Jae Uck

S e o u l  O l y m p i c  M u s e u m  o f  A r t

"...Cut!! Ok, keeeutt. Sugohaeseubnida yeorobun!" the mechanical loudspeaker voice of Hong PD echoed through the gallery. "See you all at Deok-mi's house at 9pm!"

Jae Uck lifted his arms above his head in at attempt to work out all the tight muscles, kinks, from the hard work of the day. His shoulders let out a resounding crack as he moved his arms upwards in one big circle. "Aahhhh.." Jae Uck let out a big sigh as he cracked away. These old bones really were beginning to ache alot earlier than he thought it would. An uninvited vision of his older, much healthier and fitter brother, Jae Won, materialised. "Uck ah, if you don't stop your horrible habit of smoking and start working out, you'll start to feel it soon. Your mid-30s are when our bodies start slowing down, you aren't immortal....blablabla..". Being the baby of the family unfortunately meant he was subject to all sorts of lectures from his more senior members of the family, even if he was already 35 years old.

Pushing that annoying image of his hyung out of his mind, he ran a hand through his hair as he walked over to his rest area to grab a drink, where Seon-hae and his stylist team gathered, poring over a lit phone screen. 

"What are you guys obsessing over now?" Jae Uck asked, as he took a big swig from his water flask (which had an overly cute sticker of him with lion ears). 

"Omomoo, oppa, netizens are literally going crazy over your visual perfection and chemi with Park Min Young-sunbae!" gushed Ha Na, his younger female stylist. "We are only 3 episodes in and already the drama, your name, and Min Young-sunbaenim's name are trending on Naver!!"

Seon-hae, a stickler for ratings, scrolled through the ratings issued by Nielsen for Episodes 1-2 which had also just come out. "Hmm, not bad, steady debut ratings of 3.5%. Let's hope it goes up as more episodes come out. Jae-Uck ah sugohaee.." his manager patted him on the back as Ha Na continued to read out comments.

"Hahaha, too cute, one commenter said Ryan Gold is more idol material than Cha Si An, maybe they should have switched roles!" she giggled.

Jae Uck laughed along, enjoying the positive comments being read out. He was no stranger to this, having been accused of taking girls' hearts when he shouldn't have, via his second lead roles. What was that term they called it? Second lead syndrome? Yes, that was it. It was still nice hearing these comments, especially given now he was in the lead role, finally, as some would say.

He suddenly felt someone edge in from his side, breaking up their team huddle. 

"Mwo hae, what are you guys laughing about?" Min Young's face peered through. In her right hand, she held remnants of the cotton candy they were eating earlier in the day, at the Seoul Children's Grand Park, where they shot their fake dating scenes.

The borders of the cotton candy had already caramelised, turning a dark pink as Min Young used her sticky fingers to grab more and stuff it into .

Jae Uck burst out laughing.

"Whats.. so funny..." Min Young said, trying to formulate her words while munching through the cotton candy taking up the space in . Her big eyes looked quizzically at the team, whilst her jaw worked at the cotton candy, cheek puffed out.

At that moment, Jae Uck finally understood why everyone called her Rabbit. 

He stifled a further laugh at her comical expression and affectionately ruffled her hair. "Aigoo-ya Deok Mi-ssi, are you that hungry? To be eating the stale cotton candy? What did you say earlier about being on a diet for the shooting? Ha.. ha.. ha! Ok.. ok.. sorry sorry.." He laughed out loud as Min Young gave him a strong jab in his side, and he dodged away to avoid more jabs from her. She might be small in size, but her jabs were really no joke.

"You are not one to judge okay gwanjangnim! Don't think I did not see you try to steal Hong PD's fried chicken from lunch today.." Min Young huffed, still her sticky fingers. "So what is it you guys were looking at?" Min Young asked again. Ha Na passed the screen to it, and Min Young grabbed it awkwardly, trying to avoid her fingers smudging the screen.

Jae Uck took the phone from her, and held it in front of her, scrolling slowly so she could read.

"Ahh...tangyonaji...of course the chemi will be great, I am, after all, Queen of Ro-cos," Min Young said, confidently, as she made a show of blowing at her imaginary manicure (which were actually just her sticky pink food-dye colored nails).

Jae Uck rolled his eyes in mock exasperation. "Okay Queen, we get it. Please also remember you need a good partner for good chemi, it's not all just you!" Jae Uck retorted, whilst grabbing a handful of cotton candy from her and promptly stuffing it into his mouth.

Seon-hae and Ha Na, suddenly feeling like intruders, watched them, mouth agape. Noticing the silence from the two, Jae Uck and Min Young, whilst munching together, said in unison "Mwo ya?", and promptly burst into peals of laughter at the jinx. 

Ha Na whispered on the side to Seon-hae, whilst watching the two, lost in their own world. "No wonder the ad-libs have been coming hard and fast during shooting. These two are just such jokers, on and off set!". Seon-hae shook his head at the antics of the two actors. "Well, Ha Na, this is better than not having any chemistry at all, which would have been the death of Jae Uck..imagine all of Min Young-ssi's fans hating on him for not being a good partner..". Truthfully, Seon-hae was massively relieved over the last few weeks observing the first few shoots.

Jae Uck had definitely come out of his artist shell for this drama. This was a lighter, funnier side even he as manager, had not seen. There was some worry that Jae Uck would be too intense for a light-hearted role such as this, but all his fears were allayed the moment he saw Jae Uck break into a moonwalk one day after Min Young began shuffling behind the scenes. He had NEVER seen Jae Uck dance like that before in his life, and he felt that even Jae Uck himself was slightly surprised that he did that.

Was this what industry people called the "Min Young Effect"?

Seon-hae was jolted out of his thoughts by Ji Sung, Min Young's manager.

"Ya ya, what are you gu