Chapter 13

“To live…”

After a long moment of hesitation, an unexpected answer slipped from his granddaughter’s lips.

“I want to live.”

To live, she’d said.

With earnest eyes, the child only repeated that she’d chosen acting because she wanted to live.

Like mother, like daughter, was it?

He remembered, from decades ago, Joo Jeong-wol pleading with him, begging.

‘There’s Su-deok, there’s Jeong-hui too, aren’t there, Father! Can’t you please just let me do the one thing I want to do?’

‘You’re Dongwoo’s eldest daughter. You’re to inherit the family business. There’s nothing to reconsider, so go on, leave.’

‘…Living like this, I’ll suffocate to death.’

‘A person’s life doesn’t end that easily.’

His daughter, who had said she wanted to walk the path of an actress, who had said she’d suffocate to death if it wasn’t this path.

And now the child that daughter had left behind was saying the same thing her mother had.

Joo Tae-baek wet his throat and slowly parted his lips.

“The women of the Joo family are all exactly the same…”

Joo Tae-baek did not trust people.

Even family, in the end, was only human — willing to cast you off and turn their back the moment money and power demanded it.

More than one person had groveled before him only to bare their teeth like piranhas the instant they found a weak spot to sink into.

That was the world of business. Even his own old friend Chairman Ryu had purged his own relatives without mercy when the time came.

So when Joo Sae-i had shown her face again, he’d thought much the same thing. That perhaps this child, too, had some scheme tucked away.

And yet.

‘…She’s really just too much like Jeong-wol.’

The child who had kept her distance for so long, and had now come to him — maybe she wanted something too.

Maybe that sincere look about her acting, maybe that resemblance to her mother, was all a lie as well.

Even so, in this moment, Joo Tae-baek…

“That’s right. A person has to live, first and foremost.”

“…!”

“Go on, then. Act to your heart’s content.”

He wanted to let himself be deceived, gladly, by Sae-i’s bright smile.

Some time later, at a rented screening room near KDS’s headquarters building.

Sae-i’s gaze turned to the sheet of A4 paper taped to the door.

[Drama: Your Blue Name]

[Script Reading]

Today was the first script reading for what fans had already nicknamed “Nupureum.”

A gathering where the actors would exchange greetings, read through the script, and find their rhythm together.

They said it was better to come early, so here I am…

Sae-i wandered the still-empty reading room, eyes moving faster than her feet as she memorized the nameplate set at each seat.

She’d already looked up the actors she was likely to run into often on set.

So grown-up Do-yeon is played by actress Park Yeon-hui.

Being a star writer’s work, there were plenty of famous names.

Her luggage already set down, she was about to take the seat assigned to her when—

“I thought someone might’ve beaten me here, and it turns out it’s you, Sae-i.”

Seong Hye-sim’s voice came from behind her.

“Seeing you here, you give off a different feeling, don’t you think?”

“Yes, it’s strange.”

“Oh my, how fresh-faced~”

Reacting lightly, she brought a hand up to the side of her mouth as if about to share a secret.

When Sae-i leaned in to listen, she whispered in a ticklish voice.

“Did you study the script well? I haven’t had the chance to look after you much lately.”

“Oh, yes! I went over it on my own.”

“What a dependable girl.”

Seong Hye-sim hummed a little tune and took her seat.

Once every empty chair had filled, the waiting director and writer sat down in the center — the best spot to take in the whole reading at a glance.

“The cameras are still being set up, so go ahead and say your hellos first.”

“Eek…!”

As Choi Gi-jeong, microphone in hand, swept her gaze around the room and spoke, someone who happened to meet her eyes let out a frightened sound.

I heard her reputation’s something else.

Sae-i had heard a thing or two about her from Seong Hye-sim. That Writer Choi Gi-jeong’s nickname was “the Devil of Retakes.”

Other writers tolerated it when actors got by on a half-hearted performance during the script reading, but Writer Choi, they said, would say “once more, please” without end — that was how the nickname had come about.

Of course, every work she puts out does ridiculously well, so no actor ever picks a fight with her either.

Maybe that was why. Starting with that one frightened sound, the reading room froze over in an instant.

“…Ugh, I’m so nervous! Writer Choi, go easy on us today, won’t you?”

The actor playing the comic-relief role broke the tension with a wheedling voice.

Only then did the people seated nearby start exchanging greetings.

Sae-i glanced sideways at the young actor playing “Ha-jin” as a child, seated right next to her.

