The Bald, Muscular Uncle and the Petty Senior

When filming an action movie or drama with large-scale action sequences, productions often hire a professional stunt team and have the actors sync up with them in rehearsal.

Our drama was no exception.

Director Bang, who had deep expertise in action, had an action team he'd worked with many times before, and once again he'd decided to bring them on board.

For Flame Entertainment, which had no intention of interfering with production, it was a choice there was no reason to oppose.

The place we were heading now was Action School Victory, located just outside Seoul.

It was the first choice actors made when they wanted to learn action acting.

Specializing in training stunt teams, the school ran stunt instruction by class cohorts, and it also offered special courses for actors who wanted to learn action performance.

Granted, the actor courses didn't go as deep as the professional cohort training, but the school had a well-structured curriculum covering action fundamentals, which made it quite popular.

Especially actors who needed to prepare for action scenes on short notice found their way here without fail.

"We'll check your fundamentals first, then move straight into practical drills. If it's you, Si-woo, the basics shouldn't take long."

"We'll see, but I doubt it'll take much time. Will you be joining us too, senior?"

"Of course. It's been a while since I last performed action myself."

"About three years?"

"Right. Since it involves safety, even experienced performers have to go through verification first. Though there are shortcuts, so I expect I'll breeze through it."

"I see."

Come to think of it, action acting was still acting, after all — the emphasis would be on performance rather than real combat ability.

Something like: how do you pull off moves that look cool without getting hurt?

I suspected the purpose of this training was precisely to learn those thoroughly impractical, all-flash-no-substance movements.

With that in mind, I realized that showing Director Bang the swordplay of Mount Hua had been quite the smart move.

I was even getting a feel for how one needed to move in order to produce good action acting.

That said, it did come as a mild surprise that Cheon Yoo-ah, who already had action experience, was attending the fundamentals course too.

That woman — if it's something done with the body, there's nothing she can't do.

Given that she'd already gone through it once, there shouldn't have been anything more to learn, but watching her sign up anyway, it seemed the Heavenly Demon of this world was rather ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠levelheaded about such things.

For my part, I preferred doing things with someone else rather than alone, so I didn't bother pointing it out.

"Haha, welcome, Yoo-ah. A pleasure to have you."

"Hello, Director. And this is Baek Si-woo, who will be appearing alongside me this time."

"Nice to meet you."

"Yes, good to meet you too. I'm Jang Su-hong, the action director."

When we arrived at our destination, Victory, a robustly built middle-aged man greeted us.

His whole body was packed with muscle, his head shaved clean to the scalp — a man who looked tremendously strong.

Well, bald plus muscular is a combination that can't help but be formidable in any world.

This was Jang Su-hong — head of Action School Victory and its action director.

He was also the man joining our drama as the action director.

A living witness to the history of Korean action, he'd brought a considerable share of Korea's action films to life from the very tips of his fingers.

The Victory team that Jang Su-hong ran directly was made up of veterans who had performed in numerous action films as well.

I knew he was a busy man ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠with plenty of productions seeking him out, but we'd apparently timed things well, and he'd agreed to work on our project.

"I've seen Yoo-ah a few times before, but this is your first time here, Si-woo, isn't it?"

"Ah, yes. I'm still a rookie."

"You're pretty well put together for a rookie. Did you train in swordsmanship separately?"

"Yes, something like that."

"Good. To be honest, I watched the video Director Bang sent over and it surprised even me. I have high expectations."

Director Jang was quite friendly toward me, despite being a complete stranger and a rookie at that.

He said he'd seen my footage through the video Director Bang sent and asked that we build something great together.

What Director Bang sent, of course, must have been the footage of me swinging the umbrella.

My performance, displaying both the sword of Mount Hua and the sword of the Demonic Cult at once, must have left quite an impression even on a veteran martial arts director like Director Jang.

Since I'd walked in already scoring points from the start, it was hardly a bad thing.

"Oh..."

"That's Nam Hyun-ho."

"Right."

"Ah, Hyun-ho? Nam has been practicing here for days already. A very diligent young man."

"Days already?"

Stepping inside, I found an earlier guest already loosening up on the mats.

It was Nam Hyun-ho, who would be acting alongside us in this drama.

We'd only finalized our contracts a few days ago — if he'd started practicing back then, it meant he'd sprinted straight here the moment his pen left the contract.

They said he'd even worked as a loan shark at one point for the sake of good acting — he really did seem dead serious about the craft.

"Oh-ho. So you're that Baek Si-woo, then?"

"...Yes. Pleasure to meet you, senior."

"Sure. Can't say the pleasure's mutual, but whatever."

For some reason, though, the man had been in a sour mood from the moment we met.

He'd exchanged greetings with Cheon Yoo-ah quite politely, but when it came to me, this was the treatment I got.

To me he was the familiar Nam Hyun-ho, but in this world we were complete strangers — I couldn't fathom why he was acting this way.

What on earth was his deal?

"Baek Si-woo. Come over here, please."

But my pondering didn't last long.

Director Jang was calling me from across the room, saying I needed to learn action fundamentals.

And so, with that lingering bad taste in my mouth, Director Jang's action lessons began, and I steadily absorbed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠action acting under his instruction.

The fundamentals of action acting weren't difficult to master.

The training period was barely three days?

By Director Jang's own account, that was an exceptionally fast pace.

"To be honest, I was a little worried. Actors with good physical ability or serious training backgrounds tend to be uncooperative surprisingly often."

"Is that so?"

