Chapter 6: The Cost of Choices

After several days of filming, the team was a bit tense as we approached the final shoot.

The scene involved Jung-min setting up a confrontation between Joong-hoon and Jung-se. This cut was meant to be the climax of our film and required a performance that would stimulate the audience's imagination.

Due to Joong-hoon and Jung-se turning off the main power, the room was pitch black, with light only coming from the flashlights they held.

However, the flashlight's beam was a harsh, direct light.

Relying solely on this harsh light in a dark setting would not only fail to show what we wanted the audience to see but also strain their eyes.

The solution is to use acrylic panels.

Thanks to having informed the art team in advance, they had cut acrylic panels to fit the size of the flashlights.

"If we attach this acrylic panel to the flashlight, the light will disperse. This way, it will be more viewer-friendly while still showing what we want."

Once the art team placed the acrylic panels in front of the flashlights, the harsh light dispersed, creating a much more natural scene in the frame.

"Wow, this is amazing! How did you know about this?"

"I learned it from following the set. You get to know these things by shadowing and learning from the set. There's so much to learn on set."

"Yes, Sir!

With the natural lighting sorted, we resumed filming.

The scene started with Hyo-syun quietly emerging from the hidden room.

The scene was mostly indistinguishable due to the darkness, but the situation itself would force the audience to focus.

Hyo-seon accidentally knocked something on the floor, causing the robbers to notice and start moving frantically.

Then, Hyo-seon barely managed to hide in a closet, holding her breath.

The beam of the flashlight through the closet slats illuminated Hyo-seon's face.

The close-up of her face was supposed to end the scene according to the script, but suddenly, Se-jin cursed and hit the wall.

An ad-lib.

It was such a fitting ad-lib that it was impressive. The brief curse delivered at the exact moment when Jung-min's face was illuminated by the monitor raised the tension.

"Cut!"

Everyone on set turned to look at me, and Jun-seong glanced at me with concern.

At the 'cut' signal, Se-jin seemed to regain her composure and started apologizing.

"I'm sorry, Sir! It was just… I suddenly…"

"No, the ad-lib was great. Let's keep the curse at the end. We'll use the footage just as it is."

"Really?"

People around looked at me with confusion.

An awkward silence. Jun-seong tapped me on the shoulder and asked, "Are you okay?"

"What do you mean?"

"You used to hate ad-libs, didn't you?"

"No. Hey, Se-jin! That was really good! I'm not just saying that!"

Seeing Se-jin's face brighten as she thought the awkward atmosphere was her fault, I said, "Hyo-seon's acting was incredible, wasn't it? Those eyes and subtle tremors. How did she do that?"

Jun-seong smiled and said, "Well, I'll accept it. It's better than your personality getting worse."

____________________________________

Filming was complete.

Typically, film shoots end up running later than planned due to lighting conditions, camera angles, and the actors' states, among other unpredictable factors.

However, since the shoot was in a controlled environment, unaffected by the weather, and with our top-notch actors and excellent producers, including me—despite being 26 years old but with over 20 years of shooting experience—we managed to wrap it up in two weeks as planned.

"It's the wrap party time, right? Is everyone available?"

At Jun-seong's voice, the crew members responded with bright smiles.

"Let's go!"

"I could sell my soul for fried chicken and beer right now."

Jun-seong came up to me and said, "You're coming too, right? Don't skip out for editing again. You should hang out with everyone, not just talk about movies like a fossil."

"Well…"

"Are you going to skip again? You should interact with others. It's almost graduation, and we're nearing the end too."

"Sure, the filming ended quickly."

Jun-seong shouted happily, "The director is coming too!"

"Wow! Senior Chan-hyun is coming too?!"

"Awesome, we get to drink with Senior Chan-hyun."

The news that I would join the drinking party surprised the crew, who were used to me disappearing immediately after filming or heading straight to the editing room.

____________________________________

The day after the wrap party.

We headed straight to the editing room, clutching our sore stomachs.

"Ugh, did I make any mistakes last night?"

As Jun-seong barely managed to board the bus to school and sat down, he asked me.

"Don't you remember? You confessed to Hyo-seon."

"What…? What nonsense? I don't even like her."

"Hey, playing with other people's feelings. Are you grown up now?"

"Really? Did I really confess?"

"Just kidding."

"Are you crazy? I almost couldn't face anyone at graduation."

The party was quite fun.

"Senior Chan-hyun, you're so entertaining. You're like my dad's age."

"Hey, call me 'hyung' or 'oppa' now."

"You talk so much, but it's also fun? It feels like talking to an entertaining uncle."

Most of the conversation revolved around my manner of speaking being like that of an old man, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.

Through the wrap party, I also got quite close with the crew and junior actors.

Thanks to that, I seemed to shed my eccentric image a bit. As soon as we arrived at school, many juniors greeted me.

Of course, most of the greetings were directed at Jun-seong.

"Let's bring some ramen to the editing room. I really feel like I'm going to die."

After making some delicious sunset ramen, we headed to the editing room.

A few juniors who had participated in the shoot were waiting in front of the editing room.

"Hey, we'll handle the editing ourselves. The room is already cramped. You weren't drinking too much last night, right? It should have been more intense."

As I opened the door with the keys and placed the ramen aside, Hyo-seon smiled and said, "We're young, so it's fine. We wanted to watch the editing process. If there's anything we can help with, we'll assist."

"No need for help. Go get some hangover soup and come back."

I handed money to the juniors, who bowed as if Hyo-seon was the representative.

"Thank you, Senior! We'll head out to get some hangover soup!"

Since we had become quite friendly, the juniors left for a meal with jokes and laughter.

