Chapter 131
“No. Let’s just go first. We can talk on the way.”
Baek Seonghan tried to calm the extremely excited Song Jaehyun.
“Wait, Director Song. Wouldn’t it be better to find the location first before we leave?”
“Assistant Director Woo is already searching on her phone. The Naju Plains are famous, aren’t they? If we see somewhere that looks good on the way, we can stop and check it out.”
“No. That might actually make us waste even more time.”
Baek Seonghan and Song Jaehyun disagreed.
“Director, how about this place?”
I showed Song Jaehyun the location I had researched beforehand for exactly this kind of situation.
“Where is this?”
Song Jaehyun’s eyes immediately changed as he looked at the photos on my phone.
“My mother’s hometown is around there, so I thought it looked similar to the kind of field you had in mind.”
I pointed at the screen.
“It’s a place called Bangjuk.”
Song Jaehyun immediately turned toward the gathered staff.
“Everyone, gather up.”
He started giving orders rapidly.
“Assistant Director Woo, call Senior Han Seokgu’s manager and ask where they are. Tell them to head straight to Bangjuk.”
“Taesoo and the rookie, contact the camera crew and all the other teams. Tell everyone to go straight there.”
Then one of the directing staff responsible for costumes spoke with a troubled expression.
“Director... there’s one problem. The costume...”
“The costume?”
Song Jaehyun suddenly froze.
He had clearly just remembered.
We had already filmed the scene immediately before the ending.
Because of continuity, we needed to use the exact same bloodstained costume from that shoot.
“Call the costume team right now and ask if they have it with them. Hurry!”
Song Jaehyun urged them as if the building were on fire.
I smiled calmly.
“Director, you don’t need to worry about that.”
He looked at me.
“I told the costume team to keep carrying it around because we never knew when it might snow.”
Song Jaehyun stared at me in amazement.
“Ha... CEO Min...”
Then the directing staff members who had been calling actors and crew began reporting back.
“Director, Senior Han Seokgu says he can arrive at Bangjuk within an hour.”
“The camera team and the other departments are nearby too. They’re turning around now.”
“Good!”
Song Jaehyun’s voice filled with energy.
“Let’s move!”
The entire world was white.
Beyond the endless snowfield, gently rolling mountain ridges were covered in white snow, forming soft curves.
The distant mountains were obscured by the pale snowfall, leaving only faint outlines behind.
The boundary between sky and earth had almost disappeared.
Snowflakes poured down from the gray sky, slowly erasing the world.
Among the snow scattered by the wind, a single shadow moved.
A man.
The silhouette of a man in a black coat moved slowly across the white canvas.
His steps staggered.
Blood flowed from his side and left red drops on the white snow.
One step.
Then another.
Wherever he passed, vivid red footprints remained behind him.
Like a thin red thread stretching forward, barely holding together.
“Haah...”
White breath escaped from the man’s lips, which had grown as pale as the snow.
He stopped walking and slowly raised his head.
Far away, on top of a ridge, stood a small house.
A thin trail of smoke rose from it.
In this barren white world, the smoke twisted upward like the only living thing that remained.
The man reached toward the house.
His vision shook.
“Ugh...”
Blood continued surging from his side.
The man started walking again.
But...
His second step failed him.
His knees hit the snow.
He tried desperately not to fall, but gravity won.
His body collapsed.
Thump.
He sank into the snow.
When the cold snow touched his face, the man smiled faintly.
“Ha... it’s warm...”
Then he murmured,
“No... maybe I’m the one who’s gotten cold...”
The man slowly rolled onto his back and looked up at the sky.
Countless snowflakes fell over him.
His eyes drifted back toward the house on the ridge.
“I need to go home...”
His voice weakened.
“I’m almost there...”
His eyelids slowly closed.
The man stopped moving.
Snow began accumulating over his body.
Quickly.
Yet silently.
“Cut! Okay!”
Song Jaehyun’s shout echoed across the silent field.
But none of the staff immediately made a sound.
Everyone who had gathered there that day could feel it.
A scene that would remain in film history for years...
No.
A scene that would be talked about forever...
Had just been born before their eyes.
After the shoot in Naju, I spent quite a while hiding from the heated gazes of the staff.
“It’s way too strange.”
“Apparently, he already researched the location like he knew it was going to snow in Naju.”
“Come on. That’s not it.”
“I heard his mother’s family is from around there, so he just happened to remember a similar place.”
“No, seriously, that doesn’t explain it.”
“Then how do you explain the costume?”
“Right. Honestly, that’s the part that freaks me out even more.”
Whenever the staff got a chance, they gathered together and talked about me while recalling what had happened that day.
“Exactly.”
“Why would he tell the costume team to carry around clothes we didn’t even need yet?”
“So the rumor that CEO Min is some kind of male shaman is true?”
“I don’t know if he actually went through a shamanic initiation, but I’m pretty sure he has some kind of spiritual gift.”
“Then I should start treating CEO Min really well.”
“If he actually has supernatural abilities, every movie and drama he produces is going to become a huge hit.”
“Exactly. Me too.”
Before long, the eventful year of 2012 ended.
The new year of 2013 began.
And filming for Kingdom of Crime was entering its final stage.
Meanwhile, YTBS’s Let’s Get Married ended its run with a solid rating of 1.12 percent.
It was praised for attracting younger viewers to a general programming channel whose audience normally skewed older.
Not long afterward, Happy Laundry, the drama scheduled for YTBS’s May Monday-Tuesday slot, officially began filming.
Because of Happy Laundry, it became difficult for me to spend as much time on the set of Kingdom of Crime as I had before.
Besides, with filming already in its final stages, there wasn’t much left that required my involvement.
“Where?”
I held the phone tighter.
“Ganghwa Island?”
