After Story 143

After thinking of the line, he rolled it in his mouth a few times before voicing it out. Kim Hyuk repeated the same line over and over again.

A gentleman-like swindler was a character that appeared often in other movies. It was consumed so many times that it was almost impossible to create an entirely new character.

As such, he had to focus on maximizing his own unique traits rather than finding entirely new ones.

“Standby.”

Kim Hyuk swallowed the words in his mouth. He thought about Gyukho’s emotions and predicted Gyukho’s actions as he waited for the director’s signal. Soon, the word ‘action’ hit his ears.

“Both of you can do it, right?”

Hearing his words, Maru nodded. There was a hint of hesitation in him, but his eyes contained resolution.

What he found out through the past ten days of shoots was that Maru’s facial expression when he acted was frighteningly detailed. It was like looking at an analog watch crafted by a master craftsman. There wasn’t a shred of distortion in his facial muscles as he conveyed signals. He was like a delicately machined set of gears accurate down to the teeth, not committing a single mistake or looking even a little vague.

Looking back, other than when they simultaneously burst into laughter, Maru had not made a mistake on his part. His concentration and stability were incredible.

Maybe because of that, it was easy to fall into acting with Maru in front of him. He often felt like he had become a cogwheel; he had become a part of the acting clock known as Han Maru.

He had heard that Maru was twenty-three this year. When he was twenty-three, he was still in college. He was still dreaming of becoming an actor and was practicing when he was twenty-three.

Was it a difference of talent? Or was it the difference of effort?

What he could say for sure was that he felt the same thing from Maru as what he felt when he practiced with great seniors.

Maru had become the axis. He was acting as the center of gravity so that the wheel of acting did not shake.

It might not show through the screen, but the actors working with him at the scene should be aware of this to a certain extent.

Jealousy only lasted for a brief moment. He stopped being amazed by it as well. What remained was the trust that Maru would do this much with ease.

“Do you think it’ll be okay?” Beomseok said his line, full of insecurity

“It’ll be okay. We practiced so many times. I told you we just have to do what we practiced. If you’re so insecure, you can drive the car and hit me. I’m confident in both driving the car and getting hit,” Maru said, strongly rubbing his short hair.

Maru was proficient even in expressing his character. He used actions that weren’t in the script to portray the character splendidly.

Whether it was flicking away his sweat with his fingers, rubbing his head aggressively like he did now, shaking his left leg, or how his right eye twitched whenever his emotions became violent, all became a part of Gomchi’s character.

None of those were things that the director had assigned to him. They were all thought of by Maru himself. Those trivial actions became one to create Gomchi.

Gomchi became so realistic that there might be someone like this living in this country somewhere.

Kim Hyuk also studied as he watched the natural-looking actions. Beomseok did the same.

Seemingly having felt similar things, Beomseok asked Maru a few questions. Kim Hyuk was reminded that there was no age when it came to learning.

“Actually, Dongsik, you drive. I’d rather get hit than become a criminal because of bad luck,” Maru said as he tossed over the car keys.

Receiving the keys, Beomseok put on a complicated expression.

“What, you don’t have the confidence?” Maru urged him.

It was a provocation so real that it didn’t look like acting.

Tension rose. Beomseok put on a wry smile and tossed the keys to Maru.

“Just drive well. Don’t kill me.”

“You better watch your language or otherwise I might end up killing you.”

“Go ahead if you want. At worst, I’ll die, but you’ll rot away in jail as a murderer.”

Kim Hyuk watched the two people before speaking, “Stop wasting your energy before we even start. Let’s get ready. I just got the message. We just have to do well.”

He stood up from the table.

“This is the start. We’ll get a grasp on how things are through this incident. We’ll learn what level of an accident the insurance company needs to come to the scene. As long as we can catch that, it’ll be smooth sailing afterwards. We hit lightly and get insurance money.”

“Let’s go get some good cash,” Maru said as he unfolded his hand.

Kim Hyuk clapped loudly. The door to the container room opened and Gayoung came in.

“The preparations are done,” she said while breathing heavily.

Gagyoung’s acting had changed during these past two days. Her aggressive and subjective acting style had been subdued quite a lot, and she changed her style to support other actors more.

They talked more and more about acting as well, finding each other’s weak points and supplementing them.

Above everything else, her attitude had softened up a lot. Her defiant attitude had disappeared as well.

There were times when she would watch in dissatisfaction, but she didn’t express it to the point that the director noticed.

“Okay.”

Hearing the okay sign, Kim Hyuk relaxed his expression and walked over to the monitor. He stood behind the director while holding a portable fan over his face. The other actors also came over.

The cut they just shot was played back. It was the master shot that shot the whole container.

He watched his own acting to see if there were any points that he thought he lacked.

“The overall feel is good. But when we get to shooting the one-on-one scenes, you’ll have to be more expressive. For example, here, when Maru and Beomseok exchange words, it sounds too bland. Maintain the secretive emotions of suspecting and hating each other.”

“I’ll keep that in mind when we change the angle,” Beomseok replied.

“And Gayoung.”

Kim Hyuk looked at director Lim’s mouth.

“You were really good today. If there’s one thing I want from you, I want you to look more like you’re exhausted. It might be a problem with makeup, so you can change it a little as well.”

“Yes, director.”

