Contrary to what Woo-Jin had promised, he did not have any free time even after they were done filming Confession of White.
First of all, he was busy submitting reports for the classes and exams he had missed because of work. And by the time he had some breathing room, the premiere of Guardian Angel was almost upon them.
Woo-Jin had to travel to six different countries to promote the film, which would be released simultaneously around the world in early December.
However, within a few days of the film’s release, the shows they were appearing on to promote their movie became places where they were showered with countless praises. The movie was showing signs of a box office success far beyond what the producers and actors had expected.
{Does it make you that happy?}
Woo-Jin clicked his tongue as he looked at Dustin grinning cheerfully as he texted Selena. But the obnoxious guy started saying annoying stuff.
{Are you jealous? Then go date someone as well.}
Dustin and Selena had officially started dating after she had declared war on Giorgio when she was having dinner with Ilya and Woo-Jin. She had met up with Dustin the very next day and formally asked him to date her.
Dustin then found himself in a crisis by saying ‘but weren’t we already dating?,’ but it didn’t change the fact that they were officially dating now.
Unfortunately, he then faced a second crisis a month ago when he proposed they get married the upcoming Christmas. But despite having gone through all these crises, he was now acting haughty as though he was above everyone else since he was dating Selena.
{Now that it’s come to this, should we get married on Valentine's Day next year as originally planned?}
“Goodness gracious… Get a grip, dude!”
As Korean subconsciously escaped his lips, Woo-Jin moved to a seat farther away from Dustin.
Recently, Dustin was shining so brightly and joyfully that Woo-Jin couldn’t stand to look at him anymore.[1]
However, Woo-Jin had no choice but to watch over the dumb yet happy Dustin—who was living the happiest days of his life in the honeymoon period—because they had to spend time together for the movie’s release.
Funnily enough, Selena was slowly changing to resemble Dustin more and more. Even though she used to reject Dustin’s advances—either out of reflex or because of her personality—for a long time, she was now becoming bolder and more honest than anyone else.
And the people around them were suffering because of the couple’s overwhelming lovey-dovey aura.
{On standby!}
When the Jeffrey Show’s staff signaled them, the fashion coordinators checked Woo-Jin and Dustin’s attires one last time, and when given a hand signal, the two went on stage with the sound of the audience’s applause greeting them.
The host Jeffrey Howard welcomed and escorted them to the soft sofa.
{Our guests today are our beloved guardians. Please note that we put a lot of effort into getting these two on the show together.}
Jeffrey winked at the audience and asked for their praise. And as one would expect, the audience applauded the crew’s hard work.
{Of course, one of the guardians is still somewhat unreliable, but what else can we do? This is our fate as Americans.}
Jeffrey gestured at Dustin as he shook his head sorrowfully. The Guardian of North America’s actor shrugged and brazenly replied.
{I’m still the guardian who cares most about the humans.}
{But all you do is care, you didn’t seem to have any noteworthy abilities yet. How old will I be by the time Robert becomes a proper guardian? Will I even be alive by then?} Jeffrey joked.
{Wouldn’t there be a second movie before that?}
{Ooh, are there plans for a sequel already?}
{Nope.} Dustin replied.
He then asked the audience to watch the movie as many times as possible and increase its popularity.
There were many cases where movies that were planned to become a film series got canceled because they failed at the box office. Even Guardian Angel wasn’t assured to become a film series, so if it bombed at the box office, they needed the strong support of the fanbase to potentially make a sequel.
{Isn’t it already successful? In fact, Woo-Jin Chae has perfectly secured his place as a world star with this movie.} Jeffrey remarked.
{He’s been a world star for some time already.} Dustin answered.
He then brought up stories from when he was going around Asia and Europe with Woo-Jin to promote their movie. He commented that it was scary to experience how many fans Woo-Jin had following him around and that it was a lot more than he had.
{By the way Woo-Jin Chae, can I just call you Genie?}
Jeffrey had been calling Woo-Jin by his full name so far, but now he asked for permission to use Woo-Jin’s nickname. Once the actor nodded, the host began talking more comfortably.
{What’s the martial art you were performing in this movie, Genie? It didn’t seem like taekwondo. And these days, my daughter randomly starts practicing punches in the air while going ‘ek ek’[2] after watching the movie, even though she does taekwondo.}
Jeffrey punched the air and went ‘ek ek’ to imitate his daughter, before laughing out loud. His child might’ve been cute copying the moves, his movements were very awkward.
Woo-Jin started explaining about taekkyeon and at the audience’s request, he showed a demonstration with Dustin. The two had filmed scenes together for the movie, so they had a sequence of moves they could demonstrate in sync. Furthermore, the fact that Dustin had learned taekkyeon from Woo-Jin ended up helping out.
