The male lead had already been decided internally.
“Joo Junseo. He’s a guy who used to be a model.”
“Model?”
In other words, he was an absolute rookie who had never properly acted even once.
“Ugh… Senior Nam, take a look at the synopsis. Senior Yeon, stop grilling the meat! Just look at this!”
The man called Senior Nam took the phone. As he scrolled through, wondering what could be so impressive, his expression stiffened.
[The Cherry on the Parfait Belongs to the Heroine ♥︎ Synopsis]
The concept was already pretty intense just from the title.
But the problem wasn’t the title.
“Ugh. This is difficult…”
“Right? It’s tough, isn’t it?”
Let’s quickly go over the basic planning intent.
[The seventeen I had imagined was nothing but sweet.
Running down the cherry blossom-lined school road with a crispy slice of bread in my mouth,
I bumped into my ideal type by chance there.
The lively, exciting school festival and the friendships with my friends.
A summer day at the beach, tingling with excitement and butterflies.
But such scenes were only allowed for the heroines of pure romance comics.
Walking to school with a rice ball wrapped in seaweed in my mouth and a bag full of workbooks.
Barely squeezing onto a crowded bus to get to school.
Friends risking their lives for grades and early admissions,
Special summer academy classes that start during the vacation.
What would happen if you mixed a completely different reality with a pure romance comic, half and half?
And what if the heroine of that pure romance comic isn’t me?]
It was the story of a heroine with wide, startled eyes in a reality where the clichés of a pure romance comic kept happening endlessly.
Here, the role played by model Joo Junseo is the male lead.
“…So he’s the lonely, isolated school bully, huh….”
The woman, tearing at her hair, hurriedly poured another shot of soju and downed it.
“Life is way more bitter than soju!!!”
It was a simple decision.
It was a story that teenagers would enjoy, so they just added faces to it.
“Sigh. At least Joo Junseo mostly keeps his mouth shut because of the character, right? Might not be a target for bad acting.”
“That’s true, but you know that makes it trickier, right? Whether he does well or not, the vibe will change completely depending on the co-actor.”
“Mhm. Where are we getting the female lead? One wrong move and it’ll all feel like a school play.”
“Sigh… The female lead is supposed to grab him by the collar and pull him, but there’s no suitable girl.”
Patting the shoulders of the girl whose face had flushed and confidence drained, the senior guy offered an alternative.
“Just say you’ll never do it. Once you get labeled as a joke, your image is finished.”
“I’ve done it! I even said ‘go ahead and cut it’! But do you know what they said?”
“Go ahead, then.”
…It didn’t work.
It was the era of the web content boom.
It meant that the growth of Intubers was no ordinary trend.
“You don’t have to worry about scheduling conflicts or do lobby work, PPLs can be inserted neatly, so sponsors tend to prefer it, and above all, you’re not constrained by the platform and can even attract overseas viewers.”
The ones who smelled the money best were none other than the big corporations.
“They have no intention of growing this market. But I can’t do it…?’”
It was no exaggeration to say that JC ENM was one of the top investors in film and video content in all of South Korea.
“Then go ahead and do it.”
That’s why JC chose it—and pushed it forward.
It meant that their livelihood now depended on this damn agency’s web drama.
So, there was no choice but to do whatever it took.
“There’s no way out of this!”
On top of that, it was an attitude of carefully weighing whether or not to push Joo Junseo right now.
“Tsk, still, you do have some casting authority, right?”
“Right. Since both the investment and production are on our side…”
“Let’s bet on the female lead and the editing. Hey, still, the concept itself is fresh!”
While trying to comfort her positively, Senior Nam kicked the shin of his friend across from him, who silently focused only on grilling the meat.
“Hey! Say something too! You’re a senior!”
“That’s right! Senior Yeo! Try helping out somehow!”
It was only then that Senior Yeo, who had been moving the meat onto her junior’s plate, spoke.
“Among the students I’ve taught… there’s one who I think would suit the female lead really well.”
“What? Really?”
“How old is she?”
Senior Yeo, as if bothered by the two people’s shining eyes, scratched her cheek and replied.
“She’s just twenty now.”
A sigh escaped her lips.
