Superstar From Age 0

Chapter 724

The actors were chatting in a place away from the filming set, so they wouldn’t disturb the preparation for the shooting.

“I’m glad it’s not too chilly.”

“Me too.”

Seo-jun nodded at Melissa Walton’s words. Well, he didn’t mind the cold weather much, but the others might not feel the same.

‘Especially Tae Woo hyung.’

He couldn’t help but smile as he noticed how Tae Woo hyung was becoming more and more like Da Ho hyung, not only in his work style, but also in his overprotective attitude.

***

Sssshhh-

It was a dark night.

As if sensing someone’s sorrow, the rain fell.

A pitch-black shadow that moved using the shadows cast by the houses and trees, passing by the bright street lamps, stopped in a grassy field where hardly anyone came.

Then, it cautiously rose up.

On the grassy field where no light shone.

A black sphere slowly ascended, like the sun rising.

Sssshhh-

Along with the rain, the shadow sphere spread out in all directions, like a flower blooming. There was a person inside.

It was William.

Cold raindrops fell on William, who stood with a blank expression.

He had used up all his strength to get here, and even Jay, who would make a shadow umbrella for William when there was no one around, couldn’t block the raindrops.

Unlike Jay, who was restless, William didn’t feel anything, even though his hair and clothes were soaked by the cold rain.

He just looked around with a vacant expression.

It was not the scenery of broken and rusty metal scraps that filled his eyes, but a familiar one. 

And he couldn’t smell the rusty iron or the salty sea that he had felt just a moment ago.

Nor the smell of blood.

William looked at his two hands with trembling eyes. 

The blood of the Shadowman that had stained his hands while he was floating, was washed away by the rain.

Flash.

He came to his senses.

“Jay!”

William bent down and called out to Jay, who was lying on the ground, not knowing what to do.

“Jay! We have to go back!”

He had to go back right now.

He had to go back and save the Shadowman.

“Jay!! Please!!”

Splash-

William knelt down and curled up, not caring about the wet ground. 

He got closer to Jay, who was on the ground, and begged his shadow friend. 

He had never been so desperate in his life.

“We have to go now!”

But even in the face of William’s earnestness, Jay, who loved and cherished the boy the most, just stayed still with a gloomy look.

“…Please…we have to go…”

Jay’s thoughts reached him.

It was a fact that William, who was connected to Jay by ‘Succession’, also knew.

Right now, Jay and he didn’t have the strength to make an umbrella to block the rain that poured from the sky. 

In such a situation, going back to the abandoned ship where the Shadowman was,

was impossible.

“…No…”

He couldn’t save him.

His hero.

The Shadowman.

William collapsed on the ground and stared blankly at the distance.

Whether it was because of his body temperature that had dropped due to the cold rain, or because of the current situation, raindrops ran down his pale face.

They looked like tears.

***

“Cut! Okay!”

As the director Jonathan called cut, the water that had been spraying from the fire truck stopped.

At that, the manager Choi Tae Woo, who had been restless and rolling his feet, unable to watch the scene that was as intense as silent, ran to his actor with a handful of fluffy towels.

“William…!”

He was in a completely different mood from the staff, who were covering their mouths and sobbing at Seo-jun’s emotional acting.

“/Are you okay, Seo-jun? Are you not cold?/”

“/Yes. I’m fine./”

Choi Tae Woo, who didn’t even realize that he was speaking Korean because he was so nervous, answered with a smile. Choi Tae Woo quickly wiped off the wet water from Seo-jun’s clothes, and Seo-jun also used the towel he received from Choi Tae Woo to shake off his hair and moved to monitor the scene.

Of course, he didn’t forget to deactivate the ability that amplified people’s emotions, [(Sun)Pollen of the Sun Tree-Intermediate].

[(Sun)Pollen of the Sun Tree-Intermediate]

It is the pollen from the flowers of the sun tree that the fairies grow.

It enhances the emotions of living beings.

“How was it, director Jonathan?”

Seo-jun, who couldn’t sit down because his pants were soaked, monitored the scene while standing (Choi Tae Woo had prepared a small heater next to him, so it was warm.) and asked director Jonathan. He smiled and gave him a thumbs up.

“What can I say.”

“Hahaha.”

Seo-jun, who was wet, laughed brightly.

Choi Tae Woo, who was watching Seo-jun as if he might cough at any moment, didn’t blink.

“Let’s shoot the bust shot now. Jun.”

“Yes.”

At that, Choi Tae Woo rummaged through his bag and brought out new towels. 

Seo-jun, who was about to head to the filming set, laughed at Choi Tae Woo’s appearance.

“You brought a lot, Tae Woo hyung.”

“I brought enough so you can shoot comfortably, no matter how many times.”

Since there were still bust shots and close-up shots left to shoot, there were plenty of dry towels.

Seo-jun, director Jonathan, and even Melissa Walton and Jo Sung Hwan, who were watching, laughed at his words.

***

It was raining.

The parents, who couldn’t sleep until late at night, waiting for their son, couldn’t sit still. 

They got up and sat down on the sofa, looked out the window, put on an umbrella and went out to the gate, passing by the yard, and came back in. 

