Life, Once Again!

Chapter 848. Sequence 12

He could feel the sweat on the back of his neck. He barely got an okay sign, but the director did not give him any time to rest. As shooting throughout the night was usually paid by the hour, it seemed that the director was planning on using him to the fullest unless he fell over due to exhaustion. He quenched his thirst with the bottle of water that Hyungseok tossed at him and cleared his throat. The vocal exercises he did every morning brought him satisfactory results. He once again felt that while effort might be useless, it never betrayed him.

“Hold the arrow with your hand and once the shoot starts, pull it out and throw it to the side. We don’t want the fact that it doesn’t have an arrowhead to be caught on the camera. But don’t block the camera with your hand either. That would look unnatural,” Park Hoon said while giving him an arrow without an arrowhead.

He placed it on his left chest and practiced pulling it out several times. He had learned about how to do this when he was in the action school, so he soon got a passing score.

“That’s how you do it. Also, put some of this in your mouth.”

The staff member standing next to Park Hoon gave him some fake blood. When he put it in his mouth, he could taste something akin to hot chocolate. The staff member smiled at him, saying that it was safe to drink.

“Don’t spurt it out; leak it out instead. This is actually anatomically wrong, but it’s a cliché for dramas. You know what it’s like, right?”

Maru nodded. It was a scene he had seen several times in dramas and movies. It was a device that told the audience that the character was dying. He tried leaking some of the fake blood from his mouth.

“You can leak a little more than that. Swallow whatever’s left in your mouth. It’s not too good if you spill too much.”

He drank the fake blood in his mouth before putting some more in. The director and the staff returned to their positions. Above his head came the boom mic. After checking the lights installed on each side, he stood in his designated position.

The director, who had been checking through the monitor in the distance, gave a signal. Along with the assistant director’s shout, the shoot began. Maru did not act hastily. There was no need to react in real-time like he was on stage for a play. The editing would solve minor problems even if he started a little late. The moment he felt the words he was rolling in his mouth were ready to go out, he pulled out the arrow that he was holding against his left chest. He twisted it forcefully and pulled it out like pulling out a deeply rooted tree before throwing it on the ground. He didn’t forget to spill out some of the blood in his mouth.

He could feel the fake blood flow down his chin and drip onto the ground. He was told that he couldn’t be excessive, so he swallowed the rest. The sudden movement of his adam’s apple would make his act lose detail, so he pulled his chin inward as though he was swallowing his frustration before opening his eyes as wide as possible so that the movement of his adam’s apple would look natural.

“Disgusting bastards.”

What the director requested him to do was fall over after saying that line. Apparently, that process was entirely up to him. While he could do it the classic way and bend one knee to fall to the side slowly, he felt that holding on until the end would look better in order to express his unrelenting will. He tensed his eyes so much that they started to hurt before leaning his body forward. He had put padding and cloth over his knees before the shoot began so that it would only hurt just a little even if they collided with the frozen ground. If a rock he missed before broke his knee, then that was just his luck.

Both of his knees touched the ground with a thud. It actually hurt less than he expected. Inwardly feeling satisfied, he continued acting. He twisted his head and slowly fell over forward. He was tensing his waist and thighs, so it wasn’t that dangerous even though he was falling forward. If he failed at adjusting his speed and was about to kiss the ground, he could just use his hands.

His torso touched the ground. At the last moment, his feet were raised off the ground, adding more speed, which made his chin ache quite a bit, but it was still bearable. When he stayed dead still in order to finish this in one cue, the director gave the cut sign.

“Shall we do that once again?”

Maru raised his head while still lying down to look at the director who came over.

“And I was just thinking that I did pretty good.”

“What? You don’t want to do that again?”

“This actually hurts quite a lot. I hit my chin in the end too.”

“What, you’re injured?”

Park Hoon, who was smiling, suddenly turned serious and crouched down. He barely managed to tell him that it wasn’t anything serious when he was asked where he was hurt and if he needed treatment.

“Boy, you know what freaks me out the most during a shoot? It’s when a person gets injured. Damage to props can be made up for with money, but that can’t be done when it comes to people getting injured. Are you really okay? If that shook your skull, you should definitely go to the hospital.”

“It’s not that bad. I just got a scratch over here.”

He put his hand on his chin as he said those words, and it pricked quite a lot. When he took his finger off, he saw some blood. He realized instantly that it wasn’t fake blood.

“Looks like I overdid that.”

“No, I think I asked too much from you. It was a joke when I said we should do that again. Well done. Go get your chin disinfected and treated. If it leaves behind a scar, that would be such a loss to you. Moreover, since you belong to JA, I can’t handle the aftermath.”

Park Hoon returned to smiling again as though he was relieved that it wasn’t a big problem. Maru grabbed the director’s hand and stood up. Some members of the staff had also come around to watch.

“For now, wipe your chin with some water. We can’t have bacteria entering your cut.”

He followed the woman who did makeup on him into a coach. The woman took out some ointment and an adhesive bandage and told him to jut his chin out.

“I’ll do it. It’s not a big cut.”

“It’s on your chin, so leave it to me. It’s not like you can see it anyways. Raise your chin a little.”

He didn’t say no to that since she was willing. Just as she said, he didn’t have the ability to see his cut when it was on his chin.

“You are Han Maru, right?”

“Yes, do you know me?”

“I do. I watched all of your plays in Daehak-ro. You can call me an avid fan of sorts.”

