I Acted Once, and Now They Call Me a Genius - Chapter 117

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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 117

After the audition, Seon-woo devoted himself every day to getting to know Yoon-seo better.

This might sound a bit strange, but… when lying in bed, he would sometimes ask Yoon-seo questions. From all sorts of trivial things to…

‘Why do you like people so much?’

Even somewhat deeper questions like that.

Of course, he didn’t actually hear Yoon-seo’s answers.

If he had heard that voice, that would have been a problem.

But somehow, he felt like he vaguely knew what kind of answer Yoon-seo would give.

Just.

Just that he likes them.

Just that he wants to save them.

That would probably be the right answer.

If there were reasons for liking people, then it wouldn’t truly be genuine anymore.

Only by liking without reason, only by wanting to save without reason, could Yoon-seo’s sincerity truly shine brighter.

“Ma’am, how long have you been feeling unwell?”

Seon-woo wanted to capture that in this performance.

Yoon-seo first appears while examining a patient who came to the emergency room at dawn complaining of stomach pain.

Here, Seon-woo had to show.

The kind heart that could smile warmly at patients even while being weighed down by the fatigue of the dawn shift.

“It’s been hurting for 4 hours… and you’ve been vomiting too. No diarrhea though?”

“Yes. D-doctor, there’s nothing seriously wrong with me, right?”

“Don’t worry. Could you wait here for just a moment?”

Yoon-seo leaves the patient and reports to the resident.

The resident’s name is In-doo.

“Senior. There’s a patient with abdominal pain. There’s tenderness but no rebound tenderness, and vital signs are currently stable.”

“If it seems like gastroenteritis, start with blood work and painkillers.”

The content after that is routine.

Yoon-seo prescribes according to In-doo’s instructions, and the patient finds stability for the time being.

But after a while,

“Doctor… it seems to hurt more than before…”

“…Wait a moment.”

When he checked the blood pressure again, the patient’s blood pressure had already dropped.

It meant there was internal bleeding in the abdominal cavity.

And from this point on is when Yoon-seo’s character truly reveals itself. In the sudden crisis situation, Yoon-seo begins to waver.

“Doctor… I can’t breathe well…”

“…O-oxygen. Give oxygen! Oxygen!”

“Pulse is over 120!”

And what Seon-woo had to show in this scene was clear.

He had to show how powerless Yoon-seo was in the face of a crisis situation, how fearful and fragile a person he was.

Also, how sincere he was toward his patients.

“P-pulse over 120 means blood pressure again… no, wait. I-IV fluids first… no no. Oxygen. Oxygen too…”

“Doctor!”

“O-oxygen… give oxygen. If it’s bleeding, we need a CT scan too… we need to do a CT.”

“Get it together! Doctor!”

The voice of the actor playing the nurse echoed in his ears.

Only then did Seon-woo realize. That he was immersing himself deeper into Yoon-seo than he thought. It felt as if the panic Yoon-seo was experiencing had consumed Seon-woo.

And the gazes of those watching such a Seon-woo became strange.

‘…Hmm, I thought he got a pretty good role for a newcomer, so this was why?’

‘An interesting guy has joined us.’

‘It’s a face I’ve never seen before…’

It was a moment where they couldn’t help but be deeply impressed, whether they knew Seon-woo or not.

Thanks to this, after Yoon-seo’s panic scene was somewhat finished, Seon-woo could tell that quite a few gazes were fixed on him.

The fortunate thing was that those gazes generally carried interest or goodwill.

However, what was a bit unexpected was…

‘…Why is this senior looking at me like that?’

Seong Do-won was staring at him intently.

In front of the bathroom, he had treated him like he didn’t exist and ignored him, but now he was staring at him so intently like that.

Seon-woo deliberately looked down at his script, pretending not to notice his gaze. He felt it would be a bit awkward if their eyes met for no reason.

‘What didn’t he like?’

He didn’t know.

Still, the fortunate thing was that the performance he showed during the script reading seemed to look pretty good to other people.

When the script reading ended, the seniors patted Seon-woo’s shoulder and said this:

“You did well.”

“Young people these days have good momentum!”

“This is your first work? Well, I’ll be.”

The reactions of the senior actors were generally like that.

The actors of his generation with relatively smaller age gaps rather smiled brightly and greeted him again, saying let’s do well together.

It seemed like he had properly fastened the first button.

However,

“Thank you for your hard work today!”

“…Yes.”

Seong Do-won, seemingly displeased about something, still responded to Seon-woo’s greeting by barely nodding his head.

…Was he like this with everyone, or just with Seon-woo?

Fortunately, he was able to find out after they left the venue.

“From what I heard from the other managers earlier, he’s originally not an easy personality.”

“…Is that so?”

