Chapter 64: Genius Writer vs. Genius Actor (2)
For two weeks in Jeju Island, without even getting to do any sightseeing, Kim Si-woo returned straight to Seoul. The moment he got home, he collapsed onto his bed.
“I swear… I’m never going to Jeju again.”
While Si-woo hid away in exhaustion, the actors dispersed—each heading somewhere to dig deeper into their characters.
***
Park Jun-ho’s Visit
“Is this the place…?”
Park Jun-ho arrived at a regional prison. With his manager, he applied for visitation. Only after depositing a considerable amount of money into the inmate’s account did one man accept the meeting.
“Well, well. Why would a fancy actor like you come looking for me?”
Park Jun-ho had requested a visit with a death-row serial killer.
Although Korea hadn’t executed anyone in over twenty years, effectively making it an abolition state, the man remained locked away indefinitely.
His body had grown old and thin, but the malice in his eyes was chilling.
“I just… wanted to hear your story.”
“My story? I’ve already told it all. Who I killed, how, and why.”
“Do you regret anything?”
“Of course not. Why? Do you think I’m crazy? I just returned the favor. To the bastard who raped me. To the woman who beat me. To the one who abandoned me. If they hadn’t made me this way, none of this would’ve happened.”
He truly believed his actions were justified.
What terrified Park Jun-ho wasn’t the killer’s reasoning—
But the fact that he found himself sympathizing.
The killer suddenly leaned forward, pressing his face against the reinforced glass, staring straight into Jun-ho’s eyes.
“So tell me, why do you have the same eyes as me?”
In that instant, Jun-ho snapped out of it.
Not because of what the killer saw, but because he realized he had begun to agree with him—pitying him, even seeing logic in his murders.
Yet he continued:
“If a child was abandoned by their parents, beaten every day at an orphanage, and sexually assaulted by the older boy sharing his room… what would that child become?”
“They’d become like me, obviously.”
“You’re sure of that?”
“There are only two outcomes. They kill themselves or they kill others. Either way they turn insane. Why does it matter? You’re a weird one. I only came because of the money you put in my account.”
Jun-ho eventually revealed why he was here: he’d been cast to play a serial killer.
“I’m playing a serial killer in my next film. Honestly, I don’t know if I can portray someone like this properly…”
“So you’re representing people like me, huh? Heh.”
“Yes.”
Unlike Jun-ho, who pitied such people, the killer saw an opportunity—someone who could finally express his rage to the world.
“I’ll help you then. But in return, you make sure the world knows. The real problem isn’t people like me—It’s the world that creates us and lets us rot.”
And so, for several days, Park Jun-ho returned, digging deeper into the abyss with the serial killer.
***
The First Day of Filming
Two weeks later, filming began.
Because day one focused entirely on Ha Seung-woo’s scenes, Park Jun-ho and most actors playing criminals didn’t come to set. They had spent time visiting police officers, retired gang leaders, and former convicts.
When they returned, they looked so convincingly thuggish that staff wondered what insane training they’d been doing.
“Alright, shall we begin shooting?”
“Yes~.”
At Kim Dong-su’s call, actors playing gang members responded in a swaggering, gangster-like tone.
Once each department signaled readiness—
“Camera—Action!”
Ha Seung-woo, hair cut short for his role, walked forward. His subordinates bowed at a 90-degree angle.
“Welcome, boss!”
“Seriously… you’re still the same.”
He checked the documents on the shutting-down of their illegal businesses and received the papers proving written forgiveness from their victims.
“This is all verified, right? They really forgave you?”
“Yes, boss! We suffered a lot getting these signatures, but we did it!”
“‘Suffered’? Don’t ever call it suffering again. Compared to what they went through, this is nothing.”
“S-sorry, boss.”
He assigned each subordinate to future legal jobs, tightening the organization from the inside out.
“And help people on the streets too. We live clean now.”
“Yes, boss!”
The acting flowed beautifully.
Next, Choi Hyun (Ha Seung-woo) began his probationary work at a police substation.
The atmosphere there was surprisingly cheerful.
The station chief, an older man with grey hair, smiled at the new recruits.
“Oh dear, our rookies are here. It’s Friday… so your first day might be rough.”
“No kidding.”
The chief and the patrol leader exchanged comments, then approached the rookies, asking each why they chose to become police officers.
The first rookie said he became a police officer for job security.
The second said he followed his father’s footsteps as a policeman.
Then it was Choi Hyun’s turn.
“Choi Hyun?”
“Yes, sir!”
“And why did you become a cop?”
“I wanted to protect many people.”
“Ohho, we’ve got a romantic here. Hahaha! You’re patrolling with me today.”
“Yes, sir.”
It seemed the station chief took a liking to him, personally pairing up with Hyun for his first patrol.
Before going out, the seniors warned the rookies about drunk troublemakers—that reality would be very different from what they imagined, and that by the end of the night, they might lose faith in humanity.
Everything pointed toward a grueling first patrol…
But the wildcard was Hyun’s subordinates.
While the police prepared for their night shift, Hyun’s gang underlings had already begun their own patrol. They started in the early evening, befriending restaurant owners and shopkeepers.
When night fell, drunk citizens emerged onto the streets.
“Hey! Don’t let things get messy tonight! Keep the streets clean, you bastards!”
“Yes, boss!”
And strangely—none of the drunkards acted out. They all went straight home, sober and quiet.
“Good. And when the patrol cars pass, remember to bow. What are we?”
“Our boss’s mirror!”
