After Story 113

“Senior, what do you mean by that all of a sudden? Manhunting?”

“You said RBS used an idol, and the response was good.”

“That I did, but are you going to look for an idol? You said this needs to sound heavy.”

“I’m going to look for an actor instead. I’m not completely sure yet, so just come here for a sec.”

Jaehyun sat down at the desk and moved the mouse. The screensaver feature went away and the desktop appeared. He opened a browser.

“Who are you going to look up?”

“I’m going to play the fool and try trusting my daughter.”

“You mean Sinhye?”

Jaehyun typed ‘Han Maru’ into the search window. A profile with his photo and major career came up.

“I haven’t seen him before. He’s an actor?”

“Sinhye told me that he’s an acting genius.”

“An acting genius? There’s no way someone I haven’t seen before is an acting genius. If he was a real genius, I’m sure he would’ve made it big already.”

“The broadcast industry doesn’t always revolve around talent.”

The junior brought a chair from the next desk over and sat down next to him.

“Rather than that, you’re quite doting on your daughter. You’re actually looking up someone your daughter recommended.”

“I’m not doting. It’s just a special case. You know my daughter’s personality, right?”

“Of course I do. She has such a high pride, that little one. I went over to your house once, and if I think about what happened when I tried playing hangman with her, it still makes my hair raise to this day. I think she was ten back then? She said she will do it until she wins, and geez.”

“She’s my daughter, but she’s not quiet at all. She’s rough and stubborn and her pride reaches the skies. She’s someone who doesn’t acknowledge and praise others easily, yet she’s calling him a genius, so I’m sure there’s something about him.”

The junior nodded.

“That’s true. I’m really envious of your family. You have a good relationship with your daughter. My daughter isn’t even in middle school yet, but she’s already hit puberty and won’t even talk to me. When she was young, she would cry whenever daddy wasn’t there, but now it’s awkward to even eat together. I’m not sure if I changed or she changed.”

“Treat her well. It’s up to the parent. Or you can get divorced. You’ll focus on your kid more and will treat her well.”

“That’s a scary thing you’re saying there.”

Jaehyun smiled and moved the mouse.

The grand prize at the Short Film Festival, huh? He had no idea how the film industry worked, so he didn’t know what kind of great prize it was.

“Do you know about the Short Film Festival?”

“It’s a film festival with many named directors. I think it’s a pretty authoritative film festival in the film industry.”

“If he got the grand prize from a place like that, it’s not that much of a stretch to call him an acting genius, right?”

“No way, that’s not right. Honestly, film festivals like that one are about preferences, aren’t they? It should be about artistic films rather than commercial ones. I’ve looked at an art film that supposedly won a prize before, but I really didn’t understand how it won. I don’t think winning the grand prize there means that he’s good at acting.”

“Are you sure you just didn’t understand it because it was too profound?”

“Maybe. That’s why I don’t like art films. I don’t really get those things where they only care about each other. There are much cooler and more interesting movies in cinemas, so I don’t really need to go out of my way to watch them.”

“That’s true for me too. Some Rambo action is definitely better than elegant movies.”

Leaving aside his career, they had to listen to his voice. He then looked at the video search results.

“He came out in The Witness?”

“The Witness?”

“You don’t know about it? It was a drama that came out at the beginning of the year, and it had good reviews.”

“You had the time to watch something like that?”

“I watched it from time to time.”

Jaehyun clicked on the video at the very top. The views were pretty high. He turned the volume up and played back the video. As soon as it started playing, the junior looked like he recognized it.

“I know this scene. It’s the scene where the criminal kills a crime investigator kid, and it’s terrific. I’m sure the producer that shot this was called to the KCC.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s too cruel. The production is raw. It’s a drama, but this scene felt like a movie. The people acting there weren’t the lead actors either, but their skills were really good.”

Jaehyun focused on the video. The expressions on the actors were vicious to the point that it made him absorbed even without knowing what the story was about.

“It’s good, isn’t it?” the junior asked.

“Yea, it was really well taken.”

Jaehyun found out the investigator that died was played by Han Maru through the video description. It was rather fresh that a 22-year-old young actor created such immersion. It seemed that his daughter wasn’t completely ungrounded when she said that he was an acting genius.

“But the sound was all breathing, so I don’t know if his voice will fit our narration or not. Even if he’s good at acting, we can’t really use him if his voice doesn’t fit our video, can we?”

“Isn’t there anything else?”

Unfortunately, that was the only video that came up when he looked up Han Maru. He searched the drama by the title, but most of the clips consisted of the lead actors, so Han Maru couldn’t be seen.

“Wait a sec. I think there’s something on my phone.”

The junior took out his phone.

“Here it is. But he’s a little jumpy. His voice itself is quite heavy, but the character’s so jumpy that even his voice feels like it’s up in the air.”

He received the junior’s phone and watched the drama. He couldn’t believe that the young actor was the same as the one dying just moments ago. He couldn’t grasp what his normal tone would be like. According to his daughter, his voice was a pleasant deep one.

“Should we just use a voice actor instead?” Jaehyun asked, giving his junior back his phone.

He did look it up just in case, but he didn’t want to gamble since he had prepared a long time for this documentary. A heartfelt voice was the biggest priority; a young voice was only secondary.

