"Actress Joo Seo-yeon, and Actress Pyo Ji-woo."
Jo Do-yul called out to Seo-yeon and Pyo Ji-woo.
"I'd like to see your acting one more time. Would Act 4, Scene 3 be possible?"
Act 4, Scene 3.
This wasn't a scene for the male lead 'Bae Seong-hak', but rather a scene where the female lead, Song Min-seo, is threatened.
It was the part where Hong Jeong-hee's latent violence, hidden within her gloom and ominousness, is revealed.
'Of course, I have memorized the script.'
Seo-yeon pondered how to respond.
However, unlike Act 3, which she had practiced for the audition, she had never actually performed Act 4, Scene 3, even though she had memorized all the lines.
"...Before I act, would it be alright if I took a moment to practice?"
"You may."
He checked his wristwatch before answering. There was still time left.
It was because the other actors' questions had ended quickly.
"Then."
Just as Seo-yeon was about to ask for ten minutes of practice time.
"I'm fine."
Pyo Ji-woo's stiff voice rang out.
Seo-yeon's gaze shifted, and her eyes met Pyo Ji-woo's.
"I'm fine doing it right now."
Pyo Ji-woo smiled at Seo-yeon, who was staring at her expressionlessly. It was almost like a provocation.
'So, what are you going to do?'
She seemed like a girl with a lot of pride.
Just seeing her immediately bite back at a little mockery proved it.
A genius child actress? Well, sure. She could be.
But that's all she was.
Pyo Ji-woo was serious.
Just as she had told Jo Do-yul earlier, she didn't care which scene of 'Hong Jeong-hee' they asked for.
She had memorized every single scene of Hong Jeong-hee in the script, and had performed them over and over again.
'Hong Jeong-hee is me.'
She could empathize with her emotions better than anyone.
Method acting. One could call it that.
Her obsession.
It had taken a whole year for her, who was once merely a spectator in the audience, to stand in this position.
All for one person.
'Go ahead and practice.'
Pyo Ji-woo looked at Seo-yeon as if saying those words.
She said she was a high schooler, right? If she was a teenage girl, she would easily fall for this kind of provocation.
'Though that means the sliver of a chance you had of winning will disappear.'
Pyo Ji-woo wasn't looking down on Seo-yeon.
Admittedly, the acting she had just seen was quite good.
It was a performance that resembled Hong Jeong-hee quite well.
If she gave her time to practice, the same thing that happened this time could happen again.
She could end up losing by a stroke of bad luck.
And that was something Pyo Ji-woo could absolutely never tolerate.
"...I'll just do it."
Seo-yeon replied dryly. Her face and voice were devoid of any readable emotion.
But seeing the clear competitive spirit lingering in those eyes, Pyo Ji-woo smirked.
'Got her.'
No matter how amazing her talent was, she couldn't do something perfectly if she hadn't practiced it.
Of course, she was confident she would win even if Seo-yeon practiced, but this was practically Seo-yeon raising the white flag on her own.
"Is that so?"
Jo Do-yul naturally looked puzzled.
'Is she really just a high schooler after all?'
To think she would so easily fall for Pyo Ji-woo's provocation.
'It's not good if she's too emotional.'
Just as he was about to lower his assessment of Seo-yeon.
"Instead."
Seo-yeon's words wedged their way in.
"Would it be alright if I go after Actress Pyo Ji-woo this time?"
"After Actress Pyo Ji-woo?"
"Yes. Because I went first last time."
At Seo-yeon's audacious remark, Jo Do-yul briefly glanced at the other judges.
Most of them nodded, indicating they didn't mind.
"Hmm, understood. Then for this round, Actress Pyo Ji-woo will go first. Are you alright with that, Actress Pyo Ji-woo?"
"...Yes."
What is she thinking?
Pyo Ji-woo curled the corners of her mouth as she looked at Seo-yeon.
Even looking at her face, her expression was hard to read.
Just like a doll.
Her emotional expressions were faint, and her face was astonishingly beautiful.
"It's Act 4, Scene 3. The scene where Hong Jeong-hee appears before Song Min-seo and threatens her."
