A Simple Apology
"No, something’s off. Why am I even putting up with this?"
I blinked. What was this idiot talking about?
"It must hurt quite a bit, doesn’t it?"
It was only bleeding a little.
"I’m okay. It doesn’t hurt, big bro."
"Huh? Why not?"
"Let go."
If he let go, I could go to Deok-su and have him slap some medicine on it, couldn’t I?
Ah. Right. He’d be worried.
Honestly, the injury itself wasn’t the real problem. It was everyone fretting over it.
He’s not going to cry, is he?
That was when Ki Cho-un spoke again.
"You..."
Oh, not this again. Why?
"You don’t seriously think I’d just stand here and refuse to treat your wound, do you?"
Huh?
What is he talking about?
And why was he suddenly talking like that?
"I’m not the kind of guy who’d just watch a kid bleed!"
Who’s accusing you of that?
"What does this little brat think I am? Manager, go get some ointment! He’s bleeding!"
Hey. You!
Don’t say that so loudly!
This was bad.
"What, the child actor got hurt?"
Then a huge shape I hadn’t even noticed came thundering in like a buffalo.
Damn it. I knew this would happen.
Deok-su immediately snatched my hand right out of Ki Cho-un’s grip.
"Are you hurt?"
His voice was so low it rumbled like a drum.
"A little bit!"
Deok-su examined my hand with deadly seriousness.
"It’s bleeding!"
"It’ll stop soon!"
"Th-this tiny little palm is bleeding!"
Deok-su pressed his mouth shut, clearly trying not to cry. Maybe that was why his face looked so terrifyingly fierce.
Don’t cry, Deok-su.
I tried to reassure him again.
"It’s really just a little!"
"Let’s get it treated first."
"Okay."
I let out a long breath and looked around. It wasn’t just Deok-su. The staff and assistant director had come over too.
"I’m fine!"
"Still, if you get hurt, you have to say something, kid."
"Seeing blood on that tiny little hand is heartbreaking."
Everyone was worrying like crazy. Deok-su lifted me up and strode off with me in his arms.
Staff members, I appreciate the sentiment. Really, I do. The set feels warm and caring, which is great. But honestly—
I’m, I’m getting annoyed.
This is why I wanted to get treated quietly.
I let out a deep sigh. It was all because of that Ki Cho-un bastard.
* * *
The next scene was with Ki Cho-un.
The kid’s all gloomy.
The character Ki Cho-un played, Lee Young, happened to find that lonely child and go over to comfort him.
It’s the sad scene where he asks who his father is, and the child answers that he doesn’t know.
The viewers all knew the two of them were father and son, but the characters in the drama didn’t know that yet.
Classic, but heartbreaking.
And at last, it was my turn to show what I could do.
The assistant director said, "Gongza, sit here."
Mm. A rock. I sat down exactly where I was told. Maybe because it was an important scene, PD Seonwoo Yeongjae came over to stand in front of me.
"Gongza, you were great today."
"Yes!"
Seonwoo Yeongjae crouched down so we were eye level.
"The other staff members all said Gongza did wonderfully."
I grinned. Thank you for the praise, PD.
But this much?
You haven’t seen my real acting yet.
Seonwoo Yeongjae said, "Gongza, you memorized the script, right?"
"Yes!"
"I thought you would have. You were so good. Still, this is an important scene, so let’s do a quick line once, okay?"
I went straight into Ki Cho-un’s line.
"Child, why are you sitting here like this?"
I blinked. If this were the character in the drama, his eyes would probably be filling with tears right about now.
Of course, the script only said to look sad.
There was no need to cry yet. I said my line.
"I was waiting for it to dry."
I tapped my chest.
"The one right here."
I was just about to continue when Seonwoo Yeongjae stopped me.
"Oh, that’s really good."
"See? The kid’s got great vocal projection."
Heh. Please, keep praising me.
I worked hard for this.
Crunches and all.
"Gongza, where did you learn to do that?"
In a past life.
But I definitely can’t say that.
I already knew the perfect answer.
"Mama!"
"Ah, Ma Soo-jung."
"I see. Early education really is wonderful."
As expected, you believed me without question.
The assistant director patted my head and said, "Gongza, your voice is excellent."
Another staff member said, "Honestly, there are a lot of actors with terrible vocal projection, so it’s amazing that a kid this young is this good."
"His voice is so clear right now. I’m curious to see what happens after he hits puberty."
"Hmm, I think I’d be a little sad if that happened."
Seonwoo Yeongjae laughed as he stood up.
"Still, Gongza really is Lee Young."
"Yes. Absolutely."
"I kept telling people we didn’t cast him for the buzz, but nobody believed me."
"I’m sorry, PD."
Ah, so that’s where those rumors came from. People really had been whispering about it.
Seonwoo Yeongjae patted my head once more and went back to his seat. I sat on the flat stone and checked the camera angle again.
Would it be better to cry a little in the actual shoot?
A child without a father, huh. Emotional immersion would be easy enough.
I do have a lot of sad memories.
I didn’t have a father in my past life, after all. And it was the same in this one.
Still, in this life, I didn’t feel that empty space nearly as sharply.
That was when Ki Cho-un came hurrying over.
