A Face Too Gorgeous to Be Real
I shook my head hard.
Right!
As expected, Mom was amazing. That kind of fierce enthusiasm—how could I not be moved?
I can save up coins!
I clenched my fists.
I can do it. I can become a top star! I can make her body healthy again!
Wait for me, ten million viewers!
Become complete! The epic of the red sunset warrior!
What was this, a bonus piled on top of a bonus? There was nothing better than this!
I could see my reflection in her eyes. Before I knew it, I shouted,
“Mama!”
I loved our mom so much!
Then I buried my nose in her arms. Mom laughed and patted my little body.
“Oh, my baby angel. You’re so cute I think I’ll melt.”
“And I take care of you every single day, too. You only seem to act all sweet with Young Lady.”
“Really?”
Mom hugged me tight and said,
“Do you know I’m your mother?”
“How could I not?”
“I didn’t give birth to you myself, and you only see me now and then. Do you really think our Gongza sees me as his mother?”
No, what are you even saying! I pulled my nose away and flailed, shouting,
“Mama! Mama! Mama!”
Of course I think you’re my mom!
At my frantic wriggling, Mom stared at me quietly. Then, as if she couldn’t hold it in, she covered her mouth and shook with laughter.
“Ahahaha!”
She held me and spun around in a circle.
“Honestly, our Gongza makes Mom so, so happy!”
So am I, Mother.
“Why was I ever worried about anything in the world? It’s all meaningless now!”
I flapped my arms and legs.
Don’t worry about things like that! You’ll just get stressed!
Mom looked at Ansan-daek and said,
“Gongza is practically telling me not to worry, isn’t he?”
“Well, I don’t know. Maybe he’s just squirming around?”
“Ah, my baby angel.”
Mom lifted me and kissed my cheek. A soft touch brushed my skin and then disappeared. I laughed and clapped my hands.
“All right, Gongza. Let’s make a movie with Mom.”
“Sure. I’ll come along.”
“Thanks, Ansan-daek.”
“Think nothing of it. It’s my job, after all. Oh, Young Lady. Want to see our Gongza’s videos?”
Mom sprang to her feet with me in her arms.
“Is there more than what you sent me on my phone?”
“There is. But I kept using the computer, and it started getting a little slow.”
Mom said firmly,
“Use the card.”
Ah, my fiery goddess.
At Mom’s encouragement, Ansan-daek grinned.
“I knew you’d say that, Young Lady.”
“I’m not going to spare any expense when it comes to keeping records of Gongza.”
“Hmm. Then I’ll make sure to back everything up, too.”
“Please do.”
Wow.
Both the auntie who does exactly what she’s told, and our mom telling her to swipe the card without blinking.
They were both so cool I couldn’t help loving them. With all the admiration I could muster, I babbled,
“Bba-wu!”
They both looked at me and laughed.
Oh. This is what being loved feels like.
Being loved. Something I hadn’t really gotten to feel in my previous life.
* * *
On the set of the zombie film City of the Dead, the production was full of green screens and giant stretches of green fabric, probably because so much of it would be added in CG later.
That makes it even harder to act.
I’d heard that when CG was first introduced, some actors found it so hard to immerse themselves that they’d even cry over it. Actress Ma Soo-jung understood that feeling one hundred percent.
But even so, acting is still something you have to do.
As the makeup deepened, the image of a luminous actress disappeared, replaced by something shabby and dirty.
She looked in the mirror and turned her face this way and that. The grimy makeup was fine.
What worried her was something else.
“What if our Gongza starts crying when he sees me?”
That made the special effects makeup team snicker. Actress Ma let out a sigh and said,
“It’s serious. If our Gongza notices Mom looks different from usual and starts crying, I think I’ll get sad too.”
“Oh, that’s today’s shoot, right?”
“Mm-hm. The auntie’s bringing him.”
“I saw the magazine. He was seriously adorable.”
Why was praise for her child so good to hear? A smile just came naturally to her face.
“Right? Our Gongza is an angel, isn’t he?”
