I Want to Be a VTuber

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Audition to confirm Lee Sang-soo’s acting skills.

Though it’s called an audition, it was essentially just a simple script reading situation.

Even if Director Baek Min showed somewhat bland reactions, investors wouldn’t sit back and relax.

So, when Sang-soo appeared, most of the staff were watching the series of events with ease.

Seo-yeon was there just to match her performance.

That was all I thought.

“Right. It was all a lie.”

A low vocalization.

The voice escaping while exhaling felt like an emotion was being vomited out.

“Everything, from one to ten.”

Seo-yeon’s ability to convey emotion had previously been excellent.

But now, it felt like she had advanced beyond that level.

Why?

Everyone thought it, but Director Baek Min faintly understood the reason.

“Recently, she participated in Masked Singer.”

Director Baek Min doesn’t watch variety shows.

So he hadn’t actually seen the broadcast, only heard about it.

Those who watched it claimed they were unintentionally absorbed into the emotions flowing from Seo-yeon’s song.

An actor pulls the audience’s emotions with everything they can express.

However, songs evoke feelings solely through sound.

There is often talk of a voice being appealing.

Seo-yeon fit that description.

Just like one becomes accustomed to using their body when they frequently move.

The same applies to the voice.

To win in a competition like Masked Singer, Seo-yeon trained her weapon to the fullest.

To supplement her skills that were lacking compared to others.

The power to evoke empathy from the audience on stage to win the competition.

In that appeal.

In that moment, everyone present forgot it was just an audition.

They forgot to watch the script reading lightly.

They began to inadvertently immerse themselves in this ‘scene.’

“I vaguely knew.”

Seo-yeon.

No, the character Seo-yeon played.

Kasugayama Yuina spoke.

“I knew you were scheming something with that reckless girl.”

Yuina’s gaze turned to Koto Isamu.

Her eyes were filled with clarity and hatred.

The red eyes shining in the darkness sent chills into the surrounding air.

“But I believed you. Foolishly, thinking you were doing it all for me.”

She had no intention of blaming anyone.

After all, she had intended to kill Amanabi Michiko and seize her fortune.

And, incidentally… take that girl, too.

“It was all a lie.”

She was nothing but a puppet.

That alone angered her the most.

And her hatred towards Koto Isamu swelled up.

“Back when I was young, the words you said while taking care of me.”

Clenching her fists, she stepped forward.

“That I should be happy no matter what, even if I had to trample on others.”

Yuina grasped her left hand against her chest.

As if trying to rip out her heart.

“And so I trampled everything. Until I hold all of Kasugayama’s wealth.”

She placed everyone in her family under her feet and made it all hers.

As the current head of the family.

“Yeah, I’ve waited. Until the moment I take it all.”

At the very end.

In this very moment, to kill herself and obtain everything.

Her voice scraped out emotions like nails on a chalkboard.

Koto Isamu.

Lee Sang-soo could feel Seo-yeon’s acting.

Ah, this is what Park Sun-woong was talking about.

A young actor.

To be honest, he had been living as an actor for over forty years.

Lee Sang-soo became an actor starting from childhood.

He had never lived a life apart from acting.

Seo-yeon’s age was just half of his.

“What kind of acting did I do at that age?”

Suddenly, Lee Sang-soo thought of that.

In those days, the world of acting was a bit harsh with a lot of discrimination.

He had endured such treatment during his child acting days.

It wasn’t like now, where there’s an atmosphere of protecting child actors.

Yet, he had worked very hard.

However, watching Seo-yeon’s performance made him feel truly inadequate compared to himself back then.

Did he feel jealousy about that?

No, not at all.

He merely felt that.

Reflecting on what kind of acting he originally wanted to do.

“At first, I was also mistaken.”

Before the audition for Gyeongseong Young Lady, Lee Sang-soo visited an actress he had acted with as a child.

They had acted together numerous times since childhood.

Their bond was so long that it was almost like it paralleled his acting career.

“I imagined she must have been abused.”

Jeong Eun-seon.

She spoke with a slightly awkward expression.

“The emotions a child shows aren’t genuine. But it wasn’t true acting either.”

Not genuinely acting, yet showing emotion?

