I'm an Unknown Actress, But Everyone Knows Me

“...You did well. Truly.”

She spoke into the microphone placed on the table. Through the headset Han Yeoreum was wearing, the main writer’s sincerity came through clearly. Han Yeoreum beamed.

“I don’t need to worry, right?”

“Wow, you’re way better than I expected.”

Looking at Han Yeoreum beyond the booth, the staff began adding comments one by one. It was only later that she learned there had been a cameraman from there as well.

What they were saying weren’t broadcast lines. They were closer to spontaneous exclamations of admiration that slipped out naturally.

* * *

With the live broadcast approaching, the rehearsal ended quickly. In the meantime, the guest arrived.

“Hello.”

Yun Hyeonjo arrived in a comfortable gray knit and greeted them politely.

“Senior!”

“Stay seated. Here—coffee.”

Yun Hyeonjo handed the coffee he had brought to the writers and Han Yeoreum. After taking his seat in the guest chair, he asked Han Yeoreum—who looked excited to anyone’s eyes—

“Have you been well?”

Ever since he’d heard about what happened at the audition from Ji Haebeom not long ago, Yun Hyeonjo had found Han Yeoreum even more interesting.

‘How is her entire life just ad-lib....’

To Yun Hyeonjo, who had to compulsively finish all preparations before filming, Han Yeoreum was a completely different type of person. And that, in itself, was fascinating.

‘And she hasn’t even been debuted for that long.’

It was ad-libbing born from confidence backed by solid fundamentals. It was fast, but not rushed; it layered things on, but never excessively.

‘If she’s this good as a rookie, she’ll only get better as she grows.’

But her weight class hadn’t fully grown yet. Whether in dramas or films, the industry was generally steeped in macho sensibilities. If a director told you to jump, you jumped. The more famous they were, the more they were automatically the one in power.

‘If she runs into the wrong one—she’s screwed.’

Not everyone would acknowledge Han Yeoreum’s ad-libs. No matter how good she was, the moment it was seen as challenging a director’s authority, the set would turn into a mess. And with rookies, there were people who would ride them especially hard.

‘You can’t meet only good directors until your weight class grows.’

Yun Hyeonjo recalled his own early debut days. Bowing his head to a director who barked at him, getting scolded for hours ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) on end—again and again.

‘It’d be a waste if the kid loses her spirit.’

In an industry where madmen, psychos, trash, and bastards all coexisted, Yun Hyeonjo wanted to preserve Han Yeoreum’s carefree brightness, her lack of defensive calculation.

Because he was curious about the moment when that level of skill would be properly refined and truly shine.

She only needed to show her face at the script reading in a few days. Yet he’d gone out of his way to appear inefficiently as a radio guest—that was the reason.

‘And I owe her, too.’

More than anything, it was a one-sided debt. Watching Han Yeoreum with interest on set had been repaid through Ji Haebeom’s audition, but the sudden surge in her Taiwanese fanbase was something he still hadn’t repaid.

“Just relax. Relax.”

As he put on his headset, Yun Hyeonjo said to the junior whose future he looked forward to.

“I’ll support you.”

* * *

The radio began. It was a full-fledged live broadcast.

“Today’s first song—it's a new release I keep wanting to listen to myself. Jang Jaeje’s ‘Today, With You.’”

Han Yeoreum didn’t simply read the sentence displayed on the monitor. She spoke it as if she were talking directly to someone. No one there could believe this was her first time as a DJ—it was that natural.

“Following our special DJ, we also have a special guest with us today. Today’s guest is Detective Yun, whom I met on . Yes! Senior Yun Hyeonjo.”

“Hello. I’m actor Yun Hyeonjo.”

As expected of Yun Hyeonjo. As an actor known for excellent diction, his chemistry with Han Yeoreum was spot-on.

Listening to their conversation through his headset, the technical director moved his hand. The volume fader slid steadily upward under his fingertips.

“Director, won’t the sound be too clear like that?”

“That’s the point.”

A staff member beside him whispered. The technical director adjusted his headset as he replied. It was a method they usually didn’t use, since even the smallest breaths would come through vividly. But with two people like these, who required no post-processing at all, letting this sound be buried would have been dereliction of duty as a technical director. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

The two of them shared updates with the listeners in a comfortably familiar tone. Naturally, they were able to convey the information that the second series of , which had been a ten-million-viewer hit last summer, was currently in production.

