Chapter 49: Because I Wanted to Be Friends
Before the first screening, Geonwoo and the others arrived at the theater.
French, German, and English mixed together around them.
Taejun slowed his steps.
“Hyung.”
“All these people are here to see our movie?”
“Judging by the time, I think so.”
Taejun followed the line with his eyes all the way to the end.
“Wow.”
Yura also stared at the crowd.
Seeing SOLD OUT on a screen the day before had been one thing.
Today, the people who would fill those seats were standing right in front of them.
A festival staff member spotted Geonwoo’s group and approached.
After a short greeting, the staff member checked the badges hanging from their necks.
“You can wait in the guest lounge until the screening.”
“We’ll come get you once audience entry is complete.”
Geonwoo nodded.
“Thank you.”
The four followed a corridor opposite the audience line.
Even while walking, Taejun turned around several times.
Yura asked,
“Nervous?”
“I’m fine so far.”
Taejun immediately added,
“No.”
“Honestly, I’m a little nervous.”
Yura chuckled.
The guest lounge wasn’t far from the theater.
Small sofas and tables were placed inside.
A schedule of the day’s screenings hung on the wall.
Geonwoo picked up a bottle of water.
Jihye was reconfirming the order of the post-screening Q&A with the festival staff.
Taejun sat down.
Then stood up again almost immediately.
“Stay still.”
Yura said.
“I’m nervous.”
“You’re making me more nervous too.”
“You’re nervous?”
“Of course.”
Geonwoo smiled at the two.
“You really are nervous.”
Taejun asked,
“Hyung, you aren’t?”
“I am.”
Taejun stared at him.
“You don’t look like it.”
“I’m trying to stay calm.”
“We made the best movie we could, and we were invited here.”
“At this point, all we can do is hope the movie reaches the audience.”
Taejun looked at him.
“Hyung, you’re barely older than me, but sometimes you sound like some ancient sage.”
A staff member entered the lounge shortly afterward.
“Audience entry has started.”
“We’ll bring the guests in about ten minutes.”
Geonwoo checked his watch.
There were a little over twenty minutes until the screening.
The noise outside gradually decreased.
“Dogyeom posted in the group chat.”
At Yura’s words, Geonwoo checked his phone.
Dogyeom had sent a message to the Before the Light Reaches group.
[Lee Dogyeom: The screening should be starting soon, right?]
[Lee Dogyeom: I’m nervous tooㅠㅠ]
Yura replied first.
[Han Yura: Yeah. It’s starting soon.]
[Han Yura: Are you done filming?]
[Lee Dogyeom: Yes! We just finished.]
[Lee Dogyeom: Good luck at the Q&A, noona!]
[Han Yura: Okay!! I’ll contact you afterward.]
Taejun looked at his own phone and added a message.
[Kang Taejun: No encouragement for me?]
A moment later.
[Lee Dogyeom: Taejun hyung, fighting too lol]
[Kang Taejun: Why did you add lol?]
Yura finally laughed.
Geonwoo smiled too as he put down his phone.
Some of the stiffness in the room disappeared.
Then the staff member returned.
“We’ll move now.”
The four stood.
The rear door of the theater opened.
Audience entry was almost complete.
Most of the seats were filled.
When Geonwoo’s group entered, several audience members near the front turned around.
Taejun’s pace slowed slightly.
“Hyung.”
“We have a problem.”
Geonwoo looked beside him.
“Why?”
“Now that I’m actually seeing the audience sitting there, I’m really nervous.”
Yura scanned the seats once.
“Me too.”
“You too, Yura?”
“Of course.”
“We don’t know how people here are going to see it.”
“There’s nothing to be nervous about.”
“Have confidence.”
Geonwoo’s group was guided to seats near the back.
Just before sitting, Geonwoo spotted a familiar face a short distance away.
Lucien.
Their eyes met.
Instead of greeting him, Lucien simply raised one hand.
A short while later.
The host went onto the stage and briefly introduced the film.
Then Geonwoo, Taejun, and Yura’s names were called.
The three stood.
Applause came from the audience.
Geonwoo bowed.
Taejun and Yura greeted them too.
Once they sat back down, Taejun released a quiet breath.
“Now it’s really starting.”
Geonwoo smiled and looked forward.
The host finished by announcing there would be a Q&A after the screening.
When it was time, the doors closed.
The theater lights slowly dimmed.
The conversations that had filled the room quickly faded.
Geonwoo glanced once toward Lucien.
Lucien had already opened a small notebook and was holding a pen.
Soon the screen brightened.
The first overseas screening of Before the Light Reaches began.
Lucien wrote the title at the top of his notebook.
Underneath it, he wrote the director’s name.
BAEK GUN-WOO.
Lucien had first learned the name Baek Geonwoo because of Han Eunchae.
Lucien liked K-pop.
And he followed almost everything Han Eunchae did.
Recently, as usual, he had been looking through articles about her when he discovered the name of a director.
Baek Geonwoo.
The director of Han Eunchae’s next film.
At first, Lucien only looked him up because he wanted to know who had convinced Han Eunchae to choose that project.
He learned that Geonwoo was a rookie director whose first film had only recently been released.
And yet his next film was a much larger historical production.
That was about all he knew.
Then Lucien saw the same name again in the Fribourg festival program.
Before the Light Reaches.
Baek Geonwoo’s first feature film.
What kind of movie did the director Han Eunchae chose make?
That was his original curiosity.
When Lucien met Geonwoo in person at the opening ceremony the day before, he looked even younger than expected.
That made Lucien more curious.
As the film began, Lucien raised his pen.
He wrote down his thoughts.
Where the camera stopped.
When the music entered.
The moments actors stopped speaking.
It wasn’t very different from how he usually watched another director’s film.
Then the movie passed the ten-minute mark.
Seorin began seriously suspecting her younger brother’s death for the first time.
Oh? The atmosphere changes here.
As time passed, the things Lucien wrote began to change.
At first, most of his notes had been about acting and direction.
From the middle onward, however, he began writing more about the neighborhood.
Things were disappearing one by one from the alleys where people moved through their daily lives.
Lucien wrote a short line.
[As the incident progresses, the space itself keeps disappearing.]
After that, his pen stopped for quite some time.
The notebook remained open, but Lucien’s eyes stayed on the screen.
The final scene passed.
The screen turned black.
The end credits began.
Wow... I got so absorbed I forgot to take notes.
A small smile appeared on Lucien’s face.
He remembered what he had told Geonwoo yesterday.
If he liked the film, they would drink.
If he didn’t, he would cancel.
Lucien put down his pen.
There was no reason to cancel.
Then applause began from one side.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
Soon hands came together from other seats as well.
Lucien put his notebook on his lap and joined the applause.
His eyes met Geonwoo’s.
Lucien lifted the notebook once.
Geonwoo chuckled.
The lights came on.
“We’ll begin the Q&A shortly.”
At the announcement, Geonwoo stood.
Geonwoo, Taejun, and Yura sat onstage.
The moderator briefly introduced the film and guests.
