Superstar From Age 0

Chapter 716

As soon as Jay appeared, he felt a different vibe from Mac’s partner, who was tapping Jay on the table.

‘Is it because of his father’s shadow?’

But it was hard to judge by that alone.

‘Shadows with self-awareness’ were so rare that they were only stories in fairy tales on Natra planet.

“So, first of all, do you remember when you had a shadow friend?”

“Yes. Of course.”

William smiled and answered.

“Since I was seven years old.”

“Seven years old…”

Mac was surprised by how young he was.

It was about the same age as when he sent William, or rather, Jin Natra, back home.

‘Could it be. Since then?’

“Was there anything that triggered it? Like touching something or meeting someone for the first time…”

William told Shadowman everything without hesitation.

“I had a car accident when I was young and lost almost two years of memory.”

!!

Mac swallowed the breath that almost came out.

‘He knew.’

Did his parents tell him?

Maybe William noticed the strangeness of the two years of empty space in his memory first.

And a car accident.

It was the most plausible excuse in this era.

“Jay was with me since then.”

William looked down and gazed at Jay, who was playing with his partner, with a warm look.

“We played together and slept together. When I was scared and had trouble sleeping or had nightmares, he comforted me when I was young. He also looked after me like my parents when I studied or had homework. We sometimes fought too.”

William said with a smile.

“He’s been with me since I was seven years old. He’s my old friend.”

Mac nodded slowly.

“…I see. If it’s been that long, is there anyone else who knows about Jay besides me?”

“No. No one but you. I told my mom and dad when I was young, but… they thought he was my imaginary friend. Jay didn’t show himself either.”

William drank some of the drink in front of him, feeling thirsty.

Mac waited for a moment and asked another question.

“Then, William. Can you control the shadow? As you wish.”

Like Shadowman, who could control the shadow as he wanted, even though his partner sometimes caused trouble.

William shook his head.

“No. I can’t do that. Jay moves as he wishes.”

“I see. I got it.”

They talked about this and that.

William answered Mac’s questions seriously and honestly.

Mac, who was nodding and collecting information about Jay, paused for a moment.

He felt comfortable with William because he had a close relationship with him, but he wondered if William was too honest, even though he was a superhero. 

It seemed like he was telling stories that he had never told anyone before.

“Um. William.”

“Yes.”

William looked at Mac.

Mac said with a worried expression.

“Even if I’m Shadowman, aren’t you telling me too much? You’ve been hiding it since you were seven.”

William smiled.

“I’m telling you because you’re Shadowman. I’m a big fan. And… I was curious.”

His eyes were slightly red and his hands were fidgeting on the table. And his trembling lips seemed to be forced up.

William smiled with a new emotion that he had never seen before.

“Shadowman.”

And then he poured out his fan love for the superhero Shadowman, and his original feelings that were hidden underneath.

From when he was young until now.

It was a very heavy question that he had kept for a long time.

“Who am I?”

Who am I?

Shadowman’s eyes widened at the question.

The boy, William, whose face was flushed to his eyes, did not stop talking.

“When I was young, I thought Jay, my living shadow friend, would have a mom and dad, and friends too. So I introduced Jay and played with him and drew him in pictures. But Jay didn’t show himself in front of other people, and because of that, my mom and dad thought Jay was my imaginary friend.”

William said with a light smile.

But the emotion in it was not light.

“It was natural.”

It was the other side of the bright and cute story he had told earlier.

It was full of dark emotions, like the back of the moon.

“Because there was no one. No one like me, who had a moving shadow.”

Mac, who opened his eyes wide, seemed to freeze.

“Mom and dad, relatives, friends, teachers. Even the people walking on the street! No one’s shadow moved like Jay.”

Mac inhaled without knowing it at the voice of William, who seemed to spit out his emotions.

“So I studied about shadows. And I found out. That shadows are just shadows, that they don’t move because they are made when light can’t pass through objects. That they are natural phenomena that don’t have self-awareness like Jay.”

William clasped his hands together, and squeezed them so hard that they turned white.

“Only me! Only my shadow is like this…”

He seemed to recall the surprise and sadness of that time, and his clenched hands trembled. His shadow friend, Jay, comforted him. 

William smiled as if he was okay. And then he took a deep breath and calmed down his choked feelings.

“I’m sorry. I’ve never told anyone this story… I got emotional.”

Mac shook his head slowly.

He felt something hot in his throat and couldn’t speak.

“When I was young, I avoided Jay when I found out the truth. Then, I saw you on TV, Shadowman. You, who controlled the shadows.”

