I Want to Be a VTuber

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Honestly speaking, only three people expected Seo-yeon to deliver such a performance.

Narumi Sora, and director Kakeba Hiro.

And lastly, journalist Furihata Yuito.

The image others had of Seo-yeon was—

“Isn’t she that ghost-like girl from that variety show we saw last time?”

“She was crawling on the ground.”

The program showcased her in a hidden camera (Dokkiri) segment, claiming she was a genius actor! But just from that, one couldn’t really gauge her acting prowess.

There were no lines, and her face or emotions weren’t even revealed.

Wasn’t it all just about frightening others?

“Genius actor” is a remarkably common title.

If someone is young and can act a little, agencies or broadcasting companies dote on them with such labels.

It felt like this was one of those instances.

That was what I thought.

However—

“What’s this? Why are you all alone? Did you get rejected?”

It was clearly a trivial line.

A crowd of extras gathered and buzzed around.

That voice was so melodious that it hardly resembled a quiet, reserved actor from just moments ago.

Her steps were light, bending slightly at the waist as she looked up at the male lead, Kento.

It was a glance that seemed to throw shadows from below upwards.

With an intimacy that seemed to defy boundaries, she casually pressed her finger against the man’s chest.

“If you’re bored, what’s wrong? I’m just~ chilling~”

That tone was akin to a woman luring a man off the street.

Commonly referred to as the kind of girl you shouldn’t run into carelessly on the streets.

Crossing paths with someone like this could turn into various kinds of headaches.

While she had the potential to unsettle anyone she encountered on the street, in the drama, it felt different.

Firstly, her appearance.

Then, her vocalization.

And beyond that, her presence naturally drew attention.

“I-I’m s-sorry, but I’d like to be alone.”

The actor playing the male lead, Hara Shou, almost miraculously managed to speak those words.

Usually, he might have delivered them with more coldness, but he stumbled over his words, losing himself in the gaze of the girl before him.

Ironically, that hesitation felt natural.

“Ehh~, what’s up? How boring. Hey, Satchan, try to charm him a bit. He’s not falling for it at all!”

Taking a step back, she swayed her body as if throwing a tantrum, grabbing the shoulder of the female colleague who was with her and shaking it.

That action was lively and oozed charisma, making one smile effortlessly.

“Seriously, this is humiliating. I thought he’d fall for me immediately. I’m totally being treated like a side character, right?”

A chorus of complaints followed in her wake.

Though they were frozen for a moment, the others had some scripted lines to follow.

Half in a daze, they began to speak.

About four extras were babbling away without a care.

In the midst of it all, the ghost-like girl merely stood with an offended expression, arms crossed.

Those watching the scene felt a sense of dissonance.

Sure, there were many characters present.

But—

“I can only see one person.”

Even with the main character, Kento, by her side.

Everyone was overshadowed by a single extra.

Those who belatedly realized this turned to Kakeba, the director.

The presence of that extra was overwhelming.

It felt as though the scene itself was being dominated.

And then—

As if emerging naturally, a woman wedged herself between the two.

The female lead of this drama, [First Love Moment], Sato Mio.

Having briefly frozen away from the camera, she earnestly delivered her lines.

“Wait! Wait, wait, what are you guys!!”

Pushing the girl aside quite exaggeratedly.

Or rather, she should have pushed her aside.

Yet failing to enter smoothly, her foot stumbled for a moment.

Plus, her lines felt shaky.

Ah, I made a mistake.

The moment that thought crossed her mind—

“Cut, that’s it.”

Kakeba raised his hand to stop them.

It was definitely an NG, but Kakeba’s face was full of delight.

He wore a look of sheer satisfaction.

While Mio’s sudden entrance had disrupted the flow, everything beforehand had been excellent.

At this point, it was good enough that they could smoothly resume from Mio’s entrance scene.

“You handled your part perfectly in one take.”

Kakeba said with a smile.

The subject of his praise was unnecessary to ask.

Joo Seo-yeon.

She stood still, adjusting her clothing.

“Uh, wait a minute.”

“So that was all the lines I had?”

In that instant, she forgot she was just an extra.

One minute.

Yes, looking back, it seemed to be precisely a minute’s worth of material.

In the following script, Mio appears and pushes aside the ghost-like girl.

The story then goes that her friends step in instead, unable to handle Mio’s vigorous personality, and all flee in panic.

So, in the subsequent scene, Seo-yeon won’t particularly do anything.

She’ll simply pretend to be hurt as she falls over.