“Then I’ll read the first message.”

Now it was time for the radio to truly get underway. Her voice shifted from just moments before. It was clear that a brighter, more upbeat conversation had begun.

“I’m a listener approaching thirty. With the new semester coming up, I’m reminded of when I was twenty—a freshman.”

Han Yeoreum read out the message polished by the main writer.

“In January, to celebrate becoming an adult, I had a drinking party with my future college classmates. We hadn’t even enrolled yet, so I was really nervous and excited.”

“Hey, come out. If it’s January 1st, we’re pulling an all-nighter.”

“A lot of people coming today? Then don’t even think about going home.”

Yun Hyeonjo switched to a slightly rougher tone, playing the role of an extra friend. An unseen drama unfolded beyond the radio booth.

“All the new Kwanghong freshmen here?”

“Everyone in the group chat should be here.”

Lead: Han Yeoreum, Yun Hyeonjo. Supporting roles: Han Yeoreum, Yun Hyeonjo. The two of them had to carry the parts of several people.

“Being excited about turning twenty, I let loose. That’s how it is at twenty, right? You don’t even know your limit yet. I’d only studied—I’d never even had a hundred-day drink.”

“Hey! Don’t skip the bottom of the glass!”

“Glass up, cheers! Glass up, cheers!”

Yun Hyeonjo was good, but Han Yeoreum kept switching her voice as well. A narration voice alternated with a drunken one. The technical director smiled in satisfaction.

‘She really snagged a star.’

With the mood flipping back and forth in seconds, the message felt far more vivid than usual.

“Still, I thought, I should drink in moderation! My face got so hot while drinking that I stepped outside alone to get some air. And then....”

Han Yeoreum smiled and looked at Yun Hyeonjo, as if telling him to follow along from here.

“Someone caught my eye. Truly my once-in-a-thousand-years ideal type. He was wearing glasses, and his eyelashes were really long. So this is what love at first sight is like.... That was when I realized it for the first time. He walked into the place I was at—and! He ended up joining our table.”

Han Yeoreum read on in an excited voice.

It was so absorbing that even the listeners on the other side of the radio grew curious about the storyteller’s first love.

* * *

“I rushed to the bathroom. Before I could calm my racing heart, my head started thinking clearly.”

Han Yeoreum continued smoothly, as if she were telling the listeners her own story.

Unlike her earlier low voice, she quickly created panting breaths. As if she had truly run there.

“Lip color... is it there?”

She adjusted the tempo of her speech just right. Yun Hyeonjo knew he’d soon need to match her rhythm.

“Mm—pa! I quickly put on some tint, and with a trembling heart, I sat back at the table. People around me were talking, but I couldn’t hear a thing.”

To follow the flow, he tuned his ear to Han Yeoreum’s voice, learning its pace.

“The whole world went into blur mode, and only that person stood out.”

There were many characters appearing. All of them had to be handled by just Yun Hyeonjo and Han Yeoreum.

So that, to the listeners beyond the radio, it would sound like many people were truly talking.

“What could I even do? All I could do was think about whether my lip tint had gone on well, while staring at that guy. I kept drinking on my own. One glass, then another....”

A freshman, face flushed, drinking alone came to mind. Han Yeoreum deliberately dragged out the ending on “one glass, then another....”

It was the voice of someone dozing off, nodding as they got drunk.

“Drinking without knowing my limit properly, I got drunk really fast, and—”

Yun Hyeonjo spoke up for the first time.

“Hey, want to go smoke?”

“Uh-huh. Let’s go.”

Tossed out in a less polished voice than usual, it sounded convincingly like the background noise of classmates at a drinking table. Han Yeoreum also perfectly played the role of Classmate #1 going out to smoke.

“That was when it happened. The area suddenly grew noisy, and my friends all got up to leave. I thought, this is it.”

As if trembling, Han Yeoreum took a short breath in. A sharp huff! rang vividly through the microphone.

“Your name—.”

Like drunk people often do, the first words were pronounced clearly. But right after, the tongue slackened, pronunciation collapsing.

“What’s your name?”

It was a voice that let anyone recall a freshman they’d met for the first time at a drinking party.