The Gatekeeper's Story (1)
Noona and I had our heads together, grinning and being shamelessly sweet, when a small chime sounded from the computer. I'd left the inbox open, so the sound was only announcing that a new email had arrived.
I'd bought a good computer for editing and sprung for the software to go with it, so opening a Word file was no trouble at all.
"This isn't exactly a script, is it?"
Noona skimmed it the moment the file opened, and a flicker of disappointment crossed her face. They'd said it was about the shoot, so she must have been expecting something like a script.
All the file actually held was a short account of the animal they meant to film, and even that so-called story wasn't particularly detailed. For weeks now, a single dog had been showing up at the entrance of an apartment complex somewhere in Busan, standing watch over the gate like a sentry.
They'd booked me, I figured, because they wanted someone to look into whatever story that dog might have. If you can talk to animals, you don't have to guess at why it acts the way it does. You can find out. Aside from that, the file asked me to hold off on anything like a preliminary visit to the location until the day of the shoot. They were probably hoping I wouldn't wander over on a whim and ruin the whole segment before the cameras even rolled.
"Still, seeing it like this, I really am curious. A dog guarding an apartment entrance?"
Noona had latched onto my shoulder to read along, and she still couldn't get the curiosity off her face. Fair enough. Say a dog standing watch at an apartment gate and it's hard not to be curious.
"Maybe it's a guard dog the complex keeps? Turns out it's a genius and knows every resident's face. Anyone who doesn't live there gets a growl and directions to the security office."
"Oh, come on. If it were that smart, they wouldn't be introducing it as the dog that guards the entrance. They'd be calling it a genius dog."
"You think?"
"Eh, what does it matter?"
Noona laughed, bright and unbothered, and then stressed more than once that I absolutely had to tell her how it went once I got back from the shoot.
"Shame, though. It would've been fun if you'd come along."
"I know……"
She melted into my arms at that, going limp with regret. There was a reason. For a while yet, Noona was going to be busy. Before the building construction fully wrapped up, there was still the interior to sort out, and a pile of administrative procedures to push through.
Wanting to take the edge off that disappointment, I scooped her up and carried her to the bed. They say time flies when you're happy. Maybe that was why the hours slipped past so quickly while we were happily all over each other, and the day of the shoot arrived before I knew it. Not that it had even been a full forty-eight hours. Forty, if I was being honest, and that was all.
I checked the message buzzing on my phone and gave Noona a big wave.
"Noona, I'm heading out."
"Have a good time. And you have to tell me how it went!"
Already on her way out herself, patting cosmetics onto her face, she waved me off and told me to go on. Any other day I would have whined until she saw me off with at least a light kiss, but today I held back. Judging by how red her lips had already turned, I'd obviously have to wash my face again before I walked out the door.
This is my first time on a broadcast that isn't Mytube. Showing up on camera with lipstick marks would be a bit much.
I was sorry about it, but there wasn't even time to wash my face again, so I had to leave the regret behind me.
Ding-dong. And from the yard, a storm of barking. The doorbell in the living room and our little canine battalion outside announced that the producer had arrived.
"Coming! You three, settle down!"
Maru, Jjamong, and Sulppang had been barking furiously at the outside world. Once I'd calmed the three of them, I threw the front gate wide open.
Stop!
The instant the gate opened, Jjamong tried to bolt outside. I shut her down in a single stroke, shoved her back into the yard, and closed the door.
"Whoa. You put a Welsh corgi in its place with one word. They're pretty smart, sure, but they're not the kind of dogs you can shut down with a single sentence."
I turned from the closed gate and found two long vans parked in front of the house. Standing before the lead van, smiling, was a middle-aged man on the portly side. That kindly stout fellow had to be the producer.
"Once you can actually talk to them, it's the smart ones who listen best."
"Oh, so that's how it works. Ah — I got so caught up watching that I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Lee Jae-hyung, the producer in charge of Animal Farm."
"Shin Suhwan. Animal Communicator."
The producer and I traded business cards and a light greeting. It was a card I'd had made fresh. Back during the precision evaluation, it had nagged at me quite a bit that I hadn't had one to give Deputy Jang Il-woon. This one said Animal Communicator right out in the open, and I'd even stamped on the title of a Supreme Rank holder of Animal Communicating.
Cards exchanged, I climbed into the van with him. Inside there was only a driver and one woman holding a fairly large case.
