She looked around, and every one of them only watched her with indifferent eyes.
'Tsk...... that's karma.'
Not one person took Han Jae-hui's side.
Han Jae-hui shook from head to foot, bit down on her lip and shouted.
"P-PD Song, aren't you the one who plays favourites!"
"Favourites? Me?"
"Yes! Honestly, a bit part like that and I are not the same class!"
Han Jae-hui pointed a finger at Tae-il.
As though she could not stand another second of it, tears were running out of her eyes.
Whatever she did, PD Song turned to Tae-il.
"Tae-il. Are you hurt anywhere?"
"No. I'm fine."
Watching PD Song look after Tae-il, Han Jae-hui's face twisted more terribly still.
He was seeing to a bit-part nobody before her, one of the main cast.
A deep scratch went into an actress's pride.
"P-PD Song?! Are you telling me a bit-part nobody is more important than me?! More than me, the lead......?!"
Whatever Han Jae-hui said, PD Song snorted as though she were tiresome.
"......Get your pronunciation right when you're delivering a line."
"Sorry?"
"Do you read the comments? They say your words smear. Whether you're delivering a line or barking, you should at least make it audible. Eun Tae-il aside, is your pronunciation worse than Im Ha-na's?"
Insulted to her face, Han Jae-hui shook around the eyes and shouted.
Im Ha-na was her junior.
Every crew member there was watching this.
"......I'm taking a break!"
Eyes gone red, Han Jae-hui left the location as though fleeing.
"J-Jae-hui!"
Her manager, behind the camera, hurried to go after her.
Writer Lee, coming up behind, smiled at the manager as he started to run.
"Team Leader Yang. If our Jae-hui isn't back inside ten minutes...... well, it can't be helped."
"Writer Lee. What you're saying is......"
"What are we going to do? The clock is running."
Before Writer Lee had finished, Han Jae-hui's manager went ash-colored and tore off at speed.
When the location had gone quiet, PD Song turned his eyes to Tae-il.
"Eun Tae-il. Shall we talk over there."
PD Song took Tae-il and Im Ha-na over to the monitor.
The monitor sat frozen on a close-up of Tae-il catching the hand Han Jae-hui had aimed at his face.
Playing it back, PD Song went on.
"The expression here is especially good. Here in particular. Not a flicker out of you, even about to be slapped."
"I surprised myself. I was down inside the character and......"
"Is that right? Watching you act, it looked as though you knew it was coming."
PD Song looked at him with a suspicious eye, and Tae-il's gaze did not waver.
In the end PD Song folded his arms and had to turn back to the monitor.
'Down inside it, he says. So Eun Tae-il has changed too.'
Writer Lee, who had been listening quietly, stretched both arms above her head.
"He's more than paid for taking the script early."
Around the ten-minute mark, Han Jae-hui came back.
Whatever had happened in that short stretch, Han Jae-hui's shoulders were pulled right in.
The moment she was back she bowed to PD Song and Writer Lee, and then bent at the waist to Eun Tae-il.
"I'm sorry...... I'm so sorry. Senior...... Eun Tae-il."
"Forget it. It happened in the middle of a scene."
"Thank...... you."
Whatever the words said, there was venom in the eyes of the bowing Han Jae-hui.
A washed-up bit-part nobody had crumpled her pride completely.
Watching Han Jae-hui vanish as though fleeing, PD Song shrugged.
"I hope this knocks some sense into Jae-hui."
"So do I."
Writer Lee thought the same.
"Going into the shoot!"
The shooting went on after that.
***
A few days after Tae-il finished shooting.
His footage went out on the KVS drama "Families Are All Like This."
His screen time was not long, and the reaction was more explosive than the last one.
-Is Face Senior going regular on KVS's Families Are All Like This? Netizens: "Please, make him regular"......
-Eun Tae-il, resurrected as an actor? Face Senior role draws attention......
-is eun tae-il's acting fr? is that the same loser eun tae-il? my chest is going majestic
-wow...... am I the only one who fluttered when Eun Tae-il snatched Han Jae-hui's hand?
-please please make Face Senior regular T_T
-I find Eun Tae-il absolutely cringe but I'll give him that.
-Week 2 of praying for Face Senior to go regular......
-Eun Tae-il is dead. But Face Senior is alive.
-Hello, I'm an Eun Tae-il anti. Face Senior I acknowledge.
-somebody please talk about the eyes...... it's so f*cking fluttery T_T
For once, articles went up and a Face Senior screencap went around on social media.
It was Eun Tae-il taking Han Jae-hui's arm as she went to slap him, and looking down at her.
'I didn't see a meme coming.'
It meant people liked the character Face Senior that much.
-why put a hand on his face?
-I liked the second daughter...... totally let down today. she crossed the line so damn hard
-This one's on the writer for going too far.
-heard from someone I know that it was an ad-lib.
-ugh idk whatever, putting a hand on that face is a crime.
Nasty comments were pouring down on Han Jae-hui's second daughter.
A great many people were making their discomfort plain about the part where she tried to strike her partner's face out of nowhere.
'If Han Jae-hui were an actress at a big agency, they wouldn't have left this to run.'
Social media and NooTube opinion might be beyond reach, but the articles and the fan cafés would have been managed by any means necessary.
'If that were the case, I wouldn't have handled it this way either.'
He had rolled around in this business long enough to know there was a "power" that pulled the industry along.
The celebrity's own popularity, the agency's muscle, fast information, a solid backer.
To survive down here you have to have some of it, whatever it is.
