Superstar From Age 0

Chapter 499:

Ahn Da Ho felt curious about Seo-jun's expression as he couldn't take his eyes off the phone screen.

He was about to call Seo-jun's name, but Seo-jun had already called Park Ee-deun.

“Hey, Ee-deun. Ha-rang is waiting for me?”

Park Ee-deun sighed lightly on the other side of the phone. He knew Seo-jun would react like this. He didn't know why he forgot the shooting day. Park Ee-deun hesitated and said.

“Well… until last week, it was just a matter of seeing if you would come or not. We thought it was cute that Ha-rang wanted to see teacher Seo-jun.”

So he took pictures with him, and when the sun set in the evening, Park Ee-deun sat next to Ha-rang and talked about teacher Seo-jun for a while.

“Yeah.”

“But today and tomorrow are the last shooting days, and the kids know that, so the atmosphere here is a bit awkward. They play well, but they don't stay away from the teachers. The teachers are also confused.”

“Uh-huh.”

Park Ee-deun said quietly, and Seo-jun heard him. They must have grown fond of each other.

“The kids and the teachers are feeling that way, so Ha-rang must have sensed it too. He probably heard it from his parents. That he won't be going to the Chick Class anymore after today and tomorrow. That's why he was standing there sometimes today… no, quite often.”

He was a young child who didn't know much about parting, but he seemed to realize that something was wrong.

“Kids are sensitive to that kind of thing.”

“Yeah. They are.”

Park Ee-deun tried to sound cheerful.

“Oh, did you see the last picture? The handkerchief in Ha-rang's right hand is yours. We played with paint in the morning. He said he made it for teacher Junie.”

“…It was a handkerchief?”

He honestly thought it was a rag he wiped with.

Seo-jun, who didn't know he made him a gift, lightly washed his face.

“Why did you say let's meet again next time?”

“So you wanted me to say ‘No. This is goodbye.’

coldly?”

“…Well, not that.”

Seo-jun and Park Ee-deun sighed at the same time.

“I thought he would forget me soon… I was only there for less than five hours, right?”

“…Maybe it's because you kept showing your face while feeding the kids.”

“Ah.”

True, it would be harder to forget Seo-jun if he also showed up at Ha-rang's house.

Knock knock.

Then, a knock on the door was heard.

“We are the makeup team! The making film team is here too!”

At that, An Da Ho, who had been quiet, looked at Seo-jun. Should he ask him to wait? Seo-jun thought for a moment about what to do in response to Ahn Da Ho's gaze.

-Ah, you have to shoot!

The voice of the staff was loud enough to be heard by Park Ee-deun over the phone.

-Call Ha-rang later when you have time. That's why I contacted you. I’ll hang up now!

Park Ee-deun hung up before Seo-jun could say anything. Ahn Da Ho, who had guessed the situation roughly, asked him.

“What are you going to do, seo-jun?”

Both Ahn Da Ho and Seo-jun knew well that an actor like Lee Seo-jun could delay the shooting time.

‘But Ha-rang is young and the video call won't be short.’

If he cried, it would take a lot of time to calm him down and Park Ee-deun would have a hard time too. And if he ended the call abruptly, seo-jun wouldn't feel good either.

‘Besides, today's shooting has a lot of extras…’

He couldn't make those people wait for tens of minutes.

Seo-jun opened his mouth after thinking for a while.

“Let's film it, hyung.”

There was only one way to do it.

And it was something that Seo-jun could do best.

“Let's finish it as soon as possible!”

The manager smiled at the sight of the actor's burning enthusiasm.

****

“Turn up the lights! The screen is too bright!”

“Props team! Are we using this?”

As the filming set was busy with the final preparations, shin Ji-hye PD and the assistant director were flipping through the script and discussing the scenes they were going to shoot today.

“Scene 1 and 4 are in the same location, so let's shoot them consecutively. Scene 2 and 3, let's cut them separately.”

“Okay. Got it.”

There were four scenes to shoot today.

Scene 1, 2, and 4 were with the actors only, so they could reshoot them quickly if there was any NG.

However, scene 3 involved a lot of extras and was planned to be shot in one take, so it would take a long time to reshoot if there was any mistake.

“When we shoot scene 3, it will take a long time if there is any NG, so while I'm filming with the actors, you rehearse with the extras. Make sure they don't mess up.”

“Yes!”

