"Ready, action!"
At PD Song's signal, Han Jae-hui and Kim Jeong-woo carried the acting on.
"Let's eat tteokbokki!"
"Hey...... tteokbokki again today?"
"What's wrong with tteokbokki! I found another place that does it well, all right?"
Han Jae-hui played it loud and brash, Kim Jeong-woo steady, and between them they pulled the scene along.
They carried the show, and there was nothing to fault in the acting.
Standing behind the camera, Tae-il watched them.
'Han Jae-hui really does bring the character to life. Kim Jeong-woo isn't bad either.'
The one driving the chemistry between them was Han Jae-hui.
Mostly it went Han Jae-hui acting and Kim Jeong-woo reacting, and that was how the two of them built it.
'Han Jae-hui has hold of the initiative. But......'
Perhaps it was because the colour of Han Jae-hui's acting was so strong.
Kim Jeong-woo's acting was being buried under her character and losing its light.
PD Song knew it too, and he was not pointing it out.
'People like Han Jae-hui more. A PD has no choice but to put his weight there.'
How do you keep from being buried under Han Jae-hui?
Watching the two of them work, Tae-il thought it through.
"Taking a break!"
The morning's shooting ended, and the break came.
The AD's voice had barely finished spreading when cigarette smoke went up on every side.
'Can't be smoking again.'
Tae-il took gum out of his pocket instead of a cigarette.
If you asked him for the hardest hour on a set, it was this one.
He had to stand and watch the smoke go up like chimneys all around him.
Whether or not he knew what was going on in Tae-il's head, the camera director held out a cigarette.
"Want one?"
"I quit, Director."
"What? Why quit something this good. Like an idiot."
The camera director snorted and blew smoke into the air.
Tae-il chewed his gum and rode the craving out.
The craving seemed to have been carved into his soul; his body was asking hard for nicotine.
But for the best possible condition, Tae-il had decided that smoking, at least, was out.
The camera director lit another off the first and blew out more smoke.
"You're matching with Han Jae-hui later, aren't you?"
"Yes."
"That'll be worth watching. She's not ordinary, that girl. Not her temper and not her acting."
The camera director cackled that Han Jae-hui was an even bigger handful than Kim Jeong-woo.
Whatever he made of it, Tae-il only smiled evenly.
The camera director left, and Tae-il was resting a moment when he felt someone behind him.
"Um...... hello, senior."
He turned, and there was Im Ha-na, the rookie actress he had matched with last week.
"Senior. Did you watch last week's broadcast?"
"I did. You came out looking beautiful, Ha-na. Especially......"
Im Ha-na shook her head at the compliment.
"Me, yes, but...... did you see the homepage? Everyone talking about you."
"That's because you took it so well, Ha-na."
"No, it isn't. I think I'd have been the same."
Watching the short stretch she had shot with Tae-il, Im Ha-na had been very surprised too.
She had not known she was looking at him with an expression that shy in the footage.
Like a freshman fallen for a senior she thought was wonderful.
"Ha-na. When do you shoot?"
"Me? Looking at the order, I think my turn is a way off, but......"
"If you don't mind, shall we run it together?"
Im Ha-na's face brightened.
After that, for a good long while, the two of them worked it through together.
The day darkened before they knew it, and the shooting team moved indoors.
"......Is Han Jae-hui all right?"
Sitting in a corner of the lecture room, PD Song crumpled his face.
Han Jae-hui had gone in to get ready and then announced she had sudden indigestion, and for an hour now she had not come out of her van.
"She says a little rest should sort it out......"
"Sudden indigestion my foot. What the hell is she pulling now? Haa......"
PD Song pressed at his temples.
She had shot perfectly well up to the afternoon, and there was no way of knowing what had displeased her into throwing a tantrum.
'Let's get home.'
'I don't want to be dissolving into daylight.'
The ones shuddering hardest were the crew.
Something useless like this happened every single time they worked with Han Jae-hui, and it left the crew boiling.
To soothe them, Han Jae-hui's manager went about bent double like a flip phone.
'Her Highness has arrived.'
Tae-il clicked his tongue.
How celebrities who behaved like this when they got famous ended up was a NooTube clip you did not need to watch.
Another hour went by.
"I'm sorry, PD Song. I felt so unwell......"
As though she knew nothing about any of it, Han Jae-hui appeared on set with a bright, open face.
PD Song pressed the boil down and sat in front of the monitor.
"......You're ill, what can I do. Get ready."
"Yes!"
Tae-il had been standing by, and when he stepped into frame Han Jae-hui's eyes went round.
"Senior Eun?! It really was you? Wow......!"
"Look after me, Jae-hui."
This was his first meeting with Han Jae-hui, and Tae-il kept it courteous.
Han Jae-hui held a smile in her mouth and tipped her head gently to one side.
"What am I going to do, senior...... I didn't want to see you like this."
"What do you mean?"
"I really did like you, senior...... and your part doesn't even have a name......"
It was not clean sadness. There was a jeer mixed into it.
Under the concerned expression, a thick sneer sat on Han Jae-hui's face.
'Kim Jeong-woo and this one both. Birds of a feather, as they say.'
He was about to say something when PD Song's voice came from the monitor.
"Ready? We're rolling!"
"Yes!"