“Tsk~. Are you kidding? Twenty? She has no field experience.”
“Yeah! This requires real skill, you know? Even after all that, at twenty she probably hasn’t even gone through auditions properly. Ugh, forget it… let’s just cheer. Cheers!”
Then Senior Yeo made a rare expression.
“She doesn’t have any of that. She’s like a blank canvas.”
She raised her eyebrows, giving confidence to her words.
“She has been acting for six months.”
At Senior Yeo’s answer, the two who had been clinking their soju glasses froze.
“…Six months? Are you kidding? Someone who’s done it for just 180 days?”
“Senior Yeo, I didn’t think of you that way. You’ve really become a true mentor now. My student looks beautiful no matter what she does… a rose-colored view…?”
The two’s exasperated reactions were already within the expected range.
Senior Yeo took her phone out of her bag and opened her social media.
Youstagram
@midsummer
Followers 2,665 Following 0
She tapped with her finger, and Yeoreum’s profile picture popped up.
Under the refreshing blue light, she saw a face smiling brightly.
“…Is that her?”
“The mask isn’t bad for now… and if we put her next to Joo Junseo, their faces would look good together.”
The power of a well-taken profile picture was considerable. In an instant, Yeoreum on the screen drew the two of them in.
“But she’s only been acting for six months… it’s just… well, that’s the thing.”
“I know, that’s what worries me too. What you see isn’t everything, you know.”
Senior Yeo frowned as if to say that couldn’t be the case.
“This kid is different.”
“What?”
“Her voice is different. You’ll know just by hearing her deliver a line once.”
Team Leader Sung, who seemed to hesitate for a moment, thought that with Senior Yeo’s confident answer, he had nothing to lose by giving it a try.
“Alright. Then your student, whom you believe in so much, let’s have her audition at least once.”
* * *
“A web drama?”
-Mhm. Not for the lead role or anything, just an audition
“Could I know the title, teacher?”
-The Cherry on the Parfait… what was it again? I’ll send you the brief synopsis and the audition date.
“Yes! Thank you.”
As soon as I hung up the phone, I shouted.
“〈The Cherry on the Parfait Belongs to the Heroine〉!!!”
This is the work that’s called the origin of B-grade web dramas.
“It even has quite a few iconic lines and scenes, so it’s still being turned into memes even ten years later…”
It twisted every cliché imaginable, making the story itself genuinely fun.
“But the problem was with all the actors….”
But you want me to do this? I closed my eyes as I read the synopsis that Teacher Yeo had sent me
It was because unforgettable iconic scenes, even ten years later, came to mind.
-Believe in yourself, and believe in us—that’s how we become friends!
Especially the pure-hearted comic heroine’s lame encouragement scene.
‘This one circulated endlessly as a ‘no friends’ meme.’
This is my first drama. Is it okay to do this?
“JC ENM is producing it, but…”
Since it was an early work, they didn’t really promote it much. There was a risk it could just be consumed for its image and end there.
The status window lit up again, as if it knew what I was thinking.
「The Mission: You on the Screen 」
Keyword: First Video
Now it’s time to showcase your acting! Show your video featuring your face to 100,000 people.
Success Condition
[Must have at least 1,000 shares]
As if to emphasize it, they even added a red effect to the 100,000 people and 1,000 shares.
“…Yeah, for now, this is the best we can do.”
Anyway, my title is unknown.
If I want to make even a small impression on the public, there’s no better option than this.
“100,000 views and a thousand shares, …”
This is from <The Cherry on the Parfait Belongs to the Heroine>…
“No, why is the title so long?”
Let’s just shorten it to <CPH>. Anyway, this is a mission that’s only possible because of CPH’s story and buzz.
“Because the public’s reaction is up to the actor.”
I somehow get the lead role and act well.
‘Then shall we go check out the audition first?’
Luckily, I know the behind-the-scenes story. Passing the audition shouldn’t be difficult.
The lead role is mine.
* * *
The JC ENM headquarters building, located in Cheongdam-dong.
On the 5th floor, the audition hall was filled with quite a few people sitting in rows.
‘When is her turn?’
It was Team Leader Sung, the junior who had received Han Yeoreum’s recommendation from Senior Yeo.
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