Chapter 45: 45

“If by psycho, you mean psychopath, I don’t think he’s one. Even though Choi Joon is a bad guy, it’s evident that he’s aware of his own feelings and is clear of his goals. Perhaps from Choi Joon’s point of view, he thinks that his actions are commendable based on what he was taught. The father of Choi Joon’s lover was a lawyer who wanted to expose his evil deeds. Choi Joon had decided to hire Louie to kill him not because he was heartless, but because it was the most logical method that would allow him to protect both his company and lover.”

After hearing Woo-Jin’s words, Kang Min-Ho clapped his hands softly and gave him a thumbs up. “That’s what I’m saying! People are quick to call criminals psychopaths these days; I see that as a way of exonerating them. I’m trying to say that even with a sane mind, it feels like people are trying to attribute the crimes he had committed for his own interests and desires to psychological issues. Regardless of what others say, Choi Joon is a bad guy with a sane mind. He’s well-aware of the consequences and implications of the crimes which he had committed."

Park Yeon-Ah nodded. She seemed to understand where Kang Min-Ho was coming from after hearing his argument about how not all criminals who committed terrible unethical deeds were psychopaths.

“So, you’re saying that he’s just an ordinary bad guy? In that case he’s truly a horrible person.”

“That’s right.”

“Wah~! Lee Yoo-Ra must have done something bad in her past life for her to be this unfortunate. One of her love interests is a bad guy through and through, and the other one is an immature killer. She can’t catch a break!” Park Yeon-Ah was about to cry because of her character’s cruel fate. Woo-Jin placed a couple of pieces of well-grilled meat in front of her, as if to console her.

“A man is not everything in life. Charge forth alone, like a rhinoceros.”

“The two men’s obsession with her is too great for her to be able to pave her own path.”

“That’s true… I think Lee Yoo-Ra must have betrayed a few countries in her past life.”

Since Louie was the character Woo-Jin played, he wanted to take his character’s side as much as possible. But even Woo-Jin himself felt that Louie’ obsession with Lee Yoo-Ra went too far. The love that was engraved in his heart brought about destruction rather than beauty, and it was begging for her love. The love that Louie expressed was always tainted with blood.

“I’m getting more and more scared about how this will end.” Park Yeon-Ah wrapped the meat with a perilla leaf and fed it to Woo-Jin, who had been working hard grilling the meat, as she grumbled with resignation.

Even though the scripts for all sixteen episodes were already out, the writer and production director had only released the scripts up to episode 14 to the actors. It seemed like the goal was not to just keep the ending a secret, but they wanted to make the actors feel some suspense from the unknown ending. Perhaps, they felt that if the actors knew about the ending, their acting would not be as good. Woo-Jin shared the same sentiment.

Shooting a drama was different from shooting a movie, in the sense that a drama was more paced out. If the actors knew the ending, their energy would diminish as the filming reaches near the end. Hence, the tension that they were experiencing by not knowing the ending was different, unlike the other dramas where a happy ending was guaranteed.

“Maybe it would end up being just a dream.”

“Chae Woo-Jin, do you want to die?” asked Kang Min-Ho.

“Oh, I would like that very much, please just let it be a dream. Or at least go back to the time before the character met the two horrible men. That happens a lot in novels these days.” said Park Yeon-Ah.

“It would also be nice if the drama ends with a subtitle saying ‘Season 2 coming soon~!’,” added Woo-Jin.

“Woo-Jin is quite a greedy person.”

The ambiance, which was a little gloomy, became more lively after Woo-Jin joked about wanting a second season. They had temporarily stopped thinking about the drama and moved on to talking about their everyday life while they wrapped and ate the delicious well-grilled meat with perilla leaves.

Initially, Kang Min-Ho and Park Yeon-Ah were subconsciously prejudiced against Chae Woo-Jin. Woo-Jin was handsome; had great acting skills; an impressive academic background; as well as his contract with a solid agency. They had assumed that he would be difficult to get along with.

