Song Eve of 'Loner' Sheds the Idol Label Completely
Song Eve, the 'Right Answer' for an Idol-Turned-Actor
Song Eve Washes Away Rumors of Discord on 'Again Piani'! 'I'm Not a Loner Anymore'
These are the Song Eve articles I looked up further before coming to meet Seo Yu-jin.
With this work, Song Eve not only seized the Drama Awards Grand Prize but completely changed the way the public looked at her as well.
She was the main vocalist of a group that had been big in its day. In other words, she threw off every bit of the image of an out-of-fashion, so-so actor that people wave off as a Song Eve from ages ago, and took labels like 'the rediscovery of Song Eve' all for herself.
In this world, I'll give every one of those labels to Seo Yu-jin.
After I'd sat at Seo Yu-jin's kitchen table with Shin Dong-jun for a little while, Seo Yu-jin appeared in the comfortable T-shirt she wore around the house.
With a bare face free of makeup, as if she'd just gotten up, and her hair tied back tight, she brimmed over with natural charm, as befitted a former fairy.
I reined in my eyes, which kept drifting her way, and held out the 'Loner' script to her, and Seo Yu-jin looked at Shin Dong-jun.
"'Loner'? What's this, Dong-jun?"
"It's because San-woo said he thinks it'd be good if you did this one, noona."
"I'm going into 'Racing Heart', you know."
"Have you decided?"
"......."
"I thought you wouldn't have decided yet. Please look at this one too."
"It's by a new writer, Writer Son Yu-rim. The part for you to look at is the lead, Yun-yeong."
"The lead?"
At what I'd added, Seo Yu-jin's eyes, still heavy with sleep, opened wide. She picked up the synopsis that had come with the script and began reading it in a hurry.
Yun-yeong is a woman raising the baby she was left with when her husband died. Against the backdrop of a chaebol family, where the scenery is bleak from start to finish, Yun-yeong belatedly finds a new love.
As you'd expect of a Writer Son Yu-rim work, the emotions churn deep at every moment.
"For me to do, it's too......."
She must think it's too hard, since she's mostly acted in soft romances until now. Her image itself was romance, so much so that it's no exaggeration to say she'd been living off her face all this time.
I was just wondering how to blow Seo Yu-jin's worries away.
"Isn't this a haggard role? And the kid already shows up as an elementary schooler."
What came back was something else entirely.
"And why are the lines so long? Will I be able to memorize all this?"
Then she picked up a hand mirror lying nearby and looked into it. Watching the listless way Seo Yu-jin pressed at the corners of her eyes to smooth out the fine lines, I felt the energy drain right out of me too.
"......."
That Seo Yu-jin had never taken off may have been partly because CEO Park used her as he pleased, but a large share of the blame was her own.
Seo Yu-jin not only lacked confidence, she had no greed for acting whatsoever.
The role of a lifetime is right in front of you, so why can't you grab it?
"Senior. Please pull yourself together."
Shin Dong-jun made a gasping sound and stared at me. I'd said I'd push her, but it seems he hadn't expected me to drill a fastball straight in like this.
The look in Seo Yu-jin's eyes sank deep too. She pulled back the body she'd been leaning toward me, settled against her chair, folded her arms in front of her and looked straight at me.
"Dong-jun. Get a bottle of soju out of the fridge."
"Noona. We're still in a meeting."
"He's telling me to pull myself together. Bring it."
When Shin Dong-jun glanced at me for a cue, I nodded.
That Seo Yu-jin has only gone looking for pretty roles all this time means she has only played roles that were just as safe.
It's a position where you win praise if the work does well but bear no responsibility if it doesn't.
True to her own story in her Piani days, when she was the lead vocalist with the pretty tone who didn't carry a song's climax, Seo Yu-jin had stayed, even after turning to acting, in the position of a supporting player who props up the lead's story.
That may have been partly CEO Park's intent, but it was the result of Seo Yu-jin's timid nature mixing in with it.
It didn't seem like a few words here and now could bring back the confidence that had run away from home.
It was time to throw her into the tiger's den and then plant in her the memory of a success, of coming out alive on her own.
To push Seo Yu-jin, I pulled out the Song Eve card and held it up front.
"If you turn this down, Senior, it goes straight to Song Eve."
"Song Eve? How does Eve unnie know about it?"
