Han So-hyun and Son Jin-uk
A few days later, while they were in the middle of filming, some welcome faces showed up on set.
"Yeon-woo!"
"So-hyun noona."
"How long has it been!"
Han So-hyun and Son Jin-uk had come by to cheer on the production. Jin-uk lived close enough that Yeon-woo saw him all the time, but So-hyun was a much rarer sight.
As Yeon-woo greeted her warmly, Jin-uk ambled up from behind and opened his mouth.
"I figured a full-on surprise like last time would be too much hassle, so we just showed up."
"Just showed up? You called in a coffee truck outside, too. Thank you—seriously, every time."
Jin-uk waved the gratitude off like it was nothing and cast a look around the interior of the set.
"I heard it was fantasy. How is it? Manageable?"
"There's a lot of unfamiliar shooting, and it's hard, but it's fun."
So-hyun was turning her head this way and that, equally fascinated by the chroma-key-blanketed soundstage.
"What's that rig? Wire work—flying around? I want to try that sometime. I've never seen a set with this much special-effects shooting."
Director Hwang's voice drifted over from behind them.
"Oh my—hello, both of you."
So-hyun and Jin-uk turned, and Yeon-woo made the introductions from between them.
"This is Director Hwang Min-gwon."
Jin-uk and So-hyun shook the director's hand in turn.
"Ah—pleasure to meet you."
"Hello. I'm Han So-hyun."
"Oh, of course I know you. Is there anyone who doesn't?"
Hwang Min-gwon's good-natured smile drew a matching one from So-hyun as she looked over the set again.
"I've never done fantasy or sci-fi, so a stage like this is completely new to me. I'd love to try it once."
It might have been polite small talk—but just in case, Director Hwang's eyes lit up.
"Ohhh—then while you're here, maybe a short cameo…?"
Yeon-woo's network wasn't vast, but he kept excellent relationships with every actor he'd worked with, and LN Entertainment had already budgeted for cameos with that in mind.
Director Hwang was looking back and forth between So-hyun and Jin-uk with hopeful eyes, on the verge of an answer—when another voice cut in from behind him.
"Well, well. Look who it is."
At the sound of it, Yeon-woo looked past Director Hwang.
The actor cast as Dipangdal—the man Yeon-woo had marked as a Baeksol plant and been watching carefully ever since. Jeon Gi-hun.
Jeon Gi-hun approached Jin-uk with a manufactured smile.
"Jin-uk. Long time."
"Ah, sunbae. So you're in this production."
Where Jeon Gi-hun's mouth curved up in a smile, Jin-uk's expression was nowhere near as bright. Not quite a scowl—but not remotely glad to see him, either.
"We did a project together years ago and then completely lost touch. You've been doing well lately, I hear."
"Not really."
Jin-uk shook his head and answered in clipped monosyllables. Jeon Gi-hun studied him for a beat, then seemed to find the silence awkward and changed the subject.
"You should call sometime. Keep in touch."
"Yes."
Another one-word answer. Jeon Gi-hun turned his head toward Director Hwang.
"I've wrapped for the day, and I've got another schedule."
"Of course. Head out whenever you're ready, Actor Jeon."
"Then I'll be going, Director Hwang. And Jin-uk—see you around."
Jeon Gi-hun said his goodbyes and left. Taking one look at Jin-uk's still-sour expression, Yeon-woo jumped in first.
"Director—I'll take our guests around the sets for a bit."
"Ah, yes. I should go prep the next scene anyway."
Yeon-woo led So-hyun and Jin-uk toward the next set bay. Once they had put some distance between themselves and Director Hwang, he glanced at Jin-uk and asked,
"Something between you and Jeon Gi-hun sunbae?"
"Hmm?"
"Your face didn't look great."
Jin-uk scratched the back of his head.
"That obvious, huh. Some actor I am—can't even manage my own expression."
So-hyun spoke up beside them.
"I've never worked with him myself, but among actors, everyone who knows knows—Jeon Gi-hun sunbae is a complete bastard."
For a word like bastard to come out of normally mild-mannered Han So-hyun's mouth, it was almost a miracle the reputation had never leaked to the public.
Jin-uk nodded and added to it.
"I did a few projects with him when I was a rookie. He picks managers and total newcomers and torments them in ways that don't leave marks. He enjoys finding people's weak points and quietly dragging them under."
"Hmm. So gaslighting, basically?"
Jin-uk nodded.
"Exactly. From what I know, his managers turn over about once every three months."
"He's famous with the public for all the volunteer work, though."
"People fall for that image. At first, whenever he says something, everyone pays attention and believes him too easily. You need to be careful too, Yeon-woo."
Yeon-woo nodded at Jin-uk's concern. Careful wasn't the plan. The plan was to scrub the man off this set entirely.
"How has he lasted this long, then?"
"That's what I keep wondering. How he never gets canceled. I've heard rumors he has someone backing him, though."
Whatever he'd endured as a rookie must have cut deep—the eyes that usually smiled so easily had gone hard and flat. Jin-uk seemed to drift into some old memory for a moment, then shook his head and went on.
