I Acted Once, and Now They Call Me a Genius - Chapter 10

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 10

His first audition.

He had worried about being too nervous, but it wasn’t as nerve-wracking as he’d expected. Seon-woo had already been through dozens of job interviews.

Compared to those, acting in front of people he knew was nothing.

But there was one annoying thing.

“Did you prepare well?”

Backstage.

While he was sitting on a chair, getting into the right emotional state, someone suddenly approached him.

It was Seo Jin-wook.

He was looking down at Seon-woo with his usual crooked smile.

“Yes. I prepared well.”

“Oh, really? That’s good. Even if you fail, don’t be too discouraged. Originally, these things are about gaining experience through failure.”

Seon-woo was inwardly dumbfounded.

He was pretending to care, pretending to give advice… but wasn’t he basically telling him not to try too hard because he was going to fail anyway?

Seon-woo quietly stared at Seo Jin-wook.

Then he chuckled.

“What. Think you can win?”

“…”

Seon-woo mentally wrote the character for patience in his mind.

How often had he encountered rude interviewers in interview rooms? Compared to those times, this was nothing, really nothing…

“Senior.”

“Yeah?”

“Are you afraid of me?”

It was nothing.

Ah, he didn’t know. Maybe he had become momentarily sensitive from immersing himself in Seung-do’s emotional line, or maybe he thought it was time to push back once.

Honestly, it was quite an emotional action.

“…What?”

Seo Jin-wook seemed like he never imagined Seon-woo would respond like this.

He looked at Seon-woo with a stupid expression for a moment. Only after several seconds had passed did he contort his face.

“You bastard, how dare you right now….”

“Senior Jin-wook! It’s your turn!”

Just as Seo Jin-wook was about to unleash something at Seon-woo, his name was called.

Seo Jin-wook looked back at the stage, then turned back to Seon-woo with a completely twisted face.

“…I’ll see you later.”

“Yes.”

How scary.

This isn’t even the military, so why does he keep picking on people?

Seon-woo steadied his breathing.

…Let me calm down first.

It seemed he had been too immersed in Seung-do’s dark emotions. It felt a bit harder to control his anger than usual.

Is this the kind of emotion that Method Acting actors feel?

After going this far, it would be quite frustrating to lose to Seo Jin-wook… But right now, Seon-woo was fairly confident.

A major change had occurred in Seung-do’s Color Orb that he possessed.

The trigger started from one question.

Why exactly did Seung-do go to find the Priest?

The Script didn’t contain the reason why Seung-do went to find the Priest.

People just make rough guesses. That Seung-do went to find the Priest to make a declaration of war.

To shout that since God did nothing while my world collapsed, you have no right to judge me.

At first, Seon-woo simply thought it would be like that too.

But as time passed, his thoughts changed.

The more he felt Seung-do’s dark and terrible emotions… the more he had such thoughts.

I want to escape from this.

The thought that Seung-do might have felt the same as me.

Because the anger that Seung-do felt was truly terrible and painful to remain immersed in continuously.

It was the moment he had such thoughts.

A change occurred in Seung-do’s Color Orb that he had never seen before.

From Seung-do’s Color Orb, which had originally only glowed dark red, an ashen energy began to emanate softly.

Seon-woo could immediately understand what that ash-colored light was saying.

Hope.

A desperate longing to escape from this pain.

In that moment, everything became clear.

It became so certain what kind of person Seung-do, whom he had to express, was.

“I will kill the person who killed my family. How will you punish me for this sin?”

What Seung-do wanted was one thing.

To show him a way to escape from this pain.

To give him a reason not to destroy himself.

Because his family surely wouldn’t have wanted that for him either.

“How will you… punish me?”

Actually, he had been worried at first.

Because this Seung-do was very different from the existing Seung-do.

But now Seon-woo wasn’t worried about such things.

It was thanks to his conviction.

That Seung-do’s heart must have been like this.

And when he finished his acting and raised his head, Seon-woo realized he hadn’t been wrong.

The gazes looking at him… were quite heated.

Eun-seok was the first to speak.

“…Seon-woo? What the hell was that? How did you think to interpret Seung-do like this?”

Fortunately, it seemed he didn’t particularly dislike the Seung-do that Seon-woo had acted.

Rather, had he found it somewhat interesting?

Seon-woo inwardly let out a sigh of relief and opened his mouth.

“If I were Seung-do, I think I would have done that. I think I would have wanted someone to stop me.”

