“Siwoo, shall we change clothes?”
I turned around at my uncle’s call.
My lips were smeared with lots of bright red chili sauce.
I thought Nam Yeonsu was trying to mess with me, but the chili sauce was actually sweet.
After eating three pieces in a row, it felt like my tongue was on fire so I had to drink water, but it was still delicious.
While Yeonsu and I were quietly shoveling sushi into our mouths together, my uncle called me.
“Mm?”
“Goodness, you got it all over your mouth while eating. What is that? Rockfish? Was it that good?”
“Mm.”
“Heh-heh. Looks like you ate well. It’s getting dark now, so the fireworks are about to start.”
“Gasp. I want to go.”
I sprang up, grabbed my uncle’s hand, and headed to our lodging.
“Hands up, say hooray.”
“Mm.”
With a reverent heart, I changed into the clothes my uncle and I bought for this trip.
It is summer, but at night the cold sea breeze sweeps in.
We were wondering what to buy when we found a hoodie with cute animal ears on it.
I was going to pass on it because no matter what, it felt too much like little kid clothes, but the clerks there kept saying it was so cute, so we had no choice but to buy it.
They said if I wore this, everyone’s eyes would be on me.
“Hm, done.”
“Shall we go out now? Wait, your mom asked me to take a picture of you in this outfit and send it.”
“Mm, should we take it over there?”
At my uncle’s words, I quickly went to the wall and struck a pose.
My uncle seriously went clicking and then showed me the good ones.
“The first and the third.”
“Okay. Your mom will really love it.”
After sending the photos to Mom, the two of us headed back outside.
The staff who spotted me stopped what they were doing and looked at me.
“Gasp, Siwoo… what is that outfit?”
At one person’s words, more and more people looked at me.
Then came,
“So cute!”
“Cute!”
This is it.
I held my uncle’s hand, beamed, and gladly received the shower of “cute”s pouring down.
I was very satisfied.
I should go back to that clothing store again later.
They knew what they were doing.
As a bit of fan service, I put the hood on and took it off, took pictures too, then we went and grabbed seats at the best spot to see the fireworks.
“Up we go.”
“Aren’t you cold?”
“No!”
Seeing me sit down, Cha Ilnam asked once and then passed by.
He was a really good person.
I had felt it while reading the script written by writer Han Yuju, and Cha Ilnam’s direction was like that too.
You could immediately tell they wanted to film a drama that smelled like people.
Maybe that is why the staff looked very close on Cha Ilnam’s set as well.
It was to the point that my uncle, who goes to every filming location as a manager, told me he had really never seen a set like this before.
It must be the director’s desire to steep the filming site in the vibe of this drama.
Perhaps that is why he arranged a time like this today.
Yes, the reason I went out of my way to bring this outfit and change into it today was not for any other reason.
I wanted to help create the atmosphere that Cha Ilnam wanted.
As Kim Sangcheol said before, the words “the protagonist should be the protagonist even outside the play” came to mind too.
It really was not my greed.
Really.
“Wow.”
“Cool.”
With dozens of people watching, fireworks burst over the horizon at the beach where the Cactus team was gathered.
“If you came to the sea in summer, of course it has to be fireworks.”
“But I saw earlier, you really bought a lot. Is that okay?”
“Of course. They said we’re the only ones on this beach today, and we told the owner we would clean everything up.”
Listening to the staff who prepared the fireworks speak proudly, I stared up into the dark sky, entranced.
Maybe because I was short sitting down.
My head tilted back without end.
How can the flowers of fire explode in the sky?
This is an amazing invention.
And it is cool.
“Whoa. Whoaah.”
I could not close my mouth at the fireworks I was seeing for the first time in my life.
“Haha, Siwoo, is it that amazing?”
“Yes. I have never seen anything like this before.”
Before I knew it, Moon Heeseong had come close and lifted me up.
Nestled comfortably in Moon Heeseong’s arms as he lifted me with one arm, I could watch the fireworks much more easily.
Thanks to him, my neck hurt a little less.
Red fireworks blossomed endlessly in the deep blue night sky.
All around, the staff were delighting in watching the fireworks.
Some took pictures, some shouted to set off more at once.
Everyone was happily watching the fireworks.
I thought all the actors were present too, but there was one person I did not see.
Huh?
I looked around and then looked toward the lodging.
There was Kang Sujeong, keeping watch alone at a table.
Her face, flashing now and then in the bursts of fireworks, looked particularly lonely.
The next morning on set.
“There is a lot of natural light here, so move the lights to this side.”
“Okay, just a moment. Hey. Careful there. You are tripping over the cables.”
“Please do one more audio check here. I think the wind is strong.”
A small restaurant by the seaside was today’s filming location.
Preparation started early in the morning because it takes a long time from setup to filming.
“Hello.”
“Hello. Thank you for your hard work.”
I appeared on set after finishing makeup at the lodging.
My uncle was with me today as well.
Looking inside the shop, I saw that Kang Sujeong, my scene partner for today, had already arrived.
“Siwoo, you are here? We are almost done getting ready.”
“Yes.”
Listening to Cha Ilnam, I headed to the table where Kang Sujeong was sitting.
“Huh? Yeonsu hyung?”
“Good morning.”
“Hi, Siwoo.”
When I went inside, there were also Choi Taewoo and Nam Yeonsu, even though their turn to film had not come yet.
It was so quiet I did not even know they were here.
“You came out this early? It is not your turn yet.”
“We are filming right after this anyway. I came with Yeonsu to watch you two act.”
Choi Taewoo answered with easy charm.