However, Dustin wasn’t good enough to catch up with Woo-Jin’s flashy footwork and quick hands. The confrontation that appeared equal at the start slowly turned into a one-sided beating of Dustin.
Be that as it may, Woo-Jin always stopped himself before touching Dustin’s body and moved on to the next movement with a natural flow.
The cowardly Dustin then started to cower and covered his head with his arms despite not being harmed at all. Once the demonstration came to an end, he leaned against the sofa in physical and mental exhaustion, trying to catch his breath.
{Ladies and gentlemen, our North American guardian.}
Jeffrey smiled bitterly as though he were about to cry. Seeing that Dustin was unable to converse at the moment, he simply continued the discussion with Woo-Jin only.
{By the way, you’ve cut your hair. Personally speaking, I preferred your latest hairstyle where it came down to your shoulders.}
Jeffrey was referring to the hairstyle from back when Woo-Jin was playing Lloyd in Confession of White.
In the photos taken by the paparazzi during the filming period, Woo-Jin looked very impressive and memorable with shoulder-length white hair. But today, his hair was neatly organized and Woo-Jin appeared modern and chic, just like Jin in Guardian Angel.
{I’ve stopped painting and decided to focus on being a guardian for a while.}
{You quit being a painter? But haven’t you heard that Ian is going around bragging to everybody that you’re going to paint him a portrait?}
Jeffrey expressed his concern as he joked that Ian would never forgive Woo-Jin if he didn’t paint the portrait. Even without Jeffrey’s comment, Woo-Jin had already been feeling pressured by Ian and could only reply with a bitter smile.
{I’m secretly still painting as a side job. Guardians do need to make money to eat and survive after all.}
{Ah, speaking of which, do guardians engage in economic activities as well? If you look at the countless heroes we know of, they all still have jobs besides their hero activities. Their salaries vary from hero to hero, but they’re still earning a living. But the guardians don’t seem to work at all, yet everyone is living lavishly.}
Jeffrey then asked how the guardians made the money to buy their houses and enjoy their hobbies. After all, being a guardian didn’t mean money fell from the sky.
{First of all, they have the inheritance left behind by the previous generation’s guardians. After that, maybe they got bored living their long lives and invested in stuff or took on side jobs.} Woo-Jin replied.
{Oh! Then money really does fall from the sky for them.} Jeffrey exclaimed.
{There originally was a scene where Robert received the previous guardian’s legacy and jumped in joy, but it was edited out.}
Woo-Jin explained that Dustin had acted far too realistically and ended up looking lame instead, resulting in the scene being removed from the final cut.
{Haha, ha, my acting can get quite lame at times.}
Dustin spoke while still gasping for breath. Woo-Jin patted him on the head, telling Dustin to rest some more.
{Right now, you look even lamer when you talk.}
Woo-Jin and Dustin’s real-life interactions seemed like an extension of the movie. Woo-Jin had the slight upper hand in their relationship as he sometimes scolded his friend, but still comforted and took care of Dustin more often than not.
Jeffrey didn’t miss the audience cheering at their interactions and sneakily asked the two actors a question.
{Can you show us some bromance as fan service? Everyone wants to see it.}
{Ah, I’m quite confident in things like that.}
Feeling better and refreshed, Dustin replied with a playful expression. Meanwhile, Woo-Jin quietly stood up.
He slowly cracked his fingers one at a time as the snapping sounds echoed in the room.
{I may have gone too easy on you earlier. Allow me to show everyone a proper demonstration this time.} Woo-Jin said menacingly.
Having been knocked out without taking a single hit in the taekkyeon battle earlier, Dustin vehemently refused by furiously shaking both his head and hands.
Dustin—who was about to receive a rough and twisted type of skinship while trying to do some fan service—ran away behind the sofa, blaming Jeffrey for his suffering.
{Thank goodness you two get along quite well.}
Jeffrey shrugged to the audience and cheered on their friendship. The silhouettes of a man being chased and a man chasing could be seen behind the host. The entire shot was like a humorous scene from some comedy animation.
Woo-Jin then appeared not only on the Jeffrey Show but also on many other popular talk shows in the United States. At first, he appeared alongside Dustin but as his popularity increased, he started showing up on more and more programs on his own.
Nowadays, even those who hadn’t seen his movies knew of his name, and Woo-Jin’s paparazzi photos were being sold at higher prices than anyone else’s.
***
Guardian Angel was a success at the box office thanks to the entertaining movie and the real-life Woo-Jin and Dustin comedy combo.
People gradually started having high expectations for the next installment. The producer and screenwriter Hugh Miller boldly replied to the incessant questions that he would give it a thought. After listening to Hugh’s interview, Woo-Jin speculated that the screenwriter had probably written the script for the second movie already.