“Yes. …Oh my, look at me. I shouldn’t be talking carelessly about other actors like this. Please forget it! No wait. Maybe it’s good for you to know? …Then just forget that I was the one who told you!”

“Don’t worry too much. I know you’re telling me this to help.”

Seon-woo said with a bitter smile.

After the script reading ended, Seon-woo was on his way to Cheongseong with Min-hee for the first time in a while. And Seul-gi had offered to drive them there.

Actually, he hadn’t intended to share such behind-the-scenes stories, but as soon as Seul-gi grabbed the steering wheel, she got excited and started spilling various tales.

Which actor among them had what kind of rumors going around.

The managers’ eyes were sparkling because they wanted to snatch up Seon-woo.

Someone was supposedly pushed by their agency….

And among those stories, the one Seon-woo was naturally most interested in was about Seong Do-won.

‘Not an easy personality.’

It certainly made sense for such words to be said.

Even in that brief time, there had been several uncomfortable moments, making him newly worried about how filming would go in the future.

“Don’t worry about it too much. He didn’t even return my greeting either.”

“…You too, senior?”

“Yeah. But we don’t greet people just to get greetings back. We’ll just do our greetings, do our acting, and that’s it.”

“Well, that’s true.”

Seon-woo nodded.

He did seem to be worrying too much about it. Since he was thinking this was his first time jumping into the professional world… he wanted to show a proper image, you could say.

“Relax a bit. You had too much tension in your body.”

It seemed Min-hee had noticed that too. Seon-woo smiled bitterly.

“Was it that obvious?”

“Yeah. Everyone probably saw it.”

“…That’s a bit embarrassing.”

“What’s embarrassing about it? Everyone would have seen it positively. It was good, very rookie-like.”

“But you’re a rookie too, senior.”

“…Right.”

Min-hee, who had been maturely comforting Seon-woo just moments ago, shrank back.

“…Should I have just acted more friendly like you?”

“Well, compared to usual, it seemed like you made a lot of effort….”

“Ah, whatever. I’ll just do better from now on!”

Min-hee sighed while ruffling her hair.

Seon-woo smiled quietly. Still, he was glad Min-hee was there. If he had been dealing with all that alone, it would have felt unstable somehow….

‘It’s better to take a beating together than alone.’

While thinking that, they had arrived at Cheongseong before he knew it.

Seon-woo bowed his head to Seul-gi and said,

“Thank you for driving us. Your driving skills were amazing too?”

“…Hehe, I can’t be a beginner driver forever. I’ve been training hard!”

What kind of training could that have been?

He was curious, but they had just stopped the car in an alley. Seon-woo got out of the car with his thanks.

And as soon as the door closed, despite the loud engine noise roaring once, the car didn’t budge.

…Did she step on the accelerator while in park?

As he was thinking that, the reverse lights flickered for a moment before the car disappeared again. It seemed like it really had been in park.

Min-hee coughed awkwardly.

“…Ahem. Still, she’s improving a lot.”

“It does seem that way… But please always wear your seatbelt, senior.”

“Of course.”

It was a hectic day in many ways.

And when they entered Cheongseong like that,

“Seon-woo! Min-hee! Long time no see!”

“…Eun-seok senior?”

Seon-woo felt his already saturated head becoming even more dizzy.

There was a face he hadn’t seen in a very long time.

Eun-seok.

The senior who had taught him the most when he first came to Cheongseong.

He had left Cheongseong for movie filming…

“Did you finish filming?”

“Yeah. We finished everything a few days ago, even had the wrap-up dinner.”

“Wow… You must have worked hard.”

“Hard work, what hard work.”

Eun-seok chuckled and shrugged his shoulders.

Then he looked at the two of them as if finding it remarkable.

“I heard you two are filming together?”

“Yes, it somehow turned out that way.”

“It’s amazing. I never thought there would be so many people from Cheongseong going on broadcasts.”

“…Well, there have always been people who go on broadcasts. It’s just that they couldn’t be active in Cheongseong. What are you going to do, senior?”

“I’m… starting filming for my next project soon.”

“Oh, already?”

Min-hee’s eyes widened.

Eun-seok scratched his head with an awkward expression.

“Yeah. It’s a bit embarrassing though.”

“What’s embarrassing about it? That’s great news.”

“It’s just… it feels like doing theater in Cheongseong got pushed back even further.”

“Oh come on, that’s… we’re no different.”

“Reality is reality though.”

Eun-seok let out a sigh.

Actually, even when he left Cheongseong, he thought it wouldn’t be that difficult to balance broadcast acting and theater troupe life.

Just because you get cast in one project doesn’t mean work keeps coming non-stop after that.

But… things changed while working on this project.

First, he got an agency, and that agency kept bringing him auditions. As a result, not only his next project but his entire filming schedule for this year got packed.

