I bit down hard on my lips. My throat had been burning for a while now.
System
[80]% of the audience is beginning to focus on you!
Current audience: 33
Sothing swelled up in my chest, and I swallowed it down. Then once more, I called out for Boksun.
“Boksun...!”
I felt the tip of my nose grow red. Tears spilled down my eyelashes in a thin stream.
I had to find her quickly. That was the only thought in my head. Director So’s voice grew fainter and fainter.
“Cut....”
The sa scene continued several more tis from different angles. My checkered shirt had long since beco completely soaked. At so point, Jung Yeondu — who had fallen, gotten drenched, and crawled in the mud — looked utterly wrecked.
Even while Dok Gogyeol was applying the wound makeup to my cheek, the only thing I thought about was Boksun, who had been following everywhere.
Everything Jung Yeondu had seen, heard, and felt filled my head to the brim.
The dog dealer. Boksun. The wedding invitation from my classmate who never contacted , the tiny plums, the basket of corn, the village head hat, the call with my mom. All the things I wanted to be responsible for....
“Yeoreum, watch your step—.”
I climbed down the ladder into the pit they had dug out ahead of ti. Because of the moisture on my hands, the ladder was slick.
I paused to breathe in the cramped space clogged with dirt. The damp sll of soil stung my nose. Everything felt smotheringly closed in.
I closed my eyes for a mont. I knew what happened later in the script, but right now, it felt like there wasn’t a single person willing to reach out a hand to , down here at the bottom.
In this place that was dark, sticky, suffocating. Useless Han Yeoreum — no, Jung Yeondu — was completely alone.
Clack—!
The sound of the slate felt unbearably distant. I registered it in my head, but my ears were ringing. I heard them call the take number and the scene number. Even Director So’s action sign. But I held my breath for a mont.
And then.
“....”
I opened my eyes slowly.
The water sprayed from the water truck poured down like a torrential storm. A shallow pool ford inside the pit almost instantly.
It was exhausting enough to make my whole body tremble. I forced myself to rise to fix the situation.
I was covered head to toe in mud. I picked up the flashlight that had fallen with .
“....”
But no matter how many tis I flicked the switch, it wouldn’t turn on. I was completely stranded in the pitch-black pit.
Nothing ever went right.
“...Why....”
My voice shook. Tears finally started pouring out uncontrollably.
“Why am I always... always like this....”
My jaw tightened painfully. It was the cost of forcing myself not to stutter too much. Tears mixed with the cold rainwater and ward slightly on my cheeks.
“No matter how hard I try, why am I always... alone.”
The rain-soaked tips of my fingers were swollen. My voice echoed faintly inside the pit.
“Why... nobody, nobody cares about ...!”
The end of my voice cracked in an ugly way. Frustration clung to it thickly. I wanted to pour my resentnt out onto anything, anyone.
“Even when it wasn’t my problem, I—! I acted like it was my problem! But you all—your stuff cos first!!! Nobody, to , to , nobody....”
Only now did the words I had always wanted to say finally pour out. Words I had wanted to shout at least once to everyone who had ever received help from Jung Yeondu.
Even now, the compulsion to hold back my emotions felt like a grip tightening around my neck. I couldn’t even get angry freely.
“Then what about ....”
I lifted my head and looked up out of the pit. My vision blurred.
The crane lights shone brilliantly from above. It looked like a completely different world from the place where Jung Yeondu was trapped.
I bit down on my lip. Hard enough for blood to seep out.
And at that mont—
“Woof!”
Like a lie, the sound I wanted so desperately to hear ca from beyond the pit.
“...Boksun?”
Up above, Boksun was looking down at .
Panting, soaking wet, a little cotton-ball fluff stared at in pure relief, as if she had been looking only for , waiting only for .
Before I knew it, I was smiling through a face sared with tears.
“Woof! Woof!”
Boksun barked loudly at as if talking. And in the distance, a small voice called out.
“Village head—. You there?”
“That dog’s incredible....”
They were the people who had co looking for Jung Yeondu. I stared blankly for a mont, and only then did I break into sobs.
“I—I’m not, hic, the village head...! I don’t want to do it...! Waaaah...!!!”
