Chapter 27: Survival

Park Joon, predictably, flew into a full-blown panic.

When Sua said she was calling an acquaintance, he had assumed she would simply scrape together whoever could fill out the numbers. Anyone would have thought the same.

But what was unfolding before his eyes was nothing of the sort.

'Seo Yeon-ju? Seo Yeon-ju, of all people?'

Sua had actually placed a call to Seo Yeon-ju. And it did not even end there. She wrapped up a quick conversation with her, and now—

"Hello? Seonil?"

—she was on the phone with Kim Seonil himself.

By this point Park Joon had sailed clean past disbelief and into pure, blank incredulity. A let-it-happen feeling, if anything.

Soon a call came through for him. An unknown number—but instinct told him who it would be, and that instinct was right.

From there, everything began to move in one unbroken rush. A single beat of Sua's butterfly wings, and the typhoon had already arrived.

The next morning.

Sua was awake, and still she had not climbed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠out of bed. Even fiddling with the rabbit doll's ears left her strangely adrift. Restless. She felt too good, and weirdly amazed, and just—like that.

First she retraced yesterday.

'What? It all got solved in one go?'

The short film Sword had been nothing but problems. How to gather investors. What to do about actors. And ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠yet every last one of them had been wiped away at a stroke, when the CEO of Mystic appeared out of nowhere and put a period on every question.

"...What is even going on?"

She turned it over for a moment, then decided to let the thought go. These were things she could not know for now anyway, and fretting would only waste time. Yes—thinking about what came next was twice as important.

She had been given the chance to take on a Grade 1 script. Two of them, no less. Simply dwelling on the work ahead was enough to make her happy.

"Kim Seonil and Seo Yeon-ju. Somehow I've ended up doing two projects with them."

She murmured it aloud and still found it hard to believe. Was this real?

Then Saengji crossed her mind—her friend, an entertainment reporter. If Saengji learned that Sua would be working alongside those two, what would she do? Pitch a fit and call it a scoop? Maybe even shoot straight up ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the ladder.

...Should she reach out, after all this time?

"No. No matter how I turn it over, that's not it."

She promptly patted her own cheeks with her palms. Tap, tap, tap. Don't get ahead of yourself. Do I have any spare room right now to stick my nose into someone else's business?

"Lee Sua, this is not the time to meddle. This is the time to make sure you don't get branded a nuisance of a rookie...."

From where she stood, a once-in-a-lifetime chance had arrived, and it would be a disaster if the result was a plunge straight into the pit. She had to use it as a springboard that launched her cleanly into success. And for that, as ever—

"Acting!"

Acting ability was the key. Only acting ability mattered.

"Do my best. Do my best...."

Murmuring it over and over, Sua checked the package that had been waiting by the door. At last, the script for the role of Kim Yu-han had arrived.

...The box was rather large. She wondered if the protective packaging was to blame, but the weight was considerable too. The box cutter bit in with a long rip, and the distinctive smell of paper rose in a thick wave to tickle the tip of her nose. No fewer than five volumes of script were looking up at her.

"...Do dramas normally come with this much script?"

As she lifted them out one by one, she found a note from the writer as well.

Scripts besides the final version—what were those? And what did she mean by finding an answer of her own? Sua tilted her head for a moment. The instant she activated her Special Privilege, however, she understood what Writer Lee Geumsuk had meant.

"Ah. So that's what she meant by sending everything."

Even Sua, who could barely manage a Lego set, understood this time! From the very beginning, Kim Yu-han had been a role with not a single thing decided. In the end, it seemed the discretion had been handed to her. Read them, and go with whichever she judged most fitting.

An ordinary actor would need an age just to look through all of them....

"...Doesn't really matter, does it? I've got the Special Privilege."

The thought had barely finished forming before a rose-colored fantasy unfurled in her head. There she was, delivering a flawless performance before the camera, and the director, face bright with emotion, calling out an okay. Sua swept her hair back with lofty grace while everyone seized her hands. Unnie, please take me. Take my fortune, too. No—just take the deed to the house....

