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"Ha-na!"
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Her eyes were filled with concern.
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It was an increasingly familiar gaze, especially to me from the 201X.
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"Eomma, let's talk somewhere away from here."
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The flashes are blazing.
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My mom obliged and I brought her to the library.
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...
...
...
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"Hana-ya, are you okay?"
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I took a gamble, but I managed to get more than I thought I would.
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"I'm fine eomma, they can't do anything to me, the whole class knew I was going there."
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"I have you as well, and then the reporters arrived. Those two are definitely...."
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I gestured a slice at my throat.
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My mom laughed.
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"Can you still explain what happened from start to finish?"
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I gave her a summarized and toned down summary of my experience. I don't want to worry her more than I already did.
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"It actually wasn't a big deal eomma, it ended smoothly."
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"All right, but I think we should go home though Ha-na. Today is a bit chaotic isn't it."
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I agreed and texted Soo-hyeon that I wouldn't be going back to class.
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'Ha-naaaa, the teachers told us to go home toooo! The reporters are everywhere!'
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Maybe more reporters arrived and they couldn't contain it. Rather than risking the students' wellbeing, it's better to send them home after all.
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"Let's go home."
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...
...
...
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Tonight, I saw my face everywhere.
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It was unexpected.
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Very much so.
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I expected to have a cameo, but the whole thing spun me into a lead role.
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Every news station was broadcasting about the embezzlement.
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Every involved footage showed my face.
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Maybe compared to showing some old man no one knew and concerned about, it might be more interesting to focus on a student with courage and a good head on her shoulders.
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Well, it could have been so, but when I look at articles, forums and social media, it became clear that it was not the case.
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It's too early.
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It was written like an advertisement, there is artificiality in these articles and it wad even more apparent when I read the comments.
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Now that I think of it, everything happened way too smoothly, like it's a drama plot someone wrote.
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Like the way so much reporters appeared at school.
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It was too much to be natural.
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If I could figure it out, other people with similar amount of experience with the media could do the same.
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'How did they get so much reporters at the school?'
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'The student who spoke up just happened to be a child actress huh. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?'
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'The media play these days are crazy.'
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'So young and do cunning already.'
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It was clear why I managed to obtain the protagonist position.
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Attention shifting
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A very common move in politics, albeit a poorly done one.
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People noticed things quickly and nothing was covered.
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But who could possibly be benefitted by doing so?
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Politician Han Seung-tae? The one involved in the embezzlement?
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Or is it someone else?
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Anyhow, there is not much I can do right now.
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The truth will reveal itself if I pay attention properly.
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At least Han Myeong-soo is gone.
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Hopefully his victims would find courage to speak up and condemn him.
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I will have to focus on things that I could take care of.
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...
...
...
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Although it still would take a few months before the script reading of 'Spring Breeze', I want to essentially get used to acting again.
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It's been a while since I acted as someone with this much screentime.
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I flipped open the script book, looking for my parts.
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The drama 'Spring Breeze' is a romance and family drama that tells the story of a hardworking female lead and the 'Mr.Perfect?' male lead, as well as their struggles to be together.
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It started off light and pretty much rom-com-y. I remember the leads having an alright chemistry, which is why they are off to a good start.
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However, the drama traded lighthearted romance with endless hurdles towards the couple. The villains and hurdles just appeared back to back, seemingly on endless mode.
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The whole thing just ended up being frustrating at best and ridiculous at worst.
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My first appearance as the younger sister of the female lead, Jo Yeon-gyeong, occurs when the younger sister is causing problems at school.
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Their parents are dead, so older sister Jo Yeon-woo visited the school to deal with the younger sister problems.
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Jo Yeon-gyeong is horrible at her studies and causes lots of fights among the students.
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She is the amalgamation of every bad word you associate with the younger generation. She's lazy, impulsive, shallow, you name it.
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In the middle of the drama, she became an obstacle towards the couple.
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She is unwilling to let her sister go because she feels that she has no one else. The whole thing is executed badly and made her into a very much hated character.
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Later, due to public dislike towards her and her unessential role, her screentime is further reduced. They used some plot device to send her out and she never appeared again.
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Thus ends Yeon-gyeong's pitiful and pathetic life.
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My goal tonight is to flesh out Jo Yeon-gyeong a little bit more to humanise her instead of letting her be this caricature of an annoying little sister.
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I put my pen on the book and started creating a mindmap.
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I drew a line, a branch to one section of Yeon-gyeong's mind.
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A huge reason why Yeon-gyeong is this annoying little sister comes from her upbringing, her family.
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She is orphaned early on in life, having no one but her older sister to raise her.
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Yeon-woo is a good sister but not a good parent at that age.
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As a result, she had difficulty teaching Yeon-gyeong properly. Added with her busy life of trying to keep them afloat, Yeon-woo had too much on her shoulders.
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At the end of the day, both of them are just the victims of this situation.
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It's easy to emphatize with Yeon-woo, but people tend to not get why Yeon-gyeong is also suffering.
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Yeon-gyeong had a completely different but an equally difficult struggle.
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If you are bystander to the situation, you might not understand how it felt like to be in that position. Growing up with no parents with the realisation that you are a burden to your sister would mess you up.
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As someone in that situation, maybe there was never a time where Yeon-gyeong felt herself to be good enough.
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Hmmmm...
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Knock, knock
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Huh?
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"Hana-ya! I just got a call."
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I opened the door for my mom, confused and frankly quite annoyed.
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"The production team of 'Spring Breeze' decided for a slight change in your role because of today's events!"
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"Apparently, your actions today have inspired writer Kim Deok-hwa to improve his story!"
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What in the world?
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How did that even happen?
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And Writer Kim of everyone?