……?
The van behind us was packed tight, but this one's roomy. Consideration for me? Or a producer who hates riding with his subordinates?
I wondered, but the very next thing he said cleared the misunderstanding at once.
"Sir, have you put on any makeup?"
"Not really. I just go out with a bit of toner and lotion."
"I see. Then you don't have any aversion to makeup, or any allergies?"
"Uh…… no?"
At my answer, the producer immediately gestured to the woman behind us.
"She's with our makeup team. We'd like to do a light touch-up, if that's all right with you?"
"Sure, I mean……"
I gave a small nod. I didn't hold with the notion that makeup was something only women did, and now and then Noona smeared her own cosmetics across my face anyway, so there was nothing to balk at.
The moment I agreed, the case in her hands popped open, packed full of every kind of cosmetic and makeup tool. I recognized a few. Most were brands I'd never heard of.
"You know no-makeup makeup, right? I won't go overboard, so you don't have to worry. Could you close your eyes for a second?"
She started spreading product over my face at once. Unlike the occasional efforts from Noona, this was a touch with a professional's confidence behind it. Even in a van that jolted and rattled, her hand didn't so much as tremble.
"All done. You can open your eyes."
I'd only closed them and felt a brush pass over my face a few times, and already she was saying the makeup was finished. A little skeptical, I checked the mirror attached to the case — and the face in it was a me I'd never seen before.
"Oh……?"
"Well, would you look at that! Must be the face you're starting with. Dress you up a little and you get even better-looking."
The producer swept a glance over me and piled on the praise. I could feel him complimenting me however he could, eager to build a good relationship. I answered his admiration with something appropriately modest, and I'd only been admiring my made-up face for a little while when the van glided to a stop. Not a red light. We'd reached the destination.
"We're here."
He rattled the van door open and stepped out. I followed him down to find the crew from the rear van already bustling through their setup, having arrived ahead of us. Two cameras, lights, audio — the kind of gear I'd seen on TV, in the hands of people moving fast. I was watching them for a moment when the producer drifted over and started in on a light briefing.
"If you read the file I sent, you'll already know, but today we're covering the story of the dog that guards this apartment entrance. We got a tip. They say it's been standing watch here for weeks."
"So all I have to do is find out why that dog is there?"
"Yes! That's exactly what we want. We already filmed its behavior yesterday. Through the daytime it doesn't budge from the entrance, and once night falls it disappears somewhere, then shows up again."
He told me to take a look and played the footage they'd shot the day before. It had been edited a little, so the dog's daytime vigil at the entrance played back at high speed. Then, as the sun sank low, it vanished somewhere — and because it had gone where people couldn't easily follow, there was no footage after that.
"It's been living like this for weeks?"
"Yes. The tipster says so, and when we asked the apartment security guards, they all figured it had been about three weeks."
At that, my brow furrowed before I could stop it. Whether the dog had lost its owner or been abandoned, it had been living this way for weeks. Unlike cats, which will hunt small birds and mice or, failing that, dig through trash to find something to eat, dogs are sorely lacking in that department. And as if to prove it, the dog on the screen was badly thinned out. It wasn't quite down to skin and bones, but you could tell plain as day that it was leaner than an ordinary dog. It clearly hadn't been eating properly.
"We need to sort this out as fast as we can."
"Right. Dogs that have had their aggression bred down to suit human needs aren't much good at finding food on their own."
"Then shall we start filming right away?"
Dragging things out wouldn't do anyone any good, so I asked to begin the shoot at once. Whether the producer had been thinking the same thing, or was simply glad the job might wrap up quickly, he wore a pleased face as he hurried the crew along. People who were already busy grew busier still, and then a camera and several of them came over to me.
"I'll just get a mic on you."
I couldn't say whether she handled the audio, but a woman abruptly slid a hand inside my shirt. It was the first time a woman who wasn't family — or Noona — had put a hand under my clothes, so I startled for a second. Aside from literally clipping on a microphone, though, nothing whatsoever happened.
"Don't be too nervous. Just do it the way you do when you're filming for Mytube. I watched your channel, and you shoot really well. Your eyelines are good, and so is your volume. We're counting on you!"
I nodded that I understood, and with two cameras in tow I started slowly toward the apartment where that sentry of a dog was supposed to be. It wasn't far. In no time at all, I had the dog in sight.