Top Star by Luck

Chapter 39

“…Uuuunngh.”

Kim In Gwon, who had been sent flying into a pile of garbage, staggered to his feet, groaning in pain. Then, with a thud, he collapsed again.

But there was no one there to help him up.

Why?

“…….”

Because Director Yeom’s camera was still pointed at his face.

The rule of the studio was simple: as long as the film was rolling, no one from the outside world could intervene.

Meanwhile, even Lee Min Ki was too awestruck to react.

‘So this is what a real professional’s action looks like.’

His heart still pounded when he recalled the moment Kim In Gwon had charged at him just a little while ago.

It had been incredibly realistic.

As if Kim In Gwon had truly intended to crash into him—it was utterly lifelike.

Just a few centimeters.

No, not even a few centimeters—just a few millimeters more, and Lee Min Ki himself would have been sprawled on the ground next to him.

Kim In Gwon had managed to control that tiny gap, sending himself flying alone.

…That was what Lee Min Ki concluded.

Whether it was true or not didn’t matter.

‘I still have a long way to go. I got cocky just because my body moved the way I wanted it to for a moment. My stance is all wrong. I shouldn’t be happy just because I’ve been getting some compliments lately. This is the level I need to reach.’

Watching Kim In Gwon’s flawless action, adrenaline surged in Lee Min Ki’s mind.

Meanwhile, Kim In Gwon, who had been propping himself up with his hands, finally succeeded in standing.

At that point, Director Yeom Gwang Ho’s camera came to a stop.

“Cut.”

Director Yeom, who finally gave the signal, rushed over to grab Kim In Gwon’s hand. His voice was full of emotion.

“That was excellent.”

“Excuse me?”

“That action scene just now—I didn’t expect you to go this far. As someone who loves action, I was genuinely surprised by you, In Gwon.”

“Huh? What? Me?”

Compliments were pouring out.

But the person receiving them, Kim In Gwon, was utterly confused.

‘What did I do?’

He had simply tried to make Lee Min Ki taste some humiliation by staging it as an accident, but it hadn’t worked.

His plan had been to trip Lee Min Ki, then fall together, and then blame him for failing to coordinate.

But what had happened instead?

Not only had he failed to touch Lee Min Ki, but he had ended up crashing into a pile of garbage.

“There was a bit of improvisation, but if it’s that kind of ad-lib, it’s more than welcome. Originally, I planned to shoot a longer take, but if it’s at this level, editing it together will work better. In Gwon, I can expect more action scenes like this from you, right?”

To make matters worse, Director Yeom Gwang Ho was praising him.

How was he supposed to respond?

At this moment, there was only one thing Kim In Gwon could do.

‘Because of that bastard, Lee Min Ki…!’

His face turned red with frustration.

***

After a brief break, filming resumed.

“Ready, action!”

They cut from the scene where Kim In Gwon was thrown into the garbage and picked up from the next shot.

Just as Lee Min Ki was about to grab the fallen Kim In Gwon, Kim In Gwon shook him off and ran away again.

This time, there was a scene where Kim In Gwon, fleeing from Lee Min Ki, threw garbage at him.

It was a continuation of the previous action scene.

But even here, Kim In Gwon thought to himself:

‘I got caught off guard earlier, but that won’t happen again.’

This was a chance to redeem himself.

Just because he failed once didn’t mean he would fail twice. Kim In Gwon’s anger wasn’t extinguished yet.

He was a man of determination.

Wasn’t it said that failure is the mother of success?

Kim In Gwon firmly believed that this was a universal truth.

‘Take this!’

As Kim In Gwon sprinted away from Lee Min Ki, he clenched a milk carton in his hand.

According to the script, he should throw the milk carton at Lee Min Ki’s torso.

But instead, he aimed a bit higher—planning to hit his head.

Just at that moment…

Splat—

“Ah!”

He must have squeezed the carton too hard.

The milk carton burst, and the white liquid splashed all over Kim In Gwon’s head.

Plop!

“Gah! Gah!”

The milk dripped down like a waterfall, blinding his eyes as it flowed into them.

Thud!

To make things worse, his legs got tangled, and Kim In Gwon rolled onto the ground again.

