By Zephyria 
“I’m sorry.”
“That’s strange. There must be something I did wrong for your rank to drop. Did you not like the bed I bought you last month?”
“I’m sorry.”
“Or was it the chair?”
The mother suddenly stood up from the sofa. The son immediately knelt. His hands, placed on his thighs, trembled.
“There must be something wrong, or your rank wouldn’t have dropped by three places. Tell me, son. What did Mom do wrong? So I can fix it.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t just say you’re sorry, tell me what else I need to do!”
Mom’s shout rang out sharply. The son’s head tilted down. He seemed to be holding back the words “I’m sorry.”
“I don’t understand what you’re lacking that makes you unable to study. If you didn’t do anything wrong, then it means I did something wrong. Right? It couldn’t possibly be like this otherwise.”
“……”
“The academy is the best. The private tutor is the best. I feed you only the best things, so why?”
Mom, who had been hovering around her son, stopped abruptly. She crouched down in front of him and asked,
“Were you not getting enough medicine?”
“……”
“The class president’s mom said her daughter takes 100 milligrams. But you’re only taking 54 milligrams.”
The son lifted his head. His eyes trembled.
“The psychiatrist you’re seeing now won’t do. I’ll make an appointment at a different hospital next week. We’ll ask for 100 milligrams there too.”
“Mom…”
The son barely managed to call out to his mother. Mom tilted her head and asked, Why?
The son made a face as if holding something back, then dropped his head. He ultimately couldn’t say anything.
“Okay. Now I see the problem. It’s a relief that we’ve finally found out why our son’s rank dropped. Right?”
Mom smiled faintly and brought a stick. The son looked up at his mother with reddened eyes. The mother, towering over her son who was over 190 centimeters tall, seemed impossibly distant.
“You need to get down. Son.”
Tears streamed down the son’s cheeks. The son let out choked sobs.
“Hurry.”
The son, who had been resisting, slowly bent his body. He assumed the prone position. His mother clicked her tongue.
“Son, your school uniform will get damaged like that. You need to take your clothes off first.”
The son, hesitating, stood up and took off his pants. Then, in just his underwear, he assumed the prone position again.
Mom gauged his thighs with the stick, then raised it high with all her might. The stick then struck the son’s thighs.
“Mom is! Doing all this for your own good! You know that, right?!”
The son held his breath.
“My son! This is all for you! You know that, right? Right?!”
The son’s face, enduring the pain, turned bright red. Tears dripped onto the floor, and saliva flowed from the corners of his mouth. While the son was being beaten, his father turned away to watch TV, then eventually got up stealthily and went into his room.
Finally, after the beating ended, Mom hugged the son and burst into tears. Stroking his son’s sore thighs, she cried out,
“You can do better next time, right? You’ll get your rank back to normal, won’t you? I’m sorry, my son. I’m doing all this for your own good. I’m truly sorry. I love you, Hyun-woo. Mom really loves you.”
The son, held by his mother, had vacant eyes. But the moment he heard the words “I love you,” a madness flickered in his pupils.
“Cut, okay.”
That scene passed in one take. A shooting scene of about 7 minutes. There wasn’t a single wasted moment. The staff, who had been holding their breath, finally exhaled in relief.
“A-gon, are you okay? Does it hurt?”
“Yes. It doesn’t hurt at all.”
Lee A-gon replied politely to Han Na-young’s question. Han Na-young, thinking that couldn’t be true, looked at Lee A-gon’s thighs with a puzzled expression. There were truly no marks on Lee A-gon’s thighs from the beating.
“You can hit me harder next time.”
“No, still…”
After nodding once at the confused Han Na-young, Lee A-gon went to change his clothes.
Next was the scene where the protagonist, Nam Hyun-woo, agonizes over the ADHD medication he received from the psychiatrist. The medication caused him to suffer from side effects. Headaches, weight loss, and palpitations.
“Why didn’t you take your medicine?”
The son, caught with the hidden medicine packet. The side effects would be worse if he took the 100mg dose. The son didn’t want to take the medicine.
“It makes my head hurt if I take this.”
The son weakly protested. But Mom just tilted her head and asked, Why?
“Hyun-woo, your rank went up after taking this medicine. Does your head hurt? Then take a headache pill. I asked the class president’s mom, and Eun-ji also had headaches when she increased to 100mg. But she got first place again this time, didn’t she? Do you think you’re the only one who gets headaches from this medicine? Everyone does. It’s not just you; everyone struggles the same way.”
