Chapter 7

[Young Yoo-ra is walking while holding Hae-in’s hand. In one hand, she is holding a toy she bought at the market.

Hae-in suddenly stops walking. She kneels down to Yoo-ra’s eye level. Tears are welling up in Hae-in’s eyes. Yoo-ra looks at her, completely unaware of what is happening.

Hae-in: (in a trembling voice) Yoo-ra. Stay here for a little while. Mommy is going over there to buy you something delicious. Okay? Count to thirty.

Hae-in lets go of Yoo-ra’s hand and walks away as though running away.

Yoo-ra watches Hae-in grow farther and farther away.

A moment later, Yoo-ra’s eyes begin to tremble as she realizes that something is wrong.

Yoo-ra gasps for breath as she searches for Hae-in.

Young Yoo-ra: Mommy……! Mommmmy!

But Hae-in has already disappeared into the crowd.

Yoo-ra doesn’t make it more than a few steps before falling face-first onto the ground.

Crying out in despair, Yoo-ra grabs at the dirt.

Her throat is too choked with tears for her voice to come out properly. Yoo-ra gets back to her feet and stares blankly into the empty air.

Her little face is covered in tears, and her eyes have lost their focus.]

It was a script she had already read hundreds of times.

‘Ruri absolutely has to pass the audition!’

Only by making her debut as soon as possible could she find her father.

“Ruri is all ready!”

At Ruri’s words, accompanied by a tightly clenched fist, Min-young nodded.

“Good. Let’s begin.”

Before long, the cue was given.

Ruri took a deep breath and slowly closed her eyes.

‘Ruri is Yoo-ra. Yoo-ra was abandoned by her mother.’

At that moment, an enormous wave of sadness surged from deep within her heart.

In truth, every night, Ruri had imagined by herself why her mother and father had abandoned her.

Was it because Ruri was a bad girl?

If Mommy loved Ruri, then why did she abandon her when Ruri was just a baby?

With her eyes closed, Ruri continuously pictured herself becoming Yoo-ra.

Eventually, when Ruri opened her eyes, the atmosphere in the audition room had strangely settled.

“Yoo-ra. Stay here for a little while. Mommy is going over there to buy you something delicious. Okay? Count to thirty.”

The writer, Min-young, delivered Hae-in’s line.

According to the script, Ruri was supposed to smile brightly and answer her.

But she missed her cue.

When the line didn’t come out at the proper time, Min-young’s brow subtly furrowed.

Only after quite some time did Ruri awkwardly open her mouth.

“Y-Yes……! Yoo-ra will wait!”

Both the timing and tone of her line were a mess.

It was the clumsy acting commonly seen from a child who had only just begun acting.

‘Of course.’

The director wore a mocking smile and was about to turn his attention to the evaluation sheet.

But then—

From the moment Ruri suddenly began counting, the atmosphere started to twist.

“Twenty-nine…… thirty.”

After finishing her line, Ruri’s tiny lips began to tremble.

The next line was supposed to be her shouting “Mommy!” and running after her, but Ruri didn’t move.

She stood frozen in place, as though she had forgotten the script.

It was almost like an accident.

‘Did I misunderstand what I saw?’

When she had recited the numbers, it had seemed as though the child’s entire atmosphere had somehow changed.

But after seeing her miss another line, the director assumed he had merely imagined it and was about to stop the audition.

Then—

Plop.

A tear dropped from Ruri’s eye.

“……It’s past thirty.”

Her tiny voice echoed through the room.

The little breath that escaped her small lips wasn’t manufactured sadness.

It contained the vivid terror of a child who truly felt as though her entire world had collapsed.

Only then did Ruri belatedly reach toward the empty air and run.

Her feet tangled together, and she crashed down onto her knees.

Thud!

The sound of the impact rang out, but the child didn’t even seem to feel the pain.

“Mommy……!”

The line burst out much later than it was supposed to according to the script.

Ruri clawed at the floor until her fingernails turned white.

‘What is this……?’

Hyun-wook’s body stiffened as he watched Ruri’s performance.

And then, when Ruri slowly raised her head—

Instead of admiration, a gasp escaped from the judges’ table.

Her tiny face was smeared with tears and mucus.

Her eyes were empty, as though all the light had been drained from them.

Her timing was terrible, her pronunciation was slurred, and she didn’t even know how to position herself for the camera angle.

And yet, there was something about those eyes alone that made anyone watching feel a painful ache in their chest.

“…….”

Even after Ruri’s performance ended, a heavy silence settled over the audition room.

Hyun-wook absentmindedly fiddled with the pen in his hand.

He had been leaning back in his chair without the slightest expectation, but before he knew it, he had leaned forward, his upper body almost pressed against the desk.

‘Everything about her is obviously clumsy, but…….’

There was still a lot to teach her before she could be put directly onto a set.

However—

The director’s eyes gleamed sharply.

‘That look in her eyes isn’t something you can teach.’

As Hyun-wook remained lost in thought without saying anything, the assistant director sitting beside him quietly whispered,

“Director, she can’t even deliver a single line properly. It would be impossible, wouldn’t it?”

“No.”

Hyun-wook repeatedly tapped his pen against the desk before answering.

“I think we should go with that child.”

He wanted to capture those eyes on camera.

Ding!

[Sub-Mission Complete!]

[Finally, an official debut?! Challenge: Day 1 of your acting career — Success!]

[Reward: A hint about your biological father!]

[Hint: Your biological father is a famous person who is currently registered in the people-information database of a major portal site.]

[Try searching the portal site for people you think might be your father. (و ˃̵ᴗ˂̵)و]

“Director, you’re still here?”

At Jin-young’s voice, Hyun-wook, who had been staring intently at the monitor, abruptly raised his head.

“Why, look who it is! Isn’t this our very own Seo Jin-young? What brings you here?”

“I came to the broadcasting station for a meeting and thought of you, so I stopped by. But did something happen? The atmosphere outside seemed a little chaotic.”

Jin-young smiled and looked around.

As though he had been waiting for this moment, the director grabbed him by the wrist.

“You came at the perfect time. Come look at this. I think I just caught an incredible little gem.”

Unable to resist Hyun-wook’s insistence, Jin-young walked over to the monitor.

The moment he saw Ruri’s face playing on the screen, he drew in a sharp breath.

“Huh? This child…….”

It was the little girl from the hallway earlier—the one who had claimed to be hurt and asked him for his phone number.

His happiness at their unexpected reunion lasted only a moment.

As Jin-young watched Ruri’s lines and acting coming through the speakers, his expression gradually hardened.

Soon, his mouth fell open.

“What do you think? Isn’t she incredible? She’s only four years old. Four! The depth of emotion a child that age can express shouldn’t be possible.”

The excited director’s voice rang in Jin-young’s ears, but he barely registered it.

The sorrowful look in Ruri’s eyes on the screen weighed heavily on his heart.

“What do you think? Doesn’t she look like a rough diamond that could become a jewel if she’s properly polished?”

“……I suppose so.”

Jin-young quietly stared at the child on the screen as she smiled brightly.

Slowly, the corners of his lips lifted.

“She reminds me of someone.”

At the end of Jin-young’s calm words, a deep bitterness and longing that he couldn’t quite hide faintly spread across his smile.

As though trying to shake off the old memories flickering behind his eyes, he turned his gaze toward the director.

“Director, you remember how you asked me to make a special appearance last time?”

“What? Don’t tell me……!”

“I’ll do it. But I have one condition.”

The sorrow that had lingered around his eyes soon transformed into a playful curve.