True Heart
[Scene #22] [Interior. Ikseon-dong / 3rd Floor Bar, Night.]
A boisterous bar filled with raucous laughter. At a corner table, a beer mug slams down hard. Thud! A few startled patrons nearby turn with annoyed glares, but...
"·········What."
Everyone who catches sight of the man gripping the mug handle quickly averts their eyes. Dokgo Gwang-cheol. A mid-level used car dealer with long gang-style tattoos snaking up to his wrists and a fierce scowl etched on his face. He smirks, scooping up a handful of peanuts from the table and tossing them into his mouth.
Crunch, crunch. Even with his mouth already stuffed, he greedily grabs another handful from the basic snack plate. But then—
A glance. The moment he spots the hour and minute hands on his Rolex watch, he spits out a curse and flings the peanuts haphazardly onto the table.
"·········What the hell is this? Making me wait like an idiot, you crazy old bastard."
Deep wrinkles furrow his brow. He's been waiting for that old man—the one he recently strong-armed into buying a junker car, the damn geezer who claimed to be superstar Yoo Hye-mi's father.
"Sold one lousy car and now I'm suffering for it."
He'd dismissed it as bullshit, of course. But after a brief call with a woman claiming to be Yoo Hye-mi, and meetings with people purporting to be her manager and agency lawyer, things had gotten ambiguously murky.
Yoo... Hye... Mi... He punches "Yoo Hye-mi" into his smartphone for no real reason, then lets out a smirk as some thought crosses his mind.
Ding-a-ling! The bar door swings open, and a woman in sunglasses strides confidently up behind him. Click, clack.
"Hey."
She grabs his shoulder firmly. He whips around with a scowl, and the instant he sees her face as she removes the sunglasses—
"You know who I am, right?"
"Pfft!"
Dokgo Gwang-cheol's unexpected reaction upon first laying eyes on the real-life superstar Yoo Hye-mi.
"I-I-I love you! F-For real?!"
"············Hah."
Yoo Hye-mi stares in disbelief...
—Cut!
The sudden cut sign rings out. The extras and supporting actors in the bar set down their prop drinks with relieved expressions.
Seol A-yoon and Lee Tae-gyu. The staff glance at them—still holding onto their captured emotions—and tilt their heads, exchanging puzzled looks.
The fact that Director Yoon Chang-ho called cut right before Seol A-yoon's next line meant...
"·········Retake?"
It was another scene that hadn't hit 100% satisfaction.
"Again?"
"Wasn't it good?"
"Right?"
"Felt like solid vibes to me."
Meanwhile, staff members murmur with odd expressions.
"Whew."
Director Yoon Chang-ho sets down his megaphone and shakes his head slowly.
Already the third retake. Even some actors from Yoon's crew were giving off "Isn't this fine?" vibes, but...
············The baseline is off.
Something's missing. Yoon Chang-ho is, without doubt, a skilled director. Which means he has the chops to spot when an actor's performance deviates from the precise emotional zero-point he's set.
He picks up the megaphone again, offers a casual excuse, and declares a break.
—Aigoo, age catches up quick. It's getting late, eyes are drooping from fatigue. Let's grab some coffee and rest up!
To him, there was exactly one problem right now.
"A-yoon-ssi?"
"······Yes?!"
The lead actress of this film startles a bit—maybe feeling a pang of guilt—and turns around.
In other words...
He eyes Seol A-yoon, who's been slipping on the scene where she needs to shoot down Tae-gyu with a contemptuous glare at his nonsense, and nods toward the coffee truck visible outside the window.
"Wanna grab coffee and chat for a sec?"
Yes. Seol A-yoon was the issue at hand.
***
The black night sky. Beneath tangled power lines in an Ikseon-dong alley lit by yellow streetlamps.
"Haha, even A-yoon-ssi gets nervous on her first shoot."
Director Yoon Chang-ho takes a swig from his disposable iced Americano cup and opens casually.
"Still shaken from Tae-gyu-ssi getting hurt earlier?"
"·········"
"Or did you change Yoo Hye-mi's outfit? Feels a tad off from what we blocked out... If you're ad-libbing, give me a heads-up."
In the original script for Scene #22, Seol A-yoon was supposed to enter confidently, then dominate Lee Tae-gyu. The lifelong singleton Tae-gyu falls head over heels the moment he sees her real face. She smirks at his clumsy, love-inept words and unleashes whatever she wants to say.
But.
"You know I love ad-libs, right? But if you're interpreting the role differently, at least tip me off ahead."
Something was slightly off-kilter.
"Maybe we should've reordered the shoots."
Yoon phrases it gently to save face for a top star, but honestly, Seol A-yoon just wasn't focused.
Thump!
Seol A-yoon, famed for her professionalism. In this jungle of an industry where dirty power plays masquerade as affection, she'd clawed her way up here through sheer grit. So she could tell for sure.
This is love—
Over her career, shooting music videos, CFs, dramas, shorts, and features, she'd locked eyes with male co-stars "in love" dozens of times.
