I Acted Once, and Now They Call Me a Genius - Chapter 17

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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 17

“Why the sudden interest in a lead role?”

When Seon-woo mentioned that he wanted to try for a lead role, the troupe members’ reactions were all similar.

“Don’t you think a lead role is a bit too early for you?”

A husky voice.

Min-hee, a woman with long black hair tied back, looked at Seon-woo with an expressionless face.

Despite her bare face without any makeup, she had striking features. She was the actor who had performed with Seon-woo in [Confession].

Among the troupe members, she was known for always delivering brutal truths.

She hit people with facts without emotion… That’s why everyone was secretly afraid of this senior.

The way to deal with Min-hee like this was surprisingly simple.

You respond to her with facts as well.

“I know it’s early for me too. But I wanted to give it a try.”

“Hmm… Lead role competition isn’t easy. I can see that you’re good for your experience level… but lead roles require much more consideration. Why are you suddenly fixated on a lead role?”

It was the reaction he had expected.

It wasn’t normal for someone with Seon-woo’s experience—or rather, months of experience—to aim for a lead role.

It wouldn’t be strange if they thought he had gotten cocky after being called a genius.

But this wasn’t something he was doing because of cockiness.

“Because I know it’s difficult and challenging, I want to do it even more.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I’ve realized how lacking I still am. So I thought if I had a more difficult challenge, I could face more obstacles and learn more… That’s what I was thinking.”

In other words, he was saying that hard mode would be more effective for improving his skills than easy mode.

Then a curly-haired man who had been listening to their conversation joined in.

Hye-seong. At thirty-five, he held the position of the oldest member of Cheongseong.

“Well, the higher your goals, the harder you work. But… you’re only preparing for the lead role? What if you don’t get it?”

“Then there’s nothing I can do about it. But for now… I want to focus only on the challenge.”

And this wasn’t the only reason he was challenging for a lead role.

Even the clothes he was wearing right now were a problem.

Seon-woo was currently dressed in a suit.

Why was he wearing a suit to come to the theater troupe? That was… because he had told his family he was going to a job interview when he left home today.

He still hadn’t told his family that he had started acting.

‘I should tell them soon though.’

At first, he had held back from speaking because he thought he might quit acting at any time.

He had thought his heart might change and he’d jump back into the job market at any moment.

Of course, now he had gained certainty.

The more he lived as an actor, the more he seemed to understand.

He really wanted to live as an actor.

That he was happiest when acting.

But it was still difficult to tell them. If he told them without having achieved anything, it would only cause them worry.

Being an actor was a profession where it was hard to make a living unless you succeeded to a certain degree.

‘…I want to achieve some kind of result before telling them.’

And right now, the result that Seon-woo could possibly obtain… was that lead role.

With that much, he could speak to his parents a little more confidently, couldn’t he?

Min-hee, who had listened to Seon-woo’s story, nodded as if she understood.

“I understand how you feel.”

“…Originally, the hardest thing in this industry is getting your parents’ support.”

“How did you all get permission?”

“I left home without getting it.”

“I’m still fighting with them every day.”

…Seon-woo looked around at his seniors with a pitiful expression.

Everyone had gone through a lot of hardship.

Then Hye-seong clapped his hands with an “Ah.”

“But that lead role really won’t be easy. Jae-won is coming back this time too. Ah, Seon-woo probably doesn’t know?”

“Ah, no. This is my first time hearing about it.”

“There’s a guy who always competes with Do-young for lead roles. Well, he always loses though… Anyway, he’s quite a formidable guy.”

Someone who competes with Do-young.

Just from that description alone, he could roughly guess what kind of person it was.

For Seon-woo, competing with Do-young was out of the question – even just standing on stage together felt overwhelming.

“Why wasn’t that person here last quarter?”

“I sometimes go do manual labor to cover living expenses. I work manual labor throughout the quarter to earn money, then use that money to act… that’s how it goes.”

“…That’s amazing.”

“Yeah. Plus, he’s got extraordinary acting ability too… I’d like to support him, but honestly, his chances are pretty slim, right?”

“Well… just because it’s a losing battle doesn’t mean it has no value.”

“You always have something to say.”

Hye-seong chuckled softly.

But Seon-woo was sincere.

He knew the lead role was beyond his station. He understood the high probability of losing.

But just because the results might not follow doesn’t mean the process itself is meaningless.

Of course, to make that process meaningful… he’d have to give his best effort right now.

Seon-woo opened his script.

The main production Cheongseong was performing this time was a work called [Until You Live].

The content was as follows.

The protagonist, Hee-jae, has a childhood friend named Ye-bin whom he’s had a crush on since they were young.

But on the day he tries to confess his feelings, Ye-bin jumps into the Han River and commits suicide.

Then a fairy appears to the despairing Hee-jae, offering him a chance to return to the past to eliminate the female protagonist’s suicidal intentions.

The method to return to the past is to commit suicide in the same way as Ye-bin.

Hee-jae jumps into the Han River without hesitation and goes back to his middle school days.

He saves Ye-bin from being bullied by friends, then returns to the future. But Ye-bin commits suicide again, so Hee-jae once more takes his own life to return to the past.

It’s a story about throwing away his life repeatedly to eliminate, one by one, the reasons that drove Ye-bin to suicide.

‘Interesting.’

Seon-woo’s eyes sparkled.

Hee-jae’s Base Color was pink, containing the emotion of love.

Using that pink Color Orb as a base, depending on the situation, blood-red cracks would appear… or moss-colored spots would surface.

And Seon-woo had to make all these Color Orbs his own.

This audition wasn’t Designated Acting.

