Chapter 49: 49

“Hyun-Min~! I’m so tired.”

“So why are you doing this to yourself?” Hyun-Min ruthlessly pushed Woo-Jin’s head away with his hand as he said it was too heavy. Woo-Jin had been leaning limply against him and so, he swayed aimlessly and bumped into the girl sitting on his other side.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Woo-Jin immediately straightened his body and apologized to her. He paused for a moment, something about her looked familiar.

“Dinky Coffee!” Hyun-Min peeked over at Woo-Jin’s reaction and recognized her first after he saw her. She was the female student who had worked part-time at the cafe that Woo-Jin and Hyun-Min frequented before they entered the military. However, it had closed by the time they had been discharged from the military.

“Ah!” Only then did Woo-Jin recall who she was. He awkwardly bowed his head as he greeted her. Perhaps she might have remembered who they were as well because she responded with a slight smile.

“It’s a shame that Dinky Coffee has closed down. It’s the first time I’m seeing you here. What year are you in?”

“I’m a junior. By the way, Dinky Coffee didn’t close down.”

“Ah, I know that. This guy over here had to learn how to become a barista, and his teacher happened to be the owner of Dinky Coffee. The owner said that he bought a building and moved out of the previous location. But we hadn’t known that and thought it had closed down because of the competitive pricing of the other cafes in the area.”

As Woo-Jin sat between them, the conversation between the female student and Hyun-Min continued until their professor had entered the classroom. Hyun-Min even found out that her name was Kim Tae-Hwa and that she was a year younger than them. When class was over, he even waved as he said goodbye to her.

“You’re extremely friendly, huh?”

“She’s a beauty. It’s good to build friendships with a beautiful girl in a way or another.”

“I’ll be sure to tell your girlfriend what you said.”

“Why are you more controlling than my girlfriend? A jealous man is unattractive, my friend.” Woo-Jin lightly kicked the back of Hyun-Min’s knee because he found Hyun-Min’s behavior ridiculous. He glanced at Kim Tae-Hwa’s back as she walked into the distance

Just like Hyun-Min said, she was more beautiful than most celebrities. Even though she was not wearing any makeup and was only dressed in jeans and a white shirt, she looked good because she had a great figure. However, for some reason, the gloomy look on her face caused her beauty to fade away. With looks like hers, she should have grabbed the attention of the male students in school, but strangely enough, she had slipped their eyes. Even though she was beautiful, there was something dark about her that made her unapproachable. Just like Hyun-Min, she was the type of person who was only good to look at and admire from afar.

“Don’t you think you’re looking at her with too much affection?” When Woo-Jin could not take his eyes off Kim Tae-Hwa, Hyun-Min smiled slyly as he tapped Woo-Jin on the arm.

“No, she just looks strangely familiar.”

“Of course, she looks familiar. We used to frequent Dinky Coffee all the time before we entered the military. It would be weird if you didn’t find her familiar.”

“That’s not it. For some reason, it feels…” Woo-Jin did not finish his sentence and shook his head. He did not even know how to express this feeling with words. Back then, he did not have any feelings or emotions when he looked at Kim Tae-Hwa. However, Woo-Jin was rather disconcerted by this sudden familiarity he had sensed from her.

“A beautiful woman weakens all defenses.”

“This wasn’t the case back then.”

“Aren’t you different from who you were back then?” Hyun-Min probably spoke without particular meaning, but Woo-Jin’s face hardened after those words. The only difference between the past Chae Woo-Jin and the current Chae Woo-Jin was that he had now possessed the memories of his past lives, and it had made a huge difference to the present.

“Why are you taking it so seriously? At that time, you were heartbroken over your breakup and weren’t interested in beautiful girls around you, but now, you’re single. Single and ready to mingle!” Woo-Jin lost his train of thought after seeing how ridiculous Hyun-Min looked, flapping his arms.

Woo-Jin decided not to think about it any further after hearing his cheerful friend’s explanation. His instincts that were telling him to stay away from Kim Tae-Hwa were stronger than the sense of familiarity he felt from her. His sixth sense was warning him not to approach any further. In hindsight, most of the decisions he had made based on his gut feeling often led him to make the right choice. Thus, Woo-Jin quickly brushed his thoughts about Kim Tae-Hwa aside.

There was one more class left for the day. Hyun-Min, who had picked the same classes as his friend, complained about the agonizingly tight schedule. However, he would most likely follow Woo-Jin’s schedule and pick the same classes as him in the next semester as well. That was because he wanted to prepare for situations where he would be able to share information about the lectures, reports, and exams with Woo-Jin if he was unable to attend class. Hyun-Min had complained that his life was hard as he rummaged through his bag and gave a protein bar to Woo-Jin. Hyun-Min told him to eat it and stay strong, but Woo-Jin did not even have time to do that.

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The protein bar eventually fell into the hands of a child who had been with a middle-aged woman that had recognized Woo-Jin and asked for his autograph. He wanted to give something to the person who was happy to see him and the protein bar was all he had. Sharing the little things as equals, giving and receiving, was not a bad thing. However, as soon as he arrived on set, this warm feeling subsided.

***

Production Director Park was famous for being a perfectionist and working with him was more physically challenging than Woo-Jin had expected. That was because he could not move on to the next scene without having redone each scene a dozen times. Since Woo-Jin barely had to redo any scenes in his previous two films, this was a rather embarrassing and difficult experience for him. There were many times where he had to repeat the same scene over and over again until it was in line with the production director’s expectations that it became hard for him to distinguish acting from reality.

