In This Life I Will Die as an Actress Not a Villainess Chapter 99

In front of the dinner table finally completed after much struggle.

The Desert Island family each wore exhausted expressions that brought a lump to everyone’s throat.

“We haven’t even made it through one full day yet.”

A true despair show.

The Desert Island family expressed their gratitude as they carefully picked at the flesh of just three small fish and put it in their mouths.

The moment dinner ended—when they’d turn around and their stomachs would already be empty—a rock-paper-scissors game for dish duty followed.

Ugh, I’m really at my limit now.

After standing all day, even my calves started aching.

“A game? No way! We have elderly people here!”

Won Hyerim sunbaenim snapped sharply at PD Ha Wonwoo.

The PD played dumb while refusing to budge.

“I was planning to stake ramen on a morning wake-up mission tomorrow… Should we just scrap the ramen then?”

“What.”

An absurd sound escaped out loud.

Experiencing firsthand the push-and-pull I’d only seen on TV was driving me crazy.

This guy’s a total pro.

In the end, united by one heart and one mind to absolutely secure the ramen, the dish duty rock-paper-scissors began.

“The game is! Hit the bottle cap with a slingshot!!”

The moment we heard the game, sighs poured out from everywhere.

The staff handed out slingshots one by one.

My hand holding the slingshot was slightly sweaty.

Why am I getting nervous over this?

People quickly started practicing with the bottle cap as their target.

Well then, should I give it a try too?

I picked up a round stone, wedged it between the rubber bands, and aimed at the bottle cap.

Three, two, one.

Snap—

The pebble didn’t even fly and bounced off in the wrong direction, dropping to the ground with a thud.

“……”

* * *

‘Han Sena-ssi, evening dish duty winner!’

Seoul, inside an office.

Taking advantage of the boss being away, employees were watching the variety show Desert Island on their computers.

“Puhaha.”

Laughter from the employees echoed through the once-quiet office.

Han Sena walked trudging along holding cooking tools with soulless eyes as the caption I want to go home… appeared in front of her.

“This is totally me right now.”

The female employee who’d quickly captured that part uploaded the gif to an online forum.

「Me on Sunday evening facing tomorrow’s self.gif」

The gif was uploaded to the Sena fan cafe, fundamental’s free discussion board.

A coworker in the next seat who’d been sneaking a peek at the monitor asked,

“Isn’t Desert Island seriously funny?”

“Right? This PD was already famous anyway.”

“True. The actors are funny too, especially Han Sena.”

Employees who’d been quietly focused on work also joined the conversation.

“No, but Han Sena’s lowkey hilarious. She’s good at everything but keeps getting caught because she’s terrible at rock-paper-scissors games—it’s so funny and pitiful.”

That’s when the manager who’d finished his meeting joined the conversation.

“There’s humanity in that, which is nice.”

“That’s tru— Ah, manager!”

The manager crossed his arms in the middle of the office.

“You all should work silently like Han Sena. We’re doing overtime again, yeah?”

At that, the employees each avoided the manager’s eyes and pursed their lips.

The moment the manager left the office again, two subordinates’ eyes met simultaneously.

“Huh?”

“Wait? The manager knows a celebrity’s name?”

“He used to only know old trot singers.”

“Amazing.”

* * *

Same time, at home.

I was sitting on the sofa with Mom and Dad for once, watching TV.

The new Uninhabited Island episode was airing.

“They’re putting our daughter through hell!”

Dad was covered with a blanket eating tangerines when he grimaced.

Then Mom giggled.

“Goodness, the arm bends inward as they say. She needs to suffer a bit!”

“Mom, that’s too much!”

At that, Mom shot me a look.

“You don’t lift a finger at home. Where did you even learn those tricks?”

Looking at Mom like that made me grin.

“It’s a secret!”

“Everyone at dance class these days is talking about this variety show too. People are calling you mother-in-law, survival queen, Sanderella—all sorts of things.”

Mom, who’d been attending line dancing classes lately, spoke cheerfully.

“Do people know you’re my mom?”

I looked at Mom, now quite interested.

Then Mom shrugged and laughed.

“I’m deliberately not telling them. It’s fun. My lips are so itchy though.”

“Seriously.”

I giggled at how cute Mom was.

Then I fixed my gaze back on the TV.

PD Ha Wonwoo’s directing skills were truly impressive.

Even mundane scenes somehow got edited to be hilarious.

“Last week’s first broadcast got 5% ratings, Sena. The rerun ratings are incredible too.”

Dad, who’d become an expert on ratings, was informing me.

I nodded hearing that.

I’d just heard that thanks to this variety show, the drama’s view counts were skyrocketing too.

Netmate said they were even planning to release messenger emoticons this time, collecting gifs from both the variety show and movie versions.

I picked up my phone and opened the live broadcast chat window.

What kind of comments are people leaving?

-Why is Han Sena so funny lol. Rolling in dramas, rolling in variety shows. She’s a tire.

