I’m an Unknown Actress, But Everyone Knows Me - Chapter 228

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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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Chapter 228

After bursting into laughter for a while and catching her breath, she made eye contact with the staff members who were staring at her blankly.

‘Ah, again…’

Moments like stray bullets that scratched at daily life. However, Do Gyeoul now knew how to handle such situations.

“Unnie! I leveled up!”

Do Gyeoul showed them a game app she rarely even played. Only then did the frozen staff members laugh.

“You were so busy with it, I wondered what it was!”

“You’re not a kid, why do you like games so much?”

“She really loves cute things. Come here. Let me fix your lips.”

The scratched atmosphere returned to how it was before.

Do Gyeoul recalled Han Yeoreum’s interpretation once more and thought about the schedule for 【The Great Garland】.

‘Ah, it’s so far away…’

* * *

Reporter Wi entered KBC with a trembling heart. The noise of reporters who had already arrived was buzzing and echoing off the ceiling.

【The Great Garland】 made an appeal from the start that it was properly prepared.

Most of the actors sitting around the gray table were people with high recognition. What stood out most were the two leads and the child actors sitting right next to them.

‘They put some thought into this.’

‘The composition is perfectly set up for taking photos.’

Shutter sounds rang out consecutively. The unusually frequent and persistent camera shutter sounds compared to usual script reading scenes already seemed to guarantee high viewership ratings.

The script reading began with Myeong Jeha’s clean voice. The reporters’ hands moved faster.

‘Wasn’t Myeong Jeha’s hometown Seoul?’

‘Right, Seoul… He must have taken separate dialect lessons.’

‘He’s good at it. Twenty million box office is different.’

The reporters exchanged glances. It was a role that could easily become ridiculous.

The pitch and intonation that people from the capital region might not notice, but people from that particular region would inevitably be sensitive about. Myeong Jeha digested it perfectly.

“What are you doing.”

It was different from the acting Myeong Jeha had shown on screen so far.

He completely cast off his refined and smooth tone. It was an unpolished, rough, raw breathing.

In front of young Huijae, Taeseok had the appearance of a clumsy boy. He delivered his lines with breaths that seemed to suppress his trembling heart.

“Were you hurt.”

Reporter Wi noticed why Myeong Jeha’s Taeseok felt more realistic.

‘He talks differently with other people?’

The scene he was reading through now was when Taeseok in the drama was around seventeen years old.

The voice of a boy stained with poverty was somehow rough. It was similar in texture to the coal or firewood he carried himself. It was a way of speaking that seemed like it would cause injuries if you brushed it with your palm.

And he was taciturn. At most, answering questions was about the extent of the lines Taeseok spoke. Poverty inevitably accompanied fatigue.

Rustle-.

The sound of turning script pages was heard in the quiet reading room, and finally Yeoreum opened her mouth.

‘Yeoreum!!!’

Right after Reporter Wi heard the news about 【The Great Garland】 audition, he sincerely regretted why he chose journalism as his profession.

‘I should have done dramas…’

From what he heard through the grapevine, Han Yeoreum at the audition hall was no joke.

Everyone who knew Director Ja was stirred when they heard that he, who usually half-listened to others’ words, had listened with concentration.

“I don’t know… other words.”

“I should say Joseon person.”

“Jo-seon… person.”

Yeoreum’s precarious voice that seemed to spread smoothly through the air and Myeong Jeha’s taciturn, rough voice harmonized well.

Yeoreum properly implemented the distinctive way of speaking of overseas Koreans, where pronunciation seemed to leak out halfway.

“I, am grateful.”

The more rough Gi Taeseok was, the more Yeonhuijae’s purity came alive. The endearing quality of a young child making their first friend struck Reporter Wi’s heartstrings.

‘So good…’

During the continued script reading, Reporter Wi noticed something.

“Taeseok-! Is the work manageable.”

“Yes.”

“If they’re well-off bastards, they should fucking give you some pocket money, but that damn son of a bitch acts like he’s some kind of Japanese bastard?”

It was a conversation with a laborer. Gi Taeseok answered quickly and sharply.

It was a rough era. Jinhae right after liberation wasn’t just a simple seaside small city but a naval port city. Since it was right after Japan’s defeat, Japanese military remnants, the US military government, and chaotic public order were all tangled together.

Harbor work, warship cleanup, weapon withdrawal operations, Japanese repatriation work, etc. – urgent and dangerous tasks continued constantly.

That wasn’t all. Work carrying and organizing materials at docks, harbors, and warehouses was a race against time.

The time ships departed, the time to load cargo, the time to unload cargo – every minute and second was money.

Any delay in time was no different from dropping your money pouch on the ground. If an answer was delayed even briefly, harsh treatment would come flying from the construction foreman.

For Taeseok, every action and answer was directly connected to survival.

“How is that house?”

But when it involved only Huijae, he became one tempo slower.

“…Pretty. Incredibly so.”

It was the same when having conversations with Huijae.

Like being helplessly swept away by waves of emotion he was experiencing for the first time, like panting and breathing while being inevitably overwhelmed by first love. Taeseok answered while breathing as if exhaling.

