“Anyway, now that TM’s CEO has changed and all the data was handed over to the prosecution, many people were exposed and caught in the crossfire.” Hyun-Min explained.

“Haven’t most of the culprits been revealed to the public by now?”

The curious Lee Hyung-Jin asked Hyun-Min, who was talking as though there were still some inside stories that had not been revealed to the public yet.

Many people had gotten arrested and were on trial because of this case, so Lee Hyung-Jin wondered whether there was anyone left who hadn’t been exposed yet.

“It’s because most of the people who got exposed are from the political world. There are still quite a lot of wrongdoers in the corporate and business side of things. But it seems the prosecution isn’t involving them yet, especially the brokers. They seem to be glossing over the actual brokers.”

As Hyun-Min spoke, he discreetly glanced at Woo-Jin. The latter wore a bitter smile as he realized that Hyun-Min was referring to Woo-Jin’s biological father’s current wife, Kim Hye-Ryeong, when he talked about the brokers.

“Where did you find all this miscellaneous information?” Woo-Jin asked his friend.

“I’ve got a wide circle of contacts.”

In hindsight, there were many avenues that could have been Hyun-Min’s sources. Although he wasn’t directly related to the political and business worlds, if his parents and extended family members were taken into consideration, he could easily find out the gossip going around behind the scenes.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if the brokers had the connections and power to defend themselves.”

Woo-Jin spoke while gazing at his friend, silently conveying the message that he knew who the broker in question was. Hyun-Min received the message, raised an eyebrow, and scratched his cheek.

This specific topic was something they should discuss between the two of them, but for some reason, the subject was brought up while they were with Lee Hyung-Jin, so Hyun-Min was choosing his words carefully.

“I heard that they’re considering a divorce.”

“…?!”

Woo-Jin’s eyes opened wide in surprise. Hyun-Min continued speaking with a bitter expression.

“Turns out married couples also cut their tails from one another.”[1]

Although the information hadn’t spread to the public yet, there were already rumors circulating behind the scenes claiming that Kim Hye-Ryeong was the main broker behind this sponsorship scandal.

If Woo-Jin’s biological father Chae Mu-Seok remained passive in this situation, he too would be treated as an accomplice. So there was nothing better than a divorce to cut off his relationship with her and pretend to be an innocent bystander in the case.

“What are you two talking about? I feel like you started and ended a discussion about some important topic that I don’t know about.”

Lee Hyung-Jin grumbled and complained that he also wanted to be in on the gossip. Instead of answering, Woo-Jin changed the subject and thanked Lee Hyung-Jin, saying he had fun today and that he would like to perform with him again if the opportunity ever arose in the future.

“I’m always open to having you on stage again. The problem is that someone is always so busy.” Lee Hyung-Jin replied.

“He sure is. Today is also my first time seeing him after some time. By the way, where’s your next filming location? There are all kinds of theories and speculations online because the media hasn’t mentioned it.” Hyun-Min asked.

“Why do you want to know? Will you come to find us to get Dustin’s autograph?”

Woo-Jin was not in a position to reveal the next filming location, so he just teased Hyun-Min instead.

There were way too many people gathered at their first filming site, so the production crew put an embargo on the press about their next location.

Needless to say, people would naturally notice them when they were preparing to film, so even if no articles were released, they would be unable to prevent a crowd from gathering on the site. However, that didn’t mean they had to go around advertising the location to everyone either.

***

This time, the location was at an open, public space so it would be difficult to prevent a large crowd from approaching. No matter how cold of a winter day it was, it was difficult to escape the public’s eye if one was filming at Haeundae Beach[2].

{It’s pretty warm here.}

Dustin spread his arms wide, basking in the warm sunlight and the cool breeze.

The scenery behind him was like a beautiful painting, where the wide sea extended to the horizon and seagulls flew in the blue sky. Judging by the clicking sounds here and there, it seemed the staff were enthusiastically taking pictures of the landscape.

Woo-Jin squinted and looked up at the sky. It was a very sunny day with clear skies, which didn’t fit the scene that they were going to be filming today, a scene where the guardians faced the wrath of Mother Nature.

Fortunately, most of the background in this scene would be produced using CG, so it was possible to shoot on site regardless of the weather conditions thanks to the latest filming technology and techniques.

Nonetheless, the actors had the difficult task of acting with the unsuitable scenery. They had to pretend to worry about how to handle a large tsunami while frowning at the clear sky and calm waves.

The content of today’s shoot was a scene where Robert becomes aware of his true role as a guardian.

A huge tsunami caused by an earthquake threatened to hit apartment complexes and downtown areas close to the beach. As the tsunami gradually approached the coast, Jin remained calm and composed unlike the shocked Robert.

