The Prodigy Answers the Call
Baek Hyeon-jin clutched the phone with both hands long after the call ended, trembling with excitement.
“The chance has finally come.”
The man who had shown him his own ideal—something Baek Hyeon-jin himself had never been able to fully capture. The actor who had awakened a genuine spark in him for the very first time.
That actor, Kim Doyun, was calling for him. Not just as a staff member, but specifically as a director.
Would someone like him—an unpaid rookie staffer who had yet to make his directorial debut—really be enough? Maybe the vessel was still too vast for him to contain.
Baek Hyeon-jin glanced around his wide, dusty, old room.
Stacks of notebooks filled with notes on directing theory, screenplay writing, shot composition, and lighting references stared back at him, piled as high as he was tall.
From the very beginning, Baek Hyeon-jin had never doubted himself. All he felt was certainty—he would prove his worth to Kim Doyun.
‘The actor finally called for me!’
Unpaid labor, grueling all-nighters, even working on a shrimp boat—he didn’t care.
Baek Hyeon-jin pulled his old director’s cap down firmly.
‘I’ll show him.’
During the filming at Myeongjang Theater, all he had shown Kim Doyun was the image of a clumsy, mistake-prone junior staffer. Yet Kim Doyun had still chosen to call him.
He didn’t know the reason. But Baek Hyeon-jin firmly believed it.
There was something fated between him and Kim Doyun—something that connected them!
So this time, he would etch the name “Baek Hyeon-jin” into Kim Doyun’s mind with his own brilliance.
Baek Hyeon-jin made that vow.
Not long after being summoned, Baek Hyeon-jin burst through the studio door, panting heavily.
“Actor-nim! I’m here!”
He came running with an innocent smile, like a child who had just received a Christmas present.
“You got here faster than I expected.”
“Yes, sir! When the actor calls, I flew here in a taxi, ignoring every traffic light!”
I was momentarily speechless at his words.
…Let’s not do that.
“Ah, I’ll pay for the taxi fare later.”
Baek Hyeon-jin waved his hands frantically in horror.
“No need! It’s fine! Just call me anytime like this!”
“Haha…”
He looked like a loyal subordinate. Had the lunchbox I gave him really moved him that much? Koreans really do run on rice!
Baek Hyeon-jin’s eyes sparkled as he asked.
“More importantly, Actor-nim, you said we’re shooting tofu today?”
“Yes, that’s right. Samryong Ingredients’ first tofu commercial.”
At my words, Han So-yeon smiled and waved her fingers.
“That’s the CEO. But there’s been a bit of a problem…”
“A problem?”
Before Baek Hyeon-jin could finish his question, Kim Dae-young shouted with clear displeasure.
“Who’s that greenhorn? A directing student?”
“Who is he?”
At Baek Hyeon-jin’s question, Kim Dae-young leaned back in his chair with an arrogant expression and declared.
“I’m the director. The one in charge here. Director Kim Dae-young.”
“Ah, hello! I’m Baek Hyeon-jin!”
At Baek Hyeon-jin’s loud, respectful 90-degree bow, Kim Dae-young’s lips curled up smugly.
“Right, right. Since you’re also a directing student, you’ll understand what I’m saying, unlike these amateurs who can’t grasp my direction at all.”
Kim Dae-young spoke with growing confidence, as if he had found an ally. But Baek Hyeon-jin’s eyes narrowed slightly at his words.
“Amateurs? Who are you talking about?”
Without reading the room, Kim Dae-young pointed at me and Han So-yeon and clicked his tongue.
“Who else? Especially that unknown actor over there. What does a guy who only does neighborhood supermarket ads know about my trendy direction?”
That was when Baek Hyeon-jin’s atmosphere shifted. The tail-wagging puppy from moments ago was gone.
“Ah, is that so. I see. I understand now.”
Kim Dae-young leaned forward excitedly at Baek Hyeon-jin’s response.
“Oh, you actually know something! Huh, for a directing student, your eye for angles isn’t completely hopeless.”
Baek Hyeon-jin nodded along.
“So, Director, how were you planning to shoot the tofu commercial?”
“It’s a technique that isn’t well known in Korea yet. You should consider yourself lucky today. Think of it as an opportunity and learn properly. After objectifying the tofu through blue neon with a mystery lead…”
Kim Dae-young rambled on, mixing in foreign terms no one could understand. The two of them seemed perfectly in sync, leaving everyone on set stunned.
Han So-yeon nudged my side and whispered anxiously.
“Doyun, that Baek Hyeon-jin girl you said was amazing… are you sure she’s okay? Isn’t she the same type as that fraud?”
“He’s a guy, Noona.”
“What?!”
Baek Hyeon-jin’s delicate features and long curly hair gave him a pretty-boy look, but it wasn’t enough to mistake his gender.
