小火星

Chapter 214: Momentum (1)

Even while watching a simple romantic comedy drama, people insert themselves as the protagonist and imagine. This process amplifies the emotions of the viewer, drawing them deeper into the story.

Then, what if one became the protagonist of an anime?

First off, one would imagine how the world would look like. It’s a different plane from movies or dramas. Anime is a world that’s drawn.

Yet, there are characters and protagonists and a story exists.

It might be awkward for us, but for the protagonist of the anime, that world is their reality and life. The animated world Kang Woojin is currently reading (experiencing) and watching was real indeed.

Of course, it might be a bit special.

The sun in the sky, the clouds that briefly create shadows, the birds flying above, the densely packed tall buildings, the various signs attached to those buildings, the cars racing down the streets, the countless people crossing the pedestrian crosswalk. Everything was distinctly different from the usual sights Kang Woojin saw.

It was as if a god had accidentally spilled paint.

The world felt drenched in color. Yet, no one existing here complained or grumbled. This was normal and ordinary here. All the people who passed by Kang Woojin, who was now standing on the sidewalk, hurried on, oblivious that they were coated in color.

Even for Woojin, who initially felt bewildered,

“······”

His equilibrium gradually stabilized. From the role’s emotions to all his senses spread through his veins. Perhaps because the script was only 50% complete, buildings in the distance were blurry, and more than half of the people lacked faces. But Woojin didn’t mind. That was his state of mind.

At the moment, one thought dominated Kang Woojin’s mind.

‘Let’s keep it quiet today.’

A quiet day is the best day. Attracting attention only leads to getting involved in bothersome things. Not too excessive, nor too stupid either. Just maintaining the average. That’s what Woojin was internally reaffirming, or rather, being compelled to reaffirm.

That was when,

“What’s up with him? Doesn’t he seem a bit gloomy?”

“Heh- Really. Which school is he from?”

Two high school girls giggled as they passed by Kang Woojin. They too were painted in hues, but their fluttering skirts looked natural. Woojin mumbled indifferently inside,

‘I saw them, but let’s pretend I didn’t.’

Their uniforms included jackets, and it was slightly chilly, indicating it was about autumn. The wind blew against Kang Woojin’s face. His bangs fluttered. Was his hair long? Just as Woojin nonchalantly moved to step forward,

“Why are you stupidly standing there? You’re in the way.”

A female voice spoke from behind. It was Japanese. Though the voice came unexpectedly, Woojin was familiar with it. He had heard it often enough, or rather, it was tiresome. Then Kang Woojin slowly turned his head.

Midway, the current reflection of Kang Woojin appeared on the glass window of the store next to him.

Quite tall, dressed in a top-to-bottom navy uniform with a necktie, a similarly colored bag over his shoulder, black and messy hair enough to cover his eyes, and glasses of ambiguous size. Of course, both the glasses and the messy hair were part of the disguise. To remain unnoticeable.

The girl standing behind him then said,

“What are you doing here, you idiot?”

Her eyes were large. The color of her irises similar to her hair color, brown, and a mole was under her eye. She too appeared like a character splashed with color in a cartoon, but Kang Woojin simply frowned nonchalantly.

“Not a great start to the morning. I’ve encountered the last person I want to deal with.”

“Shut up. Don’t block the way and move.”

“There is a lot of space here you can just walk by me.”

“I don’t like having to change my direction because of you.”

“One can’t always do what they prefer.”

“······Hmph.”

The girl glanced at Woojin and passed by, her long brown hair swishing with the sound of rustling. A pleasant shampoo scent lingered. This girl was Kang Woojin’s childhood friend from next door. No, now she was more like his nemesis. As she moved further away, her figure and colors faded.

It must be a characteristic of anime, but Woojin wasn’t bothered.

He had to gather himself again and go to school.

Kang Woojin walked and walked. His surroundings clearly changed, but in a strangely haphazard way. The lines and colors of buildings didn’t match, and people’s movements were irregular.

Even the puppy that just brushed under Woojin’s feet had no color.

That’s how Kang Woojin arrived at high school. Until he settled into the classroom, he kept reinforcing the concept of ‘tranquility.’ Thanks to that, his presence in the classroom was nearly zero. He was just ‘Male Student 1’ whom nobody paid attention to. Of course, this was exactly what Kang Woojin wanted.

But the childhood friend he met in the morning was different.

“Let’s go to the snack bar! Snack bar!” (TL: Do note these are other people talking.)

“Heh- Already?”

“Come with me, come with me!”

She was like a popular star in school. Always surrounded by friends, likely because of her good style. Who cares? To Kang Woojin, she was nothing but a nemesis. He blended into the noisy classroom like water and quietly laid down at his spot, all to keep the peace in his life.

