Chapter 9

Time passed quickly, and the day of the drama shoot arrived.

It was the first day of filming, and the scene was being shot at a market in the countryside.

“Cut! Okay!”

The director’s shout rang across the set.

Until just moments ago, Ruri had been performing so pitifully that she tugged at everyone’s maternal instincts. But the instant she heard “Cut,” she broke into a bright, innocent smile as though nothing had happened.

It was a scene that had finally passed after several NGs because she had missed her lines in the middle.

“Our Ruri did so well! I think she gets better and better the more she acts!”

“I know! How can her tears fall so beautifully?”

The staff members applauded and showered Ruri with praise.

From one side of the set, Eun-hye, who played Hae-in, Yoo-ra’s mother, stared blankly at Ruri.

‘That child is only four years old?’

At first, Ruri had been clumsy in many ways, such as missing her lines, but her emotional expression was so impressive that it was difficult to believe she was only four.

It wasn’t simply a matter of shedding tears. It was a heartbreaking performance that seemed to seize the viewer’s heart and squeeze it.

‘……She’s a genius.’

Yet behind Eun-hye’s admiration, a terrible sense of misery descended upon her like a dark cloud.

Thirty-five years of acting experience.

Even Eun-hye, who believed she had some talent for acting, had made her debut as a teenager, but she had never been able to deliver emotions as deeply as that child.

The depth of emotion she had painstakingly acquired over thirty-five years, carving it into her very bones, was being expressed by that tiny child as naturally as breathing.

‘What have I been doing all this time?’

And what about herself now?

She had fallen into a slump and couldn’t even squeeze out a single tear at will. Recently, she had even become embroiled in controversy over her acting ability.

In the middle of all that, Ruri’s performance didn’t inspire Eun-hye.

Instead, it felt like proof of just how far she herself had fallen.

Her heart sank to the bottom.

Her fingertips grew cold and stiff, while the director’s indifferent voice struck her ears.

“All right, Eun-hye. Let’s try to do it as well as our Ruri. We’ll start as soon as you’re ready.”

“……Ah, yes. Director. I’ll be ready in a moment.”

Eun-hye barely managed to squeeze out her voice as she nodded.

But the fingers clutching her script were trembling miserably.

And, as expected—

The result was disastrous.

“Cut! Eun-hye, are you sure you’re playing someone who’s abandoning her daughter? I know it’s difficult for you because she’s a child, but you need to show that ruthless determination of someone who’s trying to start a new life. You can’t just cry a lot and call it acting! What, did the kid die?”

It was already the eighth NG.

The director’s sharp roar froze the entire set.

Eun-hye’s self-esteem had already plummeted after watching Ruri’s emotional performance.

Now, under the director’s furious shouting, she felt as though she had become even smaller.

Hyun-wook ran a hand roughly through his hair in frustration and spoke.

“Let’s take a short break. We’ll get it in one take next time. Please.”

“……I’m sorry.”

The filming was eventually suspended.

“There’s nothing here either!”

Ruri let out a disappointed sigh.

After arriving at the filming location, she had once again activated her Searcher, but the radar remained completely silent.

‘If I wander around too much again, Teacher Soyeon will worry!’

She was already sneaking around the set and searching here and there, but she couldn’t stay away for much longer.

Just as Ruri was about to head back—

“……So stupid. Is that all you can do? Even that little kid can do better.”

At the familiar voice, Ruri stopped walking.

The voice was coming from a dark corner behind an alley.

Ruri walked toward the sound and found Eun-hye sitting there alone, her face buried in her knees as she muttered to herself.

“How am I supposed to make a comeback like this? I’m finished here…….”

The woman speaking in a sorrowful voice was the auntie playing Yoo-ra’s mother.

But Auntie looked sad somehow.

Ruri couldn’t simply walk past her.

“Um, Auntie…….”

At the rustling sound and the appearance of a small shadow, Eun-hye raised her head.

