Free Web NovelThe place we arrived at was a building out in the suburbs, far from Seoul.
“Yeoreum-ah. From here, you have to walk.”
“By myself?”
“Yeah. Apparently he hates meeting people, so he asked us to stay quiet even while coming in.”
“...Got it.”
“He said don’t knock. Just open the door and go in. Don’t call out either. The innermost room on the second floor.”
How sensitive did someone have to be to hate even the sound of knocking?
‘Well... they did say he’s a genius.’
I accepted it lightly and got out of the car. Before I realized it, the daytime air already carried the faint scent of spring.
The garden path stretched out enormously wide. It felt like the walk from the front gate to the entrance had been designed as a strolling path.
This place felt like a different world entirely.
The closer I got to him, the faster my heartbeat became.
Disney had chosen me. And not only that — that genius music director had chosen me personally.
At last, I reached the entrance. Just as Manager Choi instructed, I opened the door without knocking.
The heavy door swung open smoothly without making a sound.
“....”
Was someone really inside?
First, I changed into the slippers provided and carefully stepped forward. Even the staircase leading to the second floor was carpeted, probably to absorb footsteps.
Finally, I arrived at the innermost room on the second floor. I grabbed the doorknob and silently counted to three in my head in case they somehow hadn’t noticed I arrived.
‘They probably heard the click of the door, right?’
The moment I opened it, I heard the sound of a metronome.
And someone was there.
Sitting on a soft sofa, watching me.
“A kid?”
Before I realized it, the words had slipped out before I even greeted him. Crap. They said he was sensitive to noise.
‘But this is seriously unexpected.’
The blond curly-haired boy with headphones hanging around his neck looked far too young to be a music director.
All I’d heard was the name “Noah,” with no other information, so I’d assumed he was at least in his forties.
‘...Hasn’t this person been active for over ten years?’
Is he really Noah? Not Noah’s son or something?
While I stood there flustered, unsure what to say, the boy began writing something on the sketchbook resting on his lap.
Scratch, scratch.
The sound of pencil against paper echoed through the room.
[Hello]
Sleepy green eyes turned toward me.
I should greet him too, but unlike the boy, I didn’t see any paper nearby to write on.
As I looked around, I heard the scratching sound again.
[You can speak.]
“Ah... thank you....”
[I like you]
Normally after greeting someone, weren’t you supposed to introduce yourself next? The boy skipped every step and made a shocking declaration instead, leaving me slightly stunned.
Only the scratching sound filled the quiet room.
[I like that voice]
Maybe the boy had a lot he wanted to say, because he continued writing nonstop. Turning the sketchbook toward me, he showed me another message.
[Hurry and talk]
“Um....”
A genius who came all the way from America just because he wanted to hear my voice. It was making me enter another “Who even am I?” moment.
Still, I tried to stay calm as I spoke.
“Are you Noah?”
[Yeah. I’m Noah. Have you ever listened to music I made?]
“Yes. I listened on the way here too. I could definitely tell that geniuses are different... but I heard I was the only Korean voice actor you personally requested.... Is that true?”
I really should’ve studied English harder regularly. Having to mentally translate everything first made my speech slow.
The boy listened as though savoring my voice, then nodded.
[I don’t care about anyone else.]
The boy picked up a nearby sheet of paper.
It was my script, written in Korean.
[Will you try it once?]
I walked closer to him. A tablet PC sat on the tea table beside him.
After handing me the script, the boy picked up the tablet and started a video.
-Joy! Joy! Joy! Joy!
Cute flying squirrels clung to a rabbit in the animation.
-Jooooy!
The last flying squirrel arrived by literally flying straight into the rabbit’s face.
The boy lifted a finger and pressed the center of the screen. The video stopped.
Then he gestured with his eyes as if telling me to imitate it.
I lifted the script.
Lala: (brightly) Unniiii!
So instead of using her name, they localized it emotionally for Korean audiences by calling her unni.
I cleared my throat lightly before copying Lala’s voice.
“Unniiii!”
It was the most childlike voice I could produce.
The boy watched me silently before playing the video again.
The flying squirrel Lala tightly hugged her older sister Joy while talking nonstop.
