I'm an Unknown Actress, But Everyone Knows Me

“Director, may I adjust one line just once?”

“What is it?” 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

“I think it would be good if Huijae uses the line ‘I miss you’ again here.”

Huijae was still clumsy in the language of Joseon. And because of that, every word she managed to say felt unusually sincere.

Han Yeoreum knew how to weaponize that.

Director Ja Sokhwan remembered the audition where she had stolen control in an instant. The rookie actress who had twisted the entire field of vision at will.

Han Yeoreum was a key. Whether she was the key that opened doors the audience had never seen before, or the rudder that could shift the direction of an entire ship called a drama—

“...Maybe she’s both.”

He muttered.

On screen, Huijae had finally reached the place Taeseok had once spoken of. Her face was soaked through, all the effort she had put into preparing now drenched uselessly in rain.

“It’s wonderful!”

A lie. Huijae was lying.

This place—white, glittering, grand yet empty—could never truly look wonderful to a girl like her. Even to Taeseok’s eyes, it was nothing but pitiful.

“You don’t have to say something you don’t mean.”

“It’s beautiful!”

“There’s nothing here. Just an empty field.”

“But—if new shops open here, and new people come—”

“Who would come all the way out here? What’s the point of opening a shop? It won’t make money. If it were me, I’d never open one in a place like this. There’s no reason it would succeed.”

Taeseok raised his voice without meaning to. His unstable breathing laid his misery bare.

“Reason?”

Huijae immediately understood why the boy—who was never expressive—had flushed red like that.

“There is a reason.”

Her tone was no longer clumsy. It was firm. As if she had not the slightest doubt in her belief.

“There are many people here like you. People who are faithful to Mainichi... e-every day.”

As if telling him to trust her.

She must have been exhausted. She must have wanted to complain—why bring me somewhere like this? She must have been freezing in her soaked clothes.

And yet she smiled.

Just looking at her clear, open face made something in his chest twist. Raindrops clung to her lashes, shining transparent.

The relentless rain began to soften.

A drop that had pooled at the tip of the boy’s chin fell with a soft plink. It looked exactly like a tear he had struggled to hold back.

Behind him, as he stared at the girl’s face, the dark clouds slowly parted.

It was the kind of moment that made falling in love inevitable.

* * *

This was Jinhae, where filming for 〈The Great Garland〉 was in full swing. Staff and cast had gathered to watch that day’s broadcast together.

Ji Haebeom frowned slightly as he watched his younger self on screen.

‘This is trouble....’

He had checked every single one of Han Yeoreum’s previous works. Every hit had been a real hit. Not one had failed to climb into popularity.

‘And now add Director Ja’s finishing move.’

Ja Sokhwan’s signature wasn’t just about provocation. The true weapon that carried a long historical drama was immersion.

The illusion that you were living in that era yourself.

He could pull that feeling from viewers like a magnet.

The kind of day so grueling you cannot imagine tomorrow. The humiliation handed down by someone far above you. The shame of poverty. The pettiness of reality. And that first love you could never say out loud.

Everyone had lived through something like it at least once.

And all that empathy continued, piling up—

‘And now you add Han Yeoreum’s finishing move on top of it... this is insane.’

Even those who had never stood in the rain with a short-haired girl found themselves recalling their own first love.

Han Yeoreum clawed her way into buried memories.

So that the viewer had no choice but to treasure her. No choice but to love her.

Ji Haebeom knew Jung Yeondu crying in the rain inside a pitch-black pit. He knew Seoryeong drenched beneath the roots of a dark old tree. He knew Han Yeoreum soaked as if swallowed by endless darkness.

“...Let’s go down now. You’ll catch a cold.”

But this Yeon Huijae felt different. As if she were saying that even in darkness, you could always find light.

Her lashes were soaked, pitifully wet—but that wasn’t the end.

“Let’s come again next time!”

“Yeah. Okay.”

There’s a saying—you wake up and suddenly you’re a star.

The entertainment industry is a place of one decisive blow. No matter how long your face has been on screen, without that one moment that brands itself into the public’s heart, you can never become the top.

But on the other hand—

Even if you haven’t been active long.

If you have that one thing. That one blow that grips the public’s heart and shakes it—

‘Just look at the atmosphere. The answer’s obvious.’

Anyone can become a star.

Ji Haebeom glanced around. Normally, when staff watched their own production, they never stopped talking.

“Hey, we almost died filming that scene. I’m never shooting that again.”

“Still, the lighting from there is better. The shadows deepen nicely.”

“How many NGs did we get there? I thought I’d lose my mind.”

No creator can sit quietly watching the result of their own suffering.

But in this scene—the boy and the girl standing in the rain, promising tomorrow—not even breathing could be heard.

As if everyone wanted to concentrate just a little more.

