慈禧太后的秘密

Chapter 535

“I think 3rd year classrooms are better, so let’s have a look. I think different classrooms have different vibes. There isn’t a class that looks beautiful though, does it? Since it’s an engineering school and all.”

Sora went up to the 4th floor with her notebook. She visited the empty classrooms and wondered which place was the best. The classroom was supposed to show a healthy and energetic image as much as possible, because only then would the main character’s sadness would be portrayed even more in contrast. She went into the 3rd year class 2 of the mechanical engineering department. She thought that it would be quite dirty since it was an all-boys class, but it was unexpectedly clean. There was even a cute tiger doll next to the frame for the class rules. It seemed to be hand-made from some sort of fabric.

The personal lockers at the back were decorated in various colors as well. There were even cushions on the backrests of the chairs. They were all hand-made.

“What the heck is this place? This is completely different from my class.”

Sora said that as she sat down on a chair. The seniors of the mechanical engineering department she saw when she came to school all looked menacing, yet their classroom was so clean and pretty. She even saw a purple ribbon on the curtain.

“This place. I think this place is good. What do you think, everyone?” Sora asked as she looked at the back.

The seniors of the film production club all nodded.

“Looks decent.”

“Let’s go with this place.”

She felt like she would not come across a better place than this in the school. She tried visiting the other 3rd year classrooms just in case, but class 2 of 3rd year mechanical engineering was the best.

“Well then, let’s start our monumental first shoot in this place. Oh, what do you think, Maru-seonbae?”

“It’s good.”

“Okay. Oh, when is that friend of yours coming?”

“Within 30 minutes at the latest.”

“Then I guess we should get ready and start shooting. Minji, you are going to have to write down the things that happen here from now on.”

Her classmate, Lim Minji, nodded before opening the notebook she was holding.

“When should I call our kids?” Maru asked.

Sora looked at the clock. It was 6 right now. She needed some time to get the position of the camera right and to position the props properly.

“I’ll try to get everything ready by 6:30. Seonbae-nims, please close the curtains for now. It’s supposed to be daytime, so it would be weird if it’s dark outside. As for the lights, we’ll try using just the fluorescent lights in the classroom and we’ll add additional light with aluminum foil and a hand-held torch if necessary.”

While the seniors of the club closed the curtains and arranged the desks, Sora moved the desk at the very back and put the tripod there. She connected the camera and turned on the laptop. At first, she was going to record on a 6mm film tape, but she changed her mind and decided to save it on the laptop since she heard that that made it easier to edit. The film festival allowed for DVDs so there wouldn’t be a problem if she didn’t record on 6mm film.

“Minji, you have to draw the structure of the classroom and the position of the camera, okay? We need that if we want to shoot additional scenes later down the line.”

“Okay.”

Minji was very good with her hands, so there was no need to worry about that. After they closed all the curtains, they turned on all the lights in the classroom. Since there was no natural light at night, the classroom was definitely darker than it was during the day.

Sora turned on the camera and checked the video on the laptop. The world portrayed by the lens appeared on the screen.

“Hm, Andon-seonbae. What do you think about this? It looks a little dark, right?”

She asked Ando, who stood next to her. After looking at the screen and the classroom alternately, Ando spoke,

“Jihoon, could you try standing in front of the camera? I want to see how dark it is.”

“Yes, seonbae.”

Jihoon, who was a 2nd year, stood in front of the camera.

Hm - Sora tapped on her chin. Perhaps due to the light coming from the ceiling, there was a shadow cast on the shadow. At first, it looked a little gloomy, but when she thought about it, it didn’t feel that bad since the vibe it gave off felt close to how the main character felt.

“Jihoon-seonbae. Could you try standing over there?”

“About here?”

Jihoon stood in front of the TV in the classroom. Sora checked the screen before looking at Ando.

“What do you think, seonbae?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Just tell me how you feel about it.”

“Personally, I think it’s good. The movie isn’t exactly set in a good tone, right?”