Kang Min-Ho, who had been active in the film industry, knew that Chae Woo-Jin was currently the most popular actor in Chungmuro. [Ref] Chungmuro is equivalent to Hollywood in Korea. [/ref] Even though he had only acted in one film thus far, it was said that the movie directors of Korea had acknowledged him as an actor who had made a huge impact. Even though they were both main leads in the same drama, Kang Min-Ho felt that Woo-Jin was in an entirely different league, even though he had started making a name for himself.

However, after meeting and getting to know Woo-Jin, rather than sensing the difference in their levels, Kang Min-Ho was taken by surprise by how Woo-Jin was able to break down such a complex role. After watching Woo-Jin act out his character Louie over several table read sessions, Kang Min-Ho had been captivated by Woo-Jin’s acting skills and became rather fond of Woo-Jin. Woo-Jin too felt the same towards Kang Min-Ho.

“If you’re going back to school in September, wouldn’t it be very tough for you because you have to juggle between going to school and the shoot?”

Even though City of Shadows would be airing in mid-October, the shooting was scheduled to start the day after tomorrow. Woo-Jin had to go back to school during the most busy period. He had also inevitably put his classmates and professors in a difficult position.

“That’s why I went to visit the professors who are in charge of the classes which I am attending to explain the situation to them while asking for their understanding. For starters, they’ve agreed to let me make up for my absence by writing papers. The more classes I miss, the more I have to write. Of course, I have to take the exams, but even though my worries about being absent for classes have been alleviated, I don’t know what it is going to be like.”

Despite saying that, Woo-Jin had adjusted his classes and tried his best to schedule them in the morning, and he made sure he barely had any classes on Fridays. Woo-Jin had done his best to try to not miss any classes. Nonetheless, he had also asked his classmates to record the lectures for him in case he missed his classes. He still needed to know the contents of the lectures to some extent in order to write the papers. Education was that important to Woo-Jin.

Even though Yoo Soo-Min had personally offered him the role, he had rejected it initially because of the conflict in schedule, as it had coincided with the start of the new academic year. That was because he felt that unless it was a role for a movie, it was impossible for him to juggle both his studies and the shoot, as dramas were filmed on a tight schedule.

However, Writer Yoo did not give up and delivered the scripts for episodes 1 to 14 to him. She had told him to skim through it first, but she would not have leaked the scripts to Woo-Jin unless she was extremely determined to get him on board. This showed that although Yoo Soo-Min was desperate in casting Woo-Jin, she also had great confidence in her writing. In the end, her gamble paid off.

Woo-Jin fell in love with his character, Louie, and ended up wanting the role. It was the first role that Chae Woo-Jin had chosen for himself in his acting career. Fortunately, the production crew had agreed to arrange the schedule of the shoot such that it would minimize clashes with Woo-Jin’s academic schedule if he chose to accept the role. Woo-Jin did not believe that they would be able to keep their promise towards the end of the shoot, but they should be able to keep their word in the earlier stages. Regardless of how infamous Production Director Park Jong-Hyuk was, he wanted to believe that he would not openly violate the terms of the contract.

“Do you believe them?” Woo-Jin laughed weakly upon seeing Kang Min-Ho’s skeptical reaction. In truth, he could not trust Production Director Park Jong-Hyuk. Woo-Jin had heard many horror stories from CEO Jang, who had opposed him from participating in the drama, about Production Director Park.

“Since I’m the one who’s being greedy, I have to pay the price.”

“It’s nice to be young.”

“That’s right. If I were you, I’d just take a leave of absence.”

“I promised my family that I’ll definitely graduate, so I can’t do that. My younger sister would be very upset and kick up a big fuss.”

If Woo-Jin ended up taking a leave of absence or gave up on school halfway, his mother would be disappointed and sad. But in the end, she would come to terms with it regardless of what Woo-Jin chose to do. On the other hand, Woo-Hee was a child who actively interfered with Woo-Jin’s life and she would probably turn the house upside down. And their mother would not stop Woo-Hee from doing that either.

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“By younger sister, you mean the one who looks just like you?”

“How do you know my younger sister?”

