Suhyun, do you… like women?
“Ha… Sh**…”
I kept flipping through the script, shaking it, and pinching my cheek, but the content didn’t change.
‘Song Yeonwoo.’ The female lead of a better life… the role I need to win in this audition.
[Song Yeonwoo, the wife of ‘Jeong Junseok.’ She falls in love again when she sees Junseok, who loves her just the same despite her memory loss.]
Love…?
And she’s a married woman…?
“Am I supposed to act this…?”
Countless thoughts flooded my mind.
No, actually, that’s what acting is like.
Whatever role you take on, you have to do it, because after all, I’m an actor.
But.
“Can I pull this off?”
I whispered quietly.
A married woman. And not just any married woman, but one who has a husband and loses her memory, falling in love again.
Could I understand such feelings?
No, forget the emotions, would I even be able to act this role naturally?
‘Song Yeonwoo.’
I gently ran my fingertips over the name in the script.
A feminine and quiet personality.
Kindness that cherishes and embraces others.
But at the same time, a person living a life where she can’t even remember herself, trembling with anxiety.
A person who realizes love again when she sees her husband, who lost his memory, loving her till the end.
“…”
I took a deep breath.
Then I turned the page again.
[Scene 27] The first climax between Jeong Junseok and Song Yeonwoo
Background:
Jeong Junseok is in love with Song Yeonwoo, who has lost her memory.
But Song Yeonwoo still hasn’t opened her heart.
Can Yeonwoo, who has lost her memory, still love her husband?
As she regains her memory and sees that he hasn’t changed, she slowly realizes love again.
Lines:
Jeong Junseok: “I still love you, Yeonwoo. I don’t care who you are.”
Song Yeonwoo: “…Can you really love me, even though I don’t even know who I am?”
Jeong Junseok: “I love you. And I’ll keep loving you, whether you regain your memory or not.”
Song Yeonwoo: “…” (She looks at him, and for the first time, tears form in her eyes.)
I gripped the script tightly.
This feeling.
How should I express this feeling?
I’ve never acted in a melodrama before.
The emotions in my role in ‘Busker’ were deep, but that wasn’t love.
It was a role where I expressed emotions through expressions and gestures, without any lines.
But this time, it’s different.
‘This is a story about lovers.’
It’s not just simple emotion expression.
I have to show the flow of the relationship.
From awkwardness to familiarity.
From unfamiliarity to love.
Feelings I have never experienced before, one by one.
I absentmindedly looked at my hand.
How will this hand move when I love someone else?
What kind of gaze will these eyes have when I look at someone I love?
Unlike the emotions that came with a simple click, love felt out of reach.
“Ha… this is really hard.”
I leaned back in my chair.
Staring at the ceiling, I let out a deep sigh.
Acting is ultimately the process of creating emotions.
But can I create this emotion?
I don’t know love.
Not even once.
I’ve never loved anyone,
And I’ve never fully given my emotions.
So, can I act as someone who loses love and falls in love again?
‘Can I pull this off?’
That question kept swirling in my head.
Then.
Ding…
My phone rang.
I picked up my phone absentmindedly.
[FlyingCloud] [How about it? Do you think you can act it?]
I stared at the screen for a moment.
I slowly read the message from FlyingCloud again.
“You didn’t know that when you asked me, did you?”
Who are you teasing right now?
Then, I quickly replied.
[Not sure. I’ve never been in love before.]
I put my phone down and picked up the script again.
What I have to do is not just a simple love act.
I have to bring out emotions that are the complete opposite of the life I’ve lived…
For someone who used to click and act, this is an incredibly difficult task.
“…Still, I’ll give it a try.”
If I fail, it can’t be helped.
If I succeed… well, that can’t be helped either.
“First, I’ll do my best…!”
I’ll tackle it with all my might.
Even if I fail, that’s fine… No, maybe it’s better to fail…
“Ha…”
Let’s do our best.
Thanks to the fame of Director Yoon Byeolha’s previous works, the audition hall was large and comfortable.
Posters of Director Yoon Byeolha’s previous works hung on the walls, and the air felt tense.
And all the famous actresses were rehearsing, reading the same script.
“I love you. Ha-shib. This isn’t the right emotion…”
“How did she lose her memory? What was Yeonwoo’s family like? What was her school life like? I need to analyze everything…”
“Excuse me, would you like to act with me?”
“I’m a staff member…”
The actors gathered here all shared the same goal.
The role of Song Yeonwoo, the female lead of ‘A Better Life.’
The waiting room was quiet, but there was an odd tension in the air.
Actors reading their scripts quietly, some rehearsing in low voices, and others silently practicing with their scene partners.
It was a space where even breathing felt cautious.
And in the middle of it, Suhyun was sitting.
“Ugh…”
She let out a deep sigh, her big eyes rolling around restlessly.
