[Two years later]

"Whatever it is, just do your best okay?"

"I will, manager oppa."

"Remember, Director Lee is recognised and respected for her great works, both by the industry and the public. Doing well in her projects will be rewarding to your career."

She has heard of Director Lee. The first female - and the youngest to be one of the most successful director in Korea's film industry, to stand in line with other respectable and veteren directors in the entertainment hierarchy. She even had a few co-production projects in overseas, including in US. Her works received positive critics and reviews by the critics and showered by praises, having to inspire and bring joy and satisfaction to people with her films. Daughter and niece of conglomerates. How much more intimidating can she be?

It was until very recently that a word has been going around in the industry saying Director Lee and her team are holding auditions to look for suitable casts for a crime-thriller drama that she's been working on. This was where her company thought it will be a great opportunity for her to venture and grow her career.

She debuted three years ago, but she has always been casted as supporting character. The kind of supporting character that serves as an extra and plays no major role in the movies or dramas. She never had the chance to shine. Maybe because she is not good enough, maybe because she is still a rookie, maybe because it is not her time yet. She wondered. Just when her company signed her up for an audition of a soon highly anticipated project. Of a successful director apart from that. She knew this is another chance to improve herself. She will try her best, by testing her limits and to prove what she is capable of in striving to achieve her dreams of becoming a successful actress. But still, Director Lee's status make her feel nervous as the car approaches the audition venue closer and closer.

 She gazed at the landscape outside through the heavily tinted passenger's side window as she took a sip from her hot coffee. The clear sky, the endless passing of cars, occasional well maintained trees and high rise buildings are not calming her nerves at all.

She will do it.

She has to do it.

~

She arrived Director Lee's office where the audition was being held. Her manager escorted her to the 2nd floor and registered her attendance at the reception. Then she was asked to sit in line where the chairs were placed in line against the wall towards the door of the audition room. Before her, the candidates sat patiently waited for their turn. Most of them looked young, probably in their early 20's, like her. While there were others who looked more mature, probably older, probably more experienced. Among all of them there will be only one who got chosen for the role. And it could be anyone. It could that lady who muttered silent prayer to herself. It could be that woman who just calmly stared into the space. It could be her.

Slowly one by one, the candidates being called in and left the room minutes after with an unreadable expression. Was it good? Was it difficult? Was it easy? Like that would happen. Stop hoping things to be easy. Nothing is easy in this world. Whatever it was, she didn't want to expect anything. The lady right before her made her exit from the audiion room. A few seconds later her name got called in. It's finally her turn. She braced herself as she pushed the door and entered the audition room.

"Good afternoon." She shyly exchanged greetings with everyone in the room.

In the room there were a long table and a camera fixed on a tripod at the right next to the table, used to record the audition of the candidates for record keeping and reference later on during the selection process. At the long table there sat the panel, consisting a woman in her 30's sitting on the most left and a few men. Among them there was a petite lady who sat in the middle. By comparing all of their age respectively the lady in the middle looked contrastingly the youngest by approximately 10 to 20 years of age difference. She must be Director Lee. Seeing her being towered in between the men who sat right next to her like mountains makes her look so small...and cute.

She glanced at Sunny. Dressed in plain graffic tee, shoulder length burgundy brown hair and a snapback. She surely looked comfortable as heck for a prestiged director. The director studied her carefully in calm demeanor and glanced at the thin stack of papers on her table which was believed to be her biodata and other necessary documents. She stood in the middle on the room facing the table of panels and a crew member handed her a script sample.

"Introduce yourself."

"My name is Park Hyomin."

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Hyomin was on her way to Sunny's office. Again. This time it was for first script reading session. It was just days ago since her audition at the office when she received a call from the company notifying her that she got the role for her drama gig. She was grooming her dog when she received the call. It was so unexpected that it took a while after she hang up the phone to react in delight. Today was the day she attended the session to meet her new co-workers for the first time. She was thrilled to meet her acting partners and gain experience from this project. She was ready.

 She entered the meeting room with her manager to the room was already almost filled with important people. As a few journalists entered the room her through the door behind her, she saw Lee Si Young and Choi Yeo Jin light-heartedly conversing with each other, Yoon Ji Tae getting ready for the reading session, Lee Min Ki already sitting at the oval table and Seo In Guk having a conversation with Sunny. Hyomin almost did not recognise Sunny by the way she dressed, so contrastingly different from the last time she saw her at the audition. She observed Sunny. Dressed in grey grid blazer with similar shorts, sporting a seemingly black tube blouse, hair tied up to a low pony tail with flat bangs that hang to the right side of her face and wore a round-edged thick frame black glasses. Damn, isn't she dressed a little too well for the script reading session? All of them wore pretty casually. Like hers, just plain white blouse with skinny jeans. Seo In Guk said something and Sunny laughed. Them seemed close. Did they know each other?  Then Lee Si Young and Choi Yeo Jin joined them and talked. Then Sunny casually rested her left arm around Choi Yeo Jin's hips. Did they know each other as well?  Soon after, the remaining executives and journalists filled the room and they were good to begin.

