It was finally the day filming started.
Jungsu had woken up a little earlier in the morning as he'd had to finish his daily exercise before leaving. Because he would have clothes and food provided for him, the only thing he brought with him was a kit that contained different kinds of tools, and his phone. He'd booked an early morning bus ticket to Seosan and sat down in his allotted seat. Despite Hyunwoo offering to drive him there, he had wanted to travel by himself. When saying goodbye to grandma and the kids, she'd handed him two containers, one full of kimchi and the other with pickled onions. Jungsu had felt better upon seeing that he had not chopped the onions that day for no reason.
The bus was nearly empty, with only three more travelers sitting near the front, so Jungsu sat comfortably in the back.
The bus ride would be a little more than two hours, however, Jungsu had come prepared. He had downloaded a couple of songs along with other instrumental music. Plugging in his earbuds, he clicked on a song that had been recommended to him by the girls from the convenience store.
It was a very upbeat and catchy song by a small Korean artist. While Jungsu thought it was good, he got bored easily and clicked on the next one. This time, an English song from a famous artist played. While Jungsu was fluent in English, he found the lyrics of this song very unrelatable to him.
Pressing the skip button, he heard dark piano music, immediately recognizing it as Moonlight Sonata. Grounding his feet onto the floor, he slowly closed his eyes, resting his arm over his head and his hand on his stomach as he leaned back. The music brought back many memories and emotions that Jungsu didn't want to feel. Even after he'd stopped playing the piano, he would often listen to piano music when he was on other missions.
In particular, he remembered living in England when he was younger. He happened to be adopted by a well-off family who were unable to have children. What was most convenient about it was that his adoptive father, Thomas Burton was the deputy director of the foreign intelligence service in England. He had only been eight at the time of his adoption and stayed there for four more years until his adoptive parents disappeared mysteriously. Jungsu knew what had happened to them, but he didn't dare ask his superiors.
Though he had gotten to experience what it felt like to have parents, he wasn't exactly happy with them. They were rather abusive, but nowhere near as much as his superiors. He had food on the table, attended a private school, and was placed in many private classes for various languages, arts, and Taekwondo. Yet, the meals were only ever soup, meat, beans, and bread. He almost thought he was back in training camp with the way they seemed to expect so much from him and still hated him.
Like all things in life, however, it all came crashing down.
Jungsu was caught by Thomas as he sifted through the files in his office, raising his suspicion and anger. He'd beaten Jungsu with a chair until he passed out on the cold floor, his blood spreading towards the fireplace. He would have escaped or fought back had he not been ordered to remain an obedient and silent son.
The day after, he had woken up to find the house empty as his confidante, the driver, dragged him on the floor towards the car. He didn't complain, however, as the driver often dragged him through the house after one of their nightly lessons.
Even after he had been declared dead in England, he had been there on many missions after. He wasn't scared of being recognized as while he still had the same features, he looked quite different as he grew older. He'd also avoided being photographed, never being there for class photos, and his parents never asked for them either.
Jungsu opened his eyes as he felt the ground moving beneath his feet, indicating footsteps coming towards him.
It was one of the passengers who had moved to pick up his bottle of juice that had rolled two seats behind him. Jungsu relaxed and realized that they had almost arrived at Seosan. Picking up his backpack, he swung it over his back, placing his arms through the holes.
As the bus came to a stop, Jungsu walked to the front, thanking the driver as he got off. Pulling out his phone, he booked a taxi to pick him up from the bus station.
It was only 6:00, but he figured it was better to be early than even one minute late.
Standing there waiting, he soon saw a black car rolling down, and he waved towards it.
Opening the door and entering, he sat down at the front seat, not liking sitting at the back, surprising the driver.
"Good morning sir! What brings you to Seosan so early in the morning?" The man smiled kindly.
"I'm here for a shooting."
The driver nodded his head in amazement saying, "Wow! So you're a celebrity? I'm not surprised."
Jungsu narrowed his eyes, wondering how the man had come to expect that. Relaxing back in his seat, he determined that the driver must have heard it from somewhere.
