Descent Of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 1481

Kang Jin-ho, utterly exhausted, slumped onto a chair.

Of course, if Kang Jin-ho was in this state, there was no need to even mention how everyone else was feeling.

“…I feel like I’m going to die.”

“…I can’t even see the screen properly anymore.”

The staff members were all letting their souls slip out of their mouths. In the filming location that looked like a scene from a zombie movie, only one person was still moving around with vitality.

“Just one more! Let’s go for just one more take!”

“…Director, you’re going to kill someone at this rate.”

“Cinematographer, let’s just go one more time! Don’t you see it? This is going to be a hit! It’s going to be a huge hit!”

Park Kang-sung’s eyes were blazing.

The cinematographer flinched at his intensity.

“No… I know, I do know. But, Director, this is…”

The cinematographer let out a deep sigh.

‘That’s how all directors are.’

What’s the point of taking a few more takes? He’d never seen any of the extra footage they shot actually being used. They’d shoot extra takes like crazy, only to end up using the earlier cuts and start working on those. He’d seen that happen more than once or twice.

Thinking about it, it was only natural. Just as the staff got tired, the actors would get tired too, and there was no way the cuts taken when they were tired would look better than the ones taken before.

But even knowing that, directors were the kind of people who couldn’t let go of their obsession.

“No, Director. What we have now is more than enough. Just looking at the unedited footage is eye candy, is there really a need to shoot more?”

“It’s enough, of course, it’s enough. But this shoot can’t just be enough! I’m going to make this the highlight of my career! Cinematographer, please help me just one more time!”

“…Director, get a grip. It’s already dark.”

“Huh?”

Park Kang-sung looked out the window with trembling eyes. The sunset had already faded, and darkness was setting in.

“Ah, this won’t do…”

The background of this commercial was supposed to be in the afternoon. The cuts with an afternoon background and the cuts with a night background couldn’t be the same. If it got dark outside, they’d have to change everything from the color tones to the lighting.

Park Sang-sung started biting his nails.

“This won’t do, this really won’t do. If we just do three more cuts…”

‘This guy said one cut.’

The cinematographer shook his head.

“The scene that everyone is satisfied with never comes out, even if you shoot a thousand cuts. Let’s just compromise now.”

“Haa…”

Park Kang-sung sighed.

“Then, I guess there’s no choice.”

“Yes. Director, that’s a good…”

“We’ll do additional shooting tomorrow morning!”

Stop it, you crazy bastard!

The director’s proposal to do additional shooting in the morning was rejected only after Choi Yeon-ha, who had received the staff’s desperate gazes, grabbed her tumbler. The director, realizing that the tumbler would be embedded in his head if he insisted any further, tearfully gave up on the additional shooting.

Choi Yeon-ha usually didn’t avoid additional shooting if she could help it, but this time, she couldn’t stand it.

‘Well, if they were at least shooting different things, I wouldn’t say anything.’

The concept of this shoot was very simple.

Choi Yeon-ha and Kang Jin-ho sit facing each other with coffee in front of them, and they just look at each other.

Then, they show scenes of them looking slightly awkward or turning their gazes away, and then the camera pulls back to show the cafe.

That was the overall concept.

But what was going to change after shooting this over a hundred times? There’s only so much you can do with subtle changes in emotion.

‘Towards the end, that face didn’t even look handsome anymore.’

That’s how tired she was.

That’s how much she had seen it.

Choi Yeon-ha let out a deep sigh.

Anyway, both she and Kang Jin-ho had really done their best. Especially Kang Jin-ho, who was almost out of it and half-buried in his chair.

“…Get up, Jin-ho. It’s over now.”

“Really…?”

“Yes. It’s over, so try to cheer up.”

Kang Jin-ho covered his face with both hands.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve felt such an intense urge to wash up.”

“Don’t whine.”

“No, it’s not that…”

Kang Jin-ho straightened his back and sighed.

“I didn’t think CF [Commercial Film] shoots would be this hard. You guys really work hard.”

“Work hard?”

Choi Yeon-ha chuckled.

“What do you mean I work hard? I’m just playing around.”

“Huh?”

“There are tons of people in the world who do a hundred times harder work and don’t even earn a hundredth of the money. So how dare you say it’s hard?”

He had a point.

Kang Jin-ho looked at Choi Yeon-ha with a renewed expression.

Sometimes, Choi Yeon-ha would complain excessively in places where there was no need to complain, but in places where she could complain, she was excessively strict.

Her basic behavior patterns were a bit different from ordinary people.

‘Well.’

Kang Jin-ho didn’t have the right to point that out.

“Anyway, this is over now, right?”

“Yes. Now, we just have to do the image shoot tomorrow.”

Ah, there was that too.

“The image shoot will be with a different director. The staff will all be different too. So don’t whine, go home and get some rest, and come back fully charged tomorrow.”

Kang Jin-ho let out a deep sigh.

“The photo shoot will be better, right?”

“Much better. Much easier.”

“That’s a relief.”

Kang Jin-ho shook his head.

Then, he realized one thing deeply.

‘I guess a pine caterpillar should eat pine needles [a Korean idiom meaning one should stick to what they are good at].’

Everyone has their own strengths. And Kang Jin-ho was someone whose strengths were excessively biased.

