“Don’t you have a diary or something…?”
Why on earth do they keep saying they don’t know what they're filming?
The big guys seemed to live carelessly, so Hyun-mo pinned his hopes on the owner of the body he now inhabited—Shin Hyun-mo. Hoping Shin Hyun-mo's belongings might offer some clue, he searched the tiny room—barely large enough to stretch out in.
As for luggage, all there was were one large bag, one backpack, three changes of clothes, underwear, and a few scripts tucked inside the backpack.
"Quite… a minimalist."
Was he just not attached to material things, or was he simply broke? Grumbling in frustration, he picked up a script first.
"Oh, wait."
The sudden jolt of fear was probably PTSD from that damn Oh Jung-seop script.
"Come on, no way. Something that absurd couldn't happen again…"
Luckily, the title was printed clearly on the cover.
"Huh? It's the script for <Sound the Horn>."
<Sound the Horn> was the drama Koo Hyun-mo had made for his comeback five years ago, right after he finished his military service. By then, the number of cable channels had grown a lot, so he hadn't expected much from the ratings—but it turned out to be a successful return, averaging around 9% in the Seoul metropolitan area.
Surely this couldn't be another weird script. The thought crossed his mind for just a moment, but he mustered up the courage and opened it.
Thankfully, the inner pages weren't blank. Instead, certain lines were covered in dense notes.
Friend 2: "Why does everything come so easy to you? Do I look like a joke to you? You bastard."
– Longing, disappointment, and even a hint of unavoidable envy. A tangle of feelings he'd never been able to sort out, poured out with raw emotion. The despair of that moment—when words spill out even though you know they can never be taken back, like an arrow that can never be retrieved.
How many circles and scene analyses had he scribbled onto that single line? And since that line was marked so heavily, it was clear that it belonged to Shin Hyun-mo's role.
"Wait… the next line is my line… Ah! Friend 2!"
As it turned out, Koo Hyun-mo and Shin Hyun-mo had crossed paths before. Not that Koo Hyun-mo remembered him, of course. He was just one of countless bit-part actors who had passed through over the years.
So many minor actors had come and gone that it was hard for Koo Hyun-mo to recall any of them.
But.
—Awesome! I acted with Koo Hyun-mo! Even got his autograph!
Shin Hyunmo seemed to have pretty vivid memories of that day.
"Well, of course—I'm Koo Hyun-mo."
He was about to close the script with a faint, pleased smile when he spotted some writing on the back page, like a journal entry.
"Hm?"
—My head hurts badly, and my memory's getting patchy now. But I still want to keep acting. I told actor Oh Jung-seop… but I haven't told the hyungs yet.
It seemed Shin Hyun-mo had a secret he hadn't been able to tell anyone.
***
"What am I supposed to do?"
He'd gotten up before dawn without even knowing what he was filming, ridden Yu Jeong-gon's beat-up car all the way to Paju—and unfortunately, Yu Jeong-gon's "you'll find out when you get there" turned out to be true.
It wasn't even a drama or movie shoot—it was some shampoo commercial.
Bit-part actors make so little money that they sometimes take on these side gigs as extra work, and of all things, this had to be Shin Hyun-mo's first schedule.
When they finally arrived at the studio, the first thing they did wasn't get an explanation of the role—it was getting into makeup.
And that, with absolutely no information about what kind of makeup it would be.
"For now, you need to get your makeup done first, so please wait near the makeup room!"
"Okay."
And on top of that—waiting.
Now he wasn't waiting in a van or a waiting room; he was stuck waiting out on the street along with the other extras.
One hour. Two hours.
After waiting for what felt like forever, he finally got up to go to the bathroom—and of all the worst possible moments, that was exactly when they finally called him.
"Where are you going? You need to head to the makeup room now."
"Oh, right…"
He'd picked the worst possible time to move.
But still… this felt oddly annoying.
"Come this way."
The group of waiting extras followed the staff member toward the makeup room like zombies.
This was the kind of shabby treatment he'd never even imagined back in his previous life as Koo Hyun-mo. In those days, he'd always sat in a comfortable waiting room, eating prepared coffee and desserts while listening to the directors' briefings…
Gone were the coffee and desserts, the comfortable waiting room, and the friendly directors.
