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In the fairy tale “The Little Match Girl,” there are no prince charming on white horses, nor kindly fairies.

The familiar line, “And they lived happily ever after,” is also absent.

Just to survive another day.

Unaware of the warmth of a stove filled with firewood or the softness of bread just pulled from the oven.

“Matches for sale, matches for sale….”

Struggling to smile at those who wouldn’t even spare a glance her way.

Ultimately, it’s a bittersweet story capturing the last day of a girl who found solace rather than salvation.

There are no lessons to be gained from reading the story, nor the thrill derived from good triumphing over evil.

Though there are people popping up late to regret their indifference, it ends up being a hollow repentance as the girl’s life has already drawn to a close.

Only the image of the girl, who kept smiling till the end, lingers in people’s memories, evoking a sense of guilt.

The most prominent emotion in Doubly’s new song “Matches” is also this guilt.

Thus, this music video for “Matches” needed to embody the emotion of guilt.

Unlike Haeun’s outfit, which closely resembles that of the match girl in the fairy tale, the extras’ costumes were set to those of ordinary modern people, precisely for this reason.

The little match girl is portrayed just as she appeared in the fairy tale books I read as a child.

Those who turn away from the match girl are depicted in modern attire.

This was a direction that further emphasized the difference between those conveying emotions and those receiving them compared to the fairy tale.

At the same time, it was a direction that encouraged viewers of the music video to identify themselves with those ignoring the little match girl.

However, this direction was constructed on the premise that the image of the match girl invokes guilt.

If the image of the match girl fails to elicit sympathy, immersion in the story would inevitably decline.

This was precisely the issue that Lee Jun and Lee Gun-yeol grappled with.

The little match girl in the music video smiles throughout, but the misery stemming from the difficulty of simply getting through the day needed to be made clear as well.

This means that Doubly’s own little match girl must express misfortune with a smile.

She must convey hopelessness through her grin.

“Are you asking too much of a child actor? Even adult actors struggle with that.”
“…Is that so?”

There were moments when the advice and concerns from those around made me waver.

The image of the match girl in the storyboard was more ideal than realistic.

Yet they summoned even Lee Jun’s connections to get it done.

The result of bringing in a child who left a slightly different impression from the other child actors they had considered was summed up in one remark.

“…I wanted to see you….”

Ideal.

The appearance they had envisioned in their heads was captured perfectly on camera.

Eyes that held both joy and emptiness.

Gazes that slowly lost their strength.

A voice muddied with dryness and moisture.

Decisively, a small and insignificant hand slowly reached out towards the empty void.

As if trying to grasp something while in a hallucination, the girl ultimately fell helplessly, unable to hold onto anything.

-Thud.

When her cold cheek finally made contact with the ground.

A single tear trickled down her faded eyes, silencing the entire set.

Everyone was overwhelmed by that lonely silhouette without a single soul to witness it, unable to breathe out a sound.

“I’m pretty sure she said she’d never acted before… she did, right?”

A spontaneous utterance slipped from Lee Jun, who had been staring blankly into the distance.

Lee Gun-yeol was equally flustered, having expected at least three or four NGs.

To be fair, this wasn’t the first time Haeun had played the little match girl.

He had roughly seen what kind of moments would be captured on camera during their many meet-ups over the past few days.

However, the fact that he was somewhat aware only made the tears and desperate gestures Haeun had not shown previously hit him harder.

“Cut!”

And just like that, as Director Cha Seon-jae’s shout began to relieve the tension on set.

Lee Gun-yeol’s gaze remained fixated on the small shadow in the distance.

What he saw was a calm yet slightly tense appearance, completely devoid of the previous desolation.

Even amidst it all, her tightly clutched hot pack looked no different from those of any other child her age.

Yet, the expressions and gestures she had once held in his own eyes.

The guilt from seeing the little match girl being neglected, felt with the ears and heart, never faded away.

“…Beef would actually be a good deal, Jun-ah.”

“Right? Beef would be a good deal…”

Lee Jun realized again that his choice to somehow get Haeun’s contact information wasn’t wrong.