If the previous fall could be written off as improvisation, this one was, without a doubt, a full-blown accident.

But…

‘Oh, oh, ohhhh.’

Director Yeom Gwang Ho’s camera didn’t stop rolling.

He was simply in awe.

‘This is a good shot too.’

It was all so natural.

In crime films, the key to a good action scene was its realism.

Action as lively as a freshly caught fish flopping on the ground.

Right now, in Director Yeom’s eyes, Kim In Gwon was delivering the ideal action performance he had envisioned.

Lee Min Ki was equally impressed.

‘A stunt actor really is different.’

No matter what unexpected situation arose, he managed to turn it into a part of the scene.

It was ad-libbing beyond ad-libs.

Regardless of the truth, that was how Kim In Gwon appeared in Lee Min Ki’s eyes.

“Cut! Take a breather, then we’ll continue. Let’s just touch up the sequence.”

Director Yeom, too, was someone who enjoyed weaving together unexpected events to create a bigger picture.

He seemed intent on utilizing everything without wasting a single moment.

But even then, it wasn’t over.

“Ugh!”

“Huff, huff, huff. This bastard, seems like you’ve been working out.”

In the scene where the fugitive, out of breath after running for a while, turned to face Lee Min Ki for a bare-handed fight, Kim In Gwon threw an overly aggressive punch.

Thwack.

By pure chance, his foot got caught on Lee Min Ki’s, and he once again fell to the ground.

“Oh!”

And once again, Director Yeom was impressed.

‘Why again?!’

Kim In Gwon fumed inside.

The same situation repeated several times.

Smack!

“Argh!”

Thud!

“Ugh!”

Kim In Gwon repeatedly failed in front of Lee Min Ki.

Or rather, the scenes succeeded.

It was only that his intentions weren’t being fulfilled.

‘Is this bastard doing it on purpose, knowing everything?’

By this point, he even felt wronged.

Who was Kim In Gwon, after all?

He was someone who could be considered top-tier among stunt actors.

There was no way he would make a mistake in a simple fight scene.

Causing a minor accident to trouble a rookie actor should have been easier than mixing cold water with porridge.

This wasn’t the first time, either.

But this time, what should have been simple turned out to be as tangled as a knotted shoelace—completely unfixable.

“Ah! Damn it!”

He was about to explode, his frustration echoing the lines he spat out.

‘Is this guy just lucky?’

Kim In Gwon had hit the truth.

It was purely a matter of luck.

Accidents, by nature, involve luck—whether it’s bad luck or something else—and luck is always swallowed up by an even greater stroke of luck.

Yes, it was Lee Min Ki’s luck.

His luck was so immense that any approaching misfortune simply bounced off.

It didn’t just deflect misfortune—it seemed to retaliate.

The farce that had taken place in the waiting room during the filming of Campus Story was like that, too.

An absolute difference in luck.

Lee Min Ki possessed various kinds of luck, but when it came to avoiding misfortune, his luck was nearly absolute.

And.

‘What is this guy trying to pull?’

He wasn’t a pushover.

Improvisation and mistakes were fine to a point, but when they kept happening like this, it was impossible not to notice the malice underneath.

After all, why is improvisation called improvisation?

It’s because it’s an unexpected situation—that’s why it’s called ad-libbing.

In an action scene, where injuries are easy to come by, repeatedly throwing in ad-libs like this was a blatant sign of disrespect toward the other actor.

Regardless of what Kim In Gwon’s intentions were.

‘Does he think I’m a pushover?’

At first, Lee Min Ki thought it was a misunderstanding.

Could Kim In Gwon really be doing this on purpose?

But as time passed, and by the time they reached the hand-to-hand combat scene, it became impossible not to notice.

‘This is intentional.’

He didn’t know the reason, but it was clear that Kim In Gwon was deliberately throwing hostile ad-libs at him.

And that meant Lee Min Ki couldn’t just let it go.

He’d tolerate what he could.

Then.

“Uwaaagh!”

At the moment when Kim In Gwon, pretending to make a mistake, aimed a punch at the back of Lee Min Ki’s head—

“……!”

That punch was caught firmly in Lee Min Ki’s hand.

Like a ball being caught in a catcher’s glove.

Creak.

