It was literally an instant before the video of Seo-yeon participating in the street event spread.
It first appeared on YouTube Shorts, and then began circulating in snippets across various communities.
- LMAOOO what is she even doing there ㅋㅋㅋ
- Didn't know, but Joo Seo-yeon looks cute like this
- Is that Joo Seo-yeon's younger sister? Ha, as expected, the older sister is a downgrade of the younger one
└ ???
It felt like she had participated because her younger sister wanted a toy.
At first, there were many claims that it was viral marketing released by the company that planned the event, or that it was staged.
- They could've called an actress for promotional purposes
- But honestly, if they called her for promotion, isn't she being too shy?
- Fr ㅋㅋ It's my first time seeing Joo Seo-yeon look that embarrassed
Seo-yeon's acting had appeared on broadcast quite a few times.
Even just when hosting
Even back then, when acting out embarrassing scenes, Seo-yeon's expression never changed once.
But right now, anyone could clearly feel her embarrassment.
In other words, the emotional delivery that Seo-yeon always prided herself on made that shame palpable this time.
- Soo-yeon is so cute ㅠㅜㅠ
- I want a younger sister or daughter like Soo-yeon.
- Me too... My older sister says she gave me the good role because she always plays the bad one.
- Really?
- Yes, the event staff asked her separately later. Of course, it's also true that she genuinely likes Zero ㅋㅋ
Before long, the event staff were summoned to the head office to explain the circumstances.
Loop Entertainment, which housed the production team for Magical Girl Harara, swiftly uploaded the related video to the company's YouTube channel.
This entire series of events took place in just three days.
Literally in an instant.
"How about doing that toy ad with Actress Joo Seo-yeon and her sister this time?"
"Ah, I already put in a call beforehand."
Seeing as they had even contacted them immediately for a new advertisement, their response was so swift that one could understand why they were the current trend.
Of course, the very party who received that proposal.
"How is it? Seo-yeon? You've already done it once, so you can just do it again, right?!"
"……."
Looking at the YouTube Shorts video currently heading toward 5 million views, Seo-yeon hung her head.
The image improvement she had so desperately desired.
She hadn't known it would be fulfilled so emptily.
'So image improvement isn't something you can achieve just by aiming for it.'
Still, it was true that things had improved thanks to her own efforts up until now.
However, it hadn't improved as dramatically as this time.
The actress named Joo Seo-yeon was still somewhat unfamiliar to the public.
The perception of her being an actress who specialized in villain roles was strong.
No matter that she played Jo Ha-rin in
Of course, those who watched
But, Ha-rin's screen time was inevitably…….
'Come to think of it, I really did play a lot of intense roles like that.'
Lee Yoo-ju was only not a murderer, but until now, none of her roles gave off a particularly virtuous impression.
Of course, separate from that, Lee Yoo-ju's popularity was quite good.
After all, she was a victim forced into education by her parents since childhood, and with her constantly faltering, imperfect appearance, many watched her with bated breath.
Like a time bomb.
'And above all, her personal abilities are extraordinary.'
To the extent that no character more outstanding than Lee Yoo-ju appeared in the story.
However, despite possessing such remarkable abilities, Lee Yoo-ju was an incomplete protagonist.
Mainly in her mental aspects.
It was consistently mentioned in the story that Lee Yoo-ju was not the type with a solid mentality.
'Anyway.'
Lee Yoo-ju was Lee Yoo-ju.
The immediate problem was Magical Girl Harara.
"How is it? Will you do it? If you do a toy commercial, your image among mothers will improve!"
"It's a toy promotion, though?"
Magical Girl Harara—she looked it up later and found out it had so many transformation types that people called it Bankruptcy Girl Harara.
Its popularity currently extended broadly, not just among young children, but up to middle schoolers.
Even the character designs were so well-received that there were adults who liked them.
"Come on, it's all just play."
Is that so?
However, she couldn't decide on her own, especially since the proposal hadn't come to her alone.
It was her younger sister, Joo Soo-yeon.
The advertisement had come in for her as well.
So, upon returning home, she tried bringing it up casually.
"I'll do it!!!!!"
At the scream that was almost a shriek, Seo-yeon covered both her ears.
With a sturdy body and sensitive senses, she thought her eardrums had burst from the sudden loud noise.
"I-I-I wanna be on TV with my sister!!"
Of course, her eardrums weren't weak enough to be affected by just this level.
