If I had to name the most uncomfortable thing about attending school, it would first be that the classes were separated by gender.
It would have been more comfortable if it were co-ed, but being separated made it even more awkward.
"Does anyone have a spare pad? Ugh, I completely forgot."
"Sigh, of all things to forget."
"……."
Hearing conversations like this made it truly difficult to react.
Years lived as a woman: now roughly 17.
I had adapted sufficiently, and the dissonance between body and mind had long since disappeared.
But strangely enough, this kind of atmosphere was still hard to get used to.
If anything, I would have been nonchalant about it in my past life.
'I'm bored.'
Perhaps because of that, it had been about three months since I entered high school.
And I hadn't made a single friend.
Why on earth?
There's no one as gentle and kind as me.
"Just talk to them first, idiot."
When I confided that concern to Lee Ji-yeon during lunch, she shook the lollipop in her mouth from side to side and spoke as if I were hopeless.
"If I try to talk to them first—"
"Then?"
"……I run away."
"Hmm."
Ji-yeon made a face like she roughly understood.
"With that face of yours, it's definitely bound to be intimidating."
'My face is intimidating?'
More importantly, what do you mean 'that face'? 'That face'?
Sometimes Ji-yeon had a tendency to speak too sharply.
"Anyway, that's not really important."
"It is important."
"More importantly, tell me about those two things you said you were considering appearing in earlier."
"I said it's important?"
Ji-yeon didn't seem to care at all about my social life, and instead asked about what I had mentioned this morning without forgetting.
That's really mean.
With a pout, I said.
"A play."
"Huh?"
"I'm going to audition for a play that's opening at a small theater in Jongno."
Ji-yeon blinked at my words.
A look asking if I was being serious.
"……Should I find you one? If I look around, I might be able to get you a good one."
Ji-yeon's unusually sweet words.
It seemed the word 'play' sounded that strange to her.
"Well, what about school then?"
"The performance period overlaps with summer vacation, so it's fine."
Rehearsals could be done while attending school.
I also planned to get some degree of permission from the school.
"And you said there were two? What else besides the play?"
"That's something I can only do if I do the play first."
"What are you even saying, seriously."
Ji-yeon looked at me as if telling me not to joke around.
But what could I do? I was being serious.
'The first work after my return is important.'
After puberty passed, I felt my emotions and mind reach stability.
That process wasn't easy, but as a result, it was resolved well.
It was around that time I made up my mind to return to acting.
Spring, right after entering high school.
Since then, I had been pondering in many ways about my first work for my return.
'What would be good?'
I possessed knowledge from my past life, and accordingly, I mostly knew which works would succeed and which would fail. Unlike school lessons where I couldn't even recall what I learned yesterday, this part came to mind with bizarre clarity.
Just the ones that immediately came to mind were several.
'More than anything, the role I can take on is important.'
Since it's my first work after returning, a work with that much impact would be good.
Among those, the works selected through auditions were few.
And most of those were lyrical works.
'Hmm.'
And after all that deliberation, the conclusion I reached was one.
However, there was a prerequisite for that one.
That was the play I had chosen.
But.
"?"
I glanced at Ji-yeon.
Feeling my gaze, Ji-yeon tilted her head with a puzzled look.
The one thing that bothered me was the repercussions that would arise from me taking the role.
Like Lee Ji-yeon, or Jo Seo-hee.
Especially Lee Ji-yeon.
Ji-yeon was originally supposed to receive a lot of harsh criticism because of that very job.
After that, she largely remained unnoticed and clearly left the industry permanently due to a voice actor-related incident.
However, I took the CF that would have earned her that criticism, and was instead growing quite smoothly.
If things continued like this, taking on the lead role in a popular drama wouldn't be too far off either.
……Things really went too well.
No, it's fortunate that things went well for Ji-yeon, but…….
"What. Why are you looking at me like that?"
"……Nothing."
I briefly observed Ji-yeon, then looked at the date displayed on my smartphone.
For her, too, it was a period with not much time left if things had gone as originally planned. What should I do?
Would it be fine to just leave things as they are?
Various complicated thoughts went back and forth.
"Lee Ji-yeon."
"Yeah?"
"Hey, would you like to come over to my house sometime?"
"Your house? Sure."
Ji-yeon replied casually.
Anyway, I'd figure out something regarding Ji-yeon's matter then.
The problem was regarding my return.
'The play audition being held in Jongno.'
Unless it was a youth play, teenage theater actors were rarely cast.
But if it were me, I could manage it somehow.
'The title was probably.'
A play called 「Close Your Eyes」.
It was a play that garnered much attention in many ways in my past life.
It gathered popularity, of course, and later, an actor who appeared in it also starred in a movie and became a huge topic of discussion.
Yes, this was just right.
If I thought about the incident that would occur afterward.
***
'There she goes having another weird thought again.'
Ji-yeon watched Seo-yeon's back as she returned to her own class right after lunch ended without even properly explaining.
'A play, huh.'
Honestly, there were many questionable parts.
Why a play all of a sudden?
If she put up the signboard of 'Tae Soom-dal's Princess Yeonhwa,' there were still plenty of places that would bite.
Of course, after resting for 10 years, she'd definitely need to go through some verification.
But I didn't think Seo-yeon would fail even such a simple verification.
'That kid is a real actor.'
A real actor.