“Why wouldn’t I know? A photo of you pinching her cheeks had been uploaded to the internet.”

“I saw that photo too. Even though it’s just the side profile, both of you look like peas in a pod. It’s amazing.”

After listening to their conversation, Woo-Jin was completely bewildered as he had no idea what they were talking about. Hence, Park Yeon-Ah used her phone to search for it and showed him the video they were talking about.

“Oh, oh, oh~! Someone had filmed it huh.”

“Yeah, it’s called ‘Rookie Chae Woo-Jin and a flapping chick’.”

“It’s amazing how they managed to film that.”

The video was recorded by Woo-Hee’s classmates who were at the cafe. However, Woo-Jin was unaware of that, and thought that it was uploaded by his agency. He had heard about the plan to create an image of him as a brother who loved his sister dearly from Kang Ho-Soo, but he was flustered because he had never imagined that it would be done this way. He had to protect his sister’s portrait rights too, and since she was still a student, Woo-Jin wanted to make sure that she was fine with it. Hence, Woo-Jin immediately texted his sister, asking if she knew about the video that was posted on the internet.

[Yeah, I know]

[You know? Are you okay with that?]

[What can you do even if I said no? Since you’re not that famous yet, nobody has approached me directly and bothered me about it. Don’t worry!]

[But still, I’m sorry. T_T]

[*Pat pat* If that’s the case, why don’t you consider retiring? You should focus on your studies.]

[I heard that you got a question wrong in your math exam this time around. Time for tutoring?]

[Work hard on the shoot!]

[It hasn’t started yet.]

Kang Min-Ho, who was looking at Woo-Jin and his sister’s text messages from the side, giggled as he read the messages to Park Yeon-Ah, who was sitting across from them.

“The siblings are having fun.”

“I know. As for me and my sisters…” Kang Min-Ho thought of his sisters and immediately shook his head. He thanked Woo-Jin for grilling the meat as he wrapped the meat in a perilla leaf before feeding it to him. “You have a tough journey ahead, so eat up and rejuvenate your body.”

“What is pork neck going to do for the body?”

“Park Yeon-Ah! Are you disregarding Handon pork?” [Ref] Handon pork is the most expensive pork in Korea. Like their Hanwoo beef. [/ref]

“I’m ignoring you.”

Woo-Jin, who was smiling brightly as he looked at the two friends bickering back and forth, frowned for a moment. There was too much garlic in the perilla wrap that Kang Min-Ho made for him. As he struggled with the burning feeling in his throat, the bright-eyed Kang Min-Ho, who was sitting next to him, turned around and asked happily, “Is my perilla wrap that delicious? Do you want me to make another one for you?”

“Umm, ah, it’s okay!” After taking a sip of water, Woo-Jin regained composure to a certain degree and shook his head violently. Park Yeon-Ah waved her chopsticks at Kang Min-Ho and chided him.

“Does it look like he’s enjoying himself?”

“Of course! There’s no way the god-like pork neck would taste bad. I fed it to him with the fragrant perilla leaf and plenty of garlic which is good for the body.”

As Kang Min-Ho was grumbling, Woo-Jin made an exact perilla wrap as the one he had just eaten with the same amount of garlic and fed it to Kang Min-Ho. However, contrary to his expectations, Kang Min-Ho gave him a thumbs up, saying it was delicious.

“He’s just a garlic lover. He threw a lot of garlic into his food earlier too.”

Their plate of garlic, which had already been refilled twice, became empty again. As Park Yeon-Ah pointed to the empty plate, Woo-Jin pressed the bell button on their table. Woo-Jin wondered how many plates of garlic they had already asked for as he said to their server, who looked like a part-timer, “Could you please give us a lot of garlic?” with the most apologetic look on his face.

“Just garlic?”

Startled by the server’s high-pitched voice, Woo-Jin was taken aback for a moment, before raising two fingers. “And two more servings of pork neck. I would be very grateful if you could bring us a lot of garlic.”

The part-timer looked at Woo-Jin, who was smiling awkwardly, with a sharp gaze which lasted for a moment before confirming his order in a rigid tone.

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