“Hey, all I could hear from here was the motorcycle sound—how fast were you going? Just hearing the sound was dizzying.”
“Still, it was fun. This kind of experience isn’t common, you know.”
“Good speed. Hey, Seungun-ah. Let’s make sure you get paid for today. Since I brought it up for you, they’ll take care of you generously. You’re today’s MVP, aren’t you?”
Seungun, who had finished drinking the ice water and was closing the lid, made eye contact with Gi Siyoung. He suddenly got up from his reserved seat next to the director under the parasol and started walking over loosely.
“Want to switch from here?”
“You don’t have a license.”
“So what if I don’t have one? Are you worried a bastard without one can’t even drive from there to here?”
“Hey, what kind of way is that to talk to Seungun who worked so hard?”
Myeongwoo stepped in to mediate between the two. Then he explained to Seungun instead.
“It’s just that we talked with the director, and the remaining cuts can be filmed by towing the motorcycle.”
“The director said to do it that way?”
The director was full of ambition for his work. It didn’t make sense for such a director to suddenly say to finish by towing the motorcycle. When Seungun asked while wiping his sweat, no one answered. It was as expected. They probably couldn’t ignore the opinion Gi Siyoung had put forth. Gi Siyoung’s consideration was appreciated, but Seungun wanted to see it through to the end.
“I appreciate your concern, but I’m fine.”
“Concern? Shall I tell you your current state? Your complexion is pale and your lips are dried up like a desert. Are you stupidly accepting everything they tell you to do?”
Toward this person who kept saying he was fine at the end of every sentence, an indescribable irritation welled up. A person should at least know how to cut corners appropriately. He’d been dragged from there to here for over an hour and a half nonstop without breaks.
“It is concern, what.”
“What?”
“But like I said before, if I’m really not okay, I’ll say I’m not okay. That’s not a lie. There’s only one scene left now. Since I started this work, I’ll do my best, and I hope Gi Siyoung-ssi will trust me too. I have good stamina.”
Gi Siyoung exhaled an exasperated breath and swept back his well-groomed hair. Seungun’s two eyes, brightening his sweat-covered face, sparkled like glass beads. Unlike his appearance, he’s quite stubborn as an ox. It was Gi Siyoung’s first time meeting someone who was stubborn only to their own detriment, so he lost his words on how to respond.
“Excuse me, is it much longer? The director is asking. He says the traffic restriction time is almost over.”
Then a staff member suddenly popped out behind Gi Siyoung and asked.
“You can go right away.”
Seungun answered immediately before anyone could interrupt.
“Yes, then now the action director will come and explain the movement once more.”
“Yes.”
“Hey, let’s go, go. No one can stop Seungun right now.”
Myeongwoo subtly pushed Gi Siyoung back. Gi Siyoung’s lips twitched before he spun his tall body around and instantly put distance between them. Seungun approached where Gi Siyoung had been standing and briefly placed his gaze beyond while listening to the action director who started explaining the movement.
Gi Siyoung, wearing sunglasses because of the scorching sunlight, flopped down in his reserved seat. Though not clearly visible because of the black lenses, he could feel him glaring at this place with wide-open eyes.
“You’ve ridden well up to here, good work, and from now on you can just ride slowly. From here on the map…”
“Yes.”
“Let’s give it our all until the end!”
The peak of filming gradually came into view. A strange sense of achievement rose up. If it hadn’t been for him today, all these staff members would have just suffered and left. Everyone was grateful to Seungun. He got back on the motorcycle.
***
“Officer Kim, what time is it now?”
“It’s getting to be 4:30 PM.”
“Then it should already be over, right? Those broadcasting bastards last time didn’t even tell us they were done and just left by themselves, so we didn’t know it was over and kept going in circles here.”
“How rude. But it hasn’t been 30 minutes yet. It’s exactly 5 minutes before.”
“Forget it, man. Let’s hurry over, circle around, report, and go in. I’m dying from the heat.”
“Yes! Sergeant!”
