Sua Is the Arctic Fox

The bus had left Wanju behind and was bound for Seoul.

Sua kept a window seat to herself. To anyone glancing over, that profile would have seemed cold past all measure — but the truth was otherwise. Just now, Sua was in excellent spirits.

Yesss.

Every last person on the Sword crew had looked on her with nothing but kindness, and one of them had even tried to take her on as a master of acting. She had refused, of course, and sent him on his way.

I can barely look after my own affairs, and they want me to take a disciple? Don't be ridiculous.

She had no room to spare, and no faith that she could teach. She was not at that level yet.

But so what? That it had happened at all was a pleasant thing. It was rather like a man asking for her number — she had no wish to date him, and still her pride climbed.

She was delighted. Truly delighted, and the only sour note was having nowhere to spend the brag. Oh. Right. What about the group chat?

Sua took out her phone at once.

She had only just begun to set the stage when—

"Sua."

Sua jammed the phone away in a panic. Of all people, Director Park Joon had taken the seat beside her.

He spoke as if he understood perfectly.

"Checking your schedule? Well, with ability like yours, you must be getting busier by the day. Soon enough you'll start to feel that even two of you wouldn't be enough. It's the road every shining rookie walks."

No. She had been about to stretch a brag across the group chat. Even so, she nodded first.

"I acknowledge that."

"Better ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to get used to it quickly. You're already filming a drama, aren't you? Once that starts airing and catches the viewers' eyes, what do you think happens? Ten of you wouldn't be enough."

"Mm."

Sua nodded, and thought while she did. Would a day like that really come for her? A celebrity's life. She rather wanted to try living one.

Director Park Joon, for his part, was gazing at her the way a man gazes at a family treasure. He spent a long while choosing his words, and then he spoke.

"Come to think of it, Sua — what happened with the agency?"

"The agency?"

"Yes. After the mock shoot for Special Task Force 808, word started going around the industry that a monster of a rookie had appeared. Even hearing it in passing, that has to be about you, doesn't it?"

Park Joon went on, more excited than anyone.

"Email, messages, phone calls, actual meetings... they must have come pouring in by every means there is. I was curious how it turned out in the end."

"I'm looking into it. There's one place I'm reviewing positively."

A lie had rarely been quite so complete. The shoot had been so frantic that she'd never had a moment to look into anything, and the only agency she had actually met was still Mystic — one, and only one.

Park Joon's eyes went round.

"Reviewing one place positively? Now that I didn't expect. I thought it wouldn't be strange at all if you turned every last one of them down. I even guessed you might be aiming to found an agency of one."

"Well. I did think about that."

I might be getting shameless.

"Sua, do you know a little of the industry standard?"

"Not really. It isn't an interest of mine."

"Then I hope what I have to say proves useful. Mystic put up the investment, as it happens — shall I take Mystic as the example?"

"...Whichever's easier."

She tossed it out as if she didn't care, but in truth Sua was listening very hard. This was information that mattered. A chance, at last, to hear about the industry standard she had wondered about all this time.

"Mystic may be a new company, but to unknowns it's a place close to a dream. They have Seo Yeon-ju and Kim Seonil, and so few actors that careful, individual attention is actually possible. It's the sort of agency people would stuff with bribe money just to get inside."

Sua was quiet.

Then... should she have signed, somehow, the day she met CEO Kim Iseo? Had she made a terrible mistake?

But—

"But in your case, the story is rather different."

What followed ran a little aside from what Sua had expected.

"Sua, do you know what the heads of agencies actually do?"

"Mm..."

"They're the people who set a price on actors. But think about it, by ordinary sense. What price gets set on you, as you stand now?"

How should I know? Do I just not have any common sense?

"You landed the lead in Special Task Force 808, turned the mock shoot on its head, and you've got agency managers trailing after you in a line — what value, exactly, would be assigned to that? Can you even guess?"

"I acknowledge that."

"Pardon? What is it you've been acknowledging, all this while..."

"Ah. It's nothing."

Sua patched it over in a hurry. Habit. That was all.

In any case, putting a price on herself was rather difficult. You needed a standard before you could name a figure, didn't you? How was she supposed to know this industry's units?

At that, Park Joon launched into the explanation on his own.

"You may think your only advantage is that you act well, but the agencies see something else entirely. They're tapping you all over with calculators too many to count."

"I have understood it perfectly."

"Every actor is a sprout, at bottom. The agencies water them and raise them themselves. Skin care, an academy if one is needed, exercise... But you?"

There was even a little excitement caught in Park Joon's voice.

"You're already a tree. Take you, plant you, and you're done. Drama, commercials, variety — fruit is obviously going to bear on its own. How are they supposed to resist that?"

"It's coming through crystal clear."

This time, it was not Sua Understands. She had actually understood.

Wait. Hearing it put like that — I'm actually incredible?

