I'm an Unknown Actress, But Everyone Knows Me

The male lead had already been chosen internally.

“His name’s Joo Junseo. Used to be a model.”

“A model?”

Meaning: he was the greenest of green rookies — someone who had never done proper acting even once.

“Ughhh... Nam sunbae. Look at the synopsis for a sec. You too, unnie, stop grilling the meat! Look at this!”

The man called Nam sunbae took the phone. His expression hardened as he scrolled, expecting nothing impressive but finding... this.

[The Cherry on the Parfait Belongs to the Heroine♥ Synopsis]

Even the title had an aggressively intense concept.

But the real problem wasn’t the title.

“Tsk. This difficulty is....”

“Right? It’s brutal, isn’t it?”

They skimmed the basic planning intent.

[The seventeen I imagined was nothing but sweet.

A cherry blossom morning, running with a slice of toast in my mouth,

accidentally bumping into my ideal type.

A noisy, exciting school festival and friendship with classmates.

A tingling, fluttering summer day at the beach.

But scenes like that were only allowed to the heroine of a pure romance manga.

A morning commute chewing rice wrapped in seaweed, clutching a backpack stuffed with problem books.

Barely arriving at school after being squeezed into a jam-packed bus.

Friends staking their lives on transcripts and early admission.

Summer cram-school special lectures starting every vacation.

What happens when you mix that pure romance manga dream with harsh reality in equal halves?

And what if I’m not even the heroine of that romance manga?]

It was the story of a heroine with dead-fish eyes living in a reality where romance-manga clichés happen endlessly around her.

In this story, the role given to model Joo Junseo was the male lead.

“...He’s the aloof, lonely top delinquent, isn’t he....”

“Aaaagh!!! No!!! This is impossible no matter what!!!”

The woman tore at her hair, then hurriedly filled another glass of soju and downed it.

“Soju is less bitter than life!!!”

It was a simple corporate logic.

Teenagers liked these stories, so they forced someone with a pretty face into the role.

“Tsk. Well, at least since Junseo’s character barely talks, he might not become a lightning rod for criticism with his terrible acting.”

“That’s true, but you know that makes it harder, right? Whether he’s good or bad, the vibe will depend entirely on the partner actor.”

“Yeah. Where are we supposed to find a female lead? One misstep and the whole thing becomes an elementary school play.”

“God... The female lead has to drag the whole thing by the collar, and there’s no one decent.”

Nam sunbae patted the woman’s slumped shoulder and offered a solution.

“Just refuse no matter what. Once the mockery label sticks, your image is finished.”

“I tried! I told them to cut my pay too! But do you know what they said?”

“Cut it then.”

...It didn’t work.

This was the era when web content was booming.

The growth of Intubers was no joke.

“With web content, you don’t need to grovel to programming departments, PPL is fast and easy, sponsors love the format, and you can even get overseas traction without worrying about broadcaster politics.”

And the ones with the sharpest nose for profit... were the major corporations.

“They’re not trying to grow the market at all. ‘Cut pay... can’t do it’?”

JC ENM was practically the top investor in South Korea for films and all kinds of video content.

“Then go ahead and cut it.”

And JC had chosen this project. And pushed it.

Meaning: her livelihood now depended on this damned web drama.

So she had no choice but to do it.

“There’s no way to escape!”

And they clearly wanted to evaluate whether Joo Junseo was worth promoting or not.

“Tsk, still, you have some casting authority, right?”

“Yeah. Since both investment and production are on our side....”

“Then bet it all on the female lead and the editing. Hey, at least the concept itself is fresh!”

Trying to console her, Nam sunbae kicked the shin of the friend sitting opposite him, who was silently grilling meat.

“Hey! You say something too! You’re the senior!”

“Yeah! Unnie! Help us out somehow!”

At last, the woman who had been moving meat onto her junior’s plate spoke.

“Among the students I taught... there’s one who would suit the heroine very well.”

“What? Seriously?”

