* * *

What needed to be filmed now was the scene where they became trapped inside a tiny utility room within the warehouse. Of course, because the shoot had to be set up from various angles, the actual space was much larger than what appeared on screen.

I sat between the metal shelves on either side of me and checked the angles.

“Yeoreum, move a little farther forward.”

“Here?”

“Wouldn’t it be better if you leaned back just a little? If you sit like this, the floor’s hard and your back’s gonna hurt....”

Seo Eden, sitting behind me, spoke quietly. I thought for a moment before shaking my head.

“If you suddenly got trapped in a dark place with the guy you secretly like, how could you comfortably lean against him? I’ll just keep my back stiff.”

That was the kind of posture you’d only see after dating for at least three months. Director Byeon Juhwa nodded at my words.

“And Yeoreum, tilt your head back.”

Mood was the most important thing in a kiss scene.

If both people were stiff, viewers would laugh. If it crossed the line too much, they’d change the channel.

Since we were being called a kiddie couple, it had ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) to feel appropriately awkward and cute. This was a scene meant to show that youthful, ticklish excitement people had forgotten.

“But... the hands... what do we do with the hands?”

Seo Eden asked.

Nam Pyeonghwa slightly turned around to meet Jeon Segye’s eyes, then their lips gradually drew closer. The flow was natural, but the positioning was difficult.

Both of us had to kiss while sitting down, and because it was a warehouse, there wasn’t much scenery we could pull into the shot.

In the end, all that would really be visible was Seo Eden’s face and mine, our backs, side profiles, and maybe our hands.

Because there was nothing else around us, the immersion doubled instead. The audience’s attention would focus entirely on the two of us.

“Should we just go with something simple? I think covering both cheeks would look best.”

“Then what about you, Yeoreum?”

“I’ll hold onto the coat. Like this.”

Since it was Nam Pyeonghwa’s first kiss, I thought it would be better to keep gripping Seo Eden’s coat—the one we were sharing like a blanket—to properly show her nervousness.

“Try putting your hand up first, Eden-ah.”

At Director Byeon’s words, Seo Eden quickly rubbed his hands together.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m worried my palms might be cold. Hold on.”

After massaging even the tips of his fingers and blowing warm breath onto them, Seo Eden finally held my cheeks.

“If I use both hands, your face gets covered too much by my left arm.”

“Should one hand support the back of my neck instead? But my face absolutely cannot get covered.”

“Calm down, Yeoreum. But then it’ll look too experienced.”

Together with Director Byeon, I grabbed Seo Eden’s left arm and adjusted it back and forth.

Back when I filmed the kiss scene with Myeong Jeha, my shy and adorable side profile got hidden behind his back so much that it barely showed.

I’d done so much method acting too. But everyone only admired how experienced Myeong Jeha looked, and I got overshadowed.

‘That can’t happen again.’

I adjusted the angle of Seo Eden’s arm. It must’ve looked decent because Director Byeon nodded.

“Keep your eyes on her like that, and lower your head, Eden-ah.”

“L-like this?”

“Lower. More.”

“T-to here?”

Maybe because it was his first kiss scene, Seo Eden was more nervous than ever before.

When we told him to lower his head, he raised his shoulders instead, creating the illusion that he’d lowered it.

“Absolutely not!”

I firmly pressed down on Seo Eden’s shoulders.

“If you do this, the kiss scene won’t look pretty at all. My face gets hidden too!”

“Sorry....”

“You have to pull your shoulder blades back slightly like this for it to look nice.”

This was my second public kiss scene. If this turned into comparison memes with Shim Juhwan’s music video, it’d all be over.

“See this? If your neck stiffens up, the camera catches all of it. You need to move naturally. Like Yeoreum said, pull your shoulder blades back.”

Director Byeon put the footage we’d just filmed temporarily up on the monitor. Judging by how red Seo Eden’s ears were, immersion itself was fine. But the angles were a disaster....

“Mr. Myeong Jeha said it was his first kiss scene too, but he was really, really good....”

