Chapter 3 · 10 min
Chapter 3
Advertisement
A few days later.
“Mina. You fastened your seat belt, right?”
“Yeah!”
“Geez, my daughter. Are you really that happy about getting a smartphone?”
“Of course!”
Because of the protests I had kept up ever since the day I decided to film the commercial.
I finally reached an agreement with Mom yesterday and regained my smartphone freedom.
“Hahaha!”
So I was extremely happy about this journey to obtain what was practically destined to become half of my body.
“Your dad would be sad if he knew you were this happy.”
Dad had originally planned to come with us too, but unfortunately, he couldn’t because of work.
“And you have to keep the promise you made with Mom yesterday, okay?”
“Mom, don’t you trust me?”
“Of course not~”
“...Mom?”
“Ah, sorry. It slipped out without me realizing.”
‘...I feel like I’m being treated stranger and stranger as time goes on.’
“You memorized the whole script, right?”
“Of course.”
To explain once again.
My role in this commercial is ‘a daughter who gets tired of waiting at home and video calls her mother while she’s on her way home from work.’
So all I have to say are things like, ‘I’m hungry,’ and ‘Mom, when are you coming home?’
‘It’s not even enough to really call memorizing.’
There isn’t even enough material to say I had to memorize it.
“Just in case, look it over one more time. Or do you want to try it now? Mom can give you feedback.”
“I’m fine.”
As we continued chatting about this and that, we soon arrived at the filming set.
“Wow...!”
The filming set, a place I had come to for the first time in my life, naturally made me gasp in admiration.
“Hey! I told you to put that here!”
“I’m sorry!”
People adjusting the position and angle of every single object.
“Is this light too bright?”
“Yeah, let’s lower it a little.”
People adjusting several different lights.
Besides them, many other people were busily doing their own jobs.
At the same time, I found it fascinating how aesthetically beautiful the entire space was.
“But are they still setting up?”
“Looks like we came too early.”
To be honest, I was a little excited, so I pestered Mom into coming much earlier than the scheduled time.
“Well, coming early is good because it gives us more time to prepare.”
Wasn’t arriving early much better than arriving late?
After wandering around for a while longer.
I spotted Uncle Junyoung in the distance, whom I had been looking for this whole time.
“Mom, Uncle Junyoung is over there.”
The reason I had been looking for Uncle Junyoung was.
Since he was the one who cast me, he had said he would take care of me like a temporary manager for the day and show me around.
‘But he looks really busy.’
Still, since we had arrived on set, I thought it would be better to at least tell him we were here, so I approached him.
“Uncle Junyoung!”
“Oh! Mina, you’re here?!”
“Uncle! Long time no see!”
“Seriously! Mina, you’ve grown so much too?! You’re practically all grown up now?!”
“Huh? Isn’t that basically a curse telling me not to grow any more?”
“Uh, um...?”
I wanted to tease him more after seeing how flustered he got.
But Mom’s burning stare from behind felt like it was about to bore a hole through the back of my head, so I quickly stopped.
“Come on! I’m kidding!”
“Uh, uh...! Right!”
Once I quickly smoothed things over, Mom must have sensed danger.
Without even giving me a chance to say anything, she spoke to Uncle Junyoung.
“Junyoung, you’re really busy right now, aren’t you?”
“Ah, Miyoung. Um, yes... It looks like this is going to take a while.”
“It can’t be helped. I’ll just keep an eye on Mina. Take care of your work first and come over when you have some free time.”
“I’m really sorry...”
“No, no, these things happen.”
After hearing a few simple precautions and such, Mom and I went to the waiting room.
And a few minutes later.
‘Hmm...’
I got bored.
‘Well, can’t be helped, then.’
“Mom.”
“What?”
“I need to go to the bathroom.”
“Wait here for a bit. I’ll go ask where the bathroom is.”
“Okay.”
I quietly watched Mom’s back as she walked away, and once she was far enough, I quietly slipped out of the waiting room and started walking.
“Now then~ Where should I start exploring~?”
I decided to cure my boredom by taking a walk.
________________
“Mina! I found out where the bathroom is—”
Mina’s mother, Park Miyoung, returned to the waiting room and found herself facing an extremely bewildering situation.
“Mina...?”
Because her daughter, who had said she desperately needed the bathroom, had disappeared.
“Don’t tell me...! Was it so urgent that she went off by herself?!”
Worry came first when she couldn’t see her daughter.
‘Wait a second.’
“Aaagh!”
The moment a thought flashed through her mind, Miyoung realized.
“She tricked me again!”
That Mina had lied to get rid of her.
And that the reason she had used needing the bathroom as an excuse was so that later, when she got scolded.
She could claim it had been so urgent that she had gone looking for the bathroom herself.
‘No! She’s even doing this here?!’
Cursing herself for trusting Mina even for a moment, she left the waiting room and hurriedly began searching for her.
‘Not there! Not over there either! She’s not here?!’
Just as she grew increasingly frantic and thought she should ask someone else for help.
“Ah!”
She spotted a child in the distance who looked like Mina.
‘Found her!’
Miyoung approached and confirmed that it was indeed Mina, then tried to call out her name.
But when she saw the woman beside Mina, she froze in place.
‘That person is...? N-No way, right...?!’
And the moment she got a proper look at the woman’s face.
Miyoung was horrified.