I nodded, saying I see, and looked at Kang Sujeong.
“Hello.”
“Yes, hello.”
Even while eating dinner and doing fireworks last night, we barely exchanged two words. Maybe that much.
As always, today too, Kang Sujeong was very quiet.
Hmm, it looked like having a proper conversation before the shoot was out of the question again today.
But there were ways.
I knew very well how to open the mouths of people like this because I had experienced it directly.
It was not that I had experience making someone else open up.
Rather, it was the opposite. I had kept my mouth shut and then became a chatterbox.
The Oscar Troupe, where I had belonged when I was Noah Battenberg.
What kind of place was that Oscar Troupe? It was a place that could not leave a silent actor alone.
An actor who keeps quiet is no different from one who is not working.
This was the philosophy of Oscar Pitt and the actors he led.
But I had not been able to talk a lot from the start.
Strictly speaking, it was not that I did not talk, but that I could not.
A young actor suddenly brought in by the troupe leader.
On top of that, the moment I arrived, Oscar said he was giving me a fairly big role, so the actors were wary of me and did not even try to talk to me.
Because I had lived as a noble, I was not able to blend in with easy charm.
What made those people start talking to me during breaks was nothing other than seeing my killer acting properly with their own eyes.
“Hey, newbie. How did you do that thing just now?”
That one line, which sounded a bit rough, was the beginning.
After that, during breaks I talked so much that I strained my throat more than when acting.
That endless chatter became nourishment that let me and my colleagues easily overcome crises we faced on stage.
Are we not people gathered for acting?
No matter how prickly someone is, when they see someone who acts well, they want to strike up a conversation. That is an actor’s psychology.
Whether it is a theater stage or for a drama no longer mattered.
Kang Sujeong also seems to dislike communication, but she certainly appears to love acting.
Otherwise, there is no way she would have given such a sincere performance like last time.
I planned to try talking with Kang Sujeong today.
Actors are the kind who talk through acting anyway.
A window seat in the restaurant with a straight view of the blue sea.
Wooju (Han Siwoo) and Han Jihye (Kang Sujeong) sit across from each other with delicious-looking food between them.
The sea that refreshes the eyes just by looking at it.
The weather was so nice that just looking at that view made you feel good.
Even with a fantastic view and tasty-looking food in front of him, Wooju’s expression was not very bright.
“Wooju, do you want to try this too? The ingredients are super fresh.”
Ever since suddenly moving to the countryside, Wooju had not been eating well and his mood was bad.
Knowing her son’s heart, Han Jihye deliberately came out today.
Trying to cheer him up, she put various side dishes into his spoon and rice bowl, and Wooju silently ate them well.
Since moving, he had not eaten this well. Feeling strange, Han Jihye studied Wooju’s expression.
With her heart heavy, she watched his mood and cautiously asked a question.
“Wooju, you are… okay, right?”
“…”
But Wooju did not answer.
Seeing how he was eating well, it seemed like he was okay, but if you looked at his expression, it did not look that way.
On the surface, there was nothing wrong with the scene.
But at that moment, the mind of Kang Sujeong, who was acting as Han Jihye, became complicated.
“What is this?”
Originally, Wooju’s line should come out right here.
Facing a silent Han Siwoo, Kang Sujeong wondered whether she should just continue acting like this.
‘Did he forget his line? Should I call NG?’
Just as she was thinking that to herself.
Wooju, sitting across from her, opened his mouth.
“What about Mom?”
“Uh… uh…?”
Debating whether to look toward Cha Ilnam, Kang Su-jeong blurted out that answer without thinking.
A line that was not in the script.
At Han Siwoo’s sudden ad-lib, Kang Sujeong almost let her expression crumple.
She had felt relieved because he was not a flighty child actor, but to think there would be a curveball like this.
She was about to say, is this not an NG, when Han Siwoo spoke again.
“Mom… are you okay?”
Freeze.
Kang Sujeong’s chopsticks stopped.
‘This is… not a mistake.’
It was a proper ad-lib.
Probably the image of her fidgeting, wondering if this was an NG or not, and then stopping out of surprise at the ad-lib, was captured naturally on camera as the character Han Jihye.
Moving past surprise, quickly assessing the situation, Kang Sujeong answered slowly.
“What…?”
Let us truly see into the son’s heart.
If a child understands his mother’s feelings this well and even asks first, what could be going through his mind?
She could not easily guess, so all she could do was ask back briefly.
At the same time, her heart pounded, wondering what Han Siwoo would say in return.
“If Mom is okay, then I am okay. If Mom is happy, then I am happy.”
This line was originally supposed to be spoken by Han Ji-hye.
If Wooju is okay, then Mom is okay. If Wooju is happy, then Mom is happy.
He snatched that line and made it his own.
He even adjusted the surrounding beats perfectly.
It was the kind of perceptiveness a seven-year-old child of divorce might have.
Watching his mother’s mood and accepting his own situation with as much resignation as he could.
Right now, Han Siwoo was acting as a pitiable seven-year-old who seemed to know everything inside his mother’s heart.
At a loss, as she stared blankly at Han Siwoo, he even brought it to a close.
“There is the sea in front of us here, and the air is good… and I can eat like this with Mom. So I like it.”
As he said that, he smiled brightly.
Her son’s first smile since they moved to the countryside.
Hearing that line, Kang Sujeong truly lost her words.
“I am going to eat like this with Mom every single day now.”
Wooju swallowed back the words, “It is rather for the best,” and finished.
Looking at that face, Kang Sujeong could not help but quietly close her mouth.
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