TMKG 11

Chapter 11. I Don’t Kill People (2)

The atmosphere on the filming set was incredibly quiet, as if it were a library.

Even though filming had not started yet, there was not a single person making noise.

At that moment, the director asked a staff member with a face full of worry.

“Hey, assistant director. Where did Ha-ryeong go?”

“I saw her in the hallway earlier. I’ll bring her right away.”

“Ah. What a headache.”

A short while later, Ha-ryeong entered the filming set with her head deeply lowered, then went straight to her seat and sat down.

The staff members watching her frowned slightly.

“What’s wrong with her?”

“Seriously. She’s the one who can’t act and made the atmosphere like this, and now she’s acting like that.”

“If she’s late, she should at least apologize.”

Perhaps because filming had dragged on, the evaluation of Ha-ryeong, who had caused the problem, was not good.

At that moment, Ha-ryeong’s manager approached the director with a cautious face.

“Um, excuse me, Director.”

The director looked at the manager without even answering.

Even if she was his senior’s daughter, the director was now getting tired too.

“Would it be possible… for our Ha-ryeong’s scene to be split up… and, g-go ahead like that…? We were hoping to start with the acting where she’s scared…”

Why was he stammering so much?

Before the director could even speak, the assistant director stepped in first.

“This is too much. Do you know you’re crossing the line right now?”

“Ah! That’s… I, I’m sorry. We just wanted to do well, even if it’s that way…”

“I don’t know about the idol world, but here, she’s a rookie. What rookie can demand directing like this? I’ve never heard of or seen anything like this before.”

“Ah… I’m sorry…”

The atmosphere only grew heavier and heavier.

At that moment, the director let out a sigh.

Seeing him tremble and plead while stammering that badly, he was thinking of giving them at least one last chance.

“Do that, then. What are you suggesting?”

Before answering, the manager bowed at a ninety-degree angle in thanks, then spoke.

“First, the acting where she’s scared… And the part before that, I mean, the scene where she’s chatting with her friend, and the scene where she’s startled when the male lead enters, separately…”

“Okay. You’re saying you want to split what we were originally doing in two takes into three parts. Let’s do that.”

The acting where she was startled and afraid at the same time had been one cut, and he was asking to split that.

It was something that could easily be solved with a little editing. They could just insert the male lead they had already filmed one more time in between the moment she was startled.

“Then can we go right now?”

“Ah! Yes!”

The director looked at Ha-ryeong with a slightly exhausted face.

But beside her, he saw two men standing there.

One of them was President Park, whom he had a connection with, and the other seemed to be the acquaintance President Park had mentioned who had come to look around the set. But the person who looked like that acquaintance had his face close to Ha-ryeong’s face and was saying something to her.

The director looked at the assistant director and pointed at them with his finger.

“Honestly… All sorts of things happen. We’re going into filming, so everyone get out! No, farther out. Farther! Ah, seriously!”

In the end, the two were dragged out behind the staff, and once the situation settled down, the camera positioned itself in front of Ha-ryeong.

“We’re going into filming! Ha-ryeong! Get ready!”

Even so, Ha-ryeong still had her head lowered.

Then the assistant director giving instructions let out an irritated sigh and muttered.

“What is wrong with her? This is driving me crazy.”

“Leave her be. Just shoot it like that.”

“Will that be okay…?”

“If it doesn’t work, there’s nothing we can do. We’ll have to use what we shot earlier or something.”

In the end, the director did not even give Ha-ryeong a signal and only signaled the camera director to start filming.

Even so, Ha-ryeong did not lift her head for a while.

“Haa…”

As if his head was starting to hurt, the director took his eyes off the screen and clutched his forehead.

He felt sorry toward his senior, but it seemed that this was as far as he could go for her.

After agonizing for a long while, the director lifted his head to say they should stop. But what entered the director’s eyes was not Ha-ryeong, but the camera director’s face.

‘What is this?’

The camera director had tightened his lips, as if he was concentrating.

It was a face of intense focus no matter who looked at it, so the director looked at the monitor in confusion.

“Whoa.”

On the monitor, Ha-ryeong’s appearance, which he had never seen until now, was being shown.

The director unconsciously rubbed his forearm.

‘She’s awakening like this?’

He had directed quite a lot of dramas, but he had never gotten chills from seeing an actor’s performance.

But now, no matter how much he rubbed his arms, the goosebumps would not go away.

Perhaps because of the director’s reaction, the staff had gathered around the director one by one at some point, and all of them were absorbed in the monitor.

Ha-ryeong in the monitor really looked like someone who had lost her mind somewhere.