It’s Do Je-hyeon!

Do Je-hyeon. A year younger than Sae-i, he’d made a name for himself as a child actor since his elementary school days.

Sae-i could recognize him on sight. He was practically the face of child acting, having worked everything from a historical drama that topped fifty percent ratings to a film with ten million viewers.

On top of that, a model student! He volunteered regularly, and it had come out that since turning an adult, he’d kept up steady donations to a children’s center.

He was, in every sense, an actor born to play the younger version of “Ha-jin,” the male lead of Your Blue Name.

First, I should say hello…

Hesitating, checking the mood, Sae-i caught a passing glance from Do Je-hyeon and seized the moment to dip her head in greeting.

“Um, I’m the one who’ll be playing the young lead role this time, so…”

“Joo Sae-i.”

“Huh?”

“I know your name. If you’ve got time to talk, wouldn’t it be better spent on the script? Unless you don’t mind looking bad by comparison today.”

And that was the end of the conversation.

Sae-i, still not quite grasping the situation, turned her head slowly, her face blank.

Talking down to me like that? Even if he is a senior in the industry…

And on top of it, telling her not to bother talking if she didn’t want to look bad by comparison today — that was an outright insult.

Was Do Je-hyeon always like this?

Whatever reason he had for saying something like that didn’t matter. All she had to do was prove herself with her skill.

…I’ll show him.

It was the moment Sae-i’s competitive streak caught fire.

Do Je-hyeon had plenty of complaints about the casting of Your Blue Name.

This was the third time he was taking on a child role in a work written by Choi Gi-jeong.

A lead couple needed a backstory the audience could actually believe in. That was Writer Choi Gi-jeong’s own conviction.

So even a child actor who belonged to the so-called “Choi Gi-jeong faction” had to go through at least two or three rounds of vetting before being cast — that was just how it worked.

And this time I had to sit through four auditions.

Since the child leads’ backstory mattered so much in this particular work, Writer Choi had put Je-hyeon through four separate auditions just to test him.

And then he’d caught wind of a certain rumor.

They say Seong Hye-sim pushed hard for some girl to get the young female lead. One audition, and that was it, apparently.

That a rookie had landed that hard-to-get role on Seong Hye-sim’s recommendation alone.

Her name was Joo Sae-i. No acting experience to speak of.

She was such a nobody that there wasn’t even any more information to dig up.

Joo Sae-i, Joo Sae-i…

Waiting for the day he’d finally get to see this rookie’s face, Do Je-hyeon had read the script thousands of times out of sheer spite.

And now.

“Um, I’m the one who’ll be playing the young lead role this time, so…”

Joo Sae-i was sitting right beside him. For someone who’d parachuted in, striking up a conversation first like that was absurd.

He’d made his unwillingness to talk obvious and cut her off flat, and Joo Sae-i had shut her mouth. The quiet suggested she’d been fairly deflated by it.

“…Ahem.”

It bothered him a little, but Do Je-hyeon forced his eyes back onto the script.

Before long, the camera setup and the crew introductions wrapped up, and it was time for the actors to introduce themselves properly.

The senior actors playing the leads, and Do Je-hyeon, had all finished their greetings. Now it was Joo Sae-i’s turn, in the role of young Yeon Do-yeon, to speak.

She’ll probably introduce herself all wilted, just like before. No need to even watch.

No confidence in her own skill, so she shrinks and mumbles her way through a greeting. Parachute hires were always like that.

With a faint scoff, Do Je-hyeon turned his head toward her.

And then.

“Hello, everyone. I’m the one playing young Do-yeon — Joo! Sae! I! Though this is my first time doing a proper acting job, I’ll watch closely and learn as hard as I can!”

In a tone far more spirited than he’d expected, Joo Sae-i introduced herself.

Having finished her greeting amid a warm, friendly mood, Joo Sae-i turned and gave Do Je-hyeon a light smile, just like that.

“…!”

For a moment, Do Je-hyeon’s shoulders drew in on themselves. Seeing her smile like that, it was just like—

…Yeon Do-yeon?

A smile as bright and refreshing as standing in a fan’s breeze while still wet from the monsoon rain. Eyes narrowing gently like the ripple of a stream. A laugh light and quiet as leaves trembling in a summer wind.

Everything Joo Sae-i had just shown him felt, to Do Je-hyeon, exactly like the smile of Yeon Do-yeon, Ha-jin’s first love.

Feeling his heart drop with a thud, Je-hyeon bit down hard on his lip.