Superstar From Age 0

Chapter 199

Park Jae-min, the assistant director, called a nearby staff member.

“Go to the first floor and get the kids. We’re starting to shoot.”

“Yes!”

The kids meant… Lee Seo-jun!

The staff member, who had been grumbling about being sent to do trivial tasks like going to the parking lot, ran quickly to the first floor with a flushed face.

The other staff members looked enviously at his back.

The staff member ran down the stairs, skipping two or three steps at a time, and stopped in front of the door where the child actors were.

He had met many actors while working on various sets, but he had never been so excited as he was now.

He took a deep breath and knocked.

“Yes!”

A voice answered and the door opened wide.

He saw the children sitting together on chairs.

Among them, two kids were staring blankly at Seo-jun.

The staff member met Seo-jun’s eyes and stiffly replied.

“Uh, we’re starting to shoot now. I think you should go up.”

The children looked at the clock and widened their eyes.

“Seo-jun was so good at acting that we didn’t even notice the time.”

“Let’s go up quickly.”

Jae-han and Jinho took care of the two kids who were still gazing at Seo-jun, while Seo-jun and Ju-hee gathered their scripts and coats.

They looked strangely united.

The children followed the staff member to the upper floor.

The passing staff members changed their expressions to surprise when they saw Seo-jun, and the children laughed.

The two kids who had been staring at Seo-jun seemed to regain their senses and quietly admired him.

“He’s really good.”

“I know. It’s different from watching him on screen.”

They still remembered how Seo-jun’s aura changed as soon as he started practicing.

He was drinking cocoa and rehearsing his lines in the break room, but he seemed like a different person when he acted.

Amazing!

Seo-jun felt like the back of his head was being pierced by the children’s sparkling eyes, and he unconsciously rubbed it.

The children who had been smiling at the staff’s reactions gradually became nervous as they approached the set.

The lights, the big cameras, the people filling one wall.

This is the real shooting.

They stopped in front of the door with tense faces, and Choi Dae-man, the director, greeted them.

“Did you practice well?”

“Yes.”

Seo-jun answered as their representative, and Choi Dae-man nodded.

“You can change your clothes and get your makeup done in the next room. They’ll give you clothes when you go in.”

“Yes!”

The children who played archery club members changed into school uniforms, while Seo-jun changed into a hospital gown.

The guardians who came up also took care of their children in the room. They couldn’t get close to them during shooting, so this was the only time they could see them.

“Don’t be nervous. Just do as you practiced. Jinho.”

“My daughter. Don’t get too excited.”

Jae-han was also contacting his mom on his phone.

Seo-jun and Ahn Da Ho smiled warmly as they watched the children and their guardians.

“You were good from the start when I took care of you, so I couldn’t even say anything like that.”

“I was good from the beginning.”

“…Was it from William? Do you remember?”

“Hee.”

Seo-jun smiled meaningfully, and Ahn Da Ho stroked his head with a playful expression.

***

“We’ll start shooting now.”

Park Jae-min’s voice rang out.

The movement that had been preparing for shooting noisily slowly subsided.

Seo-jun leaned back on the hospital bed in a patient gown. In front of the bed, there was a paper that said [Go Ju Won/Male/14 years old].

Choi Dae-man checked Seo-jun’s image on the monitor and shouted.

“Ready, action!”

The sound of birds came from outside the window.

Go Ju Won blinked his eyes a few times at the shining sunlight.

It was already his fifth day of hospital life.

He got used to it by now. No,

“Aaah! I’m bored!”

Being quiet wasn’t his style.

The boy who had been looking out the window with a faint look disappeared, and there was a kid who tossed around on the bed with his back arched.

Then, the door of the ward opened.

“Your voice can be heard outside. The soundproofing here is not good.”

“See? He’s not Go Ju Won if he stays quiet.”

“I’m soda.”

“I’m Fanta! Pineapple flavor!”

“My allowance…”

The friends who came in without knocking looked at Go Ju Won who was wriggling on the bed and smiled brightly.

