Chapter 73 : Perfect Love

Perfect Love

“…I still can’t believe it.”

On set.

Cameras, lights, and busy staff moving around.

The sounds of footsteps from people coming and going since the morning, mixed with quiet instructions.

Suhyun sat in front of the mirror, quietly watching the makeup artist’s hands at work.

Eyebrow shaping.

Base makeup.

She could feel the brush lightly grazing her skin.

An unfamiliar feeling.

But maybe, it’s a feeling she’ll need to get used to in the future.

As she looked at herself in the mirror, Suhyun whispered.

“Really… I can’t believe it at all.”

I’m really the lead.

I’m still in shock.

Vtuber, illustrator, Kang Suhyun.

The life I lived like that,

Now, I’m being called ‘Song Yeonwoo’ on the screen.

“…Really, this doesn’t make sense.”

She stared intensely at the mirror.

Is the face in front of her really ‘Actress Kang Suhyun’?

Or is it still ‘Shirahana Yuki’?

The makeup artist, with a skilled touch, smiled lightly while finishing her face.

“Are you nervous?”

“Ah… Yes, a little.”

A little?

No, that’s not it.

To be honest, I’m shaking a lot.

But strangely…

It’s not an anxious kind of shaking.

Standing in front of the camera.

Creating emotions in front of the many staff members.

It’s not the first time being on stage.

I’ve been through it with Busker and, in fact, Vtuber broadcasts are no different from being on stage.

But…

This time, it’s completely different.

From now on, I’m not ‘me.’

I have to become Song Yeonwoo.

‘This is what real acting is…

Acting is not just memorizing lines and expressing emotions.’

I have to live the life of that character.

‘Can I really do this well?’

I’m still unsure.

At the audition, I immersed myself spontaneously, but this time is different.

‘Can I regain that immersion?’

The moment when acting came out naturally, like pressing a button…

Will it happen again on set?

Thinking this, I lightly fiddled with my fingers.

‘No, I can’t worry. I just have to go for it.’

At that moment, I saw my face in the mirror slowly changing.

As the makeup was completed,

I was gradually transforming from ‘Kang Suhyun’ to ‘Song Yeonwoo.’

Soft-textured skin,

Eyes bright but with a trace of unease.

The person in the mirror…

Truly seemed to be becoming someone else.

I told myself.

‘Yeah. I’ve started now. Let’s do this, Kang Suhyun.’

‘No. Song Yeonwoo.’

I hadn’t prepared the feeling of love. That part worries me the most.

I looked back at my reflection in the mirror.

The curve of my eyebrows, the flow of my eyes, and the soft base makeup were changing the atmosphere of my face.

Even without makeup, my face, which could dominate others, now with makeup, looked like a fraud.

But, is that enough?

Can this face, just being pretty, express the feeling of ‘love’?

I slowly rubbed my fingertips together.

The anxiety was stacking up.

It was fine during Busker.

Back then, I had to express emotions without lines, and those emotions were simpler than love.

My role then was first love, but that was more like a ‘memory’ emotion.

An immature feeling from childhood, a mix of excitement and sadness.

That was okay.

But this time, it’s different.

‘I have to express real love.’

‘I have to act as Yeonwoo, who loves Jung Junseok.’

That’s the problem.

I had never ‘prepared’ the feeling of love.

Until now, when I acted emotions, I created and stored each one, then retrieved and used them.

Anger, fear, pity, sadness, joy.

I stored them like buttons and pressed them to use.

Then acting came out naturally.

But love?

I hadn’t stored that.

Because I had never experienced ‘love’ before.

I might understand simple affection, respect, or trust,

But I’ve never understood the emotion of ‘loving someone.’

That’s the biggest challenge in this role.

‘I love you.’

‘The name of this emotion is definitely love.’

‘I love you.’

When reading these lines, I can say them with my mouth, but they don’t resonate with my heart.

‘I’ve never stored the emotion of love, so how do I bring it out?’

This time, it’s not simple facial acting.

Love has to be in the lines, the gaze, and every small movement.

But how can I, who have never felt love, create that emotion?

That’s the biggest issue in this shoot.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

‘Let me think of a method. I need to find a solution.’

Acting is an art of understanding and expressing emotions.

So, what I need most right now is to understand this emotion.

But how?

Can I replace it with the emotion of ‘liking someone’?

Or can I replace it with the emotion of ‘relying on someone’?

Or…

‘Should I just imitate it like actors who express love?’

But I didn’t want to do that.

I’ve always expressed real emotions through acting.

Calling out emotions like pressing a button is my specialty.

But acting ‘love’ without experiencing it is different from what I’ve always done.

I didn’t want to just imitate it poorly.

‘I need to find a method.’

‘I’ve always found methods.’

So, this time,

I need to find a way to understand love.

That way, I can become Song Yeonwoo.

“Alright. Let’s start with the first scene.”

Yoon Byeolha’s voice echoed through the set.

I slowly took a deep breath.

Soft lighting descended on my face, now fully made up.

The first scene.

The moment Song Yeonwoo meets Jung Junseok again after losing her memory.

I quietly closed my eyes and then opened them.

I calmed my mind.

And then, I became Song Yeonwoo.

Yoon Byeolha shouted at her.

“Ready— Action!”

The atmosphere on set changed in an instant.

A hospital corridor bathed in warm sunlight.

White walls, benches, and an empty space.

In the time flowing silently, Song Yeonwoo took a step forward.

Her footsteps were quiet.

Slowly, but with hesitation in her movement.

