Kill the Lights by Jangryang
Proofreader/Editor: Kaima, Hwarang
“Oh my god, how can you do this to me?” He thought that god was always on his side, but this time he was trying to betray him. No, no. The one who betrayed him was himself. Failing to recognize god’s good intentions and in his own arrogance, he had disappointed him.
Was it perhaps one of god’s arrangements for him to be standing there, at that moment? Yeah, it might be so. No, it most certainly was. Otherwise, there was no way that he left in the middle of filming and ended up witnessing such a scene in the middle of the street.
When Vick saw Haley running across the street, towards the robbers, he had a premonition.
‘Something. I will see something amazing.’ His whole body’s senses came right to a halt. Like a sixth sense that only geniuses can feel.
Just as expected. –Haley accurately kicked the burglar’s hand and caught the gun, which flew into the air. Oh, fuck! Vick felt goose bumps on his spine. Click, Mason aimed the gun at the little skinny man and talked like a low life, while laughing. It was pretty impressive to watch him strike at the back of the blabbering guy’s head. His perfectly sharp movements were unprecedented, something he had never seen even the martial art directors do.
What is this? Vick’s shoulders quivered in a sense of thrill. Vick scarily glared at a screaming Melisa, hoping to shut her up and looked back at Haley again.
When one of the guys grinned and said, ‘That’s an empty gun,’ Vick swallowed a dry spit. One against three– Even if that Raynoah, who was standing to the side with a cold expression, helps him, it’ll still be two against three. It was a situation where either he should help them or call somebody else, but Vick didn’t move an inch.
Holding his breath, Vick was curious to know how Haley would evade this situation. ‘What are you gonna do holding that empty gun, Haley?’ Vick kept watching as if it was an exciting movie scene, his sweaty fists clenched tight. Haley said grinning, ‘Really?’ and right away, bang! He heard a gun shot.
Vick’s eyes opened wide in surprise as he watched them. What Haley shot at was the sleeve of the fat guy, who had been trying to take out a knife from his pocket. He wasn’t sure if he did it on purpose, but not only had he accurately shot the sleeve, in an instant he had loaded the gun again and shot the handle of the knife on the ground. The knife flew like a spinning dagger and dropped near Vick’s feet.
Haley didn’t flinch, not even once. He loaded the gun right away and pointed at the skinny guy’s head, as if nothing had happened.
‘God……’
Vick felt that the word ‘god’ was involuntarily spilling out of his mouth. Chilling. Vick hugged both of his shoulders and shivered.
Haley smirked at the guy who was pointing a gun at him. With that pretty face, he smiled like the most despicable bastard in the world; Vick look at him, with his eyes wide open.
‘I have killed before. Quite a lot.’ Haley’s expression when he was whispering was not in view. But the eyes of the skinny guy, who heard it, were shivering and trembling. Vick could imagine Haley’s expression from those terrified pupil and the image had him thrilled.
This was a scene in his movie. It was Real– the movie that he had to film. He felt like the title Real, which he made-up without thinking hard, was indeed the arrangement of god. –Oh, god.
This was fate, Vick felt.
He walked up to Haley. Small angels were circling overhead. ‘Congratulations’, ‘the best movie of his life’ and ‘jackpot’, rang the fanfare of joy. He even felt a halo just standing behind Haley. This is mine. He felt desperate that other directors might find out about Haley and snatch him away. The reasons for why he shouldn’t use Haley as a main character unrolled like a toilet paper, but Vick rolled it up again, put it in the trash and burned it.
Vick tried his best to look less crazy and school his expression before grabbing the hands of Haley, who was just standing there and pulled him aside.
“Haley!”
“Oh, Haley…”– The director called him in a trembling voice. Mason frowned a little and took half a step back. Something was strangely unpleasant, but the director kept stepping forward and called “Haley” again, making it more burdensome.
His expression was all excited, like a man proposing, and Mason felt chills and shrugged his shoulders. ‘Ah, guess I’m not gay after all.’ Even as Mason was having this very scary thought, the director grabbed both of his hands firmly.
“Won’t you make a jackpot with me?”
The director asked excitedly as if he meant, ‘Won’t you make a baby with me?’ and Mason was taken aback, “Pardon?” Melisa, who stood at a distance, was crying and frantically struggling as if to charge at them, but her manager dragged her away to the car. Even in the midst of all that, the director kept gazing only at Mason.
“Let’s film a movie.”
‘What do you think? Good, right?’ He asked with his eyes sparkling, and Mason scowled. What’s wrong with this guy? Did he eat something wrong?
“What are you talking about? Didn’t we just finish filming?”
“Ah, yes. Yes. We were indeed filming. I’m talking about while you are at it, why not make the scenes longer?”
The director was full of excitement. “We’ll make the scenes longer and go with more doped characters, what do you think?”
“….Why?’
