Ch.161To be honest, I didn’t have much interest in it.

About three years had passed since Kim Donghu declared he would take up boxing.

During that time, the actor Kim Donghu was practically dead.

No matter how successful and popular athlete Kim Donghu became,

among actors, there was honestly a sense of regret.

‘He should still be filming projects.’

‘If you’re an actor… kid, if you’re an actor…’

Being incredibly athletic and an elite athlete who could win Olympic gold medals?

Everyone understood that.

But.

His acting skills were also gold medal caliber.

Letting that talent rot for three years was honestly such a waste.

‘You should be acting, Donghu.’

Acting is like a performance or a match.

The better your co-stars are, the better your own acting becomes.

The better the chemistry, the more impressive the synergy.

And the better the project performs as a result.

In that sense, acting with Kim Donghu was a great opportunity to elevate one’s skills.

But since the man himself wasn’t active in projects, they could only tap their feet impatiently.

And right at that moment.

“I have to audition.”

“I need to prove that I’m the right person for our youngest.”

An audition offer came in for a film where Kim Donghu had been cast as the lead.

Moreover, as mentioned earlier, Kim Donghu was a guaranteed box office success.

It was obvious that this project would be successful too.

Turning it down out of pride would be foolish.

Perhaps that’s why.

“Thank you so much for coming all this way!”

It took veteran actors just 5 days to arrive at the audition venue.

+++++

Honestly, I thought the audition process would be quite long.

There were several supporting roles that seemed particularly challenging to cast.

‘Police officer, human trafficker… counting just the major roles, there must be four or five.’

If all those roles were to be filled through auditions, I expected it would take considerable time.

But defying those expectations, Director Lee Seongdeok’s text arrived.

>We’ve found everyone!

‘Already?’

It took only a week to fill all the roles.

Considering the audition time, it was an impossibly fast pace.

On top of that.

‘Why is everything moving so quickly?’

Before I knew it, we were already doing the script reading.

The actor lineup was, needless to say, legendary.

Starting with actor Han Taegeon who took the police officer role.

The actor playing the human trafficker was senior actor Joo Seonghwan.

It was amazing to see actors I had once worked with on different films all gathered together.

‘But can they really afford all these people?’

That thought crossed my mind while chatting with the senior actors after the script reading.

‘Even though I’m the lead, can they really afford all these actors?’

Roughly estimating, their fees alone would be over 3 billion won.

They must have done an impressive job convincing the investors.

‘Our side contributed a bit too, but…’

Still, not to this extent.

Just looking at the scale, you’d automatically call it a blockbuster.

It was surprising how smoothly everything was progressing, like a well-oiled wheel.

But this wasn’t just happening with The Real Hero.

Right after I officially announced my return to acting,

whether due to my established reputation or pent-up demand,

All schedules began rolling forward at a frightening pace.

As if everyone had been waiting just for me.

And so, time passed so quickly I could barely keep track of how busy I was.

When I finally came to my senses.

“Please write a gift and letter before meeting the bride?”

I found myself on the set of Will You Marry Me?.

++++++

Will You Marry Me? PD Choi Eunjeong.

She was extremely nervous at the moment.

‘Reminds me of when I first started producing the show.’

Back then, having all the control was so burdensome.

She thought she’d completely gotten over that feeling, but…

Perhaps because this was the first shoot for the virtual couple that would conclude the program,

she could feel a strange tension lingering in her mouth.

Crackle.

-Ah, Kim Donghu is currently writing a letter right after checking the mission card.

“Okay, got it. What about Ryu Jaerin’s side?”

-She’s also writing a letter. But she stopped by a stationery store first?

“Oh? I guess she wants to write something pretty. Keep going.”

-Yes, ma’am.

Choi Eunjeong continued checking the script she had written overnight

while monitoring the situation reported through the radio.

“PD, you wrote this script pretty loosely this time, didn’t you?”

“This? Yeah, I’m kind of tired of hearing people call it fake all the time.”

Most of the script PD Choi Eunjeong had written only outlined situations.

There was no content specifying actions or dialogue.

In other words, she was planning to let most of it be improvised.

“Since they already know each other, I thought just setting up situations would be enough to create natural scenes.”

“Ah, right, you said they were uniform models together.”

