The OST work for the drama
This was because the 'Magician's' vocal training skills were exceptionally outstanding, and Seoyeon had already become able to sing to some extent.
Of course, if one were to compare her to a professional singer, it was true that she was still lacking.
However, contrary to Seoyeon's own thoughts.
"But her emotions are very deep. This is extremely important for ballads."
Surprisingly, it was highly praised by Producer Han Pyo-yeol, who was in charge of the music.
When she heard her own voice paired with the music, it gave her a very peculiar feeling.
'Maybe I can sing pretty well?'
Lately, Seoyeon had started to feel that way.
That was why, when the kids in her class...
"Anyone going to the coin karaoke today?"
"Me, me, me!!"
...were chatting so energetically, she would quietly approach, hover around, and observe the mood.
If possible, she wanted to go to a karaoke before the fact that she had worked on an OST was revealed.
But to bring it up first herself...
There was no student she could straightforwardly suggest going together with, and it just felt a bit off.
'It would seem like I'm asking to go just to show off my singing.'
Compared to when she led the way to the karaoke herself...
Wouldn't showing off her outstanding singing skills stand out much more when she naturally slipped into the group?
Seoyeon thought so.
She imagined the situation when she naturally joined them at the coin karaoke.
'Wow, what's with that voice~'
'Seoyeon is good at singing too.'
'She's not just good at acting.'
While she was staring at them, roughly indulging in such delusions...
She felt the laughter of the excitedly chatting students gradually dying down.
"W-well, students should study after all, right?"
"Should we go to a study cafe today?"
Then, the students carefully observed Seoyeon's mood and quietly slipped away.
Naturally, Seoyeon couldn't help but be bewildered.
What had she done to make them avoid her?
However, the reason was surprisingly simple.
Apart from the image Seoyeon had as an actress, there was also the image she projected as a classmate.
To put it simply.
First, the neat black hair.
Combined with a subtly intellectual expression.
Together with her beautiful looks, it gave the impression that she would be good at studying.
So it was only natural that the students flinched under Seoyeon's gaze just now.
Seoyeon's gaze seemed to rebuke them, asking if they were going out to play instead of studying.
'Ugh.'
Left all alone, Seoyeon awkwardly gathered her bag.
'I want to go to a coin karaoke...'
This was a desire that even Lee Ji-yeon couldn't fulfill.
Since Ji-yeon wasn't the type to clap enthusiastically, it was fun, but she couldn't perfectly satisfy Seoyeon's desire.
'For one thing, going with celebrity friends is a bit...'
They had already listened to so many real singers that it was obvious they wouldn't be very impressed.
'Cho Seo-hee?'
That name suddenly came to mind, but she soon shook her head.
Seoyeon's lips protruded sulkily.
'Traitor.'
Of course, Seoyeon thought well of Cho Seo-hee's actions.
Very well, in fact.
But separate from that, it was also true that she was a bit sulky.
Because she hadn't even imagined that she would be betrayed there.
The shock she felt at that time was honestly still vividly remaining even now.
'Hmph.'
She would meet Cho Seo-hee again at the filming of
If they were to talk, they could do it then.
And for the same reason as Ji-yeon, going to a coin karaoke with her was a bit much.
Besides, not knowing her skill level was also a problem.
'What if she's better than me?'
Anyway, Cho Seo-hee was a perfect superhuman who was good at everything.
So it wouldn't be strange at all if she suddenly sang well.
'It can't be helped.'
Seoyeon gave up on going to the coin karaoke today and headed to KMB.
It was just in time, as they said there were things to discuss regarding the drama
***
KMB Broadcasting Station.
Recently, among the three major broadcasting stations, MDC had consistently maintained a monopoly.
For the past few years, KMB hadn't produced any notable hit works, which even led to the drama department head being replaced midway.
And as soon as the new drama department head arrived,
In this day and age, viewership ratings exceeding 20 percent was highly encouraging.
More than that,
At this level despite not even being properly released overseas yet, it was worth expecting high results, especially in Japan.
"Seoyeon's style is exactly the style they like over there."
