“Standby, action!”
The director kept exclaiming in admiration. That perfect subject was a pleasure to capture on camera. Long limbs sliced through the air with swift motions. Though they were already on the tenth take of the same scene, the viewers weren’t getting tired of it at all.
Gi Siyoung always synchronized his movements again before the shot began. It seemed clear why the action director couldn’t stop praising Siyoung. He used his body well, like professional action actors. The director focused on the screen as if being sucked into it.
“Do they always film the same scene multiple times like this?”
Seungun, standing quite a ways behind where the director sat, whispered to Myeongwoo. The shouts of exertion were so loud that quiet voices got drowned out.
“Yeah. They have to shoot one scene from multiple angles. Look, there are cameras everywhere. They film this face, that face, get full shots, and take bust shots separately too.”
Veteran Myeongwoo explained skillfully. As Seungun nodded while listening attentively, he could hear the surrounding staff members murmuring.
“Gi Siyoung really does use his body well. Should we just use an action double for Kim Hojun as soon as he gets here?”
“These days he’s gained so much weight that it’ll be hard to use a double. It’ll all show—the stuntmen are all tall and slender, so it’ll be completely obvious.”
“What’s an actor doing loving alcohol and food that much? And the director who immediately okays it just because Kim Hojun said he wanted to appear, really…”
“Honestly, don’t you think he regrets it? It seemed like he agreed to it while drunk.”
“That guy needs to quit drinking too. Tsk tsk.”
They were gossiping about Kim Hojun, who would appear on set later. The director shouted “Cut!” into the megaphone loud enough to abruptly end their conversation. The makeup team rushed to Gi Siyoung, who had become drenched in sweat in an instant. They wiped away his sweat and realistically retouched the injury makeup that had slightly smudged.
After a brief touch-up, filming quickly resumed. Soon the slate clapped together again.
Like a hamster wheel, they filmed and re-filmed the same scene until he could practically memorize the blocking. Seungun tapped on the tablet screen he’d received for work. Only now did he have time to look at the tablet. After checking once more on the ring carefully tucked in his pocket, he entered a portal site and searched for the drama title.
AFFAIR│
There wasn’t much information about the pre-produced drama scheduled to air next year. Though filming had already been going on for about half a year, the trailer hadn’t come out yet, so it was filled with questions born from boundless curiosity about the story.
“So it was based on a foreign novel.”
Through some searching, Seungun obtained various information. Among the results were many blogs with information about <Affair>. He entered the blog at the very top. That blog explained the foreign novel’s plot well by incorporating photos of the currently cast actors with the order of character appearances.
The protagonist Mukho, who went undercover as a police officer to investigate a very nasty criminal organization dealing in illegal weapons modification, drug sales, and such. But it’s not easy for a low-level organization member to extract organizational information, right? So he schemes with his police colleagues, and at just the right moment, takes the boss to a safe place to evacuate.
Mukho gets promoted upward after earning trust from that incident! The organization boss, pleased with Mukho who handles everything cleanly, hires him as his daughter’s bodyguard. The police side, who are Mukho’s original colleagues, say it actually worked out well and tell him to try seducing the daughter since it’ll be easier to extract information now.
An operation that started to make the boss’s daughter completely his person. Though it started as an operation, if human hearts were that easy to control according to plan, the story wouldn’t be interesting, right? Mukho falls in love with the organization boss’s daughter! The protagonist’s internal acting as he wavers between work and love was excellent in the foreign film that was remade first.
In Korea, actor Gi Siyoung was selected for this work’s protagonist, right? Clap clap clap! Since he’s an actor with such an excellent face and great acting skills, this time is also highly anticipated. However, overseas it was closer to a crime thriller than romance, but I’m worried that as it gets remade after coming to our country, romance might become the main focus. The original drama was closer to an investigation story. I just hope they don’t ruin the original’s beauty.
Throughout the middle of the text, there were numerous ridiculous emoticons that didn’t match the actors’ photos, making readability poor. But he could grasp the general synopsis. It was a classic cliché used since long ago. This kind of story contained all the elements that make people go wild.
“……”
Seungun’s expression was unreadable as he turned off the tablet screen and raised his head. Gi Siyoung was still endlessly filming the same scene. The director’s words about going just one more time, like a nurse lying that this shot won’t hurt at all, were undoubtedly professional lies.
On the camera screen the director was checking, Siyoung’s greatly enlarged face appeared. A small face filled with features. His smooth skin glistened with sweat.
Then someone turned their head at the gaze staring intently at them. Eyes met with an unfamiliar assistant director.
“Ah, hello.”
Im Seungun greeted out of habit. The assistant director with earphones in his ears withdrew his gaze and asked perfunctorily while flipping through a thin script.
“Yeah. What, are you a rookie actor? There aren’t any other scenes today besides the lead actors’ scenes?”
With dozens of staff members and staff who come and go short-term, it was a place where it was hard to memorize everyone’s faces. Though he’d gone around various places with Myeongwoo to make his face known, there were still many staff members who didn’t know Seungun’s face. Seungun hurriedly waved his hands.
