With the tension in the air, Song Jae-Hee hesitated for a moment and wondered to herself if she was qualified enough to recommend anyone. Then, she thought of Chae Woo-Jin’s face and shook her head slightly. If she were to let him be, that boy would be lucky if he did not end up signing a slave contract with a strict agency. Before that happened, she had to put a safety net in place somehow. 

“Actually, there’s someone I’d like to recommend,” said Song Jae-Hee.

“Is he Chae Woo-Jin?” asked Jang Su-Hwan.

“Ack! What!”

Forgetting she was a dignified female actress, Song Jae-Hee threw her honor aside and made a strange sound, jumping out of her seat. She stared at Jang Su-Hwan with a doubtful look, wondering if Woo-Jin had performed a blade dance.

[1]

.

“There is someone who recommended Chae Woo-Jin first.”

“Manager Kim?”

“Manager Kim was the second person to recommend him. You are the third,” responded Jang Su-Hwan.

“I’m the third? Not the second, but the third? Who exactly recommended him? Who had the audacity to recommend Woo-Jin before I did?” 

If Manager Kim recommended him before she did, she would acknowledge it, since he had seen Woo-Jin throughout the shooting on set, so Woo-Jin must have had caught his eye. However, when she had heard that someone other than her had recommended Chae Woo-Jin first, it fired up the totally unnecessary competitive spirit in her, as she had been excited for nothing.  

“G&C Entertainment’s Supreme Witch,” replied Jang Su-Hwan.

Upon hearing Jang Su-Hwan’s answer, she moved her lips without actually saying anything, but soon after, she conceded. She had heard that CEO Choi had personally selected the main leads, as well as the supporting actor, for this movie. Hence, she must have been the first person to know about Woo-Jin’s value. However, she had guessed incorrectly. 

“She had never actually seen him act before, so I asked her why she recommended him.”

“...”

“She said that he looked like her son,” continued Jang Su-Hwan.

“Ah, that toad…?”

That was when Song Jae-Hee finally understood the meaning behind Woo-Jin’s words earlier on during the day. G&C Group’s general chairman was famous for looking like a toad. 

That’s why he was in despair. 

“It’s true that in all honesty, the Supreme Witch, who thinks that her husband is handsome, has terrible taste. But all the people who she thinks resemble her son end up making it big,” said Jang Su-Hwan, who grumbled about how he did not know what kind of standards she had. 

“Regardless of how much the Supreme Witch recommended him, I said that I would think about it and see how it goes. But seeing as both you and Manager Kim have recommended him, I’m guessing that he must have something special,” continued Jang Su-Hwan.

“First of all, he has good looks and is good at acting. There is a unique vibe he gives off, in a positive way. He has the so-called image and the aura of an actor.”

“You’re pretty aggressive about recommending him, huh,” remarked Jang Su-Hwan.

Since Song Jae-Hee was not the type of person to recommend someone else, or actively support them, Jang Su-Hwan glanced at her with a doubtful look in his eyes. Any potential scandals had to be managed properly in advance as long as the other party was a man, even if he was younger. 

“He’s not even an actress who will compete with me, so what do I have to be wary about? Most importantly, I’m just worried about him because he’s very inexperienced and clueless,” replied Song Jae-Hee.

Even though he was the eldest child in the family, and that he was only three years younger than Song Jae-Hee, she felt as though Woo-Jin was a younger brother that was born late into the family. She thought that it would be really cute if he were to call her ‘noona’ while looking at her with sparkly eyes. If they were in the same agency, it would be a step closer to making it happen. It popped into her head that she had another reason for bringing Chae Woo-Jin into DS. 

“All the people who recommended Chae Woo-Jin have a discerning eye, so I will seriously think about it. Of course, the final decision lies with me and Chae Woo-Jin, so stop worrying about this and focus on acting. Even if the movie becomes a flop, shouldn’t you use this as an opportunity for you to completely get rid of your image as a child actor?”

Ironically, the biggest reason why Song Jae-Hee was casted in this movie was because of her image as a young girl, rather than a mature woman. However, unexpectedly, she was loved by two men, and her character, Na Mi-Yeon, gradually bloomed into a mature woman. Hence, playing that character was fun. There was a default mood or ambience set by the writer, but the overall outline would subtly change depending on how the actors portrayed their characters. With 15 years of experience as an actress, Song Jae-Hee was starting to develop a newfound love for acting again. When Song Jae-Hee left the office, Jang Su-Hwan grabbed the folder he was looking at right before she went into his office. 

<Chae Woo-Jin>

All the information he could find out about Chae Woo-Jin could be found under the title of the first page of the file. Jang Su-Hwan was confident that it contained information about Chae Woo-Jin that Chae Woo-Jin himself probably did not even know about. 

“Even if he wasn’t a TM trainee…”

Jang Su-Hwan sighed as he read the document.

***

A month had passed by very quickly. Finally, all that was left was one final sequence. Director Choi and Woo-Jin had a one-on-one talk. 

“Does Cha Hyun-Seung’s tears really fit his image here?” asked Director Choi. 

It was a sincere question on Director Choi’s part - he was not trying to argue with Woo-Jin. He asked that question because he could not come to a conclusion. 

“I think that it doesn’t matter whether or not he sheds any tears. Both seem fine to me. If you can’t come to a conclusion, wouldn’t it be better to just act according to the writer’s intentions?” 

