I Acted Once, and Now They Call Me a Genius - Chapter 126

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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 126

Min-hee: Exclusive) Kim Seon-woo just got directed to do ‘cute scared acting’

Ye-chan: ?????

As soon as Seon-woo was instructed to do cute acting, Min-hee quickly spread this news to the group chat.

She couldn’t keep this to herself, could she?

But not long after, Min-hee found herself wearing the same stunned expression.

“Min-hee, please do this scene with as cute a feeling as possible too.”

“…Yes, yes! I understand!”

It felt like her heart had dropped.

Cute? Who? Us?

‘Can we even do something like this?’

It’s not that Seon-woo doesn’t have cute aspects.

His face is delicately handsome, after all. Honestly, there are many fans who find him cute even without him doing anything special.

But they couldn’t just rely on that and stay still.

Han Jeong-hun had specifically given the instruction to ‘act with a cute feeling.’

Something had to be different from usual.

“…Senior. How should I be scared if I want to be scared cutely?”

“Well, that’s not really my area of expertise either.”

Min-hee was also someone far from things like acting cute or being charming.

…Well, in this scene she wouldn’t need to go as far as being charming, but either way, her understanding of ‘cuteness’ itself was lacking.

“Really… I never imagined a situation would come where I’d have to do this kind of acting.”

“Well, it’s not acting you commonly get to do… but depending on the character, it’s also acting you have to do constantly.”

Just look at Ye-chan – he often took on these kinds of cute acting roles.

However, Min-hee also couldn’t have imagined Seon-woo taking on this kind of role. All of Seon-woo’s roles so far had serious aspects. Just like his current role too.

But a cute feeling…

“Can you be cute?”

At those words, Seon-woo’s expression became dejected.

And just as the thought ‘Oh, that does seem kind of cute’ popped into Min-hee’s head, Yun Bin, who had been hesitantly watching them from the side, spoke up.

“Um, um… Should I help you out a bit?”

“…With cute acting?”

“Well, that’s kind of my area of expertise, from my perspective…”

Perhaps embarrassed about calling cuteness her area of expertise, Yun Bin touched her ear and lowered her head.

“I can roughly see how to look cute.”

“Oh… You definitely would have know-how, senior.”

Min-hee, who had been watching from the side, nodded.

Yun Bin, having been an idol, would definitely be different. If you’re an idol, don’t you need to know how to technically execute that thing called cuteness?

Yun Bin blushed and waved her hands.

“I wouldn’t call it know-how… It’s just that among our members, there’s someone who’s particularly good at that kind of thing. Seo-jun, do you know him by any chance…”

“Ah, yes! I know him!”

“That friend always talks about something called ‘cuteness theory’…”

Yun Bin held up two fingers as she spoke.

“There are roughly two types of cuteness. First is intentional cuteness. And second is unintentional cuteness. What you seniors need to show now is the latter…”

“…How do we do that?”

Min-hee’s eyes sparkled at the unexpectedly professional explanation.

Yun Bin smiled awkwardly.

“Usually people… find things cute when they’re clumsy.”

“When they’re clumsy?”

Seon-woo asked back.

He couldn’t quite understand what correlation there was between being clumsy and cuteness. Yun Bin nodded as if she expected this.

“Young children are cute no matter what they do, right? According to Seo-jun, that’s because they’re clumsy. Walking is cuter when they waddle, being angry is cuter when they clumsily pretend to be angry… even speaking awkwardly is cute.”

“…So we need to be clumsy.”

Seon-woo and Min-hee nodded and looked at each other.

Then, as if they had made a promise, they both turned to look at Yun Bin at the same time.

“”How do we do that?””

“Well, that’s…”

Yun Bin smiled awkwardly.

And hesitantly opened her mouth.

“This is a bit embarrassing to say with my own mouth… please don’t laugh. If you promise, I’ll tell you.”

“Ah, of course. I promise.”

“Well… I’m kind of the cute type among our members.”

“…Pfft.”

“Hey, you said you wouldn’t laugh, noona!”

“Sor, sorry… hehe…”

Watching Min-hee’s face turn bright red as she stifled her laughter, Yun Bin looked tearful. Seon-woo deliberately coughed and pressed down his twitching lips.

“Ahem… You are definitely cute, senior.”

“Even hyung…”

Yun Bin hung her head low.

And with a ‘whatever, I don’t care anymore’ attitude, she opened her mouth.