The son squeezed his eyes shut. He looked up at his mother with sad, forlorn eyes. His mother, who was only 160 centimeters tall, seemed impossibly distant.
“Take it.”
Mom offered the medicine. The son shook his head.
“Take it. Take it. I said take it!”
Mom eventually forced the son’s mouth open and shoved the medicine in. The camera relentlessly followed and captured the son’s pained face. In the end, the son swallowed several 100mg ADHD pills. As the camera panned, the son’s cell phone was visible. It showed links about the side effects of ADHD medication: hypersensitivity, delusion, and increased aggression. The camera slowly closed in on the “increased aggression” item.
“You’re doing even better than during the reading!”
Kim Jun-haeng hummed with satisfaction at the script supervisor’s words.
The day’s filming concluded with almost no NG takes. Lee A-gon’s acting was flawless. Han Na-young also participated in the filming with immense passion. The chemistry between the two was excellent.
“If we keep this up, we’ll finish within two weeks.”
Han Na-young joked while filming the last scene. The staff all laughed along with her trivial joke. It was a day where it felt like that might actually happen.
A company dinner was scheduled to celebrate the first day of filming. Since filming ended early, attendance was high.
“Why are you following me?”
Lee A-gon blocked Hae-jun’s path in front of the reserved barbecue restaurant. Hae-jun blinked.
“Company dinner. I’m your manager, so I have to go.”
“What did you do, hyung?”
Lee A-gon scoffed.
“You didn’t drive. You didn’t procure my meals separately. You didn’t bring back feedback from interviews. You just watched me work on set all day, yet you intend to attend every company dinner?”
Hae-jun was speechless. Lee A-gon was right. He hadn’t done anything while working as a manager. He hadn’t even known he was supposed to get feedback from interviews until now.
“Wait in the car.”
Leaving only those words, Lee A-gon entered the restaurant. Hae-jun watched his retreating back, unable to say anything.
“Hyung, are you hungry? Want a triangle kimbap?”
When he returned to the car, Yang Road offered him a kimbap and a canned drink he’d bought from a convenience store. Hae-jun shook his head. He had intended to attend every meal despite doing nothing, and Lee A-gon’s rebuke echoed in his throat, making it impossible to swallow anything.
The company dinner ended around one in the morning. Seeing people stumbling out of the restaurant, Hae-jun quickly got out of the car.
The assistant director came down the stairs, laughing loudly. Another actor, holding a crying supporting actor, walked slowly, saying things like, “Let’s work hard. Let’s not give up. This movie will be great.”
Where is Lee A-gon? Hae-jun waited for Lee A-gon to appear, feeling a little nervous. He had reflected a lot while waiting in the car. He wanted to tell Lee A-gon that he would strive to become a real manager, not just one in name.
Kim Jun-haeng and the cinematographer came down the stairs, cigarettes in their mouths. Behind them, Lee A-gon finally appeared. He was walking side-by-side with a woman.
Hae-jun, who had approached them with a smile, realized how close the two were. As Lee A-gon whispered something in the woman’s ear, she playfully slapped his forearm. Then they giggled.
Hae-jun was bewildered. He was as confused as someone who had witnessed an alien appearing in the middle of Seoul. He shouldn’t be like that. That’s Lee A-gon. Why would Lee A-gon be so friendly with a woman? Hae-jun couldn’t escape the loop of that thought.
The two descended the stairs, laughing and chatting amicably. Hae-jun raised his hand to acknowledge them, but Lee A-gon ignored him and continued talking to the woman. “How are you getting home? Oh, I live nearby, so I can walk. Then I’ll see you tomorrow.” After exchanging pleasant goodbyes, the two parted ways.
“What are you doing? Aren’t you leaving?”
Only after the woman left did Lee A-gon turn to Hae-jun and chide him. Hae-jun, as if waking from a dream, got into the passenger seat with creaky movements. Yang Road gently started the car.
Notifications of incoming messages constantly rang from the back seat. Lee A-gon also kept looking at his phone with a focused expression. Then he even smiled faintly. Hae-jun stole glances at him, trying to calm his racing heart.
“The actor seems to be in a good mood today. That’s a relief, isn’t it?”
Yang Road also laughed, saying it was a relief since he was usually in a bad mood. Hae-jun was the only one who couldn’t smile.