“Cut! I am going to check the monitor for a moment!”
Right after Han Siwoo’s line ended, Cha Ilnam hurriedly cut the take.
The staff who knew the script were all murmuring to one another with dumbfounded faces.
Staring fixedly at the monitor, Cha Ilnam called to Han Yuju who was sitting beside him.
“Writer Han.”
“…Yes, PD.”
Han Yuju had also come down to Sokcho today.
Since the rare case of the script being finished through to the end, Han Yuju would sometimes come to set when she had time, talk with the actors, and monitor together.
“Did you change it? The line? Right before we shot just now. You did not say a word to me through yesterday.”
It was not only Kang Sujeong who had been flustered by Han Siwoo’s ad-lib.
He wondered if something had been said back and forth with Kang Sujeong, but he decided to ask that later.
Up until he called cut, he had heard nothing.
So when Han Siwoo pressed his lips shut a moment ago, Cha Ilnam had agonized intensely as well.
Was this an NG or not.
Given what he thought of Han Siwoo, there was no way he would make such a basic mistake.
In the instant when countless thoughts flashed by and he was about to call NG…!
Han Siwoo’s ad-lib burst out.
“No.”
“…No?”
“Yes. Really, no. The only thing I said with Siwoo today was hello.”
“Then why say something like that all of a sudden? In front of a camera, and it is his first time acting?”
Cha Ilnam muttered again and again as if he could not understand.
Thinking for a moment, Han Yuju suddenly exclaimed, Ah.
“What? What is it?”
“Come to think of it, yesterday Siwoo asked… what to do if he had a line he wanted to say.”
“He asked that?”
“Yes. It seems he heard from someone that you must not change the lines in a drama as you please.”
“So what did you tell him?”
As he said this, Cha Ilnam pressed her, thinking maybe she had given him some hint.
But as confused as Cha Ilnam was, Han Yuju only shook her head over and over.
“I just… said that depending on the situation it can be okay. I thought Siwoo was asking lightly after seeing other actors ad-lib while filming.”
“Is that really all.”
“Yes. I really did not say anything more. He did not ask me about today’s lines either.”
“Good grief…”
As if dumbstruck, Cha Ilnam replayed Han Siwoo’s acting several times.
No matter how he thought about it… he doubted whether this was really a scene created by a six-year-old.
Kang Sujeong’s reaction exploding at the perfect timing.
The subsequent ad-libs coming in as if calculated to match.
It seemed he would have to call the two of them and talk.
Just one more time, just once more…
Before he knew it, he had already monitored the same scene several times.
Since nothing was coming from Cha Ilnam, the youngest on the directing team finally came over to the monitor and asked,
“Director, how should we proceed? Are we doing the next take with this feel as well?”
“Huh? Ah…”
Seeing that he could not answer readily, Han Yuju stepped in.
“I really like this. It connects well to the next scene too. Did he not dig into Wooju’s psychology I could not think of myself?”
The writer personally began to persuade.
To Han Yuju, who had written the script herself, Han Siwoo was truly the actor of her dreams.
What writer would refuse when an actor takes care of this kind of ad-lib on his own.
He had not created an entirely new line either. He had cleverly borrowed his mom’s line.
Thinking a bit more at her words, Cha Ilnam squeezed his eyes shut and shouted,
“Okay. Let us go with these lines. Please call the camera director over.”
He felt uncertain, but the scene was the best.
Resolving himself, Cha Ilnam decided to match this scene to Han Siwoo’s intention.
“How does a kid smile like that at the end? My heart dropped.”
Fortunately, it got an okay.
Grinning, I kicked my legs in delight that things had gone as I hoped, and then Kang Sujeong let out a brief laugh and spoke first.
Well now.
For Kang Sujeong to speak to me first.
It was a first.
“Not bad, right?”
“Haha… Siwoo, you are a really funny kid.”
I answered with a broad grin, and Kang Sujeong laughed big, as if I was impossible to deal with.
At that sight, everyone on set turned their attention.
Kang Sujeong, who only ever showed a faint, businesslike smile and never laughed loudly on set unless acting.
Such a person was laughing this brightly and talking with energy.
Not only me, but most people seemed surprised, their eyes wide as they stared at her.
Among them was Choi Taewoo, looking this way as if his jaw might drop.
He must have been seeing this for the first time, since she always kept a stiff distance even from her scene partners.
See… actors have to speak through acting.
Wearing a faint smile, Kang Sujeong asked,
“Why did you suddenly ad-lib? Without discussing it.”
“I wanted to talk with Mom a little.”
“What…?”
Perhaps not the answer she expected, Kang Sujeong opened her eyes wide.
“I thought you did not really want to talk before shooting, sunbaenim, so I worried about it.”
“…Was it hard to talk to me?”
“A little? But now you are the one talking to me first.”
“I was too curious to stand it. That ad-lib earlier, what was that all about?”
As if truly too curious to bear it, she asked again.
She is hooked.
I smiled slyly and said,
“I will tell you after we finish this shoot, Mom.”
Before we knew it, the staff had finished setting the camera and were waiting for us.
“Ms. Su-eong seems a bit hard to approach.”
“Everything is good, but it does not feel like communication happens.”
Those were the lines she would always hear at wrap parties.
It was not that she had any particular circumstances.