However, that peace was broken when the teacher appeared.

“You all know, right? From next week, the cultural festival will be held for two days—”

The biggest event or festival in high school. A very troublesome event that stirred up the whole school. With his chin propped up, Woojin resolved. This year too, he would just move stuff around. However, suddenly his childhood friend girl stood up and exclaimed.

“Guys! How about ‘him’ for this year’s ‘costume’?”

Her index finger pointed at Kang Woojin, who was nondescript by the window. Soon, the faceless classmates all turned their heads towards Woojin. With a typical frown, Woojin muttered internally.

‘Should I kill her?’

The ‘costume’ was the highlight of the cultural festival, a stage where each class picks one person to transform into a famous manga character.

From here, his peaceful life began to creak.

·

·

·

·

How much time had passed?

[“Ending the reading of ‘A: 1’.”]

With the robotic female voice ringing in Kang Woojin’s ears,

‘Ah.’

Suddenly, Woojin’s view changed. The location was a parking lot. In front of a large van. Ponytail Choi Sung-gun was explaining something.

“The fact that the draft script for Episode 1 is out means that ‘A10 Studio’ has already started production.”

Woojin, who was silently observing him, slowly lowered his gaze. He looked at his own hands, opening and closing them. Then, he looked down at his feet. Lifting his head again, he surveyed Choi Sung-gun, the van behind him, and the surroundings of the parking lot.

It felt strangely awkward.

Although Kang Woojin’s mind cleared up quickly, the animated world he had just visited was shockingly intense.

‘Where had I just gone?’

Yes, that was the feeling. Like he had lived in another world and returned to his original world after completing all necessary quests. Ultimately, whether it was anime or here, both were real. However, Woojin realized that the sense of being in a role in a movie or drama and his current sensations were a bit different.

‘It’s like an extra dimension has been added— I don’t know, how should I explain this?’

One thing was certain: it was a feeling that only Kang Woojin among the entire global population could experience. And,

‘It’s damn interesting.’

Kang Woojin was not displeased with his current state. At that moment, Ponytail Choi Sung-gun cocked his head.

“Hey, hey, Woojin. What are you doing? Are you listening to me?”

Woojin, instantly putting on a cold demeanor, nodded.

“Yes, CEO~nim.”

“Hmm— Anyway, you’d understand if you just skim through that anime. The original work is ‘Male Friend.’ They’re adapting ‘Male Friend’ and stripping out the story.”

Ah? So that’s why the female lead strangely resembled Hwalin ssi? Even the brief story of the anime I lived through was like that. The environment was different but the underlying theme of the script was similar to ‘Male Friend.’ Woojin asked nonchalantly.

“Are they turning ‘Male Friend’ into an anime?”

“That’s right. Given the progress, it seems discussions with Writer Choi and Netflix are already concluded. Well, it’s not uncommon. In fact, it’s more common the other way around: from comics to anime and then to live-action.”

It was also true that live-action works were sometimes turned into animes and comics.

“How does it look to you, Woojin? It’s still the first episode’s draft and it’s rough, but has your crazy intuition kicked in?”

It had indeed activated, but due to its low completeness, it was rated D.

“Not sure.”

However, having actually lived through it, Woojin thought the story itself was interesting. The key was the male protagonist who tried to live quietly, whose true identity gets revealed, and from there, his leisurely life becomes complicated, involving the female protagonist, his childhood friend, and gradually other characters.

Naturally, the essence was the rom-com between the male and female leads.

Whatever it was, Choi Sung-gun asked Woojin as he handed back the script.

“‘I fully understand why ‘A10 Studio’ wants you as a voice actor. Your popularity in Japan, your Japanese language skills, plus they want to capture the novelty, I guess. So what will you do? The production company wants to meet, but if you’re not interested, you can comfortably refuse.”

Kang Woojin responded simply.

“I think I can see them for the meeting.”

It was a decision purely derived from ‘fun.’

The next morning, the 11th, at a large action school in Seoul.

Many martial arts staff were bustling about. The floor was covered with gray mats, and each area had different equipment set up. Places with wires hanging from the ceiling or wooden swords erected, etc. In the middle of it all was PD Song Man-woo, clad in lightweight padding jacket, his arms crossed and face serious.

“Hmm.”

Specifically, the action and production teams for ‘Beneficial Evil’ had gathered. And now, PD Song Man-woo was checking the action routes planned by the martial arts team.

“Hup!”

“Heuk!”

“Eup!”

It was intense yet orderly.

The martial arts director and his team were confirming the action continuity planned. The content spanned from episodes 1 to 2, and on the mats, various martial arts team members were syncing their movements according to the continuity. The method of selection at the action school was simple.

After the entire martial arts team familiarized themselves with the continuity planned by the director, the member with the best form was selected.

