Superstar From Age 0

Chapter 561

“Ready, action!”

The first thing that the young master did after he regained his speech was to get the tools he needed for painting in the Western style. 

The old man Lee who took the young master’s order came out of the room and looked at Min-han.

“…You did well.”

He had a strange look in his eyes, as if he was proud of something.

He was just a guest who came to recuperate for a few months, but both old man Lee and the lady of the house seemed to have grown fond of him. Well, he felt the same way too.

“Ah, no. It’s just, it happened to be like this.”

“No. You gave the young master what he needed the most. You did well. You did very well.”

Min-han followed old man Lee who patted his shoulder and went downstairs.

“But why didn’t the young master have any painting tools in his room?”

“That’s because… he had a seizure when he saw them in Hanyang.”

‘…Oh.’

Min-han widened his eyes.

“So be careful and watch out. He seems fine now, but you never know what will happen later.”

“…Yes.”

Min-han nodded and looked at the second floor, where the young master’s room was.

What does it feel like to be desperate and hopeful because of something? How much do you have to love painting to be like that?

Min-han, who had never sincerely liked anything, suddenly became curious.

“Cut! Okay!”

***

Before the snow fell, the [Fire] team finished their tasks one by one.

They filmed the scenes without snow in the background and cleaned up the hill where they would shoot the climax. 

And the sketch for the climax part that the art team was in charge of was also nearing completion. 

Matteo and Seo-jun’s opinions were very helpful.

“There will be some parts where the emotions explode and become intense, but I think it would be okay to have a feeling of spreading here and there. The unknown painter has been sick for a while, so he doesn’t have much strength.”

Drawing on the snow that was hard to walk on required a lot of physical strength. It was a difficult task for the unknown painter who came to recuperate to draw with all his might from the beginning to the end.

“Although the place where he draws is flat, it’s also uphill, so sometimes he could stumble and almost fall… or maybe he could actually fall and leave his mark on the snow. That would be okay too, right? The last part is like that too.”

-/Each of those traces of movement becomes a part of the painting… That’s good./

Yu Seo-young nodded at Seo-jun and Matteo’s words and moved her brush. 

The brush swept over the white paper and left colors behind.

Dark purple stems with brightly blooming flowers. She dabbed the brush to make marks that looked like petals swaying. 

The image of the climax part was soon completed.

“Is the sketch… good enough?”

Yu Seo-young put down her brush, and the expressions of Seo-jun, Matteo, and the art team members who were watching the painting being completed became brighter. An exclamation came out.

“It’s really good!”

-/It’s amazing!/

Yu Seo-young also looked at the finished painting with a proud face. The painting was immediately delivered to Director Hwang Ji-yoon. Hwang Ji-yoon’s eyes sparkled.

“It’s perfect! You really drew well!”

“It’s just on paper. Drawing on the snow is a completely different story.”

Yu Seo-young replied modestly but realistically to Hwang Ji-yoon’s praise.

The flowers that were the size of a palm on paper had to be enlarged by tens of times and drawn on the snow, so it was not an easy large-scale work.

“Ah, if you make a mistake on the snow, it would be a big problem, right?”

“That should be okay. It just requires a bit of labor.”

Matteo, who was consulted, taught her.

“If you make a mistake, you can dig it out with a shovel and bring some fresh white snow and cover it. And then you can draw again on it.”

“It would take some time to fix it.”

“We have to draw without making mistakes, then. Just give me a lot of practice time.”

“Okay. I got it.”

Hwang Ji-yoon nodded at Yu Seo-young’s words and thought of the shooting schedule ahead.

The next day.

The props team and the art team headed to the climax shooting site.

“Move that wooden pole to the right! One more meter!”

Yu Seo-young gave instructions while looking at the completed sketch, and the props team members who were on top moved the wooden poles that would become the stems of the flowers in the work.

“Isn’t this a bit small?”

There were many trees that were not artificially processed and had different lengths from the ones in the sketch. Yu Seo-young answered the props team member’s question.

