Life, Once Again!

After Story 146

“You tried to use me like that?” Dawoon said her line as she looked at her partnering actor.

Today, she was feeling good. She could remember her lines like they were printed right in front of her eyes, and it was easier to get into the emotions. Not to mention her own physical condition, the actor in front of her did not make any mistakes either.

She pushed the chair away and stood up. She walked straight forward with her back to the camera.

“Okay. We’ll go with this one.”

She heard the producer speak. She smiled and greeted the people around her.

“Good work, everyone. Thank you for your work.”

“Miss Dawoon, great work. Your acting was really good today.”

“It’s thanks to you, director.”

“I’m feeling that it’s thanks to you, Miss Dawoon. How are the responses from the people around you these days? I think there must be quite a lot of people who recognize you now.”

Dawoon pretended to be embarrassed as she spoke,

“Thankfully, a lot of the adults recognize me. Especially the ladies, they tell me that I’m good at acting vicious. Sometimes they even come up to me and slap my back and call me a bad woman.”

“That’s because your acting is so good. The writer also seems to have taken a liking to the character you were acting as she said that she’s going to write new events that involve more of you. You must have it good.”

“All I’m doing is acting according to the script, so I’m really thankful that people are looking out for me.”

Dawoon politely said goodbye to the production crew until the moment she left the set. Only after returning to the car with her manager did she sigh in relief.

“Good work.”

“Oppa, how was I today?”

“How were you? You were great. I told you last time, right? That my mother is a fan of yours. These days, whenever you’re on TV, she’s absorbed in the TV to watch every one of your works. She tells me how good you are. Then sometimes she asks me stuff like whether she has a bad personality like in the drama.”

“What did you tell her?”

“I said that she’s angelic. She looks out for those around her, never frowns no matter how hard it is, and is even hard working. The president said during the get-together that signing a contract with you was the best thing he did this whole year.”

Dawoon smiled at the praises given to her. While the car was on the road, she took a photo to upload to social media. The title was ‘On the move to the next shoot.’

As soon as she uploaded it, she got many hearts and comments. She repeatedly read the comments that people gave her.

These people loved her. It was a sense of pleasure that she couldn’t describe with words. Whenever she was offered the chance to join a daily drama, she actually felt rather awkward about it. After all, daily dramas were a level lower level than mini-series dramas.

However, she turned out to be wrong. Perhaps thanks to her villainess character, people’s awareness of her increased rapidly. Not to mention people in their middle ages, many young people recognized her as well. She appeared on the radio and even on some TV programs.

She sent a text message to Na Baekhoon. It was he who introduced her to the producer of the drama.

It was thanks to consulting with him that the name value of the actress known as Jung Dawoon had increased severalfold in the past few months. Choosing to be with him during their first meeting was the best decision she made. Na Baekhoon was a skilled businessman just as he had guaranteed.

-We’ll arrive soon.

Today, there was a photo shoot: a collab between Eterium and Friendly Aroma.

She had heard that different-textured materials were going to be used in an attempt to express them in the form of smell rather than impression, but she couldn’t understand what that really meant.

She had heard that what models did were no different from an ordinary photo shoot, so she decided not to mind.

Having arrived at the set, Dawoon received another round of makeup. It was not like makeup for a drama that had to look natural, but makeup that pronounced the lighter and darker parts.

“I think it’d be better to make her eyebrows a little thicker.”

Those words were from Na Baekhoon, who had appeared without her knowing. He told the makeup artist to move and touched up her face himself.

“You learned to do makeup?”

“As a hobby.”

Considering that, his touches were quick and delicate. Dawoon exclaimed in admiration as she looked at the mirror. Reflected by the mirror was a woman who had a provocative gaze.

“Today, you’re shooting with Han Haneul, huh,” said Na Baekhoon.

“I’m going to be better.”

She had the confidence. Han Haneul was definitely the ideal that she had been pursuing. However, she had also changed dramatically in the past few months. She had less of her sense of urgency and gained more leisure.

Strictly speaking, she wasn’t lacking compared to Han Haneul in any way. She strived to become similar to Han Haneul and now believed that she was able to supersede her.

While she was making her name known through various forms of media, Han Haneul was staying still. By next year, the gap between them would widen so much that she wouldn’t have to worry anymore.

“Did you talk to that man?” asked Na Baekhoon as he touched the back of her neck.

It was a touch she was used to, but she slapped his hand away today.

“I made an appointment next week. He’s doing a shoot as well. We’re both busy, so we barely made the time.”

“What are you going to tell him if you meet him?”

“I’ll just show him how much I’ve changed.”

“What if he doesn’t show much interest?”

“I don’t care. There’s plenty of time. People are bound to become fed up. Especially if there’s a replacement option.”

“Isn’t it a sad thing to say that you’re a replacement?”

“It’s the truth. Also, I might be a replacement before I am chosen, but once I am chosen, I’ll be the only woman for that oppa, so it’s fine.”

“Let’s say things go well and you get acknowledged by that man and you get that man. What’s next?”

Next? Dawoon looked at her own figure through the mirror. What should she do next? She imagined spending her days with Maru. She would definitely be happy. Maru was a good person after all.

But how long would that last?

“Someone told me people are bound to get fed up.”

Na Baekhoon opened the door, telling her to continue preparing. Dawoon asked as he was about to leave,

“How long are you going to help me? Are you going to keep helping me while I’m seeing you?”

