Chapter 8

The Opportunity Dad Created (2)

As soon as Doye came up in the conversation, I unconsciously perked up my ears.

Before being a drama PD, I was the father of two daughters.

Since I was a parent, I naturally couldn’t help paying attention whenever someone talked about my children.

“You mean Doye?”

“That’s right. That girl. I asked some people I know, but none of them knew her. From what I can see, she doesn’t seem to be signed with any agency yet. Did you pick her through an audition?”

“No. It wasn’t like that.”

“Really? Then where did you find her?”

“That……”

At that moment, I almost blurted out,

From my house.

But Changwoo spoke first.

“Team Leader. You don’t know Doye?”

“What? You know that girl too?”

“Of course!”

Changwoo knew very well that Doye was my second daughter.

He had even come to Doye’s first-birthday party.

“Doye is Seongjun hyung’s……”

“Ahem!!!”

I deliberately gave a loud cough and cut Changwoo off.

Then, without the team leader noticing, I quickly exchanged glances with Changwoo.

Don’t say anything.

I signaled to him to just pretend he didn’t know.

Changwoo gave a tiny nod.

Meanwhile, after Changwoo suddenly stopped talking, the team leader tilted his head.

“What is it? Why did you stop? Is there some special relationship between Doye and Seongjun?”

“Well, you see……”

This was my business, but I couldn’t let Changwoo get into trouble because of it, so I decided to step in myself.

“She’s an actress Sohyung introduced to me.”

“Sohyung?”

“Yes. You know Sohyung, right? She opened an acting academy a while ago. An actress who was supposed to play Hwang Soyeon suddenly dropped out, so I urgently asked her to send me an actress who could take the minor role. That’s when she recommended Doye.”

“I see.”

Eventually, the team leader would definitely find out that Doye was my daughter.

Even so, I wanted to keep it a secret from him for the time being.

Once people found out that Doye was my daughter, personal feelings would inevitably get involved in the casting process.

She wasn’t just any actress.

She was my second daughter.

There would definitely be fellow PDs who would try to cast her even if her acting skills were poor simply because she was my daughter.

I had done the same thing a few times in the past.

That was why, as long as there were people who didn’t know that Doye and I were father and daughter, I didn’t want to reveal the relationship from the beginning.

After Doye received an objective evaluation as an actress from people in the drama and movie industries,

there would be no harm in revealing it then.

Otherwise, even if Doye became successful later, people would surely say that she succeeded because her father had helped her from behind the scenes.

This was something I had no choice but to do for Doye and for myself.

Changwoo knew that too, which was why he had deliberately cooperated with me.

“But Team Leader, why are you interested in Doye?”

There had to be a reason he was showing interest in her.

And the biggest reason industry people usually showed interest in an actor was—

“It’s because of a casting opportunity.”

My guess had been exactly right.

“It’s not for our broadcasting station. I have a junior who recently moved to RETC. He’s preparing a drama right now, and he’s looking for a fresh face. He asked me to recommend any good actors I knew.”

“That junior wouldn’t happen to be PD Oh Sooyoung, would she?”

“Oh, that’s right. You know her?”

Since I worked in this industry too, I often heard news about other people in the same field.

Among them, PD Oh Sooyoung was known as what you might call a ‘winner’ among female PDs.

The reason was simple.

“Didn’t she receive several billion won from RETC when she transferred there? I saw an article about it before.”

When Changwoo asked, the team leader gave an awkward laugh.

“There was quite a fuss about that for a while.”

In the entertainment industry, it wasn’t only celebrities who could become successful and make huge amounts of money.

People in professions like ours could also gain enormous amounts of money and fame once they proved their abilities.

That was the fantasy that always existed in the entertainment industry.

People were drawn to it.

I had also entered the broadcasting industry because of that very dream.

“RETC must have high expectations for Sooyoung. They’re giving her plenty of production money, too. So she wants to make the drama as carefully as possible, but apparently all of her first-choice actors have fallen through one after another. She seems to be under a lot of stress.”

I understood that feeling.

As a drama PD myself, I knew how frustrating such a situation could be.

“She happened to catch my eye, so I thought I’d at least give that girl named Doye a chance to audition.”

“Is there a role that suits her?”

I was secretly curious about the synopsis.

Perhaps the team leader somehow read my thoughts, because he briefly told us about it.

“The main character is the eldest daughter of a family with lots of daughters. There are five sisters in total, and the story develops through her relationship with her younger sisters. What did they call it? A slice-of-life romance? Anyway, that’s the genre.”

Romance could be considered PD Oh Sooyoung’s specialty.

Well, this would be the first drama she was presenting after transferring to RETC.

It made sense for her to start with the genre she was best at.

“There are twin sisters in the story. I’m thinking about having one of them audition.”

“Twin sisters?”

“Yeah. The fourth and fifth daughters are high school twin sisters. Their age is exactly right for Doye. What do you think? Wouldn’t it be good?”

The team leader was asking for my opinion.

At that moment, a small status window appeared in front of me.

The moment I saw it, the corners of my mouth naturally lifted.

“Team Leader. There’s another actress who could play the twin sister alongside Doye. Would you like me to recommend her?”

After finishing the final filming of Kim Teacher, Who Appears Here and There and returning home, I immediately called Dobin and Doye.

