If I Don’t Earn 1 Trillion Won, My Regression Ends - Chapter 63

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 63

“Director, are you completely out of your mind?”

Bae Seo-nyeok was not acting like himself.

He had barged into the studio early in the evening and immediately lashed out at Haemun before even taking off his sunglasses.

“If you don’t like something, just say it with words. How could you coax her all the way here, then sprinkle ash on cooked rice? What kind of mindset is that?”

“…What did I do? What did I do?”

Haemun, who had been lazily sprawled out, was bewildered.

The production company told him not to go anywhere until crank-in and just stay put writing the screenplay, so he had been obediently staying put as instructed…

“…Are you really asking because you don’t know? You completely terrified our actress.”

“Me?! When?!”

“You went to Sing-a and told her that since you cast her, she should just shut up and follow along.”

“Yeah. I did. So what?”

Bae Seo-nyeok was now truly fed up.

You need to be human to have a conversation. This was just a movie machine.

Did he really have to teach communication skills to an old man approaching forty?

He was an actor, not a volunteer teacher for remedial classes.

Ham Gyeong-seok, who had been watching from the side, let out a hollow laugh.

“Hyung-nim. You do realize how old that child is, right? If my memory serves me correctly, she should be about ten years old now.”

“Oh yeah~ That’s right. She just turned ten. She’s grown well. So pretty. I really like her. How fortunate that our Ssing-ssing-i has grown up so well!”

“That’s not what we’re talking about right now- Haha… You need to handle kids gently. It’s not like you haven’t worked with child actors before? You’re not usually like this.”

“But…”

Haemun looked at Bae Seo-nyeok as if feeling wronged.

“Didn’t you tell me not to treat her like an ordinary kid?”

“What?”

“Nyeok-nyeok, you said that… not to think of her as a child… You said she even bought land because of her, and that she’s smarter than most adults.”

“That was-!”

Shouldn’t that movie machine be fixed by hitting it a few times like a television?

‘If only he wasn’t my mentor…!’

Bae Seo-nyeok calmly settled his emotions.

“That was telling you not to dismiss her because she’s young. It didn’t mean you could intimidate and pressure her like you would adult actors.”

“Really? You should have said so…”

“…”

Silent, reproachful stares.

Haemun hastily made excuses.

“No, listen. I didn’t intend to speak that seriously either. But how should I put it about that kid. Too cautious? Prudent? Not childlike?”

Right. She wasn’t childlike at all.

An actor is interpreted by the director and captured within the camera.

That’s why a director must understand their actors well, and Haemun had carefully observed that child throughout their meeting.

“Kids are reckless, and have that free-spirited vigor that’s only possible at an age when they don’t know anything! That kind of thing, you know. But she-“

“She feels like she’s drawn her own limits.”

Ham Gyeong-seok supplemented.

“Oh! Exactly!”

Haemun slapped his knee.

As if invisible lines existed, she absolutely never crossed those lines.

Looking like ‘that’, why?

Even when praised, instead of getting excited, she was suspicious and distrustful… What, had she been scammed somewhere? Got backstabbed?

Bae Seo-nyeok, who had been listening silently, sneered.

“So, are you going to replace the actor now?”

“What? Absolutely not! Where else would I find such a gem with good conditions? Are you crazy?”

No way. She’s mine!

‘I’m already upset enough about Ham Gyeong-seok stealing the first cut.’

The master, with his artist’s obsession activated, irritably bit his cigarette.

“As if she’d refuse. Stop talking nonsense. To be my protagonist, she naturally needs to think a lot. She should have depth. That’s right. But she can’t be too confined either. She needs to know how to explode! Boom!”

One touch.

Just one hit was lacking.

Stroking his rough chin, Haemun sighed.

“I was so frustrated I even threw the screenplay at her without realizing it. It’s not even finished. Aigoo~.”

Directors who revise scripts because of actors are rare, but Haemun was exactly that kind of director.

He cherished actors and loved his actors.

Bae Seo-nyeok’s debut work “Blue Momentum” was also a work that he completely scrapped and rewrote from beginning to end, customized for Bae Seo-nyeok, after accidentally meeting him in Tokyo.

“So hyung-nim. How are you going to resolve this?”

Ham Gyeong-seok was somewhat curious.

He had pushed Seosing-a to her limits and barely obtained 30 seconds, but a feature film is 2 hours of art.

How was Haemun planning to solve the problem called Seosing-a?

Though he was a respected senior, he was also a competitor in the industry. As Ham Gyeong-seok cautiously probed, the beggar-like master answered.