The adorable little sister had so many things she wanted to do with her big sister.
Lala: (overflowing with excitement) Unni unni unni! What should we do today? How about an adventure to pick wild berries? Making carrot jam that you like sounds fun too! Or should we go to Uncle Sam’s place and learn snail yo-yos? Yayyy, I’m excited!
At the boy’s silent prompting, I followed the script exactly.
Like an excited little sister. Like a child desperate to play with her older sister.
“....”
“....”
The lines ended, but there was no reaction.
The boy simply stared at me.
His green eyes remained emotionless. Setting the tablet down, he picked up the sketchbook and wrote something shocking.
[Let’s pretend this never happened.]
Then, without hesitation, he struck directly at the core.
[You ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ seem like someone who has never properly watched animation before.]
* * *
“What was that Disney musical rabbit movie coming out this time called again...?”
“<Funny Bunny Harmony>.”
“Right, that one.”
People with pronunciations smooth enough to not need subtitles sat gathered together talking.
This was the main KBC voice acting studio building located in Yeouido.
“I heard a celebrity’s joining.”
There were fewer than a thousand active voice actors in all of South Korea. Every year, thousands applied, but only single-digit numbers were selected.
Even after passing the public recruitment exams, getting one or two jobs a month was considered normal. And that was only if you were a promising newcomer worthy of being called an ace.
Of course, those were still minor roles.
Establishing yourself as a voice actor was even harder than establishing yourself as an actor.
Because there was no retirement.
There wasn’t a single fandom in existence that liked seeing a character’s voice actor changed. Once someone took the role, they usually kept it forever.
On top of that, advertisers and PDs alike only wanted famous voice actors.
“Yeah. Apparently she’s doing it this time.”
Disney in particular was notoriously strict about dubbing quality. If you weren’t a verified professional voice actor, they practically refused to use you at all.
No matter how famous a voice actor was, the headquarters still required voice samples and meetings before giving approval.
A dream stage even veteran professionals struggled to stand on.
“Han Yeoreum.”
The atmosphere inside the KBC voice acting studio couldn’t help but sour after hearing an actress had been cast there, even if it was just a supporting role.
“That girl. Huijae from <The Great Garland>.”
At the center of the waiting room, a thirty-year veteran voice actor flipped through a script and muttered quietly.
The indifferent tone lacking any emotion made someone else snap irritably.
“These days every celebrity who gets a little popular suddenly wants to do voice acting too.”
“Seriously. From idols onward, literally anybody and everybody.”
“JC probably shoved her in there. She’s under them, isn’t she?”
“JC does actor management too? I’ve never heard of that....”
“They have a label. Han Yeoreum’s the only one there, so people who don’t care wouldn’t know.”
But someone suddenly cut in.
“Still, isn’t Han Yeoreum kind of okay though?”
It was one of the veteran voice actors cast as the villain in <Funny Bunny Harmony>, someone known for his deep voice and famous for handling major roles throughout his career.
When he defended Han Yeoreum, several others nodded. ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com
“Even just hearing her rapid-fire tongue twisters on <Audio On Air>, it’s hard to lump her together with idols.”
“...Well, true. Among actors, I’d say Do Gyeoul and Han Yeoreum are the best.”
“Did Do Gyeoul get cast too?”
“No, I’m just saying hypothetically. It’s not Do Gyeoul.”
Very quickly, the entire voice acting studio filled with discussion about <Funny Bunny Harmony>.
Half thought Han Yeoreum was acceptable.
The other half still hated the idea because she wasn’t a real voice actor.
Thunk.
Someone deliberately slammed a scriptbook shut.
The gesture was filled with emotion.
“I hate it too.”
She was another voice actor cast in <Funny Bunny Harmony>.
“If all it takes to become a voice actor is having decent pronunciation, then she’s no different from every random nobody out there. Does she think this job is just making cutesy baby voices?”
She was a veteran actress who had failed the voice acting entrance exams over five times.
“If the casting director has any sense at all, they’ll cancel her after hearing a single line.”
And she was the older sister of the flying squirrel Lala.
The protagonist herself, Joy.
“One hundred percent.”
