I'm an Unknown Actress, But Everyone Knows Me

* * *

The sound of flowing water, birds chirping, and a gentle breeze blended together, making one side of the audience’s chest feel ticklish. The warmth of soft sunlight seemed to settle over their skin.

Over it all came the clear sound of a piano. A melody that resembled fresh green leaves.

Tok tok tok tok-.

The sound of carrots being chopped on a cutting board rang out. A flying squirrel in an apron appeared onscreen. Flipping a fried egg with practiced ease, she shouted through the open window.

“Honey! Can you wake the kids?”

“Of course, my love!”

The flying squirrel in blue overalls who had been mowing the lawn climbed the wooden stairs to the second floor.

[Lulu Lala Kiki Pipi’s Room]

A crooked sign with messy handwriting hung on the door. Each name was written in a different color, probably their favorite ones.

“Our little babies-. Time to wake up?”

The moment he opened the door, adorable flying squirrels came soaring toward him. They landed on their father with soft chapchapchap sounds as they hugged one another like sticky rice cakes.

“We’re not babies!”

“Yeah! We’re not babies!”

“We woke up earlier!”

“I woke up even earlier!”

“I woke up first!”

The flying squirrels’ voices filled the entire theater. IP 85.152 immediately picked out Han Yeoreum’s voice among them.

“Then if you’re not babies, everyone stay quiet.”

Holding the little ones ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ tightly in his arms, Papa Flying Squirrel shushed them as though they were carrying out a secret mission.

Everyone fell silent.

[ABSOLUTELY

DO NOT ENTER!!!]

In front of Joy’s bedroom door, which had a terrifying warning sign hanging from it, Papa knocked gently.

“Joy-. Our beloved eldest daughter-. Our sweetie-. Time to wake up-.”

“...”

But the silence lasted only a moment.

“Unni!”

“Unni unni un-ni!”

“Un~ni~!”

The baby flying squirrels opened the door on their own and launched themselves onto the bed. Laughter spread throughout the theater.

Because Han Yeoreum’s Lala had plastered herself directly onto Joy’s face.

“Unni unni unni. What should we play today?”

Joy tried shaking off the younger siblings stuck to her arms and legs, but it wasn’t easy.

“How about an adventure to pick wild raspberries? Or making carrot jam, your favorite! Or maybe we can visit Uncle Sam and learn snail yo-yos!”

Completely oblivious, Lala clung tightly to her older sister while rattling off every game she wanted to play. Meanwhile the other flying squirrels bounced away with little boing sounds.

“Yay! This is exciting!”

The rabbit took a deep breath, her cheeks trembling.

“Get off-!”

At that volume, Lala—who had been stuck directly to Joy’s face—went flying.

“Kyaaak!”

The cute scream filled the theater with laughter once again.

* * *

Assistant Manager Shin sat in the theater, listening to the audience laugh happily as he continued watching.

‘The reactions are definitely good.’

Even right before the screening, Assistant Manager Shin had been monitoring online reactions. These positive responses from the audience would spread even further soon enough.

-If it’s Han Yeoreum, it’s probably fine lol. Actual terrible celebrities keep getting lead roles and ruining movies anyway; honestly I wanna name names but everyone already knows the legends so I’ll skip it

↳ Ah... the first time even normal viewers were shaking their heads...

↳ ^^.. Our movie has no dubbed version. That’s probably enough explanation..

At first, the reaction had merely been: Han Yeoreum should be okay. She’s cute. Isn’t the role kind of big for her?

But now—

-TT_TT She’s seriously so cute I wanna watch it again

↳ Was Han Yeoreum distracting at all? T_T I can’t decide between dubbed or subtitles

↳ I liked it! Honestly if it had been anyone other than Han Yeoreum, it probably would’ve felt weirder LMAO

↳ Seriously? It’s really that good?

↳ 2222 I saw it too and I’m glad I watched the dubbed version T_T She was seriously adorable

It had become: It couldn’t have been anyone except Han Yeoreum. People were even choosing the dubbed version specifically to hear her voice.