"The script's good, so word has gotten around through the grapevine. It seems Song Eve's side asked for the script."
"Eve unnie specializes in rom-coms, though. Something like this wouldn't suit her."
"Song Eve is greedy, as you know."
"Hm?"
"Song Eve mostly does comedy, but she keeps getting greedy for new roles, you know, all while insisting against all reason that she fits the part. And since Song Eve keeps showing up, the public just figures she must be good."
"...Right, she's greedy. The way she insists on things is sickening, honestly."
She was looking at me, but Seo Yu-jin was lost in other thoughts. She seemed to be recalling those days she'd spent with Song Eve.
In Piani, Song Eve, Seo Yu-jin, Oh Eun-bin and Jang Wendy were active for the full 7 years of their contract.
But with the contract renewal ahead of them, rumors of discord had burst out, and they'd ended the contract without ever properly clearing things up, so the image of discord had stuck.
That's why, in the previous world, on 'Again Piani', the variety program set up as a pilot after the success of 'Loner', Song Eve had been shown tying off the rumors of discord on a camping trip with the members, and had walked away with a good image on top of everything else.
Song Eve's tearful confession, that as leader and main vocalist she'd had no choice but to act tough and had believed it was the right thing if the team was to survive, had moved the viewers' hearts.
But Seo Yu-jin, who'd been on the receiving end, must have felt wronged. What's more, she was tormented at her most sensitive age by someone she'd been with for all of 7 years, so how deep must that pent-up anger run?
And on top of that, a for-show apology in front of the cameras. With the public forgiving Song Eve's past before she could, it was obvious that only Seo Yu-jin had been left burning up inside.
"There's no actor whose every project does well. If anything, it's natural for only half of what you do to work out. And then if just one role that fits you blows up, you rise to the top. With a work like 'Loner'."
Seo Yu-jin fidgeted with her hands. Her gaze shifted about uneasily, and she tugged at her collar near the neck as if she felt stifled.
"Eve unnie can't do a role like this. How is someone who does nothing but comedy every day supposed to act out feelings like these?"
Seo Yu-jin is definitely hostile toward Song Eve. In this world they haven't even had their forced reconciliation yet, so it must be all the more so. The Song Eve card was a sure-win strategy.
If only I could throw a stone into Seo Yu-jin's still heart. If I could haul her sunken confidence up that way, I didn't care whether what drove it was anger or jealousy.
"The script is that good. I think if you just act what the script spoon-feeds you, even the year-end awards are possible. No. I'm certain of it."
"The year-end awards? The Grand Prize... you mean?"
"Yes. It'll get its time slot within the year. If you don't do it, Senior, someone else will win it, won't they? Probably... Song Eve."
Perhaps because the mere thought gave her goosebumps, Seo Yu-jin shuddered and downed her soju in one shot. The way she gulped it down clean, without so much as a sound like ahh, looked like a commercial.
Should I try to line up a soju commercial once this project is done?
"How did you find the script the CEO gave you?"
"That's......."
She must think a supporting role's supporting role was going too far.
"When Song Eve was the main vocalist, you were the lead vocalist, weren't you, Senior? Yours is a voice that could easily break out more, too."
When I got a little more specific about the Piani days, the look in Seo Yu-jin's eyes changed.
"Because Eve unnie wants all the attention for herself. Some days she'd hand me a hard part on purpose, wait for nothing but a mistake, and then lay into me like she meant to kill me."
So that's why she hid further and further in the back.
"Senior. You warded off my bad luck for me the first time you saw me, didn't you? You said that if things went well for me from now on, it would be thanks to you. And I'm the very one bringing you this project, so what is there to worry about?"
"......."
"Go ahead and get greedy for once too, Senior. I'll help you."
"Can you give me a little more time?"
"Of course."
Seo Yu-jin straightened up in her seat and opened the script again.
Focused, Seo Yu-jin looked quite different from before.
Is this really the right road? Won't I just take a pointless risk and get laughed at? If I fail this time, will I be able to recover?
I could almost hear the thoughts in Seo Yu-jin's head. It also brought back my last world, where I'd never dared to take a risk for fear of a life that one mistake could bring to its knees.
Please, may Seo Yu-jin make a good choice.
I waited quietly for Seo Yu-jin.