The casts and all of the important executives sat at the table with a pile of thick scripts in front of them. Sunny's producer, Jang-PD who will be producing this drama officiated the reading session. The executives introduced themselves and then the casts followed suit afterwards as the journalists sat behind the room swiftly typed on their laptop to record the occurrence of this event. Clicking sounds can be heard every few minutes as the cameramen took photos of them. After the introductions, it turned out that Seo In Guk and Lee Si Young would be the main protagonists of the drama while Yoo Ji  Tae was the main antagonist and the rest of them were supporting characters who were deemed by Sunny to be "characters who play vital role in the drama." Hyomin could see why Lee Si Young was so suitable to be the main female protagonist of the thriller drama: despite being a renounced model and actress, she boxes well too despite how the society discouraged her from doing sonas it didn't fit her image. That's why she fitted the main character so well. The casts started to read their lines from the script as one of the staff narrated the story. Hyomin realised that most of the actors in this room are friends with Sunny, judging from how friendly they were when conversing with each other just now. She glanced at Sunny. She reckoned, if she and Sunny are friends, Sunny would've help her more at this project. The lighting of the room shed light on Sunny's cleavage, proudly  baring itself as she hunched slightly to concentrate on the script, it rose and fell slowly as Sunny breathed. It somehow looked so magni- God. What am I doing?  Hyomin mentally slapped herself. She tracked the sequence of the script to see where they were reading right now. It was almost her turn in a few more lines. Hyomin thought that the first thing she need to do right now was to impress the director. As Lee Min Ki finished reading his line Hyomin braced herself to read her line.

"F-fight me-" Hyomin's tongue tied and stuttered. She heard giggles around her. She mentally cussed herself as her mind went blank for a second right after she screwed up to process on how to recover from this. "-I dare you to challenge me. If I win, you'll answer my questions." She did sound confident at all just like her character does. . I screwed up. Hyomin looked up from her script to find Sunny's intense gaze on her. Is she mad? Is she disappointed?  Neither way, I'm screwed. Good job Hyomin. Hyomin shifted back down to her script to read her next line after Lee Min Ki.

 ~

The reading session ended a few minutes ago. Hyomin felt beaten up after how she messed up just now.

"Hey."

"Ah-hello, Yeo Jin sunbaenim!" Hyomin quickly bowed at the sight of her senior.

"Don't beat yourself up so badly. Silly mistakes tend to happen every now and then. Even Si Young and I are susceptible to this kind of mistake."

"I'm just afraid that I made myself looked bad in front of Director Lee and the press." Hyomin pouted.

"Don't worry, she's a cool person. It'll be fine." Yeo Jin gave her a reassuring smile. "I'll see you in a few months then. Bye!" Yeo Jin patted on Hyomin's back and left. Hyomin looked at Yeo Jin's back as she opened the door and dissappeared into the hallway. She's so cool.

"What are your thoughts on Park Hyomin's mirror mistake just now?" Hyomin frozed at the mention of her name and turned her head towards the direction of the question. A female young female journalist hold a notepad and a pen while a cameraman who stood next to her recorded the interview. Sunny rested her hands in her blazer's pockets, facing the journalist and the camera.

"She did a great job in immersing into her character as Se Jung, a shy and awkward troubled young adult. Her personality fitted Se Jung perfectly. That's why I chose her and I have faith in her. Please look forward to Hyomin's performance when the drama airs." Sunny answered professionally in a calm manner. Hyomin breathed in relief. Yeo Jin was right. Yeo Jin sunbaenim trusted Director Lee. I should as well. Hyomin smiled to herself and approached the casts to introduce herself to her seniors.

Sunny shifted her gaze at Hyomin, observed the actress as she interacted with the rest of the actor before she was interrupted by her producer.

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[Edit] A/N: Hey guys, sorry I've been taking so long. campus life has been crazy. But I try to write parts by parts whenever I'm free, like while waiting for class to start :D  It'll take some time before the next update. I'm thinking about adding y times into this story, but I'll contemplate about it. See ya and thanks for commenting! :)