Lee Jiseok knocked on the door. Thump thump! He knocked as instructed by the script, and it felt like something was standing on the other side of the door. Jiseok, without realizing it, flinched and knocked again.
Director Choi Daeman felt that this was more natural. It seemed like the spirit in 'Suhyuk' was sensing the divine power of the baby shaman on the other side of the door. Indeed, there was a reason why good actors were good.
Thump thump!
The door opened. The door, which seemed quite thick when he knocked, opened easily. Then, a child in a white hanbok appeared.
"There's a skilled shaman here, I heard..."
The original line was supposed to end there, but Jiseok, or rather, Suhyuk, involuntarily stopped speaking.
Two pairs of eyes were looking at him. One was the sparkling eyes of the baby shaman, and the other was the eyes of something inside them.
Director Choi Daeman, who was watching the monitor, didn't feel it as strongly as Jiseok did. However, he knew that something non-human was there. This was because he had felt the same thing during the audition, a feeling that something was inside Seo Jun.
Some of the staff felt an alien presence from the child, while others did not. However, everyone was captivated by the acting of Seo Jun and Jiseok. The silence created by the two actors made the hair on their arms stand up.
The baby shaman's head slowly moved from Suhyuk's head to his feet. Suhyuk couldn't regain his composure because of the thorough inspection.
Suhyuk thought the spirit inside him was dancing. His blood seemed to move with the rhythm of his heart, from his toes to his fingertips, and even his head throbbed.
The baby shaman's gaze disappeared, and thump! The door closed. Soon,
"Cut! OK!"
The director's voice was heard, but Suhyuk, or rather, Jiseok, continued to stare at the door. As the actor didn't move, the other staff members quietly looked around. When the curious Choi Daeman got up from his chair,
Creak. The door opened. Jiseok took two steps back involuntarily.
"Oh, are you still filming?"
Jiseok snapped out of it when Kim Heesang, Seo Jun's guardian, appeared. It was because he saw Seo Jun, who was smiling brightly and waving at him from Kim Heesang's arms. Unlike before, there was only one pair of eyes.
"You both did a great job! Take a break while we prepare for the next scene."
As Director Choi Daeman said, they needed to shoot close-up and medium shots next.
While the staff set up the camera near the wooden door to capture the actors' realistic expressions, the two actors sat on chairs and waited for the next scene.
Jiseok opened and closed his mouth, looking at Seo Jun, who was sitting on a chair and drinking cocoa.
How did you do that? How is such acting possible? It was as if the small child, who had just started acting, was a seasoned actor.
Or, could an ordinary actor do such acting?
As Jiseok kept staring, Seo Jun put down his cocoa cup and touched his face.
"Did you ask something?"
"No."
Jiseok shook his head. There were actors like this.
Actors with talent given by heaven. Born actors.
Such talent couldn't be understood by ordinary people just by explaining it.
It was like saying, "I only studied from textbooks." Or, in this case, "I tried it because I thought it would work, and it did." Jiseok sighed inwardly.
Still, just acting with such an actor could improve one's acting skills. Just standing up to overwhelming acting could take one a step forward.
Jiseok smiled. If he couldn't learn it the right way, he would have to learn it by any means necessary.
"Let's start the next scene!"
Jiseok and Seo Jun got up from their seats and headed to the set.
After all the day's filming was done, the actors went back to their accommodations, and the staff stayed to clean up the equipment.
The camera director said to Director Choi Daeman, looking incredulous.
"Actor Lee Jiseok is one thing, but Seo Jun is also not backing down. The two of them were really acting like sparks were flying..."
"I don't think so."
"What?"
"To me, it seemed like Jiseok was trying not to lose to Seo Jun."
* * *
The next day.
The scene with Seo Jun was quickly finished. They filmed the baby shaman preparing to exorcise the spirit by placing a bell and talismans neatly and focusing his mind. They also filmed a scene with the baby shaman and his grandfather.
Since the scenes were not bound by time, they were all finished by lunch.
Unlike Seo Jun, Jiseok had many scenes to film.
They were filming a scene where Suhyuk, who lives with the baby shaman's grandfather, learns the baby shaman's story and a scene where Suhyuk, trying not to harm the baby shaman, fights with the spirit that wants to stay in the village.
"Grandma, it's delicious!"
"It's really delicious."
Seo Jun and Kim Heesang, who decided to tour the village, were caught by the grandmother of the house with the blue door and made to eat hand-cut noodles. Although it didn't seem to have many ingredients, it was incredibly delicious. Seo Jun eagerly slurped the noodles.
"The baby is eating well."
"It's Seo Jun!"
"Is that so?"
The house with the blue door seemed to serve as the village's community center, as all the villagers were gathered there. An old man, who was drinking makgeolli, said,
"They say you're filming? Where can we see it? On TV?"
"It's a movie. You'll have to see it in a theater."
"The theater is far, in the town center..."
"Still, we have to go if our village is in it!"
"With the village chief's car and the cabbage farmer's car, two cars should be enough, right?"
"The village chief's car is big, but we need four cars!"
Everyone started to decide on a date to go see the movie. The grandmother said,
"What kind of movie are you filming?"
Kim Heesang thought for a moment. The Exorcist? Exorcism?
"It's a movie about driving away bad spirits!"