Ji-yeon repeated those words and let out a sigh.
Although Ji-yeon was doing decently well in a recent cable drama, whenever she saw Seo-yeon's acting, she couldn't help but feel the difference.
Whereas before she only showcased emotional acting, Seo-yeon's acting now was diverse enough without 'needing' to do that.
Genius.
That was the word all the acting instructors who taught her praised in unison.
Rather, it was incomprehensible that she had rested for 10 years.
Honestly, there were plenty of works she could appear in at any time.
"Seriously."
Ji-yeon looked in the direction Seo-yeon had disappeared before turning around.
Did she say she had no friends in class?
Well, that makes sense.
Seo-yeon exuded an atmosphere that made it difficult for others to approach easily.
Presence, should I call it.
Being an actor by nature, ordinary people often couldn't even open their mouths in front of Seo-yeon.
Probably, aside from herself, the ones who talked to Seo-yeon the most were the part-time workers at the convenience stores she visited.
I didn't understand why she roamed around so many convenience stores, but it was natural she had no friends at school.
'She has the acting, so why not use it?'
If she smiled brightly and approached people first, friends would probably be lining up every morning. But the reason Ji-yeon didn't bother giving that advice was simply because this was more comfortable.
A Joo Seo-yeon with lots of friends somehow didn't seem like Joo Seo-yeon.
***
Anyway, having made up her mind, Seo-yeon conveyed that to Soo-ah as soon as she returned home from school.
"Um, I'm thinking of making my return now."
"Our daughter. It's not because you don't want to study, right?"
"……."
For a moment, Seo-yeon couldn't immediately respond to those words.
'Oops.'
I should have answered right away.
Reflecting on her own mistake, she continued as naturally as possible.
"Of course not. I'll continue to study steadily."
"Hmm."
Soo-ah looked at her daughter with slightly suspicious eyes.
Our daughter was always amazing, but her hatred of studying was too obvious.
Until middle school, her grades were passable.
But her first midterms in high school were literally devastating.
She hadn't even told anyone what her mock exam scores were like.
'The kid's not dumb, but.'
Soo-ah had such thoughts but just let it be.
A daughter who already possessed too many talents.
Expecting her to study on top of that would be too greedy.
'How on earth does Mom manage her skin?'
And Seo-yeon, for her part, inwardly marveled while looking at Soo-ah.
Soo-ah's age, thirty-nine.
An age where she should now be called an ajumma.
But her appearance hadn't changed much from 10 years ago.
If anything, her chest seemed to have gotten bigger.
As much as her own inexplicable physical strength, her mother's appearance was an Oriental mystery itself.
"Right, you've rested for a long time too. Are you really okay now?"
"Yes. I'm perfectly fine."
Saying that, Seo-yeon struck a 'fighting' pose with both arms.
At Seo-yeon's appearance, a clear voice came from below.
"Sis, that's funny!"
A cute girl with black hair tied up on both sides.
She was a small girl who resembled Seo-yeon, or rather, to be more precise, Soo-ah.
Her name was Joo Soo-yeon. Age, seven.
Sharing the 'yeon' character generational marker, she was Seo-yeon's younger sister with a similar pronunciation and name.
Because of the age gap of a full ten years, when she was young, there were many times Seo-yeon took care of her directly.
"Then Mom will take Soo-yeon and go grocery shopping. The food is in the fridge?"
"Understood."
"Sis, Soo-yeon's going now. Buh-bye."
"Yeah, buh-bye."
Seeing as she specifically took her along, it seemed the little one had whined about not wanting to stay home again.
Seeing off her sister, Seo-yeon watched Soo-ah's back as she closed the door and left.
Despite having told her she was returning to acting, the reaction was just 'oh, it's finally happening,' which slightly deflated her.
She had put a lot of thought into this.
"Hmm."
Suddenly left alone at home, Seo-yeon casually sat on the sofa and turned on the TV.
Then, a commercial featuring a woman with a familiar face flowed out.
"Eek."
「Love Me As Much as the Dew」
It looked like a soju commercial, but it was actually a cosmetics advertisement.
Anyway, cosmetics advertisements were commercials featuring representative handsome men and beautiful women.
Also, the brand value had to be luxurious, and there needed to be a certain level of recognition.
In other words, the indicator of a trending actress was precisely this cosmetics advertisement.
「With me, Seo-hee.」
The face of a woman smiling brightly as she spoke was captured.
She was clearly around Seo-yeon's age, but her face was suspiciously mature.
If one didn't know and saw her, she'd look like she was in her twenties.
'Jo Seo-hee.'
An actress who could be called undoubtedly one of the best among current teenage actors.
Unlike her past life where she stumbled once at Tae Soom-dal.
An actress who had built a splendid career over 10 years.
And an actress who had nothing but continuous success ahead of her—that was the Jo Seo-hee on the TV.
'Cosmetics ads are still a bit much. I'll have to decline when they come in later.'
Of course, Seo-yeon watched that and, without much thought, opened YouTube.
And then, a list of Seo-yeon's flashy playlists appeared one after another.
They were VTuber streams that had started taking off in earnest.
And among them, one thing caught Seo-yeon's eye.
「The soon-to-be-revealed Seven Live 3rd Gen!」
Seeing the list that followed, Seo-yeon narrowed her eyes.
I should say, as expected.
Because one person who should have been there was missing.