As the documentary pertained to the pains of the times, it would definitely be better if a young person did it, but he did not plan to be stubborn about it. Emotional and information transmission had to be prioritized.

“In fact, I just got a hunch.”

“Hunch?”

“It’s quite common for actors to do the narration. The voice of an actor with experience has a different tone from that of a voice actor too.”

“But this guy’s a rookie. He doesn’t sound that suitable either.”

“That we just have to find out for ourselves. Since we came this far, why don’t we get a sample at least? As you said, Sinhye’s not an ordinary kid, is she? If she went as far as to talk to her dad about it, I don’t think she’s doing it as a joke.”

“Since when were you so knowledgeable about my daughter?”

The junior waved his hand in the air in denial.

“You know that sometimes you got better results by listening to my opinion when we had split opinions.”

“The problem is that it only happens once in ten times.”

“That once might be now. I think this fellow’s pretty good. This documentary is supposed to be a challenge. It’s like we’re going against the government too. So I think a young voice is crucial here. We also can’t have someone too famous. This is supposed to be about youths in harsh environments, but if it’s someone doing too well, that would be too ironic.”

Jaehyun looked at Han Maru inside the monitor. His eyes contained a strange mix of indifference and kindness.

“As you say then. I guess we can at least receive a voice sample.”

“Since we’re doing it, let’s get some from a few young actors. If they have learned acting properly, there shouldn’t be a problem with pronunciation and style.”

“Let’s invest just one week then. If we can’t find anyone, then we can just pick one of the voice actors from the list we’ve made.”

“I think we can go like that. I’ll have the others contact some agencies. Oh, does this fellow have an agency too?” the junior asked while pointing at the monitor.

“Wait a sec.”

Jaehyun scrolled down a little. Below his profile was his agency.

“JA? He was a bigshot, huh?”

“If he’s there, I guess I can make the call.”

“You?”

He took his hand off the mouse and got his phone out. One of his few contacts in the broadcast industry was in JA.

While the signal beeps could be heard, his junior kept asking questions: who are you calling, is it an actor, is the person famous? And the like.

He found it noisy, so he pushed away the chair his junior was sitting on. The wheeled chair slid off.

“It’s not an actor, so don’t cause so much of a fuss.”

“Then who is it?”

“Who else? Someone who works in JA.”

Not long later, the person on the other side picked up.

“Yes, head manager Choi. Is it okay for you to speak on the phone right now?”

-Yes, producer. I’m okay.

“It’s been a long time since we last called.”

-That’s true. Has it been about a year? What’s up for you to call me at this time?

“You have someone named Han Maru at JA, right?”

-Yes, we do. I wonder why you’re looking for actor Han.

Jaehyun nodded before speaking,

“We’re creating a documentary, and we still have the dubbing left to do. I was thinking that we could use a young person instead of a veteran voice actor for it.”

-Really? We’d love to have an opportunity. Your documentaries are always a hot topic, aren’t they?

“They’re not that great. I was just lucky. Rather than that, how is he? I was wondering if I could listen to your assessment since you have great eyes, head manager Choi.”

-My eyes aren’t that good. But don’t you think our president’s eyes are trustworthy? He’s not someone who will raise a sapling that won’t grow big in his own yard.

“Looks like I’ve asked something unnecessary. Can I get in contact with him? I’d like to listen to his voice. Or we can send you a script and you can send back a sample.”

-If it’s like that, could you wait a second? Since you’ve contacted us directly, producer, we can’t make you wait.

“We can wait however long it takes. Most of the stuff at the station consists of waiting.”

-You’ll soon get a call back to you.

“You can take your time.”

He put his phone down.

Unlike the way he spoke, head manager Choi was rather cautious and meticulous in the way he did work. That was probably why JA’s CEO had him close by.

According to some rumors, Taeyang Corp tried to recruit head manager Choi as the head of their directing team, and apparently, he flatly refused.

It meant that he chose JA, nay, Lee Junmin over Taeyang Corp.

“Did they say they’ll call us back?” His junior asked.

“They did tell me to wait just a moment.”

As soon as he said those words, his phone started ringing. It was a number he didn’t know. He received the call just in case.

“Hello?”

-Excuse me, but is this producer Nam Jaehyun’s phone number?

“Yes. You’re speaking to him.”

-Hello. I called you after head manager Choi reached out to me. I’m Han Maru.

“Oh, Mr. Maru. I didn’t know you’d call so quickly.”

-The company motto is that we’re to snatch work that comes our way as soon as possible.

“There are mottos like that?”

-I was surprised when I first visited as well. It was actually there.

Jaehyun tapped on the desk while listening to Maru’s voice. It was hard to judge based on the phone call alone. Although phone call quality had supposedly increased a lot, there was still a lot of minute noise.

“Have you heard the explanation?”

-Yes.

“I don’t think I can give you a concrete answer based on our phone call alone. Do you have a voice recorder at home? Or you can ask your agency to borrow a recording room for you.”

-Recording is fine, but should I just go visit the TV station instead?

“That’ll make things easier for me.”

-If you could allow me, I’d like to go to the dubbing room and work with the video itself.

Oh? Jaehyun liked his attitude at least.

There was no reason to refuse when he said he would be coming. Jaehyun asked when it would be okay. Maru responded right away,

-I can go right now.

That was a refreshing answer.

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