“Ms. Sia, you were already good, but your acting is really amazing today.”
“Thank you.”
The drama set she had stepped onto again for the first time in a long while was better than she had expected.
She had wondered whether it might feel unfamiliar, or whether she might get lost, but not at all. Memorizing the script and reading the mood on set were no different from before.
If anything, the sense of being back on a set for the first time in so long made her heart beat pleasantly.
Isia, you were doing well.
Even up until before coming back here, she had been worried deep down.
She had quietly wondered how Isia, who had lived in another world, was managing an acting career while doing something she had never done in her life.
But apparently, it had been pointless meddling.
She even won an award.
After confirming that she had even won a grand prize for a drama she herself had never filmed, Camilla felt genuine admiration and surprise.
More than anything, what was truly impressive was...
“Sia, that skincare set you gave me last time.”
This. All these people walking toward her.
“It really suits me so well! I think I did the right thing switching after listening to you. This one just came out, and I was wondering if you wanted to try it too?”
“Ms. Sia, it’s cold, so drink this.”
“Senior, you said this was delicious last time, so I asked my mother for some on purpose. If you finish it all, please tell me. I’ll bring you more.”
Isia, you were more sociable than I thought.
The fellow actors and staff members gathering around her during a short break.
Camilla was more than a little flustered by the sight, because it was something she had never seen when she herself had been here.
Of course, even when I was here, there were people who came close to me....
But most of them had some separate motive, or had approached her to show off that they were acquainted with her. Camilla had dealt with those people just appropriately enough and made use of them in return.
But these people were not that type. She could tell at a glance. They had approached her simply because they wanted to talk and felt genuine closeness toward her.
And no matter what anyone said, was it not Isia herself who had made these relationships possible through sheer effort?
That’s a relief.
Deep down, she had worried quite a lot that Isia might be living darkly and harshly, just as she had in that other world.
Was it because she had returned to the world where she truly belonged? It seemed she was living a life where she both gave and received affection.
“...Hm?”
As she drifted off into thought for a moment, the surroundings suddenly seemed to grow quiet, and Camilla slowly raised her head.
Everyone was looking at her with a bit of wonder. When she tilted her head, wondering what was going on, the people around her burst into soft laughter.
“Unni, do you know you just smiled really beautifully?”
“Huh?”
She must have smiled without realizing it while thinking of Isia.
“Ms. Sia’s everyday life really looks like a commercial.”
“Haha, our Sia really does look especially pretty when she smiles.”
“You should’ve smiled more often before. You really look good these days.”
...I really was particularly harsher on set.
Because that was easier.
She had hated being looked down on.
Even if she smiled at people, all that came back was subtle rejection and unpleasant looks.
If that was how it would be, then it was far easier for her to distance herself from others first and ignore them.
“Senior Sia!”
At that moment, a younger male actor strode over. Was his name Lee Haejun?
According to Manager Hyunseok, a recent sitcom of his had become a huge hit, making him one of the hottest rising actors. Apparently his appeal was his youthful face, as someone who had just entered his twenties, and his warm, easygoing eyes.
“Can I call you noona?”
“What?”
At the appearance of a form of address she had never once heard from anyone in the entertainment industry, Camilla’s eyes widened into circles.
Leaving aside whether she would allow it or not, no one had ever even asked whether they could call her that, so she was flustered.
The sudden burst of closeness left her momentarily speechless. How exactly was she supposed to respond to this?
“I’m really a fan of yours, Senior Sia.”
She was not particularly sensitive about forms of address, so part of her thought, Well, what does it matter... But was that really okay? This body was no longer hers, after all.
I don’t think this is something I should decide on my own.
While she was thinking it over, Lee Haejun went on speaking with a slightly flushed face.
“When I heard you were going to be in this drama, I didn’t even read the script and immediately said I’d do i—”
“Lee Haejun.”
“Y-Yes...?”
But at that moment, a low voice came from behind him.
At first, Lee Haejun answered without thinking, but the moment he realized who the owner of that voice was, he shot to his feet.
The others around them also turned around at once with startled expressions.
His senior, as lofty as the sky itself, Choi Sihyeon, was looking at him with cool eyes.
