I Returned as a High School Girl

Chapter 129: Sunbae’s Proposal (1)

Kang Ra-Eun finally managed to escape backstage after the premiere. She glanced at Park Hee-Woo who had come with her. Hee-Woo apologized for forcibly interrupting her conversation with Kim Chi-Yeol, and explained her reasoning.

“Mr. Kim Chi-Yeol looks like he’s a very busy man on the outside, but he actually doesn’t do very much. He also has a ton of bad rumors going around about him. You know about his infidelity scandal too, don’t you, Ra-Eun?”

Ra-Eun replied while smiling, “Yes, of course.”

There was no way she wouldn’t, since she was the one who had spread the scandal in the first place.

“In any case, that man goes crazy over beautiful female celebrities, so you should also keep your distance from him. I hope you get that I’m not saying this for no reason.”

Hee-Woo was trying to engrave in Ra-Eun’s mind how terrible Chi-Yeol’s personality was, but there was no reason to.

‘Because I know far more about him than you, noona.’

If there was a competition about shit-talking Kim Chi-Yeol, Ra-Eun was confident that she could take first place. Hence, she had no reason to hear all kinds of bad things about Chi-Yeol from Hee-Woo.

‘She’s doing this because she doesn’t know my former identity.’

Therefore, Ra-Eun decided to just pretend to understand.

“Okay. I’ll do as you say, Vice President.”

“Great. I like how easy it is to get through to you, Ra-Eun.”

The enemy of her enemy was her friend. That phrase perfectly embodied the relationship between Hee-Woo and Ra-Eun.

***

Possibly due to what Ra-Eun had said during the premiere, reporters and critics were giving One of a Kind of Girl very high scores. The public had also started paying more attention to Director Yoon’s productions because of it. His productions had not been given much attention by the public until now, so many movie fans wondered if he was a rookie director despite him having many productions under his belt.

Advertisement was crucial, especially when awareness and interest was low. The release date had been decided, so it was now time for the lead and supporting actors to do their best to advertise the movie.

Today, Ra-Eun and Hwang Seung-Beom got ready early in the morning to appear on a morning talk show together. Ra-Eun arrived at the broadcasting station in the clothes that her stylist had prepared for her. People greeted her first as soon as they saw her, which she then greeted back with a bright smile.

“Sunbae!”

As she was about to head inside her waiting room, Seung-Beom speed-walked and bowed to greet her.

“Good morning!”

“Good morning. Have you finished getting ready?”

“Yes! I’ve even greeted the hosts.”

“Really? I have to greet them too. Where are they?”

“They’re in the studio. Would you like me to guide you?”

Ra-Eun was not a fan of excessive kindness.

“No, it’s fine. You don’t have to follow me.”

Seung-Beom was disappointed by her immediate refusal, but he also felt happy to see his sunbae so full of drive. This was the first time since the premiere that Ra-Eun and Seung-Beom had appeared together on a show, so Seung-Beom had missed Ra-Eun’s cold manner of speech.

.

Like Seung-Beom had said, the main host, regular panelists and the program director were gathered at the studio.

“Good morning,” Ra-Eun greeted first.

They also gladly greeted her back. She recognized a few faces, especially...

“My, my, Ra-Eun! How long has it been?”

Jang Yu-Ha happened to be one of the members of the talk show. Ra-Eun could count the days that she had worked with Yu-Ha with one hand. It was only three days, but considering they had worked together on the infamous program On Duty, All Clear!, they were by no means ordinary acquaintances. The cast members who had been on that three-day female soldier special together still kept in touch with each other, and Yu-Ha was one of them.

“It’s been so long, sunbae,” Ra-Eun said.

“It sure has. That aside, I enjoyed your movie.”

“Pardon? Movie?”

The only movie that corresponded with Ra-Eun was One of a Kind of Girl, but it had not been officially released yet. She wondered how Yu-Ha was able to say that she had enjoyed her movie.

Yu-Ha explained while giggling, “I watched it during the premiere.”

“You were there, sunbae?”

“Yup.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I was sure you’d be busy, so I kept quiet since I didn’t want you to give me any special attention.”

Yu-Ha had often been part of movie premieres, so she knew exactly how hectic it was. It was her own way of showing consideration. Even during the female soldier special, Yu-Ha had often taken care of the younger cast members, so she had been nicknamed ‘Mother’ by the audience. Her attentiveness continued long past the female soldier special.

