The next afternoon, Choi Do-hyun's manager came all the way to the school
He must have stopped by the house in the meantime, because my mother was with him.
The manager, watching us in the rearview mirror, bowed his head again.
"That must have been a shock. Thank you for accommodating us."
"Not at all. We're glad to see an entertainment agency building too. It's fine."
And so we arrived at Choi Do-hyun's agency building in one go.
The manager, busy with something or other, only repeated his thanks and left.
"Well then, we're counting on you!"
A small building in Gangnam-gu. The whole agency seemed to use the building outright, because a single name was raised in relief across the very center of it.
[In Entertainment]
An entertainment agency whose roster consists entirely of actors. Any number of national actors everyone knows by name are stationed here.
'And Choi Do-hyun is one of that rank.'
Because it keeps to a small roster of around fifteen, it's counted among many actors' dream destinations.
Before coming I searched the roster on my smartphone.
Thirteen people in total including Choi Do-hyun. As far as I remember from my past life, none of them cause any real trouble.
'You'd have to say only people vetted for ability and for character get in.'
When we stepped into the lobby I saw Choi Do-hyun waving at us.
He had no schedule apparently, because he was in everyday clothes.
'......Looks like he hasn't washed?'
Oily hair sticking out every which way from under a beanie.
With that base to hold it up it comes across as natural rather than scruffy, but......
'......Haven't we gotten a bit too close, us two?'
Anyway, it was good to see him after a while.
"Hello, mother! Gang-woo, hello?"
"Hello!"
Choi Do-hyun showed us in. When we stepped off the elevator a remarkable sight unfolded.
Along the corridor toward the practice rooms, actors' profile photos were lined up in a row.
Some actors stare straight ahead expressionless, while others show their profile and build a faint smile.
The aura each actor gives off is different.
'It's only one face captured, and the mood is this different.'
When I stood looking blankly, Choi Do-hyun asked with a smile.
"Gang-woo can't take his eyes off them. Gang-woo. Do you know these people?"
"Yes. Oh Yun-jeong, Lee Hwan, Shin Woo-gang......"
"Oh. You know them all. And that person over there is."
Letting out a short sound of admiration, Choi Do-hyun pointed at the middle of the corridor.
Choi Do-hyun's own profile photo was there.
Black and white, and there he is biting his lip and smiling mischievously.
I looked at the photo for a while, then grinned up at Choi Do-hyun.
"It's Uncle."
"Yeah. It's your uncle. I took that last year, what do you think?"
"It's cool. It looks exactly like actor Choi Do-hyun."
"......Exactly like me?"
"Yes."
He blinked, then laughed his big laugh.
Choi Do-hyun said to my mother.
"Gang-woo really is a rare one, isn't he? Throws out compliments that would embarrass anyone without flinching."
"Uh...... is he?"
My mother looked unsure whether this was a compliment or not.
Choi Do-hyun patted my shoulder.
"It's a compliment. An actor should be like an actor. That's our Gang-woo, sharp as they come!"
"Can I get one taken like that too?"
"Of course. There's a specialist photographer. I'll introduce you later. Though it'll be hard right away, since Gang-woo doesn't have an agency."
Rubbing at his lips, Choi Do-hyun said.
"And a profile photo like that, let's take one after Gang-woo's done a few more projects. For now it's better to come out plain, like a passport photo."
"Why?"
"Because it limits your roles."
"Ah."
"You know what I'm talking about? Really?"
"It means the number of parts I can take gets smaller, right?"
"Ha—. Look at him understanding it right off, and I explained it badly at that."
We chatted like that and arrived at the practice room.
Stopping in front of the door, Choi Do-hyun said.
"Let me apologize first. Gang-woo, I'm sorry."
And then he was handing over an apology out of nowhere. He did it on the phone yesterday, and here he goes again.
My mother must have gotten worried, because she asked in a concerned voice.
"......Has something happened?"
"The role Gang-woo took already had an owner. Writer Kim and I thought Gang-woo suited the role better than the previous child actor, so we pushed the swap through."
A child actor abruptly replaced, and I'm the stone that rolled in and took the empty spot.
Which means.
"The previous child actor is coming to protest."
That there's someone trying to pull that stone back out.
Choi Do-hyun scratched hard at his beanie.
