episode_0002

As soon as Mom turned off the lights and left, the room became quiet.

I pulled the blanket over my nose and stared blankly at the ceiling.

Then I thought about what happened during the day.

‘Have you developed the ability to see smoke?’

It wasn’t just acting, it was perfect acting that I had imagined while watching the screen.

Even now, the child actor’s lines and movements keep coming to mind.

Without even realizing it, my body learned what to say and do.

That too, perfectly.

I don’t know the conditions for activation, but if it continues to appear in the future, it’s like finding a lifelong acting teacher.

‘It’s acting… .’

After I quit baseball in my previous life, I wasn’t interested in anything.

So for quite some time I only thought about eating and living.

If you do this, you’ll earn more, and that one gets a better hourly pay.

Living like that, I ended up working as an extra in dramas and movies.

This refers to a gangster who carries the weight behind the main character or a passerby who carries a heavy load in a historical drama.

While other people waited, filmed a scene, and left, I saw acting there.

Every time I come out, I see people drawing life with different characters, different emotions, and different positions.

They laugh cheerfully, then shed tears, and sometimes get angry at others.

It was a life I never had, and it was an emotion I never showed to others, let alone to myself.

‘If only I could live such a diverse life…’

I felt like I wanted to try it once.

It was my first time not playing baseball.

I just had an idea that I wanted to try something.

‘Yeah. I don’t know who made me regress, but I think of it as a gift, and I’m going to do my best to act properly this time.’

With that thought in mind, I covered myself with the blanket.

Tomorrow is an important day where I have to save my teacher, so I should go to bed early.

*****

It’s a day for a field trip to a traffic park near the kindergarten.

While I was waiting in line at the entrance, I saw a kindergarten bus parked in the parking lot.

Teachers were busily unloading luggage nearby.

Our class teacher, Jo Ha-rin, was also walking towards the bus.

‘Now is the time!’

I got out of line and ran towards the bus.

I arrived before Professor Jo Ha-rin and blocked her way.

“Huh? Why is Hajin here? You should go and get in line.”

I didn’t answer, but just stretched out my arms toward the teacher.

“Please hug me.”

A smile appeared on the teacher’s face, and his lips hung from his ears.

“Aha, Hajin wanted to hug you, teacher? Then I should hug you.”

And then he hugs me tightly.

The sound of my heart beating pleasantly and a warm feeling enveloped my whole body.

While we were doing this, another teacher entered the bus and came out with a box from the back seat.

In his previous life, Mr. Jo Ha-rin broke his leg after misstepping on the stairs while unloading luggage from a bus.

I didn’t want to see the teacher I followed so closely get hurt.

So I bought some time by being cute to the teacher and I think it worked.

It was 20 years ago so I had completely forgotten, but I started remembering it a few days ago.

As the date of the accident drew near, the memories of crying while watching the ambulance, of begging my mother to come visit me in the hospital, of writing crooked letters on my teacher’s cast, became clearer.

And I remembered it clearly yesterday.

That the accident happened in the parking lot on a field trip day.

This could have a butterfly effect.

But I have no regrets.

Because I could see my teacher’s face smiling brightly while holding me.

But the butterfly effect came to me faster than I thought.

*****

After finishing the field trip and leaving work, Mr. Jo Ha-rin couldn’t help but smile.

It was because Hajin, who had been keeping her distance from me for a few days, asked to hug me.

It was strange that the kid who usually followed me around like that suddenly became so distant.

‘But was Hajin that handsome?’

The impression of being a cute little kid was further enhanced by his incomparable good looks.

I felt dizzy for a moment, but I got better quickly, so I didn’t think much of it.

“If you’re not going to use the refrigerator, get out of the way.”

“Ah.”

My brother, who had come home after a few days, was standing in front of me with a frown on his face.

“I thought you were living in the broadcasting station, but you’re coming home.”

“I came to get the housework anyway. I don’t have any clothes to change into.”

“Are you working alone at the broadcasting station? What’s so busy?”

“That’s because I’m cleaning up the shit that some crazy kid left behind.”

“Shit?”

A children’s program producer was caught receiving bribes from parents to cast child actors.

As such external factors made it inevitable to change the cast, we decided to take this opportunity to undergo major surgery.

“But why did you do that, oppa?”

“Do I know? If they say so, I have to criticize them.”

He grumbles and opens a can of beer.

Jo Ha-rin also brought a beer and sat down next to me.

“What frond?”

“Waggle waggle kindergarten.”

“Wow, that’s the front that my kids really like.”

“That’s the problem. They’re a 3TV signboard, but they took bribes, and they cast kids who can’t even do basic things, and they get cursed at by the viewers. If that’s not shit, then what is?”

“So, oppa, normalize it?”

“I made a deal with CP. If this goes well, he said he’ll be the first to recommend me when the drama department opens.”

“So that’s why you bit me. I wondered if my brother was some kind of childish person.”

“My teeth are already falling out. What kind of child actor is this?”

They said they were missing one child actor who had to play with animals and act.

