That's Not How You Do That!
The article had it right. The day of the mock shoot had finally come.
Looking back, the time had flown at a frightening pace. Ever since unlocking her Special Privilege, Sua had been struck by one unbelievable thing after another, and from then on there hadn't been a single day she was allowed to stop running.
Was it hard? Of course it was. But did that mean she hated it?
Not even a little. If anything, I like it. It's the best.
Those years, when every field she tried handed her nothing but failure, had been cold. Set beside them, this flutter of excitement was warm enough, wasn't it? So even a heart strung this tight was something she could enjoy, if she let herself. Telling herself so, Sua soothed the anxious hammering in her chest.
"Right. There was a text."
Sua fully intended to join them. She had no choice. To someone who had been one step from broke, a car of her own was the stuff of dreams.
"Let's see. The meeting spot..."
She meant to check where they were gathering, and failed. Not because she couldn't read. A call had come out of nowhere and swallowed the screen.
"Ngh."
But the instant she saw who was calling, she bit her tongue. Seo Yeon-ju. Of all people, Seo Yeon-ju.
Sua checked the time first. Assembly was at eight. It was currently five.
"...There's still three hours?"
A call, at an hour like this? She couldn't even begin to guess the reason. Had Yeon-ju dug up the truth behind the credit card incident?
Either way, I can't not pick up. Get it together.
In front of the mirror, Sua armed herself with a firm expression.
"Hello."
"Oh? You're up? Hi, Sua."
Seo Yeon-ju's voice, bright as ever. Nothing about it had changed.
"I didn't wake you, did I? It's awfully early."
"No."
"You were like this at the interview, too. Your reactions are way too stiff, you know? We're hardly on our first phone call anymore."
It's because I'm nervous. Nervous.
"...Please tell me what this is about."
"Well, obviously. How are you getting to the mock shoot today?"
Sua considered it. Maybe Yeon-ju hadn't gotten the message.
"In front of the exhibition hall. If you're there by eight, that's fine."
"Hm? You mean the rental bus?"
What came back, a beat later, was a puzzled voice.
"Sua, leads ought to travel with leads. That's how you actually get close. And besides, your identity is still a secret from the staff."
"Leads together?"
"Yes. Let's go together. Come out in front of the doll department store."
"The— the— the doll department store?"
Sua startled and echoed it, but Yeon-ju went on as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"You lost your card around there, remember? Don't you live in that neighborhood? I thought meeting there would be about right."
"Ah. Right. Yes. That's right. Yep."
Thank goodness. Sua let out a sigh of relief.
From there the call raced to its end. Yeon-ju would come herself; Sua was to wait in front of the doll department store.
And so, one hour later, Sua arrived.
"..."
She pressed both palms and her face flat against the display window. The store hadn't opened yet, and the dolls sleeping quietly inside were unbearably cute. Maybe she'd buy all of them later. Right—rabbits were lonely creatures. They'd need friend-dolls. She was turning thoughts like these over when a ringtone sang out.
"Hello."
"Sua, I'm almost there."
The moment she hung up, Sua put a good distance between herself and the doll department store. She could not be caught looking like someone who had nothing better to do than stare at dolls. If that call hadn't come ahead of time, it would have been a disaster.
Then a sleek black van appeared, and the door opened smoothly to reveal Seo Yeon-ju at the same time. Yeon-ju opened and closed one hand in a little wave, delighted to see her.
"Ta-da. Found you, Sua."
Still wearing her hairband. Sua offered a short greeting.
"Hello."
"Huh? But you're wearing a hat?"
Yeon-ju tilted her head a moment later.
"A mask I can let slide, but a hat on top of it? And now that I'm looking... your outfit overall is... how do I put this. A little..."
Listening, Sua grew faintly uneasy. Did I dress weird? She ran a quick check on herself. A white hat and a black mask, jeans, and a black T-shirt that clung to her. She'd done her best, in her own way.
"...Why?"
"A mock shoot is about getting it on camera first and seeing how the whole thing feels. If the costume's too plain, well, you know how that goes."
"Mm..."
"If a hopeless piece of trash like Seonil showed up dressed like this, I wouldn't say a word. But I like you, Sua, so I'm telling you."
