I Want to Be a VTuber-Chapter 318: The Calm Before the Storm (1)

"I'll definitely join the theater club! Please look forward to it!"

As lunchtime came to an end, Min Ara left with those words.

Watching her retreating figure with a satisfied gaze, Seoyeon—

"Does she really feel that good about being told she’s good at games?"

Jiyeon tilted her head in curiosity.

For the record, Jiyeon knew that Seoyeon liked VTubers—

but she had no idea that Seoyeon actually wanted to become one.

"She’s way too serious about this."

That aside, Jiyeon was well aware that Seoyeon really liked Ramiel.

She had always noticed that Seoyeon made a clear distinction between Ramiel and herself.

As if separating a character from a movie from the actor who plays them.

After the recent commercial stream, Jiyeon had once again been reminded of just how creepy Seoyeon could be.

But by now, she had long since given up on questioning it.

After all, Ju Seoyeon being weird wasn’t anything new.

"Ju Seoyeon."

"Huh?"

"That girl seemed seriously interested in becoming an actress."

She was talking about Min Ara, who had just left.

"Yeah."

Seoyeon immediately understood what Jiyeon was implying.

Striking blonde hair.

A beautiful face.

People had probably asked her many times before—

"Have you ever thought about becoming a celebrity?"

Based on her looks alone, she certainly had potential.

But—

"She’s mixed-race."

Not only was her hair blonde, but her features leaned more Western than East Asian.

That severely limited the types of roles she could get in Korean dramas.

And because there were so few roles for mixed-race actors,

those roles were already being taken by established mixed-race actresses.

Breaking through that barrier wouldn’t be easy.

"I even went through my memories when I got home yesterday... but I couldn’t recall anything."

That meant—

As an actress, she hadn’t achieved anything notable in Seoyeon’s past life.

Which, in turn, meant—

She wasn’t skilled enough to break through that barrier.

"...Hmm."

As a senpai, Seoyeon wanted to give her honest advice.

But she couldn’t think of the right words.

Telling her outright that acting wasn’t a realistic path would be too harsh.

What about becoming an idol instead?

But that wasn’t something she could answer right away either...

"Well, don’t think about it too hard. Who knows what’ll happen in the future?"

"Yeah."

Jiyeon shrugged, and Seoyeon nodded.

That was true.

"I don’t even know exactly what she’s thinking yet."

From what she said, she seemed to be serious about acting—

but you never really knew.

Since she was planning to visit the theater club anyway,

it wouldn’t be a bad idea to see Min Ara’s acting for herself.

If Ara was talented not just in looks but in actual acting as well—

"Then I’ll have to reconsider."

After all, if there was one thing she had learned from Jo Sehee—

It never hurt to build connections with talented actors.

***

[Who Will Be the Next Child Game?]

A headline that had been trending since this morning.

The article’s view count skyrocketed, and comments poured in by the second.

It showed just how much hype there was around OTT dramas lately.

And of course—

It was only natural.

For the Korean entertainment industry, it was practically a revolution.

Until recently, OTT dramas had never been something that the TV industry saw a need to invest in.

Up until now, streaming platforms were seen as nothing more than a second market—

a place to resell old broadcasted shows.

But after Child Game, everything changed.

Especially because Child Game’s success made Nettrix take a serious interest in Korean content.

And so, they began pouring money into creating the next Child Game.

"Did you see the PV for Infernal Hell?"

"Oh, yeah. That one’s based on a novel, right?"

"I think Yasha is dropping soon too. I’m excited for that one."

Conversations like these filled the streets.

And with Seoyeon’s sharp hearing, she could pick up on them even more whenever she took the subway.

"Both of them had... pretty underwhelming results."

It wasn’t like they completely bombed.

But compared to the hype, they were disappointing.

After Infernal Hell and Yasha flopped,

The next big drama—NameLess—managed to do decently,

but it wasn’t exactly a massive hit either.

"And then a year passed."

Korea failed to produce another major hit—

And public interest started to fade.

Until the early months of next year, when Our New Semester would premiere.

"But what about Mine?"

It was a drama that hadn’t existed in my past life.

So, there was no way to predict how it would perform.

A chill of tension ran down her spine.

This was probably the kind of nervous anticipation actors felt before their work was released.

Up until now, she had only accepted roles in projects that were guaranteed to succeed—

so she had never felt this feeling before.

"If a film I worked hard on failed... it would be devastating."

Now, she understood.

Even though it hadn’t failed yet, it felt like it had.

As always in the arts and entertainment industry—

A project’s quality and its success were two completely different things.

A well-made production had a higher chance of succeeding—

but that didn’t guarantee anything.

For example—

Director Jo Bang-woo’s Seoul Escape.

It had a great script and was a good film, yet it still flopped.

Scandals involving the actors had been one reason,

but it was also because he had failed several times in a row,

causing public interest in his works to plummet.

And that was still an ongoing issue—

One that Seoyeon had been thinking about a lot lately.

"The simplest solution would be..."

Keeping consistent public attention.

If the actors of a project remained in the public eye,

the audience would naturally start anticipating their next project.

In that sense, Mine’s success was crucial.

"If Mine does well, it’ll have ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) a positive impact on Seoul Escape too."

Of course, since they were different works, the effect wouldn’t be huge—

but it would still be significant.

[Nettrix OTT Drama Mine – Trailer Countdown: 28:12:03]

The countdown timer continued to tick down in real-time.

Now—just 25 hours left.

Seoyeon stared at the screen, eyes tense with anticipation.

