Happiness Is Not a Clean Thing (3)
Once the Kim Yu-han makeup was finished, Sua went straight to find the sound team.
What does the sound team actually do?
The sound team? What even was that! Sua hadn't known such people existed, and even after becoming an actress she had never taken any particular interest in them. Things were different now, though. She was in the middle of cultivating the Musician trait.
You never know. I might be able to see how far I've come.
And so, a short while later, having paid the sound team a visit, Sua began by quietly taking in the scene.
"This background music — isn't it too cliché? All of a sudden it feels like some old horror movie. Just cut it."
"You can't go messing with the synth like that."
"I don't get it. We're the sound team, aren't we? I'm telling you, we shouldn't get greedy. The music's presence is way too big."
The air was vicious. Most of the sound team sat with their brows pinched tight, as if thoroughly fed up, and the words flying back and forth were anything but gentle. Even Sua could feel that something had clogged up completely.
Before long, though, she stopped noticing any of it.
Background music, spilling out. That alone scraped at her ears.
I don't want to hear this. Why is it so grating?
Sua furrowed her brow without meaning to. Should I say something? The impulse lifted its head for a moment, but she soon shook it off. Just as an actor had an actor's work, the sound team had work that belonged to them alone. She wasn't supposed to butt in.
But how much time had passed?
….
In the end, Sua's patience ran dry.
Is this what a cleanliness obsession feels like? Ugh, I can't stand it.
She had to admit it. Her ears would no longer permit noise.
And now.
Sua lifted her chin with perfect confidence. Sua Smug.
"H-huh?"
"Kim Yu-han…? Sua…?"
"What?"
Every eye in the sound team had gone perfectly round. For them, it was only natural. An outsider offering the sound team advice was astonishing enough on its own, and that outsider was none other than Sua. Not one of them had seen it coming.
Sua unleashed a combination technique — Sua Arrogance — holding the lifted chin and going so far as to fold her arms.
…?
She canceled Sua Arrogance almost at once. She didn't know why, only that everyone had suddenly started staring at nothing but her chest, and the shock of it broke the pose.
The background-music sample kept playing regardless. Another idea soon came to her, and she spoke.
"Hmm. The runtime's longer than I thought. This sample alone won't be enough to fill the scene. Let's do one more."
A staffer from the sound team looked thoroughly startled. He pulled the headset — until then covering only one ear — down around his neck and asked again.
"You mean… make another piece of background music?"
"There's no need to go so far as making one."
Sua shook her head.
"Classical should be plenty. By the feel of it, Bach's Unaccompanied Cello Suite would be about right. You know — the Prelude from No. 1. Something quiet."
"…Classical music?"
"Yes. If the licensing fees are a burden, why not find a similar classical piece no one's laid a hand on and work it up in MIDI? The point is to get this kind of feeling."
"No, what I mean is — classical music, here?"
Only then did Sua understand. It wasn't so much that he had failed to follow her as that he had never once considered classical music might suit this scene.
"It's only natural. From the killer's point of view, this is the moment he feels most at ease. In his eyes the victim is nothing but an instrument. It has to be quiet."
"Ah? So we tune the background music to the killer's focus?"
Only then did the sound team's faces turn to surprise.
Until now they had been fixed on building tense background music. Of course they had — they had been trying to express the fear and desperation the victim felt. But Sua had spoken from the perpetrator's side. She had argued the exact opposite.
"Shaping the background music around the victim is cliché. To begin with, anyone can understand a victim's emotions easily. It's all just scary and frightening."
"Ah, that much is true…."
"But the perpetrator isn't in his right mind. An ordinary person can't empathize with him. It would be good to express that."
Sua's advice ended there. Afterward the staff spilled their bewilderment without holding anything back.
"Sua, have you studied anything to do with sound? You seem more fluent at this than we are."
"This isn't the level of studying — haven't you actually done the work? It looks like you know how to handle this program itself…. When did you learn it…?"
"Right. A program worth thousands of dollars."
"It doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense…."
Sua quietly folded her arms and nodded.
Applaud. Worship me.
Mm-hmm. Sua Smug.
All at once she remembered the Arctic Fox from The Little Prince. An Arctic Fox possessed of looks and every kind of ability had, in the end, lived happily ever after with the prince.
…Of course, Sua had never actually read The Little Prince. She knew as far as the boa constrictor swallowing an elephant. Anyway, a fox showed up after that, didn't it? Truthfully, she had no idea!
Who cares? Either way, this is a smash. My ability.
She couldn't help feeling proud. It was the moment she realized her Musician trait was working splendidly.
However, the ones startled just now were not the sound team alone.
Gaunt Director Ko Taemin quietly stroked his chin.
…The acting is one thing, but she has musical depth as well?
