“Rock, paper…”
So Park Hae-jun showed paper. Since he had won with scissors last time, it was obvious that Lee A-gon would show scissors this time.
As expected. Lee A-gon showed scissors, and Park Hae-jun showed paper. For the first time, Lee A-gon beat Park Hae-jun.
“Hit me.” Park Hae-jun presented his forehead with a solemn face.
Having been hit twelve times in a row, Lee A-gon would surely hit hard. Park Hae-jun squeezed his eyes shut.
Hesitantly approaching, Lee A-gon’s hand rested on Park Hae-jun’s forehead. The fingers that seemed to hesitate for a moment soon made a light tapping sound against Park Hae-jun’s forehead. Or rather, barely touched it.
What is this?
Park Hae-jun was dumbfounded. The touch was so gentle that it could be described as a caress rather than a flick.
When he opened his eyes, Lee A-gon was looking at him with concerned eyes. He blew on his palm and then wiped Park Hae-jun’s forehead with that hand. As if he was genuinely worried that Park Hae-jun might be in pain. As if he was sorry.
“Does it hurt a lot?” Lee A-gon asked when Park Hae-jun remained silent.
Park Hae-jun realized then. This kid wasn’t stupid. The reason he only blinked his gentle eyes whenever Kim Min-sung’s gang tormented him wasn’t because he was stupid, but because he was truly kind.
At the same time, Park Hae-jun realized one more thing. He hadn’t beaten Lee A-gon twelve times. Lee A-gon had let him win twelve times. Because he didn’t want to hit. Because he didn’t want to hurt his hyung.
All this time, Park Hae-jun had secretly looked down on Lee A-gon. Though he secretly helped Lee A-gon when he was being bullied by Min-sung’s gang, it wasn’t out of genuine goodwill but closer to the feeling of giving alms to a pitiful beggar.
A strange sensation came over him. Park Hae-jun later realized it was shame. He was ashamed of enthusiastically hitting the small forehead of this younger brother.
“This is boring. Let’s do something else,” Park Hae-jun said gruffly.
“Like what?”
“Don’t know. Anything else.”
While waiting for an answer, Park Hae-jun kicked the floor with his heels. He couldn’t bring himself to make eye contact.
A moment later, a warm hand took Park Hae-jun’s. When he looked up, Lee A-gon was smiling brightly as he asked, “Then let’s play tag, hyung.”
Park Hae-jun’s YouToo account was filled with completely different videos than before. These were series of games that could be played without equipment: marbles, ttakji (paper tiles), jegi kicking, territory claiming, and so on. Park Hae-jun watched these videos diligently and played them with Lee A-gon whenever they met on set.
Seeing this, adults smiled and commented that the two were really close. It was going according to Park Hae-jun’s plan. Park Hae-jun was recognized as Lee A-gon’s best friend.
The filming of “Dawn’s First Light” was nearing its end. Park Hae-jun didn’t have many scenes left. The final scene had already been shot, and what remained was the part explaining how the protagonist Kim Byeong-chun got the burn scar on his face.
Kim Byeong-chun gets trapped in an abandoned house due to the villains’ schemes. An unexpected accident causes a fire, and Kim Byeong-chun develops a trauma related to fire. Because of this incident, years later, Kim Byeong-chun fails to save his mother from a fire.
The filming location was a desolate abandoned house in Namhae. It was a building that had survived the Korean War, and the owner had supposedly said they could burn it as long as they properly demolished it afterward.
“You guys bring Kim Byeong-chun here. Min-sung, you hold a fake grenade and threaten him not to come to English class anymore. Lee A-gon, you collapse around here. Then the camera will come down for an overhead shot of your upper body, and at that time…”
The cinematographer explained their movements. Lee A-gon understood the director’s instructions perfectly. This kid never made mistakes.
As Kim Byeong-chun’s English skills improve rapidly, the villains, unable to hide their anxiety, bring him to an abandoned house. When he refuses to quit his classes despite their threats, one of the enraged villains throws a grenade. Here’s where the problem occurs. The grenade bought from Yanki Market in Gyodong, thinking it was fake, turns out to be a real unexploded ordnance.
The building collapses in the explosion. Kim Byeong-chun is trapped under the rubble, missing for three days before being dramatically rescued. That was the scene they were going to shoot today.
“When the fire reaches here, each of you run away. Got it?”
Since the filming location was a real abandoned house, the interior was filled with all sorts of miscellaneous items. There was even an old spinning wheel of unknown age, which the prop team loved for its authentic post-war feel.
After filming the explosion scene, the building was set on fire. It was at the outer wall, far from the filming area, and they had sufficient firefighting equipment. There was plenty of time. Now they just needed to trap Lee A-gon, playing Kim Byeong-chun, and have the five children escape one by one.
The filming was going smoothly. The camera would pan across the five faces, then pull back as the children delivered their lines and exit following the pre-marked fluorescent trail.
“You’ll regret this, Kim Byeong-chun.” The first child said his line and ran out.
