I Don't Want to Play Villains Anymore

Silence.

It was the maximum silence that could be created by the entrance of just one child.

The children busy with practice didn't notice, but all the parents waiting in the room had their eyes fixed on one girl.

Baek Ha-neul.

A child with silver hair and blue eyes, with an exotic and intense presence.

Her appearance alone created a strange sense of dissonance in the space.

But it wasn't just because of her appearance.

The moment she stepped in, there was a peculiar feeling as if the space itself had changed.

The sound of swallowed breaths.

The subtly disrupted expressions of adults.

Ha-neul, standing among the children, didn't look like "just another child actor."

Rather, she shone brilliantly enough to outshine all the other stars in the background.

"Who is that child?"

"W-Well... she certainly has a good look about her, as expected of child actors."

It was a cautious but definite whisper of interest and wariness.

Murmurs began to spread among the parents.

It wasn't simply because she was pretty.

It was because just by standing there, she seemed like the most central presence in the waiting room.

But at that moment, a man silently raised his hand slightly.

Baek Geon-hwan.

He quietly gestured.

Just lightly, without any change in expression.

But that small gesture instantly suppressed the murmurs. Parents who had been speaking fell silent at once.

The atmosphere became strangely tense.

'What's going on...?'

Someone instinctively tensed up.

The man they had assumed was just a guardian.

Somehow, he didn't feel like an ordinary person.

An overwhelming presence.

And an implicit warning: 'Don't carelessly talk about my daughter.'

It was an atmosphere that conveyed the message clearly without words.

Even the adults unconsciously straightened their posture at that single gesture.

'He seems like the type who would do anything for his daughter.'

Someone thought this.

But Baek Geon-hwan showed no reaction to such gazes.

He simply looked down at the top of the child's head who was firmly holding his hand, with an almost imperceptible smile.

"Ha-neul. There's still quite some time until your turn. Don't you think you should stop doing what you were doing at home?"

"Ugh. I told you I won't."

Ha-neul puffed up her cheeks and turned her head sharply.

But since she was still holding Baek Geon-hwan's hand tightly, she couldn't turn away completely.

"That's a familiar expression."

Geon-hwan murmured quietly.

Ha-neul instinctively thought of the mirror.

'...Could it be the pouting expression I was practicing?'

At times like this, her father's observational skills were frustrating.

"That's not it at all!"

"Then that's good."

Geon-hwan smirked and naturally released her hand.

Ha-neul lightly shook her freed hand and looked around the waiting room.

On one side, other child actors were focused on their practice. Children reciting lines in small voices, children trying to capture emotions by reaching out into the air, children loosening up to relieve tension.

All of them were "young actors."

"...Hmm."

Ha-neul narrowed her eyes as she observed them.

And she realized.

'Everyone... acts in a similar way.'

Yes.

Child actors' performances had a distinctive flow.

Most expressed emotions in similar patterns, and somehow "cuteness" was emphasized.

"..."

Ha-neul fell into quiet thought.

'Can I act like that?'

Cute and natural acting.

It was a completely different style from what she had done before.

'But I am five years old.'

Cute acting might be appropriate for me now.

It was then.

"Oh, there's a new face this time?"

An unfamiliar voice was heard.

When Ha-neul turned her head, someone was approaching her.

A man with sharp eyes, quiet but strangely imposing.

It was Director Jung Hee-chang.

'Director Jung Hee-chang who had hit dramas with every production in my previous life.'

He had left the judges' table and seemed to have spotted Ha-neul while looking around the waiting room.

"It's my first time seeing you. What's your name?"

Jung Hee-chang asked.

'Well, we weren't that close in my previous life either...'

Ha-neul instinctively straightened her back.

And after a very brief silence, she spoke clearly.

"I'm Baek Ha-neul."

Her voice was neither loud nor soft, but precise.

With a natural tension, the gazes of several child actors and parents gathered behind Ha-neul.

"Yes, Ha-neul."

Jung Hee-chang looked at her with interest.

"Is this your first audition?"

At those words, Ha-neul pondered very briefly.

'By my previous life's standards, it's not my first, but with this body, it is.'

Finally, Ha-neul nodded lightly.

"Yes."

"I see."

Jung Hee-chang's eyes narrowed.

His expression contained both interest and expectation.

"Then, I'll look forward to it."

Leaving those words, he returned to the judges' table.

'..."The Story of the Quiet Gods" definitely was a huge hit.'