Every actor had their own way of preparing for the audition.
The neatly dressed actresses were sitting.
Among them, the most elegant and beautiful actress was turning the pages of her script with a calm touch.
Biting her lips, she murmured the lines in her head.
“Can you really love me, even though I don’t even know who I am?”
A low voice.
Carefully pronouncing each word, practicing her lines.
This actress clearly knew how to control her emotions.
She was Jeong Yeonbin, the lead actress in the recent successful movie “Jjan,”
Known as a promising actress with one of the best acting skills among actresses of her generation, but…
“Hmm. Is that person famous…?”
Of course, Suhyun, who spent most of her time drawing or streaming, had no way of knowing.
She could see some actors sitting in a corner of the waiting room.
Most of them kept fidgeting with the scripts in their hands.
“…I want to cheer them on. Even though they’re my competition…”
Suhyun clasped her hands together and prayed silently for them, feeling sorry inside.
Everyone was turning the pages way too fast.
Their eyes seemed to be reading the script, but nothing was probably sinking in.
Also, some of the actors were subtly keeping each other in check.
“Do I have to compete with that person?”
“What if that person gets cast instead of me?”
Those kinds of thoughts were clearly showing on their faces.
Sometimes they would sneak glances at each other with subtle expressions.
A silent battle was already happening through their gazes.
And without a doubt, the person receiving the most looks was Suhyun.
Actors are said to compete through their acting, but in the end, the first thing that stands out is the face.
It’s not that you have to be conventionally good-looking, but a face without distinct features is difficult to use in the industry.
If anything, even if you’re not attractive, you need to be distinctly unattractive.
And Suhyun had a face that sat at the top tier of the “distinctly attractive” category.
It was only natural that she’d be the number one target of jealousy, even without doing anything.
“Hoo…”
Suhyun quietly took a deep breath, drawing in the air of the waiting room.
Even as she exhaled, the tense atmosphere remained.
She glanced around once more.
There wasn’t a single familiar face.
Of course, there wouldn’t be.
She had only just set foot in the world of acting.
But the actors here were different.
From the way they turned the pages of their scripts to the tone of their voices —
They were already seasoned or experienced actors.
In their eyes, both confidence and doubt coexisted.
A sense of certainty that “this role is mine.”
But also the lingering question, “Do I truly understand this character?”
And amidst it all, Suhyun quietly muttered to herself.
“Can I really do better than them?”
No.
That wasn’t the point.
It wasn’t about comparing herself to others —
What mattered was how much of herself she could pour into this role.
Shaking off the distractions, Suhyun opened the script in her hands.
“Contestant number 26, please come in.”
“Ah. Yes!”
Suhyun forced herself to shake off the nervousness and stepped into the audition room.
And the scene that unfolded before her was… quite different from what she had expected.
“Huh? Is this… an office?”
It wasn’t a stage or an ordinary audition room — it looked more like a company lounge.
She could feel the judges’ gazes on her.
Especially the one seated in the middle — Yoon Byeolha — who was smiling casually.
“Contestant 26, you will be performing the scene where you see ‘Junseok’ in the office. Are you ready?”
Suhyeon licked her lips once.
“The scene where I see Junseok in the office… Act 2, Scene 3.”
It was the scene where Song Yeonwoo, who had lost her memory, saw her husband as a “stranger” for the first time.
She had to act as though she were seeing him for the first time — while subtly concealing a budding romantic feeling.
Suhyun slowly nodded.
“All right. Let’s begin.”
Yoon Byeolha made a slight gesture with his hand.
From the back of the set, a man began walking toward them.
“Who is that…?”
Black hair and a cold atmosphere.
A sharp face, with piercing, cool eyes.
He walked calmly into the office and set his bag down on the desk.
His face looked vaguely familiar, but Suhyun couldn’t be sure.
“The audition scene will be an impromptu performance with Jung Do-han, who is playing Junseok. The script is just a decoy.”
Yoon Byeolha’s lips curled into a mischievous smile, like he was truly enjoying himself.
And that’s when Suhyun realized.
“Ah… That bastard is friends with Bihangwoon, right…?”
Whether it’s birds of a feather or guilt by association — they were definitely alike.
“Th-then… I’ll give it a try!”
Gulp.
Suhyun barely managed to hold herself together and calm her racing heart.
And then—
“…Why are you looking at me like that?”
That was how her performance began.
“Cut. Thank you for your work.”
When Suhyun’s performance ended, Byeolha was silent for a moment.
The playful look from before had disappeared, replaced by a serious expression that made Suhyun tense up.
“Did I… do something wrong? But I’m sure I acted as if I was seeing him for the first time…”
After a moment of silence, Byeolha looked directly at Suhyun and asked—
“Suhyun… do you perhaps… like women?”
“…Huh?”
And just like that, he dropped an absolute bombshell.