It was 12:30 PM on the day that Kang Ra-Eun would go to acting school to learn acting for the first time. As she was killing time outside her house, a white van stopped in front of her.

Honk honk!

The car honked twice as the passenger seat window rolled down. A woman in her twenties gripping the steering wheel smiled toward Ra-Eun.

“You’re Ra-Eun, right? Chief Jung said I’d recognize you right away since you’re an extremely pretty high school girl, and he was right. I could see your immense aura even from far away!”

“...Oh, I see,” Ra-Eun replied apathetically despite the shower of praises.

The woman had clearly heard about Ra-Eun’s coldness from Chief Jung, because she did not mind Ra-Eun’s lukewarm reaction all that much.

“Why don’t you get in?” the woman said.

“Okay.” Ra-Eun entered the van. Its interior was quite clean.

‘Is it a new car?’

She could smell the familiar scent of vinyl that emitted from every new car. As soon as she got into the back seat, the woman introduced herself while maneuvering the van.

“I’m Shin Yu-Bin, your road manager from here on out. Nice to meet you.”

“I’m Kang Ra-Eun.”

“I know. You’re the rookie actress that our chief has extremely high hopes for, to the point that he even bought a new car for you.”

It was a car only for Ra-Eun’s use. Her suspicion about this being a new car was confirmed.

‘I was just gonna quit after getting close to Ji Han-Seok, though.’

She couldn’t help but feel uneasy. It was rare for an agency to treat this well a rookie actress who had only just debuted. Because of that, Shin Yu-Bin also had high hopes for Ra-Eun.

“To be honest, I was a bit skeptical about what Chief Jung told me, but I changed my mind as soon as I saw you. You’re definitely star material. I may not look like it, but I’ve done quite a lot of stuff in the broadcasting industry, and I’m confident in my intuition. You can trust me,” Yu-Bin said.

“How many years have you worked in this industry?” Ra-Eun asked.

“Half a year now?”

“...”

That remark erased any sense of trust.

“But I’ve experienced anything you can imagine in that short time, so don’t be so anxious. Oh right, you can just comfortably call me unnie,” Yu-Bin expressed.

“It’s alright, Miss Manager.”

“Come on, just call me unnie. That’ll be comfortable for me, you, and this bobblehead figure up here, don’t you think?”

“I appreciate your consideration, but it’s more comfortable for me to call you Miss Manager instead of unnie. I’ll be in your care, Miss Manager,” Ra-Eun declared.

She emphasized the words Miss Manager. The word that she hated the most after oppa was unnie. It was still hard for Ra-Eun to say, so she decided to push ahead with the use of Miss Manager.

“Well... Think about it again after we get closer,” Yu-Bin expressed.

Yu-Bin felt saddened by Ra-Eun’s formal attitude of setting boundaries right from their first meeting.

***

Ra-Eun and Yu-Bin headed inside as soon as they arrived at the acting school, and met an instructor introducing herself as Yoon Su-Mi.

“I heard from Chief Jung that you have no acting experience?” Su-Mi asked.

“Yes,” Ra-Eun replied. Park Geon-Woo had an overwhelming amount of worldly experience, but he had never tried acting before.

Su-Mi lightly sighed.

“When is the shoot?” she asked while checking the notepad that she was holding.

“In two weeks, 10 AM on Tuesday at the broadcasting studio.”

“Two weeks, huh... Can I take a look at the script?”

Su-Mi received the script of episode 21 of The Devil’s Touch. As she was going through it, Ra-Eun whispered to Yu-Bin, “Is it okay to show the script to an outsider?”

Ra-Eun did not know much about drama shoots, but she at least knew that scripts shouldn’t be shown to a third party. Yu-Bin resolved Ra-Eun’s concerns while nodding.

“Yup, it’s okay. This acting school is entirely responsible for teaching extras and supporting actors of The Devil’s Touch,” Yu-Bin answered.

“I see,” Ra-Eun said.

If that was what Yu-Bin said, then it had to be true. She decided not to think too much about it.

After going through all the parts that Ra-Eun would need to digest, Su-Mi buried herself deep into the backrest of her seat.

“Mm...” She was deep in thought. “Director Son is pretty meticulous, so it’ll be difficult to avoid NG cuts without good acting skills.”

“Really?” It was different from what Ra-Eun had felt last time. “He okayed it right away without any cuts during the last shoot.”

“Are you talking about your very first shoot?” Su-Mi asked.

“Yes,” Ra-Eun answered.

“That was done without any cuts?”

Ra-Eun verified again.

“Okay, then... Just a sec.”

Su-Mi took out a script from her drawer. It was a practice script, thinner than the one for The Devil’s Touch.

