Chapter 27

Today was a location shoot.

In other words, instead of filming on a set, it was a day to shoot at an actual place they’d arranged to use.

I’d heard KDS’s drama department had a spot it rented out often, and this time, too, they’d managed to get a connection there.

The scene I was in was being filmed at a school in Suwoon, Gyeonggi Province.

Word was that another recent KDS hit drama had shot one of its iconic scenes at that very school, and the crew’s energy had been unusually high for days beforehand.

I guess you could say everyone on the Your Blue Name team felt a kind of pressure to leave with an iconic scene of our own……

“Sae-i’s friend photographs well too, doesn’t he?”

“Right? That’s why I’m dragging him along—so he can get used to a set.”

Teacher Seong Hye-sim drove us out to the location.

It was his day off from school and he didn’t have a part-time shift, so I’d kidnapped Woon Seong-ha and brought him along. Though really, he’d just agreed to come the moment I told him he could.

“Waah……”

The moment Woon Seong-ha got in the car, Teacher’s eyes went straight to his face in admiration.

Even someone who’s seen her share of handsome, accomplished seniors finds Woon Seong-ha’s face something new……

Suddenly I felt a strange distance from him.

To think he’d been hiding a face like that behind glasses this whole time!

No, wait. I’d heard Joo Su-yeon had confessed to Seong-ha once—so clearly even the glasses hadn’t managed to hide how good-looking he was.

Anyway, I’m glad I told him to take the glasses off.

Seong-ha couldn’t even put in his clear contact lenses by himself, so I’d done it for him. Still, it was a face worth the trouble.

“That face isn’t exactly an ordinary person’s lot in life… What’s your name? Could I hear your voice?”

“Ah, yes. I’m Woon Seong-ha. I’m the same age as Sae-i.”

“Oh my, even his voice is perfect.”

I could hear Teacher smacking her lips all the way in the back seat.

“Acting… I would like to try learning it. Though I don’t know if I’d be any good.”

“Want to learn from me?”

I’d already given Teacher a heads-up beforehand—that my friend’s face was seriously incredible, the kind of look that absolutely had to go into acting.

And now that his voice had passed muster too, Teacher had no reason to hesitate.

She’d taken him on as a student in my first life too, after all……

But he’d never once said to me that he wanted to learn acting—so why bring it up now, out of nowhere?

Strictly speaking, it was a declaration out of nowhere, but it was welcome news to me—I’d been nudging Woon Seong-ha toward an interest in acting all along.

Guess it worked.

It seemed like showing him my acting last time had sparked something in him.

Teacher and Seong-ha exchanged phone numbers. I watched the two of them rapidly warming up to each other with a satisfied look on my face.

Phase one: success.

Now all that was left was to have Seong-ha trained ruthlessly under Teacher, debut him as an actor, and sign him to Wave Actors.

“Heh heh……”

When I laughed meaningfully, Seong-ha, who’d been chatting with Teacher, kept glancing over at me.

That face. That expression. He looked exactly like a golden retriever watching its owner for cues.

I should never have brought Woon Seong-ha to the location shoot.

The crew was one thing, but the agency people the other actors had brought along today were all busy coveting him.

“Are you an actor too, kid? Here’s my card……”

“He’s not an actor yet.”

One down.

“We’ll give you great terms, okay?”

“He says he’s not interested in signing.”

Two down.

The business cards those men had forced into Seong-ha’s hand already numbered six.

Was it really okay for me to keep stepping in and turning them down on his behalf like this? But I was the only one who knew Woon Seong-ha was Seo Ha-jun.

He had to go to my grandfather……

A sudden worry hit me, and I looked up at him cautiously.

“Is there somewhere you actually want to sign with? Am I… getting in the way?”

“There is, actually.”

“Where?”

“Wherever you sign, Sae-i.”

Woon Seong-ha answered in a gentle voice.

……Well, I hadn’t signed a formal contract with Wave Actors myself yet either, so technically I was a free agent.

“Why would you want to sign wherever I sign?”

“Because you’d be there.”

It felt a little strange.

Ever since the day I’d skipped class and dragged him onto a set, Seong-ha had started throwing out lines like this at me every so often—lines cheesy enough to make my skin crawl.

With him saying he wanted to sign somewhere just because I’d be there, it felt a little much to openly pitch Wave Actors. I decided to just drop a hint instead.

