I’m an Unknown Actress, But Everyone Knows Me - Chapter 264
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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 264
Han Yeoreum was the first to raise her hand and speak.
“I can play castanets a bit.”
“Hey! Han Yeoreum! Who can’t play those? At this rate, tambourines will come out too!”
“Wow! I think both sound good-.”
What would have been a boring scene with just the Center Director became lively as Han Yeoreum jumped in here and there, with Chu Gaeul and So Dami joining in appropriately.
Just like disobedient students. As if they had transported that longed-for time when they wore school uniforms. Like those days when they burst into loud laughter over trivial things every day.
“Let’s make me the center fair and square.”
“Hey! Han Yeoreum! How is that fair! It’s not fair and square from the start!”
“Girls, how about we vote? I vote for So Dami.”
“Yes. Having this kind of confidence is a very good thing. Casting a vote for yourself is also….”
Before they knew it, the conversation had drifted from the work to another direction. The flow of conversation had been like this from earlier.
The Center Director would speak instructively, Han Yeoreum would react, Chu Gaeul would object, and So Dami would respond positively.
‘Their characters are really clear….’
Above all, Han Yeoreum’s conversational accuracy was quite high when she jumped in. She had great social skills, as if she had really been working in society for a long time.
Director So felt as if she had returned to her high school days in this comfortable atmosphere. She couldn’t help but smile.
The viewers watching this footage would probably feel the same way.
It was a perfect script reading that properly conveyed the message the work wanted to express.
* * *
“Hey! Eden! Are you still watching dramas on multiple devices?”
Seo Eden set up his laptop, tablet PC, and cell phone to watch 【The Great Garland】 today as well.
The manager patted Eden’s shoulder as he prepared to watch the drama overseas, easily ignoring the time difference.
“Hey, I keep telling you that doesn’t count toward viewership ratings!”
But Seo Eden smiled as if he was different from his previous self.
“I already know.”
“Huh? You know? Did you finally understand?”
“…Actually, I still don’t understand why I’m not included in the ratings, but after hearing the same thing about 100 times, I roughly get it.”
“Then why do you have so many devices on?”
As if answering the manager’s question, Seo Eden pointed to the tablet PC screen. The Korean flag was displayed there.
“If you’re Korean, you need to watch it like this for better emotional immersion.”
“…Is that so….”
“Ah! Don’t make me talk now, hyung! The commercial’s over! Ooooh, it’s starting!”
With Korean flags on both sides, Seo Eden began watching 【The Great Garland】.
Taeseok bent his back as he gathered the scattered bills in front of Hanamura. It looked just like bowing and scraping to a pro-Japanese collaborator.
Hanamura watched with satisfaction as Taeseok gritted his teeth and picked up the money, then deliberately stepped on a bill rolling at his feet.
Taeseok’s hand paused as he was picking up the bills.
“What are you doing? Why aren’t you picking up the rest?”
Taeseok clenched his fist so hard that the money in his hand crumpled. But he had no choice.
The countless gazes watching him were filled with desperation.
This wasn’t just money. It was the lifeline of the workers. He couldn’t cut it off with his own hands.
Taeseok slowly bent his back in front of Hanamura and picked up the money.
The shoe that had been stepping on the bill slowly lifted, then came down on the boy’s hand.
“Ugh….”
A pained groan escaped from between Taeseok’s teeth as the shoe ground and rubbed against his hand.
Hanamura pressed down on Taeseok’s hand with his full weight.
Superior and subordinate. To clearly teach the hierarchy between above and below.
“Well then, I’ll be going now.”
“Yes, sir. Please take care….”
Hanamura lifted his foot from Taeseok’s hand and walked away with a smile. Behind the advancing Hanamura, Taeseok was still gritting his teeth.
Blood vessels had burst in his eyes from suppressing his emotions.
“…Taeseok, you were humiliated….”
“Are you okay? Let me see your hand….”
“That damn bastard, acting all high and mighty with just a few coins!”
When Hanamura was far away, the workers approached Taeseok. Rough hands patted his shoulders one after another.
“Taeseok, you go home and rest today. I’ll work in your place.”
Even the supervisor, who always shouted at them to move quickly, comforted Taeseok. Taeseok stubbornly refused to turn his head. Instead, he suddenly held out the money in his hand.
“Uncles, have a drink.”
“No way. You keep it!”
“I won’t use this kind of money.”
Taeseok brushed off his hand that bore the mark of being stepped on with his now-free hand.
As if he would shake off the humiliation he had just endured along with it.
“…And I’ll finish my work before I go. I’ll just make one more round.”
Taeseok strode forward with determination. Not a single tear fell from his eyes that were red with anger.
