I Acted Once, and Now They Call Me a Genius - Chapter 131

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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 131

Explosion.

When Yu Eun-jeong saw Seon-woo’s eyes, it felt like a bomb had gone off in her head. The constant bursts of inspiration were enough to make her head throb.

‘Kim Seon-woo really… I need to keep an eye on him.’

What determines an actor’s worth?

Some would say popularity. Others would say looks, and some would answer acting ability.

But Yu Eun-jeong’s thoughts were a bit different.

‘Soul.’

In a way, this might not be a story exclusive to actors.

Everyone has a soul. Yu Eun-jeong believed that cultivating one’s soul was the very reason people were born. A soul refined through trials and love, effort and sadness would naturally emit an incomparably beautiful light.

And the eyes were the window through which one could peer into that soul.

At this point, one might become curious.

Just how did Seon-woo’s soul appear to her that she received such strong inspiration, enough to say bombs were exploding in her head?

‘…It was stimulating.’

In fact, looking at the situation itself, there was nothing stimulating about the scene.

It was just a scene where Yoon-seo tells the angry Lee Hyeok that she supports him, and Lee Hyeok’s anger subsides a little.

It was merely a passing scene, hardly worth remembering.

But why did everyone have no choice but to marvel when they saw Seon-woo’s eyes in that moment? What exactly was contained in those eyes?

‘Well, it was sincerity, of course.’

Yu Eun-jeong’s eyes sparkled again as she recalled that moment.

Seon-woo’s eyes contained sincerity.

A sincerity that made one unable to help but listen more carefully to every word he spoke.

It meant that Seon-woo possessed a pure soul.

Someone might ask if it wasn’t Yoon-seo’s soul rather than Seon-woo’s. But being able to express that soul through acting meant that such purity dwelled within Seon-woo as well.

…Having encountered such a soul, inspiration naturally had to spring forth.

After Seon-woo’s filming ended, dozens and hundreds of images appeared and disappeared in Yu Eun-jeong’s mind.

How could she use that soul to create the most beautiful story, the most beautiful scene… Even when she didn’t want to think about it, the inspiration just wouldn’t stop flowing.

And when the biggest explosion occurred in her mind, Yu Eun-jeong couldn’t hold back and went to find Han Jeong-hun.

—PD, let’s change our script a bit?

—…Writer, you’re doing this because of Seon-woo, aren’t you?

Han Jeong-hun sighed with an expression that said he saw this coming.

—What exactly do you want to do?

—Romance.

And Yu Eun-jeong answered confidently.

—We need to add romance to Yoon-seo.

She couldn’t help it.

She had already pictured in her mind how beautiful it would be when romance was added to Seon-woo’s eyes.

If filming had already finished, it would be one thing. But at this stage when it was just beginning… it wasn’t too late yet.

She could still give viewers a very big gift.

Fortunately, Han Jeong-hun didn’t oppose it.

Even though revising the script at this point would certainly not be as easy as it sounded, he simply asked this:

—Is the picture pretty?

—Yes.

—Alright. I’ll trust you.

And now.

As soon as Yu Eun-jeong got Han Jeong-hun’s agreement, she immediately came to find Seon-woo.

Seon-woo naturally had a quite confused expression.

“…Ro, romance?”

It was an out-of-the-blue statement.

Seon-woo thought for a moment, then opened his mouth as if he understood.

“Ah, are you talking about the next project you mentioned before?”

“No. This project.”

“…Yoon-seo?”

Seon-woo’s eyes widened.

He had already read through the entire script for [Red Zone]. And within it, Yoon-seo was a character with no connection to romance whatsoever.

But suddenly romance?

“After seeing your eyes earlier, I was convinced. Ah, it would be too wasteful to use this person only like this. Those eyes need to be properly utilized.”

“I’m really grateful for your words, but… would it be possible? Suddenly adding a love line doesn’t seem like it would be easy.”

“It won’t be as difficult as you think. There are ways to add a love line without affecting the plot development. It might be a bit difficult for you, Seon-woo, having to suddenly act an emotional line that wasn’t planned… But doesn’t it seem like it would be fun?”

