Rebirth: King to Superstar

Joon-won was honestly very surprised by her acting. He could notice a few very tiny flaws in her tone while she spoke dialogues, but overall, she was very good. He only then understood a little more about the girl in front of him who spoke big and had a lot of pride. She could do all that because she had her talent to back it up. 

Hea-Jung, on the other hand, froze when she heard him. She slowly turned towards him like a robot and stared at him right in the eye like a statue. Joon-won raised an eyebrow seeing her stare like that and asked, "Is there a problem?" 

She snapped out of the trance she was in and quickly shook her head to deny it before slowly saying, "I never knew you could even compliment others, little brother. If you told me I am good, I must be pretty good. Nice." Pump fisting in the air. Joon-won shook his head, seeing her happy like that.

"There isn't any harm which comes to me if I compliment people. Anyway, I only said that you're quite good, not perfect. There are still a few mistakes you make. Don't ignore that." 

Hea-Jung paused and asked, "What mistakes? Come on, tell me now." 

Joon-won nodded and explained a few of the flaws he could find while she was saying her dialogues. Hea-Jung was completely silent as she listened to him and occasionally nodded, too. She is very serious when it comes to her own acting and takes every criticism and pointer from someone reliable in her heart. She always tries to perfect her own craft. 

After he completed telling out a few flaws he found, the door got knocked. Both of them looked towards the door and Hea-Jung asked the person to come in. It was a crew member. She looked at both of them before turning towards Hea-Jung and said.

"Miss. Seo, the director, sent me to show the set of tonight's shoot to your friend. Also, here is an ID card for your friend too. It would be complicated if he doesn't have one." Taking out an ID from her pocket. Hea-Jung nodded and turned towards Joon-won, who already stood up to go. 

Joon-won spoke before she could and said, "You don't need to come with me. It's super awkward with people always looking at you, greeting you, and then throwing weird looks at me for following you. Getting here from the front of the building itself was exhausting. So you stay here and continue to practice for the shoot. I pointed out a few flaws, right? Just work on them as you have time now. I can go with her and look at the set a little. Alright?" And he gave her a look which clearly said he didn't want a no for an answer. 

Seeing his stare, Hea-Jung slowly nodded and said, "Alright then. Make it quick. You need to be here before my shoot begins if you want to watch. Once it starts, they won't allow people to move around easily." Joon-won just nodded and walked out with the staff member. 

He turned towards the staff member and held his hand out, asking for the ID. He thanked her before wearing the tag and gestured to her to lead the way towards the set, to which she nodded and started walking. 

"How far is the set from here?" 

She turned around and replied, "It's not that far at all. A five minutes walk from the entrance of this place. The director wanted the set to be close so that they don't need to move the shooting equipment around too much." 

Joon-won nodded and both of them continued to walk in silence. As both of them got out of the building and its compound, Joon-won took a deep breath once again. Inside the main gates to the place, there were people everywhere and it was tough to move around. There were more people compared to when they came in. He also felt that the air in the town was way cleaner and felt nice compared to back in Arios due to the mountains the town had a few kilometers away from them. 

Joon-won looked at her and asked, "What kind of work do you do in the film? Sorry if it sounds a bit rude, I'm just curious as it's my first time on a film set." With a small smile. He apologized too as he didn't want to sound too rude to the person. 

She shook her head and replied, "It's alright. I work in the film construction department. We built all the sets you saw inside and many more outside ones. I am what you could say an assistant of the construction director. He assigned me to maintain the set of tonight's shoot. So, just a small role in this big film." 

Joon-won shook his head and said with a straight face, "Don't be pessimistic. I only saw what the final product looks like on the big screen or on television like many others until now. Now that I got a glimpse of much work that really goes on, I am surprised and thankful for all the people. Even people like you who make the sets which are important for the shooting to happen. My name is Kim Joon-won, and I'm a new actor. Please take care of me." With a small bow. 

He was nowhere near being sarcastic about what he just said as he really meant it. After seeing all that and knowing she was actually part of the department that turned a mere reception hall into looking like a legit police station, that took some actual skill. So he was really thankful for their support. 

The woman smiled and replied, "It's alright. Come, let's continue towards the set. It's only down the street." And continued on. Joon-won just continued to follow her down the street. The reception hall was actually on top of a small slope and so they had to walk down. As they got down, Joon-won finally noticed the set. He also noticed that the roads leading to the set were actually closed off by the security company hired by the production. 

She looked at him and said, "This was actually not made by us and was instead it was already an existing small shop here. We paid a few thousand for him to lend us this shop for the week. So we need to complete filming the scenes which involve this place this week so that we can even open up the roads a bit. We only got permission to close them for one week too. That's why we are in a hurry." 

Joon-won nodded after hearing her and they got closer. The security allowed them to get closer only after they noticed his ID card and the woman who led them there. It was a small shop, similar to the one he worked in but way smaller. Remembering the script, he went behind the counter and sat on the chair. He looked out the door and could see the opposite of the street clear enough. 

He then got up and walked to the backside of the store where Hea-Jung's character would interrogate him. The entire time he looked around, the person who brought him there just stood outside and gave him space to explore a bit more freely. 

After he filled his curiosity, he came out with a small smile on his face. He was excited, very excited about the shoot after seeing everything. He realized how different things were from the theatre. It was better. 

He thanked the woman, and she asked, "How is it? We had to make a few changes according to the director, but we keep most of it like it originally was." 

"It's good. Thanks for taking some time off and showing me the place." 

She just waved her hand and replied, "It's alright. Do you want me to take you back?" 

He shook his head and politely declined her help as he knew the way back and it also looked like she was pretty busy as her phone kept ringing. He slowly walked back up, satisfied with everything and excited about the shoot at night. 

As he got inside the compounds of the place, he took out his phone and sent a message to Hea-Jung asking where she was, as it didn't look like any shooting started. He got an immediate reply telling him she was still in her rest room and so he made his way there. He didn't forget to knock on the door before going inside. 

"Oh, how was the set, little brother?" Hea-Jung shouted while she was on the bed, rolling around. 

"It was nice." and he took a seat on the couch. As he did, he noticed a paper on the table and noticed his name on it. So he took it and read through it before asking Hea-Jung what it was.

"Oh, it's a contract. Your first contract for a film. You need to sign it to receive your payment. I negotiated for you and was able to bring up the initial pay of 50k Kros to 70k. If you sign it, they would wire the money to your account by night. And do not worry too much about it, it's a simple contract with the basics as your role is small. Even Uncle Do Hwan checked it for you. So it's safe. Give it a careful read before you sign it. Sister Han would take it to the crew and you'll get the money."