The surprise was not his alone. The production team of Starting Tomorrow, Crescendo, stuck close by, and several actors loitering nearby were in the same state, and they too had plenty to whisper about in a hurry.
"That music-editing program — it's in English, isn't it? There's no Korean version."
"So does that mean she's good at foreign languages, too?"
This, of course, was an enormous misunderstanding. Sua could not speak English. It was only that, among the music scripts she had experienced, there had happened to be a role that used that program…. But she had no way to explain herself. They were murmuring in voices meant only for one another.
"As expected. She must be from overseas."
"What do you mean, 'as expected'? You already knew?"
"No? But you can tell just by looking. The whole package."
"…I've got it. Breaking overseas is her goal, so she picked up all sorts of things! Something's come up for the moment, so she's shooting 808 in Korea! Look at it that way and it fits perfectly!"
Sua was still narrowing her eyes, focused on nothing but the background music. Well — Bach's Unaccompanied Cello Suite set the heart at ease no matter when you heard it.
With Sua planted at the center like the eye of a storm, the misunderstandings on every side were only growing. Kim Iseo, who had come chasing after her a step too late, was no exception.
…What on earth is this situation?
Sua had been rushing about so busily once her makeup was done that Kim Iseo had had no choice but to follow, on edge the whole time for fear she might run into Director Ko Taemin. And now Kim Iseo, too, was very greatly surprised.
An overseas talent? Was Sua from overseas? That's right. That's why she asked for the foreign-language script as the original in the first place. How much of a gain is this for Mystic?
Kim Iseo tapped the calculator in her head.
Enormous. Just enormously profitable.
And before long she couldn't help the thrill that rose in her.
In any case, the conclusions all of them reached were roughly the same.
I ought to treat Sua better.
I need to get on Sua's good side.
Incredible. I absolutely have to at least get my face stamped in her memory.
Get on Sua's good side. Without fail.
Time flowed on like water.
At last, fifteen minutes before the climax shoot.
"…Wow. There are so many people."
Someone on set muttered it, and it was true.
Unlike an ordinary shoot, a great crowd had gathered. Every one of them had the look of an ordinary citizen, but they were not actual citizens who had come to gawk. They were extras, all of them — people drawn in through part-time postings and the like, costumed for now as citizens, every one of them meant to be used as part of the climax shoot.
Most had come for the gig, so the mood was one of everyone finding the set itself a novelty, until a presence appeared that stole their attention clean away.
Lee Sua.
"Wow, the aura on her is no joke."
"A woman? A man? Oh — look at the body. She's a woman."
"I overheard a bit of it earlier while I was getting makeup done. They say that on top of the acting, she's incredible at music, too."
"Really? Someone that capable, and why does it feel like I've never seen her? I've never seen her once."
"They say she came from overseas. Thinking about it, a face like that isn't common in Korea. Wow — but if this airs, she's going to get a ton of fans. Everyone's already staring."
Sua, for her part, had only this: thump, thump, thump. Her heart was racing.
So many people had appeared all at once that she was trembling a little. I only just got used to the people on set, so why did a whole crowd of strangers show up! Why!
Thanks to the gravity that had settled over Sua's face, Seo Yeon-ju — who had been angling all this time for a chance to speak to her — felt the disappointment keenly.
I really wanted to ask whether she truly came from overseas, but the mood isn't one where I can ask at all. Even if I'm curious, I'll have to hold it in….
Of course, the disappointment was not Seo Yeon-ju's alone. The other actors of Special Task Force 808 felt just the same.
That was when it happened.
Hwang Myung-pil suddenly scratched his head and asked.
"Um, Sua. Did you happen to come from overseas? I did think your features looked rather exotic."
"Senior Myung-pil! What are you asking!"
While the others reeled, they waited for Sua's answer. It was true that Hwang Myung-pil had stepped forward without a shred of tact, but they were all of one mind in their curiosity. Sua, however, gave no particular answer.
Because—
What is this sudden nonsense?
She couldn't understand the question to begin with, so she couldn't answer it either.
That was when it happened. Park Dohui snatched Hwang Myung-pil and yanked him back.
"Senior Myung-pil, what do you think you're doing? Right before the climax shoot, bothering someone who's busy…. Come this way, quickly…."
"No — you lot kept going on behind her about overseas this and overseas that, didn't you? If you're going to do that, isn't it better to just ask her to her face and clear the air? I'm curious too!"
"W-we did? Wh-when! We never said anything like that, Sua!"
Sua made a consistent show of not noticing the noisy scuffle. Stay still, and you're halfway there. So she stayed still.
"I'd like to focus on the script."
With that short remark she sent them all off, then opened the script.
"…Huh?"
And found herself badly flustered.