Watching her friends fight from the back before running away in fear later.

“Still, at least they gave her a separate focus at the beginning, which should have been enough for a cameo.”

Before the filming, it had been ‘one minute.’

But now, it was ‘only one minute.’

What can I say?

The acting was different.

The acting styles of Korea and Japan are entirely distinct.

In Korea, some viewers might jokingly say that viewing Japanese acting feels like a school play, but that’s simply because Japanese acting tends to lean towards being overly emotional.

There are many lines, and the performances are often akin to those in animation or musicals.

“But, director Kakeba’s work is sort of a borderland.”

Yuuto, the journalist observing the situation, remarked.

Honestly, it felt closer to Korean dramas.

While the sentiments and themes are Japanese, the acting resembles that of Korea.

Of course, there are Japanese elements as well, so Seo-yeon performed in a manner aligning with Kakeba’s desired tone.

“By the way, did actress Joo Seo-yeon really master Japanese that well?”

“Seems like she just memorized the words; her intonation and feel seem to mimic exactly what I said.”

It was amusing that Seo-yeon’s recently delivered line had the exact intonation Sora had mentioned earlier.

Seo-yeon simply added a little color to that.

Being an animation fan, that couldn’t have been too hard.

It reminded me of when I saw Seo-yeon’s performance in [Hyper Action Star].

“Yeah, she was just that type.”

I sometimes forget.

Seo-yeon truly is a person worthy of the title genius actress.

But she simply stood there with an air of dignity.

As if she were someone from another world.

I doubt only Sora thought that way.

But in truth, Seo-yeon—

“I have no idea what everyone is talking about. I wish someone would explain it to me.”

Seo-yeon glanced at Sora.

It was a desperate gesture asking someone to come over and explain the situation.

In response to that gesture, Sora was just clapping for Seo-yeon.

No, she should be translating instead of clapping.

Of course, that desperate wish of Seo-yeon never reached Sora.

And while Seo-yeon was mulling over her loneliness—

“Indeed.”

With a brief halt in shooting, the staff gathered around.

They were there to review the just-captured scene.

“This is indeed the case. No mistake, she almost devoured the scene all by herself.”

As the camera director remarked this, others nodded in agreement.

“But it doesn’t feel strange. It has the vibe of just being that kind of scene?”

“On the contrary, perhaps this is the right color for it…”

The staff exchanged glances with a hint of suspense for Kakeba.

After confirming the scene a few more times, he smiled.

“I had a feeling this might happen, so I made slight adjustments to the scene and script. Though, it seems actress Joo Seo-yeon… may have sensed my intentions.”

“Is that so?”

There was an odd sense of understanding, something vaguely resonating.

Of course, it was a bit elusive, and I’d have to see it later on TV to fully grasp it.

“This minute might turn out to be bigger than we think.”

“Does this affect our drama?”

“Uh? Oh, it would have some impact on the drama, sure.”

Of course, a cameo shining wouldn’t necessarily boost the drama’s ratings.

Just a momentary buzz, and then it would be over.

“But actress Joo Seo-yeon…”

In just a few days in Japan, she seemed to be showcasing too much.

In the drama, it’s merely a minute, but on the internet, that might not be the case.

In showbiz, it can take just five seconds to change one’s life.

Especially, there’s that idol known as the “Thousand-Year Stone” whose destiny changed due to just one photo.

“I’ll need to line up a project in advance.”

With something that would catch Seo-yeon’s interest.

I thought it wouldn’t be easy.

She seemed to have very little interest in Japanese movies or dramas.

Thus, to move a girl like her would require more than ordinary standards.

“Today, I’ll be satisfied with just having created a link.”

He clapped with satisfaction.

After all, the shooting wasn’t over yet.

*

“Hey!”

After the shooting wrapped up, someone called out to Seo-yeon, who was just about to change her clothes.

With a gentle appearance, her presence felt exceptionally imposing.

“Her name is probably…”

The actress playing Sato Mio, the female lead of [First Love Moment], Koto Reika.

What to say?

It’s quite a classic name.

“It’s somehow reminiscent of someone.”

Of course, the original looked far scarier.

The situation felt somewhat similar too.

They coincidentally ran into each other just as they were stepping out to change.

“During the shoot earlier, that was intentional, wasn’t it? Were you trying to eclipse my presence? Otherwise, I can’t understand your performance.”

At her words, Seo-yeon gazed back at her with calm eyes.

“I can’t speak Japanese.”

Not that she couldn’t speak it at all.

She could piece together words at a basic level.

