episode_0007

“Isn’t that the best?”

“Yes, Miss. It’s the latest model and has games that boys would like. I even matched the colors to your liking.”

Hajin seems to like green, but I’ll change it all to blue.

I like blue the best.

[Should I buy you a cell phone while I’m at it?]

[It’s okay. I’m still a kindergartener.]

You said that, but if you just give it to me, I’ll accept it.

I want you to only answer my calls and only see my messages.

Sora is holding a cell phone in her hand that she has never seen before.

It’s clear that Hajin bought it to give to her.

Huh, no way. I’ll give it to you first.

*****

“Yes.”

He hands me his cell phone as if he were giving me some candy.

“What is this?”

“It’s your cell phone. If I call you, please pick up. If I send you a message, please reply immediately.”

“I don’t need a cell phone.”

“I need it. So, always carry it with you.”

And then he leaves.

What should I do with that lone wolf?

As I was blankly looking at Eugene’s back, holding my phone, Sora approached me.

Holding a cell phone with a pretty green strap.

“I don’t want to keep asking my mom to change it, so I won’t call her that often…”

He hands over his cell phone with an anxious expression.

I can’t not accept it when he gives it to me with that kind of expression.

“The strap is pretty. It’s my favorite color.”

“I bought it last time because you said you liked green. I was going to buy a green phone, but there wasn’t one… .”

And then he just left every now and then.

When Eugene sees Sora, he realizes that she is no different from other angels.

“Eugene and Sora gave it to me. Now I won’t be calling my mom.”

“Oh, really? Mom would rather answer the phone… .”

“If you turn off your phone, I’ll call your mom. Pick it up then.”

You shouldn’t ignore the wit of a 6-year-old 22-year-old.

Suddenly, my mother lifted me up and rubbed my cheek.

Oh, I can’t breathe.

“Ahahaha, Hajin thinks of her mom like this. I feel so good.”

She was a mother who belatedly developed a love for the child actor.

“Your mother is here too. Can I talk to you for a moment?”

“Yes, PD-nim.”

Joe PD hands his mother a business card.

“I have a junior who is shooting a commercial and he asked me to introduce him to Hajin. He is still a minor and his mother doesn’t seem to know much about this, so I said I would talk to him first. Here is his business card.”

When I heard the word advertisement, not only my mother but also I was secretly surprised.

He hasn’t even appeared on TV a few times, especially on children’s programs, so what are they basing their casting on?

“You won’t be cast right away. You have to audition. The advertiser wants to see you in person.”

As soon as I heard the word audition, my expression crumpled.

“Ah, Hajin, is this ad not that great? Your expression doesn’t look good?”

I guess I made it too obvious.

It’s like a trauma to me, so there’s nothing I can do.

Even if it was an accident that I got hit by a car on the day of the audition, I didn’t want to do it right away because I was chased around so much during my unknown days that my mouth still stank.

I wouldn’t have appeared on Waggle Waggle Kindergarten if they had mentioned auditions.

I was about to tell him I didn’t want to audition when I got a call from PD Joe.

“Oh, Jooyoung. We were talking about auditions anyway… .”

Young Joo?

“Mom. Could you show me the business card that PD Jo gave you?”

I checked the name on the business card my mom gave me.

[Tomorrow Planning Director Lee Joo-young]

‘That’s director Lee Joo-young.’

A few years later, this man founded a company called Mackerel Kidnapping Group with the intention of making movies.

At first, things didn’t go well, but when a digital camera commercial he shot to make money became a huge hit, he became known as an advertising production company rather than a film company.

‘If I hadn’t regressed, I would have been able to see the movie made by director Lee Joo-young.’

I applied for an audition for a supporting role in my first film produced here and was rejected.

At that time, I received a business card from the director, who said he was sorry and promised to work together again next time.

It felt strange to go back 20 years and see the same person’s business card.

I went up to Joe PD who was on the phone.

“Oh, wait a minute…Hajin, do you have something to say?”

“PD, I will audition.”

No matter how much you hate auditions, director Lee Joo-young is an exception.

Because he has the ability to make people not skip commercials that are over 10 minutes long with his witty sense of humor and unique storytelling.

Before I returned, I wanted to become a star and do commercials for that person.

This opportunity came rolling into my doorway, so I couldn’t let it slip away.

*****

“… The director said it was okay, but I kept crying. My eyes were swollen, so my manager rubbed them with a cold towel, but what if I look ugly?”

“Don’t worry, I will never do that. You are the prettiest.”

“Hehe.”

When Sora has a hard day filming, she calls me and asks me to comfort her.

I’m always shocked by the question of whether I’ll become ugly, and I get this confirmation every time.

“Don’t people around you say you’re pretty and good at acting? You hear it all the time, do you want to hear it from me?”

“What Hajin does is different.”

“How is it different?”

