Dear readers,
This story is very much fictional, but I wrote it nonetheless to play with a rather improbably scenario of Hyun Bin and Son Ye Jin finding out that they were expecting as filming of Crash Landing on You started when they were in Switze...
The snowflake machines hummed steadily, pumping out volumes of flurries onto filming spots in the villa that evening. The weather got even colder as the night got deeper and the wind picked up. The band of stuntmen from the previous scene were lounging in the parking area, steaming cups of coffee in hand as they re-hashed the accident with Hyun Bin in the prior scene. The crew had just finished adjusting the lighting around the spot where the next scene was to be filmed, which was the heart breaking exchange between Yoon Se-ri and Ri Jeong Hyeok at the main entrance. The scene was to pick up where Yoon Se-ri got out of the main doors to face Ri Jeong Hyeok.
It was one of the more touching scenes in the series, and one that both stars ardently prepared for. Unknown to each other, both drew their inspirations from the same event that happened a year ago which threatened their then new relationship, just after they had just expressed their mutual love for the first time while in the middle of the filming of The Negotiation movie.
The event involved what Son Ye Jin initially thought was a third party in the relationship. She was a beautiful young woman in her early-20s who was a part-time make-up artist, film student and aspiring actress. She was stunning, with facial features and physical attributes that were quite similar to Son Ye Jin's and also carried herself with poise and grace. Son Ye Jin had met her a couple of times in the dressing rooms but she had never worked on by her since she was assigned to Hyun Bin during the production.
One evening, after the day's filming was over, Hyun Bin went to his dressing room to retrieve a jacket, rushing as he went as he wanted to catch Son Ye Jin to secretly invite her to dinner. Not seeing a bag on the floor he tripped and fell on top of the make-up artist who was resting on the sofa with her feet up as she fiddled with her phone. She gasped in pain and in surprise as she absorbed his bulk on her. The resulting image was as compromising as it could get, as the woman was splayed on the sofa while his hips landed right between her legs. He was stuck on her for a couple of seconds. As he was trying to extricate himself Son Ye Jin walked in. She froze, shocked at what she was looking at, and then ran out. Tears started to flow profusely as she sprinted down the corridor. He hobbled out and tried to catch up with her in the parking lot but she was gone when he got there.
Her mind was in shambles as she drove, not initially knowing where to go. Her eyes were inundated by the tears. She tried desperately to rationalize what she saw, but kept drawing a blank. Her heart was pounding and all she knew was that it was broken and in pain. Her car zigzagged dangerously across traffic a couple of times as the tears clouded her vision. She found a parking spot along a side road and stopped. Her heart was about to explode. Unable to control the torment that she felt she screamed as loudly as she could. She wailed for a few minutes like she had never done so before in her life. She felt her hopes and dreams getting crushed. She felt lost and betrayed. When she finally had the strength to think she decided to pick up a bag of clothes from her apartment and head out, before Hyun Bin could show up to stop her.
For three days she couldn't be contacted by anyone. She simply texted a one line message to the director that said that she was sick. Hyun Bin was devastated, cursing himself as it looked like he was about to lose her. Once, the director asked him if he had any idea on how she was, and all he could do was to dodge the question, feigning ignorance. He sent dozens of texts and emails to explain what happened, none of which were responded to. He visited her apartment multiple times but was told that she wasn't there, for she went to Daegu to stay with her parents, crying all day each day in her bedroom. Being a true professional however, she showed up on the fourth day, but was cold and aloof towards him, treating him like a stranger.
It took Hyun Bin an entire month thereafter to convince her that she was it for him, the only love of his life. Nobody else mattered. He was desperate to get her back, sending flowers every day to her apartment, discretely bringing lunch to her on set, which she never accepted, and trying to catch her during breaks for a chat. His longing for her was uncontrollable, for his entire life revolved around her. Finally, he waited for her for hours in her apartment's basement one evening until he saw her car pull up into her parking spot. She got out. He gasped at how lovely she looked. His heart was pumping, the adrenalin kicking in. He immediately ran over and hugged her, not letting go. All he could say was "sorry" a couple of times as he hung on. She squirmed, trying to get away. His embrace was just too tight as his powerful arms encircled her as she stood.
Realizing that her efforts to flee were futile, she finally relaxed. The basement was dead silent with no other soul in sight. Tears started pouring from her reddened eyes. She looked up to him without saying a word and saw tears also streaming down his cheeks. They both cried in silence for what seemed like an eternity, with him holding on with all his love, and her standing erect with her hands on her sides. The silence spoke volumes deep in each other's hearts as both understood that they could not live apart. He kissed her on the temple. She did not move. More moments passed as they stayed in their embrace. The world stood still around them. An overhead lamp flickered in the distance. Then a car entered the basement. He finally let go of her and was surprised when she grabbed his hand and led him to the elevators.
In silence.
They had a heartfelt talk in her living room,sitting on the floor as they sipped soju, exactly mirroring the scene in Episode 12 where Ri Jeong Hyeok confessed his hopes and dreams to Yoon Se-ri about staying with her and starting a family. He calmly explained what had happened in the dressing room and she listened.
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"You are my present and my future" he said. "I am very sorry that I was clumsy. I will never do something like that to you. I love you. You're all that matters to me". She felt his honesty break through the cracks of her heart's defenses, for his confession of his love was pure and soulful in its simplicity. They finally made up and Hyun Bin spent the night in her apartment. Incidentally, his confession that evening in her living room became the basis of the Episode 12 scene.
Pulling the complex emotions from that life experience gave the villa scene a very realistic touch. The verbal lines were almost secondary to the non-verbal cues and expressions. Their eyes deeply conveyed what they had felt when their love was put to the test. Hyun Bin evoked his emotions when he was desperately trying to reach out to her during the one month that they were apart, when his world was shattered into a million pieces. He only had a few lines in the scene, but his facial expression was just priceless, conveying his deepest personal fears at the prospect of losing her. Son Ye Jin evoked the multitude of feelings and emotions she wrestled with as she cried her heart out in Daegu. After Director Lee shouted "cut" she had to sit for a minute in the living room as the tears couldn't stop flowing. Hyun Bin ran back and quietly sat beside her.
Their common inspiration also proved useful when they filmed the road scene where Yoon Se-ri offered to drive Ri Jeong Hyeok back to the military village. As she acted out their embrace by the roadside, Son Ye Jin once again tapped into her personal emotions, drawing from her quiet frustrations mixed with deep longing as Hyun Bin hugged her in the basement that fateful evening. It was a pivotal few minutes in their relationship, where she had to decide the future of their relationship. The resulting scene, short as it was, was heart-tugging to say the least. The scene was so masterful executed that the women in the crew who were on set quietly sobbed during the filming, as the snowflake machines hummed in the distance.
Editing became a challenge as virtually all elements of both scenes were so powerful and moving that Director Lee and the editing team initially couldn't decide which portions to edit out to shorten the scenes to their required runtimes. What they failed to edit was the close up of Son Ye Jin's left hand (during the villa scene) which showed a dark discolouration on her ring finger where the engagement ring that Kim Jung-hyun gave Yoon Se-ri sat. As the engagement ring slid ever so slightly down her finger during the shoot, the discolouration became visible to the camera. It was from the couples' ring that Hyun Bin gave her five months ago, which she took off when they were on his SUV that morning.
And it was the actual couples' ring that Hyun Bin produced during the filming of Episode 13.
