Bedroom Genius Actor - Chapter 2

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 2

Kim Ji-hu slowly opened his eyes in some kind of space.

“What, what is this…!”

A white space. Countless mannequins were placed inside it.

With only clothed mannequins standing in the white space, it was utterly terrifying.

Kim Ji-hu couldn’t understand this situation that had suddenly occurred.

‘I was definitely at some kind of audition place… I think I was trying to roughly read the script and leave…’

Kim Ji-hu looked around to grasp the situation.

Then suddenly, one mannequin caught Kim Ji-hu’s eye.

“That is…”

More precisely, the clothes that mannequin was wearing caught Kim Ji-hu’s attention.

‘It looks like the protagonist’s outfit from the work I saw yesterday…?’

A mannequin wearing a neat semi-formal suit. It was definitely the protagonist’s outfit he had seen yesterday.

Kim Ji-hu looked at the mannequin next to it.

‘That one is from the day before yesterday… and that one from last week…’

The mannequins inside were wearing outfits of character roles from works Kim Ji-hu had seen.

As a creative works enthusiast who knew that costumes changed according to the protagonist’s psychological changes, it was natural for Kim Ji-hu to remember since it was an unmissable detail.

‘What on earth is going on here?’

While looking around like that, he stared at one mannequin placed in front.

‘This one…’

Though Kim Ji-hu remembered most of the outfits, this work alone felt somewhat unfamiliar.

However, he seemed to know where it originated from.

‘A Hawaiian shirt and short shorts… Wasn’t this the character’s outfit from the script I saw earlier?’

The moment Kim Ji-hu had that thought and reached his hand toward that mannequin-

“Ugh!”

A strong light emanated from the mannequin.

At the same time, the voice he had heard earlier rang in his ears.

[Synchronizing with the corresponding role.]

Along with that sound, Kim Ji-hu lost consciousness once again.

And when he opened his eyes again, he was in the audition hall.

With sharp eyes that were different from usual.

***

‘There really aren’t any decent guys.’

PD Seo Min-sik, who was directing this SBC mini-series, clicked his tongue briefly.

Normally, auditions for supporting character roles like this would be handled by the casting director, but the main PD came out personally because this supporting role played a surprisingly important part.

‘The screen time is small, but it’s a villain role that will serve as the spice of the work.’

Meanwhile, he wondered what that last guy who came was doing. His profile and face were different, and after getting up from his seat, he just kept his head down without saying anything.

‘If he was going to act like that, why did he come to the audition?’

Director Seo Min-sik was spinning his pen and sighing, about to tell him to leave.

“…?”

Kim Ji-hu slowly raised his head.

With completely different eyes from the naive look he had earlier.

“You should have done better. Do you think I want to do this?”

Perfect vocalization. Even his small gestures and eye expressions made him seem like a completely different person from the guy who had been sitting there bewildered earlier.

Director Seo Min-sik stopped spinning his pen and opened his eyes wide.

Regardless, Kim Ji-hu continued his acting.

“Right, if you’ve done something, you should take responsibility. Knowing how to take responsibility is what makes an adult, isn’t it?”

“Just the wrist. Let’s end this nicely at this level. You’re good with that too, right? You said good? Okay, I’ll cut it off in one go so it hurts as little as possible.”

“Oops. Sorry about that. This thing… doesn’t cut well, does it?”

Kim Ji-hu was clearly just standing still and reading his lines. But the scene seemed to be visible before their eyes.

‘A scene of cutting someone’s wrist with a saw…’

Even without the other actor, it felt like a conversation was taking place.

Moreover, even while standing still, they could feel the liveliness.

He was showing this character itself – cunning yet brutal.

No, that role existed right before their eyes.

PD Seo Min-sik muttered to himself with his mouth agape.

“…This is the guy.”

PD Seo Min-sik wasn’t the only one feeling this.

Everyone beside him was wide-eyed and open-mouthed, immersed in Kim Ji-hu’s acting.

Forgetting their disappointment at his naive attitude just moments before.

“…Huh?”

Having finished his acting, Kim Ji-hu returned to his previous naive and gentle eyes as if he had become a different person.

And.

“S-sorry!”

“Huh?”

He grabbed his bag and ran out of the audition hall.

At this sudden turn of events, not only PD Seo Min-sik but everyone there was staring with bewildered eyes at where Kim Ji-hu had disappeared.

“What, what was that?”

Director Seo Min-sik said to the assistant director right next to him.

“Hey! Call him back! Quickly!”

“Ah, understood!”

The assistant director immediately called the phone number written on the profile, and soon someone answered.

-Hello?

“You’re Kim Ji-hu, right?”

-That’s correct.

“This is the SBC Drama Team! About the audition just now, could you come back?”

-Huh? I couldn’t make it to the audition today.

“…What?”

-What?

“…”

The assistant director hung up and immediately looked at PD Seo Min-sik.

“It seems like a different person.”

