By Zephyria ■■■
“Don’t go.”
On screen, Yoon Joo-ho calls out from behind the female lead. Her hurried steps halt abruptly, and the camera focuses on Yoon Joo-ho’s face, left behind over her shoulder.
“I can’t bear to see you get hurt by Woo-young anymore. I don’t want to see that anymore.”
Yoon Joo-ho’s face, much younger than now, shines on screen, and the light from the TV screen flickers and reflects on Song Hyun-soo’s face. Lying on his side, Song Hyun-soo folded a pillow in half to raise its height. Yoon Joo-ho’s face seemed to be more visible.
It was Yoon Joo-ho’s first melodrama.
Just as the dispute between Yoon Joo-ho and his parents is making headlines these days, the situation was no different when Yoon Joo-ho’s casting for this drama was confirmed.
Before the drama aired, the media released pessimistic forecasts. Pessimistic views tend to generate more interest.
Could the public truly perceive Yoon Joo-ho, who had been seen as a child for over 20 years since he was three, literally the nation’s younger brother, as a man? Could they immerse themselves in the romantic relationships he would portray? That was the topic of discussion.
Those concerns had been consistently raised for one to two years before Yoon Joo-ho became an adult. Because of that, despite his immense popularity, Yoon Joo-ho could only take on his first melodrama about three years after becoming an adult, and even then, only after completing his military service.
There was a period of slight darkness in Yoon Joo-ho’s life after his discharge. Given his previous overwhelming popularity, and the fact that every project he had ever appeared in had been a massive hit without fail, even a moderate success became a failure for Yoon Joo-ho.
The Wall of Post-Military Comeback That Yoon Joo-ho Couldn’t Overcome
Yoon Joo-ho, Is His Leap as an Adult Actor Failing Like This?
Examining the Limits of Child Actors Through Yoon Joo-ho
Articles with such headlines pounded on Yoon Joo-ho daily.
It was during that time that he encountered the project
Yoon Joo-ho made a triumphant comeback with this work. The ratings rose daily, and while the drama was still airing, Yoon Joo-ho signed nearly ten TV commercial deals. It was a new syndrome caused by the adult Yoon Joo-ho.
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From Prince to Emperor, Yoon Joo-ho’s Glorious Ascension
‘Now I See You as a Man’ Top Male Star to Spend Christmas Eve With, Yoon Joo-ho
The media, changing their tune like flipping a palm, was busy praising him.
A female protagonist who has a crush on one of the childhood friends. And another childhood friend who has a crush on her. In this twisted love triangle, Yoon Joo-ho played a devoted man who faithfully loved and waited for the female protagonist.
At the time
While his friends, who hung out together, dozed off with online lectures playing, Song Hyun-soo practiced Yoon Joo-ho’s acting in front of the mirror. Until then, he thought bad boys were cool, but watching Yoon Joo-ho act in
To that extent, Yoon Joo-ho’s acting in that drama was flawless.
But something is different. It’s changed from back then.
The melodrama acting of the thirty-two-year-old Yoon Joo-ho he witnessed at Yoon Joo-ho’s house today. And the acting of the twenty-three-year-old Yoon Joo-ho showcased in
Yoon Joo-ho on TV says:
“It’s okay to keep liking Woo-young. I’ll slowly, gradually make a path for your feelings to move towards me. You just… need to make space for me. Is that too difficult?”
The twenty-three-year-old Yoon Joo-ho, with tears clinging to the tips of his long eyelashes, is beautiful. Even when delivering heartbreaking lines, rather than feeling pain, one is moved to admire his dazzling youth and appeal.
But what he felt from Yoon Joo-ho today…
Haa.
Song Hyun-soo sighed and sat up from his lying position.
He looked down at his phone; it was almost 3 AM. It seemed unlikely he’d fall asleep in an hour or two. He rubbed his face a couple of times with his palm and got out of bed. He turned off the TV, pulled a sweatshirt over his bare upper body, and put on his padding.
Sniff sniff. A faint scent brushed against his nostrils, and his movements stopped. He buried his nose in the chest of the sweatshirt and the sleeves of the padding and inhaled.
Perhaps because these were the clothes he wore when he went to Yoon Joo-ho’s house today, the scent of that place was faintly lingering.
A scent that was intense to the point of polarizing, unique, beyond luxurious to the point of extravagance, and carried an arrogance that didn’t try to explain or be understood. Even though it was just a scent, there were definitely such nuances in the fragrances that emanated from Yoon Joo-ho.
He hated the thought of this scent fading.
He took off the clothes as they were and threw them on the bed, then put on other clothes. He grabbed his phone and the cigarettes from above the TV, slipped on his slippers, and stepped outside the front door.
“Oof, it’s cold!”
Mid-December. The pre-dawn river breeze was unforgiving. Song Hyun-soo immediately hunched his shoulders and pulled the zipper of his padding up to his chin. His face and toes felt like they would freeze, but he didn’t dislike the sharp, biting winter night air.
He lit a cigarette, shielding it from the wind, and took a deep drag.
He exhaled the smoke slowly, looking in the direction of Yoon Joo-ho’s mansion, southeast of the Han River. The river breeze immediately rushed in and scattered the white vapor.
After signing the contract, Song Hyun-soo was led to another room, passing a hallway lined with trophies and medals.
The room, with one wall entirely covered in mirrors and soundproofing on both the walls and the door, was equipped with several monitoring devices.
It’s better than my place, even though it’s a practice room…
While he admired the room, Yoon Joo-ho reappeared, dressed in comfortable clothes. And in that room too, he lit a large candle. His back as he lit the candle was remarkably serious. As if offering a prayer filled with earnest wishes.
The smell of the red phosphorus from the struck match wafted pungently in the room. Yoon Joo-ho spoke, his back turned to Song Hyun-soo.
“You don’t need to try and act particularly grand. Just deliver your lines without breaking the immersion. Keep your voice low if possible.”
“I will.”
He didn’t have to act with any real effort, just sit still on the sofa and deliver his lines. If there hadn’t been a non-disclosure agreement, it would have been the easiest part-time job imaginable. For Song Hyun-soo, even the non-disclosure agreement wasn’t a difficult task, so it was definitely an easy job.
Up until that point, he was simply excited by that thought.
Yoon Joo-ho lit several candles in succession with a very long match, then adjusted the position and angle of the two cameras set up on stands.
“Over there. Move a bit more to the side and sit. So I can focus.”
“…About here?”
Song Hyun-soo, who had been sitting on one side of the two-seater sofa, moved further to the side as Yoon Joo-ho indicated. Yoon Joo-ho nodded, his gaze fixed on the monitor screen. Then, moving only his eyes, he looked at Song Hyun-soo and gave a slight smile.
“You really suit the camera.”
Even though it was a fleeting smile that passed by too quickly, it had more impact than anyone else’s boisterous laughter. How unfair.
The indicator light on the camera turned red. A signal that filming had begun. Song Hyun-soo’s heart began to race, as if he were actually standing in front of a camera on a real film set.
To record his face from different angles, Yoon Joo-ho had set up two cameras. He then walked over to the sofa where Song Hyun-soo was sitting and gestured for him to return to his original spot.
“You’re going to sit here?”
“Then why do you think I set the cameras up for this spot?”
“Ah…”
There was a single-seater sofa over there, so why sit side-by-side on the two-seater sofa. Though he wasn’t particularly keen, Song Hyun-soo shuffled over to the adjacent seat.
“Scene number 78.”
Watching Yoon Joo-ho’s profile as he turned the script pages, Song Hyun-soo also quickly picked up his script.