"You seem like you can actually do a little. Hard to know for sure until we shoot, though."
Oh, now you notice?
"A-and, uh, your hand. Is it okay?"
I spread my palm out for him to see. A big adhesive bandage was stuck across it.
Ki Cho-un stared at it for a while, then muttered, "Your hand’s really small."
Well, yeah. I was a kid.
"You’re five, right? So why is it this small?"
Huh.
I’m three years old right now, remember?
Though, to be fair, I might be close to four.
"You’ve got to eat a lot if you want to grow, kid. Being tall is better."
Well, sure, but—
That’s so random.
What was up with him?
"So, do you want anything to eat? I’ll buy it for you."
Out of nowhere? What was this?
Was he apologizing?
I tilted my head, and Ki Cho-un cleared his throat.
"Ahem. It’s not because I feel bad or anything. I just thought I might’ve gone too hard on a five-year-old, and that’s embarrassing... No, that’s not it either. Look, we’re going to keep acting together, so it’d be a problem if you were scared of me."
"I’m not scared of you."
"Oh. Good. Not that I’m relieved or anything. Anyway, tell me what you want. I’ll sneak it to you from that scary old guy."
The scary old guy had to be Deok-su.
"Who is that guy, anyway? Your manager?"
He’s my nanny, idiot.
"Nope. He’s my teacher."
"Huh? A teacher? What does he teach?"
He taught me Hangul, at the very least.
Just remembering that time gave me the chills. I never wanted to go through that again.
"Come on, tell me already. Snacks? Ice cream?"
"I’m fine! Gongza has lots of snacks!"
There was even a refrigerator in the van.
"Still, tell me. It’s not because I feel bad or anything, but buying you something would make me feel a little better."
So it was an apology, then.
"The thing is, kid... the reason I was like that is because my acting depends a lot on my scene partner."
Ah.
Right.
Ki Cho-un’s acting skills weren’t bad. If anything, they were pretty good.
But he did have one weakness.
This guy was heavily affected by the person he was acting opposite.
"So I need to work with someone who’s good, but I was worried because I thought they’d brought in someone who couldn’t act at all."
I blinked.
Come to think of it, this idiot really had once kept racking up NGs because his scene partner couldn’t act.
He’d gone through seven retakes before bursting into tears and saying, "Hyung, I’m doomed."
So that part hasn’t changed.
Still, picking a fight with a kid was a little much.
Unless he apologized properly.
Ki Cho-un fidgeted.
"The thing is, I was actually trying really hard for this scene. It’s a heartbreaking one, right? I was going to work hard, get popular, and maybe even land some commercials."
I could understand the first part, but what was the second part?
"It’s just, I’m not all that handsome to begin with, so I really have to work at it."
Huh?
"You are handsome!"
"Oh, thanks. You’ve got a good eye, kid. Really sharp eye. But, uh, I wasn’t born handsome."
What did that even mean?
"I had my nose and eyes tweaked a bit. You could call it the doctor’s masterpiece. It was a great clinic, too. Turns out the skill actually came from a nursing assistant, not the head doctor."
Hey.
Don’t say stuff like that in front of a child.
I didn’t know how I was supposed to react to that.
For now, I’ll just act like I didn’t understand it.
I blinked and tilted my head.
"I ended up on a documentary about it later. Kind of scared me, honestly. But that nursing assistant must’ve really been good at her job. It definitely came out well. A real masterpiece."
R-right.
I have heard that before, in private.
He’d grabbed me while drunk and gone on a rant about it.
"Maybe that’s why I hate guys who were born naturally handsome. Yeah, guys like you. Wow! If you already look like this, you’re going to be outrageous when you grow up. Your face was really just blessed from birth."
Well, that was true.
"Eyes, nose, mouth—everything’s perfect. Ah, not that I mean it like that. Anyway, I have to stake my life on acting. So I was a little too rough because I was worried you might mess up the performance."
Oh, really?
"So, hurry up and tell me. What do you want to eat?"
I let out a long sigh.
"Big bro."
"Y-yeah?"
"Just say sorry."
Don’t drag it out with all that extra blabbing.
"Huh?"
"Is it hard to say sorry?"
The guy went quiet.
"Ah, well, uh..."
He looked genuinely restless, and I sighed again.
Is it really that hard?
If it were me, I’d just apologize before I even started rambling.
"S-sorry."
Ki Cho-un bowed his head deeply.
There. Done. That’s all I wanted.
I patted his hand.
"Big bro."
"Y-yeah."
"That was very well done."
And don’t do it again. What kind of grown man picks on a kid like that, seriously?
He lifted his head, then suddenly sucked in a sharp breath.
What now? Why was he acting like that all of a sudden?
"So, um... you’re Gongza, right?"
"Yes."
"Right, so... thanks for accepting my apology."
"What for?"
Ki Cho-un asked cautiously, "Since I’m so grateful... can I hug you? You’re really cute. Honestly, the first time I saw you, I thought a doll had just walked in."
What was wrong with this guy?
"Can I? I mean, Ms. Kim Eun-joo was already hugging you all over the place, wasn’t she?"
Were you the same as Ms. Kim Eun-joo?
Still, he did go through the trouble of apologizing.
I smiled brightly.
"Nope."