At Seon-woo’s words, Eun-seok’s expression became strange.

A look as if he was seeing someone odd.

For a moment, he felt a bit worried. Had he said something wrong?

He didn’t know.

This wasn’t even a real Interview Room, and there was probably no need to worry too much about such trivial words.

Hadn’t Ye-chan said so too? That at Cheongseong, you just needed to act well.

That’s when Do-young opened his mouth.

“You know that your Seung-do is different from how people have acted him so far, right?”

“Yes.”

“Do you think it’s okay to be different?”

It wasn’t particularly aggressive tone. Rather, it felt somewhat indifferent.

But that made Seon-woo even more nervous. It felt like he’d get severely scolded if he answered wrong.

He was torn.

If this had been a company Interview Room, he would have given some appropriately plausible response.

But this wasn’t an Interview Room.

This was a place for Acting.

“I couldn’t help it. Any other Seung-do wouldn’t have convinced me personally.”

So Seon-woo decided to just answer honestly.

What could he do when the Color Orb visible to his eyes had already changed?

“I see. Got it.”

Fortunately, Do-young didn’t say anything more.

Ji-hwan smiled slightly and nodded.

“Let’s stop the questions here. Good work, Seon-woo. Go sit down for a bit.”

“Yes.”

Seon-woo nodded and headed straight to the Audience Seats.

On his way there, he briefly made eye contact with Seo Jin-wook. He expected him to glare at him or something, but surprisingly, he didn’t.

Instead, he seemed to subtly avoid eye contact, pretending not to see him.

…What is he thinking?

I don’t know. I don’t even want to think about what that guy is thinking.

Seon-woo sat down and quietly waited for the results.

Watching Eun-seok, Ji-hwan, and Do-young in the First Row putting their heads together and earnestly exchanging opinions.

Actually, Seon-woo was more scared of this moment than when he was Acting.

The attitude Do-young had shown earlier also bothered him for no reason.

‘Should I have just acted like the others did?’

Seon-woo shook his head. It was too late now.

Now he could only wait for the results.

“Now, everyone who auditioned, please come up on stage.”

Just then, Ji-hwan called all the applicants onto the stage.

Ji-hwan looked at the applicants with a bright smile.

“No need for a long speech, right? Should I announce the results?”

“Yes!”

“The person who will play the role of Seung-do is…”

Despite saying he wouldn’t make a long speech, Ji-hwan paused dramatically and looked around at everyone.

Seon-woo gulped nervously.

For some reason, it seemed like Ji-hwan was looking at him a bit longer, but maybe that was just wishful thinking…

“Kim Seon-woo.”

…Or was it not?

Seon-woo stared blankly at Ji-hwan.

Maybe he would add something like “Don’t get your hopes up because it’s not you.”

But that didn’t happen. Ji-hwan grinned and opened his mouth.

“Seon-woo will play Seung-do. If anyone has complaints, speak up now.”

Ji-hwan said this while glancing at Seo Jin-wook.

He thought that the Seo Jin-wook he knew might complain.

But in the end, Seo Jin-wook didn’t open his mouth.

It must have been obvious to him too.

Who had delivered the more compelling performance.

Ji-hwan chuckled and looked back at Seon-woo.

“Well, it seems everyone agrees with the result. Kim Seon-woo.”

“Yes.”

“You can do well, right?”

Seon-woo answered without hesitation.

“I’ll do my best!”

Even if he couldn’t do well, he had to do well, didn’t he?

By the way, this was a bit unexpected.

I thought Do-young might not like his acting… but it seems that wasn’t necessarily the case.

‘…Did my acting look good to my senior too?’

* * *

“Let’s go with Kim Seon-woo.”

After watching all the applicants’ performances, Do-young was the first to speak up.

Watching Do-young, Ji-hwan looked at him with surprise.

“Really? Didn’t you criticize him earlier for how he interpreted Seung-do?”

“I was a bit flustered. Acting Seung-do like that… it was the first time I’d seen it during my time at Cheongseong.”

“But?”

“He said it himself. That he couldn’t accept any other version of Seung-do, so he had no choice. And… those words really resonated with me.”

Do-young recalled the Seung-do that Seon-woo had portrayed.

A Seung-do he had never seen before. But… it was more vividly alive than any other Seung-do he had ever witnessed.

Yes. Let’s be honest.

That was definitely acting that moved people’s hearts.

“I think it’ll be interesting.”

Do-young’s eyes sparkled.

“Acting together with this guy.”

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