Along with Jo Do-yul's words, Pyo Ji-woo stepped forward.
And so, her performance began.
"You, y-y-you think you're special?"
With a trembling voice, Hong Jeong-hee backed Song Min-seo against the wall and fired fiercely.
*Thump.* Her body shook as she struck the wall.
Since Hong Jeong-hee had a hunched back, her gaze was directed straight ahead.
It was a gaze perfectly adjusted to account for Song Min-seo's height.
Staring at the terrified Song Min-seo, she spat out her words in a stutter.
"You, you're just p-pitying me. My oppa is just so kind, he can't stand watching a deaf bitch like you!"
Her trembling pupils revealed her heightened emotions.
While an audience in a theater wouldn't be able to see that emotion, Pyo Ji-woo's gaze was directed right at the judges.
Simultaneously, Pyo Ji-woo's hand moved.
Into thin air.
She struck the empty space as if smashing an invisible wall.
Her body shuddered as if her arm had actually struck a solid wall.
It was a manifestation of Hong Jeong-hee's intense emotions and violence.
At the same time, her body quivered violently.
That aggressiveness was an excessive backlash stemming from the defense mechanism of the timid and introverted Hong Jeong-hee.
Pyo Ji-woo poured out those words, expressing it fiercely through her body language.
'My god.'
Jo Do-yul lost his words at the sight. The other judges were the same.
They unconsciously gulped.
'She's practically Hong Jeong-hee herself.'
Pyo Ji-woo recited Hong Jeong-hee's lines exactly.
The inferiority complex contained within her voice. The fear, and the violence born from it.
'This is... even for Joo Seo-yeon...'
Their first performances in Act 3, Scene 6 had been similar.
They had each portrayed a Hong Jeong-hee with a different color.
He had thought that either of them was worth casting.
'Is there really such a thing as an actor born for a role?'
Pyo Ji-woo suited the role perfectly.
Her expression of emotions, her movements.
It felt as if this role had been created just for her.
'This is decided.'
It was unfortunate for Seo-yeon, but this role belonged to Pyo Ji-woo.
As he looked at Seo-yeon with that thought, Jo Do-yul felt a sudden chill.
Seo-yeon's eyes were fixed dead on Pyo Ji-woo.
She hadn't blinked once.
With an expressionless face, she stared at Pyo Ji-woo as if she had even forgotten to breathe.
Red eyes.
In the dim light, her eyes strangely seemed to glow red.
'Certainly.'
Beneath Jo Do-yul's gaze, Seo-yeon thought to herself.
'When it comes to expressing Hong Jeong-hee, Pyo Ji-woo is superior.'
Seo-yeon had admitted that fact from the very moment Pyo Ji-woo began her second performance.
Yes, this role truly belongs to you.
Honestly, if she couldn't match her, she had planned to concede gracefully and step back.
She could just look for another movie or drama.
Or another play. Even if it took some time, there were plenty of things she could do.
But now that she was actually in this situation, she didn't feel that way at all.
'Absolutely not.'
She couldn't yield.
Competitive spirit.
Seo-yeon felt a new emotion burning intensely within her.
She discovered a new side of herself.
'I...'
I hate losing.
"T-Think about it, Song Min-seo. Is there anyone who would genuinely harbor feelings for a deaf person like you?"
She observed Pyo Ji-woo, and the Hong Jeong-hee she was portraying.
She etched the emotions she displayed, her actions and movements, into her eyes.
Forgetting to even blink, she absorbed every piece of information she was expressing in a daze.
One by one, then another.
"Don't mess with me, I said don't mess with me!!"
This was, yes.
A habitual form of studying.
It was also the only art her past life self could perform.
Replicating the canvas of emotion.
"I've liked him for much longer."
How many visual media had she consumed to express human emotions?
How many books had she read, and how much had she fantasized to express that vague something?
"But, the one who suddenly b-butted in was you."
For the first time in a while, Seo-yeon recalled the memories of that time.
She picked up her brush.
She replicated the emotions of Hong Jeong-hee that Pyo Ji-woo was currently displaying.
