I Acted Once, and Now They Call Me a Genius - Chapter 158

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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 158

In fact, Park Du-ho also knew that taking Seon-woo would be quite competitive.

There was no other actor at Seon-woo’s current position showing such a clear upward trajectory as Seon-woo.

If he had to pick someone, it would be Do-young.

But that wasn’t Park Du-ho’s current interest anyway. Of course, it would be icing on the cake if he could bring him over too…

‘Right now, my dream is you, Seon-woo.’

Park Du-ho was someone who wasn’t good at being distracted by various things.

And aside from that, Park Du-ho personally didn’t think Seon-woo was inferior to Do-young.

Does being good at acting make you a better actor?

No. In the end, what’s most important is what kind of mark you leave on the viewers’ hearts.

Seon-woo had shown this by playing Yoon-seo.

That his acting could be comforting.

Seon-woo’s acting was clean.

That is, it had the kind of purity that allowed people who had spent exhausting days to momentarily forget everything and smile comfortably when they came home and faced it.

There are many people who act well.

But how many people can do such clean acting?

A treasure of an actor.

That was Park Du-ho’s honest feeling about Seon-woo.

And because of that,

‘1 billion… there’s nothing I can do about that.’

At this moment, his internal conflict could only deepen.

Honestly, he thought 1 billion was quite a good deal for Seon-woo. Not even as an advance, but 1 billion given just for signing a contract.

Could Wilde give Seon-woo something worth more than that 1 billion?

It was while he was having such concerns that Seon-woo approached their table.

“Hello. You came again today.”

“Ah, Mr. Seon-woo.”

Oh Myeong-ho jumped up and grabbed Seon-woo’s hand.

With a confident smile on his face, his gaze toward Seon-woo had become quite more heated than last time.

“Do you know that your buzz ranking has gone up quite a lot this time?”

“Buzz ranking?”

Seon-woo slowly blinked his eyes.

Apart from the ranking going up, he seemed to not know much about the buzz ranking itself.

Come to think of it, he said he originally only studied. Oh Myeong-ho explained in a gentle voice.

“It’s a ranking given by media companies or platforms. They rank programs, movies, or celebrities separately… Right now, Mr. Seon-woo has risen to 17th place in the person buzz ranking. You were in the 30s just until last week.”

“…17th place?”

“Ah, by the way, this is very high. Even if it’s temporary, it means people are talking a lot about Kim Seon-woo. Oh, by the way, 1st place right now is Cha Do-young. You’re from the same theater troupe, right?”

“Ah…”

“And in Min-hee’s case, she’s 18th. She entered the rankings right alongside you, Mr. Seon-woo.”

Seon-woo nodded.

Min-hee and Seon-woo inevitably had to move almost as a set right now. They were doing almost every scene together in [Red Zone]. It was natural in a way that their rankings were side by side.

But he didn’t know his buzz would be as high as 17th place. He had never particularly felt such recognition…

‘…Come to think of it, there have been more photo requests when I go around lately.’

He just thought it was [Red Zone]’s buzz, but did that lead to his own buzz?

Anyway, it was surprising.

Wasn’t it that among fifty million citizens, he was currently the seventeenth most talked about?

Kim Ji-hun subtly interjected.

“But the most important thing about this kind of popularity is ultimately sustainability. When people’s attention is focused, whether you become a flash-in-the-pan star or not depends on how you capture that attention. And we at KS pride ourselves on being more skilled at handling such attention than anyone else here.”

“That would be natural.”

And looking at Kim Ji-hun, Oh Myeong-ho spoke in a cynical voice.

“I also acknowledge KS’s ability to manage their artists. They seemed to read public needs the best. But actors are different from idols. There are limits to the practical benefits you can gain by inducing public reactions well. In the end, you have to be most faithful to the essence, to the work.”

“I agree. Our KS naturally has many shortcomings in movie expertise compared to LK. But we have the capital to overcome that.”

Kim Ji-hun winked at Seon-woo.

“With that capital and Mr. Seon-woo’s talent, I’m sure attractive results will emerge?”

“…Mr. Seon-woo, as you know, this industry is more closed off than you think.”

