* * *
How did he know?
“...Why?”
Where exactly was it obvious? Before coming here, I’d searched up videos of voice actors dubbing and practiced copying them over and over.
‘Isn’t this good enough...?’
Not once had I ever been criticized for my pronunciation. If there was one thing I’d always been proud of, it was my precise diction.
Even if not a protagonist, I thought I could at least handle supporting roles without any problem.
[It’s okay, though. Even aside from dubbing, your voice is nice.]
“Thank you.”
Confused was confused, and praise was praise. For now, I accepted Noah’s complint.
[That’s enough now. Tell anything.]
[The reason I ca all the way here was to et you.]
[I have to leave again in a few days. I want to hear your voice before I go.]
Scratch scratch, scratch scratch. Noah busily moved his hand, writing across the sketchbook. But this was a disaster.
‘What am I even supposed to talk about? Normally people call this a conversation, don’t they?’
Noah, his eyes sleepy, stared straight at while clutching the sketchbook tightly.
“Okay. Then can I just speak in Korean?”
Honestly, I still didn’t have the confidence to freestyle in English for several minutes straight. And after hearing he was a genius sensitive to sound, I’d beco even more conscious of my pronunciation than usual, to the point my brain kept freezing up.
[Yeah. That’s fine.]
Noah answered as if he’d been waiting for it.
“Then I’ll tell you a fairy tale like 〈Funny Bunny Harmony〉. It’s a book I really liked when I was little....”
I’d read it to Han Taeyang so many tis as a child that I practically had the whole thing morized. From the very first page to the last.
Co to think of it, there had been a ti when he was this small too.
[Again.]
Noah asked for encores over and over. It wasn’t difficult, so I kept going as much as he wanted. By the ti we spent talking like that, evening had already arrived.
“But can I ask you sothing?”
[What?]
“What exactly was the problem with my Lala that you figured it out after only hearing two lines?”
That had been bothering this whole ti. What exactly was I lacking? If I had proper directing, I could fix anything.
[I don’t know. I’m not a director. I just make music.]
[It just irritates my ears. That’s all.]
But that was all Noah gave as an answer.
Before Noah returned to Arica, he asked if we could et one more ti. I nodded and left.
“....”
Even after replaying it in my head for hours, I still couldn’t understand it. He liked my voice that much, so what was the issue? What exactly had irritated Noah’s ears?
Dubbing was a genre I had never properly challenged in either my past life or this one. It was completely unexplored territory for , but I hadn’t approached it lightly.
‘Because....’
When the movie ca out, I wanted to watch it together with Mom and Han Taeyang.
The experience everyone has at least once as a child — holding their parents’ hands and going to the theater to watch an animated movie. Han Taeyang and I had never gotten to do that.
This ti, I wanted us to.
‘I wanted to show Mom that I was the one who played Lala....’
Of course, if Mom were going to watch it, she’d need to see the subtitled version rather than my dub.
Still.
I wanted to give Mom and Han Taeyang that kind of aningful experience.
‘The problem is that I’m just not good enough....’
It had been a long ti since I’d been rejected this sharply. I slowly organized the ss in my head.
I don’t want to give up like this.
What exactly was wrong with that I couldn’t et a genius’s standards?
I called Myeong Jeha. It didn’t even ring many tis before his voice ca through.
I imdiately got to the point.
“I t Noah today.”
If it were Myeong Jeha, he probably would’ve t him at least once before.
-“Really?”
“You’ve t him too, right? Tell if you know anything about Noah.”
-“Hmm....”
Myeong Jeha rubbed at his throat quietly. After Noah pointed my flaws out earlier, it felt like my own hearing had beco sharper too.
Every sound felt much clearer than usual.
-“No ‘what were you doing,’ no ‘did you eat,’ and you jump straight to your objective again.... That hurts.”
His voice felt like it resonated slowly upward from deep below. mories of being thoroughly disciplined during Shim Juhwan’s music video shoot resurfaced, and I hurriedly greeted him properly.
“What were you doing? Did you eat yet?”
-“You really just do exactly what I tell you.”
Myeong Jeha laughed quietly.
You told to, so what’s the problem? Isn’t this guy weird...?
-“I was reading a book, and I haven’t had dinner yet. What about you, Yeoreum?”
