Ch.304Instead, you will live a life so painful you’ll wish for death.

The green hair, one of the Joker’s iconic symbols.

While his suit looks extremely neat,

the mismatched look of his disheveled hair stands out.

Unlike Batman who absorbs all light

as he moves from bright places to dark ones,

The Joker emerges shining even in darkness,

reflecting all light.

Normally, they wouldn’t start filming right away.

They should begin with costume checks,

filming direction according to the script,

and checking the actor’s mindset.

But.

Whiiiiiir.

“Cue.”

Director Christo, as if entranced, grabbed the camera.

The filming and lighting teams moved immediately at his cue signal.

An unconscious feeling that he’d regret it for life if he didn’t capture this moment

took control of his body and fixed his eyes on the camera.

And then.

“Hehe, haha, hahahahaha! This is, this is so fun.”

At the cue, Kim Donghu—no, the Joker—comes alive and moves.

It’s essentially a one-man show.

He wasn’t even properly given a script.

A sudden cue signal.

The unreasonable demand to improvise freely, which is considered most difficult.

Despite this, the Joker moves nonchalantly as if he had been there all along.

‘Huh?’

Step.

Step.

Step.

Laughing and talking.

I was trying to quietly observe what he would do next.

The Joker gradually approached the camera.

Should I back away? Or should I stay still?

Just as I couldn’t hastily decide what the right choice was.

Grab!

The Joker firmly grasped the camera lens and thrust his face close.

A crown face that looked like it was smeared with messy flour rather than clean makeup.

Red lip makeup drawn to make him smile so widely his mouth nearly reached his ears.

“Look straight ahead! Batman! At Gotham’s brilliant future that will crumble no matter what you do!”

Hehe, haha, hahahahaha!

With that laughter, he swings the camera down out of view.

The camera doesn’t fall to the floor thanks to his controlled strength.

And the Joker continues laughing even outside the camera’s view.

At the same time, as if waiting for just this moment.

“Cut.”

The OK sign comes in a situation where nothing was prearranged.

So about 3 minutes right after the makeup was finished.

‘Despite demanding improvisation out of nowhere… and it turned out this good.’

Even though it was done as a camera test.

The scene just now was usable.

‘Batman thinks he’s blocked everything… when he’s feeling safe, Joker sends such a message to the broadcasting station… no, should we say he attacked the station entirely?’

While Director Christo’s inspiration continued to surge.

“We can’t just shoot the lower face either? This is too distinctive…”

“Well, fortunately, we can cover his body shape with clothes.”

The filming team continued to search for ways to hide Kim Donghu.

Once his face appears, it’s over.

His voice can be adjusted through some modulation.

But his distinctively handsome appearance was impossible to adjust.

“What part were we supposed to film today? Him building a tower with playing cards alone… was it?”

“Yes, that and checking how many of the 52 Jokers are left, and also… scenes where he gives detailed instructions.”

“What about the part where he forcibly injects Smile, the drug made by Joker?”

“We’ll film that at the end. For now, we need to do everything he can do alone.”

The staff moved busily.

Director Christo kept getting inspired, his eyes flashing as he exclaimed “Ooh.”

Amid everyone’s busyness.

‘…There must be a way to do this better.’

He accelerated his contemplation on how to further develop his talent.

+++++

The filming proceeded smoothly.

Was it because all schedules were focused solely on filming Murciélago?

Or was it the power of the budget from the tremendous investment received?

Perhaps it was both.

Thanks to that synergy, Murciélago’s progress moved steadily forward.

Even on days with multiple retakes,

since all the remaining time was for filming anyway,

they continued to improve the quality while working overtime regularly.

As a result, only the real highlights remained.

More precisely, the moment had come when

the identity of the ‘real Joker’ would be revealed to all the characters within the Murciélago film.

“…I think it would be better to do this after Christmas?”

“Pardon?”

“Well, it’s the end of December now… exactly half remains, hmm.”

The Joker played by Kim Donghu appears in the middle part of the film.

The middle section of the drama.

A role like a signal flare that changes the atmosphere 180 degrees.

Opinions emerged that they needed to take a breather for this moment.

In truth, the rest period was just a “bonus.”

The real issue was with Kim Donghu’s stunt role.

Obviously, since Kim Donghu couldn’t be in two places at once,

in scenes where Batman and Joker meet, one of them had to use a stand-in,

and Director Christo wasn’t satisfied with that stand-in.

