Burnt and Hidden Marks
The new place Baek Woojin had moved into was a luxury officetel in Cheongdam-dong. He was so busy unpacking that when Song Jun-an relayed the call from Vice Manager Lee Min-seong, he headed straight to the office. The boxes could wait—the stack of scripts waiting for him was impossible to ignore.
‘Is anyone here?’
He arrived in just five minutes, but the office was eerily quiet. Glancing around, Woojin tilted his head at the sight of something odd. ‘Is that...?’
A towering pile of scripts on Team Leader Kim Tae-gon's desk loomed as tall as the desk itself, stealing his gaze completely.
‘Wow, there’s really so many. How am I ever gonna get through all these?’
A sigh escaped him at the sheer volume, but his face brightened anyway. ‘Wonder what roles are waiting for me this time~’
It had been two months since the crank-up of Red Petals. Short compared to the nine months of prep and shooting, but his body had itched with longing for acting all the while.
That was when it happened—right as he passed Vice Manager Lee Min-seong's desk, directly in front of Kim Tae-gon's.
- Thud.
Something caught under his foot. “What the—?”
Looking down, he saw a curled-up first act of a script on the floor.
‘A script?’
Puzzled, he picked it up.
“……?!”
His eyes widened the instant he read the title on the cover. Sitting right there in Lee Min-seong's chair, Woojin murmured softly, “Burnt and Hidden Marks?”
The title on the cover. And below it, “Director and Screenwriter: Ra Ho-chan.” Despite the serious tone, a smile spread across his face.
‘Why is this here?’
Excitement and anticipation bubbled up. He already knew the potential this film held.
Ra Ho-chan, the director. Alongside Bong Tae-ho from the indie scene, they were hailed as the “Ra-Bong Duo”—master filmmakers whose works earned unanimous critical acclaim and box-office success. Dubbed “Hanrabong,” Korea's two titans.
And Ra's feature directorial debut was Burnt and Hidden Marks.
A human drama about firefighters charging bravely into blazing infernos, inspired by real events. Made on a shoestring budget with no big-name stars, it flew under the radar at first.
But...
It started small, but ended grand.
Wayang Sori, released in 2009, held the indie record with 2.93 million viewers. Unprecedented. Yet just two years later, Burnt and Hidden Marks shattered it.
Word-of-mouth ignited the box-office myth, culminating in 3.2 million tickets—a new legend. Domestically, it raked in profits 400 times the break-even point.
Invited to festivals worldwide, it swept awards, proving its artistic merit. Guaranteed hit and critical darling. A perfect script no actor could refuse.
But for Woojin, the real pull was deeper.
‘My life-changing film.’
Everyone has that one film. For some, a superhero smashing villains. For others, a tearjerker romance.
Burnt and Hidden Marks had no superhuman heroes or epic love stories. But it struck Woojin harder than any other—with his own memories.
A painful shackle everyone faces once, one you must break free from.
“…….”
Woojin drifted into thought. He couldn't pinpoint it exactly, but a faint image: something collapsing limply before his eyes. Something black...
“Ugh!”
A sudden headache stabbed. He clapped a hand over his mouth at the involuntary groan. Thankfully, no one had entered yet.
“Hoo.”
Exhaling softly, he massaged his temples and flipped open the script with his other hand.
‘It’s just like that.’
Even skimming, it matched what he'd seen in his past life. He'd hunted down the DVD and watched it hundreds of times. Scenes and shots flooded his mind naturally.
Yet reading the words hit different. He'd desperately wanted this script back then but never landed it. Now holding it, his eyes sparkled brighter than ever. The headache was long gone.
“Actor Baek~ You’re here?”
A voice called. Kim Tae-gon and Lee Min-seong approached, coffees in hand.
“Woojin-ah, while you’re here, the scripts...”
“Team Leader!”
Before Kim could finish, Woojin jumped in, face flushed. “Is this one of the casting offers for me?” He held up the script.
In that instant...
“...Pfft, cough cough!”
Lee Min-seong, watching blankly, nearly spat his coffee. Kim Tae-gon whipped around, startled. “What? Why the sudden freakout?”
“No, Team Leader, it’s just...”
Ignoring Lee’s coughing fit, Kim turned back—only to “Pfft!” himself. He shot Lee a glare, who awkwardly averted his eyes.
Undeterred, “This one’s for me, right?” Woojin beamed—a smile none of them had seen before. His face practically screamed, ‘Next project decided!’
* * *
The conference room table, freshly cleared from the last meeting, was now buried in scripts again.
“Let’s think this through rationally and logically.”
“Starting with this one...”
Kim Tae-gon and Lee Min-seong began pitching, point by point. Woojin listened attentively first.
Plenty were tempting. Like:
A passenger plane bound for Korea, ground zero for history’s worst virus outbreak. Trapped at 35,000 feet (10,668m)—no escape, no way out. Passengers face the apocalypse while airport and government officials fight remotely to contain the spread, revealing the full spectrum of humanity!
Kim Tae-ho’s commercial blockbuster Golden Time.
Or:
A youthful rom-com about college sweethearts navigating butterflies, confusion, and ultimate realization of true love—like a live-action manga!
KBC’s new Monday-Tuesday drama Pure Love Diary, set for late August. Park Soon-young’s rom-com comeback—lead it, and he’d be Korea’s “nation’s first love” overnight.
Others: Lee Tae-hoon’s Diamond Stealer, fresh off 10 million viewers.
And more. Kim and Lee explained feverishly, faces red with promise.
But none swayed him.
“Thank you so much, but I’ll go with Burnt and Hidden Marks as my next project.”
Silence blanketed the room at his firm voice. Kim and Lee looked lost; Jun-an, somehow now beside him, sat stiff in awkward quiet.
“Seriously, why?”
Kim’s question, repeated endlessly. Woojin had the key—regression via the old woman’s diary, foreknowledge of its success—but how to explain?
‘Truth is, I time-traveled with a mysterious diary. I know it’ll be a smash!’ Yeah, no.
There was another reason, but he wasn’t ready to share. Tricky.
“Woojin-ah, just to check—no health issues, right?” Kim asked softly. “I’m worried. This makes no sense.”
Lee chimed in: “Team Leader, I swear—in my opinion, he’s just burned out from the nonstop schedule.”
“Quiet! Whose fault is this mess?”
Deflating like a balloon, Lee sulked as Kim pressed: “Woojin-ah, you’re really okay?”
“Of course. Nothing like that.”
Kim blinked blankly, speechless. “Aigoo~ I should’ve filtered that one out! My fault. All mine.” Lee shook his head, grimacing in self-reproach.
“Hoo.”
After twenty minutes of pleading, Kim Tae-gon sighed deeply in defeat.
Sure, from their view, it didn’t make sense. Give and take—they cared enough to pitch this hard. He owed them a proper explanation.
After a moment’s thought, Woojin bit his lip. “Actually...”
He opened slowly, about to share what he’d told no one.
All eyes locked on him. “...And that’s the biggest reason I chose Burnt and Hidden Marks.”
When he finished, “......”
Kim Tae-gon, Lee Min-seong, Song Jun-an. Speechless.
Unlike their passionate pitches, Woojin’s reasoning was calm, emotional over logical. Personal. But “Will you understand my choice?”
They all nodded.
“Thank you so much. Team Leader, Vice Manager, Jun-an hyung.” Woojin’s gratitude rang true.
As they tidied the scripts to leave—
- Rrrrr.
A phone rang right on cue.
“Hello?”
Kim Tae-gon’s cell. Then, “Yes?!” He startled, eyes meeting Woojin’s.