“I’m still weighing my options too. I’ll let you know if I sign anywhere. Though it would be nice to be at the same place as you.”

“You’d like that too?”

“Of course. Sharing a rice pot with a friend and all.”

“Ah……”

“Anyway, so you’re coming to the same agency, right? Promise me, quick.”

I held out my pinky, and after a moment’s hesitation, Seong-ha hooked his own around it.

You’re my grandfather’s now.

Now that he’d agreed to learn from Teacher, he’d improve in no time.

Just wait. I was going to reel him in completely and get his signature on a contract.

Not knowing what I was really thinking, Seong-ha just laughed softly, meek as ever. His face, without a trace of styling, practically glowed.

After all the waiting, the scene Joo Sae-i would appear in finally came around.

Broadly speaking, there was really just one scene assigned to her today: the moment child-actress Yeon Do-yeon, grown bit by bit, finally became the adult Yeon Do-yeon.

A mother who’d come to her senses too late.

Realizing the potential in the daughter she’d overlooked while caring for her son, the mother resolves not to make the same mistake twice.

The first thing the mother chooses for Do-yeon’s sake is to return to Seoul.

But by then, Yeon Do-yeon had already given her heart to Yoo Ha-jin.

Torn between her mother and Ha-jin, Do-yeon ultimately chooses to let him go and return to Seoul.

A cold, abrupt departure. Riding in the truck, Yeon Do-yeon doesn’t cry. She only watches Ha-jin wave at her in silence, holding the sight of him in her eyes.

If we’re meant to be, we’ll meet again. So I won’t cry over something like this. This isn’t goodbye.

No matter how many times she repeats that to herself, the moment Ha-jin—who’d been running after the truck—finally disappears from sight, Do-yeon bursts into tears.

Leaving behind, in Oksong-ri, the first love that had come to her one summer, Yeon Do-yeon returns to Seoul in tears, and from then on, runs her way to school every single day.

She remembers what Yoo Ha-jin once told her—that when her thoughts grew too heavy, running until she was out of breath could make the hard feelings fade, even if only for a while, and that if she kept running like that, someday the future she wanted would appear right in front of her.

The scene they were about to shoot took that running of Do-yeon’s and wove it together into a single, crosscut sequence.

Autumn’s Yeon Do-yeon, just back in Seoul, running with skin still faintly tanned from the Oksong-ri sun. Winter’s Yeon Do-yeon, running in a padded coat with a vocabulary book clutched in her hand. And after that, spring, summer, autumn, and winter again……

At last, the young Yeon Do-yeon becomes an adult.

The actress switches from Joo Sae-i to Park Yeon-hui, showing Do-yeon running into Ha-jin, who has since come up to Seoul himself. And with that, episode one comes to a close.

This is what a child-actor arc is supposed to look like……

They didn’t call Writer Choi Gi-jeong a master of child-actor storylines for nothing. Picturing the scene in her head, Sae-i felt her chest tighten with emotion.

All without any idea of how many times she’d have to change clothes and run again for the sake of the cut edit.

I’m dying……

I’m not exaggerating, I really feel like I’m about to die……

“Hurry, drink some water. I ran and bought ice water.”

“Thank youuu……”

If Seong-ha had handed me that ice water five seconds later, I would’ve collapsed right there on the pavement.

I’d thought I had decent stamina, but after changing clothes and running over and over, I was completely drained.

So this was why today’s filming schedule was just this one thing……

As it moved on to adult Do-yeon’s turn, I could see Park Yeon-hui running over and over too.

“If you’re done, give it to me, Sae-i. I’ll go throw it away.”

“Nah, I’ll throw it away. You’re hot and worn out too.”

“I want to do it.”

Left with no choice, I handed the bottle over to the puppy—no, to Woon Seong-ha—wagging his tail beside me as he looked at me.

Even while Seong-ha went to throw the bottle away and came back, I didn’t take my eyes off Park Yeon-hui. She still looked just as drained of life as before.

She must still be dealing with a lot, because of her agency.

Even I started to feel worried, and my shoulders sagged.

“……Are you struggling from the heat? Want me to fan you?”

“Seong-ha, if you keep this up, you’ll end up being nothing but my lackey……. The rumors will spread even after you debut, you know.”

“……I’m fine with that.”

……Had the heat gotten to Seong-ha too? I decided to pretend I hadn’t heard that and kept watching the filming.