What am I doing.

Face burning red, Sua cut the fantasy short.

"Ahem."

After a dry cough, she stepped quietly into the phone booth in the Special Privilege space. Time to practice properly.

Sua tapped the dial. This time, though, it was 002.

She had resolved to master every script, but that did not mean she intended to experience only Kim Yu-han in each of them. She meant to live through every role besides the one she had been given. If she learned how Kim Yu-han looked through other people's eyes, that would help too.

A soft rush followed, and from then on Sua threw herself into the script experiences, even skipping meals. No—it would be truer to say she forgot her hunger altogether. The experience had turned out to be more fun than she expected.

Three days later.

The tension of leaping into her first project, and the pleasure of living inside the scripts—with those two forces combined, Sua had spent three days lost entirely in script experience, and now, for the first time in a while, she was going out. Park Joon had called.

The destination was a café with a rather gloomy interior, but the dimness of the lights hardly registered. Park Joon was smiling far ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠too brightly for that.

"Sua! Over here!"

Hand raised, he looked far more put-together than before, and he kept breaking into smiles she had never seen on him. Sua understood the joy that had him ready to leap. How happy he must be, now that he could finally make the work he had yearned for.

There was, however, one thing she could not understand.

"Sua, thank you. Truly. That my film managed to secure investment is entirely thanks to you."

Park Joon was laying the credit for the investment at her feet. Unable to follow, Sua only blinked.

"Um... didn't you say the investment came from Mystic Entertainment?"

"Yes. That's right."

His delighted nod only left her more at sea. Mystic Entertainment? She didn't know them at all. The CEO of Mystic Entertainment? Of course she had no idea who that was.

"The CEO of Mystic Entertainment seemed extremely interested in you, Sua. Letting those two actors join wasn't enough for her—she even promised the investment funds. Thanks to that, every last arrangement has—"

So why is she interested in me?

Park Joon kept going, wound up and bright. How Seo Yeon-ju and Kim Seonil's name value had made the other roles easy to fill through introductions. How bringing Mystic Entertainment on board had let them land a solid production company....

She didn't know. She didn't know. Sua only nodded.

How much time passed after that? Park Joon set several film photographs down on the table with a soft tap. Inside the rectangular frames was a forest packed dense with towering trees. To Sua's eyes, it looked rather eerie.

"It's a forest of hinoki cypress in Wanju, North Jeolla. I think that's where we'll be shooting our film."

"I see."

"Honestly, the mere fact that I'm telling you about a location moves me more than I can say. I was certain the whole thing would fall through...."

"...I'm glad you didn't have to sell any organs."

Sua meant every word. Director Park broke into a grin.

"Isn't it? And this, too, is all thanks to you."

After that she was thanked again and again as she was handed a script and the rest of it, and briefed on the schedule as well.

"We're aiming to tie it off short and sharp. We start shooting in two weeks, and I mean to blast through the whole thing within the week."

Hearing even the exact dates stirred something new in her, and it set her trembling. The fact that she would stand before a camera struck her all at once. Signing the contract, Sua let out only a few short words.

"I'll work hard."

She meant it.

Time flowed on like a river.

"What? Hey. You. Son Jia. Are you serious right now?"

That was CT Entertainment, the instant Son Jia's report landed. And the group chat was as noisy as ever.

And then a message arrived from the CEO of Mystic Entertainment.

Articles were still spilling out, here and there.

"Hup."

Leaving all of it behind her, Sua pulled on her shoes at the cabinet—at the same time drawing a deep breath as she faced the mirror set beside it.

"Hoooo...."

At last, the time had come.

The day of the mock shoot for Special Task Force 808.

"I'm off."

Sua squeezed the rabbit doll into a tight hug, then stepped out of the house. She had finished experiencing every script, every role, down to the last.