William lifted his head.

Mac met William’s eyes, which were wet with moisture.

He noticed the emotion in William’s eyes, which he had seen in the park, and which were still clear.

It was a sense of kinship and relief.

The feeling that there was someone like him, that he was not strange.

“So I researched about Shadowman and became your fan, and I’ve been waiting to meet you for a long time.”

William took a deep breath and exhaled.

“I wanted to ask you.”

William spat out the question that had been locked in his long sorrow and tears, with a trembling voice.

“Who am I?”

The tears that he had held back since he was seven years old,

“Am I really a human?”

burst out with anxiety.

“…Am I really your son?”

It was Jin Natra’s trauma, which remained even though his memory was gone.

***

“Cut! Okay!”

Jonathan, the director, shouted.

Along with that, Seo-jun, who was crying with a sad and anxious expression that anyone could see, stopped his tears.

“Seo-jun, here’s an ice pack.”

“Thanks, Tae Woo hyung.”

Seo-jun came down from the cafe set and received an ice pack from Choi Tae Woo. He headed to where Jonathan was to monitor the scene.

On the way, he heard the voices of the staff who were immersed in the story, saying something like ‘Our William…!’. Seo-jun laughed.

He sat next to Evan Block and looked at the scene with his reddened eyes.

Was there any place where the character’s emotion was too much or too little? Was there any flaw or awkward scene?

The two actors and the director looked at the scene with eagle eyes.

“Is it okay?”

“Yeah.”

The director smiled at the nod of the two actors.

“Let’s shoot the next scene.”

“Yes!”

Matthew, the assistant director, yelled at the staff.

“We’ll prepare for the next scene!”

And shortly after.

The two actors went up to the set that the staff had cleaned up.

Soon, the director’s voice was heard.

“Ready, action!”

***

“…Calm down, William.”

Mac handed him a tissue.

Seeing his face wet with tears, he felt like he knew how much he had worried and agonized in his heart since he was seven years old.

William and his parents were clearly a family of the same blood, but the existence of ‘Jay, the shadow friend’ that only he had made William anxious.

‘I didn’t know this would happen…’

He thought he would live a normal and happy life with his parents, but in fact, William’s heart was burning.

“I’m sorry.”

William wiped his tears.

He had met the only one who understood him, whom he had wanted to meet for a long time, and he cried. 

He was embarrassed, but on the other hand, he felt a little relieved.

Mac opened his mouth as he looked at William, who had stopped crying.

“What can I do for you?”

He had been waiting for the day to meet Shadowman because he had something to ask him. Whatever it was, Mac was ready to help him with open arms.

The real William spoke in a calm voice.

His face would have looked like he had never cried, if it weren’t for his reddened eyes. He quickly composed himself.

“I’d like you to investigate Jay and me. First has a lot of information that ordinary people don’t know.”

“…Okay. I got it.”

The conclusion would be that he was a human anyway.

Or maybe not, since there was a thing called ‘Jay’, he thought and nodded.

“And…”

William put his hand in his backpack. He took out two transparent ziplock bags. There was something like a thin thread in the ziplock bag.

“I’d like you to do a DNA test too. It’s my mom and dad’s hair.”

“…What?”

“Do you need something else, like a toothbrush? Then I’ll bring it next time.”

“Wait a minute, William!”

Mac called out to William, who was talking casually.

“A DNA test?”

“I…”

William said with an expression that seemed to hurt his chest.

“I might not be their real son. I wanted to do it myself, but they said I needed the consent of the parties. I couldn’t do it because I thought my parents would worry.”

Mac rubbed his forehead as William shrugged and spoke.

“How did you know that?”

“I watched a Korean drama and researched it. I’ll bring anything else you need. Please, Mac.”

Mac nodded with a helpless expression at William’s eyes, who wanted to confirm that he was his parents’ real son.

***

“I didn’t expect a DNA test here…”

Evan Block, who had watched Korean dramas (he also watched makjang dramas. 

He said they were fun.), laughed as he monitored the scene. Seo-jun and Jonathan Will, the director who wrote the synopsis that was the basis of the script, chuckled.

“William’s father is Korean, so I thought he might have watched some Korean makjang dramas.”

Seo-jun said and Jonathan added.

“Even if they don’t know about Korean dramas, they need to see that William knows he is his parents’ real son and feels relieved, so it’s an essential scene.”

Evan Block nodded.

People who knew about Korean makjang dramas and those who didn’t would be able to watch the movie with interest without breaking the immersion.