“There was a half-cut pole earlier, right? Maybe we can connect it with this one?”

“Let’s try it.”

The [Fire] team members’ efforts moved the burnt wooden poles and debris over the land that was somewhat flattened, as if they were moving them according to a blueprint.

“A little lower!”

They left the part where they would draw the flowers after the snow fell empty, and connected the large and small wooden poles horizontally below to express them as branches.

They all looked similar in color now, but when the snow fell later, it would look like purple branches stretching from the bottom right to the top left on the white paper.

“A little, slightly to the right. Yes… good!”

That’s how the last wooden pole was moved according to the sketch.

“Good job, everyone!”

Yu Seo-young gave an okay sign, and the team members who came down from the hill looked at the sketch and the hill alternately.

“This… becomes like that?”

“We’ll have to see after the snow falls, but… yes! I’m going to make it as close to the picture as possible.”

“…I’m really curious how it will turn out.”

Everyone nodded with the same feeling at that remark.

***

“Ready, action!”

Knock knock-

Min-han knocked on the door and entered the room.

The sun was setting, but it was still bright outside, but the young master’s room was still dark. He didn’t know why, but the young master hated the light. Maybe it was because he had a carriage accident during the day.

“This is a rice cake that the village gave me… please eat it. It’s delicious.”

“…Thank you.”

The young master just sat blankly in this dark room.

He had regained his senses, but he still looked like he had lost a part of his soul somewhere. Min-han swallowed the sigh that was about to come out.

Suddenly, he noticed the window with the curtain drawn.

“By the way, I heard you draw landscapes…”

“…Yes.”

The young master seemed interested.

He was simple, if not simple-minded.

Min-han felt like he knew how to make the young master move.

“Old man Lee said that the view from this room is the best. There’s nothing interesting around here because it’s the countryside, but there’s a mountain that’s pretty.”

Min-han approached the curtain. 

The young master’s gaze followed him behind his back. He turned his head and glanced at him.

The young master’s arms were shaking as he held the blanket. He seemed as tense as the wrinkles on the blanket he held.

It seemed too much to show him the outside by pulling the curtain all the way at once. Min-han quickly added.

“…The next best thing is the sunset. The guests who come here say that it’s better than the one in Hanyang.”

Sunset.

The unknown painter recalled something from his messy memory.

The last thing he wanted to draw was the sunset. He wanted to capture the deep-colored sunset that marked the end of the day and the beginning of the night on his canvas.

Why did he forget that?

With a sigh, a strong desire came to him.

He wanted to see it.

The sunset that he wanted to draw.

“Can I open it?”

“…Just a little…”

The unknown painter unknowingly opened his mouth.

At his answer, Min-han carefully opened the curtain. As a ray of light entered the room, he heard a gasp.

Min-han clenched the curtain. He was ready to close it quickly if something went wrong.

In the tense atmosphere.

Through the gap of the curtain that was barely a handspan wide, an orange sunset shone.

It was different from the pure white light that had been shining on him.

It was neither too strong nor too weak, but a warm and cozy orange light that covered the whole sky like a blanket. 

The unknown painter’s tension relaxed with a thud.

Min-han opened the window slightly, looking at the lord’s condition. 

A cold wind gently blew in, as if to blow away the stuffy air. 

The curtain softly moved like a wave. Along with it, the orange sunset also rippled like a wave.

Sigh.

With the faint sound of the wind, orange waves surged and receded in the dark room. At some point, they reached the unknown painter’s toes and then retreated.

The unknown painter silently watched the sight for a long time.

“Cut! Okay!”

“Good job, everyone!”

The set became noisy as soon as Director Hwang Ji-yoon shouted. It was louder than usual.

“Are you going to participate? The courage training?”

“I’m still thinking about it.”

“It’s supposed to be simple, so it won’t be that scary, right? Seo-jun said he’ll act without putting too much effort.”

Her hands were skillfully arranging the shooting equipment and cleaning up, but her mouth kept talking.

