'What on earth is the scene supposed to be?'
PPL provokes resistance in viewers.
They already sit through the ads before, after and in the middle, and then you promote a product during the drama itself? Of course it feels like a liberty.
So what usually comes up as PPL is restaurants or clothes.
What people eat and wear jars comparatively less.
'The product is unusual too. What are noise-cancelling headphones.'
Kim Mi-ra told me the brand logo would be exposed for about twenty seconds.
And at the same time she swore up and down that the scene would be tremendously sad.
It feels like something grotesque is coming.
Kim Mi-ra said she had to wait for the advertiser's answer and asked me to give her about two days.
I tipped off CEO Kwon Do-gyeong about it as well. Unexpectedly, he looked troubled.
"Your image could get used up fast."
Is it because he's in the trade. He certainly puts his finger on what I miss.
He thought hard about it and said we should decide after the script came out.
That was only two days ago. I got up off the sofa and looked at the clock.
Eleven in the morning. Today is the day we leave on a family trip.
There is less than a week until the crank-in.
I should be putting on a burst of practice, but I decided to take a short rest.
Deciding to go on a trip was purely thanks to Choi Do-hyun's advice.
"Gang-woo. You're going to make it b-i-g, no question. Handsome face, good head on you, good at acting. The way I see it, you're going to be really, really successful."
Having been a child actor himself, he said the time he had not been able to spend with his parents was a lasting regret.
Choi Do-hyun was drunk and half of it was unintelligible, but the care behind it came through.
As it happened, what with adapting to a new life and practising my acting, I had let time with my family slide a little.
So the moment the after-party ended I proposed a trip to my parents.
The two of them carved time out of a schedule they did not have and decided to leave straight away.
Which is today.
My mother's voice came through from outside the room.
"Gang-woo, are you ready?"
"Yes, I'll be right out!"
I took my bag and went down to the underground car park. My father stopped in front of a strange car.
Then he spun the key around on his finger, turned back and grinned.
"......Dad, don't tell me this is our car?"
It's the car from the commercial I shot.
The latest SUV was gleaming in front of our house.
My father slapped the body of it as if he had been waiting for this day. Even his nostrils are flaring.
"Watching my son's commercial made me want one too. And it was about time to change the car anyway!"
"......It hasn't even been three years since we changed the car."
"Come on, it's in my son's commercial, I have to drive it."
"If I'd been in an apartment commercial would you buy a housing subscription too?"
"If it were possible, I would have?"
"Honey."
Mom glares at Dad. Wordless pressure, and Dad, feeling her eyes on him, spoke as if excusing himself.
"I did it out of jealousy. Jealousy."
"Jealousy?"
"Him being in a commercial. It made me jealous, is what."
My father muttered it like a sulking child.
"Your real dad's so busy he can't even go on a trip with his son, and then I turn on the TV and my son's off having fun with a fake dad. Do you know how much that stung, watching that?"
"......I'm raising two children here."
"Ah, what! You love it too!"
I let out a laugh.
'What kind of parent just goes and buys a car because his son was in a commercial......'
It was ridiculous, but I soon accepted it.
Because a fact I had forgotten came back to me.
'That's right. We're fairly well off.'
My mother is an astronomer, and my father runs a small company.
It has only been a few years since he founded it, and the business seems to be coming good.
My father, who had been stroking the car body like a treasure for a while, opened the door.
"Right, let's go!"
At Dad's word we all got into the car. I sat in the back seat and looked out of the window.
Morning sunlight came in through the glass.
The place we are travelling to is Chuncheon in Gangwon Province.
An observatory was included on the route. My mother, the astronomer, is the one who put it in.
My father said with a laugh.
"Don't you get sick of looking at stars every single day?"
"Not really? I just love the night sky that much."
"Mom looks at stars and our son is a star~ our family's a star family~"
"......"
"Not funny?"
He seemed to think it was a joke of a sort, but my mother gave him a sidelong look.
The line above her lip pinched tight.
"Gang-woo. If you ever go out on a shoot, don't tell jokes like that. If there's someone like your dad, just laugh for them and ignore it. If you keep playing along they'll keep it up, all right?"
"......That hurts."
My father and mother were bickering when a notification sounded on my mother's smartphone.
"What. Who is it?"
"CEO Kwon. Gang-woo. The script's out, apparently?"
"Really?"
"He says since we're travelling he'll hand over the physical script in person."
"The shoot isn't far off, is it?"
"Right, so he sent the digital file too. He's warning us it absolutely must not leak. Gang-woo. Do you want to look?"
What kind of scene has Kim Mi-ra made?
I nodded and reached for the smartphone.
"Yes."
"Stop right there."
My father blocked me.
"We came out to have fun, so working is banned. As far as busy goes, I'm the busiest one here, thank you."
"Come on. Let him look a little."
"Anyway, no."
I laughed at my father's firm command.
Through a slightly open gap in the window, the spring wind tickled my hair.
***
That evening, at the glamping site. We had decided to look at the stars before dawn, so I put my head down for a while.
I'm full, and pleasantly drowsy for the first time in ages.
I was lying in bed dawdling when the sound of my parents talking came from outside.
"Where's Gang-woo?"
"Still asleep. Should I wake him?"
"No. Let him sleep a bit longer."
"If he doesn't wake up we'll just go by ourselves."
I looked at the clock. Twelve, when the night sky is at its deepest.
