He was pushed into the car almost as though he was being abducted. The black van was clean inside. The very back seats were folded in to make some storage space, and some clothes were hanging from the top. In the net behind the driver’s seat were numerous rolls of paper that seemed like scripts. This felt very different when compared to Miso’s own car, which looked like a warzone.
“Can you go in a little further?”
He was dazed and forgot that Joohyun was behind him. He sat right behind the driver’s seat and watched as Joohyun sat next to him.
“Unni! Take a photo with me!”
“I’m a huge fan of yours, unni!”
Fans had flocked to the car and were screeching.
“Girls.”
“Yes!”
“You’re on the road. You’ll end up in the hospital if a car hits you so get off quickly.”
“Haha, unni, you’re cool!”
“You call me cool no matter what I do. Take the photos right now and get out of the way.”
Joohyun turned her head slightly and posed. The girls all started screeching when she posed like a magazine model. Joohyun changed her pose around three times, and whenever she did, many artificial shutter noises could be heard.
“All done? Please step back. Also, stop chasing celebrities. You, you, and you over there. I think you three are high school students. You should really start studying. Chasing me will only cloud your future even more. Study well, and go to a good university. Then, I’ll give you a big hug.”
“Unni! I love you!”
After sending a kiss to the girls that made hearts with their arms above their heads, Joohyun closed the door. The girls were like obedient puppies as they moved to the pavement, all the while screeching.
“You’re good at handling people.”
“I have to deal with that pretty much all the time. Though, it’s getting easier for me nowadays since there aren’t any people that suddenly rush at me asking for a handshake. In the past, some people would even just hug me out of nowhere.”
When Joohyun sat back, the manager started the car.
“Where are we going?”
“To an underpass.”
“An underpass?”
The truck with lights loaded in the back started following them. They turned around at Gangnam station and entered the Southern Circular Highway.
“Are we heading towards Woomyun mountain?”
“You’re quite knowledgeable. Yeah, we are.”
The van went under the elevated highway and entered a flat terrain in the mountains. The van started rattling due to the uneven road as sand and dust flew everywhere to the side. As this place was still under development, construction vehicles could still be seen throughout.
“We’re here.”
The manager stretched out his neck and spoke.
“Sungho, you should get some sleep here. It must have been tiring for you driving all the way here from Busan.”
“If you say so, noo-nim.”
“I know you’re gonna sleep anyway.”
“Since you’re so considerate, do you think you can cause some NG scenes and let me sleep for three hours?”
“I don’t think so.”
Joohyun patted the manager on the shoulders before getting out of the van. Maru got out as well. The rough texture of the earth could be felt through the soles of his trainers.
It was 3 in the afternoon. Although the sun was right above their heads as it was mid summer, this place was rather dark for some reason. Ugly chopped trees, an excavator, as well as construction materials were suppressing the greenery and giving off a dull grey light.
“The generator car should be turned on here.”
From how the generator car stopped here, it seemed that the set was still a bit ways off.
“I don’t think this shoot suddenly got scheduled. What happened?” Maru spoke as he looked at the staff members that busily moved around.
Manpower was money. There was no way all these people gathered here without a concrete plan. Yet, the actor that had a shoot here was casted not properly but from some other place. Something didn’t feel right.
“Originally, one of the agencies we know said they’ll send a person, but there was a sudden accident.”
“An accident?”
“It seems like there was a traffic accident during travel. It wasn’t that he was severely hurt, but any shoot for the day seemed impossible so the producer was worried. That’s when I found you. Thanks to that, you saved me as well. If we didn’t get the shoot done today, we would’ve had to set another date for the shoot.”
“Miss Ahn Joohyun, over here.”
One of the staff members shouted.
“Let’s go.”
Maru walked next to Joohyun. People carrying props for the shoot were moving towards the mountain. There was an underpass through the side of the mountain where some of the trees had been roughly chopped.
“Producer, is this the place?”
