Free Web NovelTwo days later, the four of them gathered again.
“Ah... hello.”
Unable to meet their eyes, Jun-ho bowed his head slightly in greeting before sneaking a glance at Seo Ryu Shin and Seon Yu-ri.
‘Wow... actual actors.’
Jun-ho had loved movies and dramas since he was young, so there was no way he wouldn’t recognize them. Heesoo from had grown up just as beautiful as she’d been as a child. And right in front of him was Seo Ryu Shin, whose acting in had been praised even above Ji Seong-bin, the actor he had played as a child actor.
It was amazing to think that he had once considered Yoomyeong ordinary. Now, seeing him standing among them felt completely natural.
Jun-ho handed over the result of two sleepless nights with trembling hands.
“You really did this in just two days... That’s impressive.”
“No, I’m sorry. The result is still pretty rough...”
For the next twenty minutes, the only sound in the room was the turning of pages. Jun-ho gripped the rolled-up script so tightly it looked as though it might crumple. He didn’t think he had ever been this nervous, not even while waiting for his college entrance exam results.
After Yoomyeong and Seo Ryu Shin finished reading, they remained silent, seemingly waiting out of respect for Seon Yu-ri’s opinion. With a furrowed brow, Seon Yu-ri flipped back and forth through the script before finally snapping it shut.
“Um...”
“Yes... Is it not very good? I can take criticism, so please be honest.”
Seon Yu-ri smiled faintly.
“It’s good.”
“...Excuse me?”
“It feels very different from Min Juran’s version, but the originality of the scenes is good. Honestly, there are a lot of amateurish parts in the dialogue and transitions, but it feels fresh. Especially this part where Hyde transforms back into Jekyll just once.”
“Ah, yes...”
“Can our actors handle this?”
Seon Yu-ri playfully teased Ryu Shin and Yoomyeong, and seeing that, Yoomyeong looked relieved. She really must have liked the script. ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom
Adaptation.
The task of transforming an original work into something meant for performance.
The result could vary greatly depending on the adapter.
Only a portion of a novel’s full content was selected for scenes, and the dialogue and situations were often recreated entirely by the adapter while drawing from the atmosphere of the original work.
, a classic literary work with far more psychological description than dialogue, required Jun-ho to create a large amount of dialogue himself. His lack of experience showed in places where the writing felt weak.
Even so, as Seon Yu-ri had said, the script’s originality stood out. The details could always be refined later.
“Jun-ho, we’ll probably need to adjust some of the dialogue and scenes together with the actors and director. Is that alright?”
“Uh... Yes! Of course. But I’d like to be there during the revisions. I think it would be a valuable learning experience.”
“Would you like to join our rehearsals? We could register you as a guest member of Oedipus and let you observe rehearsals as a sort of assistant director.”
“Really?!”
Jun-ho’s face lit up with joy.
“I’d be incredibly grateful if you did! I’ll come to the practice room every day. I’ll keep revising the script while watching.”
“Yes. It won’t be easy, but let’s keep adjusting it as we go and build it together. We’re the ones who should be thankful.”
Seon Yu-ri extended her hand.
Jun-ho grabbed it eagerly, his face glowing.
Rococo F/W Season Up.
Designer Anz’s [Rococo] had entered the photo release stage.
Even Yoomyeong, who was completely immersed in rehearsals, knew about it. The entire university was talking about it.
During a brief stop by the store, Minhee explained the whole story in detail.
“The photo shoot turned out so well that they went with a really aggressive strategy.”
“How?”
“Do you remember ‘Sunyoung, I love you?’”
“Oh, of course.”
There had been an advertisement that swept across Korea in 2000.
Posters plastered across universities and alleyways nationwide carried no explanation, only the words, “Sunyoung-ah, I love you.” People speculated endlessly about what it meant, many believing it was a love confession from a male student. The debates went on for days before everyone was blindsided ten days later.
It turned out to be an advertisement for a women’s portal site.
“They borrowed that idea. Soo Yeon did a huge photo shoot, and they put the pictures up all over the university. She’s so beautiful, and the photos came out incredibly atmospheric. Of course people started wondering who she was. Some people even began collecting the different poster versions. Apparently there are people trading them online now. Thanks to that, Rococo’s been getting tons of pre-orders from select shops. It became a huge sensation.”
“Wow... that’s a massive success.”
“Your ‘back’ became famous too, right? Hehe. I want to go around bragging that the back model works here.”
“Please restrain yourself.”
It really was true.
Even the male model who appeared only as a ‘back’ in the Rococo photo shoot had become a hot topic. People said you could tell he was handsome just from his back.
Every time Yoomyeong saw those posters on his way to and from school, he turned his head away in embarrassment. Whenever female students passionately discussed ‘that back guy’ during breaks, he would quietly pull his jacket up to cover his back.
“Oh right, speaking of that, didn’t Soo Yeon contact you?”
“Huh? I don’t even have her number.”
“Not long ago, Anz said Soo Yeon asked for your contact information. When he asked why, she only said she had something she wanted to ask you, so he gave it to her.”
“Really? I never got a call.”
“Did she fall for you that day? Hehe. The way she looked at you was pretty intense. Maybe she got your number but still hasn’t worked up the courage to call.”
“Sister, remember what I said earlier?”
“Hmm? What?”
“Please restrain yourself.”
Minhee jokingly tried to smack Yoomyeong on the back, but he casually caught her wrist before she could.
‘Seol Soo Yeon asked for my number...’
For a brief moment, Yoomyeong recalled her face. That dramatic expression. Those sorrowful eyes.
They had looked as though they were yearning for something.
He felt like he already knew what she wanted to ask. Whether she would actually find the courage to contact him, though, was another matter.
