I Acted Once, and Now They Call Me a Genius - Chapter 132

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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 132

“Somehow we’re seniors and juniors again.”

“Again? Oh, right, there was [When I Was Four].”

[Until You Live].

It was Seon-woo’s first leading role and his first melodrama.

The story of Hee-jae, who constantly returned to the past through death to save Ye-bin.

Recalling that, Min-hee soon chuckled softly.

“Somehow you always seem to have unrequited love for me.”

“…That’s true, but it’s strangely hurting my pride.”

“It’s okay. You can take pride in it. Having unrequited love for this noona isn’t something just anyone can do.”

What noona when we’re the same age.

Seon-woo glared at Min-hee with drowsy eyes. Min-hee smiled mischievously.

“But it’s interesting. I didn’t expect you’d end up paired with Yoon-seo like that.”

“Me neither. I just thought we were enemies.”

There would be no word more appropriate than ‘incompatible’ to describe So-hee and Yoon-seo’s relationship.

So-hee supports Sang-a in how to run the Emergency Room, while Yoon-seo supports Lee Hyeok. And that difference of opinion continues to put them at odds.

—You can’t just send patients away? The patient will just freeze up when they come anyway. You won’t be able to save them anyway. Why do you always talk like you can save them?

This is what So-hee says to Yoon-seo.

—If you chase away all the patients, then who’s going to save those people? Are you even a doctor? Do you actually want to save patients?

This is what Yoon-seo says to So-hee.

Just from these lines, you could tell what kind of relationship they had.

In a way, you could say they were younger versions of Lee Hyeok and Sang-a. At least when it came to their attitude toward patients, they were spitting images of them.

Of course, as the work progresses, Yoon-seo and So-hee gradually begin to understand each other. Their methods are different, but their sincerity toward patients becomes visible.

However, originally their Emotional Line ended there. Acknowledging each other as colleagues or friends. Just that level.

But now Yoon-seo’s romantic feelings are added to this.

Of course, Yoon-seo didn’t see So-hee as a woman from the beginning.

The moment that changes Yoon-seo’s feelings toward her… was when So-hee, who he thought didn’t care about patients at all, shed tears after performing CPR on a cardiac arrest patient but ultimately failing to save them.

The moment he understands that her always cold and realistic demeanor wasn’t for her own protection but was truly her way of caring for patients, he can’t help but see her differently than before.

And that scene appears in episode 2, which they were about to film.

Throughout episode 2, they fight and clash, then after seeing So-hee’s tears, he’s shocked and finally opens his heart to her – Yoon-seo’s feelings needed to be expressed.

“I’m curious. How will your melodrama be?”

“You saw it when I played Hee-jae. How was it then?”

“Well, it was fine. But now you’re a completely different person from back then.”

A different person? Seon-woo tilted his head with a puzzled expression.

It hadn’t even been a year since he acted as Hee-jae. It was far too short a time to become a different person, but… in a way, Min-hee might be right.

Because Seon-woo had been constantly growing during that short time.

If Seon-woo had another chance to play Hee-jae, he was confident he could deliver acting so attractive it would be incomparable to back then.

At this point, it was fair to call him a different person.

Moreover, it wasn’t just Seon-woo who was different.

The role was also completely different from back then. Hee-jae’s love, which could face even death for the other person, and Yoon-seo’s love, which was just beginning to sprout, were vastly different.

Certainly Hee-jae’s love was more grand.

But Seon-woo didn’t think that made Yoon-seo’s feelings any less beautiful. Rather, there was a beauty that only this everyday level of romantic feelings could possess.

Seon-woo looked at the world colored by Yoon-seo’s emotions.

A yellow flower field was looking at Min-hee. Stealthily, moving slowly as if trying not to show it… but with thousands and tens of thousands of flowers all facing Min-hee, it couldn’t help but be obvious.

And it was the moment he thought that Min-hee, placed at the center of those flowers, was like the sun.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

Did she feel Seon-woo’s gaze?

Min-hee brushed her hair back with a shameless face.

“Be careful. If you look too long, you might actually fall for me.”

“Ah, senior…”

Please help me with my Immersion, just a little.

* * *

To express romantic feelings for So-hee, he first had to act out the confrontation with So-hee.

The reason for the confrontation was Sang-a’s appearance.

After Sang-a appears, winds of reform blow through Hanwool Hospital’s Emergency Room. Unlike Lee Hyeok’s method of somehow accepting and handling patients whether it worked or not, Sang-a rejected all calls once the Emergency Room was even slightly close to capacity.

The Emergency Room staff wondered ‘Is it okay to refuse like this?’ but secretly welcomed that atmosphere.

Because until then, everyone had been pushed to their limits under Lee Hyeok’s guidance.

It felt like finally having room to breathe.

Of course, that didn’t mean everyone supported Sang-a.

Yoon-seo argues that Lee Hyeok’s method is right. That doctors shouldn’t refuse patients, while So-hee criticizes that as nothing more than amateur doctor play. That if you’re greedy beyond your abilities, that burden gets passed on to the patients instead.

So she supports Sang-a.

In a way, this part might not need to be acted differently from what he had originally prepared. Since Yoon-seo starts feeling attraction to So-hee after seeing her tears. The romance hasn’t even started yet, so there might be no need to be conscious of it. That would be easier too.

However, Seon-woo had no intention of acting that easily.

‘Love might not have started yet.’

But Seon-woo focused on something else.

When Yoon-seo’s unrequited love wasn’t planned, he had tried to take this episode’s Emotional Line in the direction of coming to understand someone he couldn’t understand before.