Soon after they'd engaged in small talk, the driver stopped the car as Jungsu arrived at the villa where the shooting would be taking place.
The villa was quite large, being two stories and quite spread out as well. It was only a one minute walk away from the beach and was very isolated. Meaning that no outsiders would be seen for miles, excluding the filming crew.
There were quite a lot of people in front of the villa even now, setting up lights and decorations at the front. As Jungsu walked up the stairs, he saw a woman attempting to wrap fairy lights onto the walls but they kept falling down as she went to tape them. Walking up behind her, Jungsu held onto the lights, startling the woman.
"Thank you." She said without looking back, and taped the wire to the walls with invisible tape.
Upon turning around, she was startled to see the handsome man standing behind her offering assistance. Covering her mouth she bowed deeply, causing Jungsu to bow as well.
"Mr. Jungsu, please come inside." She said hurriedly.
Jungsu was startled at having his name called but figured the staff was required to know everyone.
Jungsu followed the woman inside the villa and looked around the spacious interior and high ceilings. Placing his bag down, he stood still as the staff moved about in chaos. Jungsu felt very irritated as they moved about quickly. Deciding to join in on the chaos, he asked the employees how he could help.
Shaking their heads viciously, one of them said, "No we couldn't make you do that!"
"I'm rather bored." Jungsu said. "And I think you can use all the help. It's currently 6:30, aren't the other stars about to be arriving soon?"
Grabbing onto one of the boxes an employee was struggling to carry, Jungsu asked where it was to be placed and headed upstairs. Moving up and down the stairs with a couple more boxes, he directed the employees who were now free to start unpacking.
As one of them moved towards the entrance with a large box, Jungsu took it from him and started moving down the stairs. As he moved back up the stairs he was bombarded with an onslaught of petals. Glancing up through the falling petals, he saw that an employee had dropped the flower petals down the stairs right as the filming crew came out from their cars. Luckily for them, they had already started recording as they arrived and had captured Jungsu among the falling petals.
Jungsu climbed back up the stairs, picking up the box that the employee had dropped and patted him on the back.
"This is how it was supposed to look." Jungsu nodded as he looked down, cheering up the man.
As they made their way inside, the filming crew looked at one another, wondering why one of the contestants was helping the employees. As they followed after them, they quietly observed as Jungsu opened some boxes upon instruction and arranged the items inside along the display case.
Jungsu upon noticing the crew bowed and went back to unpacking more items.
The filming crew made surprised faces as they started setting up their other cameras.
Finally, other celebrities started walking in, faces he now recognized as he'd memorized their names. Bowing at each one of them as they passed, he continued working, the employees seeming to forget that he was a contestant as he readily took orders.
The celebrities who had arrived sat along the table and talked to each other as their stylists pulled out makeup and other hair tools.
Finally, Hyunwoo entered the villa in a rush, his eyes searching for Jungsu and failing to notice him. As Jungsu raised his arm to wave at him, Hyunwoo did a double take before quickly walking towards him with a panicked look on his face.
"Jungsu, what are you doing? You're here as a star, not an employee!" He said as he took the box from Jungsu's arms, nearly falling as he took in the weight. Steadying Hyunwoo, Jungsu placed the box down and followed after Hyunwoo as he dragged him towards the group of actors.
"Now go socialize! I'll have someone bring your clothes out of the trunk, so you need to quickly change before more contestants arrive."
Hyunwoo ran off after saying that, leaving Jungsu alone as he walked towards the actors and actresses gathered around.
"Hello. My name is Jungsu." He said plainly as he bowed. Turning towards him, he could tell that they recognized him as their eyes lit up in recognition.
Smiling widely, a man of around his age approached him and patted his back. He had blonde hair and slightly tanned skin. Jungsu recognized him as Cha Yeong-Cheol, a 24 year-old recent drama actor. He was quite tall, standing at about six feet, being the tallest in the room after Jungsu who was one inch taller.
"Well if it isn't Mr. Squirrel. Dude, my sister is seriously so obsessed with you."