Min-hee’s jaw dropped when she heard the story.

“…Isn’t everything going really well for you?”

“More than I deserve, it seems to be going that way. That’s why I don’t think I’ll be able to be as active in Cheongseong as I thought… it feels a bit awkward.”

“Oh come on, we’re all in the same boat anyway.”

Min-hee shrugged her shoulders.

“It’s not like you have to do theater in Cheongseong right now. Just having a place you can always come back to, that alone feels good somehow. Like a hometown feeling?”

“What a thoughtful thing to say.”

“You scared me! Ah, Director! Make some noise when you walk around!”

“Hehe. If I had made noise, I wouldn’t have heard such sweet words.”

Ji-hwan was standing there watching them with a pleased expression, though no one knew when he had arrived.

“And hey, I told you not to worry about that stuff when you go film movies. If you start being considerate about that, then the younger ones will have to be considerate too when they film movies.”

“…Ahem. Th-thank you.”

Eun-seok bowed his head with an embarrassed expression.

Ji-hwan smiled warmly and looked around at everyone.

“Come on in for now. Everyone’s been waiting to hear your stories.”

“…I wouldn’t call them stories exactly.”

But when they entered the theater troupe and saw the sparkling eyes of the other troupe members, they couldn’t avoid telling stories.

Everyone looked curious about what had happened.

Of course, what they were most curious about was…

“Did you see Seong Do-won? What’s he like in person? Is he the same as on screen?”

Seong Do-won.

It was perhaps natural. He was the most talked-about person from [Red Zone]. As people who act, he was someone they couldn’t help but be curious about.

But Seon-woo couldn’t easily answer about Seong Do-won.

That’s because his first impression of Seong Do-won wasn’t particularly good. But if he told them that directly, it would mean badmouthing a senior…

“Yes. His acting was incredible.”

He could only answer like this.

Fortunately, besides Seong Do-won, there were other stories to tell.

For example,

“The PD personally told you not to help?”

“…I guess the actors might not look favorably on that?”

Like the story of getting scolded for helping the staff.

Everyone looked surprised, as if they hadn’t thought about it before. But Eun-seok nodded as if it was obvious.

“The PD gave you good advice. Being helpful is good, but… standing out too much can actually make it hard to get good feedback.”

“It is difficult.”

“Well, you have to handle it appropriately. You know the feeling.”

No, I don’t really know yet.

Seon-woo swallowed a sigh. Seeing Seon-woo like that, Ye-chan grinned.

“Anyway, it seems like you’re doing well, which is good. Cheongseong is also doing really well these days.”

“I heard that.”

Seon-woo nodded.

After 【I Am an Actor】 aired, if there was something that benefited the most, it was Cheongseong.

Audiences who saw actors from Cheongseong flying high in 【I Am an Actor】 now had the formula “Daehangno theater = Cheongseong” programmed into their heads.

Thanks to that, these days they don’t even need to do street promotions.

“Now if your projects do well too… more audiences will come. You guys are doing free promotion for us. So don’t feel bad about not being able to perform on stage. Got it?”

“…Thank you.”

“By the way, Do-young should be finishing filming soon too….”

Seon-woo’s eyes sparkled at Ji-hwan’s words.

Do-young. It had been a long time since he heard that name. Since he went to film with Director Yu Chan-woo, they had somehow lost contact, so he didn’t know any news.

“Have you heard anything?”

“Hmm. He sends greetings occasionally, but… it feels awkward to pry too much.”

“Right… Oh, but when Do-young’s project comes out, Cheongseong’s reputation will be incredible, won’t it?”

Eun-seok shook his head as if the thought alone was dizzying.

Ji-hwan nodded.

“It would be. But more than that… I’m so curious about how that guy will appear on screen.”

Ji-hwan smiled with sparkling eyes.

As if he was already excited just imagining that moment.

“Definitely… Korea will be amazed.”

Korea will be amazed.

It was a grandiose expression, but it didn’t seem excessive.

Even in Seon-woo’s opinion, Do-young was an actor worthy of that. While he had admired Seong Do-won’s acting this time as well… compared to the shock Do-young had given him, wouldn’t there still be some difference?

He was an actor who could amaze Korea and the world without it being strange.

The problem was when he could see that result.

‘I want to see it soon.’

He wanted to gauge it.

Just how much distance lay between Do-young and himself. Whether he could narrow that gap.

Whether he could someday become an actor with the same color as Do-young.

…Well, for now it would be quite a distant matter.

But one fortunate thing was that meeting Do-young seemed like it wouldn’t take as long as expected.

A few days after the gathering in Cheongseong, an article appeared.

—Director Yu Chan-woo’s new film protagonist is… an unknown newcomer?

And the film industry was turned upside down.

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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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