The Chaebol Family’s Youngest Daughter Doesn’t Hide Her Acting Skills - Chapter 9

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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 9

A few days later, at actress Seong Hye-sim’s home.

“Perfect. It was a short period, but you’ve already mastered it.”

“The hint you gave me before was helpful.”

“There are mountains of juniors who can’t understand even when given hints. Being able to absorb it readily is also a talent.”

I had just finished showing actress Seong Hye-sim the ad-lib development assignment I received last time.

“Sae-i. Have you thought about joining a company?”

“A company?”

“One that would bring you scripts and take care of you.”

A company. I hadn’t signed officially yet, but I was in a situation where I needed to land a role first to enter Waveactors.

When I hesitated to answer, actress Seong Hye-sim handed me a business card.

[Haedam ENT CEO Song Woo-seok]

“This is our CEO’s business card, well.”

She smiled and added,

“I’m not telling you to come. With someone like Sae-i, companies will line up to give you business cards from your first script reading.”

“Then why this…?”

“Just meaning I’d like to be first in that line?”

She made a serious face. She seemed to be pondering what to say.

“Um… Sae-i, I’m telling you in advance, but in the entertainment industry, you shouldn’t trust anyone.”

“Not even you?”

“That’s right. Don’t carelessly accept the proposals I give you either.”

To me, who hadn’t even filmed a debut work yet, she explained points I should be careful about. Like someone who believed I would definitely walk a smooth path.

“Companies can protect Sae-i, but conversely, they can also attack you. You need to know that.”

I had worried she might ask me to join her company right away, but she urged me not to trust Haedam ENT either.

My heart felt reassured and I couldn’t help but smile. As I put the business card in my wallet, I whispered,

“Still, I want to trust you.”

“Ah, really funny…”

Looking at me as if she couldn’t stop me, she suddenly gathered her things.

“You have plenty of time today, right?”

“I kept it free. But why…?”

After even packing my bag for me, she gestured toward the door with her chin. It was a signal to go out.

“You said you’d get an audition for 【Your Blue Name】. It’s today.”

…What?

Before I could even step back, my hand was grabbed.

And so, in the moving car.

Not even knowing where I was headed, I chewed over the script that had already worn thin from analysis, again and again.

***

Director Woo Byeong-hwa of KDS’s anticipated work 【Your Blue Name】 was anxious.

That ‘box office cheat key’ Seong Hye-sim had set a condition in exchange for her appearance. She asked that the person she recommended for the female lead ‘Doyeon’ role be allowed to audition.

It wasn’t asking to just place someone, and if it was an audition, he could certainly accommodate that.

However, while Seong Hye-sim was contemplating her appearance, the ‘Doyeon’ role had already been narrowed down to final candidates. The production team proposed to Hye-sim an audition for Doyeon’s student-age child actor role.

Seong Hye-sim accepted this for now. Saying it would match the age of the person she would recommend, and even that she would let ‘that child’ make the final choice.

However… there was one problem.

“Is Writer Choi here?”

“She was dying not to come. She must be fed up with Doyeon auditions.”

This meticulous Writer Choi Gi-jeong before his eyes. The firm opinion of this star writer who had hits from her debut work was exactly that problem.

“What if she keeps rejecting them saying they’re not satisfactory?”

“There’s no character like my Doyeon in the current pool. Especially child actors. The actor we’re seeing today too, well, I should abandon expectations first…”

“Why don’t we just grab some moderately famous child actor and go with it? The screen time isn’t even that much.”

“It’s useless if we can’t show Doyeon properly. The child actor practically has to hook viewers strongly in episode 1.”

Counting the top-tier child actors who had already auditioned for Doyeon’s child role, ten fingers wouldn’t be enough.

Could the person Seong Hye-sim recommended really satisfy Writer Choi’s taste?

Director Woo didn’t think so. Even child actors who had been acting since kindergarten had failed miserably, so there was no way an unknown newcomer he’d never heard of could pull it off.

‘The name of the friend auditioning today was…’

Ju Sae-i. That was the name.

‘Sorry about this. She must have had expectations.’

He resented Writer Choi, who was checking the script with a sharp expression beside him today especially. Director Woo glanced at her sideways.

Ding-a-ling, the wind chime on the door rang softly. Seong Hye-sim entered, and Director Woo and Writer Choi politely stood up from their seats.

“Did you wait long? We were late because I had to change the kid’s clothes first.”

