Grand Prince Jo Young-dae.
The moment he appeared, she felt the air around them change.
Seo Yeon felt it for the first time.
That the actors around her had been considerately accommodating the child actors all this time.
Her fingertips tingled with tension.
Even with her eyes closed, she could vividly feel that the atmosphere on set was different from usual.
"Hah."
A short sigh slipped out as Grand Prince Jo Young-dae's fierce eyes swept across Queen Dowager Eun-hye's bedchamber.
He looked at his mother, and then at Princess Yeon-hwa.
"Princess, do you know how hard I searched for you?"
His low voice, splitting like a beast's cry, was chilling to the bone.
Soon, his gleaming eyes turned to his mother, Queen Dowager Eun-hye.
"What did this child say?"
Slowly bending his waist.
"That I abandoned human morality, that I forgot the royal family's grace—she cried out like that."
Keuk-keuk-keuk, laughter boiling up from his throat filled the room.
Queen Dowager Eun-hye simply kept her eyes closed in silence.
"Yes."
As if she couldn't bear to look at her son.
Grand Prince Jo Young-dae's lips twisted.
"I abandoned them. Human morality, and the royal family's grace."
Even those who followed behind him dared not open their mouths.
To anyone watching, he was a king.
A king whom raising one's head was not permitted.
A tyrant.
"However, this path is my path."
Abandoning human morality, overthrowing the royal family.
One who walks a path drenched in blood was here.
"...Princess."
With his eyes still on Queen Dowager Eun-hye, Grand Prince Jo Young-dae spoke.
"Princess...!!"
At his fierce shout, the bedchamber rang and the oil lamps shook.
The faint light flickered, illuminating Grand Prince Jo Young-dae's face.
Slowly.
Very slowly.
His gaze moved and turned toward Princess Yeon-hwa, Lee Hye-wol.
"What will you do?"
Turning his head, and soon turning his body.
He looked down at that small, young princess.
"Will you walk out yourself?"
Originally, Grand Prince Jo Young-dae and Princess Yeon-hwa had been close.
A relationship where they had always smiled at each other.
"Or shall I escort you myself?"
At least, Princess Yeon-hwa had thought so.
She realized today that it was all a lie.
Foolish.
Such emotion could be felt from Princess Yeon-hwa's bowed body.
The camera moves.
From Grand Prince Jo Young-dae to Princess Yeon-hwa.
Camera Director Heo Jung-soo, watching this, even forgot to breathe.
He stared at the image in the camera, forgetting even to blink.
The light source shook; what if he couldn't capture this scene?
Moving the reflector, he slowly panned the camera from Grand Prince Jo Young-dae to Princess Yeon-hwa.
Actor Yoon Jong-hyuk, who played Grand Prince Jo Young-dae, was a skilled actor.
His villainous acting was always praised as top-notch, and it was the same now.
The madness-like emotion he exhaled as naturally as breathing held immense immersion.
As if he alone stood in the frame.
'Dangerous...'
Heo Jung-soo knew this wasn't a very good situation.
The only one with acting skills intense enough to receive that acting was, at best, Jung Eun-sun, who played Queen Dowager Eun-hye.
But Jung Eun-sun didn't have many lines in this scene.
Nor was it a role meant to take presence in the first place.
The one who could reverse the atmosphere in this scene.
Was only the young Princess Yeon-hwa.
But a child actor?
'Director Gong said it would be better to zoom in on the frame to reveal more emotion, but...'
Heo Jung-soo was also an experienced camera director.
If he awkwardly pulled the camera forward here or took a close-up of the actor's face, the situation could turn bad.
If the camera was close, naturally, the actor's emotional acting would be revealed that much more finely.
But would Princess Yeon-hwa be able to pull it off against Grand Prince Jo Young-dae?
Heo Jung-soo believed in Seo Yeon's talent.
That was why he gave his vote to Seo Yeon, not Jo Seo-hee, in this audition.
But she was still a child actor.
Compared to Yoon Jong-hyuk, a skilled actor, she fell short.
Here, it would be better to take a wide shot and focus on the scene rather than the person.
He gave a quick glance to Gong Jung-tae.
But there were no other instructions from him.
As if intending to proceed just as they had originally discussed.
'If this is an NG, it'll take time to catch the emotion again.'
'Should we just shoot again after the long take is over?'
He wasn't the only one.
The other staff were already keeping an NG and reshoot in mind.
If the others failed to properly receive Grand Prince Jo Young-dae's acting here, it would actually be Grand Prince Jo Young-dae's side that would float—because it would look like overacting.
And.
At that moment, Princess Yeon-hwa's closed eyes slowly opened.
The moment the soldiers moved to drag out the quiet Princess Yeon-hwa.
"Let go!!"
At the sharp rebuke, which didn't feel like a child's, the soldiers' bodies froze.
No, everyone except Grand Prince Jo Young-dae.
"...!!"
For a moment, a staff member gasped in surprise and quickly covered their mouth.
A silence fell.
In a place where the light of the oil lamps barely reached.
The girl sitting in the darkness raised her head.
Princess Yeon-hwa, Lee Hye-wol's lips trembled, and soon she bit her lower lip hard.
Slowly.
Very slowly, Lee Hye-wol's eyes, raised in the darkness, moved.
They were red eyes.
Perhaps it was because they were reflected by the oil lamp's light.
Or perhaps it was for another reason.
Her eyes, shining redder than ever, stared directly at Grand Prince Jo Young-dae.
An emotion that didn't fall behind his madness was intensely felt in those eyes.
Anger, hatred.
A bone-chilling emotion spread.
Was it emotional acting?