Kim Hyuk sighed inwardly. He was nervous, thinking that there might be some harsh words, but it turned out to be compliments. He waited for the actors to leave the monitor before talking to director Lim.

“As expected of the director, you’re benevolent.”

“Like hell I am. I did say what I said over the drink, but honestly speaking, I can’t keep quarreling with her forever. I was planning to hold my hand out to her if she became moderately docile. Yesterday and today though, she was really good. She can do that yet she didn’t do it until now, tsk, tsk.”

Director Lim looked at him.

“Was it you? Did you go to Gayoung and tell her to be more obedient like what you said to me?”

Yesterday, Kim Hyuk had a private meeting with director Lim. He couldn’t afford to have the problem between Gayoung and the director keep going, so he tried to resolve it through a genuine talk with the director. The director was only human and said that he didn’t want to maintain the uncomfortable relationship.

It was just that, the director also made sure to say that he did not plan to let things go her way on his own accord first.

“No, I didn’t talk to Gayoung separately. I think she just felt apologetic and apologized to you first.”

“I’ve never gotten an apology though.”

“The way she’s acting the way you wanted is practically an apology. So you really should go easy on her. She’s a good kid. She’s good at acting, and if it’s her schedule, that’s not her fault, so don’t be too harsh on her for it.”

“Alright, alright. I’ll hold back this time because of what you said.”

“Thank you.”

He was more relieved now. With this, the director and Gayoung would not be growling at each other again.

The atmosphere at the set, which had turned solid due to the confrontation between the two, had become a lot softer as well.

Work really did go well in a comfortable environment after all.

With that done, Kim Hyuk looked at Gayoung.

Gayoung originally looked like she was going to be at odds with the director until the end, but contrary to his expectations, she raised a white flag. No, rather than a white flag, she responded like an adult.

“Thanks to you, the shoot has gotten easier,” Kim Hyuk approached Gayoung and said.

“I can’t keep it up forever. Rather than that, you managed to persuade director Lim, huh? If he wanted to fight until the end, I wouldn’t have been able to hold back.”

“The director isn’t a kid either. Still, I’m glad that you’re more of an adult. I talked to the director about it, so I was wondering how I should go about persuading you. I’m glad that you changed on your own accord.”

“It was not on my own accord though?”

Gayoung blinked a few times before looking at Maru. Why would she look at Maru all of a sudden?”

“Didn’t you talk it out with Maru?”

“About what?”

“I thought you two were in on this together. Maru heard me out and gave me an excuse to change as well. Thanks to that, I’ve been feeling less worried.”

Kim Hyuk looked at Maru, who was talking to the other members of the production staff.

When had he become close to the other staff members? When Maru went to the bathroom, he approached the person he was talking to.

“What were you talking about?”

“Nothing much. Oh, I found out that Miss Gayoung is actually a lot kinder than I thought. I thought she was quite picky, but hearing from Maru, it seems like she really thinks a lot about the shoot. She seems like a good actress.”

Kim Hyuk stared at Maru when he came back from the bathroom. He knew that Maru was good at acting, but his way of handling relationships was unlike others as well. He was smart to boot, stepping in to prevent bad rumors about Gayoung from spreading.

“Han Maru.”

“Yes?”

“Good work.”

He only said those two words, but Maru smiled as though he understood everything.

“You were the one who persuaded the director, weren’t you?”

“I only told him about it. I guess neither of them wanted to go down to the bitter end. From how both of them blatantly told the people around, it seems like they wanted someone to step in like this.”

“I think so too.”

Just as they were conversing, Beomseok came over.

“I don’t know what happened, but the director and Gayoung seemed to have turned out well, right?”

Kim Hyuk smiled and nodded.

“Let’s stop here for the day and start early tomorrow. Also, Maru.”

Director Lim called Maru and came over.

“You know what to do tomorrow right? I fell for your acting after seeing that at your audition. You have to show it to me properly tomorrow.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“Beomseok, die well tomorrow.”

“That’s something I’m good at.”

Director Lim bumped Beomseko’s shoulders.

“If things end early, let’s have a drink with the four of us.”

“Director, you want to drink again? You’re going to fall ill.”

“The shoot is supposed to be done semi-drunk. Anyway, good work today, you all.”

Kim Hyuk looked at the two people after the director left.

“I’m going to have some food. What about you two?”

“Let’s go. We’re doing this to earn money to eat after all,” Beomseok said.

Kim Hyuk put his arms around the shoulders of the two people and left the shoot.

* * *

“Line it up well! Over there, get some more mattresses! Also, control the traffic properly. Block the alleyway so that no car goes there,” director Lim shouted.

He seemed to be on the edge.

From what he heard, he apparently became sensitive on days involving shooting cars ever since an accident happened during a shoot before.

Today, director Lim was an active volcano with magma up to his head.

The stuntmen could be seen practicing together. They put on safety equipment and then clothes — the same ones Beomseok was wearing — on top of that.

The shoot began. The stuntman walked towards the sliding car.

Being hit by the car, the stuntman went onto the hood and smashed the front window before falling down on the street.

“Hey, hey! Go check on him!”

The staff all rushed in to check the safety of the stuntman. He seemed to be okay as he stood up while raising his thumb. Thankfully, there seemed to be no injuries.

Maru calmed his breathing and looked at the driver’s seat. He was going to be in there in a few minutes. He would become a human who hit a colleague and had to express the emotions of such a person.