How a Loan Shark Survives as an Actor Chapter 14

Chapter 14

 

“Wooju has been working as an animal actor for five years, but this has never happened before. He’s always done his scenes without a single NG… I’m truly sorry.”

The trainer bowed his head over and over in apology.

But the production staff’s expressions did not improve.

“Is there any way around this?”

“What if we place treats behind Junseo and lure him over?”

With the schedule already running tight, the crew desperately tried one solution after another, but none of them worked.

All the dog had to do was jump on Woo Junseo and lick his face, but it stubbornly resisted as if it didn’t even want its paws touching him.

“Wooju, please. Hm?”

Even at the trainer’s pleading, the dog showed no intention of leaving my side.

If it had refused from the start, that would’ve been one thing. But it had performed perfectly in all the earlier scenes and suddenly started acting like this, leaving everyone bewildered.

The fact that such a large dog kept trying to climb into my lap made things awkward for me as well.

“Wow… Wooju really likes Mr. Seulho.”

“Did you secretly hide dog treats in your clothes or something?”

The staff murmured among themselves while I laughed awkwardly.

“I think it’d be better if I leave. If I’m gone, Wooju might be able to focus on filming. I’ll head out now.”

After saying my goodbyes, I left the park.

Thirty minutes later, however, I received a call from one of the staff members.

“Mr. Seulho, just come back. Wooju keeps staring in the direction you left…”

After getting the call, I hurried back to the park.

And just as they had said, the dog was sitting there, staring in my direction as though waiting for me.

“What do we do now?”

“What else can we do? We’ll have to call it a day. We can try again tomorrow, and if it still doesn’t work, we’ll switch him out for another dog.”

“Then we’ll have to scrap all the footage we shot earlier. And what if the replacement dog won’t cooperate with Junseo either?”

“Haah. This is driving me crazy. Everything was going fine, so why all of a sudden…? Why is this only happening when it’s with Actor Junseo?”

I could hear Director Jang and a staff member talking.

It wasn’t something only I could hear.

Sure enough, when I glanced over, Woo Junseo’s expression looked murderous.

‘You should really manage your facial expressions better.’

To be fair, I understood his frustration.

But was glaring going to solve anything?

‘With that frown on your face, even the friendliest dog would stay away.’

Normally, the Woo Junseo everyone knew would have laughed it off with something like:

‘Maybe I’m too tall, so this little guy finds me intimidating~’ and lighten the mood.

But between the conversation with Choi Ran earlier and the brutal shooting schedule leaving him exhausted, the usual composure he showed was nowhere to be found.

Instead…

“Haah, what the hell is this because of one damn mutt? Fuck, this is so irritating.”

He muttered the words in a voice dripping with annoyance.

It wasn’t exactly quiet.

Several nearby staff members froze and carefully watched his reaction.

Of course, that only applied to the newer staff.

The veterans who had dealt with countless difficult celebrities simply ignored his swearing and continued working as though nothing had happened.

‘How should I handle this?’

While petting the dog, I wondered how things would have gone if I hadn’t come to visit the set.

“Wooju.”

The ears that had been drooping sadly immediately perked up.

As I gently stroked them, I spoke.

“Tough, isn’t it? I tried acting recently too, and it’s not easy.”

Pant, pant.

“But could you do it just once? You’re an actor too, aren’t you?”

I hugged the dog, who was about the size of a small child, and patted him.

I wasn’t even sure he could understand what I was saying, but there wasn’t much else I could do besides ask.

“Let’s just do it once, okay? I’ll buy you something tasty afterward. Ah, but nothing too expensive. I already spent all my money.”

Woof!

“Alright. I’ll buy you something a little expensive.”

As I whispered to him for a while, Director Jang suddenly shouted loudly.

“Alright! Let’s try one more time! At least one last attempt before the sun goes down!”

There was no expectation in his voice.

The staff moved the equipment around with blank expressions.