“Right. The classroom itself looks cheerful, but the mental pressure experienced by the characters is quite considerable. The pathetic fallacy of the depressing lighting and the bullied kid might be a little cliché, but it makes it easy to tell, so the audience should have an easier time accepting it.”

“You’re the director, so do whatever you want. We’ll help you out from the side.”

Sora pondered for a while before deciding to shoot just like this. If the shadows were thick when they shot up close, they might have to use a reflector, but it seemed okay for now.

“Sora, I brought the vase from the faculty office.”

“Please put it next to the window.”

“Over here?”

“Yes!”

Sora moved to the back of the class before looking at the whole classroom. The white curtains brightened up the tone of the classroom. The vase also fit well with the scene and did not look awkward.

“The desks are a little too lined up. Let’s move them a little out of order.”

The seniors adjusted the distance between the desks. Just sitting down and standing up again messed up the order a little, which made it look much more natural. Sora nodded her head in satisfaction.

“Do you think this is okay?”

“Yes. This is fine.”

Sora looked at Ando. She felt happy when she saw him looking at the classroom with a smile.

When she first entered the film production club, she felt really bleak. She even felt hopeless when she looked at the seniors who had zero intentions of creating a film. She resolved that she should try to make a movie by herself and did her preparations, but the more she looked into it, the more she found out that a movie wasn’t something that could be made by one person.

It felt frustrating. She hated her seniors who had no interest in filmmaking despite the fact that they belonged to the film production club. That was why she tried to force them to do it, but she was willfully roasted by Maru. She thought that she had prepared a lot, but when a professional looked at her, it turned out that she hadn’t even scratched the surface.

What was funny was that once she suffered a defeat from Maru, she had much more leisure. She thought in the perspective of her seniors and looked back at her own hastiness.

Her seniors wanted to watch movies as much as she wanted to make them. Once she understood that difference in perspective and talked to them about it with her honest feelings, it surprisingly turned out that they actually had something in common. Even though her seniors said that they had no interest in making films, they knew too well about what made a movie look good. They talked about movies for hours. What content was good, what video was good - they talked about such things for half a day. Sora found out at that time that her seniors also loved films.

The day after that, Sora heard from her seniors, including Ando, that they should try to make a movie together. Due to the unexpected answer, Sora ended up bursting into tears right there. It was at that time that she realized that a person could cry from being happy.

“Seonbae, it’s fun, isn’t it?”

“We haven’t even started anything yet. We should look for fun once we get started at least.”

“What do you mean we haven’t started? We got everything ready. That means we are halfway done. So tell me. It’s fun, isn’t it?”

She persistently asked. Ando eventually nodded. Sora asked the same question to the 2nd year seniors as well. Everyone smiled awkwardly before saying that it was fun.

“See? I told you making films is fun. It would’ve been great if you had helped me out from the beginning. Anyway, you should listen to me from now on, okay? That’s your punishment for making your junior sad!” Sora said as she placed her hand on top of the camera.

“Haha, I wonder who it was that burst into tears and thanked us.”

“Fine, you’re the boss. I’ll do everything you say, so give me something proper to work on.”

“Get yourself together. Since we’re doing this, I want the prize.”

Sora’s nose twitched when she heard the words from her seniors.

“Don’t worry. I’ll get a prize, no, the grand prize. If we get the money, we’ll go and eat out together, okay?”

“Sounds good!”

“Let’s go to a buffet!”

“I like sushi.”

Sora tried capturing the figures of her seniors on camera. It felt good. This movie felt like it was going to go well.

“Maru-seonbae. I think we can start now.”

“Then I’ll go up to the 5th floor now. I’ll call 10, okay?”

“Yes!”

Maru left the classroom.

“We’ll get our uniforms as well.”

“Yes, please do that.”

The two 2nd year seniors left the classroom. Since Woosung High didn’t have a school uniform, she thought about shooting in casual clothes, but they decided to wear uniforms to give a sense of unity.

“I’m surprised you got them. You didn’t buy them by chance, right?”

“I got them from my middle school friends. I had to make a lot of calls, you know? Fortunately, everyone had theirs lying around. They gave me permission when I told them I’ll give them back after washing them. It’s all thanks to my personal connections.”

