Cameo (1)
Click. Click.
At TG Studio, the shutter kept firing without rest.
Click.
"Yes! Perfect! We'll continue once you've changed into the next outfit!"
Photographer Kwon Tae-gwang finally secured a brief break while his client stepped away to change.
"Hmm…"
He scrolled back through the shots he'd just taken, lost in thought.
Kwon Tae-gwang carried a genuine sense of mission about portrait photography. Capturing a person at their most natural—and therefore most beautiful—moment. A photograph wasn't something that lived only in the heart; it was something you could keep for a lifetime and look at whenever you wished. So he poured everything into seizing that brightest instant every single time, and he found real fulfillment watching clients light up when they received the results.
As those strong results piled up and word of mouth spread, his studio had grown into a well-known name—one that celebrities now visited from time to time.
And the reason he was so deep in thought today?
The client who'd come for profile photos was entirely to blame.
The first time he saw her, he'd been genuinely stunned. She drained the color from everything around her, as if she'd been cut out with a perfect green screen. And those eyes—it looked like she was walking around with a filter already applied.
How can a person even look like that?
He'd photographed plenty of celebrities, but for sheer visual impact, she was easily the strongest he'd ever seen.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
He kept swiping through the shots. Not a single bad one among them. The poses, the in-between frames—every single image breathed beauty like a full-blown pictorial. Which was exactly why he couldn't stop thinking about it.
This was a result the model had created entirely on her own. All he'd contributed was an expensive camera. Honestly, you could have shot her on a phone and people still would have called it a pictorial.
"Whoa! See, this is why you go to a pro! I love every single one of these!"
Whether he knew any of that or not, the man who'd come along with her was busy heaping praise on the photos.
"Haha. Thank you. It's because the model is so good."
"Our girl really is pretty, isn't she? Hahahaha!"
Kwon thought the man was laying it on a little thick—until he remembered the model, and then it made perfect sense.
"All right, let's start the next set."
The model had finished changing.
"Okay, Ara—once the Photoshop work is done tomorrow, I'll send the photos over first. And the pictorial contract along with them."
"Got it."
"Rest up. You worked hard today."
Vrooom—
Jeong Yeo-un dropped Ara off in front of her place, said his goodbyes, and drove away.
Back home, Ara stood in front of the mirror and fell into serious deliberation over her own reflection.
"Wow… it feels way too wasteful to wash this off."
Her first full makeup session—and a million-won job at that. Of course she didn't want to take it off.
Not that she'd paid for it. Or rather, she hadn't been allowed to pay. She still hadn't signed the contract, so she'd fully intended to settle the bill, but the salon director had absolutely refused to take her money. A complimentary service to celebrate the contract, or something like that.
"Her face looked like she was about to cry the whole time, though."
Well. That was that. Water under the bridge.
Wasteful or not, it still had to come off. And she had no plans to go out anyway. Delaying only pushed the inevitable further back.
So Ara headed into the bathroom and started washing up.
…
"Ahhh—! I should've washed sooner!"
Feeling refreshed, Ara launched into her post-shower routine.
That routine was, of course, gaming.
The moment she entered the Rift, Ara whispered her friend Dolga, who was already logged in.
Their match began, and a long while later—
A single chuckle after a full three-game losing streak.
"What the hell is this bastard laughing at?"
She was already in a bad mood, and now he was scraping at it. And it wasn't even a string of them—just one solitary little "lol." That somehow made it worse.
So she asked, packing every ounce of courtesy she could muster into the question.
"This bastard again?"
Just as Ara was gearing up for combat and about to hammer the keyboard, he struck first.
He wasn't wrong. Ara logged into the Rift every single day. That whole "I won't be able to get on much" declaration hadn't lasted more than a day. He was stating facts.
"He's right, but…!"
It was infuriating. She finally understood why people called painful truths "bone-deep."
Grit—
A perfect symphony of unfiltered profanity. An absolute barrage of verbal violence. And yet—
—dismissed by a single consonant.
Tremble. Tremble.
A flawless trade. Her hands shook so hard it looked like she might smash the keyboard. Ara's complete and total defeat.
"Wow."
Her hands dropped under the desk. She finally conceded. No matter what she tried in chat, she couldn't win.
