I'm an Unknown Actress, But Everyone Knows Me

A conversation is something two people do together, so creating the situation matters.

Victim and perpetrator, friend and enemy, lovers and an employment relationship—if one side veers off the set path, it can change in countless ways.

‘This is my specialty.’

She’ll probably follow my lead this time. Stay in a similar state of conversational shutdown, watching for cues. I can see the camera lens pointed at me.

‘Not enough.’

System

[30]% of the audience has begun focusing on you!

Current audience: 52

Looking at the floating status window, normally when you do this kind of forward acting, Speaker A has to lay down a pretty extreme setup for it to be interesting.

‘I should’ve started with something that let Speaker B use big gestures.’

A lavish friend drowning in unpaid eight-figure debt, a younger sister who stole her longtime boyfriend, a school-bullying perpetrator.

‘I can tell which direction you rolled your head in... but your understanding of the scene ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) is lacking.’

No helping it. I’ll definitely crank up the attention with this performance. I need to produce at least one scene worth clipping for Intube.

Intube

[Acting practice at school? Daeyejong’s stage where you speak in only four words! Please Take Care of M Network] 02:21

Views 420,000

– Wow, Daeyejong does stuff like that lololol That’s wild

– You can really tell the difference between someone who’s debuted and someone who hasn’t, even if they’re a rookie... only one side feels professional

– Never would’ve thought of that, no way, Han Yeoreum can really act, it’s like her basic reflexes? Intelligence? That kind of thing is just different

This is it... the taste of a protagonist....

‘Just thinking about it is sweet.’

We sat back down like before. Now it was my turn to act from the opposite position.

“All right! Then let’s start!”

The moment the professor finished speaking, Jin Eunseol tilted her head crookedly. As if trying not to meet my eyes.

“Eunseol.”

She didn’t look at me even when I called her name.

‘Right on script.’

Thinking she hadn’t been able to show her ‘real’ acting because she was flustered earlier, Jin Eunseol chose to cut off the conversation.

It looked like she planned to act based on whatever attitude I showed.

“Eunseol....”

I called Jin Eunseol’s name one more time.

Bang!

Eunseol used a method similar to what I’d done earlier. She deliberately made a loud noise to draw attention, then staggered from side to side as if it took effort to forcibly keep her body in place.

‘Ah, so it’s a drunk.’

If she’s a drunk, she doesn’t need to speak four words. This was a fight Jin Eunseol could win.

‘She can just repeat yes, no. That’s it.’

What do you expect from a drunk, after all. Smart move.

But if you don’t answer properly, I’ve got ideas too.

“...I heard something. But....”

I forced a laugh into my voice, as if I were afraid of what answer might come back. I let out several short, ragged breaths to hide my sincerity. To make the viewers uneasy.

“It’s not true, right?”

For a split second, an expression flashed across her face—one that said she couldn’t tell what I was trying to do. She’d cut off all information in advance, so all she had left was to maintain silence.

‘That’s what I wanted.’

Step one of turning the other person into a backdrop.

‘Take all the narrative for myself.’

To meet the eyes of Jin Eunseol, who had lowered her head, I knelt down.

Deliberately positioning myself so the camera could see well, and the audience could see well.

I threw away my pride, as if I were going to support Jin Eunseol’s unsteady body.

‘Even one movement makes me look pitiful.’

I took Jin Eunseol’s hand and buried my face against her thigh. I could feel her tense up in surprise.

“...You don’t have a boyfriend, do you. Right....”

Add romance to any narrative and the heartbreak doubles. I acted the role of a woman who was used and then discarded.

System

[60]% of the audience has begun focusing on you!

Current audience: 52

The attention doubled immediately. Okay.

“You said you liked me.... You can’t do this....”

I lifted my face from Jin Eunseol’s thigh and raised my chin to look up at her. At my desperate attempt to meet her eyes, Jin Eunseol spoke for the first time.

“I’m sorry.”

She’d realized she was supposed to act out a breakup and betrayal. But it was already too late. All eyes were on me.

“You don’t like me? Huh? From the beginning? No, right? That’s not it....”

As tears streamed down, I could feel the density of the gaze weighing heavier. I deliberately tightened my grip on her hand, digging each fingernail into flesh.

“Ah!”

Jin Eunseol let out an irritated scream. Words other than yes, no, thank you, I’m sorry. But still within the allowed range.

‘And it only makes the listeners feel sorrier for my story.’

Jin Eunseol became trash—someone who’d used a woman and thrown her away, now getting irritated as that woman clung to her, crying. She even instinctively shoved my hand away.

‘This is where the camera comes in.’

Maybe she’d used her head a bit, because she turned it so her face would be visible to the camera and the audience. I had no idea what expression Jin Eunseol on the opposite side was making right now.

