* * *
Today was finally the day we headed to Hyehwa.
“Yeoreum, this one’s a bit different from what you’ve done so far, so it might feel awkward at first.”
Manager Choi said it as if to encourage , hands on the steering wheel. I still hadn’t let go of the script.
“But since it’s the first day! It’s fine! Just starting off with good energy alone! We’ve gotta go, let’s go, let’s go!”
It was nice that she was always positive. But contrary to what Manager Choi said, the script reading mattered far more on the first day.
‘You have to seize the initiative.’
A rising actor who ca down riding Professor Geum Bitgang’s parachute, a green rookie backed by a major agency. There was no way soone like would be looked upon kindly.
‘And this is the theater scene, on top of that.’
It was a world that prided itself on competing purely on skill.
‘I’d bet my right hand they’ve already gathered, torn apart, and bonded over it.’
From the mont I walked in, hostility tempered by a subtle sense of unity would be aid straight at .
‘It’s not that I don’t understand that feeling....’
But I had no intention of just letting it be. One way or another, I had to make them acknowledge . If the chemistry was off from the very first day, the quality of the stage would drop noticeably.
In the end, it was work done by people. If sothing twisted in a corner of the heart, a major accident was bound to happen at least once.
“Do you think so?”
“Of courrrse!”
Unni really is... naïve.
‘They’re all going to hate . What do you an, let’s go.’
I could be sure just by skimming the cast list. Especially Tak senior, whom I’d known in my previous life.
“Hey, Han Yeoreum!!! Do you think you can stand on stage like that!!!”
She was a senior with an excellent mory. As serious as she was about acting, she lived with the script clenched in her hand at all tis.
She’d probably aid for the lead in . That much anger toward was inevitable.
‘Tak senior is famously difficult.’
She was soone who wasn’t lenient even with herself, strict to the extre. With Tak senior, who wouldn’t tolerate even a single second of a hitch in a play, my preparation had to be flawless.
‘I morized the script the day I got it.’
At first, only my own lines. Then I ended up morizing the entire script. Theater was structured so that if one person made a mistake, everyone else had to cover for it. You couldn’t let the audience catch even a slip.
‘If only to look good to the revolving-door audience.’
The so-called veterans. I wanted to show those revolving-door audience mbers—amateur critics of the theater and musical scene—what kind of person Han Yeoreum was.
I recalled the long days of living as a nobody, when my na was never properly called even once.
“We’re here, Yeoreum! Unni’ll park and co in.”
How long had my thoughts gone on? I slowly opened my eyes at my manager unni’s voice.
I looked at Evergreen Art Center. Beyond it was the stage I’d once co to at night, alone, and touched with my own hands.
“Yes. I’ll go.”
At last, I could stand {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} at the very center of this place.
* * *
What is the most important thing in cody? Everyone would answer differently.
“Unexpected absurdity?”
You could make people burst out laughing by throwing out an answer completely unrelated to the question.
“Facial expressions!”
Especially in cody, this was a crucial point. Exaggerate your facial muscles just a little, and laughter would erupt here and there. The very act of choosing cody proved that the audience was already ‘ready to laugh.’
“You have to use your body well!”
Light, quick physical movent was also important. You had to deliver those images that imdiately ca to mind when people thought of comical motion. Within the clichés, the audience instinctively grasped it.
Which character was the one ant to bring laughter. Just recognizing that made laughter co more easily.
‘But the most important thing isn’t any of those three.’
Anyone who’d watched theater for a long ti knew. True cody wasn’t decided by those things.
“Noona, do you love ?”
“....”
“....”
“I do, I do.”
It was none other than push and pull. It looked the easiest, yet was the hardest. You either realized it through insane amounts of practice, or you were born with it.
Han Yeoreum was the latter. At just twenty-two, an actor who’d debuted the mont she turned twenty couldn’t possibly have accumulated so extraordinary amount of practice.
And yet, Han Yeoreum slipped pauses into the middle of her lines with ghostlike precision.
‘Silence ans the actor is flustered.’
From a character who seed to be laying their inner thoughts bare, the audience laughed at ease. It was different from other genres. Cody approached the audience openly, without difficulty.
“...No, an academy like that?”
Even with the sa line, Han Yeoreum knew how to twist it slightly. When you’re laughing and chatting with a friend and sudden silence falls—that very next beat is when even bigger laughter cos.
“There would be. Yes. Of course! There would be.”
With her distinctive diction, Han Yeoreum carried the atmosphere along. It was the first day of the script reading. Han Yeoreum didn’t make a single line mistake. If anything, the existing actors stumbled over their lines several tis.
‘Everyone feels different.’
Actors who’d been snickering until this morning, saying they wanted to see how good Han Yeoreum really was, now wore different expressions. Faces drawn tight with tension.
They were all people who’d spent years here, toughened by experience. They couldn’t afford to be pushed aside by soone from web dramas.
This was a battle of pride.
‘Different.’
But... Han Yeoreum was different sohow. Each and every line was seasoned.
The transition was natural—from the clumsy graduating senior Jin Jinju to the rookie Jin Jinju who’d completed intern academy training and entered her probationary period.
‘Even acting alongside Geum Bitgang....’
She didn’t get pushed back at all. If anything, every ti the two matched their timing, the sound that rang through the rehearsal room was almost excessively good. To the point that the actor who spoke next looked shabby.
‘If it’s already like this with just a script reading.’
Tak Jeongyun grew tense. The script clenched in her hand crumpled.
If Han Yeoreum, who seed to play with the entire field using nothing but her voice, were let loose on stage, what would happen then?
Without realizing it, Tak Jeongyun bit down on her lip.
* * *
“Let’s take a short break-!”
After the first script reading, which lasted an hour and thirty minutes, all the actors were completely drained. When Geum Bitgang left her seat, Han Yeoreum followed after her.
“Want a cigarette?”
“If you give one, Professor, I’ll start today.”
“Cut the habitual flattery.”
Geum Bitgang snorted softly and took out a cigarette. She drew in deeply, then released the stale air in one breath.
“So. How was the reading.”
“...Thank you for going easy on today.”
As expected, Han Yeoreum had noticed. Geum Bitgang had deliberately matched herself to Han Yeoreum as much as possible.
Even while delivering lines, she’d observed closely. Han Yeoreum knew exactly how theatrical projection worked. She understood how to bring words out of her mouth. That alone was quite satisfying.
“What about your analysis this ti?”
She cut straight to the point. Han Yeoreum, standing beside her, answered calmly.
“You an the characters?”
“Yes. The characters.”
“If that’s it, then all of them.”
“...What?”
Geum Bitgang forgot to exhale her cigarette smoke for a mont. Thick white smoke billowed out.
“What I think is most important in this play is timing.”
For an instant, the disciple’s face across from her blurred, then slowly ca into focus.
“So I analyzed the sections where each character could be teased.”
Where had she seen that expression before? Geum Bitgang thought for a mont. Then, all of a sudden, she realized.
It was her own face from the past. The face she used to wear when she practiced fiercely, clung day and night, and finally dissected a single work completely, down to its smallest parts.
The Geum Bitgang of her twenties stood before her.
“Confident, aren’t you?”
Without realizing it, Geum Bitgang toyed with the cigarette burning down between her fingers, forgetting to bring it to her lips.
“Alright, then. Run wild to your heart’s content.”
The impertinent disciple smiled faintly.
“Don’t go easy on a single one.”
Geum Bitgang smiled back at her.
User Comments
0 comments from readers