Kang So-jeong also knew exactly how great of an actor Tae-ha was.
She couldn’t help but know.
She had always watched his acting with great interest.
In So-jeong’s opinion, Tae-ha’s acting skills were already at the level of a top-tier actor.
She felt that even when compared to herself, he didn’t fall behind at all.
In fact, in some aspects, Tae-ha showed an even better performance. However, that didn’t mean she had no questions regarding his acting ability.
The source of her doubt.
That source was what Lee Seok-hyun had told her after working directly with Tae-ha.
“Tae-ha’s acting is different from other actors. His acting skill itself is great, but it feels like he’s pulling up the potential of the actors he’s working with. It’s as if even the staff on site are influenced by his acting. It’s like… yeah. It feels just like when I acted with Writer Ho-jun’s scripts during *Running Time*.
That’s the feeling I got.” Kang So-jeong also knew exactly what that feeling Lee Seok-hyun described was. During *Running Time*, she had felt as if the words written in the script entered her body and heated it up. And after Ho-jun’s death, So-jeong had never felt that sensation on any set. This was one of the dozens of reasons why she missed Ho-jun.
Yet, her cousin Tae-ha was producing a similar feeling through his acting? It was naturally difficult for So-jeong to believe.
That was why she had been curious ever since she heard that story from Seok-hyun.
She wondered how Tae-ha acted on set.
And now, Kang So-jeong perfectly understood why Lee Seok-hyun had said those words. ‘This is impossible…’ She had no choice but to think that.
The moment Tae-ha began acting, she felt the air on the set change.
It was an incredibly intense heat. That heat dominated the scene.
It wasn’t just So-jeong’s delusion.
The moment Tae-ha opened his mouth and moved as Lee Hee-yeon’s Son Jeong-hyeon, the concentration of the staff changed as well.
In particular, Yoon Seong-geun stared blankly at Tae-ha’s face with an expression of disbelief.
It even reached the point where— “Um… Director?” It caused Yoon Seong-geun to forget to call out “Okay.” “Ah! Okay!” At Tae-ha’s question, Yoon Seong-geun barely regained his senses and gave the “Okay” sign. The staff then huddled together to talk about the performance they had just witnessed.
As for Yoon Seong-geun, he immediately ran to Tae-ha and began pouring out praise.
He asked how he could act like that, why he was only appearing now, what project he was considering next, and how about doing a film together.
The compliments followed one after another, far exceeding what one would consider mere lip service. And these remarks could have been seen as disrespectful to Kang So-jeong and Lee Seok-hyun, who were currently working with Yoon Seong-geun as leads.
In fact, several staff members, including the assistant director, were watching the two of them for their reactions. However… “You all saw that, right?” Surprisingly, Seok-hyun’s face was filled with a sense of pride as he looked at Tae-ha, with whom he had just shared the scene. It was an expression just like someone who was proud of his younger brother.
Kang So-jeong was the same. After being stunned for a long while, she finally snapped out of it and walked straight toward Tae-ha, her cheeks flushed red. Then, she spoke to him.
“Hey, Kang Tae-ha.” “Hmm?” “Don’t think you’ve paid back all your debts to me with just this.”
“I don’t think that.” “No, say it right here. That you’ll do your next project with me.” She was so anxious that she made this demand despite knowing it was unreasonable. Of course, considering everything from the audition for *Heureojeo Itdeon Saramdeul* to the casting of Shin So-hee in *Your Brilliant Sparkle*, Kang So-jeong was someone who could make such a request after giving him so much help. But that didn’t mean Tae-ha gave her a definitive answer.
“We’ll see.”
Those were the words that came from Tae-ha as he wore a bright smile.
***
After successfully finishing his cameo filming for *Ghost Ship*, Tae-ha focused back on his main job, the filming of *Fight School*.
Episode 13 covered the story of Mobeom High, where a strange atmosphere began to settle with the appearance of Lee Woo-jin, the pure-blood heir of the Haeseong Group.
And at the end of Episode 13, Lee Woo-jin finally caused an incident. He bullied one of the students at Mobeom High.
He didn’t just bully them, either. He raised a blood-stained fist toward Lee In-woo and smiled.
Then, he asked In-woo.
“What are you going to do if I’m like this? Can you really go against Father’s wishes, Brother?”
In Episode 14, the full-scale confrontation between Lee In-woo and the Haeseong Group unfolded.
It started with the Chairman of the Haeseong Group calling In-woo in and asking him to wrap up Lee Woo-jin’s incident quietly.
“I’d like you to let Woo-jin’s matter slide quietly. He is your brother, after all.”
“…For free? I’m disappointed if that’s the case.”
“Hahaha. Like father, like son. Your biological father also handed you over to me to save his own skin.”
“Fine. I will guarantee you the position of president for one of the Haeseong Group’s subsidiaries. I don’t care where it is. Even if it’s the president of Haeseong Electronics, the heart of the group. But you’d better remember how miserable your biological father’s end was.”
“Yes. I won’t forget.”
And so, Lee In-woo stepped down from his teaching position and became the president of Haeseong Electronics.