Jin believed in the principle that guardians couldn’t get involved in wars caused by humans and that they should not intervene with the laws of nature.

In fact, it was the same for most guardians. If they intervened in a war and implicitly stood on their homeland’s side of the conflict, they risked biasing the world’s history, and affecting the future of humanity.

Thus, the guardians remained silent during intercontinental wars. If they acted carelessly, they also risked offending the other guardians and starting a ‘true war’.

It was the same with nature. Human warfare and nature had quite a few similarities.

If an outside, unnatural force—such as guardians—intervened in the actions of nature, who knew what kind of butterfly effect it would cause? If they prevented a disaster at one location, they couldn’t just turn a blind eye to the sacrifices and deaths that could occur at another place. But that also didn’t mean they could run around the world, saving people one at a time.

Needless to say, they would still try to reduce the damage as much as possible and use their powers to help people. However, they had no intention of stopping nature’s wrath that came in the form of a natural disaster, such as a tsunami.

Instead, they would evacuate people and do their best to prevent buildings from collapsing.

But Robert couldn’t agree with their methods. He insisted that if he saw the waves coming from afar, he had an obligation to stop them since he had the power.

This was the first time Jin and Robert had a real, big disagreement.

{Are you going to do nothing and let everyone die miserably, even though you have the power to stop it?} Robert exclaimed.

{Our powers are not meant to be used to break the laws of nature.}

{Then why do we exist? What’s the point of having power that can’t be used to protect others? Why do guardians exist then?!}

Despite not knowing how to fully utilize the powers he held, Robert shook off Jin’s hand that was holding onto his arm and walked towards the sea. Even though he didn’t know how to stop such a big tsunami, he recklessly crashed into it with his entire body.

Blood escaped through his tightly closed lips and even more spurted out of his nose. The golden energy emanating from his trembling fingertips caught and blocked the waves, but to no avail. Robert didn’t have enough power to stop nature’s wrath. The waves smashed through the shining barricade and swallowed up the broken golden fragments.

As despair replaced the stunned look on Robert’s face, Jin shook his head in resignation and approached his disciple, standing by his side.

{Watch carefully. These are the consequences of your actions.}

Jin held up his sword with a voice which was colder than ever. In fact, it was so cold his aura alone could freeze the sea water.

He thought he needed to give Robert a reality check at least once, and to engrave the meaning of a guardian’s power and their role in his disciple’s mind.

Thus, Jin raised his sword.

Jin raised the blade high before swinging it down towards the sea. The blue streaks of light flowing out of his sword tangled with the waves and drop by drop, the sea began to freeze over.

As the tidal wave soaring high in the sky froze, Jin pointed his sword forward at the sea and pierced through the wall of ice.

The sword stabbed into the frozen sea, creating thin blue fissures that spread throughout the surface. Each time the blue sea cracked with fissures that shone in a brighter shade of blue, the ice slowly broke off with crackling sounds.

The scene of the frozen tsunami fragmenting created a spectacle which resembled a small blue flower’s petals dancing and scattering in the air.

In the meantime, the earthquake’s influence gradually weakened and the waves that followed were just bigger and rougher compared to usual, and they gradually subsided.

A bright smile spread on Robert’s face as he watched the large tsunami vanish. The passion of a pure and wonderful young man ended up saving the lives of countless people.

But his smile didn’t last for long.

{The force that created the tsunami couldn’t handle our obstruction and rebounded towards the other side of the sea, towards Japan.} Jin explained.

{What? Then we should go there and…}

Robert was about to head to Japan immediately when he stopped himself. If they went to Japan and blocked the tsunami there, then what would happen here?

{If we stop the tsunami there, the force will rebound again and head back here. Or it may go to some other place nearby. Of course, if we repeat the process and continuously block the tsunamis, the seismic wave will weaken and gradually disappear. In fact, the rebound heading to Japan right now will be much weaker than it was here. But still!}

Jin’s lips that had been forming a cold smile twisted.

{By saving the humans, all the damage caused by this disaster will be absorbed by the environment.}

{But that’s inevitable. Our job is to save humans…}

At Robert’s naïve answer, Jin gazed at his disciple with a slightly sad expression.

{It’s not humans that we must protect. Saving humans is not our top priority.}

{What do you mean by that? Then what is it that we’re protecting?}

Jin closed his eyes at Robert’s question. Soon, he opened them again and gazed over the horizon before quietly answering.

{We protect Earth from humans… We abandoned our mission just now.}

Generally speaking, guardians also protected and defended humans.

However, if nature and humanity came into conflict and forced them to pick a side, the guardians would protect nature and defend the planet without hesitation.

Robert had been joyful and excited about being a guardian thus far. However, at this exact moment, his dreams and fantasies were completely shattered. Simultaneously, he came to an important realization. He finally realized why those mysterious people were attacking them and throwing their lives away to kill the guardians.

