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Do Gyeoul was able to get her hands on every single lecture. Her excuse was flawless.
With just one line about being afraid she might get rusty while on leave, her classmates ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) diligently sent her recordings and videos. Their desperate attempts to stay close were almost touching.
[Winter! This is our Scene Acting Practical A lecture~]
[video.mp4]
Of course, this only started the semester Han Yeoreum returned. A school without Han Yeoreum just wasn’t worth much.
“The video’s way too short....”
Murmuring at the clip that didn’t even reach ten minutes, Gyeoul’s eyes lit up as she pressed play.
What kind of acting would it be?
—All right, Eunseol will play Character A, who can speak freely, and Yeoreum will take Character B, who can only use four words.
On the phone screen, Han Yeoreum looked perfectly prepared. As if she could parry anything her counterpart threw at her.
And just as expected, Han Yeoreum delivered a performance that exceeded expectations.
While Jin Eunseol grew increasingly frantic trying to force out a response, Han Yeoreum redirected every gaze to herself in a single, effortless move.
Bang.
Han Yeoreum, who had been sitting in her chair, fell over. The sudden noise instantly shifted the atmosphere.
‘Just like that day.’
March two years ago, the first time she’d seen Han Yeoreum—like that morning in Professor Geum Bitgang’s classroom.
Stamping her foot without a care for who came next, stepping hard against the floor, stealing everyone’s attention in an instant.
As that memory surfaced, Gyeoul unconsciously leaned closer to her phone.
At some point, A and B had switched. Han Yeoreum was more relentless than she looked. To keep the spotlight from slipping away, she grabbed Jin Eunseol without hesitation.
“Ahahaha!”
When Han Yeoreum’s acting ended, Gyeoul burst out laughing. Her laughter was louder than usual, like she was watching something genuinely entertaining.
She covered her constantly lifting smile with one hand. Her breath caught in her throat.
“Ah... so Yeoreum really hates losing....”
It was practically a stage prepared just for Han Yeoreum. The cameraman, the editing team—everyone would build the final cut around her.
What the viewers were meant to see wasn’t Jin Eunseol. It had to be Han Yeoreum. That was the purpose of this broadcast!
‘Thank goodness.’
Do Gyeoul replayed the video once more, to examine Han Yeoreum’s performance in detail.
Every muscle used in her expressions, every line she spoke, her vocal projection and movement depending on timing—and even the ultimate reason behind her acting.
‘Even if I try to press you down, you’d just get back up again and again, wouldn’t you?’
She was nothing like a cheap toy that broke easily. As if trying to absorb every part of Han Yeoreum, Gyeoul fixed her gaze on the screen.
Her heart pounded with an overwhelming joy. Gyeoul spoke the lines out loud.
“You said you liked me.... You can’t do this....”
Just like Han Yeoreum.
“You don’t like me? Huh? From the beginning? No, right? That’s not it....”
The pitch, the volume, even the timing of each breath—Gyeoul’s perfectly replicated voice overlapped with Yeoreum’s.
“Then why are you like this? I can just do better.”
“Then why are you like this? I can just do better.”
The closer it matched, the more her swelling satisfaction filled her body. Gyeoul smiled, her eyes narrowing.
* * *
Shim Juhwan wiped his sweat and stepped off the stage. This was Tokyo, Japan—the site of the <Beyond the Closed Door> fan meeting.
A year ago, it had been a solo fan meeting for Do Gyeoul, but with the drama holding the number one spot on NetHolics for an entire year, the fandom stayed strong even after it ended.
Thanks to that, the lead actors Noh Seungchan and Do Gyeoul returned to Japan for a drama fan meeting.
“Good work! Here, water!”
“Thank you—.”
Shim Juhwan, who sang the OST for <Beyond the Closed Door>, had no choice but to attend as well. While the two leads changed outfits, he sang three songs in a row and did a bit of talk. The response went without saying.
“Wow, the cheering is just....”
“The roof’s gonna fly off.”
The Korean staff smiled contentedly. The Japanese fandom was still rock-solid.
From Tokyo to Osaka, then Fukuoka. The fan meetings continued for three stops. With a thousand-seat scale, they sold out without a moment’s delay.
“Once <The Fuse> airs, Do Gyeoul’s popularity’s gonna skyrocket again.”
“More than this?”
“Once you lock in a Japanese fandom, raking in yen is just the basics.”
A slow, restrained romance like <The Fuse> would spark another syndrome-like craze among Japanese fans who favored lingering emotional resonance.
A forbidden love story between a king and a court lady was a concept that couldn’t fail. Japanese channels and platforms remained one of the strongest import markets for classic Korean historical dramas.
“Juhwan-hyung! You’re doing the <The Fuse> OST too, right?”
“Yeah. Already recorded it.”
“Guess you’ll be back here again next year.”
Listening to the staff chat, Shim Juhwan sat down and checked his missed messages, then the time.
After finishing his radio show in Korea, he’d gotten straight on a plane to Tokyo. Starting tomorrow, a real special DJ would be taking over his slot.
“Hope they do— well—.”
Humming as if singing, Shim Juhwan searched Han Yeoreum. Originally, he hadn’t planned to hand the DJ position to her. It had just ended with him saying he enjoyed a drama while having a meal with Kwon Junhyeok.
“Really? Then Han Yeoreum can do your radio, hyung? Perfect. She said she wanted to try variety shows anyway.”
“...Why did the conversation jump there...?”
“She’s really good.”
“That’s different from acting, idiot! Radio’s about hosting!”
At the absurd leap in logic, Shim Juhwan pressed his forehead. Seo Eden, who was sitting next to Kwon Junhyeok, nodded along.
“No, not acting—just hosting. She’s good at that too.”
“Oh right, Eden, you do MusicN.”
“Memorizing the entire cue sheet isn’t even surprising anymore, and ours is live, right?”
“Yeah. Honestly, when you joined, I was scared as hell.... We even bet on how many incident reports the PD would have to write if Seo Eden did live broadcast.”
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Eden’s face flushed red as he pointed at Shim Juhwan, who was chuckling.
“Anyway, she’s good! And, you know—having Han Yeoreum read the listener messages would be way more fun than you doing it!”
“What, punk? Do you know how many years I’ve been on radio?”
“Nope. We don’t listen. Radio’s boring.”
“You little brats... I guarantee it. No matter who fills in, the listeners of Afternoon Nap at 2 will end up missing me.”
At Shim Juhwan’s confident declaration, Eden scoffed.
“Yeah, sure. You think people only know you? That ‘the old guard is the best’? When MusicN started, people said the previous MCs were better too—but the public opinion flipped completely in a month.”
“...It’s ‘the old guard is the master.’”
“When did it flip? Anyway.”
While Eden and Shim Juhwan bickered, Kwon Junhyeok brought things back on track.
“Then I’ll talk to her...?”
“Go ahead. If she says she’s busy and can’t, let me know fast. The earlier we get a substitute, the better.”
Unexpectedly, Han Yeoreum accepted right away. She even slotted it in between her variety show schedules.
‘Well, we’ll see....’
Applause for Do Gyeoul echoed from the stage once more. Using the cheers as background noise, Shim Juhwan tried to calm his nerves for tomorrow at 2 p.m.
And then, the next day at 2 p.m.
“Huh...?”
Shim Juhwan froze in shock.
He couldn’t help it.
