The sky was clear and blue on the first day of Glooming Day's shoot, but the atmosphere was extremely gloomy and melancholic.

This was because of the nonchalant attitudes of Kwon Sungmin, the actor who played the male lead, Park Jihyuk; and Song Jaehee, the actress who played the female lead, Na Miyeon. They were both famous for being talented at acting despite being only in their twenties. The movie and drama scripts sent to their agencies had been piling up so much that it was impossible for them to have chosen this movie on their own accord. They did not even try to hide their intentions of doing a sloppy job and calling it a day, since the movie was going to be a flop anyway.

“If that’s how you want to act, then just go home.”

However, Director Choi Yigeon was different. As much as he did not want to participate in a work that he had been forced to do, it was still going to be something made under his own name. He was not shameless enough to show the world substandard work.

“I knew that both of you were doing this half-heartedly during the table read, but I didn’t know that you would be the same when the camera was rolling. I’ll take full responsibility, so Kwon Sungmin and Song Jaehee, get off the set. What kind of actors are you?! This is bullshit.”

The young director in his mid-thirties was a handsome, intelligent-looking man. Incongruent with his good looks, which were good enough for him to become an actor if he wanted, Director Choi’s biting remarks were so harsh that nobody dared to say anything in response. During the two table reads before the first day of shooting, he had not intervened. He had merely casually observed them. He had been so nice, such that the smile on his face as he told Song Jaehee to act the way she wanted had made her blush.

As a student who was studying abroad, he had only directed two movies thus far. However, both movies were masterpieces that had accrued more than five million viewers each. In an era with several movies that had over ten million viewers every year, five million might not seem like a lot, but the genre of the film was important.

Director Choi 

Yigeon’s

 debut film had been a documentary about the story of an old monk and a child monk who lived in a temple. The old monk, who was preparing to die, had to teach the young monk, who would eventually be left to live alone, about the world. The bright and innocent young monk was still a child, rather than a religious person. Even then, it had been more of a calm and beautiful story than a sad one.

The second movie had been one centered on family. It was about a mother and a son. The story had begun with a woman giving birth to a child as a single mother, hiding her past, and getting married after that. Several years later, her child, who had been put up for adoption, went to look for her. Based on the plot itself, one would have expected it to be a ‘makjang’ drama, but it was in fact a story about the psychological wounds of a child who was abandoned, and the pain of a woman who had no choice but to abandon her child.

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It was about a son who left without telling his mother he was her son, because he did not want to hurt anybody, and a mother who turned her back on her son, whom she had abandoned after giving birth to him, despite knowing who he was.

The calm flow of the storyline, without revenge or remorse, had left the viewers experiencing an unknown pain in their hearts. The very fact that it had amassed more than five million viewers despite having deviated completely from standard storylines showed that Choi Yigeon was very good at doing his job as a director. Most of all, it was his ability to capture aesthetically pleasing visuals, as well as his understated editing skills, that had caused his talent to be greatly recognized. It was Choi 

Yigeon’s

 amazing track record that had led him to be chosen as the director of Glooming Day.

However, Woojin’s enthusiasm was also dampened by the cast’s lack of motivation before the shoot. Like the other actors, he wanted to do the scenes half-heartedly and get them over with. However, when the director told the main leads off, that was when he realized his mistake. 

He had not chosen to go into acting because he wanted to be a celebrity. He liked acting as much as he liked singing. He found it fun and exciting to analyze the characters, and act out or express the written lines in the direction he deemed fit. Doing so made him feel like a god, creating the axis of a new world.

However, it had not been that long since he had started acting, and yet he had already lost sight of his aspirations, and was even about to destroy them. Thinking about that made his face turn red all of a sudden.

“If there’s anybody here trying to act like they did, get out now while you still have the chance!”

Director Choi’s cold warning this time hit Woojin hard. Although he had no lines, apart from the male and female leads, Woojin had to shoot the most number of scenes. As soon as the director shot him a gaze that seemed to warn him that he would be thrown out as well if he could not deliver a good performance as ‘Cha Hyunseung’, who was as important as the male lead, Woojin shook his head with all his might.

Director Choi stared at Woojin with his bleary eyes for quite some time before shifting his gaze to the other people. Fortunately, Woojin was given a chance without having to justify himself, as they had not shot Cha Hyunseung’s scenes.

“Calm down, sir,” someone began.

As the matter started to get out of hand, the staff members and the main leads’ managers stepped in and tried to pacify Director Choi, asking for his understanding.

“Jaehee is definitely not that kind of person. It’s just that she’s not used to this role yet, so please try to understand.”

“Sungmin only seemed that way because he was exhausted from a variety show shooting, which ended at dawn. It’s absolutely not because he’s doing it half-heartedly.”

Woojin had only signed his contract three weeks ago, but the main leads had already signed their contract two months ago. It did not make any sense for them to have had insufficient time to analyze their characters. Furthermore, Kwon Sungmin had finished his previous shoot at 1 a.m., and it was now 10 a.m. Additionally, Woojin, who had been on set since 6 a.m., would be more exhausted than Kwon Sungmin who had arrived only an hour ago, but such details were not important in this situation.

In any case, the fact that all the actors that had been cast for this movie had to take part in it had not changed. Nobody here had the supreme power to make any decisions. Unless they could come up with a better choice that would satisfy the Supreme Witch even more, they knew that they could not overstep their authority.

