Life, Once Again!

After Story 145

It was a break day from shooting for him. On days without a schedule, he would often go looking for local bookstores. These days, it was quite hard to look for bookstores operated by individuals, as there were many places that couldn’t even last a year before closing down. Online bookstores were so convenient that there was just no competition.

That was why he felt incredibly happy when he came across small bookstores in unfamiliar places.

He had heard that there were individual bookstores in Daegu, he had been excited since the morning when he had heard that the bookstores helped independent publishing.

He drove there early in the morning and saw that the bookstore was filled with traces of human presence. The owner’s recommendation memo could be seen above every book.

He took a deep breath of the smell that only these kinds of old bookstores could make and put some books into the bag he brought.

Now that he bought some books, the only thing left now was to go back to the hotel and read those books under some air conditioning, which would create a satisfactory rest day.

However, when he came to, he found himself at the shoot.

He looked up at the gloomy rainclouds before approaching Maru, who was doing a rehearsal.

Up until this point, Kim Hyuk himself did not know why he didn’t take a break and came here instead. He just told Maru that he was here to help.

Without knowing the reason, he waited for the shoot to begin. The books he placed in the passenger seat of his car came to his mind.

Why was he here? It didn’t matter even if he wasn’t here for this scene.

Then, the light started blinking on the camera. He raised his phone in a place where he could see the side of Maru’s face. Since he was here anyway, he wanted to do it properly.

Maru, who was inside the car, got out.

The assistant director told him the timing of the phone call. He looked for Maru’s phone number and placed his finger above the call button.

He pressed the call button when Maru staggered and approached Beomseok. Maru received the call.

He heard Maru’s voice over the phone. His breathing was ragged, and his voice sounded frustrated. It was very good emotional acting. He felt like he could picture the scene based on the voice alone. He turned around to take the call.

He wanted this to feel more genuine. He controlled the level of emotions according to the information that Maru transmitted to him.

After the urgent phone call, Kim Hyuk took his phone off his ears and turned around.

Acting was something abstract and couldn’t be assessed easily. It should be nearly impossible to make an objective score chart for every single person.

However, it was too easy to differentiate between proficient and awkward acting.

Maru was undeniably on the proficient side. His breathing, his gaze, and his hand gestures were just on the necessary level. He was proficient in everything that Kim Hyuk could see. As for how difficult that was to do, he knew just how difficult. Not to mention major elements of acting like expression and vocalization, Maru was delicately precise down to the trivial elements.

Those elements by themselves might not seem like anything much, but a perfect combination of those things from one person in one scene would increase the density of the act.

Maru was the only one on screen. It was also a scene where his emotions were bared for the audience to see.

Without power from the actor, it was bound to feel loose, but Maru was striking with movement after movement as though he did not plan to let go of the eyes that were glued to him.

How would it feel to watch this scene on a big screen? Kim Hyuk imagined the audience looking at the screen in a daze, forgetting to eat their popcorn.

When Gomchi breathes in, they would breathe in, and when Gomchi breathes out, they would breathe out….

Maru dragged Beomseok and stuffed him into the car. Even though it wouldn’t be strange if the cut was divided up here, there was no stopping. It seemed that the director was planning a different kind of style.

Beomseok, who was acting as a corpse, was having a hard time as well. His left hand was hit by the door frame when Maru stuffed him into the car, but he didn’t flinch.

Maru probably didn’t even know that Beomseok was hurt. His eyes looked like he was absorbed in acting. He was probably thinking that he had just put away a cold corpse, and not that it was Beomseok.

Maru leaned against the car and fell down. The camera shot Maru from above. The faintly blurry atmosphere set up the mood. His figure, which looked like it was being pressed down under a sense of guilt, was pretty okay.

Maru, who breathed heavily for a few seconds, suddenly paled and looked behind him.

A sound could be heard from the car. His widened eyes scanned the surroundings without being able to focus. Gomchi’s psychology of not being able to look into the car was revealed on the surface.

The hesitant Maru cautiously opened the car door and looked inside. The camera portrayed him as he did so.

It shot over Maru’s shoulders and at Beomseok who was lying down on the back seat. Beomseok, who was flinching, let out a faint breath.

Maru’s ragged breathing became calm. He froze as though time had stopped. It was a stark contrast to Beomseok, who was breathing albeit faintly.

He wanted to see them from up front. However, the camera only shot Maru’s back still.

What kind of sounds would the headphones that the director was wearing produce? There was quite a bit of distance, so he couldn’t hear Maru’s breathing properly.

It was hard to feel the entirety of the emotions being exchanged between Maru and Beomseok.

Kim Hyuk looked at director Lim’s face. His clenched lips indicated just how focused he was. His eyes even showed signs of being bloodshot. His torso was bent forward like he was going to be sucked into the screen.

He started fidgeting. He could tell from director Lim’s expression. The act that was occurring in a car just about five meters away from him was not just stifling the actors themselves, but even those watching.

Only Beomseok was seeing Maru’s face in its entirety. On the screen, Beomseok’s face changed at every single moment. It turned from the hope of living to confusion and slowly to despair.

The despair then eventually morphed into rage.

