I'm an Unknown Actress, But Everyone Knows Me

“Nuunaaa....”

“Once upon a time.”

From a very young age, Han Yeoreum had memorized entire fairy tales. There were many days when she had to read them out loud even without holding a book in her hands.

Han Taeyang’s earliest memory was of forcing himself to fall asleep while listening to his sister’s voice beside his ear, squeezed in between the sounds of things breaking and crashing.

When she had read through every fairy tale she knew and could no longer calm her crying brother, Han Yeoreum—having heard about it somewhere—took Han Taeyang by the hand and headed toward a large building.

“Now we can play here.”

Seongdong District Public Library, basement level one. There was a screening room where you could watch movies for free. That was where Han Taeyang watched a movie for the first time in his life.

“It’s really nice, right?”

“Yeah.”

“We have to stay quiet here. If we don’t, they’ll kick us out.”

Just knowing that he no longer had to spin around the playground because he was scared to go home made Han Taeyang happy.

Whenever something painful, scary, or hard to watch appeared on the screen, all he had to do was squeeze his eyes shut. Han Yeoreum was right next to him.

[7/1 15:00 Cinema Paradiso]

[7/2 16:30 Life Is Beautiful]

On weekday evenings between six and eight, documentaries and classic films were mostly screened. They were probably far too boring and incomprehensible for kids their age, but the two of them couldn’t take their eyes off the screen.

The sound of the projector spinning in the narrow space, the many different voices coming through the speakers, the soft, worn-out chairs—they spent their evenings wrapped in all of it.

They still had to go back by nine o’clock, but it wasn’t as scary as before.

“So if Matilda hadn’t met the teacher, then....”

Han Yeoreum would even imagine and tell him the stories that came after the movie ended.

Or she would chatter on for hours without getting tired, explaining why each character actually acted the way they did, what kind of personality they had, and what would have happened if they’d made different choices.

“If you don’t listen to your sister and keep your eyes open, the agents from E.T. will come get you.”

“...That’s not real.”

“It is. There are aliens in Korea too. You didn’t know? The reason the National Assembly building’s roof is a different color is—”

“I’m going to sleep now.”

She even had a knack for making ridiculous lies sound convincing. Eight-year-old Han Yeoreum was a screenwriter, a director, and an actor all at once.

If they had only been poor, that would’ve been fine—but they were unlucky too. As long as a movie was playing, the two of them became children in paradise.

Like Ali and Zara sharing a single pair of shoes, they chewed on a single movie for a long, long time.

It was a mean thought, but sometimes they took comfort in knowing that there were children on the other side of the screen who were even more unfortunate than they were.

‘Maybe that’s when it started.’

Maybe Han Yeoreum’s dream of becoming an actor was nurtured down there, in the basement.

Just as it was natural for an eight-year-old to protect a five-year-old, it was natural now for a nineteen-year-old to help a twenty-two-year-old.

Han Yeoreum had to succeed even more than ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) she already had. She was bound to succeed. She had been living for that goal for so long.

Han Taeyang decided to bring Han Yeoreum’s completely inevitable success a little closer.

“We’ve only set up two cameras in the room. We’ll show you how to turn them off—when you’re changing clothes, or—.”

That was why he’d decided to appear together on a variety show he didn’t even watch.

“Your younger brother is really gentle. He usually listens to you well, right?”

“...Ha, haha. Yes. Of course.”

Just as Han Yeoreum was good at acting, Han Taeyang also had a certain level of basic skill.

“My sister basically raised me, so... yeah. I’m good at listening.”

“Oh! Make sure you say that properly during the interview. Hey, I’m excited.”

“Yes. The interview.”

“Your look is great too! At this rate, aren’t you going to become a celebrity yourself? Agency business cards flying everywhere—.”

After searching portal sites here and there, Han Taeyang realized that playing up the so-called ‘gap moe’—‘’s soft Malangi Han Yeoreum, who turns out to have sisterly charm too?’—would be a huge help for image-making.

“Please give us a light self-introduction.”

“Yes. I’m Han Taeyang, the younger brother of Han Yeoreum—who debuted on the big screen with and immediately hit ten million, has 1.07 million Yousta followers, and is a rising actor from the golden cohort of DaeYeJong.”

Watching Han Taeyang introduce himself calmly, the team exchanged looks.

‘This works.’

‘This really works.’

It was a rare kind of character appeal.

* * *

“Hey, a photo of us when we were kids came out.”

“Shouldn’t that be in an album?”

“You probably took it to school to make a family newspaper and never brought it back. There’s colored paper glued on the back.”

Yeoreum stopped unpacking and picked up the photo lying to one side of the box.

“Where’s the album again?”

“Third box. And don’t open the album again—organize properly.”

