Free Web Novel‘...Fine.’
Eunseol stepped forward. Han Yeoreum, whose name had been called first, was standing one step ahead of her. Even something this trivial soured her mood.
“All right. Eunseol will take Character A, who can speak freely, and Yeoreum will take Character B, who can only use the four words.”
Right from the start, things tilted in her favor.
‘The knife that drives this scene is in my hand.’
Onstage, Jin Eunseol sat down, feeling the camera trained on her within her field of vision. Sitting face-to-face with Han Yeoreum on the chairs prepared onstage made her mouth itch to speak.
‘While you were taking a leave of absence and getting drunk on popularity, I stayed in school and worked my ass off.’
Han Yeoreum might have the upper hand when it came to acting a specific scene or character, but Eunseol had done this kind of practical exercise far more times.
As <Strange Tales> gained real traction, DaeYeJong’s end-of-term plays kept coming up among theater nerds.
ㅇㅇ(17.173) If Seoryeong’s actual body ever does theater for real, it’d be absolute chaos lol I still haven’t recovered since going to the final episode group screening...
ㄴㅇㅇ(228.22) You can just tell. She’s the type who’d fly if she did theater.
ㅇㅇ(77.123) It’s only because it was a fusion historical drama, but if it had been staged as straight drama her skills would’ve stood out way more, which honestly makes me sad T_T I saw the DaeYeJong end-of-term play, and hearing it live was way better than through speakers. I didn’t even think about Team A at all.
‘Team A’s Romeo and Juliet got way better reactions!’
Monitoring those reactions, Jin Eunseol bit her nails again and again, until blood seeped out.
Input: Didn’t see it in the one-minute script-reading video though; anyone can tell they slapped on insane correction lol feels way overhyped lolololol fans totally ate the gallery up, it’s just laughable
‘That damn Han Yeoreum, Han Yeoreum!’
But this time was an opportunity. No matter how good the editing was, her shortcomings would be plainly visible to the public eye.
–They call her rising, am I misunderstanding what rising means
–You can kinda see the weak spots when you watch live.. T_T
–Everyone around her forcing the hype lolololol now I get why celebs get celebrity disease
ㄴfr 2222 same thought here
Thinking of the reactions right after the broadcast, Jin Eunseol curled the corner of her lips upward. Her goal was to fluster Han Yeoreum, no matter what.
‘Practice isn’t like a set that rolls exactly as planned. You can ad-lib as much as you want!’
And another goal was to end the scene by making Han Yeoreum blurt out something other than yes, no, thank you, or I’m sorry—before she even had the chance to show proper acting.
She wanted to show the public that pitiful struggle. She wanted their recognition.
She wanted to prove that Jin Eunseol—who had quietly stayed in school and devoted herself to practice—was better than the so-called rising Han Yeoreum.
“Han Yeoreum, have you been doing your job properly? You know our schedule’s tight, right? Don’t get sloppy just because this is a pilot variety show.”
Sighing, Jin Eunseol walked toward Han Yeoreum, setting the background so it would feel real to viewers.
‘Perfect. We’re supposed to be at a broadcasting station right now.’
Just a few exchanges would be enough for it to register as a conversation in a broadcast editing room.
Eunseol set Speaker A as a senior and Speaker B as an intern who kept messing things up.
“Yes.”
Han Yeoreum answered in a dragged-out, insecure voice, as if on purpose. A few lines went back and forth.
Jin Eunseol kept talking about the theater stage, and Han Yeoreum replied with yes or no.
“People have been worried a lot. Whether it was really right to pick you.”
“I’m sorry.”
As if irritated by Han Yeoreum’s attitude, Jin Eunseol added a hint of sarcasm.
“Did you send the materials by email? Or the cloud?”
She threw the question at Han Yeoreum, who kept mechanically repeating yes and no—forcing her to answer.
“No.”
Jin Eunseol sighed, brushing her hair back as if dumbfounded.
“You didn’t send them? Don’t tell me there’s not a single thing you did properly out of everything I told you to do.”
Han Yeoreum lowered her head.
“I’m sorry.”
She barely avoided repeating the same response. Jin Eunseol pressed again, sharper.
“Then answer this at least. What you were editing just now—was it before the changes we agreed on in the meeting, or after?”
Another question. One designed to force three consecutive I’m sorrys.
“You kept insisting we change the music, so we played it against our better judgment. I’ll just do it myself, so tell me the song title.”
“Huh?”
Han Yeoreum finally used a question. Her head was still bowed.
‘What is she doing?’
Limiting dialogue meant filling the gaps with expression and movement. But Han Yeoreum had been sitting there the whole time, head lowered.
