Chapter 4
Ga-yoon gripped the entrance door of the set and waited for the director’s cue, building up her emotions.
No, it would be more accurate to say she lowered her energy.
She lowered the corners of her eyes and mouth and relaxed her shoulders. Instead, she tilted her chin up slightly to make herself look arrogant.
The villain she was playing, Na Yu-joo, was a chaebol steeped in aristocratic elitism.
She was a bigot who pretended to be merciful toward people she considered beneath her while flaunting her superiority without restraint.
That was why being struck down by a heroine she considered insignificant must have hurt her pride so much.
“Cue!”
At the director’s signal, Ga-yoon straightened and entered the house.
The moment she did, her gaze darkened.
She sank completely into the role.
The evil spirit nestled around her neck writhed blackly with delight.
Creak— Bang!
The housekeeper, who had been tidying the kitchen, wiped the water from her hands on her apron and came out to greet her.
“You’re home?”
The daughter of the household usually would have simply nodded and walked inside.
But unlike usual, she stopped.
She slightly furrowed her brow and fixed her gaze on the housekeeper.
It was clearly written in the script.
Yet the supporting actress playing the housekeeper nervously moistened her lips and watched her carefully.
Had this actress always been this realistic?
The character wasn’t particularly different from what they had practiced, but how should she put it?
Even from the way Na Yu-joo simply stared at her, the contempt lurking beneath her gaze felt as though it were pricking the skin.
As if suppressing her rising anger, Yu-joo spoke in a short, cold voice.
“Water. Bring me some. Cold.”
“Oh, yes. Right away.”
The housekeeper, flustered by the sharp atmosphere, felt her heart pounding as though she had been severely scolded by her parents as a child.
She instinctively felt that she would be harshly reprimanded if she did anything to irritate her.
“H-here……”
Feeling as though she were walking on thin ice, the housekeeper quietly approached and handed her the glass with both hands.
Ga-yoon looked at the glass before turning her gaze straight ahead.
Sitting upright in the most prominent seat in the living room was Na Yu-joo herself.
The supporting actress forgot the existence of the camera for the first time while watching Jeong Ga-yoon act.
“……”
Na Yu-joo didn’t even spare the housekeeper a glance.
Instead, she lightly tapped the side table.
Slowly.
It was a clear indication that she didn’t even want to touch the housekeeper’s hands and that the glass should simply be left there.
Gulp.
Not wanting to provoke her, the housekeeper silently placed the glass of water on the side table.
She took one or two steps backward before turning and heading toward the kitchen.
Then Na Yu-joo let out a disbelieving chuckle that quietly echoed through the living room.
“Ha……!”
The housekeeper felt goosebumps rise along the back of her neck and approached Na Yu-joo again.
“Is there a problem……?”
Thud!
Na Yu-joo irritably set down the glass she had briefly touched to her lips.
There was no change in her expression, yet her displeasure was unmistakable.
“Try it.”
The housekeeper hesitated.
But she had to drink the water.
That was what the script called for.
Yet for some reason, she didn’t want to.
Na Yu-joo’s gaze was so vicious that the water looked as though it might contain poison.
They were on the verge of an NG.
Splash!
As though even that moment of hesitation had offended her, Na Yu-joo picked up the glass and abruptly splashed the water all over the housekeeper.
“Eek!”
The supporting actress instantly snapped out of it, her breath catching.
Na Yu-joo slowly rose from the sofa.
She began tapping the side table with the glass in her hand.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
The sound falling at regular intervals heightened the tension.
“Is it cold?”
They had returned to the script.
The supporting actress hurriedly wiped the water from her face and instinctively took a step backward.
Na Yu-joo’s gaze was cold as she looked down at her from her greater height.
Her expression was blank, and she barely moved.
Yet the housekeeper felt an instinctive fear, as though the slightest lapse in attention would result in a venomous bite that would leave her mortally wounded.
The supporting actress was too terrified to even manage the line about bringing another glass.
She answered as though being chased.
“Y-yes……”
She had forgotten the script and merely let the words slip out under the pressure of her costar.
Fortunately, it was the correct line.
Na Yu-joo’s already pale complexion hardened even further.
The supporting actress couldn’t stop her lower jaw from trembling.
Tap……
The sound of the glass tapping against the table finally stopped.
A suffocating silence followed.
At some point, Na Yu-joo raised her hand and hurled the glass she was holding onto the living-room table with all her strength.
Crash!
The glass shattered into countless pieces, scattering everywhere.
Unable to control the anger surging inside her, she ran a trembling hand through her hair.
Then—
“Hah!”
She let out a tiny snort of laughter.
“Hahahahaha!”
She burst into laughter, clutching her stomach and bending forward.
“Ahahahahahahahaha!”
It was the moment the villain revealed the true nature she had been hiding beneath a facade of mercy.
She looked utterly consumed by madness.
Everyone on set was so tense that no one dared even breathe too loudly.