"Seems like you're more relaxed now. But don't get too comfortable just because it's the end of the semester. Listen to me and become close faster."

"Just keep being friendly."

"Yeah, like you? You don't even keep in touch."

Well, it's not that Hyo-seon will later become a successful actress because of this.

Hyo-seon eventually becomes quite a successful actress in South Korea, participating in numerous interviews and appearing as a guest on many shows.

And during one of those interviews, she said:

"When I was in college, I didn't have many friends. No matter how much I auditioned for graduation projects, I was never chosen.

That's when I realized. Ah! Life is solitary."

For some reason, that interview kept echoing in my mind since the casting.

That's why I hoped that Hyo-seon would not walk the same path I did.

And seeing the group of people following Hyo-seon, I felt quite proud, knowing my wish had been successfully fulfilled.

Smack!

Joon-seong slapped me on the back of the head.

"Hey, spit it out! What are you staring at?"

"What?"

"You were into Hyo-seon, weren't you? That's why you picked her instead of Kwak Yeon-ji?"

"Are you serious? Did you watch her acting?"

"That's true… Hey, but we get ramen, and they get soup? How much did you give them?"

"20,000 won. They're in their growing years, and we're old, so they need to eat well during their growth period."

"Hey, 20,000 won in a world where the minimum wage is 1,865 won!? You have to work over 10 hours for that!"

There's nothing like a generous senior's wallet to win over the younger ones.

And this money will come back to me hundreds or even thousands of times later.

"Hey, but can old folks eat ramen without even an egg?"

"Then don't eat it and give it to me."

At my words, Joon-seong ate the ramen.

Slurp.

"Hot, ugh."

"Are you out of your mind?"

Is he really from a rich family?

_____________________________________

We finished editing and left the editing room.

Even a short 15-minute video took quite a long time to edit.

Still, we had managed to find suitable sound effects and ADR effects, and we had wrapped things up to a certain extent.

"Let's call it a day. It's getting late."

When I said that, Joon-seong, looking tired, rubbed his eyes and replied.

"Ugh, let's go. Staring at that all day makes my eyes feel like they're going to pop out. My back hurts too."

"Stop exaggerating."

"Is tomorrow the weekend?"

"Saturday, right?"

"I have work tomorrow. Ugh, so annoying."

After cleaning up the trash in the editing room, we closed the door and went outside.

As soon as we stepped outside, someone called out to me.

"Kyung Chan-hyun sunbae?"

Turning around at the sharp voice, I saw Kwak Yeon-ji standing with Joon-seong.

"Oh… Hi, haha."

"Ah, yes, nice to see you, Yeon-ji. How have you been?"

Our awkward smiles made Yeon-ji frown slightly and say.

"How did Kim Hyo-seon get cast instead of me? You saw the audition. I'm a busy person. I took the time to audition, and then…"

Kwak Yeon-ji.

A beautiful actress who will be quite successful in the next few years. She could achieve success even without me, but she had a problem.

Bad acting.

The film I had to discard due to Yeon-ji's poor acting during was a significant trauma for me for a while.

Moreover, her severe star syndrome and friction during were reasons I immediately excluded her.

For the next few years, producers would use Yeon-ji as a pretty decoration.

However, with the influx of new actresses every year, Yeon-ji's standing in the film industry would gradually diminish.

"See, that's…"

As I was thinking of what to say, Joon-seong spoke up.

"Yeah, I was going to pick you, Yeon-ji, but after seeing Hyo-seon's performance…"

I pinched Joon-seong's thigh.

"Ouch!"

I whispered just loud enough for Joon-seong to hear.

"Don't make things difficult for Hyo-seon. Be quiet. I'll handle it."

"What?"

Yeon-ji snapped, irritated.

As dozens of thoughts spun through my head, I came up with what seemed to be the best answer.

"Maybe you were too busy. We did a lot of overnight shoots. Haha. Right, Joon-seong?"

"Uh, yeah… How many nights did we stay up? I thought I was going to die. Have you seen Hyo-seon's skin? She didn't get much sleep and was exhausted, so her skin was a mess. Right?"

"Yeah, right. Hyo-seon's acting wasn't great, and her skin was like that."

"Oh, but Hyo-seon did have some issues. How bad was her acting?"

Yeon-ji frowned more deeply at our awkward performance.

"Even without makeup today, her skin looks fine."

"..."

Joon-seong and I were leaving the school soon, but Hyo-seon wasn't.

Considering the potential political maneuvers by Kwak Yeon-ji's admirers…

It's better for the person leaving to take the hit.

I sighed deeply and said.

"I like Hyo-seon. So I went a bit crazy and chose Hyo-seon instead of you. I'm sorry. Really sorry."

I'm not really sorry.

But there have been countless times I've bowed to avoid inconveniencing others. This is a small price to pay.

"Oh… Kyung Chan-hyun. A romantic…"

Joon-seong covered his mouth and looked at me with wide eyes, and Yeon-ji nodded as if finally understanding.

"That could be the case."

While protecting the pride of a proud person, I also safeguarded the person I would use later.

This is not a bad deal.

Yeon-ji nodded vaguely and left.

"Damn. You're quite a man. But why are you so fidgety about her?"

In a few years, that rookie actress with bad acting will be treated as a top celebrity.

There's no need to maintain an awkward relationship with someone who will contact film industry people before me.

It's better to look like a crazy fool in love.

"She's debuting soon. Gotta make a good impression."

"Wow, you've really grown up. You're all grown up.

Joon-seong nodded and patted my back, and I sighed with relief as I watched Yeon-ji walk away.