As soon as Director Seo Min-sik heard those words, he shouted.

“Hey! Catch that guy!!!”

***

“What on earth is going on…”

Kim Ji-hu couldn’t hide his bewildered feelings.

‘I definitely heard something about awakening or something… and I entered some strange white room.’

And when he touched one mannequin, he lost consciousness with a strong flash of light. The moment he came to his senses, he was acting.

‘It felt like I suddenly became a different person.’

He felt like he wasn’t himself, as if he had become the character that appeared in that role.

Kim Ji-hu soon shook his head and looked around.

‘Let’s quickly go to the meeting hall…!’

Though he was already late, he had to go now.

If he didn’t go, there would be no reason for coming this far.

Kim Ji-hu was able to find the meeting hall where the briefing session would likely be held.

However, before he could even enter, a woman blocked his path.

“Who are you? There’s a briefing session going on right now, so you can’t enter.”

“Ah…! I was also invited to the briefing session…”

“Invited? What’s your name?”

“My name is Kim Ji-hu….”

The woman roughly skimmed through the list and looked at Kim Ji-hu with sharp eyes.

“Excuse me. You should come on time. Why are you so late?”

“I’m sorry….”

He couldn’t bring himself to explain the foolish behavior of entering the waiting room thinking it was just a resting space, witnessing a strange audition, and coming here now, so he could only bow his head.

The woman sighed and gestured toward the inside.

“There’s a meeting in progress, so please go in quietly.”

“Thank you….”

After confirming Kim Ji-hu entered, the woman closed the door and sighed.

“Why do I have to do this kind of work here….”

While she was grumbling to herself, she saw several people running around frantically in the distance.

“What’s that?”

Those people spotted her guarding the door and immediately ran over.

“Is something wrong, senior?”

“Hey, Seo-a! Wasn’t there someone who came here just now? That person was… really sharp and… somehow cunning.”

“Sharp and cunning?”

The woman called Seo-a recalled the people she had met so far, but soon shook her head.

The man named Kim Ji-hu who had just entered seemed far from being sharp and cunning.

“There wasn’t anyone like that.”

“Okay, I understand. Thanks.”

Park Seo-a tilted her head.

“What was that…?”

***

“Phew~.”

After the meeting ended and he returned home, Kim Ji-hu let out a sigh of relief.

‘Director Park Sang-pil, Actor Lee Si-hyuk, and Actor Yoon Se-ra appeared… I’m glad I went.’

Kim Ji-hu smiled broadly as he recalled the meeting, but one thing bothered him.

‘What was that ability earlier….’

That incident where he felt like he had become someone else.

He wondered what exactly had happened in the Audition Hall.

Kim Ji-hu pondered for a moment, then quietly opened his mouth.

“Status window…!”

Nothing happened.

“Status! Open subspace!”

He shouted other strange words as well, but nothing changed.

Suddenly, great embarrassment washed over him.

‘I’m sure this worked in web novels and webtoons…!’

Even though no one was around, his face turned red at the thought of doing something strange.

‘Then I can’t enter that White Room again? I want to go back and see….’

Then suddenly his eyes began to close gradually.

‘Suddenly sleepy….’

He was falling into sleep just like that.

***

“What!”

The place where he opened his eyes was the White Room.

Swoosh.

Before Kim Ji-hu could wonder for long, a screen appeared before his eyes.

“What…!”

Thud!

Startled by the strange screen appearing, he fell backward on his bottom.

“Ugh….”

Kim Ji-hu rubbed his bottom and looked at the screen that appeared before his eyes.

“…What is this.”

Goal: Achieve 9% peak viewership rating for drama 【Trauma】

Upon failure: Death

“What, what?”

At the sudden mention of death, Kim Ji-hu couldn’t help but be stunned.

Death.

A religious person might think of the afterlife, but for Kim Ji-hu, an atheist, it simply meant returning to ‘nothingness.’

“…Am I going to die like this?”

Kim Ji-hu looked at the screen with detached eyes.

And he muttered to himself.

“Dying like this… might not be so bad either.”

Even though he didn’t know what was in front of him, Kim Ji-hu calmly accepted it.

‘Death has been familiar to me anyway.’

In fact, he had long become detached about death since his parents passed away.

Only the blog he wrote was a kind of anchor that made his life worth living and a trace of his existence.

‘It’s too regrettable that I won’t be able to see future works… but if this is my end, well….’

As Kim Ji-hu was calmly accepting death, the screen suddenly began to show noise.

“Huh?”

Goal: Achieve 9% peak viewership rating for drama 【Trauma】

Upon failure: Blog deletion

“!?!?!?!?!”

Kim Ji-hu shouted even louder than before.

“Wh, why delete my blog! It was definitely death before!”

Appearing out of nowhere, threatening to kill him if he didn’t meet the conditions, and now saying it would delete all his blog posts.

For Kim Ji-hu, his blog was his life.

