unwritten page

“of course! i don’t mind!” aeri’s eyes lit up, excited for cherry and the day she would get a bigger role. she was always elated whenever the other legacy actors had bigger roles since it meant that their hard work and acting abilities were seen by the public. even if it had been years since she had her main role in a drama, it gave her the opportunity to find her niche in other areas aside from acting. “but when you do get a bigger role, we celebrate first before sharing any advice.” she insisted as a reminder to always celebrate the wins first. the moment cherry mentions cutting her own hair, aeri remembered seeing a snippet of it on youtube. as someone who never had short hair, she was relieved that she hadn’t been asked to do the same. but the thought of having short hair made her curious about something. “do you prefer having longer or shorter hair? i feel like with shorter hair it would require more maintenance, but i guess if it’s for an acting role or some sort the hairstylists can do the styling instead.” she reasoned as she touched the tips of her hair for a brief moment. shaking her head, aeri admitted, “i don’t have a lot of episodes yet so i don’t have a lot to pick…but if i had to pick one, maybe the first episode?” she vividly remembered filming the episode and the challenges that she had to deal with filming content about herself. “fans always asked me to have a channel especially when there are so many legacy actors and models who have one. but i wasn’t sure if i had that entertaining persona that people tend to gravitate towards, so whenever i had free time, i’d look at other channels for ideas.”

“ah, i guess it’d be a nice idea to celebrate me getting a main role, once it happens” cherry nods, though she thinks that’s something that’s far out in the future. while cherry has gotten far in terms of acting skills, she still has quite far to go, she still struggles with remembering her lines, and is still scared of picking up characters that are out of her comfort zone. but it’s nice to have something to look forward to, something to work for, she’ll get that main role someday, she’s sure. “how did you celebrate when you got your first bigger role?” she asks the other.

“i think i prefer having longer hair? i cut my hair short a few years ago, and i did like it, i just… feel like there’s more to do with longer hair? like when it comes to braiding and stuff. but when i had short hair, i’d sometimes have extensions in, so it never really felt like my long hair vanished” she shrugs. cherry was growing her hair out again, her hair had had a change though, she was brown-headed for now, due to martine corporations, though she was planning on going back to blonde soon.

“the nice thing about having extensions is that if your hair is short and you need it to be longer for just a day or two, there’s always that option.” she reasoned. thanks to the conversation they were having, the thought of having shorter hair (even if it was just a wig) seemed tempting for aeri and one that she would consider doing as long as she didn’t have an acting project any time soon.

he responds with a hum of acknowledgement, already picturing such a scene in his head playing out. “and since duri is already overwhelmed as it is, he probably wouldn’t have seen her kindness just yet, maybe closer to the end when he finally gets over his insecurity of being so inferior to the others and that whole double life side quest.” there was so much he could go over but so little time, from the corner of his eye, he could see the restlessness of the crew begin to settle down, everyone had begun to take their place behind the cameras rather than on set.

“yeah, you’ll learn that eventually. the more acting projects you participate in, the more you find ways to deal with those kinds of struggles.” she said with a reassuring smile, confident that cherry would do well when the time comes. “mhmm,” she nodded, recalling all of the skills and hobbies she gained during her time filming for bullet inquiry. “i got help from one of my co-stars because he’s really good at solving rubik’s cubes quickly. aside from memorizing lines and acting them out, i always believe in trying to learn their hobbies and interests to understand their character better. sometimes those moments won’t be shown on screen, but it’ll help you become one with your character.” aeri reasoned as reached for her bag on the vanity table.  “you’re right, you have to act so well for the viewers to dislike you as well. but it’s also good if the next or previous project was something that the viewers like. it’ll show that you are versatile.” she smiled as she listened to cherry. as cherry mentioned her popularity and youtube channel, it made aeri wonder how it would feel for people to know them for their channel first. she couldn’t quite relate to it considering that it had taken her years before she considered doing that. a thought had crossed her mind that it led her to ask the question. “what episode in your channel do you think is your favorite one? or the one that you think a lot of fans really liked?”