Tracing her canvas, she moved her brush without missing a single drop of paint.
Of course, it wasn't perfect.
Seo-yeon's emotional mimicry could infinitely approach the real thing, but it couldn't touch Pyo Ji-woo's method acting.
If that was the case.
Then there was only one answer.
"Song Min-seooo!!"
*Bang!* Just as Hong Jeong-hee, who had grabbed Song Min-seo by the hair, was about to slam her head against the wall, her arm abruptly stopped.
That was because it was the transition to the scene where Bae Seong-hak appears and grabs Hong Jeong-hee's arm.
"...That is all."
At those composed words, the judges clapped with dazed faces.
It was a truly perfect performance of Hong Jeong-hee.
So much so that they wondered if any better performance could possibly exist.
'Who played the role of Hong Jeong-hee before?'
'Close Your Eyes' was a play that had already premiered in Daehangro three years ago.
This time was strictly a revival.
But after seeing Pyo Ji-woo, they couldn't even recall who had previously played the role of Hong Jeong-hee for a moment.
"Then next is Actress Joo Seo-yeon."
Jo Do-yul called Seo-yeon calmly, observing her face.
Since Seo-yeon was still a high schooler, she must be feeling immense pressure from that performance.
But at the same time, the look in Seo-yeon's eyes from earlier came to mind.
'She's more...'
'Composed than expected?'
'She's got strong nerves~.'
The judges whispered among themselves.
The performance they had just seen was one that would normally exert overwhelming pressure on anyone.
They even thought it would have been better to perform first.
"Then, I look forward to your Act 4, Scene 3."
"Yes."
A calm reply.
Seo-yeon stepped forward.
Right to the exact spot where Pyo Ji-woo had just stood.
Watching her, Pyo Ji-woo narrowed her eyes.
'What a bizarre girl.'
To not show a single change in expression in this situation, she was an uninteresting brat.
'Heh, hehe.'
Regardless, Pyo Ji-woo found it hard to suppress the laughter bubbling up from her lips.
The performance she had just delivered was better than any she had practiced alone so far.
She knew the reason why.
'It's because Seo-ho oppa is one of the judges.'
Secretly, Pyo Ji-woo cast a glance at Min Seo-ho.
At that, Min Seo-ho's body shivered slightly, and he began looking around.
Hong Jeong-hee was definitely her role.
To act in this play alongside Min Seo-ho, to gain a means to approach him, just how much had she practiced?
Ever since the moment Min Seo-ho's casting in this play was decided a year ago.
"I will begin now."
With Seo-yeon's composed words, Act 4, Scene 3 began.
Seo-yeon's performance of Hong Jeong-hee had started.
'...Huh?'
The first one to sense something was off was Pyo Ji-woo herself.
Seo-yeon's footsteps, her movements.
The emotions revealed on her face.
Her shifting gaze and her desperate, ragged breathing.
'T-This bitch!'
She moved.
The blocking—how her body moved, how her feet carried her forward—looked exactly like someone else.
Who?
It went without saying.
It was Pyo Ji-woo. It was herself.
"You, y-y-you think you're special?"
She moved as if she had perfectly copied the emotions of the 'Hong Jeong-hee' she had just portrayed.
'She copied me! That's it, she's imitating me...?'
Riding the emotional arc, she spat out her lines.
It definitely resembled the emotions Pyo Ji-woo had just displayed.
'What the?'
But something was different.
'It can't just be that she understood the information and imitated it.'
That might have been fine when she was a child actress, but the standard was different now.
An imitated performance could never beat Pyo Ji-woo.
Therefore.
The emotional mimicry Seo-yeon was using this time was solely to understand the role.
Pyo Ji-woo had foreseen her victory simply because she understood Hong Jeong-hee's state of mind better than anyone.
The reason Seo-yeon's emotional arc had fallen short of hers was ultimately because she hadn't perfectly understood the person named Hong Jeong-hee.
If she had replicated and understood the emotions of Hong Jeong-hee that Pyo Ji-woo had displayed, then...
The preparation was complete.
The preparation to fully immerse herself into the role.