“Good grief. Hyungnim made her cry with that one.”
“Well, how were we supposed to know she hated the job that much....”
Maybe it was the situation. Voices I had wanted to run away from just a little while ago now felt strangely comforting.
Now there were people who would console when I cried. It was a relief born from that simple truth.
I rubbed the rain off my face with both hands as I cried.
Dding—!
System
[100]% of the audience is focused on you!
Current audience: 33
The stage has been successfully completed.
▶ Current ambient heat (35°C) [F]
A status window appeared, stating that everyone on set was focused on .
Only now did my senses slowly return. The overwhelming concentration that had swallowed inside Jung Yeondu’s emotions began to fade.
“Yeoreum! Grab the rope and co up!”
“Don’t we need soone down there to support her?”
From above the pit, Director So, PD Hwang, Dok Gogyeol, Dok Gomin, and even the extra actors were all looking at .
“Jung Yeondu... you did so well....”
Director So smiled and reached out his hand toward . My hands were pale from the cold as I grabbed his. His warmth spread into .
Right. I was Jung Yeondu.
The protagonist of this story.
Even if today’s shoot ended, tomorrow I could shoot again. That simple fact made unexpectedly happy.
Just as I climbed out of the pit,
Dding—!
「Hidden Mission: Beco one with your role completely」
The foundation of a genius actor! You have succeeded in creating a character who lives and breathes as one with the role.
Rewards
[Analysis increases]
C >>> C
[Delivery increases]
D >>> C
[Artistry increases]
F >>> D
[Skill increases]
The One and Only Protagonist F >>> D
Status windows popped up nonstop, praising my acting. Wrapped in a huge towel, I bead brightly.
* * *
The chirping of insects filled the night.
‘I can’t sleep.’
Dok Gomin couldn’t fall asleep. She looked at Yeoreum, who was sleeping soundly beside her, and was °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° seized by a strange feeling.
‘How does she do that?’
The acting Yeoreum had shown earlier was burned into her vision, refusing to fade.
The face that had cried in sorrow, claiming no one ever looked for her. Even with her face soaked from the water truck, the tear tracks were unmistakable. Dok Gomin stepped outside the lodging.
“...You’re not asleep?”
“Director So, you’re awake too.”
She found Director So smoking in front of the lodging. He seed restless as well — the ashtray was overflowing with cigarette butts.
“I can’t... sleep.”
“ neither.”
“Well yeah, after sothing like that... there’s no way you can sleep. You know, right? That feeling... wanting to see the results as soon as possible, even just a little sooner.”
It felt like the adrenaline unique to creators had overtaken their whole bodies. The scattered scenes stitched together in flashes kept appearing in her mind as a perfect sequence.
“When we shoot in Seoul... co watch then too.”
“....”
“That way, when I touch the still cuts... I can hold onto the feeling I got today. Not just a photo with good aesthetics... but sothing where you can tell sothing beyond the photo....”
Director So had rearranged the shooting schedule smartly. He reshuffled the tiline to film the dry city scenes later, after the location shoot.
After experiencing more fatigue from outdoor filming and losing a subtle amount of weight, Jung Yeondu would appear in the gray city like a figure carved by the narrative.
“Let’s do well, okay... us....”
Director So crushed his cigarette into the ashtray like a vow.
“Let’s make all the viewers feel everything we felt today....”
Left alone, Dok Gomin replayed Han Yeoreum’s acting in her mind once again.
Jung Yeondu, forcing down her emotions alone, unable to let them out properly and swallowing them again. Yet the trembling gasps that still escaped were vivid.
Dding—!
A status window rose beside the sleeping Yeoreum’s pillow.
[Dok Gomin] has gained inspiration from you!
Artistry: A- >>> A
[So Yesol] has gained inspiration from you!
〈Heart-Stirring〉 B >>> A
The two status windows shimred brightly above Yeoreum.
[Your second title] has been granted
▶ Hidden Reward
[Lucky Point] ←
300p
Current Lucky Points: 1300p
[Na: Han Yeoreum]
Level: 92,000
Titles: Dok Gomin’s Muse / So Yesol’s Muse
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