“Try reading the lines in the top box of page 2,” Su-Mi stated.

Ra-Eun’s face stiffened as soon as she saw the lines.

‘Fucking hell.’

She almost unconsciously cursed, because...

[Oppa, do you love me or not?]

[C’mon~! Oppa, you pervert! Hmph!]

Just reading them was enough to almost make her hurl.

‘You want me to read this? You’re fucking insane.’

Su-Mi tilted her head as Ra-Eun was hesitating.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Can we try a different line, please?” Ra-Eun implored.

“Are the lines too much for you? Well, okay. Then... I’ll choose something that someone of your character’s personality would say. Okay, here.”

It was at least better than the first lines. Seong-Hee, the character that Ra-Eun played in The Devil’s Touch, was a prideful female character from a rich family who had a haughty personality. Su-Mi had chosen a line that was perfect for her.

Ahem!

Ra-Eun shortly cleared her throat and read the line with as much emotion as she could muster.

“You? Like me? Hey, I’ll consider that I never heard that confession, so go study or something.”

After seeing Ra-Eun’s impromptu acting, Su-Mi’s expression changed into one that showed Ra-Eun was better than she had expected.

“Could you read the one below that as well?” Su-Mi requested.

This line expressed more toughness and ill-temperedness compared to the first.

“Screw off while I’m still being nice, before I kick your ass!”

The charisma and drive that one wouldn’t usually be able to feel from a rookie actress could be felt from Ra-Eun. It was easy for Ra-Eun to get into character because the lines were almost exactly what she would normally say. However, Su-Mi completely misunderstood this fact.

“Ra-Eun, you’re a natural!” Su-Mi exclaimed.

She had become the subject of a weird misunderstanding right from the first day.

***

Ra-Eun decided to go to the bathroom in the middle of her lesson. She had gotten used to going in and out of the women’s bathroom.

‘I used to unconsciously go into the men’s bathroom.’

She still remembered the male students’ flustered faces as they hid themselves by squeezing up against the urinals. After that day, Ra-Eun made it a habit to check the male and female bathroom signs before going in. Thanks to that, she didn’t have to repeat the same mistake in the acting school. As she was about to head back to the rehearsal room...

“Haap!”

Thump!

“I told you to make your movements more dynamic!”

“Jin-Hyeong! You’ll get hurt at that rate! Tense yourself up properly!”

Thud!

She could hear several sounds of impact, cries of spirit, and bellows from people. People in training wear were practicing martial arts and stunts.

‘What is this place?’

As Ra-Eun was staring intently at them...

“It’s an action school. Right now, the actors of The Devil’s Touch are in the middle of practicing.”

Su-Mi had appeared before Ra-Eun knew it and asked as if to feel her out, “Are you interested in action as well, Ra-Eun?”

Actresses who could proficiently digest action scenes were very highly valued due to their rarity.

“I’m not just interested, I’m very good at it,” Ra-Eun answered.

She was more suited for moving her body like that instead of standing still and repeatedly reading lines from a script.

“Really? Then come with me for a bit,” Su-Mi said. As an instructor, she was interested in what Ra-Eun could do since she was showing such confidence.

“Coach Heo!”

“Hm? Miss Yoon, what brings you here...?”

Heo Son, the martial arts coach for The Devil’s Touch, turned his attention toward Ra-Eun standing next to Su-Mi.

“I knew I’d seen you somewhere before. You’re the one who took Mi-Jeong’s place after she ghosted on us, right?” he asked.

“My name is Kang Ra-Eun.”

After the short exchange of introductions, Su-Mi told Heo Son the reason why she brought Ra-Eun here.

“Ra-Eun said she was good at action, so I was hoping you could test how good she is. Could you please?” Su-Mi asked.

“Test Ra-Eun? Sure,” Heo Son pondered while tilting his head a few times. “But it’d be difficult for a teenage girl to handle action.”

However, Ra-Eun drove away his doubts without delay.

“I’m confident, so feel free to test me however you’d like,” Ra-Eun declared.

“Well, okay.”

Heo Son called over an action-specialized actor who was learning directly under him.

“Su-Hyeong, put on some sparring mitts and come here.”

“What? Why?” Su-Hyeong asked.

“I want you to test this young lady here to see whether she can properly enact action scenes or not.”

Su-Hyeong did not bother to hide the fact that he considered it a hassle. His blatant disrespect toward Ra-Eun lit a fire under her.

He signaled toward his sparring mitts. “Give them a kick.”

At that moment, Ra-Eun’s expression changed. She warned Su-Hyeong in advance, “I recommend you hold tight.”

If he didn’t want to fall on his butt from a high school girl’s kick, that was.