Chapter 379 (2/2)

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“Me too?”

“Yes, you too.”

“Senior. Do you see these bags under my eyes? I’m about to be exhausted to death.”

“Junior. Staying one night in the editing room is compulsory, and two nights is basic. Do you know what three nights is? I’ll give it to you if I feel pissed. Follow me obediently before I drag your ass.”

“I was just joking, senior.”

“Hey, do you think you’re qualified to joke with me? Was I too soft on you?”

When Changsung rolled his eyes, Jinhyuk flinched and looked down on the floor with his hands clasped. Changsung watched him for a while before chuckling and tapped on his shoulder.

“Hey, you scared of me?”

When he said that, Jinhyuk raised his head with a grin.

“There’s no way I’d be scared with just that, right?”

“I knew it.”

“But would I be any useful over there? I honestly can’t differentiate between those who are good and bad at acting.”

Jinhyuk locked his hands and put them behind his head. Changsung agreed with him.

“Me too. But what can we do about it? We need to pick the useful ones we find among them.”

“Then what should we focus on?”

“First, those that don’t cry.”

“Those that don’t cry?”

“Yes. These days, the kids’ moms are with them at the set, and they’re a pain to deal with. Aren’t elementary school kids all grown up? But they’re all so adamant on coming. Two years ago, when I was shooting a historical drama, one of the kids fell over on a haystack, and the kid’s mom created a huge ruckus.”

“Because she wasn’t happy with the way her kid was treated?”

“No, she beat up the crying kid, telling the kid not to cry. ‘Isn’t your dream to become an actor? Your mom’s doing her best to help you out and you can’t even do that?’ The mom said such a thing and started beating up her kid, and man, I had to step in to stop her, because the kid was too pitiful.”

“Moms are scary.”

“I get that they’re having a hard time taking care of their kids, but if they are going to do that they might as well not have their kids do acting. It felt like they were venting their stress on their kids. Anyway, I get that a parent might accompany a young child, but they should do it moderately. Anyway, if the kid is stiff or if the parent is interrupting too much, they’ll fail that instant. Also, it’s no good if the kid looks like they’ll cry during the shoot. As for acting skills, we can make that up by shooting five or six fucking times.”

“Senior, don’t swear.”

“Oh, fuck it. Fuck, fuck, FUCK!”

“There you go again. Please calm down, you’ll just stress yourself out even more.”

Changsung sighed. The schedule for the first shoot was already set in stone. His second historical drama had started. When he thought about what happened two years ago, he had a headache. He couldn’t go home, he shot outside as often as he ate a meal, and for some reason, he had shots scheduled away from the city. This damned Seoul leveled all the mountains and forests, so they had to go to the countryside unless they wanted to rent a studio to do it. If a problem occurred while they were renting a historical site, all of their schedules would be delayed, causing an endless streak of headaches. If there was an accident during crowd scenes, especially with horses he would get an earful from the president. The moment those ‘honorable lord horses’ sprain their ankle or something, he would get scolded more than when a person was hurt since horses cost more than his yearly salary. The rental fee for horses was 10 times more than the cost to hire people after all.

“Damn, I wonder why I didn’t go to the culture department. Morning programs, how good does that sound? They laugh all the time, make some food, and get to shoot kind neighborhood elders.”

“Don’t escape from reality and just get going. The schedule is already set. Hell is upon us.”

“Jinhyuk. Don’t start a drama and go to the entertainment section. The future is entertainment. Go there and raise your worth.”

“Senior, let’s do this!”

Jinhyuk pushed his back. Changsung sighed as he watched studio A closing in on him.

“It looks like they’re waiting already.”

When he went into the studio, the child actresses were lined up already. When he left the drama department office, he had told the staff here to get things ready in five minutes, but it seemed that five minutes had passed already. Looking at the moms standing on one side, he walked to the center of the studio.

“Hello!”

The children greeted him as though they were waiting for him. It was quite fascinating. He hadn’t told anyone that he was the producer, yet they recognized him anyway. Of course, their moms were the ones that gave them signals. This was why housewives were scary.

“Yes, hello. I am producer Han Changsung who will be going over your acting today, little friends. Next to me is producer Kim Jinhyuk. What we’re going to do today is simple. You just need to show me an act that I’m asking for. It’s easy, isn’t it?”

“Yes!”

The children replied vigorously. This was looking good. There wasn’t anyone that was crying right off the bat. He sighed in relief before sitting down. The screen in front of him showed the footage from the camera that was set up beforehand. Since he was looking for minor actors without much significance, he just needed to pick those that had patience and didn’t stand out too much.

“Okay, let’s begin right away. Han Solmi.”

“Yes!”

A girl wearing a t-shirt with a character on it raised her hand above her head and stepped out.

“You aren’t crossing the road, so you don’t need to raise your hand.”

“Yes!”

“And please lower your voice a little.”

“Yes.”

“You aren’t here to play around, right?”

“Yes. I am here to do acting.”

“Good. Then try doing what I say, okay? Okay, smile.”

He rested his chin on his hand as he spoke. The child panicked and looked around before looking at her mother. The mother quickly urged her to start acting, and the child just looked ahead of her and hesitated. Changsung smiled and inwardly sighed. The boring audition had just begun.

In Korea, parents have a habit of calling fellow parents “yyy’s mom”, “zzz’s dad”.