In recent years, Hollywood did not venture into making film series without the existence of an original work to base the story on. People also didn’t invest much into unverified projects. However, the production process would become a lot easier if the public and investors adamantly requested a sequel.
While the damage to the franchise would be huge if the next installment didn’t meet the high expectations, the production team had successfully overcome their biggest hurdle.
Furthermore, the success of the first film had raised the value of the actors of the main characters. Setting Dustin—who was already a world star—aside, Woo-Jin was being offered pay that was twenty times higher than what he had signed for Guardian Angel. Even though he had only played a supporting role, he was being recruited and offered extremely high pay.
This was the result of filmmakers greatly evaluating his performance in Guardian Angel but also because of his past works. And since Confession of White would be released soon, they were also taking that into consideration when making him an offer.
Looking at the projects he had starred in so far, Woo-Jin turned every role he took on as the main character of the story.
Even if his face was only shown for a short period of time as a supporting role or as a cameo appearance, his presence was immense. The actor shifted the tone and atmosphere, and subconsciously made the story revolve around his character. In spite of that, his harmonization with the other actors was flawless.
It would have been problematic if the protagonist was unintentionally changed into a supporting role, but all the scenes he appeared in turned into exceptional masterpieces as the other actors’ performances improved considerably around him. When actors appeared alongside him in the frame, they naturally melted into the scene and showed the greatest performance of their life, displaying their greatest assets to the audience. As long as the actors overcame the sense of defeat of losing the limelight to Woo-Jin, they received the opportunity of a lifetime to grow even further as actors.
Fortunately, Dustin was the type of person to acknowledge the truth no matter how hurtful it was. He quickly accepted the fact that Woo-Jin stood out more than himself in the movie.
He wasn’t too shocked about it since he had already prepared himself emotionally back when they were going over the movie’s footage. Woo-Jin’s acting was so good that even he as an actor couldn’t help but fall in love with Woo-Jin’s performance, so it came as no surprise.
But what did surprise Dustin was that the results were not as disastrous as he had imagined.
In the movie, whenever he was next to Woo-Jin… no, whenever ‘Robert’ was next to ‘Jin,’ the character felt vivid and alive, and his appearance shone brighter and more uniquely than ever.
Their performances made it feel like the guardians named Jin and Robert truly existed somewhere in this world.
{Have I always acted so well?}
Recently, people were describing Dustin with unfamiliar phrases: surprising transformation, remarkable growth, icon of progress, etc.
His acting wasn’t bad, but it definitely wasn’t good enough to be praised so extensively by the media, so even Dustin was confused in the beginning.
But once he watched Guardian Angel, Dustin felt proud of himself and felt like he did deserve the praise. Even he could see that his acting had been excellent. His facial expressions that varied from scene to scene felt very natural as if he truly were Robert.
Dustin speculated that the moments when he empathized with his character and acted with all his heart alongside Woo-Jin were accurately captured on camera. Watching the movie, it was apparent that Woo-Jin was an actor who raised his co-stars’ aptitudes and increased the overall quality of the movie.
For example, back when Dustin auditioned for the role of Lloyd, he had failed to go on a proper diet, so he ended up being eliminated because of his bulky physique and brilliant appearance. However, his acting skills were greatly praised.
Dustin recalled how the judges remarked on his improved skills and complimented him. It was evident that starring with Woo-Jin had helped him grow as an actor.
Thus, he didn’t feel bad about being treated as a supporting character despite being the protagonist of the story. Dustin had already been plagued by such thoughts during the filming period, so he was immune to them now. Furthermore, if he looked at it from a different perspective, starring with Woo-Jin was a great opportunity to discover his hidden potential.
Most of all, while he received less attention than Woo-Jin, Dustin’s popularity quickly grew as people praised him for acting such a vivid and realistic character. This was the best thing that an actor could be told.
Therefore, Dustin repeated in every interview that he wanted to work with Woo-Jin again in the future.
Even though the exact plans for the sequel hadn’t been announced yet, Dustin adamantly requested the screenwriter Hugh that he would love to act with Woo-Jin again if given the opportunity.
1. The original sentence can be directly translated as ‘Recently, Dustin was like a honey-coated chicken that Woo-Jin couldn’t look at him with naked eyes anymore.’ I assume it means that Dustin is shining/glowing with happiness (honey) while making a fuss/being noisy (chicken) ☜
2. Taekkyeon practitioners make a sound that goes ‘ek, ek, ek’ when moving in taekkyeon. It’s similar to how most martial artists make short bursts of sounds when attacking or defending, but in taekkyeon, the sound is much softer and used repetitively. ☜
