The filming set for City of Criminals carried a solemn atmosphere.
The people gathered there under the belief that this time, they would try to reach ten million admissions.
Because of them, the heat on set was extremely intense.
The staff were moving busily, and among them, the actors were matching their breathing.
Above the set, technicians were coming and going as they inspected the equipment.
Han Seongtae was watching that scene.
Wherever his steps went, people’s gazes followed.
“Wow, it’s really Han Seongtae.”
“Wasn’t that person supposed to be filming Instinctive Rush? Looks like he found the time somehow.”
“Right? Seeing him in person, he’s even more handsome. They say he’s that good at acting, don’t they? I heard everyone kept praising him, saying he tore up the script reading room.”
People whispered as they looked at Han Seongtae.
They had heard about what happened in the script reading room through their colleagues.
How amazing Han Seongtae’s acting had been, and how admirable it had been.
Even Kim Minsu, that harsh critic, had written an article praising Han Seongtae’s acting.
It was not strange for them to be interested in Han Seongtae.
Putting everything else aside, had Han Seongtae not achieved things?
Starting from Race Start to Haru.
His career was short, but what he had done did not fall behind anyone here.
If there was someone who could be compared to Han Seongtae, would it not be Ma Seokdong?
No, if one considered the fact that Han Seongtae had worked with the production company of Instinctive Rush,
in terms of fame, Han Seongtae was by no means behind.
In many ways, Han Seongtae had no choice but to become an object of people’s interest.
He knew that fact very well too.
That was why, even when people looked at him, he simply smiled and lowered his head.
‘Having interest is much better than having none.’
Besides, their interest was positive, was it not?
People who were curious about Han Seongtae’s acting and looking forward to it.
He had the confidence to live up to their expectations.
[‘The One Who Defined an Era’ says people’s attention is clothing an actor cannot take off.]
[‘The One Who Lives and Dies by Speed’ looks at you, saying that if they gave you their attention, you need to meet those expectations.]
“Now, then, let’s move on to the next shoot. Seongtae-ssi, are you ready?”
“Yes. I can do it right now.”
At the director’s words, Han Seongtae immediately nodded.
He practiced every day, and the gods of acting were with him.
There had never been a time when Han Seongtae was not prepared.
“Good. Then let’s go right in.”
At the director’s words, people moved busily, and Han Seongtae walked toward the set for the shoot.
“Han, I’ll be watching from here. Do well.”
“Yeah, watch closely.”
Because it would be fine to look forward to it.
Han Seongtae moved his feet without bothering to say the rest.
On the set.
He could see Ma Seokdong, who had arrived first.
Han Seongtae smiled at him, and with a deep breath, immersed himself in the role.
“……Action!”
With the director’s voice, the acting began.
Han Seongtae ran across the set.
The set depicted an alleyway and an internet café.
Ahead of him, he could see actors playing a criminal holding a knife and a hostage.
Around them, actors playing onlookers were murmuring.
At the director’s signal, the actors showed tremendous focus.
[‘The One With a Thousand Faces’ says the time has come to show your acting.]
[‘The One Who Made Laughter from Tragedy’ says everyone is waiting for your acting.]
“Jeonghan, I’m not seeing this wrong right now, am I?”
“I don’t think you’re seeing it wrong.”
“If I’m not seeing it wrong, he’s waving a knife around in broad daylight?”
Ma Seokdong, acting as Kang Moobae, muttered as if he could not understand it at all and moved forward.
Yoo Yeongjun followed him and looked pityingly at the criminal holding the knife.
“Hyungnim, you can’t kill him.”
“I won’t kill him. I’m a police officer of the Republic of Korea. Who would I kill? I’m just going to subdue him properly.”
“Don’t you remember that because of that ‘properly,’ one person was carried to the hospital?”
“Hey, how long ago are you talking about? Do you know how well I’ve controlled my strength since then?”
“Wow, if you controlled your strength twice, someone would die.”
The conversation between the two people standing before a maniac holding a knife showed not even the slightest sense of crisis.
That appearance was overflowing with a strange sense of incongruity.
Who could remain calm in front of a weapon?
Even if they were police officers and detectives, anyone would have no choice but to flinch in front of a weapon.
But Kang Moobae and Yoo Yeongjun were not paying any attention to the weapon at all.
At their appearance, people naturally split to both sides.
“Hey, put that knife down.”
“You, who the hell are you! Get lost! If you come closer, I’ll cut her!”
At Kang Moobae’s words, the assailant swung the weapon around here and there before aiming it at the hostage’s neck.
Seeing that, Yoo Yeongjun let out a sigh and shook his head.
“Hyung-ssi, you could really get into big trouble like that. Put the knife down while we’re asking nicely.”
“Shut up! Who are you to tell me what to do! You’re looking down on me too, aren’t you? That’s it, right?”
“I’m saying all this for your sake, hyung-ssi. If you don’t listen to me, you’ll regret it?”
“Get lost! I’ll stab her if you come closer!”
The assailant did not back down at Yoo Yeongjun’s words.
He kept aiming the knife at the hostage’s neck and telling people to move aside.
Seeing that, Yoo Yeongjun let out a sigh and shook his head.
“Why do these bastards always fail to take the chance? How nice would it be if this ended cleanly here?”
“What the hell are you muttering! Get lost right now, huh? You want to see this woman die, don’t you?”
“Hyung-ssi.”
“What, what!”
“Don’t you think something’s strange?”
“……What?”
“I’m not usually alone, you know.”
“……!”
