An audition to verify actor Lee Sang-soo's skills.
It was called an audition, but in reality, it was nothing more than a simple script reading.
Even if Director Baek Min showed a somewhat bland reaction, the investors would absolutely not let it slide.
Therefore, from the moment Lee Sang-soo appeared, most of the staff were comfortably watching the series of events unfold.
Seo-yeon coming was also simply to test their chemistry.
They thought it was only to that extent.
"Yeah. It was all a lie."
A low vocalization.
The voice flowing out as she exhaled seemed to be spewing out emotions.
"Everything, from beginning to end."
Even before, Seo-yeon's emotional delivery was at an excellent level.
But now, it felt like it had progressed beyond that.
Why?
Everyone thought so, but Director Baek Min faintly knew the reason.
'She said she recently participated in Masked Singer.'
Director Baek Min doesn't watch variety shows.
Because of that, he hadn't actually seen the broadcast and had only heard about it.
Those who saw it said they unconsciously immersed themselves in the emotions flowing from Seo-yeon's song.
An actor draws out the audience's emotions with everything they can express.
But a song draws out others' emotions solely with sound.
There is a common saying: a soulful voice.
That was the case for Seo-yeon.
Just as using the body frequently makes one accustomed to using it.
The voice is the same.
Learning to sing, and to win the competition called
Seo-yeon trained her weapon to the maximum.
To fill in her lacking skills compared to others with something else.
The power to evoke empathy from the audience on stage, necessary to win the competition.
In that soulfulness.
In an instant, the people here forgot that this was a simple audition.
They forgot to watch with the light heart of watching a script reading.
They unconsciously immersed themselves and started watching this 'scene' with absorption.
"I vaguely knew."
Seo-yeon.
No, the character Seo-yeon was playing.
'Kasugayama Yuina' spoke.
"That you were scheming something with that brazen girl."
Her eyes held vivid hatred.
The red eyes shining in the darkness sent a chill through the surrounding air.
"Still, I believed it. Foolishly, because I thought you were doing it all for me."
She had no intention of blaming that.
Originally, she herself intended to kill Amanabe Michiko and steal her fortune.
And, taking the opportunity... taking that girl too.
"So it was all a lie."
She was nothing more than a puppet.
That made her angrier than anything.
Also, hatred for Goto Isamu filled her up.
"The words you said when taking care of me as a child."
Clenching her fists tightly, taking a step forward.
"That I must become happy, even if it meant trampling on others."
Yuina clutched her chest with her left hand.
As if tearing out her heart.
"So I trampled on everything. Until all of the Kasugayama fortune was mine."
Putting everyone in the family under her feet, she made all of this hers.
As the current head of the family.
"Yes, I was waiting. Until the moment I took it all."
At the very end.
To kill her and obtain everything at this moment.
It was a voice scraping out emotions, like fingernails scratching a chalkboard.
Goto Isamu.
Lee Sang-soo could feel it while watching Seo-yeon's acting like that.
Ah, so this is what actor Park Sun-woong was talking about.
A young actor.
To be honest, the time he had lived as an actor was over forty years.
Lee Sang-soo was an actor who started as a child actor.
He had never lived a life separated from acting.
Seo-yeon's age was exactly half of that.
'What kind of acting did I do at that age?'
Suddenly, Lee Sang-soo had such a thought.
In those days, the acting world had its harsh aspects, so he suffered a lot of discrimination.
During his child actor days, he was even hit.
Because it wasn't an atmosphere that protected child actors like now.
Still, he really worked hard.
However, watching Seo-yeon's acting made his past self feel truly insignificant.
Was he jealous of that?
No, it wasn't that.
He just felt it while looking at Seo-yeon.
What kind of acting he originally wanted to do.
"At first, I was also mistaken."
Right before auditioning for this
He went to see the actor who had appeared in a drama with Seo-yeon when she was young.
They had acted together frequently since childhood.
That connection was really long, perhaps almost as long as his acting life.
"I guessed for sure that she must have been abused."
Actor Jung Eun-sun.
She said so with a slightly embarrassed face.
"It wasn't an emotion a child should show. But it wasn't acting done with true feelings either."
Acting without true feelings, but expressing emotions?
It was a statement Lee Sang-soo couldn't understand.
