Chapter 97: The Price of Actions (4)
In the end, Arimura Noa left early that day, claiming she wasn’t feeling well and failing to complete the planned scenes. Just as Kim Si-woo had predicted, the set turned chaotic before lunch even started.
“Writer-nim…?”
“Let’s grab lunch and head out.”
“Okay…”
The interpreter looked at Kim Si-woo in amazement—he had clearly seen this coming.
While Kim Si-woo collected his lunch box and found a table nearby, someone sat down beside him.
“Writer-nim.”
Thinking it was the interpreter, he turned—and saw Kirishima Sumire.
“Thank you.”
He sincerely thanked her.
As he had asked, no matter how many mistakes Arimura Noa made, Kirishima Sumire kept saying it was fine.
Of course, deep down she was irritated.
Every time filming stopped because of Arimura Noa’s errors, Kirishima Sumire remembered what Kim Si-woo had said before her shoot.
‘What did he mean by that…?’
The more she thought about it, the more her annoyance toward Arimura Noa faded, replaced by growing curiosity about Kim Si-woo.
After Arimura Noa went home and the chaotic day somehow wrapped, Kirishima Sumire sought him out the moment lunch break started.
“No one here can really get mad at her anyway. No matter how much people separate work and personal matters, she’s still the president’s daughter at OnlyOne Film.”
“Still, thank you.”
“But… you knew this would happen?”
“Roughly, yeah.”
Assuming he also knew why Arimura Noa was acting this way, Kirishima Sumire asked,
“Why is she like that?”
“Because of you, Sumire-ssi.”
“Me?”
“What did I do…?”
“Your acting.”
“What does that…”
Kirishima Sumire couldn’t follow at all.
“Can we talk while we eat?”
“Ah… sure.”
Realizing she’d been bombarding him without letting him eat, she looked embarrassed and started her meal.
Even as she ate, her eyes kept drifting to Kim Si-woo.
‘She’s staring so hard I’m gonna get indigestion.’
Kim Si-woo finished his food quickly under the intense gaze.
“Come find me over there when you’re done. I’ll be by the vending machines.”
“Yes!”
He pointed toward the drink machines. Burning with curiosity, Kirishima Sumire scarfed down her lunch and hurried over.
“Here.”
“Ah, thank you.”
He handed her a canned drink from the machine.
“So, why is she acting like that? It’s rare to see someone mess up this badly even when they’re not feeling well…”
“She’s overwhelmed.”
“Huh?”
“She’s overwhelmed by your acting.”
Kirishima Sumire looked completely baffled.
“To put it simply, it’s pride. She doesn’t want to admit it.”
“Admit what?”
“That you’re better than her.”
“Oh, come on…”
Kirishima Sumire snorted in disbelief.
“Anyway, that’s how good your acting was.”
“But that doesn’t mean she can half-ass it. I worked really hard for this…”
“I know. That level of acting only comes from serious effort. Just keep doing your best for the rest of the shoot.”
“Huh? Where are you going?”
“I’m heading home. I’ve seen enough of Noa-ssi acting for today, and honestly… I only came because I was worried about her.”
“Ah… then take care on your way back.”
Just as Kim Si-woo stepped toward a taxi to return to his apartment, someone grabbed him.
“W-wait a second!”
“Yes?”
It was Kirishima Sumire, rushing over and panting as she held onto him.
“Could I get your phone number…?”
“I don’t have a phone number here, but I can give you my messenger ID.”
“Okay.”
He quickly typed his messenger ID into her smartphone.
“Can I go now?”
“Yes. Take care!”
This time, Kim Si-woo really headed back to his apartment.
Meanwhile, back at home, Arimura Noa was replaying the day’s events.
The shoot had started off fine.
She remembered all her lines, her delivery and movements were solid.
But the moment she acted opposite Kirishima Sumire, her body froze.
Kirishima Sumire’s performance right in front of her was on a completely different level from the script readings.
It felt like the character had stepped straight out of the script—yet still infused with Kirishima Sumire’s own unique flavor.
‘No way… there’s no way. She’s younger than me… how could she…’
Even seeing it with her own eyes, Arimura Noa couldn’t believe it. After that, she crumbled fast, making mistake after mistake until filming had to be halted.
“I have to make up for it in the next shoot… The script… I need to go over the script.”
She frantically opened her already tattered script and started memorizing again.
Three hours later, now calmer, she began wondering where she’d gone wrong—and Kim Si-woo’s words came back to her.
‘If you need help, just say it.’
The moment those words surfaced, she grabbed her things and headed straight to his apartment.
“He’s probably still on set.”
For the first time, she was swallowing her pride as an actress to ask for advice.
But she still needed time to mentally prepare.
The thought of waiting at his place and having to speak first made her chest tighten.
“Yeah… if I get there first and wait, he’ll be the one to speak first.”
With that plan, Arimura Noa arrived at Kim Si-woo’s apartment, punched in the code, and stepped inside.
But there he was—the man who should’ve been on set—sitting at his computer.
Startled, Arimura Noa blurted out,
“Why are you here, Writer-nim?”
“This is where I live…”
“But what about the set…?”
