“No. It wasn’t us that did it.”

Park Hoon told the girl on the stage, who seemed to be dusting her shoulder, to stop.

“Uhm, Miss Han Yoonmi.”

“Yes!”

What a bright reply. He clicked his tongue and told her to stand still.

“Like this?”

“Yes. And try saying the line you just said again.”

“No. It wasn’t us that di….”

“Stop. Why are you shaking your shoulders like that? Are you trying to dance?” Park Hoon asked as he shook his own shoulders.

The girl couldn’t reply so she stayed quiet.

“I’m not sure how it might look from afar, but you look really frantic when you’re zoomed in on with the camera. Did you not act in front of a camera at your acting school? Have you never seen yourself on the monitor?”

“I have, but….”

“Then why are you like that?”

The girl hesitated with her clenched fist on her mouth before walking back without saying anything.

“Uhm, senior.”

The junior producer, who was watching from the side, pointed at the girl’s profile as he talked to him. There was a blue checkmark on it.

“Oh, looks like I wasn’t clear, huh. When I told you to stand on the right side, I meant that you shouldn’t be standing on the same side as someone like me.”

Park Hoon put a cross on the name ‘Han Yoonmi’ with a black marker. The junior looked at him with shock. The blue ‘recommendation’ mark. Park Hoon wasn’t swayed by such underhanded tactics. This always made him clash with the chief producer, but it didn’t really matter to him that much since the chief producer would stay quiet as long as he produced good results. This area was practically in the hands of advertisers anyway. It meant that the one that got good viewing rates was king.

“Don’t scold them so much. You’ll make them cry.”

“Are you here to play around? And also, that was at most a piece of sincere advice.”

“Like hell that was. Next,” said Miri as she looked at the stage.

This time, a girl stepped up with a fresh smile on her face. She looked to be in her early twenties. Park Hoon looked at the profile. She belonged to the agency Crystal. So this was the one that team leader Kang talked about?

“Hello! My name is Lee Joomin. Please take care of me.”

A clear voice entered his ears. Her voice received a pass. Park Hoon nodded and told her to start her free skit. She stood at the center of the stage and took a deep breath before smiling brightly. Her skit was her confessing to her friend that she had gotten a boyfriend. The romantic feelings of first love could be felt. Her second skit was a completely opposite one, she did a sad act this time. He didn’t like that she was trying to look pretty while crying, but her expression wasn’t that bad.

“She’s not bad,” Miri said.

Park Hoon also nodded.

“What do you think, junior?”

“Eh? I think she’s okay as well.”

“What part about her is okay?”

“Uhm….”

“Are you going to use her if it was up to you?”

“Yes. I think she would make the cast.”

“Why? Tell me the reason you’re thinking about right now.”

“Because she’s cute. I think a cheerful student might suit her.”

“Right. Keep practicing expressing your own thoughts in words. A producer’s plan begins with materializing abstract thoughts.”

He moved his eyes away from the nodding junior and looked at the girl in front of him.

“Miss Lee Joomin.”

“Yes.”

“There’s a character in the drama who is an aspiring singer. Can you try singing?”

“You said that an idol song was no good, right?”

“If you don’t know anything else, then you can try that one as well. The reason I said you can’t do it is because there are strange types of people who are fixated on that. How about it? You think you can do it?”

“I’ll sing just a little bit.”

The girl decided on a key without hesitation and started singing. As a decent performance was enough for the character, Park Hoon stopped her after a few lines.

“That was good.”

“Thank you.”

While the girl stepped back, Park Hoon talked with Miri.

“I’m thinking about choosing her if I don’t see anyone good after this.”

“I think she’s good as well. She looks cute too. She’s the type that would work well on students these days. As for acting, well, we’ll have to start shooting to find out for sure.”

“Then let’s do that.”

Park Hoon looked at the next person. He was around 175cm tall, and his build was pretty good. He was skinny but looked sturdy, so to speak.

“He’s from JA.”

“That’s Lee Junmin’s place, right?”

“Yes.”

Hm, Han Maru, huh. He felt like he had heard that name somewhere before.

“Next, please come forward and get ready.”

The boy came forward. He looked up at the lights on the ceiling before remarking,

“Can you see my face well?”

Hearing that, Park Hoon smiled and replied that they could.

This was the first time they received that question today. It was a question that an audition participant had to do, but the ones before him did not go through such a fundamental process. While they looked at the participants with their eyes, they also had to look at them through the camera. Although there was a mark on the center of the stage, the participants would have to adjust their positions according to their heights and builds. Finding out what they looked like on camera was the basics of an actor.

“Please do your two free skits.”

“Understood.”

His voice was on the lower side and was pleasant to listen to. The boy started acting. He moved around actively and talked about the pretty girl he saw yesterday. The way he was restless as he was babbling on looked really natural. When Park Hoon had a look at his profile, he saw that the boy was in his 2nd year of high school. Park Hoon asked after his first skit.

“Is your personality actually like that? Like being talkative and active?”

“I’m not like that at all. I prefer moving only when it’s necessary.”

“Alright. Then please show us your next one.”

The boy sat down on a chair this time. It was a rather still image, which was a contrast to the first skit. He was trying to show the wide range of his acting spectrum. He was someone who knew how to use his brain.

“I didn’t steal it.”

The boy clenched his fists in unease as he placed his hands on his pants. Park Hoon kept looking at the boy. If anyone asked him what the most difficult acting was, Park Hoon would reply that it was quietly talking about normal stuff. It wasn’t that an act with vigorous emotions was easy, but what discerned the truly skilled actors was their acting of normal, everyday life.