“I just got ho... and I ate tteokbokki for dinner.”
-“Was it good?”
“To be honest, I thought I’d be too depressed to taste anything, but halfway through eating it I started regretting not adding udon noodles.”
Alright. So please hurry up and get to the point.
Maybe my silent plea worked, because Myeong Jeha finally answered.
-“I’ve never t him either.”
“What? Wait, what?”
-“He’s extrely sensitive. He avoids eting people whenever possible. Since his circumstances supported that kind of lifestyle, he’s lived like that the entire ti. From what I know, the number of people who’ve seen him in person can be counted on one hand.”
No information about Noah?
“You seriously don’t know anything? Like how he directs, or what kind of pronunciation he likes... nothing?”
-“Nope.”
Myeong Jeha answered imdiately.
‘That’s bad.’
-“Still, I do know sothing else. Sounds like Noah dropped you after hearing only a few lines.”
“Experience really is impressive. You figured it out imdiately.”
-“Noah will beco the fastest ticket to Arica.”
At those words, I shot upright from my seat. Han Yeoreum’s materialistic calculator imdiately began spinning at full speed.
“Why? Wait, wouldn’t NetHolics releasing 〈Seoul tropolitan City〉 be a faster ticket to Arica?”
NetHolics was currently a global OTT platform.
Not only was it servicing over twenty countries, it was also close to holding the number one market share in Arica.
‘And you’re saying there’s sothing even faster than that? The fastest ticket to Arica?’
Thump. Thump. Thump.
It felt like I could hear my own heartbeat in my ears. Fast and burning hot.
-“Movies.”
“....”
-“In other words, Hollywood.”
No way.
-“Noah is the son of Ethan Williams and Brenda Williams.”
The instant I heard the nas, I recognized them.
“Th-that star couple?”
20th Century Fix. A gigantic movie studio famous across the entire world.
They were the studio’s most beloved director-and-writer duo. The couple behind massive blockbusters like , , and , where spending 180 million dollars on production was treated like nothing.
‘And their global revenue was around 1.02 billion dollars!’
Profits well over one trillion won. A world so massive it was hard to even imagine.
Leaving records in the worldwide box office, winning Academy Awards for screenwriting, earning absurd profits.
“Noah... is that couple’s son?”
-“Yeah.”
“Then why is nothing known about him? I seriously thought Noah was in his forties until now! He’s had a ten-year career already!”
-“It’s a family matter, so I can’t go into detail.”
Myeong Jeha answered calmly.
-“Geniuses often have difficult childhoods. Ordinary people simply can’t understand the way their brains work.”
“....”
-“What do ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ you think it would be like if a child was excessively sensitive to sound from infancy, before they could even communicate properly? Especially for a couple already overwheld with work — would they really have been able to raise him themselves?”
“....”
-“That’s why there’s so little information about Noah. That career of his... he built it because he could make music before he could even speak.”
“I see....”
-“His relationship with his parents isn’t exactly good, but it’s not particularly bad either... hmm, maybe it’s more accurate to say they work well together professionally.”
The image of the boy who was so sensitive to sound that he barely even used his own voice surfaced in my mind.
-“If you truly caught Noah’s eye, then the next step will be the Williams couple.”
And the genius who had seen straight through in an instant—
-“There’s no way parents would ignore an actor their genius child likes.”
—the genius who had withdrawn my casting.
“Then maybe... have you done dubbing before...?”
-“I have, technically.”
Now that I knew this was a ticket to Hollywood, I couldn’t let it go. Forget the mission — I wanted to reverse Noah’s cancellation no matter what.
‘And more than anything....’
My pride in my own voice had shattered.
I couldn’t lose such a precious opportunity without even receiving proper direction.
-“But only docuntaries. I’ve got zero experience with animation....”
Even Myeong Jeha wasn’t the answer? Just as my brow furrowed at the completely unexpected response—
-“Still, I do know soone who’s an actor and has done a lot of dubbing work.”
“Who?”
The answer that ca from Myeong Jeha was completely unexpected.
* * *
Geum Bitgang frowned at the face that had shown up out of nowhere.
“Do you think this is so kind of playground? What’s with barging in here all of a sudden?”
“Professor....”
Han Yeoreum imdiately threw herself flat against the front entrance.
“Please teach !”
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