Chapter 42: Protagonist (1)

The sports day and the school festival that only came around once a year was finally over. The students returned to their usual daily lives, but there was one change in Ra-Eun’s life. She no longer actively played sports nor went to the PC Room with the boys much.

She was all for hanging out with friends, but she had decided to put some distance with the boys since another guy like Sang-Woon could come to see her as a girl and not a friend.

‘I guess men and women can’t be friends...’

Ra-Eun had no idea how to deal with it. She deeply sighed. She had basically no problems with those of the same sex, but very close friendships between the opposite sex could turn into love all too easily.

It was not hard to find people of the opposite sex who were close friends in school who then started dating and got married down the line. Hence, it was best to put some boundaries in a relationship between men and women. She had seen such instances often, even before she became a high school girl.

But despite that, she had let her guard down. She undoubtedly learned that she needed to be more careful from now on. But even so...

‘It’s seriously bothersome how much Sang-Woon has been avoiding me.’

After being rejected, Choi Sang-Woon had been keeping even more distance from Ra-Eun than she had been planning to with him. He had also blatantly run away from her several times.

‘I guess I have no choice.’

Ra-Eun approached Sang-Woon first.

“Hey, Sang-Woon.”

Sang-Woon was startled by Ra-Eun. He replied, “Y-Yeah?”

“Come with me for a sec.”

Ra-Eun couldn’t stand awkward moods like this. She was the straightforward kind of person, and she would treat Sang-Woon the same way. Sang-Woon reluctantly got up from his seat and followed her.

They went to a large area between Class 5 and 6, which led to stairs. There were even chairs provided for students to sit and chat. Ra-Eun sat down first and pointed to the seat next to hers.

“Come take a seat.”

“...”

“What? You don’t want to?”

“N-No, it’s not that...”

He awkwardly took a seat next to Ra-Eun.

Ra-Eun got straight to the point of why she brought Sang-Woon here.

“Are you avoiding me because I turned you down?”

“Well...”

He would be lying if he said that wasn’t the case. Ra-Eun knew all too well the feelings of a man. However, she hated the thought of their relationship continuing like this, so she had decided to honestly tell Sang-Woon exactly what was on her mind.

“I’ve never seen you as a man, but I’ve always seen you as a good friend. We played basketball, football, and went to the PC Room to play Starcraft together, and I always had a great time doing those things with you. So, I just want you to know that I didn’t turn you down because I hate you.”

Ra-Eun had turned Sang-Woon down simply because she was far too repulsed by the idea of having a boyfriend. She felt frustrated that she couldn’t openly tell him everything, but she wanted to tell him as much of how she felt as she could. It was up to Sang-Woon how he would accept it.

“That’s all I wanted to tell you. I’m done, so you can go,” Ra-Eun remarked.

“...”

Sang-Woon said to Ra-Eun in embarrassment, “Thanks, Ra-Eun. You’re way kinder than I thought.”

Kindness was not one of the words that could describe Ra-Eun, but Sang-Woon thought otherwise.

“But even so, I don’t regret confessing to you.”

Although he was rejected, it was much better to be flatly turned down than to forever hold onto his feelings. Before heading back to the classroom, Sang-Woon brought up something else that he had almost forgotten about.

“And there’s one more reason why I was avoiding you...”

“What is it?” Ra-Eun asked.

Sang-Woon thought that he might as well take this chance to resolve all the misunderstandings.

“During the festival, when you came into the classroom while that video was... I wasn’t the one who suggested we watch it. I tried to stop them, but...”

“Oh, that?”

Ra-Eun looked at Sang-Woon with understanding eyes.

“It’s okay. That’s just how all boys in puberty are like. You don’t have to clarify so desperately like that. I get that you’re into Japanese women. I understand it all.”

“No, that’s not...”

“Classes are gonna start soon. Let’s go.”

“R-Ra-Eun! That’s seriously not it!”

Ra-Eun thought that the misunderstandings had been resolved after their heart-to-heart talk, but Sang-Woon couldn’t have been more frustrated.

***

It had been a while since she went to GNF Entertainment with Shin Yu-Bin after school. She was heading there because Chief Jung had said that he had something really big for her. Ra-Eun asked Yu-Bin what it was about, but Yu-Bin kept repeating?“Who knows?”.

Was she acting like that because she didn’t know? No, there was no way.

‘She’s pretending not to know.’