Woo Junseo took his position, wearing an obviously irritated look.

The trainer nervously gave the dog several instructions before stepping back.

Choi Ran took hold of the leash.

And the dog remained quiet.

“…”

Without realizing it, I started walking.

After briefly asking Director Jang for permission, I stepped into the filming area.

As I strode forward, Choi Ran looked up at me with wide eyes.

“Oppa?”

“Just a second. I need to say something to him.”

I knelt down until I was eye level with the dog.

“Wooju. Look here.”

Those black jewel-like eyes turned toward me.

After confirming he was focused entirely on me, I slowly began walking backward.

The dog’s gaze never left me, even as I retreated all the way to where Woo Junseo was standing.

“Sunbae-nim, what exactly are you doing right now?”

The moment I bumped into him, an irritated voice immediately reached my ears.

Ignoring him, I kept checking that the dog’s attention remained fixed on me and turned around.

‘Haah. I can’t believe I’m actually doing this.’

“Excuse me.”

“What–”

Then I wrapped my arms around Woo Junseo.

“Oh my.”

I heard the staff erupt into murmurs.

I also heard the person I’d just hugged suck in a startled breath.

Yeah. You hate this too.

I swear, I hate it even more.

But let’s endure it for a little while.

Turning my head toward the dog, I shouted:

“Wooju! Hyung and I are friends. See?”

Woof!

“We’re super close!”

Woof!

“When they call cut, run over to hyung, okay?”

The sight of me yelling while hugging Woo Junseo caused the staff to start laughing one by one.

I knew.

I knew exactly how ridiculous this looked.

“I hope Wooju appreciates all this effort from Seulho!” Director Jang shouted.

The laughter only grew louder.

“Go, Wooju!”

“Come on, Wooju! Just once!”

The staff’s cheerful encouragement and smiling eyes reached the dog.

The gloomy atmosphere that had settled over the set instantly transformed into something warm and lively.

Pant, pant.

Only after seeing the tension leave the dog’s body did I finally step away from Woo Junseo.

“…You could’ve discussed this beforehand.”

Perhaps because everyone else was laughing, making it difficult for him to openly criticize me, Woo Junseo muttered awkwardly.

I apologized and quickly retreated behind the camera.

And then filming resumed.

“Cut! Ah~ Excellent!”

Director Jang beamed as he gave the okay sign.

The action hit perfectly.

The actors’ timing was flawless.

A perfect scene had been born.

In high spirits, Director Jang turned toward the trainer.

“Wooju is amazing. Great work, Trainer.”

“What work did I do? This is all thanks to Mr. Seulho. Goodness, if it hadn’t been for him…”

“Haha. Looks like hugging Actor Junseo worked perfectly. Mr. Seulho! Can you come every time Wooju appears? You’ll have to be his manager.”

I smiled back at Director Jang.

Mostly because the instant the director called cut, the dog had immediately charged over and tackled me again, leaving me no room to hold a proper conversation.

Pant, pant.

“Alright, alright. You’re a handful.”

I frantically patted the dog as he clung to me, wagging his tail like a helicopter rotor.

Choi Ran approached with a fascinated expression.

“Oppa, at this point, did you spray yourself with dog perfume or something?”

But before I could answer, the dog licked my face again.

Woof!

“Yeah. Let’s go get something tasty.”

Woof! Woof!

“Alright. I’ll buy you something a little expensive.”

And just like that, my first visit to a filming set came to a peaceful conclusion.

…Or so I thought.

Who could’ve guessed the internet would explode because of this?

 

***

 

[A drama is filming in the park in front of my apartment, and I saw Deadweight]

[(Video)]

[Zoomed in from my apartment window, so the quality is trash lol]

➝Damn, he’s handsome.

➝That face is breaking through this potato-quality video;;

↳ Yeah, he’s handsome… but only handsome.

↳ If he had talent to match that face, he’d already be in Hollywood. What a waste.