“There were three people who were brought in after receiving bribes. I sent them all out and filled two, but one of them is not good at all.”

“If it was a bustling kindergarten, there would be a line of kids who wanted to do it.”

“The two new girls are like dolls. I’m trying to match them up with the already small pool, but there aren’t any more people.”

He gulped down his beer while grumbling.

“Oh, you’re having that problem again, oppa. You bring the kids here and then kick them out, saying the picture isn’t good?”

Jo Ha-rin knows why her older brother Jo Seung-hyun is acting like this.

Jo Seung-hyun, a PD at the entertainment department, is the type who is obsessed with directing scenes that are captured on camera.

I examine each prop carefully and if there are any sharp corners, I cut them out, and if there are any missing parts, I pull them out to make them fit.

Of course, the background and the appearance of the cast are also ‘important’ considerations.

Even though it’s a small TV screen, they’re overly obsessed with visual harmony.

‘Thanks to that, I became a PD who could finish off the screen.’

Even though I was in charge of a children’s program, that habit never went away.

Two doll-like girls have joined the cast, and they need a male child actor whose looks won’t be obscured when placed between them.

If my brother says something like that, the girls must be really pretty.

“Who are you two?”

“Confidential. You can’t do this anymore because you’re related.”

“Why am I involved?”

“You’re a kindergarten teacher who brings our professional viewers around. How can we trust you, especially a quick mouse?”

“Chi.”

However, Jo Ha-rin kept thinking about Ha-jin, who she had held in her arms earlier.

“If I have a face, it doesn’t matter if I’m not an actor?”

“You just have to not be afraid of the camera. There are parts that require acting, but since there are three child actors with serious experience, you can just let them do it. For now, looks are the most important.”

“Then there’s this really handsome boy in my class. Do you want to see him?”

At that moment, PD Cho Seung-hyun’s eyes widened.

Because he knows better than anyone that to Jo Ha-rin, kindergarten students are just people she needs to embrace.

I have never once heard anyone say anything about how my classmates were like before.

Moreover, this was the first time I received such a compliment on my appearance.

“How handsome do you have to be to say something like that?”

“You’ll know when you see it for yourself. Why would I have said something like that to my brother?”

He said he was an ordinary person with no acting experience whatsoever.

I didn’t expect it, but honestly, I was curious.

“When are you coming to work?”

“Tomorrow. I took a nap in the editing room and my whole body is a mess. I’ll sleep comfortably today.”

“Then, take me to kindergarten in the morning. I’ll show you then.”

“Okay.”

In this way, the schedule for the audition was decided without Hajin even knowing.

The next day —

“The school bus will be arriving soon, so park over there.”

“Okay. I’ll just watch the kid and leave. Just go out and tell me who it is.”

“If you see it, you’ll change your mind.”

I told myself not to laugh.

How many handsome faces do you see on TV stations, only to have your eyes stolen by an ordinary person, and a 6-year-old at that?

With these thoughts in his mind, PD Cho Seung-hyun sipped his morning coffee.

“Ah, here you go. Hajin!”

As Jo Ha-rin was leaving with a happy face, the back of a child was seen.

‘huh?’

The child slowly turned his head as if he heard the teacher’s voice.

No, it may be that PD Cho Seung-hyun feels that time has slowed down.

The moment my face meets the child’s,

“… … .”

Producer Cho Seung-hyun’s world has come to a standstill.

Boom bang!

“What if I park my car here? Get out quickly!”

“Sorry, sorry. Oppa, get out of the car quickly!”

Time began to flow again at the loud honking of a horn.

PD Cho Seung-hyun parked his car in the parking lot and came running in a hurry.

“You, you, you, that… ah… right! Are you, a person?”

“Yes?”

As I was stammering and talking nonsense, Jo Ha-rin said with a pitiful expression.

“Brother. Instead of just showing me that fierce face, shouldn’t you tell me who it is?”

“That, that’s right. He’s… um, he’s a program maker at a broadcasting station. Do you like the “Waggle Waggle Kindergarten”? He makes that. ”

“Hajin was really surprised, right? He’s the teacher’s brother, a PD at a broadcasting station. Oh, what does a PD do? .”

“Yeah! Not sir… PD Cho Seung-hyun. From now on, call me PD Cho.”

I was so out of it that my siblings only talked about themselves.

It’s been 20 years since I last saw you, but your face hasn’t changed much. I guess you must have just had presbyopia.

It’s true that they even made a children’s program.

PD Jo Seung-hyun.

After going back and forth between the culture and entertainment departments at KBC, he became a star producer whose talents blossomed brilliantly on a cable channel 10 years later.

He is the main culprit who raised the viewership ratings of cable and general service dramas above those of terrestrial broadcasting with unique material, fresh directing, and detailed screens.

There were people like this around me.

“Let’s talk right now. Is your mother at home?”

“Oh, really, oppa. What’s the rush?”

“Don’t you look like you’re in a hurry? I saw this face.”

This way, I have definitely made my mark on the future star PD.