Ro of JustX.
Even among the members of JustX, which had an exceptionally high crime rate, his status was truly unrivaled.
Because the club 'Shine Moon' he would later operate would stir up the entire Republic of Korea with drug-related issues.
Even when other celebrities involved with him were caught up in controversies, he was quickly released.
I remember the community trembling with great anger back then; it remains particularly vivid in my memory.
'Even if I didn't have this nonsensical memory, wouldn't I still remember it?'
It was virtually equivalent to one of the most representative scandals in the entertainment industry.
"Ah, when is it? There's still a little time left. It opens next week, you see."
Next week.
Those words meant that the club where the incident occurred hadn't opened yet.
'So he gathered people in a place like this.'
Seoyeon looked at Ro and narrowed her eyes slightly.
A place that had a lot of rumors about 'entertaining' and such in her past life.
Naturally, Seoyeon didn't think much of the people gathered there.
"What are you looking at like that?"
"No, it's nothing."
Jo Seo-hee looked around following Seoyeon's gaze, then frowned when she saw Ro.
Then, letting out a faint sigh.
"It's best not to associate with him as much as possible."
"Is that so? Still, JustX is a trending idol group lately."
"They are trending. But the rumors about them aren't good."
Covering her mouth with her fan, Seo-hee spoke softly so only Seoyeon could hear.
"…I heard Ro is connected to the CEO of RY in many ways. They say RY's capital went into the club he's opening this time too."
"How do you know things like that?"
"Hmph, there's a way to know everything."
Seo-hee's smiling appearance as she said that seemed to genuinely dislike Ro.
Seeing her like this, she really didn't seem like someone of the same age.
'But who are Jo Seo-hee's parents?'
Around this point, I was starting to get curious.
By the looks of it, she wasn't just an ordinary golden spoon.
If she was invited to a place like this, she was definitely the child of a prominent family.
'She's a true villainess.'
I nodded to myself.
No wonder she's good at betraying.
As I looked at Seo-hee with those thoughts, I felt her flinch.
"Ah, no, why are you looking at me like that when I answered you well?"
"…I just remembered something from the variety show."
"T-That was a v-variety show. A variety show."
The actions Seo-hee took definitely shone on variety shows.
Seoyeon had no intention of saying anything about it.
Actually, the viewers all liked it too.
But separately from that.
'I'm furious that I fell for it twice.'
Getting fooled twice while chasing Min Do-ha made it feel like I was a beast lured by bait.
When Seoyeon glared at her with slightly narrowed, fierce eyes while thinking that, Seo-hee broke into a cold sweat.
'You know it's scary when you look at me like that?'
She didn't become famous as Cha Seo-ah for nothing.
Because the emotions felt from her appearance were faint, having her stare so intently made one's heart drop.
Add to that her incomparably beautiful looks, and it felt even more inhuman.
'I can understand a little why people are scared when they look at me.'
This is why they say putting yourself in someone else's shoes is important.
Seo-hee felt like she understood a little why people were afraid of her.
Anyway.
'There are a lot of people from various professions besides celebrities.'
There were internet streamers, and even athletes.
And among them, as Seo-hee said, there were people trying to approach Seoyeon.
Swish!
With a swish, the fan snapped open, startling them all into backing away.
It seemed it was difficult to approach by getting past Seo-hee who was beside her.
Of course, there were also those who crossed that wall of fans.
"Oh, Unnie Seo-hee, you're here?"
The young girl who was the host of this birthday party.
Did they say she was a year younger than us?
She wore very flashy clothes and held a designer bag in her hand.
"I heard you weren't coming."
"It just ended up that way."
"And this person is… Ah! Cha Seo-ah?"
"She's Actor Joo Seo-yeon. My… ahem. M-My friend."
Seo-hee, having said that, kept glancing at Seoyeon's reaction.
Meeting Seo-hee's gaze, Seoyeon only stared blankly at her without saying anything else.
I guess it's okay to call her a friend!
Thinking that, Seo-hee felt in a better mood.
"Hello. I'm Chae Min-young."
"Yes, hello."
Seoyeon accepted her greeting calmly.
At that simple reaction without a single spoonful of surprise, Chae Min-young frowned unnecessarily.
"My parents are currently running the Hyoyoung Group."
"Ah."
"…"
Seoyeon just let out a slight exclamation of admiration.
At that mechanical exclamation, Chae Min-young frowned.
It clearly wasn't the reaction she had expected.
"Don't do things like that."
Instead, Seo-hee reacted with a shudder for no reason.
"You really look shallow."
"Ugh! I-I just told you because you might not know!"
Chae Min-young said so and shrieked.