Experience was naturally a priority.

Nevertheless, as PD Song Man-woo observed the martial arts team members, he slowly nodded his head, seemingly quite satisfied.

‘Not bad.’

It had been a while since PD Song Man-woo had done action. Thus, he was a bit sensitive in his observations, but the action continuity put forth by the martial arts director sufficiently pleased him. The martial arts were realistic yet flamboyant.

Each director has their own desired style of martial arts.

Some seek the exhilaration of action, some the desperation, some the flamboyance, and some the clarity. Drama scene PD Song Man-woo preferred large volumes with a realistic flavor. The sense of impact was usually taken care of with sound and camera movements.

Then, standing next to PD Song Man-woo, the martial arts director, dressed in the black T-shirt as the martial arts staff, casually asked.

“How is it? I’m getting a bit nervous because you’re not saying anything.”

The well-built martial arts director gave an awkward smile. In contrast, as PD Song Man-woo put down the action continuity he was reviewing, he stroked his goatee and seriously responded.

“I already said the continuity is good, didn’t I? No need to be so tense unnecessarily. You’re among the best of the best.”

“Haha, you know everything and still say that. Martial arts seen in continuity and in person aren’t the same, right?”

“Are these guys confirmed?”

“Yeah, they hit the best.”

“Let’s go a bit harder.”

“Okay.”

The martial arts director called over the team members showing the action and instructed them on something. Soon, the action scene restarted from the beginning, this time more violently than before.

“Hup!”

“Kuh-euk!”

Meanwhile, PD Song Man-woo was mulling over the direction in his head, imagining inserting Kang Woojin among the martial arts team. Soon, a faint smile spread across PD Song Man-woo’s face as he instructed the assistant director standing next to him.

“Alright, pass the martial arts continuity to Woojin ssi right now. And check if the martial arts test can be done tomorrow or the day after if it’s okay.”

“Yes, got it!”

The assistant director ran off quickly. Following that, the returning martial arts director asked PD Song Man-woo.

“Tomorrow or the day after? Isn’t that too soon? Aside from Woojin ssi’s martial arts skills, he needs time to familiarize himself with the movements.”

“Woojin ssi is leaving for Japan soon. We need to check before he departs.”

“Ah.”

“His schedule is really tight. Probably can’t even do a lengthy test. Well, just having a look at his basic martial arts stance should be enough.”

“That’s true. But finally, we’ll get to see Woojin ssi’s martial arts form in person.”

The martial arts director muttered, rubbing his hands together.

“With that dash cam video and all. Really curious what he’s got?”

A few minutes later, the martial arts director instructed the selected martial arts team members to take a break. Immediately, the team members collapsed on the mats, panting heavily. They were all muscular and robust, but given their rigorous action performance, it was natural for them to be gasping for breath.

One of the men with short hair spoke up.

“Whew— I thought I was going to die there. But, is Kang Woojin really coming to take the test in person?”

A few of the martial arts team members catching their breath responded.

“A test? More like just showing form, as usual. We’re the ones who die out here. But I hear Kang Woojin is super hot right now. Looks like he’s actually coming to show up. Normally, they skip the test and start with practice.”

“Yeah, did you see Kang Woojin at the Blue Dragon Film Awards making that declaration?”

“Saw it. Thought he was a crazy bastard. No matter how confident he is in his acting, it was too straightforward for me; I didn’t like it much.

“Is that his real personality? Or did his agency make him do it?”

“What kind of agency would make him do such a crazy thing? It’s just Kang Woojin being weird.”

“Phew, he’s really got guts.”

“Not guts, he’s just a weirdo. Or maybe he was just acting tough and blurted it out.”

The martial arts team members continued to quietly talk about Kang Woojin. It was a scene you could easily find anywhere in the entertainment industry.

“How will Kang Woojin’s martial arts turn out?”

“From what I saw in the dash cam video, he seems above average? The martial arts director said something about him being trained in actual combat arts.”

“That’s nonsense. Probably just learned some self-defense and got lucky. But if it were Hwalin, I’d stake my life too.”

“Really? Well, he’s young and I’ve not heard about him ever practicing. It’s also his first time properly getting into an action project. He’ll probably be nervous and mess up the movements a lot.”

At this moment, the most experienced and huge man among the martial arts team members, Park Cheol-gyu, joined in.

“What if we increase the intensity of the martial arts choreography a bit on the test day? Without making it obvious.”

“Huh? What do you mean by intensity?”

“Well, when an rookie actor does an action scene for the first time, isn’t it customary that we go a bit hard on them to make it memorable. And”

Park Cheol-gyu, who was almost a giant, grinned slightly.

“Aren’t you curious if Kang Woojin really has the guts of steel?”

*****

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