The assistant director nodded, and Shin Ji-hye PD took a deep breath and looked around.

The noisy filming set was gradually quieting down.

Everyone was getting ready for their positions.

“It looks like everything is ready, so let's start filming.”

“Yes! I’ll call the actors.”

A moment later.

The actors of [Babel Tower] appeared one by one.

Following them were Seo-jun and the making film team.

The staffs buzzed with excitement.

Kwon Kang-min said in a playful voice.

“Isn't your reaction too different from ours?”

“What can we do? We’re too used to it.”

“That's right. It's more amazing to see a superstar for the first time than the actors we’ve been seeing for hours every day for the past few months.”

Choi So-yeong nodded.

“But except for So-yeong, weren't we also similar when we saw Seo-jun? On Working Man.”

“That's true. We were so surprised.”

The actors joked and the staffs smiled apologetically.

Seo-jun wEe-deuned his eyes at the harmonious atmosphere of the filming set and grinned at Choi So-yeong.

“Unni. The filming set has a good vibe.”

“Yeah. It was already good, but it got better since the ratings went up.”

It was also thanks to the good personalities of the main and supporting actors who interacted with the staff for a long time, and the fact that they had plenty of time in their schedule because it was a pre-production drama.

When the actors who finished their makeup appeared, the filming set started to operate in full swing.

The actors lightly adjusted their movements and lines, and Shin Ji-hye PD checked their appearance on the monitor.

She smiled contentedly as she saw the flawless video.

“Ready, action!”

The assistant director watched the filming set where the shooting began and quietly moved his steps.

He was going to the filming set of scene 3, which was controlled by other staff.

“Where are the extras?”

“They’re waiting inside.”

The assistant director nodded at the youngest staff's words.

“We’re going to rehearse until the shooting starts, so tell them that if they do well, we’ll finish shooting quickly.”

“Got it!”

The assistant director smiled at the sight of the youngest staff running away and entered the filming set.

***

“That's it for the first rehearsal. Those who got comments, please be careful in the next rehearsal.”

The assistant director, who was reciting Seo-jun's lines instead of him, sighed lightly and said.

There were some extras who stood out for their overacting and awkward behavior that didn't match their roles.

He had to point them out, so he barely finished the first rehearsal.

“Then let's start the second rehearsal right awa… Senior?”

The door of the filming set opened and the staff and Shin Ji-hye PD came in.

The actors followed them.

The assistant director looked at his watch in confusion.

The extras also looked bewildered by the sudden situation.

“Senior. Is there a problem? It hasn't been that long.”

The assistant director ran to Shin Ji-hye PD.

“…No. There's no problem… Well, there is.”

“…What do you mean?”

The assistant director glared at Shin Ji-hye PD with a sour look.

He noticed her face only when he got closer.

She looked like she had seen something amazing and was also somewhat excited.

“…I think I know why everyone is saying Seo-jun, seo-jun! What should I do? I just stared at him blankly. Of course, the video was awesome, but… I wonder if it's okay to film like this… But it seems okay…”

“…So did he film well or not?”

“He filmed very well! There was no NG!”

The other staff also had similar reactions, so the assistant director felt a bit sorry that he couldn't see it and shook his head quickly.

“Then shall we start filming scene 3? The shooting ended too early, so we only did one rehearsal.”

“We can't help it. We’ll have to fix it while filming. We still have a lot of time left.”

“We have a lot left.”

As Shin Ji-hye PD and the assistant director were moving for the shooting, Kwon Kang-min opened his mouth.

“I heard that Cocoa Entertainment is recruiting actors. Did you hear that?”

“Cocoa Entertainment? Seo-jun's agency? Really?”

The two supporting actors next to him widened their eyes as if they heard it for the first time.

“It's about time they expand their size. It's a company that anyone who has ambition to enter Hollywood would consider.”

“I heard that some actors contacted them first.”

“I heard that too.”

Cocoa Entertainment was quite popular among the actors. There were many actors and aspiring actors who thought of it as their first choice agency.

“They seem to choose good works too.”

“That's Seo-jun's pick.”

It was a well-known fact that Seo-jun chose his own works.

“But he must have a good eye, right? He must have seen a lot of works that Seo-jun chose.”

The two actors nodded at Kwon Kang-min's words. They looked beyond Seo-jun, who was talking with Choi So-yeong, at Cocoa Entertainment's manager.