“Anyway, what that friend told me was that whenever I try to act resolute… I apparently become cuter instead.”

“…You mean you become cute whenever you act serious.”

“Yes. I think that’s what cuteness really is. When someone thinks they’re being dignified and mature, that’s actually when they become cute in a charming way…”

Yun Bin, who had been earnestly continuing her explanation, soon lowered her head with an embarrassed expression. It wasn’t easy to talk so enthusiastically about cuteness in front of Seon-woo and Min-hee like this.

‘But I have to repay my debts!’

Yun Bin clenched her fist tightly.

She had received too much help from Seon-woo. Although she hadn’t directly received help from Min-hee, she too had offered words of comfort when he was being heavily criticized.

Either way, she had to repay those feelings.

“So, I think it would be better for you two… rather than trying to be cute, to act like you’re awkwardly trying not to be nervous.”

“…That definitely makes sense.”

Seon-woo nodded his head.

While wondering if this was really something to think about so seriously… he simultaneously had this thought.

‘This is also acting, after all.’

Though he was a bit flustered at first, as he thought about portraying cuteness, he gradually came to that realization.

Acting wasn’t just about handling emotions, and maybe he hadn’t been paying enough attention to other elements…

What Han Jeong-hun had instructed was simple ‘cute acting’, but Seon-woo gradually grasped its essence.

Cuteness, after all, isn’t something you express yourself. It’s not something you can feel from yourself. It’s a concept that only others can perceive.

In other words, to act cute… it meant he had to more actively consider how his acting would appear in the eyes of the public.

“…In some ways, this seems more like theater acting than broadcast acting.”

“Theater acting?”

Min-hee tilted her head.

Seon-woo continued speaking calmly.

“When acting at Cheongseong, breathing with the audience was very important too. I was always conscious in real-time of ‘if I act like this with this kind of breathing, this reaction will come back’… but when doing broadcast acting, I seem to have paid less attention to that.”

“Ah.”

Min-hee immediately understood what Seon-woo meant.

“To act cute, we need to be more conscious of the audience watching us?”

“Yes. That’s right.”

“That’s definitely true. It would probably be easier if we acted more theatrically. Then the question is how to show awkward behavior…”

“Professor Kwon I-hyeok is a very frightening figure from our perspective, so if such a person is having a big angry fight… we’d avoid eye contact for fear of getting caught in the crossfire, right?”

“Right. We’d try to act like we’re not even aware, randomly shuffling through charts or something… no wait, if we’re handling charts, it might feel too safe and not convey the anxious feeling.”

“Since we need to bring out the anxious feeling, it might work if we fidget with the chart, picking it up and putting it down.”

“Oh, that’s good?”

Min-hee and Seon-woo put their heads together and came up with all sorts of ideas.

For thinking about expressing cuteness, their faces were quite serious, which might have been a bit funny, but Yun Bin’s eyes sparkled as she watched the two.

‘They’re both amazing.’

Yun Bin didn’t find either of them ridiculous at all.

…As an idol, it was natural that she couldn’t find this ridiculous.

How to be more loved, how to be more adorable – that was always their task.

Well, what Seon-woo and Min-hee were pondering now was a bit different from an idol’s concerns… but anyway, she could roughly understand how they felt.

Perhaps that’s why she wasn’t particularly worried.

When it came to acting, she wasn’t in a position to worry about them, and moreover.

‘I just don’t worry about these two.’

It felt like no matter what situation they were thrown into, they would somehow manage.

It was an aspect often seen in idols from survival programs. Perhaps because they had survived in a place that constantly demanded challenges. A feeling that they were somehow more solid than others.

* * *

‘It feels like there might be some unexpected gains…’

Until he first heard the instruction to act cute, honestly Seon-woo had sighed inwardly.

It had just felt like an overwhelming assignment.

But the more he delved into cuteness, the more he felt it.

If he could properly master this sense of being conscious of the public’s gaze… his acting might be able to develop one step further.

Furthermore,

‘My sense of adding color might improve.’

Thinking about it, when he was acting at Cheongseong, Seon-woo’s color seemed to move with more vitality.

Acting live while breathing with the audience, there was no way it could lack vitality. That was probably the power that theater acting possessed.

Of course, he couldn’t do theater acting in front of cameras.

But wouldn’t it be possible to bring just the advantages that theater acting had?

‘…Well, first I need to act properly right now.’

Film set.

Seon-woo adjusted his clothes with a slightly nervous expression.

