Pen and Paper Translations

“Andrew and Seunghun hyung are going to live together until filming ends?!”

Junseong asked me, looking shocked.

I was just as shocked when I heard the news.

“All of a sudden? The people who were busy growling at each other at the drinking party?”

“Looks like the conditions matched.”

“What?”

Junseong tilted his head, puzzled, and asked.

“Seunghun hyung seems like he has a lot on his mind about acting. Especially the things Andrew said during the self-introduction time, you know.”

“With Seunghun hyung’s acting, isn’t it… not bad?”

“Yeah. Exactly ‘not bad.’ When I watched Andrew act yesterday, I could really feel that it’s exactly that level.”

“How good is Andrew’s acting?”

Junseong asked, curious.

“I can’t explain it in words. The moment Andrew started acting, the memories of Andrew causing trouble at the after party just disappeared.”

“That much?”

“Yeah.”

When I nodded with certainty, Junseong let out a small laugh.

“So there really was a reason you had to rush all the way to the UK.”

“Of course. I told you. We absolutely needed him for this movie.”

“Yes, yes, Director Gyeong with the good instincts. Didn’t you say Andrew would be coming soon?”

“Yeah. He said he had something to ask about in the script. I told him we could do it on the phone, but he said he really wanted to talk while seeing my face.”

A little while later.

An employee told me Andrew had come to the production company, and that he was waiting in the meeting room, so I took the script and went down to the meeting room.

“Hello.”

Even though it had not been long since I had last seen him, Andrew greeted me with a haggard face.

It felt like his eyes were sunken in. It was enough to make me wonder what on earth had happened.

“Ar… are you okay? Filming isn’t far off, so manage your condition a bit.”

“Ha ha…… I should, yeah…….”

Andrew gave a bitter smile and looked at the script in my hands.

“What do you have to ask?”

“H-Huh?”

At my question, Andrew made a flustered expression.

“Didn’t you come because of the script?”

“Th, what is it, uh, it’s that… actually…”

The way he dragged out his words made me think something was up.

He was not usually like this, but he looked at me with an expression like he was suddenly frightened.

“Kim Seunghun. I needed a place to rest away from that kid.”

“What?”

“But I have to know where to go to do that. I don’t really know many people besides you… ha ha…”

Andrew scratched the back of his head hard, looking apologetic.

“No, you said you were living together. Weren’t you living together because you were kind of okay with each other?”

At my question, Andrew let out a deep sigh and said,

“When I’m with him, he keeps saying we should work out… he keeps making a damn fuss about it…”

“Working out?”

“Yeah. Doesn’t he keep trying to get me to go to a fitness club? He even got me a membership! An actor just has to build his body to fit the role. If you work out like that all the time, you’ll die with your joints ruined!”

His reaction made me laugh.

“Seunghun hyung is a star in our country. There are a lot of eyes on him… and especially, he’s extremely sensitive about gaining weight.”

“He’s sensitive about gaining weight?”

“Yes.”

I thought it would be too much to bring up how Kim Seunghun had been bullied in high school because of his appearance, so I spoke vaguely, and Andrew frowned and asked back.

“Are you hiding something?”

“Huh? No, nothing like that.”

Andrew gave me a suspicious sideways look, then rested his chin in his hand, looking like he was thinking.

Then he nodded and said,

“Tsk. He’s creating enormous stress for himself.”

“The eyes around him are the stress. And the more you’re an actor who has to show people only your good side, the bigger that burden gets. Morally, and appearance wise too.”

Stars are held to even stricter standards of morality and looks.

If a star complains about it, the response that usually comes back is, Isn’t it fine because you get paid a lot?

That response does not change with time, and it makes stars suffer even more.

“That kid seems like he has a ton of fans too. To the point it feels burdensome to go around with him.”

“It’s a poisoned chalice. It’s like that everywhere, but people in our country tend to be strict in how they judge stars.”

At my words, Andrew snorted.

“Isn’t it enough to just not care?”

“Can it really be that easy? Ha ha. Telling a sensitive person not to care is the thing that makes them care the most.”

The best way to make someone think of an elephant is to tell them not to think of an elephant.

In the end, telling someone not to do something is the thing that makes them want to do it the most.

“Tsk. What a pity. Some thuggish bastards who are doing well in Hollywood keep doing well even if they get cursed at.”

“Here, even the land is small. And if you do well in Hollywood, you’re a global star. Wherever you go, there’ll be a place that welcomes you.”

Andrew nodded.

And after finishing a cup of water in front of him, he said,

“Alright. I can understand it to a certain extent.”

“Yes. If anything happens later, tell me anytime.”

“Ha ha.”

Andrew laughed loudly and said,

“You’re acting like some kid.”

---

After finishing his conversation with Gyeong Chanhyeon, Andrew left Seonghyeon Production and headed to GO Entertainment nearby.

And guided by a GO Entertainment staff member, he went to Kim Seunghun’s practice room.

Kim Seunghun, still immersed in acting, did not even notice that Andrew had entered.

Andrew focused on his movements and watched his acting.

As if he was acting a part with no lines, Kim Seunghun took on the shape of waking up from sleep.

Then he drew rapid breaths.

At that, Andrew immediately knew which part of the script it was and watched him closely.

