Chapter 4

Even though he had barely slept, Woo-Jin had a clear mind and his heart was happily beating for Ara. Thus, even though they started the rehearsal for the action scene at dawn, he was in his best condition.

“Remember the route you’re using to escape with Ara. At this point, the brawl begins when A gets struck in the head from the back with a club. A is a smart guy—he’s a character who knows how to use his body efficiently. In other words, he’s absolutely not the type who would mindlessly counterattack,” said the choreographer in a stern tone and a sharp gaze. 

After mirroring the demonstration of the choreographer, Woo-Jin felt that it turned out to be easier than what he had originally expected. The memory of his past life as a Master who ruled the martial world helped him. Without that experience, it would have been difficult for him to follow the choreographer’s demonstration. Needless to say, having the memory alone did not mean that his physical body could keep up.

Woo-Jin knew how to move his body the way he wanted, as he had practiced the same dance routine over and over again every single day back in his trainee days in order to debut as an idol. Even after he was discharged from the military, he had not been lazy and danced in his free time, warming up every single time before that. Equipped with both a flexible body and knowledge from the past, he was able to follow the choreographer’s instructions without difficulty, which allowed him to do a rather convincing job.

Without realizing it, Woo-Jin felt grateful for the memories of his past lives. He had been able to understand A’s feelings because of them, and now, they were helping him with this action scene rehearsal as well. Although Woo-Jin’s body was flexible because of those dance practices, doing action and fight scenes was entirely different, and required a different set of skills.

Nonetheless, he did not feel that it was beyond his ability. The only issue he faced was that when he was portraying A’s sophisticated fighting skills, the combination of his dance-trained body, and the memories of his time as a Master, resulted in him looking more ‘graceful’ than necessary.

“Well…” The choreographer was speechless for a moment, and told Woo-Jin to wait briefly before leaving his seat. Soon, he brought the assistant director back with him, as well as a few stunt actors. “A! Show me what you did before! You guys, join in too,” the choreographer instructed.

The assistant director’s eyes widened as he watched Woo-Jin reenact the brawl according to the instructions given. He had not expected much from Woo-Jin when it came to action scenes, as the latter was only brought in on short notice based on his looks and acting skills. It was a sequence that had to be filmed and completed quickly while the male lead, Park Min, was shooting a commercial overseas. Thus, they could not give Woo-Jin enough time to practice. They had planned to gloss over the scene by getting him to do a rough imitation and making it look decent enough, but that was simply foolish arrogance.

“Isn’t that a little too graceful for a loan shark?” asked the assistant director.

“That’s what I’m saying. It’s clean without any unnecessary moves. It looks as though he’s dancing and flying…it’s beautiful,” responded the choreographer.

“What should we do? Should we fix that and make it look more like the original A? Or...”

“Fix? What for?! Even if you shoot it just like that, you’ll get a really great scene!”  The choreographer smirked at the assistant director, who was glaring at him with an expression that seemed to say ‘What kind of crazy talk is this?’. While it was important for the content of the movie to be realistic, aesthetics were equally important too. He felt relieved upon hearing that there was no need to modify a masterpiece to create an imitation.

“Alright, let’s go in this direction then,” said the assistant director.

“As it should be!”

As a result, while Loan Shark A did not transform into a retired martial arts master, he was by no means just a low-level thug. Thus, some changes needed to be made to the content. Although it was a little cumbersome, it was an enjoyable task.

“Heh heh heh, he’s going to surpass Park Min by a mile!” the assistant director muttered.

The choreographer had an awkward look on his face when he heard the enthusiastic murmuring of the assistant director, who had a lot of complaints about Park Min. He tried to refute them initially, but eventually he stopped. In any case, the choreographer also knew for a fact that Park Min was done for. In truth, if things went on as they had before, the movie would be mediocre at best.

