Chapter 531 (1/2)

“If you like her, you should just confess,” said Maru as he grabbed Giwoo’s shoulders.

Giwoo made a complex expression as he shook his head.

“Yeseul wouldn’t want me to confess to her.”

“So? Are you going to keep watching her like a flower in a vase? You are really frustrating. You have the smarts to study, but you don’t have the smarts in this area. Jichan will take Yeseul away from you like this, you know?”

“What?”

Giwoo widened his eyes and made a surprised expression, when,

“Cut. Let’s do that again. Giwoo, your expression is good, but don’t reveal it too much.”

“Yes, understood!”

Maru pushed up his glasses before taking a step back. This was the episode where Giwoo’s and Jichan’s one-sided love for Yeseul became deeper. It was the main event of youth dramas, the one-sided love. The role of Lee Chan - Maru’s character - in this episode was to fan the flames. He, along with Dongwook, induced Yeseul, Jichan, and Giwoo to gather in one spot while they watched. The cheerful girl who knew nothing about love, Yeseul, would start to become conscious of Giwoo, and Jichan would express his heart in a twisted way after he saw that.

“I guess our characters are turning into flintstones huh,” Maru said to Dongho, who stood next to him.

“Flintstones?”

“We are characters that lose all presence once we set fire to the event. There was a huge decrease in cuts after the trainee teacher’s first love episode.”

“What can we do about it? Their popularity is through the roof. Have you seen the forums?”

“I haven’t checked them since the first episode.”

“You should look at them when you go home today.”

“If you like her, you should just confess,” he uttered the same words.

* * *

“This shoot is quite long.”

Joomin sat next to him. When she opened the orange insulated bottle, a bitter coffee fragrance could be smelled. Maru reached out.

“What?”

“Aren’t you going to give me some?”

“I am, but you’re reaching your hand out like it’s natural. This is mine, you know?”

“I’m a bit tired. I haven’t done night shoots in a long time. Anyways, it is black coffee right?”

“I always drink black.”

“Why do we have to be caught up in this when they’re the ones busy?” Dongho grumbled.

Maru gave him the lid of the insulated bottle with coffee in it. He intended for Dongho to shut up after drinking it. After drinking a sip, Dongho made a sour expression before putting down the lid. Dongho did not like black coffee. Of course, Maru knew this already.

“If you don’t like that, you just have to become successful. The schedule is only tight because the main actors can’t make the schedule. We can’t really do anything about it.”

Maru shook the lid off before returning it to Joomin.

The reason they were shooting late into the night was because they were shooting for two episodes worth of shots. Since the three main characters, Giwoo, Yeseul, and Jichan, couldn’t make time to shoot together next week, they naturally shot more today.

“I also want to become a popular star so that everyone else can match my schedule,” said Joomin while resting her chin on her hands.

Maru looked 20 meters away from where he was sitting. In the corner of the school field, where bluish lights were installed on either side, Yeseul was sitting there. They were given a break after three consecutive NGs, and Yeseul, who was responsible for the NG cuts, was looking at the script with a face filled with worry.

“If they had me do it, I’m confident that I can do it without NGs.”

Dongho clicked his tongue. This time, Joomin gave him the lid filled with coffee. It had been five months since they had started working together. They knew how to handle each other now.

Yeseul: (Smiling, but not knowing what to do) Y-you’re here.

Giwoo: (Looking at Yeseul without saying a word)

Yeseul: You don’t need to mind what the others said during the day. They just said that to tease you.

Giwoo: (Opening his mouth trying to speak, but then closing it again)

Yeseul: (Looking at Giwoo, before looking at the school gates behind him.) L-let’s get going. It’s pretty late. Should we get some tteokbokki on the way home? That place was really good.

Giwoo: Uhm, Yeseul..

Yeseul: (Flustered) …Yeah?

Giwoo: What the other kids said, they weren’t lying. I like you.

Yeseul: (Clasping her hands, looking a little uneasy) What do you mean. Wh-why are you..

Giwoo turns around, and Yeseul looks back. After a sigh of relief comes a sigh of disappointment. Yeseul shakes her head in an attempt to deny her own emotions, but she can’t call out to Giwoo so easily.

Yeseul: (Just bȧrėly, in a small, muffled voice) G-giwoo.

NA: If I had acted a little more gentle to Giwoo back then and had listened to his words just a little more carefully, maybe it wouldn’t have turned out this way.

The NG kept happening when Yeseul collapsed her hands. She looked visibly flustered even from afar. It wasn’t a scene filled with affection. It was more of a cozy love between high school students, but Yeseul kept freezing up and causing NGs. Maru inwardly tried saying that line. The number of periods in the lines indirectly expressed the pause between the lines. One was a short one, two was a visible pause, and three periods meant that there should be a slight pause in the audio.

Dongho, who stood next to him, said the lines in a falsetto voice.

“What do you mean. Wh-why are you. - What’s so hard about this?”

Maru pressed on Dongho’s shoulder before standing up.

“Where are you going?”

“To the director.”

“To tell him that I just found a new actress for the job. You can do it right?”

Dongho violently shook his head and pulled on his arms. He would probably stay quiet for a while.

“Have you ever shot romance, Joomin-noona?”

“Me? Other than when I helped out a senior of mine with her graduation piece, no.”

“Is it hard?”

“It’s different from person to person. You’ll have to act in front of the camera, right? I think that the emotion of liking someone can only be perfectly expressed when it is true to a certain extent. Yeseul is probably embarrassed by that. Not as much as stripping nȧkėd, but in any case, she would have to show her inner feelings to others. It’s hard to act in a love scene without any emotions at all. Moreover, this is about the awkward first love of a high school student, isn’t it? It’s a bit complex too. I looked at the script, and it doesn’t look that easy. Those directions before the lines, they only have their facial expressions to express them. It might have worked on the first try, but with things dragging out like this, it should be pretty difficult.”

As soon as Joomin’s words ended, a ‘cut’ could be heard from a distance. It seemed that the shoot was stopped once again. Maru saw Yeseul apologizing to everyone. Giwoo seemed to be consoling her, but Yeseul didn’t seem to be calming down at all.

“Looks like this will take long.”

“Right?”

“Yeah.”

He took a sip of the steaming coffee when he saw the ȧssistant director coming their way.

“We’re going to start right away, you okay with that?”

“Yes. But I don’t think that scene’s over yet.”