Episode 45. Strike While the Iron Is Hot (2)
Before filming began, a notice flew to Kang Yebin.
It was none other than this.
“Honey. Yebin, her college acceptance letter arrived.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yeah.”
“How did it go?”
Min Seung-yeon smiled brightly and said.
“She got in. As expected.”
As soon as Kang Yebin took the Suneung (College Scholastic Ability Test), unlike her unnie, she immediately began self-scoring that very day.
As a result,
She achieved a remarkable feat, only getting 3 questions wrong across all subjects, answering all the rest correctly.
News of Kang Yebin’s academic achievements, having obtained a high score, garnered significant attention even within the entertainment industry.
It had even been publicly disclosed to the general public through news reports covering entertainment industry news.
Kang Yebin was initially very shy, wondering if even such things would be reported in articles.
Still, each of these things helped to create a good image for Kang Yebin.
There was no particular reason to force media outlets not to publish articles about it.
An actress who studies well and acts well.
This was the new title bestowed upon Kang Yebin.
In addition to this,
Thanks to intensive tutoring in singing and dancing from her unnie recently, she was now ready to appeal to the public in that area as well.
Kang Dae-oh looked upstairs.
Kang Dae-oh briefly listened to Kang Yebin’s singing, which occasionally drifted down.
“Still, it seems Yera is teaching her well.”
“She said that what she taught her for the concert stage preparation last time was nothing, and this time she’s coaching her really intensely.”
“Then Yebin must be having a hard time.”
Because it wasn’t her original main field.
He naturally thought she would find it difficult.
Min Seung-yeon thought so at first too.
However.
“Yera said that surprisingly, she’s following along very well.”
“Really? Does that mean Yebin has talent as a singer too?”
“Maybe? She said she’s going to show the director what she’s practiced tomorrow. Yera said she’s going with Yebin too.”
It seemed she intended to take on the role of the on-site director.
Kang Dae-oh smiled once more.
Although they frequently bickered, she was still her older unnie.
Her desire to take care of her younger sister was clear.
Kang Dae-oh, just in case, asked his two daughters.
“Should Dad go with you too?”
However, the two daughters shook their heads simultaneously.
“It’s okay, Dad.”
“We’re adults now. So you don’t necessarily have to come to the set.”
Overprotection can actually take away opportunities for children to grow.
Kang Dae-oh knew that well.
Because a baby bird needs time to diligently practice flapping its wings before it can move its wings on its own and fly into the wide sky.
What Kang Dae-oh needed to do right now was.
Just watch his daughters and cheer them on to do well.
“Tomorrow, I’ll be looking forward to good news.”
“We’ll do our best for Dad’s sake. Absolutely!”
“Me too!”
The two daughters burning with fighting spirit.
All good, but.
Min Seung-yeon interjected with a cool remark.
“But only Yebin needs to put in the effort, right?”
“……Now that I think about it, you’re right.”
After all, Kang Yera wasn’t scheduled to appear in Director Kim Jisook’s movie.
Kang Yebin and Kang Yera arrived at the movie production company where Director Kim Jisook was, accompanied by agency officials.
Director Kim Jisook reacted as if she hadn’t expected Kang Yera to come.
“Oh my. Why is Yera here?”
Kang Yera pointed at her sister and said.
“I came to coach her in real-time.”
“I see. But well… I trust Yebin will do well enough.”
“Still, since we’re doing it, it’s better if she looks like a real idol, isn’t it?”
Kang Yera, rather than the director or staff, was burning with even more sincere passion.
Strictly speaking, it had nothing to do with Kang Yera at all.
Nevertheless, she came all this way solely with the determination to help her sister. Director Kim Jisook couldn’t help but highly value Kang Yera’s interest.
The camera director, audio director, and so on. Head staff members began to gather one by one.
Director Kim Jisook sat in the center and asked Kang Yebin.
“Are you going to start right away?”
“Just a moment. Let me practice one more time. I’m sorry.”
“There’s no need to be sorry. This is just a place to gauge how much you’ve practiced. If it’s not enough, we can give you plenty more time, so don’t rush and prepare slowly.”
“Yes, Director.”
Since there was no separate space to practice, Kang Yebin decided to quickly check a few movements with her unnie right there and move on.
“How did the chorus part go again?”
“The movement is… No, that won’t do. Rather than explaining, I’ll show you directly.”
That was faster and more accurate.
Kang Yera stood side by side with Kang Yebin in front of the full-length mirror.
To an acapella beat, Kang Yera first demonstrated the segmented movements.
Kang Yebin also maintained a similar tempo and began to follow her unnie‘s choreography.
Suddenly, the two sisters found themselves in a position as if they were preparing a stage together.
“Oh my.”
Director Kim Jisook, who had been quietly observing the two, narrowed her eyes.
It was a reaction as if she had discovered something she hadn’t noticed at all.
The camera director asked Director Kim Jisook.
“What’s wrong, Director?”
“Director Jung.”
“Yes.”
“What do you think of Yebin and Yera, practicing like that right now?”
“When you say ‘like that’…”
“Try to get a two-shot.”
