The roads were surrounded by mountains. The bus was heavily climbing the hills of the mountain filled with greenery. Maru opened the window slightly. The wind that contained the freshness of the forest rushed in through the gap. The refreshing wind made him smile subconsciously.

‘I didn’t expect it to be in the middle of the mountains like this.’

When Suyeon told him to come to the shooting location in Namyangju, he thought of flat land that was unlike the city. He imagined that there would be a moderate amount of people passing by, and a container in the middle of nowhere, but what he encountered was something completely different.

When he got off the train at Ungilsan station, the first thing he saw was the North Han River located to his right. The rays of the sun reflected on the surface of the river and scattered into bits and pieces. It looked like golden powder was floating on top of the water. In front of that were fields, greenhouses, and a factory that was spewing out white smoke. There were only some buildings around the train station, and the only thing that he could see when he turned his eyes elsewhere were the mountains. Maru predicted that the shooting location would be nearby, but when he asked a passerby, he heard that he was still far away.

He got on the shuttle bus to the shooting location in Namyangju that the passerby told him about. The bus only started going after around 5 couples got on board. The bus took the road on the left of the North Han River and passed several tunnels before turning towards the mountains. Concrete buildings disappeared from sight, and the only thing that could be seen were trees.

Maru stopped contemplating and turned his head forward. He could see some buildings. The bus started slowing down before eventually stopping. Maru felt it was a pity because the wind didn’t blow anymore and closed the window. The driver told him that they were at the ticket office. He got off the bus and walked a little when he saw the shooting location. Namyangju General Shooting Location. A large slate sculpture created a long shadow. There were some kids crouched in a circle in the shadow. He wondered if they were here for a tour or something.

Maru followed the couples that he took the bus with to the ticket office. There were still around two hours to go, so he was planning to take his time looking around.

“How many persons?”

“Just one highschool student.”

“That will be 1,500 won.”

He paid for the ticket.

“Is there something like a guidebook?”

“There’s one on the left.”

There were guidebooks below the guidepost on the left of the ticket office. He picked a booklet before starting to walk. This seemed to be quite a hotspot for tourists as there were a lot of people. Maru watched a child walking hand-in-hand with his parents. The bright smile of the child stole his eyes. Only after that family disappeared from his sight could he start walking again. The first thing he saw after he switched places was a theater. The booklet said that it was a place that showed the visitors movies free of charge.

When he moved some more along the hill, he saw a row of four buildings. This was the shooting location. The booklet introduced those places as buildings for shooting various movies, dramas, and other TV programs. Of course, it wasn’t open to the public. After all, someone must be shooting something inside.

He walked around the four studios. Just then, he could see a person hurriedly running inside the first building. That person was carrying a roll of cables on one shoulder. He wondered what work was being shot inside. Since the first studio was the biggest one, he predicted that it must be a movie.

“Two, huh.”

The appointment was originally at 1, but Suyeon messaged him that he should be here by two. It seemed that the shoot was delayed for some reason. He wasn’t that surprised since he experienced it a lot when he was a background actor.

He bought a cup of coffee from the lounge building before leaving. He moved to the Panmunjom set while drinking the bitter coffee. Many people were recreating scenes from a popular movie[1]. Maru also got in the line and shot a photo of the set. Although that movie stopped airing a long time ago, the emotions left behind by that movie had remained in this place and was touching the hearts of the visitors. Such was the greatness of art.

The next place he went to was the Film Support Building. That was a place that displayed various equipment and props necessary to create movies, as well as various shooting sets, costumes and art rooms.

There, Maru met a familiar face. He found Moonjoong’s face among the row of monochrome posters displayed in the Korean Movie History Hall. He could see just how much the elder contributed to the movie industry of this country just from the posters.

“He’s handsome.”

