I Returned as a High School Girl

Chapter 148: Ghostbusting Actress (1)

Kang Ra-Eun couldn’t help but doubt her ears.

“You... won’t be letting us know when and where the jumpscares will be?” she asked.

“Yes, exactly,” Director Choi replied while chuckling.

However, this was no laughing matter to Ra-Eun. They had no idea that Ra-Eun couldn’t even watch horror films by herself. The only people who knew this were Seo Yi-Seo and a small number of friends who she had hung out with a lot in her high school days.

Not even Shin Yu-Bin, who had attended the meeting with Ra-Eun, knew that she had zero tolerance for horror. Hence, Yu-Bin didn’t understand why Ra-Eun was reacting this way.

“What’s wrong, Ra-Eun? Is there a problem?” she asked.

“...”

There certainly was. Not just that, it was a colossal one. However, she couldn’t just blurt out that she actually despised horror after coming this far. It was no problem to change the shooting method, but this went against Ra-Eun’s pride. She couldn’t allow people to find out that the Achilles’ heel of Kang Ra-Eun, who had a charismatic heroine girl crush image, was horror films.

‘What do I do?’

Ra-Eun racked her brain on the right course of action to take, and ultimately answered...

“No... There’s no problem at all.”

In the end, she chose to lie because she thought it would all work out somehow.

***

Ra-Eun let out a massive sigh as soon as the meeting was over.

‘Maybe I should’ve just been honest and told them I’m not good with horror.’

She was belatedly swept with regret, but the train had already left the station. She should have told them during the meeting if she was going to. She had been put in even more of a predicament now that she had missed the right time to do so once. At this point, she no longer had any choice.

‘I’ll just have to do it.’

She couldn’t see any other way than to just resolve herself. She had never imagined that her fear of horror would hold her back like this. Meanwhile, Yu-Bin asked Ra-Eun while looking at her through the rear-view mirror.

“Are you okay, Ra-Eun? You haven’t been looking too good ever since the meeting.”

Ra-Eun laughed awkwardly at her manager’s extremely sharp question.

“I think I’m just a little tired.”

“Really? Would you like some coffee? There was a cafe nearby.”

“No. It’s probably better to just go home early and rest.”

Yu-Bin respected Ra-Eun’s decision and started the car. She buried herself into the car seat as deeply as possible, and fell into deep thought with her eyes closed. She wondered if she could get through the shoots.

‘I’m already worried.’

***

After every role of the film Shuttered?had been cast, a production press conference had been scheduled. Director Yoon Tae-Yoon had never experienced such a thing, but it was naturally scheduled in Director Choi Yong-Woon’s case since he was a star director that the public had their eyes on.

This could be considered a form of advertisement, since this was the very first official stage that let the public know that Director Choi was making a certain film with the corresponding actors. One could only expect people to take interest after letting others know what they were doing.

The actors obviously did not have any complaints. The moment that they arrived at the press conference venue, they could easily tell how enormous the expectations of Director Choi’s investors were.

“Wow. Look at that stage, Ra-Eun. Looks like they spent quite a lot of money for this,” Tae-Yeon mentioned.

This was actually Ra-Eun’s first time participating in a production press conference, so she couldn’t tell if the stage that had been prepared for them was extravagant or not. She decided to just take Tae-Yeon’s words for it, since she had been in production press conferences for several of her works.

Ra-Eun wasn’t able to tell from the stage, but she could tell why Tae-Yeon had said such a thing after entering the waiting room.

‘What a nice waiting room.’

It was spacious and clean. The fact that this was a single-person waiting room was the epitome of extravagance. After getting her make-up and hair done, Ra-Eun scanned the outfit that Ryu Ha-Yeon had brought her.

“It’s pretty normal,” Ra-Eun expressed.

The black long flared checkered skirt and gray sweater gave off a modern feel. It was also Ra-Eun’s favorite color scheme, since she mainly wore suits with black and white color schemes in her days as a bodyguard. Hence, the colors felt extremely familiar to her.

“I contacted Su-Mi and we decided to coordinate you guys with a black and white theme. As you can see, you’re black.”

“Su-Mi? Who’s that?” Ra-Eun asked.

“Tae-Yeon’s stylist. We went to the same university, so we’ve been friends for a long time.”

If stylists hit it off well together, they were able to discuss with each other so that their outfit color schemes did not overlap. Ra-Eun also became curious about someone else.

“What about Seo-Yeong?”

The members of today’s production’s press conference were Ra-Eun, Tae-Yeon, Director Choi, and Jin Seo-Yeong, the unknown actress who had the most screen time among the supporting characters. She and Tae-Yeon aside, she wondered if Seo-Yeong’s stylist had also planned some sort of outfit theme with them.