“If we do dirty crap, that filth reflects on our boss’s face! Got it?!”
“Yes, boss!”
The voices of the gangsters echoed loudly through the streets.
At first, local shop owners frowned at the presence of gangsters…
But soon, they realized this meant no broken bottles, no vomit puddles, and no harassment.
In fact, things were… peaceful.
Meanwhile, the patrol officers—unaware of this unofficial “crime prevention team”—were confused.
“This is Friday night, right?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Why the hell is it so quiet?”
“I’m… not sure, sir.”
As they continued patrolling, they spotted a group of men in the distance.
The closer they got, the more obvious it became—tattoos, flashy clothes, the intimidating demeanor.
“Are those… gangsters?”
The officer stepped out of the patrol car to approach them—
And then the gangsters bowed at a full 90 degrees.
“Wha— What the? Do you know them?”
“No…. I’ve never seen them before.”
Baffled, the officers confirmed nothing illegal was happening and awkwardly retreated to the patrol car.
“What a damn weird night.”
Others who saw the scene were just as confused, but since the gangsters were actually preventing problems, nobody complained.
The most flustered person was none other than Choi Hyun.
Those… those idiots…
He wanted to yell at them to get lost immediately, but with the station chief right next to him, he had to pretend ignorance.
That night’s shoot concluded with that awkward scene.
“Good job, everyone!”
The cast and crew packed up equipment, exchanging greetings.
Ha Seung-woo and the others seemed happy with the day’s shoot. Everything was going smoothly.
Until Park Jun-ho’s entrance.
***
Park Jun-ho’s First Scene
After days of immersion, Jun-ho arrived with a look in his eyes that made people instinctively back away. His normally intimidating face now carried a vacant, eerie glaze.
“Jun-ho, how are you feeling today?”
“I’m fine.”
Even director Kim Dong-su asked with concern, and Kim Si-woo visited the set for the first time.
“Alright. Serial killer Park Ki-chul. First murder scene. Action!”
At the cue, Jun-ho began to move.
Park Ki-chul had finally found the address of the orphanage director who used to beat him daily. He wondered how she lived now.
Did she suffer? Receive divine punishment?
Or… did she live happily, without consequence?
Heart pounding, Ki-chul waited outside a rural house, watching from afar, waiting for her to come out.
After several hours, someone stepped outside.
Even after fifteen years, Ki-chul recognized her instantly just from her silhouette.
“Hurry… hurry…”
He desperately wanted to see her face.
She turned slowly. And she was smiling.
“That fucking bitch… looks pretty happy.”
The woman who had brutally beaten him when he was a child was still laughing comfortably more than a decade later. Rage surged inside him—but another feeling crept up as well.
Finally… I get to take revenge with my own hands.
Park Ki-chul hopped over the wall in an instant and entered the house. Voices could be heard inside—voices that seemed to belong to her family. Slowly, he took a sharp sashimi knife out of his jacket pocket and crept toward the front door.
Creak.
As the door opened, someone inside mistook him for the woman of the house and approached.
“Oh? Honey, you’re back alrea—”
It was her husband. He froze, shocked by the stranger before him, about to shout.
But Park Ki-chul was faster.
He plunged the sashimi knife straight into the man’s torso.
“G-gaaah!”
As the man tried to scream, Ki-chul covered his mouth and repeatedly stabbed him until his body went limp. Only when he confirmed the man had died did he slowly rise to his feet.
A cheerful home only moments ago was now drenched in crimson and utterly silent.
“There should be one more… I clearly heard two voices.”
He began searching for the woman’s son.
“Where are you, brat?”
Echoing the exact words the headmistress used to say to him as a child, he meticulously tore the place apart.
“Here? No? How about here?”
Kitchen, living room, bathroom, master bedroom—finally, only one door remained.
“So you’re in here, huh?”
He grabbed the doorknob and twisted.
Clack, clack.
“What?”
It was locked. And the moment he realized it, something molten exploded inside his chest.
“Hey, you little bastard! Open the damn door!”
BANG! BANG! BANG!
He kicked the door violently, screaming curses nonstop. When it wouldn’t budge despite his frenzy, his breath grew ragged. Finally, he stopped and spoke to the child inside.
“Fine, stay in there forever. I’ll kill your mommy and daddy first. Then someday, when you come out, I’ll kill you too.”
Sitting in front of the door, Park Ki-chul waited, smiling—hoping the headmistress would return soon.
Two hours passed.
The front gate creaked open. Quickly, he dragged the husband’s corpse away from direct sight and hid behind the door, holding his breath.
Click—creak.
The front door opened.
“I’m home… wh—What is this?!”
She spotted blood and ran inside, panicked—only for a sashimi knife to stab into her thigh.
“Kyaaaa! Who are you!!!”
“Shut up, you fucking bitch!”
He struck her face repeatedly with his fists. Only when she fainted did he stop. After a while, she regained consciousness and weakly forced words out.
“You… you unlucky brat…”
“Oh? You remember me?”
“I should’ve beaten you to death back then… You really turned into a demon…”
“The demon… is you. That’s why you, your son, your husband—you’ll all die. Hahaha!”
Then he went to the shed, grabbed a shovel, smashed the locked door, killed the child, and finally left the house.
“Cut!”
“Good work, everyone!”
At the director Kim Dong-su’s call, the actors who had been lying on the floor got up, and their managers rushed over to assist them.
But something was clearly wrong with Park Jun-ho.
His hands were trembling uncontrollably. He collapsed in place, breathing fast and shallow.
“C-call 119! Now!”