They also prepared water for their son to drink whenever he came back, and food in case he was hungry.

“William…”

Ever since they heard about the bus accident, that William was on it, and that he was kidnapped by a villain, their hearts seemed to have stopped.

The mother buried her face in her palms on the sofa, and the father didn’t take his eyes off the window, where he could see the outside clearly, as he pulled the curtains wide open.

He remembered those hellish days that had passed more than ten years ago.

Even though they had moved to a new place, and spent happy times with their son, the nightmare that remained like a scar on their faces haunted them. What if it happened again?

No.

They could bear it.

They could endure their own pain.

But not William.

They were worried sick about William, who had been kidnapped.

They had a hunch that it had something to do with what happened ten years ago, or the two years that William had forgotten.

They held each other’s hands tightly.

Otherwise, they felt like they would run out of the house like madmen and wander the streets.

In a situation where they had no information at all, the only reason they could wait like this was because the agent from First had promised to bring William back safely.

‘…I will bring him back for sure.’

The man who said he was an agent from First looked solid and reliable, but somehow he had a worried look in his eyes, not less than the couple. 

That’s why they trusted him more. 

They instinctively felt that he would surely bring William back.

‘Please wait at home so you can greet him when he comes back.’

The agent from First, no, the Shadowman said that and left his seat with a stern face.

The couple couldn’t forget his back.

That’s when a second that felt like a year passed.

The father saw someone coming in through the gate. 

The figure’s face was visible under the bright light of the yard, which they had turned on to wait for their son.

“William!”

The father jumped up and the mother also got up in surprise. 

The couple rushed to the front door. 

The father grabbed an umbrella and the mother took a large towel. 

And they ran out to the yard.

William was walking with a blank face.

“William!”

The father quickly put the umbrella over William and the mother wrapped him with a large towel. 

They didn’t care about getting wet themselves, they only checked William.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

“Why are you so cold… Let’s go inside.”

“Yes. Let’s go inside and…!”

William’s eyelashes, which had been blank in the face of the worried words and expressions of his parents, fluttered. 

The ripple slowly spread over his entire face. His eyebrows, eyes, cheeks, lips, and chin began to tremble without him knowing.

“Hic…”

“…William?”

Before the couple could figure out what the sound was, William hugged them tightly. 

And then he burst into tears. He cried loudly and deeply, like a child who had lost something precious. He cried as if he was spitting out everything inside him.

The mother and father, who were momentarily surprised by William’s appearance, soon hugged him back without a word.

As he felt the warmth of his parents, his body temperature that had been cooling down in his hands rose, and William’s cry grew louder.

[(Sun)Pollen of the Sun Tree is activated.]

The staff’s emotions swayed with William’s sorrow and pain, despair and resentment.

Tears welled up in their eyes.

Director Jonathan was no exception, but he wasn’t swept away by the current. He just tried to capture the scene with his eyes shining.

“…Cut! Okay!”

Everyone came back to reality at director Jonathan’s shout.

When the fire truck stopped, Seo-jun Ri’s manager quickly handed him a towel, as he had done throughout the shooting today. 

He also gave towels to Melissa Walton and Jo Sung Hwan, who had been shooting with Seo-jun Ri and got wet.

While the two actors calmed down their emotions and wiped off the water with towels, Choi Tae Woo also diligently wiped Seo-jun. 

He had to be careful because of the makeup until a while ago, but since the shooting was over with this cut, he could wipe him more thoroughly.

“You look like a dog.”

“Haha.”

He felt like a large dog that had just come out of a bath, as Choi Tae Woo’s hands rubbed his hair with a towel. 

He wiped his body with a towel and said to director Jonathan, who laughed.

“Good job today, Jun. It must have been hard to shoot at night and get wet.”

“It’s okay, Jonathan. We wrote the synopsis together.”

He said with a smile, and the staff, who were preparing to leave, had tears in their eyes again. The main body had it the worst.

“Take a good rest for three days. Be careful not to catch a cold.”

“Okay. I will.”

He had to get wet a lot, so he had arranged a three-day holiday for his condition. Of course, director Jonathan and the shooting team were going to continue shooting with other actors.

“What are you going to do during the holiday?”

He laughed and answered Jo Sung Hwan’s question.

“I’m going to listen to some lectures at school.”

“Ah.”

“Right. Jun is still a college student.”

They laughed at the fact that they had forgotten, amazed by Seo-jun’s acting skills.

***

Three days later.

Seo-jun, who had spent his time resting and studying during the holiday, started shooting [Shadow and Knight] again.

“Ready, action!”

After the kidnapping incident, William returned home and took a few days off from school. 

He left the house with Jay, after sending his worried parents to work.

“Let’s go, Jay.”

His destination was the park.

Would he be there, or not?

William moved his steps to the bench where Mac always sat, with a trembling heart.

The closer he got to the bench, the faster his heart beat with anticipation and fear, and he felt like he couldn’t breathe.

Whoo-

He stopped and took a deep breath, then looked at the bench. William’s eyes widened as much as possible.

Someone was sitting on the bench.