Since Yu-Ha was one of the talk show’s regular panelists, she personally introduced Ra-Eun to the other cast and staff members. Ra-Eun was fortunately able to greet everyone without needing to feel awkward thanks to her. If there was another benefit to knowing someone among the panelists, it would be that they avoided asking the guests troubling surprise questions.

‘Looks like this recording will be a breeze thanks to sunbae.’

It was nice having a wide net of connections.

***

Like Ra-Eun had expected, her talk show appearance with Seung-Beom had gone swimmingly. However, the same couldn’t be said for her radio program appearance with Woo Kang-Hyun. It was different from a TV program that was recorded for several hours; they just needed to appear for a fixed duration of a little under one hour, so Ra-Eun had thought there wouldn’t be any issues.

However, she was slapped with an unexpected question from the host.

“Oh, right. Miss Kang. I watched a few teasers of the movie, and there’s a scene where you smoke, correct?”

“Yes. Min Ju-Tae was originally a middle-aged man, so there are a fair number of scenes that show his old habits despite having become a woman. Smoking is one of them,” Ra-Eun answered.

“After watching the scene, the way that you smoke is, well... I’ll just give it to you straight. You were like a pro. In my eyes as a fifteen-year smoker, your performance was something that only experienced smokers could display. Have you also...?”

It was a considerably hard-hitting question, but Ra-Eun maintained her poker face to the very end since it would be over for her the moment she got abashed.

Like the host had predicted, Ra-Eun was an experienced smoker, albeit in her past life. She was by no means a chainsmoker; she had simply lighted one or two whenever she had felt stressed. Her performance had come out to be too realistic since she had used her habits in her performance.

However, Ra-Eun couldn’t say that outright. She decided to make a believable excuse like she always had.

“I think it’s because I received very detailed advice from experienced smokers.”

“Is that really true?”

The host was still suspicious. This radio program host was an announcer who was well-known in the entertainment industry for firing hard-hitting questions one after another. Hence, there were a few celebrities who avoided appearing on his program altogether.

Ra-Eun had hoped the same wouldn’t happen to her, but there were no exceptions. As she was about to deny the host’s claim in a clearer and stronger tone, Kang-Hyun, who had appeared on the program with her, spoke first.

“Ra-Eun is telling the truth. I was the one who gave her advice on how to properly put on a smoking act.”

“Is that so?” the host asked.

“Yes, since Ra-Eun had never smoked before. I had to give her a lot of tips.”

Underlying Kang-Hyun’s response was him pressuring the host to stop with the weird speculations. He pressured the host as such. The host was not dim-witted enough to not notice Kang-Hyun’s warning, so he quickly moved on to the next question.

Ra-Eun sighed in relief in her head. She was thankful to have Kang-Hyun as a reliable ally.

***

The guest appearance portion of the radio program had come to an end. While the host was leading the program by himself, Ra-Eun and Kang-Hyun said their goodbyes to the staff members together.

Kang-Hyun clicked his tongue and frowned as soon as he came out of the recording booth.

“I would’ve never appeared on a program like this if it weren’t for the sake of advertising the movie. Right, Ra-Eun?”

Ra-Eun only giggled in response since someone could be listening in on their conversation. However, she wanted to tell Kang-Hyun at least this.

“Thank you for helping me out back there, sunbae.”

“Oh, the smoking question?”

“Yes.”

Ra-Eun had actually never received advice on her smoking performance from Kang-Hyun, meaning he had purposefully said so to prevent weird rumors about her from spreading. She could have had to go through a massive ordeal trying to clear up the misunderstanding if it weren’t for him.

Kang-Hyun laughed awkwardly, “It wasn’t anything special. Don’t think much of it.”

He had a great sense of humor compared to other actors in his age group. His unique sense of humor stood out both in private settings and in front of the camera, so he was often casted for films with comedy aspects in it. There were many reviews that stated the multitude of comedy scenes right after Min Ju-Tae’s gender change were heightened thanks to Kang-Hyun’s performance in the beginning of the film.

“Are you going straight home, Ra-Eun?” Kang-Hyun asked.

“No. I have two more things on my schedule after this.”

“I guess popular actors have it hard, huh? Then I’ll keep it short.”

He seemed to have something to say to Ra-Eun. His tone of voice lowered.

“By any chance...”

“Yes, sunbae?” Ra-Eun asked.

“Do you have any thoughts about transferring to our agency?”

Kang-Hyun’s sudden agency transfer proposal was even more unexpected than the radio program host’s smoking question.