Interest came into the investors' eyes too as they looked at Tae-il.
"If you show all of it that early, what happens to the ratings in the back half?"
"That...... will have to be left to the others. It is Flower Boy House, after all."
"Ahem......"
The investors made small coughing sounds.
Investors cannot help being as sensitive to viewer reaction as the production team.
One of the investors, a man with pomaded hair, adjusted his glasses and nodded slightly.
"There was a reason your name kept coming up."
"Thank you for the compliment."
He turned his eyes to CP Seong, who had been fidgeting with his hands.
"So that was the intention, CP Seong."
"Ah...... yes. That's right."
"You could have said something to us as well. We were worried."
CP Seong, whose heart had been in his throat, laughed awkwardly.
If he had put it across that way, there is no telling what would have happened.
What was remarkable was the man speaking so calmly, as though he had predicted the outcome.
The investors took CP Seong's hand as he laughed awkwardly.
"We can talk about what comes after once we see the result. We're counting on you, CP Seong. And on our Seong-jin."
Then the investors shook hands with Kang Seong-jin and Yu Hye-in too, and moved away from the location.
When they had vanished from the location entirely, Writer Shin let out a long breath.
"Tae-il. No, Eun Tae-il. Open your stomach up, let me see the size of your gall. Do you not know who that man is?"
"Director Ha Yeong-u of Hartel C&C."
Hartel C&C, the production and planning arm under the giant management company Hartel Entertainment.
Hartel C&C was where the money Hartel Ent made managing actors went into investing in and producing work.
The money C&C invests is considerable, so its pull carries a long way in the industry.
The Director Ha who had come today was the real power there.
'Director Ha tends to back industry people. If his older brother had come, he'd have tried to take the initiative.'
Past experience went through his head.
If it had been the older brother rather than Director Ha, he would have come at it another way.
'If he talks like that and it goes wrong, that side won't sit still either. I can't tell whether the gall is big or what it is.'
CP Seong's thinking as he looked at Tae-il was complicated, and right now there was shooting to do.
Fiddling with the megaphone, CP Seong jerked his chin at the frame.
"Let's move! We've a long way to go."
The camera setup changed and shooting resumed.
Having checked that the frame was pulled right in on the actors, CP Seong gave the sign.
"......Action!"
The sound of the slate spread, and Do-hwan (Eun Tae-il) looked down at Ju-hwan (Kang Seong-jin).
"......Cha Ju-hwan."
"D-Do-hwan hyung?"
Ju-hwan (Kang Seong-jin)'s flustered face came through the monitor vividly.
Watching his expression closely, CP Seong ran a hand over his mouth and stood.
"Cut. Seong-jin, it's awkward. The eyes especially."
"Ah, yes. I'll try it again."
Tae-il was opening his mouth wide and closing it to loosen the muscles of his face when Kang Seong-jin grumbled.
"Do you never give an NG, hyung? Watching you is like watching a robot......"
"You give one before I get the chance to."
"Stop the assault by fact......"
CLACK—
After the short exchange, the sound of the slate spread again.
Tae-il's loosened expression went cold and set as though it had never been otherwise.
"......Cha Ju-hwan."
Facing Do-hwan (Eun Tae-il), Ju-hwan (Kang Seong-jin) hesitated a moment.
The next line would not come out of him at all.
'H-he's frightening......'
The warm look of a moment ago was gone, and he was being looked down at by eyes with no feeling in them at all.
As though at a mortal enemy.
"......H-hyung?"
Ju-hwan (Kang Seong-jin)'s eyes shook as he looked at Do-hwan (Eun Tae-il), and the muscles of his face trembled too.
"......The CEO is, Ju-hwan, your brother?"
Yu-na (Yu Hye-in)'s eyes shook badly as well.
Do-hwan (Eun Tae-il) watched the two of them waver as though sneering.
"I have no brother like that."
Watching Kang Seong-jin and Yu Hye-in sink into it, CP Seong leaned toward the monitor a little at a time.
The boom had come close to the frame, and the live voices came through exactly as they were.
On the monitor, Kang Seong-jin's shaken expression, pulled right in, was laid bare.
"......Okay! Seong-jin is okay. Over Seong-jin onto Hye-in."
The camera setup shifted slightly and the sound of the slate spread again.
With his face muscles loosened, Kang Seong-jin let his face tremble properly and carried the performance through.
"......The CEO is, Ju-hwan, your brother?"
Yu Hye-in sent a thick, shaken look out too.
Loaded with a confusion different from Kang Seong-jin's.
Watching the monitor closely, CP Seong nodded easily.
"Cut. Hye-in, the expression's good."
"Thank you, CP."
Yu Hye-in ran over to the monitor to look at what she had just done.
Ju-hwan (Kang Seong-jin), frightened by Do-hwan (Eun Tae-il)'s cold eyes, and a confused Yu-na (Yu Hye-in) went past inside the monitor.
Watching Yu-na (Yu Hye-in) shaking with confusion on the monitor, Yu Hye-in made a short pained sound.
"......Let me do it once more."
"Hm? I think what we've got is fine?"
CP Seong was puzzled, and Yu Hye-in looked back toward Tae-il and ran a hand over the back of her head.
"I don't think this much is going to be anywhere near enough. And I feel as though I could do more......"
CP Seong could tell.
That Yu Hye-in, as much as Kang Seong-jin, was being pushed by Eun Tae-il.
'Better pictures are going to come out from here.'
He stopped the crew, who had been about to pull the cable, and CP Seong called for the take again.
Of course he did.
Because it seemed that doing it again would produce better acting.
"Action-!"
Tae-il's gently smiling expression went cold and set.
The look in Yu Hye-in's eyes, which had been shaking badly a moment ago, shook faintly.
