After finishing the call with Kim Jeong-sik.
Taeha planned to take a walk and organize the thoughts floating in his mind.
But things didn’t go as planned.
Because he’d forgotten to bring his mask by mistake, he encountered unexpected trouble.
At present, Taeha was in a state where the habits of the previous Kang Taeha and his original self, Lee Ho-jun, were mixed together.
So, often he acted just as the former Kang Taeha would, and among those habits was always remembering to bring and wear a mask whenever he went out.
But today, of all days, the mask had fallen out somewhere, and as a result, he had to take a stroll without wearing one.
The consequences were unexpectedly shocking.
Wherever he went, people came up and started talking to him.
[Oppa! What school do you go to, by any chance? I go to Sejeong Girls’ High School….]
[Hey! Good-looking student! Are you interested in working out? I’ll give you a special discount since you’re a student—no, actually, I’ll just give you a one-month membership for free, so would you just come by?]
[Hello, I’m Jeong Pil-woo, Team Leader of the scouting team at Twomug Entertainment. You look great in a mask, but have you ever thought of working as a celebrity? With looks like yours, you’ll make it big no matter what you do.]
Recalling all that happened in just a brief time, Taeha muttered to himself.
“Living with a handsome face is more exhausting than you’d think.”
Taeha realized the gravity of the situation belatedly, hurriedly tossed the mask he’d just bought at the convenience store into the trash bin, and sat down at his desk.
Having done so, he naturally fell into the thoughts he’d failed to finish during his walk as he turned on his Notebook.
The first thing that came to mind was the question he’d asked Kim Jeong-sik.
[From what I know, you used to only write melo, so how did you come to change genres?]
It was a question he’d been curious about since the first time he saw the script.
Kim Jeong-sik had started his career as a Drama writer by winning the KBC Drama Script Contest.
His Debut Work was about a Divorced Man and Woman reuniting.
And the three works he wrote after that were all melo Dramas.
“They were, honestly, just average.”
Their slow pace and tangled Emotion Line led viewers to turn away.
Of course, there were merits, too.
Even though the Emotion Line wasn’t expressed well enough to win big empathy, each piece contained deep Insight.
That’s why it was able to be dramatized at all.
There were even some who watched Kim Jeong-sik’s Dramas religiously.
But those were few in number.
Since the results hadn’t been good so far, it was understandable to seek change.
However, was a completely different work from his previous ones.
It could have been written by a completely different person.
There wasn’t a single element of Romance, and unlike his earlier works that dug deep into emotions, this one developed rapidly, centered around Crime.
No matter how much one wanted to try something new, it wasn’t easy to completely change course like this.
It wasn’t just a runner changing shoes or tracks—it was more like switching to high jump as an event.
So, Taeha couldn’t help but be curious about how he’d chosen such a change.
Fortunately, Kim Jeong-sik answered Taeha’s question frankly.
[The reason I write Drama—this might sound obvious, but I wanted to explore and show the many facets of humanity. That’s why I chose melo. People experience the widest range of emotions when in love, and they show everything, right down to the bottom, leaving nothing behind.]
In this way, Kim Jeong-sik first explained why he had written melo all along.
[After that, I just kept writing it. As if it was a given. I made my debut with melo, and I thought melo was what suited me. But when I started thinking about my next work… to be honest, the response to my last piece was really bad, so I worried a lot. I didn’t even know what to write. And then suddenly this thought popped into my head.]
[What thought?]
[Why am I only writing love stories I’m not even good at? Didn’t I just want to write stories about people?]
[Ah.]
[So, I just decided to break out of the mold… and look for something I actually wanted to write.]
In that process, he discovered a talent for a genre he hadn’t expected.
At first, it was just a simple, curious question.
But after hearing Kim Jeong-sik’s answer, Taeha started wondering if maybe he too had been confined by an assumption he’d never questioned.
“Huh…”
Taeha had spent a long time under Baek Seung-chul.
To simplify, Baek Seung-chul wrote Dramas that were roughly seventy-five percent Crime and twenty-five percent Romance.
