The "audition" for Lee Sangsoo was, in reality, more of a simple script reading.
Even if Director Baek Min remained outwardly reserved, the investors wouldn’t remain passive. Knowing this, most of the staff relaxed and watched the sequence unfold.
They had assumed Seoyeon’s presence was simply to assist with the lines, nothing more.
"I see. So it was all a lie."
The words came out in a low tone, as if the speaker was expelling their very emotions.
"Everything, from start to finish."
Seoyeon had always been good at conveying emotions. But now, there was a palpable sense of advancement, something beyond her usual performance.
Why?
Everyone wondered, though Director Baek Min had a faint idea.
‘She recently participated in Mask Singer, didn’t she?’
Though he didn’t watch variety shows, he had heard about it. Those who had seen it were said to have been deeply moved by the emotions conveyed through her singing.
Actors, after all, draw emotions from the audience through every available means. But singing, relying solely on the voice, demands an extraordinary level of expressiveness.
And Seoyeon was one of those rare cases.
Just as physical skills improve with regular use, so does the voice. Seoyeon had honed her voice to the fullest extent to compete in Mask Singer, training her greatest asset to overcome any shortcomings and captivate the audience.
Her compelling voice drew in the staff, making them forget that this was merely an audition or a casual script reading.
"I knew... somehow, I always knew," Seoyeon said in character, her gaze narrowing as she looked at Goto Isamu, filled with an unmistakable hatred.
Her red eyes, glinting in the dim light, chilled the air.
"And still, I believed you—foolishly, because I thought you did it all for me."
She had no intention of blaming anyone else. After all, she, too, had plotted to kill Amanabe Michiko and seize her wealth. And perhaps... to take that girl, too.
"So, it was all a lie."
She realized she had merely been a puppet, and that realization fueled her anger. Her rage toward Goto Isamu grew.
"Even those words you said to me as a child..."
Seoyeon, as Yuina, clenched her fists and took a step forward.
"That I should crush others to find happiness."
She grasped her chest with her left hand, as though trying to rip out her own heart.
"So, I crushed everything. Until I seized every last bit of the Kasugayama wealth for myself."
She had trampled her family beneath her feet, making it all hers.
"Yes, you waited... until I had claimed it all."
To kill her and take everything at the final moment.
Her voice scratched at emotions like nails on a chalkboard.
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Lee Sangsoo, playing Goto Isamu, watched Seoyeon’s performance and suddenly understood what actor Park Sunwoong had once told him.
She was a young actress. Frankly, he had over forty years of experience as an actor, having started as a child. Never once had he lived a life away from acting. Seoyeon was half his age.
‘What was I doing at her age?’
He thought back to those days, when the acting world was harsh and rife with discrimination. As a child actor, he had even been subjected to physical punishment—there was no protection for young actors back then.
But he had persevered. And yet, watching Seoyeon now, he felt his younger self pale in comparison.
Was he envious?
No, it wasn’t that.
Watching her reminded him of the kind of acting he had always wanted to do.
"For a while, I was deceived too."
Before attending the Gyeongseong Lady audition, he had met an actor with whom he had performed in dramas many times, dating back to Seoyeon’s childhood—a connection nearly as long as his own career.
Actor Jung Eunsun had spoken to him with a slightly embarrassed look.
"Back then, I assumed she must have been mistreated."
Eunsun continued, "The emotions that child expressed weren’t normal. And yet, it wasn’t even real acting."
Expressing emotions without acting genuinely? It was baffling to Sangsoo, yet he understood Eunsun’s perspective.
It hadn’t been a genuine performance, and yet it conveyed so much. It was as if Seoyeon had been meticulously trained in those emotions.
Eunsun had even intended to confront Seoyeon’s mother, Sua, on set, fearing for her well-being.
"That child wasn’t expressing true emotions. Instead, it was as if she was painting what she’d seen—a mere replica of real feelings," Eunsun had said.
Seoyeon’s performance had once been an imitation, like a painting meticulously copying each detail. But in her final performance, Eunsun had seen something real, something undeniable.
Laughing softly, Eunsun admitted, "I learned a lot. If I hadn’t performed with her back then, I probably would have quit acting, stuck in an era where stubbornness and outdated ideals held me back."
Sangsoo had been skeptical of Eunsun’s words. Eunsun had been highly active over the last decade, starring alongside prominent young actors like Jo Seohui.
"Senior, I know you’re still grappling with things. I believe you’ll find your answer."
Passion, Eunsun said, was like a flame—it could be extinguished, but also reignited under the right circumstances.
"There’s something about that child that stirs something in other actors."
Watching Seoyeon now, Sangsoo felt a tugging desire—a reminder of the performances he had once wanted to give.
"Go on, Isamu," Yuina sneered.
