"Let's see..., so the meetings are all done now? Only filming is left?"
Sua, who had YouTube playing on the TV, reconfirmed Seoyeon's schedule.
She no longer chased after Seoyeon to her workplaces like before, but she still checked the schedule periodically.
Occasionally she would check with her manager Park Eunha, but since it was still awkward, she mostly confirmed directly with Seoyeon.
"Yes. We'll film Mine first, and as soon as it's finished, I'll start filming Director Jo Bangwoo's movie."
"And after that is 'Flower of the Imperial Palace'?"
"Yes."
Effectively, next year's schedule consisted of just two projects: Flower of the Imperial Palace and Mine.
It was this year that she filmed an excessive amount; two projects a year was plenty.
Besides, among the works filmed this year, the only one where Seoyeon appeared as the lead was
The rest had significant screen time but weren't lead roles.
That was why she had the leeway to film so many.
"I got a message from Jiyeon and Seohee yesterday. They said the Japanese filming is done now."
"...Is that so?"
When on earth did those two become so close with their mom?
Seoyeon was genuinely curious.
"They said there's nothing major left for the Korean filming, right? Once that's done, they'll go straight into promotions?"
"Yes."
In other words, two tasks remained for this year.
Promoting ahead of
Since she was so busy with work, she had mostly declined advertisements, so she only needed to do those two things.
'I should go on variety shows next year.'
For a while, she planned to focus on school life.
Having been unable to attend school properly during the busiest 2nd and 3rd quarters over the past year, she needed to make up for that.
"I see. The president of ADs contacted me asking if Seoyeon could film a few more ads."
It seemed Sua had been contacted as well.
'They probably want Mom to appear in it too.'
Seoyeon couldn't bring herself to say that out loud.
Anyway, ever since Sua appeared on a variety show, requests occasionally came in through Park Eunha.
Mostly commercials for baby food and such, where a mother and child film together.
Because both Sua and her younger sister Suyeon had gained considerable popularity.
Thanks to that, beyond Seoyeon's fan community, fan communities for Sua and Suyeon had also sprung up.
Those felt like proper fan communities.
Unlike her own, which felt more like a gladiatorial arena.
"But, what are you watching right now?"
"Hmm? It's called Park Sooncheol TV, they post car accident videos? Things like black box footage?"
"Ah, that one."
Seoyeon knew about it too.
A YouTube channel covering various cars and incidents.
It was so famous that she often saw posts in the community saying 'Another Sooncheol TV legend ㅋㅋㅋ'.
'Mom enjoys watching this too.'
After Seoyeon grew up, Sua had quietly started watching anime again, and now it seemed she had expanded her territory to YouTube.
As she quietly watched the screen.
[We received a very bizarre report today. Let's watch the video first.]
At the words "bizarre report," the YouTube chat grew noisy.
If the YouTuber Park Sooncheol considered it bizarre, it couldn't be an ordinary matter.
- Is another legend coming out today?
- That's wrong, it's a legend every time so "again" doesn't fit
- ㄹㅇㅋㅋ
The video showed a vehicle driving at high speed through a narrow alley.
A clearly recklessly driven car.
Watching that footage, Seoyeon felt a peculiar sense of déjàjà vu.
Why did it seem like she'd seen this somewhere before?
- Who speeds like that in a narrow alley
- Looking at the interior structure, it's a Carnival
- Average Carnival driver ㅋㅋ
- Don't even need to look, probably going to crash into somewhere again
Long-time viewers of Park Sooncheol TV roughly predicted the next situation.
Either colliding with a car suddenly emerging from the alley, or plowing into the alley wall.
Around the moment they roughly anticipated such a scenario, a child and a mother holding the child's hand appeared at a crosswalk without traffic lights.
Given the Carnival's speed, it was a situation that absolutely couldn't be avoided.
The speed was so fast that it was an extremely dangerous situation.
- ?
- Is this a fatal accident ㄷㄷㄷ?
- Did this crazy bastard upload a video of himself hitting a person????
- If he submitted this video claiming he was wronged, he's really a crazy bastard???
The moment that scene appeared on screen, Park Sooncheol paused the video.
Since he normally paused it right before the moment of impact like this, it was easy to guess the subsequent scene would be a horrific one of the two people being struck and sent flying.
Viewers thought the video ended there since explicit accident footage wasn't shown.
"The reason I said it was bizarre is this part. Honestly, I also thought this was a fatal accident. But, look at this!"
The video played again.
The mother and child belatedly noticed the car.
The moment the Carnival slammed on its brakes.