“Um… When Hajin does it, it feels like cotton candy appears in my chest, and I feel good. Other people don’t feel that way.”

It’s such a cute way to express your feelings.

Whatever it is, it feels good to hear these words from a genius child actor.

“It would be nice if we could be together on set.”

“I’m not an actor yet.”

“You act in a kindergarten. But why aren’t you an actor? You act better than me.”

I’m not happy at all about acting better than the child actors.

What good is it for a professional team to beat a children’s baseball team?

“You’ve been in dramas and movies. This is my first time. How can I act better than you?”

“I said you were really good at it… .”

“Who?”

“My dad said so.”

ah.

If it’s Sora’s dad, I’ll admit it.

If you don’t believe what director Han Jae-ryong, who won the Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival, says, then who else can you believe?

“The director saw my acting?”

Sora said that she bragged about me and watched the Tiger Teacher corner together.

He said he was happy to hear compliments saying that his pronunciation and expression of emotions were better than Sora’s.

Why are you happy to hear that I act better than you?

“It was the first time my dad praised another child’s acting.”

I have never appeared in a film by director Han Jae-ryong in my past life.

I would have rushed to the role if the director I respected had called me as an extra, but I never had the chance.

Because I had already retired and left the film industry before I started my acting career.

‘Will I be chosen by a director in this life?’

It hasn’t been long since I decided to act, but I already have a lofty goal.

As I hung up the phone, my mom appeared on the phone with her mouth wide open.

[Eugene]

I often get calls while I’m on a call, so I turn off my other phone while on a call.

Sora waits quietly, but Eugene immediately calls his mother.

Today too, my mom was waiting for the call to end while talking to Eugene.

My mom says it’s good to talk to Eugene, but I feel uncomfortable.

Why doesn’t the child know how to wait like this?

I told my mom to hang up and immediately turned my phone on.

“I was talking to Sora!”

“I picked up because you called first. If you feel wronged, call first.”

“When will Sora call?”

“I don’t know.”

“Then when should I call!”

What kind of train wreck did that little thing boil and eat?

“Don’t do that. If you can’t get through on the phone, I’m talking to Sora, so wait a minute.”

“I don’t like it! I want to talk right away, why are you telling me to wait!”

There is crying mixed in with irritation.

Like Sora, Eugene’s crying hurdle is quite low.

I’m a person who really hates seeing women cry.

“Don’t cry because I’ll definitely tell you the same thing on the day I talk to Sora.”

“Ugh… Really?”

“Really. I’ll definitely call you.”

A nasal sound mixed with laughter lingers in my ears like background music.

“But today… .”

They chatter about the good things they did and the things they were praised for.

Eugene uses me in a different way than Sora.

Sora melts away her sadness by talking about the hardships she has gone through.

Eugene grows happier by talking about fun times.

In between, I weigh the joys and sorrows of my two children.

What does this weight of emotion mean to me?

“Are you listening to me?”

“Huh?”

“You keep talking about me.”

It seems that a woman’s intuition works precisely from a young age.

How can you pick something out so accurately without even seeing its face?

“Sorry. I had another thought.”

“What are you thinking?”

Eugene has something like that, so the same excuses don’t work on him.

He won’t stop asking questions until I speak properly.

I thought he’d get mad if I compared him to Sora, so I told him the audition story I heard from PD Cho.

“Advertisement?”

Then he started to ‘happily’ reveal the commercial he had filmed.

Eugene, who likes to stand out, often appears as a model in advertisements and magazines.

In addition to children’s toys, they also filmed commercials with adult actors.

“What kind of advertisement is this?”

“I don’t know. Someone who knows the PD told me to audition.”

“I also know someone who knows PD-nim and he kept telling me to come to the kindergarten.”

what?

“That guy, is that the guy you know who makes commercials?”

“How did you know?”

He is a director who shot an ice cream commercial and is said to have introduced a children’s program.

When I asked him his name, the real director Lee Joo-young popped out.

‘This is how it’s all tied up.’

Thanks to this, I was able to hear vividly how director Lee Joo-young makes commercials.

It was worth putting up with Eugene’s chatter.

*****

“I’m sorry, PD. I should have prepared this.”

“Oh, no. It’s not that hard, so just wait there for a moment. I’ll take the picture right away.”

I had to submit a portfolio before the audition, and since I was worried about shooting an introduction video with a digital camera, I told PD Cho about it and he said he would shoot it for me.

“You can use the acting clip here, so let’s just film the greeting video. Stay still, that would be a good background. Stand over there.”

As I was about to go to the place Joe PD had mentioned, my eyes met with someone standing in the corner and looking at me.

It was director Lee Joo-young who suggested the audition.

It was a face from 20 years ago, but I could recognize it right away, perhaps because of memory correction.

‘What’s going on with that guy?’

In an instant, a bright light appeared before my eyes and enveloped me.

‘Why now all of a sudden?’