“I still have some contract period left… Will they keep contracting me later?”

“Me too. I just renewed last year.”

“My contract ends this year…”

The two actors looked at Kwon Kang-min with envious eyes. Kwon Kang-min waved his hand.

“No, there's no guarantee that it will work out. Cocoa Entertainment might reject me too.”

“I wonder what their criteria are. If we see who gets in first, we might get a rough idea.”

“Age maybe? Since they have Seo-jun, maybe child actors or former child actors?”

“Or maybe rookies.”

“It could be Kim Jong-ho sunbae or Lee Ji-seok sunbae, who are Seo-jun's loyalists.”

They were talking about Cocoa Entertainment for a while, and soon the shooting of scene 3 began.

Seo-jun and the actors took their places and the extras also started to focus on their roles.

There were some awkward parts, but Shin Ji-hye PD decided to shoot once anyway.

“Ready, action!”

Beep.

Seo-jun moved his steps.

***

“Cut! Okay!”

Shin Ji-hye PD and the camera director looked at the monitor and nodded in satisfaction.

“Okay? We don't need to reshoot?”

“I think this is good enough! It has a raw and realistic feel! Director, what do you think?”

“No, I like it too. It's very immersive, but… We only shot once. Don't you think it's better to shoot more times and choose the best cut?”

“This is a true one-take shooting! I don't think we can get better than this! The previous shooting was like this too!”

Seeing Shin Ji-hye PD’s excited expression, the camera director looked at the assistant director.

The assistant director shook his head helplessly.

He had made dozens of trailers and sent out the first edit as a trailer. That was Shin Ji-hye PD. If she said that the first cut was the best, then that was it.

As Shin Ji-hye PD and the assistant director were moving for the shooting, the three actors met. Kwon Kang-min spoke first.

“…Now that I think about it, it must be stressful to be the second actor of Cocoa Entertainment after such an amazing actor.”

“That's right. The second actor of Seo-jun's agency.”

“Right. Whoever it is, they will get a lot of attention. Good luck, Kang-min.”

“Good luck, hyung.”

The two actors teased and cheered him up, and Kwon Kang-min decided to think about it again.

***

“Namu! Hyang.”

“Namu means vegetable. Hyang.”

“Oong! Namu!”

“Oong is okay, but why can't you say mu?”

Park Ee-deun smiled softly and looked at the other kids.

Today, [Chick Class] came to pick some vegetables for dinner.

Four of them were picking vegetables, and the other three were harvesting some crops that they grew in their garden.

Park Ee-deun and Jung Na-hee were in the vegetable team, heo Un-sung was in the crop team, and Kim Ja-young was in charge of cooking.

“Kkot!”

Ha-rang, who was holding a green stem that looked like a vegetable or a weed, got interested in a yellow flower.

“I want to give this to Teacher Jun!”

“Hmm. Then it should be a flower, right?”

Ha-rang's eyes widened at Park Ee-deun's words. Then he looked at his hand. The green grass was twisted by Ha-rang's strong grip.

“Namu… mu hurts.”

“That's a bit different… Or is it?”

It's the same plant, so it would hurt if you pull out a vegetable too, right? Park Ee-deun groaned.

Then a savior appeared.

“You can eat vegetables, but you can't eat flowers. You have to say thank you, I’ll eat well, when you eat them. Then it's okay. Ha-rang.”

Seo-jun said in a gentle and soft voice. Ha-rang's body stiffened slightly.

It was the voice he had been waiting for, but why couldn't he move?

He was still young and couldn't understand his complicated feelings right now.

He just felt his stomach churn. His poor fists clenched tighter.

“Ha-rang. Teacher Jun is here. Don't you want to see him?”

“Should we just go?”

At Park Ee-deun and Seo-jun's words, ha-rang's head slowly turned.

His lips were pouted and his big eyes were filled with tears. He looked angry and happy at the same time.

He also seemed resentful somehow. Ha-rang's reddened nose and lips twitched slightly.

“Hi, ha-rang. We meet again.”

Seo-jun bent his knees and crouched down and stretched out his arms.

Ha-rang, who was sobbing with excitement and breathing heavily, ran towards him without noticing the grass flying from his hands.

“Huooong! Teacher Jun!”

Hugging him tightly and crying loudly, seo-jun patted Ha-rang's back gently and smiled softly.