Chapter Text
“Kang Miyoung! I told you I cannot give up on you. Why…. Why are you doing this to me?” fake rain pours over Kihyun as he sheds tears while delivering his lines. His costume is soaked, and his socked feet feel gross but he holds onto the emotion until the director yells…
“CUT! That’s a wrap on Mr. Kihyun, we’re moving on to Scene 42B.”
A flurry of movement enters the set with staff members moving expertly and automatically like the professionals they are. Kihyun accepts a towel offered to him graciously and he dabs away the tears and water from his face while smiling politely and thanking the staff for their hard work. Out of the corner of his eye, he notices the director moving to leave and his heart races with urgency. He carefully maneuvers his way around the staff members and runs up to Director Han.
“Director Han, thank you so much for today, I had a really great time work—” Kihyun begins trying to keep pace with the director whose eyebrows were furrowed scrutinizing the details of the next scene.
Director Han cuts him off, “Yea yea you did great today, thank you for your hard work.” He waves at Kihyun seemingly trying to brush him off, but Kihyun is persistent he had to get a good word in.
“I’ve been a huge fan of your work for a long time, and it’s always been a dream of mine to participate in one of your productions.”
“Oh thank you thank you. Soobin! Is the main actress ready for the scene or do we need more time?” Director Han yells out into the crowd for one of the production assistants.
“You see Director Han if at all poss –” Kihyun tries to get his attention back to him.
“She’ll be ready in 2 minutes!” Soobin calls out from a distance.
Kihyun tries again, “If at all possible, I would love to get some feedb –”
“Ask her to be on set in 1, we’re already behind schedule!” Director Han yells back, not even sparing Kihyun a glance.
“Director Han, if at all possible, I would love to get some feedback, and perhaps in the future we could –” Kihyun tries again now slightly desperate to get a word in.
Director Han stops walking and turns to look at Kihyun. The young actor is still in his soaked costume and was getting breathless from trying to talk while speed walking with the director. Han places a hand on Kihyun’s shoulder and says, “You did great today. I’ll see you around.” The director flashes him a professional smile and Kihyun understood what it meant. The actor bows fully as the director marches over to the rest of the staff and the familiar heavy feeling returns to his heart.
Kihyun clutches onto the towel on his shoulder willing himself not to get emotional. A pitter-patter of footsteps runs over to him and he looks up to meet the eyes of his manager who is cheerful as always, “Good job! You were amazing on set I was so engrossed!”
Kihyun swallows his tears and smiles back at his manager and close friend Minhyuk, “Thanks. Let’s return these costumes and leave.”
Minhyuk senses the gloomy tone and asks cautiously, “Did Director Han brush you off again?”
Kihyun starts walking briskly toward the costume staff but nods slightly in response.
Minhyuk sighs and puts a reassuring arm around the actor, “It’s okay Kiki, you know how directors can be. I’ve been talking to the staff members they all love your acting, I’m sure Director Han feels the same way.”
Kihyun looks back at his friend and flashes a shy smile, it hid the anxiety and dejection he felt inside and he knows Minhyuk could see through it. Before they can talk more about the subject, Kihyun made it to the costume staff and was starting to peel off the layers of clothes on his body. He gathers his things after, thanks the staff again, and heads towards the parking lot with Minhyuk. The pair grab a quick dinner at a random street cart discussing some upcoming opportunities and winding down from the day. To celebrate Kihyun’s first role in a big production (albeit he was playing a very small side character), Minhyuk buys them a round of beers. They couldn’t drink too much since Minhyuk still had to drive them back home.
After eating their fill, Minhyuk drops Kihyun off at his apartment, a small officetel in a more affordable part of Seoul, and bids his friend goodbye, making plans to pick him up at a certain time for a shoot the next day. Kihyun gives Minhyuk a quick hug and heads into his building. With his chatty manager gone, Kihyun is blanketed by silence. Silence as he enters the building, silence in the elevator ride up, and silence as he enters his shoebox of an apartment. It isn’t much, it can’t be much considering the fact that he was a struggling actor that could barely afford a couple of packets of ramen which he only tapped into when times were getting really tough.