“I heard your next scene is with him.”
“Yes, yes! That’s right, Senior!”
“I’ll go over the lines with you, so come with me.”
“......! Yes!”
At the words that such a great senior would help him with his acting, Lee Haejun’s eyes went wide, and then he hurried after him in visible excitement.
“Oh my, what is this?”
“Seriously. Actor Choi is actually helping a junior with his acting.”
Everyone stared blankly at the sight, because he was famously uninterested in the people around him.
Seriously. What’s with him?
And Camilla knew that fact better than anyone.
The air around him was so fundamentally sharp that people had a hard time approaching him easily. And in the middle of that, Choi Sihyeon himself was not the sort to approach anyone either.
“But what he did last time was amazing.”
“That’s right! When Ms. Sia collapsed.”
...Me?
As they watched Choi Sihyeon grow farther away with Lee Haejun in tow, the people began talking about what had happened during the last shoot.
“And at that exact moment, Ms. Sia’s manager wasn’t around either.”
“We were all so shocked when unni suddenly collapsed!”
“Right, everyone was flustered and didn’t know what to do.”
“Everyone was just panicking, wondering how to handle it...!”
Then, suddenly, someone had picked Sia up in his arms. People had been shocked a second time when they realized that person was Choi Sihyeon.
“Senior Sihyeon took unni straight to the hospital in his own car.”
“We all just stood there with our mouths hanging open.”
“Wasn’t Sihyeon really cool?”
“Yes!”
“......”
He really filmed a whole movie by himself.
Camilla turned her head toward Choi Sihyeon, who was off to one side, helping Lee Haejun with his acting.
...Again.
She ended up meeting his gaze head-on, unable to tell since when he had been looking at her.
Lee Haejun was practicing his lines diligently right in front of him, yet he did not seem to care at all. His eyes held only her.
“......”
“......”
It’s still uncomfortable. I really cannot tell what he’s thinking.
It’s not even some new form of harassment.
She refused to avert her eyes, determined to see just how long he would keep staring. But even so, she could not find the slightest sign of agitation in him.
“Hello.”
At that moment, a child’s voice was heard from somewhere.
In the end, Camilla was the first to look away. Her eyes caught sight of a little girl who looked about ten years old, bowing her head over and over to the others.
“Welcome, Jieun.”
“You’re only just getting here?”
“It’s really cold today, isn’t it?”
“Yes!”
Behind the child, who greeted everyone with a bright smile, stood someone who looked to be her mother, watching her with a pleased expression.
“Jieun, you should go greet the director too.”
“Okaaay!”
The way she toddled along after her mother was bright in the way only a child could be.
“Ah.”
But once the child left, sounds of regret drifted from here and there.
“Every time I see her, I think of Yaeun.”
“Me too.”
Yaeun?
At the familiar name, Camilla’s ears pricked up. Were they talking about the Yaeun I know?
“I heard the script for Sua’s role in this drama originally went to Yaeun first.”
“It did. She even went to the reading, but...”
“That girl did a drama with Ms. Sia too, didn’t she? For such a young child, she was really good.”
“Yaeun is good.”
When Camilla casually threw that in, the actor beside her immediately agreed that it was absolutely true. At that, Camilla grew even more confused.
If she even went to the reading, why was the role changed to someone else?
Yaeun was the one actor she had uniquely looked after and cherished. At first, Camilla’s eyes had been drawn to how outstanding her acting was despite her age, and after learning about the child’s circumstances, she had deliberately taken more care of her because she did not want her talent to be broken by her environment.
A child whose family had been ruined by her father’s violence, and who had been raised by her maternal grandmother after her mother died of illness.
It was not as though there were only one or two people like that in the world, and ordinarily Camilla would not have bothered to show interest.
But Yaeun had been different.
She was a child who left her unhappiness as unhappiness and still had the strength to keep moving forward. Her ambition for acting had also been tremendous.
She’s not the kind of child who would lose a role because of acting.
Camilla listened more closely to the other actors’ conversation.
“Of all things, pediatric cancer.”
“I know.”
...Pediatric cancer?
“They said it’s leukemia.”
“I heard she doesn’t have parents either.”
What kind of nonsense is this all of a sudden?
