I’m an Unknown Actress, But Everyone Knows Me - Chapter 95

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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 95

* * *

The Stage fell silent. Myeong Jeha was well familiar with the weight of this particular atmosphere. It contained the fresh shock of encountering an unexpected scene.

‘I told you she was smart…’

Myeong Jeha suppressed his inner laughter as he recalled Han Yeoreum from last month.

“Why Hanbok?”

“When people think of , we need to shatter that image first. Let’s go pick out Hanbok to start with.”

Her anxious appearance had long since disappeared. In that fleeting moment, she seemed to have already drawn out a new in her mind.

“You’re going to reinterpret it completely in an Eastern style?”

“People who take time to watch student theater productions are probably people who know theater to some extent. They’ll be people accustomed to Analysis and finding meaning.”

Han Yeoreum thought of the audience. The spectators who would have to watch the same play with the same content in the same place.

“You don’t tell a story separately. You have to make the audience whose Concentration has wavered think. So they won’t be distracted even a little by the that came before.”

As if she were a single spectator looking up from below the Stage. It was a clever approach.

But this wasn’t the realm of Acting. What Myeong Jeha wanted was Han Yeoreum acting, not Han Yeoreum choosing costumes.

“That’s talk for what happens on Stage, but what if you can’t become Juliet? Start by establishing the character. Is your Juliet finished just by changing one Outfit?”

At Myeong Jeha’s cold question, Yeoreum lightly shook her head.

“I will become Juliet. Because I’ll have no choice but to.”

“On what grounds?”

“Think about it a little more, like you just questioned me. Why everyone would want to play Juliet.”

In that short time, from Outfit to concept, and even character. Han Yeoreum had finished it all.

“I’m going to distribute my Dialogue Delivery. All of Act 1’s lines.”

Like a protagonist who had been preparing for a very long time.

Soon it was time for Myeong Jeha to descend from the Stage. Jeha, who had once again spread the Fan in his hand to cover his face, turned around with his long Durumagi sleeves fluttering magnificently. It was a clean exit.

It was 10 seconds before the audience would meet a worn and shabby Juliet.

* * *

Aetami clasped her hands together as if in prayer.

‘Now, it’s Yeoreum’s turn…!’

She could already hear Yeoreum’s voice echoing across the darkened Stage.

In time with Romeo’s exit, the dim Lighting brightened again. This time attention went to the left side of the Stage.

“Nurse, where is Juliet? Please call that child for me.”

Juliet’s mother called for Juliet,

“I told her to come. Hey there, little lamb, sparrow-like miss! Is there such a bride? Miss Juliet!”

When the Nurse continued calling for Juliet.

“…”

Juliet appeared with her face completely covered by a worn Jangot.

Her attire was completely different from Romeo just before. Unlike Myeong Jeha, whose soft, luxurious collar had swayed elegantly with each step, Han Yeoreum’s Juliet looked extremely shabby.

“It’s nothing else. Nurse, step aside for a moment. We need to talk among ourselves. No, just stay, Nurse, you should listen too.”

Come to think of it, Lady Capulet, Juliet’s mother, and the Nurse were also wearing white Cotton Hanbok. It was attire that hadn’t stood out because of the gorgeous Silk Wrapping Cloth they held in their arms.

‘…The difference between households is immediately visible!’

With her long experience of drama fandom, she could tell right away. At this point, the narrative wasn’t something to think about. It was just something to feel with your head.

“As the Nurse knows, this child has more or less reached marriageable age.”

Lady Capulet made a fuss as she unwrapped the wrapping cloth from her arms.

Inside the wrapping cloth was a bundle of fine Hanji. It was a detail that Team A’s didn’t have.

‘That’s a Marriage Proposal Document!’

Aetami caught on immediately. It was something sent before marriage to check compatibility.

The marriage to Count Paris, which had just passed by like wind in Team A, was being handled more concretely in Team B.

“Well, I came because of that marriage talk. Juliet, tell me. What are your feelings about marriage?”

“I know exactly what the young lady thinks! She’ll consider it an honor she never even dreamed of!”

Yeoreum, holding the worn Jangot in her hand, still hadn’t said a single word.

‘…Wait, isn’t that Juliet’s line?’

A few quick-witted people realized that the Nurse was delivering all the lines that Juliet should have been saying.

Naturally, the chatty Nurse’s Character Portrayal shone through. The image of a character who had cared for Juliet since childhood naturally came to mind.

“If it’s a matter of seeing and growing fond, she’ll make sure to look well so that fondness grows!”

Even at the Nurse’s cheeky response, Juliet remained stubbornly silent. That point seemed to speak even more to Juliet’s complicated feelings.

The reality of having to marry a man she didn’t even love. That fact hit the audience even harder.

‘She’s not saying a single word until the end…’

Juliet exited without any particular activity, and the scene continued to Romeo and Juliet’s first meeting.

The Lighting went out once more for the scene transition.

Rustle-.

That’s when it happened. Rustling sounds could be heard from here and there throughout the Theater.

‘…That’s musical theater audience etiquette rule number 1!’

Then, other sights began to enter Aetami’s field of vision as well.

That was…

‘Leaning forward!’

People bending forward to get a better view of the Stage.

The rustling sound from just before was the sound of people adjusting their posture. Even though most people in this space would have had some experience watching theater.

In other words,

‘Such trivial things don’t even occur to them right now.’

It meant they were that absorbed in Team B’s .

* * *

Team B expressed Romeo and Juliet’s first meeting through clothing. Romeo was walking from the left, Juliet from the right, toward each other.

The tip of Romeo’s Fan, held between his long sleeves, touched Juliet’s Jangpo. The Jangpo caught on the Fan slipped off weakly.