The two daughters sat side by side on the living room sofa and looked at me.

“Why did you call us, Dad?”

Doye asked on behalf of her sister.

There was a reason I had called them.

“Do you two want to try an audition?”

At the word audition, Dobin and Doye’s eyes widened.

“PD Oh Sooyoung said she’s preparing a new drama. She’s looking for actors to play sisters in the drama. So I recommended both of you.”

Dobin and Doye weren’t twins, of course, but they were real sisters.

I thought they would fit the roles perfectly.

There was another reason I had recommended them for the roles, too.

It was because of the quest.

[Normal Quest has been created.]

[Let Yoon Dobin and Yoon Doye experience an audition.]

[If you clear the quest, you will receive 3 points.]

The development system for Dobin and Doye had responded to the team leader’s audition proposal.

Through this, I became certain that this was an opportunity.

My daughters’ potential was limitless.

But at the same time, each of them had major weaknesses.

In Doye’s case, her Charm and Entertainment Sense ratings were high, but her Memorization and Mental Strength were relatively weak.

On the other hand, Dobin had high Memorization and Mental Strength, but she lacked Charm and Entertainment Sense.

To become a star, it wasn’t enough to simply be good at acting.

Just like the stats were divided into different categories, they had to be capable in many different areas.

Filling those gaps was my job.

Meanwhile, Doye was the first to react to the word audition.

“I’ll do it. Of course I have to!”

After appearing in the drama, Doye seemed to have gained a lot more confidence in her acting.

Dobin, however, reacted more carefully instead of showing the same enthusiasm.

“Is it really okay for us to audition?”

“It’s fine. It’s an audition, after all. If they decide that you’re good enough to take the role, they’ll cast you. If not, they’ll give the opportunity to another actress.”

Dobin seemed deeply worried about the possibility of failing.

As her father, and as someone senior to them who worked in the entertainment industry, I knew what I needed to tell my two daughters.

“Don’t be afraid of failure. Even the famous actors you know all audition, and sometimes they fail those auditions, too. So you don’t need to be too scared of auditions. Just participating in an audition will be a valuable experience for you.”

The first thing a rookie actor needed to do.

It was to gain experience.

Perhaps my words gave her some courage, because Dobin’s expression brightened slightly.

“Yes, I understand, Dad. Then I’ll audition, too.”

“Good decision. I’ll print out the script and give it to you in a little while, so practice together while looking at it. Oh, and there’s one thing you need to be careful about.”

“What is it?”

There was something I needed to tell my daughters.

“When you go there, never tell them beforehand that you’re my daughters. Understand?”

The evaluation always had to be fair.

We couldn’t allow even the slightest prejudice to influence the process.

My daughters seemed to understand my intentions well enough that neither of them asked, Why?

Instead—

“We have to pass no matter what. Unni, let’s practice together starting today. Okay?”

“Yeah. Let’s do that.”

They began burning with determination to pass the audition somehow.

But anyway, PD Oh Sooyoung……

“Girls, wait a second.”

Still, I was their father, after all.

There shouldn’t be anything wrong with giving them a few tips, right?

PD Oh Sooyoung’s shoulders had felt much heavier lately after moving to RETC.

Until recently, she hadn’t felt much pressure.

But the greater the expectations became, the more they turned into a heavy burden that pressed down on both of her shoulders.

“Sejin. What time did you say the audition was today?”

A tall male staff member responded to Oh Sooyoung’s question.

“At three.”

“Really? Then we have about an hour left. Don’t forget to contact Writer Kim and Director Choi beforehand and remind them to come.”

“Yes, understood.”

Two rookie actors recommended by Team Leader Han Seongguk, a senior who had once worked at the same company as her.

Oh Sooyoung checked the profiles of the two again.

“Yoon Doye. I’ve already seen this girl acting before.”

Yoon Dobin was an unknown.

The fact that the two were sisters naturally made Oh Sooyoung more interested.

“At least their image is similar to what I had in mind.”

No matter how well an actor could act, if their appearance didn’t fit the visual image of the character she had imagined during the planning stage, it would inevitably become a disadvantage.

Actual high school girls who looked good.

And real sisters.

Those two factors were exactly what attracted Oh Sooyoung.

One hour later.

For the private audition, the head staff members who would be producing the new drama, including Oh Sooyoung, took their seats as judges.

A short while later—

“The two of them have arrived.”

As soon as the young female staff member finished speaking, Yoon Dobin and Yoon Doye, who had applied for today’s private audition, appeared at the scene.

Oh Sooyoung had already seen Yoon Doye’s appearance before.

But—

‘Her older sister is pretty good-looking, too.’

Since they were sisters, their features were similar, which seemed to make them a good fit for the role of twins.

‘Their looks are already perfect. I wonder who their parents are?’

However, that was too personal a question, so she couldn’t bring herself to ask it.

Instead, she asked something else.

“You’ve memorized the script, right?”

“Yes!”

“Don’t be too nervous. Just relax and act as if you’re practicing in your rehearsal room.”

The actual role-play began.

The moment they started acting, the expressions of Yoon Dobin and Yoon Doye changed.

The atmosphere completely changed by 180 degrees.

Oh Sooyoung’s eyes narrowed.