“…”

Seon-woo was momentarily speechless.

Fun? Of course it seemed like it would be fun. Having one more emotional line to handle meant that the range of pictures he could draw had become more diverse.

From Seon-woo’s perspective, it was something to be grateful for.

It was quite amazing, really.

The reason Seon-woo had acted that way in today’s scene was to follow Do-won’s advice to ‘act proactively’… He never expected such a reward to come from it.

“I’m good with it.”

Seon-woo’s eyes deepened. An expression of renewed determination.

Yu Eun-jeong stared blankly at his face for a moment, then nodded.

“Yeah. I think my intuition was right. Seon-woo, your eyes… they’re really beautiful.”

“…Oh, thank you.”

I don’t know how to react to this.

Just saying thanks feels somewhat embarrassing.

Seon-woo changed the subject.

“But if you’re adding romance… who would I be paired with?”

“That’s a good question.”

Yu Eun-jeong shrugged her shoulders.

“I don’t know about that yet. I haven’t had time to think that far ahead.”

That made sense.

It hadn’t been long since Seon-woo filmed his scene. Rather, deciding to insert romantic elements for Yoon-seo in that short time was already impressive.

Yu Eun-jeong looked at Seon-woo with sparkling eyes.

“Do you have anyone in mind that you’d prefer?”

“No, not really…”

They probably couldn’t introduce a new character, so it would have to be someone from the existing cast… but there weren’t that many candidates that came to mind.

Seo Ryeong, Ye-ji, or maybe Min-hee… but surely not Seo Ryeong. After all, Seo Ryeong already had a love line with Lee Hyeok in the story.

‘If I awkwardly interfere, it might actually ruin the work.’

That left very few real candidates… just as he was thinking this.

“Seon-woo.”

“Yes?”

“Have you ever been in love?”

“…No.”

“You seemed to hesitate for a moment?”

“I was a bit embarrassed about never having been in love at my age.”

“Hmm.”

Yu Eun-jeong looked at Seon-woo with interest.

“What do you think about love, Seon-woo?”

“…Well, I guess it’s unrealistic?”

“Why?”

“It’s just like that, isn’t it? When people talk about love, they naturally want it to last forever… and they want something perfect from their partner, but all these feelings are actually unrealistic.”

“Seon-woo, you’re a classicist.”

“A… classicist?”

This is the first time I’m hearing this.

What part of that was so classical? As I pondered this internally, Yu Eun-jeong slowly explained her reasoning.

“Actually, people these days don’t have such grand fantasies about love. It’s become somewhat more dry compared to the past? But the fact that eternity and perfection come to mind when talking about love, yes, that’s really good.”

“What is?”

“Your love will be very beautiful, Seon-woo.”

Yu Eun-jeong snapped her fingers and smiled.

“And this isn’t just about acting. Even in reality, I get the feeling that Seon-woo will someday have a very beautiful love. You’ll have a truly beautiful love with a very good person someday.”

“Haha… thank you.”

“Well, for now we need to prepare Yoon-seo’s love as beautifully as possible.”

Yu Eun-jeong took out her notebook and muttered while taking notes.

“Anyway… good. Yes, I need to go. You won’t have to wait long. My head is going boom boom boom right now. Bombs keep exploding. I’m going crazy. I’ll make the romance really beautiful and bring it to you, so you have to cook it well, okay? Got it?”

“Ah, yes. Thank you!”

Yu Eun-jeong turned around and walked away quickly before Seon-woo could even finish his greeting.

She looked like she didn’t want to waste even a moment.

That meant the inspiration Seon-woo gave her was that thrilling.

Seon-woo watched her retreating figure and let out a quiet laugh.

It felt like a storm had swept through. But it was a storm that came so suddenly without any warning signs, making his head spin even more.

‘I’ll have a beautiful love…’

Well, honestly, this wasn’t much of a concern for Seon-woo right now.

There was only one thing Seon-woo was worried about now.

Romance.

…How do you act that out again?

* * *

Romance is being added to Yoon-seo.

Writer Yu Eun-jeong saw Seon-woo’s acting and immediately got fired up, saying she would revise the script.