She enjoyed acting because it was fun.
She knew how people around her thought of her, but she had never thought she needed to change herself.
Her personality had been blunt even before she became an actor.
She was good at doing things alone and did not feel the need for collaborative mixing with others.
The minimum conversation needed to make a project and the director’s instructions were enough.
Perhaps because she had acted like that from the beginning, preparing alone had simply become habit.
Even the manager who accompanied her did not touch her beyond strictly assigned duties.
There was nothing much to discuss at depth with a manager who was a layperson in acting.
Yet today, she was greatly flustered by an unexpected ad-lib from her scene partner.
It was not as if it was her first time receiving an ad-lib.
Was it because the partner was still a six-year-old child actor?
Was it because she had thought it a simple scene?
But the ad-lib just now truly surprised her.
The thought of whether she should really be surprised lasted only a moment, and she wanted to know this young actor’s true intention.
Was it a mistake, or an ad-lib with intent?
Then, hearing the cheeky answer that he had hoped she would talk to him, she was left dumbfounded.
It was an admission that he had deliberately thrown an ad-lib without discussing it.
Even so, she did not feel bad.
It was not only because, fortunately, Cha Ilnam liked the changed lines.
She could tell herself.
Facing Han Siwoo and acting, she had been flustered, yet inwardly she thought this flow was desirable.
Being seven does not mean being simply childish.
Children also have eyes and understand everything.
They watch the adults and choose their words.
The Kang Wooju that Han Siwoo created seemed to be speaking like that.
Kang Wooju, who was placed in an environment where he could not live simply as a child, seemed truly to be speaking to his mother Han Jihye.
“…Now I am going to eat like this with Mom every single day.”
“…Yes, yes. Wooju. Let us do that. Let us eat together like this every day.”
Filming the changed lines several times, Kang Sujeong could at last act as Han Jihye, who had truly come to know her son.
“Cut! Okay! Let us move to the next location.”
With Cha Ilnam’s okay signal, the two-person meal scene wrapped.
Normally, when filming ended she would quickly move on to the next location, but not today.
She followed alongside Han Siwoo, who was moving with his uncle.
“You did that on purpose, right?”
“Pardon?”
“Back when you first ad-libbed. Did you deliberately throw an ad-lib without any discussion to fluster me.”
Having sorted out her thoughts while acting, she could see it immediately.
Kang Sujeong realized she had been played by this tiny six-year-old actor.
As proof, when she pinpointed it and asked, Han Siwoo showed not a hint of being flustered and smiled softly and prettily.
Kang Sujeong let out a short, hollow laugh.
So it was true. She had really been played by this cheeky six-year-old actor.
“And did the scene not come out better for it?”
“You are saying you even calculated that I would be flustered.”
“I thought that would be captured more truthfully on camera. You do not like to talk before shooting, sunbaenim. If I wanted to act the Wooju I had in mind, this seemed the only way.”
At the child’s glib reply, her curiosity grew and she asked.
Just guessing this and that on her own did not clear up her curiosity at all.
At this rate, she felt she would not be able to focus on her own acting.
“What kind of child is Kang Wooju in your mind, Siwoo.”
“The Wooju I interpret is prickly on the surface, but that is exactly because he has so many thoughts. Because of thoughts too complicated for a young child, he could not help but become prickly. In that Wooju’s head there is only Mom. To let the viewers know this, I thought it would be more effective to swap their lines.”
It was a method that Kang Sujeong, who had pored over the script countless times, had not thought of.
Yet hearing it in practice, it felt like not only Kang Wooju but even Han Jihye’s character came alive.
Kang Sujeong nodded as if she understood.
“I could not say this to you before shooting, so I showed it with acting. The heart of Wooju, who worries about what kind of reaction Mom will show.”
“Hmm, so it was not at all about trying to put me on the spot.”
“Of course not. You, sunbaenim? Me?”
With utterly guileless wide eyes and a shake of the head, Han Siwoo denied it.
Looking down at the little boy, Kang Sujeong could not hold back and burst into loud laughter.
At that sound, everyone who had been unconsciously listening in on their conversation was startled.
Especially her long-time manager, whose eyes grew so wide they looked like they would pop out.
“I suppose I will have to discuss a lot with you and then go into shooting from now on.”
“Right? Still, it is a relief that we got a good scene.”
“Haha, yes. I felt it while acting too. This seems to land better.”
“Wow, really?”
Kang Sujeong nodded readily.
She had thought that chatting idly like this with other actors was meaningless, but she felt that such conversation was not bad.
“Please wait here for a moment.”
They arrived at the next shooting location, and the actors each found a shady spot.
“Mr. Hyunsu. Set up a chair for me here too.”
“Pardon? Yes, got it.”
Ignoring the staff who were still sneaking glances in surprise, Kang Sujeong asked to have a chair set beside Han Siwoo.
Her manager, who set the chair, also looked like he had a lot to say, but she neatly ignored it.
“Mm, sunbaenim. You are going to sit here?”
“Yes. I still have more to ask.”
To Han Siwoo, who asked with a look of puzzlement, Kang Sujeong smiled sweetly and opened her script.
Working together and communicating with someone, especially when it was not in her heart, was still really bothersome and detestable.
Which is exactly why she had no choice but to sit here.
Because now the feeling called curiosity had arisen.
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