To be honest, only three people had expected Seo Yeon to deliver such a performance.
Narumi Sora, Director Kakeba Hiro.
And lastly, the journalist Furihata Yuito.
As for the image everyone else held of Seo Yeon—
'Isn't she that ghost-like kid from that variety show last time?'
'The one crawling on the ground.'
The broadcast had promoted it as "A genius actress's hidden camera prank (Dokkiri)!" but watching that alone, one couldn't really tell just how impressive her acting could be.
There were no lines, and originally, neither her face nor her emotions were even visible.
It wasn't just about scaring the opponent, was it?
Genius actress—honestly, it's a very common modifier.
As long as someone was young and could act even a little, agencies or broadcasting stations would casually attach the title to build them up.
This time was likely the same.
They simply thought so.
However.
"Hey, hey. Why are you all alone? Did you get dumped?"
It was clearly an unremarkable line.
Extras swarming in, chattering in groups.
It was a sweet, honeyed voice, unbelievable for someone who had just been standing quietly a moment ago.
Her steps were light, her waist half-bent as she looked up at the male protagonist, Kento.
An action of glancing up from below, so to speak.
As if lacking any sense of personal space, or perhaps with deliberate intent, she pressed her index finger against the man's chest.
"What if I'm bored? I'm totally free~, you see~,"
Her tone was that of a woman seducing a man on the street itself.
What people commonly call a "mine-type" woman—one you should never carelessly encounter on the roadside.
The type where if you fall for her, you'll have a headache in more ways than one.
She was the kind of figure who would make you feel unpleasant if you actually met her on the street, but in a drama, it was different.
First, her appearance.
Then, her vocalization.
And her presence naturally drew the eyes.
"S-sorry, but I, I want to be alone."
The actor playing the male protagonist Kento.
Hara Sho felt like he had spat out those words almost by a miracle.
Originally, he would have spoken more coldly, but his gaze was stolen by the girl before him, and he ended up stuttering.
The funny thing was, that felt natural too.
"Ehh~, what? No fun. Hey, Satchan, you try seducing him. He's not coming around at all?"
Taking two steps back, she shook her body as if throwing a tantrum, grabbing and shaking the shoulders of her female companion who came with her.
That action was so vivacious and overflowing with cute charm that it naturally made one smile.
"Se~riously, humiliating. I thought he'd fall for it right away. I was totally treated like a bridesmaid, wasn't I?"
Lines continued to flow as if she were throwing a tantrum.
Following that, the others also began chattering one by one.
They had frozen up, but they had their scripted lines anyway.
Half-entranced, they spat out their lines.
Roughly four extras breathlessly rattled off their lines.
And amidst them, the mine-type girl simply stood with her arms crossed, looking offended.
Those watching the scene felt a sense of incongruity.
There were clearly multiple characters present, but.
'Only one person is visible.'
Even though the male protagonist, Kento, was right beside her.
Everyone was overshadowed by a single extra.
Those who belatedly realized this looked at Director Kakeba.
The extra's presence was too overwhelming.
So much that it felt like the scene itself was being dominated.
And then.
A woman naturally made her appearance, inserting herself between the two.
The female protagonist of this drama,
She, who had been frozen for a moment out of the camera's sight, spat out her lines, doing her absolute best.
"Wait! Wait, wait, wha-what are you guys!!"
She pushed the girl away, strongly enough to be considered excessive.
No, she was supposed to push her away.
But she couldn't make a natural entrance, and for a moment, her feet got tangled.
On top of that, her lines felt unsteady.
Ah, I made a mistake.
The moment she thought that.
"Cut, that's a wrap."
Director Kakeba raised his hand and stopped them.
It was clearly an NG, but Director Kakeba's face looked very pleased.
A highly satisfied expression.
The flow had been broken the moment Mio appeared, but everything before that was very good.
This was clean enough that they could shoot starting from Mio's entrance scene.
"You digested your part in one go."
Director Kakeba said with a smile.
Who he was referring to, there was no need to even ask.
Joo Seo-yeon.
She was standing there blankly, adjusting her clothes.
'Huh, wait.'
'Then was that all the lines just now?'
An actress who made one forget she was an extra for a moment.
1 minute.
Yes, looking back, it seemed like exactly about 1 minute of screen time.
The following script had Mio appear and push the mine-type girl away.
Taking the place of the pushed-down girl, her friends would step forward.
Of course, unable to handle Mio's tenacious nature, they would all be overwhelmed by her momentum and run away.
In other words, in the upcoming scene, Seo Yeon didn't really have to do anything.
