Chapter 30
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 30
Chapter Title: The Crying Smile
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And so, Seojun created. The clues were a teddy bear, Mom, and a smile.
From a distance, director Ryan Will's voice could be heard.
"Ready, action!"
The moment he thought the voice was too small for such a large man,
‘William’ was now four years old. The teddy bear in his hands was a gift for his fourth birthday. He loved this bear from his dad more than any other present. His favorite thing to do was talk to this teddy bear in the yard.
It wasn't anything profound. Just that breakfast was delicious, that cookies were the best snack. Should we play with this today? Or maybe that?
Today was another ordinary day. The weather was chilly, so his mom had dressed him in thick clothes. He tucked the teddy bear under his arm and sat in the yard where he always played, playing with his bear.
"William!"
His mother called. At the sound of her voice, William looked up. His mom had opened the door and was looking at the baby. William loved his mom. He was so happy to hear her call that he broke into a wide smile and stood up.
"William!!"
His mom came running. Seeing her run towards him with her arms outstretched, William also stretched out his hands, holding the teddy bear, ready to be enveloped in his mother's warm embrace.
William loved his mother's hugs more than delicious cookies, so he smiled more happily than ever before.
And then, his vision went black. His whole body felt cold.
"Cut! OK!"
Ryan Will's shout-like voice pierced Seojun's ears. Seojun's eyes flew open.
"Huh?"
What? What was that? When did filming start?
As he sat there with a dazed expression, Barron's worried face came into view.
"Did that startle you? Did I pull you too fast?"
Barron held Seojun and rocked him gently. He had seen Seojun reach his arms out to Melissa and, thinking it was the perfect timing, quickly grabbed Seojun by his side and pulled him behind the green screen. Then he immediately checked on Seojun's condition.
In previous takes, the other child actors would start crying in surprise at the sound of Melissa's scream.
Even if they managed to get past that scene, they would often burst into tears in terror when Barron tried to grab their side.
But Seojun didn't cry; he just kept his eyes shut tight. His lips were a little blue, though.
Was he cold? But Seojun's body, held in Barron's arms, was plenty warm.
Worried by the difference, Barron asked again.
"Are you okay? Jun?"
"What's wrong, Barron?"
"No, Jun..."
"I'm fine!"
Seojun snapped back to his senses at the sound of the director's voice and shouted. Barron, who had been patting Seojun's back, set him down on the ground. The two held hands and walked toward Ryan.
"Weren't you scared?"
"No. It was fun!"
In truth, he didn't remember a thing. Seojun had simply been thinking about William. Happiness, Mom, and the pulling wormhole. Cold, and dark. Seojun tilted his head. What was that?
Ryan and the camera director were looking at the monitor with serious expressions, discussing something.
To one side, Melissa was dabbing her tears with a handkerchief. Barron was surprised to see her.
He knew she was dedicated, but he hadn't realized she was so immersed that she would cry. Especially since it was a scene they had repeated all day long. To think she still had that much energy left.
"You were that immersed?"
"Ah, well..."
Melissa, about to answer Barron's question, saw Seojun holding tightly to Barron's hand and began to cry again.
Barron and Seojun were flustered, not knowing what to do.
"Why are you crying?"
"Melissa, why are you crying?!"
"Sniffle. It's just that William is so pitiful..."
Eventually, other staff members led Melissa to the waiting area. The expressions of the staff escorting her were bright.
It was because Director Ryan Will had finally given the OK sign. They all glanced at Seojun with looks of pride.
Watching Melissa's back as she leaned on the staff and headed to the dressing room, Barron shook his head.
"It seems method acting isn't all good."
"Method?"
"You don't know, Jun?"
"No."
How could he explain it to this four-and-a-half-year-old baby? Barron pondered for a moment but decided to trust the intelligent Seojun. He explained slowly and simply.
"Method acting is when an actor becomes the character they're playing. For example, Melissa is usually Melissa, but during filming, she forgets herself and becomes William's mom."
"William's mom..."
Seojun thought deeply. Wasn't my situation just now the same?
Seojun had forgotten he was Seojun and had become William. Even though he knew he was being pulled into a wormhole, and he knew beforehand that it was Barron and not a real wormhole, it still felt cold and dark inside.
Could this be method acting?
"Method acting is great during the performance, but after filming ends, it's not easy to snap out of the character, like with Melissa."
"Snap out?"
"Melissa has to forget being William's mom and become Melissa again."
That was different. It was different from Seojun, who had snapped out of it the moment he heard Ryan's "Cut!" Seojun tilted his head.
"How do you do method acting?"
At Seojun's question, Barron cleared his throat with a "ahem" and spoke in an uncharacteristically serious voice.
"The foundation of all acting is understanding. The character's his..."
"tory! You have to understand their history!"
"Understand their his...?"
"Swalin Enum!"
At Seojun's words, Barron's neck and face turned bright red.
"...You saw that too, Jun?"
"CAN Channel's 'People Who Loved Movies'!"
"...You did."
"I love Swalin Enum."
Smiling shyly, Barron said.
"He's my favorite actor too."
In response, Seojun also let out a little "ehehe" laugh...
*Slap!*
Seojun slapped both his cheeks very hard with his hands. *I didn't laugh yet!* *Slap! Slap!* *I said I didn't laugh!* Fortunately, his ability seemed to have heard his cry and didn't activate.
Barron was at a loss, watching Seojun suddenly slap his own face while standing still.
"Are you okay, Jun?"
"Yes. I'm fine."
"Really?"
"Really!"
