Chapter 288 (1/2)

“Oh? Mr. Sungjae?”

A woman with short hair approached him. Sungjae knew her and quickly greeted her with a smile.

“Hello there.”

“You’re shooting in the afternoon. You’re quite early.”

“I didn’t have any schedule for the day, so I came early. I wanted to have a look at the set too.”

“Really?”

Wait a moment - she added before looking around. She was the woman Sungjae met when he met the casting director. She was one of the people that cooperated with the managers of the actors to manage their schedules.

“Would you like to come this way?”

He followed the lady into an empty classroom. He took a seat and waited for a while until the manager and the woman came back.

“You should’ve waited for me.”

“Sorry about that. I was in the school field, but people were staring at me, so I couldn’t just stand there.”

He smiled back at manager Dongwoon before looking at the woman.

“Please take this for now. It must have been tiring coming all the way here.”

The woman offered Sungjae and Dongwoon a canned drink each. They talked over the drink. They were looking forward to Sungjae’s acting performance, many people here are fans, you look much more handsome in person, and stuff like that. Just then, someone entered the classroom. He was a middle-aged man with a chubby belly, and Sungjae knew that that man was the director.

“Hello, director.”

“Aah, that’s right. Mr. Ahn Sungjae?”

“Yes. I’m Ahn Sungjae, a new actor.”

“Alright, alright. Your shoot was today?”

“Yes, it is, sir.”

“Then see you in the afternoon. I’ll be looking forward to it. But hey, you really do look good. You must be popular with the ladies.”

The director left after a handshake. Sungjae smiled at him, but was bitter inside. In contrast to the fact that the director came all the way here to see him and told him that he was looking forward to his actions, the director’s eyes looked uninterested. Sungjae knew that the president of his company invested a lot of money into this movie. Would he be able to greet the director like this without his title as TTO? Probably not. Normally, minor roles weren’t even remembered by name by directors, much less greeted.

“We’ll start shooting starting at 7. Until then, you’re free to move around. The actors are on the 2nd floor. If you find anything uncomfortable, then please call me. Well then, please excuse me.”

The woman stood up. Sungjae thanked her for guiding them before sitting back down again.

“No, I don’t think that’s right, hyung.”

“Really?”

He didn’t come here because he had high hopes for me, but to thank me for the investment - he inwardly swallowed those words. The manager, Dongwoon, was a good man, but he was bad at noticing other people’s emotions. The other members of TTO agreed with Sungjae that he was a little frustrating to talk to.

“You must be tired, hyung. There’s a blanket here so get some sleep.”

“I”m fine. I’ll be back to normal once I drink some coffee.”

Despite saying that, though, he looked extremely tired. Sungjae layed out the blanket on the floor and forced Dongwoon down.

“No one would need sleep if coffee was all you needed after driving throughout the night. Get some sleep for now. I’ll wake you up if I need you.”

Dongwoon, who was saying that he was alright, fell asleep in less than a minute. Sungjae watched over him for a while before leaving the classroom. Although he had finally arrived at a movie film set, he wasn’t feeling as happy as he thought he would be.

‘I knew this was gonna happen, didn’t I?’

There were three types of reactions from people that looked at him. One, those that didn’t recognize him at all and just walked past; two, those who greeted him nicely after recognizing him; and three, those that gave him a strange glare even after recognizing who he was. The overwhelming majority belonged to the third group of people. The glares from the people were sharp enough for him to feel pricked. They smiled at him up front, but there were people who clicked their tongues as soon as they turned away. Hearing people say tsk, Sungjae had the urge to go pick a fight with them, but the only thing he could do was smile back at them.

He couldn’t just start shouting at them that they shouldn’t be so differentiating against him, and to not look at him with such eyes. He had no qualifications to. Although idols were becoming widespread in the drama industry, the evaluation was not good at all. With that being the case, Sungjae thought that telling them to respect him was being complacent and underhanded without proving himself first.

He wanted to be acknowledged by the people here for his skills, not as a popular idol. He wanted to break the bias that idols had horrible acting skills, and wanted to tell them that there are aspiring actors who became idols out of necessity.

‘Right now, the only thing they value about me is my face, but I’ll show them that that’s not the limit of my skills.’

After taking a deep breath, Sungjae clenched his fist once. This was like a ritual for him. He shook off his nervousness and made a comfortable smile. He couldn’t keep waiting forever. The first movers were the ones to create their image by themselves.

He immediately went up to the 2nd floor. He greeted everyone that he passed by. One of the iron rules he had in the television media was to greet anyone and everyone that he passed by. There was no need to be embarrassed about greeting his juniors as well. In fact, it would be a funny episode in itself, and he could give a good impression towards his juniors as well. That’s why too much greeting was never a bad thing.

He greeted back and accepted all requests for autographs as he climbed up to the 2nd floor. Unlike the busy 1st floor, the 2nd floor was definitely quiet. He could hear a voice from one of the classrooms. There was an agitated voice and a calm voice. Sungjae realized that the actors were doing a read-through in an instant.

He carefully opened the door to the classroom in which the read-through was happening. Inside were the actors that he saw during the get-together.

“Oh, you are…”

An elderly actor with a lot of white hair frowned as he spoke. Sungjae greeted the actors politely.

“I’m Ahn Sungjae, a new actor. I’m here to greet everyone.”

When he greeted, the classroom fell quiet. Sungjae made a smile, albeit barely. The air here was heavy.