Chapter 120: A Scary Senior (1)

Kang Ra-Eun woke up very early in the morning when the sun hadn’t even come up yet.

“Urgh, I’m so tired.”

She felt like fatigue was sweeping over her as soon as she yawned. She came out of her room and looked at Seo Yi-Seo’s empty room. Yi-Seo had no choice but to go work at Starlight Road for the time being because the part-timer had suddenly quit due to personal circumstances.

Hence, Yi-Seo was currently back at her parents’ place, and Ra-Eun had ended up having this spacious home all to herself. She was never one to get lonely, but...

‘I don’t really like it when it’s this quiet.’

A relatively noisy home with the warmth of life around it was far better than a cold and silent one.

“I guess it’ll be like this until the beginning of next month.”

Ra-Eun could also call her older brother over if she got bored since Ra-Hyuk, no matter how much he grumbled, rushed to her side at any time of day if she asked.

She washed up and went out to the living room. Just in time, a call came from Shin Yu-Bin.

- Ra-Eun, we’re almost at your house. Are you ready?

“Yes. Let me know what time you’ll arrive and I’ll be down by then.”

She decided to dry her hair until then. Her hair was so long that it took quite a long time to dry.

‘Well, they’ll do my hair once I’m at the set anyway.’

However, it was better to go with clean hair. She dried her hair somewhat, packed her things and got on the elevator. The car that Ra-Eun rode around in was parked near the entrance in front of the elevator. Yu-Bin popped out from the driver’s seat window and waved at Ra-Eun.

“Over here, Ra-Eun!”

Ra-Eun confirmed where they were and walked over to them. She got on the back seat as she greeted Yu-Bin good morning. The moment she sat down, her stylist Ryu Ha-Yeon took out a portable hair dryer.

“I packed this just in case you weren’t able to fully dry your hair. I did well, right?”

Ra-Eun smiled at Ha-Yeon, who was looking at her as if she wanted to be praised. The three of them had worked together for so long that they were like bread and butter at this point.

Ra-Eun took out the script from her bag. She used to get dizzy from reading books or looking at her smartphone in the car for too long, but she had gotten used to it because such things were a daily occurrence for an actress.

‘I guess I’ll be working together with Mr. Hwang Seung-Beom starting today.’

Hwang Seung-Beom was an actor who debuted two years ago, and he was given the lead role of Min Ju-Tae’s love interest. He had risen up to take on a lead role in a movie in just two years.

‘It’s not easy to do.’

It meant that not only was he talented, his agency was giving him their full support. Ra-Eun had also watched the dramas and movies he had starred in.

‘He’s fairly good-looking and tall. He’s quite popular with the ladies, if I remember right.’

He gave off a different feel from Ji Han-Seok and Je-Woon. If she had to make a comparison...

‘I guess he’s similar to Yi-Jun.’

However, she might only be thinking this because Seung-Beom was her junior.

‘Well, I’ll know once I see him for myself.’

There was no need to ponder over such things before even meeting the person. There was nothing more surefire for grasping someone’s nature than seeing them with one’s own eyes.

***

The staff members greeted Ra-Eun first as she arrived at the set. Nowadays, it felt as if she was meeting work colleagues.

‘Well, it’s not completely out of the ballpark.’

They had spent the majority of this year working together. If this was the army, the so-called ‘camaraderie’ that the superiors stressed over so much might have formed among them.

As Ra-Eun was about to go through her script while getting her make-up and hair done, a man quietly approached her.

“Good morning, sunbae!”

Hwang Seung-Beom, the one whom she would be working with today, greeted her while bowing at a ninety-degree angle.

Ra-Eun greeted him back, “Good morning. I saw you on the set last time, but we were both so busy that I couldn’t find the time to say hello.”

The entire studio was so busy that they did not even have the time to chat with each other like this, so Ra-Eun still did not know what kind of man Seung-Beom was.

‘First impression wise, he’s not bad.’

He was so handsome that just looking at him was able to leave a good impression on people.

Seung-Beom asked with sparkling eyes, “If it’s alright with you, could I join you in your script reading?”

“Right now? Hmm... My make-up isn’t done yet, so that would be a bit difficult. Let’s do it face to face once it’s all done.”

“Oh, yes! I understand!”

Seung-Beom maintained his cheerful tone despite being turned down, and left her be. Ra-Eun held in her laughter as she watched him disappear through the reflection of the mirror in front of her.

‘He’s pretty cute.’

It might have been because he was her junior, but Ra-Eun wanted to give him a seal of approval in terms of first impressions regardless.

***

Seung-Beom exceeded Ra-Eun’s expectations during the script reading as well.

“J-Ju-Tae! I-I like you! This time... I’m not lying!”