And.
"U-unnie will never be able to work with our group! I'm going to tell Dad about everything!"
"Hmph, do as you please. How scary."
Seeing Seo-hee snorting at the threat-that-wasn't-really-a-threat, Chae Min-young shuddered and turned her back… but not quite.
She still bowed her head to Seoyeon in greeting before disappearing.
'At least she has manners.'
Did they say she just became a high school student?
Maybe that's why, Seoyeon inwardly.
"She's a bit cute."
"…Her?"
Like, is something wrong with you?
Seo-hee looked at Seoyeon with such a face.
No, more than that. You've never said something like that to me.
"Joo Seo-yeon, you."
It was the moment Seo-hee was about to say something about it.
"Ah, seeing you here."
Ro, who was busy promoting the club, approached them.
As if he had come up to Seoyeon and not Seo-hee, he waved his hand refreshingly.
"Is this the second time? The third?"
"I'm not really sure."
And I don't care.
At those cold words, Ro's eyes frowned slightly, but soon curved softly.
"This is fate too, come by sometime later if you're interested."
He said so and held out a small business card.
A business card with the address of
Seeing that, Seo-hee's eyes sharpened.
"…Are you crazy? We're minors."
"Huh? What. Really? Wasn't it just a concept like that?"
A concept like that.
Seoyeon was inwardly shocked.
She had often seen Seo-hee being misunderstood, but it was her first time being treated like that herself.
"Ah, no, I don't mean you look old. It's just that you have that kind of aura, right? I naturally thought you were an adult."
Then, after glancing at Seo-hee for a moment, he bowed his head and whispered to Seoyeon in a small voice.
"And, it's not like minors absolutely can't use the club, you know? It's okay to tell me if you're interested."
"…"
Seoyeon narrowed her eyes at those words.
Ro, receiving that gaze, flinched for a moment.
"Ah, just a joke. A joke."
Saying so, he quickly disappeared.
Since Seo-hee was next to her, it seemed he thought it would be meaningless to say more.
"…He's out of his mind."
Seo-hee let out a hollow laugh as she looked at Ro.
There are jokes you can make, and jokes you shouldn't make.
A club to a minor.
Moreover, since she was an actress, it sounded even worse.
Is there something going on?
Enough to make her suspect that.
"Just throw that away."
"Yes."
Seoyeon looked at the Shine Moon business card in her hand.
Of course, she didn't plan to just throw it away like Seo-hee said.
You never know when it might come in handy again.
'And.'
Seoyeon saw Ro approaching Chae Min-young and her group, who were standing a little further away this time.
To simply say it was because he was an idol, Chae Min-young and her group let out high-pitched squeals and welcomed him.
'Fans?'
A reaction that couldn't be thought of as anything else.
Watching him chat with a friendly smile on his face towards Chae Min-young, Seoyeon's eyes narrowed.
A strange sense of unpleasantness.
She felt a bizarre emotion that made her inner feelings sticky.
A feeling of facing a being fundamentally different from herself.
Disgust.
Right, so this is disgust.
Seoyeon looked at him and quietly exhaled.
She had learned many emotions so far.
But the emotion she felt today was particularly unpleasant.
After that, nothing else happened at the party.
Meeting various upper-class people was definitely a somewhat novel experience.
Also.
"Is there any way to talk to her?"
"Jo Seo-hee is next to her…"
It was also a chance to check how well-known she was.
In fact, there were a lot of people trying to approach Seoyeon.
It was just that Seo-hee swatted most of them away.
She wondered anew where Seo-hee's family stood that everyone backed off at the wave of a fan.
"The people she invited were mostly nouveau riche, so it wasn't helpful. There are good parties sometimes."
On the way back, Seo-hee said that.
"If the host is a celebrity, people from this industry come often."
She said these parties were usually thrown to manage and build connections.
Not just birthday parties like this, but making up special occasions to enjoy casually.
"Sometimes, if you do well, you can build friendships with people of higher standing. Well, it doesn't matter for you though."
Still, she told her to let her know later if she was ever interested.
Of course, Seoyeon just nodded, having no particular desire to go out more later.
Since offers for projects came in well enough even without doing that anyway.
'Ro of JustX.'
That was more on her mind.
The sight of him contacting Chae Min-young was one thing.
She wanted to think 'no way', but seeing that he gave her a business card like this, she couldn't be sure.
'…Should I tell Ji-woo unnie?'
For reference, the club Pyo Ji-woo sliced through alone back then was larger than this 'Shine Moon'.
The reason that incident made the news in the first place was because the number of guards at that club was a whopping thirty.
