TLICO 07

Chapter – 07

The staff clapped their hands together.

“Alright, let’s start filming!”

For actors, the first shoot is always nerve-wracking. It’s the first time you see how the character you’ve built actually looks on camera. Even now, with nearly ten years of acting experience, the nerves are the same.

But it’s different from my very first time. Now, even if I’m nervous, I do it. Besides, this scene is one of Su-in’s solo moments from the beginning, so I’m not too worried.

“Cue!”

The moment the director’s cue dropped, I began to focus. ‘Su-in,’ who believes she is a ghost, peers through the peephole of her front door before sneaking out to steal delivery food from next door.

“Hehe… This is fun… No humans here…”

Then, she flings the door open.

“Cut! Okay!”

Director Jegal Seyeon looked satisfied, as expected. I could hear the staff whispering here and there.

“That was so good.”

“Is it true this is her first time acting?”

It’s not my first time, you punks. I’m in my tenth year.

Among them was Hong Jong-ho, staring at me with his mouth agape while sipping the iced caramel macchiato I’d bought him (he always only drank that), and Park Seo-woo, who was making a face like he didn’t like something about my acting.

What is it now, you jerk? Go ahead, say something.

I felt a sudden surge of hostility as I looked at Park Seo-woo.

They call him “staff,” but he’s basically doing all the grunt work.

From accounting to delivering food and coffee, and even processing all the receipts.

The future youngest winner of the Oscar for Best Director is currently playing the role of a lackey…

It was a strange feeling. This twenty-year-old rookie version of Park Seo-woo was truly unfamiliar. Just then, Jegal Seyeon approached me.

“The acting is great. I think we can use that cut… Uh… um… What should I say…”

Jegal Seyeon scratched her head. Even as a director who had won awards at short film festivals, she seemed to find it difficult to give me feedback.

“I usually think of the first shoot as a time to bridge the gap between the picture I want and the one the actor has brought. But this time, they don’t match at all. It’s completely different from what I imagined during the audition.”

Ah. That can happen. No matter how well you act, if it doesn’t match the director’s vision, the actor should adjust. An actor is like a puzzle piece in the director’s picture.

“…Ah. Well, please tell me whatever you need, and I’ll adjust my side…”

Since she’s a future director of a ten-million-viewer movie, of course,e I should adjust—

“…No, I love it. Exactly as it is now.”

However, Jegal Seyeon’s next words defied my expectations.

“…Excuse me?”

“You’ve become even eerier and cuter than before. That eye movement that wasn’t in the script—what was that? Especially that incense candle on the ritual table. How did you think of blowing it out before leaving?”

“Oh… that. Ghosts usually hate the smell of incense. Even when they swarm out to eat ritual food, they blow the candles out first.”

“…You thought of that?”

“I just thought of it while looking at the script a lot.”

I spoke while pretending to be modest and shy. But in truth, it was a calculated ad-lib I’d researched heavily.

I was greedy.

The revised script was actually really fun. Once the romance was cleared out, Jegal Seyeon’s witty comedy shone much brighter. Honestly, I thought this could be a commercial success at this rate…

Let’s not count our chickens yet.

It’s only the first shoot. Just as I was thinking that, Park Seo-woo, who had been listening to our conversation, spoke up.

“Director.”

Here we go. There was no way that “fire-tongue” of his would stay shut just because he was twenty. I waited quietly to hear what he would say about my acting.

“What if we film this scene one more time?”

“Eh? Why?” Jegal Seyeon asked.

“I think it would be good to add more close-up shots. Especially when she blows out the candle—”

Park Seo-woo looked toward me.

“She looked quite pretty then. The way her stray hairs fluttered. It’ll definitely look great if we shoot it in slow motion.”

“Oh, yeah. That’s good.”

“And when she laughed at around the 1 minute 25 second mark. The way her whole face scrunched up. That—”

A sense of déjà vu hit me as I listened to Park Seo-woo.

“I watched your work. 39 minutes and 25 seconds. The eye acting was good, but the tone at the start of the dialogue seemed wrong.”“Episode 8 of that drama. The lighting at the 17-minute mark was bad. That kind of lighting doesn’t suit you.”……Wait.

Had he always been watching me like this? The words I once felt were “dissing” me down to the nanosecond now sounded a bit different.

‘If it were me, I would have filmed you like this.’

That’s what it sounded like.

“I think it would be good to have that smile when she blows out the candle. It’s innocent and cute.”

I stared blankly at Park Seo-woo, who was speaking as if he were sketching my face in front of him, as if I were inside his own imaginary viewfinder. Noticing my gaze, Park Seo-woo stopped talking and bowed his head.

“I apologize if I overstepped. I wasn’t trying to criticize the acting.”

What is this? His tone is definitely the same—stiff and almost sharp—so why does it feel so different?

“Don’t you think retiring just because you’re getting married is too old-fashioned?”That was what he had said on the day I went to a senior industry colleague’s birthday party right after my wedding announcement. A man who usually never touched a drop of alcohol was quite drunk. He looked displeased, and it seemed obvious that I was the cause. Above all, there was that contemptuous look in his eyes as he looked down at me.

“I thought you were… a smarter person than this.”The contempt in that gaze had touched something inside me. The shame of running away from the industry when my career hit rock bottom. Or—

‘The regret that maybe I really did make the wrong choice… no, a stupid choice.’

In reality, there was nothing wrong with what Park Seo-woo said. My marriage was a stupid move. There’s no way a man who asks to marry on the condition of retirement is normal. Why didn’t I recognize that attitude that showed zero respect for the profession of the person he supposedly loved?

‘Well, I was that… blinded.’

By the idea of a ‘real family.’

I had a bitter expression on my face until I snapped out of it, realizing that all eyes were on me.

“…Of course, if re-filming is uncomfortable, we don’t have to do it…”

Jegal Seyeon was trying to be considerate, thinking I was uncomfortable! I quickly shook my head.

“Oh, no. If there’s another chance, I’d love to. I was just imagining it. I tend to prepare for my acting by running the footage through my head.”

“So you mean the images appear in your mind? It’s not easy for a rookie actor to think like that.”

Jegal Seyeon said, sounding impressed.

“Eun-rae, you’re quite a smart actress.”