"Oh, did an advertisement offer come in for Soo-yeon?"
"Yes, it seems so."
Soo-ah just smiled, finding this series of situations amusing.
'And to think Mom rejected every advertisement offer that came in.'
She could have done at least one, but she refused, saying she might die if she caught people's attention.
But then again, since Soo-yeon kept saying she wanted to see Mom on TV, the possibility hadn't completely vanished.
Soo-ah also seemed to be in a dilemma, stalling, but somehow an atmosphere had formed that she would have to do at least one.
"The response was good this time. Try doing it once more. Seo-yeon, you liked similar things when you were young too, didn't you?"
"T-That's true, but."
Back then, shouldn't a young girl naturally play with such toys?
At first, she played with them with that kind of thinking.
Because she had to not look strange in her parents' eyes.
'But come to think of it, I think I did like it.'
At that time, she couldn't properly grasp her own emotions, so she didn't know exactly what feelings and thoughts she had while playing.
But considering she played with them by herself, chattering away, she seemed to have secretly enjoyed it.
She merely deceived herself with the obsession that 'I must not look strange to others.'
"……But, what is Mom doing?"
"Hm?"
Soo-ah was currently in the living room, organizing something with Soo-yeon.
Quite old items.
Among them were things related to Seo-yeon.
Mainly clothes Seo-yeon wore when she was young, or toys.
And, there were even older items.
Old CDs, or photo albums.
"Just, watching variety shows lately made me think of something."
If it was a recent variety show, she was definitely referring to
Soo-ah wasn't the type to watch variety shows much in the first place.
Recently, Soo-ah often showed a subtle change in demeanor.
Being absent-minded by herself.
Or needlessly looking up videos related to
"What's this CD?"
Seo-yeon pointed at a particularly eye-catching CD.
After all, CDs were something you could barely see anymore, and it didn't look like something sold on the market.
Seeing that, Soo-ah smiled and spoke.
"It's a game CD."
"Game CD?"
There's no title on it, though?
"The very first game CD Mom and Dad made. Ah, of course, friends from the club activities also helped make it."
Ah, so this was that game.
Dad, Young-bin, used to talk about it boastfully all the time.
How he won a major competition with a game he made in high school.
How that experience was recognized and he got scouted into a game company.
It was a story that popped out every time he drank, so Seo-yeon had practically memorized it by now.
"Wanna try it? Even if I say that, there's no way to play CD games anymore."
"That's, true."
In the first place, recent computers don't even have CD drives.
The only place you could see CDs like this would be console games at best.
"This one?"
"Ah, this is from high school……. It's the album that helped me get involved with your dad."
"Album? A comic book title is written on it, though?"
"Back then, imported comics came out like this with Korean songs attached as albums."
"Not on public broadcast, right?"
"That's right, it was cable."
Saying that, Soo-ah smiled as if embarrassed.
"At that time, Mom actually only knew that comic's OST as the Japanese version……. When Dad said he liked that comic's song, I thought it was the original. So I played him a Japanese song…… Ahem. Let's stop here."
But later, she found out that what Young-bin mentioned was actually the Korean remade OST.
'Mom was an otaku in the past.'
Well, you could roughly tell just from her drawing style.
She just didn't show it to Seo-yeon.
And after becoming an adult, she didn't seem to watch those things anymore.
'Comic OST, huh.'
The song Soo-ah pointed to was somehow a title Seo-yeon had also heard before.
It might be because it was a famous song that was quietly remade and released to the public.
"You know, Mom's dream was to make games. In that sense, she achieved her dream back then."
"Then why didn't you join a company like Dad?"
"Because I couldn't make what I wanted to make there."
Soo-ah smiled like a child.
"I did take on outsourced work as a programmer and helped your dad with planning work, but…… it had nothing to do with my dream."
In the first place, with two daughters, she didn't have much leeway to work a full-time job.
Soo-ah was the type who believed children needed their parents.
Her principle was to converse as much as possible and spend time together.
"Of course, Dad was a bit different."
Building up his career, raising his profile.
When conditions were sufficiently met, he wanted to go independent and fulfill his youthful dream whenever possible.
"Mom asked before."
Feeling Seo-yeon's gaze upon her, Soo-ah spoke.
"She said it seemed like Seo-yeon wanted to do something else when she was young."
"……Did it look like that?"