It wasn’t just because he had to act cute that he was nervous.

The current scene involved almost a dozen actors. Not only Min-hee, Noh Chang-seob, Seong Do-won and various other actors… but this time Chae Seo-ryeong was joining them too.

‘This is my first time acting with Senior Chae Seo-ryeong.’

Well, all Seon-woo had to do here was show a nervous reaction from the side… but perhaps that’s why he felt even more nervous.

He couldn’t let that simple role be done improperly and disrupt the filming.

“Seon-woo!”

And just then Chae Seo-ryeong appeared and grinned. She gulped down her iced tea and spoke.

“This is our first shoot together, right? How is it. Are you ready?”

“Yes. It’s not really a major role in this scene either…”

“For someone saying that, you look pretty nervous?”

“…Honestly, I am a bit nervous.”

At Seon-woo’s honest answer, Chae Seo-ryeong grinned.

“Don’t be scared. When you’re scared, even things that should work out don’t.”

Advice that seemed to come from experience.

Seon-woo bowed his head deeply.

“Yes, thank you.”

“Ah, but I’m actually getting nervous instead. I can’t embarrass myself in front of our youngest ones. You won’t tease me for bad acting, right?”

“There’s no way you’d be bad.”

“Ugh, that makes me feel even more pressure!”

Chae Seo-ryeong made a tearful face.

Chae Seo-ryeong was already someone who would constantly whine about acting. Something about how she was too ordinary in this place full of monsters.

Honestly, he couldn’t really relate to that.

Seon-woo had grown up watching romantic comedies starring Chae Seo-ryeong since he was young. Among them were many beautiful works that Seon-woo would call masterpieces of his life.

And naturally, Chae Seo-ryeong in those works… seemed to completely become that character and come alive.

‘…I’m curious.’

What would Chae Seo-ryeong be like to watch in person?

What kind of actor would she be who paints This World?

He desperately wanted to see her color, her painting.

He didn’t need to wait long.

“Alright, everyone to your positions! Standby… Action!”

Before he knew it, Han Jeong-hun’s call had dropped.

Seon-woo flipped through charts with a tired expression at his designated position. And shortly after, the nurse sitting at the station picked up the phone.

“Yes? A multiple trauma patient? Our bed situation right now is…”

A tone that seemed about to refuse.

And at that moment, Seong Do-won, who was standing beside her, snatched the phone away.

“Yes, what are the patient’s symptoms? No mental status and… unable to breathe spontaneously, yes. Please come to our hospital. We’ll handle the treatment.”

And at that moment, Seon-woo felt a strange emotion.

The flood of rough colors extending from Seong Do-won, so wild they seemed violent… felt strangely reassuring, he supposed.

Even though he knew this was acting, he wanted to rely on that rough kindness.

But Seon-woo couldn’t feel that mood for long.

Click, click.

Chae Seo-ryeong in dress shoes approached them. And that was the moment. Even though he wasn’t trying to act, Seon-woo suddenly felt his whole body get goosebumps.

With each step she took, Seong Do-won’s colors spread on the ground were being cut away.

As if a sharp scalpel had been thrust in, they were helplessly snipped away.

And it wasn’t just Seong Do-won’s colors being cut away.

The colors that Seon-woo, Min-hee, and everyone else watching her had painted in their own ways were being severed.

It was a familiar scene.

This was the scene he had witnessed when Lee Mu-beom appeared in [One Room].

An overwhelming Stage Presence that completely cut off others’ emotions.

“No, I don’t think our hospital can accommodate them.”

“…What are you doing right now?”

The moment Chae Seo-ryeong approached with such Stage Presence and snatched Seong Do-won’s phone, Seon-woo couldn’t help but tremble even though he hadn’t intended to.

It was a tremendous scene. Seong Do-won endlessly pouring out deep red fabric from his entire body like a waterfall… and Chae Seo-ryeong cutting away all that fabric as if it were infinitely worthless.

An incredible scene that could be seen nowhere else in the world was captivating Seon-woo’s gaze. Even when he tried to act composed, his body trembled on its own… it was such a thrilling yet overwhelming scene.

He was newly dumbfounded.

Seong Do-won was one thing, but Chae Seo-ryeong kept saying acting was difficult, that she relied on her image, and such things, so he had even thought maybe her acting was lacking more than expected…

“Hello, honey?”

It seemed he had been completely fooled.

…This person is really a monster, isn’t she?

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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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