Seong Hye-sim bowed her head.

‘Changed her clothes?’

Director Woo chuckled at the obvious route. There had already been several actors who came wearing school uniforms since Doyeon was a student.

Soon, another person walked in from behind Seong Hye-sim. Simultaneously, Director Woo and Writer Choi’s gazes were drawn that way.

‘So that’s the girl. Her face is decent?’

Fair and smooth skin, clear eyes. Plus makeup so understated you’d think it was a bare face. In short, even a pure and neat atmosphere…

It was truly a face that suited Doyeon. Director Woo’s heart pounded at the thought that maybe this time would be different.

With the director and writer, who were the main figures of the work, in front of her, Sae-i took off her outer garment. Director Woo assumed she was wearing a school uniform under her outer garment. Like other actors.

“Huh?”

However, Sae-i’s outfit was not a school uniform.

This actor was wearing a shabby printed short-sleeve t-shirt. The neck was slightly stretched and loose, and the gym shorts she wore underneath were folded twice.

While Sae-i introduced herself and greeted them, Director Woo watched Writer Choi’s reaction. She stared at Sae-i without moving.

“It’s a student role, so why didn’t you wear a school uniform?”

“The school uniform only appears briefly in the early part, and after going down to the countryside, the school allows casual dress throughout.”

Even to Writer Choi’s question, Sae-i continued speaking without being intimidated.

“Rather than wearing a school uniform just because she’s a student, I wanted to prepare an appearance that suited the script!”

“You know that if you can’t express it through acting, it’s all for nothing, right?”

Watching Sae-i who seemed unfazed even by the aggressive words, Director Woo stroked his chin.

“Free acting is fine, did you memorize the entire script? I’m going to designate a scene.”

“Just throw it at me!”

A powerful voice. Her clenched fists also contained enthusiasm.

“The scene dealing with mom is too obvious, right? Scene 35, let’s see the first meeting between Yeon Doyeon and Yu Hajin.”

The school days of Doyeon, the female protagonist of 【Your Blue Name】, and Hajin, the male protagonist.

After her brother’s death, Doyeon comes down to her maternal grandmother’s house in the countryside with her mother who has lost her mind, and there she meets Hajin, a country boy.

Here, the saying about a dragon rising from a stream was meant for Hajin. He was a prodigy born in the countryside.

Doyeon recalls her mother, who drove her brother to death, in the country adults who have expectations for Hajin. Thus she instinctively avoids Hajin.

However, Hajin is very interested in Doyeon. Enough to secretly blush when they became classmates after she moved to the neighborhood.

Their first meeting takes place in front of Doyeon’s house on a day when rain is pattering down. Finally, Sae-i suddenly changed her expression and posture.

As if expressing how raindrops falling into her eyes automatically made them close, Sae-i’s eyelids trembled intermittently even while delivering her lines.

“Hey, you… what are you and why do you keep lurking around?”

Chronically drooping shoulders and a haggard complexion. Her pale impression stood out in contrast to the lush countryside house scenery.

“Why. Is it because of rumors that our mom went crazy? So you came to watch?”

The girl before their eyes was no longer the passionate Ju Sae-i.

“Ah, I can’t stand the sight of you, so get lost! Why won’t you just leave us alone, why…! Are we some zoo monkeys? Coming at all hours mumbling that there’s been a death, that we’ve lost our minds, that we bring bad luck because of the mother who killed her son…!”

Her voice trembled endlessly. A girl pouring out all the resentment built up inside to Hajin, as if washing away stains in the pouring rain.

But ironically, that resentful appearance becomes Hajin’s intense first love.

“…Does anyone think we wanted to come to this slum-like neighborhood!”

A child who had to leave by force, leaving all ties to her original home.

“I also… I also hate it here. It’s not just you who hate us.”

Closing her trembling tender lips, Sae-i finished her acting.

Director Woo, who had watched all this acting, was certain. There could be no more perfect Yeon Doyeon in this world.

“That’s the end.”

Writer Choi closed the script. It meant she had made her decision.

“I’ve made up my mind. Ju Sae-i, this might sound bewildering, but…”

“…Please go ahead.”

“For young Doyeon’s role, if it’s not you, Sae-i, I’m going to scrap the project.”

Fortunately, Director Woo wasn’t the only one who recognized Ju Sae-i’s ‘Yeon Doyeon.’

“Will you join us?”

Writer Choi extended her hand to Sae-i.

It was the moment she landed her first role.

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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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