Chapter 44: Impromptu Performance

As the entry scene of Lee Bona was being reshot for the third time, Krystal Jung forced herself to fixate on Park Shin-hye’s hair tips:
"Cha Eun-sang! How dare you—"
Yet, amidst the spoken lines, her peripheral vision drifted uncontrollably toward the slightly upturned curve of Kang Jae-hoon’s lips.
"—seduce my boyfriend."
The tail end of her words drifted softly away into the air.
"Cut!"

The director was not blind, naturally aware of the reason behind Krystal's frequent NGs.
"Chan-young, if you smile just a bit brighter, Bona’s storyline can wrap up right here."
Park Shin-hye raised her hand with a smile and suggested,
"Director, I propose that Bona wears sunglasses when making her entrance."

A buzzing wave of suppressed laughter instantly rippled through the set.
Biting her lower lip and stomping her combat boots, Krystal rushed straight toward Kang Jae-hoon:
"You! Dial down the intensity of your smile by thirty percent!"
Jae-hoon was momentarily taken aback. "But when Yoon Chan-young sees Lee Bona, he's supposed to—"
"You are not allowed to smile like that!"
"......Alright."

Fourth reshot.
The moment Krystal stormed into the frame, she saw Kang Jae-hoon sporting an expression identical to the [old man on the subway looking at his phone meme].
"Cut!"
Director Boo Sung-chul hurled his headphones down. "Yoon Chan-young, are you constipated!?"

"Pfft—"
Park Hyung-sik slapped his thigh furiously, while Kim Ji-won laughed so hard she had to steady herself against a wall.
Amidst the cascading waves of laughter, Krystal’s brain suddenly short-circuited, and she grabbed Kang Jae-hoon by the tie:
"Hey! Give me a normal smile!"

The force with which she yanked his tie made Jae-hoon stumble half a step forward, leaving the tip of his nose a mere three centimeters away from the center of her brow.
The corners of his lips curved into a textbook-perfect fifteen-degree smile.
"Like this?"
The refreshing coolness of mint mouthwash, mingled with the woody notes of Dior Sauvage, washed over her in a sudden wave. It was only then that Krystal realized how close the two of them were.
So close that she could clearly see the fine peach fuzz on his cheeks.
"You......"

She abruptly released her grip and stepped backward, only to trip over a lighting cable due to her excessive haste.
"Careful."
Instinctively, Jae-hoon caught her by the waist, the warmth of his palm burning through her knit sweater and sending a shiver straight down her spine.
This impromptu, classic melodrama trope caused the film set to erupt instantly.

"Whoa—"
Kim Ji-won’s prolonged inflection curved through three distinct turns.
"Daebak!"
The shutter sound of Park Hyung-sik’s phone was louder than the set's clapboard.
Director Boo Sung-chul looked toward the camera assistant.
"Is the machine recording?"
"Y-Yes, capturing the behind-the-scenes!"
"Keep this segment!" Boo Sung-chul made his final ruling. "If viewership ratings break fifteen percent, we’ll broadcast it as an Easter egg!"

Hearing the reactions of those around her, Krystal drove her fingernails viciously into Jae-hoon’s forearm.
"Hey! Are you going to let go or not?"

"Oh......"
As if waking from a dream, Kang Jae-hoon retracted his arm from her waist.
"S-Sorry."
Somewhere in the crowd, someone let out a whistle.
Park Hyung-sik showed Krystal the candid shot he had just captured on his phone:
"Bona, is this candid shot good enough to make the headlines?"
"Hey!"
As Krystal rolled up her script like a baseball bat to chase down Park Hyung-sik, the KakaoTalk notification sound chimed on Kang Jae-hoon’s phone—

Im Yoona had sent a photo of herself posing with the food truck sent by her and Jae-hoon.
In the picture, her left hand held up a fish-shaped pastry ordered by Jae-hoon, while her right hand made a half-heart gesture toward the camera. Her crescent-shaped smiling eyes were sweeter than the balloons adorning the top of the catering truck.
In the background, a crew member carrying a reflector panel peeked at her in stealth, and even the director was frozen into an out-of-focus silhouette holding a coffee cup.
The absolute highlight was the little orange tabby cat at her feet begging for scraps—its upturned gaze fixed on her was an exact match for a human fan.

Jae-hoon stared at his phone screen and chuckled softly, his thumb hovering above the send button for a long time.
The text in the input box was deleted and rewritten repeatedly:
[It seems even the orange cat has been conquered by Yoona's beauty]—Too frivolous.
[Fish-shaped pastries should be eaten while they're hot]—Sounds like a housekeeper.
[Is the filming going smoothly?]—None of your business.

In the end, he sent a plain [thumbs-up emoji + sun emoji].
Yoona’s reply arrived in a split second: [Has Teacher Kang ever watched Roman Holiday?]

Roman Holiday was the only film for which Hepburn won the Academy Award for Best Actress.
It told the story of a European princess and an American journalist who encountered each other within twenty柏-four hours, sparking a brief yet profound romance.
Naturally, Jae-hoon had watched such a classic film.
Yet what did she mean by asking this question?
Could it be that......

