I Returned as a High School Girl

Chapter 106: Send-Off (1)

The warm spring passed and the scorching heat of summer slowly arrived. Kang Ra-Eun, who transitioned from long-sleeved shirts and pants to T-shirts and hotpants, fanned herself with her hands to shoo the heat away under the sweltering sun.

“It’s so hot.”

The summer felt hotter and hotter as time went on. As Ra-Eun was waiting for her turn to arrive on set, the stylist who had been cooling Ra-Eun off with a mini fan told Ra-Eun what she had just heard on the news.

“Today’s apparently the hottest it’s been in fifteen years.”

No wonder it felt so hot. They just had to have an outdoor shoot on a scorching hot day like this. And not just that, they were scheduled to shoot the worst possible scene on such a day.

Scene #32-1. It was supposed to be a chilly day in autumn, according to the script. Hence, Ra-Eun needed to wear thick clothes despite it being so hot. Because the film was going to be released during the winter, they needed to have such scenes on a day like this to stay on schedule.

A staff member came to Ra-Eun to let her know of her scene.

“Director Yoon said it’ll be your turn after this, so you can go get changed.”

“Okay, thank you.”

The pain of scorching heat struck her as soon as she put on a jacket. However, there was one thing she found to be fortunate.

‘I sweat way less than when I was a man.’

If she was put in the same situation back when she was a man, she would have been sweating twice as much. Her make-up would have become a mess, and the director would have called an NG cut due to her face glistening with sweat. In other words, she would have faced a much harder time than she was right now.

Ra-Eun stood in front of the camera.

Director Yoon in sunglasses exclaimed through the megaphone, “Ra-Eun. This scene will be the last outdoor shoot of the day, so we’ll leave it to you.”

In other words, he was hoping for her to finish the scene quickly so they could all escape from the heat.

Ra-Eun said with confidence, “Yes, you can leave it to me.”

All the staff members felt reassured from just that one phrase.

“Scene #32-1! Roll cameras! Ready... action!”

Ra-Eun pulled up the collars of her jacket after the clap of the slate.

“Brr, so cold.”

It needn’t even be mentioned how difficult it was to act cold in sweltering heat. Ra-Eun had been realizing lately the extremest of conditions in which actors needed to perform.

‘There’s a reason why movie tickets are so expensive.’

She used to complain about how expensive they used to be, but such thoughts had completely disappeared. One needed to experience it to know how hard something was.

The camera followed after Ra-Eun. After the scene was over...

“Okay! Let’s move on to the next scene.”

They moved on to scene #32-2 immediately. The shoot was progressing at lightning speed. Other actors would’ve had to retake the scene at least two to three more times, but that was not the case for Ra-Eun. Most of her scenes ended with just a single take. Due to this, the staff members had recently started to call her the Goddess of Early Leaves. Ra-Eun was planning on gracing the hard-working staff with early leave from work yet again.

***

Ra-Eun had finished with almost all the outdoor shoots scheduled for the time being. She was heading home in Shin Yu-Bin’s car when she heard the car radio playing in the background.

- A heat wave warning has been issued since this morning. We ask the elderly and children to stay inside as much as possible. Also...

Yu-Bin clicked her tongue as she heard the news.

“No wonder it’s been so hot since morning today.”

Ra-Eun’s stylist Ryu Ha-Yeon also nodded in agreement.

“Seriously. It’s been so hot even at night and early mornings lately. Right, Ra-Eun?”

Ra-Eun also agreed with the two. “But at least we managed to finish the majority of the outdoor shoots before the heat wave warning was issued.”

“Yeah, what a relief. I know a stylist who works at another set, and apparently, a few extras there collapsed and had to be sent to the hospital.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. It’s complete chaos there. Compared to them, we’re pretty well-off.”

It had all been thanks to Ra-Eun’s hard work. It was obvious, but Ra-Eun possessed an overwhelming amount of screen time compared to the other actors of One of a Kind of Girl because she was the protagonist. Shooting was progressing much faster than expected because NG cuts were barely being called in her performances.

Yu-Bin told Ra-Eun what she had heard from the staff members while stopped by a traffic light.

“The staff members had been saying how fascinated they were by you.”

“By me? Why?”

“It’s not easy for a woman to act like a man. We’re different genders, after all. But the staff members, especially the male ones, apparently get goosebumps whenever they watch you act. They wonder how you know things that only men would.”

Men had unique gestures and postures shared among them during times when they lazed around at home, went to the bathroom, and more. It was by no means easy for an actress to naturally exhibit such things while acting because they were akin to habits that had been trained for decades. However, Ra-Eun had been masterfully adding them into her performance.