Those people were protecting humans from the guardians.

***

As soon as they finished filming the scene, Dustin waved his hand inland. Habitants of the area had gathered by the side of the road behind the white, sandy beach. When they saw Dustin, they waved back at him.

Currently, Dustin and Woo-Jin were standing on a platform that had been built under the surface of the ocean. It was a device specifically installed to film scenes of people walking on the ocean while they were performing different actions.

Thus, it looked like they were standing on the sea from a distance. The splashing and swaying waves and seagulls flying in the blue sky painted a beautiful picture with the two actors at the center.

However, if one looked closely, their shoes and pants were soaking wet, and they had a hard time moving their heavy legs.

{They probably don’t realize what we’re doing, do they?} Dustin asked bashfully.

Woo-Jin laughed out loud and nodded.

{They’re probably wondering what we’re doing out here. All they can see is two guys talking to one another and one of them is attacking the sea with a sword in hand. Rather than that, wipe off that nose bleed of yours already.}

Dustin wiped off his fake blood with his sleeve after hearing Woo-Jin’s remark. Even though the people watching them were far away, the scene they were filming today looked very boring and silly without the cool CG.

{I want the movie to be successful so that we can film a sequel. But considering how the guardians were written, I’m really worried.}

Dustin pointed out the imperfections and contradictions of the guardians as he stared at the movie’s screenwriter—Hugh Miller—who was standing on the sandy beach.

Judging by the contents of Guardian Angel, there was a high chance that there would be many sequels, thus creating a series.

However, Hugh didn’t comment about this subject. It seemed that the producers would proceed with a second movie depending on the success of this first one.

It could be seen as prudence, but it also made them look unreliable as their attitudes showed a lack of self-confidence.

{If you’re thinking of filming a sequel, then this first movie is already a partial success.} Woo-Jin said.

If an actor like Dustin—who rarely cared much about his projects—wanted to work on the sequel, then the movie’s production and planning teams had already passed their biggest hurdle.

{Is that what it means? Well, I guess you’re right. These guardians don’t look very reliable and seem somewhat delicate, but that makes me want to continue watching them.}

A hero had to be strong and firm by nature, but Guardian Angel did not have such a character.

This story was like a game of Jenga, where a bunch of wooden blocks are stacked up and get pulled out one at a time until it collapses. The further one got into the story, the more restless and nervous they felt. But when everything finally collapsed, it felt refreshing.

{People create and revere heroes from their human point of views. If you think about how the guardians ultimately want a world that doesn’t need heroes for the future, then their actions become clear.} Woo-Jin explained.

The guardians didn’t want to become heroes. They didn’t want to be the winners of the game, so they figured that if it collapsed, then they could just start over again.

This aspect of their character changed their imperfections into carefreeness that radiated a lot of charm.

Because of that, Woo-Jin admired Hugh Miller as a screenwriter. To put it simply, the movie struck a good balance between many issues and plot points: the conflict between the guardians and their enemies, the conflict between a young disciple who wanted to be a hero and his mentor who didn’t want to be a hero, and the conflict between what one desired to protect and what had to be protected.

If any one of those points crumbled, then the entire movie’s structure would collapse. Thus, Hugh and Rayford’s sense of balance that kept the structure firm and solid was outstanding.

As Director Yoon Seon once said, if the production team made a proper foundation, then the actors could play and mess around with the structure to their heart’s content. It was a blessing for an actor to be able to meet and work with an excellent production team.

{Still, since Robert dreamed of becoming a hero, Jin must’ve been a real mentor and hero to him.} Dustin commented.

Woo-Jin turned his gaze away from the sea and looked at Dustin as he continued talking.

{Robert was blessed to have met Jin, but I was also blessed to have met you. Of course, you’re not my hero but my friend.}

Dustin held out his right hand to Woo-Jin.

Today was the last time they would film a scene for Guardian Angel together.

It was unclear whether the two actors would have an opportunity to star in another project together in the future. Nevertheless, this picturesque scene would most likely remain in their memories forever.

{Likewise, I was blessed to have met you.} Woo-Jin said as he shook his friend’s hand.

Sometimes, it was harder to be remembered as a friend as compared to being remembered as a hero. And there was no greater compliment than telling a coworker that meeting them was a blessing.

Such words were the seeds of happiness for every actor.

1. An idiom that goes “cutting off [one’s] tail”, which means someone is severing their connection with another person because they don’t want to be accused of any wrongdoings, even though they were an accomplice/also a perpetrator. ☜

2. Haeundae Beach (해운대) is an urban beach in Busan, South Korea, which is one of the country’s most famous and popular beaches. It’s open year-round and holds various festivals throughout the year. ☜