"Because you didn't seem to have much interest in the job of acting."
If one kept watching Seo-yeon, they couldn't help but know.
Which direction her efforts were heading.
And where her interests lay.
Soo-ah couldn't know that clearly, but she at least knew it wasn't acting.
At least, not at first.
"I think you're sincere about acting now too. Probably, it seems like it was after filming for The Moon That Hides the Sun ended."
It was true.
The moment Seo-yeon made up her mind to become a 'Great Actress' as an actress was around that time.
"But you haven't given up on what you wanted to do before, have you?"
"That's……."
She wanted to say no, but Seo-yeon couldn't easily speak.
She truly hadn't given up.
But, it felt like something was holding her back.
"In the first place, why did you start working so hard at acting, Seo-yeon?"
"……."
Looking at Seo-yeon, who couldn't answer, Soo-ah smiled.
"I'm sure that's what you're hesitating over."
The reason Seo-yeon started acting sincerely.
The trigger that made her resolve to become a great actress.
"Because Seo-yeon wasn't the type to put off work since she was young."
The type who absolutely had to finish one thing before moving on to the next.
Seo-yeon was that kind of child.
"The youthful dream you absolutely must fulfill."
Of course, that thing to finish wasn't 'acting.'
Probably something else.
Soo-ah definitely thought Seo-yeon had such a thing.
Even she, as her mother, didn't know what it was.
***
Even after episode 6 of
Popularity still leaned more toward
However, from the point where episode 4 of
Episode 4 contained the process of the protagonists Lee Yoo-ju and Lee Min-seo diligently preparing for their exams.
The chair they used while studying was from Aids.
- How are Aids chairs? They looked okay watching Sky Garden.
- I'm not sure about the previous ones, but the ones for kids are good.
That kind of talk was quietly circulating.
There still wasn't a major issue.
That was because
"Seo-yeon? Are you tired today?"
"Yes?"
"Your acting seems a bit lacking in energy today."
Was it?
At Director Kim Il-soo's words, Seo-yeon tilted her head, but she thought it could be possible.
"Go home and rest after filming ends today. Because it's going to get a bit tougher from the next shoot."
"Yes."
Once filming for episode 10 began, exterior shoots would increase.
And that was the point where Lee Yoo-ju would start shaking in earnest.
Because it was the point where events would truly start flowing.
'Youthful dream…….'
Returning home, Seo-yeon watched the aired episodes of
The character named Lee Yoo-ju was very flat.
It wasn't that Seo-yeon acted her that way; the character was originally designed to be so.
Because Lee Yoo-ju's behavioral patterns were ultimately just imitating her father's words.
Even if she denied it, the viewers watching knew.
In the end, Lee Yoo-ju was a person who only said and did the same things as her father.
A child who couldn't even find what she wanted to do.
An immature child.
That was the character Lee Yoo-ju.
'Actress.'
Perhaps, in the sense that everything started at her parents' recommendation, Lee Yoo-ju and Joo Seo-yeon might be similar characters.
Even the point that she chose that path using it as an opportunity was the same.
But, they were definitely different.
For Lee Yoo-ju, it was 'because there was nothing else.'
But Joo Seo-yeon had something else she wanted to do.
Then, why did she feel she had to do acting first?
'Truthfully, I vaguely know.'
The child she met this time, Han Yoo-na.
A child with a name similar to her past life self.
Different age, different environment she grew up in.
Unlike herself, who received harsh education from her parents since childhood, Han Yoo-na was happy.
She had no emotional problems, and was simply a pretty and cute child.
At that, Seo-yeon didn't feel any bad emotions.
She merely thought it was a relief.
However.
There was something she came to realize because of that.
What she told Writer Min Se-hee this time was also one of those things.
And, what Seo-yeon wanted to do from now on.
The thing she absolutely must do before fulfilling her youthful dream.
'An actress, the sole window of communication.'
Perhaps she wanted to show it.
No, it was definitely so.
If she became a famous actress.
If she became a great actress that anyone could know about, her parents from her past life would see her.
Therefore……
"I made a slight mistake with Lee Yoo-ju's acting."
Seo-yeon, who had replayed the drama several times, realized it.
Until now, there had been some disappointing aspects while Seo-yeon acted as Lee Yoo-ju.
Only today, she felt she had realized what it was.
Because, in a sense, Lee Yoo-ju was definitely a character similar to herself.