After Story 93

“Senior, here’s your coffee.”

Cha Myungjoon received the canned coffee. It was much hotter than the hot pack.

“I heard there’s a heavy snow warning,” said the assistant director next to him.

“We just have to pray that it doesn’t snow. We came outside to shoot, so it’d be terrible if it snows.”

“Yeah. We just have to hope that the weather forecast is wrong like it always is.”

The assistant director looked up at the sky.

Myungjoon also looked up. The sky was rather gloomy. It wouldn’t be strange if it started snowing at any moment.

Even as he hoped that it wouldn’t come, a part of his mind was already thinking about readjusting the schedule. If it did snow, he would have to cancel the shoot and reschedule.

There were many actors who couldn’t take their time off too. Myungjoon nervously drank the coffee.

“It should be fine if it snows for the warehouse scene. How’s the park we looked at last time?”

“We’ll be doomed if it snows there.”

“Let’s say it snowed. How long would it take to remove all the snow in the frame?”

“If we want to get rid of all of that, we’ll have to bring everyone in the crew and sweep away for hours with a broom. Or, we’ll have to shrink the frame.”

“Let’s just pray it doesn’t snow. Either of those options sounds terrible.”

“It’ll be great if it rains instead.”

“Yeah.”

Myungjoon downed his coffee in one go and stood up.

“Just in case, look for a few other places that have the same atmosphere. There should be a place that has less snow.”

“Okay.”

He looked inside the restaurant. Jichan and Maru were talking to each other. Jichan looked better than when he just started the shoot.

“Why the hell are you here so early?” Myungjoon approached and asked. Maru’s scene was supposed to be in the afternoon.

“Jichan-hyung told me to come if I didn’t have anything to do. A big actor was telling me to come so what choice do I have?”

Hearing Maru’s words, Jichan waved his hand in the air in denial. He seemed startled by the word ‘big actor.’

Myungjoon laughed as he looked at the two. Regardless of the reason, Maru’s presence seemed to have influenced Jichan’s condition positively.

“Get ready. It’s a cut we’ve shot before, so let’s get it done quickly.”

“Yes.”

“Also, watch out for your body. If you get injured, we all get in big trouble.”

“I’ll be careful,” Jichan said, hiding his injured hand behind him.

Myungjoon thought he’d be slightly arrogant since he had a taste of what popularity was like, but Jichan went about the shoot like he was a new actor. It was good to see, and at the same time, it gave Myungjoon a sense of responsibility. After all, it would mean that he was not up to par if he could not produce good results with an enthusiastic person.

“Get ready,” Myungjoon said as he sat down in front of the monitor. The FD, who was standing at the entrance of the restaurant, signaled everyone that the shoot was going to begin.

He could see the actors tensing up through the camera. He looked at their expressions before giving the cue sign when he thought the moment was right.

“Thanks.”

A minor actor put down a bowl of gukbap in front of Jichan.

Just as Jichan picked up the spoon and was about to take a scoop, he gave the signal. Jichan, who put his phone against his ears, looked outside the restaurant with a serious expression. His eyes moved slowly, and his voice was deeper than before. His acting had become better than last time.

“Okay. I’ll go there right now.”

Jichan stood up from his seat and left to the right side of the camera. The minor actor from before shouted at his back.

“Sir, aren’t you going to eat this?”

“I’ll come back later.”

Jichan grabbed the restaurant door and left. Myungjoon shouted cut right at that moment. It was clean.

There were no wasted movements that he caught through the camera. The sense of urgency from his actions looked good as well.

“Okay let’s move,” Myungjoon stood up and spoke.

He couldn’t stop the snow, so they had to speed up the shoot.

He rubbed his fingertips and reached out to the sky. It felt more humid than when they began shooting.

“This is driving me crazy.”

He picked up the tray that had the monitor on it. Every bit of manpower was precious right now.

* * *

“Why aren’t you going?” Maru said.