“You think about such things too? Won’t it work out somehow? I’m Haemun, after all.”

“…Hm?”

“Hey, I’m Haemun~.”

“…”

Really, there was nothing to learn from this person…

Ham Gyeong-seok shook his head and continued with his work.

Having successfully made a spectacular comeback after the CF, he had already finished one movie and work was continuously piling up.

It was all thanks to Seosing-a.

People asked him about the secret to success, but there was no such thing.

He shot with a single 16mm film camera in one take. What else could there have been?

There were no special effects, no fancy sets.

What Ham Gyeong-seok had in his hands then was, from beginning to end, the camera, water, and…

A young actor.

It was purely the actor.

‘After causing such a syndrome.’

How ridiculous. The person behind the syndrome that excited the entire nation had no confidence in herself.

Ham Gyeong-seok recalled the young actor’s eyes from that day in the prop room, frightened and suppressed.

Eyes that lacked natural pigment, dark in shadows and sparkling like amber in bright places, touching desire and inspiration.

‘If just one stimulus entered…’

If just one proper trigger occurred, it would really be different.

♧

Jeong Hyeon-gyo quietly looked at Seosing-a.

Seosing-a resembled her father a lot.

Her father Seo Shin-hyeon looked quite exotic for a Korean.

His skin was exceptionally fair and his eyes were light brown. If not for his classic Asian eye shape, he would have been mistaken for mixed-race nine times out of ten.

Seosing-a had inherited those characteristics from her father completely.

Of course, her mother’s Western and distinct features were also appropriately mixed in, so when their family first moved in, the neighbors whispered that the child from Apartment 901 looked exactly like a marron doll.

Jeong Hyeon-gyo particularly liked Seosing-a’s eyes.

The chameleon-like diverse colors were just like her. In the West, this color is called hazel.

Hazel.

Jeong Hyeon-gyo thought that name was too ordinary.

“Oppa. You are listening to me, right?”

“Yeah.”

“This is driving me crazy~ Bae Tae-ak says I’m talking nonsense from being too full. But I’m scared my stomach might burst from forcing myself to swallow everything.”

Seosing-a grumbled.

“Is it really that abnormal for me to know my place and think this job is too much for me, that everyone seems to be deceiving me, and that just imagining it makes me so nervous my stomach churns and my hands shake?”

After Rampa Lim returned to Australia, Seosing-a would come find him whenever she had time to share her inner worries and concerns. Just like now.

It was probably because of their conversation that day.

To Seosing-a, who had chased after him all the way to Samcheok when he ran away, Jeong Hyeon-gyo had said:

「You’re my only family. You’ll be the only one forever.」

“What do you think, oppa?”

Seosing-a looked at him. Jeong Hyeon-gyo tenderly placed a caramel into her parted lips.

After the burn incident, Seosing-a had developed a fondness for caramels.

While Jeong Hyeon-gyo would probably only love green grape candies until the day he died, the young boy liked this preference because caramel was his mark left on Seosing-a.

“Sing-a. I don’t think those people are lying to you.”

“Really?”

“You can’t deceive someone by claiming something that doesn’t exist actually exists.”

‘Though you might be able to obscure what does exist by claiming it doesn’t.’

But things like Seosing-a’s talent…

And like sincerity, compassion, love.

These things were closest to a person’s essence, so even the most foolish person couldn’t easily be deceived by others about them.

Even if someone stubbornly insisted that something non-existent was real, they couldn’t fool the other person.

Jeong Hyeon-gyo sneered inwardly as he gently tucked Seosing-a’s hair behind her ear with a soft touch. In the end, he had Sing-a.

“You’re not unable to trust those people or yourself—you’re just scared. Those are two different things.”

“Is that so…?”

“How can you say you don’t trust yourself when you practice so hard?”

“…Practice! That’s just because they make me~”

A lie.

Jeong Hyeon-gyo skillfully comforted this attention-seeking girl.

“Then try getting on stage. Isn’t the academy drama festival coming up soon? You’ll know once you test it out. If you really can’t do it even then, I’ll somehow get you out of there. Trust me.”

Seosing-a, who had been staring at him intently, burst into giggles as if thinking of something.

“Hm?”

“Nothing~ Just.”

Seosing-a smiled sweetly with her eyes. The young boy felt enchanted. His girl whispered as if sharing a secret.

“I was thinking that Jeong Hyeon-gyo really is my guardian…”

♧

And then, one day in April.

I reached out my hand toward Namihee amidst the gazes pouring down on me. A strange emotion was surging up from deep in my chest.

It was anger that had finally met its spark and was blazing.

“Give it back. My scenario.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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