He crossed his arms and scanned all the movie posters displayed according to a timeline. Even as the years changed, Moonjoong’s face could be found in the posters. There was a brief introduction of movies at the end of the history hall, and Moonjoong’s face could be seen there as well, along with the introduction that he was one of the greatest actors of his era. There was also the story that many popular actresses wanted to shoot movies with him. At the end, it said that he had retired as an actor and was doing his best to popularize acting. Maru felt just how great of an actor the elder was. He got to be in the same shooting set with such an actor, albeit for a brief moment. Wasn’t that something to be proud of?

After making rounds, he visited the historical film set. When he did, the hour hand was nearing two. It was about time he went to the studio. He fanned himself with the booklet as he headed to the second studio. He saw a ‘staff only’ sign as he went in. He went past the glass doors and stood in the lounge with clean marble floors. There was an open door on the right, and people were busily moving items inside.

Some people gave him a glance as though they were bothered by the presence of a high school student, but no one talked to him.

He wondered where he had to go, so he called Suyeon.

-Oh, you’re here?

“Yes. I’m here, but where do I go? I’m in the lounge right now.”

-You see the door to the right?

“Yes.”

-You can come in through that door. You’ll see a staff room as soon as you turn at the corner.

He hung up and started moving. He entered the room with doors that seemed like thick soundproofing doors. The first thing he saw were cables hanging from the ceiling. When he had a closer look, he noticed that they were all lights. Beneath that was a wall made of wood. It looked very poorly made from the outside, but perhaps the inside looked like a luxurious apartment.

“Put down the cables and reinforce the set floors!”

The shooting set that was about 300 pyeong[2] was busy with people and equipment. Maru did not go towards the set and walked along the corridor until he met a corner just like what Suyeon said. There were a lot of rooms on the right of the corridor, and there were various signs on top of the door. Staff room, makeup room, support role makeup room. The one at the very end of the corridor was the support role makeup room. Maru knocked on the staff room before entering.

“You’re here.”

Suyeon was inside. She was talking to people with a coffee in hand. There was another familiar face. It was camera director Kim Jangsoo.

“Hello.”

“Oh, you’re here.”

He saw Jangsoo stand up and say ‘he’s the one I talked about’. He wondered what he told them. From how the others didn’t have a bad expression, there didn’t seem to be any problems.

“I didn’t know you two belonged to the same company.”

“He’s a cute junior I dote on. He’s hard-working, polite, and good at acting too,” Suyeon put her arm on his shoulders as she spoke.

Maru raised his right hand to get her hand off him. Suyeon chuckled and continued talking to the staff.

“But he’s quite shy. Just look at this. You wouldn’t know how much effort I put in in order to get close to him, you know?”

Her arm wrapped around his neck again. The staff smiled when they saw Suyeon’s easy going actions. He wanted to pull away again but he decided not to. He decided to play along with the devious nine-tailed fox’s schemes for now.

“I heard from Choongho that you’re doing a movie with him,” Jangsoo said as he threw a drink to him.

Maru caught the bottle and replied.

“Yes, I was lucky enough to work with him.”

“Action, was it? From what I saw last time, you should be good with using your body. Do your best. Choongho is the type of person to give his whole-hearted support.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“You really are a smart kid. See? I told you that he has the potential. Oh, you can introduce yourself to these guys here. From the left, it’s director Cha, director Lee, and director Choi. They’re quite big figures in the industry, so you’ll benefit a lot if you manage to impress them.”

The directors were in their late forties to mid fifties. He originally had the impression that they were veterans, and it turned out that they all worked at the scene. They exchanged brief greetings. They were the type of people he might meet quite frequently if he decided to continue his career. Like what Jangsoo said, he might benefit a lot if he managed to leave an impression on them.

“Then let’s get going, shall we?”

The three directors said that they were in charge of the movie that was being shot at the building over, the first studio. They came here to hang out as it was lunchtime. When the directors left, Suyeon followed them as well. She looked quite natural as she talked to them. She even looked quite close.

“Have you been here before?”

“No, this is my first time.”

“Any first thoughts after looking at the set?”