Without a collision sound, the car simply slid straight forward.
"There's no collision, right?"
- ???
- What??
- Is this magic?
- Why did the people disappear after being in front????
"I also thought this was strange. Then, let's watch it again in slow frame."
Noticeably slower playback than before.
Then, just before the car was about to hit the people, something could be seen brushing past in front of them.
The face wasn't clearly shown, but judging by the build, it was a woman.
The woman pushing the two people could slowly be seen.
It was probably because the camera frame dropped, being a cheap black box camera.
- I thought that was some shadow passing by but it was a person?
- Did they run out and save them just now?
- An alien????
- Does that even make sense????
- That's a person ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ?
- I think the world setting just changed
"I've been watching various accident videos for over 10 years, but this is the first time I've seen a case like this. They say the Carnival driver reflected deeply afterward."
- Reflected ㅋㅋㅋ They'll just do the same thing again
- There's no one hurt so there's no way to lock them up, but someone like that shouldn't be holding a steering wheel
- But who is that person?
- No, the Carnival isn't the issue, what is that ㅋㅋㅋㅋ You're saying that caught on a dropped frame is a person???
"Well, the person who submitted the report said they didn't get a clear look at the face either. They said they were wearing a mask and a hat, so the face wasn't visible."
A highly suspicious description.
So, various comments came up in the chat.
Whether it was an alien, or actually a superhero hiding their identity.
Of course, the latter received comments like "stop reading comics."
Sua, who had been watching such a bizarre accident video.
"...Seoyeon?"
"...."
"It's not you, right?"
Seoyeon quietly averted her gaze.
She truly never dreamed this incident would become known in this way.
***
- Isn't that Joo Seoyeon
- Hmm... seems plausible ㅇㅈ
- Why would Joo Seoyeon be there ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
- I heard there's a YTBC broadcasting station near the alley, if Joo Seoyeon had business there it's possible
- That's really forcing it
- But isn't it quite credible??
Seoyeon carefully examined the posts going up on the internet.
Especially her own fan community.
Fortunately, most were merely speculation.
'It's a good thing I was covering my face and running.'
Thanks to not having a long conversation, they didn't seem to notice.
Unlike the Carnival driver, the saved mother and child could have observed Seoyeon more closely, but it seemed they similarly hadn't noticed.
Probably..., right?
'Anyway, I don't need to worry about Flower of the Imperial Palace for now.'
She had sent Jeong Haran, who had been half-dazed shouting "status window" at the end, back properly.
It would take quite a while to cast the remaining actors.
"A, Aren't you nervous?"
As Seoyeon was looking at her phone screen like that, Narumi Sora, who was sitting in the next seat, carefully opened her mouth.
She found this current situation far too overwhelming.
It was right before they began filming in earnest, with all the actors gathered in one place.
'There are some familiar faces.'
Sora quietly turned her gaze to look around.
She could see some faces she had seen on
'Han Soyoo is here too.'
It seemed they had picked those among the participants who seemed decent.
And among them was a half-dazed Min Doha.
'Why am I...'
The woman with a scream like a supercar, Min Doha, didn't want to appear in
When she was contacted, she absolutely refused!
However.
"Doha, think about it carefully. This is an opportunity!"
"It's an OTT drama that GH Group is sharpening its knife to make. Appearing in it is definitely a gain, I'm telling you!"
"Ah, if you really don't want to do it, give it to me. I really want to do it."
From her manager to her fellow actors.
Even the representative personally called Doha.
At this point, it became a situation where even Min Doha couldn't easily refuse.
Min Doha knew too.
Just how huge this lucky break was.
Furthermore, the role Min Doha was cast in had a fairly significant part.
An opportunity where if she performed well, she could greatly increase her recognition!
'But...'
Min Doha quietly looked at Seoyeon, who was sitting a little apart from the others.
Everyone else clearly showed signs of nervousness, but the lead actor was just looking at her phone screen.
Properly acting for only about a year now.
But looking like a veteran who had rolled around for years.
'She actually has filmed as much as a veteran, too.'
An excessively large number to say she filmed in a single year.
All the actors she knew wondered if Seoyeon was a person of steel.
Some worried about image consumption, but rather, because she showed such diverse appearances over the past year, there was no room for her image to become fixed to any one thing.
Cha Seo-ah at most?
Or recently Lee Yuju?
Generally a cold impression.
But recently the BiOL advertisement reversed her image once again.
She thought an actor with a thousand faces was exactly like that.
Of course, to Min Doha, she was simply a frightening existence.
