A Peaceful Day (4)
A Peaceful Day (4)
Early in the morning, I arrived at the studio in Dad's car.
Changing clothes and getting into makeup first thing in the morning made it sink in on a physical level that filming had begun in earnest.
Since I had little time for makeup while attending school, most of the scenes I'd filmed so far—
with the exception of a few essential moments—showed Joo Ha-rin acting like an ordinary person.
And now, we were moving to shoot the scenes where she reveals her true form.
As a final touch, I put in clear lenses and plunged into filming.
Shots directed by Yoo Dae-yeon where I delivered set lines or gestured at empty air—the kind of filming that would have CG added later.
Frankly, scenes with heavy CG are not something you'd want to do in front of other people, but—
you had to perform them with solemn sincerity.
Because refusing to do it out of sheer embarrassment would be an insult to the director and fellow actors I'm close with.
My acting often drew exclamations of admiration, and those exclamations usually came when I played a character who was sloppy or indolent.
Truth be told, I was just showing my natural self, but...
And didn't they say the more you do something, the better you get at it?
I'd reached the point where, aside from that type of acting, I could handle other styles at an above-average level.
Not counting scenes that required tears, of course...
The white-haired Si-yoon.
The Si-yoon of now shouldn't be compared to the Si-yoon who played Miho in Season 1 of My Love Was a Gumiho.
The little-kid-days Si-yoon who was outrageously lovable?
If you saw the Si-yoon acting right in front of you now, looking all sulky...
That old-days Si-yoon would briefly vanish from your memory.
A white hanbok with pink accents.
Whenever Si-yoon made a move, the fabric fluttered alluringly, like a single wing.
"What~! Why do I have to go again!"
"Ah... Young lady... but stiill... what can I possibly do... Her Ladyship the Gumi..."
"No way, I'd laugh it off if it were once or twice! Forget it, I'm not going."
"Young ladyyy..."
The sight of actor Song Il-seong—easily three times Si-yoon's small frame—fidgeting and squirming in distress was oddly fitting.
"If she wants to see me, tell Grandmother to come herself."
"Young lady... please... I'm really going to get in trouble..."
The pink-tinged, white-haired Si-yoon let out a little "hmph" and turned her head away.
It was behavior the real Si-yoon would never, ever display, but whether it was acting or not, the sight was truly...
It drew sighs of rapture from everyone watching.
For a split second, Song Il-seong's expression softened, nearly breaking into a doting dad-smile—but with professional discipline, he barely held it together and threw himself back into the scene.
And now, it was my turn to enter.
Opening the door and stepping in, I sank into character and recited my lines.
"Lord Sirian has... reportedly been abducted by exorcists."
""...""
Si-yoon's playful expression snapped into dead seriousness. She looked at me, tilted her head to the side, and spoke.
"What, you're reporting this so leisurely...? Go get him back..."
"Yes, all shall be as the Young Lady wills..."
I executed a crisp salute, and the moment I did, Director Yoo Dae-yeon's voice rang out: Cut!
"Absolutely great! Wow, everyone is seriously... so good! Especially Si-yoon, the way your expression shifts out of nowhere—amazing! Really fantastic~"
"Thank you~ the uncles all helped me~"
We continued filming after that well past nightfall.
People in black priestly robes, wearing white gloves marked with crosses.
They chewed on a capsule labeled "ex," and their bodies began to twist.
Then, from among the black robes, a man dressed in white spoke.
"O vulgar ones who defile this land, whose very existence defies reason. The Lord commanded that even you be forgiven—how vast and great His mercy truly is..."
The man spread his arms extravagantly, and the white-clad figures began to smile grotesquely.
"We are His lambs. His followers. His two hands. His children, and so..."
The moment the man in white stamped the ground, a ward unfurled, and the high-ranking spirits flinched for an instant...
The man cocked his head at a hideous angle and smiled hideously.
"For the Lord our Shepherd is with us, we shall never be stopped..."