Her fingertips trembled faintly.

Her heartbeat felt as if it was audible in her ears.

At that moment, she felt like she was meeting her husband for the first time.

There was a door in front of her.

Beyond that door, her husband was.

But she was no longer ‘the old Yeonwoo.’

She had lost her memory.

All the time, memories, and emotions she shared with him.

To her, he was just a ‘stranger.’

She had to face him now.

Junseok’s hand cautiously grasped the doorknob.

His fingers twitched as if nervous.

Click.

The door opened.

Jung Junseok.

He was looking at Suhyun, sitting on the bed.

He had been gazing toward the window,

But slowly turned his head to look at Song Yeonwoo sitting on the bed.

At that moment,

Suhyun felt that she had become Yeonwoo.

The softly lit set.

A space watched by dozens of staff members.

But right now, in Suhyun’s eyes, there was only one person.

Jung Junseok.

He was looking at Song Yeonwoo.

His eyes wavered.

His lips trembled slightly.

He recognizes her.

But, she does not recognize him.

The moment their eyes meet, his heart sinks.

“…Yeonwoo?”

A strange voice.

A strange face.

A strange expression.

But the familiar face of her husband.

The moment the name “Yeonwoo” leaves his lips,

Her vision blurs.

Her fingertips tremble.

She cannot say a word.

What should she do?

What emotion should she feel?

She has lost her memory, but he is looking at her.

He knows her as his wife, but Yeonwoo actually remembers nothing.

That subtle contradiction felt like it might tear her apart.

Why this feeling?

“…Who are you?”

At last, a single word barely escapes her lips.

The moment that single word ends,

Suhyun had become Song Yeonwoo.

Confusion, awkwardness, surprise.

And perhaps…

Love?

“Cut.”

Yoon Byeolha’s voice rang out.

But the filming site was enveloped in silence.

The lights were still shining on Song Yeonwoo.

Suhyun stood there for a long time.

And then, she suddenly realized it.

That she was clenching her hand.

That she had just expressed love.

And that her heart…

Felt strange.

“…Oh my! Suhyun! Blood! Blood!”

Someone’s cry echoed through the silence.

Only then did Suhyun return to reality.

Her fingertips tingled.

A dull pain crept in.

She looked down at her hand.

Her palm.

She had been gripping so hard that her nails had dug deep into her skin, leaving red marks.

And blood was seeping out.

The red liquid slowly spread under the bright lights.

“…Ah…”

Suhyun blankly stared at her hand.

She hadn’t expected it to hurt this much.

She hadn’t even realized her nails were digging in.

That’s how immersed she had been.

“Suhyun, are you okay?”

A staff member rushed over with a handkerchief.

They also held a small first aid kit.

The makeup artist hurried over and grabbed her hand.

“What should we do… Are you okay?”

Only then,

Suhyun slowly opened her hand.

“…Ah… Yes. I’m fine.”

She replied with a small smile.

But,

Her mind was spinning.

What was this feeling?

Just a moment ago, it really felt like love.

He had lost his memory.

He had become a stranger.

And yet, despite that, the feeling of falling in love again.

She thought it was something she wouldn’t understand.

But now… she understood it.

Or… was it just acting?

That couldn’t be.

Suhyun knew.

She always ‘reproduced’ emotions mechanically when acting.

It wasn’t about naturally immersing herself — it was about replaying feelings like a machine.

But this time…

Her heart had really hurt.

Her heart had really trembled.

It truly felt like losing someone she loved.

That feeling was still lingering.

“…Why?”

A quiet whisper slipped from her lips.

But no one heard it.

Except for Yoon Byeol-ha.

He was resting his chin on his fingertips, smiling slowly with interest.

‘Ah… filming.’

When Suhyun finally came to her senses and looked around,

The entire filming site was holding its breath.

The staff, the lighting director, the sound team —

Even the camera operator.

Everyone was speechless.

“……”

Someone was staring at Suhyun with their mouth open.

Someone else had covered their mouth with their hand.

Soft whispers spread through the silence.

“…What did we just see?”

“…Can a rookie even act like that?”

“…Seriously… what was that?”

The lighting director quietly checked the footage and muttered,

“This… is incredible.”

The camera operator replayed the footage.

On the screen,

Song Yeonwoo’s eyes were alive.

It wasn’t just acting.

The moment they saw it through the lens,

Everyone saw the expression of a ‘wife who lost her love.’

That gaze, that trembling, that emotional intensity.

It didn’t feel like acting.

It felt real.

A rookie actress…

Expressing such raw emotion so naturally?

It was chilling.

“…Is this even possible?”

A staff member whispered in disbelief.

At first, everyone thought, ‘She’s just pretty, so she was cast.’

But now…

Not a single person in the room was thinking that anymore.

Only one thought lingered in their minds:

‘Did a real monster just appear?’

And,

Amid the astonishment and admiration,

Yoon Byeol-ha quietly smiled.

Just now,

She had shown the emotion of truly losing someone she loved.

Where that emotion came from, he didn’t know.

But one thing was certain.

Kang Suhyun.

She was becoming a true ‘actress.’

That fact was more thrilling,

More exciting than anything else.

Yoon Byeol-ha leaned on his fingertips,

And his lips curled into a subtle smile.

“…Good.”

“Everyone, good work. And… Suhyun.”

Yoon Byeol-ha’s face stiffened.

Suhyun, who knew better than anyone how to read emotions, understood instantly.

“…Come with me for a moment?”

That was anger.