A person’s growth and Revenge, and love.
It was formulaic, but demand for it was certain.
And by crossing between period pieces and modern stories, mixing in his own unique flavor and variations, he always succeeded.
Taeha accepted this as a formula for success.
Running Time, too, had been born from this formula.
“The subject matter is pretty different, though.”
Baek Seung-chul had once written two- or thirty-episode works, so he liked to go big.
Usually, the stories unfolded against the backdrop of a Chaebol Family or Royal Family, so it made sense.
Taeha, though, wanted to handle the stories of more ordinary Main Characters, even if they were a bit smaller in scale.
A marathon runner caught up in a conspiracy, growing a Romance with the Female Lead, overcoming hardships and adversity that life throws at them, and becoming the Main Character of the Film she’s making—this was how Running Time was born.
Taeha expected that, compared to Baek Seung-chul’s straightforward, sensational Dramas, public interest might fall off.
Even so, he believed that its modest popularity was because he’d still followed Baek Seung-chul’s formula, aside from the engaging story.
“But maybe… that was the wrong way to think about it.”
If the story you want to tell is different, there’s no reason you have to follow a single formula.
It must be done this way.
He realized that being trapped by such formulas could end up watering down the story he really wanted to tell.
Come to think of it, it might not even be possible for a single formula to exist in writing where so many different elements mix and coexist.
More than anything, from the start, Taeha and Baek Seung-chul were different people.
“There could be stories that suit me better, stories I write better… but I’ve never even thought about that.”
He just naturally wrote to fit Baek Seung-chul’s formula.
Even his most recent work was the same.
Taeha quietly gazed at the planning document and script file, tucked away in the far corner of his Notebook’s desktop.
Then, without further hesitation, he pressed the delete button.
A moment later, a New Document opened on the Notebook.
***
June, when the temperature had shot up.
In the thick, green forest, the sound of “Cut!” echoed.
“Ugh, it’s hot.”
“Haa.”
At the same time, Taeha and Seon Min-gi let out hot breaths.
Both their foreheads were beaded with sweat.
By now, the filming of had passed the first and second Episodes dealing with the ‘Murderous Psychopath’, and entered the third and fourth Episodes covering ‘The Forest That Swallows People’.
The scene currently being filmed was the part where they chased clues from a demon that had caused hikers to go missing, deep into the mountain.
Since it was a location they couldn’t visit often, Director Lee Hae-ik’s goal today was to finish all related filming here.
Because of that, filming, which had started early in the morning, was scheduled to continue until dusk.
No sooner had Taeha and Seon Min-gi stepped out of the camera’s view than their Stylists rushed over with Hand Fans.
Kim Su-jin, who had recently joined as Taeha’s Stylist, did the same.
“Actor, use this.”
“Oh, thanks.”
Taeha immediately brought the Hand Fan to his face to cool his heated cheeks.
Seon Min-gi shrugged off his outerwear.
Seeing that, Taeha also took off his jacket.
“Ha. I was so exhausted I forgot I was even wearing this.”
Taeha had been wearing a dark blue Trucker Jacket, and Seon Min-gi wore a khaki Safari Jacket that went down to his knees.
Since the story was set between autumn and winter, outerwear was mandatory regardless of the temperature.
“Aren’t there even scenes set at Christmas? It’s actually summer, but this is already insane.”
Hearing Taeha mutter, Seon Min-gi’s Stylist agreed.
“Exactly. You’ll probably have to wear Padding or a Coat.”
Seon Min-gi’s manager, Kim Nam-sun, chimed in with concern.
“Of all days, why’d it have to be scheduled now?”
“I bet even then Director Lee Hae-ik will shoot just as relentlessly, right?”
The Staff just forced a smile at Taeha’s half-resigned tone, unable to even complain.
Honestly, the weather was still bearable.
Even in the mountains, the temperature was lower than in the city center.
Still, the reason Taeha and Seon Min-gi were staggering, exhausted, was largely thanks to Director Lee Hae-ik.
True to the reputation of Art Ik, they repeated takes dozens of times, over and over.