He was wearing a patient gown, but he didn’t look sick at all.

“You came? I thought I was going to die of boredom!”

The kids who were trying to check Go Ju Won’s condition with worried eyes lost their words at his appearance.

“Go Ju Won… what are you doing?”

“Yoga! Bow pose!”

“…Do you have to relate everything to archery, even yoga?”

“Crazy guy.”

The kids laughed at Han Jinho’s shaking his head.

Go Ju Won, who had been holding his body in a curve by grabbing his ankles with his arms stretched back, also burst into laughter and released his pose.

“If you’re bored, play games on your phone.”

“It got confiscated because I was stressed.”

“Go Ju Won can’t play games anyway.”

“I feel like my stomach is going to explode when I see him play.”

The kids’ laughter filled the ward. Go Ju Won laughed sincerely for the first time since he was hospitalized.

“Oh. I brought this.”

“What is it?”

He had been curious from the start. What was in the basket-like bag.

He thought it was snacks or drinks, but seeing his friends drinking from the fridge next to the bed, he thought it wasn’t.

“Ta-da!”

Kang Jae-han took out something from the basket.

Go Ju Won’s eyes slowly widened as he recognized what it was.

His pale cheeks turned red.

He unconsciously opened his mouth and smiled like a fool.

He smiled so brightly, like a person in love.

“My bow!”

What came out of the basket was the archery bag that Go Ju Won had left at the archery club.

Jae-han took out another bag and tried to say, “I brought arrows too.”

But he couldn’t open his mouth.

There was a brief silence, and Choi Dae-man shouted.

“Cut! NG!”

“…I’m sorry!”

He had just been praised, but he caused an NG.

Choi Dae-man waved his hand at the dejected Jae-han.

“No, we were all mesmerized too,

“Still…”

“If you do well in this shoot, it will be fine. And Seo-jun is…”

It was just a short acting, but it had a different impact. Seo-jun’s love that showed on the surface was terrifying. Director Choi Dae-man, who was lost in thought for a moment, opened his mouth. But Go Ju Won was also such a character.

A boy who loves archery fiercely.

“Just keep going.”

“Yes!”

After that, there were a few situations where the child actors forgot their lines because of Seo-jun’s sparkling eyes, but the shooting ended safely.

“How was it?”

“Did you get a lot of NGs? Was it hard?”

The guardians appeared with tired faces and asked the children. The shooting place was small and the door was closed, so they couldn’t see anything.

“Mom.”

“Yeah?”

“Seo-jun is really good.”

They thought he was good, but the actual shooting was more amazing.

The children who realized that nodded their heads vigorously.

He loves archery more than acting.

A boy who loves archery so much.

“Are you going to quit acting and do archery?”

The shooting was over and the tension was gone. The children chattered. If Seo-jun’s fans around the world heard their questions, they would have cried out loud.

“No. That’s just acting.”

“How can you make such an expression with acting… It’s unbelievable.”

Seo-jun laughed at the children’s questions.

This shooting didn’t require any skills.

It was just a matter of showing his love for acting.

Seeing the children think like this, he must have been quite successful.

He felt like he was recognized for his love of acting, and Seo-jun smiled contentedly.

***

The shooting of the movie ‘Escape’ went smoothly.

Sometimes they shot in outdoor locations, and sometimes they shot in indoor sets.

“I went to shoot yesterday!”

Joo-kyung said with a bright smile.

It was a scene with Joo-hee and Jae-han.

They were playing patients who passed by when the archery club members went to visit Go Ju Won’s hospital room.

“Then you’ll be shooting as a zombie soon.”

“Yeah. They said I’ll be shooting as a zombie next time!”

The children lowered their voices.

“They said it’s a Hollywood special makeup team, and when I searched it up, they were really good. Jena Trade? She’s also very famous.”

“It’s my first time doing special makeup, and I’m worried that I might touch my face without knowing it.”

“Me too. What if it tickles?”

“Can you act well?”

Seo-jun tilted his head at the children who were only worried about special makeup.

The children smiled meaningfully.