-All the Desert Island family seem close, nice to see.
⤷ Han Sena and Kim Eunseo look the closest. You can tell they’re real friends from how they fight.

-Han Sena’s really down-to-earth. She was funny dancing with Lee Seokhyun before too. Hope she does a high-class concept that matches her looks later.
⤷ Agreed, she looked cool and chic in Flat Shoes. Want her to do a chaebol drama next.

I saw several comments I hadn’t expected.

People want quite a lot of different concepts from me.

I was reading through comments when Mom put an apple slice in my mouth.

“But didn’t you get way too tan?”

“Huh?”

Hearing Mom’s words, I looked down at my arm.

Come to think of it, I did get pretty tan…

“An actress needs to take care of herself!”

“Oh.”

* * *

“You got the tanning done.”

Back at Minyeong unnie’s office.

Unnie, with her keen eye, immediately noticed I’d gotten white tanning done at the dermatologist.

Unnie looked at me and chuckled.

“You’re becoming a proper actress now—taking care of yourself and everything.”

“I got pretty golden brown everywhere.”

“Right, you need to recover quickly. You’ll be wearing a dress again soon.”

The Marden International Film Festival was next month.

Though it was the non-competition section, I was scheduled to attend the red carpet event.

Wonder what dress I’ll wear this time.

“By the way, the Gaia rep was dying of frustration.”

“Why?”

I looked at unnie in surprise.

“If they were an outdoor leisure brand, they would’ve sponsored clothes and props and everything, but of all things you had to go to a desert island for variety.”

“Oh my, that’s surprising.”

Hearing that, I patted my chest.

“We’ll do it next time. We did Emily Homewear during <Hometown> anyway.”

As their model, I’d been paying attention here and there.

“Well, the product exposure is different. She has a right to feel frustrated—that Westside hat you wore on the island sold out completely. There’s not a single one left in stock nationwide, so they’re taking pre-orders.”

“Really?!”

Hearing unnie’s words, I stuck out my tongue.

“Yeah, they even sent a huge gift certificate as thanks. You use it.”

“What. That was Jihye coordinator’s personal item. I should give the gift certificate to Jihye-ssi.”

Minyeong unnie waved her hand dismissively as if she didn’t care about that.

Then she got to the main point.

“Westside wants to use you as a model—what do you think?”

Oh, Westside?

Westside was a brand that always put out sports wear with stylish designs.

If I take on both eco-friendly and leisure, could I solidly establish my image as a healthy natural beauty?

“Sounds good to me?”

Unnie fell into thought for a moment, as if she’d expected my answer.

I looked at her with curiosity.

“Did you see what people were saying in the fan cafe?”

“…What?”

“They want to see different images.”

“Ah.”

I nodded at unnie’s words.

Not just variety show comments—fans especially wanted to see me transform my image.

It was probably a wish coming from their desire for their actress to have a long career.

“So I’m thinking we should create a new image.”

Unnie slid papers toward me.

[Actor Audition Program ‘Be Actors’ Judge Proposal]

“What’s this… an actor audition program?”

I looked at unnie with a dazed expression.

Unnie had a somehow resolute look on her face.

“Will you do it?”

“It feels less like you’re asking will I, and more like telling me to do it?”

At that, unnie crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair, as if caught.

“From my perspective, this is a perfect opportunity. You can plant a new image in the public’s mind while approaching them in a friendly way.”

“……”

“It doesn’t have to be some haughty villainess, but you do need to create one image you haven’t shown yet.”

The moment I heard the words haughty villainess, I grimaced involuntarily.

I did that so many times in my past life, and now again?

Absolutely not.

As I hesitated, flipping through a page or two of the proposal, unnie stood up from the desk looking frustrated.

“What now.”

“Um, I hate to say this myself, but… I know it’s industry practice to cast people whose stock is rising lately. But I don’t think I’m someone who can teach and evaluate others yet.”

Of course I was curious.

I’d only ever learned—I’d never taught anyone before.

But objectively, from others’ perspectives, I’m only in my fourth year since debut.

So this job requiring not just a judge role but also a mentor role could be a hasty decision to appear.

Minyeong unnie stopped my train of thought.

“I get what you’re thinking roughly, but they need a young mentor to interact with the aspiring actors.”

“A young mentor?”

An unexpected choice.

“Yeah. From what I heard about the other actors they’re casting, it seems doable. Ha Seongjun and Hwang Yuseon are almost confirmed.”

Ha Seongjun, Hwang Yuseon?

Both actors were currently in the top five for rom-com casting in Korean dramas, no exaggeration.

Especially Ha Seongjun—it’d been a really long time since I’d heard about him.

In my past life, he’d been Seon Yuseok’s longtime rival in public interest.

Plus both of them had similar years of experience as me now.

If that’s the case, then like unnie said…

Could it really be worth trying?

The key would be what kind of mentor I become.

And no matter what kind, creating a new image wouldn’t make my existing down-to-earth friendliness and healthy appeal disappear.

If I really do this, how should I differentiate myself?

I fell into thought.