Pen and Paper Translations

“When’s that guy supposed to get here?”

Jinsu hyung asked as he checked the time down to the minute.

The meeting room was already filled with staff.

As the wait dragged on a bit, a few people’s expressions started to sour.

“He’s in a taxi. He’ll be here soon. It’s a nearby hotel.”

“Tsk. I was supposed to play with my little girl, but when I said I’m going to work for the first time in a while, she grabbed onto my pant leg.”

Jinsu hyung looked around at the staff and continued in a joking tone.

“But when I said I’d work hard and buy her toys, she shoved me out the door with all her strength! Should I feel hurt, or not? Hahaha!”

When Jinsu hyung laughed loudly, all the staff around him smiled warmly.

He was someone with energy that could change the mood in an instant.

In a room where the mood could have turned a bit harsh, Jinsu hyung’s joke brightened the meeting room atmosphere to the fullest.

“Haha!”

Because she received it through the interpreter, Taylor’s laughter burst out a beat late, and the staff’s gaze was drawn to her. Taylor, flustered, covered her mouth with her face turning red.

At that, the outgoing Jinsu hyung walked up to her and showed her a photo of his daughter.

“See, my daughter! Pretty!”

“Wow! Sooo pretty!”

Maybe because she had studied hard in the short time, Taylor gave a reaction in awkward Korean that would satisfy Jinsu hyung, and Jinsu hyung, pleased with her reaction, smiled broadly, gave a thumbs up, and said,

“You! Good person! Good! Very good!”

Knock, knock.

At that moment, the door opened, and the man everyone had been waiting for appeared.

With a bird’s nest of messy hair that stole attention, Andrew carefully entered the meeting room.

He bowed his head toward the people who had been waiting and apologized.

“Je shong hap ni doa.”

In awkward Korean pronunciation, he spoke toward the staff in front of him, then sat down in what seemed to be his seat.

“Looks like everyone’s here now.”

I stood up and spoke in front of the staff.

“Most of you already know, but there are probably people meeting for the first time, so let’s start with brief introductions. I’ll go first. And should we do it so the presenter picks the next presenter?”

At my words, the staff in front reacted with playful teasing.

“Ooh.”

“Director Gyeong, you said you went to America, and you got bold? Totally American style.”

Jinsu hyung looked genuinely excited as he teased me, even shaking his huge body side to side.

“My name is Gyeong Chanhyeon. Yes, I’m the screenwriter of Space Vagabond and the director holding the megaphone. I look forward to working with you.”

“Do you take questions too?”

As Jinsu hyung wriggled and spoke, Junseong beside him snorted and said,

“Hyung, it’s not a press conference. If you take questions too, we’ll end today just doing introductions.”

“How about just one? I think that much would be okay.”

“Hm… alright. Just one each.”

At Junseong’s words, Jinsu hyung, like he was delighted, threw a question at me.

“What are Director Gyeong’s ambitions this time?”

“Ambitions… hm….”

When I put on the look of thinking for a moment with my chin in my hand, the staff’s eyes sparkled as they looked at me.

A burdensome gaze. But since most of them were people I was already close with, it did not feel that burdensome.

“Stealing the audience’s eyes. Making them unable to take their eyes off this film for even a moment. That’s this film’s goal.”

At my words, the staff cheered and applauded, and smiling, I pointed to the next person.

“Mm, Andrew, who joined our Space Vagabond last. Please.”

---

Kim Seunghun, the lead actor of Space Vagabond.

He had secretly hoped Gyeong Chanhyeon would pick him, but the one he picked was Andrew.

It was not exactly jealousy, but maybe he felt disappointed inside. His expression was not very bright.

Andrew, picked by Gyeong Chanhyeon, tried to go forward for his introduction, and he had no choice but to bump past Kim Seunghun’s body blocking his path.

But as he looked at Andrew’s back walking past without even an apology, his gaze naturally went to Andrew’s greasy, matted hair.

“Hm….”

He was already, and now with that appearance too, at this first meeting.

With an unexplained unpleasant feeling, Kim Seunghun watched Andrew’s introduction.

Gyeong Chanhyeon translated his words sentence by sentence right beside him.

“Hello. I’m Andrew Sakil. My previous work is The Lord of the Rings, and I played Gollum there. The film flopped, so I think there are many of you who may not know it, but….”

As Andrew introduced himself, he naturally used hand gestures.

Those body movements seemed to draw people in even more, and the staff listened to Gyeong Chanhyeon’s interpretation without even a breath.

When he finished answering questions and it became his turn to point to the next person, he pointed with an expression like he was mocking Kim Seunghun.

“Seunghun hyung. I think you can go now.”

“Huh…? Ah, okay.”

Kim Seunghun stood up with a blank look at the unexpected callout.

And just as he was about to step forward and start his introduction, Andrew’s expression caught his eye.

An expression like, go on, try it if you can.

Kim Seunghun’s brow creased slightly.

“Yes. My name is Kim Seunghun, and I’m playing Ryu Seongmin in Space Vagabond. I look forward to working with you. Haha…”

After bowing and greeting the staff, he looked at Andrew, and Andrew looked at him with an expression that said, that figures.

‘Is he telling me to do it like him…? What is this?’

Kim Seunghun stared at him blankly for a moment, unable to understand Andrew’s attitude.

“I met Director Gyeong Chanhyeon again after Night, haha. A lot has happened in the meantime. As you all know, I also had a lot of friction with Entertainment…”

Kim Seunghun could feel it.