Jungsu narrowed his eyes as the man chuckled. Mr. Squirrel?
"Wow, you are so handsome, I thought I was hallucinating! I had to pinch myself, really!" A short woman with pink hair said. Her name was Choi Hye-sung, a 22 year-old actress having starred in numerous dramas and films.
Jungsu bowed his head slightly at her generous and exaggerated compliments.
"Did you just arrive here?" Kang Tae-joon asked. He was an actor who often played side characters in dramas. He was the same age as Jungsu and was of average height with a cute face.
"No, I arrived before all of you." Jungsu said.
"We would have surely seen you then!" Kim Seung-gyu, a 25 year old crowd favourite actor said in surprise. He was about five feet ten inches, and quite handsome with brown hair that was cut in a two block cut.
"Ah, I was helping them set up." Jungsu said, watching as they stared blankly at him.
"Wah. I really like this guy." Cha Yeong-Cheol said, chuckling.
They paused in their chatter as the infamous actor, Han Dong-ha, a 24 year old walked into the room in light makeup and black designer shirt and pants. He'd begun his acting career about five years ago, and now he was making big wakes in the industry at only 24 years old. Glancing at them, he bowed his head in greeting before heading upstairs with a trail of assistants following after him.
After him, a beautiful tall and slim woman with brown hair stepped inside. She was about five feet nine inches with long legs and arms. She was known as the 21 year old idol Min-ji, but had also acted in a couple dramas. She walked straight past them, shooting a quick bow before heading into a room down the hall with her manager following after.
Jungsu felt his heart thudder in his chest as he saw a familiar face. Yuri walked inside quickly, glancing around the villa before her eyes found Jungsu. Her big cat-like eyes widened in surprise as they stared at each other for a beat or two.
"No way! I have to film with her around!" Choi Hye-sung cried out as she stared at the stunning image of Yuri.
Yuri, walked towards them, wearing a short-sleeved grey collared dress that suited her slim curves well. Jungsu glanced away out of politeness, looking towards the wall when she started introducing herself to the actors.
"Ah! Kim Yuri! I know you, you were a child actor right?" Kang Tae-joon said, smilingly.
"Yes, that's me." Yuri smiled bashfully, her eyes meeting with Jungsu's once again as she bowed her head in greeting. Jungsu bowed in return, taking in her stunning appearance.
"Mr. Jungsu?"
Turning towards the woman, Jungsu recognized her as an employee he had seen at Kangsoo entertainment.
"I've placed all your clothes inside your room. We need to get you dressed now." She ushered him to his room and Jungsu bowed in farewell as he followed behind her.
She quickly handed Jungsu a black pair of trousers, a black belt, and a dark grey loose-fitted shirt. Once Jungsu changed, the woman started styling his hair, having some of his bangs fall over his eyes on one side and brushing the long hair at the back of his head. She started patting his face with some powder, making Jungsu close his eyes as he waited for her to be done.
Once she'd finished, Jungsu thanked her and left, entering the living room once again as he saw that more contestants had gathered.
On the couch, he saw Hye-sung and Yuri sitting with Lee Ae-ri, Im Na-yeon, and Baek Yoo-jin. Lee Ae-ri was a 22 year old former idol who now starred in dramas. She had a youthful air to her with her silver hair. Im Na-yeon was a 24 year old actress who had starred in many action movies and was praised for her unique and risque appearance and figure. Sitting at the edge was Baek Yoo-jin, a 20 year old influencer who was hailed for her innocent looks and great fashion sense.
Standing on the other side of the sofa next to Kang Tae-joon was Moon Jae-ho, a 22 year old actor with a cheeky smile who had played various types of roles in both dramas and movies.
As Jungsu stood in the back studying all the contestants, a staff member finally walked to the middle and clapped her hands as all the contestants had gathered in one place.
"Thank you all for making it on time!" She said, glancing down at her watch. "In a couple of minutes we will begin shooting! Just remember that once the cameras start rolling, there's no turning them off."
Jungsu tilted his head as he caught onto her lie.
They had already started filming long ago.