The crew of ‘Stars in My Ordinary Sky’ were inevitably kicked out. Young tried to talk to CEO Jean, but he said they should look for another filming site on their own.
Young appeared to be on the verge of tears. When he begged for this production to be made, he didn’t think the old man would make him suffer so much. Still, he put on a brave front as he faced the cast.
“Yujin is already looking for market sets within Seoul. If it’s alright, can you wait a bit until we find one?” he kindly asked.
Jordie clicked his tongue. “How long?” he asked.
Young bit his lip. “I can’t say. However, we are doing our best—”
“Clearly not,” Jordie exclaimed. “You should have a backup plan for everything.”
Young didn’t know what to say. Sammy nudged Jordie’s shoulder, attempting to calm him down. However, it seemed his entitlement had gone through the roof.
“Now, we’re stranded here. Why do we have to film the market scene in the first place? You’re placing too much emphasis on Jimin, who is just a supporting character,” he spat, glancing at Zeno.
Zeno listened quietly. So, this was what his outbreak was all about? Because Zeno’s character had a backstory, and he didn’t?
“Why can’t we film it at the school set instead?” Jordie continued to complain.
Young let out a deep breath. “I worked hard to curate a story that will resonate well with people of such status. I, myself, came from a below-average income family, so I want to represent it. Jimin is the epitome of that.”
Jordie pursed his lips. “Well, it’s not resonating well. We can’t even achieve half a million views after a week on the first few episodes.”
Young looked down at the ground in shame. Shelly was nervously biting her lip while Jaehyun stayed silent. Sammy, on the other hand, tried to lighten up the situation, but it clearly wasn’t helping.
“Don’t come with us then,” Zeno said, breaking the tense atmosphere.
Jordie lifted his head with a frown. “What did you say?”
“Don’t come with us if you’re going to bitch around when a minor inconvenience happens,” he said, surprising the others with his lack of filter.
“What are you—”
Zeno didn’t give him any time to finish. “You’re not the only one having a hard time. Look at the crew—they’re filming under the sun with such heavy equipment just so they could capture us well. The editors had stayed up late trying to make something out of your mediocre acting.”
“Young has written an impressive script for someone with little to no experience. You can’t change his story and speak like that just because you feel like it.”
Jordie was rendered silent, not knowing what to say.
“Now,” Zeno said, facing all of them. At that moment, Young felt he was in the presence of a truly great person. His presence wasn’t noticeable right off the bat. However, in times like this, he felt like he had lived a hundred more years than all of the people on the set.
“This is only a short scene, so I think we can film at a real market,” he suggested.
The crew members looked up at his recommendation. Young also felt it wasn’t a bad idea. Shelly, however, felt like she was going to pass out. They were going to film in a real market with lots of people?
“Isn’t the market noisy?” Sammy asked.
“It’s better than the empty market they have,” Zeno reasoned.
“We’re already going for the realistic, slice-of-life feel, so I believe this is a good place where we can film it.”
Zeno had no clue why he was suggesting this. Maybe it was the way Jordie had bombarded Young with condescending statements. Zeno had always been weak against injustice—though he, himself, didn’t want to admit it.
“We passed by a fish market on our way here,” he continued.
“It’s not a meat market, but I think it wouldn’t be detrimental to the plot.”
“That’s fine with me,” Young said with shining eyes. As expected from his idol. Zeno was always level-headed, and he admired him even more.
Jordie clicked his tongue and entered the van. “I’m staying in the car. I’m not even part of the scene,” he grumbled.
“I’ll join you then,” Sammy muttered, not elated with the thought of being in a wet fish market.
“Let’s go,” Zeno said when Shelly and Jaehyun didn’t say anything.
***
They arrived at a fish market, and as expected, it was quite crowded. It was still early in the morning, so a lot of locals were doing their daily buying.
Now came the hardest part—trying to convince a vendor to lend them their stall when it was a busy hour.
“Umm, excuse me,” Young muttered.
“What do you want?” the middle-aged vendor asked. “Sardines? Mackerel? Hairtail?”
“I was wondering if we could borrow your stall for a moment and film for a short period of time?” he meekly asked.
The vendor frowned. “So, you’re not buying anything?”
“I can buy something right after…”
“Go away,” she said. “I’m not entertaining such requests. Either buy something now or leave.”
The crew members were dejected. Yujin tried with another vendor, but they were met with the same fate.
Jordie clicked his tongue. “This is the worst,” he muttered. “I’m going back to the van.”
“Wait for me!” Sammy exclaimed while covering her nose.
Jaehyun, too, followed after them. He didn’t have a scene just yet, so he reckoned he could chill inside the air-conditioned van.
The crew was starting to lose hope when, suddenly, Zeno called for their attention.
“Right here,” he said, gesturing for the small crew to come closer. Young’s brows furrowed as they walked to where he was. Then, they were surprised to see an old woman smiling at them. Next to her was Zeno, who had a neutral expression on his face.
“She let us film in her stall,” he said like it was the easiest thing in the world.
Just how charming was Zeno that he was able to do things like this?