At the same time, he understood Jung Eun-sun's words.
Acting not done with true feelings.
But if she did acting that showed that level of emotion, it would naturally raise questions and doubts in many ways.
"I couldn't understand it either. Because that acting was literally an enormously learned emotion. A child couldn't do that alone. That's what I concluded. It was a foolish old person's stubbornness."
They say Jung Eun-sun intended to interrogate the parents at the time.
Because at that time, Seo-yeon's mother, Soo-ah, was also on set.
"But when I actually met her, she seemed completely unaware. But I am a stubborn woman by nature, so I wanted that child to stop doing emotional acting. It would clearly cause emotional problems."
At her pointing that out, Seo-yeon confronted her head-on.
More perfectly than ever, immersing into the character, the emotion that was merely a description.
Became real and approached her.
Copying (模寫).
Originally a term used when drawing a picture.
A word used when copying something to draw.
Seo-yeon's emotional acting was like that.
Very delicately, using a lot of paint.
Drawing out the emotions she had seen near perfectly, it was nothing but a replica.
However, what Jung Eun-sun saw at the end was not a replica, but the real thing.
By seeing the real Joo Seo-yeon's acting, she had no choice but to acknowledge it.
"It's a funny thing to say, but..."
Jung Eun-sun said so, smiling as if a little embarrassed.
"I learned a lot. If I hadn't filmed with that child back then, I would have already quit acting. Because I would have been nothing more than an outdated actor with only stubbornness left."
Lee Sang-soo couldn't believe Jung Eun-sun's words.
That was natural, considering she had been more actively working than anyone else over the past 10 years.
She had even appeared in dramas several times with Jo Seo-hee, who considered her a mentor.
"I know you're worrying a lot, senior. Then, you will definitely understand."
Passion is like an ember.
It can certainly easily cool down, but conversely, it can also instantly flare up with something as a catalyst.
Jung Eun-sun was like that too.
"That child has something that stimulates other actors."
Therefore, Lee Sang-soo would definitely be the same.
Because the Lee Sang-soo looking at her right now definitely had such lingering attachments.
"Keep talking, Isamu."
Yuina before his eyes says.
"Keep talking more, Isamu. Yes, you're going to kill me?"
One step, then another.
Approaching him.
"I will never die."
With a bloody smile on her lips, looking at him with eyes full of deep hatred.
"Just as you taught me, trample on everything. And kill. That's not your job, it's mine."
The key Isamu held in his hand.
It was a memento of his parents.
The key that could open the safe containing the item symbolizing the head of this Kasugayama family.
She must have stolen it and passed it to him.
Bitch.
He didn't even feel the urge to curse her like that.
Because he was the one who planned to use and kill her in the first place.
And, somehow, no hatred arose.
He didn't really know the reason.
"How amusing."
It was then that Goto Isamu opened his mouth toward such a Yuina.
"Truly amusing words, Yuina. What you just said is the same as what I said before."
Isamu's relaxed face distorted.
Enough to make Yuina's feet, which were rushing in while revealing hatred, momentarily halt.
"I did that. I vowed I would never die. You amusing girl. In the end, what you're doing is nothing but imitating me."
Isamu's eyes widen.
His two eyes seemed to gleam with madness.
It was like some ugly ghost living in the past.
"Kasugayama was originally supposed to be mine. If only your father hadn't taken everything, it all should have been mine!!"
At the sound that cut through the space, Yuina's body flinches.
That was not limited to just Yuina.
This place.
This filming set.
Everyone looking at him was like that.
The atmosphere changed.
It couldn't be felt any other way.
What they had been watching until just now was Lee Sang-soo's usual acting.
Stable, and familiar.
The acting desired from actor Lee Sang-soo.
But now, something was different.
As if the string holding him had suddenly snapped, he burst out like a horse that had lost its reins.
"I was someone who should have died. A human who should have disappeared. Losing my name. Losing my face. Becoming this ugly sight, I somehow survived."
The voice, which had been close to a shout, lowered, becoming a flat murmur.
But those words clearly pierced their ears.
The gazes of those who had empathized with Seo-yeon's emotional delivery just now turned to Lee Sang-soo.
He didn't have the flash of a genius.
But he had years of experience.
There were the years he had lived as an actor.
Even if he failed in Hollywood.