“Personal connections, yeah right. You really don’t change, huh.”

“That’s a compliment, right?”

“Yes, it is.”

Sora smiled at Ando’s words. A while later, Maru brought ten people from the acting club. They had picked these ten out beforehand.

“Ah, but what happens if the uniforms don’t fit?” Sora wondered as she looked at the members of the acting club who just came in.

“Only the ones that are in the frame need uniforms that fit. Hm, Chihwan, I don’t think you’ll fit any,” Maru said.

Sora looked at the boy called Chihwan. He was someone over 180cm in height. There wasn’t a school uniform that fitted a boy that tall.

“Seonbae-nim, don’t abandon me.”

“I can’t help it.”

“Ah, Maru seonbae-nim. Should I cut my feet off?”

“Lunatic, stop talking nonsense. Uhm, Sora. Is there a uniform that fits him?”

“Hm, I do have a uniform I got from a pretty big guy, but I’m not sure. This guy’s very tall too.”

“It’s not ‘this guy’, I’m Ahn Chihwan. Also, if I fold my shoulders inward like this, I should be able to wear one.”

Chihwan curled his body inwards with a frown. Maru pulled back Chihwan’s neck from the back. Sora giggled as she looked at those two. They were a funny duo.

“Here they are.”

“Thank you for these.”

She laid out the uniforms that her seniors brought. 8 of them had perfect fits, but the other two were a problem. Chihwan didn’t fit into a uniform as she had expected, and one other person, a girl, didn’t fit because of her large build.

‘Well, the one that lent me this uniform was really skinny.’

No, rather than skinny, she was practically just skin and bones.

“Aram, I don’t think you’ll fit either.”

“Why? I can wear this.”

“The uniform will rip if you wear it.”

“What do you mean rip? You’re being really offensive you know, seonbae? Here, look!”

The girl named Aram tried putting her arm into a sleeve, and just that was enough to make the sleeve stretch out dangerously. Sora groaned and narrowed her eyes. Her seniors standing next to her had similar expressions.

“Why are you looking at me like that? I said I fit! Here, look. If I put my other hand in like this….”

Aram ended up putting both of her arms through the sleeves. Sora subconsciously placed her hands in front of her eyes. She felt like the clothes were really going to rip.

“...Won’t it fit?”

Aram tried twisting her shoulders in various ways, but the buttons never met their buttonholes. Maru tapped on Aram’s shoulders.

“There’s no way.”

Aram clicked her tongue before taking off the uniform. Sora sighed in relief after looking at the uniform. Fortunately, nothing ripped.

“But who was going to do the delinquent girl 1?”

She had Maru pick for the roles other than the main character because that was more efficient.

“Her.”

Maru pointed at Aram.

Sora had a hunch that would be the case. Sora bit her lower lip and fell into thought. The role of the delinquent who bullied the main character was quite important. She had to look like a student, but also feel evil and hateful at times. The fact that Maru recommended her meant that she was pretty good, so it would be quite a pity to leave her out because of the uniform.

“There’s no one to borrow it from though.”

Just as she thought about buying one, someone’s phone rang. It was Maru’s. After taking the call, Maru left the classroom and went downstairs.

‘Ah, his friend is here?’

He did say that someone who could help was coming. Maru came back a while later. Behind him was a girl who had long hair and a short stature. She was wearing a uniform, but it didn’t belong to any school she knew of.

‘It’s a girl?’

She thought that Maru was talking about a boy since he was talking about a friend. Maru brought in the girl who awkwardly stood in the corridor.

“Oh! Unni!”

Aram seemed like she knew her.

Sora quickly scanned the girl standing next to Maru. Her body figure was small, but her limbs were really long. She was quite skinny as well. She looked like she could fit the uniform in her hands.

‘It should be fine since we’re just getting a group shot, right?’

After organizing her thoughts, Sora asked about it immediately,

“Uhm, Maru-seonbae! Can your friend try this on?”

She offered the new girl the uniform first.