Which left only one option.
Irl confrontation.
Naturally, the other party did not give up his address.
Before she knew it, December had arrived.
Boom! Boom!
But instead of snow, only dust fell from the sky. It was an unusually hard night to fall asleep.
The next day.
Along with a newly revised script, Ara received a direct call from Director Ha Il-gwon.
"Yes. Miss Ara, I'll see you then."
"Yes."
Click.
At last, the shoot dates for Forest of Crime had been set.
After hanging up, Ara opened the revised script.
▶ Choi Jin-cheol
▶ Lee Hyeon-woo
▶ Lee Ji-yeon
▶ Lee Eun-ju
A list of shareable targets appeared, but Ara didn't bother using the trait.
"First things first—check the revisions. Shoo, shoo."
She waved her arm through the semi-transparent text floating in front of her.
"Let's see…"
Page by page. She already had the original content memorized cold.
Flip—
She compared every single word, hunting for what had changed. Roughly two hours passed that way.
Grrrrumble—
A growl from her stomach arrived right as she hit the final page of the script.
"Hmm…"
Her overall verdict after reading it through:
"She's even more of a psycho now. And Lee Eun-ju dies."
In the original script, Lee Eun-ju brutally murdered Lee Hyeon-woo, got arrested at the scene, and received the maximum legal sentence—death. Since Korea was effectively a death-penalty-abolition country, that meant rotting in prison for life.
The revised version was different. Not an on-site arrest—an on-site shooting. Lee Hyeon-woo was already dead, and the reason she got gunned down at the scene was her fellow detective, Lee Ji-yeon. Seeing her murdered colleague, unable to contain her rage, she'd ultimately put a bullet in her. Lee Eun-ju died on the spot, and Ara's performance ended there.
"Hmm. I like it, actually? This hits way harder. The writer's definitely got skill."
Separately from that, she offered a silent, heartfelt condolence to Yu Ha-yeong, who'd been cast as Lee Ji-yeon.
"Eh, she'll figure it out."
She was a fifteen-year veteran, after all. Who was Ara to worry about whom?
"Time to eat."
Ara threw together a quick meal, then called Jeong Yeo-un.
"Hey. I was just about to call you."
"What for?"
"The Photoshop on yesterday's photos is done, so I'll send them over to you first. They came out great."
"Okay."
"If there's one you like from the batch, I'll put that up as your online profile."
"I don't really care either way."
She wouldn't know which one was better even if she looked.
"Yeah? All right. And can you come by the office tomorrow?"
"Sure. What time?"
"Around two should be fine. Grab lunch before you come."
"Got it."
"So why'd you call? Is it about Forest of Crime?"
"Yes. You already knew."
"Ha-yeong's in that drama too. Don't tell me you forgot."
"Right."
She had, in fact, forgotten.
"We'll talk about that tomorrow too."
"Okay."
"All right then. See you tomorrow."
Click.
"Okay. Let's see."
Once the call ended, Ara picked the script back up.
Sensory Sharing: Lee Eun-ju
"Haa. Shall we begin?"
In a small room, a psychopath descended.
The next day. Two in the afternoon.
Ara arrived at the company on the CEO's summons.
"Ara, say hello. This is your manager and your coordinator."
Jeong Yeo-un introduced a man and a woman. The moment they saw Ara, both of them lost their minds.
Whoa…
Whoa…
"Hello. Looking forward to working with you."
Ara greeted them first.
"Ah—!"
"Oh—!"
Only then did the two snap back to reality and launch into their introductions.
"Hello! I'm Nam Tae-woo! It's such an honor to be your manager!!"
A man with a warm face and overflowing energy.
"Tae-woo will handle your schedule management and the like. Errands are a free bonus."
Jeong Yeo-un added a brief explanation.
"Hello! I'm Jang Min-a! I'll give it my absolute best!!"
The cute-looking woman beside him beamed with equally passionate eyes.
"All right, introductions are done for now. Ara, come talk with me for a bit."
"Yes."
Ara followed Jeong Yeo-un into the CEO's office.