Assistant Manager Shin could already tell the PR department was about to get much busier.

-My name is Joy, and just like my name, I want to live joyfully.

Joy appeared onscreen, cutting carrot pie at a noisy dining table with an expressionless face.

The baby flying squirrels squabbled over who got one more blueberry, while Mom spread strawberry jam on top of Joy’s carrot pie.

Even when the background changed, Joy’s expression stayed the same.

“This is so exciting!”

“Really exciting!”

“Super exciting!”

“Mega exciting!”

Only Lulu, Lala, Kiki, and Pipi seemed excited.

With dead-fish eyes, Joy wore a village-festival headband and took a family photo.

Across the well-taken picture, Mom’s handwriting appeared. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

[Our Beloved Family]

The photo—with six flying squirrels and one rabbit—was later framed in the living room.

“Joy. My beloved daughter.”

That night, Mom stroked the rabbit’s head while she lay in bed.

“Don’t worry about anything and have sweet dreams.”

“...Okay.”

Click.

The lamp switched off, and darkness filled Joy’s room. Even after Mom closed the door and left, Joy kept her eyes wide open.

“Sigh....”

-But I have worries too.

Joy let out a long sigh.

-The problem is... I’m not having any fun at all!

Joy abruptly sat up and grabbed her phone. A secret late-night phone session. She began searching through all kinds of videos.

-No matter how I think about it, it’s suspicious. My mom and dad are flying squirrels. My siblings don’t even need explaining.

Joy’s algorithm was an absolute disaster. Anyone looking at it would’ve seen nothing but trashy drama clips.

ZOOTUBE

[Llama’s Temptation / The Secret of Her Birth Finally Revealed?!]

[Mrs. Alpaca’s Hidden Secret / None of the Children Are Actually Yours!]

-This is proof that I’m actually a rabbit they picked up somewhere. There’s no way I can live up to my name like this.

But even Joy had something she loved.

ZOOTUBE

[The Greatest Diva of This Era, Caroline’s Interview + Stage Performance]

That something was the black panther diva Caroline.

Watching Caroline’s videos, Joy drifted to sleep. That night she dreamed of standing onstage beside Caroline while receiving thunderous cheers from the crowd.

-Joy! Joy! Joy! Joy!

Everyone shouted Joy’s name.

“Want to become a star?”

Then a tiger walked onto the center of the stage. A perfectly tailored suit and shining sunglasses. A successful CEO and the head of Caroline’s agency.

With a business card tucked between his giant paws, he stepped closer and closer....

“Worried about your dry fur? Don’t worry. If you use this product packed with jojoba oil! You too can become a wild stallion!”

Joy opened her eyes. While she slept, Caroline’s seven-hour stage compilation had ended and autoplayed into an advertisement.

Near the horse in the thumbs-up commercial, almost like a dream—

“Audition...?”

[You too can become the second ★Caroline★!]

Tiger Richard’s advertisement for the ‘ZooPop STAR’ audition appeared onscreen.

* * *

“Good.... Everyone’s over there.”

Through the window, Joy checked that Lulu, Lala, Kiki, and Pipi were all playing in the yard before propping up her AP pad on the desk.

“Until the audition date...!”

After setting a countdown, Joy started a video. She was practicing Caroline’s singing and dancing.

-Wooo....

Latin-style music began to play. The video was filled with flashy beats and Caroline’s elegant waves. Joy copied her movements diligently.

-If I blink my eyes...

Black Panther Caroline turned her head and winked. Joy turned her head and win...ked too....

“Hey!”

Her flying squirrel siblings were plastered against the window, watching everything. Squad leader Lala quickly opened the window and barged in.

“Unni, what’re you doing?”

“Unni unni, what’re you doing?”

“Unniii!”

Lulu, Kiki, and Pipi also came fluttering inside. Surrounding the now bright-red Joy, the flying squirrels spread their arms and legs and bounced around.

“Me too! I wanna do it too!”

Lala shouted excitedly, and Joy snapped.

“You don’t even know anything! You can’t even sing!”

