I Am the Actor Bae Su-chan
The child who had set down the blanket walked over to the stove with slow, even steps.
"This is how I usually walk."
Then she stopped, turning to look at Bae Su-chan.
"When I stand, I stand like this. And I breathe slower than a normal heartbeat."
Lee Su-a stood perfectly straight, her face emptied of expression. Even dressed as Cheon-young, somehow she didn't look like Cheon-young at all. Right now, she was simply Lee Su-a.
"When I turn in place, I move like this. When I hold a pencil, I hold it like this. When I speak, it's with this voice — and when I laugh, I laugh like this."
Lee Su-a broke into a wide, bright smile. It was a face everyone on set had seen at least once.
"When all of these elements are in place, that's Lee Su-a."
Bae Su-chan still didn't quite grasp what she was trying to teach him, but he understood that this was her theory of acting. He watched her movements more carefully than before.
"Now if the eyes and cheeks go rigid, the shoulders hunch, the pupils keep darting around to scan everything nearby, and the voice drops low and wary, with a slightly sharp edge to the way I talk..."
As she spoke, Lee Su-a changed each element that had composed her, one by one. Gradually the person called Lee Su-a vanished, and a different character took her place.
"Then you get Min-seo."
The Min-seo who had been so beloved in The Master's Medical Log stood right in front of them. Jo Yong-jin let out a low sound of admiration.
"Again."
Lee Su-a returned to herself, then transformed once more, piece by piece. A beaming smile filled her face. Her footsteps spun as if she might lift off the ground, light as air, and the hand resting on her hip was proud and sure.
"Ta-da! Da-hee is a friend who isn't in this world anymore, so I always moved extra big on purpose and kept my voice sounding like I was excited all the time."
Gwon Du-il smiled warmly at the long-unseen sight of Da-hee.
Lee Su-a set down each piece of Da-hee one by one and came back to herself.
"The outside might look the same, but depending on the big and small movements of the muscles, the breathing, the voice, the way of speaking — you can look like a completely different person. That's what I find fun about acting."
Lee Su-a smiled faintly. It was a different smile from the one she'd shown a moment ago — this one belonged to Lee Su-a herself.
Saying it so simply didn't make it easy. A person cannot control every movement of their own body. Considering in every moment how much to lift the corners of your mouth, how fast to blink, how to move your arms and legs — that was nearly impossible. But that wasn't what Lee Su-a was trying to tell Bae Su-chan.
"Right now, are you Senior Bae Su-chan?"
"I... don't know."
"Then are you Kang Geon-bok?"
"I don't think so."
Lee Su-a seemed to think for a moment, then changed the way she stood.
"Kang Geon-bok stands like this, doesn't he?"
Her back and neck went stiffly upright. Her legs spread to shoulder width, her feet planted as if they might drive themselves into the ground.
"He walks with his shoulders open like this, his voice is low, and his way of speaking is... a bit stiff."
One by one, the elements that made up Lee Su-a changed — into the Kang Geon-bok that Bae Su-chan had been playing. The more Lee Su-a became Kang Geon-bok, the more Bae Su-chan slipped out of him. He let the tension drain from his shoulders, unclenched his neck, eased the force from his eyes. Watching her, erasing Kang Geon-bok piece by piece, his breathing gradually grew easy.
When he reached the most comfortable state, Bae Su-chan realized.
This is me.
He had lost it for a while, immersed in Kang Geon-bok — but this was how he had lived his whole life. There was no way he could confuse the two.
The Kang Geon-bok wearing the form of a small girl asked,
"Who are you right now?"
"I..."
The words Lee Su-a had spoken on set earlier came back to him.
In an instant, Lee Su-a shed Kang Geon-bok and beamed.
"If you know clearly who you are, no matter how deep you go, you can come back right away. At least, that's how it is for me."
Bae Su-chan finally understood why Director Hong Il-beom had told him to talk to Lee Su-a.
This child was unmistakably a genius. Bae Su-chan couldn't even imagine memorizing that volume of lines in an instant, never once blowing a take. And her acting ability went without saying. Lee Su-a was a genius who did what others couldn't. At the same time, she was a genius who perfectly did what others could.
Bae Su-chan couldn't move every muscle in his body at will the way Lee Su-a could — but he could remember himself, just as she did. It wasn't perfect, but a clear reference point called Bae Su-chan seemed to have taken shape.
"I... I don't think I'll lose to Kang Geon-bok anymore."
At his words, Lee Su-a smiled gently.
"And I was thinking — it would be nice if we all practiced acting together."
"Acting practice?"
"Yes! I'm still having a hard time matching my rhythm with you seniors. Hehe."
She said it that way, but everyone knew the suggestion was for the other actors. If they had time to match their chemistry outside of rehearsals, the blown takes would definitely drop.
Jo Yong-jin, Bae Su-chan, and Ye Na-ri exchanged glances. It wasn't hard to tell they were all of the same mind.
"Practicing together would be great for us. But won't it be too much for you?"
"It's fine. I'll get permission from the director."
To manage Lee Su-a's condition, Director Hong Il-beom had somewhat restricted the child's hours on set. But given that Bae Su-chan had overworked himself to the point of collapse, he wouldn't block practice meant to cut down on mistakes. With Lee Su-a going this far for them, there was no way they could sit it out. The three of them burned with motivation.
"All right. Then let's set a time first. When works for everyone?"
"I'm free right now!"
"Su-chan, you need to rest. And it's Su-a's bedtime."
"Ah, that's right."
"Then let's do it tomorrow morning before filming. Since it's just about matching our chemistry, it doesn't have to be long."
At Lee Su-a's words, everyone nodded as one. Their faces already looked excited for the practice.
"This fucking—"
Kim Jae-seok climbed into the van, muttering curses without a pause. The road manager had fled ages ago on the excuse of using the bathroom, and the only thing waiting on his phone was a string of blunt messages.
He was furious. They were family, and the man paid him a pittance as it was — and he wouldn't even take his side at a time like this?
Director Hong Il-beom was the same. How hard had Kim worked to stay in that man's good graces, smoothing every feather? And the moment he tried to discipline his own actor, some third party had to stick his nose in!
That old fossil had scraped his pride raw — and the so-called actor standing right there hadn't even backed up his own manager!
"Just you wait. I'm going to fucking screw you over."
Kim Jae-seok glared at the message window with murky, unreasoning eyes.
The next day, filming resumed at once. The scene that had caused the trouble was set at night, so until the sun went down they shot other sequences.
Yang Ho-gun and Kang Geon-bok picked their way through a maze of tile-roofed buildings, confirmed the place was a cult den, and uncovered that Il-yeong — the man sharing their room — had actually intended to use them as bait and make his own escape.
"How dare the likes of you talk back!"
The man who identified himself as Jo Yeon-il only grew cooperative after Kang Geon-bok had thoroughly beaten him off-camera.
"Just you wait until I get out of here... I won't let you bastards get away with this..."
The threats of a man who had been about to hand over his entire fortune to a cult meant nothing at all to two people traveling under the king's secret orders.