Chapter 29
“Thank you for watching carefully.”
Daeun shyly accepted the compliment, mixed with a hint of envy, and greeted the other cast members as well.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Kang Daeun.”
Since they were around the same age, the atmosphere quickly became relaxed.
Thanks to that, it seemed the director got the shots they wanted without difficulty. Judging by how quickly the filming wrapped up.
“Good work, everyone!”
After finishing the group shots, individual shots, and closing remarks, Daeun greeted everyone once more and left the set after checking with the director.
“Daeun-ah!”
At that moment, Mihee called out to her.
“I’m so glad to see you. Are you busy?”
She looked like she wanted to talk, but everyone around was holding cameras, filming Daeun.
“Would you like to get in the car for a bit?”
Her manager, Hajung, offered flexibly, and Mihee quickly nodded.
The car carrying Daeun and Mihee started moving. Some people followed for a while, so Hajung stopped briefly. Daeun rolled down the window and waved.
“Be careful on the road. Thank you. It’s cold, so go inside quickly!”
Even though it was early winter and quite chilly, these were people who had been watching her shoot outside. Feeling considerate, Daeun handed out a few of her hand warmers to them.
As the people cleared the way, Hajung slowly sped up. Daeun waved her hand one last time, then confirmed they had entered the road and rolled the window up.
“Wow, Kang Daeun really made it!”
Now that she felt comfortable, Mihee congratulated her casually. Daeun smiled and replied,
“Thanks. How have you been?”
“As you can see. I’ve been going to auditions and doing some minor ad appearances.”
Mihee praised her, saying she had known Daeun would succeed since college. Hajung, driving, asked,
“We have a schedule to follow. Where should we drop you off?”
“Oh, just near the subway station on your way. Thank you!”
The conversation naturally shifted to updates about their peers.
Who went to which movie audition, who was cast in which drama, and so on. Then,
“By the way, you’re doing a drama with Noh Hyeyoung, right?”
At the mention of Hyeyoung, Daeun unconsciously forced a smile to hide the stiffness at the corners of her mouth. Fortunately, Mihee didn’t notice the change and continued.
“Hyeyoung’s doing well, you’re doing well. Everyone’s curious if you’ll come to the graduation.”
Daeun’s batch was graduating this year.
Mihee chattered about how curious their peers were—how they got cast in auditions, how filming goes, if they saw many other celebrities, and so on.
“Oh! But is it true? That your leg got injured?”
Mihee suddenly asked, recalling an SNS post and an article that mentioned seeing Daeun at the hospital.
“Yeah. It’s almost healed.”
Daeun thanked her for the concern, and Mihee, glancing at the manager driving, whispered,
“Did Noh Hyeyoung do that?”
Daeun was surprised by the question, but since there was no concrete evidence, she didn’t want to speculate. She simply shook her head with a smile.
Unfortunately, the behind-the-scenes footage Hajung had seen didn’t capture Hyeyoung smiling immediately after pushing Daeun.
“Since she has a history, I thought maybe this time too.”
History? Was she talking about what happened in their third year? But Hyeyoung hadn’t talked about that before.
Daeun tilted her head in confusion. Mihee clicked her tongue and continued.
“Do you remember Lee Sunju? Back in our third year. Hyeyoung and Sunju fell, and you got pushed and fell too. Remember?”
So it was indeed about that incident. Mihee continued, saying that Hyeyoung seemed to have tried to hurt Sunju on purpose, and that’s why Sunju and Hyeyoung had a big fight recently.
“Thinking it over, it’s clear Hyeyoung did it on purpose! I saw it completely this time. Be careful too.”
“I will.”
Daeun nodded awkwardly, smiling slightly. Mihee glanced at her and said,
“You two are close, right? Did I say too much? Just pretend you didn’t hear it.”
After saying everything she wanted, Mihee retracted, and Daeun smiled faintly.
“No. Thanks for worrying.”
Mihee, secretly watching Daeun, teased,
“So you two drifted apart?”
It wasn’t something Daeun needed to hide, so she nodded lightly.
When the subway station appeared outside, Mihee prepared to get off and sighed, as if she had expected this.