They had seen and remembered Seo-jun’s acting that made the practice room silent every time they practiced zombie acting after school.

“We learned from watching Hollywood actor Lee Seo-jun’s acting! We can do it!”

“It won’t be perfect, but still.”

“As long as you don’t feel awkward, it’ll be fine. If the actor thinks it’s weird, the viewer will feel the same way.”

The children nodded at Seo-jun’s advice.

The time of battle in Escape was getting closer.

***

The special makeup artists from Dohwa got on the bus sent by Movie Dream.

“It’s finally shooting time!”

“It’s really happening! A zombie movie.”

The special makeup artists who couldn’t hide their excitement were happy even though they were going to work.

It felt like they were going on a picnic.

“Did you see the sketch that Mirror Team gave us this time?”

“Wow. I didn’t even think there could be more improvement, but still.”

The blood and wound makeup had decreased, but the alien feeling had increased.

“It felt like they saw a real zombie and drew it. I guess Hollywood is different after all.”

Everyone nodded at Kim Sowon, the team leader’s words.

Meanwhile, the bus arrived at the shooting site.

The Dohwa team members were surprised to see a clean road in the suburbs and a parking lot with empty spaces even though there were so many cars.

“Dohwa. Are you the special makeup team? You can go to the auditorium on the first floor.”

They moved to the auditorium on the first floor following the shooting site guide map (why do they have this?).

There were people bustling around in the clean and white building. They were extras who had practiced basic movements and Bone Breaking Team. Some of them were checking their movements and routes with the martial arts director.

“All these people are playing zombies?”

They thought it would be like a picnic, but work was work.

What caught Dohwa’s attention were RIO and Stan, Mirror Team, who were preparing to do makeup for the actors in the auditorium on the first floor. They all greeted Dohwa warmly. It was convenient to have many colleagues when there was a lot of work.

Soon after, Jena Trade, who had laid out the materials for special makeup on the table, stood in front of everyone.

The special makeup artists who had learned Mirror Team’s techniques and stole their know-how with their eyes shone their eyes.

They had been together for a short time, but they would be together during the shooting. Jena Trade, who looked at the special makeup artists softly, opened her mouth.

“Let’s get started.”

***

Hospital lobby.

Zombies were running wild. Cameras were shooting here and there, and blue screens were set up for CG work.

In that reality and fantasy, there were zombies that stood out among the planned routes.

The camera of the shooting director, who moved freely unlike the other fixed cameras, moved according to Director Choi Dae-man’s gesture.

The zombies that made strange noises moved in school uniforms or patient clothes.

They were not fast and violent like adult actors.

They were not bizarre like Bone Breaking Team.

But they had an atmosphere that captured the eyes.

It looked like they were imitating ‘real zombies’ that they had seen somewhere.

‘There is a difference between drawing an elephant after seeing it and drawing it after hearing its description. And…’

He thought of the ‘zombie’ that was in the inner part of the laboratory during the private shooting.

It seemed similar to that too. Director Choi Dae-man was not the only one who thought so.

The shooting director and Park Jae-min also looked surprised. But there was a difference.

‘The sun and fireflies?’

But fireflies also sparkled to people.

The extras who saw the child actors stiffened their bodies without knowing it. It was a good thing that it was a rehearsal, since they were scared by zombies that had nothing to be afraid of.

“Let’s do it again!”

Preparing for the rehearsal, Director Choi Dae-man looked at Jena Trade and Mirror Team who ran to the child actors who were smiling and looking at each other’s makeup.

The staff in charge of Mirror Team, who could interpret, ran to Director Choi Dae-man.

“They said they modified the special makeup of the child actors. What should we do?”

Jena Trade explained in English to the bewildered actors and looked this way.

Director Choi Dae-man nodded his head and agreed.

It seemed like they had found fireflies too.

“Let’s take a break for a while!”

During the break, Director Choi Dae-man replayed the rehearsal video. The acting of the actors on the screen was impressive.

“…They are amazing.”

He didn’t know why he thought ‘Seo-jun’s friends are different.