One year passed, and Mobeom High, which In-woo had left, looked the same as before.
Lee Woo-jin had changed Mobeom High back to its old ways.
Incidents and accidents never ceased. Woo-jin was on his way out after being scolded by the Chairman for causing another accident. He coincidentally ran into In-woo, who was dressed in a sharp suit, and sneered.
“Must be nice. Thanks to me, you even got to be the president of Haeseong Electronics, a position you don’t deserve. I heard your performance is pretty good?”
“It’s not bad.”
“That’ll be my spot soon, so you better not try any tricks. I’m telling you to hand over the position cleanly.” With that, Woo-jin poked In-woo’s shoulder with his index finger and left triumphantly. However, In-woo’s low voice stopped Woo-jin in his tracks. “What should I do then?” Woo-jin turned his head toward In-woo. In-woo continued as he looked at him. “I’ve already started what you would consider a trick.”
In Episode 15, Lee Woo-jin was officially referred to a disciplinary committee.
The Chairman of the Haeseong Group immediately summoned In-woo.
“Didn’t you say you’d let it slide quietly? That’s why you took the position at Haeseong Electronics.”
“Yes. That’s why I worked hard to grow Haeseong Electronics. But then I suddenly thought: no matter how hard I work, isn’t it eventually you who benefits, Chairman? A deal where only one side benefits unilaterally… then you can’t really call it a deal, can you?”
“So you dare to challenge me?”
“I’m not just challenging you. Look around you. The fight has already begun.” The furious Chairman tried to hold a shareholders’ meeting to dismiss In-woo. However, as In-woo initiated legal proceedings, the decision was delayed. In the meantime, In-woo exposed the corruption of the Haeseong Group day by day.
As a result, the group’s stock price fluctuated wildly.
In Episode 16, a scene was portrayed where In-woo delivered the final blow to the Chairman, who was holding out until the end.
“Will you give up the Haeseong Group for your child? Chairman?”
At In-woo’s words, the Chairman decided to hand Woo-jin over to the disciplinary committee.
At the same time, he prepared for Woo-jin to study abroad. However, In-woo did not miss this opportunity and went to see Woo-jin.
“The disciplinary committee will be held. The Chairman has abandoned you.”
“What? You think I’ll believe that?”
“I’ll tell you one way to survive. Sell the Haeseong Group shares you have to me. Go study abroad with that money.”
Woo-jin wavered but did not sell the shares.
“You stupid bastard. You think I’ll fall for a tactic like that? You think I’d hand over the Haeseong Group to you?”
“You’re not falling for it…”
“Of course not! I’m the person who will become the chairman of this group! I’m the person who will stand at the top after trampling over pigs like you!”
However, In-woo’s goal was not to take over the Haeseong Group.
The Chairman and Lee Woo-jin. The proof was that he released the recorded files of his conversations with those two through foreign media. In the end, the stock price of the Haeseong Group spiraled toward disaster.
The Chairman realized he had been completely defeated by In-woo. What In-woo wanted from the beginning was the downfall of the Haeseong Group.
“If your goal was to take over the group, I could at least understand. Why did you go this far for just a high school?” “Because the demons born in that high school are ruining this society.”
“Was it to get revenge on me? You know it, too! Your parents really did sell you out! Doing this won’t change your past!”
“I know. That I’m an abandoned child. But what I’m trying to change is not my past. The future… I’m going to change the future.”
In the end, the Chairman sold all his shares and stepped down from his position completely. And on the day of Lee Woo-jin’s disciplinary committee. In-woo made a request to Kim Eun-ha. “Please look after Mobeom High.”
“Are you really not coming back?”
“I’m not. The less a student who has left school looks back, the happier they are.”
A few years later. *Fight School* finally concluded with the reunion of Kim Eun-ha and Lee In-woo.
***
With Episodes 13 to 16, the filming of *Fight School* finally came to an end. Perhaps because it was the latter half of the work, the density of the acting was incredibly high.
Among them, the scenes that were hardest for Tae-ha were Lee In-woo’s flashback scenes.
In-woo’s biological father was a person who could be described as the scum of the earth. After his business failed, he would get drunk and release his anger toward society by beating his wife every day.
In the process, the father found out that the Chairman of the Haeseong Group took an interest in In-woo and tried to sell him to earn money for alcohol.
However, In-woo’s biological mother was furious and tried to stab the father with a piece of a broken bottle, but she ended up being strangled to death instead.
Although the father committed suicide later out of guilt after realizing things had gone wrong, In-woo’s past fell further into the abyss because of it.
This was the reason why the brilliant In-woo had lived his life building a wall against society.
However, he felt himself changing little by little after meeting Kim Eun-ha.
Finally, In-woo’s flashback scene showed him harboring the dream of changing the future. It was a very important scene.
It was the part that informed the viewers why In-woo worked so hard to change Mobeom High. That was why he had to pay close attention to his acting, and fortunately, Tae-ha was able to finish filming satisfactorily.
Of course, this didn’t mean that all schedules related to *Fight School* were over.
‘Is it time to handle the promotional schedule once again…’ There was still the promotion schedule, which played an important role in the success or failure of *Fight School*.