“Don’t blame us.” The second child ran out.
The third and fourth also ran out.
And the fifth was Park Hae-jun. “Kim Byeong-chun, you…”
At that moment, an ominous vibration shook the ground beneath them. In the middle of his line, Park Hae-jun and Lee A-gon looked at each other simultaneously.
What happened next is hard to remember. The ground beneath them gave way, and his memories disappeared with it.
·
Small palms patted his cheeks. A voice calling “Park Hae-jun hyung, Park Hae-jun hyung” became increasingly clear. Park Hae-jun lifted his eyelids.
“Hyung!”
When Park Hae-jun opened his eyes, Lee A-gon hugged him tightly. A faint light shining from the ceiling allowed him to see Lee A-gon’s face. Lee A-gon’s eyes were wet with tears, and there was blood on his head.
Park Hae-jun asked in a dazed voice, “A-gon, you’re bleeding. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. What about you? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine too. I’m perfectly fine. But where are we?”
Park Hae-jun looked around. They were in a small cavity about 1 meter high and 2 meters wide. Rusty nails and other dangers protruded menacingly from between planks and concrete debris.
“When the floor collapsed, only we fell in here. I fell asleep for a while, and when I woke up, you were lying next to me. I was scared because you wouldn’t wake up no matter how much I shook you. Hyung, are you really okay? Are you really, truly okay?”
Lee A-gon kept asking while stroking Park Hae-jun’s face. This was the first time he had seen the boy like this.
No matter how composed he might seem, he was still just a first-grader. It was difficult to maintain composure after suddenly falling through the floor. Park Hae-jun thought he needed to stay calm for the child’s sake.
“It’s okay. I’m not hurt anywhere. Let’s wait a little bit. Adults will come rescue us soon.”
“You think so?”
“Of course.”
Park Hae-jun calmly stroked Lee A-gon’s head. Lee A-gon swallowed his tears and looked up at Park Hae-jun with eyes full of trust.
The floor had collapsed, they had fallen, and when they regained consciousness, they were trapped in a space too narrow to even stand up. Park Hae-jun was just as scared, but he couldn’t show fear in front of Lee A-gon. Because he was the hyung. Because he was a whole three years older than Lee A-gon.
“Don’t worry, Lee A-gon. Nothing bad will happen.”
As Lee A-gon nestled against him, Park Hae-jun rested his face against the boy’s blood-stained head and said those words as if making a promise to himself.
The adults didn’t come to rescue them. The two boys endured, relying on a single beam of light shining through the ceiling and each other’s warmth. In that cramped space where they couldn’t even straighten their backs properly, they couldn’t tell how much time had passed.
“Hyung, do you think we’ll survive?”
“What are you saying? Of course we will.”
“Then when will the adults come?”
“They’ll be here soon. Don’t worry.”
“I wish they’d come quickly.”
Mumbling in a weak voice, Lee A-gon clung more tightly to Park Hae-jun. Park Hae-jun hugged him firmly too.
“Actually, I’ve known about you for a long time.”
“Me? How?”
“I saw you on TV when you were acting.”
“Really?”
“Yes. That’s why I asked my mother if I could act too. So I could meet you.”
Surprised by this unexpected revelation, Park Hae-jun sat up.
He wanted to meet me that badly? Enough to start acting because of me?
“Why would you go that far? Were you my fan? Was my acting that good?”
“No. Your acting isn’t good.” Lee A-gon denied it firmly.
Park Hae-jun, who had been hopeful, pouted his lips. “Then why did you want to meet me?”
“I don’t know. But I really wanted to meet you.”
“So now that you’ve met me, what do you think? Are you disappointed?”
“No, you’re cool.”
“What? But you said my acting wasn’t good. So what’s cool about me?”
“You’re good at playing ttakji, marbles, tag, and paper folding.”
“Is that all?”
“No, there’s more. You’re tall, you smile a lot, and you’re handsome. That’s why you’re really cool.”
Lee A-gon meticulously listed all the things that made Park Hae-jun cool. Listening to him, Park Hae-jun scratched his forehead in embarrassment. This kid seemed to like him more than he had thought.
“Hyung, from now on, can you not watch videos of female idols?”
“Huh? Why?”
He was talking about the videos of female idols and cheerleaders that Park Hae-jun had shown him when first trying to befriend him.
Lee A-gon put both hands near his chest and spoke earnestly, “I don’t like you watching those. When I think about you watching those videos, it hurts here.”
“Your chest hurts when I watch videos of women dancing?”
Lee A-gon nodded.
“But why?” Park Hae-jun couldn’t understand. “Why would you…”
Park Hae-jun was about to ask, but then he saw Lee A-gon’s tired face, drooping eyebrows, and pleading eyes. The child was truly begging. Seeing that face, he couldn’t bring himself to refuse.
“Okay.” So Park Hae-jun casually agreed.
Lee A-gon’s eyes widened. “Really?”