Neither Praise Nor Flattery
Neither lavish praise nor empty flattery.
I really needed to head to the set.
With the air date so close, what on earth was going on out there?
It was plain as day that the PD and the writer were doting on Hyejin like she was the most precious thing alive, so could it be some of the senior actresses picking fights just because she was young?
The second I caught even a glimpse of that, I'd flip the whole place upside down.
Huh? Chae Seoyun?
As I hurried out of the lobby, I spotted Chae Seoyun's profile.
Skinny jeans paired with a white short-sleeved crop top that lightly revealed the line of her waist. It was the kind of fresh dress code you saw all over university campuses, yet her visuals were anything but ordinary.
Her figure really is perfectly proportioned.
I thought it would have been nice if she'd appeared as the mermaid beauty in the Nike commercial drama, but our Hyejin was every bit as pretty and slender as Chae Seoyun. The slight shortfall in mature charm? I could just load her into a time machine with my CG on screen and call it done.
Yeah. Hyejin is a solid casting card.
Trying not to disturb her appreciation of The Mermaid in Sandals, I attempted to slip past as quietly as possible.
"Why are you avoiding someone when you see them?"
I hadn't even caught her eyes moving. When had she spotted me?
"You saw me?"
"With that build of yours, how could you possibly hide? Even from behind, your presence hits like a wall."
"Come on—if I'm behind you, that doesn't make any sense."
"It's just a figure of speech."
I couldn't simply brush her off with a claim of being busy; Chae Seoyun was a valuable networking asset. I decided to spare a moment and stood beside her, taking in the painting together.
Hmm. No matter how you looked at it, the thing was magnificent. Especially that Nike logo—which from the front appeared as nothing more than a round sun reflected in the water—that was what drew the eye most of all. It was the "click" point where I'd poured my soul, so the attachment ran even deeper.
"What's with that expression right now?"
"Pardon?"
"It was a face that said, 'As expected of a painting I drew—a masterpiece the whole world would acknowledge,' or something along those lines."
Sharp, this woman. After more than nine hundred rounds of review and nitpicking, that Nike logo had been the finishing stroke of my masterpiece. Looking at the sun reflected in the water, I really had been lost in that kind of admiration.
"I wasn't thinking that. I was thinking, 'As expected, actress Chae Seoyun is truly beautiful—as if the very concept of beauty itself has taken human form,' or something like that."
Chae Seoyun stayed silent for a few seconds, then spoke in a slightly lowered tone.
"You're... quite unique."
"My appreciation of Miss Chae Seoyun's beauty?"
"No. How can you so casually deliver that kind of roundabout extreme praise right in front of the person? Was that flattery disguised as a compliment?"
"It was an objective evaluation."
"..."
"Miss Chae Seoyun, you are beautiful."
"Wow. Really. Wow..."
Chae Seoyun suddenly whipped her head away. Strange. A hexagonal actress thriving in looks, acting, recognition, youth—everything Korea had to offer—reacting like that to a single compliment? Normally they'd brush it off with "Oh my, you're too kind," or "Actually, I already know that," right?
"You can't sell this painting anywhere else. I'll definitely pay more, so sell it to me."
"If I decide to sell, I'll be sure to contact you."
"Even if you don't sell, contact me sometimes."
"Pardon?"
"We've already exchanged numbers. How can we not even check in once?"
Before I could answer, Chae Seoyun took one step, then two, toward the painting. At least listen when people talk. As expected of a successful star, her my-way attitude was strong.
By the way, the scenery was killer. Inside the large oil painting, Chae Seoyun stood bare-legged in sandals. And here was the real Chae Seoyun's back as she gazed at that version of herself. I thought of snapping a photo for a moment, then decided against it. The Future App recorded everything anyway, so for now I would simply enjoy it with my own eyes.
Come to think of it, most people were so busy chasing the LCD screen to capture beautiful scenery that they ignored the real thing entirely, fixated only on a palm-sized little display.
"Well then, I'll be going."
Only then did Chae Seoyun turn around. A mischievous smile hung faintly at the corners of her lips.
"You. You've got real attitude in the weirdest places."
"Huh?"
"How long are you going to keep this hanging here?"