At Yoo Yeongjun’s words, the assailant’s eyes widened.
As the assailant hurriedly turned his head, a palm as large as a pot lid flew toward his face.
Smack!
It was clearly a person’s hand meeting a person’s face, yet the sound that rang out was like splitting firewood.
“Ugh… my cheek hurts just watching that.”
Seeing that, Yoo Yeongjun shook his head.
Yoo Yeongjun quickly walked forward, picked up the knife that had fallen to the floor, and guided the hostage to one side.
At Kang Moobae’s gesture, the police officers around them grabbed the assailant.
“Hyungnim, you didn’t kill him today?”
“I told you. I can control my strength, okay?”
“That guy’s pretty amazing too. Swinging a knife in front of you, hyungnim.”
Muttering that if it were him, he would have bowed down immediately just to avoid being hit,
Yoo Yeongjun moved his steps.
Bzzzz.
As he moved after Kang Moobae, he saw the screen of the smartphone receiving a call and his face hardened.
“Hyungnim, could you go on ahead first? I got a call, so I’ll take this and follow after you.”
“Got it. I’ll go to the gukbap place by that intersection, so come there.”
“Yes, see you in a bit. As always, thank you for your hard work!”
Nodding at Kang Moobae’s words, he smiled and exchanged greetings with the other police officers, then went to a place with few people and immediately answered the call.
“Hello.”
“Ah, detective. Why did you answer so late?”
A sly voice came through the receiver.
At that voice, Yoo Yeongjun frowned.
“I told you not to call until I call you first. Do you really want to die?”
The easygoing appearance he had shown in front of Kang Moobae was no longer visible.
He looked in the direction where Kang Moobae was with murderous eyes and continued speaking.
“Wait quietly. I’ll look at the situation and contact you again.”
“Understood.”
“There’s only one chance. If you get caught doing something weird, you’re really dead then. Especially don’t even think about getting caught by Kang Moobae.”
Yoo Yeongjun immediately hung up and let out a sigh.
Son of a bitch.
After looking down at his smartphone and cursing, he immediately moved his feet.
By the time he approached Kang Moobae’s side, his usual smile was already lingering around his lips.
“Cut! That was great!”
With the director’s voice, the acting came to an end.
“Wow… Seongtae-ssi, you’re really good at acting.”
“Exactly. I’d only heard about it, but seeing it in person, it gives you chills all over, doesn’t it?”
“How are you that good at acting? Don’t you have any tips or anything?”
People gathered around Han Seongtae and spoke to him.
Looking at them, Han Seongtae smiled.
For some reason, this shoot felt good.
After the filming for City of Criminals ended, Han Seongtae continued practicing.
He never wasted the time given to him.
He merely repeated practice after practice so that he could show good acting at any time.
‘As expected, in this scene, it would be better to suppress the emotions a little.’
The more he practiced, the more Han Seongtae’s acting gradually developed.
Monster-like growth.
Watching his practice, even the gods of acting could not help admiring his growth.
What broke his focus after he had been practicing for a long while was a call from Kim Minseok.
“Are you busy?”
“I can take a call. What’s going on?”
“I just called to tell you about preparing the work.”
At Kim Minseok’s words, Han Seongtae immediately put down the script.
Practicing City of Criminals was good, but the work he would film with Kim Minseok was important too.
“First, I think casting the actors will take some time. We need to see auditions, and there’s a lot to prepare.”
“Really? Is there anything I can help with?”
“I don’t think there’s anything in particular you can help with. Wouldn’t it be enough if you just practiced hard?”
“That’s what I always do. While preparing, is there anything difficult? Even though you learned under Director Yeon Jaehun, doing a personal work must be really hard.”
“Don’t even get me started. When I watched from the side, I didn’t know, but now that I’m doing it myself, there’s so much to do. Getting investors is the problem from the start. We still haven’t found investors. There’s a limit to doing it out of pocket.”
“Investors?”
At Kim Minseok’s words, Han Seongtae paused.
Come to think of it, looking at the script Kim Minseok had sent, it seemed like it would cost quite a lot of money.
If they did it on a low budget, the quality would drop that much, and they would not be able to express everything that appeared in the script.
“Yeah. I’ll find them myself, so don’t worry too much. You just need to act well.”
“About those investors.”
“Yeah?”
“Can I become the first investor?”
“……?”
At Han Seongtae’s words, Kim Minseok gave no answer.
Perhaps because he was flustered, there was a sound as if his breath had stopped for a moment.
“What are you talking about?”
“You said you need to find investors anyway. I’m saying I want to invest. It’s a film where I’ll be appearing as the lead, so I can at least do that much. Of course, I’ll be getting compensation for it too.”
“That’s only natural, but… are you sure?”
“There’s nothing not to be sure about. I don’t even need to receive an appearance fee. What’s important is doing this with you, not the money.”
“…Hey. What’s with you all of a sudden? Why are you moving me like this?”
“What are friends for? Ah, but I should receive an incentive. I won’t even be taking an appearance fee, so I should get something too.”
“Of course!”
As Han Seongtae smiled at Kim Minseok’s voice, he saw a staff member gesturing that he had to go in for filming.
“Let’s adjust the contract bit by bit later. Good work. I should slowly go into filming now.”
“Yeah. Work hard. And… thank you.”
Han Seongtae smiled at Kim Minseok’s words, ended the call, and moved his feet.
Seeing his friend doing something made him feel good.
It felt like they were moving forward together.
‘Ah, I want to film it soon.’
He began to look forward to the day he would film with Kim Minseok.
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