“Ah.”
Director Jung made a rectangle with his two fingers, and as if operating a camera angle, he took a two-shot as per Director Kim Jisook’s instructions.
He moved the handmade angle this way and that, imagining Kang Yera and Kang Yebin appearing side by side on one screen.
“It’s a good shot.”
“Isn’t it?”
“Looking at them like that, they look like an idol group. In the past, idol groups used to form teams of 8, 9, or even more than 10 members to promote. But looking at idol groups these days, they don’t seem to increase the number of members as much as before.”
If in the past, they would maximize the number of team members and debut with a ‘there must be at least one idol that suits your taste among these’ strategy.
These days, they would debut a small number of idols, polishing and refining them like raw gems into a near-perfect form.
This method also saved money in running the group.
And it was good for the agency too, as they could focus on a small number of idols without wasted members and concentrate work on them.
From an efficiency perspective, it wasn’t bad.
As if an idea had spontaneously popped into her head, Director Kim Jisook called the two sisters who were in the middle of practicing.
“Yebin and Yera. Could you come over here for a moment?”
“Yes, Director.”
A worry arose, wondering if something had made her uncomfortable while observing their practice.
However, the reason Director Kim Jisook called them was the exact opposite.
“It’s still before the crank-in. So I’m thinking of changing the movie’s setting a bit.”
Changing settings is more common than one might think.
And if something needs to be changed, it’s better to change it before filming begins.
The additional setting Director Kim Jisook was considering was this:
“The singer Yebin is supposed to play, how about we ditch the solo artist setting and go with a duet idol group?”
“A duet? You don’t mean…”
Kang Yebin looked at her unnie standing next to her.
Unlike Kang Yebin, who immediately understood, Kang Yera looked back and forth between her sister and Director Kim with a ‘Why are they like this?’ expression.
Director Kim Jisook slowly nodded and said.
“I want to cast Yera too.”
Kang Dae-oh, who had finalized his Japan business trip schedule with Executive Director Yoo In-seok, drove his car on his slightly late commute home.
Just then, a call came from his wife.
“Oh, honey. I was just about to call you. I might be a little late, so go ahead and eat with the kids.”
—When you say kids, there’s only Yeyoung.
“Hmm? Yera and Yebin, they haven’t arrived yet? Where are Yebin and Yera?”
He understood that they would just show Director Kim Jisook their progress and then come right back.
Since it wasn’t supposed to take long, Kang Dae-oh had expected his two daughters to already be home.
But that wasn’t the case at all.
—It seems something came up suddenly.
“Both of them?”
—Yes. That’s the message I got.
Something felt a bit strange.
Usually, if something came up, it would only be for Kang Yebin. But since Kang Yera was also late, he didn’t quite understand.
Kang Yera would have just gone to support her sister and help with the practice process.
—They’ll probably arrive home around the same time as you, so the three of you can eat together.
“Oh, really?”
That was welcome news.
He had been secretly worried about eating alone. But knowing that his two daughters could join him was somewhat comforting.
However, the unresolved mystery continued to bother him.
‘Well, I’ll find out as soon as I get home and ask them.’
As he drove for a while, holding the steering wheel, he gradually got closer to home.
After parking his car and heading straight home, Kang Dae-oh happened to meet his two daughters, who were just coming out after changing their clothes, in the living room.
“You’re home, Dad?”
“Yeah. But why are you so late? You didn’t get scolded by Director Kim Jisook, did you?”
Kang Dae-oh had no doubt that Kang Yebin would have done well.
Aside from the fact that she was his daughter.
Kang Dae-oh had also seen Kang Yebin’s practice process several times. So he knew well.
That Kang Yebin was more than capable of being a current idol.
Kang Yebin worked and worked her hardest to give that impression, to do her best in her role.
He thought this would surely lead to good results.
But seeing their late return, it was clear that some variable had occurred.
Kang Dae-oh’s prediction was accurate.
However.
The variable that occurred was slightly… no, very different from what he had imagined.
Kang Yebin pointed at her unnie, Kang Yera, and said:
“Director Kim Jisook changed the female lead’s setting and asked us to film as an idol group instead of a solo artist. Unnie Yera and I, together.”
“What, really? Wait. Then Yera is going to be in the movie too?”
“Yes, that’s how it turned out.”
Kang Yebin answered with a slight shrug of her shoulders.
However, Kang Yera, uncharacteristically, still looked completely frozen.
Min Seung-yeon whispered softly to Kang Yebin.
“What’s wrong with your unnie?”
“I think she’s nervous because she might appear in a movie.”
“Oh my. Yera, you. Have you never filmed for a drama or movie before?”
Kang Yera vigorously nodded her head.
“No, never!”
Perhaps because she had been active in the entertainment industry for a long time since a very young age, Min Seung-yeon was even more surprised by the fact that Kang Yera had no such experience.
Meanwhile. Kang Dae-oh, who now understood the full story of the incident, asked his two daughters with an awkward smile.
“Should I say this is a good thing?”
To this, Kang Yebin replied:
“It depends on what unnie does.”
That was the correct answer.