"......The CEO is, Ju-hwan, your brother?"
This time the faint shake turned gradually into a larger one.
As though the wavering grew worse as the seconds passed, showing on her face.
Reacting to her, Tae-il threw the line out without feeling.
"......I have no brother like that."
CP Seong, PD Choi, Writer Shin, all of them wearing headsets.
At the same moment, they looked at one another.
As though they had all agreed on it, they were nodding.
CP Seong shot to his feet.
"Okay! Last one, we go with Eun Tae-il."
CP Seong had barely finished before Kang Seong-jin and Yu Hye-in collapsed into their chairs.
In a short space, they had spent a great deal of feeling.
Tae-il came to stand in front of the two of them, resting with their shoulders down.
"Just feed me the lines."
This cut was a close single on Tae-il alone.
With the lines fed to him, there would be no trouble performing.
Kang Seong-jin blinked at him.
"Come on, we should do it properly."
"It's fine. You won't even be in the frame......"
"You did it properly for us."
Yu Hye-in thought the same as Kang Seong-jin.
The setup finished soon, and Tae-il stood in front of the frame alone.
Kang Seong-jin stood where the frame would not reach, and Yu Hye-in stood at a point where she just caught it.
It was a cut shooting Tae-il over Yu Hye-in's shoulder.
"Tae-il. Over Hye-in, and the next line."
"Yes."
"Ready, actioooon-!"
With CP Seong's sign, the sound of the slate spread.
Sunk into Do-hwan, Tae-il laid the look in his eyes down cold.
"It suits you, the two of you."
"N-no, it isn't. We aren't that sort of......"
"People flock to their own kind. Looking at the two of you, it's like a painting."
At Do-hwan (Eun Tae-il)'s sarcasm, Yu-na (Yu Hye-in)'s voice sharpened.
"Ah, so the CEO is so very fine that he looks down on people. A good house, a good background. You have all of it, so you passively treat people as......"
"......"
Tae-il turned his eyes toward Kang Seong-jin.
Kang Seong-jin, holding his place quietly, flinched at the edged look and shook.
Tae-il looked coldly down at him for a moment.
"Ah...... pfft......!"
"Cut!"
Perhaps the look in Tae-il's eyes was too much of a weight.
Kang Seong-jin's laugh slipped in and made it an NG.
Realizing his mistake, Kang Seong-jin hurried his head down.
"I'm sorry. I'm so......"
"The mood was good......"
The good flow could easily have been broken there.
But when CP Seong looked at the monitor, Tae-il was already preparing, and Yu Hye-in and Kang Seong-jin were taking their places to match him.
'Good sense with it. Not bad at all?'
CP Seong raised a hand, and the red light came on again.
"......"
Tae-il looked steadily down at Kang Seong-jin with cold eyes.
'......That isn't Eun Tae-il, that's Do-hwan. Do-hwan.'
Kang Seong-jin met Tae-il's eyes too.
He had meant not to look, frightened the laughter would break out again, and his body reacted automatically.
And so.
One, two, three.
Three short, long seconds went by.
"......Cut! Okay! We're moving."
"We're moving!"
With CP Seong's okay, the AD's ringing voice spread through the location.
Only then did the tension go out of everyone's faces.
An emotional scene with an investors' visit on top of it; it had not been an easy shoot.
Tae-il comforted a Yu Hye-in and a Kang Seong-jin whose shoulders had dropped without strength.
"Good work."
"That's a greeting the leads should be making first."
"Enough, enough...... Between us, who cares who says it first...... right, oppa?"
Unlike an apologetic Kang Seong-jin, Yu Hye-in waved a hand as though it were all fine.
Both their faces held a sense of having done it, mixed with exhaustion.
Tae-il stretched.
"Hye-in. When is it oppa and when is it senior?"
"Now, let's not fuss over small things."
Yu Hye-in waved a hand as though it made no difference to her.
While the actors were talking, Team Leader Ong came over.
In his hands were water and a towel.
"Thank you."
Kang Seong-jin recognized Team Leader Ong and his eyes went round.
'Who is that?'
'Casting director, Team Leader Ong......'
Yu Hye-in blinked.
Team Leader Ong bowed his head to Kang Seong-jin and the others and turned.
"Let's move. Then......"
Tae-il and Team Leader Ong headed for the car park.
When they reached the car, a man was waiting for them.
"You're late. Time is money."
The man pacing in front of the car grumbled as he looked at Tae-il.
Recognizing him, Tae-il's eyes sharpened.
"Director Ha?"
"So you knew who I was. Eun Tae-il."
"I'm an actor."
The investor who had thrown the volley of questions at Tae-il earlier: Ha Yeong-u, director of Hartel C&C.
Looking at Tae-il, he turned his eyes to the side and tilted his head as though he found it remarkable.
"But...... this really is unexpected, Ong Jin. To think you were moving with Eun Tae-il."
"......It's been a while."
"Is this the first time since Na-eun's transfer?"
Unlike Team Leader Ong, whose face was complicated, Director Ha was at his leisure.
"So you're taking on management again, Ong Jin. Tsk...... I'll cheer you on, at any rate."
Director Ha clicked his tongue and turned his eyes to Tae-il.
"I meant to give you this earlier, and I thought it might get in the way of your acting...... So I waited here."
[Hartel Ent. Director Ha Yeong-u]
Decorated with an elegant pattern, it was Director Ha's business card.
Taking the card, Tae-il asked politely.
"May I ask the reason you're giving me this?"
"Better to make it clear, wouldn't you say."
Director Ha's eyes curved, and the smile on his mouth deepened.
"I want to scout you to our Hartel Ent, Eun Tae-il. Come to us. We'll make you the finest actor there is."