Newbie Guide Filming Day (Reality)
"Hmm..."
Click.
"Like this..."
Click.
"I wonder if this is about enough."
"Hmm... 'Which one looks better...?' Oh my."
"Aaah!"
"Y-you scared me! Please make a little noise when you come in!"
"Who's that? A boyfriend?"
Mom would have said anything at all looked pretty, and Auntie only kept repeating "Wow... so pretty," eyes gone soft as if something had spellbound her. So I had decided to find someone who could actually give me an opinion, and Han Seongun simply happened to be the most suitable person.
But a boyfriend?
"He's just a friend."
I had no idea why so many people had been pairing me with Han Seongun lately, but the two of us really were nothing more than friends. From the perspective of who I used to be — a man — there was no way I could look at Han Seongun as a romantic interest, and he himself had said he preferred someone older.
"Oh, is that so?"
Auntie didn't particularly sound as if she believed me, but it didn't matter. We really weren't anything to each other anyway, and explaining myself wasn't going to make the suspicion disappear. I had learned all too clearly that jumping in to address every little thing like this only backfired, so I resolved to leave it there and say no more about it.
"I was only trying a few things on and asking which of them looked better. That's all."
"Right, right. So did he write back?"
"No, not yet..."
"Hah. Not even answering a text from a girl as pretty as you? That boy must think awfully highly of himself."
"I'm telling you, neither of us is interested in the other. And if he's not answering, it's probably..."
The reason Han Seongun wasn't answering was probably yesterday's opening match. If he was truly aiming for the first division, he needed to show a gap wide enough to overwhelm the second-division teams — and instead he had been the one crushed, 2–0. Even I, watching from the outside, had been badly shaken. How must it have been for Han Seongun, who was actually in it?
I waited and waited, and when no reply came, regret started to wash over me. Maybe I shouldn't have sent them. He was already going to be a mess, and a text like this—
Ding.
"Oh? There it is."
Apparently his mental hadn't cracked so badly that he'd ignore even my messages.
"What did he say?"
Auntie, curious about Han Seongun's reply. And why was she curious about this, too...
"...He says the second photo is better."
There was no particular reason I couldn't tell her, and if I didn't, she would only misunderstand in some other strange direction, so I told her at once.
"Hmm... really? No fun at all."
Whether it wasn't the answer she had been hoping for, Auntie lost interest almost immediately. Thankfully she didn't grow any more curious. The rabid shippers were already more than enough to pair me off with Han Seongun.
And so, taking his opinion into account a little more, I tried on several further outfits, and in the midst of that—
"All finished?"
Mom, who had left me in someone else's hands and made her escape, was back.
"Mom!"
What on earth had she been talking about, for the call to run so long that she hadn't returned the entire time I was getting through all these clothes? I poured every drop of that sulky hurt into the most venomous look I could muster and stared, and Mom began, quietly, to avoid my eyes.
"Ahaha... it was a call from a really old friend, you see. So the conversation just ran long..."
"You don't have any friends besides me. Why are you pretending?"
"Hey, hey!"
"Hmmph..."
So she would lie even to her one and only daughter? The hurt doubled, and I carried that feeling straight on, sharpening my glare another degree. This body had inherited Mom's looks in full, and the acting, as it happened, was rather good.
"I bought you something to drink, though, to make up for it. Can't you let it slide, our daughter?"
Mom held out a cup carrier. Trying to train me with nothing but food?
As if I would fall for something like that... huh?
"Whoa, whoa...! A mint chocolate chip blended...!"
"A truly wise decision, Mother."
It would have been a lie to say the sulk was entirely gone, but the effect of my favorite snack — banned for nearly a month — was simply too powerful.
"So, have you narrowed down what you're going to wear?"
"Yeah, about three or four? I took photos separately, so have a look."
"Mm... as expected, they all suit you. Eunha, they're clothes you'll be wearing. You ought to be the one to choose."
Slurp.
"Huh? Me?"
Then and now, I was fairly hopeless about fashion. The first thing I ever looked for in clothes was comfort. The second was whether they were worth the price.