“I plan to. I think the person known as Jung Dawoon is pretty interesting. There are many people who live with a knife underneath their tongues, but you at least have shown that knife openly. I like such people,” he said as he closed the door.

“But you’re right. People are bound to get fed up. Maybe that’s why they strive not to get fed up with each other.”

Dawoon looked at the closed door and clenched her hands.

She had just started gaining a reputation as an actress. The one who provided her with the opportunity to do so was Na Baekhoon. She still needed him for now. Perhaps, she would continue to need him.

How long would this relationship of providing each other what they each needed, last?

She touched her cheek which had stiffened up. Then she looked down at her own body.

Beauty. That was the only value that allowed Jung Dawoon to be Jung Dawoon.

She threw the cereal bar in front of her into the trash. She didn’t know why, but she felt like she had gained some weight on her neck. She also felt like there was unnecessary flesh on her line that extended from her breasts to her flank.

“Calm down Jung Dawoon. You’re okay. You’re the best.”

As she was muttering as though to hypnotize herself, the door to the break room opened.

“Miss Dawoon. Long time no see.”

It was Han Haneul. She took off her sunglasses and naturally sat in front of a makeup table.

“It’ll be October soon, but it sure is still hot,” Haneul said naturally.

Dawoon looked at the mirror and replied, “I’m sure it’ll cool down soon.”

“I really hope so. Oh right, I’m really enjoying the drama. Your acting was really good.”

“Thank you. This is my first time playing a supporting character in a drama, so I was worried, but I’m relieved that everyone thinks well of me.”

It was a little hard to speak with a smile. The words Na Baekhoon left behind were stuck in her head.

“I’m sure you’ll do well in the future too.”

Haneul took out some cosmetics from her bag. She turned her face left and right while looking at the mirror before starting to tone her skin with some cosmetic cotton.

“You’re doing it yourself?” Dawoon asked.

“It’s commonplace for actors and actresses who haven’t done much work. I’m not in a position where I could ask for a manager from my agency, so there’s no way I have a stylist.”

“For someone on your level, it wouldn’t be strange to have an exclusive manager.”

“Agencies are businesses. They aren’t lenient enough to waste their manpower on a person who has yet to prove their worth.”

Even as she spoke, Haneul moved her hands. Whenever her hands brushed her face, her impression changed slightly.

Dawoon watched as Haneul put on makeup. Given enough time, she could put on makeup like that with no problem. However, she didn’t have the confidence to do it as quickly as Haneul did. Haneul’s touches didn’t contain any hesitation as though she had been working with makeup her whole life. She was accurate as well; there was not a single mistake in her makeup.

Was it possible to do that while chatting?

“What is it?” Haneul asked after finishing her makeup.

Dawoon got herself together and spoke,

“It was just, you were so good. Where did you learn to do that?”

“I learned from the people around me.”

Haneul snapped her cosmetics shut and stood up.

“I saw on my way in that everyone seemed to be done with preparations. I think they’ll start as soon as we go out.”

“Oh, okay.”

Her thought to lead the conversation ended just as a thought. She passively responded to every one of Haneul’s words and actions.

She thought as she looked at Haneul’s back: What was so different about her? Why was there such a gap?

And lastly, what was she supposed to do with this glaring sense of inferiority within her?

“The drama shoot was rather hard,” she said as she stood next to Haneul.

She had to talk about something she was superior to Haneul in. As Haneul had not done any proper works yet, she would only smile awkwardly if Dawoon talked about the drama.

“It is quite hard. The schedule’s really tough to keep up with,” Haneul responded as though she knew everything.

Dawoon didn’t like that. Haneul should not have experienced how tough a drama schedule is, yet she spoke as though she experienced everything.

“You’re going to have to look out for your health when you shoot a drama later, unni. I also had quite the confidence in my stamina, but after shooting late into the night several times, it was quite hard.”

“That’s why it’s a lot more convenient to change your night and day schedule early on. You sleep when you see the sun rising and wake up along with the moon rising.”

“That’s not as easy as you say it is,” she said with a smile.

“It’ll be better if you get used to it. Everything’s hard at first, but you get more proficient as you keep doing it.”

“But unni, you… don’t know what it feels like. You haven’t done any works yet.”

Haneul, who was walking next to her, suddenly stopped. She also instantly regretted what she said.

The nuance of her words was not good. It was not good to pick a fight with her like that. Jung Dawoon could not stoop to such low heights.

Haneul must have thought that she was being dismissive. It was just as she thought that she would get an aggressive response in return,

Haneul clenched her eyes shut and opened them again before waving her hand.

“You’re right, Miss Dawoon. I’m not that well aware.”

“...Yes.”

She suddenly lost her energy. This woman really didn’t get along with her.

Above everything else, Dawoon didn’t like those eyes. They were the eyes that did not scan the surface but looked deep inside. Those eyes looked at everything.

She knew one person who had eyes like that. The kind and gentle Maru-oppa.

Haneul started walking again. Dawoon walked from a little distance away.

Haneul shouldn’t have anything better than her, so how could she respond like that? If Haneul showed slight wariness while looking at her or showed a sense of crisis, then Dawoon wouldn’t be feeling as uneasy as this.

However, Haneul just looked at her with a smile, as though that was enough.

“Miss Dawoon.”

“Yes?”

“When we’re at the shoot, let’s focus on the shoot. If you have anything to say after that, then I’ll listen to everything. I can’t stand prolonging the shoot more than necessary.”

Haneul stepped into the set with a wink. Dawoon twitched her lips before she walked forward.