Love Counseling
Singer Kang Sehyun stayed silent for a long while. Just when I was starting to wonder if I should be the one to get up, he asked back in a small voice.
"So what you're saying is... what matters isn't being sincere about acting — being *good* at it matters more."
"That's how I see it."
He seemed to chew over the words I'd tossed out so offhandedly, turning them over and over in his mind. Then, abruptly, he fired off a question.
"In your honest opinion — is my acting actually okay?"
"Yes. It's good."
"Where? Can you be a little more specific?"
"Hmm... Well, for one thing, your diction is excellent, so every line comes through crystal clear — I'd say that's your biggest strength. And above all, hyung, you don't overact."
He furrowed his brow slightly, as if to ask what that was supposed to mean.
"Hello, My Summer is fundamentally a light teen genre, after all. There's barely any heavy emotional material. It's mostly everyday, slice-of-life acting, and the way you deliver your lines with such ease makes you come across far more natural. A lot of actors overthink how to make a scene better and end up going overboard instead."
At my matter-of-fact assessment, Kang Sehyun only bowed his head. It was a long time before a muffled reply came back.
"But I'm not an actor, am I. I was always going to fall short of everyone else out there..."
"Hyung. Are you singing later?"
He scrunched his face slightly, evidently failing to follow me, and shook his head.
"What? No. Why?"
"Exactly. We have filming later, remember? The scene we couldn't shoot last time."
"...?"
Seeing the expression that plainly demanded *what on earth are you talking about*, I answered flatly.
"You came here to act today. So right now, you're an actor."
"......"
"Just focus on the scenes we're shooting today. Nail today's performance, and you'll have done your part completely."
"...Okay."
Kang Sehyun was nodding along obediently when he suddenly froze. Then he asked, haltingly,
"Hold on — what you meant was... don't cause trouble for other people, and just do today's acting well... right?"
At the question, delivered with a face caught between yes and no, I answered with equal puzzlement.
"Yes. That's right."
I couldn't see why he'd need to ask something so obvious — but the face across from me had gone completely blank.
"......Hah. God, I'm hopeless."
After a brief silence, laughter erupted out of him — a full-throated howl soaked through with sheer disbelief. I simply watched him carry on. What was wrong with him?
"Wow... seriously... I was being so gentle about it that for a second I thought I'd misheard you."
"Misheard what?"
"Never mind, you punk."
Kang Sehyun shook off the last of his laughter and sprang to his feet.
"Let's go! We should run lines while we've got time."
The abrupt about-face threw me for a moment, but the easy, refreshed smile on his lips didn't look bad at all. Watching the far lighter expression on his face, I rose quietly to follow. From a distance, I caught Manager Ahn Jinbae's eye and gave him a single nod — the universal signal for no problems here.
As we approached the others, the PD's face lit up at the sight of Kang Sehyun.
"Sehyun, did you get some rest? It must have been rough on you. Thanks for hanging in there."
"Not at all, PD-nim. I'm truly sorry the schedule got pushed back because of me. I'll give it everything from here on."
"Don't worry about it. We already announced the one-week hiatus, so all that's left is to hustle through the rest!"
Thankfully, the PD seemed in high spirits. No surprise — even in the middle of this conversation, the view count on episode one kept climbing. The numbers had been solid to begin with, and Kang Sehyun's incident had sent them rising as smoothly as a sail catching a fair wind. Best of all, with the bullying rumor cleanly resolved, the only real problem was the crunched shooting schedule. Nothing else.
"Let's power through today, everyone! If we wrap up early, we're having a company dinner!"
"Oh! What are we eating?"
"Pork! The all-you-can-grill place!"
At the PD's full-throated declaration, the staff let out a cheer. It was a scene that wrung a smile out of me all on its own — yet Kang Sehyun's face alone had gone stiff. Then, with the gravest expression imaginable, he declared:
"No. I can't go to places like that."
"Ah..."
Just as everyone faltered at his party-killing remark, a sound rang out that made the moment before it pale in comparison.
"Tonight's dinner menu is hanwoo beef! I'm paying for the whole thing, start to finish — so let's film today with ZERO takes wasted!"
Clearly an idol's vocal power wasn't earned for nothing; the man could project. The booming voice made everyone flinch — then, the instant they processed what he'd said, hands flew to mouths. And when he swept his card into the air like a hero who'd just saved the nation, the cheering swelled to a roar.
I laughed at all those flushed, excited faces, looking for all the world like they were about to hoist someone on their shoulders. And I thought:
'So when exactly are we running those lines...'
"Um... who are you?"
At my frowning question, the stranger standing suspiciously in front of my house turned around. The man had a remarkably striking face.
'Whoa... he must be popular with the girls.'
Simply put, it was a face handsome enough to pass for an idol's. Not that how good-looking some stranger was had anything to do with me.
"Ah, sorry. A... friend of mine lives here."
I eyed his awkward delivery with suspicion for a moment — then glanced at his clothes and understood. The same school uniform as Kim Hyeyoon's.
"Only my family lives in this building. Are you a friend of Kim Hyeyoon?"
He ran his eyes over my name tag — which read Kim Hoyun — and nodded. When I asked, "Should I go call her for you?" he shook his head hastily.
"No, it's fine."
"Hmm... okay. Oh, by the way, hyung."
The face in front of me flinched. He seemed uncomfortable with the friendly address, but I didn't care one bit.
"I've got eyes too, so I'm not going to make any weird assumptions... but when a guy hovers around in front of a girl's house, it tends to look *very* suspicious, you know?"
"Ah... that wasn't my intention. I made a mistake toward Hyeyoon... and I came to apologize. I just showed up without really thinking."