"They get greedy, because they know what they're capable of. You don't have any of that, Baek, and I appreciate it. We can start working on syncing you with the other actors soon."

According to him, the younger the male actor — and the more training he'd accumulated — the harder he was to teach action.

They learn quickly, but then they immediately push for the most difficult moves before they can properly control them, which becomes a problem.

It got even worse when they were learning alongside a beautiful actress like now, which made things quite awkward for the instructor.

But then, that was hardly my problem.

I was long past the age of flaunting that kind of youthful aggression, and flashy high-difficulty moves in this world didn't particularly impress anyone, so I wasn't very motivated.

You needed at least shape-shifting to earn a proper oooh — things like these were just children's games.

And the stunning actress standing beside me was, of all people, Cheon Yoo-ah.

Where exactly was I supposed to summon competitive spirit from?

Not that Cheon Yoo-ah isn't beautiful — but in my past life, we'd never been rivals in that way. We were on the same side, master and guard.

At any rate, my composed attitude seemed to register quite favorably with Director Jang.

And the result was that from day two, he'd started speaking down to me casually.

When he asked if I minded — he said he only relaxed with people he genuinely liked — I told him to go ahead.

Muscles plus a shaved head plus middle age was more than enough qualification for speaking informally to me.

Male actors only, of course.

Our dear Director Jang turned to stone whenever Cheon Yoo-ah so much as did anything, and despite a twenty-year age gap, he never once dropped formality with her.

Actresses are "Ms." until the day they die, apparently?

An easy man to read, our bald director.

"That guy's being surprisingly obvious about it."

Even while I was deep in fundamentals training, Nam Hyun-ho was out there syncing up with the other stuntmen.

Whatever had him so worked up, he'd occasionally break into tumbling runs to loosen his body, and each time, he'd glance my way with a sour, twisted little smile.

What was with this pettiness? Were you a grade-schooler in a past life too?

"Si-woo, do you happen to know Nam Hyun-ho?"

"Not at all."

"Then why is he acting like that?"

"Hard to say. I'm not sure either."

By this point even Cheon Yoo-ah had come over to ask me what on earth the man's problem was.

Not knowing anything myself, I couldn't give her a proper answer.

Truthfully, I was just as curious.

One look told me he was a lunatic and a fool, so I'd planned to just greet him once and write him off — but having him orbit around me like this made that a bit difficult.

Whatever else he was, one thing seemed certain: the man was insane.

The reason behind his behavior turned out to be easier to uncover than I'd expected.

It happened when I practiced a scene together with Nam Hyun-ho for the first time.

The first action scene I'd be shooting with him was a confrontation.

A scene where Lee Myung (Baek Si-woo) tracks down Nam Seok-ho (Nam Hyun-ho), who had been living in hiding near Pyongyang, to persuade him.

Seok-ho, a fugitive, mistakes Lee Myung for a bounty hunter come to capture him and starts swinging an axe without a moment's hesitation.

After briefly crossing blades with Seok-ho, Lee Myung ultimately subdues him — and that's where the action scene ends.

Since the scene played out entirely as a contest between the two of them, timing was everything.

"Stop. Hyun-ho, you need to get out of the way there."

"Ah, sorry, Director. Slipped my mind."

"Stay sharp. Someone could get hurt."

And that was when the man decided to play games.

Since this wasn't real combat, we built the scene by exchanging rehearsed beats with each other — if even one person deviated from the agreed choreography, the whole scene fell apart.

Just now, Nam Hyun-ho had dawdled at the exact moment he was supposed to retreat backward, causing a minor contact accident.

Granted, my body was far too solid for a body check of that level to cause any actual problem, but it did feel strange.

Because from where I stood, that had been a deliberate foul.

"Wow, you're pretty decent."

"So are you, senior."

"Pretty cocky too, just like Yu-shin said."

"...You know senior Jo Yu-shin?"

"We're about as close as close gets."

"Ah-ha."

After colliding with him a few more times and puzzling over his behavior, the subject of Jo Yu-shin had come up almost by accident.

The very Jo Yu-shin who shared my first drama with me and received a Demonic Cult Punch to the solar plexus for his trouble.

Just knowing that Nam Hyun-ho and Jo Yu-shin were close was enough to sketch out the whole picture.

I didn't know how they knew each other, but Jo Yu-shin must have been friendly with Nam Hyun-ho, and he must have poured every nasty rumor about me into the man's ears.

And now I'd been cast opposite him — naturally, Nam Hyun-ho would want to teach me a lesson.

"Okay. Situation clarified."

Rough assessment complete.

Which meant it was time for me to act.

And my conclusion, of course...

"Stop. Hyun-ho, you okay?"

"Ah, yes. Hahh... hoo... I'm fine."

"Senior, are you all right? Ah, I slipped for a second there."

"Baek, that one was a little close."

"I'll be careful. Sorry about that, senior."

It was a charge, plain and simple.

In the moment where I retreated while deflecting Nam Hyun-ho's strike, I staggered — and drove an elbow into his ribs.

From the outside it looked like two actors getting their footwork tangled mid-scene, but in reality, Nam Hyun-ho had just taken my elbow to the flank and was teetering on the edge of blacking out.

Nam Hyun-ho labored under the delusion that he was more skilled at action than I was, but that simply wasn't true.

And if I rammed him like this a few more times...

"What the hell is wrong with you, you lunatic... Come out to the parking lot when we're done."

...the actor's version of meet me on the rooftop was bound to trigger.

"Excellent. That should set the stage for a nice, honest heart-to-heart."

He was a simple creature, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and he was moving exactly according to my predictions, click by click.