The expression that showed when she slightly lifted her head was deathly pale, with even her facial muscles themselves frozen, and on top of that, her pupils were shaking as if they were quaking.

Then her endlessly shaking pupils moved very carefully, as if trying to scan her surroundings, so carefully, as if the sound of her pupils moving could be heard.

“Whoa…”

The director had no choice but to watch without even giving a cut sign at the acting that exceeded even what he had imagined.

How much time had passed while everyone stared blankly?

At that moment, Ha-ryeong’s eyes began to roll back.

“…Huh? Hey! Hey! Check on Ha-ryeong!”

Ha-ryeong, who had been sitting, slowly collapsed to the side.

At that moment, someone who had been watching quickly ran over and supported Ha-ryeong.

It was none other than Myeongin.

Myeongin, who had not thought she would faint like this, instead turned even paler than Ha-ryeong and shouted.

“Mister! Please get something like a blanket! She’s shaking really badly!”

At the same time, Ha-ryeong’s manager and the staff rushed over.

Myeongin stepped back, badly startled, and spoke to Chang-su worriedly.

“Mister… It’s not anything serious, right?”

“She’ll be fine. They called an ambulance right away too.”

“Ah… Was I too much…”

Chang-su could not bring himself to answer. Because even he still found Myeongin slightly frightening.

“Rather than staying like this… she might get scared again if she sees me, so I’ll go somewhere far away for a bit…”

If the distance between himself and Chang-su, who had the talisman, grew farther, she would not remember him, just like Go Miwoo. So that Ha-ryeong would not get scared again when she woke up, Myeongin left the building entirely and paced around with an anxious face, waiting for the ambulance to arrive quickly.

“I should have gone easier…”

* * *

Before filming.

Chang-su spoke to Ha-ryeong.

“Excuse me! You’re Ha-ryeong, right? Hello. I’m a fan.”

“Yes? Ah, yes…”

Just from Ha-ryeong’s expression, it was clear that meeting a fan right now was not a welcome situation.

At that moment, Ha-ryeong’s manager stepped in for her.

“Excuse me, we’re in the middle of filming right now. I’m sorry.”

It was a clear rejection, but Chang-su did not leave.

Myeongin was not the kind of child who would say nonsense.

He did not really know what it meant that it would help him, but even so, this process was necessary for Chang-su to gain certainty himself.

Though he had seen Myeongin’s acting with his own eyes, since everyone only praised Go Miwoo and only remembered Go Miwoo, he had been a little confused.

What if the other actor was not Go Miwoo, but Myeongin could still act like that?

If so, he felt that he would have no reason to regret the decision he had made.

Chang-su smiled and spoke to Ha-ryeong.

“Ah! I saw you filming earlier. I’m Park Chang-su, and I used to work in Line Entertainment’s management team.”

“Line Entertainment…?”

It was a company famous for having good actors.

Since he said he was an employee from there, she could not pretend not to know.

“You seem to have a lot on your mind, so I thought I might be able to help even a little. It’s a bit embarrassing because I’m bragging about myself, but I helped kids like Jung-hyeok and Jae-hoon practice a lot.”

“Ah…”

“Your manager is doing well, but I thought it might be more helpful if a man played the opposite role.”

Ha-ryeong’s manager looked as if he was about to refuse, but Ha-ryeong, who wanted to grab at even a straw, opened her mouth first.

“Could you do that for me…?”

“Of course. If possible, it’d be better if this young friend helped you instead of me, right? This friend is acting too.”

“Ah…”

Myeongin bowed in greeting with sparkling eyes.

A clean and bright smile and a bright face.

The moment Ha-ryeong saw Myeongin, she regretted making the request.

With a face that looked that kind, would she really be able to immerse herself well?

“Senior, please stand here!”

“Se, senior…?”

“Yes. Let’s say that bent corner over there is the classroom entrance, and I’ll come from that side!”

Ha-ryeong felt embarrassed at being called senior, but she showed a little more will than before.

It seemed she did not want to show a junior how badly she was doing after becoming a senior.

At that moment, Myeongin said to Ha-ryeong.

“Before that, there’s something I want to show you first. I’ve only seen the script for episode 1, so I don’t know the exact contents, but she witnessed the male lead killing animals, and the male lead’s expression back then gave her trauma, right?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll try acting from the moment the trauma is created.”

“That’s not me, but the child actor filming it…”

“Still, it’s the same role. Excuse me, Manager, could you help too? And Senior, please just stick your head out from that bent hallway over there and watch, like you’re secretly peeking.”

Ha-ryeong could not understand what they were trying to do in this situation.

