episode_0009

The sub-heroine role taken on by Gil Hye-yeon.

New road manager Sora.

She was just an ordinary fan who adored her favorite actor, but now she has entered the industry and joined an entertainment agency that is recognized in the field of actors.

However, fantasies are quite different from reality.

The entertainment industry she encountered as a professional was colder and more ruthless than she had imagined.

Episode 2.

#New Number, 6.

– Broadcasting Station

“Haah! Haah!”

Sora’s first appearance scene starts with her back view.

In a brightly lit broadcasting station.

In that clean and stylish place.

A woman with long brown hair in disarray runs through the crowd, panting heavily.

“Phew! Hah!”

She was a slender woman.

She didn’t look like she had good stamina.

Her neck, flushed from running, was covered in sweat.

Her running seemed to strain her strength.

And on top of that.

“Ugh, it’s so heavy I could die.”

That slender woman was carrying plastic bags full in both hands.

The contents peeking out were all kinds of snacks, drinks, and other convenience items.

The volume and weight were considerable for her to carry alone.

But there was no other choice.

Today, she was the only manager supporting her celebrity.

In that situation.

Her being a woman was not important.

Gender doesn’t matter to a manager.

There are only superior and subordinate roles.

“Hah! Hah!”

Sora ran and ran.

It felt like her arms would give out from the heavy bags, but she endured.

And, while doing so, she thought.

“Did I come into this industry to do this?”

Such doubts.

She found herself pondering.

A deep sense of doubt crept in.

But she didn’t have the luxury to dwell on her thoughts.

Sora just kept running.

The camera followed her running back view as the scene cut.

And finally.

She reached her destination.

Luckily, she wasn’t late.

“Thank goodness….”

Sora breathed a sigh of relief, leaning on her knees.

Her actress was moody, and even a slight delay would lead to all sorts of histrionics.

She knocked on the door of the waiting room in the broadcasting station and cautiously opened it.

There.

A small demon, looking very enchanting, was waiting for her, flipping through the script.

***

#New Number 7.

– Cha Yeon-soo’s waiting room.

In a scene where manager Sora, sweating profusely from running errands, is subjected to Cha Yeon-soo’s tyranny, she learns about the harshness of the entertainment industry.

Facing such a scene.

While focusing on her acting, Gil Hye-yeon carefully observed her counterpart.

“Let’s see.”

She was an excellent actress.

It was easy for her to separate appearance from reality.

Although she wore a downtrodden expression and cowered before the top star Cha Yeon-soo who acted high and mighty, inside, she was eager to dissect the mediocre acting of a newcomer.

“I’m just a sub-heroine, how dare a newcomer like her overshadow me?”

She was annoyed.

If the acting was subpar, she was prepared to pay the price.

But on the other hand.

“Still… it’s KS Entertainment. Maybe, just maybe, she could act well?”

There was a hint of expectation.

After all, it was KS, a leading agency in the country.

There were no mediocre actors among their talents.

So, even though she was a newcomer.

Could Cha Yeon-soo show acting skills beyond her experience?

Such expectations arose.

“If that’s the case….”

Gil Hye-yeon was an actress.

She became an actress because she loved acting.

Although she didn’t like being controlled by the agency’s backdoor dealings….

If she had the talent, she could endure and get along with her colleagues.

With her thoughts organized in this way.

She looked at her counterpart role.

What kind of acting would she show?

Would she do well?

Can’t you do it?

In the contrasting predictions between the two.

“Unnie.”

Seo Yisoo started acting.

‘…Huh?’

And Gil Hye-yeon’s expression momentarily stiffened.

“I said I only drink a certain brand of bottled water.”

Cha Yeon-soo, rummaging through the bag brought by with a bored look.

She sent a pitiful glance and said.

But that acting was eerie.

‘What….’

Gil Hye-yeon momentarily forgot that she had to act and her body stiffened.

To that extent….

‘Why are these emotions so vivid?’

The emotions emanating from were so vivid to the point of being violent.

Furthermore, what confused her was not just those emotional expressions.

‘And what kind of acting is this?’

Seo Yisoo’s acting was beyond imagination.

‘He doesn’t even consider the other actor.’

Acting is not done alone.

Usually, there is a co-actor who appears together, and sometimes even if you come out alone and take the camera, there is a predetermined composition centered around the background that has been arranged in advance.

In Seo Yisoo’s acting….

There was no consideration for those external factors at all.

To put it bluntly, you could say this.

‘He’s not just playing alone in the room.’

A self-indulgence unfolding in a room with no audience, without considering anyone.

It looked like that.

However, all those shortcomings were being overturned by the violent clarity of emotional expression.

