Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!
Taking the subway was a stroke of genius. They barely arrived at the scene and moved like they always did. After wrapping up the scene and Myeongwoo arriving late to join them, it was already time to eat. As he gradually adapted to the manager work, Seungun was quite the manager now. He’d also become familiar with many of the on-site staff.
“I’m telling you, when I first saw Seungun-ssi, I thought he was an actor who came to perform.”
They had gathered in small groups and were sharing sandwiches that came in as support for the cast.
“By the way, how old are you?”
Another staff member asked.
“Twenty-eight.”
“Huh? Twenty-eight?”
“Older than me?”
“No way!”
Seungun took one last big bite and brushed the bread crumbs off his hands. Myeongwoo picked up his second sandwich and chimed in.
“Seungun really has a baby face. I was surprised when I first saw his resume too. But I think Seungun’s age is just right.”
“We know, right? When we hire kids for short-term part-time work in the morning, by afternoon they’re gone. They’ve run off.”
“Look at our Seungun. He’s quiet. Drives well, quiet, quick-witted, does his work perfectly. Since he came, our car has become really clean.”
“But I understand running off too. This work is kind of hard, you know? Honestly, I think it’s better than enduring work and getting sick from overwork and dying. People need to let it out a bit. Enduring isn’t always the answer, you know?”
“That’s true too.”
“People run away because they have somewhere else to run to. Try really having nowhere to lean on. You’ll be too scared to even run away.”
“Oh, can I drink that juice?”
“Yes, please drink, drink.”
The scene was always noisy.
This place was always saturated with snacks sent by fans supporting the actors or from sponsors. When going to the scene, there was never any going hungry like when at home.
“There’s also a coffee truck over there. Let’s each have a cup for dessert.”
“I’m too full, so I’m okay.”
Seungun declined, but…
“If we don’t meet that quota, it’s a waste of money. We all have to drink it up.”
The other person pushed his back.
Leaving food is more of a waste though…
Unable to resist the other actor’s manager’s nagging, Seungun moved to the coffee truck with everyone. When a coffee truck came, large panels and banners were hung showing whose coffee truck it was.
Then the staff and actors would all gather to take proof photos, and nine times out of ten, it was a coffee truck that came for Gi Siyoung. The lead actors happened to be gathered there. When a new coffee truck arrived, they would separately take proof shots in front of it.
“I’ll take it. One, two, three.”
Seungun took photos of Gi Siyoung and his fellow actors smiling while holding iced Americanos in front of the coffee truck.
“Hey, Seungun-ah. Give it here.”
“Huh? Ah, yes.”
“That’s not how you take photos. Naturally take several shots, just press continuously, snap snap snap. Then you pick the best-looking photo from those and upload it. You’re younger than me but don’t even know that? Have you never taken photos of your girlfriend?”
Myeongwoo scolded him and took the phone from Seungun. Then he started taking photos as he explained. The actors didn’t stop talking even though they knew Myeongwoo was filming them, and thanks to that, even more natural scene shots were captured in the camera album.
“You send these photos to the PR team’s message room. Then they touch up the editing slightly and upload them.”
“Ah, yes. Continuously snap snap snap, I’ll keep that in mind.”
Despite boasting an incredible number of followers, Gi Siyoung’s SNS upload frequency wasn’t that frequent. It was mostly used for promoting movies or dramas, and uploading gifts from fans, but even that was usually handled by the PR team.
“That’s right, man.”
Myeongwoo ruffled the back of Seungun’s head with a satisfied smile. On days when Gi Siyoung had scenes filming with other actors, he mainly spent break time with them matching up lines, and thanks to that, Myeongwoo and Seungun could also rest.
However, the sweet leisure was brief—profanity was heard from over there.
“What? He contacts us now saying he can’t be reached? This bastard, what the hell is this guy doing?”
The action director was talking with the assistant director, veins bulging in his neck with an exasperated expression.
“What happened?”
“The motorcycle scene later. We had someone lined up to ride the motorcycle instead of the lead actor, but he suddenly says he can’t come because an important audition came up.”
“What?”
“It’s my fault for not confirming two or three times, Director.”
The action director said while sighing deeply. Director Kim jumped in place.
“Ah shit, this is a big problem. Where are we going to find someone to ride a motorcycle? Among the stunt team that came out, there aren’t many people as tall as Actor Gi.”
“Fuck!”
The director took out a cigarette from his pocket and put it in his mouth. He exhaled the smoke he’d inhaled deep into his lungs like a sigh. His face full of worry was calculating what to do right now. Director Kim finished one cigarette and took out a new one.
“We have everything set up for today, so if not today, we’ll have to set it up again. Ah, this. Shit.”