Kim In Gwon tried to pull his fist free, but it was stuck in place.

It was as if Lee Min Ki’s grip had clamped down on his fist like a powerful press, pinning it in place with unrelenting force.

Sweat dripped down Kim In Gwon’s forehead.

‘What kind of grip strength…’

Grip strength.

It was the result of all the hard work Lee Min Ki had put in finally paying off.

It had only been a week since he had started working out at the gym near his house.

[Director, do you know how to strengthen your forearm muscles?]

He had casually asked Gym Manager Kwon Joon Yong one day.

[Forearm muscles? Why?]

[Well, a lot of people say that thick forearms are a symbol of masculinity. I was just curious if there’s a way to build them up.]

[Hmm, it’s possible, but forearms are such small muscles that it won’t be fun. They’re hard to build, and they grow slowly. Even if you work at it three or four times as hard as your chest or thighs, it still might not be enough.]

[Still, I’d like to try.]

[Hoo.]

Right then, Kwon Joon Yong had smiled ominously, and Lee Min Ki felt like he had made a mistake.

[If our member wants to do it, we have to let him. If you’re willing to take it on voluntarily, I’ll respect that determination as a trainer.]

[Uh, I was just thinking of adding it on the side…]

[Min Ki, that’s not how muscles work. Once you start, you have to see it through to the end. That’s how muscles grow.]

Whatever that logic was supposed to mean.

In any case, the training wasn’t easy.

[Start with dumbbell reverse curls, loosen up your wrists with farmer’s walks, then build up with pull-up bar hangs. When it starts to feel easier, switch to dumbbell wrist extensions, and repeat.]

He had to keep repeating all kinds of forearm exercises that most people didn’t even do.

That’s how he had built up his forearm strength.

It wasn’t visually noticeable yet, but muscles always show their functionality before they show their appearance.

55 kilograms.

That was Lee Min Ki’s current grip strength.

It was a 40% increase from when he first started.

It was above average for a regular person, but below the level of a professional athlete.

“……!”

Kim In Gwon desperately tried to pull his fist away, but it didn’t budge.

“Ugh!”

Only by using the momentum of his entire body, not just his arm strength, was he finally able to free himself.

“Whoa, whoa?”

He even fell back, landing on his rear.

But that didn’t calm his frustration.

Kim In Gwon stood up, brushing off his aching backside, and pointed angrily at Lee Min Ki, shouting.

“Min Ki, don’t you think you’ve gone too far?”

He was accusing him.

“Huh?”

Lee Min Ki’s face twitched, unsure of what he was hearing, but before he could respond, Kim In Gwon continued.

“Improvising is fine, but we need to agree on the limits. Don’t you think?”

It was a fair point.

Ad-libbing only works when there’s an unspoken agreement with the other actor.

However.

‘This guy didn’t discuss anything with me.’

It wasn’t like Kim In Gwon had ever done that with him.

From Lee Min Ki’s perspective, this was absurd.

When he did it, it was a clever ad-lib, but when someone else did it, it was a mistake?

“I’m not the only one doing that.”

“All this has to be done by reading the atmosphere and matching the rhythm. What if someone gets hurt? Huh?”

“I almost got hurt, too.”

“But did you get hurt?”

Was it because of his short temper?

Kim In Gwon’s criticism didn’t seem to care even if the cameras were still rolling.

But.

He wasn’t the only one present.

The dozens of people surrounding them weren’t just standing around like props.

“In Gwon, why are you getting so worked up?”

Someone finally intervened.

It was Choi Yoo Chang.

He smiled brightly at Kim In Gwon, who looked startled, and spoke.

“Things like this can happen during movie shoots.”

“But this guy…”

“Hey, maybe it was a bit much. But you’re the senior here, right? You’ve been improvising the whole time, and you’re so good at it that Min Ki probably saw that and wanted to try it out for himself. Right?”

“But still…”

“In Gwon.”

Just as Kim In Gwon tried to protest further, Choi Yoo Chang’s eyes narrowed slightly, and his voice turned icy as he spoke.

“Aren’t you putting a bit too much of your personal feelings into your acting?”

A single, sharp remark—like a dagger.

That line froze Kim In Gwon to the core.