"Hmm... I'll go with this one."
Still, this would be the first time I showed my face to my viewers, so I deliberated, and deliberated again, before I chose. The outfit I settled on was a black knit cardigan, a white T-shirt, and a beige skirt. Once, wearing a skirt in place of pants would have sat quite uneasily on me. These days, I was used to it.
"Not bad. It suits your air, too, Eunha."
It had only been an hour since we'd met, and yet Auntie was remarkably sharp about fashion. If an Auntie like that had given her approval, my choice must have been pretty sound.
"Mm. I keep saying it — black really does suit you, Eunha."
If even Mom, who had spent half her life in the entertainment world as an actress, said it suited me, I probably wouldn't be laughed at anywhere I went. My viewers would be pleased, too. Thinking of them — surprised, and then delighted, at the sight of me appearing on screen in these clothes — my heart gave a foolish little leap.
"Good. Then, next..."
Next?
"Sorry? What do you mean, next?"
"We've only picked one outfit. If we're going to finish all of this in a day, we have to hurry. First, let's do something about that hair."
"H-huh?"
"I'm exhausted..."
As if choosing the clothes had been nothing but the start, Auntie and Mom adorned me with every last kind of styling there was. Light makeup that stopped short of excess — lashes, BB cream, and the rest — a manicure, even the taming of hair that had grown however it pleased. When I said I wanted to try wearing it long, they left it just long enough to fall all the way past my shoulders, and since they were cutting it anyway, they added a perm on top, so the impression I gave now was quite different from the person I had been.
Set the lightly made-up face beside what had come before, and I understood with perfect clarity why women called makeup a second weapon.
"Want to eat before you head out?"
"Together? I'd love to."
It was already well into the evening to simply head home, and they had given up an entire day to help me. Letting that pass without a word felt wrong, so I decided I would buy dinner.
"Um, I'll pay for dinner tonight. Please eat with me before you go."
I may not look it, but I'm a streamer with ten thousand average viewers, thank you very much. Buying dinner for the two of them is nothing I can't cover.
Whether my words had struck her as admirably grown-up, Mom stroked my hair with one hand, and Auntie spoke up in surprise.
"Oh my, you're better than my daughter. Even when she finally comes home after ages, she doesn't bring so much as a snack."
"You have a daughter?"
I hadn't tried to learn much about Auntie, so this was the first I was hearing of it. Well, if she was a friend of Mom's...
"Yeah. Eight years older than you."
The answer came not from Auntie, but from Mom. It seemed she and her daughter weren't on particularly good terms.
"Speaking of which, Yeeun is coming home 'after so long'? She's a freelancer. Wasn't she the type who barely left the house?"
"She used to be. Then recently she went and got hired at some sports team or other, and now she's playing manager there, I hear. Without a single word to her own mother...!"
Auntie's voice was climbing higher and higher. Talking any further about her daughter looked a little dangerous.
"Ah, I'm hungry... Mom, Auntie, let's go eat something, quick."
"Yes, yes. You planning to keep our daughter starving like this? Let's go."
"Yes, yes~ Aigo, if only my girl were even half of what you are... honestly."
"Ahaha..."
How to put it — I was truly grateful they looked at me so fondly. But being held up against her daughter left me with a strange feeling...
"Still, the Yeeun I remember was always so proper with her elders... Why won't she listen to a word you say?"
This person called Yeeun, Auntie's daughter, seemed to listen well enough to my mom. Why my mom, of all people?
That question was answered at once by what Auntie said next, a self-mocking sigh woven through the words.
"She takes after me. Show her a pretty person and she loses her head completely. All that politeness toward you was just her trying as hard as she could to look good in front of you."
"...Auntie, you seem really..."
"What?"
"Ah, it's nothing."
It really seems like she takes after you. The mood was a little too frightening to say it.
The official domestic pro arena for Project A, and a building you could fairly call a theme park for the game's fans. On match days and weekends, PCK Park opened its doors, and anyone at all could wander the interior to their heart's content. Today, it was closed to everyone but authorized personnel.
"Equipment all good?"