The moment Beomseok was about to say something, Maru rushed in. Not to mention him, who was focusing on the screen, even director Lim flinched and pulled out.

Those were the actions of a wild beast. Just like a beast that knew that it would die if it did not kill first, Maru strangled Beomseok with his two hands.

The camera shook slightly, matching the struggles of Beomseok. The camera director’s expression was also dissolving right into the scene.

That made him even more curious about what kind of expression Maru had. However, one part of him thought that it was better to finish up the scene from the perspective of watching his back. He felt that the taut atmosphere would shatter instantly the moment the camera was flipped around to capture Maru’s face.

Above all, that back figure was more than enough. All the necessary elements were gathered there.

The film would capture Beomseok’s death from a third perspective instead of Maru’s eyes. Beomseok flailed like a fish that had been washed ashore before eventually becoming limp.

The shaking car became still. The sprinkler truck started spraying water. The sound of the rain hitting the car was noisy.

Maru, who was strangling Beomseok, took his hands off Beomseok’s neck. Then, he slowly fell back and closed the door before sitting on the ground as he collapsed. He clasped his hands as though to pray and put them near his chest. His expression revealed underneath the rainwater was something that was inexplicable with words. All sorts of emotions were swirling around. He looked like he was stifling his cry but also like he was faintly smiling.

Maru slowly rubbed his hands on his pants. The red ink faintly spread under the rain.

Kim Hyuk felt an invisible hand slowly wrap around his neck. Those hands were so vivid that it was hard to even gulp.

For that moment, he couldn’t feel the intense moist heat of midsummer.

He brushed his neck with his hand. Only then did the unpleasant feeling disappear.

It was also then that Maru, who was sitting down in a daze, had raised his head.

Now, only the last line was left. He opened the script. A single ‘sorry’ with a pale face was the last word that Gomchi would say to the dead Dongsik.

Slowly standing up, Maru started looking around again. This wasn’t in the script. Maru put his hand on the car door and spoke,

“It’s done. It’s okay, it’s done.”

Sorry versus it’s done. They were completely different words. Rainwater seeped into Maru’s slack mouth. Maru spat out the water before getting in the car. Then he started the car.

“...Okay.”

Director Lim’s okay sign came much later. Even though the sprinkler truck stopped the rain and some of the production crew went over, Maru and Beomseok did not budge from the car.

Kim Hyuk quickly approached the car. The staff were opening the door.

When he looked inside. Maru was breathing heavily with his head stuffed into the driving wheel, while Beomseok was covering his face with his palm and was calming his breathing in the back seat.

“Are you two okay?”

There was no violent action scene nor was this a dangerous scene that involved wires. However, the two of them looked very precarious as though they were about to pass out at any moment.

They released everything they had. One tried to kill in order to survive, and one struggled to live, so it was only natural that they were exhausted both physically and mentally.

“Maru, you prick. I’m sure you have something against me.”

Beomseok, who came to himself first, spoke as he sat up. There were clear handprints on his neck. There was no pressure against his airways, and it seemed that only the left and right sides of his neck were pressed strongly.

“I was just thinking that your neck looked too stiff, so I gave you a massage,” Maru said, his face still planted on the driving wheel.

“I’ve heard that shoulders can get stiff, but not the neck. If I fall sick, it’s your responsibility.”

“You should be fine.”

Seeing as how they were exchanging jabs with each other, both of them didn’t seem to have any problems. Beomseok got out of the car and spoke,

“Hyuk, you see this? It’s red, isn’t it?”

“It is.”

“Damn, this guy can strangle. He really looked like he would kill me when the camera was still rolling. That was why I also struggled to survive. How was it through the screen? Did it come through?”

“You should go look at it later. It’s quite an impact.”

“It’s my last scene, so of course it should have an impact.”

Beomseok went over to the director. Maru also got out of the car.

Maru shook his head as though he was tired and walked over to the monitor. Kim Hyuk tapped him on the back.

“Take it easy on the acting.”

“I don’t have the energy to do anything now.”

He smiled and stood in front of the director alongside Maru. Now he felt like he knew why he ended up driving here when he didn’t even have a shoot today.

It was all to see this scene.

It was to check the feelings that he had been receiving until now.

He was inwardly curious about how much Maru could do if he was given a solo shot in a scene where he had to burst out with emotions.

He got a clear answer to that question.

Kim Hyuk thought that it was good that he came here. A pleasant sense of tension wrapped around his body. His motivation to act gushed out.

“Why did you change the line?”

The director didn’t ask anything else besides just that one question. Kim Hyuk also looked at Maru’s mouth. While changing the nuance of the line happened frequently in a shoot, it was mostly done after consulting the director.

Changing the script without any prior consultations, especially as a new actor, was something that he could get sworn at by the director for.

“I’m sorry. But I had to say that at that time.”

Director Lim wordlessly put his headphones on and replayed the scene from just now. He checked the footage about three times before speaking,

“Next time, give me a heads up. I almost shouted cut.”

He then started laughing.

“Well then, let’s get some insert shots and go to the next scene,” he said.

It seemed, there was no need for a take 2.