Star Beyond the River – Script Reading (2)
"Oh my, Actor Jin."
Director Lee Sang-hun stood there with the exact same stiff posture he had worn when Ryu Yeon-woo walked in, as if the two greetings had been spliced together from a single take.
Jin Yu-han exchanged pleasantries with the director, then approached Yeon-woo and offered a greeting of his own.
"Yeon-woo. How have you been?"
"Well, thank you. I actually managed a real vacation during the break. You did too, I hope?"
Even though the competition for the same role had been brief, a faint awkwardness still lingered between them. Yeon-woo had always carried a maturity beyond his years, and Jin Yu-han—having worked in the industry since childhood—did not feel like a twenty-year-old either.
"Hey," Yeon-woo suggested first, "want to drop the formal speech? We're the same age, and our characters are friends anyway."
Jin Yu-han nodded without hesitation.
"Sure. Works for me."
When Yeon-woo first heard that Jin had lost the role of Seo Hui to him and then joined the cast as Lee Ji-baek, he had been more than a little surprised. He was not alone—most of the network staff had been equally puzzled. For a fleeting moment Yeon-woo had even wondered whether a hot-blooded twenty-year-old might be joining just to sabotage the production out of spite. Meeting him in person, however, revealed a far more open-hearted young man than expected.
Jin Yu-han smiled beside him and said,
"When I heard the audition results, I was actually kind of happy. And curious. I really wanted to see your acting. Acting's pretty much my only hobby, you know."
There was no malice in the words. Yeon-woo smiled back.
"It probably wasn't pure acting skill that got me the part. I just like analyzing scripts down to the last detail. I guess the writer liked my analysis."
From that moment the two of them fell into easy conversation about the project, their chemistry clicking into place as if they had known each other for years. Director Lee Sang-hun watched them with a quiet, satisfied smile.
"Get every second of this," he murmured to someone nearby. "Don't miss a frame."
Just then a bright, high-pitched greeting rang out from beyond the door.
"Hello! Oh my gosh, hello, sunbae-nim!"
Seo Ji-eun burst into the room, bowing at a full ninety degrees in every direction before her spine even had a chance to straighten, her energy filling the space like sunlight.
She finished greeting the director and the writer, then came straight to Yeon-woo and Jin Yu-han.
"Hello! I'm Seo Ji-eun."
Even though both young men were younger than she was, she bowed to them with the exact same ninety-degree formality she had shown the senior cast. The meticulous courtesy forced Yeon-woo and Jin to rise from their seats and return the greeting.
"I'm a huge fan of both of you!"
She clasped her hands together, eyes sparkling as she confessed her fandom without a shred of shame.
"Ah, thank you. I've enjoyed your work too, Ji-eun."
Yeon-woo accepted the compliment with a warm smile. Jin Yu-han, who seemed genuinely uninterested in anything that was not about acting, offered only a polite half-smile and looked elsewhere.
"Ugh, hearing you call me 'Ji-eun' feels so weird and formal… We're friends in the drama too, right? Can we just be friends?"
She knew they were two years younger, yet her expression made it clear she did not care in the slightest.
"Haha… is that so?"
Yeon-woo scratched the back of his head with a slightly awkward laugh.
No matter how I look at her, she's basically a little Han So-hyun.
Because it was a historical drama, a considerable number of mid-career and veteran actors soon arrived. The three young leads—being the juniors on set—found themselves busy exchanging greetings.
"My goodness, little Yu-han's all grown up! This old man hardly recognizes you."
Quite a few of the senior actors remembered Jin Yu-han from his child-actor days. Given how many projects he had appeared in since he was small, it was only natural. And of course, the same veterans' curiosity immediately shifted to the same-age newcomer who had taken the lead role right out from under him—Ryu Yeon-woo.
"All right, everyone seems to be here. Shall we get started?"
Director Lee Sang-hun rose from the seat of honor, and the room fell quiet.
"I'm Lee Sang-hun, the director of Star Beyond the River. Let's make a drama worth remembering."
A round of applause followed.
Beginning with the director, the production staff and cast introduced themselves one by one.