"Really? Doesn't Japan prefer cute faces? Not model-like women."
"Surprisingly, Seoyeon isn't that tall. It's just that her proportions are good."
Looking at her appearance, Seoyeon seemed to be over 170cm tall, but her actual height was around 165cm.
For a woman, she was definitely not short, but it wasn't to the extent of being exceptionally tall either.
"Plus, her hairstyle is exactly like that. Japanese fans go crazy for long black hair."
"...Really?"
The person having this conversation was Kim Pil-seok, the director of
And Kim Il-su, who would be directing
The two were college classmates and had built a long friendship.
He had even come to this meeting today to help Kim Il-su.
Anyway, the only youth drama filmed recently was
And since it was KMB's first hit in a long time, they were seeking his opinion on various things.
"But when you succeed at a young age, um... there are some difficult aspects, right?"
"Ah, right, right. But I heard Director Kim Il-su has already met Seoyeon."
"Yes, I met her. But that alone doesn't mean I know everything about her."
Kim Il-su had already met Seoyeon before.
The impression he got of Seoyeon back then was that of a 'neat top student'.
He had seen her acting several times already, so he didn't doubt it; rather, he was a bit worried about her private life.
Looking at her impression, it didn't seem like she would cause any trouble at school, but who knows?
There were quite a lot of celebrities who caused scandals with innocent faces.
'And the fact that she has never experienced failure even once.'
She might be good to them, but who knows how she is to others.
There were many celebrities with two faces, and it was common for them to cause trouble where no one could see.
Especially for a celebrity like Seoyeon who knew no failure, as long as she was human, there was a high probability of such elements emerging even if one assumed she didn't have any.
"Ah, Seoyeon. You're here?"
At that moment, Seoyeon entered the conference room, bowing politely.
She was wearing her school uniform, perhaps having come right after school ended.
That appearance matched the image of the upcoming
'It would be good to reference the Yeonhwa High School uniform.'
Director Kim Il-su nodded and thought so.
Yeonhwa High School was an arts and physical education high school, so its uniform was quite pretty.
'Come to think of it, didn't she also wear a uniform in the recent
Rather, he didn't really remember seeing Seoyeon in anything other than a uniform.
What kind of clothes does she wear around outside of filming?
"School studies must be tough, so I'm sorry for calling you out."
The first to speak was Director Kim Il-su.
Today's meeting wasn't something that was strictly scheduled.
It was simply a gathering of the director and writer to convey their opinions to the actress before conceptualizing the future direction.
"Ah, Writer Min Se-hee is here too."
Following that, Min Se-hee also entered the conference room.
And so began the meeting regarding the concept of
"As I mentioned once before,
Min Se-hee said, looking at Seoyeon.
She had already spoken to the others about this concept and exchanged opinions several times.
Seoyeon was the only actress cast in advance and the protagonist.
This meeting was arranged to ask for her opinion.
To reference it for the upcoming script.
"First of all, the setting, Taeyang High School, is a prestigious college-prep high school recognized in South Korea."
And it's a wealthy school attended by children from families that could be called prestigious houses.
"Private education, and parents trying to get their children into top-tier universities."
After saying that, Writer Min Se-hee looked at Seoyeon.
"And, the role Seoyeon will play is an ordinary middle-class... no, a girl from a somewhat poorer family sandwiched between such prestigious ones."
An irregular who accidentally flowed into the prestigious school.
Of course, she didn't get admitted to Taeyang High School without any reason.
Hearing that it was the most famous college-prep high school in Seoul, she applied and properly got in as a top student.
That was the character Seoyeon was playing, named 'Yeon So-ha'.
"She is a noticeable figure in many ways to those who came up through the escalator system from Taeyang Elementary School, but Yeon So-ha, who goes at her own pace, doesn't care about such things at all. Instead, she has no friends at school and is always alone."
This perfectly matched Seoyeon's image as well.
So Seoyeon nodded.
She was confident she could play being alone at school well.
"And... the important thing is the image of a 'top student straight out of a painting'."