“Yes, it is. It feels rather decent right? Apparently, this place was originally going to be tunneled all the way to the other side, but it’s halted right now due to some business problem. Thanks to that, we can use this gloomy-feeling place.”
The unfinished tunnel, as well as the containers that laid around. The gloomy atmosphere given off by the rusty metal made Maru feel like there might be corpses if he dug around. This looked like the perfect place for some shady, dangerous business.
“Oh, young fellow.”
He saw the producer wave at him. Maru walked towards him.
“First of all, thank you for coming, and I’ll give you the money here once we’re done, so don’t worry about that.”
“Okay.”
“Then shall we start the rehearsal immediately? They say time is gold.”
The producer walked inside the tunnel. It seemed that there were no problems safety-wise. The tunnel, which still had iron beams everywhere, gave off a very chilly atmosphere. No, it wasn’t just the atmosphere. It was actually quite chilly.
“It’s the same as what you did before. When Miss Joohyun shows her back, you… uh, what was your name again?”
“Han Maru, sir.”
“Yes, Maru, you’ll stab her just like before. We originally had an actor that practiced this scene already, but he got into an accident. So that’s why I’m asking you.”
After that, the producer started explaining the action scene that they were going to shoot with delicate gestures and speech that was mixed with some dialect. Maru could feel the resolve that the producer had to finish this shoot within the day.
“You got that?”
“Yes.”
“Good, then let’s try.”
Joohyun stood with her back open. On the other side stood the male actor from the café. The two started conversing with serious expressions. The producer, who was checking the script from the side, gave him the signal to enter. The moment the producer raised his finger, Maru grabbed an imaginary knife and rushed towards Joohyun’s back.
The man standing on the other side made a fishy smile. It seemed that he played a role that betrayed Joohyun’s character. Just as he was about to stab with the imaginary knife, Joohyun quickly spun around and snatched his wrist. It was just as they practiced at the café. Like at the café, Maru fell lightly without being pushed too far. The stones on the ground dug into his shoulders. It hurt quite a bit even though he fell moderately.
Joohyun twisted his arm after subduing him and pressed on his neck with one knee. Maru coughed slightly. Her knee was supposed to press on the part between his neck and shoulders, but it ended up pressing down on his Adam's apple instead.
“Sorry, I’m pressing the wrong part, right?”
“It’s fine, rather than that, continue with the rest.”
Joohyun nodded and pretended to take out a pistol. The man standing on the other side raised both of his hands and kneeled. At the same time, the police roles entered from the entrance of the tunnel.
“Okay, that’s perfect.”
The producer pulled Maru up.
“You’re good. But it hurts, doesn’t it?”
“Yes it does. Do you have anything I can pad myself with? I am going to fall over properly during the shoot, but I might get injured if it’s like this.”
“We do. We’ll give you your clothes immediately.”
The clothing team gave him a leather jacket and some protective padding. Maru put on the protective pad before putting on the jacket. Thankfully, the size fit him.
The equipment side of things seemed to have finished preparing again as the lights were on. The low-angle light as well as the light for each of the characters emitted different lights from each other.
“Let’s go on standby right away!”
The producer cheerfully spoke while clapping. It seemed that he was happy that the shoot was going well.
“Excuse me.”
A woman wearing overalls approached Maru before telling him to close his eyes. In her hands was a makeup box. He closed his eyes while standing up. His eyes felt ticklish for a while before he heard that he could open his eyes.
“Please wait.”
The woman moved elsewhere after applying something on his lips and cheeks. Maru headed to the mirror standing next to the vehicle for the clothing team. He looked blue in the face right now. Even his lips looked like he hadn’t eaten for days. Even though the woman had only touched him up for a brief moment, his impression had completely changed.
“Looks good on you,” Joohyun approached him and spoke.
She was wearing clothes that were fit for outdoor activities and she was wearing a strap for a pistol.
“Are you a detective or something?”
