The afternoon shoot, too, continued with scenes in which the performers playing the bullies worked in step with the performer playing So-yeon.
"Sir, it smells so bad in here, so I'm going to open the window."
When Bully 1, pinching her nose, sprang up from her seat and said this to the young male teacher, the teacher took in the class's strange new mood.
"So-yeon must have an upset stomach. So-yeon. If you're going to keep leaking all over, I'll tell the teacher for you that you're going to the bathroom."
At Bully 1's words, laughter burst from the students in the class, and the young male teacher's face turned red. Pretending not to have heard, the teacher turned and went on writing the lesson on the blackboard, and So-yeon's eyes wavered wildly. Bully 1 threw the window wide open with a loud bang.
In that moment, the camera captured Chae-eun's expression.
I looked forward to what kind of acting Chae-eun would do on the monitor. Chae-eun, who'd been sitting with her chin propped on one hand, pulled over the blanket draped on her chair when the window opened, wrapped it around her shoulders, and quietly murmured.
"What a joke."
The natural line held the entire message. Sure enough, the line I'd seen in the article was the key line.
And Chae-eun in particular, having completely shaken off the tension that had faintly lingered thanks to her little talk with the bullies, pulled the line off better than anyone could have.
"Unbelievable. Is this really her first time acting?"
Writer Son, who'd been groaning through her teeth as she watched the monitor, tapped my shoulder and asked.
"Yes. It's her first."
"Let's keep this line. Thanks to you, we lucked into this, didn't we?"
"Hardly thanks to me. The situation was so good that the line seems to have come out naturally."
My tongue was dancing. Once I'd set the goal of making Chae-eun stand out, I was turning into a person with nothing he couldn't do.
Because Chae-eun was a bit part without even a name in the drama, being called by her real name was actually working in our favor.
"Raise Chae-eun well. And don't pretend not to know me later."
It was amusing that there were times even Writer Son put on a show of modesty like this.
"How could that ever happen? I'll be waiting for your next work too, Writer Son."
Director Kim's face was bright as he came out of the classroom after the shoot. He was already talking as he walked toward Writer Son and me. He really was a person with a childlike side.
"Writer Son, did you see that? We'll talk it over again in editing, but I'm thinking it'd be good to follow So-yeon's shot with only the bully's audio and cut straight to Chae-eun. Keeping the line, too."
"I knew you'd say that. I agree completely."
Writer Son agreed, shooting a double thumbs-up right under Director Kim's nose.
Chae-eun's line had survived.
Ding! It was the message I'd been waiting for.
[Sub-Quest Success]
[Quest Details: Give Chae-eun a line]
[Reward: Affinity +1]
Name: Lee San-woo
Occupation: Yong Entertainment Intern
Level: F-Grade (9 points left until next level-up)
Stats: Affinity 1, Quick Wits 0, Decisiveness 0, Negotiation 0, Stamina 0
When I checked my phone, I could see the Affinity stat had gone up a notch. Going up 1 point at a time is far too little, though.
As I was thinking that, ding! Another text message arrived.
[Player's Active Participation Triggered]
[Bonus Reward: Quick Wits +1, Stamina +1]
Name: Lee San-woo
Occupation: Yong Entertainment Intern
Level: F-Grade (7 points left until next level-up)
Stats: Affinity 1, Quick Wits 1, Decisiveness 0, Negotiation 0, Stamina 1
"Ooh!"
At the reward thrown in as a bonus, a sound slipped out of my mouth before I knew it.
There were more points hidden inside a single quest. It meant that, depending on how I acted, I could level up faster.
Writer Son and Director Kim turned to look at me at the same time.
"Come to think of it, who is this?"
"Director, are your powers of observation all right like this? It's Chae-eun's manager, you know."
Director Kim, who hadn't recognized me without my glasses, looked bewildered for a moment, then broke into a bright smile again at Writer Son's words.
"So you're our lifesaver! Thanks to you, I think we've got a huge hit on our hands."