“…How do you do. I am Gi Taeseok.”

Ji Haebeom’s characteristically low, resonating voice echoed in the reading room. The accent was strong but there was no awkwardness in the pitch. It had a refined weightiness.

‘It’s different from Myeong Jeha again!’

Reporter Wi tried hard to suppress his overwhelming emotions. His experience from analyzing countless dramas with Aetami came through.

While response speed was survival for boy Taeseok, young adult Taeseok spoke with leisure.

‘The leisure characteristic of the privileged, as if it’s natural for others to wait for him…’

Just through his way of speaking, he showed that his environment had changed.

‘Let’s see, then finally Eun Baekhap is…!’

Anticipation built up layer upon layer. All the reporters waited for the moment Eun Baekhap would open her mouth.

Usually, unless it was an interview, she didn’t open her mouth easily, so it was a voice that was hard to hear.

“I’m happy that you recognize me.”

A light voice that seemed to contain air spread out gently. As if it carried no weight.

‘This is it…!’

‘Is there not a single weak spot here.’

The moment Eun Baekhap’s voice came out, the reporters thought. This was different from SBC’s founding anniversary drama.

There would be nothing that could stand in the way of 【The Great Garland】’s success.

Master director, famous writer, top star lead actors, two child actors to support them, solid OST backup troops.

“It can’t fail even if it wanted to…”

After the script reading ended, someone muttered. But no one objected to those words.

* * *

Manager Hong carefully checked the press release.

“Good, let’s go from Seo Ryeong to a real proper first love.”

The image of Seo Ryeong the shaman from 【Tales of the Unusual】, which had made South Korea enthusiastic last summer, was already naturally distancing itself from Yeoreum.

“Radio, variety shows, theater… and of course the final touch is this.”

[【The Great Garland】 Script Reading Scene… Heart-fluttering First Love, Han Yeoreum as Eun Baekhap’s Child Actor]

The hidden key was Eun Baekhap, who would be working together with Han Yeoreum’s role.

Popular radio shows, when calculated as TV viewership, would be 1.5%, 【M Couple】’s peak viewership was 7.0%, and even combining both was insignificant compared to the influence of 【Tales of the Unusual】, which had 20% viewership.

“But if it’s Eun Baekhap, the story changes.”

Eun Baekhap was a top actor who possessed several hit works. There were overwhelmingly more people who knew Eun Baekhap’s name than those who knew Han Yeoreum’s name.

The remaining traces of Seo Ryeong the shaman would be erased by the influence Eun Baekhap possessed.

“Shin Rookie- did you do the monitoring?”

“Yes. The response to articles about her as Eun Baekhap’s child actor is quite good. It’s especially good among the period drama target audience. Above all, since she’s known as the student that Geum Bitkang takes around, there’s a favorable atmosphere for her terrestrial broadcasting debut in serious dramas.”

“And?”

“The Daehangno theater seems to have had quite a strong impact. It’s not just first love, but she’s building a diligent image.”

Manager Hong examined the buzz volume. Han Yeoreum’s popularity was so high it far exceeded the baseline standards.

* * *

<The Great Garland> drew public attention from the very beginning.

[KBC’s 50th anniversary commemorative masterpiece <The Great Garland> finally unveils and cranks in… “This is the true value of broadcasting fees”]

[Weighty traditional period drama <The Great Garland> jaw-dropping Jinhae set]

Director Ja was famous for being called “Director Ja” because he did things his own way. However, this time there was a reason he paid attention to investors’ reactions.

It had the largest scale among all period dramas that had been aired so far. The filming set of <The Great Garland> was constantly bustling with activity.

“Let’s finish up this end part one more time!”

At 5 AM, the air in Jinhae was cool before the sun had even risen. The art director of <The Great Garland> sipped warm coffee while surveying the entire set.

‘This is actually working…’

Money was indeed good. With the substantial investment scale, a realistic space had been implemented. Thanks to the Japanese-style buildings that had already been constructed previously, the art team could put more effort into the details.

Old-fashioned carts bought wholesale from Namdaemun antique market, floral plates purchased from Itaewon antique shops. The gravel laid in Huijae’s house garden was deliberately scattered in different types and colors to contrast with the dirt road in front of Taeseok’s house.

“Team Leader Bak-! Let’s lower the wall height.”

The art director gave instructions through the radio. As they worked day by day turning back time to the past, cherry blossoms had bloomed profusely, fallen, and early summer had arrived.

Red brick walls, green street lights, cream-colored signs. Finally, the picture they had been waiting for was painted among them.

Director Ja, who arrived at the filming set, captured all these frames at a glance. The more he looked, the more amazed he became.

“Come quickly, quickly…”

Someone who could seize control in an instant.

Director Ja concluded Han Yeoreum was exactly that.

When analyzing characters thoroughly, she was like a microscope, then instantly distanced herself to survey the whole like a telescope. He wanted to see Han Yeoreum who freely zoomed in and zoomed out, doing whatever she pleased.

Therefore, naturally.

“Actress Han Yeoreum has arrived-!”

On the first day of <The Great Garland> crank-in, it began with Han Yeoreum.

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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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