“I recognize words often used in animation, but…”

There’s little way to converse with just that.

The only words that came to mind in this moment were “onna” and “damare,” and that was a problem.

“It feels like I’m being blamed.”

Not knowing the reason, Seo-yeon had no way to respond.

Furthermore, with the nuance being mixed and ambiguous, it felt like their poorly grasped understanding had turned into a plight.

“…Do you really not speak Japanese?”

“Excuse me?”

Just then, Reika, who had been chattering away towards her, furrowed her brow and clumsily spoke in Korean.

Wait, what’s this?

Why does everyone find it so easy to speak in another language?

Even Seo-yeon, who had been trained by animation, still couldn’t manage Japanese, yet everyone else spoke Korean or Japanese with such ease.

As she was pondering, Reika jotted something down on her smartphone and held it out to her.

It seemed she had typed out what she just said using Google Translate.

“Looks like she’s not as fluent as Sora.”

Feeling oddly relieved, Seo-yeon glanced at Reika’s text.

It basically suggested that she was overstepping as an extra.

The words were quite temperate, but the meaning was clear.

“Could she perhaps not realize?”

However, Seo-yeon also pondered that it was possible she might not.

After all, it was a scene that had been added very recently.

[The connection between scenes is sparse, so it’s okay.]

After Seo-yeon typed that out, Reika seemed to realize something at last.

Looking back at the performing portion earlier, Seo-yeon had clearly come across as excessively forward for an extra.

Yet once it played on TV, it wouldn’t stand out that much.

Thinking back to the situation at the time made this easy to grasp.

The filming scene already featured a conflict between Mio, the female lead, and Kento, the male lead.

The mood had already been somewhat set, and with Seo-yean radiating her presence, it wouldn’t matter if it swallowed Kento’s presence.

No, it was better that way.

That way it communicated to viewers that Kento felt diminished currently.

After that, when Mio appeared, the situation would turn, naturally reducing Seo-yeon’s presence.

Just looking at the script, the ghost-like girl doesn’t utter a single word after Mio appears.

That must have been Kakeba’s intention.

The ghost-like girl was initially created to reinforce Kento’s performance.

[I-I also knew that.]

At that moment, a reply came from Reika.

Instead of merely observing, Seo-yeon thought.

“Is this girl perhaps a bit slow?”

Suddenly, her spirits brightened.

It felt like she was responding with a somewhat dim-witted answer.

Such a type was rather rare around Seo-yeon.

For some reason, everyone around her were all smart, so whenever she explained something—

“Oh, so that was the case…”

“I got a general idea.”

“So, this is how it works?”

That was how things always flowed.

Park Jung-woo, Jo Seo-hee, even Lee Ji-yeon were like that.

Since childhood, they had all been exceptionally bright.

Hence, seeing someone like Reika, who couldn’t easily take in things even when told, felt refreshing.

She had a bit of that dim-witted vibe similar to Seo-hee.

Thus, Seo-yeon rapidly concluded her image of Reika.

[Are you heading back to Korea now?]

Looking a bit bashful, Reika added.

[Yes. Now that the shooting’s done, it’s time to go.]

Having rested for quite a while, she would have to gear up to shoot [Gyeongseong Young Lady] upon returning.

“And…”

She also needed to prepare for Jo Bang-woo’s film.

It felt like there were many things to keep her busy.

[Next time, I won’t mess up like this.]

With those words, Reika determinedly opened her eyes wide.

While it seemed she was giving it her all, to Seo-yeon familiar with Jo Seo-hee or Lee Ji-yeon’s eyes, she just looked like a chick.

Her demeanor and actions made her seem like a duplicate of Seo-hee, but her appearance radiated extreme gentleness.

[Just you wait.]

Anyway, Reika left with a haughty air, turning her back with flair.

Truly a specimen of a proud actress.

“Ah.”

Thinking back, there was one question lingering in her mind.

“About that actress who referred to Sora as a maid.”

Regardless of anything else, Seo-yeon was sensitive to remarks that seemed critical of her.

Of course, in this case, she had been listening in, unsure if they were dissing her, but it turned out to merely be remarks directed at Sora.

“I wanted to maybe give her a smack.”

Though she had considered pointing out her bad phrasing, she let the moment slip.

“Well, it’s better for Sora to handle it directly anyway.”

In any case, after [Mine] premiered, Sora would surely gain recognition in due time.

Thus, with that, her long break in Japan came to an end.

— What? I’m watching a Japanese drama, and Joo Seo-yeon’s in it?

– ??