In This Life I Will Die as an Actress Not a Villainess Chapter 144

A few weeks later.

‘Live octopus is delicious♥’

I checked the SNS notification and opened it to find Seo Jaeyeon mocking the incident from weeks ago with a photo of herself eating live octopus.

Seeing that photo made me burst out laughing.

This girl caught the late SNS bug in a big way.

That’s when Lee Seonho walked over with squeaky sounds.

“What are you looking at?”

I turned my head to look at Lee Seonho.

“Puhup.”

Even after seeing him several times since morning, I still couldn’t get used to him.

Today was the day Lee Seonho and I were shooting a photoshoot with a unique concept.

The concept was <The Wizard of Oz>—I was Glinda, and Lee Seonho was the Tin Man.

I clutched my stomach looking at Lee Seonho’s visuals, ready to audition for a horror film any second now.

“Ah, seriously, this is killing me.”

Lee Seonho’s face fell as he scratched the back of his head.

“I really look weird, don’t I?”

“Puhup… Puhaha.”

“Stop laughing. A blackboard laughing is scary.”

I was in no position to laugh either, since I was currently a green monster from my face to my arms and legs.

A few days ago, <Say Your Name>’s episode 10 viewership broke through 25%, and the conceptual fashion magazine <Masquerade>, famous for being edgy, sent us both a love call.

<Masquerade> made a bold proposal: since we were the leads of a drama about multiple personalities, they wanted to shoot us in various concepts.

The person in charge revealed their ambitions to split the magazine itself into A/B versions as special editions, fill each version’s magazine supplements with premium brand products, and aim for huge success.

At first, both Lee Seonho and I just nodded our heads in confusion.

But we quickly realized the person in charge’s foresight had been correct.

The moment we signed with the magazine, British luxury fashion brand <The Mesh> showed intense interest and snatched up the A version supplement spot.

‘Plus <The Mesh> wants to request you as an ambassador. What’s really remarkable is that a British headquarters employee personally designated you.’

Even more surprising news delivered by Minyeong unnie.

I had no idea how I’d even come to <The Mesh>’s attention—a brand famous for their pride and dedication to maintaining their long tradition.

Anyway, through all these developments, Lee Seonho and I had been receiving hours of special effects makeup since this morning and now stood before the camera.

After finishing the first shoot, Lee Seonho finally shed his tin can shell.

This time, wearing special clothing and transformed into a modern Tin Man, Lee Seonho stood before the camera again.

They said it was <The Mesh>’s 2017 S/S collection…

The more I looked at it, the more peculiar it seemed.

Unique yet somehow decadent-smelling, with a sense of corrupted beauty.

I sat in a chair while Lee Seonho sat on the floor, resting his face on my lap.

The studio lighting shifted to a dreamlike blue hue.

With each flash, Lee Seonho and I struck slightly different poses and expressions.

Lee Seonho, who’d quickly adapted to the shoot, propped his chin on my knee and looked up at me playfully.

“Oh, this is good!”

The director, whose criteria for selecting best shots remained a complete mystery but who always captured peculiar charm in photos, gave us a thumbs up.

Lee Seonho grew bolder.

He started showing various expressions—looking at me with eyes craving love, with a coquettish face, with somewhat upset gestures, changing from moment to moment.

I struck various poses—looking at Lee Seonho, looking elsewhere, gazing at the camera.

After another round of shooting ended, lunchtime approached.

Lee Seonho and I collapsed in the waiting room, completely drenched in sweat.

“Wow, the lights are incredibly hot.”

“The makeup’s so thick, it’s way too hot.”

While we panted under the blasting air conditioning, staff members left one by one.

“Everyone, meet you after lunch!”

“Sena-ssi, Seonho-ssi, the director’s lunch is already ordered as we discussed earlier!”

The studio emptied out and fell quiet.

The director hummed while checking through photos.

Lee Seonho, after cooling down, suddenly asked as if remembering something.

“We’ve been getting tons of variety show offers for joint appearances. Sena-ssi, what do you want to do?”

“Ah, right.”

I fell into brief thought.

I was still awkward with variety show appearances too.

More importantly, Lee Seonho had never appeared on variety shows during his acting career.

He’d probably reject all solo appearance offers on his own, but joint appearance offers seemed to weigh on his mind.

“Seonho-ssi, did you deliberately avoid variety shows before?”

“Ah… Yeah. They’re kind of scary. And not suited to my constitution.”

Hearing that made me giggle.

I could picture Lee Seonho freezing up in front of rows of variety cameras.

“I’ll do whatever Seonho-ssi wants to do.”

“Really?”

Lee Seonho made a thoroughly troubled expression while laughing.

“The company kept poking at my ribs telling me to try appearing this time.”

Lee Seonho let out a small sigh.

“You don’t have to force yourself. Just do what you want, Seonho-ssi.”

Lee Seonho nodded.

But then.

Both Lee Seonho’s and my phones started vibrating like crazy.

“?”

I picked up my phone to check—it was Minyeong unnie.

“It’s the company.”