Did he think Kim Ji-hun’s words made sense?

Oh Myeong-ho turned to look at Seon-woo with a hardened face. Compared to just before, he seemed a bit more urgent.

“And it’s more rigid than you think. If the performance is bad once or twice, they just decide that’s probably the actor’s limit. At Mr. Seon-woo’s stage, even one or two mistakes won’t be tolerated.”

“It sounds like you’re saying we’ll make mistakes?”

“I’m sorry. I’d like to say no, but it seems quite likely. You haven’t even properly failed, let alone achieved any notable success, have you?”

“…”

“…”

Sparks seemed to fly between their meeting gazes.

And as Oh Myeong-ho and Kim Ji-hun glared at each other like that, Kim Do-hyeong hesitantly spoke to Seon-woo again.

“That… Mr. Seon-woo. I admit it. Our company’s situation isn’t very good right now. But that could actually be a good thing for you, Mr. Seon-woo. If you come, I’m really willing to invest everything in you, Mr. Seon-woo. We’ll push you as our company’s flagship.”

“That’s the same for us at KS…!”

Chaos broke out.

Seon-woo looked at them with a troubled expression. He wondered if he should make a decision quickly to prevent them from fighting more.

But what was strange was that Park Du-ho was surprisingly quiet.

He wasn’t particularly chatty, but he remembered him as the type to say what needed to be said.

‘He looks like he has a lot on his mind.’

For a moment, I felt a bit worried.

Wondering if perhaps his mind had changed.

At the same time, I found it strange. Even without Park Du-ho, there were actually many management agencies seeking out Seon-woo like this, so I wondered why that would be a concern.

‘…Do I want to go to Wilde?’

Let me be honest.

I was drawn to Wilde.

Just talking about acting with Yu Si-hun seemed like it would be fun, and above all, it was clear that Wilde was serious about acting.

If I went to Wilde, I felt like I wouldn’t experience any deficiency when it came to acting.

But even so, I couldn’t readily choose Wilde’s side.

KS had promised not only a 1 billion signing fee, but also aggressive support utilizing the infrastructure they had built up so far.

LK boasted massive connections that even extended to Hollywood,

and Life said they would concentrate all their resources on Seon-woo.

So what did Wilde offer?

That’s right. Wilde was the only one who talked with Seon-woo about ‘what kind of acting do you want to do?’

The words that were most necessary for Seon-woo.

But if you asked whether that was enough, it wasn’t.

Because an agency isn’t just a colleague-level existence for discussing acting.

I needed one word that would make me think Wilde was a wise choice.

One word that would make me confident that if I went with Wilde… I would surely have no regrets as an actor.

Could Wilde really give me that one word?

“…Seon-woo.”

“Yes!”

When Park Du-ho finally opened his mouth, not only Seon-woo but the others also turned to look at Park Du-ho.

Everyone had been continuously bothered by his continued silence. They wondered what kind of trump card he was preparing.

“I’ve been thinking about this. What exactly can I do for you? What can I do that other agencies can’t? But actually, the premise itself was wrong from the start.”

Park Du-ho looked at Seon-woo through his sunglasses.

“That sounds like the agency is doing you a favor. But that’s not it. The one doing the favor isn’t the agency, it’s you. That’s why all these gentlemen here are staying until this late hour. Asking if you could please do them a favor.”

At those words, the expressions of the others became subtle.

It felt strange to just agree with that, but to say no… that wasn’t something to say in front of Seon-woo.

Park Du-ho didn’t even give them a glance and continued speaking.

“So I’ll just speak frankly. Seon-woo, if you trust us, we will definitely live up to that trust. However, I can’t ask you to wait indefinitely without any promise.”

Park Du-ho’s eyes sparkled.

“One year. Within the next year, I plan to somehow elevate you to a position where you can pick and choose any role you want. So, let’s contract for just one year. The signing fee is 100 million with an 8:2 profit split. Watch that one year, and if you think it would be good to continue with Wilde… then let’s contract again. This is my best offer.”

“…What, no. Mr. Park Du-ho. What kind of contract terms are those…”

And Kim Do-hyeong, who was listening from the side, turned pale.