“Yeah, for the violent crimes section.”
“And I’m a murderer?”
“You’re a scary dude that was raised on an island. I don’t know the details myself. The writer never tells us stuff like that. But hey, have you seen my drama?”
“I haven’t.”
“At least hesitate a little, will you? You’re making me feel awkward. Oh, and thanks for taking care of Bangjoo. He boasted that Maru-seonbae treated him very well.”
Joohyun walked into the tunnel with a smile. The other actors all started to enter one by one as well after their makeup. Maru also moved according to the producer’s call.
“Let’s end this quickly and go to a restaurant together afterwards.”
The actors all fired themselves up. The lights turned on and the cameras started rolling. The producer checked the monitor installed at the entrance of the tunnel and talked into the walkie-talkie. Maru also moved according to instructions. He sat and waited behind the iron door at the end of the tunnel. The shoot soon began and the camera started taking video of the two. They shot the scene four times, one with the camera shooting from above Joohyun’s shoulders, one from the front, one from the side, and one because Joohyun wanted a re-shoot.
The camera that shot Joohyun and the actor came towards Maru. It seemed that they were going to shoot where he was to show the audience that there was an assassin hiding here. Maru hid the knife he received from the staff and just peeked out to check on the two. He didn’t know what kind of character he was playing and didn’t know what kind of expression to make, so he just stayed expressionless.
“Cut! Next.”
The producer seemed happy though. Once again, the two actors faced each other and talked about businesses and betrayals and what not. Then, the staff standing behind Maru tapped on his shoulder. It was his signal to go in.
He leaned forward to set his center of gravity forward and started running at full speed. The camera followed him from behind. It was a shaky hand-cam. Maru stabbed out with the knife from behind Joohyun.
“Cut!”
The staff that followed him with the hand-cam showed the producer the footage.
“Let’s do that again.”
Maru nodded and hid himself again.
“Cue!”
He once again ran with the cameraman with the hand-cam. Then, the word cut could be heard again.
“Okay.”
It seemed that the footage was better this time. A camera with a big lens approached him. Maru waited behind Joohyun ready to stab. The things he was about to do now required some delicate work. The producer said that he wouldn’t divide it up into cuts and would take a single shoot, so he couldn’t make a mistake here.
“Cue!”
He moved his hands at the director’s signal. Although today was the first time he did action with Joohyun, they worked pretty well together. Joohyun’s unrestrained movements were a little dangerous, but it was much better than awkward actions. It would definitely look good on camera.
He let go of his knife from the moment his wrist was snapped. There was no metal clanging sound like the movies. They would probably edit this in afterwards. He kicked his left foot off the ground on purpose to make his body stay afloat for a little more. He didn’t want to do this a second time. He then fell on the floor with his shoulder, where he padded himself the most.
A loud thud could be heard throughout the tunnel. Maru saw that the camera director had become startled. It must have been because of the sound.
“Lee Ganghyuk!”
Joohyun loudly called out before pulling out her pistol. When he looked from below, he saw that Joohyun was glaring at the man like a vicious wolf. There weren’t any traces of the sister that was worried about her brother until just now.
‘But she’s pressing too….’
Maru clenched his teeth and endured. He felt that Joohyun’s emotions were getting violent through his body. The hand that grabbed his wrist and the knee pressuring his neck became stronger. Maru breathed as lightly as possible so that his sound wouldn’t be caught. Right now, the pain from his neck was stronger than the pain from the fall that he received from his shoulder.
“Good!”
The producer’s words saved him. Maru tapped Joohyun’s back with his left hand. Joohyun, who had a cold gaze, became startled and quickly stood up.
“Are you okay?”
“Ah, yes. It does hurt, but it won’t kill me.”
Maru stroked his neck and spoke.
“Had you pressed a little harder, I would’ve gotten to taste what the river Styx would have tasted like.”
“Then perhaps I should have?”
Joohyun smiled and reached her hand out.