As the man in white finished speaking, the black-robed men—their bodies now grotesquely swollen after completing their awakening—laughed rancidly and tore apart the mid-ranking spirit bound in white chains...
After wrapping up the day's shooting to some degree, I headed to the on-site accommodations the studio provided.
Once I'd showered and come out, Dad called me on a video call. I told him not to worry and flopped down onto the bed.
Checking the backlog of messages, I found photos of Ji-hoon putting Han Seok-hyeon through the wringer.
The scene looked exactly like me putting Park Ji-hoon through the wringer in the past.
I caught up on every message, then set my smartphone aside.
This was my first time in a solitary room in such an out-of-the-way place, but it wasn't half bad.
And the moment I actually decided to fall asleep... I'd drop off right awa...
...Hwaaaaah pwoooooh...
As filming went on, an odd undercurrent began to stir.
The male lead Han Seo-jun, a former idol.
In the past, he'd been part of a male group that Dad and Uncle Jang Seong-man had pushed, one that showed its face on the Billboard charts for a while.
The thing was, this Han Seo-jun was now openly showing that he genuinely liked me.
With a whole eight-year age gap between us... he's lost his mind.
He was acting like wearing a school uniform himself made him think he'd become a student, and actor Yoo Su-a went dead serious and warned him.
He said he knew you couldn't help developing feelings, but if he didn't want a lifetime of regret, he'd better crush those feelings now.
Only then did Han Seo-jun come to his senses, nodding and reverting to his usual self.
My appearance, it seems, is dangerous to others.
No, I'm not joking—it's genuinely dangerous.
Everyone's holding back because I'm still a student, but the thought occurs to me that once I become an adult... well, like some site comments say, the number of morons spouting crap like "it's legal in two years" might actually balloon.
Quite a bit of time had passed in the story, and only now were we filming the scene where Han Seo-jun learns my true identity.
This was the scene I'd practiced during the audition.
Inside a dark school where only moonlight existed.
A woman with black hair that seemed to drink in the moonlight walked down the hallway, her footsteps going 'click... clack...'
The lowest-tier and low-ranking spirits radiated outward in a circle centered on her.
Even a few mid-ranking spirits visible along the way hurriedly cleared a path.
Each one trembled violently, as if an earthquake were shaking it—a display of sheer terror toward her.
The man possessed by the high-ranking vengeful spirit, who had been trying to kill Han Seo-jun.
Sensing the spirits' reaction was anything but normal, the man urgently looked toward the source of the clicking footsteps.
Like the parting of the Red Sea, every spirit fanned outward, centered around Joo Ha-rin.
At that moment, Joo Ha-rin began to turn entirely white.
The pupils of her classmate Han Seo-jun shook violently, and soon his face filled with horror.
Moments later, pink markings etched themselves around her eyes, and starting from her bangs, her hair began steadily bleaching to pure white.
And as the white-transformed area spread wider, ears and tails naturally emerged.
Before anyone knew it, Joo Ha-rin had approached the high-ranking vengeful spirit. Wearing a flushed smile, she lifted his chin.
"You... look delicious..."
"Sp... spare me..."
"Wrong answer~"
Joo Ha-rin seized the vengeful spirit's jaw, smiled, and stirred up a certain energy. The pink patterns on her skin began to glow...
The spirit's pupils slowly unfocused, and then, as if entranced, he answered.
"Ea... eat me, please..."
"Aha, then, shall we do just that~?"
Joo Ha-rin's lips parted, revealing a crimson mouth. Was she smacking her lips? Saliva stretched like threads, and—
except for the white fangs—the inside of her mouth was entirely blood-red.
The vengeful spirit, as though hypnotized, crawled into Joo Ha-rin's mouth of his own accord.
Smiling as if she'd just enjoyed a delicious meal for the first time in ages, Joo Ha-rin gazed down at Han Seo-jun, her pink eyes sparkling.
"You look... tasty too...?"
"Ha... Ha-rin?"
"Yeahh?"