He was confident in fighting someone, but this kind of work was just not his cup of tea.

“I hope it turns out well.”

“Yes. Really.”

Kang Jin-ho said sincerely.

After all this hard work, he really hoped the results would be good.

‘Do the kids know I’m doing this?’

Kang Jin-ho couldn’t help but smile wryly.

“Hey…”

Sung Joo-chan’s eyes twitched.

He understood.

They must be anxious.

With the opening just a few days away, how could they not be anxious? Anyone would be anxious.

Sung Joo-chan had also experienced it.

When he took over the cafe his senior had run and reopened it, the nervousness he felt was still vivid. The anxiety of starting a new life couldn’t be easily comforted by any words.

So he understood… but…

“No! If you’re anxious, you’re anxious, but why are you taking it out on someone else’s cafe! It’s not even open yet!”

Sung Joo-chan yelled, looking at the people packed inside the cafe.

It was a cafe that was being renovated and prepared for reopening. All the owners who were opening new cafes had gathered at the cafe that hadn’t even opened yet, taking up space.

“Hey, that’s too much. We came all the way from the countryside. Hey! Do you even know how long it takes to get here from Busan?”

“Who told you to come, you crazy bastards!”

As Sung Joo-chan yelled, everyone looked at him with dissatisfied eyes.

“That guy, he’s hopeless.”

“We’re just talking because we’re anxious, and he can’t even stand that.”

“Leave him be. He’s just full, that’s all.”

White steam started to come out of Sung Joo-chan’s ears.

‘Lord, I’ll kill these bastards and go to hell.’

He really felt like putting them all in a blender and grinding them up.

They say you have to be careful of difficult customers when you run a cafe, but for some reason, Sung Joo-chan didn’t feel like he had many difficult customers. He thought the customers he had were all good people, but now he realized that wasn’t the case.

After being with these crazy people, even the worst customers didn’t feel like difficult customers anymore.

“Hey, don’t be too harsh. They wouldn’t be like this if they weren’t desperate.”

No, I understand that!

I understand that enough, and I want to comfort them too!

But why are you doing this at someone else’s cafe that hasn’t even opened yet, you hopeless people!

“Coffee refill, please!”

“Hey, you crazy bastard! Who refills their coffee five times! And without paying!”

“Isn’t it okay since I didn’t pay? It’s free anyway.”

Their way of thinking was different.

Sung Joo-chan gave up on everything and took the coffee cup with a weak hand.

‘Please open soon, please! I’m going to die first at this rate.’

Still, once the store opens, they’ll probably come here less to manage their own stores.

“No, didn’t you guys get service training? I thought the company made you do it rigorously?”

“We learned how to serve customers. In that sense, you don’t have the basics of customer service.”

“Come as a customer, as a customer!”

Sung Joo-chan pounded his chest.

“Look at that temper.”

“I told you he’s hopeless.”

Sung Joo-chan gritted his teeth and opened his mouth.

“Hey, you bastards! If you have time to hang out here, sweep in front of your stores, or train your part-timers! The opening is just a few days away, what are you doing here?”

“We’ve done it all, you idiot. Do you think we’re like you?”

Sung Joo-chan didn’t get angry this time.

“Do you guys know how much money it costs to do all this?”

“Of course, we know. We paid for it.”

“Do you think the money you paid will even cover the interior costs?”

Everyone became quiet.

“It’s true that the company has to invest when you do a franchise. But that’s for management and research and development costs. Isn’t the chairman pouring water into a bottomless pit right now? Even if your stores do as well as you think, it’ll take more than three years to recover the investment. Do you know that?”

“Really? It’ll take three years?”

“It’ll be lucky if it only takes three years!”

Sung Joo-chan let out a deep sigh.

From the start, these guys didn’t have a good grasp of operations. They had at least grasped the concept of store operations after receiving training before opening, but they had no idea how much MK was struggling to make the operations easier for them.

“The chairman… no, the president says it’s a win-win, but in my opinion, this is definitely not a win-win. If the president wanted to, he could do other businesses with much better conditions. But he’s doing this on purpose to feed you guys. Isn’t that right?”

“Of course, we know.”

“And you guys are acting like this?”

Sung Joo-chan glared.

“Do well. Really do well. If there’s anyone who provides terrible service or gets into a fight with a customer, I’m going to stab you in the gut and pull out your intestines. If you want to die, die alone. Don’t cause trouble for the other colleagues or the president. Especially don’t cause trouble for the president! I’ll kill you, really!”

At Sung Joo-chan’s fierce outburst, those who were sitting down glanced at each other.

Sung Joo-chan was usually such a nice person that he was easy to tease. That’s why everyone came to Sung Joo-chan’s cafe and hung out, wasn’t it?

But when Sung Joo-chan spoke so vehemently, they couldn’t bring themselves to argue.

“Don’t worry. We’re starting this with some resolve.”

“Yeah, right.”

Sung Joo-chan shook his head.

“And you don’t have to stab anyone in the gut.”

“Huh?”

“Do you think Director Lee will just stand by?”

In that moment, the image of Lee Hyun-soo kicking down the door and entering automatically played in Sung Joo-chan’s mind.

‘I need to start working harder myself.’

He didn’t want to see that happen, no matter what.