“I’m going to participate. It’s funny to have courage training in winter, but it sounds fun.”

“I’ll just watch.”

Everyone had their own reasons to participate or not in the courage training that would take place tonight. Those who didn’t participate decided to rest or watch or help with the progress of the courage training.

The actors who were going to play the ghosts gathered in one place. Kim Se-yeon, Park Woo-jin, Hwang Do-yoon, Lee Seo-jun and the students put their heads together and decided their positions in the mansion and the yard.

“Let’s also leave some handprints on the windows! And some bloodstains too!”

“How about dropping some torn pieces of cloth from the second floor window?”

“What about hiding in the yard and surrounding them? If we wear our clothes backwards, it’ll look like our heads are twisted, and that’ll be super scary!”

Park Woo-jin scratched his cheek at the students who were passionately discussing.

“Are you guys not too serious, Seo-jun…”

“What if we put on the same face makeup on every window and shine a flashlight? Wouldn’t that be super scary?”

“Wouldn’t we be short of people?”

“Then let’s use our phones!”

‘…You’re serious too.’

Park Woo-jin laughed at Seo-jun’s enthusiastic suggestion.

***

-We’re ready!

At Kim Se-yeon’s message, the first group of students started.

In pairs, a member of the art team and a member of the sound team walked closely together.

“It’s not going to be that scary, since we made it in a hurry.”

“Yes. Yes.”

The course was from the entrance of the road that bent like an ‘ㅏ’ shape to the lord’s room on the second floor, passing through the mansion yard and the first floor. 

The goal was to stamp the ‘Good job!’ stamp on the back of their hand.

They wanted to slap their past selves who said they would participate in the courage training, as they walked shakily.

Then, bang!

A loud horn sounded.

Ahh! They were startled and looked at the source of the sound. There was a truck. The truck’s wiper was shaking left and right, but there was no one in the driver’s seat and only the ceiling light was blinking.

“Tha, that scared me…”

“…How did they do that?”

They grabbed their pounding hearts and headed towards the mansion gate. 

They rolled their eyes as they passed through the gate, and heard a sound from somewhere.

Woo woo woo-

They got goosebumps right away.

“…No, how serious are they to prepare background music too?!”

They didn’t know where they installed the speakers, but they heard the eerie background music very well. As the sound effects were added, the two students shrank even more.

That’s when it happened.

When the mansion got closer, a light came out of one of the first floor windows. A few moments ago, it was dark and only reflected the outside like a mirror, but

“Uh, sister… Tha, that…!”

With a blue light, a pale face appeared.

Before they could scream in surprise, the same face appeared on the window next to it, and on the window next to that.

“…!!..”

“…Hehehe…”

As the two students stepped back in surprise, something white and fuzzy fell from the sky.

—!!

A sound that couldn’t be a scream came out.

***

“Ahh!!”

With a loud scream, the students who were waiting burst into laughter or shivered.

“Did they get surrounded at the door?”

“Did they meet a ghost coming down the stairs backwards?”

The students who had the ‘Good job!’ stamp on the back of their hand were a bit exhausted, but they giggled and whispered without spoiling anything.

“Wow… I don’t know who that was, but that was amazing.”

“I thought I was going to faint there.”

Thud thud!

They lowered their heads as they remembered the ghost who crawled down the stairs on all fours.

“But they all made it to the end without giving up.”

At Yu Seo-young’s remark, the sound team leader sighed and rubbed his arms with goosebumps.

“It would have been fainting if it was normal, but today it was bearable. The difficulty level was just right.”

“Really? They must have had a good meeting.”

They did have a good meeting, but that wasn’t the real reason.

The cause was right above the students’ heads.

[(Good) Wool of the Divine Sheep] The white and fluffy wool had shrunk a bit, as it seemed to absorb fear as well as misfortune.

“But what about Seo-jun? Wasn’t he scared at all?”

At Yu Seo-young’s question, the sound team leader only chuckled.