Chapter 171: Role Model (1)
The Shuttered?shoots resumed despite the slight incident. Although Kang Ra-Eun had never expected to see real ghosts while shooting a horror film, things started going without a hitch after the incident.
There were only two more weeks until the production wrapped up. Ra-Eun, the other actors and the production team were sweating under the sweltering sun. Today’s shoot was a little special.
A van commonly used by celebrities arrived at the outdoor set.
Slide.
The door of the van opened, revealing a new face. It was an actress who had originally been an idol, Choi Yul-Hwi. She greeted each and every staff member with a radiant smile.
“Hello! I will be in your care!”
“Same to you, Yul-Hwi.”
“I’ll be looking forward to today’s shoot!”
As expected of a former idol, she was very attractive. The mood of the set changed immediately from the appearance of a beautiful woman. Yul-Hwi then went to go find the senior actors that she would be working with today. The first one she saw was one of the lead actresses of Shuttered, Seo Tae-Yeon.
“Hello, sunbae!”
“Oh, you’re here, Yul-Hwi. It’s been a while.”
“It really has, sunbae! Have you gotten prettier in the time I haven’t seen you?”
“Oh, stop it. It’s more embarrassing than flattering to hear that from someone as pretty as you.”
Tae-Yeon and Yul-Hwi were not exactly super close; they had simply met a few times at broadcasting stations. However, as Yul-Hwi’s interests gravitated from singing to films and dramas during her idol career, she had gotten closer to actor sunbaes than singer sunbaes, and Tae-Yeon had been one of them.
The number of times one met with a person was not the sole determinant of getting closer to them; it also highly depended on how well they connected with each other. Yul-Hwi and Tae-Yeon happened to have many things in common.
“I’ll be in your care today as well, sunbae. Please give me some strict guidance,” Yul-Hwi remarked.
“Even if you say that, you’re already good enough, aren’t you?”
“Not at all. You know how much hate I get on the internet...”
Yul-Hwi was not wrong. Most people found her appearances in dramas distasteful. She had skills, like Tae-Yeon had mentioned, but it was by no means a simple task to overcome the prejudice that she would be bad at acting simply because she used to be an idol.
Moreover, Twinkle Leash, the girl group that she had been in, had been disbanded under bad terms. Their main vocalist had been caught drinking and driving, and their main visual had been let off of the group because she had been caught secretly dating a male idol singer.
One thing after another led to the group’s disbandment. Hence, not many people viewed Yul-Hwi’s acting career positively. Tae-Yeon knew this as well, but all that she could do was console Yul-Hwi.
“It’ll be okay. Don’t worry too much.”
“Thank you, sunbae.”
“Have you met Ra-Eun yet?”
“No, not yet.”
“That’s perfect. She’s changing in the waiting room right now, so you can greet her once she comes out. This is your first time meeting Ra-Eun, right?”
“Yes.”
Ra-Eun and Yul-Hwi had zero points of contact until now. Not only had they been in different fields of entertainment, they had never appeared on the same TV program either.
“What kind of person is Ra-Eun sunbae?” Yul-Hwi asked.
She referred to Ra-Eun as sunbae since Ra-Eun had debuted earlier than her. Tae-Yeon momentarily fell into thought, and the answer that she had come to was short yet memorable.
“She’s a bit of a weirdo.”
“Huh? A weirdo? What do you mean?”
“How should I say this? Mm... It’s a bit difficult to explain it in words. You’ll find out naturally once you meet her.”
This had not been the answer Yul-Hwi had wanted, but she decided to do as her sunbae suggested and experience the woman that was Kang Ra-Eun for herself.
.
‘What kind of person could she be for Tae-Yeon sunbae to say something like that?’
People fundamentally feared the unknown, and that was the kind of existence Ra-Eun was to Yul-Hwi. She had seen Ra-Eun many times through films and dramas, but celebrities were very different in what they showed of themselves on and off camera. Yul-Hwi wondered if Ra-Eun was the same.
Creak.
As Yul-Hwi was about to head to the waiting room that she assumed to be Ra-Eun’s, the waiting room door opened. Ra-Eun in casual wear came face to face with Yul-Hwi. The moment Yul-Hwi saw Ra-Eun in person, the first thing that came to mind was...
‘So beautiful...!’
She had been overwhelmed by Ra-Eun’s beauty.
***
Meanwhile, Ra-Eun, who had come out of her waiting room after changing into the shoot outfit, was having a confusing experience. She was being dumbfoundedly stared at by a woman that she had never met before.
‘I don’t think I’ve met her before.’
She had never seen her on the set, but she kind of looked familiar.
“Could you be Miss Choi Yul-Hwi?” Ra-Eun asked.
Yul-Hwi finally managed to get a hold of herself and belatedly introduced herself.
“Yes, that’s right. I’m sorry for being out of it.”
“It’s no problem. That aside, what are you doing here?”
From what Ra-Eun remembered, Yul-Hwi’s name had not been in the cast list of Shuttered, nor had she taken the audition. Hence, Ra-Eun was confused as to why she was here.
