"Okay!"
PD Choi's cut spread out a little later than it should have.
Im Gi-u undid the leash and grumbled.
"Tae-il. Do you know this? An animal might not hit you from behind, but it bites, you know?"
"You aren't an animal, senior."
At Tae-il's banter, Im Gi-u grumbled on.
"Honestly. Doesn't lose a single exchange."
Im Gi-u shrugged, slapped Tae-il's back lightly and went over to PD Choi.
Watching the monitor, Im Gi-u ran a finger down his chin.
"The picture...... came out well."
"Thanks to you, sir. Thank you for your work."
"PD Choi. You don't have to sugar it. You want to go once more, don't you?"
Struck in the centre of it, PD Choi turned his eyes elsewhere.
Im Gi-u shrugged and went on, still watching the monitor.
"You know it too, PD Choi. You need one more cut on Tae-il's face."
"Even so, I feel bad asking you, sir......"
"It would be a lie to say it doesn't feel bad. But it's fine. If we're doing it, let's do it properly."
Im Gi-u cleared his throat and went back to his place.
When the actors stood in front of the frame, the sound of the slate went around.
"Action!"
At PD Choi's sign, Do-hwan (Eun Tae-il) took the leash out and walked slowly toward Director Jeong (Im Gi-u).
"Put it on. No. You are a director, after all."
"......Sorry?"
"V-Vice President."
Not only Director Jeong (Im Gi-u)'s eyes shook; so did the secretary's.
But Do-hwan (Eun Tae-il) fastened the strap around Director Jeong (Im Gi-u)'s neck with a face that said nothing at all.
"An animal, at least, doesn't hit you from behind."
"V-Vice President......!"
"Let's go."
"N-no......!"
The skin around Director Jeong (Im Gi-u)'s eyes shivered.
One of the two cameras took his shaking eyes in close-up.
"Did you not say you would do anything."
Tae-il, who had fastened Director Jeong (Im Gi-u)'s leash, drew the strap taut.
The other camera took in Tae-il's expressionless face.
"Okay. Carrying on from there."
The setup changed, and the shooting went on.
"There's no animal that walks on two legs."
Do-hwan (Eun Tae-il), holding the leash, struck the legs of a Director Jeong (Im Gi-u) who was trying to stand.
Because of it, Director Jeong (Im Gi-u), halfway up, had to go back onto his knees and put his arms to the ground.
Im Gi-u (Director Jeong) could not even lift his head, and had to crawl slowly across the floor on all fours.
Holding the leash, Tae-il walked slowly on.
"Okay! We're moving!"
The moment the okay came, Im Gi-u took Tae-il's hand and stood.
Looking at Tae-il bowing his head and apologizing, the feeling that had been a little hurt subsided.
'Honestly...... this makes me look small.'
Watching Tae-il apologize again and again and run off to the monitor, the part of him that had been thinking about dignity began to feel foolish.
Still wearing the leash, Im Gi-u stood beside Tae-il.
Staring hard at the monitor, Tae-il said:
"Was that too much? Seeing it on the monitor......"
"No. The picture's good."
Tae-il turned, and Im Gi-u was smiling.
Tae-il moved to undo the leash at Im Gi-u's neck, and he shook his head.
"Leave it. I'll have to put it on again anyway."
"I'm sorry, senior. My mind was on the monitor......"
"Pff."
Im Gi-u let out a small laugh.
"Stop apologizing. Any more and I look small."
"Ah......"
"Nothing to worry about. Not four legs, I'd wriggle after you on my belly if it came to it. I could see you were acting for your life."
Im Gi-u patted Tae-il's shoulder.
"Thank you, sir."
"Enough of 'sir'. Say senior. Or hyung."
"I'll say senior, then."
PD Choi, watching the two of them, could finally let out a breath of relief.
The location changed and the meeting-room shoot followed.
"Action!"
Do-hwan (Eun Tae-il) and Director Jeong (Im Gi-u) came into the meeting room where the directors were gathered.