Even though he was speaking Korean, people had focused more on Andrew, who was speaking English.

And because Andrew could feel that too, maybe that was why he was looking at him like that.

With a strange embarrassment, Kim Seunghun’s face began to flush slightly.

“Uh… hyung. Are you okay?”

Gyeong Chanhyeon, as if he sensed something was off, asked Kim Seunghun.

“Huh? Yeah. Haha. I’m fine.”

“You don’t look fine… can you take questions?”

“Yeah… haha.”

With Kim Seunghun’s condition clearly not looking fine, no one raised a hand. But then one hand went up.

“Yes. Andrew.”

When Gyeong Chanhyeon nodded, Andrew looked at Kim Seunghun and said,

“Do you think of yourself as a true actor?”

Kim Seunghun frowned at Andrew’s words.

“What?”

“Literally. I’m asking if you’re really an actor. Have you never thought that you’re just taking up a spot thanks to your looks?”

An aggressive question.

In an instant, the warm meeting room atmosphere cooled sharply.

Gyeong Chanhyeon also looked a bit flustered, and with an awkward laugh, he said,

“Andrew, that kind of question…”

“No. Chanhyeon. I’ll answer.”

Kim Seunghun looked at Andrew, took a breath once, and replied.

“I’ve never thought that.”

“Why not?”

“Because my acting ability has never been an issue.”

“Just because it hasn’t been an issue doesn’t mean the issue disappears.”

At Andrew’s words, Kim Seunghun clenched his teeth.

“Do I look like I have an issue to you?”

“I’m not your teacher. Do I have to tell you that?”

Even when Kim Seunghun glared at him, Andrew looked completely unfazed. He rested his chin in his hand and even answered with a faint smile.

“Haha, yes. Let’s stop here. Haha… save personal talk for later… at this rate, we’ll spend all day just introducing ourselves. Haha… pick the next person, hyung.”

With a smile forced onto his face in an atmosphere that looked ready to explode, Gyeong Chanhyeon ended Kim Seunghun’s turn.

---

Even though they had said there would be drinks after the gathering with the Space Vagabond staff ended today, Kim Seunghun did not join and went straight home.

“Hoo….”

Doing push-ups, he tried to forget Andrew’s words that kept circling in his head.

But they did not fade easily.

Up until now, he had never been in controversy over his acting ability.

If anything, he was famous in Korea for acting well, but at the criticism of a single actor who came from across the sea, that fame suddenly felt meaningless.

‘Have you never thought that you’re just taking up a spot thanks to your looks?’

Those words.

All the efforts he had made to erase his experience of being bullied in the past.

All the efforts he had made to become an actor.

With the feeling that all of it had become trivial with just that one sentence, Kim Seunghun exhaled once and started doing push-ups again.

But no matter how many times he repeated them, Andrew’s words that had torn through his mind would not disappear.

“Ah… damn.”

It felt like he was picking a fight.

Even if he came from Hollywood, he was basically a failed actor, so why was he so arrogant?

With negative thoughts continuously rising, Kim Seunghun shook his head, then called Gyeong Chanhyeon.

—Hello? Seunghun hyung?

Noisy sounds.

As if he had picked up at the after party, the clinking of glasses and voices talking could be heard through the phone.

At that sound, Kim Seunghun swallowed, feeling a sudden, desperate craving for a drink.

“Hey, Chanhyeon. That, you know, Andrew.”

—Ah, ah. Yes, hyung.

“Motion capture? If you do it with that, then on set, I won’t have to see him, right?”

—Ah… about that…

Gyeong Chanhyeon, as if flustered, could not continue for a moment.

“No, it’s just, I don’t think we match well, so I’m asking just in case.”

—Ah… you’ll probably be together most of the time…

“Huh? No, isn’t it done with CG anyway?”

Kim Seunghun asked Gyeong Chanhyeon with a disappointed expression.

—It’s that, you know, there’s also synergy that comes from communicating directly on set. Rather than shooting into thin air, it’s better to see each other and watch the other person’s reactions, and that’s good for actors’ immersion too.

At Gyeong Chanhyeon’s words, Kim Seunghun let out a deep sigh.

—You feel uncomfortable with Andrew?

“Huh? Ah, no. It’s just we don’t match. Haha.”

Sensing Gyeong Chanhyeon’s concern, Kim Seunghun laughed awkwardly.

Maybe thinking the call would get a bit long, Gyeong Chanhyeon seemed to move somewhere quiet, and the noise that had been coming through the phone disappeared.

—Ah, ah. Hyung, you can hear me, right?

“Yeah. I can hear you.”

—Ah, haha. Yes. It was too loud. Um….

Gyeong Chanhyeon, as if thinking about what to say for a moment, spoke to Kim Seunghun.

—But Andrew isn’t that bad a person. Haha, I’ve talked with him a few times, and it’s just that the way he talks is strong. If you look at it plainly, he’s just a bearded brute.

“A brute isn’t a bad person?”

—Ah… you think so?

“Are you already drunk? It hasn’t even been that long since you started.”

At Kim Seunghun’s teasing scolding, Gyeong Chanhyeon answered with a grin.

—Is that so? Ah, no. Isn’t it just that my liver feels lonely because you’re not here!

“What?”

—Don’t sit at home alone worrying because of Andrew. Just come and have a drink. I’ll just say something like you stepped out for a bit, so…

“…”