“practice makes perfect i guess?” it’d never properly felt like that for cherry though. even though she was an idol trainee originally, her dancing, singing and rapping skills never improved much. but perhaps cherry had a tendency to give up, her youtube channel was about trying new things, and she’d generally try those new things, fail, and then never pick it up again. cherry had just been used to not being the best at anything, but maybe if she put more work into it, like she does with hosting and acting, she’d eventually become good at other things too. “that’s nice advice though… you kind of gotta become the character, it was easy for me this time, since my role is similar to myself” she hums “if i get a bigger role some day, can i come to you for advice?”.

the moment cherry mentions cutting her own hair, aeri remembered seeing a snippet of it on youtube. as someone who never had short hair, she was relieved that she hadn’t been asked to do the same. but the thought of having short hair made her curious about something. “do you prefer having longer or shorter hair? i feel like with shorter hair it would require more maintenance, but i guess if it’s for an acting role or some sort the hairstylists can do the styling instead.” she reasoned as she touched the tips of her hair for a brief moment.

the sequence of events is hazy, a film reel yet to come, conceptualizing it in words could only do so much — he had always been a visual learner. so, crafting a character much like duri — talking it out, imagining putting himself in the shoes of someone he had to create from scratch was a task far out of his reach. creativity had never been much of jino’s forte — however, he’s found surprises in every step of this character, like now, talking it out with aeri had helped much more than he had initially realized. 

where duri had always been a name on a page, actually running scenarios through aeri’s own character’s perspective helped jino imagine duri as a real person. in the flesh, living, breathing — working at a company, out of his mind, out of his league, but slowly and surely finding reassurance along the way.

“but from jinhee’s perspective…” she trailed off slightly, her tone softening as her thoughts shifted more into character. “i could see her take note of that.” aeri paused as she tried to step into jinhee’s shoes again. “she might have noticed what kind of coffee he drinks before and then shows up with something familiar. not anything expensive, but something tailored to his preferences to show that she pays attention.” giving a small smile, she continued on, “it’s a subtle way of showing that she cares… without making it too obvious or overwhelming for him.”

letting out a chuckle, aeri joked, “it’s a special ability of mines…to know when to say the right things to people.” she’s certain that she doesn’t have that skill, but perhaps her seniority had given her wisdom that her younger self would have wanted. “but you’re right, you should be excited about your future abilities! you’re young, so you have a lot of time to try out something new. whether it’s for yourself or acting, gain those new abilities for the sake of wanting to grow.”  when aeri heard cherry’s question, she remained quiet as she thought of her roles again. “in the past i would say the unlikeable characters, but i think nowadays it’s more of roles that are too close to who i am.” she’s aware that there were parts of herself that she hadn’t shown publicly yet (or even to some of her fellow co-actors) so she had some uncertainties portraying characters that are too close to who she is. “really? i would have thought that a lot of them would be from your acting projects.” she reacted, surprised with cherry’s words about her viewers, even though in hindsight she could see why.

“it is nice” cherry nods. she briefly looks away, thinking about the break-up from the summer. her and areum kept the relationship so private, that when areum broke up with her, cherry had no one to talk to. cherry’s dad knew about it, and while cherry did bring up the end of the relationship, she never had a proper talk with her dad about it all. she hasn’t talked about it with anyone, even though it hurt like hell, she’s figured the pain will just fade with time, but it still hurts so incredibly bad. she looks at aeri, briefly thinks if that’s something she could talk about with the other… maybe… cherry needs to talk to someone, she just doesn’t entirely want to.

“i still struggle to remember my lines” she pouts, “i fear if i got a bigger role, i wouldn’t be able to remember it all… but i’ll learn that eventually, right?”. remembering had never been a talent of cherry’s, and her roles so far had been so small there wasn’t much to remember. this was her biggest role so far, and she’s pretty sure she’s read through her lines about a million times, to make sure she doesn’t forget anything. “that’s interesting” she tilts her head to the side “you learned to do rubik’s cubes just for your character?” there’s obvious curiosity in cherry’s eyes.

“that’s a great idea!” seona tells her. “what i’m thinking, maybe, we have a sequence of clips put together, 30 seconds each? the first one where one of them fills out a form to apply for a roommate. another clip where they’re moving in and things are awkward. next they can be seen sharing a meal together and it’s still awkward, but they’re starting to feel comfortable with each other. finally, it could end with one of them getting a new job and having to fill that form out. she thinks really hard, but in the end she writes down her roommates name and smiles,” the actress pitches her idea to aeri.

acting, acting, acting. it’s her specialty, but even seona can get tired of the repetitiveness of the job. at least she’s not on set for hours upon hours, this new project taking less of her precious time.

she’s smiles at aeri across from her, fingernails tapping on the side of her cup in a rhythm only she knows. “friendship, huh,” she muses, nodding. “easy task for us i suppose, with how much time we’ve been spending together lately,” the actress says with a laugh.

“mhmm, that shouldn’t be too hard.” aeri said lightheartedly, agreeing with seona’s words. “i think the hardest part would be trying to express that in less than three minutes.” she admitted as she grabbed her notepad nearby in hopes that she could help jot down some ideas.