Mi Jung stood with both hands tightly gripping four opaque bags, her bright face beaming. The large bags seemed ready to burst at any moment.

“Huh? These are all macarons.”

Hyun Soo, who sneaked a peek into the bag next to Mi Jung, squinted his eyes like macarons.

“Oh, I bought a box for Director Kang PD-nim. And the rest, I’m planning to give one to each of the actors who come for casting auditions after the auditions are over today.”

“The actors auditioning today?”
“This time, Director Kim’s movie is already garnering a lot of attention. Of course, the actors must be very pleased to have the opportunity to audition this time. However, today, Director Kim is only selecting two roles, the lead actor and the writer.”

“Yeon Mi-jeong, really? Did you really bring all this for that reason?”

Hyun-soo took the bag of macarons from Mi-jeong’s hands and counted the quantity one by one, asking.

“Uh… Well, most of the rookie actors auditioning today will end up being rejected. It’s a bit heartbreaking. So, I wanted to give them one by one when they finish the audition.”

“Mi-jeong, why are you so kind and crazy from the morning? Oh, you’re so pretty. So kind.”

Jeong-eun wrapped her arm around Mi-jeong’s shoulder, hugging her tightly.

Probably, by the end of the day when Jeong-eun finished her work and Mi-jeong had properly received gratitude from the actors for her warm-hearted gift, Jeong-eun would undoubtedly snatch the receipt and recalculate with her card.

Thanks to Mi-jeong, on the casting audition day filled with tension, it felt like receiving a warm morning gift.

“Haru noona.”

“Yeah?”

After answering first and trying to lift my head, a few profile photos were suddenly spread out in front of me.

“Today, Director Kim, Noona Haru, the representative of the production company, and Kang PD-nim are all going to the casting audition, right?”

“Yeah. Yeah?”

It became a strange phrase that tried to ask both, ‘That’s right’ and ‘Why is that?’

“This is something Director Kim roughly selected in advance, but I thought it would be helpful for Haru noona too. Since it’s your first time in such an evaluation.”

“Oh… Then, are these all the actor’s profile photos selected by Jun?”

“Yes. It seems that Director Kim left short comments, so it might be helpful… I don’t know about that. Only short and brief comments from the director are written. Still, well, it’s better to take a look than not.”

“Oh, okay… Hyun-soo, really thank you. I’m really a beginner at this kind of evaluation, so it will be very helpful.”

“Oh, and, noona, for the actress playing the role of Noona due to conscience, don’t pick someone too pretty. Nowadays, synchronicity is important, synchronicity.”

“What?”

Looking at my frozen face, Hyun-soo chuckled and went back to his place.

I lifted the corners of my lips slightly, holding the profile photos laid out on the stack of documents.

Actors selected by Jun… I wonder how they are.

With an excited heart, I flipped through one by one. Even if they didn’t resemble Jun much in appearance, there were people whose smiling faces strangely reminded me of Jun, and there were people who closely resembled Jun in facial features or eyes.

After flipping through a few, a photo of the male actor who Jun had been jealous of for staring at him for too long at the pre-meeting last time came out.

Still, he didn’t leave him out. Director Kim, you got it right.
Actually, what was peculiar among them was the note Jun left below a certain photo. Under the picture of that male actor, without any specific comments, there was one exclamation mark and one question mark drawn side by side.

What could it mean?

It seemed like a note left with the thought that only he would recognize it. What could be inferred from one exclamation mark and one question mark… Is he just still unsure about something?

I was uncertain if this answer was correct. It was a role I couldn’t ask Jun, who knew the answer right now. I chuckled and moved on to the next actor’s photo. Under that photo, there was also a comment like this:

[“Why wear glasses? Take them off and act.”]

It felt like Jun’s tone was supported by a voice. Suppressing a smile was challenging. I thought that this person should have come without glasses when auditioning today. Otherwise, Jun might say exactly what was written in this note to that actor.

Then I roughly skimmed through the photos of male actors… Now, female actors.

Surprisingly, I felt a bit nervous. It was because these were photos of female actors that Jun had selected separately.

I didn’t know what criteria Jun used for selection, but because these were female actors selected by Jun, I wondered how I appeared to Jun, what points he was attentively looking at, and such thoughts came to mind.

The top-profile photo of the female actor had a somewhat distant impression from me, to be honest. She was tall, with a slender face, thin and small eyes, nose, and mouth with a faint impression.

In her self-introduction, there were parts marked by Jun with a blue pen.

[“Likes orange juice kisses the most. I hope to show the results of my hard work diligently in the audition.”]

Below that, there was a brief comment that seemed to be written by Jun.

[“…No partner for the audition. You’re on your own. What’s the big deal.”]

I burst into laughter, the suppressed laughter broke free with a chuckle, making a muffled sound. I recalled what Hyun-soo had said a while ago.

“Director Kim left short comments, so it might be helpful… I don’t know about that. Only short and brief comments from the director are written. Still, well, it’s better to take a look than not.”

Now I seemed to understand the meaning of that statement. The lingering effect of a big laugh didn’t easily subside.

Then I paused. I couldn’t take my eyes off the photo of that actress.