Seo Jun answered in the meantime. Bad spirits? The villagers tilted their heads.
"There's a shaman and a priest. It's a movie about exorcism."
"Oh. A shaman!"
"The shaman from the neighboring village was very skilled."
The topic quickly shifted from the movie to the shaman.
When the grandmother tried to give another ladle to Seo Jun and Kim Heesang, who had finished eating, they quickly declined. Honestly, they had eaten too much.
Seo Jun and Kim Heesang decided to visit the village shrine and got up to say goodbye to the villagers before leaving the house with the blue door.
After Seo Jun and Kim Heesang left, the old man who had poured makgeolli into a bowl said,
"If the shaman from the neighboring village was still around, I would ask her to read my granddaughter's fortune..."
"Oh, wasn't Mr. Choi's granddaughter visiting the other day?"
The villagers recalled Mr. Choi's granddaughter, who used to walk with her shoulders slumped. She had grown up in her grandfather's house until she was ten and was like the granddaughter of the old people in Ogyeri.
"She doesn't even eat lunch and runs around so much."
"She went to see the village shrine in the morning. Will she come back late tonight too?"
"Living in Seoul must be tough."
Everyone raised their makgeolli cups and drank.
* * *
The village shrine in Ogyeri was a very old tree. However, it wasn't the oldest or the largest tree in South Korea.
It was just an old tree, the kind that every rural area might have.
"It's huge."
"It looks like it's 200 years old."
Seo Jun ran up to the tree and stood in front of it. When he looked up, it was enormous. Red, blue, yellow, and white ribbons were tied to the branches, hanging down to the ground. The trunk of the tree was surrounded by a circular stone wall.
Kim Heesang took out his camera from a distance.
"Seo Jun, here!"
"Kimchi!"
Kim Heesang was taking pictures of Seo Jun to send to Seo Eun-hye and Lee Min-joon. Seo Jun, who was enthusiastically posing, heard Kim Heesang say it was enough and went back to looking at the large tree.
The large branches stretched into the sky, and the trunk was thick. The long, colorful ribbons evoked memories.
It felt like the grave of the bell goblin!
No way! Is it here? Seo Jun's eyes sparkled as he slowly walked around the shrine. Kim Heesang, acting like a photographer, took pictures enthusiastically.
He searched thoroughly but couldn't find the hole where Mr. Kim had placed the broken bell.
"Maybe it's not here."
It was a bit disappointing. It would have been nice if it were there. If it were Uncle Heesang, he would have fixed it right away.
"What?"
"Nothing!"
Seo Jun ran to Kim Heesang.
"Uncle! Let's go to the mountain!"
Is this the mountain? It might have changed over time, but thanks to the life book he read like an old fairy tale whenever he was bored for a month and a half, the mountain seemed appealing. It felt like a place where a real goblin might live.
"Let's go. There are many stones, so don't run."
"Okay!"
Seo Jun and Kim Heesang slowly walked along the path next to the shrine.
The summer sun, which had been shining through the branches and leaves, was now blocked after just a few minutes of walking.
"Sure enough, the shade is cool."
"Look! Flowers!"
Seo Jun found flowers nearby. It felt great to be out and about.
Seo Jun pointed excitedly at various things. He found a bird. There was a squirrel. Kim Heesang, who was following Seo Jun, said,
"If we keep going, we might see a wild boar."
"It's a pheasant!"
"Pheasant?! Are you sure it's not a wild boar?"
While looking for animals, Seo Jun stopped and,
Whoosh!
turned his head.
A sound came through the gentle breeze. It wasn't just a bird sound; it seemed to have some meaning.
Seo Jun, like a rabbit with perked-up ears, looked around. Kim Heesang, who was following Seo Jun, called out, puzzled.
"Seo Jun?"
"Shh!"
Seo Jun focused, over there, far away. Something. But it was too faint to determine the direction.
"Mr. Kim."
"Uh-huh?"
"Let's play."
[Activating the game to tease Mr. Kim, the bell goblin.]
Seo Jun scattered the goblin's energy like a bat's ultrasound. He created an inner form and, after pondering how to use it more effectively, came up with the idea from animal documentaries.
Only Mr. Kim responded to this energy.
Seo Jun focused. It wasn't a lot of energy because he was a low-level goblin. In such a wide area, it only reached a short distance.
So, Seo Jun decided to move around actively.
He wanted to stay on the path as much as possible with Uncle Heesang behind him, but the faint sound he had heard was no longer audible.
It was a dangerous situation.
Seo Jun changed his mind and walked into the mountains.
"Seo Jun?!"
Kim Heesang called out to Seo Jun, who was leaving the path and heading into the mountains, but Seo Jun apologized inwardly and carefully walked.
Uncle! I didn't run! The small child scampered around like a squirrel.
Kim Heesang quickly followed Seo Jun. The path was rough, and Seo Jun was so fast that it was hard to catch up. You, you're going to get a good scolding!
The goblin's energy, which had been flowing smoothly, was blocked at one point. Seo Jun quickly headed there.
"I found it!"
"Seo Jun, you! You're going to get a scolding from Uncle!"
"Uncle! Here! There's someone here!"
"From your parents too... What?!"
Kim Heesang, surprised by Seo Jun's words, ran over in one go.