To Ethan Smith, the leader of the Hollywood stunt team, the conclusion felt obvious.
Kang Woojin did not look like someone who needed them.
Just look at him now.
'That composure…'
Even after taking down four of his team members, Kang Woojin's breathing remained steady. There was not the slightest sign of agitation in him. The distance he had moved had not been great, but the tension in that brief exchange had been overwhelming.
And yet, Kang Woojin was casually brushing the dust off his trousers as if nothing had happened.
Then there was the CQC itself.
'Fast reflexes, judgment, counterattack timing, and that level of familiarity with knives and guns. Those aren't things you pick up in a day or two.'
What had shocked Ethan the most was the way Woojin had stripped the magazine from the gun with one hand. The motion had been so smooth it looked as though he were drawing from a weapon that had belonged to him for years.
Overall, Kang Woojin's skill was difficult to comprehend.
And beyond that—
'Then why were we even called here?'
The reason for bringing in his team had suddenly become unclear. It was completely different from what Song Manwoo PD had told them at the start. He had clearly said that the actor's martial arts ability was above average, but that close combat was new to him. In other words, they had been brought in to help with training, rehearsal, and improving the overall quality of the close-combat choreography.
So who exactly was Kang Woojin?
'How could anyone call someone like that a beginner?'
What Woojin had just shown was enough to impress even seasoned stunt professionals in Hollywood.
Only then did Ethan finally understand the tone Woojin had used at the beginning.
'He wasn't underestimating CQC. He was simply capable of doing it properly.'
That excessive confidence had not been acting, nor had it been arrogance. He had genuinely looked at ease.
That was why he could take the choreography so lightly.
At the same time—
the four team members who had gone down returned to Ethan's side. Even the bear-like giant among them no longer carried the forceful momentum he had at the start. They stood there awkwardly, looking at their leader as if waiting for some kind of signal. It was only natural. Rather than showing off as instructed, they had ended up completely crushed and left unable to do anything at all.
"..."
Ethan silently looked them over. His gaze was not contemptuous. It was more like he was telling them to share what they thought.
The first to speak was the man covered in tattoos.
"…Ethan, did you know Kang Woojin used to be special forces?"
At that moment, Ethan Smith's eyes widened all over again.
"What did you just say?"
He was not the only one in the action school whose eyes had widened.
Choi Sunggeon, along with the key staff of Beneficial Evil standing between Ethan and Kang Woojin, could not tear their eyes away either.
'…This goes way beyond hapkido. No, how could anyone even call that hapkido?'
The core staff stood there with wide eyes, speechless. They had no choice but to stare blankly at Kang Woojin, who remained in the middle of the dazzling stage-like space, while Song Manwoo PD and the martial arts director in the front row looked almost soulless from the shock.
Still staring at Woojin, Song Manwoo PD muttered under his breath.
"What exactly did I just watch? No, weren't most of those moves not even in the choreography?"
The martial arts director met Song Manwoo PD's eyes and slowly nodded.
"That's right. They weren't. From the beginning, both Woojin and the stunt team were doing things that weren't part of the original plan."
"Then what was that supposed to be? Did both sides just improvise the martial arts choreography on the spot? And if they did, why did it look so natural? Like they'd practiced it hundreds of times?"
The martial arts director suddenly turned fully toward Song Manwoo PD, as though that was the least important part of all this.
"Song PD, is that really the core issue right now?"
He frowned deeply.
"How is Woojin able to handle CQC like a man with decades of experience? His martial arts alone were impressive enough that I could overlook a lot, but this is on a completely different level."
Song Manwoo PD knew that too. Even now, the whole thing felt dreamlike. But the Kang Woojin he had watched until now had always been a being who existed outside common sense, almost like some alien life-form.
"I know, I know, but still… I can't make sense of it."
"What do you mean you can't? Seriously, most of what Woojin showed was martial arts ad-lib. In other words, he really just did live CQC sparring with a professional stunt team instead of following the choreography!"
"I know that too! I'm saying I still can't understand it."
"And the ones who ended up completely broken weren't Woojin, but that Hollywood stunt team!"
From a common-sense point of view, the martial arts director could not understand it at all.
"How in the world was Woojin able to overpower a veteran Hollywood stunt team who literally does this for a living…?"
"…Woojin's martial arts fundamentals are already close to expert level, so maybe that's what supported everything, and maybe he studied the choreography in extreme detail or something like that."
"Does that make any sense? CQC isn't some kind of child's play. What kind of past would Woojin have had to master even CQC like that?"
"It was the same with the martial arts scenes. What do I know? At this point, all I can do is trust him and accept it."
"…Really?"
"Or are you saying you want to dig into his past?"
"No, of course not."
Song Manwoo PD, who had been in charge of Kang Woojin from the very beginning until now, let out a smile and muttered,
"Give up on trying to understand him. It's easier that way."
By then, not only the core staff surrounding them, but also the dozens of martial arts team members around the entire action school had begun to move.
The murmur spreading through the room grew louder and louder.
