Lee Hui-seong and a group of actors had gathered together and were putting up smoke.
When Tae-il came over, a few of them flinched.
"Eun Tae-il. Want one?"
One actor took out a cigarette and offered it, and Tae-il took gum from inside his jacket and declined politely.
"I'm fine. I quit."
"Ah, right."
The actor showed a moment of discomfort, then turned away and blew smoke with the others holding cigarettes.
Lee Hui-seong, at the centre of them, slid his eyes toward Tae-il.
"Tae-il, the reaction was good this time. Congratulations."
"Thank you, senior."
Tae-il smiled, and the corner of Lee Hui-seong's mouth twisted strangely.
"You should still be careful, though? Popularity is a bubble, isn't it. No telling when it pops...... right?"
"That's right, senior."
"Senior, none of that helps. Once they're high on popularity there's no cure."
The actors with him looked at Tae-il and laughed among themselves.
Lee Hui-seong watched his juniors and smiled at his leisure.
"It's a pointless worry. There's no actor who knows that better than Tae-il."
"Exactly. Senior Eun Tae-il is the bubble expert, isn't he?"
"Or a professional bubble, maybe."
Backing Lee Hui-seong up, the actors around him held their stomachs.
'Birds of a feather, they say. They're all the same.'
There were always people like this on a location.
People who make one person a joke and build their own fellowship out of it.
The kind who, given a gap, stick a knife into each other too, and drag one another down.
'I wondered whether Lee Hui-seong had pulled something with his company's weight. I worried over nothing.'
If the company had leaned on the location it would have been a real headache, and this did not seem to be that.
Lee Hui-seong's company was Namu Ent, which had no fondness for Eun Tae-il in any case.
Tae-il read the situation and let the corner of his mouth go up, and one actor gave him a slanted look.
"Eun Tae-il, what are you grinning about? Something funny?"
"Of course it's funny. Has anybody here ever had a bubble of their own...... at all?"
Tae-il tilted his head as he looked around at them, and the laughter went right out of the actors' faces.
They had turned, in one stroke, into small-minded seniors who had gathered out of envy of Eun Tae-il's popularity.
But they only watched one another's faces; not one of them stepped up.
None of them had the nerve to go at the Eun Tae-il they used to call a brat.
Tae-il looked past them at Lee Hui-seong, standing slightly behind.
"Senior Hui-seong would know a little about it."
"Honestly. There's no beating Tae-il with words."
Lee Hui-seong, who had meant to stay quietly out of it, forced a smile and stepped forward.
Tae-il smiled and met his eyes.
"Not only with words. Have you forgotten the flower-squid?"
"You, b-b......!"
In that instant, Lee Hui-seong's face twisted viciously.
The photo with Tae-il that had gone up on Yu Hye-in's social media had handed him the nickname "flower-squid".
With the trauma dug open, Lee Hui-seong's fist shook.
He wanted to take Eun Tae-il's face off right there, and there were far too many eyes.
Watching the shake in Lee Hui-seong's fist, Tae-il lifted the corners of his eyes gently.
"When that selfie went up, how many filters did you have stacked on your face? Was it three?"
"Listen to him, as if he doesn't retouch a thing? You......!?"
"What would an actor retouch a face for. So cheap."
Every actor looking at Tae-il had his expression twist wretchedly.
There was nobody among these actors who did not know about Lee Hui-seong's flower-squid incident.
Their agencies had warned them several times over not to take a selfie with Eun Tae-il under any circumstances. Lee Hui-seong bit his lip until it bled and growled low.
"......You. When the bubble pops, we'll see, won't we?"
The other actors, thinking the same thing, glared at Tae-il with edged eyes.
Whatever they made of it, Tae-il shrugged.
"Whether I'm a bubble or unbelievable, we'll see then. Though the answer's obvious."
"You bastard......!"
Lee Hui-seong went scarlet and moved to throw himself at him, and the actors caught him in a hurry.
"W-well then, Tae-il. Good luck with the shoot."
"S-see you later."
Watching the actors hold a thrashing Lee Hui-seong and hurry off, Tae-il let out a sigh.
"And the rest of you, stop playing at this filthy business and act properly."
"Just because episode 1 came out well......"
"In that episode 1, every one of you had plenty of screen time. More than me, the brat you were all talking about behind my back."
"......"
Their pride was scraped, and not one of the actors could answer.
Because they knew that stepping up here would make them the pathetic ones.
The actors slipped away one by one, and Tae-il went through his jacket for the last piece of gum.
"......What are you saying to the kids. It's all pointless."
"What am I saying to the kids?"
"Aaagh!"
At the voice out of nowhere Tae-il was startled badly enough to drop the gum he was holding.
He turned, and Team Leader Ong was smiling.
"T-Team Leader Ong. Without a sound......"
"I thought the actors' conversation would be over. And the problem's solved."
Team Leader Ong took something from his pocket and held it out.
It was gum, brought along for Tae-il.
Chewing the gum from Team Leader Ong instead of the piece he had dropped, Tae-il clapped his hands.
"Ah! Then the location problem......"
"Come on, let's move. You'll like it, Tae-il."
Some time later.
Where Tae-il and shooting Team 2, led by PD Choi, moved to was a cafe on a factory site.
A cafe called Redik, with all kinds of solid-wood furniture on display.
"This place is insane! There's more to grab for inserts than we can use."
The ones most delighted by the changed location were the camera team.
