Kill the Lights by Jangryang
Editor/Proofreader: Kaima
It was not that Mason completely hated acting, it was more like he was uncomfortable doing the job. It was okay to pretend like a drug addict or a prodigal gay, not only in front of the camera, but also in real life. When he was a mercenary, Mason had done that much; until the verge of his death, when he had gone inside Alta’s bunker, he had pretended to be a servile pimp. He was very skilled in pretending to be different people.
However, one cannot just ‘pretend’ to be a professional actor. The camera points threateningly at you like a gun, the director watches and monitors your every move, and worse, you cannot escape even when it is not your scene. When Mason stood in front of the camera, as if anchored at the ankles, and concentrated, emotions had hurtled out of him naturally.
Mason had felt strangely unpleasant, embarrassed, and uncomfortable by that experience. It was probably because he wasn’t used to showing strangers, a glimpse of his life.
There was another crucial reason; roles of a drug addict and prodigal gay were not at all helpful for the image of a café owner. His image as a junkie and slut were already solid, and we don’t want to add to that.
The other roles, in the scripts extended by Tony, were no different.
“Anything else? If that is all, then I don’t really care for….”
He felt sorry for Tony, but Mason opened his mouth to decline them. Tony stuttered in shock, saying, “Why? Why? You don’t like them?”
“I’m done with the drug addict image.”
Who would want to drink coffees made by a junkie-slut? Of course the world already knew Haley’s morbid love for drugs and men, but still he was not willing to do it. Because of what Mason said, Tony hesitantly took something else out of his bag.
“I, I do have something like this….”
Tony sounded as if ‘this won’t probably do either, but still….’, and handed him the synopsis of a script.
[Real]
“The director is Vick Procter, so it will be a box-office hit without a question but, ――”
“…But?”
Tony left the statement vague, and when Mason copied his words, he scratched his cheek, as if wrestling with a tough decision.
“Well, the role is more like an extra than a supporting character. And because it is that of a killer, there are many action scenes, and the director said to just get lost, if you were to use a stunt double… To be honest, you are not an action star and there is no reason for you to do that.”
Tony made it sound as if he was worried, but his eyes were full of want. Mason indifferently read through the synopsis.
It didn’t even look particularly impressive…. Even though Mason thought that showing his killer side would sell more coffees than a bitch or junkie image, it still was not enough to satisfy him. Tony asked, “Are you interested?” falsely assuming that Mason might be interested because he was reading the synopsis.
“No, not much. No good guy roles had come in?”
Mason already knew the answer, but he still asked, and Tony awkwardly nodded his head making an excuse, “Playing villain is a trend these days.”
“But doesn’t a good guy always win?”
“The winning side is anyhow the main character”, Mason said indifferently, and Tony nodded his head, as if acknowledging the truth.
“Yeah, but I wanted you to do it only because the director is very famous. In fact, they don’t even pay you much. Well, your character would probably be cut and the filming period is also very short, so there’s no helping it.”
“Oh, really? How much do they pay?”
Mason put down the synopsis and asked without thinking much. Haley did earn good money, seeing how he threw away thirty thousand dollars for things that could’ve ruined his life.
“Huh? Was it fifty thousand dollars?”
“I need to check the contract, but I think it was around that much,” Tony said with a sorry face. He thought the money was too little, but Mason flinched.
“For how many month are they filming?”
“Max two days? Ah, are you talking about the total time they would be filming this movie?”
“I think it’d be three to four months”. Mason flinched more at what Tony said.
“Fifty thousand, for two days?”
“Huh?”
“You are not even killing a person for real; neither are you torturing nor getting tortured…. Fifty thousand, for two days?”
Mason asked again. It was as if he was complaining. Mason, who was leaning on the couch like a gum, slowly stood up as if he was going to attack Tony. Tony stepped back saying, “Yea…h, it’s too little right? I complained, how they could treat you like that, but.”
“What are you talking about?”
Mason picked up the synopsis and the script, he had previously put down. ‘Fifty thousand, for two days.’ Mason looked at the script and slightly frowned. ‘Fifty thousand, for two days. Fifty thousand, for two days.’
Mason had actually been a well-paid mercenary. It wasn’t strange for the Zii bastards to spit out, ‘The son of a bitch earns good money, but why does he still live in a place like this?’ That was how much he made.
However, he had worked for as much as he earned. He had stayed underground for two months in order to ambush and abduct a person, had run with a bomb on his chest and a single gun into the middle of a battlefield, sometimes he got caught by the enemies and was tortured. Such things happened quite a lot.
In return for paying him a great deal of money, Zii had used Mason like a rag. They used him to wipe all kinds of dirty stuff… They used the rag until it was all tattered. Of course, Mason had already signed a body disclaimer contract and threw away his life for Zii like someone crazy, so there was no helping it.
Anyway, for getting a large amount of money, Mason did things that people won’t even do for 10 million dollars. It wasn’t because he wanted some money, but because he thought his work was worth it.
“Fifty thousand, for two days….”
When he murmured it to himself, he saw Tony all tense up. Mason controlled his emotions.
“This role is a killer? An amazing director’s movie?”
He hadn’t worked for the money nor had many earthly desires, but that didn’t mean Mason cultivated himself morally. They were ready to pay fifty thousand for two days, even without him having to throw away his life recklessly like Aaron. He would be an idiot, not to do it. Coming from the backstreet slums, you’d be lucky to get thirty thousand dollars for killing someone. He won’t be playing a big part in this movie, after working for only two days, and honestly, Mason thought he could manage a killer role.
Fifty thousand dollars in two days. Mason thought to himself, ‘If I were to work like this, I will have enough for my retirement even if I had to close down the café and rightfully so.’
“Should I give it a try?”
Mason glanced at Tony and asked, and Tony burst into tears. ‘Amnesiaaaa’, that was what he said at the end of his sad and happy cry.
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Yay he's going to act!