I answered the flustered Han So-yeon with a relaxed smile.
“Don’t worry, Noona. That friend is the real deal.”
It’ll be fine. Baek Hyeon-jin is the genuine director I know.
At that moment, Baek Hyeon-jin cut off Director Kim Dae-young and walked toward the center of the set with a smile.
“Actor Doyun-nim. I think I understand. Would it be alright if I touched the equipment here?”
I nodded with a smile.
“Yes. I called you here so you could tear it apart and fix it however you want, Director Baek.”
“D-Did the actor just call me Director Baek…!”
Kim Dae-young spoke in a flustered voice at Baek Hyeon-jin’s sudden action.
“W-What are you saying? A greenhorn like you can’t possibly imitate—”
At that moment, Baek Hyeon-jin muttered to himself with a frown.
“A piece of trash who can’t even properly capture the actor’s first commercial shoot…”
Ignoring Kim Dae-young as if he couldn’t hear him, Baek Hyeon-jin approached the lighting setup.
“How pitiful… The stupid lighting is killing the tofu.”
“It looks that way?”
At my question, Baek Hyeon-jin nodded.
“It’s destroying the tofu’s transparent texture. Turn off the neon and rotate the tungsten lights about fifteen degrees. The tofu is about to dry out and shrivel.”
Baek Hyeon-jin turned to the third-rate director’s staff members on set.
“Aren’t you going to move? Were you really planning to leave it like this?”
The staff members hesitated, glancing at Kim Dae-young.
“Hah. Never mind. Looking at the setup, it’s all a mess anyway.”
With cold eyes, Baek Hyeon-jin walked toward the lighting stands himself. Kim Dae-young shot up from his seat in anger.
“What if a beginner touches it and breaks the equipment! And what do you mean it’s a mess? How dare you in my set—!”
Creak—
At that moment, everyone in the studio froze.
‘I can’t believe it’s the same equipment.’
Baek Hyeon-jin had only flipped a few switches and slightly adjusted the angles.
Even without looking at the monitor, it was obvious to the naked eye.
“CEO, that… The tofu that looked like a bluish corpse…”
At the man’s exclamation, Han So-yeon nodded.
“Now it looks like steam is rising from it.”
The quality of the light. The moment it changed from third-rate video to true cinema.
Even Han So-yeon, a complete amateur, stood with her mouth agape, staring at the tofu.
Kim Dae-young, who had been red-faced and shouting, clamped his mouth shut like he had been struck dumb.
“…”
A talent so overwhelmingly violent it crushed mediocre passion and knowledge.
A master who saw a light that ordinary people could never reach, no matter how long they lived.
After finishing the lighting setup, Baek Hyeon-jin dusted off his hands and looked at Kim Dae-young.
“What? Still not leaving?”
“…T-This is my set…”
Kim Dae-young glared at Baek Hyeon-jin with his mouth firmly shut. He clearly wanted to argue, but his body only trembled and no words came out. He looked pitiful, like a chihuahua.
Baek Hyeon-jin asked in a chilling voice, his usual innocent demeanor gone.
“You’re in the way, so leave. Or stay quiet. Understood?”
“I can’t just—”
Baek Hyeon-jin asked as if annoyed that something insignificant kept catching his eye.
“What is a mystery lead for an object?”
“What…?”
“You call yourself a director but can’t even use terms properly? If you don’t even know what a mystery lead is, why are you forcing it into a food commercial?”
Kim Dae-young’s face flushed red, as if struck at his core.
“T-That’s why! By deliberately interpreting the tofu object differently to shock consumers—!”
“Tsk. You’re just spouting nonsense.”
Baek Hyeon-jin clicked his tongue and looked down at Kim Dae-young with contempt.
“That’s why the staff gets confused when you try to make things sound plausible even when you don’t understand them yourself.”
The set fell silent.
“How did you debut as a director? No, where did you even study?”
“T-The latest theories are too outdated to learn at university. So I studied overseas references…”
“Ah, the internet? YouTube?”
At Kim Dae-young’s defensive excuse, Baek Hyeon-jin turned away as if he had lost all interest.
“He thinks he’s Director Lee Tae-ryun or something. Tsk.”
Wow. Even I felt a chill down my spine.
‘Now that I see it, his attitude toward people who don’t meet his standards is exactly like Lee Tae-ryun’s.’
I had forgotten. Baek Hyeon-jin only acted like a loyal puppy because he liked me. Both Baek Hyeon-jin and Lee Tae-ryun were the same kind of crazy geniuses who worshipped brilliance alone.
Baek Hyeon-jin ran toward me with an innocent expression, as if Kim Dae-young had never existed in his world.
“Actor-nim! The setup is done! Please come this way!”
Then he shouted with eyes like a large dog seeking his master’s praise.
“I want to show you right now how the actor will look in my setup!”
