I’m an Unknown Actress, But Everyone Knows Me - Chapter 187

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 187

“When even a single set of chopsticks and spoons from inside the house was completely taken away, there’s no way there would be pear trees along the roadside.”

The telescope that Director Ja had desperately tried to hold onto fell into Han Yeoreum’s grasp.

The screen in his mind captured the scenery in the direction Yeoreum was pointing.

“They would have been cut down long ago and offered up for forced requisition.”

The period immediately after Japanese colonial rule, which had felt vague, unfolded before their eyes.

The stifling air where dust would rise with every gust of wind. Joseon where sandstorms tickled the nose.

“Port villages are usually greatly affected by sea winds, and the salt and humidity are detrimental to pear tree growth.”

On the street, oyster shells that couldn’t be thrown away in time lay broken and scattered, while the stench of rotten fish, salted squid, and dried seaweed pierced the nose.

An intense place where everything was so vivid it seemed to struggle to announce its very existence.

People who lived each day as if there would be a tomorrow, even after being trampled and crushed under the military boots of police officers.

“Moreover, it’s a coastal village centered on subsistence fishing with poor urban development… For fruit cultivation conditions to exist in such a place, someone living nearby must have wanted to eat fresh pears and left the planted trees as they were.”

Rough bread mixed with saccharin instead of butter. A place where barefoot children ran around carrying sacks somewhere.

In the land of Joseon where rust on everything was natural, everyone was sweating.

“Among the shanty houses packed tightly together in the dense areas where immigrants and refugees crowded together, the very existence of blooming pear blossoms symbolizes power.”

People in shabby clothes wore dirty towels around their heads and necks. Without any sense of distance, they walked arm in arm calling each other’s names.

“Huijae’s father, who came to Gaichi Joseon to rebuild his fortune, would have headed to his destination without caring for his daughter’s physical condition.”

Yeoreum spoke like Huijae. As if she were talking about something she had experienced herself.

While doing so, she touched and adjusted the brooch on her chest as if tidying it. It wasn’t a calculated action. It was as natural as a habit.

“Would the pear blossoms she first saw at the house of the powerful person they visited… really look beautiful to Huijae’s eyes?”

A father who hated his homeland, a father who exploited Koreans, and the closest Korean person beside such a father who was also a target of exploitation.

Yeonhuijae who would someday be sold at a high price out of necessity. Yeonhuijae, a talking livestock. Yeonhuijae whose shell was raised beautifully so her commodity value wouldn’t drop.

“I thought such Huijae might have felt kinship with the pear blossoms. It would be similar in nature to self-hatred.”

Huijae’s approach to Taeseok with talk of pear blossoms was an excuse to find a breakthrough for her loneliness, but from another perspective, it was a question akin to self-introduction.

A fundamental question that a Korean-Japanese throws to a Korean.

What is my name? What kind of person am I?

The current Yeoreum was dressed like a lady of Kobe from head to toe. This allowed them to guess the environment Huijae had been in.

Yeonhuijae was different from the ephemeral Daisy in the original work. She fundamentally had a tenacious side.

Then where did that vitality come from?

What was the source of the strong desire to exist somehow?

“Huijae is Korean-Japanese. Moreover, as the child of a concubine who grew up hearing the derogatory term ‘Josenjing,’ her roots regarding identity would be weak.”

The place where Huijae had been, that place was Kobe where everything was so shiny it was almost greasy. A world that hurt the eyes.

The ivory parasol used by the lady in front of the silk shop reflected light brilliantly whenever it caught sunlight, and the weather vane hanging at Daimaru Department Store across the street was also shiny like new.

On both sides of the road with neatly laid sidewalk blocks, dark green street lights stood in rows.

Trams moving naturally through the leisurely city. Clocks that chimed at noon. Coffee shops near the railway, bicycles set up in shopping districts, men walking while maintaining distance from each other wearing crisp shirts.

An environment where she existed as Rio but couldn’t exist as Yeonhuijae.

“So asking Taeseok about pear blossoms can be interpreted as questioning her own identity. It’s like the first greeting she gives after arriving in Joseon.”

