Episode 19. A Special Viewer (5)
After the cafe closed, Kang Dae-oh returned home, changed his clothes, and walked towards his three daughters who were huddled together watching TV, still awake.
“Where’s mom?”
Kang Yera pointed towards the bedroom and replied.
“She’s talking with her friend in the bedroom.”
“Ah, so that smartphone sound earlier was mom’s call.”
“That’s right.”
He thought about asking Min Seung-yeon when she was there, but…
Since the call seemed to be taking longer than expected, Kang Dae-oh reluctantly decided to bring up what he had been curious about since before coming home.
“Yebin. Are you really planning to appear in the spin-off of ‘Memories Bookstore’?”
Kang Yebin’s gaze, which had been fixed on the TV, turned towards her dad.
“Yes. I plan to.”
“Dad thought you would refuse.”
Because there was no particular reason to appear in a drama with viewership ratings hovering around 0 percent.
“I also thought so at first.”
“But?”
“The situation changed midway.”
“What kind of situation?”
“……It’s just something.”
She seemed to be trying to avoid mentioning the specific details.
Because of this, Kang Dae-oh’s curiosity remained unresolved even after coming home.
‘Is it because it’s a drama that mom and dad like?’
‘It can’t be just that.’
As his curiosity intensified,
Min Seung-yeon finished her call and returned to the living room just in time.
“Kids. Shouldn’t you go to sleep now?”
“Yes―!”
Although they were all adults, perhaps because they had the bodies of young children, their eyelids inevitably grew heavier the later it got.
Min Seung-yeon and Kang Dae-oh each carried their three daughters and took them to their rooms.
Only Kang Yera, the eldest unnie, had her own room, while Kang Yebin and Kang Yeyoung shared a room.
Kang Dae-oh first laid Kang Yeyoung on the bed.
“Sleep well, my baby.”
“You too, Appa.”
Kang Dae-oh briefly kissed Kang Yeyoung’s forehead, then picked up Kang Yebin.
“I can climb onto the bed by myself.”
“If not when you’re little, when else will I get a chance to legally hold my daughter like this? Don’t you think?”
“……”
Unlike Kang Yera and Kang Yeyoung, Kang Yebin still showed a lot of embarrassment about being treated like a baby in this way.
Every time Kang Dae-oh saw his second daughter’s reaction like this, he thought to himself that she was so cute he could die.
It was the same now.
“Have a good dream.”
“Yes. You too, Appa. Good night.”
After that, Kang Dae-oh, having left the room where his second and third daughters were asleep, reunited with Min Seung-yeon in the living room, who had put Kang Yera to bed.
Here, Kang Dae-oh heard an important hint from his wife about why Kang Yebin decided to appear in ‘Memories Bookstore’.
“Yebin probably decided to accept the casting offer because of Jiyoon.”
“Jiyoon?”
“She’s Yebin’s classmate from kindergarten. She’s very shy, but she has a mature taste just like our Yebin.”
“What kind of taste?”
“Dramas. She also enjoys watching ‘Memories Bookstore’.”
At the mention of ‘Memories Bookstore’, the scattered puzzle pieces in Kang Dae-oh’s mind began to come together.
“So Yebin immediately said yes, I guess.”
“Maybe?”
Of course, it wasn’t certain.
Even if they were parents, they couldn’t completely see through their children’s true feelings.
Min Seung-yeon opened her calendar app and asked.
“When should we set the meeting date?”
“Are you going?”
“Yeah. You can’t go because of the cafe, honey. Until Yebin finds an agency, I’ll have to act as her manager.”
Min Seung-yeon, who had never expected to have any connection with the word ‘manager’ in her life.
Still, after meeting various industry insiders with her daughters, she had somewhat adapted to it now.
However, Kang Dae-oh worried that he might be putting too much work on Min Seung-yeon alone.
“I’ll take Yebin to the meeting. You rest at home.”
“Are you sure? You said you’re busy with the cafe.”
“Because Seojun is there. Even without me, he manages the part-timers well.”
Hiring Lee Seojun as a full-time employee had paid off.
Moreover, Kang Dae-oh had already met and talked with PD Lee Jang-seop.
Thanks to this, it seemed much smoother for Kang Dae-oh to attend the meeting with Kang Yebin than for Min Seung-yeon to do so.
“Alright. I’ll do as you say, honey. Take good care of Yebin.”
“She’s our daughter, of course I will.”
For parents, their children are always the top priority.
For this meeting too, Kang Dae-oh planned to focus on Kang Yebin’s wishes.
This was Kang Dae-oh’s, the dad’s, role.
After quickly setting the date, time, and place by contacting PD Lee Jang-seop’s side, Kang Dae-oh took Kang Yebin and got into the car.
“We decided to meet in the broadcasting station’s meeting room. It’ll take some time to get there.”
“I’m okay with taking the subway, though……”
“No. We need to treat our precious actress comfortably.”
Kang Yebin swallowed a laugh at her dad’s playful remark.
Actually, if age wasn’t an issue, Kang Yebin could have handled the meeting with the production team by herself.
Nevertheless, going with her dad like this was definitely better than going alone.
It also felt trustworthy.
As soon as they arrived at the broadcasting station, Kang Dae-oh looked around.
“Where’s meeting room 3……”
Since he didn’t come to the broadcasting station often, it was natural for him to get lost.
At this moment, Kang Yebin grabbed her dad’s hand and started leading the way.
