Camera flashes went off without pause. The spotlight was aimed at me alone.
I walked slowly up the red carpet and stopped in front of the photo wall. Above my head, a single line of text stood out sharp and clear.
[A Dazzling Night]
Starring: Cha Eun-yul
"Actor Cha Eun-yul, over here!"
"Face front! A little smile, please!"
The familiar pose, the familiar smile.
Amid the shutters hammering down like a downpour, I calmly met their eyes. A microphone pushed its way through the gap.
"This is your first leading role. No pressure?"
I nodded and answered briefly.
"Excitement won out. I gave it everything I had."
The next question came right on its heels.
"There were quite a few filming delays, weren't there?"
A split second of silence.
And then—
"I heard there was friction with the staff... Is that true?"
My breath caught.
The flashes, the murmuring, every sound went still.
Dozens of lenses were trained on me, and every side closed in without leaving me room to run.
"Actor Cha Eun-yul?"
A camera right up in my face.
My breathing turned ragged.
My mouth wouldn't open.
This was the moment I'd wanted so badly.
I'd been waiting for this moment alone.
Why wouldn't a single word come out?
My mind went blank.
And then—
FWOOSH—!
I opened my eyes, gasping for air.
My heart pounded hard enough to leap out of my chest.
No flashes, no photo wall, no crowded set. Just a dark room.
Under the faint light spilling in through the small window, cold sweat ran down my spine.
The same nightmare, again.
Years had passed, and the memory of that day still clung to me, relentless.
"Haaah..."
I turned my head slowly and looked at the trophies on the shelf.
Awards that had lost their shine, dust settled over them.
Cheonsang Arts Awards - TV Division, Best New Male Actor
'What kind of actor was I... back then?'
Successful actors always have a title attached to them.
[Ten-Million-Viewer Actor]
[Acting Powerhouse]
[Flower Boy Actor]
[Character Actor]
Dazzling modifiers.
So then, what title am I wearing now?
[Failed Actor] Cha Eun-yul
- On-set power abuse controversy
- Exposé by a fellow actor
- Advertising contracts terminated... facing expulsion from the industry
Was the 'power abuse' just a simple incident?
The articles that come up first when you search my name.
But none of it was true.
It was a fabricated story leaked by a rival agency that had been keeping me in check.
My company issued a correction, and the articles were cleared away one by one.
The agency said we had to take it all the way through legal proceedings. That the truth had to be proven by the judgment of the law.
But I had no intention of doing that. Rather than confronting it head-on, I chose quiet silence.
It amounted to me turning my back alone.
"Haaah......"
The truth was... there was a reason I couldn't speak. In that period, I was falling apart.
When I stood in front of a camera, silence came to mind before my lines did, and instead of building emotion, I couldn't shake the feeling that I was forcing an imitation.
So I said nothing.
More than [Power Abuse Actor], the title [Can't Act] terrified me.
I hoped no one would notice I was collapsing.
So I withdrew on my own.
Without a sound, quietly.
And so—
The rookie actor Cha Eun-yul disappeared.
***
98,000 won.
The moment I checked my bank balance, a deep sigh slipped out.
Nowhere near enough to survive the rest of the month.
'Haa... seriously.'
Hood pulled up, I rummaged through the box I'd tossed on top of the shoe cabinet.
My fingertips touched the bottom, but nothing came to hand.
Then, barely, something caught.
"...This is the last one."
Inside the box was exactly one cat treat left.
I took that small, light packet in my hand and quietly closed my fist around it.
"Well, let's head out for now."
When I opened the building's front door, a familiar cry reached me.
Meow—
A cat curled up in the corner came into view.
Its fur was matted and tangled, and even at a glance it looked undernourished.
A cat somebody living here had abandoned.
Even so, the thing still hadn't left that spot.
That was why I'd fed it now and then whenever I went out, and today it seemed it had been waiting again.
"You were here again?"
It circled near the empty apartment, as if waiting for the owner who had vanished.
Just like me, unable to let go.
I tore open the plastic wrapper with a rustling sound.
The cat must have caught the familiar smell. It pricked its ears slightly and looked up at me.
I set the treat on my palm and held it out carefully in front of it.