Regardless, the director was the person with the most power among them. Firstly, he had the full support of the Supreme Witch, and he had been entrusted with the authority and autonomy to shoot the movie freely. Even though he did not have the power to change the male lead, he could intimidate him. Moreover, if the director threw a fit because the actor did a bad job, thus delaying the shoot, they would be at a disadvantage. The pendulum of power had already swung to one side, and so the actors had no choice but to listen to Director Choi.

“When I told you that you were free to do whatever you wanted, it meant I would fully believe and follow your interpretation of the role you were given. I didn’t mean that you were allowed to act haphazardly.”

After Director Choi had cooled off to a certain extent, it seemed as though his fiery anger had suddenly vanished. He continued speaking in a polite manner with a smile. Woojin might not have been the only person who thought that he should become an actor, but most of the people there did not look too happy.

“I’ll do my best to portray the story told by all of you in the most beautiful way possible. So, make sure that you give me the most beautiful acting you’re able to express to the best of your abilities, understood? And so, I’ll give you two hours to study your characters in depth and come back here after that.”

With a beautiful smile, Director Choi told them not to come back at all if they were not confident. They would later find out that he was an aesthete who was excessively obsessed with beauty and art. It explained why his movies had beautiful visuals. There was only one thing Director Choi wanted from the actors—he wanted them to be beautiful.

Additionally, he explained that the beauty of an actor was measured by how well their acting fit the situation they were in for a particular scene, whether it was portrayed accurately or not. It had nothing to do with their physical appearances. In a way, an aesthete like Choi Yigeon could not tolerate bad acting that ruined the screen.

After hearing what Director Choi Yigeon said about the two-hour grace period, the actors hastily left their seats. The actors who played the main leads looked at each other and went in different directions on their own. As a young man and woman, they were busy trying to avoid each other as much as possible, as if they were afraid of starting a scandal.

Meanwhile, Woojin, who had been thinking about where he should go, looked around the set that had been turned into a college department room. It was the place where Woojin would spend the most amount of time shooting in; it was also a place that could be called ‘Cha Hyunseung’s space’. It seemed to be the most appropriate place to think about Cha Hyunseung’s 

character

.

Woojin pulled a chair over and sat down. He stared out of the window blankly. They had rented an entire well-decorated model home and used it as the set, as if to prove CEO Choi’s extensive support. It was not because the place was fancy and luxurious; but rather, it would cost them more money to prepare an accurate and realistic set than to use any random expensive set that looked fancy. 

Just by looking at it, he could tell that a lot of research had gone into setting the place up, and that the staff had put in a lot of effort into the set. Seeing as the actors had previously not put any effort into the acting despite being in a place like this, it was understandable that Director Choi Yigeon had gotten angry.

Although it was a model home, there was a window in the department room. Perhaps it was being used as an office by construction workers. Cha Hyunseung often looked down at Park Jihyuk and Na Miyeon from that window. He could see trees with green leaves, as well as a well-decorated flower bed, beyond the window. What would Cha Hyunseung be thinking of when he looked at the couple passing through the area?

Woojin felt a sense of longing, as well as an inferiority complex, after reading the script.

Park Jihyuk was the son of a wealthy family, even though he was not the heir. On the other hand, Na Miyeon was born and raised in an ordinary family, despite having earned the love of that wealthy son. Somehow, both of them had ended up falling in love with one another.

Cha Hyunseung, who had been observing them, had been unable to confess his feelings for Na Miyeon. Park Jihyuk was not someone Cha Hyunseung could match up against. Furthermore, Cha Hyunseung suffered from a severe inferiority complex as he compared himself to Park Jihyuk, and ended up drowning himself in self-doubt. Thus, he was unable to confess his feelings to Na Miyeon in front of Park Jihyuk. He knew he was going to be rejected anyway.

The love story between two people from different social classes, as well as the existence of a second male lead who had a crush on the female lead while envying them from afar, was as clichéd as it could get. Moreover, the second lead was but a means to highlight the male lead. He could not shine at all. That was Cha Hyunseung’s limit.

Woojin could understand Cha Hyunseung’s feelings, but for some reason, he could not seem to act the way he wanted to. Just thinking about the way he looked at the couple amid the depressing and gloomy ambiance gave him goosebumps. Most of all, judging from the script itself, the flow of the movie was very predictable.

When it came to romantic comedies, especially in the case of pure love, Korean movies had a tendency to force negative emotions and pain on the audience. Glooming Day did not deviate too much from this category; thus, Cha Hyunseung had to struggle and suffer due to unrequited love.

Regardless of how much Woojin thought about it, the feeling of being in pain and being abandoned, as well as frustrated by only being able to look at them without doing anything, was awful. Seeing Cha Hyunseung acting depressed to the very end, it felt as if they were forcing the audience to be equally depressed. It also seemed that the writer wanted to make Cha Hyunseung an empathizing character, such that the audience would feel envious of the beautiful couple and feel sorry for them via him. 

The failure of this film, in Woojin’s opinion, was the existence of Cha Hyunseung. Contrary to the writer’s intentions, the audience was more likely to think of Cha Hyunseung as a pathetic stalker, rather than empathize with him. He was too immersed in his own emotions, making it difficult for them to empathize with him, and even more difficult to sympathize with him. However, his young and crazy unrequited love had similarities with Death Hill’s A. In fact, the genre could be classified as ‘horror thriller’. Without a single line, it was difficult for him to portray Cha Hyunseung accurately.