Private education—the power struggles among parents to get their children into top universities.
And the children also struggle desperately to get into top universities, committing malicious acts without any hesitation.
For Seoyeon, who couldn't even properly attend school herself, the thought 'Why go that far?' did cross her mind.
She did have such thoughts.
Originally, let alone a prestigious school, Seoyeon was in a situation where it was difficult to even attend a normal school properly.
And that was still the same now.
Neither Seoyeon's father nor mother paid much attention to academics.
They even went as far as saying that living like a student was the best.
'Though that might be because I'm working as an actress.'
Anyway, therefore, the protagonist of
Because of that, she had a lot of internal worries.
'But.'
Seoyeon scanned her surroundings.
They were all young.
Of course, there were also many middle-aged actors.
But the place Seoyeon would sit was where the young actors gathered.
In other words, the classmates who would target Seoyeon in the 'school' setting were gathered there.
"It would be more comfortable for actors of similar age to sit together, right?"
Lee Min-hwa, the PD of
It was a good-natured smile, but it definitely didn't have only good intentions.
She couldn't possibly be unaware of the power struggles among young actors.
'She's telling us to handle this ourselves.'
That's why she arranged this seating.
Because it would be a problem if issues arose once filming actually started; it was a consideration that wasn't really a consideration, telling them to resolve things in advance.
"Everyone is keeping an eye on Seoyeon."
"...Yeah."
For Seoyeon, who was used to mostly lively filming sets, this atmosphere was quite unfamiliar.
Probably, it was the same for Cha Na-hee.
And, honestly, Cha Na-hee was more of a problem than herself.
'Idol background.'
Even an active idol, no less.
Furthermore, Summer Girls was a fairly well-known group, but calling them a 1st-tier group was a bit of a stretch.
'Actors tend to strongly look down on idols.'
They commonly call them 'ddanddara'.
For actors with stubborn mindsets, or rather, actors who learned from watching that, it wasn't much different.
It even went to the point where broadcasts showed actors not clapping even once while watching singers and idols perform at movie or drama award ceremonies.
If even such performances are like that, what about in the acting world?
The reason they were only giving their attention to Seoyeon right now was also because of that.
Cha Na-hee was essentially treated as if she 'didn't exist.'
They probably didn't have any expectations that she would do well in the first place.
'Even though she produced results in
A small laugh escaped her.
The thought of how they ignore her even when she has results.
'Senior Jung-woo was really unique.'
Her liking for Park Jung-woo rose anew.
Park Jung-woo didn't show any particular discriminatory behavior towards idols.
It was also important that
Because Park Jung-woo, who had the most star power among the cast, took the lead and set the tone, this kind of thing didn't happen.
'But here, Na-hee unnie is the only one from an idol background.'
And, the actors gathered here today were definitely all actors with star power and promising futures.
'The cast is better than originally.'
Still, there were many cases where the actors she saw in her past life came as they were.
Probably, they were actors that writer Min Se-hee had in mind from the start.
However, the young actors were different.
Unlike her past life where most were rookies, this time it was filled entirely with promising prospects.
Actors who would all see the light as time passed.
Method actors.
Distinctive actors.
Actors advancing to walk the red carpet.
This
And, just as Seoyeon thought, the other actors were also keeping an eye on Seoyeon.
'Joo Seoyeon.'
'She's the protagonist, that's why.'
'She didn't even audition.'
The young actors who participated in this
But those who didn't audition were exactly two.
Joo Seoyeon and Cha Na-hee.
So naturally, it couldn't sit well with them.
They too had mostly built their careers steadily since their child actor days, and were raised as promising prospects within their agencies.
Nevertheless, the fact that they didn't pay much attention to Cha Na-hee was identical to Seoyeon's thoughts.
'Because she's an idol.'
Because they considered her not a rival anyway.
Since idols, if they get tired of acting, will just return to their main job anyway.
But Seoyeon was different.
Especially since they were of similar age.
'Even with a 10-year blank period.'
Kim Hyun-suk, who was cast as the eldest son of the 'Lee Hyuk-soo Family' in this
Actually, when Seoyeon first made her comeback, he didn't pay much attention to her.
Just a child actor returning after 10 years.
Even if she had a brief flash of fame on variety shows, he thought the interest would quickly die down.
That is, if Seoyeon hadn't appeared in consecutive hit works.
'
On top of that, rumors circulated that the recently filmed
Of course, since it was a public audition program, it wasn't certain.
'She must have connections with the higher-ups.'
Otherwise, she wouldn't have received such a push.
No matter how big a hit
"What's with you, Kim Hyun-suk."
At that time, his friend sitting next to him, Han Sung-jin, smirked and said.
"Are you that concerned?"
"You're pretending not to care when you actually do."
The two had known each other since their child actor days, so they were quite close.
Not only the same agency, but they had even appeared in the same dramas or movies.
"She's the protagonist of this drama."
"Do they cast the lead through connections instead of auditions?"
"They picked her based on her career."
That damn career.
At best, it's only two works, right?