Any rumor spreads quickly on a film set.

Thanks to this, less than a day after Yu Eun-jeong proposed romance to Seon-woo, everyone knew about Seon-woo’s upcoming romantic acting.

The reactions were largely divided into two categories.

1. They’re changing the script now?

2. Seon-woo in a romance? …That might be worth watching.

Thankfully, there were more reactions of type 2.

Since everyone basically had goodwill toward Seon-woo, they trusted that no matter how the script changed, Seon-woo would handle the acting well.

However,

“Ugh, but I wonder who the other person will be?”

“…I personally hope it’s Sang-a.”

“With Seo Ryeong sunbae?”

At Ye-ji’s words, Na-sae’s eyes widened in surprise.

Ye-ji nodded her head. As if just imagining it was thrilling, her earlobes were flushed red.

“Think about it. Seon-woo saying to Seo Ryeong sunbae, ‘Is it wrong for me to like you, Professor?’ Doesn’t that already make your heart flutter?”

“…Of course it doesn’t make my heart flutter.”

Na-sae answered with a displeased expression.

And Yun-seob, who had been listening, also shook his head.

“Even so, being paired with Sang-a is a bit much. She’s already in a relationship with Lee Hyeok anyway. Getting in between that would be a bit…”

“Well, that is a problem.”

“Then what’s left is, unless a completely new face appears, it has to be someone from here…”

Na-sae slowly looked around at Min-hee and Ye-ji.

“Wouldn’t it be one of you two?”

“…Hmm. But Min-hee, no wait, wasn’t she always bickering with So-hee?”

“Well, you bicker and then grow attached.”

“I really don’t know…”

Who would Seon-woo end up starting a love line with?

The actors had all become viewers, beginning to wonder about the outcome.

When the revised script came out, there was a reason why all the actors rushed over as if they had been waiting and immediately snatched up the script.

They were so curious about who Seon-woo would fall in love with and how… how thrillingly Yu Eun-jeong would portray Seon-woo’s romance.

Seon-woo himself went without saying.

‘Why am I so nervous about this?’

Seon-woo slowly read through the script.

Yoon-seo’s romance. Yoon-seo’s love. He didn’t know yet who he’d be paired with or how, but he already felt like he knew one thing.

This was Yoon-seo who loved even his patients that way.

If it was such a Yoon-seo… his romantic feelings would surely be dazzlingly beautiful and lovely too.

‘He’s an enviable person.’

Yoon-seo himself might not agree if he heard this. Yoon-seo thought of himself as nothing particularly special.

But the world that Yoon-seo saw was so beautiful it would be hard to trade even for billions. After all, the very reason Seon-woo took on this project was because of Yoon-seo.

Such a person’s love.

Seon-woo read through the script with a reverent heart.

And soon he nodded his head.

Yu Eun-jeong had been confident.

That she could insert just the love line without affecting the plot development. He had wondered how that could be possible… but Yu Eun-jeong had accomplished this beautifully by simply changing the way she directed the relationships a little.

Where there originally would have been a scene of just sighing after seeing someone collapsed asleep during night duty, she added slightly more complex expressions or faint smiles.

‘She’s really amazing.’

Seon-woo was newly impressed.

Actually, the changes in the stage directions weren’t that significant, but those small details accumulated to completely change Yoon-seo’s emotional line.

From camaraderie to romantic feelings.

But one more interesting thing was that the stage directions from the other person’s perspective hadn’t changed much. Throughout the work, the other person treated Yoon-seo with almost the same attitude as before.

The other person had no feelings, but Yoon-seo had developed them.

It meant unrequited love.

Seon-woo burst Yoon-seo’s color orb.

And he stared blankly at the world covered in Yoon-seo’s color. A garden full of blooming yellow flowers.

But if there was something different from before… it was that all those flowers were looking at one person, like sunflowers facing the sun.

That person was now standing in front of Seon-woo, looking down at him.

“Congratulations.”

“…Congratulations for what?”

She, Min-hee, lifted the corners of her mouth in a sly smile.

“For earning the right to have a one-sided crush on me.”

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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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