Episode 26. Best Scene (2)
Not far from where Kang Dae-oh conducted the interview, an outdoor shoot for ‘The City’s Princesses’ was underway.
Upon arriving near the set, Kang Dae-oh saw staff members controlling passing pedestrians.
Kang Dae-oh approached a staff member first and was about to explain why he had come to this place.
He thought that if it wasn’t Lee Jang-seop PD or other head staff members whom he already knew, they wouldn’t know who he was.
However, this was a huge misunderstanding on Kang Dae-oh’s part.
“Oh, you’re Yebin’s Abeonim, aren’t you?”
“Hello! Nice to meet you! Did you come to see Yebin? There’s still a long time before filming starts, so you can just come in past that line.”
Kang Dae-oh was rather flustered by how quickly the staff members recognized him.
If it were production staff like Lee Jang-seop PD, whose face and name Kang Dae-oh knew, he would have understood.
But the two people who had just spoken to Kang Dae-oh were staff members he was seeing for the first time today.
Their faces and names were unfamiliar.
However, they treated Kang Dae-oh without any caution, as if they had seen him many times before.
Even before he could ask how they knew him.
“Oh my, Abeonim!”
Park Yi-song, Kang Yebin’s manager, approached Kang Dae-oh with quick steps.
“Yebin actually mentioned that Abeonim would be coming later. But you came much earlier than expected, didn’t you?”
“I happened to have some business nearby. I came straight over as soon as I finished, so I could come early. More importantly…”
Kang Dae-oh quietly spoke, pointing to the two staff members who had returned to controlling pedestrians.
“Those people, they knew who I was right away.”
He wondered if Park Yi-song or Kang Yebin had told them in advance.
It was a question asked out of curiosity.
However, what Park Yi-song told him was completely different from what Kang Dae-oh had expected.
“Doesn’t it mean that Abeonim has become famous enough for staff members who have never seen you before to know your face and name?”
“Me?”
“Yes. You often did video interviews when Yera and Yebin debuted. And you’ve been consistently showing your face on Yeyoung’s YouTube channel, haven’t you? Even without these, you’ve been featured a lot in business articles, haven’t you? Like, ‘Kang Dae-oh, CEO of Amare, a rising new coffee brand!’ and so on…”
If one had even a little interest in Kang Yera, Kang Yebin, and Kang Yeyoung, it was natural that they would also know Kang Dae-oh.
Moreover, the two people who had just recognized Kang Dae-oh were working as staff members for the drama Kang Yebin was appearing in.
Naturally, they would know about Kang Yebin. And by extension, it was entirely possible that they also knew Kang Dae-oh.
Park Yi-song held a faint smile on her lips.
“You’ve become quite a celebrity, Abeonim.”
Kang Dae-oh’s only possible reaction to Park Yi-song’s words was,
“Haha……”
Just an awkward laugh.
Guided by Park Yi-song, Kang Dae-oh headed to the temporary waiting room where his second daughter was.
There, the lead actresses of the drama, who were appearing as sisters with Kang Yebin, were all gathered.
As soon as they saw Kang Dae-oh, they all sprang up from their seats and greeted him.
“Hello, Abeonim!”
“It’s been so long! Isn’t this the first time we’ve seen you since the first script reading?”
“Wow. Has it been that long, Seonbaenim?”
Amidst the energetic chatter of the actresses, Kang Dae-oh made a resolution inwardly.
To stay sharp.
Because he couldn’t be overwhelmed by their energy and just stammer without being able to hold a proper conversation.
Still, he was Kang Yebin’s father, after all.
Shouldn’t he show a fatherly side?
“Yebin, is she doing well?”
At Kang Dae-oh’s question, they all nodded almost simultaneously, without anyone taking the lead.
“Among us, Yebin is probably at the top in terms of acting skills.”
“She’s so good. I’ve worked with many child actors, but I’ve never seen a young actress as good as Yebin at delivering lines, with such good vocalization, and expressing emotions with such precise emphasis.”
“Her future is very promising, Abeonim. You should raise Yebin well.”
In front of the pouring praises from her seniors, Kang Yebin looked like she didn’t know what to do with herself.
It was a rare reaction from his second daughter, one he couldn’t see at home.
And no wonder.
‘At home, she’s always just fighting with her Unnie and younger sister.’
Perhaps that’s why.
Kang Dae-oh thought that this side of Kang Yebin, which he could only see on set, was another one of his second daughter’s charms.
And she was cute too.
Kang Yebin diligently tried to change the subject in front of the overflowing attention from her seniors, raising her script.
“We were in the middle of a script reading, weren’t we? Can’t we just finish what we were doing?”
“Oh my? Look at her, she’s doing that because she’s shy.”
“How cute~!”
It only produced the opposite effect.
Without Kang Dae-oh knowing, Kang Yebin had become something like a mascot on the set.
Seeing his second daughter being loved not only by her mom and dad but also by many people around her, Kang Dae-oh was as happy as if it were his own achievement.
‘If it’s a set like this, I can entrust my daughters with peace of mind.’
He felt that coming to see the set, even by carving out time from his busy schedule, was worthwhile.
Since he had come all the way to the filming set.
Kang Dae-oh decided to return to the company after watching Kang Yebin’s performance during the shoot.