“Really? Thank you.”

“Can you turn around this way?”

The woman applied the ointment before putting on the adhesive bandage.

“I don’t think it’ll leave behind a scar, but go to the hospital just in case. The face is the life of an actor after all.”

“If I have a cut or two, I won’t have to put on makeup if I play a delinquent role later, so it’s fine.”

“Men tend to say all sorts of weird stuff when they’re told to go to the hospital. Don’t regret it later and just go. There are cases where people don’t pass an audition because a scar throws them off.”

“Is that about you?”

“Was it obvious?”

“It just felt like it.”

The woman put away the first-aid kit and took out her phone.

“Can I take a photo?”

“With me?”

“Yes. When you were doing plays, you disappeared like a ghost after the photo time even when I wanted a photo. Wait a second, that makes me angry. Why were you in such a hurry? Do you know how disappointed I was when I tried to take a photo with you every single time?”

“Sorry about that. I wasn’t really in a state where I could look at my surroundings. I went back to the waiting room as soon as the play was finished.”

“It’s somewhat funny for me to say this, but you should look out for your fans a little more. There are more than you expect.”

“I’ll bear that in mind.”

He made a V with his fingers and took a photo with her. When he was doing plays back in Blue Sky, he was crazy for acting. He felt like he would collapse otherwise. When the other members of the troupe told him that he should take photos with the fans from time to time, he would go out briefly and take some photos, but otherwise, he went back to the waiting room and caught his breath. He had a hard time winning against the sense of vanity that overwhelmed him after a play.

“You aren’t going to ignore us in the future, right?”

“Yes. I’ve opened my eyes a little. Just tell me whenever you need it. I’ll give you an autograph or take a photo with you or whatever.”

“Then since we’re at it, can you give me an autograph as well? My friends are your fans too. We’re in the fan café too, and we’re pretty active.”

“My fan café?”

The woman nodded vigorously.

“The café’s founder is two years younger than me, and apparently, she has been your fan since high school.”

He knew who the fan café’s founder was. She was a friend of Bada. Although he had never seen her in person, Bada showed him her face on her graduation album.

“If I ever do something like a fan meetup, I’ll definitely invite all of you.”

“You have to keep your word. I’m going to post these on the café.”

“I’m not sure about anything else, but I’m good at keeping promises.”

The woman left first, wishing him luck with his future endeavors. Maru felt rather unreal because this was the first time he came across a fan. What came to his mind was that he actually had a fan after all. He felt grateful and asked for her name, but the woman refused, saying that a fan and an actor should stay distant. She even gave him advice that fandoms weren’t always helpful and that he should be more cautious. She seemed to be quite experienced in the fandom scene.

“Hey, I thought you were really dying after being hit by an arrow. We all exclaimed when you fell down, didn’t we?”

Hyungseok made a fuss the moment he went back. The background actors next to him also raised their thumbs, saying that he was the best.

“I wasn’t that good.”

“Yes, you were. We know best as third persons. That’s just how acting works. Also, hey, just take a compliment for what it is. I noticed this when I was in the military: the first thing you do is doubt when you receive a compliment. You make people awkward.”

“It just became a force of habit. I’ve seen too many people grinding their blades behind their back while smiling in the front.”

“But seriously, you didn’t happen to belong to some dangerous organization, right? Though, it does make me think that you might be able to pass off as part of one if you put on a dry face.”

“I’ve lived quite an upright life in this life, but who knows? I might have done something dangerous in my previous life.”

He had repeated many lives. Day worker, bus driver, actor, homeless man… there was the possibility that he belonged to a shady organization in a life that even the masked man did not remember. Though, it seemed unlikely seeing as how Gaeul was always next to him. However, it wasn’t like people could predict what was coming in life.

The reason he was able to naturally play the role of things he had never experienced might be due to the traces of life he lived that were engraved in his soul, not because of practice. The reason that he repeatedly lived more lives as an actor was probably because he was able to effectively use his piled up experiences of emotional expression.

“My junior.”

Jung Goosik appeared out of nowhere and put his arm around Maru’s shoulder.

“You fell over quite loudly back then. Aren’t you hurt?”

“I’m okay. It was just a small scratch.”

“You should watch out. It’s good that you’re willing to set your soul ablaze for acting, but you should look at the long run. There are many young ones who end up ruining themselves because they can’t hold back their recklessness while they’re young. But still, that was really good just now. It’s not easy for a young person to use their whole body like that.”

Goosik slapped him on the back before turning around. His slaps were actually quite spicy. While reaching out to his back that still ached, he watched at Goosik, who was walking over to the director.

“That man is the man who appears in dramas as villainous roles quite often, isn’t he?”

“He’s senior Jung Goosik.”

“So he’s senior Jung Goosik. I want to do well and catch his eyes too.”

“Should I tell the director that there’s someone here who’s ready to jump off the castle wall?”

“Hey, don’t you think I’m too young to die?”

Hyungseok turned a corner alongside the other background actors while crossing his arms, saying that he was cold. Maru stroked the adhesive bandage on his chin and looked at the scene. The shoot seemed to be in its last stages as he could see some of the staff packing up. Not long later, he could hear ‘thank you for your work’ from around the scene.

“Well then, those going to Seoul, please get on coach 6. For the ones who have a shoot tomorrow as well, we got you a place to sleep, so you can go there.”

Maru said his goodbyes to the background actors who still had further shoots and got in coach 6 with Hyungseok.