Jae-hoon rubbed his chin, a sudden flash of inspiration striking him—did she want to ride a motorcycle?
"Yoon Chan-young, get ready to shoot!"
"Coming!"

Jae-hoon had no time for deep thought. He quickly silenced his phone, locked the screen, and slipped it into his pocket.
"Action!"

Fifth take.
Krystal imagined Kang Jae-hoon’s face to be a prematurely ripened Jeju tangerine that made her back teeth ache so badly they wanted to run away from home.
Her lines finally surged past her lips, laden with murderous intent.
The dialogue for this sequence was neither complex nor lengthy.
During the month of pre-production preparations before filming began, Krystal had muttered it to herself hundreds of times at the very least.
Therefore, once Kang Jae-hoon’s "smile interference" was removed, the subsequent flow of the plot proceeded exceptionally smoothly.

After the spoken dialogue portion concluded.
The next shot required Lee Bona to tug at Yoon Chan-young’s arm and pull him away from the coffee shop.
Jae-hoon first stumbled obediently, allowing himself to be dragged forward for two meters.
Then, just as the camera jib arm followed with a tracking shot, he suddenly leaned backward at the waist, forcing Krystal to increase the pulling force.
And as she increased her strength, the twisted wrinkles of Jae-hoon’s collar served as a visual metaphor for the sweet suffocation of being choked by the throat of love.

Right at that moment.
Park Shin-hye rushed over with an umbrella: "Chan-young, your..."
Before she could finish her line, Jae-hoon abruptly improvised a "hush" gesture.
Krystal, who was currently wrestling with Jae-hoon’s arm, suddenly felt the resistance increase.

[Can't drag him?]
The instant she instinctively turned her head back, she collided with the sight of Jae-hoon’s collar pulled askew to reveal half his collarbone, making a "shush" gesture toward Park Shin-hye.
In truth, the moment Krystal turned her head, this scene had already failed as an NG.
Yet since the director hadn't called "cut," everyone had to keep acting.
Jae-hoon’s voiced breath squeezed through his teeth: "Pinch my ear, quickly!"

Stunned for merely a fraction of a second, Krystal immediately reached out and pinched his earlobe:
"Yoon Chan-young!"
"Hiss—" He injected three parts genuine pain and seven parts acting skill into his reaction. "Bona, go easy! I'm going to go deaf!"
"How dare you still look at her!?"
"I'm not looking anymore!"

As she turned her head away and resumed dragging Jae-hoon outward by his earlobe, he blinked at Park Shin-hye.
Park Shin-hye instantly caught his drift.
Watching the two of them head out in a daze, she shook her head and chuckled helplessly:
"Love is truly an extravagant thing."

"......"
"Cut!"
Director Boo Sung-chul stared at the monitor playback, rubbing his chin three times over.
"This kid’s got some real talent."
The assistant director leaned in for a closer look:
"His micro-expressions are indeed on point, wincing in pain from having his ear pinched while still stealing glances at Bona's expression."
"The main point is right here—"
Boo Sung-chul dragged the timeline back to the segment where Krystal dragged Jae-hoon’s arm outward:
"Here, he neither steals Bona’s burst of emotion nor fails to leave Cha Eun-sang with a lingering sense of loss. He manages to play a third male lead with the aura of a hidden primary protagonist."
"Praise him with some restraint."

Another director, Kang Shin-hyo, sneered as he walked past:
"Next time, try having him act opposite Kim Tan, just as long as he doesn't get crushed into background scenery by Lee Min-ho's aura."

The television series The Heirs was co-directed by two directors.
Kang Shin-hyo hailed from a film background, while Boo Sung-chul was a director trained within the broadcasting network system.
Their collaboration was, at its core, a "risk hedge" orchestrated by the financial backers.
Fearing that film director Kang Shin-hyo might be unfamiliar with the assembly-line production of K-dramas, the production team had requested SBS to assign Boo Sung-chul as co-director.
The discrepancies between the two had been significant, freezing operations to a standstill during the preparation period.
Ultimately, a compromise was reached: grand-scale scenes would be handled by Kang Shin-hyo, while emotional and everyday scenes fell to Boo Sung-chul.

Originally, screenwriter Kim Eun-sook had structured the drama around Kim Tan as the sole male lead.
Yet through Boo Sung-chul reinforcing Choi Young-do’s dual nature of "violence and vulnerability," the script was forcibly warped into a dual male-lead framework.
Such alterations directly triggered a polarization within the cast camp.
Lee Min-ho had previously worked with Kang Shin-hyo and thus leaned toward his directing style.
Kim Woo-bin naturally placed more trust in Director Boo Sung-chul, who had elevated his role and screen time.
As for the smarter actors like Kim Ji-won and Krystal Jung, they chose to declare no allegiance.

As for Kang Jae-hoon—
He was tacitly categorized under the Boo Sung-chul faction.
After all, he and Kim Woo-bin were the only ones who had not traveled for the Los Angeles location shoot.
And the overseas filming had been directed by none other than Director Kang Shin-hyo.