I Acted Once, and Now They Call Me a Genius - Chapter 101

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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 101

He had known that a day like this would come eventually.

Unless he won, he would inevitably face defeat at some point.

And Seon-woo knew he wasn’t the caliber of person to take first place.

Rather, he should be grateful that he had made it this far with less than a year of experience.

‘…It’s okay.’

Step by step, step by step.

With each step he took toward the stage, Seon-woo let go of his lingering attachments and regrets.

Thanks to this, when he stepped onto the stage, his face didn’t look particularly dark.

If anything, he looked relieved.

Seeing this, Seong Jun-il’s eyes sparkled.

“Oh, you look less disappointed than I expected?”

“That’s right. I thought he’d be a bit more upset than this, but he seems surprisingly okay.”

Seon-woo answered with an awkward expression.

Seong Jun-il tilted his head.

“Did you expect to be eliminated today?”

“No, that’s not it. I thought I might be eliminated, but… I didn’t think I would be. It’s just…”

Seon-woo looked back at Hye-seong and Yeon-woo.

“Rather than me being eliminated… I couldn’t imagine those two being eliminated. Their acting was too good.”

“Your acting was good too, Seon-woo.”

Lee Mu-beom spoke up.

He continued in a quiet voice.

“It was acting that was fresh every time I watched it, surprising me each time. Kim Seon-woo was actually too difficult a role to entrust to a newcomer, yet you never once disappointed the audience. I think you should take pride in that.”

“Yes. I’ll do that. Thank you!”

“Your acting isn’t lacking, Seon-woo.”

Lee Mu-beom added with a serious expression.

“You’re simply still growing. So I hope you’ll view this moment not as a failure… but as part of the process toward success.”

These were the words Lee Mu-beom had always given to those who were eliminated.

Not to dwell too much on the results here.

He understood all too well what that meant. Just as Seon-woo was about to nod calmly and respond, Lee Mu-beom spoke again.

“People often ask me this. They wonder why I speak formally to the participants here when they’re all my juniors. There were two reasons. First, to maintain distance as a judge, and second… I felt it wasn’t a good habit to speak casually just because someone is a junior. Nevertheless, today I’d like to make a small exception.”

Lee Mu-beom looked at Seon-woo and smiled.

It was a warmer and more pleased smile than he had shown anyone else.

“You did well, Seon-woo.”

* * *

Filming had ended.

Who came in first place?

Well, wasn’t it obvious?

It was Hye-seong.

Thanks to this, Seon-woo found himself in the position of going home alongside Jin-wook.

What kind of evaluation did Hye-seong and Jin-wook receive during judging?

…Honestly, he couldn’t remember well. Though he felt sorry for both of them, the bitter taste of elimination was lingering in his mouth, and he didn’t have the capacity to pay attention to that.

‘It’s over.’

Being eliminated, defeated… well, that was okay.

But what he couldn’t quite adapt to was the fact that he would have to leave this place next week.

It didn’t feel real.

It had been Christmas when filming started, and now spring was approaching.

He had already spent three months filming 【I Am an Actor】.

The accommodation had started to feel like home… and now he had to leave this place.

He couldn’t help but feel regretful.

‘Will I feel like this every time a project ends from now on?’

Probably so.

Whether it’s a drama or a movie, they usually have filming periods of at least several months.

He might feel even deeper regret then than he does now.

What was interesting was that Seon-woo wasn’t the only one feeling this regret.

Ppoppo: ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ

Freshwater Snail: Nooooooooo

eyesonyou: Wow, I didn’t expect Seon-woo to leave here…

Gahyun: Wait, wasn’t she supposed to be the main character? ㅠㅠㅠㅠ

AnxiousPing: Wow, then Seonwoo is probably going to die in the next episode too…

Face-obsessed person: You’ve been through a lot, Seonwoo…

Jung Junho: This is literally the first time I’ve seen Grandpa Lee Mubeom speaking informally ㄷㄷㄷ

Cali: It seems like you really adore Sunwoo hahaha your eyes are dripping with honey

Daseulgi: I don’t know about cherishing things, but Seonwoo ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ

Seeing the comments from viewers who regretted his elimination, Seon-woo smiled slightly.

Whenever he saw reactions like theirs, he thought that being an actor was truly a blessed profession. Just by doing his job, he could receive so much support and love from so many people.

‘…That means I need to conduct myself properly too.’

Seon-woo made a firm resolution to himself.

There would be no controversy in his life.