Seo Eden muttered in confusion.

Apparently he’d secretly been thinking of Myeong Jeha as his kiss-scene rival.

‘Not at all.’

He’d completely fallen for Myeong Jeha acting innocent in the behind-the-scenes cam and pretending it was his first time.

‘That man is the most veteran veteran there is.’

But I couldn’t exactly say that out loud....

“Eden-ah. Don’t worry.”

“Director....”

“You’re not only losing in kiss scenes. Why are you even comparing yourself to Myeong Jeha?”

Director Byeon’s coldly accurate words made Seo Eden lower his head.

“Just assume we’re throwing away a few scenes at first and relax. Sometimes it gets better once the atmosphere loosens up.”

“...Huh?”

Seo Eden jolted in shock. I could feel his entire body trembling behind me like there’d been an earthquake.

“You just keep kissing until we get an okay.”

* * *

The lighting director checked the lights.

“Lower the brightness a little.”

The base lighting needed to create a cold sense of isolation.

Beyond the warehouse, heavy rain poured down violently, and inside the cold, freezing warehouse, the two characters were exposing their wounds to each other. More than ever, the scene needed to feel chilly.

A filter was added to the lighting angled at forty-five degrees, creating a darker atmosphere. Shadows stretched long beside the two seated figures.

A key light was added near their knees as they faced each other.

The soft lighting rising diagonally upward made their faces look gentle and clear.

“Alright, ready—.”

There was still a certain distance between the two trapped inside the dark enclosed room. It felt as though an invisible line still faintly existed between them.

But if either one gathered just a little courage—

It was the kind of line that could be crossed instantly.

“Action.”

Wrapped together beneath Jeon Segye’s coat, Nam Pyeonghwa became worried when she heard him coughing softly. The utility room was too cramped for the two of them to even sit side by side.

They had no choice but to sit because they couldn’t stand around waiting for help forever, but even then, a slight distance still remained between them.

“Representative. Let’s share this together.”

“It’s fine.”

“But if you catch a cold....”

“I don’t catch colds—ah-CHOOOO!”

“....” 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

At Jeon Segye’s sneeze, Nam Pyeonghwa silently moved closer by about a handspan.

To share the large coat that felt almost like a blanket, she had to press close enough that it felt as if she were in his arms.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

There was no added sound effect on set. But somehow, everyone felt like they could hear the heartbeat of the two characters.

“Feels a little better now, right?”

At Nam Pyeonghwa’s words, Jeon Segye froze and couldn’t answer.

Thankfully, he’d left the watch he always wore charging on his desk. His heartbeat was at the level where someone might’ve called 119.

“....”

“....”

The two sat silently for a moment.

One focused on the scent of perfume coming from the man behind her. The other stared at the small shoulders of the woman in front of him.

Nam Pyeonghwa spoke first.

“When I was little, I really hated rainy days.”

After quietly listening to the rain, she suddenly spoke as though remembering something.

“Why?”

“My parents died early, so my grandmother raised me. Since she had to work to make money, I ended up doing all the housework.”

Nam Pyeonghwa smiled faintly, as though embarrassed.

“Do you know how clothes never dry properly during monsoon season if the house doesn’t ventilate well?”

“....”

“My school was far from home, so my clothes would get soaked on the way there and back... but the clothes at home wouldn’t dry either. I had no choice but to wear damp clothes, and the kid sitting next to me moved their desk away.”

Nam Pyeonghwa quietly revisited the past.

“I think that’s when it started. Imagining the clothes I wanted to wear. Thinking about soft, fluffy textures made me feel a little less miserable.”

“....”

“Maybe that’s why I ended up getting a job in Dongdaemun. Because there were so many clothes there. Without even realizing it.”

Jeon Segye quietly listened to her words.

“Come to think of it, I’m really wearing those kinds of clothes now. The kinds I used to only imagine in my head.”

After silently listening to Nam Pyeonghwa’s voice, Jeon Segye also spoke.

“I hate rainy days too.”

“Why, Representative?”