“…Why are you silent? Doesn’t what I say make sense?”

‘Ah.’

A line that wasn’t in the script.

Unexpectedly, Gil Hye-yeon, a good actress, momentarily forgot the tempo and missed the line.

But Seo Yisoo, who was an observer, calmly recited the line that wasn’t in the script as if nothing was wrong, leading Gil Hye-yeon back into the scene.

From Gil Hye-yeon’s perspective, it was really confusing.

‘What is this person?’

The acting itself was a mess, but not this kind of mess.

However, the ‘expressiveness’ of emotions was at a violent level.

Her skillful handling of the situation when the co-actor forgot the line didn’t seem like that of a beginner in acting.

‘….’

From acting skills to emotional expressiveness. And the ability to handle situations.

Everything seemed to be playing separately without fitting together.

Of course, this was an impression she had because she had no idea who Seo Yisoo was.

Because Seo Yisoo was originally a dragon.

Although she currently had the body of a human species.

The original presence of a dragon was not completely erased.

The immense and expanded mental world that a dragon possesses, enduring infinite time until madness.

The presence exuded from that.

That presence was the source of the emotional expressiveness that Seo Yisoo displayed.

The situation handling just now was the same.

It was possible because she was a dragon.

Seo Yisoo is currently ignorant of many things.

She only has a dictionary-level understanding of what acting is.

So now.

Seo Yisoo was not acting, she was just playing.

She did not skillfully lead the co-actor who missed the line back into the scene.

Playing was a survival mechanism to refresh the tired mind of the dragon.

Therefore, while playing, the dragon lowers its original personality to a kind of sub-personality and half-submerges it, bringing in a virtual self constructed through access to the Akashic Records.

Just now.

Seo Yisoo was just .

She was just poking fun at the arrogant and weak manager who dared not even respond to the top star asking her questions.

Gil Hye-yeon did not know about this.

‘I really can’t grasp what kind of actress she is.’

But confusion is confusion.

Gil Hye-yeon is an actress.

She’s quite good at acting.

She was an actress who possessed talent, effort, and courage.

Her inner turmoil was complex, but outwardly, it was brief.

To others, Gil Hye-yeon seemed to have everything under control as she continued her performance.

“Um, well… the convenience store I went to didn’t have that bottled water. Would it be okay if you just drank this today?”

Timidly.

Stuttering.

While watching her assigned co-star’s reactions.

She subtly revealed her frustration, feeling overwhelmed by the reality of the entertainment industry.

The rookie manager, Sora, speaks.

That’s right.

Facing off against Seo Ee-soo, who was playing around.

Gil Hye-yeon acted.

And thought to herself.

It’s really tiring to act with this guy.

Seo Ee-soo’s acting skills were truly a mess.

If there were no cameras, direction, or co-stars, there wouldn’t have been any issues.

But this was a drama set.

Seo Ee-soo’s playfulness seemed like forcing on ill-fitting clothes within the framework of acting.

There were many discrepancies.

The tone of her lines fluctuated.

And she often confused Gil Hye-yeon by bursting out with unexpected emotions.

The most frustrating part was how she deviated from the marked positions, disrupting the carefully crafted camera angles.

‘Why isn’t the director calling cut?’

In normal circumstances.

That is, in ordinary situations.

If an actor acted like this, the director should have called cut.

And declared a retake.

However, the self-proclaimed perfectionist, Jo Gil-san…

Strangely, didn’t call cut on Seo Ee-soo’s repeated chaotic acting.

The talented and charming actress, Gil Hye-yeon, had to struggle alone to deliver a proper performance in such a situation.

‘Why do I have to go through this?’

In fact, upon closer inspection, Gil Hye-yeon’s behavior was also strange.

Of course, until the director called cut, the actor had the obligation to continue the performance.

But even that had its limits.

If the situation was this chaotic, a star like Gil Hye-yeon could have stopped acting under her own judgment.

Acting is a highly delicate task.

And even a small trouble could disrupt the intricate machinery of performance.

Before it came to that, it wasn’t impossible for an actor to declare a temporary halt to maintain their performance.

But Gil Hye-yeon didn’t do that.

‘I don’t know if this shoot is going well, but anyway.’

Gil Hye-yeon.

Facing intense emotions she had never felt before.

She deflected all those emotions with her meticulous acting skills.

Unknowingly, she thought.

‘It’s fun. This.’

For the first time in a long time, she genuinely enjoyed acting.

Well…

Whether that enjoyment stemmed from the satisfaction of delivering a good performance.

Or from the thrill of walking a tightrope, afraid of ruining the act…

No one knew the answer yet.