Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 149

< 149. Isn't It the Same? >

‘Huh?’

The director rubbed his eyes, frowning. He wondered what he had just witnessed.

Through the viewfinder, he’d seen Woo Yeon-woo’s expression seemingly change in an instant.

But what bothered him most wasn’t the changed expression itself, but something else.

A fleeting moment. A very brief phantom that appeared and vanished in the blink of an eye. That disturbed him more.

‘Is it an optical illusion?’

The director rubbed his eyes again. For a split second, it seemed as if a strange face had materialized and disappeared across the entire set…

He lowered his eyes from the viewfinder and scanned the set.

However, everything seemed normal. People were silent, holding their breath. Managers stood by with water bottles and towels.

Actors leaned against the wall, studying their scripts, and Woo Yeon-woo stood calmly in the center of the camera’s focus.

‘Is it a delusion?’

As the director tilted his head, Writer Shim-kyung gestured for him to proceed quickly.

‘Oh, right. I have to.’

The director nodded and addressed Woo Yeon-woo again. ‘We’re going to film the expression before the lights go out and the expression when the lights come on in one take. Is this brightness okay?’

After Woo Yeon-woo confirmed, ‘Yes,’ the director slowly raised his hand beside the camera, signaling preparation.

He waited for Woo Yeon-woo to get into character, then brought his hand down sharply and shouted, ‘Action!’

As soon as the signal was given, Woo Yeon-woo’s head snapped towards the middle-aged couple lying on the floor.

The couple was lying face down, tied back to back.

A smile, cold as dry ice, appeared on Woo Yeon-woo’s lips as he looked at them.

A smile that seemed mysterious and beautiful, yet hinted at impending trouble for anyone who dared to touch it.

The director swallowed hard, involuntarily.

Woo Yeon-woo’s expression resembled a meticulously crafted ice crystal, and he suddenly felt compelled to capture it on camera for a longer duration.

When the lights went out, the director felt a pang of regret.

‘Huh. Wow.’

He shook his head several times, making short, impressed noises.

He couldn’t help it. Initially, he had been concerned about managing Woo Yeon-woo’s acting.

He had seen gradual improvement, but now, Woo Yeon-woo was evoking genuine regret in him, which he found astonishing.

Especially considering this was Woo Yeon-woo’s first project, the director felt as if he had contributed to the growth of a remarkably talented actor.

‘Okay! Good! Good!’

The director, having captured a satisfactory expression at the precise moment the lights went out and came back on, gave a thumbs up.

‘Great! I love it!’

Writer Shim-kyung muttered beside him, ‘Wow, Yeon-woo is amazing. Did you see how his expression transformed completely as soon as he stood in the center of the camera?’

The staff next to him quickly chimed in. ‘I saw it!’

‘Right? Oh, I got goosebumps watching that. It was the first time I actually saw someone’s expression change so completely during acting.’

It wasn’t just the director and Writer Shim-kyung. Everyone seemed to think that Yeon-woo, who created a completely different atmosphere with just his expression, was amazing.

Unaware that the soul inside had changed, they praised Yeon-woo, who acted as if he had become a different person, as amazing.

Among them, Jong-woo was the only one who felt uneasy.

‘That bastard, his personality really changed, didn’t it?’

It might seem strange for the changed personality to continue acting, but hadn’t the ‘original Woo Yeon-woo’ continued to sing on stage before?

It was a problem because he couldn’t sing now.

Moreover, Jong-woo’s worries extended beyond the personality issue.

‘Okay, let’s film the action scene later, and let’s start with the part where Lim Seo kills them first.’

That part. The part where Lim Seo kills the middle-aged couple.

Jong-woo was worried about how Woo Yeon-woo, who had openly declared, ‘I don’t want to film a scene where someone is killed,’ would handle that part.

‘He won’t suddenly refuse to film this, will he?’

His heart pounded.

Meanwhile, the director approached Woo Yeon-woo and demonstrated the movements and hand gestures himself.

‘Well, it’s happening in a situation where there aren’t any special weapons. But don’t look like you don’t know what to do because you don’t have a weapon. Just relax. Relax as if you’re calmly going through each step. Huh?’