That was incomprehensible to Lee Sang-soo.

At the same time, he understood Jeong Eun-seon’s statement.

It wasn’t genuine acting.

But if she expressed that level of emotion, it would lead to suspicion and queries.

“I didn’t understand either. That performance was incredibly learned emotion. A child cannot do that alone. I decided that was the stubborn old man’s delusion.”

At that time, Jeong Eun-seon thought of confronting that child’s parents.

Since Seo-yeon’s mother, Min Suah, was also on set.

“But when I actually met them, they were completely oblivious. But I’m a naturally stubborn woman, and I wanted that child to stop emotional acting. It would surely cause emotional problems.”

Against her observations, Seo-yeon confronted her head-on.

So perfectly, immersing into her role that the emotions, which once were mere mimicking, became real.

Mimicry.

It’s a term originally used for drawing.

A word used when one copies something to draw.

Seo-yeon’s emotional acting was like that.

Delicately, using a lot of paint.

She painted the emotions she had seen nearly perfectly, just a replica.

However, what Jeong Eun-seon saw at the end was not a replica but something real.

By watching the genuine Joo Seo-yeon’s performance, there was no way to deny it.

“It’s a ridiculous thing to say.”

Jeong Eun-seon said, turning slightly embarrassed while smiling.

“I learned so much. If I hadn’t shot with that child, I would have already quit acting. I would have merely been an outdated actress with a stubbornness left behind.”

Lee Sang-soo couldn’t believe her words.

Because she had been the most proactive actress for the past ten years.

She had been cast in dramas with Seo-hee, her junior, several times too.

“I know you’re deeply contemplating things. Then, you will surely realize something.”

Passion is like a spark.

It can easily diminish, but conversely can ignite in an instant from something.

Jeong Eun-seon was like that, too.

“That child, there’s something that stimulates other actors.”

So, surely, Sang-soo would feel the same.

Looking at Sang-soo, who was observing him, there were traces of regret.

“Speak up, Isamu.”

Yuina in front of him spoke.

“Keep talking, Isamu. What, you’re going to kill me?”

One step, then another.

Approaching him.

“I will never die.”

With a bitter smile on her lips and eyes full of deep hatred staring at him.

“As you taught me, I will trample everything and kill. That’s not your role, but mine.”

The key in Isamu’s hand.

It was a keepsake from his parents.

A key that could open the safe containing items symbolizing the head of the Kasugayama family.

Surely that girl stole and delivered it.

That horrible brat.

He didn’t even feel like cursing her.

After all, it was first him who intended to use her and kill her.

And somehow, he didn’t feel any hatred.

The reason, he didn’t know.

“How amusing.”

It was then that Koto Isamu opened his mouth toward that Yuina.

“Truly funny words, Yuina. What you just said is the same as what I said before.”

Isamu’s previously relaxed face twisted.

Yuina’s foot, which was about to lunge with hatred, momentarily faltered.

“I said I would absolutely not die. Silly girl. In the end, what you’re doing is merely imitating me.”

Isamu’s eyes widened.

His two eyes looked like they were shining with madness.

It was like a wretched specter living in the past.

“Kasugayama should have originally been mine. If your father hadn’t stolen everything, it should have belonged to me!!”

With a sound that split the space, Yuina’s body shuddered.

It wasn’t just Yuina.

Here.

In this filming set.

Everyone who looked at him was the same.

The atmosphere changed.

That was the only feeling.

What they had just watched was Lee Sang-soo’s performance they were used to.

Stable and always seen.

The acting that everyone wanted from Lee Sang-soo.

But now something was different.

As if the strings holding him had snapped, like a horse that had lost its reins, he shot out.

“I should have died. I was a person who should have disappeared. I lost my name. Lost my face. How did I survive in this ugly form?”

His voice, which had been close to a shout, diminished to a flat mumble.

Yet those words were firmly lodged in their ears.

With everyone who empathized with Seo-yeon’s emotional delivery now looking toward Lee Sang-soo.

He didn’t possess the spark of a genius.

But he had experience.

He had lived as an actor for a long time.

Even if he failed in Hollywood.

He was an actor representing South Korea.

