Chapter 7

The Opportunity Dad Created (1)

After the roughly forty-minute play finally ended.

Sohyung came onto the stage once again with the actors.

As they gave their closing greetings, the audience applauded.

There weren’t many people in the theater, but the sound of their applause was surprisingly warm and enthusiastic.

Dobin, who had lowered her head, finally raised it again.

It seemed that only then did she realize that Doye and I had come to watch the performance, and she couldn’t hide her embarrassment.

Even while making eye contact with my eldest daughter, I didn’t stop applauding.

Well done.

She had shown acting skills that were much better than I had expected.

It felt a little strange to think this while Doye was sitting right beside me.

‘Maybe she has even more talent than Doye.’

Thinking about it, I felt ashamed of myself for not realizing my daughter’s potential sooner, both in my previous life and after my regression.

But what good would regret do now?

I had already experienced one failure.

Now, my job was to use the memories of that failure to create a success this time.

After leaving the theater with Doye, I waited near the entrance until Dobin came out.

After saying a few brief goodbyes to the other actors, Dobin walked awkwardly toward us.

“When did you…… start watching?”

“You mean the play?”

“……Yes.”

Maybe it was because she was embarrassed.

Dobin’s voice was so quiet that it sounded like she was trying to swallow her words.

For some reason, she looked especially cute today.

Of course, my daughters were always cute.

Before I could say anything, Doye spoke first.

“We watched it from the beginning.”

“You could have at least told me you were coming…….”

I understood why she was looking at me with a slightly resentful expression.

But why was she looking at Doye like that?

“I asked Doye to keep it a secret.”

I wasn’t trying to protect Doye.

I really had asked her to keep it a secret.

From Dobin’s point of view, there were probably many things she wanted to ask.

How did we know about this place?

And why had we come to watch her acting?

I gave her one simple answer that explained everything.

“You said you wanted to act, right? So I came to see your acting for myself.”

There was also a simple reason why I hadn’t told her beforehand.

I was worried that her acting might become unnatural if she knew.

I wanted to see what kind of acting Dobin normally showed, and what kind of attitude she had prepared as an actress without her father knowing, without looking at her through any kind of bias.

Dobin let out a small sigh.

Then Doye, who had been quietly listening to our conversation, suddenly asked,

“So, Dad. How was Unni’s acting?”

There was no need to think about the answer.

“It was good.”

From a father’s point of view, my daughters were always the best.

Only after seeing my reaction did Dobin’s expression brighten.

Everything was good.

But there was one thing I wanted to say.

“Can’t you smile like that at home, too?”

Seeing Dobin’s face become stiff again,

I immediately felt that maybe I shouldn’t have said it.

The final filming of the drama Kim Teacher, Who Appears Here and There was right around the corner.

Originally, we had planned to have a wrap-up dinner on the final day of filming to celebrate everyone’s hard work.

However, because the schedules of several cast members, including the lead actress Seona, didn’t seem to match, we hurriedly arranged the dinner for tonight instead.

Because of that, almost everyone who had been connected to our drama in some way since the first episode came to the filming set.

Among them was my second daughter, Doye, who had received a lot of praise from viewers for her crying scene.

“Doye!”

As soon as Seona saw Doye, she happily greeted her first.

After giving Doye a warm hug, Seona smiled brightly.

“How have you been?”

“I’ve been doing well thanks to you, Senior.”

“Thanks to me? I didn’t really do much.”

“You always listened to me through messages whenever you had time. And whenever I asked you something I was curious about, you answered me.”

I was a drama PD, not an actor.

Because of that, there was a limit to how much I could teach my daughters about acting.

But Seona was an active actress, so her situation was different.

Whenever Doye had trouble with something, Seona had given her a lot of advice.

A few sincere words of advice from someone with experience might seem small, but for a rookie actress like Doye, they could be a great help.

That was why I often thanked Seona at the filming site.

Seona gently patted Doye’s small head and said,

“Maybe it’s because Doye is so kind and pretty, but it makes me want to teach her even more.”

Doye was naturally good at making people like her.

I had never seen a single person who disliked Doye, whether among adults or even among her friends.

‘That must be why her Charm rating is so high.’

But at the same time, I was worried.

Doye was used to being loved and praised.

Would she really be able to endure things like malicious comments?

After all, even her status window had given her a low Mental Strength rating of D.

‘She’ll be able to handle it.’

Because she was my daughter.

Even before I returned to the past, she had grown into an excellent actress, so I decided to trust my daughter.

It was nice to meet Seona again after such a long time and catch up with her.

But—

“Seona. I think we should start filming soon.”

“Oh my, I completely lost track of time. I’m sorry.”

Seona hurried toward the studio.

Before the camera started rolling, Doye took out the notebook and writing tools she had brought with her and found a place near me.

The girl who hated studying so much was voluntarily sitting there with a pen in her hand.

I almost let out a bitter smile.

“Okay, standby.”

The FD opened the slate.

Just then—

“Dad. Mom called?”

Doye came over holding the smartphone I had left with her.

For a moment, my mind stopped.

