Along with the Gods: Filming Begins

I had come to see Hiroko Yui.

"Yena...! You came...!"

"Yes. I'm here."

"Heheh."

The moment the door opened, a pair of enormous mountain peaks filled my vision.

Those aren't mountains, are they?

They were not mountains. They were the things every woman ends up with.

I was buried in those massive peaks and smothered with affection.

"There's not a single un-cute thing about you, Yena...!"

"Unnie... I'm almost eleven now, so could you please use the word pretty instead of cute?"

At that, Hiroko Yui's eyes sparkled as if she were looking at something impossibly adorable.

"Got it....! If Yena is saying it that seriously, of course I'll listen....!"

"So you're Yena, huh...?"

"Ah. Hello!"

"Mm. Definitely cute. Now I see why Yui went on about you so much."

I wondered when people would finally stop calling me cute.

I'd rather hear pretty than cute...

Cute was a word you used for little kids, wasn't it? For someone with the mental age of a forty-year-old, it was an unbearable humiliation.

"Mom...!"

"What?"

"Tell me how you beat out a club friend, your homeroom teacher, an upperclassman a year above you, and an underclassman a year below you to end up with Dad...!"

"Hey...! Yena's here too—why would you ask that now...!"

"I don't mind."

"Huh?"

"It sounds really interesting. Would you tell us....? Unnie....?"

"Unnie....?"

"You still look like you're in your twenties to me."

It wasn't empty flattery. Hiroko Yui's mother really did look young. If I had seen her on the street without knowing she was Yui's mom, I would have mistaken her for an unnie in her late twenties.

"Well... this is something... Hoo~ Fine, I guess I have no choice. I'll tell you."

"Waaaah....!"

"Why are you so excited?"

"Because I'm hearing this for the first time too...! She's never told me how she won until now...!"

"Oh."

So this was the first time the truth was coming out.

I looked at Hiroko Yui's mother with sparkling eyes. Yui stared at her mom with the exact same look.

Faced with two pairs of glittering eyes, Kurosawa Natsuko—Hiroko Yui's mother—couldn't hold out any longer and started spinning the tale.

"I should start with this. When we were little, your dad and I made a promise. That we'd get married when we grew up."

"Ooooh...!"

"!!"

Classic childhood-sweetheart promise...!

"But once your dad hit high school, he either forgot that promise or just ignored it, because he left me behind and started dating a girlfriend."

"I believed in Dad...!"

"Trash...!"

"I was devastated. But then I realized something. Just because he had a girlfriend didn't mean I'd lost!"

"Oh!"

"....."

"Not every relationship with a girlfriend ends in marriage, right?"

"True...!"

"That's right...!"

"So I didn't give up. I kept going after him...!"

"That's my mom....!"

I gave her a big thumbs-up.

"But your dad was so head-over-heels for his girlfriend that he wouldn't even glance my way."

"Dad's trash..."

Agreed.

"So I started thinking maybe I should just give up....? And then it happened."

"Ooooh...!"

"!"

"School let out, and suddenly it started pouring. It hadn't been raining that morning, and the forecast hadn't said a word about rain. What was I supposed to do? Your dad would be walking home under one umbrella with his girlfriend, right? So I covered my head with my bag and ran. But the rain was so heavy the ground was slick, and I slipped and fell."

"Ah."

"...."

"My knees were scraped raw, I was soaked to the bone—it was the worst. And right when the tears were about to spill...! Your dad showed up!"

"Oh...! Dad...!"

"!!!"

"I asked him what he was doing there."

Gulp.

"He said, 'Am I not allowed to be here?' So I asked him where he'd left his girlfriend."

"And what did Dad say....?"

"...."

"He said neglecting the childhood friend he'd grown up with just to take care of a girlfriend wasn't something a decent person would do."

"Ooooh...!"

"...."

"The second I heard that, I confessed."

"?"

"...?"

Isn't the pacing a little weird here...?

"I said, 'Hey. I like you. How about you?'"

"And then what happened...?"

"...."

"Your dad answered exactly like this: 'I like you too.'"

"Wow... I never knew Dad had that side to him."

"But wasn't that two-timing....?"

"That's what I thought ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠too, but amazingly, it wasn't! They'd already broken up the day before the rain!"

"Oh."

"...."

"After that, well. I crushed every fox-faced girl who tried to get near your dad."

"How did you manage to crush all of them....?"

At Hiroko Yui's question, Kurosawa Natsuko flashed a wicked grin.

"Because mine were the biggest."

"?"

"Ah..."

Fair enough.

Hiroko Yui was only fifteen and already quite well-endowed, but she still couldn't hold a candle to her mother, Kurosawa Natsuko.