“The world is such a strange place. Even though there are people like me, I can’t understand what they’re saying.”

“Cut! Bad take.” As though he had achieved spiritual enlightenment, Woo-Jin stared blankly at Production Director Park when he heard the words that had been constantly repeated without fail.

On the other hand, Park Yeon-Ah, who was playing the other character in the same scene, could not figure out what was wrong with the acting that seemed perfect. As she tried to figure it out, she became serious and her face stiffened. If his acting was unsatisfactory, she was worried about how her acting would be evaluated.

“Woo-Jin, your acting is really impeccable.” The staff members and other actors nodded after hearing what Production Director Park had said.

There were not many actors who could act out their characters that well with great emotion. Nobody on the set could deny this fact. Park Jong-Hyuk looked around for a moment. Perhaps he felt that there were too many people eavesdropping because he pulled Woo-Jin aside to have a private chat. Aware of the production director’s intention, the other people did not even look at them.

“However, that’s the problem. You’re clearly great at acting, and people can feel it, like ‘Wow, that actor is really good at acting!’”

“Does my acting feel fake?”

“It doesn’t feel fake, but I’d say it feels very calculated. There are some actors whose acting itself is flawless, but you can tell they are acting. I’m saying that I kind of get that same feeling from you too. Well, your acting is fine as it is, but relax a little! Become the real Louie, and not act as Louie.”

In truth, Park Jong-Hyuk could not figure out what the exact issue was, so he could not tell Woo-Jin directly about it. Woo-Jin was clearly good at acting, but something about it bothered him, so all he could do was reject the scene without being able to give a reason. But seeing how Woo-Jin did eventually nail the scenes, it seemed like time was the answer to the problem. The production director had only found out the reason by chance. As he was putting the scenes that he had given the green light together, he naturally found out what he wanted and what Woo-Jin’s issue was.

Meanwhile, Woo-Jin was utterly confused by Production Director Park’s request for him to become the real Louie, instead of acting as him. Woo-Jin thought that he had done enough to act as Louie, so the production director’s words did not make any sense to him. He felt that being able to become a version of Louie that was good enough boiled down to acting skills, but that was not the case. If the production director had told him that his acting was bad, he would have understood it better.

Nonetheless, it seemed like he had a vague idea of the meaning behind what the production director had said. Woo-Jin glanced over at Park Yeon-Ah, who was at a distance away. She was a very good stage actress. However, there were times when her peculiar stage voice or exaggerated movements were a little unpleasant. Perhaps it was due to her inability to change the habits she had adopted back when she was a stage actress. On several occasions, Woo-Jin had felt the awkwardness during the moments where her actions were unnatural. After hearing what the production director had said, it could clearly be inferred that there were times where his acting felt unnatural too.

“Relax a little…” Woo-Jin’s shoulders drooped as he sighed. Even though Woo-Jin was not exactly relaxing, he felt his strength leave his body, as he fell into deep thought. The production director approached him and tapped him on the shoulder.

“Think carefully about the scenes you have nailed. Not everything was bad. If you couldn’t do it at all, I wouldn’t have any expectations. I know you can do it, so I can’t just let it go when I see you being confused and lost. We’ll start shooting another scene, so take some time to clear your mind.”

Production Director Park was usually someone who would continue to shoot until the actors were exhausted but he was being exceptionally considerate towards Woo-Jin by giving him a short break. It might seem as though he had given Woo-Jin special treatment, but in truth, he was trying to save time. If it had been an actor who was bad at acting, it would have been normal for them to keep shooting and shooting, until the actor got the character down pat. However, Woo-Jin was an actor who did not have to do that. Rather than giving each other a hard time and wasting time and resources, it was better to give him some time to figure out what to do by himself.

Hoping that Woo-Jin would be able to figure everything out by himself, Production Director Park gave him a USB flash drive that he had prepared in advance. It contained the raw version of Woo-Jin’s scenes that he had given the green light. The hand that took the flash drive felt particularly heavy because of the meaning behind it.

“For example, Cha Hyun-Seung’s look of despair in Glooming Day, or how you got into character in the behind-the-scenes video of the photo shoot. It was so perfect that it truly gave me goosebumps watching it. It felt as though it was real and not an act. That’s what I want.”

If Production Director Park Jong-Hyuk had not watched those videos, he would have thought that Woo-Jin’s current acting was good enough. However, after seeing the amazing things Woo-Jin had done before, he could not be satisfied with what Woo-Jin was doing now. Park Jong-Hyuk left under the pretext of shooting since he did not want Woo-Jin to feel more pressured than he already was.

Left standing there by himself, Woo-Jin looked down at the USB flash drive in his hand. The indescribably complicated feelings he was experiencing made his chest feel tight. Woo-Jin came to his senses after standing there mindlessly for a while and looked around. Perhaps it was because everyone was busy focusing on the shoot, but Woo-Jin noticed that nobody was paying any attention to him.

Woo-Jin went to the corner of the set that had been transformed into a cafe and borrowed a laptop that was used by the staff. He plugged in his earphones and carefully studied his acting that was on par with the production director’s strict standards. Even he could see that the scenes that had been accepted, after dozens of rejections, looked good. However, he could not tell what the difference between the ones accepted and the ones that had been rejected was.

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