He wouldn’t know which scene he’d have to perform until the moment he stepped on stage.

The reason was that he needed to be able to act any part cleanly, regardless of which one it was.

At least memorizing lines wasn’t a concern.

Memorizing lines had never been particularly difficult for him since long ago. He had practically memorized the entire script by heart on the first day of reading it.

Seon-woo devoted himself to acting practice.

Acting wasn’t much different from studying.

The more time you invest, the better the results become.

So if he invested more time than anyone else, wouldn’t he be able to acquire acting ability decent enough to compete with anyone? That was Seon-woo’s calculation.

…But after about two days had passed like that,

Seon-woo realized there was one problem he hadn’t thought of.

“If I do it like this… Ugh, cough!”

It was his throat.

Before joining the theater troupe, he had learned basic voice projection while receiving private lessons from the Director.

But that was literally just the basics. Just knowing how to do diaphragmatic breathing and produce abdominal voice?

It meant his proficiency in voice projection itself was quite lacking.

As a result, whenever Seon-woo’s concentration slipped even slightly while delivering lines, his throat would often get overworked. It was the same when he acted as Seung-do.

The problem was that while Seung-do had few lines so using his raw voice wasn’t a big issue… Hee-jae had way too many lines.

He could feel his throat getting damaged in real time.

‘…What should I do?’

Asking the other troupe members for help felt awkward since everyone was preparing for auditions and he didn’t want to be a burden.

And he was also conscious of their reactions.

Although the seniors had been understanding, aiming for the lead role with his level of experience probably didn’t look very good.

And if he asked for help on top of that, wouldn’t it be even worse?

In fact, there was someone who had criticized him for it.

And who was that… well, naturally it was Seo Jin-wook.

“Do you really think it’s right for you to be aiming for the lead role now?”

“Senior.”

“What. Go ahead and say it.”

“I know I’m still lacking.”

And Seon-woo responded to him head-on.

“But if I’m lacking, should I set my goals low too?”

“…”

Honestly, Seon-woo didn’t expect Seo Jin-wook to understand what he was saying.

He thought no matter what he said, Jin-wook would find fault with his words.

But unexpectedly, Seo Jin-wook didn’t say anything. He just looked at him with displeasure, then ignored him and walked away.

Whether he understood his words, or just had nothing to say in response.

‘Let’s not worry about it.’

But he couldn’t help continuing to worry about it.

He wondered if not just Seo Jin-wook, but other seniors might be thinking the same way.

The more anxious his heart became, the harder Seon-woo practiced.

He felt like he absolutely couldn’t show himself being negligent in practice while aiming for the lead role as a newcomer… and he felt his own inadequacy quite keenly.

Of course, the more he did this, the worse his throat condition became.

And it was the third day of preparing for the audition like this.

At a point when his sense of crisis was mounting as his throat seemed to be getting worse, Min-hee and Hye-seong linked arms and stood in front of Seon-woo.

“Kim Seon-woo.”

“Yes. What’s the matter?”

“I tried to hold back… but sorry, I can’t.”

At first, Seon-woo thought they were going to scold him.

Like, “I told you the lead role is too much for you! Why are you being so stubborn when you can’t even get your voice projection right!”

But what the seniors said was unexpected.

“If you keep practicing like that, you’ll ruin your voice completely. You need to do voice training properly first.”

“Voice training?”

“That’s right. We’ll teach you.”

…It was touching.

He hadn’t even thought they would look after him like this.

At first he declined, feeling like he was taking away from their audition preparation time, but their attitude was firm.

“If it’s an audition we’d fail just from helping you practice a bit, then we shouldn’t pass anyway.”

…Who would have thought the seniors could look so cool as they did that day.

It was a moment when he felt anew that he’d done well to come to Cheongseong.

Even when he first came here, it seemed like everyone viewed him unfavorably, but seeing them look after him like this now was deeply moving.

“You know your voice projection is unstable too, right?”

“Yes. I’ve been feeling like my throat is damaged lately too…”

“Then why didn’t you ask us for help? What’s the point of having seniors?”

“…I felt sorry.”

“If you hurt your voice doing this alone, that would be even more sorry.”

Hye-seong grumbled as he continued the lesson.

“First, let’s properly establish your abdominal voice. Come on, follow along. Ah—.”

“Ah—.”

“That’s right. But if you do it like that, you’ll strain your throat. Min-hee. Show him a demonstration.”

“Yes. Ah——.”

“See that? When you produce sound, don’t think about shouting—think about resonating.”

“If the sound doesn’t come out well, it’s not your lungs—your body is tense. Relax your body. Now, follow along. Ah——!”

“Ah——!”

Seon-woo earnestly followed his seniors’ coaching.

This was an opportunity that might not come again. They had gone out of their way to help him—he couldn’t treat it carelessly.

And deep down, he had this calculation too.

If he could improve his voice projection even more, wouldn’t the lead role become a little closer within reach?

“Follow this skilled teaching assistant’s demonstration. Voice to the back! Put strength in your abdomen! That’s right! Now, follow along. A-ya-o-yo-u-yu-eu-i!”

“A, a-ya-o-yo-u-yu-eu-i!”

So, let’s work hard.

“Gwak-gwak-gwak bak-bak-bak dak-dak-dak!”

“Gwak-gwak-gwak bak-bak-bak dak-dak-gak!”

I’ll work hard, but…

“Your pronunciation got muddled! Again! Gwak-gwak-gwak bak-bak-bak dak-dak-dak!”

“Gwak-gwak-gwak bak-bak-bak dak-dak-dak!”

…This really is the right way to practice, right?

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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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