All she had been carrying was a thought along the lines of, well, at least she was no longer someone to be brushed aside. The conversation just now had made her grasp her own standing all over again. Gratitude toward Park Joon arrived in the same breath.

"Sua."

Right then, he went on, his face gone serious.

"You have at least one dream car in mind, don't you? Tell them to buy it for you."

…What?

While Sua was on her way from Wanju to Seoul, the Special Task Force 808 production team was hard at work as well. At present they were cooperating with reporters they had locked down in advance, and pouring out article after article.

In truth, they hadn't needed the reporters' cooperation at all.

Lee Geumsuk's script, no less. Director Choi Heewon's direction, no less. Seo Yeon-ju and Kim Seonil, no less. The reporters had been itching to write, and so the articles came down like a downpour.

But what use was a promotional piece that lived only in type?

The production team released a selection of the stills shot during the mock filming, and at the same time unveiled the poster that would serve as the face of Special Task Force 808. Kim Yu-han, of course — a secret of the highest order — appeared only as a silhouette.

They meant to hide him to the very last. That was the intention, through and through.

And in the middle of this typhoon, Kim Seona, the youngest reporter at Star Catch, was still at her desk, her resignation unfiled. She stopped what she was doing and looked at the article she herself had written.

Even by her own measure, it was an absurd piece.

"...Have I finally lost my mind? Am I actually writing this?"

But there was no reason to be afraid. If it was true, all the better. If it wasn't, she could hand in her resignation exactly as planned. She decided to think of it that way.

When to post it. That alone was what Kim Seona turned over in her mind.

Elsewhere—

On Mutube, the most popular ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠online video platform on the planet, an official channel for Special Task Force 808 had been created.

The uploads came with it. Polished stills served as the thumbnails, and every title had been chosen with care.

A video cut to exactly one minute. Even so, the shot of Seo Yeon-ju and Kim Seonil together in uniform drew a fair amount of attention on its own.

No — fair was the wrong word. It drew an enormous amount. One million six hundred thousand views in exactly two days.

That firepower carried, naturally, onto the fan galleries.

That day, the Special Task Force 808 gallery seized first place among the real-time trending boards, and did it without a shred of modesty.

Now it was truly a countdown — until a massive time bomb went off.

From Sua's side of things, the days that followed were a blur.

Another two days passed.

Clink—!

"Cheers!"

"Please — may our Director Park win an award!"

"Everyone, you really did work so hard!"

Filming on the short film Sword had come to a complete close, and the whole crew had gathered for a wrap dinner to celebrate. The venue was a celebrated gopchang house — grilled beef intestines — booked out in full.

Or, more precisely, rented for them by Kim Iseo, CEO of Mystic. Or so the story went.

Kim Seonil and Seo Yeon-ju hadn't been able to come, their schedules swallowing them whole, but Sua had. She had come, rather pointedly.

Everyone was startled that she was there, and glad of it, too. For Sua herself, the reason was not a large one. Free gopchang and beer — she simply hadn't been able to resist.

In any case.

"Haah, it's a shame, if anything, that this was a short."

"I know. I want to see more of Sua's acting."

"What if we work harder and catch up to her? We can meet again on another project, can't we? Then we'll get to see her again."

"Ugh, how many years of practice would that even take..."

It hadn't even been a week, and already the bit players were thick as thieves. On atmosphere alone, a person could have mistaken the room for a high-school reunion.

They had even made a group chat of their own, and a little club, they said. The idea was to grow hard, together. From where Park Joon sat, nothing could have been more satisfying.

Sua's circumstances were a little different.

She had skipped lunch on purpose, resolved to eat gopchang until she burst, and yet she was nowhere near breaking even — she hadn't managed three pieces. The hand on her chopsticks had all ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠but frozen.

Too many glances sliding her way? Too many conversations orbiting her name?

Those weren't wrong, but they weren't the largest cause either. Set down at the center of an atmosphere like this, certain feelings rose in her of their own accord. She was in the middle of feeling them.

This atmosphere... it's wondrous.

There was a work they had all made with everything they had, and they were wishing it well with one heart. An air in which people held one another up — Sua had never met such a thing in her life.

And the center of it was Sua herself. Of course it felt strange.

She found herself retracing the shoot for Sword.

Because everything had been a first, a span of nearly a week had felt like the blink of an eye. She had been acting for real and managing her image at the same time, and it had been hard for every kind of reason. Hard enough that once she got home, she had slept laid out like a corpse.

But Sua was certain.

Even if she went back a week, she would do this again.

Accomplishment. This is no joke.

Sua's life had never contained such a thing as accomplishment.

She could do nothing, and so she was listless; she was listless, and so there was nothing she could achieve. But now Sua was moving forward by no one's strength but her own. She was the one changing her life.

It was no longer the world that changed Sua's life.

...I hope there are many more days like this.

Of course, she had only just put one foot forward. To reach anywhere higher, she would have to walk like mad from here on.

She was thinking exactly that, chopsticks caught in her mouth, when—

"Sua!"

