Why Is That Movie Showing Up Here?

Why was that movie showing up here?

After three of my review videos in a row had landed their films ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in the ten-million-viewer club, requests started pouring into my channel asking me to run ads.

A shaving ad? Seriously?

I hadn't even shown my face. How exactly was I supposed to shave on camera? That guy was genuinely weird.

Naturally, the most common pitch was for me to review their movies without marking the videos as ads.

And why would I do that?

Money had long since stopped being a problem in my life, and it was still piling up by the second.

No stealth ads. Ever.

Running a stealth ad would mean deceiving the viewers who trusted me enough to watch. I had zero intention of ever doing that for the rest of my life.

Honestly, I probably won't be running regular ads either.

What was the point of advertising, when you got down to it?

To make money.

But I was already free of money problems, so I had no real reason to take ads at all.

Nice.

From here on out, I could just keep reviewing the anime and movies I actually enjoyed.

A YouTuber who had never once run an ad.

Oh, that's kind of badass.

Sounded pretty fun.

#1

Boring.

My tastes ran toward the safe, broadly appealing stuff the public liked, so sci-fi like this never did much for me.

Interstellar really was the exception, huh.

Ah. I miss you, Interstellar...

People were still having a blast in the comments.

I keep telling you, I don't know either...

Not that I needed to worry about it much. In the end, I had no idea which movies had actually hit ten million.

It's already March?

2015 had started before I knew it, and quite a bit of time had already slipped by.

But nothing particularly special had happened over the past three months.

They said international competitions start from middle school.

My body was still young, and there weren't many pieces I could properly handle yet, so entering an international competition this early was out of the question.

Guess I won't be going as a first-year middle schooler either.

The year I would become a first-year middle schooler—2020—was basically a year you couldn't leave the house because of COVID. Holding a competition under those public-health conditions? I seriously doubted it would be easy.

"Doesn't that look fun, Yena?"

"What does?"

"That."

Park Ha-jun pointed at the TV, and I turned my eyes toward the screen.

A movie trailer was playing.

On the TV, Tom Cruise was hanging off an airplane, straining to get the door open.

And just like that, the trailer cut off.

"? They're ending it there?"

"Looks fun, though. Wanna go see it when it comes out?"

"Let's bring A-rin too."

"Okay."

I'd seen the clip of Tom Cruise dangling from a plane before, but I'd never actually watched the movie, so it snagged my interest. In the end, I decided we'd go see it later.

Not like this one's going to hit ten million either.

Sure, three review videos in a row turning into ten-million-viewer hits was still within the realm of believable, given how mainstream my tastes were.

But the movie we'd just decided to go see ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was one I'd never watched in my past life. It might have done well at the box office, but the odds of it cracking the ten-million club were pretty low.

Opens at the end of July.

Perfect timing for summer break. Easy to go see.

I should bring Mom and Dad too.

#2

"I'm going to be an actor."

At Park Ha-jun's words, I sprayed the juice I'd ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠been drinking.

"Ah. Sorry."

"It's fine. Just get me a tissue."

"Here."

I watched him wipe his face and said,

"You're suddenly deciding to become an actor?"

"It's not sudden. You know my mom and dad are actors, right?"

"? They were actors?"

"You didn't know?"

"You never told me."

"Ah... yeah, I guess not?"

It wasn't quite a shocking truth unearthed after nine years, but it was still pretty surprising.

Actors, huh...

I genuinely had no idea.

Sure, you could see where Ha-jun got his looks from the two of them, but being handsome or pretty didn't automatically mean you became an actor, right?

"I've actually been practicing a lot this whole time."

"For real?"

"Yeah."

I had no clue.

Am I less interested in other people than I thought?

"Then why start acting now? If you were going to do it, starting younger would've been better."

"Mom said acting is harder than people think, so starting too young isn't good."

"You're still young now."

"True, but Mom made a promise with me when I was four. She said if I still wanted to be an actor five years later, I could give the job a real shot."

"And it's been exactly five years."

"Right."

Acting, huh... Two months ago, I'd briefly considered trying it myself.

But I'd ended up dropping the idea once I picked up cooking as a hobby.

I want more people to recognize me.

At the competition in February 2015, I'd put on another monstrous performance and taken the grand prize.

That was the article written by the reporter I'd met last time.

Anyway, the point was this: standing in front of a huge crowd again, playing for them, soaking in the cheers and applause—something buried inside me had stirred and clawed its way out.

The desire to be recognized by as many people as possible.

Honestly, that was a perfectly natural urge. Who didn't want to be acknowledged?

The dopamine had been pouring out nonstop.

After thirty years of a life where no one ever recognized me, that hunger seemed to have swollen even larger this time around.

I decided to live differently this life.

I had an S+ face. Not using that would be a waste, wouldn't it?

Trying acting once didn't seem like such a bad idea.

Of course, if I dipped a toe in as a child actor and decided it wasn't for me, I'd bounce immediately.

"There's a closed audition coming up soon. Want to try it too? If I ask Mom, she can probably squeeze one more person in. Obviously she won't just slot you in—you'll still have to go through the audition process, so you'll need to practice hard."

"Okay. I'll give it a shot."

I used my last Ability Addition ticket to add Acting to the system window.

I'd never practiced acting even once, so starting at D made sense.

Whatever. Doesn't matter.

I was going to dump points into it anyway.

If I wanted to dabble in acting, I had to pass the audition first.

Alright. Let's go.

I poured every point I had into Acting, and as a result—

Acting became B-.

Should I try it once?

I decided to run a line from a comic I'd read.

"I'm going to act something out. Watch the whole thing, then tell me how it was."

"Sure. Go for it."

I took one steadying breath, then delivered the line sitting in my head.

"My name is Yena. I'm a detective."

"Oh?"

The reaction was good, so I decided to keep going.

"The culprit is you!"

"Ohh?"

Should I push it further?

"On my grandfather's name!"

"Ohhh!"

"The mystery is solved!"

"Ohhhhh! Wait, Yena. When did you practice this? Your sync rate is insane!"

"I've never practiced."

"?"

He seemed to have the wrong idea. I opened my mouth to clear it up.

"That was the first time I've ever acted in my life."

"Stop lying."

"I'm serious."

Park Ha-jun studied my face carefully.

"You're actually serious..."

"That's what I've been saying. Why won't you believe people."

"Talent monster... die."

"I don't really want to hear that from you."

I only got my looks in life number two. You got yours on the first try.

So quit complaining.

What the hell.

Why had his Dance climbed to B-?

He really is a talent monster.

This kid didn't even have a system helping him like I did.... I was getting a little existential about it.

His face hit S-tier too.

Technically it was S-, but the fact that he'd entered S territory was what mattered. The gaps between ranks were absolutely massive.

As I'd said before, A meant an outstanding professional recognized even among other pros, and S meant the absolute peak of a field.

Which meant this kid, just like me, had started climbing into the world-class tier for looks.

Still. I win.

Thankfully, his Acting was still lower than mine.

C+—right on the doorstep of professional level.

I've already stepped into pro territory.

That gap was pretty big. Pro or not-pro was the line between whether you could make a living at this job or not.

Well, C+ at nine years old... he'll hit pro-level B soon enough.

Honestly, even if his acting lagged a bit, it wouldn't have mattered for him.

If I'd been a director, there was no way I could pass on a kid with S- looks.

"So what's the title of the movie we're auditioning for?"

"Daegu-haeng."

"?"

Why was that movie showing up here?