“It’s that way.”
“Do you know where it is?”
“Yes. Because I’ve been coming and going here for over 10 years.”
“Right. I guess so.”
Since Kang Yebin was so familiar with broadcasting stations, she could immediately tell where a specific room was.
Thanks to Kang Yebin’s help, Kang Dae-oh arrived at the meeting place directly without having to ask people one by one.
The production team of ‘Memories Bookstore’, who had been waiting, their eyes sparkled as soon as they saw Kang Yebin.
“She’s much cuter in person than she looked on screen!”
“Her mother is very beautiful. She seems to have inherited her mother’s beauty completely.”
Large, clear eyes and distinct features.
And long, flowing hair.
PD Lee Jang-seop and his team were completely captivated by the charm of the girl who seemed to embody the word ‘innocence’.
“Through this opportunity, I want to once again express my gratitude to Kang Yebin for deciding to appear in the spin-off of ‘Memories Bookstore’. Thank you, Yebin.”
“Not at all. It’s a drama I usually enjoy watching. So, I’m the one who should be grateful to the PD-nim and the production team for giving me this opportunity to appear.”
Meanwhile, the production team was so surprised by Kang Yebin’s mature tone that they all lost their words.
They had heard multiple times from Director Kim Gap-young that Kang Yebin had a very mature side compared to children her age.
But they hadn’t expected her to be this mature.
Kang Dae-oh seemed quite used to this situation, merely shrugging his shoulders lightly.
Before entering the main meeting, a brief explanation about the spin-off of ‘Memories Bookstore’ began.
“We’ve set the background as a prequel to the main series. It will cover the story of when the protagonist first became the owner of ‘Memories Bookstore’. We plan to cast Yebin as the former owner who passes the bookstore on to the protagonist.”
“There were always hints about the former owner in the main series. So you were planning to reveal it in the spin-off.”
PD Lee Jang-seop smiled broadly at Kang Dae-oh’s words.
“Father. You said you were a fan of our drama. It’s true. I didn’t expect you to know all the hints related to the former owner.”
“My wife and I kept wondering who the former owner who passed the bookstore on to the protagonist was while watching the drama together. But their identity isn’t revealed in the main series, is it?”
“No. We planned to deal with the former owner’s story separately in the spin-off.”
True to a character with significant importance in the main series, the dialogue volume was not small.
Kang Dae-oh quickly scanned the script with Kang Yebin and unconsciously swallowed dryly.
“There’s a lot more dialogue than I expected?”
It seemed several times more than when she appeared in Director Kim Gap-young’s work.
He worried whether Kang Yebin could fully handle this.
However, Kang Yebin showed a completely different reaction from Kang Dae-oh.
“Really? I thought it was less than I expected.”
PD Lee Jang-seop also deeply agreed with Kang Yebin’s words.
“Actually, there was even more dialogue than what we showed you just now. About 1.3 times? But there was an opinion among the writers that the amount was too much for a child to handle, so this is what’s left after cutting it down.”
“I…… see.”
This showed how much PD Lee Jang-seop trusted Kang Yebin.
If he hadn’t believed that Kang Yebin would handle the role of the former owner well,
he wouldn’t have allocated such a large proportion to her.
“The character of the former owner is, on the surface, a young child, but inside, they have lived for thousands of years…… How should I put it? If you think of them as a deity, you can easily visualize the image.”
“So that’s why you wanted our Yebin for this role.”
“Yes, that’s right. I think the mature Yebin will do well.”
They had come to the right address, exactly as intended.
Kang Yebin, who had been staring intently at the script, immediately made a suggestion to them.
“I have a character in mind. Could I check if it matches what the PD-nim is thinking?”
“Of course.”
Kang Yebin immediately began to perform a reading.
Her eyes changed.
“A true owner must never discriminate against any guest who comes. Because only by respecting that person’s character, that person’s personality, and that person’s memories, can one become the owner of ‘Memories Bookstore’.”
It was similar to the tone heard in historical dramas.
Her voice tone and expression. It perfectly matched the character of the former owner that PD Lee Jang-seop had envisioned.
“Okay! That’s it!”
If this were a filming set, PD Lee Jang-seop would have immediately shouted to move on to the next scene.
Without even needing a separate audition, the role of the former owner was immediately confirmed for Kang Yebin.
“Then let’s immediately adjust the filming schedule. Setting aside the date, I’d like to at least decide on the time slot first.”
PD Lee Jang-seop rolled his pen and continued.
“It’s unavoidable that some days the kindergarten attendance time and filming time might overlap. Are you okay with this part…? Oh, if you’re concerned about kindergarten, we can set the time after she gets home.”
PD Lee Jang-seop’s gaze turned towards Kang Dae-oh.
It didn’t largely matter to Kang Yebin.
Because unlike Kang Yera, she found kindergarten classes very boring.
Still, just in case, Kang Dae-oh asked Kang Yebin.
“What do you want to do?”
“……”
Kang Dae-oh silently watched his second daughter, who was deep in thought.
A moment later,
Kang Yebin seemed to make up her mind and opened her small mouth.
“Could you set the filming for after kindergarten? I made a new friend recently. I want to get closer to her.”
Only Kang Dae-oh, who knew the inside story, smiled broadly.
To get closer to Yang Jiyoon, who would be a special viewer for Kang Yebin, and her first friend in this life,
she decided to try hard, just as her unnie and dad had said.