It was an ark where he had written about every work he had seen, and a cornucopia that earned him money so he could laze around at home.

To delete all of that.

“How can this be!!”

This couldn’t happen.

If he was going to die, just let him die, but why touch his blog?

Even when he worked at a convenience store for a month and didn’t get paid, he wasn’t this frustrated.

‘Just having my blog deleted would be more painful than death….’

Kim Ji-hu remembered what hardships he had endured before earning money from his blog.

‘I absolutely, absolutely cannot lose it….’

It was a matter of money, but Kim Ji-hu had found meaning in life through his blog. The disappearance of that existence itself was absolutely unacceptable.

So the condition caught his eye.

A way to save his blog.

‘Trauma? What’s that?’

Being told to achieve viewership ratings for a drama he’d never heard of. What was this supposed to mean?

There was no way Kim Ji-hu, who wasn’t an industry insider, could do anything about it.

Of course, if he had to do something, he could only use his blog.

‘Should I write posts on my blog? Asking people to please watch this work…. If I post such content every day, maybe I can somehow boost the viewership ratings….’

If a blogger who had only written reviews for over 10 years earnestly pleaded, wouldn’t one or two people listen?

‘But anyway… what is this place?’

After various concerns, Kim Ji-hu finally had the capacity to look around.

Countless mannequins dressed in clothes placed in the White Room.

‘I’m sure when I touched one of these earlier, something happened with synchronization or whatever….’

Kim Ji-hu thought about the previous situation and looked at the mannequin next to him.

‘Could it be?’

Having made his decision, he reached out to one of the mannequins, and a strong light enveloped him.

***

Knock knock knock.

“Ji-hu student, are you home?”

A person knocking on Kim Ji-hu’s door. It was the grandmother who owned the studio apartment where Kim Ji-hu was staying.

The landlady grandmother, who often brought fruit for Kim Ji-hu who always ate ramen alone, had come to visit him again today as usual.

Then a strange sound echoed from inside Kim Ji-hu’s room.

“YEE-HWA!!!!!!!”

The landlady grandmother heard that sound and made a bewildered expression.

“What in the world is this.”

And wondering if something had happened, the landlady grandmother knocked on the door even louder.

“Ji-hu student, is something wrong?”

Then Kim Ji-hu’s door opened and Kim Ji-hu came out with a grinning smile.

“Oh~ grandma~. You look so beautiful today too~.”

“Ji-hu student… did you eat something wrong?”

“No No. I’m always eating delicious food~. Did you come because something happened?”

“This is fruit… I had some left over.”

“Fruit? Oh~ so fresh~ Thanks grandma.”

“What are you saying… anyway, enjoy it…”

“OK~ see you~.”

Kim Ji-hu spouted English like that and closed the door.

The landlady grandmother left in front of the door muttered to herself in a daze.

“Ji-hu student… did he go crazy from staying home all the time.”

***

“…”

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Kim Ji-hu was lying on his blanket with a red face, kicking the blanket frantically.

Of all times to test what the synchronization ability was, the landlady grandmother had to come.

It was something that would make the TOP 5 most embarrassing moments of his life.

‘Why did I synchronize with this kind of role…’

Of all things, what Kim Ji-hu had synchronized with was a slick cowboy character.

He never knew it would turn into something like this.

‘Still… I think I understand what kind of ability this is…’

To summarize roughly, when he touched a mannequin in the White Room, he synchronized with that character.

Of course, he could control it to some extent, but he ended up moving according to that character’s personality.

‘So that’s how I was able to act.’

Now what happened at the Audition Hall was starting to make sense.

Then something suddenly came to mind.

‘Trauma…?’

Although he didn’t have the entire script content, judging from what he saw, something like a big message was close to trauma.

Everything from the protagonist’s actions to the supporting character’s actions…

Bzzzz-

Then Kim Ji-hu’s phone rang.

Kim Ji-hu looked at his phone screen.

It was a number he’d never seen before.

Kim Ji-hu quietly answered the call.

“…Hello?”

-Um… is this Kim Ji-hu’s phone, the one who posts reviews on the blog?

“Ah, yes yes… that’s right?”

-Hello. This is Park Seo-a from SBC Broadcasting Station’s drama production team. I contacted you by email during the recent meeting.

“Yes, hello…”

-I have something I’d like to ask you. Didn’t you audition for a drama a little while ago?

Kim Ji-hu was startled by those words.

At the same time, he worried.

‘Huh, how do they know?’

Kim Ji-hu hadn’t mentioned auditioning during the meeting.

‘From what I heard from the PD and others, there seemed to be some kind of confusion.’

Kim Ji-hu considered just saying he didn’t know and hanging up, but then carefully said.

“Y-yes… I took the wrong path… sorry…”

Then excited voices could be heard from the other end of the phone, and soon a man took the call and said.

-This is PD Seo Min-sik. Can you meet tomorrow right away?

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————