Chapter 32
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Translator: Wjin
Chapter: 032
Chapter Title: Final Filming (2)
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"Alright! Everyone, standby!"
Kwak Hoon took a deep breath, exhaling slowly as he put on a solemn expression and got the crew ready.
This was the final shoot.
At his words, Shin Yi-han curved his lips into a smile.
All that was left for him now was to act out the boy's final moments.
Dressed in a prison uniform, Shin Yi-han sat in the chair behind the glass wall of the visitation room.
And with that, preparations were complete.
Next, the actor playing the father role, Lee Cha-beom, took a seat on the opposite side.
Tension etched across his face. Lee Cha-beom squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again, steeling himself to focus.
But he was still nervous. He worried his inexperience as a rookie might drag the other down.
Losing weight and making himself look gaunt was something he could achieve through effort.
But raw skill? No matter how hard he tried, even to the point of death...
It was impossible to catch up to the man in front of him.
Especially since he had to match steps with what was essentially a monster of an actor.
But.
That very fact made it okay. All he had to do was follow the lead.
As a son. As a father.
"Ready!"
And with Kwak Hoon's call...
Lee Cha-beom flinched. Despite his mental preparation, he startled again. The protagonist was someone you just couldn't get used to, no matter how many times you saw him.
It happened too fast.
Shin Yi-han slipped into the role as naturally as breathing.
He became the boy 'Kang Jae'.
And now...
In this ending, Kang Jae was set to struggle right up to the very last moment.
Bang! Bang! Bang! In the end, the judge had declared him guilty.
His family had acknowledged his crime.
At the very least, this conclusion was something he deserved.
"Action!"
At the director's cue, the boy lifted his head toward the transparent glass.
"......"
"......"
A long and short silence flowed between them.
In Kang Jae's view sat his father, far more haggard than he'd appeared at the trial just days ago.
The man who had denied his son's guilt.
The man who had wailed in desperate hope that it wasn't true, right up to the end.
"...Dad."
The boy called out to his dad with a strained, halting word.
And with just that single utterance, chills raced down the spines of everyone on set.
They all clamped their mouths shut tight, not daring to make a sound even by accident.
For a boy who had committed murder, it was far too heartrending a voice.
But we knew.
We already knew the boy was the culprit.
A spine-chilling psychopath who brutally murdered his classmate. A deceiver who toyed with the police and his family alike.
To the audience watching this scene, the boy would be no more, no less than that.
However.
"It wasn't me. I swear, it really wasn't."
From the boy burst a voice crammed full of grievance and desperation.
His eyes were slowly turning red.
As if this were a truth he could only show his father. As if pleading for him, and him alone, to understand.
He looked so utterly ordinary, like any other boy.
If not for the prison uniform, even they might have been momentarily confused.
"Dad. You know I always listened to you. I was a good son who always obeyed you!"
The boy begged so calmly it was staggering.
It was infuriating.
"You're not even gonna listen to your one and only son...?"
But the boy's father couldn't afford that luxury.
Whether it was a lie or the truth.
His breath caught in his throat.
No. Knowing it was a lie made this moment all the more horrific.
"Everyone else might not get it, but you have to be on my side, Dad. Right? I'm so scared, Dad. At least you believe me, please."
The boy's voice crumbled more with every moment their eyes met.
The tears wouldn't stop flowing.
He pleaded desperately, cajoled.
"...You really won't believe me? Then why'd you even have me if you're gonna be so irresponsible? Why bring me into this world just to make me suffer like this?! Why!"
He blamed him.
Aaah! He twisted his body, screaming and shrieking in rage.
Yet the father never opened his mouth.
Tears streamed down, but they weren't the flowing kind.
Suppressing every wavering emotion. Swallowing the voice that wanted so badly to say he believed him, just as his son demanded.
The father was resolute.
'My son did commit the crime.'
It was an undeniable truth.
And facing such a father, the boy finally wiped away his tears.
Like the forced tears of a child who couldn't get what he wanted.
Wipe, rub. They vanished all too easily.
"Ah, whatever."
The boy grinned with obvious disappointment.
"No dice."
His tone was one of regret for missing out on something fun.
......!
Even knowing the full story, the sense of betrayal welled up fiercely.
The director. The staff.
Wrath they couldn't contain flushed their faces red.
'How dare he.'
'How can a person be like that.'
It was incomprehensible.
And the father before him felt the same.
His son laughed with a giggle as he crumbled once more.
The father clenched his fist tight.
A silent fury toward something unbearable.
He'd long been fired from his job just for being the murderer's family.
His wife had collapsed.
His daughter cried herself to sleep every night, wishing she were dead instead.
Even his closest friends pointed fingers and whispered.
Yet he'd come here anyway.
But how. How could you.
The father's body trembled violently as he suffered in this hell.
And...
Soon enough.
He unclenched his hand.
Bruises and nail marks remained vivid on his palm.
But the father's hand held nothing.
Nothing at all.
That was it.
Nothing.
The father who had struggled to the end to accept his son's guilt.