“No, I’m actor Gi Siyoung’s manager. Please treat me well from now on.”
“Ah, you were a manager? I thought. Well then, keep up the good work.”
“Yes.”
He must have mistaken Seungun for an actor on standby. Having resolved his curiosity, the assistant director hurriedly left at hand gestures calling him from afar. Filming, filming, filming continuing all day long. The director up ahead shouted “Cut!” once again. The moment finally came when the seemingly endless filming reached its conclusion.
“—Cheers!”
“—Cheers!”
Someone called out a toast, and the rest followed. In the private room the director mentioned, only the main actors and staff gathered, while the rest took separate seats in the restaurant hall.
Sizzle, sizzle.
As the meat cooked, it sizzled on the silver grill. As he scraped off the oil stubbornly stuck to the grill with chopsticks, suddenly a soju glass was thrust before his eyes.
“Do you drink?”
It was the staff member sitting directly across.
“Yes. I don’t drink often, but I like it.”
“Have a drink then.”
“I appreciate the offer, but I have to drive.”
“Ah, right. Driving.”
The staff member who’d suggested drinking withdrew the glass. In that gap, Myeongwoo spoke while chewing on a meat wrap.
“Really? Seungun, you like drinking alcohol. That’s unexpected?”
“I drink occasionally.”
“I see. Forget the alcohol and eat lots of meat. When you’re next to me, I just look fatter.”
“But usually how long do we stay at gatherings like this?”
Myeongwoo lowered his voice while recklessly stuffing hot pork belly into his mouth.
“Normally Siyoung doesn’t really participate in gatherings like this. He gets in the car and leaves right after filming ends, so the staff call him a homebody. But today actor Kim Hojun came for a friendship appearance, so we couldn’t resist the director’s pressure and ended up attending too. Ah… I want to go home quickly too.”
For someone like that, Myeongwoo was eating the pork belly quite deliciously, so Seungun asked again.
“Don’t you like gatherings like this, sunbae?”
“I told you to speak comfortably… You really don’t listen.”
“Still. I’m more comfortable doing it this way for now.”
“Tsk, then there’s nothing I can do. Actually, we’re not that far apart in age.”
“…We’re seven years apart, sunbae-nim.”
“Still, when you speak formally to me, I feel like I’m older. Anyway, I also like alcohol, but it suits me perfectly to wash up at home and drink alone while watching my favorite programs. No matter how much I like going out, after bickering with people all day, I just collapse when I get home.”
“I see.”
Myeongwoo had those hardships too. Seungun also desperately wanted to just go home, wash his feet, and sleep. Yesterday he couldn’t even go home and stayed at the filming location searching for the ring the whole time. It felt like he’d been commuting for a week straight. He nodded deeply in empathy with Myeongwoo’s feelings.
When the conversation paused briefly, the sounds of people around them chattering passed by like tinnitus.
“Hojun! Your loyalty is the best, the best! I’m more reassured that you came out without any guarantee. Right?”
Director Kim shouted in an excited voice after drinking. Gi Siyoung sat forming a triangle with Director Kim and Kim Hojun, who attended today as a friendship appearance, but he so obviously showed he had no interest in this kind of gathering that it was embarrassing for the onlookers instead.
The expressions of the staff members roughly going along with Director Kim’s words were also lukewarm. From the atmosphere, Kim Hojun was apparently disliked by everyone.
“We’re so grateful to you, Hojun—look! Gi Siyoung, who never once participated in after-parties, attended all the way here. Actor Gi, what do you think? You must feel reassured that Hojun came out too, huh?”
“He says he feels reassured that you came out.”
Gi Siyoung relayed the words halfheartedly.
“Reassured about what. If you’re grateful, put me in your next work—”
“You must have been a bit anxious trying to create scenes that weren’t in the script. On a good day like this, instead of just us drinking, we should send some consolation drinks to the writer.”
“What?”
Thud. Kim Hojun set down his glass hard. He showed his displeased expression without any filter. In an instant, the surroundings became quiet. The only sound was the sizzling of cooking meat. Tap tap, Myeongwoo shook his head while diverting Seungun’s gaze. It was a signal not to look over there.
The gathered staff members drew the character for ‘river’ between their brows while subtly exchanging glances. Ah, his bratty attitude is flaring up again. When arrogant actors meet, it’s commonplace for them to wrestle over who’s better.
It was always those around them whose backs got bent like shrimp. The majority pretend to be the best of friends in the world when cameras are rolling, but return to being strangers as soon as the record button turns off.
Kim Hojun in particular was famous for having many fake relationships.
As for where the relationship between Gi Siyoung and Kim Hojun started…
Bzz— bzz— bzz—
Vibrations rang ceaselessly from his pocket. Seungun took out his phone. Now that he looked, everyone was ignoring the food and alcohol, just burying their heads down and moving their fingers under the table like students cheating.
“……”
The source of the notifications was a group chat room. It was a chat room he was invited to as soon as he was introduced as Gi Siyoung’s road manager, with 173 members alone. The chat room, which had invited not only the drama filming staff but also the actors’ staff, blazed up in an instant.