No, Heo Jung-soo realized.
Method acting.
Emotional acting as if she had become one with the role.
Seo Yeon's emotional acting so far had been at a very excellent level for a child actor.
At least among the child actors Heo Jung-soo knew, she was by far the best.
But at this very moment.
The modifier "for a child actor" disappeared.
The moment Seo Yeon's small aquarium shattered, and she dipped her feet in the sea.
Right now.
"I understand."
Deep anger could be felt in her trembling voice.
A deep and dark voice that couldn't be thought of as a child's.
"I will walk out on my own two feet."
Brushing past Grand Prince Jo Young-dae, she turned her body toward the door guarded by his soldiers.
With her back to Queen Dowager Eun-hye.
"With these two feet, I will walk out."
"Princess..."
Queen Dowager Eun-hye's fading voice brushed past.
But Princess Yeon-hwa didn't give that place a single glance.
Her body trembled.
Drops of blood fell from her small hands, clenched as if to crush them.
The soldiers who met her gaze flinched one by one and took a couple of steps back.
The only one who could meet that gaze was Grand Prince Jo Young-dae, smiling with his white teeth showing.
"Yes, that's right. That is why I like you, Princess."
Grand Prince Jo Young-dae's laughter rang out.
Strength entered Princess Yeon-hwa's red eyes, and her lips moved on her distorted face.
She wanted to shout something at that man right away.
Definitely.
She wanted to say that she would definitely return.
But Princess Yeon-hwa only chewed on her lower lip and moved her steps.
Along with Grand Prince Jo Young-dae's soldiers.
And.
Bang, the door to Queen Dowager Eun-hye's bedchamber closed.
"...Cut!!"
At Gong Jung-tae's shout dividing the boundary between reality and fiction, everyone who had been holding their breath finally exhaled.
A one-take they hadn't expected.
They didn't know they'd be able to shoot it without a single NG.
The most surprised, especially, was Yoon Jong-hyuk, who played Grand Prince Jo Young-dae.
That emotional acting just now was hard to see as a child's.
'I heard people call her a genius, but...'
Indeed, there was a reason why the picky actress Jung Eun-sun took such interest in her.
The moment he thought that, Yoon Jong-hyuk flinched.
Because actress Jung Eun-sun was already standing beside Seo Yeon.
Because of that, a few staff members who were about to exclaim in admiration froze.
It was because they remembered what had happened before.
"..."
Jung Eun-sun bent down to Seo Yeon, who was breathing heavily.
And saw the tears welling in her red eyes.
Saw her hands, dotted with drops of blood.
She took in the child struggling to escape from her own emotions.
And let out a sigh.
"...Breathe deeply."
Breathe in, breathe out.
And slowly made Seo Yeon open her tiny hands.
Then, they could see her hands, where her nails had dug in so deeply from clenching so hard that drops of blood had formed.
Seeing that, Jung Eun-sun frowned.
"What are you all doing? Hurry up and disinfect it and wrap it in bandages."
At Jung Eun-sun's shout, the staff panicked and hurriedly ran over.
"Ah, yes. Yes, yes!"
"Is that, a real wound?"
They naturally thought it was some sort of prop.
Because with a child's grip, no matter how hard they clenched, blood wouldn't flow from their hands.
"...This is why."
Jung Eun-sun was about to say something, then chewed on her lips and stood up.
Treating the wound came first, after all.
And, having just seen the acting, she couldn't say anything.
It was obvious how much she had practiced for that acting just now.
"Don't do it too often. Still..."
Jung Eun-sun, who had hesitated for a moment, said to Seo Yeon.
"...It was a wonderful performance."
Jung Eun-sun only said that, then handed Seo Yeon over to Soo-ah.
And, after watching that for a moment, turned her back and disappeared.
Soo-ah, who had been stomping her feet waiting for her daughter, could finally feel relieved only then.
The acting Seo Yeon had been continuously practicing.
Soo-ah could tell that she had pulled it off splendidly.
"Are you okay?"
"...Yes."
Honestly, she wasn't okay.
Seo Yeon avoided Soo-ah's worried gaze and wiped her tears.
Emotions were unfamiliar.
To be precise, dipping her own feet into such deep emotions was harder than she thought.
Looking at her palms, there were already several small wounds.
'It really is different from practice, after all.'
She let out a sigh.
It was still hard to escape the lingering emotions.
Perhaps it was because she was still a young child that it was even more so.
It wasn't for nothing that they told her not to do it too often.
"Well now, I was surprised."
At that time, actor Yoon Jong-hyuk, who played Grand Prince Jo Young-dae, approached Soo-ah and Seo Yeon.
"I heard it in words, but I was really startled. You said it's only been a year since you started acting?"
"Ah, yes."
"You'll become a truly amazing actor later. Even that actress Jung Eun-sun wanted to say something but couldn't, right?"
It's best to refrain from emotional acting when you're a child.
It was an acting that shut the mouth of even the person who habitually said that.
"...Well, still. It's better to refrain from it as much as possible right now. Because she's a child. She's at an age where her sensibilities are sensitive, so please pay attention to her."
"Yes, yes. I understand."
Satisfied with Soo-ah's answer, Yoon Jong-hyuk grinned and patted Seo Yeon's head as she looked up at him.
"Now, first we have to go see how the footage turned out."
At Yoon Jong-hyuk's words, Seo Yeon slowly nodded.
It was probably the first real emotional acting of her life.
So Seo Yeon was inwardly curious too.
So far, whenever Seo Yeon saw her own acting, she only thought, 'Hmm, is that all?'
But, what if.
If it was the same this time, she thought she might be secretly disappointed.