Actor Kang Sung-chan was a popular actor with decent acting skills and a refreshing, handsome face.
He was the top casting target for *The Moon that Hid the Sun* this time, and as if proving his worth, he gathered a lot of buzz.
What about actor Ha Ye-seo?
Not only did she have a pure appearance, but her recent romance movie also drew 7 million viewers, making her one of the hottest actresses lately.
However, there were talks that her acting skills were a bit lacking compared to her fame.
Even so, she only fell short compared to method actors; it wasn't to the point where her acting became an issue.
And two supporting actors.
Actors Han Tae-won and Shin Yeon-mi were also people who appeared like a staple in various media.
Especially actor Shin Yeon-mi, who played the role of Princess Yeon-hwa's nanny, held quite a significant part in the drama.
Therefore, the child actor sandwiched between them stood out even more.
To be honest, from the reporters' perspective, it was quite a puzzling casting choice.
"If a child actor were to appear, I naturally thought Park Jung-woo, the son of Park Sun-woong, would come out."
"He's the kid who became an issue in the recent making film, right?"
"He did become an issue... but an audition and a drama are different things, right?"
"That's true. Hmm, I don't know. Still, the visuals are definitely..."
"His mask is definitely good. Honestly, in terms of looks alone, he's by far the best among the child actors I've seen recently."
As entertainment reporters, they knew the actors' personal details to some extent.
They could say everything about the kid who recently gathered buzz with the making film.
"Why memorize that, his proper appearances so far are just one CF, right? I heard he recently filmed one more CF, so his entire activities are just two advertisements."
"Right. But still, the acting skills he showed at the audition were quite good."
"Is an audition the same as an actual drama?"
"True, that's also true."
Reporter Lee Byung-hoon nodded unconsciously as he listened to the reporters' conversation.
Just by counting the number of cameras pointing in a certain direction, one could tell the difference in attention.
'No, if I think about it that way, isn't it actually quite a lot?'
The pair of lead actors, Kang Sung-chan and Ha Ye-seo, greeting in the photo zone.
A little further away, Joo Seo-yeon stood beside the supporting actors.
Still, since she played the childhood role of Princess Yeon-hwa, she stood somewhere between the lead and supporting actors.
Honestly, considering her fame, it wasn't strange for Seo-yeon to not receive attention.
However, unexpectedly, the cameras of the audience and reporters occasionally flashed on Seo-yeon.
Probably, there were people who had similar thoughts to Lee Byung-hoon himself.
'Director Kong Jung-tae is not an idiot.'
Commonsensically, if a child actor were to appear, Park Jung-woo, the son of the great actor Park Sun-woong, would have been easier to gather buzz.
But to go out of his way to bring out that child meant there was something there.
'Alright.'
Having thought up to that point, Lee Byung-hoon picked up his camera and headed toward Seo-yeon.
As his gut, cultivated from 10 years of being a reporter, instructed him.
***
'Thank goodness.'
Seo-yeon inwardly felt relieved that the cameras weren't pointing at her much.
No, to be exact, she should say she was glad the reporters weren't actively approaching her.
If there had been no reaction at all, she would have felt a bit subtle about it, but it wasn't like that either.
Just an ambiguous reaction?
It was at a level where it was hard for Seo-yeon to tell if it was good or bad.
"Miss Seo-yeon, it would be nice if you smiled a little towards the people~."
"Yes."
At that moment, at the words of Shin Yeon-mi, who played the role of Princess Yeon-hwa's nanny, Seo-yeon nodded slightly.
Since it was the photo zone anyway, standing there stiffly would look unappealing.
'The attention is focused on the leads anyway.'
With that thought, Seo-yeon smiled brightly and waved her hand.
Faking a smile was Seo-yeon's specialty among specialties.
"Oh, she smiled."
"The kid seemed frozen from nervousness... but when she does that, she definitely matches exactly how she looked in the advertisement."
When Seo-yeon smiled, the number of people showing interest increased.
When she had a blank expression, her presence was small, but just by smiling, there was something that brightened up her surroundings.
'As expected, that child...'
Seeing that, the lead of *Taesumdal*, Kang Sung-chan, fell into thought with a smiling face.
Actually, the number of times Kang Sung-chan had met Seo-yeon wasn't that many.
Since their filming schedules didn't overlap in the first place, they had only seen each other a few times during greetings.
Since the child actor only appeared for 3 episodes anyway, he just thought it would be fine if she acted reasonably well.
That is, until two days ago.
If it hadn't been for the video Director Kong Jung-tae showed him.
"How is it, good right?"
"...Wow."
"If we just add music here, the atmosphere will come alive even more."
"That's true. But even without music, they gave it some effect, right? On the eyes or something."
"They did give some... but not on the eyes. It's amazing, right?"
Not on the eyes?
Kang Sung-chan rewound the video and watched it again.
What he was watching was a video of the raw footage with editing added.
A state where most of the work except for the music was completed.
So he thought some natural CG had been added.
'It was good when I watched episode 1 too.'
The impression Kang Sung-chan had when he first checked episode 1 of *Taesumdal* was 'It came out much better than expected.'
A feeling that not many viewers would drop it at least in episode 1.
And the emotion he felt after watching episode 2 was surprise.
'Compared to the unedited footage, there are definitely lacking parts in the acting.'
They said she hadn't learned how to act properly.
Even so, at this level, honestly, it was safe to call her a genius.
Since those lacking parts didn't show up due to the editing, it was almost perfect acting that could be shown as a child actor.
'Above all, the eyes.'
If they said they didn't apply CG, it was even more amazing.
