved road. I hauled my own body-sized luggage along, wheezing with every step.
At last, at the spot we'd marked in rehearsal, I stopped — and stared at the door with tired eyes. It was a long take, so I couldn't pause here.
I pushed open the gate and dragged the suitcase through.
Thud.
The wheels caught on the lip of the iron step. Without breaking stride, I slipped my instep under the suitcase's base and hoisted it up, distributing the dead weight across my body.
And then, finally—
“Haa….”
My space. I had reached a place where no one existed but me.
As if a small knot of tension had come undone, my fingers slowly loosened around the handle. The fatigue in my gaze gave way to something faint — the first flicker of hope.
“Cut—!”
Director So shouted from behind the monitor.
Only then did I turn my head and look toward the camera team.