Seungah replied as she sniffled, “Today’s the day you get off the drama. I’m staying to watch. I’ll treat you out afterward.”

“It might end late.”

“If it looks like it’s going to be too late, of course, I’m leaving first.”

“I admire your loyalty to your friend.”

Seungah smiled and looked forward. Park Sinseo and Lee Haena were talking as they were walking around the lake. If it weren’t for the camera and the lights right up against them, they would look like a good-looking couple.

“The two of them look good together.”

“Why don’t you be honest? You’re here just to watch Sinseo-hyung, aren’t you?”

“Do you take me for such a fickle woman? Geez, look at you speak. Since Sinseo-oppa and Haena-unni are there, I’m just watching them since I have to wait for you. No, I’m not just watching them either. I’m studying acting from them too.”

The two actors walking by the lake suddenly stopped. They looked around before turning around to the reed field.

The lights and the camera started moving hurriedly. This was the fifth shoot already. It was a scene where it was important for the actors and the staff to be in sync.

Sinseo roughly made his way through the reed field. Seungah couldn’t help but screech when she saw the fierceness in his eyes. She really wished to see the monitor right next to the director, but she couldn’t dare to do so. As unfortunate as it was, she had to be satisfied with just looking through the small screen.

“This is it.”

He looked like a detective that just caught onto a clue. Sinseo usually had a wild beauty in his eyes, and although they looked sharp now, he looked even more handsome.

How many women would not be shaken after seeing that?

Just as she was looking into the small monitor with her breath abated, a head appeared in her field of vision, it was the back of Maru’s head.

“Look at him acting. It’s fierce.”

Seungah quickly pushed Maru’s head out of the way. How dare he block her sight when Sinseo-oppa was acting.

Maru, who was pushed to the side, chuckled before turning around.

“Cut! Turn the camera to the other side. Sinseo, see me for a second.”

Director Cha stood up as though he managed to get some satisfactory footage. Seungah looked at Sinseo, who was talking to director Cha before turning around. She couldn’t see Maru, who had stepped back. Where’d he go?

She tiptoed and looked around. She saw Maru next to the reeds being blown away by the winter wind. It was also where the lake ended. Maru was looking at an old bench and a rusted trash can and was muttering something.

“What are you doing?”

She approached him and tapped him on the shoulder. Maru turned around abruptly.

Seungah flinched when she saw his face. It was terribly distorted.

“Wh-what’s up with you? You hurt?”

Maru, who was agonizing like he was about to cry at any second, relaxed his expression as though nothing had happened.

“I was just practicing.”

“What?”

“I felt like we were going to move soon.”

Maru smiled. Seungah straightened her shoulders. It was for a brief moment, but she was truly startled. She couldn’t think of it as acting. She thought for sure that a problem had occurred, but it turned out that he was just practicing.

Seungah crossed her arms and watched Maru. Maru was muttering as he was looking at the script. Whenever his mouth moved, his expression changed to a different one; from a smile to a crying face — Maru went between two extremes like it was nothing.

She couldn’t even tell what he was doing. What kind of practice was he doing?

“If you’re bored, would you like to accompany me in my practice?” Maru said.

Seungah looked behind her. Sinseo and Haena were getting ready for the shoot. From how camera rails were being installed, it seemed to be a dynamic scene. She wanted to watch it. As a fan, it would make her happy to just watch them.

She grabbed the script that Maru handed her. This was strange. Compared to watching the two actors passionately acting behind her, she wanted to see Maru’s acting, even though it was a teeny tiny difference.

It wasn’t because they were friends. She was moved as an actress. That day, on the day of the drama audition, the acting that Maru showed her provoked a sense of urgency within her. His act made her think that she might actually fail.

Quite a bit of time had passed since then. How much would Maru have honed his acting?

“Do I have to start here?”

“Yeah. Do it for real since you’re doing it anyway.”

“Fine, I’ll do it real good. Where’s the knife?”

