Chapter 684

It felt like all the sound in the world was being cut off. Her ears became numb and she could only hear the beating of her own heart. She felt like she could hear the sound of her blood coursing through her blood vessels if she tried hard enough. Yuna shook her head.

“Action,” said the assistant director who was standing in front of the camera director.

Yuna reached her hand out while picturing the actions she had repeated several times. Her own figure in the video made her frown. She would only be able to act well if she took away the exaggerated actions and expressed the character more mildly. Her imaginary self in her mind was acting without any wasted movements, but what about in reality? The video kept overlapping in her mind. The video where her acting looked pathetic.

She unfolded the table and started writing in her notebook. What was she supposed to do next? Just when her head started working hard, she heard a vibration. It was time to act like she was on a phone call. She picked up her phone and put it against her ear. Hello? – she opened her mouth and said. At the same time, she counted the time. After all, talking non-stop on the phone would not be a phone call; it would just be complaining.

-Yuna?

The phone, which was supposed to be silent, made some sound. She realized that it was Maru the moment she heard that voice. Her attitude changed immediately. She raised her head a little and took her eyes off of her notebook. She felt her jaws opening slightly. She almost uttered ‘what is it?’ out of confusion but managed to hold herself back. She was acting right now. Her reason cautioned her.

“Yeah, Yumi.”

-We thought about going on a trip over the weekend, wanna come with us?

Maru made a nasal sound. He seemed to be pretending to be a girl. She almost burst out in laughter because of the funny voice. She also heard other voices telling her to hang out with them. They were Ganghwan, Mira and Byungjae. Her actual friends asked her like this as well. Let’s go together, you can’t miss out, etc. She was feeling a lot more relieved after hearing those voices when she heard the familiar patterns.

“You want to go out during the weekend?”

-Yeah, let’s go.

“The weekend….”

There were a few more words in that line in the script, but those words didn’t stick right now. She subconsciously turned her head to look at the calendar, as though she was really checking the date.

“I really want to go, but I don’t think I can make it.”

-Come on, come with us. You couldn’t make it last time either.

“I know. I really want to go too. I’m so sorry.”

-You really can’t make it?

For a moment, her heart raced because she felt like Maru-seonbae was asking her out on a date. She pictured a Maru who was asking her desperately to go out together. There was quite a disparity between that and the real Maru, but she wondered how good it would be if Maru actually did that. The moment her heart moved, she was reminded of the reality that such a thing would never happen. Her lips softened and she sighed.

“Next time, please bring me with you next time.”

The original line was ‘I’ll go with you next time for sure’, but what came out of her mouth was ‘please bring me with you’. This line felt like there was a lot more regret in her words. Yuna wiped her mouth in order to wipe away the trace of the words in her mouth. At the same time, she closed the phone. She looked at the phone she put down before pushing it away until it stopped after hitting the blanket.

Everything she did after the call ended was improvisation. She knew that she should stick to the script, but her emotions ruled her actions. It was impulsive, and she felt like she would lose the base of her acting if she didn’t do that. She didn’t even take another glance at the phone she pushed away. Instead, she fixed her eyes on her books as though she was going to melt herself into them.

“Cut!”

The assistant director shouted. Yuna turned around to look at the assistant director’s face. He, who was wearing a hat, was raising his thumbs up.

“Okay. That was good.”

The pressure that shackled her was released all at once. Yuna stretched out her legs and put her hands on the ground before sighing. She could see the ceiling above her. Ah, so it was so high. She felt like she could take a breather.

She stood up and opened the door to the set. She saw Maru who was waving his phone in the distance.

“Well done!”

After a loud slapping sound, she felt that her back was becoming numb. It was painful, but she smiled. Yuna asked if she was okay after seeing Jayeon rush over to her.

“That’s the kind of acting I expected from you. I knew my eyes weren’t wrong. You’re completely fine, yet you dared to tease me like that.”

“That’s good. I was wondering what I would’ve done if it was no good this time as well.”

“If it was no good, we could just take another shot. Why is there a need to worry? Come here for now. I need to take a few shots of you pushing your phone away and you looking away.”

Yuna entered the set again and pushed the phone away just as Jayeon had instructed. Only her hand was captured this time. After a few repetitions, the producer said that it was enough.

“Senior, we’ll take a few more cuts with the calendar and her POV shot. Yuna, you can leave.”

“Yes.”

She left, sighing in relief. She never knew that the ‘okay’ sign after the cut sign would be so sweet.

“Well done,” Ganghwan said.

“Thank you for your help. I don’t think I could’ve continued acting if it wasn’t for that phone call.”

Yuna looked at Maru. It was just a meaningless conversation, but just listening to his voice cheered her up. The voice, which felt like it was consoling her not to worry, supported her from behind very softly.

“Thank you too, seonbae.”

“It’s Ganghwan hyung-nim’s idea. But that really was curious. Your acting became much better even though the only thing I did was reply to your lines. No wait, it must have been your usual skill that came out on display.”

“Right.”

Yuna looked at Ganghwan. She was curious about the meaning behind that splendid prescription, about why he had Maru say those lines over the phone, and what made him think that it would make her do better.

“Do you want to know the reason?”

“Yes.”

Ganghwan raised two fingers.

“First up, you were stiff to the point that you weren’t aware of your nervousness. You were doing well in front of us, but you were doing terrible in front of the camera, right? However, you didn’t look that nervous. Then there’s only one answer – It’s the fear of standing on the stage for the first time. This place doesn’t have an audience, but it’s still a stage in a sense.”

“I’ve been on the stage a few times while I was doing plays. This isn’t my first stage.”