Despite the huge effort put in by the female lead, coupled with the excellent staff and the perfect script and storyline, the male lead was the only person who was messing things up. Park Min himself was the only one who did not know that. Although he was a hallyu star, he could not act. Because he cared too much about not getting injured, his action scenes were uninspiring and lacked appeal. Movies and dramas attracted specific types of audiences, as they each had a different appeal, but Park Min was unaware of that.

After becoming a hallyu star through acting in dramas, he was afraid to deviate from the image he had obtained from it. It was uncertain whether Park Min knew that would negatively impact movies, but even if he did, he seemed to have no intention of changing it. In a situation where special measures were needed, there was no reason to reject a godsend.

Shortly after, with the help of Director Moon, the escape scene between A and Ara had been greatly modified. More precisely, the short action scenes with minimal dialogue became longer and more detailed. Director Moon’s casual question resulted in Woo-Jin’s opinion being factored into the lines.

“If you were A, what would you say at this moment?” 

Director Moon asked Woo-Jin for his opinion—only he would know if it was because he was struggling with modifying the content and lines due to the lack of time, or because he just wanted to test Woo-Jin’s character analysis skills. Fortunately, Woo-Jin managed to answer his question very easily, because he had studied and understood A’s psyche while he was losing sleep. 

Director Moon spent approximately four hours writing a new storyline based on the revised script. Considering the fact that Park Min would be joining the set the day after tomorrow, they did not have much time left.

“Alright, come on! Let’s do this without any bad takes! You know we don’t have much time, right?”

The actors and staff, who were united in their operation to screw Park Min over, fired up their fighting spirit with their fists clenched.

“Ready, action!”

When the director slammed the clapboard, the set transformed into the world within the movie. Upon entering the dark underground warehouse, A scanned Ara’s body with his gaze as her hands were tied behind her. The camera slowly panned up from her toes and paused briefly at her unbuttoned shirt, revealing her cleavage, before fixating on her face; it was dirty with scratches.

“Our dear Ara is still as pretty as ever,” A remarked.

Upon hearing the typical cheap remarks of a gangster, a look of disgust flashed across Ara’s eyes. She had eventually been caught by the loan sharks, as she was exhausted from all the running. A chuckled, as if to say ‘I saw this coming’.

“But how did you hurt yourself? Don’t you know you shouldn’t scar a pretty face?” A asked.

“Get your hands off of me, you bastard,” Ara shot back.

“Just because you tumbled a couple of times on the pavement doesn’t mean you should become so crude. Our dear Ara isn’t that type of girl, right?” A continued. His voice was very kind, but the facial expression he had while stroking the wounds on her face with his rough hand was menacing. A’s finger passed over Ara’s wound, causing it to open and bleed.

“Ugh…” Ara winced.

“Does it hurt? So why would you do such a thing and make it so troublesome for everyone?” A asked.

“It wasn’t me! I really didn’t kill him!” Ara exclaimed.

“Claim your innocence before the king of the netherworld after you die. There are some things we have to do before that, don’t we?” A replied. As he licked the blood on his thumb, he had a dirty look in his gleaming eyes, causing Ara to flinch and draw back.

However, since her hands were tied up behind her, she could only mime some gestures. It was nothing but a laughable show of defiance.

“Don’t worry. You just have to make at least one pleasant memory before you die, so you’ll be less resentful,” A remarked. He forcefully made Ara stand up against her will, picking her up with both arms. When she struggled to break free, A snarled and gnashed his teeth. “You are already heavy to begin with. If you keep moving around, I’ll just throw you onto the floor. You know that it doesn’t matter if your limbs are broken or if you’re conscious, right? Well, it would be a little boring though, if you are as still as a corpse after losing consciousness.”

“Evil bastard. You're truly a horrible bastard!” Ara cried.

“You’re only realizing that now? How slow-witted,” A said. He grabbed Ara, snickering as he came out of the warehouse with her. His subordinates who were waiting outside laughed.

“Have a good time!”