“How old is she?”

Feeling pressured by their shining eyes, the senior scratched her cheek.

“She just turned twenty.”

A groan escaped immediately.

“Tsk~. Are you kidding? Twenty? She has no field experience.”

“Exactly! This needs real skill! At twenty she’s probably still stuck in exam-prep habits. Forget it, cheers. Cheers!”

Then the female senior made a rare expression.

“She doesn’t have exam-prep habits at all. She’s like a blank sheet of paper.”

She raised her eyebrows in certainty.

“She’s been acting for six months.”

The two who were clinking their soju glasses froze.

“...Six months? You’re kidding? Someone with 180 days of experience?”

“Unnie, I didn’t take you for this kind of teacher. You’ve become a real mentor now, huh? ‘My student is perfect no matter what’ rose-colored bias...?”

Their disbelief was fully expected.

The senior took out her phone and opened SNS.

Youstagram

@midsummer

Followers 2,665 Following 0

She pressed her finger and Yeoreum’s profile photo appeared.

A brightly smiling face under cool blue lighting.

“...This girl?”

“Well, the face isn’t bad.... And standing next to Joo Junseo, their visuals would match well.”

The power of a well-shot profile photo was immense. On the screen, Yeoreum instantly drew ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) them in.

“But six months of acting... that’s just....”

“That’s what bothers me too. What you see isn’t everything.”

The senior frowned as if that were completely wrong.

“She’s different.”

“How?”

“Her voice is different. If you hear her say just one line, you’ll understand.”

Team Leader Sung hesitated, then decided there was nothing to lose.

“All right. If you believe in your student that much, then let’s have her audition at least.”

* * *

“A web drama?”

—Yeah. Not a guaranteed lead role, just an audition.

“Could I know the title, ma’am?”

—The Cherry on the Parfait... something. I’ll send you the short synopsis and the audition date.

“Yes! Thank you.”

The moment I hung up, I yelled:

“〈The Cherry on the Parfait Belongs to the Heroine〉!!!”

This was the work known as the origin of B-grade web dramas.

“It has lots of iconic lines and iconic scenes, and even ten years later people still use it as memes....”

It twisted every romance-manga cliché, so the story itself was fun.

“But the actors were all a disaster....”

And they want me to do this? I shut my eyes as I read the synopsis the teacher sent.

Because unforgettable scenes from ten years later came flooding back.

—You believe in yourself, and believe in us, that’s how you become friends!

Especially that ridiculous “pure-romance-heroine encouragement scene.”

‘This circulated forever as a “you have no friends” meme.’

Should I really do this as my first drama?

“Well, JC ENM is producing it....”

But since this was one of their early works, they didn’t invest heavily. It could easily end with me burning my image for nothing.

As if reading my mind, my status window lit up again.

「Mission: You Inside the Screen」

Keyword: First Video

It is time to present your acting! Show a video featuring your face to [100,000] people.

Success Condition

[The number of shares must exceed 1,000]

They even emphasized it with red effects on 100,000 views and 1,000 shares.

“...Fine, this really is the best option right now.”

I’m still a complete nobody.

If I want the public to at least remember my face, there’s no better choice.

“Views of 100,000 and a thousand shares....”

This is 〈The Cherry on the Parfait Belongs to the Heroine〉....

“No, seriously, why is the title so long?”

I’ll just call it 〈ParCheHi〉 for short. Anyway, this mission was only possible with ParCheHi’s plot and potential buzz.

“The public’s reaction depends on the actor.”

No matter what, I’ll grab the lead role and act my heart out.

‘Then I guess I should go to the audition first.’

I knew the behind-the-scenes now. Passing wouldn’t be hard.

The lead role is mine.

* * *

JC ENM’s headquarters in Cheongdam.

On the 5th floor where the audition room was, many people were sitting in a row.

‘When will she get here?’

It was Team Leader Sung, the junior who had received the recommendation for Han Yeoreum from the female senior.