She had finally contacted me after seeing the message I had sent earlier asking her to call me when she had time.

‘Of all times, it had to be now.’

The camera director asked me,

“Should we start in five minutes?”

“No, it’s okay. I can contact her again later.”

I couldn’t delay the entire filming schedule just because of me.

Besides—

‘The timing with Siyoon really doesn’t work out.’

The daughters were one thing.

But I needed to think about how I should deal with the problem involving my ex-wife.

After finishing today’s filming without any major problems,

I headed over to join the staff for the dinner, even though I was late.

Doye had already gone to the dinner with the staff.

As soon as I arrived, the cast and staff welcomed me with loud applause.

“PD! Why are you so late?”

“You have to give the toast!”

“Someone, get PD Yoon a glass! Hurry!”

A glass of alcohol appeared in front of me as if everyone had been waiting for me.

It didn’t seem like the kind of atmosphere where I could refuse.

‘I guess I have no choice.’

I raised my glass and spoke as loudly as I could.

“We still have a few days left until we officially finish filming, but everyone has really worked hard for such a long time. Let’s finish everything well until the very end and keep up our strength. Now, cheers!”

“Cheers!!!”

The sound of glasses clinking could be heard from all around.

Since Doye was a minor, she held orange juice instead of alcohol and clinked her glass with the actors.

Seeing Doye getting along well with everyone, I felt relieved and took a sip of my beer.

The feeling of the cold beer spreading through my body was refreshing.

“Ah!”

I couldn’t help making a sound of satisfaction.

Drinking after finishing work was especially enjoyable.

Of course, tonight’s drinking party wasn’t entirely pleasant.

‘It would have been nice if the ratings had been a little higher.’

Since our drama was a television program, there was no way we could escape worrying about the ratings.

The recent rating had been 2.3 percent, if I remembered correctly.

‘That’s much lower than what the higher-ups had expected.’

Just as I was clicking my tongue in disappointment,

two men naturally joined the table where I was sitting.

“Seongjun, you worked hard.”

“You worked hard, hyung.”

One of them was Han Seongguk, the team leader of the Drama Planning and Production Department.

The man who came with him was Choi Changwoo, a close junior I had known since my days as a rookie writer and also a drama PD.

“Seongguk hyung and Changwoo…… What brings you guys here?”

“What do you mean, what brings us here? My close junior just finished another drama safely. Shouldn’t this hyung come and at least show his face? Ah, Changwoo happened to have some free time, so I dragged him here.”

Changwoo had been quietly listening to the team leader’s explanation.

Then he suddenly protested.

“Team Leader! If you put it like that, it makes it sound like I didn’t want to come here and you forced me to come.”

“You were making excuses at first, saying you were busy.”

“That was because I thought you were forcing me to come because you had no one to drink with. If I had known it was this kind of gathering, of course I would have come. Seongjun hyung and I have known each other for more than ten years.”

He said more than ten years, but to me, it felt like much longer than that.

Maybe it was because of my regression.

“Anyway, thanks for coming, both of you. I wanted to see you guys anyway. I’m glad you came.”

Back when I used to call him Senior Han Seongguk instead of Team Leader, I had sometimes joined his dinner parties after his dramas finished filming.

So gatherings like this didn’t feel awkward to me.

Since this was a dinner celebrating the end of the drama, it was only natural that the conversation eventually turned to the drama.

“By the way, Seongjun. You must be pretty disappointed with this project.”

“Because of the ratings?”

“Yeah. But the viewers’ reactions weren’t bad. Honestly, the first ten episodes weren’t very good. But starting with the recent episodes, I could suddenly see the quality going up. It’s almost like your directing style suddenly changed.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Your old directing style was, how should I put it? It felt like there were too many unnecessary scenes. Of course, I understand that sometimes you need scenes to increase the running time. But I think being able to make those scenes interesting is also part of a PD’s directing ability. I was talking about this with Changwoo earlier, too. Personally, I like your current style better.”

I had realized what my problem was far too late.

So when I returned to the past, I decided to fix that problem as early as possible.

I boldly changed my directing style.

Fortunately, the viewers’ reactions weren’t bad.

And neither were the reactions from my colleagues.

Changwoo added his own opinion to the team leader’s words.

“If it had been like this from the beginning of the drama, the ratings would have been much higher.”

“What’s already happened can’t be changed. I’ll do better next time.”

Perhaps he liked the fact that I was looking toward the future instead of dwelling on the past.

A deep smile appeared around the team leader’s mouth.

“That’s right. Instead of holding on to regrets and constantly looking back, it’s better to look forward. That’s a good attitude, Seongjun.”

Not only my daughters, but I also had to change.

This determination was slowly beginning to have a positive effect.

“Oh, right. Seongjun. There was something I wanted to ask you.”

“Yes, Team Leader.”

“You know that young actress who played Seona’s niece in the drama? That rookie actress sitting over there.”

He was pointing toward our Doye.

“By any chance, how did you cast her? Or could you at least give me the contact information for her agency or manager?”

At that moment, I realized it.

An opportunity had come to my daughter.