‘She can’t cry.’

If she does, people might start thinking there was some kind of story behind using me and throwing me away.

‘That can’t happen.’

I sprang to my feet. I had to block it before the focus shifted. I walked behind Jin Eunseol.

‘On stage, eyes follow movement.’

I deliberately put force into my heels as I walked, my footsteps pounding loudly. In an instant, attention swung toward me.

With my head lowered, as if denying reality, I spoke.

“Is there something I’m lacking?”

I deliberately let my voice tremble. Jin Eunseol answered.

“No.”

“Then why are you like this? I can just do better. I’ll think of it as you making a small mistake. I’ll cover everything up just this once. I won’t bring it up again.”

Bang, bang, bang, bang. I hurried back in front of Jin Eunseol and pulled her face—still seated—into my arms.

‘No matter what I say now, Jin Eunseol won’t be seen.’

She might want to struggle and push me away, but the more she does, the more pitiful I look. She knows that.

‘Her mouth’s shut.’

Let’s end this properly, Eunseol.

“It’s really not? I’m not okay? Does it have to be a man? Is it not okay if it’s a woman?”

“I’m sorry....”

“Don’t say that. Huh? Say something. If you really hate me, say you hate me. If you’re sick of me, say you’re sick of me—just say one thing.”

The longer it dragged on, the more the camera showed only my back, only my voice, only my narrative.

‘I need to cut it off. Eunseol.’

Just as I’d completely blocked Jin Eunseol, making her think it would be better to end it early, a voice trying to wrap things up finally came out.

“I’m sorry.”

Jin Eunseol was crying. But the timing was far too late.

‘Crying here only backfires.’

All the emotion had already transferred to me. Jin Eunseol was the trash who’d cheated on a devoted lover—and now she was crying on top of that. The very image of a pathetic coward with extreme avoidance tendencies.

‘And pretending to be drunk to counter someone pretending to be hurt—that was the fatal blow.’

Drinking in this situation? Of course people would assume she drank with ‘that man’ in my lines.

“...Okay. I get it.”

I didn’t let go of Jin Eunseol until the very end.

‘No way I’m letting her face show on my camera.’

That’s mine. Han Yeoreum’s. Holding Jin Eunseol’s face close, I murmured,

“Still, just a little.... Let’s stay like this.”

“...Hhk....”

Jin Eunseol deliberately cried louder, desperately trying to steal back some of the narrative. Not happening. I’d already transformed from a tragic, used older sister into the Virgin Mary.

“I know you were scared. Your unnie knows. Even so, I was greedy.... I understand you. I don’t hate you at all.”

My voice, holding back tears, trembled pitifully. I deliberately mixed in hiccupping breaths.

“But it’s the last time. Since it’s the last time, don’t you have something to say to unnie? Not yes, no, I’m sorry. Not those. Huh? Anything is fine.”

“....”

“So unnie can keep it. Just say one thing.... Huh?”

There was one thing Jin Eunseol had overlooked. If you make someone answer from multiple choices, it’s actually easier to escape.

“Even if it’s a lie, just say you love me once. Then I think unnie will be okay.”

Like I did—forcing one of two options out of someone has a much higher success rate. Jin Eunseol was already crying, so she had to create a beautiful ending somehow.

System

[90]% of the audience has begun focusing on you!

Current audience: 52

“If not love, if you can’t say that.... Then just ‘thank you.’ Can you do that? Can you not say ‘I’m sorry’?”

Come on. Just say thank you. Jin Eunseol, held in my arms, stayed silent for a moment. She seemed to know she’d lost.

But what Jin Eunseol chose instead of thank you until the very end was,

“...I’m sorry.”

You idiot. If you struggle this hard not to lose and derail the emotional line, all it does is make the pure devotion of the character Han Yeoreum played stand out even more.

“All right! We’ll end it here!”

Seeing no sign of it ending, the professor clapped once, briefly. Jin Eunseol silently lowered her head.

“You should’ve felt it in that last practice. Lines, gestures, expressions. All of it ultimately leads to narrative! Acting is making the viewer understand what kind of situation this is.”

The earlier performance would probably be edited with shots of the seated students and the professor’s expressions, plus the panelists’ comments, instead of Jin Eunseol’s face.

‘Not the kind of thing viewers find entertaining.’

There’s no profession more sensitive to looseness than variety shows. Jin Eunseol provides a sample of the ‘Daeyejong classroom atmosphere,’ and becomes material for the panelists to chat about—asking if classes are always like that, saying it looks fun.

‘And of course, the one they put effort into editing is the latter.’

System

[100]% of the audience is focused on you!

Current audience: 52

The stage has been successfully concluded.

Attention score: Han Yeoreum, complete victory.