The director waved his hand in the air like a martial arts master, then mimicked strangling someone on the floor.

‘Can you do it?’

‘Of course.’

Woo Yeon-woo answered coolly. Contrary to Jong-woo’s worries, there was no hesitation at all.

‘You’ll be able to do it well.’

He didn’t even show a hint of dislike in his muttering.

‘Good.’

The director nodded and returned to his position, burying his face in the viewfinder and raising his hand. Then he shouted briefly, ‘Go!’

‘Please don’t cause an accident.’

Jong-woo swallowed hard and clasped his hands together.

The lights dimmed even further. Unlike before, there were many people lying around this time.

They hadn’t filmed the battle scene yet, but they were filming on the premise that the battle was already over in this scene.

The people lying like fish were enough to catch the eye.

Lim Seo didn’t pay attention to them. He approached the middle-aged couple with a light gait.

The couple shook their heads, gags in their mouths.

Their fear seemed to have intensified now that the gangsters they had hired were no match for Lim Seo, the priest who just looked quiet and gloomy.

Lim Seo approached them with a quiet smile, then bent down.

With an attitude that showed no hesitation, he simultaneously placed one hand on each of the middle-aged couple’s necks.

The director let out a short exclamation.

He had demonstrated killing one person at a time, but Woo Yeon-woo pressed down on both of their throats at the same time with both hands.

In that state, Lim Seo pressed down on both of their necks at once.

‘Cut!’

At that moment, even though it wasn’t the actual filming, the director shouted reflexively.

He knew that even if Woo Yeon-woo was crazy, he wouldn’t kill someone in front of the camera, but he suddenly felt a fear that he should finish his scene quickly.

However, unlike the director’s fear, Lim Seo, no, Woo Yeon-woo, immediately took his hands off and stood up.

‘Wow, it looks so real?’

The director hid his earlier queasy feeling and praised him, clapping his hands for no reason.

Writer Shim-kyung also nodded quickly. ‘I got goosebumps on my arms.’

The middle-aged couple got up with slightly pale faces and evaluated Woo Yeon-woo, whom they had seen up close.

‘Yeon-woo, you can really act, can’t you?’

‘This is real acting, too?’

‘Of course, it is, but more seriously, wow, when you were about to press on my esophagus? Trachea? Anyway, I thought I was really going to die for a moment, even if it was just for a moment?’

Listening to the people whispering, Jong-woo looked at Rembrandt, who was still standing in the center of the camera, with complicated eyes.

‘That bastard… he said he couldn’t act in a scene where he kills someone. Is that what he can’t do?’

Was it because he was afraid of acting too realistically that he couldn’t do it?

Should I call this fortunate or absurd?

Moreover, he couldn’t rest assured yet.

The next scene was Woo Yeon-woo bending down and dusting off Maeng Woo-shin’s shoes.

Woo Yeon-woo said he didn’t like this part either. He had said it very firmly.

It was understandable that he made excuses that he couldn’t do fighting or killing scenes, but he had already said several times that he would never bend his knees, so he was more concerned.

‘Even so, it’s acting. He’ll just have to close his eyes and do it…’

The staff member nearby heard Jong-woo muttering to himself and turned around, saying, ‘Yes?’

‘Ah, it’s nothing.’

Jong-woo quickly smiled and waved his hand.

Meanwhile, Woo Yeon-woo was filming that problem scene.

However, unlike what Jong-woo was worried about, Woo Yeon-woo didn’t look upset.

He bent his knees naturally, with an attitude that didn’t care at all.

He even put one knee on the floor and dusted off the white powder on Baek-deung’s shoes.

‘That’s a relief. He didn’t cause an accident.’

Jong-woo was relieved now at the simple acting.

The director and other staff members didn’t make a fuss about how great he was this time.

On the other hand, Maeng Woo-shin was surprised for the first time this time.

He had been in the waiting room during the battle scene and the killing scene, so he didn’t know what kind of praise Woo Yeon-woo had received.