He was an actor who represented South Korea.
Yes, his acting definitely once represented South Korea.
At some point, that passion cooled down.
With the failure in Hollywood, he felt the time to burn with passion had passed.
"Do you think you've become something, Kasugayama Yuina?"
But isn't that how it is?
Flames easily flare up like this.
"You are simply a puppet resembling me. You're nothing but an imitation."
Goto Isamu looking at Yuina, with the key he was holding put into his chest pocket.
Held something else in his hand.
"Then, now."
It was a knife.
"It's time to cut the strings of a puppet whose role is finished."
Isamu smiled.
Twisting his lips, opening his eyes wide.
The moment he took a step forward.
"Cut."
Director Baek Min raised his hand.
The beginning was a simple start, but the end was a 'cut'.
It was Director Baek Min's sign that this scene itself had come to an end as a single play.
No one objected to his words.
No, they didn't even have the spirit to object.
A series of play.
In a single scene, everyone couldn't find the words to express how they felt.
"Actor Lee Sang-soo."
In the quiet silence, Director Baek Min opened his mouth with a gentle smile.
"You are amazing."
A phrase of merely a few characters.
But it was closer to the highest praise than anything else.
At his words, Lee Sang-soo smiled bitterly.
"……I didn't want to lose to a young junior. Enough to forget my age, you see."
Lee Sang-soo looked at Seo-yeon.
Seo-yeon was looking at him with surprised eyes.
"Director Baek Min."
Lee Sang-soo said, looking at her.
"This is a request from this old actor, but I definitely want to act with Actor Joo Seo-yeon this time."
If Director Baek Min hadn't liked Lee Sang-soo's acting, he would have probably refused.
Later, if the investors pushed hard, the result might be different, but ultimately, an actor who doesn't suit the director's taste wouldn't easily receive good treatment.
No, Lee Sang-soo didn't want to do that in the first place.
However, the moment he saw Seo-yeon's acting today, his mind changed.
He really wanted to be together.
Previously, Jung Eun-sun had said she really wanted to act with Jo Seo-hee, and Lee Sang-soo honestly couldn't understand it.
But now he empathized a hundred percent with that feeling.
At Lee Sang-soo's attitude, the surrounding staff looked at Seo-yeon with surprised eyes.
'Actor Lee Sang-soo going that far...'
'Certainly, Seo-yeon's acting was also amazing.'
Lee Sang-soo's acting finished it off at the end, but it was Seo-yeon's acting that first drew them in.
But, that Lee Sang-soo.
Lee Sang-soo, who was called a national representative actor, was lowering his own pride and speaking like that.
At those words, there was no one here who wasn't astonished.
"Actor Lee Sang-soo, you're too much."
At his words, Director Baek Min said so with a smiling face.
At the words with a subtle nuance, everyone looked at him with tense faces.
Because considering Director Baek Min's personality, he could speak like that and express his refusal with a smiling face.
"After seeing such acting..., if I turn down someone like you, I might have to step down from the director's seat."
With a snap, Director Baek Min folded the notebook he was writing in while watching the acting.
Because there was no need to see more.
Clearly, Lee Sang-soo's acting was different from the Goto Isamu that Director Baek Min wanted to direct.
The Goto Isamu Director Baek Min thought of was a more petty and vile character.
Not provoking head-on like this.
It was more on the side of subtly needling Yuina.
But, so what.
If this felt better, wasn't that enough?
"And Seo-yeon."
"Yes?"
To Seo-yeon, who was looking at him with rounded eyes, Director Baek Min burst into laughter.
She, in her own way, also seemed surprised by Lee Sang-soo's acting.
"Please do the same during the actual filming. It was really good."
"Excuse me? Ah, yes!"
Seo-yeon bowing and answering.
But Seo-yeon didn't know.
That Director Baek Min was a director notoriously stingy with praise.
"And let's try to hide things regarding Actor Lee Sang-soo as much as possible. At least until the trailer."
"Ah, that seems like a good idea. It feels exactly like a secret weapon."
"Secret weapon?"
At a staff member's words, Director Baek Min thought about it deeply and then nodded.
"Yes, good, a secret weapon."
Lee Sang-soo, the great actor who represented South Korea.
Surely, he would be the secret weapon of this
Director Baek Min was convinced.