'I should meet that person soon...... hm?'
Bzzzt—
Tae-il checked the phone and the corner of his eye moved.
Speak of the tiger and it appears. PD Song.
-Eun Tae-il. Busy?
Tae-il got up and shifted the phone.
"No, PD Song."
-Have you seen the reaction?
"Yes. I'm looking at it now."
-Unexpectedly calm. I thought you'd be bouncing around on the bed.
The reaction to Eun Tae-il was far better than the last time.
Whether he was hiding what he felt on purpose, or had something else in mind, PD Song wondered.
Light talk went back and forth, and then PD Song came out with it.
-Can you come out for us this week too?
Unlike last time, Tae-il did not answer at once.
'I want to keep working with PD Song, but......'
The role of Face Senior.
A part without so much as a name, and a part he owed, because it had told people Eun Tae-il was alive.
But......
'Face Senior ends here.'
He could show better acting as Face Senior.
But you have to leave while they are still clapping if you want to take a better part.
For the sake of what was possible, Tae-il made the decision.
"I'm sorry, PD Song. I don't think I have anything more to show you."
A long sigh came down the phone.
After a short silence, PD Song let out a clean burst of laughter.
-Eun Tae-il. No. Tae-il, you. I've revised my opinion.
"I'm sorry."
-No. If you'd said you'd take the role again, I'd have been disappointed.
If he had accepted this time, it could certainly have gone regular.
From the point of view of the man responsible for the programme it would have been a happy choice; from the point of view of a man in the industry it would have been a waste.
Right now people were paying attention to nothing but this man's face, and......
'I don't know what happened to him. But this one is an actor.'
PD Song's voice went lower.
-Tae-il. When this production wraps, I'm going into a miniseries.
"A miniseries?"
Tae-il got a better grip on the phone.
'I never thought a man with PD Song's ability would stay on weekend dramas. There it is.'
PD Song went on.
-The script isn't fully out yet, but...... I'd like to work with you, Eun Tae-il.
"If you call me, it's an okay any time. May I ask who the writer is?"
-You say okay and then ask for everything you need anyway.
"Hahaha. Call it having my priorities straight."
-Your cheek has grown too. It's Writer Kim Mi-gyeong.
Tae-il's eyes went wide.
Writer Kim Mi-gyeong was a specialist in crime and mystery.
'This would be her second work. Her debut alone pulled 27%. The first one was a huge hit, so this one really matters.'
The production company and the broadcaster would push it hard.
The casting alone would draw attention.
And if it failed, the risk they would have to swallow would be large too.
-We'll see each other soon, yes? And when we do, no nameless things like Face Senior. A proper part.
"I'll work hard on my asking price in the meantime."
After the call, Tae-il lay back down on the bed.
'PD Song and Writer Kim. I'd better prepare properly until then. So......'
There was work he had put off while preparing for the shoot.
Tae-il opened the photo folder saved on the phone.
[Profile]
He pressed the folder, and Eun Tae-il's profile photos were saved inside.
'Eun Tae-il's old agency was Namu Ent, wasn't it?'
The Eun Tae-il in the profile photos was striking a range of poses.
Chin propped on a hand, hands in pockets and a haughty smile, shirt pulled open and a glare into the lens.
Too much force in the eyes, the mouth locked stiff, the arms hanging without strength.
Tae-il's eyes twisted more and more as he went through them.
'Those Namu Ent people are vicious too. How cheap did they shoot this?'
They had clearly been taken by someone who did not know the first letter of the word profile.
A profile photo is as good as an actor's first impression.
Sending this to a production company is the same as saying: don't cast me.
'For a profile, that place is still the best.'
The next morning, early, Tae-il headed for a photo studio in the university district.
He was going to meet a photographer who specialized in profiles, a man he had known since his days running an agency.
He stepped inside, and a man in a beanie greeted him.
"Hm? Here for a profile?"
The man in the beanie, the owner of the studio, showed Tae-il up to the third floor as though he knew it all.
The third floor held lighting, a dresser for makeup, and a range of clothes.
Tae-il hung up the clothes he had brought, sat down at the dresser and started on his makeup.
There was nobody to help him, and makeup was something he was long used to.
A little later, the owner came up with his camera.
"What's this? No crew or anything?"
"No."
"Hm...... your makeup is pretty good for that. Starting."
Click— Click—
The owner finished his setup, put a foot up on a chair and pressed the shutter.
The lights fired again and again, and Tae-il moved through the poses he had thought out.
'Sloppy hands make a sloppy photo.'
For a profile or a spread, they say what separates first-rate from third-rate is where a model puts their hands.
Tae-il brought his hands naturally to his face, to his chest, and held the poses.
Sometimes he pulled lightly at the knit he was wearing and winked.
"Hands good. Expression. One, two. Okay."
The owner got busy along with him.
Check the monitor, hold another pose, and around again.
"You really wring it dry."
Having gone through a great many results, the owner grumbled playfully.
A basic profile, then a tragic protagonist, a sacrificial victim, a student, one concept after another going past.
Every one of them was A grade. More than A grade.
Even a decent actor does not get results like these out this fast.
"Thank you for your work."
Tae-il smiled as he sorted through the results.
The owner watched him and shook his head.
"I've been doing this nearly twenty years, and it's been a while since I met someone who wrings it dry like you."
"So there was someone else like me."
"There was. Lime Entertainment, do you know it? Kim Seung-chan."
At the sudden trace of the past, Tae-il stopped short.