Seeing her laugh so freely, the supporting actress who had been tense began to relax.
Smack!
As though she had been waiting for that exact moment, Na Yu-joo swung her hand and slapped the housekeeper across the face.
“……!”
The petite woman’s body was sent staggering backward by the tremendous force and collapsed onto the sofa opposite her.
The supporting actress curled up, trembling from the shock.
It hadn’t actually hurt as much as she expected.
Just as they had rehearsed, Jeong Ga-yoon had curled her palm inward to create a cushion of air and swung her hand as though pushing rather than striking, making the sound louder than the actual impact.
Yet she couldn’t shake off the chills caused by the way Ga-yoon’s acting seemed to toy with the other person’s emotions and tension, tightening and loosening them at will.
“AAAAAAAAAH!”
Na Yu-joo, who had been laughing hysterically, now screamed furiously, the veins in her neck bulging.
The startled supporting actress clutched her cheek and struggled helplessly on the sofa, unable even to get away.
“Haaah……”
Na Yu-joo’s sigh warmed the air through her disheveled hair.
“You’re quite the tragic heroine, aren’t you?”
Her sarcastic tone and the way she directed her gaze toward somewhere far away made it unmistakable that the person Na Yu-joo was talking about was the heroine, Lee Ha-yeon.
“How are you people all so alike? How can you be so completely incapable of knowing your place?”
Na Yu-joo’s face, which had been pouring out rage in a rapid-fire torrent, gradually settled into calmness again.
“……”
Looking at the housekeeper as though she were seeing Lee Ha-yeon reflected in the weak and powerless woman, Na Yu-joo began walking toward her.
“If you don’t know your place and dare to crawl your way up……”
Once again, she raised her chin proudly and looked down at her.
A sinister smile appeared on her lips.
“Then you have to be stepped on.”
Na Yu-joo passed the housekeeper coldly and disappeared regally out of frame.
After a brief silence—
“Cut!”
The director’s voice rang across the set.
Ga-yoon hurried out from beyond the camera frame and rushed over to the supporting actress.
“Are you okay……? I’m sorry!”
She helped the supporting actress up from the sofa and wiped the water from her face with her own sleeve.
The actress was old enough to be her mother.
Ga-yoon had become completely absorbed in the acting the moment she heard the cue, but she still felt sorry.
She had only needed to make sure they didn’t have to film the slapping scene two or three times.
It seemed she had gone a little too far.
Unable to figure out what to do, she anxiously checked the supporting actress’s condition.
“Oh, I’m fine. It’s okay.”
The supporting actress reassured her and waved away her concern.
Min-ji, who had been watching, quickly handed over the towel she had brought and even draped a blanket over the supporting actress’s shoulders.
Ga-yoon helped the supporting actress to her feet and accompanied her to the monitoring table.
“Director, I’m sorry. We could have stopped for a moment and continued……”
She had gotten too immersed.
It had been a somewhat startling experience for Ga-yoon herself.
She wondered if she had ever become this deeply absorbed in acting before.
“Ah, hold on. Let’s monitor it first.”
The director’s expression was neither good nor bad.
However, the more he watched the footage, the more satisfied his expression became.
The take had turned out well.
Even the supporting actress smiled as though satisfied and patted the back of Ga-yoon’s hand.
“Good. Very good. Okay.”
Clap, clap, clap.
The applause was dry, but it was clearly positive.
“Let’s call it okay. We’ll use this for the overall shoot. Just get the close-up from the side, then move on.”
While they monitored the footage, the cameraman captured an insert shot of the broken glass, and the staff began rearranging the set for the side shot.
“Wow. Ms. Jeong Ga-yoon, you’re good. You’re really good.”
The director looked at Ga-yoon with his eyes shining as though he had just discovered a rough diamond.
“That was excellent.”
It wasn’t the first time she had received praise like this.
But this was the first time someone had looked so genuinely moved by her acting while praising her so sincerely.
“Thank you.”
The corners of Ga-yoon’s mouth, which had been tense with worry after improvising, slowly relaxed.
“All right, let’s get the side shot!”
The director shouted and clapped twice to refocus everyone’s attention.
The staff immediately returned to their positions.
They were going to capture the side shot starting from Na Yu-joo entering through the front door.
Ga-yoon stood in front of the set and subtly touched the area around her collarbone.
She had acted as realistically as she could.
She wondered if the amount of time she had left had increased.
“The Conditions of Inheritance, Episode 11, Scene 21. Side shot at the entrance. Ready.”
But there was no time to check.
“Cue!”
Ga-yoon slowly took a deep breath, closed her eyes, then opened them as she immersed herself in the role.
At that same time, at High-Top Entertainment—
“What the hell happened to our daughter to make her face look like this?!”
Geum Sa-ra, the CEO of High-Top Entertainment, was horrified when she saw Baek Ga-yoon’s severely injured face.
She rushed toward her daughter.