If Seung-Beom’s character ‘Na Do-Jin’ were to be described with one phrase, it was ‘bashful young man.’ The scene that the two of them had to act out today was Do-Jin confessing to Ju-Tae for the first time.

Seung-Beom was expressing his anxiety very well by not just stuttering, but having his eyes tremble as well. Ra-Eun was reminded of someone while looking at Seung-Beom reading his script as if they were shooting the scene.

‘Yeo Song-Won sunbae also read her script like this.’

Come to think of it, Song-Won and Seung-Beom were in the same agency.

‘He must have been influenced by her.’

Instilling this much emotion during the script reading would be good practice for when the scene was shot for real. However, there were also some disadvantages; instilling emotion also meant that one was consuming energy. Practicing hard was pointless if one couldn’t display their full potential during the real thing. The most important thing for an actor was the performance they displayed on camera.

Since her reading partner was so immersed in his performance, Ra-Eun couldn’t hold back either.

“Are you confessing to me right now?”

“Th-That’s right!”

“What the hell’s with the sudden confession...?” Ra-Eun clicked her tongue to express bafflement in her performance.

Meanwhile, Director Yoon was watching the two actors’ passionate reading in satisfaction. There was likely no film director who would not like their actors working so hard for their film.

“We’re about to start shooting, so please get ready, you two,” he remarked.

“Yes, director.”

They ended the script reading here. They would now be doing the most important thing, the shooting of the actual scene.

“Roll cameras! Ready... Action!” Director Yoon exclaimed.

Seung-Beom was one who needed to start off the scene.

“J-J-Juu...”

He stuttered Ju-Tae’s name too many times and for too long. Ra-Eun knew very well that the character Na Do-Jin was supposed to be bashful.

‘But isn’t this a bit too much?’

The character wasn’t supposed to be this excessively bashful. Not only that, Seung-Beom wasn’t like this during their script reading either. Ra-Eun felt something was off, but Director Yoon declared an NG cut first. The director’s expression displayed that he had expected such a thing to happen.

He exclaimed through the megaphone, “Didn’t I tell you last time, Seung-Beom? There isn’t anyone here who’s out to get you, so you can take it slow.”

“I-I’m so sorry!”

The director was talking as if he had already expected Seung-Beom to make a mistake. Not just him, but the camera director, the lighting team, prop team, and most of the other staff members all had the same reaction. Their deep sighs filled the entire studio.

Ra-Eun did not understand why they were acting like this at the time, but she had come to realize it after seven more NG cuts for the exact same mistake.

“Mr. Hwang,” Ra-Eun decided to ask him straight up. “Are you camera-shy?”

***

Ra-Eun did not like beating around the bush. She would do so if the situation called for it, but she usually told the person straight up if she found something that she did not like or found infuriating about them. The same went for Seung-Beom’s case.

He nodded with an apologetic face.

.

“Yes... I’m so sorry, sunbae.”

It was an absurd response. How was the shoot supposed to progress if the actor was camera-shy? It was something that she couldn’t get her head around.

“Then how did the shoots progress for all the dramas and movies you’ve starred in before?” she asked.

“Um...”

“I’ll tell you in Seung-Beom’s place.” Director Yoon interjected before Seung-Beom had a chance to respond. “Could I talk to you for a second, Ra-Eun?”

Ra-Eun thought that he would talk to her about Seung-Beom, so she followed him. There were a lot of things that she needed to hear from him. She took a seat and pressed the director to explain what in the world was going on.

Director Yoon lightly sighed and explained, “I’m sure you know since you saw it for yourself, but Seung-Beom is extremely camera-shy.”

“Then how does he even have an acting career?”

“It’s not like he only has flaws.”

Director Yoon revealed why Seung-Beom was on a fast track to becoming a successful actor despite his camera-shyness.

“His performance dwarfs those of any of his co-stars once he gets in the zone.”

In other words, he needed time to get fully immersed. Once he went through that process, his performance exceeded expectations. It was because of this that Seung-Beom had been getting massive roles one after another. From what Ra-Eun had seen during their script reading, there was no doubt that Seung-Beom was a skilled actor.

“But Director. Is that process even necessary?” Ra-Eun asked.

The shoot would be over in an instant if it weren’t for that, which would be good for everyone.

“It’d be great if it wasn’t, but he apparently needs some... no, a lot of time to get used to the studio’s atmosphere.”

“...”

Ra-Eun’s eyebrows twitched. Unfortunately, she was not a very patient person.

“I understand. Then please give me about twenty minutes, Director,” Ra-Eun said as she looked at Seung-Beom repeatedly apologizing to the staff members. “I’ll take care of it somehow.”

Ra-Eun was done being a kind senior. She decided to show Seung-Beom a tiny bit of her true personality.