I Returned as a High School Girl

Chapter 150: Ghostbusting Actress (3)

Scene #5-2.

Kang Ra-Eun (Hwang Tae-Yeong) finally managed to meet Seo Tae-Yeon (Song Hye-Mi) again.

She asked in concern, “Are you okay, Hye-Mi? You’re not hurt anywhere, are you?”

“N-No. I’m fine.”

Tae-Yeon was older and had been acting for longer than Ra-Eun, but that was only the case for the world off-camera. In this story, they were the same age, and went to the same university. Hence, Ra-Eun did her best to speak as casually to her great sunbae as possible.

Hye-Mi, who had regrouped with Tae-Yeong, looked around in confusion.

“Where are the others...?” she asked.

Hye-Mi had also been walking around the shuttered hospital while having been separated from the others.

“I don’t know. Damn those guys. They were the ones who suggested a test of courage, but they’re nowhere to be found now. Maybe they ran away in fear.”

Ra-Eun bad-mouthed her friends who had disappeared.

“I have a bad feeling about this place, so let’s get out of here too,” she expressed.

Just as she was about to pick up the flashlight on the floor, a human hand suddenly popped out from the ground and grabbed her wrist.

“Kyaaa!!!”

Ra-Eun screamed before she had realized it; this of course had not been in the script. She was so shocked that she immediately shook off the hand that had grabbed her. The arm ghost had been planning on grabbing Ra-Eun’s wrist for a little longer, but its plan had been ruined due to Ra-Eun’s superhuman strength brought out through her fear reaching extreme levels.

Ra-Eun had been fairly well known back in her past life as a bodyguard; becoming a woman did not change that fact. If this had not been a film shoot, she would have dragged out the ghost staking out under the hallway and subdued it.

Director Choi praised Ra-Eun once again thanks to her sincere “performance.”

“Okay! That was great. Let’s wrap it up here for today. And Ra-Eun, your screams were great. The audio director was saying he thought his ears were gonna fall off.”

As Ra-Eun watched them laugh wholeheartedly, she could only smile awkwardly with the corners of her mouth raised. She wanted to ask them what the hell was so funny, but she hated herself for not being able to.

***

Ra-Eun let out a massive sigh as soon as she got in the car. In terms of duration, the shoot had not been a long one; it had only been three hours, but...

‘It felt like two days.’

The cold sweat that had drenched her back was now dry, making it feel very uncomfortable.

‘I’ll have to take a shower as soon as I get back home.’

Unlike Ra-Eun, Shin Yu-Bin was very bright.

“You really went above and beyond today, Ra-Eun! I felt fulfilled just from hearing the director and staff members praising your performance during the entire shoot.”

It was natural for managers to feel fulfilled when the celebrity that they were managing was praised by staff members. However, Ra-Eun couldn’t hear anything that Yu-Bin was saying. She only had one thing on her mind right now.

“I’d like to go home straight away,” she stated.

“Oh, really? Should we go right now?”

“Yes, please.”

She wanted to escape from this horrifying set as quickly as possible.

***

It was 5:30 AM when Ra-Eun arrived home. It was extremely early in the morning. Seo Yi-Seo heard Ra-Eun opening the front door and greeted her roommate in complete drowsiness.

“...Welcome back. Would you like me to make you something to eat?”

“No, it’s okay. I’m not hungry. You must still be tired, so go get some more sleep. I’m gonna sleep too after I wash up.”

Ra-Eun took off her clothes as soon as she sent Yi-Seo to bed.

Fshhh—!

She entered the shower booth in the bathroom and let the warm water melt away her fatigue. Her hair was so long that she had to bend over when applying shampoo. Her eyes hurt from the bubbles getting in her eyes, so she closed her eyes. However...

“...”

Images of the extras dressed up as ghosts and the grotesque props that she had seen on the film set continued to pop up inside her head. It felt as if someone was watching her.

“Fuck...!”

She quickly washed her hair while swearing. Her anxiety grew bigger the longer she had her eyes closed. After finally escaping from shampoo hell, Ra-Eun opened her eyes and nervously looked around the bathroom.

“I-Is anyone there?”

This was why she hated horror.

***

Yi-Seo dragged her sluggish body out into the living room. While she stretched with her arms straight up, she doubted what she was seeing in the living room.

All the lights were on despite it being broad daylight; even the TV was on. Not just that, Ra-Eun was sleeping on the couch with a blanket over her. Seeing this, Yi-Seo could immediately tell what had happened.

She smiled and lightly shook Ra-Eun’s shoulder.

“Ra-Eun. Kang Ra-Eun.”

Ra-Eun lightly groaned and opened her eyes to look up at Yi-Seo.

“...Whaa?”

“You should sleep in your room. Isn’t it uncomfortable sleeping on the couch?”

“Izz okay... Izz more comfy here...” Ra-Eun expressed while pulling her blanket up to cover her face.

