The Choreographer's Eye
"Teacher! That new choreography you made is seriously amazing!"
At the shout of a trainee who came barging through the door, the dancer Sadie let out a sigh.
"Haa. You don't even know how to knock, kid?"
"Sorry, I was in a rush. I want to perform that routine for this evaluation—could you give me a private lesson?"
"At your current level, you couldn't do it even if I spoon-fed every step."
"Aww, that's so mean."
"Spend the time you'd waste crying on practice instead. Now get out."
Sadie shooed the trainee away with an irritated face. Ever since the Lukke commercial dropped, kids had been hounding her at every spare moment, and it had thrown her whole schedule into chaos.
Though it's true this choreo came out better than anything I've done in a while.
Being a foreign mega-corporation, apparently, the creation budget they'd offered was on an entirely different tier from what she was used to.
Art, after all, only grows more beautiful when it keeps company with capital. With her wallet newly fattened, she'd composed the choreography at a leisurely pace, and the result surpassed even her own expectations.
It was only afterward that she remembered being told the difficulty would need to be scaled to suit the commercial's model.
Choreography this well-crafted doesn't come around every day.
Frankly, it felt like a waste, but she couldn't bring herself to complain. Least of all after she'd actually watched Lee Yeonjae dance.
The moment Sadie saw the boy step into her practice room, she'd made up her mind: fine, we'll adjust everything to him. It was the cold, level-headed judgment of someone who had poured a lifetime of passion into dance.
Work in this industry long enough and you develop an eye. Lee Yeonjae was a gem.
Even his warm-up stretches stole her attention.
Talent. I'm jealous.
Glancing at him on TV, she'd pegged him as nothing more than a handsome child actor. But in person, setting aside the good looks the camera couldn't even contain, it was his aura that was different. A gravitational pull that drew every eye even when he stood perfectly still.
No way a kid like that can actually dance, though. Then the final routine definitely needs to go.
Swallowing her disappointment, Sadie started the test.
And then five minutes. Ten. Thirty. With every minute that passed, her fists clenched tighter.
What the hell… is this kid??
Goosebumps ran down her arms. There was no other sentence that could describe it.
Every time she gave him something new, he followed along with an expression that said this is too easy, and midway through, half-fired up, she started pushing him with increasingly unreasonable demands. And still, drenched in sweat, he pulled it off. He was dancing stretches that would make ordinary trainees beg for death, and he didn't utter a single word of complaint.
Watching him bite down hard on his lip to hold his focus, Sadie smiled. It was the first satisfying feeling she'd had in a long time.
He's the real deal.
And she hadn't been wrong. The commercial had been a runaway hit.
Sadie replayed the ad she'd watched dozens of times already. On screen, the boy's eyes shone vivid and clear beneath a blue sky as he danced with explosive energy. Bright, blue eyes racing toward a dream. Not a trace remained of that razor-edged intensity she'd seen in her own practice room.
"I never even got to dance with that Lee Yeonjae. What a shame."
Not the deadpan Lee Yeonjae—she'd wanted to dance with that bright-eyed boy from the commercial.
Which reminded her, she was jealous of this kid. What was his name again? Jiheok, was it? He'd definitely said he was a trainee at her agency….
"Hmm~."
Sadie stared into empty air, hesitating for a moment. Then she sprang to her feet. What was the point of agonizing over it? Just ask.
"A dance challenge?"
Yeah. I was practicing today when out of nowhere Sadie called me over. Scared the hell out of me—I go over and she says she wants to film a video with me. Honestly, I thought I was dreaming.
Noh Bihyuk's voice through the phone was as shrill as ever. Apparently the excitement hadn't worn off yet.
"Good for you. So what's a dance challenge?"
It's like a short video where you copy just the highlight part of a choreography. Every idol does them. Regular people post their own versions too. Seriously, what do you even do with your phone?
"Call you, apparently. So it's a good thing to do?"
Sadie's personal channel has a ton of subscribers. Great way to get your face out there before you debut.
"I see. Show me when it goes up."
Will do! Oh, but, um… this is just me mentioning it.
Noh Bihyuk hesitated.
"What is it?"
She kind of… asked if you had time. I was gonna brush past it, but after we finished filming she brought it up again. Said it'd be nice to shoot a challenge video, all three of us together, whenever your schedule opens up.
Oh. So that was the point.
I just fudged it and said I didn't really know your schedule, so don't worry about it.
The embarrassed voice came back through the receiver, as if he couldn't stand even a second of silence. If he'd worked up the nerve to bring it up like this, it wasn't hard to picture how hard the choreographer must have pressed him.
"One video doesn't take that long, does it? I'll find time this week. Should I contact her myself?"
No, I'll tell her. Um… sorry. It's because of me.
I let out a small laugh at the awkward apology.
"If you're sorry, then come over to my place tonight and eat dinner with me."
Dinner?
"Jinbae-hyung ordered potatoes this time. There's a whole box sitting in the kitchen."
……Fine.
Noh Bihyuk answered only after a long silence. The sheer despair in his voice made it impossible to admit it wasn't just one box.
That evening, I caught Noh Bihyuk by the sleeve just as he tried to bolt at the sight of a table covered in braised potatoes, potato pancakes, and potato gratin, then whispered in his ear: you only have to eat it once today.
My desperate pleading forced him into his seat, however reluctantly.
"Jinbae-hyung. I'm sorry to say this as a freeloader, but please check the quantities before you order…."
"I did check this time, in my own way. It was listed in kilograms, so I couldn't really picture it."