“But I heard that this is your first time doing camera acting. A change of environment means that it’s no different from your first time.”

Yuna nodded. A subconscious nervousness ruled her body, and perhaps that was why she was so terrible in front of the camera. In retrospect, she pictured each of her movements before putting them into action. Perhaps that process created a disparity between her head and her body, creating a completely different result from what she was thinking. Did this indicate that she still wasn’t used to acting? Learning and practice – these two words came to her mind.

“And secondly.”

Ganghwan lowered his voice. Then, he spoke in a small voice right in front of her.

“The power of love.”

“What?”

Before she had the chance to ask what that was about, Ganghwan turned around and left. Love, love. Her head suddenly felt dizzy as though she had been on a roller coaster. She felt her cheeks heat up. She immediately raised her hands and put them against her cheeks. Thankfully, they weren’t burning hot.

“What did he say?”

Mira approached with a suspicious gaze. After hanging her arm around Yuna’s shoulders, she kept shaking her, urging her to answer. Yuna shut her mouth with all her might. She could never say it.

“Uhm, don’t bully her too much.”

Byungjae spoke up with an awkward smile.

“Do you see this as bullying her? We’re getting intimate. Yuna, do you hate me?”

Yuna shook her head. Mira nodded before taking her arms off.

“Don’t be nervous and tell me if you have any worries. If it’s anything you can’t tell the men about, you can always come to me about it. I might look like this, but I’m somewhat of a consultant amongst my friends. This unni is always on your side.”

Seeing Mira’s smile, Yuna thought of the word ‘cool’. She thought that she was incredibly lucky for shooting her first piece with these people.

“Byungjae-oppa. Come and go through some lines with me.”

“Oh, okay. Which part?”

Mira and Byungjae left. When she looked at the two, who practiced during their free time, she couldn’t help but think that she should try harder. She found out her position in the first shoot. This drama – it was her who had to do well. Everyone else was doing fine.

“I guess you’ll do fine now,” Maru said.

Yuna made an embarrassed smile. She somehow felt rather ashamed to look at him.

“It’s thanks to you, seonbae.”

“Nah, I didn’t do anything. It’s you who prepared well. Whether it’s Ganghwan hyung-nim or other people, they’re all people who are willing to help you out, so don’t hesitate to ask.”

“No, I will get myself together and do my best not to hold you back.”

“I like that attitude, but it’s fine to rely on us a little. I also ask him a lot of things when I get stuck. They’re all seniors after all. They might not know the correct answer, but they will definitely lead us in the right direction.”

Yuna looked around. She felt lonely while she was acting, but right now, she had a strong feeling that she was one of the people working towards the same goal. Together – that word suddenly came to her mind. At the same time, Maru’s face caught her eyes. Together.

“Should we go through our lines together too? We’ll be acting together in the next scene.”

“Yes! I’ll just go get my script.”

Yuna suppressed her uncontrollable smile and entered the set. Producer Jayeon, who was talking to the camera director, gave her a glance before continuing to talk. After returning to Maru with the script, Yuna calmed down her expression. She had to feel goodwill towards him as a colleague in acting. Any more than that was not acceptable.

“Should we go from here?”

Maru pointed at the position in the script. Yuna nodded before saying her line. The shooting set had a strict atmosphere just a moment ago, but now that she was practicing with Maru like this, the entire space felt a lot more relaxing.

“You should decide on the nature of your character before you start. That will make things much easier. Even though characters are three-dimensional, there is always a trait that lies in the center. If you act with that as the basis, your character will seem more consistent and you’ll have an easier time acting.”

“Ah, okay.”

Yuna looked at Maru’s script as he replied. There were notes in every blank space. She somewhat felt embarrassed about her script, which only had a few underlines.

“Seonbae.”

“Yeah?”

“Can you tell me how to analyze characters later? I mean, like the things that are written in your script.”

“This? It’s nothing much. I just wrote down what came to my mind, so there’s no big meaning.”

Yuna showed him her own script. Maru spoke with a smile.

“Everyone has their own style that suits them. Ganghwan hyung-nim’s script only has a few circles. That doesn’t mean that his passion for analyzing and researching character emotions is shallow. I only do it this way because writing makes it easier for me.”

“I also like writing.”

“Then I guess it won’t be a bad idea to try.”

Maru pointed at the notes he wrote in his script and started explaining. Yuna looked at him from the side. His eyes were filled with concentration and were shining with passion.

‘I’ll do my best.’

Yuna cheered up inwardly. She thought that she should cherish this short time.

* * *

“Was it that good?”

Jayeon thought about Yuna, who was running with a big smile on her face with her script.

“Was what good?” Ganghwan asked from the side.

“I’m talking about Yuna. She looked dejected because she caused a few NGs, but she looked like she was about to fly after the okay sign. The girl is so cute. Hyung, what do I do? I don’t think I can scold her. How cute can she be?”

“Like hell. Rather than liking it, she must have been relieved. There’s another reason she looked so good.”

“Another reason? What is that?”

“You can just think of it as something delicate that young girls have. Sheesh, you call yourself a producer when you don’t even know what your actors are up to.”

Ganghwan clicked his tongue and said that he was going to the bathroom. Jayeon crossed her arms and looked at Maru and Yuna, who were going through the lines together.

“Something delicate that young girls have, huh.”

She thought about it for a moment before stopping. She would rather pursue the delicateness of the production, not something that a young kid would have. It was helpful for her shoot, so she decided to look into it, but she had no intentions of prying into it. After all, she had to put a clear distinction between public and private matters.

“Well then. Let’s finish up,” Jayeon shouted.

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