She seemed to have been more scared by the horror film shoot than expected, hence the state of the living room due to her inability to sleep. Yi-Seo was one of the very few people who knew Ra-Eun was extremely weak to horror. She shrugged as if it couldn’t be helped and walked to the kitchen. She decided to make something to eat for her roommate, who had suffered both mentally and physically all night.

***

No matter how tired Ra-Eun was, there was one thing that she never forgot to do, and that was exercise. Not only did she personally like to work out, maintaining a good figure was a necessity now that she was a popular actress and was in the middle of shooting a film.

Ra-Eun arrived at the fitness center. She did some light stretches and headed straight to the bench. She was planning on working out her triceps today. She laid down prone on the bench and gripped the barbell in an overhead position. She then extended her elbows to straighten her arms upward, and brought the bar back down to a position right above her forehead. This exercise was a variation of a tricep extension, the ‘skullcrusher.’ It had a fairly frightening name.

‘I’m not scared of things like this, though.’

Ra-Eun unconsciously smiled bitterly. Just then, a man approached her.

“How’s your workout going?”

“Oh, sunbae.”

Je-Woon, who had been Ra-Eun’s co-star in the drama Reaper, greeted her first. Since he was wearing sportswear, he also seemed to have come to work out. His tank top allowed for his thick upper arms to be fully visible. His toned body was one of the many reasons why Bex, the boy group that Je-Woon was in, was considered the representative boy idol group of Korea.

“Would you like some help?” he asked.

“Yes, please.”

Ra-Eun hadn’t been able to focus on her workout at all, so this was perfect. She gladly handed the bar to Je-Woon and he spotted her from above.

“Up, hold. Down slowly. That’s right, good.”

Ra-Eun had been able to get in all the reps that she had wanted thanks to Je-Woon.

“Thank you, sunbae,” she expressed while wiping her sweat with a towel.

“No problem. Anyway, I don’t think I’ve been seeing you around in the usual time that you come here. Are you busy?”

“Yes. My film shoots started last week.”

“Oh, right. The production opened last week, didn’t it?”

Je-Woon had also wanted to star in Director Choi Yong-Woon’s production, but had not gone to the audition because it had overlapped with his schedule. It seemed like he still had regrets, because he occasionally smacked his lips in disappointment while talking about the Shuttered?shoots with Ra-Eun.

Ra-Eun asked him something to feel him out.

“Sunbae. I’m guessing... you have a high tolerance to horror.”

“Me? No, not at all. I can’t watch horror movies even if I’m with other people.”

Hearing that, Ra-Eun felt a strange sense of camaraderie with Je-Woon and was taken aback at the same time. He was physically built enough to take on a tiger, so she couldn’t imagine him trembling from something like ghosts.

“But you were going to apply for a horror film despite that?” she asked.

“Well, the more you find something to be difficult, the more you should tackle it head on, don’t you agree? Only then will you be able to overcome it. Thanks to that, I’m far less of a chicken than I had been in the past. But of course, that’s only in a relative sense; I’m still a chicken,” Je-Woon answered while laughing.

It made sense. One couldn’t keep running forever. Ra-Eun was also slightly intrigued, hearing that Je-Woon’s efforts had actually paid off in the long run.

Seeing Ra-Eun deep in thought, Je-Woon asked in return, “Do you hate scary things too?”

Ra-Eun hesitated for a moment, but ultimately nodded.

“You’re taken aback, aren’t you?” she asked.

“I guess so, but I’m the same. People who are strong on the outside are occasionally more easily frightened, so don’t be too bothered by it.”

Je-Woon’s words consoled Ra-Eun somewhat.

.

“There isn’t anyone who’d tease you for getting easily frightened, so don’t worry. Rather, having that side makes you more cute, I’d say.”

Ra-Eun hid her embarrassed smile with a towel. She had never expected that she and Je-Woon, who she thought had nothing in common, had shared such a trait.

***

Ra-Eun had come back to the run-down hospital, the set of the film. She was overflowing with resolution today.

“I’ll be in your care!”

Director Choi and the staff members nodded passionately in response.

‘Fight fear with fear. I won’t back down from a fight!’

Ra-Eun had come to the set with this mindset. Today’s shoot was going to be filmed in the same format as that of last week, of which the actors were unaware of where the jumpscares would be.

The camera filmed Ra-Eun walking through the hospital hallway with Tae-Yeon with only a flashlight to rely on. Then, a ghost mannequin fell from the ceiling to scare the actresses.

“Kyaak!”

Unlike Tae-Yeon, who screamed, Ra-Eun was so frightened that she grabbed the mannequin by the arm and threw it over her shoulder.

Smash!

The ghost mannequin’s arm broke off from its body.

“Cut! Ra-Eun. We don’t need any ghostbusting scenes. All we need are scenes of you getting scared,” Director Choi remarked.

“I-I’m so sorry!”

Ra-Eun had been determined to fight fear with fear, but she had not meant to fight in a physical sense.

‘This is so hard.’

She felt this was going to be the most difficult film to shoot out of every film and drama she had starred in.