Let Me Count The Ways

7: If Today is the Only Day We Are Allowed to be Scandalous (Part II)

He tries to ask her father an important question on the day Lee Gon mobilizes all of Corea's forces to protect Jeong Taeeul.

The director yells cut and Kim Goeun stops limping across the intersection near the Busan Cinema Center and sprints back to the marker on the other side of the street. They quickly switch to a smaller handheld camera for a tighter shot of her face as Taeeul desperately tries to get to a phone booth. At the director's cue, Kim Goeun starts limping once more towards the phone booth.

They do this about 3 more times before all the necessary shots are done. And each time she does it, she does it perfectly. It doesn't matter if her schedule had started almost 7 hours ago and had involved stunt after stunt with motorcycles, cars, guns, and goons. It doesn't matter if her muscles are beginning to feel the burn. She ignores it because both her legs are still perfectly fine and she knows Lee Minho probably has it worse and he isn't complaining. So she plods on and does it perfectly because she doesn't know how to do it any other way.

After they smash a six-wheeler truck onto a phone booth and scatter soft plastic bits meant to look like shattered glass, Kim Goeun runs to her mark and lies down on the ground without any hesitation or artifice. She uses the short lull in time to catch her breath as they start to set up the shot. The nervous wiggling of her feet reveals the restless surge of energy in her body as she prepares for yet, another action scene.

The cameras roll and Kim Goeun plays dead, rises on her knees and pushes down her assailant to disengage his hold on her body. When he recovers, she is ready with a twist of her torso and a right hook so strong that she throws her body on the ground, landing fists and elbows on the hard concrete ground. She does this about 2 more times until they get the shots the director wanted. And every time she does it, she does it perfectly. She does it perfectly because she loves her job and takes pride in it, bruises on her elbows, fists, and all.

Lee Minho arrives on the Busan set just in the nick of time and manages to catch her scenes. He watches her struggle, cover it up, and tuck it away under stellar performances and he stays on the sidelines as he waits for his turn.

"I know what your back looks like when you walk with someone you love. So tell me, Minhossi, what do you need?"

He had leaned forward, rested his elbows on his knees and clasped his hands in front of him to keep himself from fidgeting nervously. His sister had given his arm a gentle squeeze before getting up from the couch and moving behind her sleek white fiberglass desk.

"I'm your sister first, and your agent, second," she had told him as she opened her computer to begin drafting plans, "so tell me what you need and I will tell you how we can make it work."

"I need to protect her."

Kim Goeun is directed to stand alone and vulnerable on all sides in the middle of an intersection. It is empty, save for a city block sized horde of black clad men a quarter mile away from her. The director yells action and the horde comes to life in a thunder of a thousand feet hitting concrete, mindless but with a singular goal of delivering Taeeul's head to Lee Lim.

The tremor in her knees feels real when these nameless, faceless figures rush at her. They are relentless, unforgiving. So when the director yells cut, there is immediate relief. She turns around and tells everyone the terror was real. But she says it with a smile so they don't fully believe her.

Lee Minho watches her from the sidelines and sees through her smile.

Lee Yunjeong had nodded at him in that indulgent but mildly annoyed way that older sisters often reserved for their younger brothers. "Protect her from what, exactly?"