Yeah, surely his acting once represented South Korea.

At some point, that passion had cooled off.

After failing in Hollywood, he felt the time to ignite his passion was gone.

“Do you think you’ve become something, Kasugayama Yuina?”

But that’s not true.

Fires can easily ignite.

“You’re merely a puppet resembling me. Just a fake imitation.”

Koto Isamu, looking at Yuina, slipped the key into his pocket.

He grasped something else in his hand.

“Well then.”

It was a knife.

“It’s time to cut the strings of the doll that has completed its task.”

Isamu smiled.

Twisting his mouth, wide-eyed.

At the moment he took a step forward.

“Cut.”

Director Baek Min raised his hand.

It began as a simple start, but ended with a ‘cut.’

This scene itself was marked as the end of a drama as a sign from Director Baek Min.

No one had a word to say against it.

No, no one had the mental space to say anything.

The entire drama.

In that one scene, everyone found themselves at a loss for words.

“Lee Sang-soo.”

In the quiet silence, Director Baek Min began with a bright smile.

“That was amazing.”

Just those six words.

But it was closer to praise than anything else.

In response to his words, Sang-soo smiled bitterly.

“I didn’t want to lose to the young junior. So much so that I forgot my age.”

Lee Sang-soo looked at Seo-yeon.

Seo-yeon was looking at him with surprised eyes.

“Director Baek Min.”

Lee Sang-soo said while looking at her.

“I would like to request this old actor’s wish. I really want to act with actress Joo Seo-yeon this time.”

If Director Baek Min didn’t appreciate Lee Sang-soo’s performance, he would likely refuse.

Later, if investors pushed for it, the outcome would change, but ultimately, an actor not favored by the director wouldn’t be treated well.

No, Lee Sang-soo didn’t actually want that.

However, after witnessing Seo-yeon’s performance today, his mind changed.

He wanted to be with her.

Previously, Jeong Eun-seon had said she wanted to act with Seo-hee so much, but Sang-soo honestly couldn’t understand it.

But now, he empathized a hundred percent with that feeling.

Seeing that attitude from Lee Sang-soo, the surrounding staff looked at Seo-yeon with astonishment.

“Lee Sang-soo is going that far…”

“Seo-yeon’s acting was indeed incredible.”

In the end, though Lee Sang-soo’s performance closed it out, it was Seo-yeon’s acting that captivated everyone initially.

But that Lee Sang-soo.

Famed as a national representative actor, was willing to set aside his pride to utter such words.

No one could remain unfazed by that statement.

“Lee Sang-soo, you’re excessive.”

Baek Min chuckled in response.

With the peculiar nuance of his words, everyone looked at him with tensed faces.

Considering Director Baek Min’s personality, he could very well be saying that while smiling, yet rejecting it.

“If watching such acting… If I were to refuse someone of your caliber, I might as well resign from directing.”

With a snap, Director Baek Min closed the notebook he had been writing on while watching the performance.

He no longer needed to see more.

Clearly, Lee Sang-soo’s acting was different from the Koto Isamu that Baek Min envisioned.

The Koto Isamu he had in mind was a more petty and vile character.

Not one who challenges directly like this.

But rather one who would slowly peel away at Yuina.

But, so what.

Wasn’t it good if this felt better?

“And Seo-yeon.”

“Yes?”

Baek Min burst into laughter at the round-eyed Seo-yeon gazing at him.

She seemed equally surprised by Lee Sang-soo’s acting, perhaps.

“Please do so in the actual shoot as well. It was fantastic.”

“Huh? Ah, yes!”

Bowing deeply in response, Seo-yeon.

But what she didn’t know was.

Director Baek Min was notoriously stingy with praise.

“And let’s keep the matter about Lee Sang-soo under wraps as much as possible. At least until the preview.”

“Oh, that sounds good. It really gives off a secret weapon vibe.”

“Secret weapon?”

At one staff member’s words, Director Baek Min pondered for a moment before nodding his head.

“Yes, that’s good, secret weapon.”

Lee Sang-soo, the great actor who represented South Korea.

Surely, he would become the secret weapon for this Gyeongseong Young Lady.

Director Baek Min was convinced.