This Isn't Child's Play
"All right, let's begin! High cue~!"
At Director Shin Yeomyeong's cue, I walked slowly forward.
The place I was standing was the interior of a constructed church. Right now, I was in the middle of filming the movie Magnificent Bride.
Principal photography had started yesterday, but yesterday was the day I'd just gotten back from Japan, so they'd deliberately left my scenes off the call sheet. The shoot may have begun yesterday, but my real filming started now.
Click. Click.
The sound of my heels rang out crisp and clear as I moved deeper into the church. At last I reached the dais. I stood there and turned around.
Rows of pews. Empty space. This was an old church, long since forgotten by people. The only ones living here were me and the two believers who helped me.
Even so, the reason this place still operated was simple.
Creeeak.
I opened the door of the confessional tucked in the corner of the church and stepped inside.
"You've come again. What brings you here today?"
"Ah... Father... please... please listen to my story..."
The man already inside the box wept and pleaded with me.
"Calm yourself first. A voice like that will never reach God. Let us begin with why you came."
"I..."
He barely managed to stop crying and told me why he was here.
"I had an only daughter... but... but... my daughter... hhck..."
"I see. You've suffered a terrible blow. Please, let God hear the rest."
"...My daughter. She was deceived by some strange bastard and left for a place she can never come back from... Please... if God is real, strike that man down."
Not everyone who came here did so to repent their sins. Some, like this man, came because they wanted their grief and their rage to be heard.
And then—
"Very well. God has surely heard you. So... judgment will be delivered soon."
"Thank... thank you... And this is my offering. Thank you for listening."
The man pulled a crumpled white envelope from his coat. Calling it white was generous. It was already smeared with a considerable amount of grime, and more than half of it had yellowed. Filthy at a glance.
I didn't mind in the slightest. The thing was thicker than my finger.
I softly closed my eyes.
"Thank you. This offering will most certainly be put to good use. So please, be at ease."
"Yes... thank... thank you..."
The man started crying again, and I stayed where I was until he left.
"Okay~ Cut!"
The second that okay landed, the tension drained out of me all at once. My eyes snapped open and I let out a breath.
"Jiwoo! That was wonderful. That's exactly the Teresa I pictured!"
"So it came out well?"
"Of course! Still, we need a few more takes from other angles, so hold on to that emotion for me."
"Yes~"
I answered lightly and drank the water Yuwol unnie held out.
"I'd rather have a cola than water."
"Tsk! Don't start. Hoyeon unnie told me to watch every single thing you put in your mouth."
"Tch."
Work had gotten busy, so Yuwol unnie was filling in as my manager for the day in Hoyeon's place. I thought I might get to eat a little more freely today. I hadn't expected her to take on a pointless request like this too.
I clicked my tongue and twisted the cap off the water bottle.
"It's cold."
"Obviously. Weather like this, wearing clothes that thick—you have to replace the fluids."
She wasn't wrong. It was brutally hot. Fans were working hard in every corner to keep the air moving, but of all days, a heat-wave advisory had gone out today. The costume I had on was winter-coded, so the fabric itself was fairly heavy. On top of that it was a full-body nun's habit, which meant next to no ventilation. The heat had nowhere to go. Inside the clothes, I was already soaked through with sweat.
Flap, flap.
I couldn't take it anymore. I grabbed the hem of the skirt and fanned it for all I was worth.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing! A girl can't just—! Put that skirt down!"
"Ehh~ But it's so hot. Look over there. The other actors are flapping away too."
"Those people are men!"
"Isn't that gender discrimination?"
"Tsk!"
Fine, fine. I get it.
I closed my spread knees and let go of the skirt. A few faintly disappointed sounds drifted in from around us. Was I imagining that?
"By the way, did you hear anything about scenes besides today's?"
"Beats me...? Maybe this is it for today. You haven't heard anything either."
"Right. It'd be a waste of time if we only shot this one scene."
If you can shoot it, you shoot everything you can. Of course, actor schedules and delays from the previous block could just as easily mean we wouldn't shoot at all, or we'd sit around waiting forever.
"Want me to go ask?"
"No. I'll go."
Moving was a lot hotter than sitting still. But if I stayed planted in one spot any longer, I was pretty sure I'd cook myself into heatstroke. I headed off in search of anywhere even a little cooler.
Whiiir—
A faint, steady breeze brushed my side. I turned my head, and Yuwol unnie was pointing a mini fan at me.
"You're hot too, unnie."
"I'm fine. That's why I brought two."
Ta-da!
I'd been wondering what she had in that little bag she'd packed. Of course it was mini fans.
"Give it here. I'll do you too."
"What? No. I'm the manager today. I'll do it."
"I'm not about to work you like a servant just because you're the manager. So hand it over."