The non-smoking staff members slowly moved away. Not even noticing that, the director who had burned through two cigarettes flicked the completely burned butt into a makeshift trash can. Even that bounced off the edge of the trash can, and the staff member next to it grimaced, picked it up, and threw it away properly.
Outdoor filming always had many constraints. Directors who didn’t prefer cliché scenes shot at sets where everyone else shoots were always looking for new locations. Before filming, they had to obtain approval permits from all necessary places well in advance.
Today too, they had controlled actual road vehicles and nearby residents with the cooperation of local police. If today’s filming fell through, all those efforts would have been in vain.
“By any chance, are there any friends among the staff who have motorcycle licenses? Even if they’re a bit inexperienced at riding, if they just receive safety training briefly—”
“Can safety training be done by just receiving it briefly?”
When Gi Siyoung sharply retorted, the staff member who had made the suggestion shriveled up.
“Even if there were, if you have eyes, look at our staff’s physiques. They’re all kids who can’t even match half of Gi Siyoung’s height, so what…”
It was a situation with no way out in sight. Seungun, who had been watching the situation, casually asked Myeongwoo.
“Is that permit thing really hard to get?”
“That’s right. You have to fill out the application again and submit it upward. And that permit doesn’t just come out the next day either.”
“……”
“Then all the next schedules get pushed back accordingly. The real best would be to film today, but it’s already screwed. Seungun-ah, let’s prepare to leave work.”
“I have that license, sunbae-nim.”
“Huh?”
“If it’s a motorcycle, I know how to ride one.”
“Ah, that’s right. You knew how to ride a motorcycle.”
Myeongwoo made an exclamation of realization. On Seungun’s resume, he had quite a lot of delivery experience. However, Myeongwoo didn’t like the idea of informing the director. If it were a society that recognized hard work, everyone would have become filthy rich.
“Hey, stay quiet. Don’t volunteer and suffer for no reason.”
Knowing how hard stuntmen work on filming sets and how they roll around with broken bones, Myeongwoo waved his hand telling him not to say nonsense. And just as he was about to suck on his drink straw again, the staff member in front stared intently at those two. At the gaze of unknown origin—he didn’t know from where they’d started listening—the back of Myeongwoo’s neck went cold.
“That’s not it, Gwonsu-ssi. Gwonsu-ssi.”
Myeongwoo desperately called the staff member’s name. But it was useless. The staff member raised his hand high above his head.
“Excuse me, Director!”
“What!”
“Gi Siyoung’s actor’s manager has a motorcycle license and knows how to ride one?”
“What? Whose manager?”
At the same time as Director Kim, Gi Siyoung also turned his head. Where they turned to look, Myeongwoo was bowing his head and quietly muttering “fuck.”
“Should we layer on more clothes?”
“What did you say his height was?”
“He goes back and forth between 177cm and 178cm.”
“That’s fine. He’ll be sitting on a motorcycle anyway.”
“But now that I look at him, Actor Gi’s manager has good looks. Wow.”
“Let’s put on more clothes. His chest and arms need to be thicker. And his waist is too thin too.”
“Don’t tighten the belt too much either. It shouldn’t look skinny.”
Director Kim and the action director kneaded Seungun’s body, treating it like a mannequin. Even though unfamiliar hands were touching his shoulders, back, and waist, Seungun’s face showed no sign of discomfort at all.
“Match the torso as similarly to Actor Siyoung as possible.”
“But if we layer too much, it might come out looking dull on screen.”
“We can handle that somehow with editing. Don’t you have that much ability?”
“Ah, of course…”
“How long have you ridden motorcycles?”
The action director asked Seungun.
“I’ve been riding since high school.”
“Since high school? Not doing the studying you should be doing? You must have really worried your parents.”
“I started part-time work early.”
“When did you last hold handlebars recently?”
“I rode whenever I had time until I started this job.”
“Then I’ll just briefly brief you on the safety training content.”
“What’s there to that? He’s just riding within a set road.”
“Still, we need to do it for formality.”
“Ah, fine. Do it, do it.”
Seungun forced his arms into the stiff leather. Myeongwoo was taking the staff member who exposed the fact that Seungun could ride a motorcycle to a corner and scolding them about something. Roughly reading his lips, it was things like how could you say that without consulting us, don’t you know that saying it there means he can’t refuse, how could someone who should know better do such a thing, and so on.
“It’s Seungun-ssi, right?”
“Yes? Yes!”
“We’ll start from here and keep riding. We’ll follow and film Seungun-ssi riding in one take. We’ll stop once here, and stop once here.”
“Yes, understood.”
Before entering filming, the cinematographer and action director pointed to a map that could be understood at a glance and the red thumbtacks marked on that map. Listening to it, there were no high-difficulty techniques needed like crashing into something or deliberately falling. He just needed to ride.