“Do you know what the staff members said? They said you might be a crossdressing man.”

Her performance must really have given them goosebumps if they were spreading such rumors. Ha-Yeon sitting next to Ra-Eun snickered.

“How is that possible? We three even took a shower together,” she remarked.

“I guess it just goes to show how amazing of an actress Ra-Eun is,” Yu-Bin expressed.

Ra-Eun was reminded of the shoot that they had in the countryside. They had been in a tourist attraction, so there were less rooms available than expected. Hence, Ra-Eun had ended up sharing a room with Yu-Bin and Ha-Yeon, and also ended up showering together with them because there wasn’t enough time.

It was very difficult to experience showering with two women as a man. It had truly been a sight for sore eyes, but it had also been awkward in many ways. Ra-Eun laughed awkwardly at Ha-Yeon’s remark.

“That aside, I guess my little brother would be having a terrible time right about now in such scorching weather,” Ha-Yeon said.

Ra-Eun somewhat knew about Ha-Yeon’s little brother.

“He enlisted two months ago, right?”

“Yup. My mom and I cried so much when he did. We hugged him and bawled our eyes out. It was difficult to send him off to such a place when he’s never worked a day in his life. I guess two months have already passed.”

Ha-Yeon teared up a little, having been reminded of that day. Ra-Eun handed her some tissues.

“Don’t worry too much. I was worried too at first, but he’ll get used to it soon enough.”

“People would think you’d actually gone to the army if they heard you.”

“I guess so.”

Ra-Eun actually had, but didn’t feel the need to correct her.

‘I wonder how Sang-Woon’s doing.’

After talking about the army, Choi Sang-Woon popped up in her head. She could already tell what he’d be doing right about now.

‘He’s probably weeding.’

Ra-Eun could vividly see the fields filled with weeds without even being there.

***

Ra-Eun went to the fitness center to exercise at night on her day off from shooting, because she had been negligent on it lately. It was 9 PM. She could see several people who had come to exercise after finishing a day’s work.

Ra-Eun connected her earphones to her smartphone and ran on the treadmill.

Her long hair swayed in tandem with her motions. She used to seriously consider cutting her hair short because it was bothersome when exercising, but the fact that the original Kang Ra-Eun kept her hair at this length because of the words that her mother left her, came to mind every time she did.

Four years had already passed as she idled time away like this, and now she didn’t feel it was uncomfortable in particular. Rather, it would be more uncomfortable if she cut it.

As she was immersed into her cardio workout, a call came from an unknown number. There was no way she would receive a spam call at this time of day. She could immediately tell who had called her as soon as she checked the number.

“Hello?”

- It’s me, Ra-Eun. Are you free to talk right now?

It was Sang-Woon’s voice.

“Yeah, but is it fine for you to be calling at this time of day? Isn’t it time for the evening roll call around now?”

- Yeah, it’s okay. I’m a corporal now. My seniors don’t bother me for using the phone anymore.

Sang-Woon was a corporal already. Time flew by extremely fast.

- But how did you know it was time for the evening roll call?

Sang-Woon had not told her, so he was rather fascinated that Ra-Eun already knew. She made a decent excuse as always.

“One of my male friends told me. When’s your next leave?”

- It’s still a long time away. Just this month, I have an artillery training test, a march, and after that...

Ra-Eun interjected before Sang-Woon could finish. “Guerilla training, right?”

Ra-Eun knew absolutely everything there could be about the army. Sang-Woon sighed.

- It's the final one, so I’ll have to endure it.

“Yeah. Don’t get hurt, and good luck.”

- Okay. I’ll call you again when my next leave is scheduled.

“Got it.”

Ra-Eun hung up and increased the treadmill speed again.

‘Guerilla training, huh...?’

The two hells of military training were cold weather training and guerilla training. Ra-Eun was likely the only civilian woman who had gone through both.

‘Urgh, I’m getting goosebumps.’

She felt cold just from recalling the training despite the weather being hot.

‘But at least I won’t have to go to the army in this life.’

Someone else called her as she was about to get back into focusing on exercise. It was from Seo Yi-Jun this time.

“Hey, Yi-Jun.”

- Hi, Noona. Were you in the middle of a workout?

“Yeah, but I can still talk. What’s up?”

Like Ra-Eun had last year, Yi-Jun had also safely passed through the final hurdle of his teens that was the SATs and had become a university student. However, that was only for a moment.

- I’m going to take time off school after my first semester.

“What? Why?” Ra-Eun asked, wondering if something had happened.

Yi-Jun... no, every man in Korea had this one very important matter to attend to.

- Because I’m going to do my military service.

A second of Ra-Eun’s acquaintances had become an army recruit.