It didn't seem to be a lie. Yeon-ju's tone held nothing but concern—not the faintest note of criticism. And one look at Yeon-ju herself made the point real. From costume to makeup, she was prepared to the nines, dazzling down to the last detail.
"...Though you really are pretty, Sua. How do you glow even dressed like that? It only makes it more of a shame."
Sua, meanwhile, was despairing over something else entirely.
And I got dressed with everything I had...
So she had no eye for it after all. Nothing to be done. She'd just have to learn fashion separately, later.
"Sua, want me to lend you my closet? We could stop by."
That was when it happened.
"You still don't know Lee Sua."
A voice like something echoing out of a cave. Looking now, Yeon-ju was not the only one in the van. Kim Seonil was sitting in another seat as if he had been waiting to be noticed.
Ah. So leads go together had meant this. ...And she had called him a hopeless piece of trash right in front of him? What on earth was their relationship? While Sua reeled under several shocks at once, he went on.
"Lee Sua means to win on acting alone. She isn't like you."
"What?"
"In front of everyone. No adornment at all. Nothing but the performance, laid out until it convinces them of the role she's taken."
"Oh? Is that it? It is, isn't it?"
What is he even saying. The snowball of misunderstanding began to roll of its own accord, and at the same moment Seo Yeon-ju turned wide, round eyes on Sua.
"Sua, was that what it was? And here I went on and on explaining, not knowing a thing. Ugh, I'm embarrassed. God, my face is burning."
What was the right answer? Sua picked through her words with care for a moment.
"...That's right."
In the end, she agreed. Her deeply bowed face was faintly red. Yes. Better to be misunderstood. The one thing she could not say—that this was what it looked like when she tried her hardest to dress up—
"..."
She simply couldn't.
After that, the van ran without a pause. The destination was the film studio complex in Jeonju. She'd heard they'd built an entire mansion for the Special Task Force 808 shoot, and Sua was privately curious what it would look like. She forgot all about it soon enough. She was sleepy.
Sleepy. I'm going to lose my mind if I don't sleep.
She'd been up since the crack of dawn, so of course she was tired. Right. She was so sleepy she could collapse....
"..."
Sua could not fall asleep. The people seated in the van did not end with Seo Yeon-ju and Kim Seonil. There was one more, and she had not expected him—her.
"Sua. Good to see you."
The CEO of Mystic Entertainment. Kim Iseo had spoken.
It's like a professor's soul got put inside a little kid's body.
Strange. Peculiar. That was Sua's first impression of her. The refined voice coming out of that slender frame made for a startling contrast. How small was she? The word kid fit perfectly. From the back seat where Sua sat, Iseo's place looked as if no one were sitting there at all.
...Even so, Sua chose her words with care. Kim Iseo. The person who had settled the funding for the short film Sword in a single stroke. She would have to be treated carefully.
"Hello. It's an honor to meet you, CEO."
A small laugh came from the front.
"Please, speak freely. There's no need to stand on ceremony right now. An actor keeps their manners with their acting."
The engine droned on. The van was still running when Kim Iseo asked, abrupt as anything.
"Sua, where did you study acting?"
"I went back through all of it. Acting schools, drama academies, arts centers... But none of those institutions' habits showed up in your acting. I was curious where you come from."
What is all of that supposed to mean. Sua blinked.
"I've never gone anywhere to learn."
The hands of Seo Yeon-ju and Kim Seonil, turning the pages of their scripts, stopped.
"...Mm. So it really was self-taught. As a hobby."
"Yes."
"I thought Seonil and Yeon-ju were teasing me, and now I've heard it confirmed from you yourself. I can hardly refuse to believe it. Honestly."
Had they been talking about her? Sua had nothing suitable to say, so she simply sat there like a folding screen, present and silent.
"Expectation."
Right then—
"You give a performance that makes people expect something."
Kim Iseo leaned on the words, giving them weight.
"Being excellent and giving people something to look forward to are different things. The moment a performance strikes you as colorless and scentless, it becomes obvious. And the obvious always wears thin."
Is that so? First I've heard of it.