She was nervous about how the public would react—

but she was also excited.

And above all—

"Sehee’s performance."

She wanted to see—the re-filmed version of Sehee’s acting.

That—

That was her pure, honest desire. freewebnøvel.com

****

"You were late because you took the subway."

"......."

Seoyeon exhaled sharply, staring at Park Jungwoo as if he had lost his mind.

Was he telling her to take a taxi instead?

No, he probably didn’t mean it that way.

More like—why didn’t you just run instead of taking the subway?

"What exactly does he think I am?"

No matter how fit she was, Seoyeon still took public transport when the distance was too far.

She wasn’t some superhuman who could fly.

And she wasn’t about to run along the roads either.

Sure, she was fast, but if the distance was too great, the subway was obviously faster.

"Jungwoo-senpai."

"Hm?"

"I'm thinking of learning self-defense. Want to join me?"

"...What?"

"I figured it’d be nice to train with someone I know."

Something like MMA.

Or maybe kickboxing.

Lately, as she had been doing more action acting, she felt that learning at least one or two martial arts would be useful.

And if Jungwoo joined her,

she’d have an excuse to land a few punches on him during sparring.

"Ju Seoyeon."

"Yes?"

"Does a lion train?"

"?"

"A strong person training is unfair."

"Is that so."

"You need to understand that."

Jungwoo spoke in an unusually serious tone.

Clearly, the manga she had lent him recently had left an impression.

"I shouldn’t have lent it to him."

Seoyeon had a habit of collecting her favorite manga and novels in physical copies.

For reading, she preferred e-books, but she liked owning them.

Jungwoo, being old-fashioned, refused e-books and only read physical copies,

so she had lent him some of hers.

"Anyway, I’m signing up. You should too."

"Why me?"

"I can’t exactly ask my friends, can I?"

...What?

So her friends couldn't be beaten up,

but he could?

Jungwoo felt a cold sweat break out down his spine.

"Well... even if she asked them, they’d all just run away."

Jo Sehee would probably tremble but still go along with it,

but even Seoyeon wouldn’t want that.

"...I’ll think about it if my schedule clears up."

"Alright."

Seoyeon nodded generously.

Jungwoo, watching her, decided that—

for a while, at least—

he should ease up on teasing her.

"Anyway, is there anyone in Mine’s cast who’d be a good fit for Seoul Escape?"

"There is, but it’s too much overlap."

"Right, you’ve already worked with Jo Sehee back-to-back. Any actors you’re personally close to...? Narumi Sora?"

"No roles that suit her."

"Yeah, we need a male actor right now."

The casting situation for Seoul Escape was a mess.

Even after Director Jo Bangwoo begged and scraped together actors,

he had only managed to fill a few supporting roles.

The film already had a heavy lead focus,

but even this was a problem.

"Wait, a male actor?"

A name suddenly came to mind.

A recently injured actor.

His drama had just wrapped up, so his schedule should be open.

"By the way, what’s today’s meeting with Biol about? From the schedule, it doesn’t look like they’re planning to talk for long."

"Probably just a check-in before I leave for France."

For the record, the reason Seoyeon and Jungwoo had met up today was to discuss her official model contract with Biol.

Their meeting was at 6 PM.

Three hours from now.

Why had they met up so early?

Because there were some things to discuss about Seoul Escape first.

But now that they were here—

another task had popped up.

Shopping for clothes.

"You should prepare your outfits in advance."

"How was I supposed to know someone important was coming today?"

'Even so, most people wouldn’t show up in their school uniform.'

Jungwoo swallowed back the words before they left his mouth.

Saying them out loud would probably just increase his sparring sessions by one.

"What’s the point of having a manager?"

Not that it mattered—

her manager was already overwhelmed dealing with her advertisement shoots.

Which was why Jungwoo had even texted her about it.

But—

"She really didn’t even check her phone?"

Whether she forgot or just ignored it out of laziness,

the result was the same.

And so, as always, she had shown up in her school uniform,

leaving Jungwoo sighing in frustration.

"Well, let’s go over the key points and head out."

"Okay."

Luckily, there was a department store near Biol’s Korean headquarters,

so shopping wouldn’t be too much trouble.

"I can probably pull in about ten actors if I ask."

"Isn’t that too many?"

"Isn’t it more like you have too few?"

"I’m a high schooler."

Now she used her age as a shield.

Jungwoo clicked his tongue at her words.

"Well... she’s not wrong."

Honestly, he hadn’t expected much from her in the first place.

It wasn’t like she knew that many actors.

This was less about relying on Seoyeon

and more about relying on Jo Sehee’s connections.

"If I asked Sehee, she’d just laugh in my face and refuse."

To Seoyeon, Jo Sehee was as sweet as a lamb.

To everyone else?

A proud noblewoman who refused to grant favors.

Especially toward Jungwoo,

whom she treated like some duke’s heir and thus her rival.

Which meant she was even less likely to help him.

"Still, there are two actors I have in mind."

"Not someone who can help, just someone who came to mind?"

"If I ask, they’ll probably agree."

"Who?"

"Arthur Diaz."

"......."

Jungwoo’s eyebrow twitched.

That was a name he knew all too well.

"No."

"Why?"

"You think he’d agree?"

"I can ask Stella to nag him a little."

"Not everyone thinks like you, Seoyeon."

"......"

The moment he said it—

Seoyeon’s expression went blank.

"...Shit."

Jungwoo realized instantly.

His sparring just went up by one round.

He had run his mouth too much.