A Face That Draws Every Eye
"Actor-nim, there's a coffee truck outside. Would you like me to bring you a lemonade?"
Seong Ijun had just left to film, and I was going over the script alone when Manager Ahn Jinbae came up to me with a bright face.
"Oh... no, thank you."
"Then how about—oh! We also have green grape ade."
"No, it's fine. I just meant let's go together."
I sprang up from my chair and stood beside him, and Manager Ahn Jinbae tilted his head, a little puzzled, but held out his hand anyway.
I wondered if cars would be zooming past near the coffee truck, but I took his hand without a word.
"I could just bring it to you if you stayed put, you know...."
"No, really. I was feeling a bit stuffy myself."
"Ah, were you? It does get stuffy in here—the air circulation on set isn't great."
The truth was, I wasn't stuffy at all.
It was the way Seong Ijun kept glancing over at me between takes that was getting under my skin.
In the eyes he fixed on me, 'wariness' and 'discomfort' were blended together thickly.
It was clearly different from the open hostility Oh Seunghyun had shown yesterday—if I had to compare, it was closer to the way people used to look at me before I met the Fog.
And yet none of it showed on the surface at all, which made me think, so that's what a real actor looks like.
Has he heard something about me? That seems awfully random.
It was a look I hadn't received since meeting the Fog, so it did put me in an odd mood.
But it wasn't as though I'd be looking at his face forever. At most, we'd only be around each other during shooting.
It wasn't as if I could ask someone who was acting perfectly normal toward me why he kept staring like that.
Which was another way of saying there was nothing I could do about it.
Right. I'll just ignore it.
Having reached that conclusion, I nodded to myself, and my mind settled considerably.
A small crowd had gathered around the coffee truck, and when I wandered over to see what the fuss was, it turned out Actor Kim Seokjun was wearing an apron and taking orders.
He wasn't filming today—why was he here?
Before the question could deepen, our eyes met and I quickly bowed at the waist.
"Hello, sir."
"Whoa, hey, relax. Relax, I said. What's with all the formality?"
The expression on Actor Kim Seokjun's face as he said it looked genuinely embarrassed.
"You're here early? Weren't you filming at three today?"
"Yes. It's my first shoot, so I came a bit early. Did you have a shoot today?"
"Nah, we don't start for two weeks. I came today just to see you."
"Me?"
When I stared at him in puzzlement, Actor Kim Seokjun held out the menu and told me to order first, questions later.
"What can I get you—Iced chocolate?"
"Lemonade for me, please. And one iced americano as well."
"Coffee already, at your age?"
"No, it's for my manager."
When I subtly pointed a finger at Manager Ahn Jinbae beside me, Actor Kim Seokjun grinned and gave an okay sign.
I had no idea why he was standing around here doing this, but... honestly, I wasn't curious enough to ask.
A little later, one of the staff finished making the drinks, and I received mine—straw already inserted by Actor Kim Seokjun—with both hands.
"Thank you."
"You're headed to set, right? Let's walk together."
Actor Kim Seokjun shrugged off his apron and climbed down from the trailer.
The way he peeled the apron off half-heartedly and flung it anywhere was the very picture of an idle playboy.
"I came to watch you act today. Figured I'd score some points with the staff while I was at it~"
"My acting?"
"Yeah, you're on before me, aren't you?"
"Yes."
"We look nothing alike, you and I... so I figured if I matched my acting tone to yours at least, it'd feel less jarring when people watch. Thought I'd take notes off you today."
For all the delicacy of the content, his face made it abundantly clear that he couldn't be bothered to be here.
I walked back to set alongside Actor Kim Seokjun's lazy, shuffling gait, and there in the middle of the set stood Seong Ijun, planted and staring at nothing.
Apparently his shoot had finished, because he was already back in clean, put-together clothes.
Wondering why he was standing there instead of leaving, I started toward him, and Seong Ijun looked over, jolted in surprise, and bowed at the waist.
"Hello, sunbae-nim...!"
"Aigoo, honestly, what is it with you two. Could you please just talk to me comfortably? Just call me hyung."