·········But nothing this blatant before.
Not once since debut. She'd never received a gaze like Tae-gyu's earlier—one that saw her as pure, unadulterated woman.
Most were after her halo of fame, or using her as a stepping stone, or hiding some ulterior motive.
But this? Pure 100%.
The moment Tae-gyu turned his head during the take, she saw his eyes spill sweet hearts without even a minimal filter. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
0.01 seconds? No. As an acting major, Seol A-yoon instinctively knew that eye reaction was far more unconscious.
A gaze soaked in infatuation. An affection that sparked reflexively, before thought— the instant her image hit his retinas.
And afterward, he didn't even try to hide it.
The crew praised it as "acting monster" genius, but only the one who'd exchanged that gaze directly knows it's no act.
A prickling something. Primal "man-woman" vibes, maybe veering into instinctual savagery—like teenagers' scorching first love.
Thump!
Just recalling it flushes her cheeks at how overt Tae-gyu's affection was.
Hah, for real.
And she'd just witnessed his pro acting ethic. Injury be damned—he powered through the pain, rolling on the floor screaming, all to avoid burdening others.
His acting was sincere, yet he couldn't hide his feelings for her? Then... how genuine must those feelings be?
·········He's lost it, seriously.
Seol A-yoon's face reddens deeper. How long had it been since someone liked her for her, not the star?
Hah, jeez.
But suddenly? Right now?
No. Thinking back, every time Tae-gyu crossed her path during their acquaintance, he'd worn an "unnaturally" blank expression.
Well, a normal guy couldn't stay that composed otherwise.
Obvious emotions. Pretending indifference or disinterest to hide a crush.
What, he's not a kid.
Seol A-yoon chuckles. Now it all clicks.
He'd clamped down his feelings for her like a gas valve—unnaturally tight. Then this romance film gave him the perfect excuse via "acting" to unleash them.
·········So that's it.
Like dumping factory waste during a flood. Or, when piss stains your pants, soaking your hand thoroughly to mask that tiny spot.
Tae-gyu, pouring out his Dokgo Gwang-cheol performance, had slyly released his "real" affection for her amid it all.
Thump!
Now, Seol A-yoon had uncovered the whole truth—
Hah, I don't really mind...
Since that incident back then, she'd had zero interest in dating industry folks. Still.
The fact that someone—especially the actor sparking her own growth lately—genuinely liked her? Giggles slip out.
"What's up, A-yoon-ssi? You okay?"
"Huh?"
"Hmm."
Director Yoon Chang-ho, arms crossed, peers at her flushed face with a serious look.
"Pushing too hard? Sorry about this. Didn't expect the delay earlier—can you keep going?"
"Ah."
"If you're not feeling well..."
"It's not that."
"You sure? Not sick?"
She waves it off, about to push for resuming, then realizes.
This situation was a first.
Acting oblivious to a co-star's real feelings for her, layering on another emotion atop it.
"Well..."
Meeting Yoon's expectant gaze, she thinks of a way to break through.
"What if we interpret the role like this?"
"Hm?"
True heart.
"Oh, you had something in mind? Spill it, A-yoon-ssi."
A way to naturally weave Tae-gyu's sincerity for her into the acting.
***
Meanwhile, same time.
A massive SBC-owned studio still lit late into the night.
"True heart."
In front of the set with graphs and numbers sprawling across huge monitors, bundles of EEG wires like spiderwebs, and comfy chairs lined up aside.
"The nuance that this is these stars' true hearts—that's key. You all get it, right?"
"Haha, how many times you gonna say it?"
The middle-aged man in a crisp suit chuckles wearily at PD Kim Bok-hyeon's final reminder.
"I can tell at a glance."
"Just in case."
"Got it, got it."
"Like last time, if you collaborate well, it'll sell the 'celebrity true heart' vibe way better."
"Well, I'm curious too."
The ex-profiler turns, eyeing the other "experts" gathered with intrigued looks.
Psychologists, university researchers, even hypnotists and data interpreters for those machine readouts.
"Dunno if these folks can catch it better than my field experience, honestly."
"Focus on yourself."
"Like we lack real-world chops."
"Didn't you see earlier?"
"Data interpretation is truth."
"It's all mental. Like spotting a drifting raft in a storm-tossed sea..."
They start flexing their domain pride, each boasting confidence differently.
"Alright, alright!"
Clap—!
PD Kim Bok-hyeon claps to refocus them, bursting with curiosity.
"Your enemy isn't each other. I know you've all got pro pride. But the public will see seamless teamwork digging out stars' true hearts as more expert than infighting."
"Ahem."
"········Tomorrow."
PD Kim Bok-hyeon steels his face toward those key for tomorrow's Your Heart Echoes shoot.
Then, into his ear—
"That person of interest I mentioned? Pros like us won't easily spot their true heart—"
"Don't worry."
Tomorrow. As they gear up to unleash their skills, their unified reply rings out.
"Ghosts can fool us, but not them."
A confident chorus from the "true heart" experts whose combined careers easily topped a century.