Chapter 3
In FocusAs he said his final words he heard the door to the studio open and looked over.
“Oh you have got to be kidding me,” he whispered to himself as he saw a familiar hat atop a very familiar figure.
Seungri looked to his boss for a quick second and asked in a low voice, “You know him?”
“No, not really. He was just a jerk I ran into on my way over here,” Jiyong groaned. “Completely rude. Called me a because he thought I was some fan following him, but whatever.”
“Oh, well I guess what everyone says is true then,” Seungri whispered. “We better get the show on the road,” he said as he walked over to Vick and his manager to greet them with Jiyong slowly following him.
Vick took off his shades as he looked around the studio. It was a smaller studio than he was used to being in and there were hardly any staff on set. His manager had told him when they pulled up that even though this was a small scale shoot, the photographer is supposed to be the best in the business. His manager explained that he’s from America and has done spreads for Rolling Stone, Cosmo, Men’s Health, and Elle. He has a very good reputation. People say that he’s demanding when he’s in the studio and always brings out the exact emotion the employer wants.
So naturally Vick pictured some middle aged white man and thought that this shoot would be trouble because of the possibility of a language problem. However, things are never what he imagines.
Seungri walked up to them and said, “Welcome to G.Kwon studios. My name is Seungri and this is Mr. Jiyong, owner and photographer of G.Kwon studios.” He bowed and stepped aside so Jiyong could great them.
Jiyong warily moved closer to Vick hoping that the actor would not recognize him from their incident 15 minutes before. But as soon as Vick looked at him, his eyebrows furrowed.
“Wait a minute. You’re the guy from the coffee shop. The one that followed me,” he said
“I didn’t follow you. If you remember, I said that my place was up the street. And well as you see, here is my place. Now if you don’t mind I hear we are on a tight schedule, so let’s get you into hair and make-up, and get started.” Jiyong abruptly turned around and called for his assistants. They came scurrying over, greeted everyone, and looked to him for instructions.
“Please show him the way and get started on the concept we talked about Thursday.”
They nodded and motioned for Vick to follow them. Vick stared at Jiyong because a) this person was not what he expected and b) he never really had anyone order him around like this before. He looked to his manager with a ‘are you going to let him talk to me like this’ face, but he just rolled his eyes and pushed Vick toward the makeup artists and said, “Just go. And let’s not have a repeat like W, ok?”
Vick glared at him started walking towards the back of the studio when he heard Jiyong yell, “And don’t forget about that makeup change I mentioned yesterday.”
As he was walking, he looked back to where the man was standing and watched him turn to talk with everyone in the studio, “Ok people, we have the actor on set, so now we have to kick into gear and finish up the lighting and add final touches to the staging.” Jiyong pointed to one of the assistants and started to say something but before Vick could hear, he had already gone into the makeup room.
While he was in make up his mind was preoccupied with thoughts of Jiyong. He didn’t understand how the timid guy he thought was some weird fan, turned out to be a demanding professional photographer. This photographer was supposed to be American and the best in the business, but how can he when he speaks perfect Korean and looks like he’s 20? Things weren’t adding up.
He opened his mouth, about to speak, when the girl doing his hair stopped and became stiff saying, “Did I pull your hair to much sir? I am so sorry. I’ll try and be more careful sir. How’s this? Is this better?” She rambled on as she gently brushed his hair back.
He smirked to himself because the girl probably thought he was going to yell, but he wasn’t even paying attention to what she was doing really. So he proceeded to say, “No, you’re fine. I was just curious about something. I was told that the photographer was American, but obviously he’s not. And his accent sounds like he’s a native Korean, how long has he been here?”
The girl relaxed and resumed doing up his hair and said, “Oh, Mr. Jiyong has been back for a little over a year now. He lived in the U.S. for I think… 10 years… no 12 years. But he lived in Korea before that. I don’t know much else."
“Uh huh…” he whispered and nodded his head slightly as not to disrupt her work.
“And how old is he?”
He saw the girl her head to the side in the mirror, contemplating. Then she said, “I think he just turned 25. Yeah that sounds right.”
Vicks eyes bugged out a little at this new found knowledge. Jiyong was only a year younger than him, and he already has an amazing reputation in the industry.
He then got the idea that if he didn’t have one of his notorious “incidents” today, he might be able to get on the good side of Jiyong. And being friends with him might just help him land a couple more roles, who knows?
The girl had stopped fixing his hair and was doing some last looks in the mirror when the costume manger came in and took him next door to change. After they tweaked a couple outfits he heard a soft knock on the changing room door. The door opened and his manager asked, “Are you done? Jiyong wants him out there, and we only have 4 hours until we need to be at the airport.”
She smiled and replied, “Yep. He’s all yours.”
“Thanks”
Vick smoothed down the ends of his jacket and was walking passed his manager when he stopped him to talk for a second. His manager rubbed his hands over his face and then looked at Vick and said, “Listen, I know you’ve had kind of a rough morning and all, but can you please behave today. I’m tired of trying to explain your actions whenever you do something. We have a small amount of time so let’s just get this done and be on our way to Japan, ok?”
Vick sighed, clapped his hand onto his managers’ shoulder and said, “Daesung, I’m sorry I’ve caused trouble. Really I am. But you’ve known me for years now, and you know that I’m just a very particular person.” He ended his sentence with a mischievous smile. Daesung glared at Vick and sarcastically said, “Oh I know… Oh how I know. But all joking aside, let’s just get through one thing without any hiccups, yeah?”
“Yeah,” replied Vick as they both made their way to front of the studio.
When he walked onto the set for the shoot he saw Jiyong laughing with some of his assistants. He noticed how bright and vibrant the man’s face lit up when he genuinely smiled, but as soon as Jiyong noticed him walking up, his face dropped.
The two stared at each other for a minute until Jiyong broke the silence by asking, “You didn’t give any of my girls trouble did you?”
Vick pointed at himself and said, “Who me?” mocking Jiyong from their first encounter. Before Jiyong could retort, Vick continued, “I was a perfect gentleman.”
Jiyong scoffed at him slightly and said, “Whatever, at least you’re off to a good start. I won’t tolerate any diva’s on my set, so just do as I say and we might get out of here sooner than we planned, ok?
“As you wish sir,” Vick answered accompanied with a mock salute.
Jiyong ignored him, turned to everyone else and said, “Makeup and hair on standby, Seungri at the monitor.” He looked to make sure the mentioned we in their places, they nodded that they were ready.
“Ok, guys here we go.”
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Since people have been asking, I decided to use the name Vick for Seunghyuns' stage name, mainly because I wanted to create sort of a split personility for him. His public image is the arragont actor Vick, but the name only his family and close friends call him, is Seunghyun.
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