"The previous child actor is the granddaughter of an actress with a name in the drama world. I wonder if you'd know it. Actor Ra Ju-hyun."
Ra Ju-hyun? That was a name I'd heard.
My mother caught it the instant she heard it.
"Surely not the one famous for mother-in-law roles......"
Ding—.
Speak of the tiger and it comes, they say. A sound came from the elevator and the doors opened.
Clack. Clack. Clack.
The sound of high heels rang down the corridor that had gone quiet.
A white-haired woman in a fur coat began to approach with her hands in her pockets. Following behind her was a girl about my own age.
'That grandmother would be actor Ra Ju-hyun, and the girl looks like the one who was going to take my role.'
Slightly pale skin over neat, close-set features, red lips pursed like a cherry.
Is it that they share blood? Her walk is without hesitation, and forthright.
The sound of the heels stopped. As Ra Ju-hyun looked down at me with sharp eyes, Min Ji-yun said.
"So it's you? The one who stole my part?"
"Ah, haha. Ji-yun. It's been a while. Sunbae-nim, it's been a while for you too. Ah, well, let's not do this here, let's go in."
"Talk here. I have no intention of dragging out a simple matter. Actor Choi, I'll put it like this. The role Ji-yun was going to take, give it back."
"Come now, why do this. You know I have no such power. Since you've come all this way, how about a cup of tea."
Choi Do-hyun smiled awkwardly, trying to thaw the air that had turned cold.
Ra Ju-hyun held her position with her arms folded, immovable.
My mother must have felt that force too, because she gripped my hand tight and said.
"Gang-woo. Hold Mom's hand. You're actor Ra Ju-hyun, aren't you? I'm Seo Gang-woo's mother, Lee Su-yeon. Let's go inside first."
The eyes that had been aimed at me moved to my mother.
A brief staring contest followed.
The winner of that contest, conducted without an inch of yielding, was my mother.
Ra Ju-hyun closed her eyes as if displeased and let a breath out through her nose.
She nodded and said.
"Let's go in. Ji-yun, come on."
"Yes, Grandmother!"
Min Ji-yun trotted in after Ra Ju-hyun.
The way she swings her arms front and back is quite cute.
'A textbook child actor's look.'
A face that must have gotten its share of doting, and that face looked at me and said.
"Aren't you coming in?"
"I'm coming."
"What. You don't even want to be in the same room as the kid whose part you stole?"
"I didn't steal it, I got a casting offer too."
"That's what stealing is."
Min Ji-yun puffed her cheeks out and glared at me, then whipped her head away.
From where she's standing it must feel like something given and then taken back.
Spite like that comes across as no worse than a sulk.
'Ji-yun, Ji-yun. Where have I heard that name.'
Ah, I remember. Min Ji-yun.
The granddaughter of a family that has lived three generations as actors.
'Didn't she do a ten-million-admission film later on?'
And as the lead, at nineteen.
In my past life she was an actress who started as a child and ran a successful career.
But once she became an adult? I never saw her in a project.
They say an actress's career is short, but there can't be many cases of retiring after a ten-million film.
'Why did she quit?'
My curiosity lasted only a moment. The thin ice went on.
Because Ra Ju-hyun was glaring at me.
"Your name is Seo Gang-woo, is it?"
"Yes."
"The look is good. No wonder writer Kim threw a fit about changing the role out of nowhere."
The role's already been swapped, hasn't it?
Since it's come to this, I'll just have to lay the thick skin on.
"Thank you for the compliment!"
"......Is the boy oblivious, or is he simply at peace inside?"
"Wasn't it a compliment?"
I tilted my head about twenty degrees and raised both eyebrows.
I made a harmless face as if I couldn't understand a word of it and smiled a vacant smile.
'I've never seen anyone survive this one.'
An expression I've practiced hundreds of times in the mirror.
Ra Ju-hyun's eyebrows twitched.
"Where did you bring this child from?"
"Ah, haha......"
"Not a bear but a fox. He'll be popular, certainly."
I thought it had landed, but apparently it hadn't.
Nothing for it but to double my expression practice from here.
While I was resolving that, Choi Do-hyun said.
"In any case, sunbae-nim. It's already been confirmed at the bureau chief's level. There's nothing I can do for you."
"Writer Kim Mi-ra will have gotten to the chief. I don't need to see it to know."