"Mom, what cup size are you again?"

"H-cup."

"Ugh. I'm still only a D. I'm so jealous...!"

"Just wait. You'll grow. You're ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠not done developing yet."

I lowered my head.

Empty...!

Of course, I was still only ten. Secondary sexual characteristics hadn't even started yet, so this was perfectly normal.

They'll grow... They will grow...

I wasn't asking for much. If they just made it to an E-cup, I'd be thrilled.

Maybe it's time I start filming something.

Ever since I'd become a twenty-million-viewer child actress, offers had been pouring in. Proposals to star in movies together.

All of them were trash.

If I was going to shoot something, I wanted it to do well.

And for a film to do well, it either needed to have been a hit in my past life, or the story had to be so good that one look made me think, Yeah, this'll work. Until now, nothing had met that bar.

This time was different.

Oh.

I remembered it as a pretty massive hit.

Didn't both of them clear ten million...?

I wasn't completely sure, but I was probably right. I'd seen the movies in my past life, after all.

Based on everything so far, most of the films I watched back then turned out to be ten-million-ticket movies.

It had to do with my taste. My taste had always been thoroughly mainstream.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

I liked movies everyone could watch—ones that didn't split people into love-it-or-hate-it camps.

But was there a kid in this one...?

As far as I remembered, there hadn't been any child role with real screen time.

What's this about?

I was curious, but I decided to read the message first and judge from there. I looked over the text.

"....?"

If my memory wasn't completely broken, none of the judges had been a little girl.

Ah. Continuity, huh.

I figured it out. Why they'd sent me this offer.

Director Hong Jun-seok had put my looks to delicious use in Daegu-haeng, and Director Lee Jun-seop had probably wanted a taste for himself.

Well. Not a bad deal.

King Chogang had a decent amount of screen time, so it would be more than enough for my second film.

Well, I wasn't going to get offended over an audition. I was a child actress with exactly one movie under my belt—of course they'd want to check my acting.

They'll accommodate my requests as much as possible?

That part was pretty tempting. Watching Along with the Gods in my past life, I'd spotted more than a few forced beats.

First of all, the King Chogang I was being offered was in charge of the Hell of Indolence.

And because she oversaw the Hell of Indolence, she would acknowledge you if you'd worked hard—but if you said you'd worked to make money, she refused to acknowledge you at all.

The first time I'd seen it, I genuinely couldn't understand what kind of nonsense ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that was.

And with that, she immediately ordered the judges to drop Kim Ja-hong over the waterfall of the Samdo River.

?

I'd floated a giant question mark over my head watching that. Working hard to make money was bad? I sure didn't think so.

Everyone living in a capitalist society worked to make money.

It wasn't like he'd been lazy. He'd worked diligently and taken home the wages he'd earned for his labor—and she was going to punish him for that?

Honestly, that scene had made me want to walk out of the theater.

I'm not playing it that way.

Wasn't it way too contradictory?

Most people worked in the first place to make money. Getting angry and trying to punish someone for diligently working to earn a living?

I had no intention of playing a character that contradictory.

So I sent a message—about the contradiction baked into King Chogang.

Not long after I sent it, a reply came back.

I laid out my version of a properly written King Chogang, and Director Lee Jun-seop gave me the okay.

A successful negotiation.

I finished shooting Along with the Gods and came home.

The director had been considerate, so everything I needed to film wrapped by seven in the evening.

"Yena. Want chicken tonight?"

"Yes!"

I glanced at my sleeping little sibling, then knocked on Dad's door.

Huh? Why isn't he answering?

Creeeak.

I opened the door and went in—and there was Dad with earphones in, hammering away at the keyboard.

What's he doing?

Curious, I walked closer, and once I got near enough I could tell exactly what he was up to.

Writing?

Dad was writing something.

"Ah. Yena, you're back?"

"Yeah. Dad, are you writing?"

"Ah. Yeah. It's called a web novel—it's this new thing anyone can write. So I figured I'd try it out."

"Ah. So you're writing a web novel."

"What, you know what that is?"

"Of course I do. I read web novels too."

"Really?"

Not now—I read a ton in my past life.

Reality had been so bleak back then that I'd read them for the vicarious thrills and the satisfying payoffs.

This life was interesting enough on its own that I hadn't been reading any.

"What's the title?"

"Life Is Fun When You're Handsome."

"Oh."

Facts.

Now that I had a beautiful face, life had gotten a lot more fun—so if someone ended up handsome, their life would probably get more fun too.

"Well then, Dad. Fighting!"

"Yeah."

At the time, I had no idea. That the web novel Dad was writing would become a huge hit.