Though he may have been humiliated, his pride showed that he would not be broken.
Ships moored beside Taeseok, busy workers, and fishermen boasting about their fresh catch passed by.
Taeseok only raised his head when he reached the end of the pier.
What spread before his eyes was the sadly sparkling seaside.
Taeseok swallowed something. No one knew what it was.
Was it anger toward Hanamura? Misery about his own powerlessness? Or perhaps resentment toward the detestable poverty, or maybe, maybe….
“Huh….”
Was it a longing for wealth?
Taeseok took a deep breath. He couldn’t even bring himself to scream. Poverty gnawed at people like this. He couldn’t get angry at every humiliation.
It was something that had to be done.
He had put a price on his pride.
Bowing once was worth it because he had protected many people’s daily lives.
How many mouths did he have to feed? How desperately was everyone struggling to live?
“….”
But why.
“You did well….”
Why.
“You did good.”
Was it so painful….
Hooong-.
Another ship was coming in from far away. Being lost in thought was a luxury.
Taeseok turned around again. Now he had to go back to work.
The boy’s retreating figure was particularly lonely.
“K.O.R.E.A. H.E.A.R.T… B.U.R.N….”
“What are you saying, Eden?”
“My patriotism is burning, hyung….”
Seo Eden put his hand on his forehead and sighed. It was Gi Taeseok who was humiliated, but the viewers were up in arms.
-Looking for people to group buy spears, I can’t stand this anymore
– Wow, this is the first time I’ve cried from anger more than from a drama ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
-Taeseok…. Noona opened a savings account…
What do you mean by savings account?
I think it’s like a contract killing savings account ㅠ
But the anger didn’t last long. As soon as Yeonhuijae, whom the viewers had been waiting for, showed her face on screen, their emotions melted away.
Our Huijae, our little radish.
“Our girl will probably take this episode’s peak viewership rating too, right?”
Shin Rookie from JC ENM, who was watching 【The Great Garland】 on screen, asked Manager Hong.
Episode 1’s peak viewership rating and Episode 2’s peak viewership rating both belonged to Han Yeoreum.
Manager Hong answered with his small eyes filled with satisfaction.
“You mean a horse?”
Episode 3, everyone was finally waiting for that scene that appeared in the trailer.
The meetings between Taeseok and Huijae continued in the early dawn.
“Do you only know formal speech?”
“Formal speech? I find honorifics difficult to use.”
“What you’re using is honorifics… So not the way you talk to adults, but comfortably. Just speak comfor-tably. Isn’t that kind of thing in books?”
Huijae’s way of speaking was polite as if she had memorized a textbook, but there was something awkward about it.
It was because she had practiced diligently every day but hadn’t had much actual conversation.
“You just make the endings short. ‘Da’, or ‘eo’. Like this.”
At Taeseok’s words, Huijae tilted her head.
“Me and you.”
At Huijae’s words, Taeseok blinked slowly. Me and you. That’s exactly how it sounded.
“What doing? What do? What do-no? What do-da? What do-kka…?”
Huijae was asking how to make the endings. It was natural that it would be difficult since there was no dialect in the textbook.
She also seemed confused about distinguishing words and making sentences.
Because simply ‘pretty’ referring to the meaning itself is different from ‘it’s pretty’ expressing how one feels about it.
“For now, informal speech uses ‘na’ and ‘no’. And for speaking shortly, it’s ‘da’. Three things up to here.”
Taeseok tried his best to teach Huijae the Joseon language in his own way.
“Thank you-na. Thank you-no! Thank you-da. Like this?”
But it was only difficult for Huijae who was learning a foreign language for the first time. Taeseok burst into laughter. Huijae became sulky.
The sullen face disappeared into the wall.
“Bad.”
As if she wouldn’t show her face anymore, she didn’t come up. Taeseok approached the wall with a smile on his face.
“Not that. Haven’t you heard anything else?”
The young girl who still hadn’t gotten over her sulking glanced and met his gaze from inside the wall.
Then she spoke confidently as if she knew this one thing for sure.
“Crazy.”
At the unexpected word, Taeseok covered his face with one hand and laughed. At that laughter, the sulking Huijae opened triangular eyes.
“Ah… they really were cast well.”
Writer An gulped down beer trying to soothe the tickling feeling in her heart. But the two-shot of Taeseok and Huijae randomly stirred up something somewhere in people’s hearts.
“Of course! That’s what I wrote it for!”
And the more tender and tickling first love was, the more sorrowful the parting would be.
Like a roller coaster slowly climbing upward, Writer An took in the flow of the scene with her eyes.
For the beautiful and heartbreaking fall of innocent love.
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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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