For Spring's Lover Yeon-woo had only been a cameo and had not attended the reading. For Summer's Closet he had been third in the cast list. For Master Plan, second. Now, for Star Beyond the River, he held the first-billed role and therefore spoke first.
"It's a pleasure to meet you all. I'm Ryu Yeon-woo, playing Seo Hui in Star Beyond the River. It's an honor to work alongside so many great seniors."
Feeling the gazes of the legendary veterans and seasoned mid-career actors all fixed on him, Yeon-woo continued with genuine humility.
"I've heard that an actor's true job is to keep learning. I intend to learn a great deal from this production. Thank you."
His voice carried a gravity far beyond his twenty years. The mid-career actors listening to his quiet resolve found small smiles tugging at their lips.
The remaining cast offered their own brief remarks, and then it was time for the script reading itself.
"All right, let's begin the reading. The early scenes will be shot separately, so we'll skip a few pages and start from Dal-yeong on page three."
At the director's cue, every actor sank into the script.
From early morning Dal-yeong had been bustling back and forth through the main gate of the Seo household, collecting the love letters that the young ladies of Kaegyŏng's most powerful families had sent through their maidservants and gathering them all in one place.
"Aigoo, every single morning it's the same work."
Actor Moon Jeong-yeol, cast as Dal-yeong, delivered the line.
Yeon-woo lightly tapped the table to stand in for the stage direction of opening a door, then entered with his line.
"What do you think you're doing, collecting all of those?"
The natural, period-perfect delivery drew approving nods from the veteran actors.
"Aigoo, Young Master. How could this humble servant refuse the love letters the young ladies have written for you with all their hearts?"
"I have no need of them. From tomorrow onward, lock the gate and do not open it."
"If I do that, the maidservants will stand in line all morning waiting."
Seo Hui stroked his chin as though conceding the point.
"True. You are right. Those girls have done nothing wrong. Very well then—give them here."
Delighted that his young master was actually accepting the letters for once, Dal-yeong eagerly handed them over.
"Here they are, Young Master. This one is from the second daughter of Lord Han's household, and the yellow one is…"
Seo Hui took the armful of letters and walked toward a corner of the courtyard. The actors paused just long enough to account for the walking time, then Moon Jeong-yeol continued.
"Young Master? Where are you going? That is where the servants keep the firewood."
"Is this not a whole armful of firewood right here in my hands?"
Without the slightest hesitation Seo Hui fed the love letters into the brazier. Yeon-woo gave a small, crooked smile as though he could actually see the flames leaping up.
"They burn well. From tomorrow I can reduce the amount of wood we gather. Fresh kindling is delivered every morning, after all."
"Aigoo, Young Master…"
After Yeon-woo's first scene, several more sequences followed until the first moment in which he and Seo Ji-eun faced each other.
"Ah—!"
Hong Ui-yeon, skirts clutched in both hands, came tearing wildly through the marketplace and collided with Seo Hui. She staggered backward toward a filthy puddle of muddy water.
Seo Hui stood with his hands clasped behind his back, watching her for a single heartbeat of calculation, then nudged her upright with the tip of his foot so she would not fall.
Men and women may be meant to keep their distance—but better this than letting her tumble into that filth.
The stage directions were only written on the page, of course; Yeon-woo simply tensed the tip of his foot in imagination and exhaled into the line.
"Are you all right?"
"…Ah! My backside!? How dare you treat a woman with such impropriety!"
"I?"
Seo Hui tilted his head and asked the question with shameless innocence. Hong Ui-yeon glared while rubbing the spot his foot had touched, but the black hood covering her head hid most of her face.
"I was standing perfectly still. You were the one who came running. And as a gentleman of proper manners, I merely kept you from sprawling face-first in the marketplace mud. Did I not?"
Having finished speaking, Seo Hui simply gazed at her. The logic was so airtight that Hong Ui-yeon found herself with nothing left to say.
At that moment the maidservant who had been chasing her came running up.
"Young lady—! Stop right there! If you refuse to go again today, Madam will truly thrash you!"
Hong Ui-yeon glanced back, grimaced, then snatched up her skirts once more and fled from the pursuing maid.
Once the woman had gone, Dal-yeong approached and brushed off the shoulder Seo Hui had bumped.