She already could not act, so she wondered whether this was really the right thing to do. But since she had already asked, she could not say they should stop.

Before she knew it, Ha-ryeong had gone to the bent part of the hallway as Myeongin instructed and only poked her head out, as if secretly watching.

Then Myeongin, who had called over Chang-su and the manager, took a deep breath. Since Chang-su was with him, there was no need for a name from the drama.

He only needed to act well.

“Myeongin, what should I do? Should I collapse?”

“You can just stand there. I’ll try it.”

Myeongin took a deep breath, then lowered his head.

Chang-su and Ha-ryeong’s manager looked at Myeongin from right beside him.

At that moment, Myeongin slowly lifted his head.

Until then, Chang-su and the manager only watched what he was doing while meeting the eyes of Myeongin, who had lifted his head.

How long had they been looking into his eyes?

Strangely, their hearts began to pound uneasily.

—Gulp!

The manager swallowed dryly without realizing it.

At that moment, Myeongin, who had not said a word, pretended to take something out of his pocket, then stabbed Chang-su in the stomach.

“Uuh! Ack! Hey. Hey…!”

With a deathly pale face, Chang-su looked at Myeongin, full of resentment and horror.

“Y, you really stabbed…!”

Before he could finish speaking, Myeongin covered Chang-su’s mouth with his hand and blocked his airway.

In the end, Chang-su slid down into his seat, and as if it was not over yet, Myeongin looked at the manager this time.

At that gaze, even though there was a wall behind him with nowhere to back away, the manager struggled as if trying to retreat.

With a face that had turned ashen.

“Why… why are you… doing this… Why… S, spare… me…”

Then, as if possessed by something, he suddenly knelt and began begging with his hands.

Myeongin only looked down at that manager.

In the midst of that, Myeongin whipped his head around.

“There’s one more?”

At the same time, even Ha-ryeong sank to the floor.

Clap!

Myeongin clapped loudly, then approached Ha-ryeong.

Without even being able to look at Myeongin, Ha-ryeong struggled to back away while seated in order to escape this place.

“Senior! It’s acting! Acting! Mister! Manager!”

The one who came to his senses first at the consecutive clapping sounds was Chang-su.

Chang-su stood up with a dazed expression, rubbing his stomach.

“Uh… I’m fine…?”

“I stabbed you with an empty hand.”

“I definitely saw a knife…?”

Myeongin raised both his empty hands and showed them to Chang-su.

Then Chang-su wiped away the cold sweat flowing down and looked to the side. Beside him, Ha-ryeong’s manager was still kneeling, even his hands trembling.

“Manager… It was acting…”

“…?”

With a vacant face, the manager checked Chang-su first.

Only after seeing the perfectly fine Chang-su did he seem to come to his senses, and after looking at Ha-ryeong, who was sitting collapsed on the floor, he almost crawled over to her.

“Ha-ryeong… Are you okay…?”

Seeing Ha-ryeong unable to answer, Myeongin made a slightly awkward expression.

Even to him, it felt like he had acted the murderer better than last time.

Strangely, the more he did it, the more immersed he became.

A short while later, the manager, who had calmed down first, sat Ha-ryeong down on a chair.

“Um, Senior, then the next acting…”

They had not even done the acting they had to film today yet.

Just as he was about to wait and try after she calmed down a little, a staff member came looking for Ha-ryeong.

“We’re going into filming, so come right away.”

At the cold words of the staff member, Myeongin was at a loss. It was not as if he could say they would practice first and go.

At that moment, Ha-ryeong’s frightened expression entered his eyes.

At the same time, the things he had seen on the filming set today came to mind.

“Ah! Um, Manager.”

“Yes…?”

“Try asking them to split the scene and film it. She still hasn’t calmed down yet, so I think it would be good to film the afraid part first. I’m sorry she ended up like this because of me.”

It was clearly an apology, but why did it feel like a threat rather than an apology?

Without answering, the manager only nodded and dragged Ha-ryeong into the filming set.

And then, just as Myeongin had threatened, he spoke to the director.

In the meantime, Myeongin opened his mouth so that Ha-ryeong, who was still trembling, could calm down a little.

“Senior, do your best filming. I’ll always be cheering for you.”

At those words, Ha-ryeong’s body trembled like an aspen leaf.

The words filled with support sounded different to Ha-ryeong, who was completely terrified.

‘Always… watching me…’

Myeongin, who sensed that something had gone wrong, tried to add more words, but…

“We’re going into filming, so everyone get out! No, farther out. Farther! Ah, seriously!”

Because of the staff member’s call, he could not. And that was how Ha-ryeong’s acting began.