Perhaps it might have been the writer’s intention to use Cha Hyun-Seung’s tears to declare the end of the passionate young love; a love that had no power to do anything was forgotten without leaving anything behind. The tears that were shed with complex feelings could have had different types of meanings, ranging from sorrow to injustice. 

“Isn’t crying too easy?” asked Director Choi.

“It’s certainly easy,” answered Woo-Jin. 

There was nothing easier than using tears to release and express emotions. It was difficult to cry naturally, but if the actor could shed tears to tell the audience how sad the character was, there was no other effective method to convince them and get their understanding. 

“Using just tears to unravel Cha Hyun-Seung’s complicated feelings would mean that all our hard work up until now has been in vain. I’ve also been thinking - Cha Hyun-Seung, who happened to run into Na Mi-Yeon ten years later, has already gotten married. I mean, I don’t think that Cha Hyun-Seung simply accepted reality and simply married a random person he did not love,” said Director Choi. 

Woo-Jin agreed with what Director Choi said and nodded. 

“I feel the same way. My version of Cha Hyun-Seung is someone who knows what love is. That person is someone who would rather live alone than marry a woman he doesn’t love.” 

The emotion that Woo-Jin chose when he acted as Cha Hyun-Seung was patience instead of a sense of inferiority. He played a character that knew what patience was when it came to love; someone who wanted to protect the love of the woman he loved, in the hope that she would not get hurt, and wishing that she would shine more brilliantly than anyone else. 

“Yeah, a man as such! A man, who already has a wife that he loves, cried because he saw the person he used to love?” asked Director Choi. 

“There is a saying that a man cannot forget his first love. In this case, it was his first unrequited love,” said Woo-Jin.

“In that case, what do you think would happen if you were him? Would you cry if you were to run into your first love ten years later?”

Although Director Choi did not know the details, he asked him cautiously, with the knowledge that Woo-Jin had experienced a painful love which made him feel despair. That sudden question was something Woo-Jin had never thought about before, so he was a little caught off guard. 

However, knowing Director Choi’s intentions, Woo-Jin earnestly thought about it. It had been almost two years since he had seen his ex-girlfriend. Since it was completely different from not seeing a former lover for ten years, coupled with the fact that Cha Hyun-Seung was also in an entirely different position, it was hard to make a comparison. But the one thing they had in common was that they had both lost the woman they loved. 

Right now, Woo-Jin was not in love with anyone, but he could imagine it. If he were to unexpectedly run into her one day and find out that she had completely forgotten about him, and that his existence had been completely erased from her life, how would he have reacted? Not forgetting the fact that he had someone else by his side now, who he was in love with. 

He felt like he was going to cry, but ultimately did not. Firstly, it was because of his pride. Secondly, he did not want to make things awkward for her. 

“Ah…”

Cha Hyun-Seung clearly had a different personality from Chae Woo-Jin, but they seemed to have similar feelings for the other person. If it were different, Cha Hyun-Seung would have put her wellbeing and emotions first and his pride second. It would not have been different just because he had a wife who he loved. 

Just because it was over, it did not mean that he did not love her. It was not that he had lingering feelings for her, or that he could not forget her. It was the minimum courtesy and self-respect for the past relationship. He wanted to cry but he would not cry. It was also out of courtesy and respect for the person he loved now. 

“If it were me, I wouldn’t cry. Cha Hyun-Seung wouldn’t cry either. He’s more emotional than anyone else, but he’s a rational person when it comes to his actions,” said Woo-Jin.

“That’s exactly right! It’s a very common cliche to cry because you cannot forget your first love.”

Working with a script that had stereotypical and cliched content, Director Choi had been working very hard in order to shoot a movie that portrayed uncommon emotions. This was the first screenplay that the writer of Glooming Day had ever written. The reason why Director Choi had ignored the writer’s intentions was not because he was inexperienced, but because the sub-par dialogue and the trite content had made him so annoyed and caused his blood pressure to rise throughout the production. 

He had gathered all the images of first love that were known to the world. The only thing he liked was the ending. However, he had truly only liked the ending; the inconsistent flow of the movie caused by the ending was unbearable. The first half of the movie was very beautiful, as though they were traveling in a fantasy world, but towards the end, they were brought back to reality. This was similar to a typical development of a comedy that was designed to be funny throughout, but was given forced emotions and a sense of reality towards the end, adding weight to it. In truth, Director Choi was curious about how such a work landed in CEO Choi’s hands, but what could he do even if he knew? It was useless unless he could go back in time and stop it from happening.

“Just ignore the writer’s intentions, like what you’ve been doing. Follow the emotions of your version of Cha Hyun-Seung,” said Director Choi.

If the writer 

were

 to watch the movie later on, he might doubt that it was a movie based on his screenplay. Most importantly, it was highly likely that CEO Choi would not like it. This was because all the romance movies that had been produced so far under her company were tailored to her taste, just like the original screenplay. But this time, the movie had deviated far from them. Beyond adding and removing parts of the content of the movie, the mood and ambience had completely changed. However, Director Choi Yi-Geon was proud that he had produced a better movie than the previous romance movies. By getting rid of the immature and cringy side of the characters, and giving them rationality, he made their actions legitimate. At least, while watching the movie, he was confident that there would be no criticisms or debates about how the movie had excessive emotions or how it did not have verisimilitude. 

As soon as he had resolved the last thing he was worried about, he prepared for the final scene.

Ten years later, Cha Hyun-Seung, who had become a professor, was traveling to Busan via KTX for a seminar. Out of boredom, he took out his phone and scrolled through the headlines of the articles.