SDM 7

Was the acting of becoming a zombie a bit too intense? If he had known it would be like this, he would have asked other people to show him how they acted. Seong-woon scratched the back of his head and stood up.

The scene that Seong-woon was filming was the first scene of episode 1, but it was said that they have already filmed everything except the school-related scenes, so there were probably many other zombie scenes that have already been filmed. He should have coordinated with them… Seeing the director telling the actors to tone down his acting, it seems like it was a bit too intense.

“Yes, I’ll do it again.”

“No, you’re doing great right now, maybe too great… How should I explain this? Maybe tone it down a bit.”

“Yes.”

“And, since Sang-hyun is ready, let’s continue to the next scene right away.”

Baek Sang-hyun? Seong-woon raised his head without realizing it. His face was heavily covered in special make-up.

A tall man was walking with his back to the sunlight. He was wearing light sportswear befitting his background as a baseball player, and the end of a baseball bat was sticking out of a sports bag with a handle roughly slung over his shoulder.

Since Seong-woon couldn’t see his face clearly, he slowly opened his eyes and as he got used to the light, Baek Sang-hyun’s features slowly became visible. …He seemed a bit thinner. His cheekbones appeared more sunken than usual, adding emphasis to his already expressive face.

Seong-woon turned his head and looked away from Baek Sang-hyun. If their eyes met, he felt like he would bombarded him with questions like a rapid-fire without even realizing it. Why did he stay at the funeral home for so long? Why did he carry his portrait? Why… things that could make his face wet with tears.

“Hello.”

“Sang-hyun, good thing you’ve arrived early. We finished filming the earlier part sooner than expected.”

“Oh, I thought I’d have to wait a bit longer, but I was surprised to be called out right away.”

“Here, Ryu Chae-yoon is an absolute acting genius. It’s his first time acting today, but he is so good!”

The excitement was evident in the director’s voice. As soon as the thought crossed Seong-woon’s mind that he would call him to greet Baek Sang-hyun, he heard a voice calling him.

“Chae-yoon-ssi! Come here and say hello.”

A rookie actor shouldn’t ignore Baek Sang-hyun. Even if he was just passing by, it was an opportunity to meet the most prominent male actor in his twenties who has never served in the military.

“I thought they pushed him in because they were from the same agency, but I guess they really sent him in based on his  acting skills. He was really good at acting.”

Was Baek Sang-hyun a member of RBS? However, the director was one who didn’t hold back on what he wanted to say.

“Hello, senior. I’m Ryu Chae-yoon.”

It feels wrong to address someone he used to call ‘Sang-hyun-ah’ as a senior. This is when method acting is needed.

“… Yes.”

Baek Sang-hyun looked at Seong-woon’s head as he bowed and then looked away. The discomfort felt in that short answer of ‘yes’ was so clear that Seong-woon was unusually flustered.

Baek Sang-hyun…

“…”

He was the only person who didn’t hate him when he was ‘Jin Seong-woon.’

* * *

“Here, Baek Sang-hyun needs to swing the bat towards that camera to block it. When the bat comes this close, Chae-yoon should fall over…”

Shouldn’t he need a stand-in? While listening to the assistant director’s explanation, Seong-woon glanced sideways at Sang-hyun. Although it was a level of physical acting that was difficult to call action, it was not something that should be asked of a beginner in acting.

How well did the timing align, how much bounce did he give when falling, did it look like he really hit the camera, and did the cut come out properly? Amidst considering all of this, Seong-woon had to do zombie acting as well.

“Can you do it?”

The assistant director, who was explaining step by step, also seemed to realize that it would be difficult to ask someone who had never acted like a cat bitten to do this.

Newcomers usually have more confidence, don’t they? A timid attitude on this set is worse than arrogance. Seong-woon’s answer had already been decided after seeing all sorts of people.

“I can do it.”

“As for the action…”

“I haven’t learned, but I can at least take a hit and fall.”

Seong-woon shrugged as if to say anyone could do that much. He felt Baek Sang-hyun standing silently beside him, but he didn’t bother turning his gaze towards him.

