Life, Once Again!

“The director is looking at us.”

“I slightly bit my tongue when I said my line, did he notice that? Man, he has the ears of a bat.”

Dongho avoided Park Hoon’s gaze and turned around. Joomin also seemed to have done something wrong as she was fidgeting while pulling on the net on the goal.

“I think both of you did pretty well though,” Maru said as he turned around with the script.

He personally didn’t find anything wrong with the two people’s acting. Dongho said that he screwed up his line slightly, but from how the director didn’t stop the shoot and continued, it was either a small mistake that the director didn’t mind or a mistake that looked natural even through the camera. The director wasn’t someone who would be okay with mistakes in his work, so the fact that he continued rolling the camera without stopping it signified that there were no problems.

In fact, what caught Maru’s eye was Yeseul’s acting. At the beginning of the shoot, she was clearly way too tense, and now she looked way too loose. She seemed to be trying to show herself as an actress who can do things at a leisurely pace, but to Maru, she looked like an athlete after running at full speed. There was no way the director couldn’t notice her bad acting. The fact that he called out Giwoo and Yeseul privately was probably to warn them.

The reason Yeseul couldn’t act properly was probably due to the fans that came here to see her. Maru had a look at the students who peeked from everywhere throughout the shooting set despite the shouts from the assistant director. There were fans who passionately cheered for her. It wasn’t that he couldn’t understand why Yeseul was slightly agitated. It was an actor’s desire to do well in front of an audience. Perhaps it couldn’t be helped that Yeseul couldn’t get used to the change in atmosphere on the shooting set. It was the director’s job to set her straight and guide her down the right path since he was responsible for the whole shoot.

“They’re still here,” Dongho said as he looked at Yeseul’s fans.

They were waving panels that contained Yeseul’s name, character by character, above their heads. They seemed to have some sort of a fan chant as well. He couldn’t hear it because he was too far away, but he could definitely make out the three characters Ahn, Ye, and Seul. Despite being girls, their voices sure were loud. Maru thought that they should strive to be singers.

“What’s so good about Ahn Yeseul? And why are they all girls? Don’t girls usually have guy fans?”

“You don’t get it. The most loyal fans are mostly women. Why do you think TV stations usually target women in their 20s and 30s when they make their programs? It’s because men don’t open their wallets that easily. Girls, however, open their wallets without hesitation for the content they like,” Joomin said.

“You know a lot, noona. So you used to chase around actors like that too, huh?”

“Well, it wasn’t for an actor, but I did camp outside a TV station to see a singer I liked. That was back in middle school.”

“Wow, you were a girl too, huh? I thought you were a bro until now.”

“Hey, if you don’t fix your attitude, you’ll live alone for your entire life. This noona is advising you out of concern. You don’t want to go to the afterlife after living a solitary life without a girlfriend, do you?”

Dongho became quiet. He probably felt something from that. Maru faintly smiled and walked up to the two.

“Looks like the shoot should begin soon. Give me the cups, I’ll put them away.”

He got the empty cups from Dongho and Joomin and placed them behind the goalpost. It was outside the camera frame.

“Actors, please stand by! We’re resuming the shoot!”

The camera started moving left and right on the rails. The camera director checked the camera feed before looking at Park Hoon. Maru saw some hand signals between the two. It seemed that they were ready.

“Dongho, have fun out there.”

“God, this will be tiring.”

This scene was a soccer scene. It was a mixed-gender match, and they just had to run around with the background actors who had been waiting since morning. As for Maru, perhaps due to his character’s personality, he was given the role of the goalkeeper. Thanks to that, he could stay comfortable at the goalpost and just get into posture whenever the camera looked at him.

“Hey, it’s going your way!”

“Run!”

The ball was mostly passed between Giwoo, Jichan, and Dongho. The camera busily slid across the rails to capture the three. After that, the ball was passed to Yeseul who started dribbling by herself. She looked pretty cool when she kicked the ball once and started running after it with all of her might. Pretty girls looked pretty no matter what they did. She seemed to have done some sports when she was young as her running posture looked quite convincing. Okseon and Joomin marked each other and were at odds even when neither of them had the ball. The writer seemed to think that it was interesting to put these two together as they seemed to be at odds with each other quite often in recent episodes. This was on top of the conflicting relationship between Yeseul and Okseon.

Removed from the fierce and flowery atmosphere was Siwoo, who was running on the school field with a dejected expression. As he had the role of the transfer student who’s getting bullied, he was, directly and indirectly, being bullied by the other kids. The three main characters, Yeseul, Jichan, and Giwoo were unrelated to the bullying. The main characters had to be cool even when they were evil. However bullying was an act of maliciousness that could not be packaged with the word ‘cool’, so the main characters weren’t directly related to Siwoo’s bullying problem yet.

After running around, the actors all stopped. While everyone caught their breaths, Siwoo’s acting began. The minor actors, like Siwoo, had joined for the bullying episode and they all pushed Siwoo as they ran past him. They were the perpetrators of the bullying. Siwoo, who tried to participate in the whole match with his classmates until the end, was eventually pushed out of the field. Siwoo looked at the others running inside the field like a lighthouse on a solitary island. The camera, which had filmed the whole process, stopped in front of Siwoo and the director made a cut there. Maru stretched his body out as he walked towards the center of the field.

“Han Maru, don’t you think that you have it too easy?”

“I want to just stand there too, doing nothing.”

“Maru, wanna switch?”

The main characters all spoke to him. Maru shrugged before looking at the director, who was coming towards them.

