In This Life I Will Die as an Actress Not a Villainess Chapter 177

“This is why HBC won’t even manage to air their broadcast properly, let alone anything else.”

“Why do you keep bringing up HBC? You’ve been at it since earlier.”

Even the staff seemed to have their own headaches.

As a result, grumbles about HBC kept slipping out.

Times like this call for a mindset of pulling together and doing well…

That’s when a thought suddenly struck me.

Maybe this was my chance to try something I’d never been able to do in my entire life.

I made eye contact with Hyunsu-ssi from across the distance.

I sent him an SOS look.

Hyunsu-ssi received the telepathic message and nodded.

* * *

That evening.

Everyone was completely drained on set.

Filming ended without even meeting our target number of scenes.

Everyone let out deep sighs in the gloomy atmosphere.

I gathered myself for a moment and clapped my hands together.

“…?”

As attention turned my way, I beamed at everyone.

The actors looked bewildered.

“Let’s all go out and have fun!”

“What? Right now?”

“Yes!”

The actors stared at me with dumbfounded expressions.

Like they were thinking, What is she talking about right now?

“This was still our first day of filming, right? It’s a momentous occasion!”

That’s when Hyunsu-ssi read the room and stood up to chime in.

“Sounds good. I’m in!”

Then the director, having finished wrapping up on set, walked out and glanced our way.

The actors avoided his gaze while watching the director nervously.

The director looked at me and asked.

“Going out somewhere?”

“…Yes.”

When I smiled awkwardly, the director gave me a thumbs up.

“As expected.”

Seeing that reaction, the actors looked confused all over again.

“Everyone have fun. My share too…”

I smiled slightly watching the director like that.

He’d probably caught onto my intentions.

That’s when Choi Sunha also gathered the actors.

“Times like this call for some good old-fashioned fun. Let’s get moving.”

“Where are we even going…?”

* * *

The place we arrived at was none other than an escape room cafe.

The actors, who’d been bracing themselves for a drinking binge, collectively wore question marks on their faces.

Seeing those expressions made me burst into laughter.

Escape room cafes had only recently started trending, and even for me, this was my first time visiting one.

In my past life, I’d just wondered, Why would anyone pay money to get locked up?

Never thought I’d be the one dragging people here to experience it.

The part-timer sitting at the counter’s eyes widened seeing the mob of actors flooding in.

“…?”

I immediately addressed the startled part-timer.

“The hardest room! Give us the highest difficulty level!”

Truth is, I’d already researched everything earlier. This place had the best reviews for being both large-scale and challenging.

The actors behind me tried to stop me in alarm.

“Has anyone here actually done this before?”

“……”

“Shouldn’t we start with something easy?”

“Was anything about our set easy? Let’s give it a shot.”

And so we all ended up locked inside after I bulldozed my way through.

Right from the start, we were locked in small cells in pairs, handcuffed at an awkward distance apart.

I got locked in the same room as Choi Sunha.

Choi Sunha looked down at the handcuffs on both his wrists, then looked at me.

Like he was asking, Is this really right?

I quickly turned my head away from his questioning gaze.

And so we began fumbling around in our separate cells, searching for the handcuff keys.

“Found it!”

A small key dangled high above my head, way beyond my reach.

I couldn’t find anything resembling a foothold to climb up.

No… I did find something.

This time when I stared intently, Choi Sunha shrugged his shoulders.

“You want me as a stepping stool?”

“Um…”

Choi Sunha knelt on the floor and positioned himself for me to climb on his back.

“You’re rich, right, Sena-ssi?”

“Um…”

“If I break my back, you’re covering my hospital bills.”

“Okay.”

With a grunt, Choi Sunha lifted me up.

Despite his complaints, even in his slimmed-down state, Choi Sunha hoisted me with ease.

The key barely came within reach at the precarious distance.

“Got it!”

After finding the key and unlocking the handcuffs—

That’s when the real game began.

Using similar methods, the other teams escaped their cells and started solving the puzzles.

It was a bizarre puzzle requiring multiple people to stand on platforms one by one and jump at the exact same timing.

“One, two, three!”

“Wait, hold on!”

“What!”

“Do we jump after saying three? Or on three?”

“Woongi-ssi, you’re out.”

“I’m sorry. Please just tell me.”

Even trivial things like this showed our complete lack of teamwork.

No wonder our filming became such a struggle when our coordination was this terrible, even with tasks that should’ve been simple with good teamwork.

After barely solving the puzzle, we faced another challenge—creating a human ladder and even a human rope to retrieve a tool from far away.

While moving like a centipede with everyone connected as one body, someone raised a question.

“Wait, is this what escape rooms are normally like?”

“Don’t you usually use your brain?”

“This is basically the military, isn’t it?”

Hearing that made me tense up internally.

Can you remove things like ladders from inside the room?

I recalled my secret request to the part-timer earlier when my teammates weren’t looking.

The flustered part-timer had urgently summoned the owner, but once they heard the name Han Sena, they readily agreed.

Thanks to that, we were all getting a physical workout now too.