“You don’t even remember the song title?”
“I’m sorry.”
“So you’re like this in everything. I seriously can’t let this slide. Really—every time! Every single time!”
She deliberately put force into every word, because Han Yeoreum had an agency.
‘They must’ve trained her thoroughly, if only for risk management.’
If Han Yeoreum failed to answer properly here, people would start thinking she really had caused trouble for her teammates during the DaeYeJong end-of-term play.
[Anonymous Board for People in Their 20s / Anyone watch this week’s <M Couple>? Is it just me or does Han Yeoreum feel off..]
Feels like a classmate stepping up and pretending to act lolololol they overhyped her end-of-term play footage here too T_T but since she’s one of the few real celebs among them maybe she pulled some power move or something...
Han Yeoreum would know this too. Sure enough, she looked flustered.
“You don’t remember? You can’t even do your work properly? The whole story got twisted because of your stubbornness.”
Jin Eunseol deliberately pushed her harder.
“...Yes.”
Here, Han Yeoreum would have to choose. Whether to say thank you.
Or keep going and accept the risk.
“You were never serious about this job, were you? Are you even grateful?” freёweɓnovel.com
If the scene ended with her failing to answer properly, smiling and admitting her shortcomings, Jin Eunseol would shine.
‘Now we’ve got yes, no, and I’m sorry. Three down!’
If Han Yeoreum said thank you, it was Eunseol’s win. If she panicked and said something else, it was also Eunseol’s win.
“Think carefully. What did we change? Answer. At least tell me what kind of attitude you have toward the people you’re working with.”
Jin Eunseol cut in like ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ a sharpened blade. Now all that was left was the answer.
Bang—!
That was when it happened. Han Yeoreum toppled over with a loud crash.
‘What?’
Han Yeoreum lay still, fallen off the chair. The air around them changed. Startled by the sudden action, everyone fixed their gaze on her.
“What is it? What’s wrong? Get up. I’m telling you to answer.”
Jin Eunseol approached the fallen Han Yeoreum. Just as she forcibly tried to lift her—
“...I’m sorry....”
Han Yeoreum couldn’t lift her head. She wrapped both arms around her stomach.
‘She’s pretending to be hurt?’
In an instant, the feeling shifted. Now Eunseol understood why Han Yeoreum had been dragging out her words.
‘...From the very beginning!’
It was a master key. If Character B was sick, then from the outset the villain became A.
Trying to recover, Eunseol kept talking as she attempted to haul Han Yeoreum up from the floor. But it was futile.
‘She’s not even trying to have a conversation!’
With all the strength drained from her body, Han Yeoreum was too much for Eunseol to support alone.
“I’m... sorry....”
Han Yeoreum never said thank you. She curled inward, breathing hard.
‘This got tangled.’
Jin Eunseol bit her lip. She could feel the professor’s bored gaze. At this rate, they might end with a pitiful wrap-up.
‘One more “I’m sorry” and the scene ends.’
After finally getting this opportunity, she couldn’t let the first exercise fizzle out like this. If it did, it’d be a full cut.
Jin Eunseol stepped back and decided to go along with what Han Yeoreum wanted.
‘They’ll switch A and B soon anyway.’
She could show impact then. With a sigh, Jin Eunseol asked,
“Does it hurt a lot?”
“No....”
“Even if you say it doesn’t, I get it. You were trying your best, and this happened.”
“Yes....”
Still no thank you. Jin Eunseol spoke with emphasis.
“I was too harsh earlier. It’s exam period, and I’ve been pulling all-nighters too, but—”
It was time to end the scene, to signal that this was enough.
“I’ll take you to the hospital. Let’s go.”
“Thank you.”
At last, the answer she wanted came out. Han Yeoreum slowly lifted her head.
“Okay! All four words are out! Both of you did well.”
The professor clapped his palms together in a short, loud applause.
“Before starting a conversation, it’s important to look at what situation the other person is in and why. Here, B was in a situation where she pushed herself too hard trying to change the scene, and her body hit its limit, right?”
The explanation centered on Han Yeoreum. Watching the rolling camera, Jin Eunseol steeled herself.
“All right, switch A and B! Same condition—four words.”
If it went like this, she could also enter the scene in a non-communicative state.
* * *
This forward acting focused less on the dialogue itself and more on emotion, breathing, reactions, timing, gestures, and gaze.
‘What matters isn’t the words.’
It was practice in showing the audience what situation a character was in using only four words.
She could roughly tell how Jin Eunseol had been scheming—but missing the core was her mistake.
She’d tried to beat me and failed to grasp the essence of the exercise.
‘But I’ve done this drill countless times.’
So there was no way she would lose.