Because that woman was the actress playing Mina’s mother today.
And because she was a famous, highly acclaimed actress in Korea, renowned for playing villains.
“But you mostly play villains. Is that because you have a bad personality in real life too?”
And because she had just heard Mina ask that famous actress the question with an innocent smile on her face.
‘I’m going insane...’
Parenting was way too hard...
_______________
Actress Kim Heeseon usually worked mainly in dramas and films and was famous for rarely filming commercials.
There was no particular reason.
No matter how well advertisements paid.
If you were an actor, you should show your face to the public through actual works.
That was simply her personal belief.
However, she recently heard that her daughter had failed to preorder the smartphone being advertised in this commercial.
So in order to give her daughter the smartphone as a gift for her approaching birthday, she decided to film a commercial for the first time in a long while.
‘Wow! It’s Kim Heeseon!’
As usual, in order to familiarize herself with the environment before filming.
Heeseon had arrived at the set early and happened to meet Mina, who was wandering around.
‘I’m Ryu Mina, the child actor filming with you today! Please take care of me!’
And she learned that Mina was the child actor who would be performing alongside her today.
So they started talking.
“Do I look like I have a bad personality to you?”
“No? You look really nice, but you only play villains, so I was curious and asked.”
And somehow, that had led to the current situation.
‘What a fascinating kid.’
Heeseon thought she was fairly good at looking at herself objectively.
‘This is the first child who’s ever treated me this warmly.’
Her appearance made her look difficult to approach, she had an intimidating aura, and on top of that she was famous.
So she knew very well that children found her difficult to approach and were afraid of her.
‘...Cute.’
And unlike her appearance and image, Heeseon actually loved children very much.
It was just that children didn’t like Heeseon.
“Ma’am, can I ask you one more thing?”
“Of course. Ask me anything.”
That being the case, she couldn’t help feeling pleased as Mina comfortably treated her and satisfied her curiosity.
‘She reminds me of my daughter when she was little...’
Remembering her own daughter’s childhood, who was now all grown up, put Heeseon in a good mood.
‘Of course, this kid is much prettier.’
She thought her own daughter was quite beautiful too, but this child was on another level.
“Are there any other kinds of roles you want to play?”
“Other roles?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm... I’d like to play a kind mother.”
‘It’s about time I changed my image a little.’
Specializing in villain roles had earned her a lot, both financially and in terms of acting skill.
‘But I’ve been cursed at way too much.’
It wouldn’t even be an exaggeration to say Heeseon had received enough curses for three generations of her family.
“Oh! Is that why your role today is also a mother?!”
“That’s right. What do you think? Do I seem like I suit it?”
She asked Mina with a gentle smile.
“No? It doesn’t suit you, but challenging things like that is what being an actor is all about! I’m rooting for you!”
“Uh, r-right... Thank you...”
‘She really isn’t an ordinary kid...’
For a moment, Heeseon’s mind went slightly blank from the unexpected damage.
‘How should I put it? It feels like I’m talking to pure evil?’
That was the impression Heeseon got from Mina.
And.
‘Ah, seriously, I’m going insane...!’
A short distance away, Miyoung had been unable to find the right moment to interrupt and could only watch the situation unfold while trembling nervously.
‘Right! I’ll step in now! If I hesitate any longer, there’s no telling what Mina might do next!’
Firming her resolve, she stepped a little closer and firmly called Mina’s name.
“Ryu Mina!”
“Ah, she caught me already.”
Heeseon turned her head toward the voice.
And saw a woman who resembled Mina enough that she could easily be mistaken for a celebrity.
“Is that your mother?”
“Yes.”
Although it had only been a short while, based on what Heeseon had figured out about Mina’s personality, what Mina had just said, and her own experience raising a daughter, she could roughly piece things together.
‘...Looks like she was wandering around without her parents knowing.’
No wonder she was alone.
“Hello, Mina’s mother. I’m actress Kim Heeseon.”
“Ah, yes! Actress Kim Heeseon! Hello! I’m Mina’s mother, Park Miyoung!”
The moment the two exchanged greetings.
Mina cut in from beside them.
“Mom, say hello. This is my new mom.”
Hearing that, both Miyoung and Heeseon felt their minds reel once again.
“...You introduced me that way because I’m playing your mother in this commercial, right?”
“Yes.”
“...I see.”
‘But why did she specifically have to use the phrase new mom...’
Heeseon took the hand of Miyoung, who looked as though she had a headache, then looked at Mina and spoke.
“You must have it rough... truly...”
“...Thank you.”
Miyoung became slightly emotional at suddenly being consoled by Heeseon, but desperately managed to suppress it.
“I’m sorry our Mina caused you trouble!”
“No, actually, I was bored, so I’m glad Mina kept me company.”
“Mom, she says it was fine.”
Miyoung silently pressured Mina with her eyes for making an unnecessary comment from the side.
“Then! Please take good care of our Mina during the shoot later! I’m always rooting for you!”
After quickly delivering the rest of what she wanted to say to Heeseon, she gathered up Mina and hurried back to the waiting room.
“Ryu Mina.”
“Yes, ma’am...!”
“If you disappear from my sight even once before we leave today, you’d better expect to go hungry for three days.”
Perhaps her sincerity got through.
Fortunately, after hearing that, Mina sat quietly in her chair.