His cheeks stung, but he was fine. Really. Seojun's eyes welled up slightly from the stinging pain in his cheeks.
'I'm going straight to sleep after filming.'
* * *
"Ready!"
Director Ryan shouted loudly. A firmly shut door appeared on the monitor screen. On another screen, Seojun could be seen sitting on the floor.
"Action!"
*Bang!* The door flew open, and Melissa appeared. The camera focused on her face.
Ryan looked at her face. She looked desperate, but in his eyes, the performance was slightly lacking.
She was a mother who had rushed out after seeing the emergency news. She should have been filled with a mix of disbelief that her son could be among the missing and a growing, gnawing anxiety, but Melissa's face only showed the urgency of finding her son.
Was it because they had filmed it too many times? Aware of how the staff and actors had been working all day, Director Ryan was about to yell NG but decided to watch Seojun's performance first. If this kid was also terrible, he'd just delete the scene, he thought.
"William!"
Melissa's scream was heard, and on the screen, Seojun stood up. No,
"That's..."
William stood up. The small child broke into a wide smile and rose to greet Melissa.
[The illusion of the Smiling Face Mushroom is activated.]
A sound that no one could hear, not even Seojun who was immersed in his acting, rang out.
As Seojun's smiling face was shown in close-up, Director Ryan Will, who was monitoring the scene, and Camera Director James Landon, who was filming it, held their breath.
Even Melissa, who was in the middle of acting, felt her breath catch in her throat, her mouth hanging open. Jonathan, standing among the taller staff members, gaped.
It was the bright smile of a child, a happy smile, yet it was suffocating, making their hearts pound. Their chests ached as if clogged. They felt an unbearable pity for the child who was about to disappear into the wormhole.
"William!!"
Melissa, no, William's mother, who saw the wormhole, screamed.
*Oh, my child! My precious child!* the mother screamed. *No!* The word wouldn't come out. Her insides burned as if she had swallowed a fireball. Her throat felt clogged, and not even a sound could escape.
William disappeared into the wormhole, smiling to the very end. Leaving only a single shoe behind.
Overwhelmed with emotion, the mother collapsed in the yard. She couldn't take her eyes off the spot where the wormhole had vanished. Tears fell drop by drop.
The first to snap out of the breathtaking situation was Director Ryan Will.
The director forced his voice through his tight throat and yelled loudly. No one noticed the hidden moisture in his voice.
"Cut! OK!"
As if that broke the dam, everyone who had been holding their breath watching Seojun and Melissa's performance gasped for air. The waiting staff rushed toward Melissa, who was on the ground, sobbing.
Meanwhile, Director Ryan Will and Camera Director James secretly wiped away their falling tears, and Jonathan went to a corner and cried his eyes out.
While the staff cleared the set, the two directors rewatched the scene they had just shot.
"That was so..."
"Well done."
Ryan Will nodded at the words of James Landon, the camera director he had worked with since his first short film, and leaned back in his chair.
They had been filming all day. With only the youngest child actor left, he had been on the verge of giving up on this scene, as every take had been unsatisfactory.
He really hadn't wanted to do that, and thankfully, the last kid did well. No, not just well. He delivered an astonishing performance.
Ryan chuckled. To think that little kid's acting could make him cry—the Ryan Will of an hour ago would never have imagined it.
"At first, when he sat on the floor, I thought maybe his legs hurt..."
"But the way he stood up, smiling, made it seem even more like he was welcoming his mom."
"...Was it a coincidence?"
"Could be a genius."
Watching it again, Seojun's smile was still heart-wrenching, enough to bring tears to their eyes.
The burning in his chest made his heart pound instead. Just thinking about how people would react to this scene made him smile.
Camera Director James also nodded.
"A 5-year-old actor who can make his co-star get lost in their role. Anyone who heard that would think it's a joke."
"He's not 5."
Ryan Will smiled. James asked again.
"What? How old is he then?"
"He's 58 months old. 4 years and 10 months."
"Well. He'll be five in two months, whatever."
* * *
"An OK in one take?"
"Jun did really well. I even teared up."
"Melissa's acting was amazing too. That final expression!"
"I saw a movie Melissa was in before, and she was completely different. It was a similar role, but today it was like... she broke out of her shell."
"But, did you see that?"
A staff member's voice grew quiet. The ears of the other staff members, who were moving equipment, perked up.
"What?"
"Director Will and Camera Director Landon were crying."
"...Was Melissa's acting that good?"
"No, I think they were crying watching Jun's performance."
The staff members tilted their heads.
"He seemed good, but I don't think it was enough to make someone cry."
"I think Jonathan was crying too."
The staff exchanged glances. Jonathan Will was Director Ryan Will's nephew, currently studying under his uncle to become a film director. He was a promising boy who had even won an award at a film festival for middle schoolers.
"...Is there something we're not seeing?"
The makeshift tent being used as a waiting room for the child actor had poor soundproofing. Seojun, who was drinking orange juice, nodded as he listened to the staff's conversation just outside.
He recalled the number of people who had been watching him during the shoot. Roughly 30. And the people who seemed to have been affected by [The illusion of the Smiling Face Mushroom] were:
Melissa, Director Ryan, the camera director, and Jonathan Will. Those four.
'Since [The illusion of the Smiling Face Mushroom] is a low-grade skill, it only affects this many people.'
The top-grade skill, [Coveted Packaging of a Small Mimic], which had an effect on every single person targeted, was an incomparably immense skill compared to [The illusion of the Smiling Face Mushroom].
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