And the two left behind—
"Whoa!! Insane, insane!! Oppa, did you SEE that??? She's drop-dead gorgeous! Drop. Dead! Whoa!!! The CEO told us, but how is she that pretty??? I love her already!"
Jang Min-a's head was already overflowing with styling ideas for Ara.
"…"
Nam Tae-woo just stared blankly at the closed door of the CEO's office.
"Huh? Hey!"
Jang Min-a's shout snapped him out of it. Then, in a suddenly subdued voice, he called her name.
"Min-a."
The atmosphere turned serious out of nowhere.
"Uh, yeah?"
Min-a tensed up right along with him. Nam Tae-woo paused for a beat, then finally opened his mouth.
"I…"
"You…?"
"I can die without regrets now…"
"Huh?"
"Holy shit she's so pretty, wow…"
Oh, come on.
She'd gotten all worked up for nothing.
"Ugh! Just die already!"
Thwack—
A low kick landed with devastating precision. For reference, she held a fourth-degree black belt in taekwondo.
"Urgh!"
Nam Tae-woo didn't even dare think about fighting back. He went down quietly.
"The main reason I called you in today was to introduce those two."
"I see."
"They might look a little goofy, but they're good kids. Capable, too."
"I'm sure you chose well, sir."
"Appreciate you saying that."
Jeong Yeo-un pulled up a photo on his tablet.
"I like this one. What do you think?"
It was one of the shots Ara had taken two days ago.
"I think that one's the best too."
Ara, seated in a chair, chin resting on her hand, gazing at the camera with a natural smile. In the lightly desaturated black-and-white treatment, only she retained her full radiance.
"Then it's decided. Once we print them, I'll send one to your place too."
"Thank you."
Hell yes!
She played it cool, but Ara liked the photo more than she'd expected.
Gotta put it in a frame. Wait—I need to buy a frame first.
"Oh, and for the record, we're not putting the profile up right away."
What was this now?
"Why not?"
Ara didn't hold back the question.
"Call it a kind of marketing. Once your drama premieres, that's when we'll register you as one of our actors—timed perfectly. That way people pay more attention to our company, right? Out of all the agencies out there, the winner is us! How about that?"
Jeong Yeo-un was certain of Ara's potential.
"I don't mind either way."
"Good. So keep it confidential for now—just so you're aware. Oh, and I've already finished the contract with the salon. You saw the paperwork last night, right?"
"Yes."
The contract Jeong Yeo-un had sent the previous evening. It matched everything they'd discussed verbally, down to the letter.
"They'll probably put the photos up starting tomorrow. I already sent them over, and they said they'd pick which ones themselves. At most it'll go up in the shop and on their own SNS, so it shouldn't make any real waves."
"I see."
"We basically got a free ride out of that one."
No point getting her hopes up too high.
"So. A three-day residential shoot in two weeks?"
"Yes. The investors provided a hotel, apparently."
"Makes sense. And with the year-end awards shows, that was probably the only window they could lock down. They couldn't push it any further."
Jeong Yeo-un had the whole picture nailed perfectly.
"Could you pass a message along to PD Lee Young-min on that end?"
"About what?"
"That I'll be in touch soon. You're under our agency now, after all. We should give them a heads-up at least."
"I'll pass it on."
"All right. That about wraps it up for today. When you head home, just ask Tae-woo for a ride. He's going to be picking you up from now on anyway, so it's good for him to learn your address now."
"Okay."
Just as the meeting was winding down—
"Oh, right. So you've got nothing on until that shoot?"
"No, not really?"
"Then how about doing a cameo?"
"A cameo?"
Jeong Yeo-un offered her a gig.
"It's a movie cameo, and the director's pretty well-known. Opportunities like this don't come around often."
How could she refuse? It was a solid chance to pad her filmography. She was still a rookie—taking whatever came her way was the right call. And a famous director, no less. It was basically guaranteed to clear the bar at minimum.
"I'll do it."
"Yeah? Great. Ha-yeong's doing a cameo in it too, and it sounded like they were looking for one more person."
Hmm… that was a little something, but the one sure thing was that she was a good person. And having someone she knew around was a real comfort. If anything, it was a plus.
"So what kind of movie is it?"
"Hmm?"
Jeong Yeo-un grinned at Ara's question.
"Zombies."