“Honestly, Hyeyoung’s jealousy was so obvious.”
“Really?”
Daeun curled her lips bitterly. Why hadn’t she realized it before going back in time?
“Hyeyoung denied being jealous, but every time she watched you act, her eyes would narrow like this.”
Mihee gestured to her own eyes, pulling the corners wide as she got her bag ready to get off.
“Anyway. It was nice seeing you. Next time, let’s meet on a project?”
Hajung stopped the car in front of the station, and Mihee opened the door and waved goodbye.
“Thanks for the ride! Bye!”
She waved until the car disappeared.
“……”
Looking out the tinted window, Daeun drifted into thought. Hyeyoung’s jealousy had really been that obvious to others.
From a distance, it’s all visible. Ironically, up close, it’s not.
If she hadn’t heard Hyeyoung’s confession before going back, she might have continued being close with her without realizing anything. The thought gave her chills.
She was lucky the same mistake didn’t repeat.
Mihee exhaled deeply as she watched Daeun’s car drive away.
She knew Kang Daeun was the model for the coffee brand ad she was appearing in, but facing her in person made Mihee feel envy and awkwardness.
Still.
“Maybe I should’ve said something months ago?”
A few months back, Hyeyoung had asked around in the acting department about an incident involving a paramedic visit to the classroom.
Due to the ambulance and police investigating, the story had spread throughout the school. A gas burner almost exploded in the acting department.
But only a few knew that Daeun had been the victim.
Daeun had stayed up preparing for the Secret Letter audition and planned to meet Hyeyoung in the classroom. Mihee and Sunju were there. Daeun fell asleep from exhaustion, and Mihee and Sunju left for their seasonal classes.
Then the accident happened.
It was hard to explain unless someone had done it on purpose. Why did Daeun get up and turn on the burner while alone?
Hyeyoung, who was supposed to meet Daeun, seemed most suspicious, though there was no evidence.
She had even asked Mihee and Sunju about the sequence of events and seemed disappointed that Daeun hadn’t been hurt.
“Ah… If Daeun had been hurt, I’d have passed Secret Letter.”
Mihee and Sunju had scowled at Hyeyoung’s absurd comment, and she laughed it off as a joke.
Sunju scolded her, saying even as a joke, that was unacceptable.
Hyeyoung snapped back:
“Hey, Lee Sunju. Didn’t you push Kang Daeun in third year and break her leg?”
“You pushed me by accident trying to balance yourself! Did I do it on purpose? And speak correctly—Daeun tripped over your feet!”
“Exactly, you could’ve fallen yourself. Why drag someone else down?”
“What? Unbelievable. Did you really hope I’d fall like that?”
Sunju left Hyeyoung speechless, only letting out a hollow laugh.
Thanks to Daeun getting hurt in the final practical play, Hyeyoung took the lead role. Who could say anything about that?
Hyeyoung left abruptly, and Sunju and Mihee suspected she might have tampered with the gas burner.
They had resolved to mention it if they met Daeun today.
“Eh. What’s the point of saying it now?”
Since she had already fallen out with Hyeyoung, it was fine. She had warned Daeun and shared that Hyeyoung had always been jealous. No need to tell her unnecessarily.
The cars sped past, and the cold made Mihee pull her shoulders up as she hurried down to the subway station, feeling bitter.
A few days later, the convention center conference hall borrowed from the Jackpot film company was bustling with preparations for a reading.
Most of the actors had arrived, and the reading was about to begin.
Reporters were gathered around, snapping photos from designated seats around the hall.
“Wow. This is huge.”
Sitting down, reporter Lee Cheolsu opened his laptop.
The high-profile director, production team, and actors had drawn public attention to Jackpot, attracting many journalists.
While preparing to write articles, Daeun was noticed conversing comfortably with senior actors.
Seeing her brought Hyeyoung to mind.
This reporter had visited the We Will Surely set repeatedly last month at President Hong Museok’s request, intending to write a good article about Hyeyoung.
He also wanted to observe the relationship between Hyeyoung and Kang Daeun.
Then, by chance, he saw it:
Hyeyoung grinning bizarrely right after Kang Daeun had fallen.