Now he was just waiting for his turn like a prisoner awaiting sentencing.
It really hit home—he was truly living as Shin Hyun-mo now.
"Please enter the makeup room in the order you arrived! Next person, come in!"
In the hallway, several other performers were already sitting around blankly. There were only a few chairs, so they sat on the floor.
More waiting.
'I've really mellowed out…'
Of course, it wasn't that he'd mellowed—it was that he wasn't Koo Hyun-mo anymore, so he couldn't throw a fit. But still… this waiting was unbearable.
Especially on a hallway floor with no proper chairs.
"…"
Even so, no one really complained. Were they all used to being treated like this?
Everyone waited quietly, staring at their phones or dozing off, and when a staff member called them, they obediently walked into the makeup room.
But there was something even more horrifying.
The people who went into the makeup room one by one—when they came back out, they emerged as giant hair follicles.
"Uh, excuse me! Surely… I don't have to wear that too, do I?"
Stunned by the costume that made his jaw drop, Hyun-mo grabbed a passing staff member and asked.
The staff member gave him a look that said why are you even asking, replied with a short "Yes, you do" and walked away.
This is insane…
Watching person after person go into the makeup room and waddle back out in hair-follicle mascot costumes, a wave of secondhand embarrassment washed over him.
Would he ever have had to play a hair follicle role in his life as Koo Hyun-mo? And in that ridiculous mascot costume, no less.
'Should I run away even now…?'
Overwhelmed by the humiliation, he was about to get up and leave—but the 100,000-won payday held him back.
Not 1 billion won, not even 100 million—just a paltry 100,000 won. That was what he'd get for enduring just one day in that follicle costume.
To Koo Hyun-mo, it was a laughably insignificant amount. But to Shin Hyun-mo right now, it was so desperately needed that he couldn't bring himself to walk away.
That's how empty Shin Hyun-mo's bank account was.
"Hyun-mo. Still, we've got it relatively good. Hehe."
Bae Jung-soo, already transformed into a hair follicle, poked just his face out of the costume and said with a bright smile.
What was he so happy about, looking that ridiculous?
"Next person, come in! You there, number 23."
Number 23.
Not a name—just number 23. The staff member pointed at Hyun-mo.
Ah, screw it. Just close my eyes and get it over with. It's acting. Yeah, let's think of this as acting too.
After all, if he wanted to escape that damn script's curse within the next 36 months, this was what he had to do.
And so, having given up all resistance, he stepped into the makeup room—
"Huh?"
Among the people shuffling around in puffy hair-follicle costumes, his eyes were suddenly drawn to Yu Jeong-gon, wrapped in an intense red outfit.
"Hyung-nim, why are you… dressed like that all by yourself?"
Everyone else was just wearing black hair-shaped mascot costumes with black stockings—but Yu Jeong-gon was in a red bodysuit, holding a trident, and even getting his face painted red.
"I got the villain role, Hyun-mo."
"Villain?"
He wondered what kind of villain could possibly exist in a shampoo commercial—but as it turned out, Yu Jeong-gon's role was a Follicle Mite.
At this point, he started to suspect they weren't filming a shampoo ad but some kind of comedy skit show.
"Number 23! Sit here, please."
"Ah… right."
"Get your makeup done first, then put on the costume labeled number 23."
"Number 23… right…"
Moments later, Hyun-mo came back out into the hallway—now fully transformed into a hair follicle.
Before they'd even started, sweat was already beading on his skin, and his ears were covered so he could barely hear what people next to him were saying.
Even so, up until that point, things had still been bearable.
"From now on, try not to drink any water."
"Excuse me?"
"I'm telling you this because once you're in that costume, you won't be able to use the bathroom."
Damn it.
He should have gone to the bathroom earlier.
Now he had to wait like this until filming actually ended.
"Come over here, Hyun-mo. We saved you a spot."
"Seriously… this is so pathetic…"
Hyun-mo moved a little away from the big guys and crouched down.
A few staff members hurried outside, then came back and shouted toward the extras camped out in the hallway in front of the studio.
"Extras! Please don't sit in the hallway. The lead actor is coming—press yourselves against the wall, against the wall!"
The group in hair-follicle costumes slowly got up and waddled over to stick themselves against the wall.