While I stood beside the beaming Writer Son and Director Kim, returning a smile that had grown a degree more natural, Chae-eun came out of the classroom with shining eyes.
I went up to Chae-eun, took the blanket from her, and passed on to her the praise I'd received in plenty.
"Well done, Chae-eun."
Chae-eun's face flushed hot. A clear face that lit up at praise. The cool actor's face was nowhere to be found, and Chae-eun's face, showing pure emotion exactly as it was, glowed.
"Thank you. It was so much fun."
With her hunger for recognition, it was obvious without looking how hard it must have been to stay squashed in a corner. That might be why, in the last world, she'd fallen so easily for Kang Cha-hyeon, who'd recognized her.
If Chae-eun were to get drunk on recognition ahead of time. If that left her feeling no lack in the popularity and money that followed. Couldn't I completely cut off any chance of her getting tangled up with a married man like Kang Cha-hyeon?
The bully students, their faces darkened, were coming out of the classroom too. In this scene as well, Bully 1's passionate performance wouldn't make it onto the screen.
After all, the writer's and director's meeting had ended with the decision that Bully 1 would exist only as a voice over So-yeon's and Chae-eun's faces.
At this rate, every shot in the remaining scenes will go to Chae-eun and to the performers playing the bystanders next to her. The bully performers, who already knew that, could hardly look happy.
The bullies glanced at me, Writer Son, and Director Kim, then walked off toward the other end of the hallway. They had the look of people badly craving a cigarette.
So why did you have to mess with me?
But it was also true that Chae-eun and I, fully warmed up from our run-in with the bullies, had done more on set because of it. That was the fact the quest's bonus reward had told me.
Since it also bothered me a little that I'd run my mouth at them so excessively, I decided to show a bit of generosity.
"If you have any more ideas, please toss them my way. Anything is welcome, after all."
To Director Kim's words, which came at just the right moment, I answered at once.
"Director. You know the scene where So-yeon gets filmed illegally? For that part, how about focusing on the faces of the bully performers? I think the contrast between their faces, full of pure enjoyment, and the unfeeling faces of the bystanders would be vivid. After all, a work's artistic quality comes alive when contrast is put to good use."
With people of Director Kim's type, technical terms went down well. Director Kim, who had the temperament of a pure artist, got a different look in his eyes when I, a mere manager, brought up a specialized filming technique.
"You have real insight, Manager?"
Reviewing dramas used to be my job. Whenever I sat beside Mom's hospital bed watching a drama on my laptop and reviewing it in real time, the caregiver at the next bed would always interrupt, saying we should watch the fun ones together.
"I love both dramas and films. They're my job, too, after all."
This time it was the look of a young man who loves pop culture, filled with respect for a creator. Maybe because my Affinity and Quick Wits stats had gone up, it took no particular effort.
"You, what did you say your name was?"
Writer Son, beside us, abruptly asked my name. It was the brow of truth, filled with the will not to miss an important piece of information. Fixing my gaze on the furrow between Writer Son's eyes, I answered clearly and firmly.
"I'm Lee San-woo."
"You have a very good eye, San-woo. Usually they're too busy looking after their own performer, and you rarely get a manager who thinks about the whole work. And on top of that you even got the writer and the director to make up, didn't you? Not just anyone can do that."
Isn't this her debut? Writer Son Yu-rim read my expression and roared with laughter, clapping her hands.
"How would a rookie know, you mean? I spent 15 years as nothing but an assistant writer under Writer Ok Su-hyeon. Writer Ok hardly ever goes out, so I was the one who went to all the sets. I'd bet I know sets better than most established writers."
"You there, bullies!"
Director Kim shouted toward the three bully performers at the end of the hallway. As they came scurrying over, Director Kim also strode quickly toward them and explained the remaining scenes.
Look how impatient Director Kim is. When Writer Son sat down with a little laugh, my eyes met those of Bully 1, who was talking with Director Kim in the distance.
I couldn't help being a little surprised.