“No! I’m good!”

Lala exchanged glances with Lulu and nodded. Tiny little Lulu’s foot lifted slightly before—

Smack!

“AAAAAAAAAH!”

Lala’s whistle only worked if someone stepped on her foot. Perfectly timed, Caroline also performed her trademark whistle in the video playing on the pad.

“How was it? How was it?”

“....”

Mom and Dad, finally realizing what was happening, opened Joy’s bedroom door.

[ABSOLUTELY

DO NOT ENTER!!!]

The warning sign hanging on Joy’s door tilted dangerously.

“Get out-!!!”

Joy was completely furious.

At the sheer force of her voice, the sign hanging on the door crashed to the floor.

* * *

That night. Joy lay under the blankets, still sulking without eating dinner, when she felt a gentle patting hand on top of the covers.

“Joy. How about the two of us go on a date this weekend?”

“...”

“And we can buy new curtains for your room too. Ones nobody can see through from outside.”

But even at Mom’s gentle words, Joy’s mood refused to improve.

“The little ones are still babies, so I know they make things hard for you sometimes. But babies are supposed to grow up causing trouble.”

“...”

“This is a secret, but Mommy loves Joy the most. But maybe Lulu, Lala, Kiki, and Pipi love their big sister the most too. Hehe... it must be tiring being the superstar of our family.”

Even with Mom comforting her, Joy stayed hidden under the blanket.

“You’re lying.”

“Hm?”

“...I was picked up somewhere, right?”

Joy threw out the twisted question in anger. Mom’s hand froze for a moment.

“What are you talking about! You’re the superstar of our family. My lovely baby. You’ll always be Mommy and Daddy’s little girl.”

As if the idea were ridiculous, Mom patted the blanket rapidly.

Then she hurried out.

“Sleep well. Sweet dreams!”

But that only convinced Joy further.

-I knew it. I was right all along. It’s getting hard pretending I’m fooled anymore.

Joy threw the blanket off dramatically.

-I’m sick of my siblings. I’m definitely going to find my real mom and dad.

The camera, which had been watching Joy gently through the window, slowly lowered.

Mom and Dad’s bedroom came into view.

“What should we do, honey...?”

“Joy... has already reached that age....”

The flying squirrel couple sighed.

“But we still can’t tell her yet....”

It seemed there really was a hidden secret about her birth.

* * *

“Unni!”

“Unni unni!”

“Unni unni unni!”

“Un~ni~!”

From that day onward, Joy—completely consumed by thoughts of the audition—kept avoiding her siblings.

When Lala flew toward her sister’s face, a frying pan smoothly rose up instead.

Clang!

With a bright metallic sound, Lala slid dramatically down the frying pan.

“Hmph. Don’t talk to me. You can’t reason with babies anyway.”

Joy had become incredibly cold.

While riding the yellow bus home from lessons, Lala stuck herself to the window. The chap! sound was especially loud.

“Do you think that’s expensive?”

Outside the window was a billboard advertising Caroline’s album. Lulu, Kiki, and Pipi nodded beside her.

“Super expensive.”

“Crazy expensive!”

“Reaaally expensive.”

With a serious expression, Lala asked:

“How much?”

Lulu stretched out her hand wide.

Kiki stretched out her hand wide too.

Even Pipi stretched out her hand wide.

Altogether, it added up to an absurdly huge amount.

“If it’s that much....”

Lala nodded seriously. There was an unusual gravity to her expression for a flying squirrel.

* * *

The long-awaited audition day.

Lala disappeared.

“Oh my! Lala! Lala!”

“Lala! Where are you, Lala!”

The audition schedule was so tight they needed to leave early in the morning just to make it on time.

Naturally, Joy couldn’t attend the audition.

Because they had to search for Lala instead.

The whole family called only Lala’s name.

-Joy! Joy! Joy! Joy!

The stage where everyone called Joy’s name grew farther and farther away until it completely disappeared.

Crash.

Along with the sound of something shattering, Joy’s dream broke apart.

And then—