The boy neither shouted nor cried with a cringing face. He was just calmly claiming that he was wronged. Park Hoon rubbed the side of his head when he saw the calm acting. This was his habit when he concentrated.

“That’s it from me.”

The boy stood up from his seat. Park Hoon scratched the inside of his cheeks with his tongue and looked at Miri.

“He’s good.”

It wasn’t ‘he’s not bad’. The junior said that he was focused on the boy’s acting as well.

“What is the missing item?”

“I thought of it as a wallet.”

“What’s the teacher like in your act?”

“I modelled them after a high school teacher of mine. She’s the type to drag someone to the faculty office in haste.”

“Is the act you just did a portrayal of your actual self?”

“No, I thought about what a stereotypical shy person is like, and expressed such a character through acting.”

“The first character was an outgoing character?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Let us put in an order. Show us a person hopping around in joy.”

Park Hoon crossed his arms and waited. Just then, someone tapped him from behind. When he turned around, he saw a fellow producer. The junior producer stood up from his seat and took a bow.

“Sit down. I’m just visiting while I’m on my way to something else.”

“Are you here empty-handed? You should’ve brought us some coffee at least. For Miri and the junior.”

“I hadn’t thought of that.”

His fellow producer looked towards the front and said ‘oh’ in a rather surprised voice.

“That fellow.”

“Do you know him?”

“Are you getting old already? Didn’t I tell you that there was a good guy? Who was it again? Uh, Mari, Mara, Ah! Han Maru. It’s Han Maru, right?”

The moment he heard those words, Park Hoon remembered where he heard the name Han Maru before. He heard it from this fellow, who was the main producer of The Witness. Recently, the team that worked on The Witness was given holiday tickets to Jeju island. If they got over 50% viewing rates like the Wednesday-Thursday drama on RBS, they would’ve gotten tickets to Thailand at least, but since the drama was really unique and didn’t have a big fanbase, the viewing rates weren't that high.

“May I start?” The boy on the stage asked.

“Please begin.”

As soon as he said those words, the boy hopped on the spot as though he was a soccer player that scored a goal. He was smiling so brightly and was boasting so much that even Park Hoon ended up laughing. This boy perfectly understood his request and did not hold himself back. He liked the fact that the boy could exaggerate when he had to. If his act did not pop here, he would’ve just remembered the boy as someone who was good at bland acting.

“That suits him too, huh,” his fellow producer said behind him.

“Well done.”

“Thank you.”

Park Hoon took out the script for the first episode of New Semester. There was a character among the supporting actors who he needed a rather mature person for, and from the way the boy’s character so calmly told the teacher that she was wrong, he was reminded of that character.

“I think he might suit the Lee Chan character,” he tried saying to Miri.

Miri immediately looked at the boy and asked him to do a few poses.

“Uhm. Mr. Han Maru. Can you look at the camera with an expressionless expression?”

“Understood.”

Park Hoon turned his eyes to the camera screen. The boy on the screen had sharp eyes. His lips were stiff, and his gaze wasn’t wavering. For a high school student, his eyes were pretty decent.

“Can you try saying this just like that? The line goes: ‘You don’t want to do that’.”

After saying the words, the boy looked at the camera and uttered those words.

“Can you smile just a little there? Like you’re a little shy about it.”

The boy quickly accepted the trivial requests.

Park Hoon nodded his head as he looked at the boy’s gradual change in expression. He had a good feeling about this. Since the drama was a school drama, he needed characters that had student-like mindsets. One character was a student that had a calmness that did not lose out to a typical adult’s. He seemed to suit the character that might invoke the catharsis of the students.

“That’s enough. Thank you for your work,” said Park Hoon as he raised his hand.

“Let’s pick this guy as well if we don’t find anyone suitable after him.”

“I don’t think there will be one though?” Miri smiled as she spoke.

Park Hoon did not deny that. There was no need to reject an already-proven resource. A fellow producer already used him once, didn’t he?

“Also, apparently he learned acting from sir Yoon Moonjoong.”

That’s really tempting - he thought to himself as he reminded himself of the words that his colleague left behind while sending him off. After that, he looked at the boy that was returning to the line. Han Maru, huh.

“Well, then. Next.”

Park Hoon called out the next person. The audition wasn’t over yet. If someone caught his eyes, he might be able to turn that person into a ticket to success.

* * *

“Oppa, you got a call.”

Bada picked up Maru’s phone from the living room and knocked on his door but there was no response. When she opened the door, only an empty room greeted her.

“Is he out?”

Bada stared at the phone before picking it up.

“Hello? Ah, yes. It is. Yes, yes. Understood.”

As soon as she hung up, the front door opened and her brother came back. Bada stared at her brother with a dazed expression before exclaiming.

“Mr. Han Maru. You passed the audition, apparently.”

“There was a call?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s good. I thought I didn’t make it since there was no news.”

“Congratulations! My brother is popular now, huh.”

“Like hell I am.”

“Since you made it, why don’t we celebrate?”

“By doing what?”

“On a day like this, we should eat fried chicken.”

“What about the money?”

“Well, I don’t have any.”

“Haah….”

“I’m ordering one then, okay?”

Bada threw Maru’s phone at him.

“But what was that audition for? A play?”

“A drama.”

“A drama? What drama?”

“New Semester.”

“...New Semester? You mean the one on YBS? Like, for real?”

“Yeah.”

“My lord, my brother is doing super well. What are you? An extra? That can’t be right. There’s no way they’re holding an audition for an extra.”

“A supporting role, apparently.”

“Really? I guess we should congratulate doubly as much. I’m ordering two, okay?”

“You are really… fine, go ahead.”

“I’m not taking the opportunity to order it. I’m ordering them to congratulate you,” said Bada while grinning.