“You…….”

Ruri glanced at Eun-hye’s expression before rummaging through her pocket.

Then she held out a strawberry-flavored candy.

“When you’re sad, you have to eat dis strawberry-flavored candy. Den your heart becomes sweet…….”

But that innocent attempt at comfort did not reach Eun-hye, whose heart had already become twisted with misery.

Instead, it only felt like a sharp thorn poking at her.

“……I don’t need it.”

Eun-hye turned away from Ruri.

But Ruri tilted her head and stepped closer.

“Do you not like strawberry flavor? Dis one is yummy.”

Ah, this is so irritating.

“If it’s so delicious, then you eat it yourself!”

Ruri flinched when Eun-hye suddenly raised her voice.

“Auntie……?”

“What would a naturally gifted kid like you know? I’ve worked hard for thirty-five years, but I can’t even…… lose to a four-year-old like you……”

Eun-hye’s voice, which had been spilling out in frustration, abruptly stopped.

The moment she saw Ruri’s frightened, widened eyes, it felt as though a bucket of ice water had been poured over her head.

‘What am I doing right now……? I’m taking my frustration out on a child who’s only four years old?’

A wave of misery washed over her.

Her self-loathing reached its peak as she realized she had taken out her own pathetic inferiority complex on a child.

Eun-hye rubbed her dry face with trembling hands and turned away.

“I’m sorry, Ruri……. I said something strange. Just pretend you didn’t hear what I said.”

Just as Eun-hye was about to leave as though fleeing from her shame—

Tap.

A small, warm hand grabbed the hem of her clothes.

“Ruri works really, really hard too……!”

The cry, filled with a sense of injustice, made Eun-hye stop.

When she turned around, Ruri was biting down firmly on her little lips and staring straight at Eun-hye.

“I watched the drama you were in, Auntie. You were shining so brightly…… Ruri didn’t want to get in Auntie’s way! So Ruri read the script lots and lots and practiced, but…….”

“……You watched me act? You?”

Eun-hye’s voice trembled faintly.

Ruri nodded vigorously.

“Yes! Ruri watched Auntie. Umm…… what was it? Ah! Blue Lighthouse! When Auntie was acting, your eyes were shining so brightly…… Ruri thought she wanted to become a cool actress just like Auntie!”

“You watched Blue Lighthouse……?”

“Yes!”

At that moment, it felt as though a bell had rung inside Eun-hye’s heart.

Blue Lighthouse, the drama Ruri had watched, was the work in which Eun-hye had reached the peak of her acting career.

And after that drama, Eun-hye had continued to fall.

Malicious scandals and rumors about sponsors had struck when she was at the very top.

The harder she tried to reveal the truth, the worse the situation became.

Because of that, she hadn’t even been able to act for a while.

Choked emotions rose all the way into her throat when Ruri tightly clasped Eun-hye’s hand.

“Even if stars don’t twinkle brightly, and even if we can’t see them well, stars keep shining in the night sky…… That’s what Auntie said there.”

“……!”

Eun-hye’s eyes widened.

“That line…….”

It was a line from the character she had played in Blue Lighthouse.

She had thought the world had forgotten her.

Yet through the mouth of a four-year-old child, the comfort she herself had once given during the brightest period of her life had come back to her like a boomerang.

“Just because a star isn’t shining doesn’t mean it has disappeared. Even if we can’t see it, the night sky always holds that star.”

“Ah…….”

A short breath escaped Eun-hye’s lips.

She had been wandering after losing sight of her true self, trapped by the obsession that she always had to give a perfect performance.

After remaining silent for a moment, Eun-hye asked,

“Ruri, do you like acting?”

Ruri blinked for a moment before giving her a radiant smile.

“Yes! Ruri loves acting! It’s soooo much fun!”

At the innocent answer from the four-year-old child, Eun-hye felt as though something that had been strangling her all this time had finally snapped.