In her previous life, "The Story of the Quiet Gods," nicknamed "Gods' Story," was acclaimed as the best drama of the year and swept various award ceremonies.

A story where fantasy and romance were exquisitely intertwined.

Overwhelming worldbuilding, tight narrative, sensational direction.

It was truly a masterpiece of that era.

However, even in the magnificent "Gods' Story," there was one disappointment.

The performance of the pivotal character "Yeomra" who failed to deliver.

"Yeomra" was a dramatically significant character even in the original work.

She appears only once, but her line is just this one sentence: "I set the rules of this world."

Yet that single line was the absolute thread that penetrated the core of all subsequent events.

During planning, the production team wanted to give this role to the best child actor.

Naturally, they had to.

Yeomra wasn't just an ordinary child character.

She was the only being connecting the living world and the afterlife.

A transcendent figure feared even by all gods.

If she couldn't dominate the stage, the story itself risked collapse.

But the problem was that the cast child actor was... too ordinary.

She had basic acting skills, but lacked the power to overwhelmingly express the character of Yeomra.

Especially with that symbolic line.

'I set the rules of this world.'

This one line needed to exude absolute charisma. But the child actor couldn't bear its weight.

As a result, Yeomra's appearance in the drama passed without impact, fizzling out.

That was the only regrettable part of "Gods' Story."

And now.

That position had become vacant again.

Baek Ha-neul walked toward the stage, quietly inhaling.

'This time it's different.'

In her previous life, she was just a villain-specialized actor.

But in this life—

A lead actress.

The very position that shines brightest and receives the most attention.

She was born precisely to claim that position.

Advancing to the center of the stage, she looked at the judges. Director Jung Hee-chang was watching her intently with narrowed eyes.

"Then, I'll begin."

Baek Ha-neul slowly opened her lips.

The air wavered strangely.

The judges instinctively straightened their posture.

Jung Hee-chang exhaled with a "huh" and scratched the back of his head.

'What five-year-old has this kind of presence...'

He was feeling an alien pressure even though the performance hadn't even started yet.

But at that moment.

Baek Ha-neul closed her eyes.

And—

When she opened her eyes again, "Baek Ha-neul" was no longer there.

What existed there was—an absolute being.

Yeomra.

The only being connecting the living world and the afterlife. The one feared even by gods.

She doesn't speak much.

Just one line thrown to awaken the protagonist at a crucial moment.

For that one line, she must exist.

And now.

It was the moment when a five-year-old child had to express the weight of Yeomra.

Baek Ha-neul very slowly raised her gaze.

The look in her eyes as she gazed at the judges had changed.

Her blue-tinged eyes became coldly subdued.

It was a dimension apart from the children who had been playing on the stage until now.

Quiet terror.

An emotion adults couldn't feel from a child.

Yet at this moment...

What Baek Ha-neul created was that impossible sensation.

Jung Hee-chang unconsciously rubbed his fingertips.

Sweat slowly beaded on his palm.

Consciously, he thought he felt no pressure, but his body was instinctively reacting to this strange intimidation.

The breathless gazes of the judges, focused on her lips.

Baek Ha-neul opened her lips.

Her voice resonated.

"I am not the one who tells you the answer, mortal."

The stiff tone and eyes filled with fierce intensity.

And from that small body with no physical power came...

"I pose the question of life to you all. The answer will be created not by gods, but by humans."

Overwhelming.

An aura and presence impossible to believe coming from such a small frame.

Dozens of children had auditioned so far.

Cute acting, crying acting, emotional acting.

But among all of them, there had been no performance like this until now.

This wasn't just ordinary acting.

She was Yeomra.

The resonance of her words.

The firmness of her expression.

The absolute conviction felt in her gaze.

This wasn't just reciting lines, but felt like the real "Yeomra" making a declaration.

And, at that moment, one of the judges... instinctively inhaled.

A tension close to fear.

Baek Ha-neul quietly looked at the judges.

The cold blue eyes, looking as if gazing at insects, burned into his mind.

"..."

And then, Ha-neul slowly closed her eyes.

The air loosened.

The atmospheric pressure that had been choking them moments ago dissipated.

Only then the judges, their tension released, gasped for breath.

"...Was that okay?"

A girl smiling shyly, checking their reactions.

Jung Hee-chang flicked his fingertips to calm his excitement.

This was obvious to anyone.

He muttered slowly with a smile, in a slightly elated voice.

"...We've found something proper here."

It was the birth of a monster that would never be seen again in the Korean entertainment industry.