Ra-Eun may not have looked like it, but she was an actress. Yu-Bin couldn’t fool the eyes of a professional. She could tell from just a glance that Yu-Bin was acting. She had no idea what kind of surprise Chief Jung had in store for her to even get her manager to join in on it, but it didn’t seem to be anything bad based on the mood.

‘I guess I’ll go along with the flow.’

As soon as she got out of the car, Ra-Eun headed with Yu-Bin to the meeting room where Chief Jung was waiting. Chief Jung greeted her with a smile as she opened the door.

“Welcome, Ra-Eun. It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

“Not really.”

It had only been two weeks since they hadn’t seen each other, so it was a bit too short to call it a while. Ra-Eun had been focusing on her studies ever since the filming of season 2 of The Devil’s Touch finished. The drama was over and she had been put on standby until some other work was put on the table, so she had no particular reason to meet with Chief Jung.

Chief Jung took something out for Ra-Eun to see, calling it a gift to her.

“Why don’t you look this over?” he mentioned.

“What is it?” Ra-Eun asked.

It was a thick script. The first thing that caught her attention was the title.

[I Will Guide You (Working Title)]

“Is it a drama script?”

Chief Jung had called her for something work-related. He affirmed Ra-Eun’s question and said confidently, “Yup. Take a look at the synopsis, too.”

Ra-Eun could tell from just a glance of his expression that he had brought something good. She skimmed through the script like Chief Jung had asked.

It was a modern fantasy drama. Its contents were simple. It was a romance story of a girl who had been assigned a mission to guide the souls of the dead to the afterlife, and a man with spiritual powers, who had fallen in love with her.

“There are a lot of fantasy dramas like this these days. There was one about ghosts staying at a hotel, and another about exorcists running a noodle shop.”

Romance dramas with a tinge of fantasy aspects were the trend as of late. The drama script that Ra-Eun had received was also one of them.

“What do you think? Do you like it?” Chief Jung asked.

“It’s not bad,” Ra-Eun answered.

She felt like she had seen a drama with such a concept before. However, she had not been madly obsessed with dramas in her past life to know every single one of them. She just watched as much as the average person, so she couldn’t quite tell what the drama that she had been looking at the script of was.

“Do you want to star in it, then?”

Ra-Eun knew Chief Jung would say that. There was no way that he would just show her a script for no reason. She had already guessed that he showed it to her because the drama team had sent her a casting offer.

“Is this the gift that you said you had prepared for me?” Ra-Eun asked.

“Of course.”

“What’s my role?”

She had expected to get a minor role like she had in The Devil’s Touch, but Chief Jung’s answer far surpassed her expectations.

“The program director wants to entrust the role of Jin Seo-Yu to you.”

Jin Seo-Yu. That was the name of the drama’s female grim reaper protagonist.

***

Ra-Eun was shocked by Chief Jung’s answer.

“Not a minor role, but the female lead role?”

“Yes! The program director thinks quite highly of you. Not only that, but the character is supposed to be super chic, full of confidence and have a strong personality, so I think it’s a perfect fit for you. What do you think? It’s great, right?”

The setting itself certainly was not bad. She would be a much better fit for Jin Seo-Yu than the character that she played in The Devil’s Touch. However, there was a glaring problem.

“The only acting experience that I have is in a minor role. How could I possibly take on the role of a female lead out of the blue like this?”

“Come on, the most important factors in casting are skill and the ability to immerse oneself into the role. It has nothing to do with work experience. It’s not like people with tons of work experience get all the lead roles, right?”

Chief Jung was not wrong. Connections and the power of the agency that one was affiliated with were definitely important, but an actor could only be as successful as their talent in acting. Ra-Eun was quite talented as an actress, and also possessed something that other actresses did not.

“You’re good at action scenes. The character Jin Seo-Yu requires the actress to enact a lot of advanced action scenes.”

The setting of the character Jin Seo-Yu had tons of components that Ra-Eun wanted and was confident in doing. It was as if the character itself was inspired by her. But of course, she couldn’t know whether or not it actually was.

“This is a huge opportunity, Ra-Eun. You rarely see an actress who hasn’t even been in the industry for half a year to get casted for a lead role.”

Chief Jung was trying to say that she should seize the opportunity since it was too valuable to pass up.

Ra-Eun closed the script. She knew what Chief Jung was trying to say, but she did not have much of an interest in the entertainment industry. What she really wanted was revenge.

Ra-Eun answered, “I’ll think about it.”

It felt like she would need a very long time to make her decision.

1. Hotel del Luna

2. The Uncanny Counter