After the other seniors finished their filming parts.
Next, Kang Yebin’s part began.
Kang Yebin, carrying a small bag that elementary school students might carry, trudged, looking at the ground with a sullen expression.
Watching Kang Yebin like this, Kang Dae-oh recalled the situation described in the script.
‘She’s in a situation where she realized the boy she likes at school has feelings for another girl.’
Kang Yebin’s facial expressions were full of realism, as if she had actually experienced a similar situation.
It could literally be called inspired acting.
According to the staff’s signal, the actress playing the third Unnie among the five princess sisters, who was waiting off-camera, subtly appeared.
“What’s wrong? Did you fight with someone at school?”
“……Nothing happened.”
“Nothing happened, my foot. Anyone can see you’re lying.”
It was clear something had happened, but she acted as if she didn’t want to tell her Unnie.
No, to Kang Dae-oh’s eyes, it didn’t look like acting.
In reality, Kang Yebin was not one to openly express her feelings to her own Unnie, Kang Yera.
She was the type who wouldn’t immediately tell her Unnie if something happened.
Rather than not trusting Kang Yera.
‘The second child usually has that kind of personality.’
It was as if Lee Jang-seop PD had assigned Kang Yebin a character that perfectly suited her.
Thanks to this, Kang Yebin could easily act out the character assigned to her in the play without much effort.
“I’ll buy you something delicious, so tell Unnie, okay?”
“No thanks. Do you think I’d be easily swayed by something like food?”
“I’m going to buy you something from your favorite ice cream shop, though?”
“……Where?”
“The one that just opened near our house.”
“……”
Kang Yebin’s pupils trembled greatly.
Lee Jang-seop PD’s exclamations of admiration for his second daughter’s acting skills, which captured and expressed every single such detailed point, reached Kang Dae-oh.
“Just this once. I’m only going to tell you once. Got it?”
“Okay, I got it. Come on, let’s go. Hold Unnie’s hand.”
Kang Yebin took the senior actress’s hand and began descending the stairs with her back to the camera.
The moment the two completely disappeared down the stairs.
“Yes, good! You both worked hard!”
Lee Jang-seop PD, holding a megaphone, announced the end of the outdoor shoot.
“All the scenes to be filmed here are done. Let’s move to the studio and finish the rest of the filming.”
“……?”
At Lee Jang-seop PD’s words, Kang Yebin tilted her head momentarily.
Kang Dae-oh didn’t miss this expression from his second daughter.
Kang Dae-oh approached her and quietly whispered.
“Why? Is there a problem with the next shoot?”
Among everyone present, Kang Dae-oh was the only one who knew that Kang Yebin was a regressor.
Because of this, Kang Dae-oh developed a habit of always checking what the problem was whenever Kang Yebin reacted sensitively to something.
Kang Yebin pondered for a moment whether to speak or not.
Not long after, Kang Yebin also lowered her voice considerably, just like Kang Dae-oh, and replied.
“Originally, the next scene was supposed to be an outdoor shoot, just like now, not a studio shoot. That’s how it is in the future.”
“You remember all the scene backgrounds too? That’s amazing.”
Kang Yebin had a very good memory.
Sometimes, he even felt a sense of wonder at his second daughter’s exceptional memory.
This was exactly one of those times.
“Because ‘The City’s Princesses’ is my favorite drama.”
That’s why she could remember it in even more detail.
The next scene to be filmed was not only Kang Yebin’s favorite scene but also a famous scene known for best expressing the anguish of ‘The City’s Princesses’ characters through emotional direction.
It was also a masterpiece scene that was always mentioned when discussing the development and flow of Korean drama history.
Kang Yebin, who rechecked the script just in case she was mistaken, tilted her head once more.
“There’s nothing else written in the script, though…”
At this moment.
Kang Dae-oh decided to step up.
“Dad will go and ask.”
Kang Dae-oh, borrowing the script from his second daughter for a moment, moved towards Lee Jang-seop PD.
“PDnim. I was looking at the script with my second daughter and there’s a part I don’t understand.”
“Which part is it?”
“Here, #25, isn’t it? It says that the location was filmed at a separately scouted location.”
“Ah… about that. Originally, we had a cafe scouted. But the owner suddenly threatened that they couldn’t allow filming, so we just decided to create a set in the studio to give it a cafe atmosphere and film there instead. I had Kim writer tell Yebin about it. It seems Kim writer forgot.”
No wonder.
There was a reason why only Kang Yebin thought it was strange.
Sometimes, building a set and filming was cheaper in terms of production costs than scouting a location.
Since location scouting often involved many variables, a set was much more reassuring.
Kang Dae-oh nodded at Lee Jang-seop PD’s explanation, which had its own reasons.
He returned to where his daughter was and explained what had happened.
Even after hearing her father’s explanation, Kang Yebin’s expression remained unrelaxed.
“It would definitely be better to scout a cafe for filming than to use a set…”
She didn’t want to film her favorite best scene carelessly like this.
Moreover, since her friend Yang Ji-yoon also liked this drama, she wanted to do her best.
Kang Dae-oh, who had been watching Kang Yebin’s distress, proposed a new alternative.
“Then how about this?”
It was Dad’s turn to step up.