“Um, then would you like to try coordinating with Baek Sang-hyun once?”

“Yes.”

Baek Sang-hyun’s uncharacteristically silent response was a bit heavy, so the assistant director quickly left.

Was this something called silence amidst noise? While everyone was busy organizing and preparing, it was quiet here. It would have been a better atmosphere if the actor who played Yoo-ha had been present, but it was even worse since it was just the two of them as they briefly went in to fix their makeup.

Was Baek Sang-hyun only friendly to his seniors? Seong-woon shook his head as he recalled the previous filming site where they were together for almost three months. Sang-hyun had been very kind to most of the cast and crew there. Except for one person.

That drama was a two-top detective series with Baek Sang-hyun and another male actor, Choi Chi-hoon, as the main character. But from the beginning, Choi Chi-hoon constantly picked on Sang-hyun and started arguments over trivial matters.

Like insisting on why Sang-hyun’s name came first—although it was explained it was in Korean consonant order, he remained discontented until the end of the series. Moreover, although it was a two-top, the narrative leaned heavily towards Sang-hyun’s character— he would deliberately mispronounce while acting and pretended that he couldn’t get the timing right during the action scenes, which hurt Sang-hyun.

After that disaster, Baek Sang-hyun became a hot topic by appearing in a shirtless photo shoot without bothering to cover up his bruises the very next day. Magazines were sold out, posters that weren’t even planned were made, causing a sensation. But at that time, Seong-woon thought that luck was truly a gift from heaven.

Well, anyway, even though Choi Chi-hoon was making such a fuss, Baek Sang-hyun didn’t react much. Choi Chi-hoon was two years older and had six more years of experience, so Sang-hyun seemed to act that way because of that. Of course, he did explode once. Seong-woon was involved in that powder keg incident, but he still wonders about it now.

‘Isn’t it time to stop now? …Ah, you need to come out here to hear your senior talking? Are you going to do anything other than selling your body now? Although I doubt anyone will buy it.’

These were the words spoken by Choi Chi-hoon, who was heavily drunk, as he grabbed Seong-woon passing by at the closing party. Even though most people passed out drunk and there were very few people sober, Seong-woon didn’t expect a celebrity to say such things with his own mouth.

‘I felt so offended that I wanted to scratch your face during the entire filming!’

Seong-woon couldn’t understand why his face would make him feel that bad. Just as Seong-woon was about to leave the place because he didn’t want to deal with a drunken jerk, Baek Sang-hyun, who had been away for a while, came in. Then he walked over, grabbed Choi Chi-hoon by the collar, and slammed his head down on the table.

Were they both crazy? There might have been reporters around! Even while his mind was so blank that he couldn’t even think, Seong-woon jumped in to block that scene from the sight of others.

Seong-woon barely managed to take Sang-hyun’s hand, which was trembling and his veins were all bulging, and took him out of the restaurant and comforted him for a long time.

It was fortunate that no reporters showed up, and Choi Chi-hoon didn’t make things worse by running his mouth any further… But Seong-woon guessed it was the alcohol that got to him after he didn’t make a single confrontation.

As Seong-woon realized his thoughts were drifting too far, he suddenly snapped back to reality, feeling the gaze above his head, seemingly pitying him.

“What should we do, senior?”

It would have been better if the senior asked first, but if not, it was the junior’s responsibility to initiate. It felt awkward to call Sang-hyun a senior, but if he thought of it as acting, it was not a big deal.

“…Just stumble clumsily. I’ll figure it out myself.”

His words were curt, dripping with sarcasm and annoyance. There was even a hint of disdain felt. These feelings were very familiar to Seong-woon, but he hadn’t expected Sang-hyun to display them, so it was quite a shock, more than he had anticipated.

Sang-hyun went to the filming location first without giving him any time to talk further. Seong-woon looked at that broad back and took a long breath.

Although Sang-hyun was very skillful in hiding his feelings, only Seong-woon could feel the emotions he was hiding. Seong-woon himself had experienced perfecting and rooting out instructions and burnout over the past 20 years. And… Without even daring to think of the last word, Seong-woon shook his head slightly.