Chapter 44: Ha Ji-won's Garden

  He hadn't even attended classes at Hansung University for a few days, and Jang Sung-won took leave to film a TV drama. This time he was going to play the lead role in a youth romance idol drama "Beautiful Life". Unexpectedly, he was going to play the male lead. It's unknown whether it was good luck or because of Hansung University's prestigious reputation, but this time Jang Sung-won suddenly rose to the position of male lead, making it hard for him to believe himself, and originally he just went to audition as a matter of routine.

  After nearly two years of hard work, he found that it was not as good as a student ID card from Hansung University, which made Zhang Chengyuan sigh that the world is unfair.

  Of course, this is just his biased idea.

  In Park Byung-ryul's view, being a student of Hanyang University alone wouldn't have been enough to land the role. It was mainly thanks to Jang Sung-won's perfect appearance and his hard work behind the scenes that he became the male lead in this small investment TV drama. According to him, there's no need to make a big fuss about it, as the female lead is also just a newcomer who hasn't been around for long, and the other supporting actors aren't very well-known either.

  The heroine of this drama is played by newcomer Ha Ji-won. According to Park Hyeong-ryeol's rumor, Ha Ji-won debuted in 1997, two years earlier than Jang Sung-won, and studied at Dankook University's Department of Film Acting. She was not born with a high talent, but she is a representative figure who has honed her skills through hard work. Before that, she had participated in four or five TV dramas, playing some obscure roles, until she played a campus drama "School 2" in '99 and began to gain recognition, and the high ratings of the youth drama "Secret" she filmed the following year greatly increased her popularity, and her acting skills were also highly praised. In short, she is a different type of person from Jang Sung-won, and her current achievements are higher than Jang's.

  When Jang Sung-won met Ha Ji-won at the script reading site, he immediately had a good impression of her. Although Ha Ji-won's appearance may not be as stunning as Kim Tae-hee or as cute as Jung Yu-mi, she is still elegant and beautiful, with a humble personality, calm demeanor, bright smile, and graciousness that makes people feel embarrassed to show a cold face to her.

  Zhang Chengyuan also sensed from Hee-jin's gaze and subtle movements that her will was extremely firm, as if she were a tenacious and unyielding female general. In his opinion, unless something unexpected happened, Hee-jin's future would be absolutely bright.

  In Ha Ji-won's eyes, Jang Sung-yoon was handsome and humble in attitude, and being young made him very lovable, she also had a good impression of him. Perhaps because both of them had a good impression of each other, they quickly became familiar with each other.

  Ha Ji-won is 24 years old this year, four years older than Jang Sung-kyu, but she looks youthful and her skin is smooth. After putting on makeup, it's hard to tell who's older between the two. This is also because Jang Sung-kyu looks much more mature than his actual age, and if he grows a beard, he'll look even older. Therefore, there's no need to worry that the two will look mismatched as a couple.

  Very soon, the TV series started filming. After the start of filming, Zhang Chengyuan suddenly realized that being a leading actor was not an easy task, especially when the director's requirements were strict or when the actors themselves wanted to perform well.

  Only two days after the start of filming, Zhang Chengyuan and He Zhiyuan encountered a major difficulty: an underwater diving scene. They found it difficult because neither of them had ever been in contact with this water sport before, and Zhang Chengyuan couldn't even swim.

  When the assistant director suggested using a stunt double, both Jang Sung-won and Ha Ji-won immediately refused. The director then decided to film other scenes first and gave them three days to practice scuba diving skills, requiring them to master certain water standards, at least looking like two scuba diving experts, not two amateurs; if they couldn't do it, they would use a stunt double.

  It's really not an easy thing to practice diving skills within three days, and it's still in the spare time after completing the shooting task every day.

  Of course, for Zhang Chengyuan who has the ability to learn like a non-human, it's not too difficult. After all, he is clever and skilled, and can quickly learn anything. Moreover, his internal energy is strong, and he can easily hold his breath for over an hour, which is a great help for underwater work. Therefore, learning swimming and diving in three days or even one day is still achievable for him. But for He Zhiyuan, an ordinary woman, to master an underwater skill that is not easy to grasp within a limited time, it's really worrying.

  Many people privately believe that the director made such a decision just to save face for Ha Ji-won and Jang Sung-kyu, hoping they would retreat from the difficulties and avoid affecting the filming process. However, the director did not expect Jang Sung-kyu to have what kind of against-the-sky learning ability, and how firm Ha Ji-won's will was.

  Ha Ji-won has never given up on things she's determined to do, and she likes to do them perfectly. Before her debut, she had over 200 rejections from auditions, and she also ran every morning to lose weight from 53kg to the actress standard of around 46kg, wrapping her entire body except for her face in thick plastic wrap to sweat more. She has done many things like this, and Ha Ji-won can pay a price that ordinary people can't imagine to achieve her dream of becoming a successful actress. Therefore, she didn't back down this time either, and the purpose of doing so is simply to let the audience see her serious attitude towards filming and recognize her.

  After three days of almost non-stop effort, Ha Ji-won finally succeeded, and Jang Sung-yeol was even more impressive. He learned in just one day and quickly mastered various scuba diving skills such as underwater exploration, salvage, and emergency response, and could even stay underwater for a certain period of time within 10 meters without professional equipment. This made the scuba diving instructor from a professional diving company think that he had previously learned scuba diving and was already at a similar level to him.

  After Zhang Chengyuan learned well, he didn't slack off. Instead, he accompanied He Zhiyuan every day, observing her movements, discussing technical essentials with her during breaks, and telling her the tricks he had figured out one by one, allowing her to benefit greatly. When she was exhausted, he even gave her massages to help her recover quickly. He Zhiyuan's rapid progress was not only due to her own hard work and perseverance but also thanks to Zhang Chengyuan's significant contributions. After three days of shared hardships, their relationship progressed rapidly, as if they had been old friends for over a decade.

  Thanks to the two leads' perfect chemistry and great acting, there were fewer NG scenes, which allowed the drama to be filmed faster than expected. This also gave the crew members more time to rest. The crew's affection for the humble and capable Ha Ji-won and Jang Seung-jo increased, and unknowingly, the treatment they received from the crew improved a notch.