Free Web Novel* * *
“Wow, it’s really cold. Right?”
Caught up in the moment and somehow ending up out on the streets of Moscow together, Han Yohan chose not to answer. Instead, he moved half a step ahead of Han Yeoreum.
It was so she would catch a little less of the wind.
“Funny how we ran into each other at exactly the right time.”
“I know....”
Han Yohan had been lightly exercising in the hotel fitness center and was on his way back to his room when he ran into Han Yeoreum in the elevator.
Then, before he could even ask where she was going after her sudden question, she had grabbed his arm. Han Yeoreum seemed far too excited to be talked out of anything.
“Come to think of it, you're religious too, Senior. Let’s talk while looking at the cathedral. I needed a religious person's perspective.”
“You were planning to go alone at this hour? Without a care in the world....”
The cathedral was only about 2.4 kilometers from the hotel. Roughly thirty minutes on foot—close enough to walk without difficulty.
On the cold night, Han Yohan opened a map app on his phone and led the way.
Han Yeoreum followed right beside him.
Watching her practically hop forward one step at a time instead of walking, Han Yohan thought she looked like a fifty-fifty mix of Galdaeguk and a rabbit.
Late-night Moscow.
Among the cold that turned the tip of her nose red and the sturdy stone buildings that exuded classical beauty, Han Yeoreum's eyes darted busily around.
It looked like she was practicing becoming familiar with the city.
It was different from the look in her eyes when she fiercely and desperately pored over scripts and storyboards.
Her eyes were filled with expectation, and laughter lingered within them.
“Don’t these buildings feel kind of scary?”
“Do they...?”
At Han Yeoreum’s question as she looked up at a tall building, Han Yohan answered sincerely.
“I think it’s because many of them use lighting that shines upward from below. Uplighting is often used in horror films, so it’s natural to feel that way.”
As the two wandered through the streets of Moscow, they eventually arrived at Saint Basil’s Cathedral.
Visiting hours had already ended, so they could not go inside, but simply looking at the exterior carried a certain power.
Bathed in light amidst the darkness, Saint Basil’s Cathedral seemed as though it were absorbing the illumination.
Its vivid colors glowed dangerously beneath the night sky.
Han Yeoreum tilted her head all the way back and looked up at the top of the cathedral.
Crosses stood atop the patterned domes.
“Senior, hurry up and pray too.”
“For what...?”
“That everything goes well for us. The filming has to go smoothly with no accidents. You can’t get hurt doing action scenes. We can’t lose any footage. Things have to go well after we return to Korea. And the project has to be a hit too.”
“That much...?”
Han Yeoreum clasped both hands together and closed her eyes.
After praying diligently for a while, she cracked one eye open as if conducting a surprise inspection.
Then she caught Han Yohan not praying.
“How are you so lacking in ambition?”
“Hmm... ambition....”
Han Yohan considered her question.
“Whatever else, you can’t have a philosophy of owning nothing while you’re working with me! We’re on the same team!”
As Han Yeoreum looked ready to leap around like a rabbit-Galdaeguk hybrid, Han Yohan patiently explained.
“If you want something too much... when it doesn’t work out, you end up hating someone.”
Han Yeoreum froze mid-hop.
“It’s a little difficult for me to hate someone who isn’t myself.”
“That's an incredibly... hmm... beautiful and admirable answer that’s hard to find these days, but still, try being a little more ambitious.”
Letting out a long sigh, Han Yeoreum walked along the path outside the cathedral.
This time, Han Yohan followed behind her.
The wind happened to be blowing from behind.
“Now that we’ve seen the cathedral, can’t we head back?”
“Not yet.”
“You already prayed. You’re going to catch a cold....”
Han Yeoreum exhaled deeply, almost like a sigh.
A cloud of white vapor mixed into the dark night air.
“Okay, honestly! I know you’re not exactly someone I’m completely comfortable around yet, and we’re not that close, but for some reason I feel like I can tell you this.”
“We weren’t close...?”
“I mean, anyway. I really need this project to succeed. Honestly, I’m scared.”
“What are you so afraid of?”
Han Yohan found himself thinking exactly what the CEO of Glory Management had once thought.
Han Yeoreum truly wasn’t in a position where she needed to be this desperate.
If anything, she could afford to fail a few projects and still have another opportunity.
She was currently receiving enormous expectations from both industry professionals and investors.
“Being the lead role is heavier than I expected.”
Han Yeoreum confessed honestly.
* * *
She had realized it painfully while filming <Dongdaemun Romance>.
The weight carried by the name at the very front.
Being evaluated as the least competitive participant in the grandly titled Holy Grail War had hurt her pride.
But it had also terrified her.
The lead role was a position that carried responsibility.
A responsibility not to waste the time of everyone who made the project and everyone who looked forward to it.
“I came all the way overseas carrying the names of a famous writer, a famous director, and my own name. If this project fails, I’ll get pushed back down from the A-tier I barely managed to reach. Back to being a promising prospect. If I keep stacking average projects after that, I’ll never climb higher again.”
And that would push her farther away from the Grand Prize. free𝑤ebnovel.com
‘Myeong Jeha went to Hollywood.’
Success overseas was already practically guaranteed for him.
He would probably breeze past ten million admissions in Korea too.
The only thing left was winning an Academy Award.
‘To bring someone like Myeong Jeha in as the second lead, I need a justification.’
She had to prove it before the public.
People would argue endlessly about why Myeong Jeha was taking the second lead role.
Even if the debate became heated, there had to be at least one person who would say:
‘Still, if it’s Han Yeoreum.’
“I'm still curious about what blind faith really is. I thought if I came here, I’d suddenly get some sort of realization like I do when analyzing scripts.”
I have to be perfect.
Because all those people who came to my fan meeting would see the results.