Min Se-hee looked at Seoyeon.
Neat posture and appearance.
A girl who always wears a school uniform.
Min Se-hee slowly nodded.
"Seoyeon, you're good at studying, right?"
"Pardon?"
Wait, her school grades here?
"Ah, s-sorry. It's not particularly like that. Your image just gives off that exact vibe! I asked something unnecessary."
Min Se-hee failed to notice Seoyeon's shaking pupils.
And the same went for the other directors.
"Seoyeon definitely has that kind of image."
"So how about it, Seoyeon? At school?"
At the slightly mischievous joke, Seoyeon smiled awkwardly.
"Yes, it's fine."
"As expected."
"There's no need to worry about the top student acting."
At their reaction, a trickle of cold sweat ran down Seoyeon's forehead.
A top student who is good at studying.
No, well, she was a top student, but did a top student necessarily have to be good at studying?
These days, studying wasn't everything; arts and physical education were also important.
Seoyeon herself was the living proof of that right now.
Her mother, Soo-ah, supported such a Seoyeon.
Her father, Young-bin, was similar.
Though the vibe was a bit different.
'Top student acting...'
It seemed like they wanted her to show an intellectual kind of acting.
She hadn't thought much about it until now, but Seoyeon slowly began to worry about it.
Seoyeon's acting was fundamentally emotional acting expressed through empathizing with the role.
But a top student.
It was an image that just felt distant to her.
'...'
Seoyeon fell into deep thought.
It seemed like she needed some help after all.
***
Hoyeon's office building in Seoul.
Considering that Hoyeon was an agency located somewhere in the 3rd Military District, it was an excessively nice building.
There were rumors that the company's CEO had a lot of money, and it was a building that exactly fit that description.
The only somewhat successful idol was 'Summer Girls'.
Even that was practically a group led by Cha Na-hee alone.
Because of that, Cha Na-hee was extremely busy.
The OST work for
Out of the inserted songs, no less than three were assigned to Summer Girls.
'I wonder if they're practicing well...'
She was worried about the group's members.
The rebellious members who didn't even practice properly.
Even when Na-hee tried to help, they wouldn't listen to her properly, so the OST practice was sluggish.
It would be fine if Na-hee just sang it alone, but unfortunately, they were lively girl group songs, so she couldn't do that either.
"I heard all the vocal trainers ran away, are you okay?"
"...I'm not okay."
Na-hee poured her heart out to her acquaintance, the popular idol Yena, and let out a sigh.
She found it hard to focus on the variety show filming she had today.
"Even if I try to teach them, it's doubtful they'll actually listen..."
This song was quite difficult, so practice was essential.
But they refused to listen to what Na-hee was saying, so it was a difficult situation in many ways.
"Seoyeon said she'd help."
The younger friend she had recently become close with, who suddenly contacted her yesterday.
Hearing Na-hee's words, Seoyeon readily offered to help.
But since she was an actress, there was no way she could teach singing, so it was realistically an unreasonable offer.
And there was no way the innocent Seoyeon could properly handle those delinquents.
'What should I do?'
Cha Na-hee let out a sigh and thought.
Wishing someone would appear and tame those delinquents for her.
And.
At that very moment.
'What on earth is this?'
Rabin was now looking at the large screen, falling into agony.
Honestly, if it weren't for the black-haired, red-eyed girl staring intently at her from the side...
...who she suspected might be a psychopath, she would have run away long ago.
Everyone sat neatly in their chairs, looking at the screen.
And they met the gaze of the person coming from the screen.
'What is that again?'
A strange character was reflected on the screen.
When Seoyeon introduced her, she said it was a... what was it, a magician or something.
She looked like a cartoon character, but they said there was a person inside.
"This is the vocal trainer I specially invited today."
Looking at their strangely pale faces, Seoyeon spoke brightly.
Of course, there was no one here who could respond to that cheerful remark.
Let alone Summer Girls.
The 'Magician Elzebet' facing this bewildering situation.
In other words, Han Da-young as well.
'How did it come to this?'
Only that thought was swirling in her head.