"Young Master, are you unhurt?"
"How could I be injured by a mere collision with a woman? Still—how flighty. Running through the marketplace like that."
He clicked his tongue and started to walk on, only for something to catch under his foot.
"Hm? It seems the young lady dropped this."
"A scent pouch, Young Master."
Hong Ui-yeon had lost her pouch in the collision.
"If one is to observe proper manners, one must first pick it up."
"Aigoo, the ground is filthy. This servant will fetch it."
While Dal-yeong retrieved the pouch, Seo Hui called after the maidservant who was still chasing her mistress.
"You there—your mistress's scent pouch…"
The maidservant ignored him completely and hurried past.
"Like mistress, like servant."
He clicked his tongue again and continued on his way, eventually arriving at the house of his writing tutor, Wang Ham-yun.
Wang Ham-yun was a cousin once removed of King Taejo Wang Geon and the son of founding merit subject Wang Sik-ryeom—in other words, royalty of Goryeo.
"You are late? That is a first."
Seo Hui, who never broke an appointment, had arrived somewhat later than usual, and his teacher looked puzzled.
"I was delayed by the observance of proper manners."
The explanation made little sense, yet the mention of manners earned a nod from Wang Ham-yun.
Lee Ji-baek, Seo Hui's close friend who had already arrived and begun studying, glanced over with a silent question. Seo Hui waved a hand as if to say it was nothing of consequence.
Their studies continued until a commotion outside forced them to pause.
"I said I do not wish to go! Did you not see how they treated me in Seogyeong? Looking down on me simply because I am a woman!"
One of the maidservants from earlier was dragging in a young woman who was being half-pulled, half-pushed by another attendant. Wang Ham-yun watched the scene for a moment, then spoke.
"So you are Hong Ui-yeon."
She was the eldest daughter of Lord Hong, a provincial magnate who had recently moved from Seogyeong to Kaegyŏng. No matter how wild she might be, she could not throw a tantrum inside the home of Wang Ham-yun, a distant relative of the Goryeo emperor.
"I present my greetings. I am a daughter of the Hong family."
"I will overlook the discourtesy. We are in the middle of lessons—come in and sit."
Unlike the Joseon era that would follow, early Goryeo allowed women equal education if their parents wished it, so that they might later educate their own children after marriage—even if they themselves could not hold office.
Suddenly under the command of a royal, Hong Ui-yeon quietly entered and took a seat.
"Your voice was loud enough to carry over the walls, so I heard everything. There will be no discrimination here simply because you are a young woman. Do not worry."
At their teacher's words both Seo Hui and Lee Ji-baek let out quiet snorts of laughter. Hong Ui-yeon's face turned bright red.
When the lesson finally ended and a short break arrived, Seo Hui called Dal-yeong, who had been waiting outside, received the scent pouch they had found earlier, and held it out to Hong Ui-yeon.
"Young lady. Take this."
Only after accepting the pouch did she look up at his face.
"Ah! Are you the young master who earlier… toyed with me with your foot?"
"Toyed? With my foot?"
Lee Ji-baek's gaze snapped to Seo Hui. Seo Hui met his friend's eyes and shook his head firmly.
"Not in the least."
When Lee Ji-baek looked at her again, Hong Ui-yeon flushed scarlet, ducked her head, and muttered to herself.
"He put his foot on the backside of an unmarried woman…"
"That is not true."
Lee Ji-baek looked at Seo Hui once more.
"His foot went right under my skirts…"
"It did nothing of the sort. Think for a moment—does that even make sense?"
Seo Hui pointed at the long skirts that reached all the way to Hong Ui-yeon's ankles. Lee Ji-baek's expression shifted rapidly as he looked back and forth between the two of them.
"My friend… what exactly have you been doing out there?"
Seo Hui could only shake his head as though the whole affair already gave him a headache.
The perfectly meshed back-and-forth between Ryu Yeon-woo and Seo Ji-eun sent laughter rippling through the reading room.
The assistant writer was right. Those two are an absolute perfect match.
Watching them sit side by side delivering their lines, the director thought their voices, their timing, and even their looks seemed made for each other.