“How can he be that cute? I’ve been looking forward to today because of him.”
“Hyun-jung, I’m telling you, the photos didn’t capture the real thing.”
She pictured Gongza: soft, pale little hair, black eyes, a tiny baby floating there all round and bright.
“That much?”
“Yeah.”
Just then, manager Lee Mi-jin came in.
“Unnie, your son’s here.”
Soon the auntie came in carrying the baby. Ma Soo-jung opened her arms and went to him. To be honest, she was still a little anxious.
What if Gongza thinks I’m scary?
Her cute little baby angel looked at her and widened his eyes. Those tiny features trembled, and her chest tightened painfully.
Ah, there it is.
He’s going to cry. Our Gongza.
But Ma Soo-jung’s worry wasn’t needed. Gongza soon made a sweet little sound and flapped his arms and legs.
“Mama! Mama!”
Ma Soo-jung smiled brightly and held him close. The faint smell of formula drifted up around him.
“Gongza. Aren’t you scared of Mom?”
Gongza shook his head and waved his arms wildly. If anything, he looked thrilled.
Ansan-daek laughed and said,
“He’s not scared at all. He seems happy.”
“Ah, you must’ve had a hard time bringing him over, Ansan-daek.”
“Not at all. Gongza just sat in his car seat and slept the whole way. I only had to drive.”
Manager Lee Mi-jin finally stepped closer to the baby. The little child really was astonishing.
“Wow, how can a baby be this cute?”
“Our Gongza is handsome, isn’t he?”
“I thought that when I saw the photos, but seeing him up close just leaves me speechless. What kind of little creature is this?”
As Mi-jin kept staring from one angle to another, the makeup team came out one by one to admire the baby too.
“Wow, it’s true. The magazine really didn’t capture this face.”
“This is insane. Why is he this cute?”
“His name is Gongza? That actually suits him perfectly.”
Maybe because he was hearing so many compliments, the baby flapped his hands and feet. At that, everyone in the makeup room covered their mouths and let out little groans.
“Oh my God. Look at how tiny those feet are!”
“His hands are tiny too. He’s too cute!”
Ma Soo-jung lifted Gongza’s little chubby hand and showed it off.
“Ta-da!”
“Aah! He’s way too cute.”
“Our angel’s hands are soft too?”
While he was looking around at the people in the makeup room, the baby babbled and laughed.
“Bbuppa!”
For a moment, the makeup room fell silent.
The first to break the silence was manager Lee Mi-jin.
“Oh, my?”
Once one person opened the floodgates, it came pouring out from everywhere.
“H-he’s really an angel.”
“He said bbuppa. So cute!”
“Baby, my name is Ran. Aigoo, you’re too cute. I’m going to wreck this set!”
A prop staff member turned pale and said,
“D-don’t break that! Break something else! How about the director’s jacket?”
“Oh, I’m in favor.”
“Me too.”
“I really hate looking at that thing.”
That was when a low voice rang out.
“What’s wrong with it?”
The director stretched his own jacket out and said,
“Is it really that bad?”
Everyone in the makeup room nodded. The director hugged himself with a wounded look.
“Ah, why! It’s comfortable!”
“Honestly, it’s an assault on the eyes.”
“The design itself is hideous, and the director’s body can’t even carry off that hideous design….”
“If it were just patternless, I’d let it go. But what is that skeleton print!”
The director turned around and showed off the pattern on the back.
“I used to be really into death metal….”
“Agh! Baby, don’t look at this!”
“Yeah, pretty baby, it’ll ruin your eyes. Ew! Yuck!”
The director lowered his head and muttered,
“It’s my favorite jacket….”
“Sometimes I want to perform an exorcism on that jacket.”
“Shoo. Get away. Shoo.”
The design team waved him off as if they were chasing away bad luck. The director sneakily approached them with hurt eyes.
“Hey, don’t come closer.”
“No, the baby has to see it. He’s the hot celebrity these days.”
Ma Soo-jung patted the baby’s shoulder and turned away slightly.