No matter what happened, he would be known as a man of upright living.

“What are you staring at like that?”

A voice came from beside him.

It was Hye-seong. Seon-woo hastily shoved his phone away.

“Ahem, sorry. I was… just curious about the comments.”

“Hey now, bringing electronic waves to a sacred drinking session won’t do!”

Hye-seong spoke in a deliberately stern voice.

Seon-woo asked in a reluctant tone.

“I’m drinking non-alcoholic drinks, so is this really a drinking session for me?”

“Drinking is all about the mood! When good people gather together and toast, that’s a drinking session!”

“…You’re definitely a romantic.”

Seon-woo chuckled softly.

A total of eight people had gathered for tonight’s drinking session.

Min-hee, Jae-won, Hyeong-bin and others who had been eliminated in previous rounds… and for some reason, even Justin was there.

“Seon-woo hyung! Your acting keeps being so good, you know? That shit was legit!”

…It seemed like his Korean skills had somehow gotten worse while they weren’t looking, but that was probably because he was drunk.

And the same went for Hyeong-bin.

Hyeong-bin, whose face had turned red at some point, spoke in a slurred voice.

“Ugh, I’m so happy… having drinks with fellow actors, this was my dream… now I can die without regrets!”

“Stop it! You can’t die, hyung! We’re going to have many more hangouts like this!”

“…You’re all I have, Justin!”

“Bro!”

The two drunkards were now embracing each other.

Watching them, Min-hee muttered with a disgusted expression.

“…Good thing we haven’t had drinking sessions until now. We could have been seeing this sight every day, right?”

“Exactly.”

“But Seon-woo, couldn’t you just drink? You don’t get drunk anyway and you don’t get hangovers.”

Seon-woo was already famous at Cheongseong for being able to hold his liquor.

Seon-woo scratched his head with an embarrassed expression.

“That may be true, but… it just feels wrong somehow. For a rookie to start drinking already feels kind of wrong.”

“Didn’t the PD arrange this place specifically for us to drink today? He even gave us his card before leaving.”

“What about you, senior? Why aren’t you drinking? There’s no filming left anyway.”

Seon-woo naturally deflected the question.

And Min-hee answered calmly.

“If I drink, I feel like I’ll cry tonight.”

“…”

It was an answer that left him speechless.

Seeing Seon-woo’s expression, Min-hee waved her hands dismissively.

“Hey, don’t make that face. I won’t cry because I’m sad. Well, there is some sadness… but I’m more happy than anything.”

“Then why do you think you’ll cry?”

“Because it feels like a dream.”

Min-hee pulled her knees up and rested her chin on them.

“I hoped for a day like this to come… but at the same time, I thought it never would. I could hardly imagine the day when the public would all know me. But that day has come. Tens… hundreds of thousands of people watched my acting.”

“…”

“I’m happy. But I’m scared. Scared this dream might shatter.”

“It won’t shatter.”

Seon-woo spoke without a moment’s hesitation.

This wasn’t clumsy comfort. It was conviction filled with sincerity.

“This suits you better, senior. Shining suits you better.”

“…”

“You’re going to be a star, senior. So I hope you won’t worry too much.”

Min-hee was momentarily at a loss for words.

How could he say such outrageous things so naturally? She was the one feeling more embarrassed listening to it.

Min-hee hesitated.

This kind of talk wasn’t really her style, but if you receive something, you should know how to give back.

“…You too.”

“Pardon?”

“Shining suits you better too.”

Min-hee probably didn’t know how much those words meant to Seon-woo.

Shining. He who had always been dully lifeless could now hear such words. Acting had changed his life this much.

“Senior.”

“Yeah.”

“I hope we can keep shining in the future. This light, so it won’t go out… let’s do well. Let’s watch over it well. So we won’t wake up from the dream.”

Min-hee smiled.

Not waking up from a dream… it was something like a fairy tale that Peter Pan might say.

But she didn’t want to blame him for that.

If you couldn’t have such romance, why would you choose the profession of acting?

However…

“Seon-woo.”

“Yes.”

Min-hee smiled slyly.

“Stop sneakily mixing in casual speech from earlier.”

“…I’m sorry.”

This couldn’t just be overlooked.

Even if they were the same age, a senior was still a senior!

* * *

Let’s shine.

Let’s not wake up from this dream.

The conversation with Min-hee left a deeper impression on Seon-woo than she had expected.

In fact, despite the grandiose expression, what Seon-woo had to do for this was very simple.