Maru chuckled and told her to take it easy. Seungah read the narration and read the lines of the killer and got into the mood. Now that she thought about it, she had never properly acted with Maru. He felt like a long-time friend, but based on dates alone, it hadn’t even been half a year since they got to know each other. There wasn’t that much time to do something with him.

She removed any sort of mischievousness. Although she was seeing these lines for the first time today, she was going to do her best. She had an unknown sense of expectation. It became even bigger when she saw Maru getting ready.

“You can start,” Maru said.

Seungah licked her lips. What would this fellow, who supposedly learned his acting skills from the internet, show her this time? Seungah took her eyes off the script and said the first line.

* * *

-Don’t stray off somewhere strange.

“Hyung, did you ever see me go somewhere weird?”

-I haven’t. I’m saying this just in case. But hey, you said you were done with your shoot, so why are you staying there?

“Someone I know has his last shoot today. He also came in the morning to watch me. I was feeling thankful, so I was going to eat out with him afterward.”

-No alcohol. You know that you can’t be drinking until the concert, right?

“This isn’t my first time. Of course I’m not going to drink. So don’t worry and rest up.”

The oldest member of the group told him to be careful and hung up.

Jichan put on the hood of his padded jacket. The wind was frosty and sharp. It wasn’t like this in the morning.

“Hey, get rid of that one over there, and that one too! Let’s get this done quickly.”

As the night deepened and the temperature dropped, the staff became more sensitive. Jichan moved to the side so that he didn’t bother anyone. The messy warehouse was being cleaned.

“You step backward here. Jungho, you carefully but quickly shrink the distance.”

Director Cha was doing a rehearsal with the two actors. They were Maru and Choi Jungho.

This was the first time he saw Choi Jungho after the read-through. He was an actor who played the killer at the very beginning of the drama, and he looked very different after he had makeup on.

If someone who looked like that was chasing with a knife, he would probably beg and ask for mercy.

The two actors started acting. The action director explained from the side, and the two people put it into action.

There were many rough actions. It would be easier if they got each action in separate cuts, but from the way they were practicing, it seemed that they were going to cram it all into one cut

Jungho swung the prop knife. Maru fell back at the right time before falling over. He fell over quite hard and it made Jichan worry that he was injured. He could see some of the staff walking over as well.

Maru dusted his clothes and stood up, his face smiling.

“Was that good?”

“Do something like that once the camera’s rolling. Don’t make people frightened.”

Jichan approached to a distance where he could hear their conversation. Maru made eye contact with him and looked at him in puzzlement before smiling.

The two actors resumed practice. Swinging a knife, falling back, and mounting. These were all tricky actions to do. It was even more difficult to do them in series, but the biggest problem was that there was a risk of injury should the timing be off.

Unlike his expectation, Maru seemed to have learned action acting from somewhere. It was a wonder that he could digest all the instructions from the action director.

“Well, then. Let’s start,” said director Cha.

They were finally shooting the scene that would decorate the end of the second episode.

Jichan greeted the director and stood right behind him to look at the monitor.

He hoped that Maru would do well. Just as he was having such thoughts, a person entered his vision. It was the actress he acted with in the morning. She also said that she was friends with Maru. Seungah was her name.

She seemed to be waiting for Maru. Jichan approached Seungah.

“You can’t see properly over there, so come over here.”

“Can I?”

“It should be fine as long as you don’t bother the director.”

He stood behind the director with Seungah. Everyone was absorbed in watching the monitor, so no one took interest in someone standing behind them.

Just as he was about to say that it was okay and looked back at her, he saw that Seungah’s eyes looked strange. She didn’t look like someone who was watching her friend acting. She looked somewhat taken aback.

“Did something happen?” Jichan asked.

Did she perhaps get into a quarrel with Maru? No, if that happened, there was no reason for her to stay here and watch him act.

Seungah smiled awkwardly. She touched the back of her neck and spoke,

“I was just feeling jealous.”

She said something incomprehensible before focusing on the monitor again.

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