“I was surprised because it’s much bigger than I expected. I was thinking of a bland shipping container, but it was also quite curious that it was made to look like a theme park.”

“That’s just business. It’s a waste of money to tear everything down after shooting just once. They’d at least get ticket money if they leave it as an attraction. Oh, this is your role for the day.”

Jangsoo gave him a script.

“Are you good at using a knife?”

“Knife?”

“You haven’t watched the drama?”

“I haven’t.”

“Hah, geez. That saddens me slightly. And here I was getting praised for my shots too.”

“Sorry about that.”

“Nah, it’s nothing to be sorry about. But you don’t monitor the works of other members of your company?”

“She’ll do well by herself.”

“I like how you don’t pull your punches. Anyway, this drama is a cooking drama. Well, considering the trend of dramas in the country, it’s obvious that it’ll end up as a romance, but the beginning parts are focused on a cooking competition. It’s easy to think of it as a story happening in a top-class restaurant.”

“So that’s what you mean by using a knife….”

“We’re not expecting you to be as proficient as a first-rate chef or anything. We just need you to not look awkward when captured by the camera. How about it, can you do it?”

“Yes. I make the side dishes at home, so I should be fine with using a knife. Though, I’m not that good.”

“That’s enough. Look at your script. A company is gathering young people and putting on a competition in order to hire talents. You’ll see once you go to the set, but there will be cooking tables in rows. Your role is to chop up zucchinis and say a couple of lines. You see Dropout 1 in there?”

Maru found his role in the script and nodded. He was one of the aspiring young chefs in the arena. He was just one of the side characters that were there to make the main character’s talent look good.

“We’ll start the rehearsal once the producer comes back from lunch. You can greet him then. At the end of the corridor is the waiting room for background roles. Don’t even look at the other rooms. People will swear at you if you hang around the makeup rooms for the lead and support roles. There are a lot of actors who are headstrong, so fix your gaze forward, okay?”

“I will do that.”

“Do you have anything after the shoot today?”

“I don’t.”

“Then let’s eat together. I’m not a petty man that doesn’t treat someone after I say that I’ll treat them.”

Maru remembered what Jangsoo said at his last drama shoot. He told him that he’d treat him to a meal. It seemed that he remembered. Maru smiled and nodded. It was an opportunity for him to get close to someone, so there was no way he would miss the opportunity.

“I’ll get going then.”

“Alright, see you later.”

He said goodbye before leaving. He looked at the entrance to the set once before walking towards the end of the corridor. There were makeup rooms spaced out evenly to his right, and on the door was a sign that said ‘Leading actor waiting room’. There was a headstrong actor inside? He looked at the name, but he didn’t recognize it.

Maru stood in front of the ‘actor waiting room’ at the end of the corridor. He entered through the door since it was slightly open. Inside, there were a lot of men and women that seemed to be in their early twenties. He attracted attention, but it soon disappeared. Everyone was reading the script or were reciting their lines in a small voice. Not many people had any interest in the others.

As there were more than ten people in a small space, some were leaning against the wall. Maru also took a place next to a cabinet. He opened the script and read everything from the beginning. From what he read, it seemed that he might meet Suyeon on the set as well. Though, he wouldn’t have any lines then. They’ll just appear in the same scene a couple of times.

As it didn’t seem like there was any deep acting required, he closed the script quite early. The other people seemed to be bored of the waiting time becoming too long as they started talking to each other. The faint tension in the air disappeared at that moment. Relaxing smiles and each person’s stories replaced it.

At that moment, Maru looked at the man that approached him. The man made a rather perplexed expression and changed it to an awkward smile.

“Uhm, didn’t we meet at an audition before?”

“An audition?”

“Yeah. For Twilight Struggles….”

“Ah.”

Maru remembered as well.

“Number four?”

“I am! You’re number 27 aren’t you?”

“Yes. I am number 27,” Maru nodded as he spoke.

[1] Referring to Joint Security Area, the film

[2] 1000 square meters