Watching Seo Yu-jin's eyes, which had been wandering in a fog, grow clearer and clearer, I was sure of quest success this time too.
***
Today was the day 'Utopia' aired. To watch 'Utopia', which was going out last of the five one-act dramas, Chae-eun and I met at the office.
10 at night. At last, the title came up.
While So-yeon was beaten and collapsed at school, Chae-eun's shots, placed exactly where they were needed, deepened the immersion.
At first, every time Chae-eun came on, our eyes met as we sat side by side and we burst out laughing, but that didn't last long.
Chae-eun's acting with her eyes, empty and yet somehow chilling, seemed to devour the screen. My talk about her being the rising hope of Yong Ent, where scene-stealers gather, hadn't turned out hollow.
Even though we'd been on the set, the drama's story came at us as something entirely new, with a power that bound Chae-eun and me so tight we couldn't move a muscle. It was a tremendous drama.
Above all, in the moment where Chae-eun snapped that it was all a joke, as if writing off a horrific scene of violence as nothing more than childishness on other people's part, the theme of the work came through so clearly that it gave me goosebumps.
The editing was better than I'd hoped.
"How was it?"
When the broadcast ended and the credits began to scroll, I asked Chae-eun.
Chae-eun, whose mouth had been hanging slightly open, looked at me. The rims of her eyes had gone red. At the moved look on her face, a smile slipped out of me too.
"That was me up there, right?"
"That's right."
"I was awfully good, though?"
"That's right too."
"I want to do another shoot soon."
Ding!
[Manager Lee. I wrote an article.]
It was a message from Gil Sang-ik, out of the blue.
The next message to arrive had an article attached, along with Gil Sang-ik's self-critical account of himself.
[My instincts are still badly lacking... I should have interviewed Chae-eun back then T_T I ask for lots of guidance and encouragement from now on!!]
COEX Goddess Chae-eun 'Overwhelms' with Scene-Stealing Performance in 'Utopia'
I hadn't even asked, and he'd written such a lovely article about Chae-eun.
It seems he's only come to fully believe what I told him, that Chae-eun would be at the center of attention once the one-act drama came out, now that he's seen it with his own eyes.
"Chae-eun, take a look at this. There's an article about you. For your acting."
"Wow......."
Chae-eun's eyes wouldn't leave my phone. Well, I'm grateful for this. I was just thinking hard that I'd better hurry up and raise Gil Sang-ik well so I could make full use of him.
And again, ding!
[San-woo. Come to my place.]
A message from Seo Yu-jin had arrived.
[Yes. I'm heading out.]
"Chae-eun, I'm sorry, but...."
"You have to go?"
"I'll call you a taxi, so."
"...Uh, but oppa, are you by any chance going to be in charge of Senior Seo Yu-jin now?"
"No?"
"Then why are you going all the way to her place at this hour?"
"Because we have something to talk about?"
I answered casually as I called a taxi on my phone.
"I mean, why at her place,"
"Oh, got a taxi right away. Let's hurry down."
When I looked up, Chae-eun's eyes were wavering this way and that.
"Hm?"
"Yes, yes! Let's hurry and go!"
Chae-eun nodded hard, answered with spirit and walked out of the office.
***
"I've decided."
Unlike before, Seo Yu-jin looked at me with a firm expression. There was backbone in her voice.
"I heard it was by the writer of 'Loner', so I watched 'Utopia', you see. The moment I saw it, I decided. I'm doing this project. I absolutely can't stand to see it go to Song Eve."
If Seo Yu-jin, famous for being nice, has this much pent up against Song Eve, there must have been more trouble on the inside than what came out on air.
I'll look into that in due time.
"I absolutely can't stand to see that fucking bitch do better than me."
"......."
There really must have been a lot.
Ding!
[Sub-Quest Triggered: Carry Out Seo Yu-jin's Revenge]
[Quest Details: Relieve Seo Yu-jin's pent-up anger]
[Reward: Negotiation +1]
One more quest concerning Seo Yu-jin had arrived on my phone. It named no one, but of course it's Song Eve.
I'll relieve Seo Yu-jin's pent-up anger properly on 'Again Piani', which will get its time slot after the success of 'Loner'.
For now, I have to keep her focused on the project.
"Senior."
"Call me noona."
"I'll help you take the best revenge there is, noona."