Just lying there after being pushed, feigning pain.
Watching her friends fight from behind, then later fleeing in terror.
'Still, just giving me separate weight at the very beginning is enough screen time for a cameo.'
Before filming, it was "a whole 1 minute."
But now, the phrase "only 1 minute" came to mind first.
How should I put it.
The acting was different.
The colors of acting in Korea and Japan are completely different.
In Korea, when people see Japanese acting, they sometimes joke that it's like a school play, and that's because Japanese acting leans more toward emotional excess.
There are many lines, and the acting is closer to that of anime or musicals.
"But Director Kakeba's works are right on that boundary line."
Reporter Yuito, who had been observing the situation, said.
To be honest, it was closer to a Korean drama.
The emotions and subject matter are Japanese, but the acting is quite similar to Korean acting.
Of course, there were Japanese elements as well, so Seo Yeon acted to match the tone of acting Director Kakeba desired.
"But Actress Joo Seo-yeon, was she that good at Japanese?"
"She seemed to have memorized all the words, and the accent and feel seemed like she copied exactly what I said."
Funnily enough, the lines Seo Yeon had just delivered had the exact same accent as what Sora had said earlier.
Seo Yeon had simply added a little more color to it.
For Seo Yeon, who liked anime, that probably wasn't a very difficult task.
It reminded me of the time I saw Seo Yeon's acting in
'Right, this was the kind of person she was.'
I sometimes forget.
That Seo Yeon is truly someone who deserves the modifier "genius actress."
But Seo Yeon just stood there, looking aloof.
As if she were a person in another world.
Probably, I wasn't the only one who thought so.
But Seo Yeon herself was thinking.
'I don't know what everyone is chattering about. I wish someone would explain it to me too.'
Seo Yeon kept glancing at Sora.
It was a desperate gesture asking her to come and explain the situation quickly.
At that gesture, Sora was just looking at Seo Yeon and clapping.
No, don't clap, translate for me.
Of course, Seo Yeon's earnest feelings did not reach Sora.
And, while Seo Yeon was savoring that loneliness.
"As expected."
Filming paused for a moment, and the staff gathered.
To check the scene they had just filmed.
"This, yeah. It's not a delusion, she practically eats up the scene by herself."
When the cinematographer said so, the other staff also nodded.
"But, it doesn't feel strange, does it? It just feels like that kind of scene."
"Rather, doesn't this fit the vibe... I sometimes think."
The staff looked at Director Kakeba with a 'surely not' thought.
After checking the scene a few more times, he smiled.
"I had a feeling this might happen, so I slightly modified the scene and script. Of course, Actress Joo Seo-yeon... seems to have purely tried to film it as an extra. It seems she read my intentions."
"Did she, really?"
It felt like I vaguely understood.
But it was still ambiguous, so it felt like I'd only know for sure when I saw it on TV later.
"This 1 minute, it might be much bigger than we think."
"In our drama?"
"Huh? Ah, it will have an impact on the drama too, of course."
Naturally, a cameo's performance wouldn't raise the drama's viewership ratings.
It would become a topic of conversation for a while and then end.
'But, Actress Joo Seo-yeon is...'
It feels like she's showing way too much during the few days she's been in Japan.
It's 1 minute in the drama, but on the internet, it probably won't be.
It's the entertainment industry where your life can change with just 5 seconds, let alone 1 minute.
Especially, a certain idol called the "thousand-year stone" had her fate changed with just a single photo.
"I should prepare a work in advance."
A work that could captivate Seo Yeon.
I think it probably won't be easy.
I could feel that she didn't have much interest in Japanese movies or dramas.
So, to move someone like Seo Yeon, an ordinary level wouldn't work.
'Today, I'll be satisfied with just having made a connection.'
Satisfied with that, he clapped his hands.
Well, filming wasn't over yet, after all.
***
"Hey!"
After filming ended, someone called out to Seo Yeon just as she came out after changing clothes.
Despite her gentle appearance, her atmosphere was quite overbearing.
'Her name was probably...'
The female protagonist of
The actress playing the role of Sato Mio, Goto Reika.
How should I put it.
A very classic-sounding name.
'Somehow this situation reminds me of someone.'
Of course, the original was much scarier-looking.
The situation was also somewhat similar.
In the fact that they ran into each other right as she came out after changing clothes.
"During the filming just now, you did that on purpose, didn't you? Trying to bury my presence? Otherwise, it was acting I couldn't understand!"
At those words, Seo Yeon looked at her with calm eyes.
'I can't speak Japanese.'
It wasn't that she couldn't at all.