Had finally given up on him.
My son no longer exists.
He never did.
Not anymore.
No longer.
The father shot up from his seat.
He left the visitation room without once looking back.
All that remained was the toppled chair crashing to the floor.
"Ah."
Before him, the boy.
"He left."
Puhahat. He burst into laughter, as if delighted.
Loud enough to reach his father's ears down the hallway beyond.
He guffawed uproariously.
The guard's face, having heard every word in the same room, twisted in contempt.
The boy didn't care a bit.
"Visitation's over. Out you go, 4124."
The boy was led away by the guards out of the visitation room.
They walked the long, long corridor.
So very long.
Long enough to see the boy's laughing face gradually change with each step.
Step by step.
The joy faded.
The ecstasy faded.
The laughter vanished completely.
His expression slowly turned blank.
Everything grew still.
Some would call that face a chilling mad psychopath.
Others would tilt their heads.
Why that expression now?
Tired of it already? Why drag it out so long in the first place?
They'd ponder the boy just like that.
And some would finally realize, even as the boy was still on screen.
'On purpose.'
The emotion reflected on the boy's face.
'......Was it on purpose?'
It was so vivid, even in the blankness.
Perhaps resignation.
Or maybe regret.
No. Relief.
In truth, the boy had succeeded in the end.
He had perfectly shaken off even the tender father who tried to accept him to the last.
Honestly, wasn't that the case?
This was a sin no one else could give him.
Only he could.
Yeah. That was it.
"......Cut."
The director's barely uttered words marked the end.
The boy was left alone.
Just as he wanted.
Just as he'd hoped.
And Choo Gyeo-ul had watched it all from start to finish.
She'd just said moments ago that she regretted the final shoot ending.
But this erased any regret.
'It's too perfect.'
Choo Gyeo-ul shuddered.
This job she'd started out of pure admiration was growing even better thanks to one actor, Shin Yi-han.
The thirst she'd never quenched was being filled once more.
"...Insane."
An involuntary gasp of admiration slipped from Choo Gyeo-ul's lips.
The duality of the boy portrayed by this monster of an actor was truly... terrifying and heartbreaking.
Of course, the boy in this story wasn't good.
He was cunning, for sure.
Cruel, in parts.
But not purely evil.
Age-appropriate confusion. Tormenting everyone to escape it all. Desperate pleas now and then.
And at the end of it.
The boy simply acknowledged it.
'The suffering of those most precious to him. His father's pain.'
That it was all his doing.
The boy who had brutally murdered someone decided to bear all the guilt alone.
He admitted it was his sin.
Just like that.
......That was the story's ending.
A conclusion some might miss, leaving even those who caught it confused, unsettled, bitter.
The early debates over the boy's innocence or guilt were fleeting. The late revelations of his crimes sparked brief fury.
Audience members would surely feel an inexplicable exhaustion.
And naturally, everyone here felt it too.
Especially Lee Cha-beom, the actor who played the father, following Choo Gyeo-ul.
Even after his scenes wrapped, he couldn't tear himself away from Shin Yi-han.
He stood quietly behind the staff, watching the boy's solo shots.
'Completely... pulled in.'
Lee Cha-beom let out a hollow chuckle at how mercilessly he'd been led.
Betrayal, injustice, regret. The lingering pain for his son made his legs shake.
How much worse for the father in the story, facing truths he didn't know, swallowing this tragedy before a horrific reality.
The father would never visit the boy again.
The boy would have nowhere to return, even after his sentence.
It felt like his mouth was full of thorns. Lee Cha-beom dry-washed his face repeatedly.
And after a brief silence.
Clap, clap. The staff, dazed by the ending, began applauding one by one.
Clap clap clap! Clap, clap clap clap!
It was instinctive. They had no choice but to applaud and cheer.
Cheers for Shin Yi-han and the actors who poured everything into it to the end. Applause for everyone here.
Before them, director Kwak Hoon's eyes reddened. He clapped along, wiping at them.
It was the last day, after all.
"Sniff! Everyone, you all worked so hard!"
Honestly, Kwak Hoon felt a mix of relief and reluctance at this epic journey's close.
But mostly relief.
To capture that monstrous protagonist properly, no matter what.
No one knew how much effort he'd poured in.
He might have fallen short, but no regrets.
"Thank you."
Then Shin Yi-han spoke up after the director.
"It was."
Simple words.
"So much fun."
But sincere.
Shin Yi-han beamed. His smile radiated light.
And with that, filming wrapped.
But the light on Shin Yi-han's face didn't fade.
This had been his project from the start, after all.
The edited final cut. The reactions from viewers.
The results from submitting to the Seoul Independent Film Festival.
Plenty remained before the film's release.
Shin Yi-han planned to give his all to push every bit forward.
'Oh, right.'
And Innocent Boy's wrap-up too.
'Brilliant Sky's finale is tomorrow.'
Still to come.
Shin Yi-han couldn't help but smile with anticipation.
Acting freely, completing works, showing them to the world.
The entire journey had been a joy.