'Yesterday, the strange person on Park Sooncheol TV, it's definitely her. It has to be her.'
While everyone was merely speculating, Min Doha alone held that conviction.
The reason being, though no one noticed, when viewed in slow frame, a red gleam briefly flashed as she ran.
'That woman's eyes!!'
Even now, when she falls asleep, she sometimes has nightmares of being chased by a murderer with red eyes.
So she could notice at once.
That's Joo Seoyeon for sure!
"Doha, stop talking nonsense."
"...."
Of course, no one believed her.
Around the time Min Doha quietly hung her head like that.
The surroundings gradually began to grow noisy.
Because the number of attending actors was starting to increase.
"They said Jo Seohee is also appearing again?"
"Joo Seoyeon and Jo Seohee? Really? She didn't come today."
"They said she couldn't make it because of another movie filming schedule."
Both Joo Seoyeon and Jo Seohee were among those currently said to be closest to becoming top stars among young actors.
For the two of them to appear in one movie.
'They said they appeared together in Miss Gyeongseong recently.'
'Since they're said to be close, had such talk already been going around?'
'But both of them have such strong presences, if they appear in Mine, wouldn't the attention be unnecessarily dispersed?'
Such various thoughts.
However, what was truly important wasn't the two actresses.
"Hey, is that pair the issue right now? They're saying Arthur Diaz is appearing!"
"Wait, is Arthur Diaz really participating in this movie?"
"Arthur Diaz?? Really? I'm so looking forward to it! I'm a fan!!"
"GH really has so much money. Bringing Arthur Diaz all the way to Korea?"
Such conversations among the actors could be heard.
Today was less of a script reading and more of a gathering to get acquainted and explain how the filming of
Not just actors, but GH Group officials could also be seen occasionally.
That showed how high the expectations were for this drama.
And then.
Clack.
The door opened once more, and a group of people entered.
Bodyguards in pitch-black suits.
And a considerable number of staff.
Standing at the center, a man with blonde hair.
'It's Arthur Diaz.'
'That's really him in person!'
They were actors too, but seeing a famous Western actor, they couldn't help but feel similar emotions to ordinary people.
Moreover, Arthur Diaz was a celebrity even overseas.
In Korea, he was the actor everyone named first when they heard "prince."
Acting ability verified in the "world" called Hollywood.
With that radiant appearance, several female actors stared in a daze.
'...There are a lot of them.'
Arthur Diaz quietly observed the people while thinking.
Not just lead actors but supporting ones too.
Even extras seemed to be gathered.
Were they proceeding half-heartedly because he was here?
'Maybe it's for a making-of film.'
He could see cameras set up here and there.
Just like
'That variety show must have been scripted.'
While adjusting his schedule in Korea, Arthur had watched
His impression of it was quite simple.
'Korean variety shows are also overrun with scripting.'
That the variety show was staged was a given.
Even though it proceeded live, a few actors moved as if they had coordinated together.
The peak of that was Seoyeon.
'It must be scripted, right?'
He could see her "seeing" the incoming paintballs and dodging them.
Her red pupils followed the trajectory of the bullets.
Since it was live, it couldn't be CG.
'....'
Arthur gave up thinking deeply.
Anyway, excluding that, they were actions that could be sufficiently shown if coordinated in advance.
'There she is.'
Arthur showed a gentle smile to everyone.
The smile that Stella called like a "fake prince."
They said when he made that smile, his face was shown to great effect.
He had no idea what that meant.
"Gasp."
A few actors watching the direction Arthur walked toward caught their breath.
Regardless of whether they were rookies or established actors.
That was because the place where Arthur's feet stopped was none other than where Seoyeon was.
Thanks to that, Narumi Sora, who was sitting to Seoyeon's left, almost had a fit.
"Seeing you again, Seoyeon."
A quite friendly tone.
Naturally, it was a given that the surroundings grew noisy at Arthur's reaction.
'Are Arthur and Joo Seoyeon acquaintances?'
'I heard Arthur Diaz generally doesn't greet anyone first.'
'Wow, but he's really handsome.'
Hearing such whispers, Arthur's shoulders rose for no reason.
And the moment he was about to sit in the empty seat to Seoyeon's right.
"This seat is taken."
"Hmm?"
"My friend will sit here, so I'm sorry."
At Seoyeon's words spoken as if apologetic, Arthur froze with his smile intact.
No, it wasn't just Arthur.
The other actors were just as surprised.
They never expected anyone, let alone someone, to flatly refuse Arthur's offer in a single stroke.