Was it because of the lantern light? They seemed to be glowing.
The reason Seo-yeon's emotions stood out was in that gaze.
Even without putting deep emotions into it, the atmosphere changing distinctly was probably due to the change in that gaze.
'And episode 3 too.'
If the emotion from watching episode 2 was surprise, episode 3 was pressure.
If things went wrong and he was compared in acting with a child actor, there would be nothing more embarrassing than that.
Wasn't he also a method actor in his own right?
He never expected a day would come in his acting life where his acting skills would be compared to a child actor's.
"This is a bit burdensome, haha!"
"Phew, I know actor Kang Sung-chan's skills well. You'll definitely do better."
"Haha..."
Director Kong Jung-tae smiled as he said that.
Those words were not simply praising him.
It was a pressure saying, 'You have to pull off at least this level of scenes in the main story.'
Anyway, that happened two days ago.
Kang Sung-chan had a conviction that this drama would do well.
And for it to do even better, he judged it was good to focus the spotlight on her, who would gather buzz in the beginning.
This place was exactly for that.
Usually, the part where evaluations diverge the most in a drama is the first 3 episodes.
But the production team of *Taesumdal* judged that they were confident they could take all the viewers who flowed in within those 3 episodes.
'It seems she's bored because there's little attention right now...'
Kang Sung-chan glanced at Seo-yeon.
Since the reporters' attention was focused on him, Seo-yeon looked a bit bored.
'A senior should help with things like this.'
With that thought in mind, he lightly winked at Seo-yeon.
'Ugh...'
Thanks to that, Seo-yeon was startled for a moment.
No, why is he winking at me.
Even though I have a woman's body now, I have my memories from my past life.
No, rather, if he had done that to my past life self, I would have just said 'Why is he acting like that?', but instead, I felt a more subtle sense of repulsion now.
No, this isn't an issue of my past life... is it because of the age?
Anyway, I don't really know.
"Ahem, thank you for showing so much interest."
At the simple interview session, many questions were exchanged between Kang Sung-chan and Ha Ye-seo.
Looking at the reporters holding mics and the gathered fans, Kang Sung-chan realized it was about time.
"If I were to announce some surprising news at today's event, there will be a *Taesumdal* preview screening a month before the drama airs. It will be up to episode 2, and we plan to greet you again there along with the other cast members."
A preview screening?
Both the reporters and the people gathered here thought it would simply end with this teaser event.
But to think a preview screening was separately prepared.
Since there were rarely cases where offline events were held consecutively to this extent before a drama started, it was just amazing.
"For your information, I watched it in advance... and I was very surprised. You can genuinely look forward to it."
Looking at the drama's preview, the child actors appeared up to episode 3.
Despite that, Kang Sung-chan's words drew people's attention.
Especially toward Seo-yeon.
'Uh.'
She felt the reporters' gazes focusing on her all at once.
Seo-yeon, who wasn't used to such gazes yet, froze with her smiling face intact.
She was confident in this kind of facial acting, but she was vulnerable in unexpected situations.
"Especially, Miss Joo Seo-yeon who came out today. It would be good to take a lot of photos of her today."
At Kang Sung-chan's continued words, cold sweat formed on Seo-yeon's forehead.
"Because you might regret it later."
The confident words of method actor Kang Sung-chan.
Accompanied by his action of shooting a thumbs-up at Seo-yeon, she raised her thumb back at him with a trembling hand.
She tried to smile brightly, but she wasn't sure if she was smiling properly right now.
Anyway, if she didn't react at all to a senior's words, she would obviously be cursed at, so she tried her best.
'There was no need to go this far...'
Humans need preparation for everything, don't they?
As soon as Kang Sung-chan's words ended, she felt the gazes of the reporters and the public looking this way.
Gazes containing questions asking whether those words were real or fake.
Among them, there were also reporters taking photos diligently.
At this moment, Seo-yeon could vividly feel the emotion called 'pressure'.
***
If it was a relief, one could call it a relief.
After that, since the drama teaser event ended, there was nothing particularly calling for me.
Producer Ha Tae-oh said this much was enough, I think.
He said the full-fledged articles would come out after the preview screening.
"Ugh, euuu."
Pressure, no, it's something I had to go through someday, but this is bigger than I thought.
Anew, the actors who showed dignified appearances in front of countless viewers.
And VTubers looked amazing.
'No, are VTubers and actors a bit different?'
Anyway, so human attention could be this burdensome.
It was a very unfamiliar emotion to me, to the point where I felt like rolling around on the floor for no reason.
"What are you doing, Joo Seo-yeon."
"...Can't you tell by looking?"
"Just saying, you're not going to do it half-heartedly just because it's the role of a mirror, right?"
"I'll do my best."
"You better."
Lee Ji-yeon said with her arms crossed.
Currently, we are practicing in preparation for the Arongdarong Kindergarten's school play.
"Oh my."
For reference, that place wasn't a kindergarten.
To put it simply, a place where Lee Ji-yeon could practice comfortably.
In other words, I was currently at Lee Ji-yeon's house.
"Our Ji-yeon really likes Seo-yeon. I didn't expect things to turn out like this~."
"Ah, haha. T-that's right."
At the words of Hong Jin-hee, who spoke with a bright smile, Mom replied awkwardly.
'I knew it, but...'
I stared at Mom with a pitying gaze.
Mom, Soo-ah, had quite low communication skills.
Looking back, she didn't have many friends she kept in touch with either.
'Fighting, Mom!'
I wanted to do something, but I couldn't help it.
Because this matter needed the help of an adult, Mom.