It hesitated for a moment, then started wolfing the treat down.
I watched quietly.
"Sorry. This might be the last one."
The words came out before I realized it.
The thing kept chewing away as if it couldn't care less, but I knew.
Until I could earn money again, I couldn't promise I'd be able to give it treats.
"...When I make a lot of money later, I'll buy you something tastier."
Hearing me, the cat stopped eating and stared straight at me.
"What, you understand me?"
Those deep yellow eyes were glowing quietly, as though trying to convey something to me.
At that moment—
"Mew-choo!"
The cat suddenly sneezed right at me.
"Argh! You little—! This is how you repay kindness?!"
My eyes stung so badly I couldn't open them for a while.
When I finally managed to open them—
The cat was gone. Not even a trace was left of what had been in front of me a moment ago.
I rubbed my eyes and muttered.
"Haa... today is a real mess."
Leaving the cat treat sitting there, I set off for my usual convenience store.
***
The convenience store door slid open automatically, and the familiar fluorescent light spread out in front of me.
I stepped inside without thinking.
"Hoo—"
The smell unique to convenience stores.
The steady hum of the refrigerators.
I naturally looked toward the part-timer standing at the counter.
Park Ji-eun.
The daughter of this store's owner, and someone I'd known for two years as a regular customer and staff.
We were close enough to speak casually and trade light jokes, but only that much.
"Oh? Eun-yul oppa! Welcome!"
"Ah... yeah, hey...huh?"
Just then—
"......?"
I stopped walking.
Above Ji-eun's head.
Something seemed to be shimmering faintly.
'What...? Are the lights too strong?'
I squinted and looked again at the faint something.
Maybe it was the fluorescent light. The air above her head felt like it was trembling lightly.
A mirage, I supposed you'd call it.
I rubbed my temple lightly.
'Did something get in my eye when that cat sneezed on me...?'
I let out a light sigh and moved to browse the shelves as I'd originally intended.
But something was off.
Even the air felt strangely unfamiliar.
"......"
I took another step in and looked around. Small cameras were mounted in the gaps between the shelves.
At that moment—
My breath caught.
My chest slowly tightened, and my fingertips went cold.
Cold sweat beaded on the back of my neck.
'Cameras...?'
I instinctively turned my head away.
But at the edge of my vision, gleaming lenses came into view one after another.
Lights and a reflector against one wall.
Marking tape on the floor.
Tidied display cases, prop boxes that looked freshly opened.
Filming preparations were in full swing.
My mind went blank.
My heart sped up for no reason.
The cameras weren't filming me, but the illusion washed over me that every single lens was aimed my way.
The reflexive terror that had formed after that day.
Camera anxiety.
The word 'camera' alone was enough to make my body react first.
My fingertips tingled, and my vision warped.
"Haah......"
I closed my eyes and slowly drew in a breath.
'It's fine. They're not filming me right now...... I'm just passing through......'
I kept repeating it, but my hammering heart wouldn't settle.
The power abuse misunderstanding.
The wall in my acting.
Those memories still made me shrink.
Just then, Park Ji-eun glanced over at me from the register.
"Oppa, what's wrong? Something happen?"
I flinched and looked away.
"...Ah, no. It's nothing."
My voice came out drier than I'd expected.
I quickly composed my expression and turned toward Park Ji-eun.
"What's... being filmed here?"
I asked the way I normally would, pretending nothing was wrong. But my palms were already damp.
"Ah, oppa. They said there's a commercial shoot today."
"Not a drama?"
"Not a drama, some kind of product commercial, they said?"
I scanned the inside of the store once more.
For a commercial shoot, the sponsored product would usually be placed front and center, but here you could tell they had worked to keep the realistic look of a convenience store.
The lenses were still, but I kept feeling like a camera was watching me from somewhere behind my back.
Without realizing it, I kneaded my fingertips.
"Haah......"
This was the reason I hadn't been able to return for five years.
The controversy broke, and while I rested for a while, the pressure about acting only grew heavier.
'If I'd been good at acting, this wouldn't have happened.'
That thought burrowed into me relentlessly.
After that, an unidentifiable terror would surge up the moment I so much as faced a camera, and in the end I could no longer act.