Just looking at the number of works, theirs was much higher.
Even if they only counted appearances in hit works.
"Because how impressive the roles were is what's important."
"...."
He wasn't denying that they were certainly impressive.
While he definitely harbored hostility, he couldn't call himself an actor if he ignored that acting.
'Cha Seo-ah and Jo Ha-rin.'
They were roles with completely different colors.
The acting she showed was to the extent that it was hard to believe it came from the same person.
To the point where it didn't seem like acting from someone her age.
But that was...
'Because they were those kinds of roles.'
Kim Hyun-suk thought so and looked at Seoyeon.
The confidence that if given such roles, he could do it too.
Kim Hyun-suk had that kind of confidence.
To put it nicely, he had strong pride as an actor; to put it badly, he was somewhat overly confident.
As that bizarre silence continued.
"Have you all had some conversation?"
Finally, as the writer Min Se-hee and director Kim Il-soo appeared, the discussion began in earnest.
"Those who saw the script at the audition probably already know, but I think you've grasped the atmosphere and content of the drama to some extent."
Kim Il-soo, the director of
"It's a story that unfolds centered around 'Sky Garden,' where the Royal Families live."
And at the prestigious 'Taeyang High School' within 'Sky Garden'.
"First of all, the lead, Lee Yoo-ju."
Director Kim Il-soo said, looking at Seoyeon.
"A girl with an older brother who is a perfect CSAT scorer and the top admitted student to the medical school of Baekyeon University, called the best university in South Korea."
Like her brother, she was a person who entered Taeyang High School through a special admission process.
It was said that Lee Yoo-ju's older brother, Lee Seok-chan, successfully got accepted into Baekyeon University with his own independent curriculum.
And that he passed that exact curriculum down to his younger sister.
"You are the parents aiming for that curriculum. That's why you target Lee Yoo-ju."
Telling someone to get close to her.
Someone with threats.
And another by throwing their weight around.
Parents striving to extract the curriculum from Lee Yoo-ju through all sorts of methods.
Their sole purpose is their children's success.
Also, a family of doctors.
Or wanting to maintain the prestige of being a family of lawyers or prosecutors.
"A story about private education. It will be a drama satirizing academic credentials."
Having poured out various stories for a while, Kim Il-soo said up to there and exhaled.
"For now, the talk about the work ends here. Because today is a place to get familiar with each other's faces before the full-fledged script reading."
He said so and grinned.
Then he created an atmosphere as if telling them to freely converse.
It was different from when PD Lee Min-hwa was around.
A bizarre silence.
But, this time the director was watching, wasn't he?
"I'm already suffering because of my son, but I didn't know I'd be doing this kind of acting here too."
"First of all, I have absolutely no connection to places called prestigious schools."
"It's such a headache. Phew."
The first to speak were the middle-aged actors.
With the other actors opening the floodgates like that, naturally, it had an effect on the young actors too.
"Seoyeon-ssi. Is it okay if I ask you something?"
The one who brought it up first with a good-natured smile was Han Sung-jin, who was sitting next to Kim Hyun-suk.
"I enjoyed watching
Han Sung-jin was genuinely curious.
Well, of course.
Seeing a person swat away flying paintballs, and their running speed was extraordinary.
The acting displayed there, and in many ways, was at an impossible level without rehearsals or script readings.
"That's..."
Seoyeon, who hadn't expected such a question to be thrown at her right away, was inwardly flustered.
Still, the moment she was about to try her best to answer.
"That kind of thing is definitely a trick."
Kim Hyun-suk smirked and said so.
Wait, a Mr. Satan-like statement here?
"Are you that naive? You think a person can poke a hole in a coconut with their finger? Or crush wood trying to start a fire, and send a nearly 200kg giant trevally flying all by themselves? Paintballs? Those travel at 90 meters per second. How can you see them coming and swat them away? And dodging when multiple shots are flying at you? It's impossible unless you choreographed it beforehand."
"...."
Anyway, Kim Hyun-suk had watched all the variety shows Seoyeon appeared in.
And his overall impression after watching them all was this.
'Variety shows exaggerate too much.'
'It looks so real that people might actually think it's real.'
Roughly such an impression.
"That's right."
The funny thing was that it was Cha Na-hee who agreed with that.
"It seems like they're trying to attach such an image to a female actress."
Cha Na-hee was upset!
It felt like people on the internet looking at Seoyeon and forcefully consuming her as a meme.
'Seoyeon couldn't possibly be that violent!'
Anyway, although it came from different meanings, the point was the same.
'Hmm.'
At their roughly similar conversation, Seoyeon suddenly recalled her recent fan community.
A fan community where various edited images and compilations were floating around.
Honestly, Seoyeon found them quite funny and liked looking strong.
But definitely as a female actress, it was a bit...
'I, I need to manage my image...'
Seoyeon gets unnecessarily excited when she appears on variety shows.
But hearing Kim Hyun-suk's words, she felt that she might have been a bit excessive.
She should tone it down a bit for the time being.
Thinking so, Seoyeon secretly let out a sigh.