Superstar From Age 0

“…A flight to LA?”

The eyes of the staff members of Team 1, who were in charge of actor Lee Seo-jun, all turned to Choi Tae-woo, who was on the phone.

There was only one person who would call manager Choi Tae-woo like that.

‘Seo-jun?’

‘Does the actor have a schedule in LA?’

Choi Tae-woo also had the same question as the whispering voices.

It was now November. He had only been back from LA for two months.

“Yes. Is it hard?”

“No, I will get a ticket.”

He was the senior and the junior of Seo-jun, and as soon as Seo-jun asked him for a favor, he searched for a plane ticket with his phone on his shoulder. Fortunately, there were quite a few flights to LA.

“Then I’ll book the one that leaves in two hours.”

“Yes. I have my passport at home, so I’ll leave right away.”

At Seo-jun’s words, Choi Tae-woo got up from his seat and handed over the plane ticket reservation to the staff member next to him.

He had to take Seo-jun to his home and then to the airport.

As Choi Tae-woo was about to leave, the deputy team leader opened his mouth. Ah, Choi Tae-woo blinked and asked.

“Where are you going?”

He forgot to ask the destination.

He had to contact the staff of King’s Agency in LA.

“To Jonathan.”

Choi Tae-woo relayed Seo-jun’s answer to the staff members of Team 1.

‘Aha.’

They all nodded as if they understood.

‘He must not have liked the synopsis that came in today.’

Choi Tae-woo had the same thought and grabbed his car key. Then he suddenly remembered something and asked.

“But Seo-jun.”

“Yes?”

“What are you going to do about school?”

It was Thursday afternoon.

Tomorrow was Friday and Seo-jun had a class tomorrow.

It took 28 hours by plane to go and come back.

Even if there was a time difference between the US and Korea, and even if the conversation with Jonathan ended quickly, he had to skip the Friday class.

Across the phone, Seo-jun’s breathing stopped with a hiss.

Choi Tae-woo could guess. Seo-jun must have been so excited after seeing the synopsis that he forgot everything about school and everything else.

“…Self-cancellation is an event that only college students can enjoy!”

“I’ll report to Director Ahn.”

“…Yes…”

At Choi Tae-woo’s words, Seo-jun, who would have answered sullenly even without hearing, came to mind and the staff members of Team 1 laughed and shook their shoulders.

***

After reporting to Director Ahn, Seo-jun’s trip to LA was postponed for a day, unfortunately (?).

“You have plenty of time to leave tomorrow. Besides, you only have morning classes on Friday.”

“Yes.”

Seo-jun, who came up to the director’s office, nodded at Ahn’s words. But there was still a bit of regret on his face.

“And it’s rude to just go there like this. I don’t know if you’re going for fun, but this is work.”

That’s true.

Before he knew it, Seo-jun’s face had lost its regret and only looked gloomy.

“…I guess Jonathan was comfortable.”

He wouldn’t have tried to go there like this if it was another director, but maybe because Jonathan was a friend he had known since he was young, he was too relaxed.

‘I should be more careful if we’re close…’

Seo-jun sighed inwardly.

“I really like Jin Natra as a character…”

He seemed to have lost his reason for a moment when the synopsis of the work that featured such a character was developed in a direction that he couldn’t understand at all.

Seeing his actor looking dejected, the manager gently comforted him.

“Then, Seo-jun. Why don’t you go home today and take a closer look at the synopsis and explain to Jonathan what you were unhappy about?”

Seo-jun’s eyes sparkled.

“If I try to persuade him like that, wouldn’t Jonathan understand and revise the synopsis?”

“That would be great!”

A smile appeared on Ahn’s face as he saw the light return to the actor’s face.

“Then I’ll contact Jonathan and tell him I’m leaving for LA tomorrow.”

“It’s okay. Da-ho hyung. I’ll contact him.”

He wanted to do it himself, as it was a matter between the director and the actor.

Ahn nodded his head with a smile at Seo-jun’s serious face.