Unbelievable… just one thing after another…
Hot, stuffy, uncomfortable—he shuffled in the follicle costume and pressed himself against the wall like a cicada.
"The actor must be here."
"Who? Who is it?"
"The shampoo model, probably."
At the sound of a cheerful voice greeting someone, the extras in their costumes stirred and looked toward the entrance.
Whoever it is, who cares…
Hyun-mo didn't want to get his hopes up for no reason, so he tuned it out.
"Who's the shampoo model?"
"Oh, that… what was their name… that…!"
Then—an annoyingly familiar scent, a strong perfume, swept through the hallway.
"It's Mo Ji-gyeong!"
That one line poured gasoline on the interest Hyun-mo had tried so hard to ignore.
What? Mo Ji-gyeong?
They say enemies meet on a narrow bridge.
Koo Hyun-mo and Mo Ji-gyeong had maintained a rivalry for nearly ten years. As a result, Koo Hyun-mo's fandom "Hyun-mo's Better Half" and Mo Ji-gyeong's fandom "The World Is Mo Ji-gyeong" had always had particularly bad blood between them.
Mo Ji-gyeong's weapons were his model-tier physique and distinctive face, while Koo Hyun-mo's weapon was simply his very existence.
Of course, both of them were terrible actors, so rather than who was the better performer, the focus was always on who landed more commercials, who commanded higher appearance fees—that kind of buzz-worthy talk.
There was a time when Manager Heo kept pushing them together, so they'd had a few drinks together a number of times… but the problem was that neither of them had a very good personality.
'What's that insufferable bastard doing here…'
He wasn't in Koo Hyun-mo's body anymore, and here he was stuck in this hair-follicle mascot costume, while that guy got to walk around perfectly fine.
'Mo Ji-gyeong, that snake…'
Outwardly, Mo Ji-gyeong acted friendly, but he'd casually leaked things Koo Hyun-mo had said as jokes in private settings to reporters.
And what was that, exactly?
—[One session of skincare is more effective than ten hours of acting practice.]
At the time, Hyun-mo was right in the middle of controversy over his acting skills in the actor community, so those words came back as a massive boomerang and stirred up a huge scandal.
A project that was originally meant to go to Koo Hyun-mo ended up being snatched by Mo Ji-gyeong. From the very beginning, Mo Ji-gyeong had approached him with the intention of stealing his roles.
'Just thinking about it still makes my blood boil…'
Still, for some reason, he couldn't stand seeing that guy walking around all neat and pristine, so different from his own pathetic situation as a hair follicle.
"Actor Mo, your waiting room is this way."
As Mo Ji-gyeong naturally stepped into the makeup room, through the slightly open gap in the door, Hyun-mo caught a glimpse of a lavishly arranged table of snacks and refreshments.
"Alright, everyone, gather inside the studio! We'll explain everything now!"
From inside the studio, a staff member's megaphone voice called out to the hair follicles.
"Okay, follicles, move inside."
The army of some thirty people in hair-follicle costumes waddled slowly into the studio, filling the entire hallway.
"Come this way and check the storyboards!"
Once inside the studio, the walls were covered with densely packed shooting storyboards.
"We'll split you into groups and shoot it like this…"
At that, the follicles crowded around the storyboards.
"Ah… like this… ah…"
"As you can see, you'll need to do some simple choreography."
"Choreography…"
And one by one, starting with the follicles at the front, they began to accept their fate.
"Left~! Right! Shake it, shake it! One, two, go!"
The follicles moved their bodies awkwardly in time with the staff member's calls.
"Left… right… shake it, shake it…"
Someone missed the timing and swung their arm a beat behind everyone else; another got their moves crossed with the person next to them and gave an embarrassed laugh.
The choreography was simple, so it wasn't hard to memorize. It was just… why on earth were they doing this?
He was sweating profusely, learning the follicle dance for quite a while, when—
"Excuse me for a moment."
—it happened.
"Would it be possible to turn off the air conditioner?"
At those thunderbolt words, the follicles' gazes all shot toward Mo Ji-gyeong's manager.
"Our actor Mo isn't feeling too well—he's coming down with a cold. And Ji-gyeong's condition is the most important thing, isn't it?"