‘Why would I do that?’ Mason asked with a displeased expression. Making the scene longer means it’ll take more than a day, and Mason knew this technique very well. His superior at Zii, Beretta, that son of a bitch, was always like this. ‘Mason, there’s a job that will finish within a week, do you want to do it? Mason, this time it’s really simple. Mason? You trust me right, Mason?’ –Vick was scarily similar to that disgusting bastard. Before long Mason would get persuaded into agreeing, ‘Perhaps, may be only this time…’., and soon he would be forced to think ‘Ah fuck, not again.’
“Why? You don’t want to? You would like it, with a dope character let’s make you into a big star and me, a rich man. Yeah?”
“Top actor? Wealthy?”
Mason narrowed his eyes and stared at Vick, who was talking exactly like Beretta. Vick shouted, “Yes!” with a confident tone and took out his phone.
“Oh, look there. Where’s your manager? That fat guy who stares at me with sparkling eyes? No, will it work if I talk to your agency? What’s the number?”
“Hey, wait a minute.”
In Haley’s agency, Haley was the boss and Tony was the only employee. Mason felt queasy, and the director called elsewhere.
“Hi, Gloria? Send Haley’s manager here immediately. We are right across the street…. Yes. Stop the shooting.”
Vick was burning with passion to do something, so he immediately jumped into action. Mason tried to interrupt him, “Director? Hello? Excuse me.” ‘Calling Tony and stopping the shoot?’ It was obvious what Tony would think. Just thinking about poor Tony, carefully looking around the area and running to their side, gave him a headache.
The director hung up the phone and put it in his pocket. He started to talk in earnest.
“Now then, since the biggest investor is here, let’s talk properly, yeah?”
He said so while looking at Noah, who was standing there with listless eyes. Noah had been watching their conversation with amusement, and smiled upon receiving the attention of the director.
“I don’t know. It’s not what I came here to talk about.”
Noah glanced at the suave leather watch on his wrist.
“If you want to talk to me, please make an appointment, Mr. Procter.”
Noah smiled gently, but firmly said so to the director, who in turn frowned as if being hit by cold water while in a good mood.
“Hey, excuse me. We are talking about a person who saved your life?”
“No, um, Director.”
I didn’t save his life… Mason stepped up to stop him. He more or less interfered in another person’s business rather than save a life. Noah sneered at the part of ‘saving life’ and said.
“Anyway, about the movie, please write a new report and send it to my secretary. Tell me how you are going to make a movie where Haley Lusk gets a bigger role and how the movie will succeed and repay the production cost.”
“Ah…. Write a report?”
The director asked with a smile, and Noah smiled back.
“Who knows? Honestly, I think it’s crazy, but I can at least hear about it.”
The director grinned at Noah, who was smiling very politely. The director’s expression said that at least Noah realizes what a crazy thing he was about to do and having understood that, this was a very positive feedback.
“……”
They were talking about him, but strangely he couldn’t find a place to join them. Mason glimpsed at Tony who was running towards them from afar with a terrified expression. Tony had a face like he was thinking, ‘what the hell did he do now. Of course, he got into trouble again. Amnesia is just an illness, not a cure-all that solves everything. I was having a good dream, only for a short while.’ The director walked up to Tony, who was ready to bow on the ground and beg for forgiveness, even if he didn’t know what Mason had done.
Mason saw Vick talk pretty importantly to Tony, while holding his shoulders, and turned around to look at Noah, who on the other hand had been avoiding his eyes until now.
“Um, you said you have some business with me?”
What business would Noah have with me? Mason asked carefully, and Noah smiled with his eyes bent. Mason felt that beneath his eyelids, Noah’s eyes looked cold. His gaze slowly travelled from his head to toe, and Mason rolled his eyes.
“I did have some business-…”
Noah paused for a little bit and tilted his head again looking at Mason. He looked into his eyes as if searching for something, causing Mason to frown. Noah smiled inscrutably.
“This is all for today. I fear too much time has passed because of the unnecessary fuss.”
Noah said while looking at his watch and sure enough, a black limousine stopped on the side of the road as if it had been waiting. The car door opened and Phil, wearing a navy colored suit, climbed out and stood by. Noah squinted tiredly and laughed, and Mason quickly averted his gaze, after glancing at his lips. Saliva collected in his mouth and glided down his throat.
“See you…. next time.”
“Huh?”
See him next time? Mason blinked at the banal goodbye, and Noah smiled with his eyes half-closed. Shortly thereafter he walked to Phil, who was waiting for him and got into the car.
Mason stared at his back as if bewitched. Until Tony fell forward in a faint after talking to the director and he had to catch hold of him.
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What is Noah thinking now? Hmmmm..... and poor Tony... he fainted lol
BTW almost half passed through the novel~ I can't wait to finish it! I hope I can finish it by this year... I have so many other novels I want to translate!