"Yes!"
Today was the day of the shoot, and the place they would film it was PCK Park.
Project A Newbie Agent Guide
Jett Episode
"We're all set!"
"Okay. Then let's rest until everyone gets here. How long until the guest arrives?"
Fifty minutes remained until the shoot began, but the director wanted to know in advance when the guest would get there. Even if the crew finished every preparation, a delay was inevitable if the person who was supposed to show up never did. The last guest had been thirty minutes late without a word, and the filming staff's complaints had been no small thing.
"A text came in earlier. At this hour... they should arrive in five minutes."
At least this one seemed to come equipped with actual manners.
"Five minutes? They'll be here well ahead of the time we gave them."
The director was not a man who disliked punctual people, so he felt a measure of goodwill toward this shoot's guest. Much of that was simply because the previous guest had been such a menace.
The preparations were finished, besides. He sat down and fiddled with his phone while he waited for the guest to arrive.
"Director, Director."
Of course, the moment a break arrived, a new staffer came over with the usual barrage of questions, and he had to set the phone down again.
"What."
A rookie who made a nuisance of himself every break — and yet the director could not bring himself to dislike this one. He carried out whatever he was told perfectly and without complaint, and he was all deference and smiles with his seniors.
"Director, the guest this time is that streamer, Eunha, right? The showmatch MVP..."
"Yeah. So what."
However famous Eunha might be, she was still only a new streamer unearthed this year. For a director of his years, there was no way to muster much interest.
"Then we actually get to see Eunha's face today, don't we? I'm a total fan..."
A kid who usually kept his head down and did his work well, affable as anything — why did he suddenly look so pathetic?
"According to Zzangdol, she looks like Yoon Hayeon in her younger days... Ah, I can't wait."
Yoon Hayeon in her youth. This kid was off in a hopeless fantasy.
"Oh, come off it. Since when is Yoon Hayeon an ordinary face? She's a legend, called the greatest beauty in the country on looks alone. And she resembles that Yoon Hayeon? It's nothing but a baseless rumor someone tossed out for attention."
"Tch... you think so?"
He had no particular desire to shatter a young man's fantasy. Still, he judged that saying it now would be better than letting the boy come face to face with her, and so he said it.
The very idea of Yoon Hayeon in her youth was impossibility itself.
"It's noisy outside, isn't it?"
He and the rookie had been chatting about one thing and another, and somewhere in the midst of it the space beyond the set had grown quite loud.
"Has the guest arrived, maybe?"
"Come to think of it... it's been exactly five minutes."
Partly for the idle thought of checking, just once, the face of this person about whom the groundless rumor swirled — that she resembled Yoon Hayeon in her youth — and partly to greet the guest himself, the director rose from his seat.
Creeeak.
What came through the opened door, however, was neither a woman who resembled Yoon Hayeon, nor a seventeen-year-old high schooler—
"Who are you people?"
—but dozens of men in black suits.
"Wh-who are those people?"
Men in black suits, suddenly pouring onto the set. Even at a glance their builds were anything but ordinary, and they gave off an air of danger thick enough to taste.
At a time like this, you resolved things as amicably as possible. And that was the duty of the person responsible for this set — himself.
"Wait. I'll go talk to them."
The director walked slowly toward the men in suits, and he was just about to speak to them when—
"H-hold on a minute! You can't just follow me in like this without a word!"
A young girl's voice rang out, pitched sharp with urgency. And quite a lovely one, at that.
"But, miss, the Chairman ordered us to guard you for the day..."
"You don't all need to come inside for that! Everyone except Driver Kwon, please wait outside!"
At the young woman's order, the men went out without a word of protest, and only then could they make out who the voice belonged to.
"I'm sorry! They're my bodyguards. The overprotection is really severe...!"
Once he took in her appearance, the director had no choice but to freeze where he stood. What he had called impossible only moments ago — the truth of that very proposition — was standing before his eyes.
Not the director alone. Every gaze on the set drew to a single point. And there stood only one girl.
Until the girl bowed her head and greeted them all, they could only stare at her, blank.