‘Is it because I’ve seen such high-level action performances?’

Was it because he had seen the real Batman?

And experienced the real Joker?

The stand-in’s action performance wasn’t satisfactory at all.

‘We’ll CG the face anyway… we just need the body separately, but is there such a difference?’

That’s why he decided on a break.

Rather than forcibly pushing something that wasn’t working,

it was more efficient to take a short break and prepare better.

And so.

“We’ll take a short break during Christmas week.”

A long-awaited rest came to the Murciélago set.

‘Christmas!’

Chisako’s eyes sparkled.

+++++

Christmas.

An event that couples can’t miss.

An important day for those who want to become couples.

And actually one of the days when condom sales peak.

‘I, Usami Chisako, can’t miss out on a day like this.’

She thought she had built up enough rapport by now.

And she actually had.

Because.

-Oppa, should I feed this to you?

-I have hands, why? Do you want to?

-Uh… uhh….

-You’re being so cute and shy. Feed me, ah.

Now they could have such conversations casually.

And even:

-…I’m scared because I watched a scary movie, can I sleep next to you tonight?

-Next to me? Right next to my bed?

-Yes, yes yes….

-Then I’ll sleep under the bed so you can sleep comfortably

They had even slept in the same room, though not in the same bed.

Actually, she wanted to pretend to roll off the bed and sleep together, but.

‘T-that would be too embarrassing.’

Even when she asked if she could sleep next to him,

that moment alone was so embarrassing she thought she’d go crazy.

Wait, wasn’t she supposed to be bold and assertive?

But when it came to the actual situation, she turned into a silly fool.

This couldn’t continue.

‘But not anymore, there’s no going back.’

There was nowhere to retreat to anymore.

Only forward, straight ahead.

‘Today I’ll see this through to the end.’

Originally, Kim Donghu had planned to spend Christmas with his family.

So she had actually given up on spending it with him.

But fate seemed to intervene.

-Huh? Wait… who is Seohyun with right now?

-Taekun and Jinwoo came to play with her, thankfully… with presents too.

-Why are my brothers there…

-We’re having the Veritas agency Christmas year-end party, we’re just doing it together, hoho

-Jinwoo oppa! Taekun oppa! Play Romeo and Juliet with me!

-Oh, so one of us is Romeo?

-No! My oppa is Romeo! But since he’s not here now… you’re kind of substitutes!

-….

This granted Kim Donghu free time.

And Chisako was determined to monopolize that gifted time.

In other words:

‘The present is me and a direct physical attack!’

To put it another way, it was Operation Female Titan Cosplay Attack!

After setting up the perfect plan.

Finally, on the day of execution.

2022.12.25

Kim Donghu returned home after finishing his workout at the gym as usual.

As soon as he opened the door, he discovered a large gift box and inside it.

“…Chisako?”

An incredible event.

Up to this point, the operation was a success.

They had somewhat confirmed their mutual feelings.

Now they just needed to connect those feelings.

‘Then I’ll be part of Donghu oppa’s harem too…!’

She thought it couldn’t get any better than this.

“…Eh, eh…! O-oppa… I, I… d-didn’t see that!”

Until she faced something substantial in the actual situation.

“T-this… absolutely… cheating!”

That day, Chisako cried her eyes out because it hurt too much.

+++++

After Christmas passed.

Around the time when Murciélago was picking up pace with filming again.

An untimely tension hung over the filming location.

Gulp.

The atmosphere was so tense that even the sound of swallowing was clearly audible.

“Phew… this really makes me nervous too.”

There were thirty-five actors deployed on the set for filming.

Those 35 people had to coordinate to shoot an action scene in one take.

‘This won’t be easy.’

I took one last deep breath.

Then slowly moved to the filming location.

Wearing the Batman suit.

I close my eyes.

‘From now on, I am Batman. The one who must save everyone.’

And when I slowly opened my eyes, what I saw was.

“Help me!”

“Please! Anyone! Please!”

Children writhing in pain, begging for life.

“Who are you? Is it you? The guy who’s been stirring up trouble in the subway lately?”

“Do you know how much of our drugs we’re losing because of you? How are you going to pay for this?”

“Take off that mask first, you bastard!”

Beasts barking without even knowing what they did wrong.

Haah.

A deep sigh escapes.

Click.

I load the gun.

“I won’t kill you.”

Instead, you’ll live in enough pain to wish you were dead.

“Cue!”

The filming begins.