“Yeah, they don’t do that anymore… but anyway, them already knowing each other adds a different flavor.”

Until now, Will You Marry Me? had focused on the fresh taste of couples meeting for the first time.

But this virtual couple was taking the direction of acquaintances becoming spouses.

In other words, it could be seen as a typical love marriage.

A completely different storytelling approach from before.

Perhaps this was the kind of marriage people actually wanted to see.

“A pure love marriage, you know.”

Plus.

‘Jaerin looks incredibly innocent.’

The epitome of innocent glamour, you might say.

It was easy to see why the international response was already so heated.

“Pure love marriage… I don’t know what that means, but the visuals are amazing.”

“Right?”

Ryu Jaerin: the epitome of innocent glamour, internationally popular, gorgeous appearance personified.

Kim Donghu: the gold medal beast, divinely handsome, double 10-million-viewer actor.

The scene of these two writing letters while thinking of each other

evoked tremendous romantic feelings just by watching it on screen.

It made you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Especially Ryu Jaerin’s shy smile while writing her letter was a work of art.

“It really looks like they’re… dating?”

“Wow… that fresh feeling of early romance comes through perfectly, is this for real?”

Not the shyness of a first meeting,

but the natural freshness that comes after love has blossomed.

“How can an idol act this well?”

“She’s really approaching the program with the heart of someone in love.”

“Wow… I guess there’s a reason why Ryu Jaerin is so popular?”

Everyone praised her amazing acting skills.

Even Kim Donghu was just writing his letter with a serious expression.

They were impressed that she could show such a side.

‘That… doesn’t seem like acting to me.’

Only PD Choi Eunjeong, with her particularly good instincts, noticed something odd.

But she had no intention of digging deeper.

‘I don’t care why a successful idol would appear on a virtual marriage program when actors might hesitate.’

As long as the program did well, everything was okay.

She couldn’t afford to waste time thinking about anything else.

Crackle.

-We’ve arranged for them to meet at the café we booked.

“Great, they can exchange letters there, read them to each other… ask about first impressions and such.”

-And as written, maybe ask how it feels to be a couple now? How about that?

“Yes, exactly, let’s proceed that way.”

The ingredients were perfect.

‘Making this more delicious depends solely on my abilities.’

With the determination to light the final flame,

PD Choi Eunjeong pledged to showcase this virtual couple’s life in the most beautiful way possible.

++++++

To be honest, I wasn’t particularly interested.

“Well, it’s just virtual anyway, different from reality.”

“Will You Marry Me? Final Couple! Kim Donghu! Ryu Jaerin! The Perfect Couple Descends!”

News articles always tend to be sensationalistic.

“Will they show fantastic chemistry? Saturday at 5 PM, don’t miss it!”

Most of these articles are written favorably after being paid by the broadcasting station.

So I didn’t really care much about whatever articles came out.

The whole point of appearing on such entertainment programs was for promotion

or to show different sides of oneself.

If you think of it as strictly professional business, nothing should bother you.

“Honestly, it has nothing to do with me, and we’ve even kissed.”

Saying this, Kim Sujin calmly sat on the sofa.

She hadn’t really been waiting for it at all, but

coincidentally, it was exactly 5 PM on a Saturday.

“Since we’re starting filming next week anyway… might as well check if Kim Donghu’s acting skills haven’t gotten rusty.”

Kim Sujin put aside her increasingly frequent self-talk.

She turned on the TV, crossed her legs, and fidgeted with the remote in her hand.

-<Will You Marry Me? Who’s the next couple?! Kim Donghu and Ryu Jaerin?! They actually knew each other before…!>

Even these captions were terribly awkward.

-<From childhood friends to uniform model couple to becoming spouses, is this the ultimate pure love marriage?!>

“Cheap captions with tacky wording.”

Whoever edited this really had no sense.

It made her grip the remote control tighter out of anger.

The captions were infuriating.

To emphasize once more.

‘I’m really fine with this.’

Kim Sujin wasn’t particularly emotional about it.

She was truly fine.

They weren’t even that kind of relationship anyway.

‘Though we did act like we were.’

Well, they say that kind of thing is just a greeting in some countries.

‘We touched everywhere, and I missed the live broadcast because my underwear didn’t match.’

Kim Sujin was fine.

Really,

Really,

It didn’t bother her at all.