As Joo Ha-rin crept closer, Han Seo-jun screamed in pure fright.
"I... I'm! I'm human!!"
"Exactly..."
Joo Ha-rin approached Han Seo-jun, who had collapsed onto the floor, and smiled.
"Hey, you like me, don't you?"
"N... no."
"C'mon~ you like me~"
Han Seo-jun's pupils gradually lost focus... He wanted to answer "Yes..." right then and there, but he kept his mouth shut.
"Why...? You hate me?"
Gulp.
Han Seo-jun swallowed hard without answering, and Joo Ha-rin grinned broadly as she spoke.
"C'monn~ I'll only eat a little~ That's okay, right?"
"I... don't want you to."
Joo Ha-rin's face flickered with an expression of mock shock at his reply, and she said,
"Huh? For real??"
"No. Even if I die, no."
Joo Ha-rin pinched her thumb and index finger together to indicate a tiny amount.
"Whoa... then how about~ you just give me this much of your liver?"
"Get lost!!! You monster!"
Joo Ha-rin recoiled as if genuinely shocked, her face crumpling into a sad expression.
"...I didn't want to become like this either, you know... If you just let me eat a tiny bit, I can turn back into a human..."
"Stop lying!!!"
"Ah, busted~"
Chilled to the bone by her two-faced demeanor, Han Seo-jun kept scooting backward.
"Well then, guess I'll just eat it all~"
"Help me..."
"Told you, that's not the line."
"No, I don't wanna die..."
At that moment, Go Jin-su approached.
"Young lady. Did you not promise Her Ladyship the Gumi that you would consume humans only with their consent?"
"...Let's keep it a secret from Grandmother~"
"I cannot do that."
"Wow! How can you do this, you're my butler!"
"Her Ladyship the Gumi is the one who pays my wages."
The retort was so ruthlessly practical and accurate that Joo Ha-rin couldn't find a single word of rebuttal.
"Wow...! Woooow!"
A smiling Go Jin-su approached Han Seo-jun.
"If you refuse the young lady Ha-rin's request, you are given two choices."
"..."
"First, you become a butler. And second... you die at the hands of a butler."
"...What?"
Shk—clack!
Before Han Seo-jun could even register it, the sound of a pistol being chambered rang out, and Go Jin-su had somehow already drawn a handgun.
His intimidating face stared at Han Seo-jun without any expression whatsoever, and then, once again, he smiled.
"We are busy people, so I will give you five more seconds."
Go Jin-su squatted down and pressed the muzzle of the pistol directly against Han Seo-jun's head.
And the terrified Han Seo-jun opened his mouth.
"I... I'll do it... wh-whatever it takes, I'll do it... I want to live..."
"Wow, that turned out seriously good."
"Once they add the CG, Si-yoon is seriously gonna be so..."
We monitored the footage we'd just shot, munching on hamburgers.
Then my phone rang. It was Uncle Jang Seong-man.
"What's the occasion?"
—"Si-yoon, is this really you?"
"What is?"
—"Check the internet. You're number one on real-time search."
"I can't answer if you just say that. Give me the gist."
—"On your way to school, when you helped that young man."
"Ah~ yes, that was me."
—"...Good job. This is huge... Alright~ hang in there just a little longer, our daughter!"
"Since when am I your daughter? I'm hanging up."
—"Hahaha!!!"
I ended the call and immediately looked up the story.
It seemed the man I'd helped on my way to school had posted a fairly detailed thank-you message on Neotube.
Now, a full week later, CCTV and dashcam footage was pouring out, witnesses were coming forward one after another, and online news outlets had apparently started picking it up.
But the comments were something else.
- Whoa... is it real that a student had 4 million won in her wallet?
- Go rewatch the part where she hands it over. She just shoves it at him like you'd hand a kid a piece of gum lol
- I heard the guy himself talk about it, he says she told him not to go cry somewhere and to go buy beef with his family lmaooo
└ lol for real
└ Damn, her personality's as top-tier as her face...
└ Where'd you see that?