If it was Pyo Ji-woo, who broke through all of them and thrashed the target, wouldn't she be able to finish it off somehow?
'Of course, that wouldn't happen.'
Of course, it was half a joke.
Still, you shouldn't do that in modern society.
It would obviously be on the news.
Anyway.
'Still, I roughly get it.'
Seoyeon felt like she somewhat understood the emotions the protagonist Lee Yoo-ju must have felt in
Her pessimistic nature.
And she felt like she could understand her disgust towards others a little.
To her, those parents obsessed with academic backgrounds must have all looked like that.
Including herself, and her own parents.
Therefore.
"We will proceed with the script reading today."
Seoyeon held up the script in her hand.
Today was the first script reading; the gazes directed at Seoyeon were harsher than usual.
As if they wanted to see the skills of the 'protagonist'.
'First lead role.'
Seoyeon's hand gripping the script tightened.
She had taken on quite a few roles so far and believed she had shown results beyond what was given.
Villain, and leading-level supporting roles.
They were all roles with some weight to them.
But in the end, they couldn't be called the 'protagonist' in the true sense.
Right away, there was something she felt at this party.
"If it's Joo Seo-yeon, isn't she the Cha Seo-ah role?"
"Really? I watched
The Seoyeon people generally remembered was still 'Cha Seo-ah'.
Cho Ha-rin from
Probably because Cha Seo-ah was the villain who led the flow of the work.
If one were to name Seoyeon's representative work, everyone would still point to
Other works might just be seen as side dishes.
'In that sense, Sky Garden is different.'
The protagonist.
It was virtually the position where Seoyeon would test her true caliber as an actor.
And the pressure the protagonist received was incomparable to other roles.
'If you fail, everyone dies.'
It was practically that kind of look in their eyes.
They were right.
In any creative work, if the readers or viewers cannot immerse themselves in the protagonist, the work is dead.
Only when she could immerse herself in the role and make the viewers follow along could she truly be called the protagonist.
"You've all probably read it, but please film it thinking of the atmosphere within the work as if you're filming a thriller."
They must have already grasped the content.
Director Kim Il-soo looked around the room and said.
"Atmosphere is important in this work. The tone of the acting must match it as well."
After saying that, he looked at Seoyeon.
Seoyeon's appearance holding the script even looked detached.
The young actress.
Kim Il-soo did not doubt Seoyeon's acting skills.
Because she had shown too much so far to doubt her.
The young actors seemed dissatisfied that she was pre-cast, but he was not.
Of course, if an idol with no acting skills had been dropped in like a parachute like this, he would have been angry.
But Seoyeon was not that kind of actor.
And the current head of the drama department, Ha Tae-oh, was not someone who would force such a thing either.
'The Director's eyes are accurate.'
He was a man who had risen to that position without a single failure.
Except for Seoyeon, he had never inserted a role into a drama like this even once.
So rather, he was looking forward to it.
What kind of acting Seoyeon would show.
And.
"Shall we try scene 17 first?"
"Yes, I think that would be good."
"Hmm, understood."
The one who answered Kim Il-soo's words was a middle-aged actress.
The mistress of the 'Lee Hyuk-soo Family' in
It was actor Lee Mi-ran, who played the role of Lee Hyuk-soo's wife.
'I heard emotional acting is her specialty.'
Lee Mi-ran thought as she looked at the quiet Seoyeon.
Perhaps it might be a specialty that fits this role well.
When she said she would appear in
She had a meeting with actor Kim Dae-heon, who appeared in
Because she naturally wanted to know about Seoyeon, who took on the lead role.
"If you take her lightly, you'll get a rude awakening."
"I'm not taking her lightly."
"No, still, when you face her, you unconsciously think that way. First of all, she's young, right? Her career isn't actually that long either."
It's 10 years if you count from her child actress days.
But most of that was a blank period, and the works she properly appeared in were still only two.
Looking only at her career, one could doubt her skills.
But.
"You'll know when you see it for yourself."
Actor Kim Dae-heon, famous as a method actor, declared.
And, just as he had said.
"Hoo."
Seoyeon exhaled and lifted her bowed head.
Then, her once peaceful eyes changed strangely.
No, one could feel that her very aura had changed completely.
Probably everyone in this room for the script reading felt it.
Seoyeon's eyes, filled with intense disgust.
No, the person in front of them was no longer Seoyeon.
The role she took on.
'Lee Yoo-ju'.
She was right in front of Lee Mi-ran's eyes.
Goosebumps rose.
At that absurd level of transformation, actor Lee Mi-ran couldn't help but let out a hollow laugh.
Because it was a transformation that a young actress simply could not show.