TLICO 02

Chapter – 02

Suddenly, I heard someone’s voice.

“Ha Eun-rae?”

A woman was standing in front of me. Is this a hospital? Is this person a doctor? But she looks too scruffy to be a doctor. She isn’t even wearing a gown: horn-rimmed glasses, a checkered shirt, and a round, cute face.

‘…Wait.’

This woman is a famous movie director. Jegal Seyeon. She should definitely be well over forty by now… but she looks quite a bit younger than the face I remember.

And the next words out of her mouth were—

“Aren’t you here to audition for ?”

? That’s the title of the independent film Jegal Seyeon directed. That was the very first audition I ever went to.

“I need to set up the camera, so please wait just a moment.”

After saying that, Jegal Seyeon disappeared back into the audition room. Left alone, I looked around and realized the truth.

‘I’ve returned to the past.’

It was a quick judgment, typical of a film person who is used to cinematic tropes. Of course, there was evidence to support my deduction. The numbers on my phone read: 20XX-XX-XX.

And above all else—this script in my hand.

This was Jegal Seyeon’s graduation project for the Film Academy. Twelve years ago, a photographer who attended the same school as Jegal Seyeon had introduced me to this audition.

Back then, my expression hadn’t been very bright at the mention of a “graduation project.”

“A graduation project? You mean a student film?”At that time, I was already making quite a lot of money as an internet shopping mall model, so it didn’t seem like an attractive option.

“It’s a graduation project for the Film Academy, so it’s not just a student film… Above all, it’s a feature-length movie, so they’ll pay you well.”However, my eyes lit up at the words “pay you well.” Back then, my family members were taking turns causing trouble, so no matter how much I earned, the money was constantly flowing out.

‘At the time, I didn’t even know what the Film Academy was.’

The Film Academy is one of the top film schools in Asia. Since graduation projects are often submitted to international film festivals, appearing in one was actually a huge opportunity for an actor.

But having known none of that back then, I naturally assumed I would be picked. And for good reason—I looked into the mirror across the hallway. I was young. And pretty.

‘Well, I was still pretty twelve years ago too.’

The twenty-one-year-old Ha Eun-rae had a unique individuality. Photographers were dying to feature my face in their personal works, and film students I met by chance would contact me every day, begging me to appear in their projects. Even—

‘Look at my skin. It’s glowing…’

I marveled at my own face. After the “Debt-too” scandal, my face had been ruined by all the procedures I got every time I was stressed, but now it was perfectly fine.

The Botox in my jawline, the fillers in my forehead, the fat repositioning—without any of those things, my facial muscles moved freely,y and my expressions were natural. I felt like a national gymnast who had returned to the time before their injury.

‘Is this what they call “hitting the jackpot”?’

I smiled at my reflection. Above all else, this is what makes me happiest about this regression:

‘This is before I ever met Kim Do-un.’

The very last emotion I felt right before dying was ‘regret.’ Regret for my foolish self, who chose Kim Do-un just to escape my trashy family.

I looked at my bare ring finger and thought: I won’t live like that in this life. I won’t think about family; I’ll only think about myself. Me, the things I love, and the very place where I felt the most free: the set. My life as an actress.

‘I will only focus on that.’

The moment I made that vow, someone called my name.

“Ha Eun-rae.”

“Yes?”

When I turned around, a male staff member gestured with his head.

“Please come inside.”

It seemed the audition was starting. For the record, twelve years ago, I returned from this audition after being deeply humiliated. Naturally, the result was a failure.

However, with my current acting skills, there is no reason to be that nervous. The only problem is…

‘…I haven’t read the script yet!’

I’ve only seen this movie twice in my life!

Jegal Seyeon, sitting in the director’s chair at the audition, was in a state of anxiety. While preparing her Film Academy graduation project, she had scrapped and rewritten the scenario multiple times. Because of that, a problem had arisen:

‘I don’t like the script…’

True to her love for comedy, she had been planning a witty and cheerful work, and the concept had been set from the start: ‘The cohabitation of a woman who believes she is a ghost and a man who knows she isn’t.’

The female protagonist, ‘Su-in,’ survives a car accident that kills her parents. Unable to overcome the guilt of being the sole survivor, she lives under the delusion that she is “already dead” and wandering the earth as a spirit.

Consequently, she prepares her meals like offerings for the dead, never looks at the sunlight, rarely washes, and sleeps on the floor instead of a bed. These are all self-destructive acts born from the guilt of “surviving alone,” but they are portrayed in a somewhat comical way.

Yes. Up to that point, all her professors had praised it as interesting. However—

“It starts getting tangled once the male lead appears.”Every professor’s evaluation was the same.

‘I… can’t write romance.’

A woman who thinks she’s a ghost and squats in someone else’s house. And a man who appears to kick that woman out. As soon as she decided to set these two up in a romantic relationship, all sorts of cliché lines started popping out, but the relationship became distorted.

That was why her project, which was initially highly anticipated, began to fall behind every time the script was revised. It started failing from the moment the two characters met. Because of this, Jegal Seyeon’s head was so full of script thoughts that she couldn’t even focus on the audition.

But just then—

“Um… Director.”

A woman called out to Jegal Seyeon. She had a unique, cat-like mask. Pure white skin and sharp features. It was a beautiful face that would make anyone turn their head a second time on the street. But—

‘Actors are usually like that.’

Even if they are that pretty, the charm of most people dies the moment you put a camera in their face. It was when Jegal Seyeon glanced at the camera she had set up beside her while thinking that.

‘…!’

What? Her face looks even better through the camera. Especially the look in her eyes—they’re alive. Her face is pretty when looking normally, but through the camera, it feels like it’s pulling you in. And if she wasn’t mistaken—

‘She knows the angles that make her look good.’

Unusually for a rookie actress, she is aware of how she appears on camera.

‘Like someone who has been acting for ten years…’

Yet, her resume showed no experience, not even in common short films. So, that meant it was just—

‘Natural talent.’

It was while Jegal Seyeon was feeling slightly impressed.

“If it’s alright with you, could I change the script a little and try some improvisation?”

The applicant, ‘Ha Eun-rae,’ said something unexpected. Change the script? Jegal Seyeon’s expectations dipped for a moment. Her “mask” was great, but if she had the type of personality that nitpicks the work, it would be tiring.

There are actors like that sometimes—actors who try to interfere even with the storyboards because they claim they’ve also studied directing.

‘She probably looks down on me because it’s an independent film.’

Was this actress that type? But the look in Ha Eun-rae’s eyes… Jegal Seyeon stared intently at Ha Eun-rae through the camera and finally nodded.

“Yes. Well… give the improvisation a try. Which scene will you be doing?”

At her question, Ha Eun-rae pointed to a scene in the script.

“The scene where the two of them meet for the first time.”

“…!”

Coincidentally, the spot Ha Eun-rae pointed to was exactly where the script started to fall apart. In other words, it was the scene where the two people who were supposed to start a romance met for the first time.

No way…

‘Did she feel it too and pick that spot on purpose?’

Thinking that, Jegal Seyeon felt as if the 21-year-old girl in front of her was seeing right through her—her thirty-three-year-old self.