"How is a mere writer supposed to get to a drama bureau chief?"
"Don't you know the writer is king of a drama?"
"That's baseless speculation. Well, if you insist, how about this instead."
Choi Do-hyun spread both arms wide and said.
"Let's have an acting contest. Ji-yun and Gang-woo. The two of them."
"What?"
My mother and I shouted at the same time. An acting contest, out of nowhere. Choi Do-hyun said as if excusing himself.
"I'm sorry I couldn't tell you in advance. It's just that this was the only way I could think of."
"......You might at least have given us a hint."
"I didn't want to do this either, if it could be helped."
Choi Do-hyun's eyes fixed on the script in my grip.
A crumpled, grubby bundle of paper.
He wore a deep smile.
"It's that I wanted to see Gang-woo act."
"An acting contest."
Ra Ju-hyun too let her eyes rest quietly on my hand.
She tapped the arm of the sofa with a finger and sank into thought.
Ra Ju-hyun opened her mouth.
"Will you be all right?"
"Yes! Of course!"
Min Ji-yun nodded hard, as if she'd been waiting for exactly those words.
"Ji-yun says she's all right."
"Well, I don't mind either."
I've been practicing whenever I got the chance.
Clap—!
Choi Do-hyun brought his palms together and explained the rules.
"Let's do the same scene. I printed Ji-yun's script out in advance."
"It's all right. I've memorized it."
"Have you? Gang-woo, you'll look at the script, right?"
"I've memorized it too."
Fitting for a future ten-million-admission actress, you might say.
Ten minutes of material or not, memorizing the whole thing is another story.
Don't the scenes all carry different scene numbers in a jumble?
Which is to say this child has poured in considerable effort as well.
Choi Do-hyun said, seizing the moment.
"Ji-yun, shall we go first? I'll read the other lines."
"I'll take on the boy Gang-woo."
"You, sunbae-nim?"
"Wouldn't that be fairer?"
"Ah, yes, well. It would, at that."
Min Ji-yun steadied her breath.
The name of the role before the change was not Jun-yeong but Hyeon-seo.
It's the scene where the lawyer and the child of the divorcing family sit down alone together.
Inside a cafe, Choi Do-hyun said.
With a cold, unfeeling face.
"You met me before, didn't you? I'll spare you the preamble and get to the point. Your parents are getting divorced, Hyeon-seo. Both of them have given up custody of you."
The turn for the next line, and Min Ji-yun swallowed and stayed silent a moment.
And then she simply began to act, without a word.
The eyes lowered under the table waver, and the fingers grip the hem of her clothes and release, over and over.
Acting a betrayal by her parents while feigning composure.
"So?"
The tremble in the voice, the wetness in the expression. She managed even a delicate rendering, for a child actor her age.
I let out an inward sound of admiration.
'......Oh. If I'd seen this on TV I'd have thought the kid was good at acting.'
I looked at Choi Do-hyun to see his reaction.
His blank eyes lose their place in the air for a moment.
He too seemed no little surprised by ability he hadn't expected.
***
Ra Ju-hyun wore a bitter smile.
The result of no end of practice. Even to her eyes as a veteran actress, Min Ji-yun's acting had a high degree of finish.
'She wasn't at this level before.'
She knows because she is the grandmother who has watched her grow up from closest of all.
Min Ji-yun's acting had been at the level of a little better than the other children her age.
Min Ji-yun had gone through her child-actor life relying wholly on the spark she was born with.
And no wonder. She's praised for doing everything well, and her mother and grandmother are famous actors.
Who would say a hard word to her? Beyond family, there was no one who would.
The change in attitude came only after the role was taken from her.
Was it wounded pride? For the first time in her life, Min Ji-yun did the thing called practice.
'I meant to pick a day and give her a talking-to...... and then that boy Seo Gang-woo appeared.'
She missed her chance to lay into her.
How should she take this situation?
Probably, if the girl wins this contest, Min Ji-yun will grow lazy about practice again.
She had put on a strong front for the sake of her granddaughter's pride, but Ra Ju-hyun's inner mind was different.
'......Please, make our granddaughter come to her senses.'
Ra Ju-hyun looked at Seo Gang-woo.
In the two eyes she had made a show of turning venomous, an earnest wish lay.