At the same time, the certainty that “this will work” filled his mind.

No matter what anyone said, Doubly was a top-tier hip-hop group in the music industry.

So-called hit songs had already hit double digits a long time ago.

Their fifth album, represented by the new song “Matches,” felt good from the songwriting and composition stages.

However, if bolstered by a profound music video.

“Hey, was that okay…?”

“If you say it wasn’t okay, you’d really have no conscience. It was perfect, Haeun.”

It would undoubtedly create a massive ripple throughout the music industry.

Haeun, the main character of the music video, would naturally draw attention.

But considering Haeun might receive less than beneficial attention among the rising interest…

It felt necessary to strategize to temporarily protect Haeun, who wasn’t under any agency yet.

Of course, Lee Gun-yeol might have been worrying too much.

Nevertheless, they ended up scheduling another meeting with Haeun, this time asking her father to join them.

“Just because Haeun joins our agency doesn’t mean she has to do anything specific. We’ll take care of minor interview requests ourselves.”

They had no intention of leaving Haeun in the middle of a power struggle to seize her potential fame.

Above all, a child as exceptional as Haeun held substantial investment value from the agency’s perspective.

They already understood well how to manage Haeun, as several child actors were with the agency.

“Um, but… why go this far for Haeun?”

“You’ll probably find out in a few days. Haeun, she was really something in front of the camera.”

Lee Gun-yeol’s odd situation of hearing a celebrity like Lee Gun-yeol praising his daughter left Lee Seung-yun taken aback.

To Seung-yun, Haeun appeared just as he knew her.

He had already heard from Nayun that Haeun’s acting was splendid, but still, it would be at the level of a child actor.

He couldn’t help but think they were worrying too much.

But still. They were offering to protect Haeun.

There was no particular reason to decline their generous offer.

“What does Haeun think?”

“Um, I think it might be better to follow what the uncles say… since you both are experts.”

“Well, right. When you don’t know much, you should listen to the experts.”

Just as always, he didn’t oppose Haeun’s wishes and let her proceed as she wanted.

A few days later, Doubly’s “Matches” music video was finally released.

As expected, the response was explosive.

The music video views skyrocketed daily, and articles about its content poured in day after day.

Among them, particularly Haeun garnered the most attention.

While her looks were captivating, her portrayal resembling the little match girl from the fairy tale was spot on.

People began focusing on Lee Haeun herself, surpassing average emotional expression levels of child actors.

Some even started searching for Haeun’s past works, culminating in a renewed spotlight on her children’s nutritional supplement commercial.

The children’s nutritional supplement from Handong Pharmaceutical, which had already seen high sales, began flying off the shelves once more around that time.

This was all somewhat anticipated.

Filtering through potential interviews that were beneficial while discarding the unnecessary interviews was also proceeding without a hitch.

There was careful consideration to ensure that the various proposals that came in wouldn’t overwhelm Haeun as she made her selections.

However, even Doubly, a veteran group in the industry for over ten years, encountered something unexpected.

“Sure, I mean, we can say the audition is fine. Haeun’s talent speaks for itself.”

“So why are the ones who know this opposing it?”

“If it were just a regular audition, we would have at least mentioned it to Haeun. But come on, an age-restricted film is just out of the question, brother!”

Despite Doubly’s objections, the agency representative pushed forward with Haeun’s audition with almost reckless abandon.

It seemed they were furious that all the child actors from their own agency had been rejected.

“Even the movie title is weird. <The Neighbor Uncle>? Who names a movie like that?”

That strangely named movie would go on to become a groundbreaking piece in Korean action cinema eventually, but none were aware of this.

No one, except for Haeun.

Of course, in a position where she hadn’t even heard the “A” of the audition yet.

Today as always, she took on the role of the judge for Class Dal-nim, grabbed Nayun’s hand when she came to pick her up, and headed towards a nearby open space.

-Whoosh, whoosh!

Taking steps towards a stronger, healthier body with a jump rope meant for children.

“Hmm, seems like she’s handling the jumping just fine now… Should I make her a national representative for jump rope?”