I'm an Unknown Actress, But Everyone Knows Me

It wasn’t just one or two things that had been flipped in a short period of time. Geum Bitgang’s acknowledgment, becoming Dok Gomin’s muse, landing the lead in , the unprecedented view count, and even Jegal Rok’s special favor.

“He’s a good guy. Of course, he’s still not as great as our DaeYeJong’s pride, Mr. Myeong Jeha himself.”

Joo Junseo was always the same. Unable to forget the runway, he filed a lawsuit against his agency. Then he dragged on a sluggish legal battle.

‘I don’t even remember the details very well, though.’

In the entertainment world, someone new was always shooting up and disappearing. Something was always twisted. Like a jigsaw puzzle missing a single proper piece so the picture could never be completed.

So suddenly, Jeha got curious. Just how far this variable called Han Yeoreum would work. To be precise,

“Then stay close with Joo Junseo.”

How far things would change, starting from and ending with just one Han Yeoreum.

“What? Weren’t you the one who told me not to get close to him before?”

“You said he’s a good guy. Then it’s fine to be close.”

Jeha gave Yeoreum a faint smile and thought:

This tiresome regression’s very last piece. Maybe that was Han Yeoreum.

Maybe this time, he could finally end it.

* * *

Intube

@JC ENM Subscribers 580,000

[The Cherry on the Parfait Belongs to the Heroine! Ep 3. Heroine Vs Heroine] 15:48

“Director. What are you watching?”

“This? A web drama.”

“Ah~ then I’ll bring the snacks over here.”

“No, I’m fine. You guys eat.”

The staff didn’t pay it much mind. It wasn’t a film or a TV drama, just a web drama. A forgettable snack-culture piece you watch once and then forget.

“What’s the director eating?”

“He said he’s not eating. He was watching a web drama.”

“Ah~ . You know that? The female lead in that—we’re her exclusive salon.”

Lowering their voice, the colleague murmured quietly to the staff.

“It’s a 50% DC contract, you know?”

“What?! Hey, don’t lie...!”

The staff practically jumped out of their seat in disbelief.

Who was Gogyeol again? A money grubber among money grubbers.

She was famous for cherry-picking only people who would really blow up and creating a tiered system for them. There was even a saying in the industry: “If you want to know who has star potential, go to Dok Gogyeol.”

“It’s true. The director really, really likes that heroine.”

“Didn’t she come with the director’s cousin last time? Isn’t it because of that?”

“She’s not someone who gives discounts over something like that.”

“Well, that’s true....”

Who on earth is that girl? How amazing is she? Even if a celebrity is super famous and from a big agency, if they don’t meet her standards, Dok Gogyeol would apply the tier system with a knife.

A 50% DC was unheard of. Not even Eun Baekhap, the hottest actress right now, got that percentage.

“Is this really that amazing? Just looking at the thumbnail it seems childish....”

“I watched Episode 1 of too and it actually is fun.”

—the staff had never heard a title like that before. Usually, it went more like this:

[Called out my sly fox friend who keeps flirting with my boyfriend]

[Showed a real trust-fund flex in front of someone pretending to be rich]

“What was the title again? Par-che what?”

“If you just search ‘cherry on the parfait’ it should pop up right away.”

Curiosity stirred in the staff. They immediately used their break to search the title on their phone. A childish-looking pink thumbnail popped up.

This was how the staff watched videos:

1. Click the thumbnail.

2. Watch ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) the first 10 seconds, then skip ahead 30 seconds and watch another 10.

3. Repeat that three times, and if it’s not fun, exit the video.

If it wasn’t fun, they wouldn’t invest time. No different from the average public. Average watch time: 1 minute 12 seconds.

That was how the first 10 seconds of passed, and just as they were about to jump ahead—

A loud trumpet sound rang out.

-Our brass band! We’ll be creating a beautiful harmony together! You must join!

There was a club promotion squad stretched out in a long line to both sides.

Sign-ups for club membership were starting in the auditorium.

-You have to do club activities for three years~.

Because of , which made it impossible to look away, impossible to keep the corners of your mouth still, and made you clench your toes against your will, the staff didn’t skip forward even once.

“Aaagh....”

For some reason, they felt so embarrassed for themselves that they kept letting out groans in the middle, but they couldn’t even skip 10 seconds.

They only focused on .

Three extras appeared on screen.

-Right?!

-Right!!

-How dare you monopolize Jun!!

One by one, they raised their fists. On them were written .

-Seriously!!

-Never!!

-Forgive you!!

They were the hero’s personal fan-club guards that romance manga always had at least one of.

[The Cherry on the Parfait Belongs to the Heroine!]

Only when the title appeared on the screen did the staff realize the video had ended.

“It’s already over?”

The staff had watched a 14-minute-and-12-second video without a single skip.

“This is so ridiculous it’s funny.”

The staff gave their impressions to the other staff member who had recommended .

“The drama itself is funny.... But seriously, the heroine really stands out, doesn’t she?”

“Right? I even followed her.”

“What’s her ID? I want to follow too.”

Youstagram

@midsummer

Followers 13K Following 0

The staff followed Yeoreum’s Yousta as well. Then they went back into Intube to look at the comments again.

“Huh? Why did the views suddenly shoot up like this?”

Just earlier, it had barely passed 100,000 views, but now it was on the verge of hitting 400,000 in one go.

“This is that thing!”

“What?”

“Real-time trending video!”

landed in the “rapidly rising” popular videos section by Episode 3.

* * *

[HOT / Web drama everyone keeps secretly watching, according to the comments.jpg]

When you say web drama, it’s usually

(series of sly-flirty friend thumbnails.jpg)

stuff like this.... but there’s this drama that’s been uploading since last week

(ParCheHi thumbnail.jpg)

Just from the title alone it’s like “Yeahㅇㅇ you watch it or not, we’ll just use our cute titleㅇㅇ”

What’s it about, you ask

(dead-fish-eyed Yeoreum.jpg)

(Gaeul holding toast in her mouth.jpg)

(Junseo looking crookedly from the rooftop.jpg)

I feel like I don’t even need to explain

You get the vibe, right?

It’s crazy fun, so recommended

-LOLOLOLOL This is seriously so childish I could die, but I still can’t stop watching T_T LOLOLOLOL

-But it flutters.... I’m serious... it really flutters my heart

˪Who said you’re allowed to feel fluttered lololol false advertising

˪(Junseo-Yeoreum two-shot.jpg) This is my Nick and Judy.

-I’m having such a hard time watching this I keep doing five-minutes-watch-five-minutes-break on repeat, f*ck

Now it had even breached the communities. Thanks to catching the trending algorithm on Intube, it was exposed to far more feeds.

[Anyone watching ParCheHi? T_T loloolol The pure-romance clichés are insane, I just keep biting my lips]

[This actress is cute... her Yousta vibe is good too]

[Joo Junseo definitely has such good physicals that he looks like a real man standing next to a woman]

-This is a drama board, is it okay to talk about a web drama here?

˪;;Why wouldn’t it be okay?

On several communities, each drama category board started to have one or two posts about .

-There’s a ParCheHi thread, go there

It was a first for a web drama.

* * *

I opened the café door and went inside. I had an appointment here today. As I walked in, I raised my hand in greeting.

“Han Yeoreum!”

“Over here.”

And at the same time, two people at different tables greeted me.

“What the—!”

“What the....”

The two of them looked at me with bewildered expressions, then turned their heads to look at each other.

“Uh~ should we go to that room in the back?”

It was Choo Gaeul and Joo Junseo.