Lee Seonho also seemed to have gotten a call from the company.

Lee Seonho and I exchanged confused glances and were about to answer when—

Staff members who’d left for lunch came rushing back in a line.

“Sena-ssi! Seonho-ssi! Did you see the article?”

“What’s going on with everyone?”

The director looked at the staff in surprise.

“Both of you have a scandal right now!!”

Lee Seonho and I shot up from our seats.

* * *

The sun blazed hot in the afternoon.

Filming resumed as scheduled.

Lee Seonho and I struck tons of poses before the camera in cyborg concept.

For thirty minutes, we moved our limbs around soullessly…

“Oh, nice! Okay, wrap!”

With the director’s praise, filming finally wrapped up.

This time, with white rice-cake-like makeup on our faces, Lee Seonho and I stared blankly at each other.

A scandal.

And to encounter scandal articles together while in such bizarre makeup.

I picked up my phone and accessed the internet again.

Lee Seonho and I stood side by side reading through articles and comments.

[Lee Seonho♥Han Sena, 2017 Star Couple Birth?!]

[Han Sena, Lee Seonho Scandal—Both Agencies Confirming…]

[Han Sena, Lee Seonho Paparazzi Cut]

[Han Sena, Lee Seonho Testimonies from People Around Them About the Romance!]

[Everyone in the know already knew. Han Sena and Lee Seonho’s Romance!]

[Will Yu Dayang and Kang Jio become a real-life couple?]

“What the hell people around us gave testimonies…”

Neither Lee Seonho nor I had a single acquaintance in common, which made us burst out laughing.

Both of us were already used to these speculative articles and inaccurate claims, but they were still absurdly ridiculous.

-I’m going crazy. Take responsibility for my over-immersion.

-Perfect couple, a handsome man and beautiful woman.

-Seonho-ssi, exactly how many links are you? Yu Dayang, Yoo Hayeong, Baek Jangmi, Jung Sewoon, Lee Eunje, and now Han Sena. Is this even okay?

-They really look so perfect together. I wish it were true.

-No wonder the acting felt so real. It was genuine.

-Han Sena’s first scandal, right? Insane.

⤷ No, first was Seo Jaeyeon

⤷ Lololololol

-But how do you not fall in love while filming a drama like this? It’s completely impossible for me.

-Why aren’t they clarifying immediately? Total proof right there.

-Eating popcorn. This is so fun.

-These days it’s really Han Sena World. Han Sena drama, ads, variety shows, articles, news, and now even romance.

Lee Seonho looked at all sorts of comments and let out another hollow laugh before saying.

“Since filming’s done, I’ll contact my agency right away. Tell them to put out a clarification article.”

I looked at the comments while falling into thought.

“But… do we really need to clarify right now?”

“What?”

Lee Seonho’s eyes widened in surprise.

I looked at Lee Seonho and smiled slightly.

“Um… Just seeing the comment reactions, I’m thinking we could use this scandal until the drama ends.”

“…!!”

Lee Seonho looked flustered as he ran his hand through his hair.

“We’ve got about three weeks until the finale. For three weeks, we might be able to maximize attention on the drama.”

After confirming my ambitions, Lee Seonho burst out laughing.

“Sena-ssi, you’ve got ambitions beyond imagination. It does seem plausible though.”

“You really think so?”

“Yeah. But… I’m a bit worried about you, Sena-ssi.”

Lee Seonho wore a hesitant expression.

“Actually, I’ve been in the industry a long time, and scandals won’t be a big hit to me. But Sena-ssi, you’re just hitting your stride now… And as a female actress…”

Lee Seonho trailed off.

In this industry, countless people had suffered career damage from scandals.

Lee Seonho had seen such incidents, so he was probably worried first.

“Even if we clarify later, during those three weeks, offers coming to Sena-ssi from various places might suddenly stop. And those offers could be ones Sena-ssi would regret missing. Next projects, CFs, ads, etc.”

Lee Seonho listed out my expected losses in detail.

I nodded while listening.

He’s definitely got a point.

But for our drama, this was an unbeatable opportunity.

Plus once we clarify, opportunities that stopped would come back in.

If opportunities would stop because of a scandal, honestly I didn’t really want to grab them anyway.

“Your opinion matters to me, Seonho-ssi. That stuff doesn’t really bother me.”

After confirming my firm eyes, Lee Seonho wavered while continuing to run his hand through his hair.

“I feel like I’m doing something bad to you, Sena-ssi.”

“Why are you acting like an amateur?”

When I asked playfully, Lee Seonho took deep breaths.

Then threw out an unexpected question.

“So we’re becoming a three-week couple?”

The moment I heard that question, I burst out laughing loudly.

As I clutched my stomach laughing, the director who’d been organizing equipment behind us also chuckled.

“Cute, you two. Do well for those three weeks.”

That’s when, having somehow sensed filming had ended, Minyeong unnie called again.

-So what are you going to do?

Unnie had already seen through that it obviously wasn’t real.

“Put out a clarification article.”

-Okay.

“Three weeks later.”

-???