“It rained the day I was born.”

His voice carried a sigh unlike before. The end of his lowered voice cracked slightly.

“My father went to her instead. He got a call saying my second older brother was sick. They said my mother suffered through a difficult labor that day. Twenty hours of contractions. Alone.”

It was a confession filled with pain. His rough voice sounded as though he were digging into a wound that still hadn’t healed.

“After that, it rained every single year on my birthday too. Without fail. Whenever that day came, my mother would go half insane and cry every day. Maybe that’s why... when I hear rain, it sounds mixed together with crying.”

Jeon Segye quietly continued.

“You know L&E used to be called Seongun Group before they changed the name, right?”

“Yeah....”

“So my original name was almost going to be Uju. Because they wanted me to embrace Seongun. I think my mother still lives in those days. On my birthday she cries and says, ‘Uju-ah, what should we do? Your father will still love you. It’ll definitely happen....’ She keeps forgetting my current name. I guess if I can’t embrace Seongun, I’m completely useless.”

Several times, Jeon Segye couldn’t continue speaking properly.

“This year’s really a disaster. Not inheriting the group and not being loved... now not only my mother but the entire world knows it.”

Jeon Segye laughed while saying his own name like a joke.

Nam Pyeonghwa couldn’t see his face because he was turned away, but she could tell he was trying to pretend he was fine.

“I got caught being pathetic.”

At Jeon Segye’s words, Nam Pyeonghwa turned around.

As her upper body twisted, Jeon Segye’s chest—previously not touching her—brushed against the thin fabric of her blouse.

Their body temperatures gradually became alike.

“You’re not pathetic, Representative.”

“What part of me isn’t?”

“At the very least, your employees and I believe in you. And you’re a good person too....”

Nam Pyeonghwa’s transparent, clear eyes looked directly at Jeon Segye.

The lighting director stared at Han Yeoreum’s face and thought about the difference between film and television.

There was a unique color palette dramas could never fully replicate no matter how hard they tried. No amount of post-processing could recreate the depth created on set.

Films often shot only two or three scenes a day. The lighting team spent hours adjusting everything according to the angle of the sun and even carefully shaping the shadows on actors’ faces.

The dark shadows unique to films deepened immersion.

Half of a face sinking into shadow. Backlighting heightening the audience’s tension.

Meanwhile, dramas had to shoot fifteen to twenty scenes a day. There was no time to move lighting setups for every changing angle. Even if the light hit differently from the right and left, they still had to call okay.

And in dramas, the actor’s face itself was the product. Above all else, the actor had to look good from every angle.

But Han Yeoreum—

“You’re not someone unloved either.”

Nam Pyeonghwa stared at Jeon Segye with unwavering eyes that never once broke focus.

And somehow, she crossed the boundary between drama and film, changing the air itself. It felt as though all the light in the space had gathered inside her eyes and begun sparkling.

Even though the angles were no longer the same as when the lights had first been installed. Even though the camera position changed again and again while Han Yeoreum and the lighting stayed where they were.

That overwhelming immersion unique to facing a massive cinema screen.

Acting that made viewers feel not as though they were merely watching the characters, but understanding them.

That was what Han Yeoreum was doing right now.

“....”

Slowly, the two pressed their lips together.

According to the flow of the script, everyone should have felt a fluttering excitement from the emotional kiss scene.

But Han Yeoreum’s eyes, her voice, Nam Pyeonghwa’s entire expression as she looked at Jeon Segye—

Made the viewers feel tenderness instead.

Like a movie.

Like a scene from a masterpiece discussed endlessly for generations.

* * *

“Okay!”

At Director Byeon’s signal, I slowly pulled my lips away.

Come to think of it, Seo Eden’s left hand—which was originally supposed to stay resting on his thigh—had ended up covering the back of my hand.

‘...Uh....’

I looked up at the sparkling light above Seo Eden’s head.

<Beyond the Frame> D+

Seo Eden had grown stronger.

His eyes looked as though he were finally about to truly become Jeon Segye from now on.