The One-Take Scene
Are these people joking, or are they serious?
Suspicious, I folded my arms and watched, but they just kept whispering among themselves.
“It’s a hundred times better to lean into his pitiable side.”
Jung Yu-jin poked at her chest as she spoke.
“If Gongza looks at you all soft and damp-eyed, this place just melts.”
“This place melts? Mine melts. He’s so dazzling.”
The costume staff member tapped beneath her eyes.
“Putting rags on a kid like this... won’t Gomza fans come after me for it?”
“Oh, you mean the Gomza?”
Jung Yu-jin grinned at me.
“I joined the Gomza café too.”
“Jung Yu-jin, you’re a Gomza too?”
“Hehe. Looks that way. But they do a lot of group purchases there, too. I bought some really good detergent.”
I had no idea what to say.
“Actually, even our own wise, exceptional, and virtuous lady of the house joined up and bought something there, too. Isn’t that place famous for it?”
“Ah. Detergent? You didn’t buy the same one I did, did you?”
“Was it an overseas group buy?”
I could no longer keep up with the conversation.
My fans are doing group purchases?
Honestly, my first thought was worry.
What if some scammer shows up and takes advantage of them?
Sure enough, Director Rhy-lac chimed in.
“Don’t you need a high membership level to do those group buys?”
“You have to keep posting for a full hundred days.”
“And not just anyone can be the organizer, right?”
“Right. I heard Top Line is taking it incredibly seriously.”
Really?
Top Line folks are working themselves to the bone.
It wasn’t even that huge a company. I felt oddly sorry. Were they short on staff? I should give them a gift later.
Mom would probably handle it well, but if I’m buying presents for the staff, Hanwoo beef is probably still the best, right?
Couldn’t I just call in the order myself?
Ah, right. I can’t.
I didn’t have a card.
Hmm. Maybe I should casually show Mom one of those holiday gift catalogs. It felt a little off too, but realistically, that was probably the best option.
We’ll do it, even if we have to strain ourselves. Hanwoo is important.
Once you get it, apparently you start wanting to be loyal to the company.
While I was deep in thought, the costume staff member said, “Oh, I’ve heard that too. Some people sign up on purpose because there are a lot of good group-buy deals.”
“Really? But I’m not one of those. I joined because I like Gongza, and then I ended up doing group buys too.”
I blinked.
So that’s how it is. I’m just an excuse?
Still, to be honest, the number of café members did seem way too high compared to what I’d actually done.
Well, if they happen to discover me while doing a group buy, that’d be nice too, I guess.
Director Rhy-lac turned back to look at me.
“Hmm. See? I was right to compromise. Better to emphasize innocence than dirty Gongza up.”
“The monitor is practically oozing pity. The acting comes out all on its own. The emotional immersion is insane. For a kid like that, I’d do anything.”
“Oh, so that’s why filming is going so smoothly. Jung Yu-jin’s acting is finally ripened and bursting open!”
The conversation was unbelievable.
Well, I did act pitifully.
So the audience could immerse themselves, I’d deliberately made my eyes extra moist while acting.
Honestly, if I’d made that expression in my past life, it would’ve begged for a punch.
The effect of this face was tremendous. Even a slight blink carried a ridiculous amount of appeal.
As expected, being handsome is the best.
Well, for now, I was still just cute.
If I can use it for acting, then anything’s good.
I grinned, and the director reached over to ruffle my hair.
“Gongza, you know you’re doing well, right? Let’s just keep going like this!”
“Yes!”
“All right, Jung Yu-jin, everyone, get ready. It’s the hard part.”
Ah, we were starting the shoot.
Jung Yu-jin let the tension out of her shoulders and exhaled slowly. I trotted over and took her hand.
“Gongza’s nervous too.”
Actually, I wasn’t nervous at all.
“Huh. How’d you know? That I was nervous?”
“Mm. Are you nervous?”
“It’s because this is the scene where my hair gets grabbed and I get shaken around.”
Jung Yu-jin lowered her head and touched her hair.
“I can’t afford to lose any hair.”
Well, hair is precious, yes.
I beamed at her. “It’ll be fine!”
“Oh my. I don’t usually believe in superstition, but if our four-leaf clover says so, maybe I’ll believe it this time.”
“Yes!”
If it doesn’t work, I’ll make it work!
Jung Yu-jin took my hand and led me over. Dozens of staff members were preparing the set.
The assistant director hurried over to me.
“Gongza. You didn’t forget the blocking I told you, right?”
“Nope!”
“The movement’s changed a little.”
The assistant director led me onto the set.
“You get hit by Seo Jun-hwan here, then roll over and cover your head. The camera will have moved over this way by then.”
I nodded.
“Then you have to crawl left. Gongza, you know you have to grab the bag, right? It’ll be hanging on a nail. Pull it up twice, then down.”
The assistant director demonstrated it himself.
I looked at the filthy yellow bag and nodded.
“Ah, this looks hard. Can I really do it?”
“You can do it!”
I thumped my chest and said, “Believe in Gongza!”
Blessed are those who believe.
The assistant director clutched his face and groaned.
“Ugh……”
“It’ll be okay!”
“No, Gongza. I know you’re good, but this scene is a little tricky. You... don’t have to do it perfectly. If it doesn’t work, they’ll probably give up on the one-take.”
I smiled a little.
There wasn’t a one-take scene in the original movie anyway.