‘If she’s desperate enough, she’ll call.’
Yoomyeong quickly brushed aside the thought and turned his attention back to the script.
[Hello. This is Seol Soo Yeon from the Rococo photo shoot. I was wondering if you remember me.]
The message arrived a week later. It was the second week of October, two weeks after Yoomyeong had begun intensive rehearsals with Jun-ho’s new script.
The text, which seemed to have required a great deal of courage for her to send, received an immediate reply from Yoomyeong.
[Of course I remember. Congratulations on all the buzz around the photo shoot. What’s up?]
[Ah, there’s something I wanted to ask you...]
[Feel free to ask anything.]
[Could we meet in person to talk about it?]
Yoomyeong invited Soo Yeon to the university.
Partly because it was difficult to make time with the performance preparations, but also because he could guess what was troubling her, and there was something he wanted to show her as well.
“Wow, look at her...”
“Is she even real? Doesn’t she look CG?”
“Ah, she’s a celebrity. The model from that teaser photo shoot!”
The impact of a beauty appearing on campus was tremendous. Since people only knew her from the photo shoot, they hesitated to approach her directly. Still, the crowd around her kept growing for some reason.
“You found the place alright.”
Seeing all the attention directed at her, Yoomyeong quickly removed the baseball cap he was wearing and placed it on her head. She still seemed inexperienced and completely unaware of how famous she had become.
Only then did Soo Yeon realize what was happening and hurriedly take sunglasses out of her bag and put them on. Gradually, the attention around them faded.
“Ah... I didn’t realize. I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. Want to grab a drink?”
Holding cans of 350 won coffee from the vending machine, Yoomyeong and Soo Yeon sat on a quiet bench. The campus was slowly being painted in shades of red and yellow, and the sky was piercingly blue. Autumn had arrived.
“You must be really busy these days with Rococo doing so well. You’re probably getting a lot of work, right?”
At the casual remark, Soo Yeon’s expression darkened immediately.
Oops. He had stepped on a landmine right from the start.
“...There’s a lot of work, but I can’t immerse myself the way I did back then, and I run into problems with every project. Sometimes contracts even get canceled... I wanted to ask how you did it back then. I tried drinking cola, and I even tried drawing a white dot in my head like before, but it just doesn’t work...”
After hesitating for a while, Soo Yeon finally managed to force the words out. Her fingertips trembled.
After quietly listening to her, Yoomyeong asked, freēwēbnovel.com
“Have you ever practiced acting?”
.
.
.
Oedipus practice room.
Everyone’s jaws dropped at the sight of the unfamiliar woman entering alongside Yoomyeong. She hardly looked human.
“Yoomyeong, who is this... angel? Is she your little sister?!”
Suho was the first to shout.
“There’s no way you two got the same genes. Maybe she’s actually your master, Yoomyeong?”
Hye Seon’s ridiculous joke made Soo Yeon burst into laughter.
And the moment she laughed, Suho froze in shock.
“This is insane. An angel just laughed...”
“Bro, get a grip.”
Laughing, Yoomyeong shoved Suho aside and asked Yu-ri for permission.
“Director, can she watch rehearsal?”
“Who is she?”
“Someone I know from outside. She wants to become an actress, but she’s feeling a little lost right now. Sometimes watching other people rehearse can help.”
“Ah...”
Yu-ri nodded. They normally didn’t allow outsiders to observe rehearsals, but given the circumstances...
“Find a comfortable seat and watch. If you need to leave midway, just do it quietly.”
“Thank you.”
Soo Yeon quietly sat down, and rehearsal began.
‘They’re all incredible.’
One—
Two—
The actors moved their bodies while exchanging glances.
Sweat dripped beside their focused eyes.
That was pure passion.
Soon, the main rehearsal began.
Soo Yeon lowered her eyes to the title on the script Yoomyeong had lent her.
It was one of the books she had read over and over in the small room where she had been confined as a child: Jekyll and Hyde.
And standing at the center of the stage was the very man who had once guided her into immersion.
‘As expected...’
Even among these intensely dedicated actors, that man stood at the absolute center. For some reason, the sight filled Soo Yeon with deep satisfaction, as though she herself had been acknowledged.
But the moment he began performing, that shallow admiration shattered instantly.
“Dr. Lanyon, don’t you want to know? You have a choice. You can turn away from this situation and continue living as the naive and respected Dr. Lanyon, or you can face it and witness one of the universe’s secrets with your own eyes. Which will you choose? Hehe.”
His laughter was coarse.
A sense of doom crept over her skin.
The warm and gentle man she knew seemed to have been completely washed away. The only thing standing on that stage was an actor.
He was utterly serious.
As she watched the scenes created by Yoomyeong and the other members unfold, she realized something.
Compared to them, her own level of desperation was nowhere near enough.
With newfound resolve, she bit her lip and quietly left the practice room.
Rehearsal ended.
As everyone wiped away sweat and relaxed, one person quietly raised his hand.
“I’d like to try again now.”
It was Ryu Shin.
Consultation.
Ever since losing the lead role two weeks earlier, he had not stopped thinking about the character for even a moment. Watching Shin Yoomyeong perform had made him realize something. It wasn’t simply about portraying ‘Jekyll’ and ‘Hyde,’ but about building two performances that sprang from the same root while extending in completely opposite directions.
His contemplation of the character had deepened more than ever before.
Five days earlier, a comet-like flash of inspiration had crossed Ryu Shin’s mind. Since then, he had devoted every waking hour to perfectly realizing the character.
His angelically bright and pure Jekyll paired with the most fitting Hyde.
A devilishly bright and pure Hyde.