This time, the gaze of Woo Yeon-woo, who dusted off the white powder on his shoes and looked up, was somehow eerie.

It gave him the creeps. Should he say that it fit this expression perfectly? It wasn’t the kind of gaze that Woo Yeon-woo, whose acting range was narrow, would send.

However, overall, the filming progressed smoothly, and finally, the filming of the scene in where Lim Seo appears was all over.

The director praised him, saying he had worked hard, and Jong-woo was relieved.

‘He’s so good at it. I was worried for nothing.’

Jong-woo was so busy worrying and feeling relieved that he didn’t notice.

That Sa Gam-jae, who was usually relaxed, had been staring at Woo Yeon-woo with a darkened face all along today.

***

When Rembrandt came to his senses, he was sitting side by side with Sa Gam-jae in the car.

Today, Jong-woo was in the driver’s seat, and 90s-style jazz was playing in the car.

Jong-woo was excitedly praising Rembrandt’s acting today.

Rembrandt listened to Jong-woo’s praise and quietly asked Sa Gam-jae.

‘Did I change again?’

Sa Gam-jae, who wasn’t touching his cell phone for once, nodded and asked.

‘Have you returned?’

‘It seems so.’

‘There were no accidents today. You can rest assured.’

‘What did I do?’

‘I just went and acted.’

‘Just acted?’

‘The fact that he disappeared as soon as he saw me before, and the fact that he obediently acted and disappeared today, it seems that ‘it’ [referring to the alternate personality] that you brought from the original world doesn’t intend to stand out right away.’

‘That’s a relief.’

‘It may not be a relief.’

‘Why?’

‘If he came from another world, ‘it’ wouldn’t know the situation here. But the fact that he’s acting cautiously and avoiding me means that, unlike you, ‘it’ may be listening to all our conversations. Even now.’

‘!’

‘He knows how to use his head, and he knows how to calculate what’s harmful.’

‘I don’t remember when ‘it’ comes forward.’

‘That’s the problem.’

Sa Gam-jae’s cell phone vibrated briefly with a ding.

Sa Gam-jae lowered his gaze to his cell phone and muttered in a low voice.

‘If you can’t control that unidentified thing, you might really have to live trapped in the underworld.’

***

Late at night. The members were all asleep, but Rembrandt couldn’t fall asleep easily and was standing on the veranda, feeling the cool breeze.

He couldn’t sleep because he was deep in thought because of what happened today and what Sa Gam-jae said.

As he was doing that, he heard a ding from his cell phone.

When he checked, it was a text message from Seonwoo-shil.

[My new song is coming out, write some promotional phrases on SNS [Social Networking Service].]

Promoting at a time like this… Rembrandt sent a reply weakly.

[Please listen to Seonwoo-shil’s song a lot >ㅅ< Would it be okay to write like this?] [It's bland?] [Then what should I do?] [Put in something like a comparison. Something that feels slightly dissing, but friendly.] [Are you telling me to compare it to other singers?] [Then there will be a fight.] [Give me an example.] [Honestly, he can't dance ㅋㅋㅋ [Korean slang for 'lol'] Our Yeon-woo, who has one of the best voices, didn't dance this time and only sang! ^^] 'Huh?' [In this way, talk about the new song, and make it look like you're dissing, but friendly.] Rembrandt frowned. [Is it okay to say he can't dance outright?] [Yes. ㅋㅋㅋ If I say you're good at dancing, people will think I'm mocking you? The whole nation knows you can't dance.] [Is it okay to just write about what the whole nation knows as a diss?] [ㅇㅇ [Korean abbreviation for 'okay']] Rembrandt understood and turned on the SNS app, uploaded the album cover photo that Seonwoo-shil sent, and wrote the phrase below. [Honestly, the photo is heavily edited ㅋㅋㅋ Our Wooshil senior, whose voice isn't edited, has a new song out! ^^] Less than 30 seconds after he uploaded it, Seonwoo-shil called. 'Senior, did you see it?' As soon as Rembrandt answered the phone and asked brightly, a curse word came out of the phone. < 149. Isn't It the Same? > End