Naturally, the latter would look better. If she had to establish a place to live somewhere, it should be the latter.

But nevertheless, the reason Huijae embraced Joseon in her heart was.

“So when Huijae talks with Taeseok about this place, she thinks for the first time that Joseon is her roots.”

Everyone had read the scenario several times. They immediately knew which scene Yeoreum was talking about.

Huijae If many new shops are built here, and many new people come…

The conversation on a rainy day. Huijae who first planted dreams in Gi Taeseok.

In Joseon where materials and facilities were woefully insufficient, ironically, Huijae would have been happy that she was Korean.

Because there was Taeseok who was different from her father, because there were Koreans who aimed for achievement rather than exploitation, because the same blood flowed in her,

There, Yeonhuijae learns tenacity.

Huijae …りゆうがある。(…There’s a reason.)

She no longer missed Kobe. Instead of the shiny city with clear air circulating when it rained, she liked this place that seemed like the edge of the world.

She loved this stifling world where the salty smell spread out struggling like it was fighting for its life, sharp enough to sting the nose when it rained.

Huijae There are many people like you here. まいにち, uh… every day, people faithful to every day.

Thanks to Taeseok.

Her first friend, her first love she fell into without knowing it, a man who made her dream of the shabby world as more wonderful than anywhere else.

A person who made her acknowledge herself as herself, a fellow Korean, Gi Taeseok who was ashamed of poverty but lived honestly.

“I think she spoke with conviction. With the heart of wanting to exist as a Korean in this place.”

By loving such a man, Yeonhuijae comes to accept herself and gains hope for Joseon.

“So I think she confessed her true feelings in Huijae’s way that Joseon could become better in any number of ways.”

What Yeoreum had drawn was not a simple Yeonhuijae.

‘…How did she grasp this much?’

It wasn’t a simple work. The drama commemorating the company’s Nth anniversary needed to have a message that spanned the ages. It needed delivery power that penetrated the whole.

If they showed Yeoreum’s Yeonhuijae to the public, the connection from child actor to adult would naturally be convincing.

‘This is a direction that only Writer An and I know about…’

Director Ja was momentarily speechless. He couldn’t even remember when he had last been so outmaneuvered.

‘Yeoreum didn’t see Yeonhuijae simply as ‘first love’ or ‘father’s victim.”

Yeoreum reinterpreted Huijae as the key figure in the story of rooting one’s identity in Joseon. This wasn’t simple acting interpretation but grasping the essence of the narrative.

Director Ja stared intently at Yeoreum.

‘Only twenty-two years old.’

For a newcomer who had barely set foot in this industry, her analytical ability was excessively high.

‘Ah, this is…’

‘This is completely.’

‘Over.’

She had even moved the heart of the big shot sitting here. Ji Haebeom, who was playing Gi Taeseok.

“Please ask me more questions! I’ve prepared a lot too.”

Gi Juye, reading the atmosphere, urgently spoke up. She still had much left that she had studied about Yeonhuijae. She couldn’t back down here.

‘Yeoreum isn’t really Yeonhuijae! They can change it anytime! Interpretation is something people do from various perspectives!’

Director Ja, watching such Gi Juye, asked briefly.

“Really thinking you’ve become Yeonhuijae, try calling your father. You must be Huijae.”

Gi Juye revealed her trembling heart as it was. So she could show Huijae’s feelings when calling her stern and despicable father.

But her posture was upright. She looked like a butterfly stiffly preserved in a posture befitting an excellent luxury kimono.

Then she bit her lips briefly as if afraid she might get scolded.

“…Father.”

Director Ja’s gaze turned to Yeoreum again. Yeoreum, with a cool expression, answered briefly.

“Mr. Hanamura.”

At those words that seemed to refer to someone else, Gi Juye closed her eyes.

It was a complete defeat. The current Yeoreum was Yeonhuijae herself.

Clap clap clap clap-.

Someone’s applause echoed in the quiet space. It was Ji Haebeom.

It wasn’t the polite applause from earlier. It was clapping with sincerity.

The audition was over.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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