“You were good, everyone. It does look better now that you all aren’t being conscious of the camera. Jichan, you seem to have kicked some balls when you were little, huh?”

“Yes. I quite like soccer.”

“I’m planning to add a scene where you dribble with the ball, so have fun kicking the ball from the goal line to the half-line. Dongho and Giwoo should take either side. You can shoot too, right?”

“Yes!”

“That’s some good confidence. Han Maru, you bored?”

“No, I like it this way.”

“Today, you look like you’re having an easier time than me.”

“This isn’t bad from time to time.”

Park Hoon chuckled before continuing,

“After we shoot the shooting scene at the goal, we’re going to switch over to the faucet scene. There, the three of you will find out that something bad is happening to Siwoo. Now, you gotta bring that part to life. It’s not a conviction, but a suspicion. I’m going to close in on your faces, so don’t put on too much makeup. I know that the boys put a lot of strength when washing their hair, but wash your hair so that it looks like you’re taking it easy.”

“Yes.”

“Let’s finish things off nicely before we eat lunch. Now, get ready for the shoot. Oh, Han Maru. Try clenching your fists and jump.”

Maru clenched his fists while wearing the goalkeeper gloves and jumped. He even shouted ‘yes!’ in an energetic voice.

“Good, we’re going to take a cut of that, so do exactly that. Well then, get into positions!”

The director went back to his monitoring position.

“You get a cut too, huh?”

Dongho came up to Maru and giggled. Maru smacked Dongho’s chin with his fist.

“You go do your thing.”

“Fine, I’ll run around like hell.”

The shoot resumed amidst a liberating atmosphere. There was an energy of freedom from the kids who ran around with all their might without being conscious of the camera. Some of them couldn’t have ordinary school lives because of their work as actors and those people seemed to be really enjoying this moment as they just laughed even when they fell over before getting up and running again. The director did not shout cut and captured everything on video. He looked pretty satisfied.

After dribbling the ball and shooting it into the net, Jichan caught his breath while Maru was being shot. There were no detailed instructions and it seemed that the cut would only be used as a montage. Maru decided to jump high and cheerfully and bring out the most of Lee Chan’s personality. Maru did just as the director instructed him to. He jumped with all his might and then fidgeted in embarrassment.

“Well then, let’s clean up and go to the next part.”

The staff moved the equipment in a hurry. It was 1 p.m. They would only be able to eat after finishing this scene. The actors gathered at the faucet area installed in one corner of the school field. They washed their faces and hair just as the director told them to. The girls had water sprayed onto their hair since they could not tolerate their hair looking like seaweed.

“Siwoo, you’re going to have to fall back. You can do that, right?”

“Yes.”

A camera was located behind Siwoo. There was a mattress right below the camera, and the opposing actor just had to push Siwoo over and Siwoo would fall onto the mattress.

The progression was pretty fast since it was right before lunch time. After doing one rehearsal, Park Hoon started the shoot immediately.

Maru stood opposite Siwoo and observed his expression. Personally speaking, he quite liked Siwoo’s acting. His movements were clean without any unnecessary movements and his pronunciation was clear. Leaving aside a unique character, there was a lot to learn from him when it came to acting skill alone.

Siwoo was pushed back and he fell over. As expected of an idol who had a harsh training regime, he had no hesitation when he fell over. Siwoo fell over on the mat and he stood up again when the director gave the cut sign.

“Siwoo, I like that you don’t have any hesitation, but you’re trying to show off too much. Remember that you’re supposed to get pushed powerlessly and then fall because you misstep. It’s not about falling over in a cool fashion.”

“Ah, yes.”

“Good, let’s do that again.”

They did the same shoot and the director once again shouted cut with a sour expression.

“Song Siwoo. Come over here.”

The director looked at Siwoo and the monitor alternately. They talked about something and Siwoo’s expression didn’t look that good.

“Can you do that again?”

“Yes.”

“Alright. Let’s do that once again and go with the best one.”

Please take care of me - Siwoo said to the opposing actor before falling over on the mattress again. This time, he seemed to have pushed off quite strongly unlike before. The director shook his head as soon as Siwoo landed on the mattress.

“You’re overdoing it. Let’s just go with the one before. Still, you did well. Let’s wrap things up and have lu….”

Park Hoon paused mid-way. Maru was stretching his arms out, wondering what the menu was for lunch when he noticed a stare from Park Hoon, which made him blink several times.

“Hey, Han Maru.”

“Yes.”

“You’re good with your body, aren’t you? I think I heard something about you.”

“I’m not that good.”

“So you are good to a certain extent. Hey, take your glasses off and stand in front of the camera. You know how to fall over, right?”

“Do I just have to fall over?”

“If you know, then do it.”

It seemed that Park Hoon didn’t like the cuts he took. Maru took his glasses off and handed them to Dongho before standing in front of the camera. His hairstyle was similar to Siwoo’s so it wouldn’t look that strange if it was just the back figure that was being filmed. His build was slightly larger, but it would only last an instant, so that shouldn’t be a problem either.

“One, two, three, cue!”

At the signal, Maru took a step back before falling down. He imagined that the mattress wasn’t there and twisted his body as much as possible. When falling over, a person was bound to reach out towards the ground. There was no one who just fell over on their backs. The white mattress reached his face. Maru was now lying down on his stomach when he heard Park Hoon’s voice.

“Hey, that’s good. Let’s go get lunch!”

Park Hoon tapped Maru’s head.