One of the bit players called to her, carefully.

"You don't care for gopchang? You haven't touched a single piece."

"Sua, eat a little more! You worked the hardest!"

"My skin broke out completely after we got back from the woods, and you worked that hard without it showing at all. Look at that complexion."

Sua only waved a hand, very slowly.

The one thing that had changed was that she no longer said stop out loud. If she did, people actually stopped. She had seen it. That would not do.

Don't you dare stop! Keep the compliments coming!

A moment later, Park Joon settled them.

"Now, now, don't pester Sua too much. I can't tell you all of it, but she has an enormous project underway on the side. She's a distinguished person now."

It was a remark that only set the bit players running wilder.

"An enormous project?"

"What is it? What is it?"

Sua answered with nothing but a blank face.

Her mouth itched. Still, a confidentiality clause had to be kept. It was a contract.

"Maybe Special Task Force 808...?"

"Nah, that can't be it. Kim Yu-han's a man."

That was when it happened.

"Sua! Then let's all take a photo! Photo, photo!"

"Right! This is no time to be leisurely eating gopchang! When else are we going to get a picture with her? We have to take it now, in advance!"

"...A photo?"

The word photo might as well have been a detonator. They moved as one, as if they had arranged it beforehand. In no time at all they had gathered around Sua the way a wedding party gathers for the group portrait.

"Sua, strike a pose! A pose!"

"Give us a V!"

"Could you smile for us?!"

"Anything's fine! Sua, just do all of it!"

Sua quietly held up a V with each hand. Was a blank face a little much, for a photo? Image mattered. Look cool. She lifted the corners of her mouth, and no further than that.

Around her, people swallowed dry.

A crossbreed: a cute little gesture married to a face fit for a killing. That was how it looked to them, and not one person pointed it out. More precisely, not one person had the nerve.

"S-Sua! Just one more, we'll take just one more! Please!"

It was a lie. Sua was put through close to a hundred.

Sua got her freedom back a good while later.

The room was ripening now, drink worked all through it, and Sua chose the air outside. Heavy drinking was not to her taste.

Someone else came out soon after.

Director Park Joon.

He drew a canned coffee from the vending machine across the way and held it out to her. The two of them sat side by side outside the gopchang house.

A dark night. Shopfront lights. Cool weather.

Sua's mood was genuinely good, and into it Park Joon asked.

"Sua, how was it — getting thoroughly hounded by everyone?"

How was it? Her head was a complete mess. And yet it didn't feel bad, either. She, who had been of no use whatsoever, was being sought out by other people. That was a strange thing.

But she could hardly say all of that.

"I understand."

"An attitude so very you. Yes. Of course you understand. How could they help but cling to you? But Sua — later, when the entire nation is like this, do you think you'll still be able to understand?"

Sua said nothing.

...That's a little scary.

"That's a problem for later."

"It may not be as later as you think. The way I see it, it isn't that far. I have a feeling it'll be soon."

Park Joon put strength into his voice.

"Sua, anyway — thank you. Thanks to you, we wrapped the shoot cleanly. From tomorrow I'll be doing nothing but cutting the edit, all day long."

"Sounds like hard work."

"No. Far from hardship — I've been handed something to enjoy. The scenes you acted? Every single one of them is extraordinary. I think it'll be the hardest stretch, and the most delightful."

Then, as if something had come to him in a rush—

"Ah."

Park Joon hastily took the canned coffee from his mouth.

"Sua, and please ready yourself. No. Do you even need that sort of thing? It is a rather large occasion, though..."

"Ready myself? A large occasion?"

Sua tipped her head, and he went on.

"Yes. It's only a gut feeling, but I think this is absolutely going to make the main competition. If that happens, your attendance is essential. You're the one who played Wi Ji-hye — the beginning and the end of this film."

"Hm."

"Of course, if you're too busy, it can't be helped. But there's a reason I'm emphasizing it enough to call it essential. Masters of every kind gather at a short-film festival. Even if all you do is get your face in the room, it's a gain!"

Park Joon looked ready to talk without end. Then Sua's phone began to ring.

♩ ♪ ♬

"One moment."

"Oh, by all means. Take the call at your leisure. I should head back in and look after the staff and the bit players."

Once Park Joon had gone into the gopchang house, Sua answered.

Sua nodded, quietly. By now, Writer Lee Geumsuk was an all-too-familiar figure.

Had she written a scene where Kim Yu-han gets dragged off to a war? Living through that sounded like it would be brutal. Sua was thinking exactly that when the writer went on.

For the moment, Sua only listened.

Styling? So she was finally going to be made up, too? Sua nodded, caught in a strange little thrill, and at the same time curiosity rose. How, exactly, was she going to be adorned?

Sua asked it half from curiosity, and half from expectation.

The answer was an animal she had never once considered.

Lee Geumsuk's voice, saying so, struck Sua as more elated than in any moment the two of them had ever shared.