Ha-Yeon shook her head. “It didn’t look like Seo-Yeong had a stylist.”

“Really?”

“You didn’t know? She doesn’t even have a manager, so I don’t think she’d have a personal stylist.”

Ra-Eun had not known that Seo-Yeong didn’t even have a manager. She also came to find out that she was not affiliated anywhere, so she had been doing everything on her own.

‘I had no idea.’

Ra-Eun knew that Jin Woo-Soo would become an actress whose presence was engraved into the minds of the public. However, it was her first time hearing that she had been struggling through her acting career all on her own without an agency to support her in her days as an unknown actress.

‘In that case...’

This was a golden opportunity.

“Unnie. I’m sorry, but could you get me my smartphone? It’s on the desk next to the coat hanger.”

Ra-Eun requested Ha-Yeon for a favor since she was in the middle of putting on her outfit.

“Oh?” Ha-Yeon expressed with a very big smile.

Ra-Eun felt anxious. “What’s the matter all of a sudden?”

“You just called me unnie, didn’t you?”

“...”

She had unconsciously used that title. Yu-Bin would have been extremely dejected if she were here, since once of her greatest wishes was for Ra-Eun to call her ‘unnie’ instead of ‘Miss Manager.’

Ra-Eun gave Ha-Yeon a look. “Please pretend you didn’t hear that.”

Ha-Yeon accepted while giggling. Ra-Eun felt like she had received far greater damage than when she called Ra-Hyuk ‘oppa.’

***

The production press conference went smoothly. It was different from a premiere, which was held when the film was complete, so there wasn’t much they could say about the film itself. All Director Choi could mention were things like when they would start shooting and the estimated release date. As for the actresses, they simply expressed their determination to take part in the film shoots.

Ra-Eun was handed the mic after Tae-Yeon. She remarked while maintaining her smile, “I consider it an honor to be part of Director Choi Yong-Woon’s production. This is my first time starring in a horror film, but I will put my all into my performance so that I can make this production into one that everyone will enjoy. Thank you very much.”

Although this was Ra-Eun’s first production press conference, she was able to expertly express herself since she had experienced being on such stages countless times. However, the same could not be said for Seo-Yeong.

“I-I will do my best! Th-Thank you very much!”

Her stuttering aside, it was far too short. Despite that, the reporters simply brushed it aside without complaints while lightly chuckling.

The bumpy production press conference came to an end. Only after they came down from the stage were they able to feel at ease. It would have been a problem if they had messed up during the very first official event for the film Shuttered.

Reporters and influential investors of the film industry were all watching them, so they had felt the pressure while coming up to the stage. They had managed to do rather well, contrary to their worries, but Seo-Yeong expressed her disappointment.

“I should have been able to speak better... I’m so sorry.”

She apologized to her seniors and Director Choi, but they consoled her instead.

“There’s no need to apologize. You did well enough.”

“I agree. And an actor only needs to let their acting speak for them. I’ll be looking forward to the shoots.”

Tae-Yeon was looking forward to standing in front of the camera with Seo-Yeong very much, since she had seen a glimpse of her skills during their script reading.

“Seo-Yeong,” Ra-Eun called her over to speak with her privately. “I heard from my stylist that you’ve been working by yourself without an agency to support you. Is that true?”

“Yes. I had been in an agency until last year, but they wouldn’t extend my contract, so I ended up having to leave.”

From an agency’s perspective, they had no need to keep an unknown actress. They had likely deemed it more efficient to raise a different prospect instead. This was rather great news for Ra-Eun.

“I’ll give you a name card. You’ll get a call from the number on here, so add it into your contacts in advance,” she remarked.

“This is...”

Ra-Eun had handed Seo-Yeong Chief Jung’s card. She smiled meaningfully as she looked at the dumbfounded Seo-Yeong.

“That person is extremely famous in GNF for casting.”

Chief Jung couldn’t help but be famous, since he had been the one to discover Ra-Eun.

***

Like Ra-Eun had planned, Seo-Yeong had signed an exclusive contract with GNF. The agency also welcomed it, since Seo-Yeong was an actress who had been cast for a supporting role in Director Choi’s production. It was as if GNF had bought a stock that had hit rock bottom and was about to make a massive rebound, all thanks to Ra-Eun.

Seo-Yeong had now ended up in the same agency as Ra-Eun. Time passed by, and the production was now open.

“Sigh...”

Ra-Eun sighed as soon as she arrived on the set. Yu-Bin thought it was because Ra-Eun was nervous since today was the first day of the shoot.

“Don’t worry, Ra-Eun. You’ll do great,” she encouraged.

That would certainly be the case for a normal film, but...

‘Not if it’s a horror film.’

Just seeing the extras dressed up as ghosts from afar was enough for her small shoulders to flinch several times.