Perhaps now is a good time to introduce Yoo Kihyun a 24-year-old actor that feels about ready to give up on this senseless career. Kihyun attempted to break into the industry about two years ago after training to be an actor for about 4 years. As an actor from a small agency with little to no connections in the industry, the past two years have been tough, to say the least. Despite the best efforts of his CEO and manager Kihyun has only ever been able to land background roles in small productions and commercials, and the occasional photo shoots mostly for small businesses that couldn’t afford more. His latest work was his biggest yet, but even then it was a small side character that gets probably 5 minutes in total of air time out of all the episodes. That is not to say that Kihyun isn’t grateful, he is. But if that interaction with Director Han told him anything it was that he was just another small fry in this ruthless industry. Replaceable. Disposable. Forgettable.
With that thought plaguing his mind like it routinely does, Kihyun washes up, does his skin routine, and tucks himself into bed on his thin mattress on the ground. He had a bedframe at one point, but that had to be sold when times got really tough a couple of months back. Kihyun doesn’t mind it too much, besides sleeping on the floor was what Koreans used to do all the time. The room feels a little colder tonight but he wraps himself in his blanket and shuts his brain down to sleep.
The next day, Kihyun is in the green room taking a quick break during his photoshoot. Minhyuk had just left looking for a vending machine to get some soda leaving the actor alone. Kihyun plugs in his headphones and starts bopping his head to some relaxing tunes. Suddenly loud knocks pull him out of his head space. He scrambles to sit properly before rushing to the door to open it. A stern and broad-looking man with dark hair and a fitted suit greets him on the other side of the door. His stance was so imposing that even though Kihyun was certain they were around the same height he couldn’t help but cower a little bit.
“Hello? How may I help you?” Kihyun asks cautiously.
“Are you Yoo Kihyun?” the man’s voice turned out to be a little lighter than Kihyun anticipated which came as a pleasant surprise.
Still the actor is nervous, worried that he might be in trouble for whatever reason. He nods carefully and replies, “Yes? Is something wrong?”
The broad male takes out a business card and hands it over to Kihyun who takes it carefully. “Mr. Son would like to see you tomorrow. Come to this address at any time, he will be available to speak with you.”
Kihyun scans the card quickly very confused. It said “Starship Enterprises” which last time Kihyun checked was one of the largest conglomerates in Korea. Why would anyone from that company want to meet him?”
“Pardon?” Kihyun asks in disbelief.
“Just pop by when you can. Mr. Son is eager to meet you.”
Kihyun wants to ask the man who this “Mr. Son” is and why he would want to meet him but before those words left his lips the man had already turned on his heels and left. The actor sticks his out the door almost comically trying to follow the man with his eyes but was quickly brought back from his daze by Minhyuk’s cheerful voice.
“What’s up Kihyun what you looking at?”
Kihyun shakes his head a couple of times as if trying to wake himself from a daydream and replies, “Nothing, someone just came by while you were gone.”
Minhyuk quirks his eyebrow, “What? Who? Was it a staff member? What did they want with you?”
Kihyun accepts the Cola being offered to him and he twists the cap off. He responds after taking a sobering gulp, “I don’t think he was a staff member but he –” Kihyun cuts himself off before continuing, something in his gut told him not to disclose the conversation to Minhyuk just yet. “it’s nothing important I think. Seemed like a recruiter or something.”
Minhyuk’s eyebrows furrow, “That’s not very professional of them. It’s industry standard for recruiters to approach the managers on any matters, not the artists themselves.”
“Yea I know…” Kihyun takes another big gulp of the beverage and carefully slips the business card into his back pocket.
“Oh well whatever, if he approaches you again let me know okay?”
“For sure,” Kihyun affirms.
“Kihyun sshi, please return to set,” the shoot coordinator sticks her head into the waiting room and calls for Kihyun.
“Be right there!” Kihyun replies, downing the rest of his drink and shaking off the last nerves as he heads into the last session for his shoot. He poses expertly to the camera responding to the feedback as best as he can, but a part of his mind is thinking about the business card in his back pocket. Who was this Mr. Son, and what did he want with him?