When Actor Kim Seokjun frowned faintly in embarrassment, his whole face changed as if by magic.
The writer had said she wanted Yuhyeon—gentle and docile as a child—to transform into something far more vicious after reaching adulthood, and I hadn't understood what she meant at first. Now I got the picture.
Suddenly, I found myself curious to see Actor Kim Seokjun's Yuhyeon.
"Yeonjae, I'm off. See you next time...!"
"Mm. Take care."
"I'll head in first, sunbae-nim...!"
"I told you to call me hyung?"
"Ah—yes! Hyu, hyung!"
Seong Ijun went on his way, shyly waving with a face gone red to the ears.
I watched his retreating back for a moment before sitting down in my chair.
I'd only stepped out for a bit, but the fabric of my clothes was warm, and I'd broken a light sweat.
Before I could even open my mouth to say anything, Manager Ahn Jinbae came over and hung a band-style neck fan around my throat.
"Thanks, hyung."
"Of course, Actor-nim!"
Manager Ahn Jinbae answered with gusto and stepped aside so I could relax before the shoot.
I thought he'd gone farther, but he'd only backed off about ten paces.
He stood where I could no longer hear him, watching me, and Actor Kim Seokjun snorted at the sight.
"Your manager's new to the job, is he? He's got serious fight in him."
"No, I hear this is his fourth year. Very professional, I think."
"Apparently so."
The half-hearted way he humored me made it obvious he hadn't really cared about the answer, which was funny.
Actor Kim Seokjun made a token remark or two more out of politeness, then got the real conversation underway.
For the most part, it was Actor Kim Seokjun asking the questions and me answering.
The quality of the questions was deeper and more meticulous than I'd expected.
He asked things I'd never even thought to consider—like, 'What time of day do you think is Yuhyeon's favorite?'—so at first, thinking them through took me a while to answer.
"Oh, right, I'd thought of that too~ It's such a Yuhyeon thing to do, isn't it!"
"Though if Nabi catches him at it, wouldn't he deny it was him?"
"Puhaha! He might, at that. Or knowing him, he might just throw a tantrum and beg her to keep it secret."
As the conversation carried on, it gathered speed.
Laughter crept into the corners of Actor Kim Seokjun's eyes, which had looked a little glazed at first.
Perhaps we'd interpreted the character similarly, because the answers he and I had each come up with overlapped to a startling degree.
The pauses between question and answer grew shorter and shorter.
As we talked, my body began to feel strangely weightless.
"One more question. What do you think Yuhyeon feels toward the Queen Consort? And I don't mean the obvious stuff—wanting to be loved, wanting to be acknowledged."
There was mischief lurking in the eyes that regarded me.
I'd noticed it before, but... he really didn't seem to care at all that I had zero acting experience.
It was in the content of his questions, and in the way he posed them—not a single grain of consideration to be found.
And yet it made things easier, in a way.
It laid bare the fact that he had a separate purpose for this conversation—that is, he was utterly indifferent to me, the person he was talking to, and that made it comfortable.
Since his reason for engaging was right there in the open, I had fewer questions of my own.
"I think Yuhyeon hates the Queen Consort."
"...?? Hates her? Really? Why do you think that?"
He must have been genuinely startled, because he straightened his whole posture and leaned in toward me.
I was about to answer when, from far off, the PD's voice called out.
"Yeonjae! Come over here a sec? Let's get ready to shoot."
"Yes. Hyung, I'm off to film."
"Tch, alright. Fighting~"
Actor Kim Seokjun didn't bother hiding his deflated disappointment as he waved a loosely fisted hand in the air.
Leaving that half-hearted bit of encouragement behind me, I hurried over to the PD.
Beside the PD stood Actor Kim Hyeonju, who would be playing the Queen Consort opposite me today.
"Yeonjae, was it? Let's do well."
"Yes. Looking forward to working with you."
When I answered courteously, Actor Kim Hyeonju smiled warmly.
They say a person's face reveals their character, but that saying didn't seem to apply to Actor Kim Hyeonju.