Some fired off heated questions. Some enthusiastically raised their thumbs. Some showed open relief. Others trembled as though goosebumps had run across their skin.
Right at that moment—
the calm Kang Woojin walked over to Song Manwoo PD. Song Manwoo PD and the martial arts director, who had been in the middle of a heated discussion about Woojin, both flinched. The key staff and the martial arts team members all stared at Kang Woojin.
Woojin, meanwhile, spoke in his usual low, calm voice.
"Thank you for your hard work."
"…Ah, um, we just stood here and watched. You're the one who did all the hard work, Woojin."
"H-Haha. Right? You're not hurt anywhere, are you?"
"No. Did you secure the footage?"
Song Manwoo PD answered immediately.
"Of course, we got it. But more importantly—"
He almost asked about the CQC, but swallowed the question instead.
"Thank you for agreeing to an unplanned test even though you must already be so busy. I think it'll be a great help for revising the choreography and for the stunt team too. Really, thank you."
The martial arts director quickly added,
"That's right. Woojin put in a tremendous amount of effort, so the quality will definitely improve by a lot."
"That's good to hear."
Just then, Choi Sunggeon stepped in, Woojin's jacket in one hand and a serious expression on his face.
"Uh—PD-nim. Woojin has another schedule to get to."
Song Manwoo PD hurriedly gestured for them to go.
"Ah, right, right."
The composed Kang Woojin gave a slight bow.
"I'll see you at the next rehearsal."
After taking his blazer back from Choi Sunggeon, Kang Woojin moved first. As he watched him go, Choi Sunggeon leaned in and whispered to Song Manwoo PD,
"PD-nim, wouldn't it be better to keep this quiet?"
"We should. We won't be able to keep everyone completely silent, but we should be able to control the situation to some extent."
Song Manwoo PD nodded in agreement.
"It's fine if a few rumors spread. People will probably just think it sounds ridiculous anyway."
──────────
Not long after, Kang Woojin left the action school. His team had stayed in the van while the test was going on, and Choi Sunggeon hurried over to his side.
"Woojin, good work."
"No, it wasn't difficult."
To be honest, Kang Woojin did not feel especially good about the whole thing.
'It was kind of fun, and I got to test things out a little. But there's a chance people will get the wrong idea too. Well… whatever. I'll deal with it when the time comes.'
Choi Sunggeon let out a quiet breath before continuing.
"Should I understand what you just showed as hapkido?"
Could he really?
Woojin lowered his voice and recited the line he had already prepared in advance. It was a line with just a hint of bluff in it.
"I just skimmed the choreography, and it was easier than I expected."
"Ah, right. Easier than you expected."
It was, of course, an absurd answer. But because it was Kang Woojin saying it, Choi Sunggeon could only let out a laugh in spite of himself. In the end, Woojin's idea of normal had always been completely different from everyone else's.
"Still, I was satisfied in my own way. Honestly, I thought I might have a hard time with this one. It was a Hollywood stunt team, after all."
"That much I understand."
"But this might sound like a really stupid question, and I feel like I might have asked something similar before."
"Yes?"
Forcing a smile, Choi Sunggeon met the expressionless Woojin's eyes.
"You… I mean, you weren't, like, a spy in the past or anything, right?"
How could that even happen?
Kang Woojin almost burst out laughing, but barely managed to hold it in. At the same time, he could understand where Choi Sunggeon was coming from.
And then, seized by a sudden urge to tease him, Woojin played along.
"Actually, yes. I was."
Choi Sunggeon was genuinely startled.
"What?!! Hey! Are you serious?! Wait, wait, wait!! Time out, time out!"
Then Woojin answered in a low voice.
"I'm joking."
Still frozen where he stood, Choi Sunggeon dragged his escaping soul back into place and frowned deeply.
"You're insane."
Meanwhile, back inside the action school Kang Woojin had just left, Song Manwoo PD and the martial arts director were both busy trying to calm everyone down.
"What you all saw today is strictly confidential, so please keep it absolutely secret."
That warning was directed at a great many people. Of course, it would be difficult to silence everyone completely, so they also attached a plausible explanation.
"Woojin was already very good at martial arts to begin with, and it seems he studied the CQC choreography very carefully. So all of you, be careful what you say."
If they framed it that way, then even if rumors spread, it would not cause any real trouble.
After spending about thirty minutes settling the action school, Song Manwoo PD approached the stunt team gathered around Ethan Smith. Naturally, their faces were all grave.
But there was no discussion about the test that day.
"We'll be taking our leave now as well."
Following Kang Woojin, Ethan also left the action school. Song Manwoo PD, who had already arranged a follow-up meeting, did not try to stop the stunt team.
Still, he could not help but feel uneasy.
Sigh.
When it came down to the result alone, the veteran stunt team had been completely defeated by Kang Woojin. On top of that, Song Manwoo PD had told them in advance that Woojin was highly skilled in martial arts but unfamiliar with close combat, while the actual Kang Woojin they saw had looked nothing like a close-combat beginner.
Today, he had gone beyond merely matching professional standards.
