CH 235

Woo-Jin was astonished by how much things had changed over the years as Giorgio’s position had reversed.

Considering Giorgio’s personality, his objection to Selena’s marriage was quite mild. Perhaps it was because he himself had a history of having his marriage opposed. That alone was advantageous enough for Selena, but he had even given her a condition to gain his approval of the marriage.

{By the way, where is ‘that place’? Is it some kind of treasure trove? Is that why the password is so important - important enough that you’d allow Selena’s marriage?}

Amanda’s bad mood only lasted a short moment. Soon enough, she couldn’t win against her own curiosity and asked about ‘that place,’ which apparently was the key to Selena’s marriage.

Her eyes were dazzling brightly. It appeared as if she had already determined ‘that place’ to be a treasure trove. But most of all, she was amazed by how an unrelated person like Ilya knew the password to such a precious location.

{Something like that. It’s a treasure trove full of memories these two share.} Selena answered.

{Memories? That’s it?}

Selena could only laugh at the disappointed Amanda.

She used to think that it was a collection of precious, rare items and treasures as well in the past. In that sense, she had the same thoughts and ideas as Amanda, so Selena couldn’t blame the woman’s misunderstanding.

But Amanda’s remark had offended the two involved parties.

{This little…} Ilya grumbled.

{Indeed.} Giorgio concurred.

Previously when Ilya had said the same thing to Amanda, Giorgio had defended her, but this time, he didn’t; he sighed alongside his frenemy. 

{This is why it’s best to stop at dating and not go further.} Ilya commented.

{That sounds like the excuse of someone who failed to get married in time.} Giorgio mocked.

{Is that why you were in such a rush and got divorced three times as well?}

Giorgio didn’t feel like he could defeat Ilya in a battle of words. And since the novelist didn’t seem to plan on telling Selena the password anytime soon, Giorgio stood up to leave with a relieved heart. He casually said goodbye to his daughter before shaking hands with Woo-Jin. Then, he said something unexpectedly thoughtful and respectful.

{Although I don’t really like Confession of White, I hope you’ll do your best for the movie.}

Of course, the fact that Woo-Jin was playing the main character in a movie Selena was investing in played a big role in his gentle attitude, but he was still treating the actor far too differently from how Giorgio usually would. 

As soon as they left the restaurant and got in the car, Amanda locked arms with her boyfriend and asked him.

{You seem to like Genie quite a bit. You were unusually kind and caring today. It was nice to see different sides of you I’ve never seen before.}

Giorgio’s behavior towards Woo-Jin was unfamiliar and fresh, but the same could be said of the way he treated Ilya.

Amanda had seen how Giorgio treated his enemies several times. But today, while they seemed to be on bad terms, Giorgio spoke to Ilya without any bloodthirst or hostility. If he really regarded Ilya as an enemy, he would never have had such a casual yet inquisitive conversation. Most of all, he did not get angry even though Ilya had said things that would normally offend him.

Amanda was certain that if she had said the exact same words Ilya had spoken today, then she wouldn’t be sitting in this car right now. So, while she was curious about the relationship between the two, she didn’t want to pry and in the end, only mentioned Genie.

While Ilya was like bad company to Giorgio, he showed a strange sense of goodwill towards Genie.

{I don’t know why, but that young man reminded me of someone else.}

{Who?}

{That’s not important. It’s just that there has only been one person so far who has looked at me with that kind of gaze. Someone that who if I told you, you’d just go ‘that’s it?’}

At Giorgio’s answer, Amanda finally realized that she had made a big mistake earlier. She shouldn’t have said ‘that’s it?’ about Giorgio and Ilya’s treasure trove of memories.

But her realization had come too late. The cold aura emanating from his aloof behavior was foreshadowing a parting. She felt the crisis of a break-up from his words.

Unlike Amanda—who found herself in trouble because of her curiosity—Woo-Jin had remained silent the entire time. However, he was also plagued by a strong sense of curiosity.

“What exactly is this treasure trove of memories they have in common?”

It had been a few days since his encounter with Giorgio, but Woo-Jin was frustrated because he couldn’t find the answer to his question. He couldn’t help but wonder about it. Despite being two people who had very little contact with each other and were rarely in agreement, Ilya and Giorgio apparently shared and cherished the same memories.

Nevertheless, Woo-Jin couldn’t quite figure out what it was.

“It’s been so long that my memories are fuzzy.”

Woo-Jin tried to guess what kind of place would hold deep meaning for the both of them, but failed to remember anything and blamed his memory.