“Ah…”

That’s when it happened. For the first time, Juliet’s voice spread across the Stage.

Her face, which had never been shown to the audience before, held an expression that seemed momentarily flustered. It was the same for Romeo.

Myeong Jeha’s expression, who had been leisurely smiling whenever his friends delivered lines, changed instantly. It was the same bewilderment, but the weight was different.

‘Han Yeoreum…’

Geum Bitkang was standing at the very back of the Stage. It was the best location to take everything in at a glance.

As Yeoreum began to fully reveal herself to the audience, Geum Bitkang slowly observed the faces of the spectators.

‘My eyes weren’t wrong.’

Geum Bitkang recalled a certain lecture from before. The ‘subtle difference’ that he considered most important in acting.

The moment when he had placed his expectations on Han Yeoreum, who truly understood that difference.

“As penance for that sin, my lips stand ready like two blushing pilgrims, waiting to smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.”

Romeo, with his hands clasped behind his back and leaning toward Juliet, spoke in a voice like one coaxing an innocent lamb. Juliet, wearing a jangpo with her back turned, continued the conversation in a shy voice.

“Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, which mannerly devotion shows in this…”

It was different from Do Gyeoul’s Juliet. The magnitude of emotion that reached the audience was incomparable.

‘…Because all the audience members know the ending.’

Everyone would know the fateful first meeting followed by declarations of love, and then the tragic end that follows.

Juliet’s trembling as she hesitates, unable to easily open her heart, could only feel more heartbreaking.

At some point, the atmosphere in the auditorium changed. The silence characteristic of deep concentration dominated the space.

“O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name.”

There was something touching about poor and humble Juliet’s love. Because one could specifically understand what kind of reason would separate the two families. Juliet in her cotton hanbok sat on the floor.

“‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy. Thou art thyself, though not a Montague. O, be some other name!”

The lighting that Juliet was looking up at seemed like moonlight. Yeoreum slowly lowered the jangpo that had been covering her face as she expressed her anguish, bringing it down to her shoulders.

As if she couldn’t bear the suffocation any longer.

“By whose direction found’st thou out this place?”

When Romeo’s voice was heard, Juliet immediately pulled the jangpo back over her head with quick hands.

“By love, that first did prompt me to inquire.”

In complete contrast to Juliet’s attire, whenever Romeo’s body moved, the hopae and jade ornament at his waist glowed softly.

Romeo, bending at the waist to look at Juliet, followed her movements trying to make eye contact just once.

“Thou know’st the mask of night is on my face, else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheek for that which thou hast heard me speak tonight.”

But the more this happened, the more earnestly Juliet hid her face. Lovely and tender scenes continued.

“Fain would I dwell on form… fain, fain deny what I have spoke. But farewell compliment! Dost thou love me?”

Though her attitude was hesitant, her pronunciation was precise. Thanks to the composition of her sitting on the floor looking up at Romeo, the difference in their social status felt even more poignant.

“I know thou wilt say ‘Ay,’ and I will take thy word.”

“Lady, by yonder blessed moon I vow, that tips with silver all these fruit-tree tops.”

Juliet didn’t trust Romeo’s immediate response. That’s how it is when you love too much. Everyone knew. What it felt like to suspect the other person while your heart ached with worry.

“O, swear not by the moon, th’ inconstant moon, that monthly changes in her circle orb, lest that thy love prove likewise variable.”

At those words, Romeo slowly reached out his hand. His soft-looking sleeve moved gracefully. His large, straight hand eventually began to slowly remove the rough jangpo.

Juliet’s revealed face was flushed red, but she didn’t stop Romeo’s hand.

“What shall I swear by?”

Impatience was evident in his soothing voice. Like a man truly facing the woman he loves up close.

“Do not swear at all. Or, if thou wilt, swear by thy gracious self, which is the god of my idolatry, and I’ll believe thee.”

A moment of silence filled the stage. Even that seemed like dialogue.

Their gazes intertwined.

Romeo, who had been standing throughout, willingly bent his knees and lowered himself like Juliet.

“If that thy bent of love be honorable, thy purpose marriage, send me word tomorrow, by one that I’ll procure to come to thee, where and what time thou wilt perform the rite…”

Juliet’s breathing was precarious as she pledged marriage to Romeo.

It was a voice that conveyed Juliet’s situation – her poor family, her insignificant status, having to marry Count Paris as if being sold off.

“And all my fortunes at thy foot I’ll lay.”

Nevertheless, one could understand Juliet’s heart choosing love.

“And follow thee my lord throughout the world.”

A smile spread across Juliet’s face revealed under the lighting. It was the first smile she had shown.

“….”

Romeo froze for a moment upon seeing Juliet’s face like that. As if time had stopped.

Just from Romeo’s gaze as he quietly looked at Juliet, the audience could all share the same emotion. No dialogue was needed.

“Juliet!”

The Nurse’s voice calling for Juliet from beyond broke the silence. Juliet looked at Romeo one last time and said:

“Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow that I shall say good night till it be morrow.”

Juliet covered her face again with the worn jangpo and exited. Romeo, left alone, continued to gaze at the spot where Juliet had disappeared.

“Hence will I to my ghostly sire’s close cell, his help to crave and my dear hap to tell.”

It was like a kind of resolution. There was strength at the end of his calm voice.

Soon the lights went out and the curtain fell.

“….”

The audience was quiet. Then one by one, they began to clap softly. Gentle applause echoed through the hall.

‘We lost.’

Hearing that sound, Geum Bitkang came to a clean conclusion. The victory and defeat were all too clear.

‘Team A must have worked hard too, but this is unfortunate…’

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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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