“I saw everything I needed to see, and there’ll be plenty more time later. Honestly, I only went today because of you, Noa-ssi.”
“So… how are you going to help me?”
Arimura Noa muttered, barely audible, head bowed.
“First, we fix what’s wrong. Come sit over here.”
“…”
Following his gesture, she sat down at the dining table.
Kim Si-woo pulled out a script.
But instead of opening it, he asked her a question.
“Noa-ssi.”
“Yes.”
“What do you think is the most important thing when acting?”
“Memorizing lines? Not messing up in front of people?”
Kim Si-woo scratched his head at the completely off-track answer.
Of course, for a first live performance or ongoing theater, not flubbing lines in front of an audience might be the top priority.
But for film shoots, it was different.
Unlike theater, filming is done in pieces—so memorization isn’t the most crucial thing.
What matters far more is understanding the character.
And immersion. And emotion.
“Noa-ssi. How much do you really know about the female lead?”
“Huh?”
“Her personality? Her family environment? Favorite food? The clothes she usually wears? Her feelings toward the male lead? Her dreams?”
“…”
Arimura Noa couldn’t answer a single one of Kim Si-woo’s questions.
“You don’t know, do you? That’s exactly the difference between you and Kirishima Sumire-ssi. You’re just reading the lines and stage directions from the script, so your acting stays at ‘pretty good’ and never goes beyond.”
“Then how…”
“From today, stop looking at the script. You’ve basically memorized all the lines anyway, right?”
“Yes…”
Kim Si-woo’s words made Arimura Noa feel like her entire acting career was being dismissed.
But she couldn’t think of any other way to match Kirishima Sumire in just three days, so she decided to follow his advice.
“The next shoot is in three days, right?”
“Yes. Why?”
“I’ll help you a lot over those three days.”
“Okay.”
For some reason she couldn’t explain, Kim Si-woo’s confident demeanor strangely made her trust him.
From that day on, Arimura Noa spent most of her time at his apartment, doing nothing but talking with him.
Everything about the female lead.
Her upbringing, her surroundings, the people in her life—stories not written in the script.
She listened to Kim Si-woo tell her all these details and asked questions whenever something piqued her curiosity.
It could have been boring talking about the same topic over and over, but discussing her own character turned out to be surprisingly enjoyable. Arimura Noa never got tired of it.
In fact, she found herself fascinated by this kind of character study and lost track of time chatting with him.
She was a little anxious, but she chose to believe in Kim Si-woo.
For those three days, she didn’t touch the script once.
“Alright, before we head to the set, let’s run through a scene.”
“Okay.”
Right before leaving for the shoot, Kim Si-woo asked her to perform, and with a nervous heart, Arimura Noa picked a part of the script and prepared.
‘Get into it… immerse yourself in the character…’
She focused on her emotions and pictured the female lead—Arimura Noa—from the script.
A moment later, after watching her act, Kim Si-woo smiled.
‘Now that’s more like it.’
Having seen her performance, he figured she at least wouldn’t run away from the set today.
“Let’s go.”
“Okay…”
Even after acting it out herself, Arimura Noa felt strangely different and was confused.
‘What is this feeling?’
It was indescribable.
Like something had suddenly clicked.
She couldn’t pinpoint exactly what, but it definitely wasn’t bad.
Arimura Noa tried hard to hold onto that feeling, not wanting to forget it.
Soon after, when she and Kim Si-woo arrived on set, the first person to greet them wasn’t a staff member—it was Kirishima Sumire.
“Senpai, Writer-nim. Hello.”
“Ah, hello, Sumire-ssi.”
“Huh?”
Arimura Noa looked shocked and turned to Kim Si-woo.
“You know Kirishima, Writer-nim?”
“Huh? Oh… we just happened to get acquainted the other day.”
“I was the one who approached him first because I wanted to get close. Senpai.”
Kirishima Sumire smiled at Arimura Noa.
But Arimura Noa wasn’t oblivious to what lay behind that smile.
Kirishima Sumire was clearly interested in Kim Si-woo—and saw Arimura Noa as beneath her.
‘So you want him too? Fine. Let’s see who wins. The princess of Osaka always gets what she wants.’
“The Princess of Osaka” was Arimura Noa’s old nickname.
As a child, she had literally been a spoiled princess.
A father who gave her anything she wanted, stunning looks inherited from her mother, constant attention from everyone around her, and natural intelligence—there wasn’t a single thing she lacked.
She got everything she desired and had to do whatever she set her mind to.
Only after puberty did her personality soften into the sociable Arimura Noa of today.
But with the recent stress making her sensitive, Kirishima Sumire had just pressed her princess button.
“I see. Oh! And sorry about last time. I really wasn’t feeling well. Let’s do our best today.”
“You seem much better today. That’s a relief. Let’s both give it our all again, senpai.”
And just like that, the one-sided rivalry that Arimura Noa had lost last time reignited.
‘Whenever women smile like that, they’re definitely about to fight… They’re not actually going to throw punches, right?’
Caught between the two actresses, Kim Si-woo could only clutch his hair in worry that things might turn physical.
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