"If nothing special comes up, probably forever? I already got company permission, and wouldn't the mermaid princess in the painting prefer that too?"
"Always staying under people's gazes?"
"Yes."
"But that's a bit different from the truth. I actually like having alone time in quiet places the most."
Chae Seoyun crossed her arms and simply wiggled her wrist. Looking closely, it was somewhat similar to a casual wave goodbye.
"I won't take any more of a busy person's time. Go on."
After Director Cha Doyoung left, Chae Seoyun stood blankly looking up at herself inside the large painting. The subject wore the exact same face as hers, yet carried a completely unfamiliar expression and gaze.
Staring for a long moment, she quietly shifted her steps to the side—to a lateral angle that was somewhat inconvenient for viewing the work. Only then did the sun reflected in the water reveal the true form it had been hiding.
It wasn't something you saw just by standing off to the side at random. You had to plant yourself at a precise angle and even match the eye level before the sun reflected in the water finally exposed the cunning it concealed.
"So picky."
Chae Seoyun snickered silently, the expression small. She whirled around and left the lobby with light, click-clacking steps. Before passing through the main doors, she looked at the painting one last time and muttered under her breath.
"Attitude once is certain. That's why he failed, huh."
Hmm. Strange. Really strange...
I had deliberately watched from a distance in secret, yet the atmosphere on set was completely normal. Everyone was harmonious, and they were all going crazy trying to take care of Hyejin somehow. I couldn't hear the voices from that far away, but the visible mood at least showed no sign of quietly bullying the young rookie.
"Hyejin, were you filming well?"
"Ah, Oppa Doyoung. You must be busy with the Nike meeting today—how did you come all the way here?"
"That's all finished. Filming went well?"
"Yeah yeah. I got a lot of praise from the PD."
Wondering if it was true, I glanced over at PD Son Junggu standing a moderate distance away. He nodded very quickly, as if confirming Hyejin's words. I had thought he was busy monitoring, but he must have been listening to our entire conversation.
"Yeah, yeah. Now that the drama starts, you just have to become a star, so hold on tight. From now on, no matter what you do, every camera in the country is going to follow only you around."
"Ah, I think I'd hate that a little."
"If you entered this industry wanting to be an actor, you have to endure it."
It really looked like there was no problem. Maybe her mother had simply misunderstood a moment of tiredness?
Leaving Hyejin for a bit, I sat down alone with PD Son over coffee and talked.
"Hyejin is fine, right? I haven't been able to pay attention to the set at all lately."
"Of course. She's doing extremely well. The atmosphere is completely good."
Because I clicked out storyboards the moment scripts arrived and sent them over, the set truly ran smoothly without me worrying. Even so, the reason I still showed up regularly was that watching Hyejin and capturing her on camera had its own particular flavor.
I hadn't realized it before, but I liked pretty things. I liked looking at them, and I liked capturing them on camera. I also liked nagging so they could become even prettier. It felt like a completely natural aptitude for a video producer. Sometimes I even wondered if that was why the Future App had chosen me. Being chosen sounded a little more special than simply having been very lucky, didn't it?
"The mermaid and sneakers CF was really no joke."
"Haha, PD. That's the thirteenth time you've said the same thing. But feel free to keep going. I'll listen as much as you want."
"Seeing that, I really felt how amazing 30THC is. No—how do you pull out such ultra-high-quality CG in that short a time? How much was the production cost per second for that?"
"I received fifty million won per second for the CG fee."
"So the director of a CG company like that dedicated CG to our drama."
"He likes Hyejin a lot."
I deliberately kept it vague. Talking about my alt account as if it were a completely separate person was starting to feel a little burdensome.
"I heard Nike is making a full-length drama out of the mermaid and sneakers CF?"
"Has the rumor already spread that far?"
"It's spread all over this industry now. Nike is pouring four hundred twenty billion, and Pine Tree Entertainment is holding it, so there's a lot of whispering."
PD Son's excitement kept climbing.
"A drama with production costs of four hundred twenty billion. Isn't that a new record in Korean drama history? No—including the film industry, a new record. Wow. Really."
Hearing it laid out like that, I had to admit I'd achieved quite a feat.
"Miss Chae Seoyun is the lead, right? How's the scenario? Who's directing?"