If they found out I’d deliberately made it harder, I’d never escape severe criticism from my colleagues.

Hyunsu-ssi’s back was already drenched in sweat.

About two hours later.

Everyone arrived at the door, dripping with perspiration.

Click—

Finally, the door opened.

“Yes! We did it!!”

“Oh, Lord.”

“Wow, it really feels like escaping from being locked up.”

The actors and I all poured out together.

My entire body was soaked with sweat too.

Despite the difficulty, everyone breathed heavily with satisfied faces.

The part-timer watched us from afar with a strange look.

They had no idea why a group of actors would show up in the middle of the night to voluntarily suffer like this.

“That was fun, wasn’t it, everyone?”

“No, Sena. That was the worst.”

“Drill sergeant, please let us go home.”

“Now, shall we all go grab dinner together? Tonight, the youngest is treating!”

When I pushed relentlessly like a madwoman, the actors finally gave in and laughed.

“Alright, let’s go.”

“Ugh, I’m starving.”

“I’m going to do an interview later. About how Sena-ssi locked all the seniors up.”

* * *

The next day at the outdoor filming location.

My colleagues and I started shooting the scenes we’d postponed yesterday.

Everyone, including me, wore faces far more serious than yesterday.

They all moved precisely according to the blocking they’d checked with faces that looked like they hadn’t slept a wink, following their marks without fail.

Of course, we still had a few NGs.

But compared to yesterday, this was a remarkable leap forward.

The director smiled slightly and gave another thumbs up.

“The escape room yesterday must’ve been effective?”

“Director, don’t even mention it.”

“Yesterday was the real set. That was my first time seeing a human ladder.”

And so we passionately continued our performances, creating satisfying shots one by one, even if slowly.

“Oh.”

Then I accidentally dropped the hose.

That’s when Choi Sunha approached and picked up the hose.

Then he stood behind me, practically embracing me as he placed me in his arms and pressed the hose into my hands.

Like he was preventing my body from being pushed back when the massive stream of water burst out of the hose.

This was an ad-lib not in the script.

I turned around in surprise and looked up at Choi Sunha.

“Focus. Where are you looking?”

I turned back to the front as water burst from the hose.

Sure enough, my body pushed backward, and I leaned lightly against Choi Sunha.

I could feel Choi Sunha’s solid presence against my back.

I made an expression that felt inwardly comforted.

“Cut! Okay!! That ad-lib was great!”

The brightest okay of the past two days flowed from the director’s mouth.

* * *

At the same time, on the HBC set.

“Hey, what the hell! Want your supporting role replaced?”

Director So Jaehyung threw his walkie-talkie while jabbing his finger at a supporting actor, screaming at the top of his lungs.

“I told you not to act based on your looks, didn’t I? You think you’re that pretty?”

After dozens of minutes of the director’s atrocious rampage, the atmosphere had been reduced to ashes.

People already familiar with this had closed their eyes and ears with expressionless faces, while newcomers stared at the director in shock.

While continuing filming—

“Cut, cut!! NG! Lee Jeonggil! Do it again!”

The director’s temper extended even to the male lead top actor.

That’s when male lead Lee Jeonggil replied irritably.

“Can’t people make mistakes sometimes?”

Lee Jeonggil’s head was spinning from the intolerable abuse, despite having known full well what to expect coming in.

“What, you bastard?!”

“What? Bastard?”

Finally, a fight broke out between the two.

The staff and other actors squeezed their eyes shut.

Unable to hold back anymore, Lee Jeonggil spat out.

“This is why Han Sena ran away.”

“What did you say, you bastard?!”

Lee Jeonggil unilaterally walked off the set.

“Where’s he going? Hey, assistant director! Go grab him quick.”

So Jaehyung worked the hapless assistant director to the bone, then lit a cigarette.

And lit it as if nothing had happened.

“Tsk, running off like that.”

His gesture even looked relaxed.

For him, incidents like this didn’t even qualify as incidents.

To him, it was just part of the process of disciplining some arrogant actor.

“That punk’s way too young for his own good. Doesn’t understand the lay of the land…”

Actors far from the director murmured among themselves.

“Isn’t he crazy? Has he never been reported? Why does HBC keep using him?”

“First time seeing this? This is nothing yet.”

“……”

Other staff also exchanged words while letting out deep sighs.

“Ah, should’ve gone to QYN. We get paid the same anyway.”

“I heard the atmosphere there is good?”

“Anywhere Han Sena is has a good atmosphere.”

“That’s what they say…”

“I heard they went to an escape room yesterday. Just among themselves.”

“What about filming?”

“They’ll manage it somehow.”

Meanwhile, Lee Jeonggil, who’d escaped the set, irritably loosened his necktie and lit a cigarette.

The assistant director chased after him from behind.

“Actor… I’ll apologize on his behalf. I’m sorry.”

“Why should you apologize, assistant director? I’ll be back in five minutes.”

“Yes…”

Lee Jeonggil got in his van with his cigarette.

Then quietly muttered a string of curses.

“I must be crazy. Doing this.”

It was too late to back out now.