"Keep talking. Tell me, you plan to kill me?"
She advanced, one step after another.
"I will never die."
A bitter smile crossed her lips as her gaze bore into him with a fierce hatred.
"I’ll do exactly as you taught me—to crush, to kill. But it won’t be you. It’ll be me."
The key in Isamu’s hand was his parents’ keepsake—the key to a safe holding the symbols of the Kasugayama family’s legacy. No doubt that wretched girl had stolen it and handed it over.
Sangsoo, as Isamu, felt no anger. He’d planned to betray her first, after all. And for some reason, the hatred he’d expected wasn’t there.
"How amusing."
Isamu broke the silence.
"It’s laughable, Yuina, how your words echo my own from long ago."
His previously calm face twisted, unsettling Yuina to the point she faltered in her steps.
"Yes, I once swore I would never die. But you’re a foolish girl. Everything you do is just a poor imitation."
Isamu’s eyes widened, glinting with madness like a vile specter clinging to life.
"Kasugayama was always meant to be mine. If your father hadn’t taken everything from me, it would all be mine!"
Yuina flinched at the rage that seemed to tear through the air. And it wasn’t just her.
Everyone on set felt it.
The atmosphere had changed.
Until now, they’d seen Lee Sangsoo’s usual, reliable acting—the performances they’d come to expect from him.
But now, he had become something else, like a horse freed from its reins.
"I should have died, I was supposed to vanish, stripped of my name, my face, left a broken husk, clinging to life."
His voice, once loud, quieted to a bitter mumble, yet his words struck everyone deeply.
The audience’s attention, which had once been on Seoyeon, now turned fully to Sangsoo.
No, he wasn’t a prodigy. But he was seasoned—a lifetime of acting behind him.
Though he’d faced failure in Hollywood, Lee Sangsoo was still an actor who had once represented Korea.
"Do you feel like you’ve become something, Kasugayama Yuina?"
But passion rekindles easily.
"You’re nothing more than my puppet. A counterfeit."
Isamu slipped the key back into his pocket, drawing something else instead.
A knife.
"And now, it’s time to cut the strings of this worthless doll."
Isamu’s twisted grin spread as he took a step forward.
"Cut!"
Director Baek Min raised his hand, signaling the end of the scene—not with "Start," but with a final "Cut."
This indicated that the scene itself had come to a natural conclusion, ending as though it had been a complete performance.
No one voiced any objections. They had none to give.
In the stunned silence, Director Baek Min broke into a smile.
"Lee Sangsoo," he said, "you were extraordinary."
Just six words, yet they held more praise than anything else.
Lee Sangsoo chuckled, a hint of bitterness in his voice.
"I suppose I couldn’t let my junior outshine me," he said, looking over at Seoyeon.
Seoyeon stared at him in surprise.
"Director Baek Min," Sangsoo added, turning back to him, "if you’d allow me, I’d be honored to act alongside Ju Seoyeon in this film."
Had Sangsoo’s performance failed to impress, Baek Min likely would have declined. Although pressure from investors might have changed the outcome, a director who disapproved of his actor would never give them the treatment they deserved.
But seeing Seoyeon’s performance had reignited something in Sangsoo.
He had to act alongside her.
Seoyeon was equally astonished, as were the crew members who watched with wide eyes.
‘Lee Sangsoo is this moved... by her?’
Though it was Sangsoo who delivered the powerful finale, it was Seoyeon’s performance that had drawn everyone in initially.
For Lee Sangsoo—a national icon in acting—to set aside his pride and make such a request left everyone speechless.
"Mr. Lee Sangsoo, you’re too much," Director Baek Min said, a smile tugging at his lips.
Everyone tensed at his words, aware that Baek Min might decline with a smile.
"To refuse an actor of your caliber after seeing such a performance... I might as well step down as a director."
With a satisfying snap, Baek Min closed his notebook. There was nothing more to see.
Certainly, Sangsoo’s performance deviated from Baek Min’s original vision of Goto Isamu, who he had imagined as a cowardly and manipulative character.
But sometimes, a different take could prove even better.
"And Seoyeon," he added.
"Yes?" she replied, wide-eyed, clearly still in awe of Sangsoo’s acting.
"Please perform like that during the actual shoot. That was magnificent."
"Yes! Absolutely!" Seoyeon bowed deeply, unaware that Director Baek Min was notoriously stingy with praise.
"As for Mr. Lee Sangsoo, we’ll keep this under wraps, at least until the trailer."
"Great idea—it makes him feel like our secret weapon."
"Secret weapon?" Baek Min mused over the staff member’s suggestion and nodded.
"Yes, perfect—a secret weapon."
Lee Sangsoo, once a national icon, would undoubtedly be the secret weapon of Gyeongseong Lady.
Director Baek Min had no doubt.