Today, he seemed even more passionate than usual, as if he’d been possessed by something.
Thanks to that, even Seon Min-gi, who was rarely worn out, showed clear signs of fatigue.
But considering he’d started filming far earlier than Taeha and shot two or three times as many cuts, it was impressive.
“You’re really amazing, hyung.”
“What is?”
At Taeha’s admiration, Seon Min-gi replied brusquely.
Honestly, Seon Min-gi’s feelings about Taeha were complicated.
He hadn’t had a good first impression, and even his impatient side had been exposed, so it was natural.
But watching Taeha approach him so naturally, as if nothing had happened, he found it hard to keep disliking him even if he tried.
What’s more, whenever they filmed together, Taeha showed acting skills no rookie could match, and that only raised Seon Min-gi’s opinion of him.
Meanwhile, Taeha answered Seon Min-gi’s question.
“I don’t know.”
What Taeha actually wanted to say was stamina, but as he spoke, his gaze naturally drifted to Seon Min-gi’s well-built body.
Even during the script reading, he’d thought Seon Min-gi must really have worked out, but now, with the T-shirt clinging to his torso and his silhouette showing through, Taeha couldn’t help but notice.
It was a physique any guy would envy.
Seon Min-gi responded.
“My body? If you’re talking about bodies, you’re not bad yourself.”
He was right.
In fact, Taeha had also built up his body for the Lee Jae-hyun role.
Maybe not as much as Jin-seong, but since Lee Jae-hyun had plenty of action scenes, there were lots of moments where he had to show his physical condition.
So before full-scale filming began, Taeha had bulked up with the Bapak Exercise.
At this, Seon Min-gi’s Stylist, who had been listening, nodded and spoke.
“Right? Who would’ve thought you’d prep this much in just a month. And Taeha, you look way healthier now that you’ve bulked up. You used to seem more like a pretty boy, but now you look… more like a man.”
“I look like a man? Don’t go falling for me now, okay? I’m not thinking about dating yet. This is the time to work hard, not fall in love.”
Ever since the incident of walking the streets without a mask, Taeha had become even more accustomed to his appearance.
When Taeha joked, the other Staff who weren’t the Stylist burst out laughing.
“Come on. I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Well, working with Min-gi hyung, I doubt someone like me looks like a man to you. Maybe I’ll try this again when I’m as old as Min-gi hyung.”
When Taeha cracked another joke, the set broke out into laughter again.
Seeing that, Seon Min-gi looked at Taeha in disbelief, but didn’t seem to mind.
Thanks to Taeha, the previously downbeat mood on set lightened considerably.
Before anyone realized, Kim Nam-sun, who was also smiling, joined in the conversation.
Kim Nam-sun, too, had been thinking he should help boost the mood.
“Seriously, Taeha, you joke around so well. Anyway, our Taeha is totally at the peak of his prime. But being up in the mountains makes me crave some baeksuk chicken. Right, hyung?”
Normally, Seon Min-gi would have gone along and nodded at Kim Nam-sun’s attempt to lighten the mood.
But unexpectedly, Seon Min-gi shook his head.
There was a reason.
“Baeksuk? What baeksuk. We have to eat the lunchboxes sent by the Fans.”
Taeha was so surprised at that, he spoke up.
“Wow? Lunchboxes from Fans? I’ve always wanted to try one of those.”
“…You’ve always wanted to?”
“Yes. Isn’t it cool? We should take a Verification Shot for MyStar after we eat later.”
“…Sure, do as you like.”
Seon Min-gi glanced at Taeha, who was genuinely delighted, with a subtle look, then shrugged as if to say, do as you wish.
Meanwhile, the next round of filming was ready.
At the same time, Taeha and Seon Min-gi focused intently and stepped in front of the camera.
There were still many scenes to shoot before they could eat the lunchboxes and upload a Verification Shot to MyStar.
***
A little while later.
While waiting due to Seon Min-gi’s solo scene filming, Taeha decided to check MyStar.
At that moment, Taeha’s eyes widened in surprise.
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