“Okay. Then.”

Choi Tae-woo, who was sitting quietly, also smiled softly.

“Tae-woo hyung.”

Seo-jun called Choi Tae-woo. At that call, Ahn and Choi Tae-woo blinked their eyes, thinking that it was a warm ending.

“I have videos of me practicing Jin Natra’s acting in the practice room, right? And the videos I took at the action training center.”

“Huh? Oh, they’re in the archive.”

He remembered that the deputy team leader had once shown him a video of Seo-jun training at the action training center. ‘There is no child actor who can handle action so well in such a short time, except for Seo-jun.’ He added. There must have been videos of that time in the archive.

“Please find them and send them to me.”

“Why?”

At Ahn’s question, Seo-jun opened his mouth with a serious expression.

“I think I need to prepare as much as possible to convince Director Jonathan. The videos of me practicing acting, the script, the character analysis I did…”

Hmm.

Seeing Seo-jun’s appearance, which seemed to be prepared from one to ten, Ahn wondered if it would have been better to send him to LA today.

***

At the same time, in the US, LA.

Director Ryan Will’s mansion.

The moon was up in the early morning, but Jonathan’s study was brightly lit. Director Ryan Will knocked lightly on the door of the study.

Jonathan Will, who was looking at the monitor and his phone on the desk, lifted his head.

“Oh, uncle. You’re still awake?”

“When are you going to sleep?”

At Director Ryan Will’s question, Jonathan scratched the back of his head and said.

“I sent the completed synopsis to Jun today. I wonder how he saw it, I’m curious and nervous, so I can’t sleep. I was also looking over it to see if there was anything to fix. Ha. Ha. Ha.”

The awkwardly laughing nephew made Director Ryan Will laugh as well.

“Well, don’t stay up too late. You’ll have a lot to prepare from the start of filming. Your stamina is important too.”

“Yes.”

Jonathan nodded his head with a bright smile at Director Ryan Will’s advice. But he still shook his legs nervously.

Then Jonathan’s phone vibrated.

Jonathan rushed to check his phone when he heard the notification sound. It was a text message from Seo-jun.

“It’s Jun!”

Jonathan’s face brightened up for a moment, but then he looked a bit nervous as he read the message.

It was asking if he could call him. Jonathan didn’t reply with a text, but instead he called Seo-jun right away.

Seo-jun’s voice came through the phone.

“Are you still awake?”

“Yeah. I was just looking over the synopsis.”

“I’m glad. I was going to text you if you were sleeping.”

Jonathan smiled at the familiar voice of Seo-jun. He felt his tense nerves relax a bit.

“Director Jonathan.”

But that smile faded quickly.

He heard the serious tone of the veteran actor, and the rookie director felt a surge of anxiety.

Ryan, who was watching his nephew take the phone call with a stiff posture, looked puzzled.

He could hear Seo-jun’s voice from the other side of the phone, saying something.

Jonathan’s face became more and more complicated as he listened.

He didn’t sigh heavily, but it seemed like his energy was drained from his body.

“Okay. So you’re coming then? I’ll be waiting for you.”

Jonathan, who was taking the call with a calm voice and a straight back, collapsed on his desk as soon as the call ended.

“Ugh…”

A groan that sounded like a sigh with his soul escaped from Jonathan’s mouth.

“What’s wrong?”

“Jun is coming.”

“What?”

Ryan blinked his eyes.

Jonathan lifted his head and ruffled his hair as if he was going to tear it out.

“He said he doesn’t understand some parts of the synopsis. He’s leaving Korea tomorrow and coming to LA. Uncle, what do I do? He doesn’t understand some parts… What did I write wrong? Where did I mess up?”

Jonathan looked over the printed synopsis frantically. His eyes moved rapidly up and down, left and right, as if he was very nervous.

“Maybe we should just change it according to Jun’s opinion? He must have analyzed Jin Natra better than I did.”

Ryan opened his mouth as he watched his nephew groan and scratch his head.