“I’ll be making a cameo appearance just for today,” Yul-Hwi remarked.
“Oh, really?”
Ra-Eun went through her memories of the future. Cameos did not have much screen time in films; it was simply a momentary appearance. However, cameos were sometimes able to introduce a breath of fresh air to the film. Director Choi had likely hired Yul-Hwi to do just that.
‘Well, it has nothing to do with me.’
Ra-Eun was only planning on focusing on her own performance. She then went to read her script after the short greeting with Yul-Hwi. Yul-Hwi’s manager came up to Yul-Hwi after a few moments.
“Yul-Hwi. I told you that you should go around the set with me to greet everyone. What have you been doing all by yourself?”
“Unnie!”
Just as Yul-Hwi’s manager was about to shower her with nags, Yul-Hwi suddenly made a surprise confession.
“I think I like pretty unnies!”
“What...?”
Yul-Hwi had awakened a new preference.
***
Park Seol-Hun and Ma Yeong-Jun gathered in Ra-Eun’s office. Lim Seok-Jun, Ra-Eun’s chauffeur, was also present.
Ra-Eun asked while looking at the three middle-aged men one after another, “Where’s Director Do?”
Do Hye-Yeong often acted as the only woman among the bunch when Ra-Eun wasn't present, but it seemed like Ra-Eun would have to fulfill that role today.
“She’s busy, so she couldn’t make it,” Seol-Hun replied.
“Really?” Ra-Eun said as she clicked her tongue as if it couldn’t be helped. “What’s the problem this time?”
She had come to Levanche headquarters despite being extremely busy due to her film production wrapping up, because Seol-Hun had called her.
“We urgently need a sweatpants model for the promotion in the second half of this year,” Seol-Hun remarked.
“You’re talking about the R7SR series, aren’t you? Hadn’t we already gotten a model for that?”
“We had, but not anymore.”
“Why?”
“She apparently boycotted because she wasn’t getting paid by her agency, so it was canceled.”
Tsk.
Ra-Eun clicked her tongue. She then talked to herself as if she couldn’t understand, “Why can’t an agency pay their affiliated talents?”
“There are more agencies that can’t even do the basics than you think.”
Seol-Hun was right. The world was full of companies that did not do what should obviously be done, which was why people considered companies that performed their duties normally to be heavenly.
What Seol-Hun wanted from Ra-Eun was simple.
“I want you to take over the modeling.”
“When’s the shoot?”
“This Thursday.”
“...In two days?”
It was literally a hair’s breadth away.
“Well, it should be fine if I adjust my schedule a little.”
It was not a problem, but it was not over yet.
“Don’t we need one more person?” Yeong-Jun asked.
Ra-Eun’s eyebrows twitched.
“We need two models?”
“Yeah, from what I know.”
No matter how disconnected Yeong-Jun’s duties were from the company’s, he memorized all the important aspects of it. After all, he was also a bona-fide director of Levanche.
Seol-Hun nodded and acknowledged Yeong-Jun’s statement.
“You’ll be more than enough if you’re willing to be a swimsuit model as well.”
“Are you insane? Not in a million years.”
There was no way Ra-Eun would willingly wear a swimsuit when she was extremely reluctant to do so even in films and dramas. The main issue had been to find someone who would take Ra-Eun’s place as the swimsuit model. They needed to be pretty, have a good figure, and be relatively well-known.
Ra-Eun called every single female celebrity that she was close to, starting from Han Ga-Ae, Rita, Lee Si-Ahn and many others, but they all had no choice but to refuse because it was far too short notice. Ra-Eun could not refute this fact either. Even she would refuse the modeling offer if she had zero relations to the company.
As Ra-Eun was silently pondering over who else there was, she thought of a certain individual.
“What about Choi Yul-Hwi?” she suggested.
“Choi Yul-Hwi? Wait. That name sounds familiar...”
Seol-Hun couldn’t immediately recall who Yul-Hwi was. Just then, Yeong-Jun responded first.
“She was a sub vocalist in the girl group Twinkle Leash. Her favorite food is kimchi stew. She has both parents and a little brother, and her hobby is pilates. Oh, and she’s pro-mint chocolate.”
Ra-Eun and Seol-Hun stared fixedly at Yeong-Jun as he blabbered facts about Yul-Hwi.
“What the hell, mister? Why do you know so much about her?”
“This is basic knowledge.”
There was no way in hell. Only a huge fan would have such facts on the ready.
Seok-Jun let them know of a fact about Yeong-Jun that they didn’t know.
“Our boss used to love girl groups. He knows absolutely everything about most of them.”
Yeong-Jun’s expression turned menacing from the sudden confession.
“Shut up if you don’t want a beating, Seok-Jun.”
“I-I’m sorry, Boss!”
Yeong-Jun was what people would refer to as a middle-aged fan.
‘That’s one thing I never expected from that old man.’
They had worked together for a long time, but Ra-Eun felt like there were still more things to be discovered about him.
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