Even his sheepish grin looked good. Kim Hyeyoon, you're unbelievable. How did you land a face like that?
I figured a longer conversation would only produce talk I had zero interest in, and was about to head inside when a flash of inspiration struck.
"So you fought with Kim Hyeyoon, hyung?"
"Uh... less a fight, more like I did something wrong—"
"Then you absolutely have to apologize. I'll help you!"
"No, really, it's fine—"
"Don't refuse! I'm super close with Kim Hyeyoon — I mean, with nuna. One word from me and it'll all blow over!"
As I closed in with an easy grin, the man shuffled back a step. I scanned the name tag on his chest in a flash.
"Wow, Han Yeoreum! Even your name is cool, hyung-nim."
At the warmly delivered compliment, the face across from me turned distinctly sour.
"...Thank you."
"No need for formalities between us — just call me 'Hoyun' and keep it casual."
The phrase since when were we close? plainly written across that handsome face, I ignored with gusto. Chattering away without pause, I advanced one step, then another. Slowly, calmly — the way a beast herds its prey into a corner so it has nowhere left to run. Only belatedly realizing there was no ground left to retreat over, the man's expression began to cloud with panic.
"Um... you're standing a bit too close."
"Hehe. I'll help you make up with nuna, so you help me with one thing in return. It's simple, really."
"What is...?"
I'd been racking my brain over how to get closer to Hanna, with no one I could ask — and if this wasn't an opportunity heaven had personally dropped in my lap, what was it? Grinning ear to ear at the face that had crumpled into a subtle grimace of displeasure at the closer-than-expected distance, I said:
"Love advice!"
Just you wait, Jang Hanna.
I *will* marry you one day!
"Cut!"
The instant the PD's voice rang out, I came back to myself. A blink or two was all it took. Manager Ahn Jinbae, who had been hurrying over to hold an umbrella over me, stared in astonishment.
"Actor-nim. You're getting faster every time. Truly remarkable."
I gave a light laugh at the well-worn compliment. This was easily the shallowest character I'd played so far — which, presumably, was why slipping out of the immersion came so effortlessly.
And Kang Sehyun's acting had been good again today. Too awkward to call brilliant, perhaps — but never once lacking.
The moment filming wrapped without a hitch, we moved to the dinner spot. Kang Sehyun, who had gone around pouring drinks for every single member of the staff one by one, plopped down beside me.
"Aigoo, I'm beat."
"Good work today. Eat some meat."
"I'm on a diet, I can't. You eat plenty."
Watching him smack his lips longingly at the juice-dripping meat was oddly heartbreaking to behold. So instead of rubbing it in, I set my chopsticks down.
"Hyung. Can I ask you one thing?"
"What is it?"
"How much do you practice your acting? You're really that good."
"You seriously need to cut back on the compliments. Coming from *you*, that stuff gives me this weird inferiority complex."
What did my compliments have to do with his self-esteem? When I made a face that said I didn't follow, Kang Sehyun waved a hand dismissively.
"My practice time isn't especially long. Four hours a day, lessons included? Lately I think I've been doing about that much every day."
On the low side, admittedly. But that was a perfectly reasonable amount, wasn't it? Apparently Actress Shin Ayoung had been carrying a prejudice against him purely because he was an idol.
"Why do you ask all of a sudden? No, wait — how much do *you* do? Do you have a private coach?"
"I practice on my own. The hours change depending on whether I go to school."
"You're on vacation right now, aren't you? So how much lately?"
Good question. I'd never actually kept track. When I hesitated, Manager Ahn Jinbae beside me answered in my place, laying a slice of meat onto my plate.
"Eleven hours yesterday."
"WHAT?!"
The thunderclap at my side nearly stopped my heart. Even the people who'd been diligently working through their meat all spun around to stare at us. The shouter sprang up at once, bowed out apology after apology, and the moment he was back in his seat, seized my shoulder with urgent hands.
"*Eleven* hours? What the... aren't you only twelve?"
"I'm fourteen."
"That's not the point!"
He shot a furtive glance at Manager Ahn Jinbae behind me, then dropped his voice to a whisper.
"...You're doing this because *you* want to, right?"
What kind of question was that? A laugh escaped me at the absurdity.
"Don't be dramatic, hyung. If you say stuff like that, the person behind me gets an earful. They already nag me constantly to practice *less*."
"It's not drama, it's... what kind of kid practices eleven hours a day? Isn't that child abuse?"
"A perfectly fair point. I've told Actor-nim any number of times—"
I muzzled the abruptly interjecting Manager Ahn Jinbae the time-honored way: by stuffing beef into his mouth.
"A friend at my school is a trainee at WB Entertainment, and even he practices this much on weekends. Didn't you, hyung?"
"Well... during special training periods, we did go all day sometimes..."
See?
I shrugged as I popped the meat from my plate into my mouth, and Kang Sehyun scratched his forehead with a thoroughly bewildered look.
"Still, we had actual classes too, and we'd goof around together during breaks..."
"I don't practice just one role, either. I rotate through several different characters as I go."
"That's not what I'm saying..."
He looked frustratingly cornered — wanting to argue back but with nothing left to say. After picking through his words for a long while, he let out a deep sigh.
"Hoo... fine. And here I thought you were just born with it — turns out you're the pure grind-it-out type. Still, don't spend all your time practicing. Go have fun too. If you don't play now, when are you supposed to?"
"Of course I don't only practice. I watch a lot of movies and dramas whenever I have the time. They're great for reference, too."
"...You do realize that your whole 'I'm not serious about acting' line now has zero credibility whatsoever?"
I smirked at the dead-serious face interrogating me. Seriously — where in the world would you find anyone else acting for motives as impure as mine?