Just now, the moment I'd arrived on set, I'd greeted that warm, kindly face—and gotten no reply in return.
She'd walked right past me even after our eyes met, without a word, and now here she was striking up conversation first.
The reason for the sudden change in attitude was obvious enough.
It had to be this woman, watching me now that she'd finished talking with the staff.
"Did you practice a lot?"
"Yes, PD-nim."
The PD beamed a friendly smile and looked back and forth between me and Actor Kim Hyeonju.
"Don't be nervous—just think of it like the table read. Hyeonju-ssi, please try to go a little easy on Yeonjae with the pacing, since it's his first time."
"Don't worry, PD-nim."
Actor Kim Hyeonju looked at me with a smile. The faintly sharpened glint in her eyes stung a little.
I focused on the PD's careful explanation of blocking and camera angles, gently loosening my throat, which felt slightly dry.
I felt a gaze on me from somewhere and turned my head—there stood Manager Ahn Jinbae, watching me with burning intensity.
The scratch mark across his thick eyebrow was taut with effort.
His jaw was trembling, too—whether from nerves or not.
Wasn't the calming medicine supposed to go to him, not me?
I flattened the smile that threatened to escape and turned my head back to face forward.
"Alright, ready—"
Just don't be a burden. Don't be a burden. That's all.
I clenched my fist.
"Action!"
Kim Hyeonju was, before she knew it, an actress thirteen years into her career.
She wasn't famous enough that everyone knew her name, but she'd worked steadily enough to keep her face in people's living rooms night after night.
When she was much younger, she'd once left the industry, feeling so shabby next to the glittering stars around her—but before a few years had passed, she found herself back in front of the camera all the same.
Everything got better once she gave up on the idea of being the lead.
Because everything that made up Kim Hyeonju fit, almost uncannily well, the roles that stood beside the lead.
In the years since, playing the lead's friend, colleague, wife, mother, aunt, and on and on, she had met more actors than she could count.
And yet this was a first for her.
"Your Highness, did I not tell you?"
"...Yes, Mother."
"You alone are this kingdom's sole lamp and its hope. How is it, then, that you still waver over such trifling, petty affairs? To shed tears over the words of such lowly things is not a sight a true Crown Prince may ever show. It seems my words have not truly reached your heart... and I, your mother, cannot conceal my sorrow."
The long speech flowed out of her without a hitch.
A polished, practiced sageuk tone, lacking nothing in any phrase.
Her sharp, piercing gaze—a stark contrast to that mournful voice—cut straight toward Lee Yeonjae.
This scene put the Queen Consort at the center rather than Yuhyeon.
Since it was Lee Yeonjae's first shoot with nothing behind him but extra work, it was also a consideration on the PD's part.
And yet—
"I was in the wrong, Mother...."
What in the world is that boy doing?
Kim Hyeonju swallowed her irritation.
He barely had any lines at all, and yet the moment he opened his mouth—no, the moment he simply stood there—he pulled everyone's eyes to him.
Unlike his ramrod-straight back, his black pupils were churning violently.
"You mustn't say such things. How could any of this be your fault, Your Highness? It is I, your mother, whose failings brought this about."
"......"
Kim Hyeonju lowered her brows and summoned an expression that strained the skin of her eyelids—grief, feigned.
It was an embodiment of the Queen Consort's character: the mother who weakened Yuhyeon while simultaneously drowning him in guilt.
Deliberate, precisely calculated eyes—all the more agonizing for refusing to be purely venomous.
Yuhyeon, facing her, wore a face stricken to the very limit with fear and yet somehow managed not to lower his head.
She could feel him holding himself upright by sheer force of will through those faintly trembling shoulders.
His expression crumbled even as he clenched his jaw, letting anyone watching guess at a mind that had already shattered completely.
At the sight of him—so pitiable it hurt to look—Kim Hyeonju's own pupils wavered at last.
"Cut! NG!"
Damn it, I got swept up. Kim Hyeonju swallowed the curse.
She stared ahead through eyes brimming with irritation—and there was Lee Yeonjae, blinking slowly, a blank expression on his face.