So it wasn't that I had failed to return for lack of opportunity.
Something pressing down on my heart interfered with my acting, to the point that standing in front of a camera was impossible.
"By the way, where'd all the staff go?"
I stopped my train of thought and kept the conversation going. Pushing feelings like this down had become a habit by now.
"They just finished setting up and stepped out. Looked like a short break."
"Yeah? Then I'd better eat and get going."
I tossed the words out and turned toward the shelves.
I picked up a premium salmon salad. A big cut of salmon, fresh vegetables, glistening dressing.
5,900 won.
My fingers stopped.
My bank balance came to mind.
I quietly put the salmon salad back and picked up the tuna salad beside it.
1,600 won.
Sorry-looking contents, dry flakes of tuna, dressing barely drizzled on.
Still, it would fill my stomach.
I went to the register and held out my card. Ji-eun scanned the barcode with a practiced hand and asked,
"Oppa, still not filming these days?"
I hesitated a moment, then shrugged.
"Yeah, well. Same as always."
Park Ji-eun seemed to be waiting for more, but I didn't bother adding anything, and she didn't ask further.
Having scanned the barcode and finished the payment, Park Ji-eun held out a bag and said,
"Oppa, take this."
What she handed me was a small triangle kimbap.
"What's this?"
"Heheh, owner's-daughter service. It's getting tossed in an hour anyway. Ah, wait!"
Laughing innocently, she peeled the barcode off the triangle kimbap and handed it over.
I looked down at the barcode-less triangle kimbap and nodded lightly.
Park Ji-eun snickered and said,
"Enjoy."
I turned toward the exit without a word.
Just then—
"What?! What do you mean the supporting actor's out?!"
The convenience store door flew open and a man came in, his voice urgent.
"We're all set up here, what are you talking about?"
The situation was a familiar one, and I instinctively looked up. The one shouting looked like the assistant director for the shoot.
Beads of sweat dotted his face, and he was busily adjusting the headset in his hand while trading words with the staff inside.
"We were in contact until just now! Why'd he suddenly go dark?"
"The agency can't confirm anything either. He's not in the waiting room, and his phone's off."
When one of the crew answered with a troubled look, the assistant director furrowed his brows and pulled out his phone.
"This is insane... Today's scene is the lead acting opposite the convenience store part-timer. If the part-timer actor doesn't come, we can't shoot at all!"
The assistant director pressed a hand to his forehead and sighed, visibly on edge.
I watched them blankly.
'Ah, that's why they weren't controlling the space.'
It happens on set now and then.
One person drops out and the whole shooting schedule gets tangled.
And right now was exactly that situation.
"Isn't there anyone who can act a little?"
"Should we just call an extras agency?"
"Hey! The lead actor arrives in ten minutes! We need to shoot fast and move, is there time?!"
Tension spread among the crew.
The cameras were already on standby.
The reflector was set, and the director sat in front of the monitor, seemingly weighing how to salvage the situation.
The fact that the supporting actor hadn't come was spreading into a bigger and bigger problem among the crew.
Just then—
The assistant director jerked his chin toward the counter.
"Hey, student! Could you maybe help us out?"
Park Ji-eun, who had been scanning barcodes at the counter, jolted upright in shock.
"Huh?! Me?! Ah, um... that's...!"
The assistant director waved his hands with an urgent look.
"It's just a scene paying at the counter, it's not hard! You only have to say a few simple lines! Just this once, please!"
Park Ji-eun's face grew paler and paler.
"Ah, n-no! I can't do that kind of thing! I've never acted before...!"
Park Ji-eun broke into a cold sweat, fidgeting helplessly.
Her gaze turned to me.
In that instant—
'What the—? What is that...?'
The something that had been shimmering above her head like a mirage gradually took shape, and at some point it turned into clear letters.
[Veteran Convenience Store Girl Park Ji-eun]
I froze on the spot.
'What is that thing...?'
Below the letters floating in the air, a small window opened and a short description appeared.
- Title Copy Condition: She wants to escape this situation. Tell them you will take the part-timer role in her place.
- On Title Copy: You acquire the knowledge and behavior related to the title.
The sight was impossible to understand, and my head was a tangle.
'Title? Copy? What on earth is this...?'