Between Takes | winrina

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The video had been viewed 4.9 million times in thirty-six hours.

Yu Jimin paused it at the forty-three second mark right where the unknown actress's eyes filled with tears that didn't fall, her voice breaking on the line: "I would bear the weight of heaven itself if it meant standing in your shadow one moment more."

Jimin reached for her wine glass. Barolo, 2019. It had been breathing for exactly twenty minutes, the way she preferred. Everything in her penthouse was exactly the way she preferred: the temperature set to nineteen degrees, the blackout curtains filtering Seoul's neon sprawl into elegant darkness, the silence broken only by the soft hum of her air purifier.

She clicked play again.

The girl, Kim Minjeong, according to the video title was auditioning for the role of Kang Hyeon, the bodyguard. She wore an oversized hoodie and no makeup, her hair pulled into a messy ponytail. The audition room was clearly someone's cramped apartment, the script reader barely visible off-camera.

Everything about it screamed amateur.

Except for her eyes.

Jimin had been acting since she was seven years old. Twenty-two years of studying faces, learning how to manufacture emotion, how to cry on command, how to make love to a camera. She knew performance when she saw it.

This wasn't performance.

When Minjeong delivered the confession scene the bodyguard finally admitting her impossible love to the queen she looked at that off-camera script reader like she was seeing the face of God. Like her heart was breaking in real-time. Like she meant every word.

"Dangerous," Jimin murmured to the empty room.

Her phone buzzed. Aeri, her manager. The preview text was enough: They want an answer by tomorrow. Director Shin says—

Jimin swiped it away and drained her wine.

She'd been offered the role of Queen Seonhwa three weeks ago. Under the Moon's Shadow: a big-budget historical drama about a Joseon-era queen and her female bodyguard who fall in forbidden love. Groundbreaking, the pitch had said. Career defining. The kind of role actors wait their entire lives for.

The script was exceptional. The director was visionary. The budget was massive.

And Jimin had been stalling.

She stood, walking to the floor to ceiling windows that overlooked Gangnam. From the forty-third floor, the city looked like a circuit board, all light and geometry and order. Beautiful because it was controlled.

Her reflection stared back at her: Yu Jimin, twenty-nine, "The Queen of Melodrama," Korea's highest-paid actress, known for her flawless emotional performances and her immaculate professional reputation.

Also known for one other thing.

She never dated co-stars.

Never.

It had been five years since Park Seojun. Five years since their very public, very messy relationship had imploded halfway through filming Winter's End, turning every day on set into a war zone. Five years since she'd sat in a tabloid-stalked restaurant, listening to him blame her for everything, while cameras flashed through the windows. The drama's ratings had suffered. Her reputation had cracked.

She'd built a rule from the wreckage: never again.

Her phone buzzed again. This time she looked.

Aeri: The casting news leaked. Minjeong is officially announced for Kang Hyeon. Director made the call an hour ago. Her audition tape went viral and he couldn't say no. They're asking if you're still in.