"Psychopath, sociopath—he's got some kind of -path, that's for sure. Anyway, show us the sets. There's a lot of wild equipment."
Yeon-woo nodded at the deliberate change of subject and walked them through the soundstage, explaining as they went.
"This is the gate set for the early transfer sequence. And over there…"
It was like touring a museum with a curator. By the time they'd made a full circuit—hearing the rough story and which scenes were being shot where—both of them, being actors to the bone, were starting to itch to perform something themselves.
"This is fascinating. So what are you shooting today?"
"Mm… today's the scene where we rescue a red blood cell that fell from the orbital elevator."
So-hyun and Jin-uk's faces filled with question marks.
"The orbital what? A red blood cell?"
Yeon-woo knew perfectly well how strange that sounded. All he could do was scratch his head.
"This project is a little hard to explain in words. But it's definitely going to be fun."
After showing them around for a while, Yeon-woo had to return to principal photography—the day's shooting schedule had been locked in advance. So-hyun and Jin-uk wanted to watch, so they settled in beside Director Hwang, eyes moving between the field monitor and the set.
Yeon-woo, for his part, was so deep in the complicated shoot that he had no bandwidth left to notice them.
Right. Then left rear. Both sides at once—let those pass, next one's on the right.
Lately the detail scenes felt like a video game once the cameras rolled. The console Seong-sik had brought to the housewarming and hooked up to the TV. Yeon-woo had always been terrible at games—but acting was a different story.
He was shooting alone, but as he sank into the take, he held Ella's footage in his mind—the material that would be composited into a single scene in post—and it almost felt like he could hear Han Byeol's Ella calling out.
"Mister! Behind you!"
He looked where Ella pointed. Massive fragments of the orbital elevator were hurtling toward Jeong Do-jin, the lead Yeon-woo was playing.
Suspended in open space, Do-jin slipped past the shards with the barest minimum of movement, each miss razor-close. A sidelong glance at Ella confirmed she was far enough off the debris path to be safe.
Then, through the swarm of fragments, a piece too large to dodge came screaming in.
"Damn it."
No choice. The blade was already on the verge of breaking, but he drew it from his hip anyway.
I'll have to find a new sword somewhere.
It was the sword that had been lying in front of him the moment he woke up inside his younger brother's body six years ago. From the tips of his toes to the tops of his thighs, he had owed that blade a great deal—
"But I can't die here."
He swung hard, horizontal, into the oncoming fragment.
KUNG—
Pashssst—
A brutal impact, and the shard glanced away—but the sword shattered into pieces.
"Okay, cut."
After a long stretch of frantic motion, Director Hwang Min-gwon's okay finally came through.
"Hoo."
Yeon-woo dragged in a breath. Fantasy shoots weren't just technically hard—they were physically brutal.
Watching from the side, So-hyun and Jin-uk found themselves oddly captivated by the sight of him thrashing around inside the chroma key.
"Hmm… how do I put this. Weird, but impressive…?"
"…"
On the set in front of them, men in full-body tights—destined to become motion markers for spaceship debris—stood surrounding Yeon-woo with red gym balls in their hands. The visual alone was bizarre enough. And in the middle of it, Yeon-woo kept his lower body locked in place while his upper body whipped around in a frenzy.
At first glance it looked like random thrashing. Looking closer, though, he seemed to be moving to a kind of rhythm—timed to the gym balls closing in on him.
Taken as a raw shooting image, it was frankly ridiculous. But the Yeon-woo doing the acting was dead serious, and the eyes Director Hwang fixed on the monitor were sharp as blades.
And beside the two visiting actors, CG Director Jeong Yo-han—who almost never came to set—was hovering awkwardly.
"It, uh… looks strange, but once it's edited, it'll be a completely different action scene."
"Ah—you're the VFX director, right?"
When So-hyun turned to address him, Jeong Yo-han's face went red.
"Y-yes! It's an honor. I'm actually a huge fan."
He'd gotten a haircut for the first time in ages the moment he heard So-hyun was visiting, then rushed straight to set.
The take they were watching was one of the early action set pieces—something of a highlight of the series.
"It might look a little funny, but right now Actor Ryu is frantically dodging a debris storm in space."
So-hyun didn't nod so much as tilt her head even further.
Debris. In space. Hmm…
She'd gotten the rough story while touring the sets, but even for an actress nearly ten years into her career, the shoot in front of her was completely alien.
I've seen Hollywood actors do this kind of thing on YouTube…
Jin-uk and So-hyun watched Yeon-woo with open fascination. Extras in skin-tight suits that looked like something out of an old Earth Defense Force tokusatsu show. Gym balls you'd expect to find at a fitness center. And in the middle of it all, Yeon-woo—body locked down, twisting this way and that through empty air, face deadly serious as he drew a sword from his hip and swung it desperately at nothing.
Not a single element of it was normal. They couldn't begin to picture what the finished scene was supposed to be.
And yet, watching it, something in So-hyun stirred—a desire to try special-effects shooting herself.
Is this that thing people talk about…?
It was undeniably bizarre. And somehow, strangely magnetic. A meme that floated around the internet now and then came to mind.
Looks kind of stupid… but cool.