Jinbae-hyung smiled sheepishly. I thanked Noh Bihyuk with my eyes for saying what I'd wanted to say myself.
"Thank you for the food."
"And I will eat it all! It's all potatoes, but… it does look good. Whoa, it actually tastes amazing."
"Haha. Thank you. Eat plenty."
Noh Bihyuk hadn't been flattering. Whatever the dish, anything Jinbae-hyung cooked was always delicious, but today it was exceptional. This hyung's cooking just keeps getting better.
No matter how I thought about it, a manager had no business cooking for his actor on top of everything else, and I'd told him so several times—but he'd long since stopped even pretending to listen, so I'd given up ages ago.
"Hyung, this is seriously good."
"Really? I'll make it again tomorrow."
"……Bihyuk. You're coming tomorrow too—"
"I'm starting dorm training tomorrow."
Your intensive training ended last week and I know it.
I stared at him hard, but he avoided my eyes through the entire meal. And that, in exchange for his dinner company, was how I ended up filming the dance challenge video with Sadie.
"Yeonjae, that video you shot—. Whoa, what's with your eyebrow?"
The singer Kang Sehyun froze mid-step through the waiting room door.
His reaction made me self-conscious, and I touched my eyebrow.
"Why? Does it look weird?"
"No, it suits you. It suits you so well that it's kind of throwing me off."
"What's that supposed to mean."
I'd gone to the salon with Jinbae-hyung yesterday. I'd wanted to cut my hair short like his too, since my bangs kept getting in the way—but with shoots still left on the schedule, I'd reached a compromise with the company: just a scratch in the eyebrow for now.
"Why all of a sudden—oh, following your manager?"
"Yes. We did it together."
"Not overdone at all, just right. Your fans are going to love it when they see today's live stream."
I couldn't follow the connection between my eyebrow and my fans' feelings, but I kept quiet.
"So what did you come here to talk about?"
"Huh? Oh, right. You saw the challenge video with Sadie-noona, right? No, wait—have you ever actually trained in dance?"
Apparently he'd been surprised by the commercial too, but had trusted there was some editing magic involved. Then he'd watched the video—shot on a phone, uploaded raw with zero editing—and had been genuinely floored.
"So this really was your first time dancing?"
"Yes."
"Hey…. You sure you don't want to be an idol?"
Kang Sehyun waved his hands at my expression.
"I'm not joking! You've got real talent. Dance is one of those areas where even years of practice barely moves you up a single level. It feels like such a waste to let it just sit there. And Sadie-noona didn't say anything to you?"
She'd certainly said plenty. I'd barely managed to turn down her suggestion that I start training with her while I was at it.
At first I'd assumed it was the polite kind of praise people hand out automatically. But hearing similar reactions repeatedly from the people around me, I figured it wasn't empty flattery. Still, that was all it was.
"I might study more later if a role calls for it, but I'm not thinking about it now."
"Really? What a waste."
I shrugged at the sight of Kang Sehyun clicking his tongue as if he genuinely mourned it. I knew it was an arrogant thing to say to people who would give anything to improve their dancing….
But what could I do? The world was never fair to begin with. Nobody knew that better than I did—I who woke up at five every dawn to strip away my Misfortune Factors.
"Do you have any idea how much Injun talks about you? Keeps going on about how our Bambi dances too and there's nothing he can't do. Oh, right—you two were meeting up, weren't you?"
"Yes. We agreed to have lunch together when he goes to my hyung's exhibition."
"Ooh. Can I crash that?"
That was exactly what I'd been hoping he'd say.
When I nodded enthusiastically, Kang Sehyun burst out laughing.
As time passed, the actors of Hello, My Summer drifted into the waiting room one by one. Today was the day we'd scheduled a real-time live broadcast to commemorate the final episode.
"It's been a while, noona."
"Yeah. You been well?"
Han Seyeong, who had played Hanna, was there too. We whiled away the time with idle chatter, her turning my eyebrow this way and that for inspection.
"You're doing a fan signing event, right?"
"Yeah. So I'm a little nervous. Have you done one, noona?"
"Only a few times myself. But it's nothing special. It's exactly like a movie premiere—fans show up for stage greetings too."
I've never done a movie premiere.
Not a helpful answer, but I thanked her anyway.
"Hmm… the wait's awfully long today."
"Tell me about it. It's almost time for the live."
The waiting room was full of nothing but actors worn out from waiting. When a staff member finally came looking for us, face slick with sweat, I thought, at last, it's over.
"I'm so sorry. There's a problem on set. A thirty-minute delay has been announced. I'm so sorry. Please just thirty more minutes. I'm so sorry."
"No, it's fine. Have some water."
As always, I felt it—receiving apologies beyond what was necessary from staff was an uncomfortable thing. There was no way that person was the reason the shoot had run late.
Social life really isn't easy, I thought, rising from my seat.
"Where are you going?"
"Bathroom. I'll be right back."
"Shall I come with you, sir?"
"No need. It's right there. Stay seated."
After forcibly pressing Jinbae-hyung back down onto the sofa as he moved to follow, I stepped out of the waiting room. I'd just come back from the bathroom and was heading inside again when a crash—something shattering—rang out from the hallway beside us.
"Are you insane, do you have any idea how much that costs? S—! Pick it up, now!"
"I—I'm sorry."
I turned toward the noise. The entire floor was strewn with shards of glass.
"Clean it up before people get here! Right this second!"
After barking at a woman who looked barely twenty, the middle-aged man stalked off. The moment I saw her crouched on the floor, choking back tears, my hand moved before I could think.