The reason was unclear. Whether Woojin had already known CQC, or whether he was some kind of genius who could master it perfectly after only seeing choreography once, no one knew. Either way, Song Manwoo PD had unintentionally provided inaccurate information, and the Hollywood stunt team, famous for its name, had suffered a blow to its pride.
Their expressions at the end had made that obvious.
They had looked beyond discouraged, almost devastated.
"It bothers me."
Song Manwoo PD muttered, and the martial arts director responded at once.
"What does?"
"Their expressions at the end. I'm honestly worried. They won't get their feelings hurt and start doing half-hearted work, will they?"
"Absolutely not. Today's assignment was nothing more than a simple test related to the lead actor's movement. They're professionals. And besides, the stunt team isn't here just to coach choreography and practice. They've got mountains of work to do, from revising the choreography to improving the overall action quality, supervising the CQC scenes, handling stunt doubles and stunt roles, and more. On top of that, they still need to coordinate with me on balance, and they're also supposed to come along on the location scout for the overseas shoot where the actual CQC scenes will be filmed."
"I know, I know."
In fact, the stunt team led by Ethan was supposed to travel with the Beneficial Evil team to Bangkok, Thailand for the location scout. The CQC-related filming choreography had already been prepared, but once experts reviewed the site and adjusted things on location, the quality could improve several times over.
This test had also been part of that process.
Song Manwoo PD stroked his beard and muttered with lingering concern,
"They're not just going to… run off, are they?"
──────────
The next day, Tuesday the sixth, around eight in the morning.
It was at a high-end hotel in Seoul. Several foreigners who had just returned from breakfast a few minutes earlier were gathered on the soft sofas in a spacious room. Every one of them was either thickly built or imposing in appearance. Some had cropped hair, some had tattoos covering their bodies, and some wore thick beards.
Among them, one foreign man with a notably large nose stood out.
That man was Ethan Smith.
In other words, they were the stunt team that had recently come over from Hollywood, and yesterday had been their first time seeing Kang Woojin. Their muscles looked even tighter than before, as though they had already finished working out at dawn. On the table in front of them sat coffee cups, tablets, and several documents spread out in a loose array.
It was unmistakably a meeting.
The leader, Ethan, scratched at his prominent nose and picked up a tablet. With a simple tap, a video began playing on the screen. In it, a Korean man stood surrounded by four foreigners.
It was the full footage of Kang Woojin's close-combat test from yesterday, provided by the Beneficial Evil team.
Naturally, the video captured Kang Woojin's dazzling performance in full.
For a while, Ethan and his team watched the footage in silence.
"..."
"..."
But as soon as the screen showed the stunt team members losing one by one, they began averting their eyes slightly. Embarrassment washed over them again. Ethan, on the other hand, did not look away from the screen for even a moment.
'…Watching it on video makes it feel different.'
They had already been badly shaken on set yesterday, but seeing the scene replayed now on video put them in an entirely different mood.
"Hmm."
Ethan paused the footage and folded his arms. The movement only made the muscles in his upper body stand out more. One of his team members, the man with tattooed hands, spoke carefully in English.
"Ethan, are you thinking about going back to LA?"
Ethan narrowed his eyes slightly and asked back,
"What do you mean?"
"Even if it was only a test, our pride was completely shattered. So I thought maybe you might consider going back."
Ethan brushed a hand through his brown hair and let out a short laugh.
"Not at all. We came here to work, not to protect our pride."
"..."
"What happened yesterday was shocking, yes, but it was still just an unexpected incident. Running away because of that would be far more humiliating."
The team members nodded in agreement.
"I thought the same thing."
"So did I."
The question had simply come from excessive concern.
Ethan uncrossed his arms and tapped the paused image on the tablet screen. Kang Woojin's face filled the display.
"Whether Kang Woojin used to be special forces or not, and whatever kind of background he had in the past, the fact that he can already handle close combat is the part that matters to us. Especially if he can do it at a professional level."
"What do you mean?"
At that question, Ethan answered with the Hollywood market in mind.
"As you all know, we normally start by teaching actors the fundamentals from the ground up. But the situation changes completely when the actor already has experience and is comfortable with action performance."
"…Then we can focus on refining technique and adding style, impact, and texture."
"Exactly. If the lead actor lacks experience, you start with training. But if he's already skilled, then conditioning alone can be enough."
The bear-like man on the team added a word of his own.
"Flexibility."
"That's right. As we all know, training has to focus on building a solid foundation. There isn't time to think about much else. But conditioning is different. Conditioning lets you add individuality to the performance. And in this case, both the lead actor and the director have handed us far more room than expected."
After finishing his thought, Ethan set the tablet down and picked up a stack of documents. It was the existing martial arts choreography for Beneficial Evil, now revised with close-combat action added in.
"Which means we can upgrade this choreography to a Hollywood level without any trouble."
Kang Woojin's CQC and their extensive Hollywood experience were now going to be combined.
"There's no need to worry about whether the lead actor can handle the role."
And that meant Ethan's own experience was finally about to be mixed into the process.