“Hmm. That’ll be five hundred won every time you look at our Gongza.”
“Agh! That’s too expensive! Can’t it be three hundred?”
“A thousand!”
“Agh! Please make it five hundred!”
Everyone covered their mouths and laughed at the director’s shameless dad joke. Ma Soo-jung laughed for a long time too, then quietly turned back around.
She’d been on set for days and was tired. The director approached the child. His eyes were heavy and his shoulders ached. But right now, in this moment, he didn’t feel exhausted at all.
“Oh?”
The director blinked.
So this was a baby.
A tiny, wriggling baby who cried and drank milk. But after seeing that face, the only thing that came out of his mouth was wonder.
“Wow, that face is cheating.”
The baby looked at him. In that instant, Director Heo swallowed.
Then, without realizing it, he muttered,
“Can someone really be born looking like this?”
Ma Soo-jung held the child’s hand and said,
“Our Gongza is pretty cute, right?”
“Actress Ma, this is beyond cute. This is insane. How does a child even look like this?”
“I hear that a lot.”
“Wow, I came after seeing the magazine, but this is on another level. I’m seriously shocked.”
The child stared quietly at Director Heo, then reached out with his other arm.
Those tiny, adorable fingers popped up right in front of him.
“Baaah!”
The director quietly clutched his chest. Then he stomped one foot, then the other, for no reason at all.
“Why are you doing that, Director?”
“I suddenly feel like something’s going to collapse, so I’m moving my body a bit. Ah, I feel like something fundamental is about to change for me. This is scary. I’m scared. But is a baby always this cute?”
The prop staff member said,
“No. There’s no way.”
“This kid is special.”
“R-right? Come to think of it, the other kids who came to set weren’t this extreme. We’re all thinking the same thing, right? Ah, I’m normal!”
The director stomped his feet a few more times. Seeing that, Ma Soo-jung held out her hand.
“Five hundred won.”
“Actress Ma. You really going to do me like this?”
Everyone around them laughed. Ma Soo-jung knew it. Director Heo was acting over the top on purpose to lighten the mood.
He really is a good director. Well, our Gongza is cute, after all.
Her angel babbled again. Ma Soo-jung was about to kiss Gongza when she stopped herself. Right now she was dressed like someone who’d rolled through a zombie massacre.
“Are you going to film Gongza a lot?”
“I was thinking of doing a close-up, but I can’t. This is the kind of cuteness I want to put in the movie way too much.”
“No!”
“I’ll talk it over with the editor. But wow, Ma Soo-jung.”
The director lowered his head playfully, then lifted it again.
“Thank you for lending me your adopted son.”
Ma Soo-jung smiled brightly.
“Director.”
“Yeah?”
“Though Gongza and I met at the orphanage….”
The baby stretched out a hand, trying to grab his mother’s finger.
And, as always, he called to Ma Soo-jung.
“Mama!”
Ah, how adorable.
Ma Soo-jung gave the baby her finger. She could feel the warmth of his tiny grip.
“I’d die for this child if I had to.”
“Uh….”
“I mean it. Huh? You don’t believe me.”
The baby flapped his hands and feet in the cutest way imaginable. The director gave an awkward laugh. There was definitely a sharp edge in her words.
“And ‘lend’ is something you say about objects, isn’t it?”
“Ah, sorry, Actress Ma.”
“No, it’s fine. I know you didn’t mean anything by it.”
The director scratched his head.
Even someone as clueless as him could tell what was going on by now.
So she didn’t like being called an adoptive son. And the whole ‘lend him’ thing too….
Still, fortunately, even if Ma Soo-jung got upset, she was the kind of actress who let it go once she said her piece. She wasn’t the type to carry things over.
The director let out a long breath and said,
“I’ll be counting on you later.”
“Yes, Director. I’ll be counting on you too. Gongza, say hello.”
“Bbuah!”
The director waved at the child and stepped out of the makeup tent. The staff member who followed him said,
“Director! Why did you say he was your adopted son?”