Act properly.

‘Though that “properly” is actually the most difficult thing.’

When he watched 【I Am an Actor】 again, he often had such thoughts even about performances from just a few months or weeks ago.

The thought that he could show better acting now than he did back then.

He felt that way even watching performances from just a few months ago.

After half a year, a year, several years pass… how would he feel when watching his current acting?

‘Well, either way, I have to do my best.’

It was impossible to turn back time or bring future experience to the present.

Rather than indulging in such fantasies, it would be better to think about how to act going forward.

—Die properly.

Min-hee had left that advice at the end.

—Maybe there won’t be another time in our acting careers when we receive as much attention as now. Depending on how you die, the quality of opportunities given to you in the future will change. The scripts you’re offered, the agencies that approach you, all of it.

It was rational advice.

But if there was something Seon-woo realized this time, it was that he wasn’t particularly a rational person.

As Min-hee said, if he did good self-promotion this time, better opportunities might come faster. He might be able to build a more solid career.

But such things couldn’t make Seon-woo’s heart flutter.

If such realistic things could have excited him in the first place, he wouldn’t have turned his eyes to something like acting.

In the end, what moved Seon-woo’s heart was always only acting.

Better acting.

More beautiful acting that could move people’s hearts more, acting worthy of coloring someone, even if just for a moment.

‘I will die properly.’

So at least on this point, Seon-woo could nod his head.

He had to die properly. The death scene would be a scene that could explode all the narrative that Kim Seon-woo had built up. And in the first place, acting out one’s own death wasn’t such a common opportunity for actors. Some actors, despite building decades of filmography, had never died once in their works.

When such an opportunity came, he couldn’t prepare half-heartedly and be satisfied with just getting by.

He didn’t want to keep being satisfied with words like “excellent for an amateur” or “great for a rookie.”

He needed to polish his acting more.

How?

The answer Seon-woo immediately thought of… was a bit unexpected.

Hate comments.

Seon-woo searched for and read hate comments about himself.

Of course, he didn’t bother paying attention to completely unreasonable hate comments. What Seon-woo looked at carefully were hate comments that were somewhat based on facts.

Good Comment Fairy: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ But Kim Sunwoo’s hype is pretty funny though ㅋㅋㅋㅋ To me he just looked like a kid trying to act like a genius

└Anonymous: Agreed, he just interprets characters too weirdly. Because of that weirdness, his lack of basic skills isn’t noticeable, but actually his voice projection is lacking compared to most pros… his expressions aren’t that diverse either

└Nice Comment Fairy: Yeah yeah yeah, it’s totally just about the emotional connection, right?

Among them, the most noticeable was this comment.

The argument that while Seon-woo differentiated himself through his unique character construction, his actual acting ability was terrible.

Honestly, it didn’t feel great to read, but Seon-woo acknowledged what he should acknowledge.

Certainly, in terms of basic skills, he still felt lacking compared to other actors. He was just covering it with immersion ability borrowed from the power of color orbs.

‘Let’s practice more.’

If he was lacking, he just needed to practice more.

Tremendous changes wouldn’t happen overnight. But small changes, when accumulated, would eventually become tremendous.

Seon-woo already knew.

No matter how much he did his best acting now, the him of several years later would look at this performance and feel regret again.

That was unavoidable.

But if he did his best, at least he wouldn’t have regrets.

Those pathetic regrets of “I should have studied a little more, I should have practiced more.”

‘Besides… somehow I feel like Seon-woo’s death won’t be easy to act at all.’

Of course, death itself was a very difficult subject to act.

Since it was a concept that was hard to encounter in daily life.

But separate from that, Seon-woo still hadn’t forgotten what Ryu had said before.

He had asked Seon-woo to please not win. He said he would prepare the best death for Kim Seon-woo, so please lose.

It was a death that Ryu had shown such confidence about.

The difficulty level probably wouldn’t be ordinary either.

He needed to be prepared.

Enough to respond to whatever death Ryu had prepared.

Rather than feeling nervous, he felt excited.

Just how would Kim Seon-woo die?

How would he die that made Ryu talk to him like that?

He was able to find out the answer two days later.

Seon-woo received the script containing Kim Seon-woo’s death and immediately read through everything.

And,

‘…It wasn’t a lie.’

A smile spread across his entire face.

He couldn’t help it.

‘They really killed him off properly.’

It felt a bit wrong to say this, but…

Kim Seon-woo’s death was thrillingly entertaining.

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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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