"We're proceeding step by step, one thing at a time. Anyway, it won't even enter the visible range until next year."
After finishing the conversation with PD Son, road manager An Byeonguk hyung approached. He looked like he had something to say.
"Director Cha, about Hyejin."
One look at his face and I knew immediately. Her mother hadn't been talking nonsense.
"There seems to be something wrong. When she's alone, she looks really depressed."
"She hides it even in front of you, hyung?"
"She hides it hard. I only figured it out after watching carefully."
Even while talking earlier I hadn't noticed a thing. That meant Hyejin had thoroughly hidden it in front of me as well.
"I thought maybe it was because she can't eat whatever she wants freely, so I bought her grapes yesterday. But she left some."
"Good heavens—Hyejin left grapes?"
That grape ghost Hwang Hyejin?
"That's right. Even the day before yesterday."
"The day before yesterday too?"
"Yeah. The kid tries never to show it in front of others, but what on earth is going on?"
If she was hiding it even from me, this wasn't ordinary.
Could it be...
"It couldn't be that she got a boyfriend? So because of love fights..."
"If it were that, it would be the absolute worst, but day and night either we or her parents are stuck to her. Did she even have time for that?"
"She goes to school. It's co-ed."
"I'll look into it a bit more first."
It absolutely wasn't love worries. She knew better than anyone how critical this period was in her acting career right now.
"Ah."
"Did you think of something?"
"I overheard her talking on the phone with a friend—she was a bit worried about next-project casting. Could it be because of that?"
Her debut work hadn't even aired yet, and the kid was already fretting over the next project... But if it was the sensitive adolescent period, she might easily drag future worries into the present and use them up.
After filming wrapped, I loaded Hyejin into the van and we moved out. As usual I captured her face on camera, yet I still couldn't catch a single strange point. It simply wasn't the face of an eighteen-year-old girl alone fretting over private worries. Really, her acting talent alone was—no. This wasn't the time for me to be satisfied with that.
"Hyejin. Don't you have anything to say to me?"
"Huh? No? Why?"
"Really nothing?"
"Do I have to?"
Hyejin, who had been smiling bashfully, suddenly clapped her hands.
"Ah! Since Oppa Doyoung doesn't coldly point things out, sometimes I get confused whether I'm acting properly or not."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Everyone just coddles me, so I thought it was because of Oppa Doyoung's shadow. Especially the PD—I sometimes wonder if he wants to point things out but only praises me because he's wary of Oppa."
"Nah, the PD isn't the type to... probably?"
As I spoke, my confidence drained away. Hyejin brightened a little and smiled.
"See. Oppa Doyoung can't lie with his whole body like this, so if I ask whether I did well today or not, I can tell exactly."
"Then why did you leave the grapes yesterday?"
"..."
"Why on earth would that grape ghost Hwang Hyejin leave grapes?"
For a split second I saw Hyejin flinch. Wow—this actually worked? It really took this level to poke a hole in Hyejin's poker face.
"Just... the grapes weren't that watery? Road Oppa bought the wrong ones."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
Hyejin slipped straight back into the earlier poker face. No matter how much I pestered, she only smiled cheerfully and insisted there was nothing. Seemed like it was something hard to spill. Maybe it really was just reasonless hormones.
Can't help it. I should at least boost her spirits.
Originally I had planned to tell her about the Nike casting after Winter Castle finished, but that wouldn't do. If she was truly taking out loans on next-project worries and fretting, I needed to repay that first.
"Your next project is confirmed—Nike drama casting."
This level I could now decide and push on my own judgment. I had full authority for that.
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"Nike is making an OTT commercial drama investing four hundred twenty billion won in production costs, and you've been designated as the lead."
The poker face crumbled. Eyes widened, eyelashes trembled, lips moved faintly, cheeks flushed red.
"Me as the lead?"
"Yeah. Now stop fretting about the next project a bit."
On her thighs, both hands fidgeted restlessly. She seemed barely able to contain the joy.
"Um, Oppa. There's something I'm really curious about."
"Ah—the scenario hasn't come out yet. Only the production and your lead casting are confirmed."
"That oil painting... you drew it at Senior Chae Seoyun's request, right?"