Han Jae-hui answered loudly and gave Tae-il a smile of pure triumph.
'She plays it fairly cute.'
The red light came on.
Tae-il was just leaving the lecture room when Han Jae-hui stopped in front of him.
"Is it you? The bastard who conned our youngest?"
"Who are you? Let go of......"
"Let go of what. You! You conned our girl."
Han Jae-hui's voice went up, and the extras waiting around began to mutter and crowd in.
With the frame holding the whole space wide, Han Jae-hui grabbed Tae-il by the collar.
'Hm?'
Tae-il glared at her.
Grabbing his collar was not in the script.
But matching your partner's ad-lib is an actor's job too.
Then something came flying at Tae-il's face.
THWAP—!
Tae-il caught it, fast.
"Tch......!"
With her hand caught in Tae-il's, Han Jae-hui pulled the corner of her mouth up in a sneer.
"Cut! Hey! Han Jae-hui!"
Of course the NG call came.
PD Song came running, shaken out of his skin.
"Hey! Have you lost your mind?! What do you think you're doing to your partner!?"
"I just...... I was in it and the emotion got away from me...... I'm sorry!"
Eyes shaking, Han Jae-hui hurried to throw her arms around Tae-il.
But Tae-il could see it.
The look she gave him, as though she had missed.
'Ah, the whole thing's obvious.'
However far the emotion runs away with you, an actor rarely raises a hand to another actor's face.
And should not.
"It happens in the middle of a scene. It's all right, PD Song."
"If Tae-il says it's all right...... Jae-hui, do what's in the script and nothing else!"
"Yes, PD Song. I'll be careful."
Han Jae-hui even welled up, and PD Song's anger did not go down easily.
Tae-il got out of her arms and calmed the huffing PD Song.
"Let's get our breath and go again."
The shoot resumed.
With the crowd gathering around them, Han Jae-hui looked up at Tae-il with a face worked to a pitch.
"You! You conned our......"
WHOOSH—!
Faster than before, before the line was even out, Han Jae-hui's hand came flying at Tae-il's face.
'Obvious.'
SNAP—!
As though he had known all along, Tae-il snatched her hand out of the air.
PD Song kicked his chair back and came to his feet at the monitor.
"Cu......"
He was about to call NG, and he stopped.
Because with Han Jae-hui's arm caught in his hand, Tae-il had sunk himself all the way into the moment.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"Huh? L-let go of that?! You......!"
"I'll report you to the police for assault. You......"
"Y-you......! You conned my little sister and sold her those tickets!"
Dragging the caught arm down, Tae-il drove his lines through.
Han Jae-hui did not want to be dragged, and she could not cut the take either.
Cutting it now would be admitting she had genuinely meant to hit Tae-il's face.
'Eun Tae-il...... Well, well.'
PD Song, who had kicked his chair back, felt a laugh escape him.
The Eun Tae-il he knew would have done well not to throw a punch in a situation like this.
And here he was, turning his partner's malice into the performance instead.
'Eun Tae-il is doing quite well today as well.'
'W-Writer Lee? What brings you here at this hour?'
Feeling someone there, PD Song turned and his eyes went wide.
Behind him, Writer Lee was chewing gum and watching the monitor.
At this hour she should normally be pushing her horn-rimmed glasses about and writing a script.
'There is no bearing the curiosity. A bit part walks up to the writer and says he wants to know his character.'
'Eun Tae-il is interesting, I'll give you that.'
'Exactly. But what is Han Jae-hui doing? I never said an ad-lib could put a hand on her partner's face.'
Writer Lee's fine brows twisted.
However generous she was with an ad-lib, that did not mean anyone could put a mark on a partner's face.
Whether or not he knew what was happening at the monitor, Tae-il was still down inside the moment.
"......Calm down. Let's go outside and talk about it."
"C-calm down, like hell! So you do know how to be ashamed."
"Sis! Please, stop it!"
Im Ha-na, the youngest daughter, had stepped back a pace, and now she shouted.
Tae-il and Han Jae-hui, and the extras too, turned their eyes to her.
"I told you it wasn't like that! How am I supposed to go to school now, I'm so humiliated!"
"Hey...... your sister has it all handled......"
"Handled what! Senior, I'm sorry. Come out. Now."
Im Ha-na, huffing, caught Han Jae-hui's hand and pushed through the crowd, pulling her out of frame.
Tae-il blinked and watched the two of them, and Han Jae-hui was dragged off by Im Ha-na with a flustered face.
When the two women had disappeared into the crowd, PD Song raised a hand.
"Okay. Cut!"
The moment the red light went out, PD Song came running at the actors.
"Senior......! My wrist, what am I supposed to do about this? Ugh......"
Han Jae-hui bared a wrist gone red and pulled a face fit to cry.
It was the mark left by Tae-il gripping her that hard, sunk into the scene.
"Hey! Han Jae-hui! Have you lost your mind? Who told you to put a hand on an actor's face? Who!?"
But a red wrist was never going to reach PD Song's eyes.
Faced with a PD Song who had properly blown, Han Jae-hui went ash-colored.
"P-PD Song?"
"In it, were you? Hey. I can see perfectly well you were trying to serve Eun Tae-il one. Where do you get off playing it that thin?"
Hit with a blow she had not seen coming, Han Jae-hui shook from head to foot.