“I think blind faith...”
Han Yohan’s neat voice came from behind her.
“...is an emotion based on the premise that something will remain by your side forever.”
“By your side?”
Han Yeoreum turned around.
The lights of Saint Basil’s Cathedral illuminated Han Yohan from behind.
“Even if I become wildly successful and everyone around me grows jealous and leaves... believing that God, who guided me this far, will still see me as I am.”
His voice continued.
“Or conversely, even if I fall all the way to the bottom of a cliff, never feeling that I’m truly alone. Perhaps that is what blind faith is.”
A belief that something would remain by your side forever.
Han Yeoreum was still turning over Han Yohan’s definition of blind faith in her mind when—
Whoosh.
A fierce gust of wind blew through.
The loosely tied scarf around her neck came undone.
Han Yohan picked up the red scarf that had fallen to the ground.
After shaking it off twice with reddened fingers, he wrapped it back around her neck.
And then—
Click!
The sound of a camera shutter came from nearby.
* * *
Still photographs were the greatest weapon for stimulating a viewer’s imagination.
A single picture could make people anticipate the next part of the story.
Curiosity.
That was the greatest force determining a drama’s ratings.
What kind of project was it?
Who was in it?
What was it about?
People became curious about the next episode, then excited about how the final episode would end, and before long they became core viewers.
“Kyaaaaaaaah!!!”
Galdaeguk bounced around wildly after seeing the photograph.
Beside him, a small hand picked up another cup of instant noodles.
Three empty cups were already stacked nearby.
“Mister. You're making too much noise.”
The person who had taken the photo of Han Yohan and Han Yeoreum earlier was none other than Daehan Arts General University’s genius, Dok Gomin.
“But how could anyone stay calm after seeing this photooooo? They say in the martial world you should beware of the elderly, women, and children! To think such skill could come from someone so youngggg!!!”
“I appreciate your eye for beauty in recognizing the brilliance of genius Dok Gomin’s photography, but your eye for people is terrible. I’m not a kid.”
Dok Gomin, who had faithfully taken Han Yeoreum’s still cuts all this time, had suddenly left overseas claiming she wanted to study photography.
After telling everyone not to look for her, she had seen an article about the overseas location shoot just before returning to Korea and flown directly to Russia.
“To show up on your own exactly when every single photo matters. Other people might not realize it, but luck? Apparently I was born with it. They say I’m the type who’s loved by the heavens. That must be the source of my talent.”
Ma Eungyo seemed quite pleased with Dok Gomin’s photograph as well.
The picture of Han Yohan wrapping the red scarf around Han Yeoreum in front of the dark Saint Basil’s Cathedral looked like an official promotional still.
“No matter how many times I look at it, I love itttt!!! What kind of reflexes are theseee?!!”
“Hmph. I lived and slept in Africa while studying the agile movements of wild animals frame by frame. I pressed the shutter nonstop. I’m not just a genius—I’m a hardworking genius. Mm-hm. Feel free to admire me more. First, give me a cola.”
“Eat and drink as much as you likeeeeee!!! To think you completed closed-door cultivation at such a young ageeeeee!!! Pour cola into that starving stomach that survived on nothing but fasting pills!!!”
The photo had captured the exact moment Han Yohan wrapped the scarf around her.
Snow had started falling again at that precise instant.
Dok Gomin’s picture was genuinely breathtaking.
It had even caught the moment a snowflake landed on the tip of Han Yeoreum’s eyelashes.
‘Looking at it like this, it’s actually really good.’ freewёbn૦νeɭ.com
It felt awkward to say herself, but she and Han Yohan looked incredibly good together.
Since <Faster Than the Law 2>, Han Yohan’s fans had constantly begged for the two of them to do another project together.
‘Come to think of it, they really did have good instincts.’
Or maybe—
Maybe it was just because she had looked ridiculously cute in <Faster Than the Law 2>.
Still staring at the photograph, Ma Eungyo let out a small groan.
“No. This won’t do.”
“What won’t?”
“I want to use this as an official still cut.”
Crossing her arms, Ma Eungyo spoke proudly.
“I don’t really know much, but people keep telling me I’m a genius who plans things down to the frame. I’ve never added scenes like this before. But I’ve changed my mind.”
Then Ma Eungyo threw a bomb into a location shoot where every second counted.
“Let’s add a scene. So we can use this still.”
Adding a scene during an overseas shoot was ten times more dangerous and expensive than doing it in a Korean studio.
Additional overtime would have to be paid to local staff.
If the venue rental period was exceeded, penalties would apply.
And overseas filming schedules were planned down to the minute.
‘She knows that better than anyone.’
Even knowing the risk of an exploding budget, Ma Eungyo wanted to add the scene.
“Where would it go?”
“After they hear the operation briefing. Ria heads toward the cathedral barefaced because she’s troubled, and Taeo silently follows her. Doesn’t that sound good? I don’t know much, but people say there’s nobody in Korea who can match me when it comes to organically connecting scenes.”
The memorized script instantly surfaced in Han Yeoreum’s mind.
‘Ah....’
The emotions intensified quietly but powerfully.
She couldn’t even estimate how deeply it would immerse viewers watching from the other side of the screen.
“Kyaaaaaaaah!!!”
Apparently sharing the same thoughts, Galdaeguk kicked open the door and ran out excitedly.
“You can get through the action scene without any NGs, right?”
Ma Eungyo asked Han Yohan.
“The world rarely unfolds according to our wishes, but I won’t spare my body.”
Then her gaze shifted to Han Yeoreum.
“I won’t make any NGs either.”
And so the first day of filming began.
The next morning.
“....”
“....”
Galdaeguk and Ma Eungyo stared at her.
Their expressions were quiet.
The atmosphere felt strange.
It was not the reaction of people satisfied with her acting.