We had decided to go up to a hill near the observatory.
A brief silence fell.
I was about to say I was awake when Mom went on. My ears pricked up.
"But listen, honey. Gang-woo's appearance fees add up to a fair amount."
"How much?"
"About this much."
Was it around two million won each? My father drew a breath, having apparently checked the figure.
"......That's an office worker's salary."
"Right. Would it be better to put it in savings?"
My mother asked it. My father did not answer for a while.
Something considering could be felt in his voice.
An unexpected answer came out.
"Savings isn't necessarily the answer."
"So we're going to touch this money? We can't do that."
"What I mean is, what if we build a sense of economics in him from an early age. Let him invest with the money he earned himself."
"Investment, you call it, but our influence gets into it. When Gang-woo does more work he'll get bigger fees than this — won't you get greedy?"
"I don't think I would. Your husband earns well."
"......Anyway, no. I'm in the savings camp."
My mother's tone was firm. This is exactly the point where having a child's body is inconvenient.
On matters where money is involved, I have little say.
I wondered whether to just follow my mother's wishes, then shook my head.
Savings will not do. Interest rates these days are not what they used to be, so it is better to put the money to work somehow.
'Why let future knowledge rot?'
Unable to hold it in, I came bursting out.
"Mom, can I do stocks with that?"
"......Stocks?"
The two of them looked at me in surprise.
"And I think buying land or something would be good too."
"You're talking about property, Gang-woo?"
"Yes!"
My father looked at my mother with a dumbfounded expression, as if demanding an explanation.
But my mother had already seen this side of me at the agency signing.
My mother asked.
"Did you see this on the internet too?"
"Yes."
"Where?"
"I don't remember......"
"......Does this child have a good head for the internet."
I thought about selling Choi Do-hyun out and decided to stick with playing dumb.
Because if she ever asked him about it later, that could get awkward.
My mother looked set against it, but my father's reaction was different.
"That's not bad, though?"
"I said I don't like it."
"It's Gang-woo's money. We can respect Gang-woo's opinion. All we have to do is open a securities account for him."
"......And if the child loses money he worked hard to earn."
"You can see that as part of an early education too. Better to experience it now than lose a large amount later."
My mother looked displeased, but she threw up both hands and both feet under the father-and-son offensive.
"Do as you like. But every month Mom is going to check that you're doing it properly."
"Yes."
She's going to be shocked when she sees the amount. I smiled faintly.
My father watched the two of us with a contented look and said.
"Then let's go out. If we're any later we won't get up tomorrow."
And so we arrived at the stargazing spot.
There was no fine dust and no city light, so the starlight in the night sky showed clearly.
I tipped my head back toward the night sky. Countless stars were set into the black.
Like diamonds scattered over black velvet.
"Gang-woo, look over there. That's the North Star."
At my mother's words I raised my head.
"Where?"
"There, the brightest star in the northern sky."
"The North Star is always in the same place, so they say it acted as a compass for people long ago."
"Oh...... is that Venus?"
"Venus isn't up now, it's after sunset. You're a Leo, aren't you? There's Leo over there."
My mother and father were reading the traces of those stars, but my mind was elsewhere.
'How much have I saved so far? Where was hot for property around this time?'
I counted the stars one by one and thought.
'......One star for Enridia, one star for Doge Coin, one star for the Gwanggyo new town.'
What should I do with the money I gather? The summit of being a fan is making the thing yourself, so should I make a film outright?
Turning this and that over, I counted through the Milky Way. Golden light was pouring down under the night sky.
***
"Gang-woo! Did you have a good trip?"
"Yes. Hello, boss!"
At last the first day of drama shooting dawned. Riding in Kwon Do-gyeong's car, we arrived at the KBC Drama Centre in Ilsan.
Stepping inside, the sense of a production under way came off it strongly.
The ceiling was full of lights strung along long runs of cable, and every time I walked down a corridor the scenery of the temporary sets flipped past.
A rich family's house, then a courtroom, then a lawyer's office.
Just looking around it could take an age.
"Gang-woo, what are you doing! Come on!"
They're calling me from the entrance. Today an important event takes place.
The gosa, the day they hold a rite before shooting so that the production may go without mishap.
'It's a mini-series and the scale isn't large, but......'
There was one thing that does not get left out.
A pig's head. The offerings the production team had prepared were laid out neatly on a table.
Fruit, rice cake, cups of drink, and in the centre a pig's head smiling broadly. PD Lee Jae-won called out.
"Everyone gather round!"
They make their bows and pass the cup around. The PD makes a half-bow with an exaggerated gesture.
And then he came out with a string of comical lines.
"Weather ghosts, outdoor-location-cancelling ghosts, please keep them off us! We're counting on you!"
At the tail end of the rite came the turn to put money in.
A staring contest began over who would put money in first.
Then somebody shouted.
"Isn't Gang-woo in charge of visuals, so shouldn't he go first?"
"That's true. He's the youngest, so it makes a good picture."
"Photographer! This one's important, take plenty of shots!"
The actors, one and all, called me over.
Choi Do-hyun came to me and handed me money. A wad of fifty-thousand-won notes. It looked like about three hundred thousand.
The PD shouted.
"Right! Let's make a killing!"
In that instant the camera flashes went off.
Click—.
enters its crank-in.
It was the beginning of shooting in earnest.