‘By tomorrow....’

Han Yeoreum would wake up as the nation’s first love.

Ji Haebeom smiled faintly.

* * *

On the muddy mountain path slick with rain, her slender ankles wobbled. Her shoes slid down the shallow slope.

“Ah...!”

The boy’s arm tightened around her. She barely avoided falling, but her shoes were hopeless.

“Hard to walk, isn’t it?”

Without hesitation, Taeseok knelt and offered his back.

After a moment of hesitation, Huijae slowly climbed onto his broad back.

“I am big?”

“You’re not heavy at all.”

Their clothes were still soaked {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} and clinging. But pressed together, sharing warmth, it didn’t feel as cold as before.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Their heartbeats began to sync.

Huijae pressed her cheek against the back of Taeseok’s neck.

“Let us come again later.”

Her textbook-learned phrasing made him laugh softly.

“Yes. Let us do so.”

Watching them promise again, Aetami started crying.

“You set it up like this and she becomes another man’s wife? Fuck, does that even make sense?”

She already knew Taeseok and Huijae’s future.

It wasn’t just her. The boards exploded.

– TT__TT LET’S DIVORCE... divorce... let’s divorce....

– At this point just run away together in the middle of the night I’d support it

– This CANNOT be doomed love please don’t let it fail just let them love forever I’m losing my mind TT__TT

– The chemistry when they’re stuck together like this is insane my heart feels so good

After carefully stepping back over the box she had stepped on at dawn, Huijae returned home and noticed her shoes were ruined.

If she threw them in the trash inside her room, the nanny would hear. If she asked to repair them, it would be the same.

“What should I do....”

After a moment’s hesitation, she chose to dig into the ground with her bare hands.

Changing out of her wet clothes should have come first. Warming up should have come first. But anxiety won. If anyone asked why her shoes were damaged, it would be over.

“What are you doing?”

A familiar voice.

The woman who brought her meals every day. The one who had given Rio her new name.

Huijae quickly hid the shoes behind her back.

“Nothing....”

Her cheeks were flushed. Fever from the rain was rising.

“Oh dear, you’ve gotten filthy. Let me see.”

The woman smiled easily and took the shoes from her hands. Seeing the broken heel, she sighed.

“Who buries a shoe just because one heel’s broken? I’ll fix it. You can still wear these for a long time.”

“...Then I shall compensate you.”

Huijae said it solemnly.

The woman pinched her cheek gently.

“Eat well and go outside to play. That’s how you help.”

One hand holding the shoes, the other wrapping around Huijae’s shoulders.

Huijae didn’t understand every word yet. But it felt like she had someone on her side.

If she had to describe her feelings in one sentence:

Let’s meet again next time.

She wished every day could have another next time.

All the Joseon she had encountered felt overwhelmingly joyful.

The next day, Taeseok picked flowers and lingered by the wall.

Holding the white chrysanthemum carefully so it wouldn’t bruise, he stared at the mansion wall with clear eyes.

But no matter how long he waited, the girl didn’t appear.

His gentle eyes, heavy with disappointment, remained fixed beyond the wall.

Huijae, who had returned soaked in rain, had been suffering from high fever for days. Even so, she still had to see Hanamura off each morning. But she was too weak to stand alone and could not meet Taeseok.

“Where did you go have so much fun to come back burning up like this....”

The woman murmured as she wiped her forehead.

Huijae opened her eyes.

“I wanted to see flowers.”

“Flowers? What flowers?”

“I do not know the name. The flowers I saw when I first came to Joseon... white and beautiful, filling the trees.”

“As soon as you came?”

The woman brushed her hair aside gently.

Huijae nodded.

“I visited someone’s house. There were many trees and flowers in a wide yard.”

“...I know whose house that is.”

In a small place like Jinhae, few people kept flowering trees inside their homes.

“Pear blossoms. Pear blossoms. Pale and pretty, just like our Huijae.”

“Pear... blossoms....”

She repeated it again and again, as if afraid she might forget.

The boards exploded again.

– HOLY SHIT she’s so cute T_T our baby pear blossom ahhh if only it could just stay like this forever T_T

– She’s getting better at Joseon speech every episode I’m so proud someone make her the model for language textbooks immediately

↳ Yes and enroll her in Joseon language school right now she’s too cute///

↳ Our baby is a living translator I can’t TT_TT

By now, every time Huijae appeared on screen, viewers felt something deeper.

Tender. Precious. Admirable.

They watched 〈The Great Garland〉 wanting to cheer for her like family.

“Ah... now....”

Reporter Wi Jaehwi stared at the screen.

“It should be coming soon.”

He had already been spoiled on the key scenes while filming content.

The beautiful, heart-warming moments ended here.

The crack in happiness was about to appear.