Had they tried it on set and then cut it into separate shots?
“So, don’t feel too pressured.”
I smiled brightly.
No. We have to shoot it exactly as written.
If we do this as a one-take, people will be talking about it as a legendary scene for years.
I want to make it even better than the original movie.
That’s what makes a second life worthwhile, doesn’t it? I’m a person who stays faithful to ambition like this.
I grabbed the assistant director’s hand tightly.
“Gongza wants to film it well!”
“No, I mean you don’t need to feel pressured, kid.”
“Gongza isn’t a kid.”
I was a child now. I’d graduated from being a baby.
“No, I mean—anyway. Whew.”
The assistant director wiped his face and sighed.
“Th-then... let’s just film it well without any injuries, okay?”
What is he talking about?
A little injury is fine.
I have coins for that.
But I can’t say that.
I answered in a bright voice. “Gongza will work really hard! With every last ounce of strength in my milk-drinking body!”
“No, if you’re a baby, you can’t use every last ounce of your milk-drinking strength! Just, work hard, but not too hard, and it’d still be nice if it came out well!”
What was this? The assistant director had turned into a broken radio.
But even if people talk nonsense, I can still understand what they mean.
Basically, he was saying to be careful not to get hurt.
I patted the assistant director’s arm.
“Yes!”
“Aaah, right. Hah. I’m the adult here!”
You’re adult enough, if you ask me.
He’s such a pure soul.
For people like him, I ought to work even harder.
Just then, Director Rhy-lac rolled his shoulders and said, “All right, let’s begin. Everyone, please get to your positions.”
I moved toward the sofa.
If Jung Yu-jin gets hit by the man, I’ll stop him. Then I get hit too, and the chaos gets even worse.
After that, the child crawls under the sofa.
Behind it was a hallway with stairs. It was blocked by a big paint bucket, but there was a hole here.
In the movie, the son escapes through this hole.
This is the kind of scene that makes your pulse race.
And they were shooting it as a one-take.
A prickling tension swept over me. This was the moment I had missed so much.
“Stand by! Cue!”
The camera moved along the rail. I let my lips tremble slightly and shuffled my legs backward. Nearby, I heard the sound of the mother being hit in the film.
“Aaagh!”
I dashed forward as rehearsed and grabbed the man’s arm. The actor immediately lifted his arm and struck me on the head.
Thwack.
Of course, there wasn’t any real force in it because it was acting. But I was flung to the floor anyway.
That was when a sharp pain flashed through my shoulder.
Looks like something got torn.
It hurt, but not enough to break my concentration.
Jung Yu-jin, playing the mother, lunged forward, shouting at them not to hit the child. But she was being mercilessly beaten herself, just the same.
The man always drank until he passed out after using violence. And right now, at that very moment, the son and mother locked eyes.
The mother had been preparing for this all along. This was the moment she had been waiting for.
I looked around anxiously, then spotted the yellow bag hanging on the wall.
Mom risked everything to prepare this.
I tugged at the bag. The camera captured every inch of it.
Twice up, once down.
Just as the assistant director had said, I pulled, and finally the bag came loose. I crawled under the sofa.
My part is over.
The camera wasn’t on me anymore. It would probably be back on the mother, still getting beaten.
The noise on set swelled around us.
Then I heard it.
“Okay! Cut!”
Wow.
Okay?
The one-take was over?
I crawled out from under the sofa. Director Rhy-lac laughed and clapped his hands.
Clap, clap, clap—
The taut atmosphere slowly eased away. Jung Yu-jin, who had taken quite a beating, laughed as she held her tousled hair.
The director looked at me. I smiled and asked, “Really? We’re not doing it again?”
“Nope. We couldn’t do better than that.”
Wow. Was he serious?
We finished that supposedly impossible one-take in a single go?
Director Rhy-lac would never be careless.
Then we must have really nailed it.
Smiling, I hurried over to Jung Yu-jin, who had just been put through the wringer.
I needed to check on her first.
“Mom, are you okay?”
“Oh, Gongza. You’re worried about me? Of course I’m fine.”
“That acting really made my heart jump.”
Jung Yu-jin scooped me up and laughed.
How should I put this? I’ve thought it before, but this woman...
She reminds me of my mom.
Come to think of it, there is a bit of overlap.
Though my mom was far more on the action side.
“Oh, seriously. You’re adorable enough to kill me.”
Jung Yu-jin hugged me tightly, then set me down again.
“Mom’s fine! I’m in perfect shape!”
She was a tough one.
That scene where she rolled across the floor and got stepped on couldn’t have been easy...
She must’ve controlled her strength, but that didn’t mean it hadn’t hurt.
“I’m glad!”
This time, I looked for the assistant director who’d been in charge of my acting cues. Luckily, he was beside the director.
Now I need to reassure him too.
He worried about me more than I’d expected.
I walked up to him and said, “Thank you! You taught me so well!”
“Oh, right. Well...”
The assistant director still struggled to find words.
“It really turned out the way Gongza said?”
“It really did. He was amazing.”
Director Rhy-lac draped an arm around the assistant director’s shoulders and said, “Told you our Gongza was a genius.”
“Ah, I think that’s actually true. He gets downright eerie when he acts. It really feels like he’s possessed.”
I chuckled and turned away. Just then, a dull ache throbbed in my shoulder.
Ah, right. I’d forgotten about that.
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