She could roughly guess individual words.
'I know the words frequently used in anime, but...'
With just that, having a conversation would be impossible.
The fact that the only words coming to mind right now were 'onna' and 'damare' was also a problem.
'Somehow, it feels like she's criticizing me.'
Since she didn't know the reason, she couldn't even react.
On top of that, the nuance was there, but ambiguous words were mixed in.
This was the kind of situation where half-knowing was actually worse.
"...You really, can't speak Japanese?"
"Huh?"
At that moment, Reika, who had been chattering something at her, frowned and spoke Korean clumsily.
No, what is it.
Why does everyone speak another country's language so easily.
Even Seo Yeon, who was trained through anime, still couldn't speak Japanese, but everyone else was casually good at both Korean and Japanese.
At that time, Reika, who had been thinking, typed something on her smartphone and held it out to me.
It seemed she had typed what she had just said into Google Translate.
'She's not amazingly good like Sora, I guess.'
Feeling oddly relieved, Seo Yeon looked at the text Reika had written.
Roughly, it was a message saying: as an extra, wasn't she acting too full of herself?
The words were very mild, but looking at the meaning, that was what it meant.
'Could she not know?'
But she also thought she might not know.
Well, they said it was a scene suddenly added recently.
[It's okay because there are few connections between the scenes.]
When Seo Yeon wrote that, Reika seemed to realize something.
Certainly, if one only saw the part where she was acting, it definitely felt like Seo Yeon had stepped forward too much.
However, when actually watching it on TV, it wouldn't stand out that much.
That was easy to understand if one recalled the situation at the time.
The scene at the time was already a situation where the female protagonist, Mio, and the male protagonist, Kento, had fought.
The atmosphere was already set to some extent, so even if Seo Yeon there displayed her presence to the fullest and ate up Kento's presence, it wouldn't be a problem at all.
No, rather, it should be that way.
Only then would it be conveyed to the viewers that Kento was currently intimidated.
Even when Mio appeared next, the situation had already been reversed anyway, so her presence would naturally vanish.
Just looking at the script, the mine-type girl didn't say a single word after Mio appeared.
Probably, that was Director Kakeba's intention.
The mine-type girl was originally a role created to bolster Kento's acting.
[I, I knew that too.]
At that moment, such a reply came from Reika.
Seo Yeon, who watched that quietly.
'Is she perhaps a bit slow?'
Suddenly, she felt a little better.
An answer that felt like it came from someone a bit slow.
A type that was quite rare around Seo Yeon.
For some reason, everyone around Seo Yeon was full of smart kids, so even if you just told them one thing—
'Ah, so that's what it was...'
'I roughly understand.'
'So, this is what I need to do.'
The situation would just flow like that.
Park Jung-woo, Jo Seo-hee, and even Lee Ji-yeon were like that.
She had known them since they were young, but everyone was too smart.
So a girl like Reika, who couldn't simply accept it and denied it even when told—this girl of the same age felt a little fresh.
Like a slightly ditzy Jo Seo-hee.
Seo Yeon defined Reika's image like that.
[Are you leaving for Korea now?]
Perhaps feeling a bit embarrassed, Reika added.
[Yes. I've finished filming, so I have to go.]
She had rested for quite a while, and once she returned, she had to start filming
'On top of that...'
She also had to prepare for her appearance in Director Jo Bang-woo's film.
It felt like she was busy in many ways.
[I won't make a mistake like this next time.]
Saying that, Reika narrowed her eyes at me in her own way.
It felt like she was trying really hard to glare, but to me, who had the eye shapes of Jo Seo-hee and Lee Ji-yeon imprinted on me, she just looked like a chick.
Looking only at her attitude and behavior, she was Jo Seo-hee Mark 2, but her appearance was extremely gentle.
[Just you wait.]
Anyway, Reika, thinking she was making a cool exit, turned her back and left with a "Hmph!"
Truly the epitome of a prideful actress.
"Ah."
Now that I thought about it, there was something I wanted to ask.
'That actress who called Sora a maid or whatever.'
Seo Yeon, who was insensitive to other things, was sensitive to words that criticized her.
Of course, in this case, she had been eavesdropping, wondering if they were criticizing her, but it was just cursing directed at Sora.
'I wanted to flick her on the forehead at least once.'
She was going to point out that she shouldn't say bad things, but she missed the timing.
'Well, it's probably better for Sora to do it herself than for me to do it.'
Anyway, after
And so.
The long break in Japan came to an end.
- What, I was watching a J-drama and Joo Seo-yeon appeared?
- ??
A small commotion was starting to arise.