But now with romance added, the outcome of the emotional line had changed.

Instead of understanding, he would feel his heart flutter.

When his heart starts fluttering at the sight of So-hee’s tears, what premise would be needed to maximize that flutter?

‘He has to dislike her.’

It couldn’t just be a level of not understanding.

He had to find her hateful and annoying. That way, Yoon-seo falling in love would look more dramatic.

But that alone wouldn’t be enough.

If he only disliked her… he wouldn’t feel his heart flutter just from seeing her human side.

It meant there had to be a subtle awareness of her as a woman, even if just slightly.

It wasn’t an easy task, actually.

Her words were not just incomprehensible but hateful and irritating, yet at the same time, there had to be some degree of awareness of her as a woman?

How on earth could he express that?

Seon-woo burst Yoon-seo’s color orb over and over, continuously adjusting his emotional line.

He pondered and pondered again.

How could Yoon-seo’s love shine even a little brighter?

How could that love touch the hearts of those watching?

And now.

“You can’t just send patients away? When patients come, you’ll just freeze up anyway. You won’t be able to save them anyway. Why do you talk as if you could definitely save them?”

In front of the camera, Min-hee crossed her arms and spoke with a cold expression.

In those eyes filled with antipathy, irritation, and even a hint of contempt, there was no trace of the usual Min-hee.

She was So-hee in this moment.

“If we chase away all the patients, then who will save those people?”

And Seon-woo was Yoon-seo.

As always, Yoon-seo’s yellow flower field spread across the hallway. The fully bloomed flowers had their leaves standing stiffly, like a cat arching its back and hissing.

Of course, the target of that hissing was So-hee.

“Are you even a doctor? Do you actually want to save patients?”

“Wanting to save them isn’t what matters. Whether you can save them is what matters.”

Meanwhile, ivory-colored branches extended from So-hee.

Branches stretching out aggressively as if trying to intimidate Yoon-seo’s flowers.

Seon-woo’s eyes wavered.

“…Without process, there’s no result.”

“Right, there wouldn’t be. But a shoddy process only leads to shoddy results. That way, only patients end up dying.”

It was clean acting.

The staff watching were unconsciously nodding their heads.

But what drew the most attention was something else.

Seo Ryeong looked into Seon-woo’s eyes with her mouth slightly open.

‘His eyes…’

They were moist. Why?

From frustration and injustice. And… from hurt feelings.

His eyes seemed to whisper something. Why do you say such things? You could say nicer things. You could think more kindly. You’re a doctor… that kind of hurt.

‘Now I understand why the writer suddenly added romance.’

Actually, this scene wasn’t even related to romance.

It was still just a scene showing how Yoon-seo and So-hee didn’t get along at all. Furthermore, it was just a scene showing what kind of confusion the emergency room staff were experiencing amid the confrontation between Lee Hyeok and Sang-a.

But when you looked into Seon-woo’s eyes… there was something that made you gasp.

Should it be called a wounded gaze?

‘If this was intentional…’

Seo Ryeong’s eyes sparkled.

‘He’s really clever.’

Yoon-seo’s emotional line didn’t contain anything like love yet.

But Seon-woo probably wanted to build that flow from now on. So that when he falls for So-hee later, it wouldn’t feel out of nowhere.

The wounded gaze was a very clear answer.

Getting hurt in your heart means you’ve accepted that person deeply into yourself.

It was visible. So-hee’s teeth sinking into Seon-woo’s heart.

How much it hurt was contained in Seon-woo’s trembling gaze.

Tight.

Seo Ryeong gripped her tumbler so hard her hand hurt. It was absurd. The romance hadn’t even started yet, but her heart was already aching.

Seo Ryeong looked back at Yu Eun-jeong with a slightly resentful gaze.

Seeing that look, Yu Eun-jeong chuckled as if she understood those feelings.

“What. Do you want to film a romance with Seon-woo now?”

“…Wasn’t I a candidate too?”

“You were a candidate. But no matter how I thought about it, Yoon-seo developing feelings for a woman who’s taken didn’t quite fit his character.”

“That’s true, but…”

Seo Ryeong made a sad face and looked at Min-hee with envious eyes.

“Acting while receiving that kind of gaze must feel really good.”

“…Won’t our Do-won’s gaze work?”

“No way, no way. That’s too bleak! Both the character and the actor.”

“That’s true.”

It wasn’t a matter of acting ability.

You could call it texture. The very material of the person was different.

But even considering that, it was surprising.

Yu Eun-jeong hadn’t had high expectations for this scene either.

Honestly, she had been conflicted. Though there wasn’t any full-fledged romance yet, romantic feelings for So-hee were scheduled to begin soon, so she had wanted to ask him not to make it feel too much like mere workplace colleagues even while getting angry at So-hee.

But the reason she didn’t was because the difficulty level was too high.

Even she, as the writer, couldn’t conjure up a clear image of how to express such emotions.

But to think he would express it like this with just one look in his eyes.

…At the very least, that gaze was surpassing her imagination.

‘I need to step up my game too.’

While thrilling once again at the bomb exploding in her mind, Yu Eun-jeong watched Seon-woo’s acting without blinking even once.

Persistently, as if she couldn’t afford to miss that gaze even for a brief moment.

Depending on how much she understood that gaze, the texture of Yoon-seo’s love that she would be able to write going forward would be completely different.

At the same time, she became newly curious.

This was Seon-woo already showing such romantic eyes.

If he were to truly fall in love… what kind of gaze would he have?

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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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