Perhaps something had happened between Giorgio and Ilya after Lansky’s death. If that was the case, then no matter how much he pondered about it, Woo-Jin had no way of figuring it out.

Still, Woo-Jin felt proud of the two men as they at least had a good memory they shared with each other.

***

Confession of White was scheduled to begin filming on July 4th, so Woo-Jin’s life in L.A. resumed.

Thanks to the systematic management of his diet and body, Woo-Jin’s physique was thin yet sexy. Since he had the perfect body to work as a model, he got a lot of offers to model at Fashion Week in September.

However, Woo-Jin turned them all down because of his busy filming schedule. Nevertheless, the invitations kept piling up.

But his change in appearance did not end with just his physique. His hair was bleached and dyed white and his hairstyle was completely different. His slightly long hair was tied in a half ponytail, and fortunately, it didn’t look as awkward as he had feared.

Woo-Jin’s hair wasn’t too damaged since it was his first time bleaching his hair in his life, but Hwang Yi-Young made sure to constantly take care of his hair with hair packs and treatments. Thanks to her, the makeup team stroked Woo-Jin’s hair and praised him for taking good care of it on the first day of filming.

The makeup this time was going to look slightly different than the audition. Back then, it had been pure white, but this time, his skin tone was a pale pink. Thus, when Woo-Jin stood still without doing anything, Lloyd’s loveliness was doubled compared to before.

The made-to-order contact lenses had red pupils and dark red irises, giving Lloyd a very mysterious and mystical feeling. Once Woo-Jin wore the lenses, he portrayed Lloyd exactly as he was described in the novel: an outsider to this world, yet a lovely boy when he stood still quietly.

Thankfully, the reactions of the other actors and staff members were great when Woo-Jin appeared on set after finishing dressing up.

Everyone had fallen for Woo-Jin’s appearance as soon as they saw him and didn’t know what to do.

{They might all run away terrified once he starts acting, so I’ll just let them admire him and enjoy the sight to the fullest for now.} Director Pharrell remarked.

{Was I supposed to hear you say that?}

Ian smiled bitterly at those words, and Director Pharrell realized his mistake and apologized.

{It’s okay. I was able to learn a lot from that incident as well. I think I’ve been too complacent because of the awards and fame I received. I’ve been too arrogant.}

Although Ian had taken it as a matter of course that he would have to give up the lead role to the younger generation as he grew older, he had never imagined that a young man would outclass him in acting. He had comforted himself, saying that he would never lose to the younger generation as long as it was only dependent on acting skills. But this time around, he had been harshly and completely defeated in a battle of skills.

Since that day, Ian began to seriously study the character of ‘Albert’ and the novel for the movie.

{The new makeup style is certainly better than before. Things were difficult for us, but I guess it was all for the better in the end}

{People say that the end is the only thing that matters, but it really was absurd when I look back on the process we took to get here.}

Originally, Lloyd’s makeup was planned to remain the same as it was during the audition. Woo-Jin’s appearance as Lloyd back then was so perfect that there was no reason to modify it.

After the audition results were announced, the public’s opinions and reactions were divided between those who knew Woo-Jin and those who didn’t. However, there was a ruckus only because people simply didn’t know much about Chae Woo-Jin.

Even the judges who insisted that Lloyd had to be white and American had agreed with Woo-Jin’s casting, so the general consensus of the public was to quietly observe the situation for a bit longer.

And so, more and more people started going through Chae Woo-Jin’s filmography and watched his past works. Most of them ended up agreeing with the audition results in the end.

But during that period, an employee at Midas Agency caused a big ruckus. It was presumably a fan of Edwin Rucker, as they posted a picture of Edwin dressed as Lloyd on social media and complained about the results.

It was a very beautiful picture of Edwin reminiscent of a cold-hearted Lloyd. It was unknown whether the employee had seen Chae Woo-Jin dressed up as the character, but they claimed that the screening was unfair because based on that one picture, they believed Edwin was a better fit.

The internet was then divided into different camps, many of which were of varying opinions. Some were convinced by the picture and criticized the judges, while others claimed that Woo-Jin was probably chosen as he had given a better performance even if Edwin matched the character’s appearance better, and some people said that it was unfair to doubt the judges based on one picture of Edwin and told the employee to upload a picture of Chae Woo-Jin dressed up as Lloyd as well.

The internet was a complete dumpster fire.

Thus, the production team had no choice but to edit and upload the footage that was filmed during the audition. They didn’t want the uproar to become bigger, and they also felt like the judges didn’t deserve the one-sided criticism.