└ https://novelpia.com/novel/8872 go go
- Si-yoon is the correct answer.
└ agreed
- Let's just wait two years...
- Everyone who's been trashing Kim Si-yoon's character up till now deserves to drop dead lol
└ God it was so gross seeing those losers badmouthing a 17-year-old out of jealousy, man this is so satisfying.
└ Got nothing better to do than mess with a 17-year-old? Total bastards.
└ lol for real
The mood on set began rapidly improving thanks to my news.
We pushed on with filming, and before I knew it, six days had passed before we finally got a very short break.
I happily greeted Dad and Grandpa, who'd come to pick me up, and we headed home.
Dad had often slept over at my studio accommodations, but it had been a while since I'd seen Grandpa.
We headed home and talked for a long while.
Then Kim Seon-hwa came to the house, and I went with her to the hospital where Lee Gi-seok was staying.
Da-yeon wanted to come too, but they said Lee Gi-seok had asked specifically for just me and Kim Seon-hwa.
I treated Kim Seon-hwa like a mother, sticking close and sitting right next to her.
"Have you eaten?"
"Of course~"
"Da-yeon's grandfather was saying he'd like to play Go with our Si-yoon?"
"Really?"
"When I heard him talk about it before, he said you're incredibly good! As expected, there's nothing our Si-yoon can't do~"
"Heh."
Soon we arrived at the hospital and went to Lee Gi-seok's room.
And there was Lee Gi-seok, in his patient gown, mid-Go-game.
"Oh!? Si-yoon, you've come!"
Seated across from a delighted Lee Gi-seok was 9-dan Jeong Seong-hoon.
"Hello~"
Lee Gi-seok casually finished the game, then sat me down in the spot.
"Play a round!"
"No thanks."
"In exchange, if you win, I'll give you a present."
"What is it?"
"Heh heh heh. That's a secret."
"Psh, then I'm not playing either~"
"Heuhh... how can she be so much like her own grandfather."
I casually dusted off my backside and stood up, and a flustered Lee Gi-seok quickly spoke.
"I'm purchasing a new private jet this time—you may use it anytime you wish!"
"Oh... show me."
At my words, a butler smoothly approached and handed me a tablet.
After checking out the photos of the magnificent private jet, I gave a nod and sat back down without another word.
Frankly, a private jet is insanely cool.
9-dan Jeong Seong-hoon, seated across from me, eyed me a little skeptically, but approached the game with all seriousness.
Even until very recently, I'd been playing on the internet Go server where the pros play, under the nickname 'dbwk12'...
My win rate was 96%... meaning, excluding the two games after I beat Lee Gi-seok, I'd racked up a 50-game winning streak.
At one point there'd been talk that dbwk12 was an AI program, but—
when I faced a 9-dan, I'd be pushed hard and take my time thinking before placing a stone,
and above all, a program called AlphaBaduk was famous for detecting every AI out there, so that controversy died down quickly.
Approaching Go with total seriousness, 9-dan Jeong Seong-hoon faced me.
When I picked up a stone using three fingers, his eyes narrowed.
Fwip.
Clack.
Fwip.
Clack.
Behind me, Lee Gi-seok watched the board with a smile, and beside him, Kim Seon-hwa observed with fascination in her eyes.
Through continuous refinement upon refinement, my Go had evolved to the point where—no matter who my opponent was—it applied relentless pressure.
"Heh... Si-yoon... you've improved enormously..."
Fwip.
As I placed my stone, 9-dan Jeong Seong-hoon's face twisted into a deep grimace.
"Hrrrm...."
A brief moment passed. The instant Jeong Seong-hoon placed his stone exactly where I'd predicted he would, I set my next stone down immediately.
His expression crumpled severely; he shot me a sideways glance, shook his head, and muttered.
"...Yuja12..."
"Oh, you know it? You must play on AlphaBaduk. That's my username."
Jeong Seong-hoon dropped the stone he'd been holding and stared up at me with trembling eyes.
"Excuse me...?"