Following the nonstop orders of her younger brother, Yeoreum ended up unpacking boxes like a warehouse part-timer the whole time. The moment she tried to space out, he snapped her back into line.

‘The younger brother’s face is good....’

‘This is what you call character appeal, Writer.’

‘No, first of all, his face is good....’

The production staff observed the two of them and carefully marked editing points. During the pre-shoot interview, Han Yeoreum had said this.

“I don’t want to regret anything! That’s my motto. As an actor, as a student, and as Han Yeoreum that someone knows, I want to do my best. Twenty-four hours is way too short.”

But now, the Yeoreum who was organizing clothes shouted like a completely different person.

“Hey, Han Taeyang!!! The delivery’s here!!!”

Her voice rang out clearly from room to room. Actor-level projection. Taeyang, who had set out the delivered black-bean-sauce noodles and sweet-and-sour pork, even opened Yeoreum’s wooden chopsticks for her.

“Ah, I should’ve ordered a large. I’m starting to regret it.”

Unlike her interview, Yeoreum was regretting things. Han Taeyang quietly ate his black-bean-sauce noodles and said,

“It’s already a large.”

“I should’ve ordered cola too....”

“It’s already in the fridge.”

For reference, Han Taeyang’s pre-interview had gone like this.

“My sister started working in society early, and she’s very mature in a lot of ways. Since I’m still a minor, there are many things I rely on her for.”

The youngest writer sent a message to Gam Dajeong.

Input: Writer, what if we try something kind of like a fake documentary this time? I think there’ll be lots of fun moments even when we shoot reaction videos in the studio. Both of them set their concepts too hard in the pre-interviews.

Maybe the comment about the Drama Bureau director not understanding variety shows needed to be taken back.

* * *

News that Han Yeoreum was filming the popular variety show spread quickly. Since it wasn’t possible to film every lecture she attended, the team presented filming permits for class times that could yield the most convincing scenes.

“Did you hear?”

“Are we going to be on it too?”

Not only Han Yeoreum’s classmates, but juniors and seniors taking the same lecture were buzzing. The only one maintaining a calm attitude was Jin Eunseol.

“Wow, this is insane. There’s never been anyone who filmed a variety show at our school, right?”

“Graduated seniors have come back before, but among current students....”

Jin Eunseol felt her stomach heat up. It prickled uncomfortably.

‘And it’s the same lecture....’

Part of her didn’t want to see Han Yeoreum’s filming right in front of her eyes, but another part wanted to become a lucky protagonist herself.

The kind people talk about—being the main character for a few minutes, a few seconds.

-00:27 This person totally steals your gaze lol

ㄴI couldn’t see anyone else either TT_TT so cute

ㄴWhat’s her Yousta ID?

“Eunseol! What are you doing?”

“Huh?”

“We need to go now!”

At her classmate’s call, Eunseol neatly organized her tangled thoughts.

“...Yeah. Let’s go.”

Already two years in. Around this time every year, Eunseol regretted not logging into Actorsfilm and seeing the audition notice.

The thought that she could have taken Han Yeoreum’s place twisted her insides the entire time.

DaeYeJong Acting Department lecture hall.

“All right, four-word acting.”

The professor standing at the podium spoke in a clear, ringing voice.

Four-word Acting Exercise. A training method where dialogue had to continue using only four words.

“I want to see how well you’ve absorbed the basics you learned in your first year. You know this, right? There’s no script. Everything is improvisation!”

The professor in charge of Scene Acting Practical A addressed the students loudly.

“The rules are: yes, no, thank you, I’m sorry. You must use only these four words.”

This exercise restricted words to increase depth of expression. The three most important elements in acting.

Body movement, facial expression, and dialogue.

By placing shackles on dialogue—the easiest form of expression—it instantly narrowed the range of acting.

“If you evade answering more than three times, that’s the end.”

The core was how much emotion you could pack into just four responses, making it especially effective at pushing an actor’s nonverbal expressive ability to the extreme.

“And don’t repeat the same line more than three times!”

Variety show cameras were rolling. For aspiring actors desperate to debut, it was an ideal stepping stone. An air of tense anticipation filled the lecture hall.

‘With Han Yeoreum....’

‘If I’d known this would happen, I should’ve pretended to be closer to her!’

Just thinking that being paired with Han Yeoreum could imprint them in the public eye made their eyes burn. The heat of unhidden ambition flared.

“A must draw all four words out of B, and if B says any other word, that’s an immediate failure. If B says all four words, then the roles switch. Got it?”

One more condition was added. Tension rose at the unfamiliar acting exercise.

“Then, Han Yeoreum.”

The professor called her name.

“And Jin Eunseol. Come out.”

Jin Eunseol was chosen as her scene partner.