➝Is that dog actually Deadweight’s dog? Did he bring his dog to the set?

➝Wait, can you even upload this stuff??

↳ It’s already been reposted everywhere lol.

 

[I watched the Deadweight video and I’m dying lololol]

[Looks like the guy next to him is the owner.]

[The dog completely ignored the owner and only stared at Deadweight lololol.]

➝Dogs care about looks too…

↳ LOL appearance supremacy is too much.

➝No seriously, dogs really do care about looks… My dog likes my handsome cousin more than me even though I’ve raised him for ten years… Ungrateful little bastard…

↳ LMAOOOO.

↳ Easy there, owner lol.

➝Don’t the two of them kind of look alike?

➝Honestly, I’d believe it if someone told me that was actually his dog.

↳ Seriously. Their vibes match.

 

The production team did their best to control the area around the park, but they couldn’t stop people from filming from apartment windows.

A single uploaded video became a hot topic and spread across numerous online communities.

Of course, this sort of thing was a minor incident every drama experienced.

At least, until another post appeared.

 

[I worked at an abandoned-dog shelter six years ago (with proof photos)]

 

The author explained that they had worked at a rescue shelter in Gyeonggi Province six years earlier.

According to them, Yoo Seulho had regularly volunteered there for several years.

They also revealed that the dog named Wooju in the video had been the shelter’s longest-term resident at the time.

 

[After Actor Seulho had to stop volunteering due to personal circumstances, Wooju (whose name was Kkamangi back then) was cast by an animal-actor agency not long afterward.]

[The agency would let us know whenever Wooju appeared in a production, so we always watched with great joy.]

[At the same time, we sometimes joked among ourselves:]

[“What if Actor Seulho and Wooju ever meet again on a filming set?”]

[(It was really just a joke^^;;)]

[But yesterday I happened to watch that video without thinking much of it and was genuinely shocked.]

[If I’m this happy to see them reunited, I can only imagine how happy Actor Seulho and Wooju must have been.]

[I hesitated because I wasn’t sure if writing this would be rude, but after personally seeing Actor Seulho for years, I wanted to cheer him on.]

[I’m rooting for the friendship between those two^^.]

 

The moment the post was uploaded, it went wildly viral.

At first, people suspected the writer was making things up, since they only provided a few shelter photos as proof.

But after uploading additional photos…

Selfies taken with Yoo Seulho during volunteer work.

Photos of Yoo Seulho together with Wooju.

One after another, the evidence piled up, and the doubts disappeared.

Some communities began posting conspiracy theories:

[Looks like Seulho’s company intentionally set this up.]

[They probably already knew and cast the dog on purpose.]

But those theories were immediately crushed by entertainment-industry-savvy commenters pointing out:

[Do you really think Seulho’s company is competent enough to pull off something like that?]

The emotional impact and public interest surrounding this seemingly fated reunion eventually evolved into a new question:

[Wait, what’s the name of this drama again?]

The publicity effect was so enormous that neither money nor marketing could have bought it.

The production team and the broadcasting station went into an uproar.

Director Jang and the staff called Yoo Seulho, saying:

“You should’ve told us beforehand if you had this kind of connection!”

Unable to tell them that he himself had known absolutely nothing about it, Yoo Seulho simply laughed it off.

“Wow. How does something like this even happen?”

“From now on, I think I’m going to cry every time I see Wooju and Seulho together…”

“Next time they meet, we should take photos and upload them. Great promotion.”

“…Seriously, way to ruin the mood.”

“Ah, come on! Thanks to Seulho, the investment budget got bigger too. Everyone’s happy, right?”

Everyone on set spent their time happily talking about Yoo Seulho despite him not being there.

Everyone except one person.

“…”

The male lead actor, Woo Junseo, remained silent with an unreadable expression on his face.

And the next day…

The long-awaited first filming of Yoo Seulho finally began.