“Jonathan.”

“…Here, no, here?.. Yes?”

“Did you write the synopsis with your best effort?”

Ryan looked around Jonathan’s study.

He saw the materials he had given him, various videos, ‘Shadowman’ and ‘Jin Natra’, and even the snippets and small stories about Natra that appeared in [Assemble]. He had collected and organized them all.

He had used those traces as motifs to create new stories, discard them, and think again. All those hours were left in this study.

This study showed how much love and effort Jonathan had put into this synopsis.

“…Yes. I did my best more than ever.”

Jonathan answered Ryan’s question. [Jin Natra Series (tentative title)]'s first installment, [Jin Natra 1 (tentative title)], was the most cared-for work among all the works he had written so far.

“Then you can’t change it so easily. You made it because you thought it was a good story, right?”

“But… it’s Jun, you know?”

Who was Seo-jun Lee?

He was a genius actor who won an Academy Award at a young age and became the first actor to win the Cannes Film Festival’s Golden Palm Award.

And he was even more so when it came to ‘Jin Natra’.

He had spent most of his life as an actor with that character. His character analysis couldn’t be worse than a rookie director’s.

“The actor’s opinion is important, too. But the core of the work is the director.”

Ryan smiled slightly and spoke to the young director.

“And the director of this movie is Jonathan Will. You.”

Jonathan’s eyes widened.

He felt like the stormy emotions that had been raging in his heart were slowly calming down.

Then he felt a surge of courage!

“Should I just push it through then?”

“No, you can’t.”

Ryan’s voice sounded like a sigh, firm and decisive. Jonathan’s one-second courage disappeared, and he shrugged his shoulders.

“Why did this happen? You have to persuade the actor. The actor is the first audience of your work. How can any audience like a movie that the first audience finds boring and incomprehensible?”

“Ah…”

“Especially if that’s an actor who spent most of his life with that character. He must have high standards.”

Jonathan nodded his head with a blank expression at Ryan’s words.

He was right.

How could the audience immerse themselves in a story that the actor didn’t accept?

“Talk to Jun. You might see things that you couldn’t see from the director’s perspective. But don’t let that story sway you. The core of this movie is…”

“The director. Me.”

Jonathan smiled brightly as he continued Ryan’s words. Then he got up from his seat. He was looking for the things he needed among the piles of materials on his desk and the bookshelves.

‘Jun must have prepared a lot.’

He needed a lot of preparation to counter and convince him.

It was past midnight, but his eyes were burning brighter than during the day.

Ryan smiled as he saw his nephew, who seemed to have regained his spirit, and headed to the kitchen, thinking he should get some coffee.

***

A few days later.

James Landon, the cinematographer of the [Shadowman Series] and Ryan’s friend, visited Ryan’s mansion.

Since the director was a rookie, the staff decided that it would be more stable to have a veteran cinematographer for [Jin Natra 1 (tentative title)], and they chose James Landon.

He came to talk to Jonathan and also to chat with his friend Ryan. But there was an unexpected guest.

“Jun is here?”

“Yeah. He’s upstairs with Jonathan.”

No wonder.

The mansion, which was always quiet, was noisy.

“Should I say hello to Jun?”

James Landon smiled as he headed to the second floor to meet Seo-jun, whom he hadn’t seen since the filming of [Shadowman 3]. Ryan followed him.

As they got closer to the second floor, the noise turned into a clamor, and the clamor turned into a racket.

“…Huh?”

James Landon blinked his eyes.

The voices that he thought were laughter or joy from loud noises became clearer and sounded different.

“That’s not what I’m saying!”

“No, look at this!”

“Wow! This is so frustrating!”

“Argh! That’s what I’m trying to say!”

The two people who were talking sounded so rough that they couldn’t be the friendly Seo-jun Lee and Jonathan Will.

“…Are they fighting?”

James Landon was confused by the two voices that were shouting at each other, and he couldn’t even open the door to the study.

Ryan chuckled.