Bully 1 was unmistakably giving me a small nod of greeting.
***
"Aren't you getting in, oppa?"
Chae-eun, sitting in the back seat of the taxi called to the set, asked.
I had to go back to the office in Seoul, and Chae-eun had to return to her home on the outskirts of Gyeonggi Province, so I'd called separate taxis.
"Get home safe. You did really well today."
A flush rose again on the face of Chae-eun, whose lips had been twitching as if she had something to say. Here's one more person who's weak to praise.
With So-yeon's death, all the shooting for the class students in 'Utopia' was finished. All that was left now was the footage telling the story of the adults connected to the school.
I can only hope the editing goes well, but Chae-eun's shots will be revealed with impact in the course of the search for the truth.
"Please take good care of her."
When I'd paid the taxi driver in advance, finished my greetings, and looked at Chae-eun again, she put a hand to her chest with a look that said she couldn't help it.
"Um... my heart is pounding so hard."
"Are you feeling unwell somewhere?"
"It's not that. It's because you said I did well at the shoot today....... And it happens to be your first day at work too, oppa, so shouldn't we at least go eat something good?"
So that's what it was? The sense of achievement from doing a job properly is a stronger dopamine than anything. In truth, my heart, too, was still pounding after raising three whole points on my first day of regression.
"Then do you want to come to the office with me?"
"Thank you so much for today."
Only then did the taxi's back door shut, fast. I'd told a kid who was done with work to come to the office, so that was going too far, even for me. Just as I was reining in the short laugh that had slipped out, Chae-eun rolled down the window and stuck her head out.
"They say my car's coming soon too. When it does, please be sure to drive me home. I can chatter without a break all the way from Seoul to Busan, you know? You won't ever get sleepy at the wheel from now on."
Is this the same Chae-eun who told me not to disturb her? At the words Chae-eun rattled off in a rush, I could only nod with a dazed look.
"Sure."
Chae-eun waved out the window of the departing taxi as she receded into the distance.
In a single day, Chae-eun had changed 180 degrees. Is it only natural, as a manager, that Chae-eun, who has thrown her heart wide open just because I was a little nice to her, worries me like a child left at the water's edge?
***
When I searched on a portal site, Yong Entertainment turned out to be located in a small building in Gangnam, Seoul.
'3rd floor.'
Following the announcement, the elevator doors rattled open.
It was the Yong Ent office, with nothing resembling a security system anywhere to be found.
When I went all the way in, Jo Du-hwan, sensing someone there, briefly showed himself from inside the CEO's office and beckoned to me.
"You're here? Go have a coffee in the back."
"Yes."
When I went into the break room in the direction Jo Du-hwan had indicated, I saw a brand-new espresso machine.
Seeing coffee capsules in all sorts of flavors piled high, I couldn't help thinking of the shabby break room at Daily Entertainment Issue.
Click. When I put a coffee capsule into the machine, a smooth aroma soon filled the small break room.
With the tension gone, I thought back over the long day.
Yong Entertainment, founded by CEO Park Nam-yong, a former stage actor.
The actors here excelled at making any role their own with acting built on solid fundamentals.
Scene-stealers. That was the strength of Yong Ent's actors.
Because of that, though the agency did no noisy promotion, reporters took note of Yong Ent's actors on their own.
In truth, the reason it can't do noisy promotion is that it's a small company without even a PR team.
And yet the status window tells me to make it No. 1 in the industry.
It was a truly preposterous order. Making a living was just as hard in round 2 of life.
I die, come back to life, and the first thing I do is work. I was quietly drinking my coffee with that thought.
Ding. A message arrived.
[Sub-Quest Triggered: Find Seo Yu-jin's Role of a Lifetime]
[Quest Details: Find a part that suits Seo Yu-jin]
[Reward: Stamina +1]
"......?"
No way. The fairy of the girl group Piani, who turned schoolboys' school days upside down, that Seo Yu-jin?
Why has a quest about Seo Yu-jin suddenly popped up?