Seeing Do-hwan (Eun Tae-il) holding Director Jeong (Im Gi-u)'s leash, the directors shot to their feet.
"V-Vice President! What is the meaning of this?!"
At one director's shout, Do-hwan (Eun Tae-il) smiled coldly.
"Let's begin. Start with the agenda."
"Vice President!"
When Do-hwan (Eun Tae-il) pulled the leash as though it were nothing, Director Jeong (Im Gi-u) was dragged along.
"Is there a rule that animals are not allowed in the meeting room?"
"......"
"Vice President!"
The directors (bit-part actors) shouted in anger, and Do-hwan (Eun Tae-il) did not blink once.
The camera took in Do-hwan (Eun Tae-il) and a Director Jeong (Im Gi-u) shaking with humiliation, close and hard.
"Take him."
With the leash handed to the secretary (the rookie actor) and Director Jeong (Im Gi-u) making his exit, the scene wrapped.
"Okay."
A few more cuts followed, and the scene finished shooting.
Tae-il undid Im Gi-u's leash before anything else.
"I'm sorry, senior."
"Tae-il, you were rather enjoying that, weren't you?"
For all the prickliness of the words, there was mischief in Im Gi-u's face.
"I learned a great deal, senior."
"I'm the one who learned. When I got this episode's script I thought Writer Shin was serving me one...... and you've left me with nothing to say. The picture was good."
Patting Tae-il's shoulder, Im Gi-u remembered something and snapped his fingers.
"Ah, that's tomorrow."
"Tomorrow, then. Ah!"
An important date was going through Tae-il's head too.
"The first episode airs."
***
He opened the heavy door and stepped in, and music running quietly welcomed him.
Tae-il looked around and walked toward Team Leader Ong, who was waving from a table in the middle.
"Tae-il. Over here."
After a brief greeting, Tae-il sat down across from Team Leader Ong.
'It's been a while since I was here too.'
The place, almost unchanged, was a bar Team Leader Ong often went to.
There was a projector fitted to the ceiling, and on the big screen at the front an MVN broadcast was playing.
"Thank you for making time, Tae-il. You'll be busy with the production."
"Not at all. It was sudden, but a call from you, Team Leader Ong."
"Well. To get this treatment from Eun Tae-il. I'm honoured. Sit down."
There was a slight edge in Team Leader Ong's eyes as he ate his chips.
'He can't not know it's the first episode's air date. He must be quite curious about this production of Eun Tae-il's.'
He did not imagine a man that exacting would give him a good answer straight away.
Shrugging as though he were welcome to look all he liked, Tae-il bit down on a cherry tomato beside the chips.
At the sight, Team Leader Ong smiled.
"There are plenty of good things here. There's chicken, whelks with noodles......"
"I'm in a production. And I'm not in my early twenties. Stop paying attention for a moment and it shows immediately."
"Is that so. Ah, I saw the second and third teasers that came out."
Team Leader Ong snorted and turned the subject naturally.
Tae-il had not appeared in the second or third teasers.
They had been mostly the leads, Kang Seong-jin and Yu Hye-in, and the handsome actors.
"The first teaser came out so well that I'd been expecting something...... it was a little disappointing."
"How it goes out in the broadcast matters more than the teaser."
"Does it. You must have been sorry about it......"
Team Leader Ong wore an unreadable expression and then remembered something and snapped his fingers.
"I said on the phone, but one more person is coming."
"You said someone wanted to meet me. Who is it?"
"You'll know when you see him. Someone who worked on a production with you, and who said he had to see you today...... ah, it's starting."
The darkened screen brightened, and there stood Ju-hwan (Kang Seong-jin) and Yu-na (Yu Hye-in).
Tae-il and Team Leader Ong stopped talking and turned their eyes to the screen.
-This is as far as it goes.
-......
With the two of them breaking up, the point of view moved into the past and the drama ran on.
Then the handsome actors and the leads gathered into one space and the story carried on.
'Still the same.'
Watching Team Leader Ong keep writing something in a notebook, Tae-il's eyes lit.