Kim Iseo turned the point of the question toward Seo Yeon-ju.
"Yeon-ju. What is acting?"
"Acting?"
Yeon-ju seemed not to have expected the question to land on her. She thought for a moment, then parted her lips in a calm voice.
"Acting really comes down to guidance, don't you think?"
"Guidance?"
"Yes. Expression that leads the people watching, so they can draw a feeling up out of themselves. An actor's role is exactly that."
"And you, Seonil."
"Cleanliness."
Seonil answered without a moment's hesitation.
"Acting is the concrete action that makes a role's objective real. Think of it only that way, and it stays clean. The moment you complicate it, it gets dirty."
"And last, Sua. What about you?"
At once Sua felt every gaze in the van gather on her. She was sure of it. Even if they didn't turn their heads, their whole bodies were waiting on nothing but her answer.
"..."
"Sua?"
"I..."
For an instant she had the illusion that the inside of the van had gone mute. Even while the car charged forward that noisily.
"I'm still looking for that answer."
The silence grew a little heavier. For Sua, it was the only answer she could give. Talk that difficult—she didn't understand a word of it. But she couldn't very well say, straight out, that she didn't know, so she had cobbled together whatever came to mind.
Had it been too much of a nonsense answer? She waited, anxious.
And a moment later—
"What you just said."
Kim Iseo spoke.
"It means you'll keep acting, at least until you find the answer. Doesn't it?"
This was just before they reached the destination.
Mystic Entertainment let Sua out in the parking lot.
"Sua, then I'll see you inside later."
A short goodbye with Seo Yeon-ju, and they parted for a while. The three from Mystic apparently had all sorts of meetings to handle on their own. Sua checked the time on her phone. It was eight. The rest of the staff would only now be gathering to depart. In other words, she had arrived far too early.
...To put it kindly, she was early. In practice, she was a lost child.
The place was surprisingly vast. Studio buildings thrown up here and there, and something far off that looked like an outdoor set. So what was she, dumped here all alone, supposed to do? Sua considered it seriously for a moment.
"...When am I ever going to see a place like this again? I might as well look around."
11:30 a.m. Jeonju Film Studio.
A drama is the fruit of every kind of labor pressed into one. Because of that, the parking lot that had seemed so vast now had nowhere to set a foot. Buses, vans, vehicles of every sort had packed it full, and all of it had gathered for a mock shoot and nothing more.
What writer Lee Geumsuk and director Choi Heewon had chosen was not a simple table read, but a mock filming. The parking lot roared with it. Only natural. Directing, sound, lighting, props, camera, costumes—today, every one of them was going at it as if it were the real thing.
"We're using the outdoor set today. You bring plenty of water?"
"Easy, easy. If that breaks, whose fault is it going to be?"
"Don't put the chairs down yet! There's still a pile of them to set!"
Equipment unpacked in the lot streamed toward the outdoor set, and along the way people reunited through Special Task Force 808 greeted one another as if no time had passed.
"Well, I'll be. Meeting again on this one."
"I know. I thought 808 was going to stay unfinished forever."
The outdoor set had been little more than a wasteland. It wasn't anymore. The production team had made a considerable decision: rather than book a police station, they had built the Special Task Force's headquarters here on a temporary basis. What opened before their eyes was an exceptionally sleek task force HQ.
Now cameras, chairs, and the rest were being laid out thick around its entrance. For something called a rehearsal, the scale was of a different order entirely. Actors who had arrived early sat in the scattered chairs, chatting or reading their scripts, and there were people with cameras who didn't miss a moment of it, rushing in.
"Hello! Are you happy with the role you've been given?"
"...I thought they said reporters weren't coming today."
"Of course not. Don't worry! We're the marketing team!"
Only then did the actors loosen up and answer. The marketing team captured the look of this moment before the mock shoot. It might seem like a useless thing to do, but the instant a drama takes off, the value of footage like this rises past all reckoning.
The outdoor set, barren beyond belief, grew lively as a matter of course the more people gathered. Before long the crowd had packed in tight, and conversation bloomed on its own.
And at last—
The protagonist of the day, Lee Sua, had made her entrance and introduced herself.