We were still bickering over who got to hold the fan when we reached Director Shin Yeomyeong. His face, though, was anything but pleased. His brow was tightly furrowed.
"Um... Director? Is something wrong?"
"Ah... Jiwoo. Sorry. It looks like the shoot is going to run long."
"What? Is it something serious...?"
"No. It's not a big problem, it's just... haah."
Director Shin Yeomyeong let out a sigh and shook his head.
"I'll just say it. You're the lead, so you need to know anyway. Do you remember the two people I cut before?"
"The two people... you mean the two with ten years in theater?"
"That's them. I told them I'd give them another chance, to practice and come here so I could check their work. At first they said they understood, that they'd work hard. And now I get these."
He held out his phone and showed me the messages.
What is this...?
This isn't even child's play. They actually sent messages like that?
I looked at Director Shin Yeomyeong.
"Just in case, I asked someone I know to check. They've been performing in a play since this morning."
"So they were planning to mess with us from the start."
"That's right."
His voice was thick with anger. I was angry enough myself. For Director Shin Yeomyeong, the one they'd actually done this to, it was only natural.
"Hoo... We still have to keep shooting, so I'll find replacements as fast as I can, but as for when..."
"Hmm... Director, could you give me a little time?"
"Time?"
"Yes. I have a friend who's studying acting. What would you say to giving him a try, even just as a test?"
"A friend studying acting... Would that be the young man? The one who shows up on your stream now and then."
"Yes—you know about him? You've watched my streams?"
Director Shin Yeomyeong nodded.
"I have to keep an eye on what kind of incidents my actress gets into. I'm glad it looks like you actually got some proper healing done in Japan."
Well, this was embarrassing.
If a stranger said it, you could shrug and move on. Hearing that someone I actually knew had watched those videos was another matter.
"What's with you? Didn't you say your friends have already seen Kuro's videos?"
"That's... because I think of Jiwoo and Kuro as different people."
The Jiwoo-is-Kuro theory. Everyone who needed to know already knew. I wasn't ashamed of Kuro being out there. That was a mask, as far as I was concerned.
Jiwoo was different. That was showing my bare face. When the expressions and the feelings ran too high, they leaked through whether I wanted them to or not.
"I-I'll ask my friend first."
I turned my head in embarrassment, pulled out my phone, and called Kim Woojin.
"What's up?"
He picked up before the phone had even rung three times.
"You picked up right away. Were you waiting for my call?"
"W-what kind of ridiculous nonsense is that?!"
He didn't have to react that hard... I was a little hurt.
"S-so what's this about... I have to go to my lesson now."
"So you're at home, then? Perfect timing. I'm on set right now. Come hang out. Got it? You're coming. I'll call Wooseok too~"
"What? W-wait a second! All of a sudden—!"
I didn't actually hear him say yes, but he would come. Nobody knew better than an aspiring actor how much every single experience on a real set mattered.
"Ah, just in case, I should send him a line or two of the script. Director—it doesn't matter if it's a guy, right?"
"It doesn't matter. I never know when I'll need a replacement, so I had a set made for each gender."
"Oh~ Perfect. Then for the other one... unnie, how about you do it?"
The index finger I pointed landed on Yuwol unnie, and for a second her brain simply left the building.
"Unnie?"
"Uh... uhhh! What did you just say?"
"I said, how about you take the other spot?"
"...Me?"
The look on Yuwol unnie's face as she pointed at herself—blank, stupid, completely vacant—was genuinely hilarious.
"So that's why you called us?"
"Yeah. What, you don't like it? This is all experience, you know."
"No... it's not that I don't like it. It's just so sudden... I haven't prepared..."
"Excuse me? Your friend goes and—hey!—thinks of you and—hey!—sets up a chance like this, and you can't even say thank you~ and now you're trying to weasel out? Hey!"
"Yeah, yeah. I've gotta side with Jiwoo on this one."
Choi Wooseok and I hit him at the same time, and Kim Woojin had no choice but to break into a cold sweat in the already sweltering weather.
About two hours after I'd called, Kim Woojin and Choi Wooseok arrived. The location was a mountain village in Gyeonggi Province, not far from Seoul, so they'd been able to make it. If we'd been shooting somewhere out in the provinces, they never could have come, and I never could have called them.
"So I just have to say these lines?"
"Yeah, give it a try. I'll watch for a bit."
"Haa... I'm getting nervous."
Kim Woojin drilled the script I'd sent him with his heart hammering.
"You didn't memorize it?"
"No... you told me to come tour the set and then you only send me these weird lines. How was I supposed to know?"
"You've got no instincts. You should've just picked up on it. Read the room. Tsk tsk. And you want to act?"
"Shut up. But... that person over there."
Kim Woojin looked over at Yuwol unnie, who was muttering to herself off to the side.
"Leave her. She's cramming right now."