The situation after the protagonist of Space Vagabond has a nightmare from past war trauma.

In this situation, the emotions the protagonist feels are fear and terror. And a bit of relief.

Andrew knew how difficult it was to express those emotions without any lines, so he watched Kim Seunghun’s acting with even more focus.

“Hoo…”

It was a short piece of acting, but Andrew figured out what the problem was right away.

“Hey.”

At Andrew’s voice, Kim Seunghun startled, then smiled and said,

“You scared me. What is it? I thought you were a ghost.”

“A ghost, my ass. Even a ghost would be embarrassed by your acting and run away, you punk.”

“…?”

Kim Seunghun asked Andrew, who was frowning deeply.

“Was it really weird just now?”

“Were you satisfied?”

“I didn’t feel like it was super weird?”

“Tsk. You didn’t even understand the character properly. And that emotion. In the acting just now, what do you think the character was feeling?”

At Andrew’s question, Kim Seunghun frowned as if he was thinking about the answer and stayed silent for a moment.

Then Andrew said in an irritated voice,

“Did you act without even properly researching the emotion?”

“No. It’s not that. It’s just that the emotion the character feels here is very ambiguous. It’s a mix of different emotions.”

“Most human emotions are all ambiguous. There’s no such thing in this world as an emotion that’s purely happy, or purely anxious.”

“Still, to let the audience know, wouldn’t it be better to reveal the emotion fully?”

“What a joke.”

Andrew replied to Kim Seunghun in a mocking voice.

“Are you some kind of teacher? Are you going to put up a sign that says, ‘I’m feeling this emotion, so all of you, please figure out my emotion’? If that’s what you’re going to do, why would people watch a movie? They’d read a novel and judge emotions through text.”

“It’s not to that extent, but…”

Just as Kim Seunghun was about to say something, Andrew cut him off.

“That’s enough. Tsk. For now, your problem is exactly what you just said. You’re trying to ‘let’ the audience know something. The audience’s eyes aren’t as dull as you think. Even if you don’t show it that blatantly, give people room to judge on their own.”

“Room to judge…”

“Yeah. Be satisfied with giving room. Don’t act with the intention of letting them know your emotion.”

Kim Seunghun frowned at Andrew’s cryptic words.

“How do you give room?”

“Tsk. I gave you ingredients you can cook with, and now you’re asking me to cook for you too?”

“Yes. If possible, make it hotel level. Ha ha.”

Kim Seunghun smiled as he replied to Andrew’s sarcasm, and Andrew only blinked, looking dumbfounded at the answer.

“Try thinking for once. You’ve been acting for quite a long time, haven’t you.”

“Hm…”

Kim Seunghun thought for a moment, then answered.

“Don’t show it too much, and express it slowly?”

“Are you saying you’ll put slow motion on yourself? What are you going to express slowly.”

“Gkeung…….”

Kim Seunghun rested his chin in his hand, looking like he was thinking deeply about his acting.

And Andrew examined Kim Seunghun’s acting that he had just recorded one more time.

“You acted so damn consistently. Is this practice? This isn’t practice, it’s just repetitive labor.”

“It’s a strategy where you internalize it through repetition.”

“You internalize something good. If you repeat something bad, wouldn’t you internalize something bad?”

“I didn’t know it was bad until now.”

At Kim Seunghun’s answer, Andrew pressed his forehead and let out a sigh.

“I’ll show you once. Ha. If you still don’t get it after this, you’re not a kid who should be on the actor’s path.”

Andrew stood in front of the camera and showed his acting.

He first identified exactly what emotion it was and then calculated even what cut would come before this scene, and then immersed himself.

After lightly touching his nose once, he went into the acting, lay on the floor as he was, then snapped his eyes open.

After pushing himself upright, he trembled slightly, showing that he still had not escaped the nightmare. And then came a relieved sigh.

But at the end of that sigh, as if it was filled again with anxiety, the trembling of his body seemed to grow slightly worse.

Kim Seunghun stared at his acting.

And he could immediately find what was different between Andrew’s acting and his own.

“Do you get it?”

“Yes.”

Kim Seunghun answered with a smile. At that smile, Andrew looked at him closely and asked, curious.

“What is it?”

“That I’m too stiff.”

“Hm. Yeah, even an elementary schooler would know that.”

“Yes, yes. I get it.”

When Kim Seunghun spoke, nodding playfully, Andrew gestured toward the camera.

“Do it again.”

“Yes!”

Kim Seunghun stood in front of the camera again, started acting while thinking of Andrew, and the moment his acting ended, Andrew frowned.

“Did you just imitate me?”

“Huh?”

Kim Seunghun looked at Andrew, startled inside. Then Andrew said in a voice full of irritation,

“You stupid bastard. Would my interpretation and your interpretation be the same? Interpret it yourself. Don’t steal someone else’s cooking and eat it.”

“…”

“Again.”

Kim Seunghun thought hard about what emotion the character in Space Vagabond would have. He pondered how the character would react.

A war hero from the past.

A war hero with a bright future, having nightmares from trauma born of war.

What kind of reaction should he show when he wakes from that nightmare.

Kim Seunghun, as if he had finished his thoughts, took one deep breath and lay down again.