Team Leader Ong had any number of notebooks like that, with every kind of information on any number of celebrities recorded in them.
-Information is my backing.
The words Team Leader Ong used to mutter like a habit went through Tae-il's head.
'No background, no capital. So he treasured industry information like his life. Still does.'
It was also the secret of how a man who had wrecked a management business twice was still in the industry.
They had been watching the drama a good while when a man came over to the table.
"Over here. PD Park."
Tae-il looked, and it was PD Park Gyeong-min in a generously sized T-shirt.
PD Park took Tae-il's hand and exchanged a brief greeting.
"It's been a while, Eun Tae-il."
PD Park hid a complicated expression and turned his eyes to the screen.
Tae-il rose from his seat and took PD Park's hand.
'So the person coming today was PD Park. He can't have good feelings about Eun Tae-il.'
Park Gyeong-min was a formidable PD whose every production had succeeded.
His one blemish was "The Star That Rides the Wind," with Eun Tae-il in the lead.
Needless to say, Eun Tae-il's wooden acting had shone and the ratings had gone straight through the floor.
PD Park emptied a 500ml glass of beer in one and wiped his mouth roughly.
"Writer Shin's put a lot into this one too. The characters are well built."
"There are actors who've gone slack in it, but...... overall the picture looks good."
"Put weight on every character and the viewer gets tired. Anyway......"
PD Park's eyes on Eun Tae-il were sharp, and Team Leader Ong was at his leisure.
"Now, now. Let's talk once the production's over."
"Ahem......"
PD Park hid his discomfort with effort and turned back to the screen.
How much time went by.
Tae-il appeared on the screen.
It was the scene where Ju-hwan (Kang Seong-jin), lying in his room, remembers being thrown out by Do-hwan (Eun Tae-il).
-Enough. Get out.
-B-brother?!
-There's no place for you in this house anymore.
Do-hwan (Eun Tae-il), throwing Ju-hwan (Kang Seong-jin) out coldly, came up in close-up.
PD Park looked at the sunken Do-hwan (Eun Tae-il) beyond the screen, and then at the Eun Tae-il sitting at the table.
'That man is Eun Tae-il? He wasn't a man who could act with his face like that, was he?'
The further the scene went, the more PD Park's eyes narrowed.
In his head came Eun Tae-il's nightmare of an awkward face and his smeared pronunciation.
And the Eun Tae-il inside that screen was not the Eun Tae-il PD Park had known.
'Huh...... he's a different person entirely? The expressions and the delivery a body has learned aren't things you fix easily. Was he struck by lightning?'
Do-hwan (Eun Tae-il)'s scene ended, and PD Park could not come out of the shock.
Team Leader Ong's eyes sharpened a degree.
'Even that exacting man is seeing it differently.'
He had invited PD Park here on purpose.
Because there would be nobody who would look at Eun Tae-il's acting more coldly.
And even that PD Park could not take his eyes off the screen until the drama ended.
When the ads came on, PD Park looked at Tae-il and let out a sigh.
"Eun Tae-il, that's impressive. So you were an actor who used his face well."
"Thank you for the compliment, PD Park."
"But...... why were you like that in my production? A man who can do this well."
"......"
The air went cold in an instant.
Tae-il remembered that time on PD Park's production too.
Joy, sadness, anger, every expression identical, and people had made a joke of him for it.
Team Leader Ong, listening, moved in quickly.
"PD Park. Tae-il will have got here through bleeding practice. Back then the timing was......"
"It's regret, that's all. Regret. Haa......"
PD Park let the regret show over and over.
If Eun Tae-il had, back then, acted the way he did now, or even just acted at all, the ratings catastrophe would never have happened.
Listening quietly, Tae-il lowered his head.
"I'm sorry, PD Park."
"Yes. You should be. Knowing how to act like that......"
"Back then I was very immature."
"......"
The air was going somewhere strange.
Team Leader Ong was moving to step in when PD Park's eyes lit sharp.
"Then come and take a camera test this time."