Daniel and Lina in particular could not stand the slander of Chae Woo-Jin. They had even abandoned their beliefs that Lloyd had to be white and choosen the Korean actor instead. Therefore, they strongly defended him to the public.

However, there was no need for them to go that far, as all their problems were solved immediately with the single short video edited by the team. The scene where Chae Woo-Jin and Edwin stood together had already decided the victor and loser.

A version of Lloyd that was incomparably better than the photo posted by the agency’s employee instantly caught the public’s attention. Even the original fans of Confession of White could not refute the accuracy of Woo-Jin’s Lloyd.

Thus, the production team was lucky to have erased all dissatisfactions and doubts that could arise throughout filming from the very beginning.

However, the appearance of Chae Woo-Jin dressed as Lloyd rapidly caused an online sensation, creating a side-effect where his pictures were used everywhere. Even pictorials and advertisements created a character that looked similar to Woo-Jin’s Lloyd and utilized it.

This wasn’t a bad phenomenon for the movie’s promotion, but the production team was worried that even though they hadn’t even begun filming the movie, Woo-Jin’s image was being used too much. His image had spread too far.

Some people even raised the opinion that once the movie was released, people wouldn’t get really excited by it since everyone was already so familiar with Woo-Jin’s Lloyd. Thus, the team decided to add a slight pink tone to Lloyd’s white skin.

Fortunately, the contact lenses they had used for the audition only had red irises. He was a bit more exciting and stimulating than the Lloyd described in the original novel who had red pupils and dark red irises. However, if they used the red pupils and dark red irises in the movie, they could emphasize a slightly more static and silent aspect of Lloyd.

Most of all, it was important for the actor to be able to perform with their gaze, so they tried to maintain the actor’s original iris colors as much as possible and made the lenses darker to make the color stand out a bit less. Fortunately, Woo-Jin’s eyes were already black, so they could simply add a touch of red to the irises which would naturally produce dark red irises.

Woo-Jin had also let his hair grow out, so Lloyd’s hairstyle changed from the time of the audition.

The production team had successfully transformed Lloyd’s image by making these small changes, so they were relieved for now.

Although they hadn’t begun to film yet, it was clear that the current version of Lloyd would bring out the viewers’ sympathy and compassion far more effectively than last time.

Director Pharrell was irritated by the ridiculous fuss and disturbance they had gone through, but now that he saw Woo-Jin’s new appearance with his own eyes, his anger subsided. The director then grabbed the megaphone.

{Then, let’s get into place. We will begin shortly.}

The first shooting session was going to film the introductory scene of the movie.

In the beginning of the movie, there was a short three-minute scene that would demonstrate the general atmosphere and mood of the movie. The scene was located in a beautiful white house in a middle-class town.

They couldn’t find a suitable house to film the scene, so the producers had built a perfect replica of the house in the novel. 

This house was the home Lloyd bought with the money he made from selling his paintings.

The town was clean. Crime prevention was good, and even if a thief entered one’s home, the police would quickly arrive on site. It was a picturesque place where the residents were kind to everyone, including Lloyd and Albert, no matter what secrets they kept.

There were no children who mocked or bullied them for being albino or blind. There were only refined adults and well-educated children who knew how to suppress their curiosity. And these people were simply satisfied that their new neighbor was a famous painter.

It was a beautiful neighborhood that was very different from where they had lived a few months ago. It was a place they could proudly bring guests and show off.

***

{Is this really your house, honey? Didn’t you say you painted for a job? I heard that all painters were poor, but I guess that’s not the case.}

The woman in a short skirt and flashy makeup was someone Lloyd had met in the red-light district. He didn’t know her job, her age, or even her name.

It had been several months since she had left home. She was just one of the many people wandering around the streets, so no one would search for her if she ever disappeared.

Lloyd drove into the garage rather than parking outside his house so that the neighbors wouldn’t know who Lloyd was bringing home. In fact, he had deliberately told the woman to sit in the back seats, where the windows were tinted dark.

{Do you like it here?}

{Yeah! My dream is to live in a house like this, so I’m so happy to be here. It’s all thanks to you, honey.}

The woman had even killed someone in the past to make some cheap money. She wanted to collect money over time and buy a house like this. In fact, she probably wouldn’t stop at once and would continue doing such acts in the future for the same reason.

Her eyes flashed with greed for an instant as she watched the back of Lloyd’s head as he walked in front of her.

{Who knows? You might even live here for the rest of your life.}

Lloyd abruptly stopped dead in his tracks and spoke to the woman as he turned around.

He then silently mouthed ‘it depends on how you behave’ to her and smirked.