One year? That was a period that only came up when top stars renewed contracts with their existing agencies. For a newcomer like Seon-woo, they should be setting at least 3 years… preferably 5 years as the contract period.

What if Seon-woo raised his value like this and then went to another agency?

These weren’t terms a businessman should propose.

Naturally, Oh Myeong-ho and Kim Ji-hun, who were listening, couldn’t help but look displeased.

‘I heard he was a lunatic, but…’

‘Is he an idiot?’

But at least Kim Ji-hun was still confident.

Although KS had proposed 5 years, they had still talked about a whopping 1 billion signing fee.

Kim Ji-hun prided himself on understanding people.

And the people he understood all ultimately liked money.

That wasn’t something you could criticize as being materialistic.

Money was the only thing that could assign value to everything in this world.

Wasn’t this a world where even actors’ ranks were ultimately divided according to their appearance fees?

“Please. Come to our company.”

Park Du-ho bowed his head.

Kim Ji-hun looked at Park Du-ho and inwardly sighed. Did he really think such an old-fashioned, straightforward approach that might have worked in the 2000s would actually work?

His opponent was a smart person who even graduated from Seoul National University.

He probably already finished calculating what would be most beneficial for him.

So…

“Yes. I’ll do that.”

See. It’s natural to be rejected like this…

…Huh?

What did he just say?

“Huh?”

“What?”

“What did you say?”

“S-Seon-woo…!”

Suddenly, everyone who had been courting Seon-woo widened their eyes.

Even Park Du-ho was included among them. As if he hadn’t expected Seon-woo to accept even while making the proposal, his sunglasses fell to the floor with a thud, and his fierce eyes could be seen trembling.

Definitely not a visual you could get used to no matter how much you looked.

Seon-woo subtly averted his gaze from Park Du-ho and looked around at the other managers.

“I’m sorry. I was very grateful for the proposals from the CEOs and directors too, but… it seems like I should go with Wilde this time.”

“W-wait a moment. Seon-woo…!”

Kim Ji-hun hurriedly raised his hand.

“What made you suddenly think that way? One year? If the contract period is the issue, we’d have to adjust the signing fee and such, but we can accommodate that too. So please don’t decide too hastily, okay?”

“…I’m sorry. But my decision right now isn’t solely because of the contract period.”

“Then what is it? Whatever it is, our KS will accommodate all of it.”

“O-our Life too!”

“…”

KS and Life were desperately trying to change Seon-woo’s mind.

While only Director Oh Myeong-ho from LK silently watched Seon-woo, Seon-woo slowly opened his mouth.

“It’s not about the conditions. I thought that working with Wilde would make for a really interesting year. That’s all.”

“…What?”

Kim Ji-hun and Kim Do-hyeong’s expressions went blank.

Kim Ji-hun especially couldn’t help but be more stunned.

Fun? Was he really talking about mere fun right now?

They had offered up to 1 billion, but that mere fun felt more attractive than the 1 billion?

But Seon-woo’s expression was resolute.

An expression that showed he didn’t find his own words embarrassing or strange at all.

Park Du-ho stared at Seon-woo blankly.

Even after presenting the conditions, he honestly hadn’t been confident. Wilde hadn’t offered noticeably better conditions compared to other agencies.

All they could offer was sincerity.

…But Seon-woo had recognized that sincerity.

“Working with Wilde, I think I’ll be able to do acting that’s more true to myself… CEO?”

Seon-woo was continuing his words when he suddenly looked at Park Du-ho with a flustered expression.

He couldn’t help it. Park Du-ho’s eyes were brimming with tears. Seon-woo opened his mouth in confusion.

“…Are you okay?”

“…It’s raining.”

“But we’re indoors…”

At Seon-woo’s bewildered voice, Park Du-ho silently picked up the sunglasses that had fallen to the floor and put them on.

Then he let a single raindrop fall from beneath the sunglasses and opened his mouth.

“No, this is rain.”

Park Du-ho, 42 years old.

In his manly life, things like tears had never existed.

Anyway, it was raining!

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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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