The camera director put a camera into the hands of even the youngest, who had only ever run cable, and set him shooting the props scattered around.
It was for the inserts the drama would need.
"PD Choi. We'll be grabbing some inserts."
"Yes. Grab plenty, plenty."
While the camera team shot the inserts they needed, Tae-il went into his own preparation.
Tae-il was surrounded by makeup crew and having his makeup done when Team Leader Ong came to stand behind him.
"How does it look, now you've had a proper look? I picked it to suit the character of Do-hwan that you're playing."
"You said it was arranged in a hurry. You went through the script as well?"
"Well...... while I'm beside you, I should earn my lunch."
Tae-il saw Team Leader Ong shrug in the mirror and closed his eyes again.
'Team Leader Ong hasn't changed at all. Always a step ahead. As though he knows everything I'll need.'
Thanks to that, they had been well matched in the past too.
Their thinking about the industry and about performers was similar.
If there was a problem...... it was that his mind does not change easily.
'Watch all you like.'
Keep walking the actor's road like this and Team Leader Ong would answer, for certain.
"Tae-il. We're starting."
At the FD's word through the door, Tae-il finished his makeup and went straight to the set.
The cables that had been scattered messily over the floor were neatly cleared, and on the table set in the middle of the frame stood coffee and bread.
Tae-il looked at the bread, piled high with fresh cream, and tilted his head.
"Director!"
Tae-il waved, and one of the art team crew came running over in a fluster.
"I think this bread needs changing."
"Th-the bread? I didn't hear anything particular from the PD...... do you not like fresh cream?"
Tae-il looked at the art team crew member closely.
He did not remember everyone on a location, but this one was definitely a face he had not seen.
'Looks new.'
Anyone who has been on a location a long time has no awkwardness about them.
And from this person the awkwardness and the nerves were coming through whole.
It seemed a new hire had come up here in the middle of all the rush.
'If the camera team or PD Choi sees it, this gets tiring.'
Normally, food eaten during a take has to be clean enough not to get on the face.
If bread smothered in cream like this showed up on camera, there would certainly be raised voices.
Tae-il whispered.
"The script only says bread, doesn't it?"
"Ah, yes! If you look here......"
"It won't say what kind of bread. But with this much cream on it...... it'll get on me while I'm acting, won't it?"
"......Ah!"
Only then did the new crew member clap her hands.
The truth was that a senior had told her to buy bread so she had bought bread, and told her to set it so she had set it.
Nobody had taught her what kind of bread to buy.
"I-I'm sorry! I'll change it......"
Just then, the art team leader, having caught what was happening over here, came running.
He saw the table, his eyes went round and his voice went up.
"Hey-! What is this on the table......! Tae-il, sorry, I'm sorry! Hey! Are you not apologizing right now?!"
The art team leader's face had gone ash-colored.
At the sudden shouting Tae-il was bewildered, and then he caught the reason.
'Because it's Eun Tae-il the brat. Protecting his own, is it.'
The strategy of telling her off first, before Eun Tae-il could find fault, so the anger passes over.
And Eun Tae-il in particular was a petty man who did not let anyone else's mistake go generously......
Looking at the art team rookie bowing her head without knowing why, and her ash-colored team leader, Tae-il smiled at his leisure.
"It's all right, Director. We haven't even gone into the take."
"No, no! Hey! Get your head d......"
"I really am fine."
The small commotion passed, and the art team leader changed the bread on the plate for a clean baguette.
'Honestly...... it isn't something that happens in a short time.'
Tae-il confirmed the art team crew were watching his face for signs, and shrugged with a bitter expression.
The setup had just been finished when Yu Hye-in, ready now, stepped into the frame.
She greeted PD Choi, then saw Tae-il and waved with a bright face.
"There aren't many scenes, but look after me."
"I'm the one who should be asking. A total free ride today!"
That was the reason Yu Hye-in was so glad to see Eun Tae-il in particular.
Follow Tae-il's acting and good acting came out of her naturally.
"You say free ride, and you're wrung out every time we finish."
"Because it drains everything out of me. It's hard on the body......"
After a short chat, while the two of them were working out their paths, PD Choi came over with a worried face.
PD Choi spoke carefully, with a sigh.
"Look...... you two. I'm sorry, but the script has changed."
"Oh? Didn't you say they'd only change it a little to fit the new location?"
Yu Hye-in was puzzled, and PD Choi let out a breath.
"She checked the location and said it wouldn't do after all, and sent it again as a scrap script."
"Aww. Is a free ride so hard to get."
Yu Hye-in pushed her lips out and took the changed script.
Tae-il took the new script too, and went through it slowly.
And then......
"Wow, this......"
Reading the changed script, Yu Hye-in stopped short.
"Senior. This...... isn't in the original script at all."
Tae-il nodded too.
Originally it had ended with Do-hwan (Eun Tae-il) watching Yu-na (Yu Hye-in) from a distance and turning his head away.
Now it had been changed so that Yu-na (Yu Hye-in) spills a drink on Do-hwan (Eun Tae-il)'s clothes and a conversation follows.
Watching a flustered Yu Hye-in, Tae-il turned his eyes to PD Choi.
"I should report on this. PD Choi, sorry, but could you give me some time?"
"A lot of it would be hard."
"Twenty minutes will do."
With PD Choi's permission, Tae-il stood in front of the frame with Yu Hye-in.
'Writer Shin seems to be raising Do-hwan's share.'
Something went through Tae-il's head as he checked the script.