“The boss will look for her soon, though, so why don’t you just do it inside…”

Everyone knew why A was leaving the warehouse with Ara, who would soon be sent to the ‘factory’, but they simply pointed out that the time he had left was uncertain.

“Ah, but I still have to make it romantic. Red roses and wine on the first night, don’t you know?” A remarked.

Of course, that was not going to happen, but when he told his subordinates that doing it on the floor of the warehouse basement was not good enough, they seemed to agree and made way for him. A brought Ara to his office on the second floor.

“Cut!” the director yelled.

There had been unexpected chemistry between A and Ara in their face-to-face scene. Although both of them had filmed together before, it lacked that strange tension and excitement back then. At that time, they had merely been a persistent loan shark and a helpless innocent girl, in a way that could not spark any further interest; but today, there was a strange vibe between the two of them. There was a point where things had gotten so racy and exciting that it made the audience feel embarrassed.

Usually, it was normal for viewers to feel mad or repulsed by these scenes. However, the two actors’ performances made them look forward to something potentially happening between them behind the scenes. Woo-Jin was leading the mood by exuding a mix of indecency and sex appeal.

“That was good! Keep up with that lewdness in the next scene!” Director Moon exclaimed.

The staff members were all smiles when they saw Director Moon’s OK sign. Without realizing, Woo-Jin’s nervous heart became more calm as soon as he heard the word ‘lewd’, which was the word he had heard the most yesterday and today. Instead of worrying if he was doing a good job, he was full of confidence. He was able to grasp the framework of how to act through the director’s reaction, getting a rough sense of what that desired ‘lewdness’ was.

During the short break, Woo-Jin brushed his teeth and gargled hard in preparation for the next scene. When he was done, the manager of Kang Hee-Joo, the actress who played Ara, approached him and offered him a piece of candy. It was a strongly-scented mint flavored candy. Unbeknown to her manager, Woo-Jin hated the taste of it. But out of courtesy, he gritted his teeth and ate it.

The shooting resumed. Whenever Ara, who was in his arms, exhaled heavily, the smell of mint tickled his nose. As such, he was a little frustrated as he threw Ara onto the sofa, but fortunately, the shooting continued.

“You’re such a nuisance.” Seeing the blood dripping from the wound on her chin, A went to take a band-aid from the drawer. A wiped off her blood with his sleeve and carefully placed the band-aid over her wound, leaving Ara dumbfounded.

“What are you doing?!” exclaimed Ara. “Tending to my wound?” she continued. “Ha, are you trying to help after causing this mess?”

“I think there’s a misunderstanding. I am not the cause of anything. It was your father who took the loan, and you were the one who got yourself involved in a murder case and had to run away. If you want to blame the current situation on something, you should blame it on your terrible fate, no?” A replied.

A’s words were true, and so they hurt even more, as if a dagger had stabbed her in the chest. Unable to refute what he said, Ara lowered her head in embarrassment as tears unknowingly rolled down her cheeks.

However, A forcefully grabbed Ara’s chin and lifted it with a smirk on his face. “You look so pretty when you cry. It makes this difficult.” He wiped Ara’s tears with his rough hand with no regard for her comfort, moving his face close to hers such that their lips almost touched. Ara noticed his intentions and tried to turn her head, but A grabbed her chin and stopped her.

“Open your mouth,” said A.

Ara clenched her teeth and resisted his inconsiderate and relentless demand that was as quiet as the devil’s whisper. Suddenly, she was engulfed by a tremendous amount of pain as A tightened his grip around her neck.

“Ack!” Ara exclaimed. The unhesitating intrusion of A’s lips against hers as she screamed was almost like violence. It was not pleasure, but fear and pain, that made her cave in to a kiss that was forcefully taken without consideration, warmth, or sweetness.

“Cut! Bad take!” the director called.

Woo-Jin looked at the director with a blank look on his face upon hearing this was the first bad take of the day.