The two got into their respective positions. The officer who grabbed the steering wheel started the car. As soon as it turned on, the current time appeared on the screen.
[4:26 PM]
The officer gently pressed the accelerator. The sergeant whistled and turned on the audio. It was much better than two pitch-black men going quietly. He rolled up the passenger window all the way and quickly turned on the air conditioner.
“The weather is extremely hot.”
The anchor on the radio was announcing current traffic information.
“But Sergeant.”
“What.”
“Look next to us. The trailer is still laid out on the road.”
“Ah, they’re all done. Look at the road. It’s quiet.”
As he said, filming trailers were still laid out on the roadside, but it was so quiet that not even a mouse squeak could be heard.
“The motorcycle sound kept being heard but now it’s not.”
“Right? Those people are probably preparing to leave work too, right?”
“Why does a grown man worry so much? Can you live life like that? Let’s go quickly, step on it, step on it.”
The officer pressed the accelerator more firmly as his superior ordered. It seemed safe to relax as his senior said. The motorcycle sound that had been roaring intensely in the control area was no longer heard, and the shadows of the drama staff who had been bustling about couldn’t be found.
“Those drama staff don’t consider our circumstances, so why should we consider theirs? What was it last time, those bastards who came to film at dawn completely turned this whole area into a garbage landfill. Even when we give warnings every time, they don’t listen.”
The patrol car that had been going slowly now began to sprint quite a bit.
“They should clean up their own shit. Why should other people clean it up? Is this road theirs? Did the country build it for them to film dramas? Do you know if that was all?”
“Wow, Sergeant, look at that, a flock of birds is flying over there.”
“Your instructor is talking and you’re playing dumb? Here’s another bastard who ate the concept with rice.”
“Ah, I’m sorry. But the flock of birds is really big. Where are they going?”
The officer laughed “hehe” and stuck his head out slightly to stare at the flock of birds flying beyond the glass window. The sergeant, who glanced at the sky the officer was staring at while pouting his lips, turned his head back to the front.
His beady eyes, like buttonholes, immediately doubled in size. The time on the dashboard was [4:59] PM. They should have definitely withdrawn. There shouldn’t still be filming, and it absolutely had to be that way.
“Hey, hey… slow down.”
“Huh?”
The officer looked back at the passenger seat blankly.
“Speed! Slow down, you bastard! Speed!”
The officer, who turned his gaze from the flock of birds flying across the sky, came to his senses. The roar of a speeding motorcycle came through the window as if playing a joke.
Now, after one last cornering, he just needed to ride straight ahead. The staff gathered closely together in the distance looked like sesame seeds. Even until the end, Seungun didn’t let go of the string of tension. What was fortunate, at least, was that unlike the beginning of filming, he could ride slowly. It was when he was shifting his center of gravity forward. A ringing sound went “beep!” in the earphone plugged into his ear.
“Ugh!”
So vivid was it that pain pierced his eardrum. Startled, he almost turned the handlebar. He shook his head to drop the earphone, but the deeply plugged item didn’t budge at all. As he moved his gaze forward, the expressions of the people beyond the low-saturation partition were strange. The majority of the staff were looking at Seungun and making an X with their arms above their heads.
— Stop! Stop! Stop!
Inside the earphone that returned to normal, Director Kim shouted. Gi Siyoung, who had been sitting crookedly with his legs crossed, getting up while taking off his sunglasses was seen slowly like slow motion. Seungun couldn’t understand what was happening right now.
People were alternately looking at Seungun and somewhere. He turned his gaze there. An intersection where right turns were possible. Between the dense trees, he could see a police car speeding rapidly. Seungun’s complexion turned pale upon confirming that.
What should I do? What should I do? In an instant, all kinds of thoughts entered his head. Inside the hot helmet, his breath was completely blocked. It wasn’t much distance left. In that split second, Seungun made a judgment and turned the handlebar in a sharp angle. The running tire created friction and the smell of burning arose. The motorcycle’s body collapsing was a matter of a single moment.
