I Acted Once, and Now They Call Me a Genius - Chapter 20

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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 20

The moment it was confirmed that he would take on the performance, Seon-woo first called Seon-jun.

“You want me to bring our parents?”

“Yeah. It’s tonight’s performance. Both of them don’t have anything going on, right?”

“Well, that’s true, but… the lead role? You?”

“It’s not the lead role, I was an understudy… but there were some circumstances. Anyway, please!”

Actually, the moment he heard he could take on the lead role, his parents came to mind.

He had said he would tell them right away when he got a lead role, but that had been indefinitely postponed after failing the audition.

If not now, he didn’t know when another opportunity to bring it up would come.

‘I’m nervous.’

Unlike Seon-jun, Seon-woo was a son who had never caused his parents any trouble.

So they probably never dreamed that he would be causing this kind of trouble.

It couldn’t be helped that they would be surprised, but he wanted to ease their worries even a little.

And that would depend on what kind of acting he showed today.

He had to show them.

Ah, if it’s this good, then this child has potential to continue on the path of acting.

We can believe in him and support him. He wanted them to be able to think that way.

“…Why am I so nervous?”

Seon-woo smiled bitterly.

This was the first time he had been this nervous since he started acting.

It made sense though. It was his first time acting in front of his parents, and his first time acting as the lead.

There were many firsts in various ways.

“Taking on a lead role with your experience might be a first in Cheongseong’s history, right?”

Hye-seong said while grinning.

“So how do you feel? What are your thoughts?”

“I’m nervous.”

“Being nervous is normal though. Min-hee was incredibly hysterical when she first did a lead role too.”

“…Why are you suddenly bringing up my story here? Should I also bring up how you cried backstage after making an NG, senior?”

“Sorry…”

As always, Hye-seong and Min-hee ended up fighting again.

Normally, he would have given some kind of reaction to their banter, but right now his heart was beating too fast for that.

Seon-woo quietly murmured.

“It feels just like when I first stepped on stage.”

“Hmm. That makes sense. Supporting actors can’t afford to make mistakes either, but if the lead falls apart… the entire performance really gets ruined.”

“I suppose so…”

“But honestly, I’m not really worried.”

“…About me?”

“Yeah. I’ve seen how you’ve been practicing all this time.”

Hye-seong answered with a confident voice.

Ye-chan, who had been listening quietly, also added.

“That’s right. Honestly, hyung seems to practice the most here.”

“Well, that’s because I have the time…”

“Still! I’ve never seen an understudy practice this hard before!”

“Right. You can do well, so don’t worry too much.”

Seon-woo smiled.

It did feel good to have everyone say things like that.

It meant that his efforts were visible to them too.

Thanks to that, his slightly anxious heart calmed down a bit.

Now all I have to do is really show them.

Seon-woo summoned Hee-jae’s Color Orb onto his palm.

He could feel it. Hee-jae’s emotions filled to the brim with the Color Orb.

It felt like he was pestering him. To burst him right now. To paint This World full of himself.

‘I was planning to do that even without you pestering me.’

In fact, Seon-woo had always been starving while watching other people take the stage all this time.

But now it’s okay.

Seon-woo picked up his phone.

A notification appeared on the screen.

[Bro: On my way with Mom and Dad.]

Finally, the stage for him was ready.

Now all he had to do was show them.

* * *

“Why are you suddenly asking to go see a play?”

Lee Jeong-hee, the mother of the Seon-jun and Seon-woo brothers, answered with a displeased expression.

It was because Seon-jun had suddenly brought up going to see a play out of nowhere. And not next week or in a few days, but tonight.

“It’s a work that your son has been preparing hard for this time.”

Seon-jun answered slyly.

It wasn’t a lie. It was indeed a work her son had prepared. Though Mrs. Lee Jeong-hee seemed to misunderstand that it was Seon-jun’s work… well, this much of a surprise was okay, right?

“Why are you suddenly asking us to go see that work?”

“You’ll find out when you get there.”

“Really, you’re just like your father, so peculiar.”

“…Why are you suddenly dragging me into this when I was just sitting quietly?”

Seon-jun’s father, Kim Young-sik, made a displeased expression.

Seon-jun grinned and waved his hands dismissively.

“Come on, just come along. It’ll be fun.”

“Well, going isn’t difficult… but suddenly a play? Aren’t film and theater very different fields? Did you just write the script or what?”

“Hmm… that’s also a secret.”

“Really, there’s no stopping you…”

Watching Jeong-hee let out a deep sigh, Seon-jun smiled inwardly.

His younger brother had given him some interesting content after a long time.

What kind of expressions would Jeong-hee and Young-sik make when they discovered Seon-woo in a little while?

‘It would be normal for them to not be pleased, right?’

How many parents would welcome their child doing acting?

Even Seon-jun himself had quite a difficult time breaking through his parents’ opposition when he first said he wanted to do movies.

Moreover, Seon-woo was a child who had been steadily following an elite path.

When Seon-jun was running around saying he wanted to do movies, he was the son their parents could comfort themselves with, thinking ‘At least we have Seon-woo.’

But now that same son suddenly said he wanted to do acting too.

It would be stranger if their reaction was good.

But Seon-jun wasn’t worried.

If Seon-woo’s talent that he remembered had properly blossomed… surely changing their parents’ hearts wouldn’t be too difficult.

‘I wonder how much his skills have improved.’

Honestly, he was a bit surprised when he heard about the lead role.

Of course, they said he was going in as a replacement actor after being an understudy, but where was this? In the theater scene, an understudy was kind of like a trainee, but still, not just anyone could take on being an understudy for a lead role.

It must mean that Seon-woo had grown incredibly over the past few months.

And…

“The performance will begin shortly. Please make sure to turn off your mobile phones, and please be aware that re-entry will not be permitted if you leave the audience seats during the show.”

Now it was time to see the results.

The lights went out and pitch-black darkness enveloped the surroundings.

Perfect darkness where only the masking tape on the stage was barely visible.

And then, that moment came.

“…This will do.”

A low woman’s voice echoed.

It was a dry voice. As if all her life force had been completely drained… just a dry voice.

“This is everything…”

And the next moment, a spotlight illuminated a woman standing on the bridge railing. Standing precariously as if she might fall at any moment, staring blankly down at the ground.

Just as the woman suddenly lifted her head to look at the audience seats,

“It will end.”

Along with the image of the woman throwing herself, the stage went completely dark in an instant.

‘The direction is still good.’

Seon-jun nodded inwardly.

It was an opening that anyone would be drawn into. But what Seon-jun was expecting now wasn’t the theatrical aspects of this work.

Seon-woo.

When would his younger brother appear?

Fortunately, he didn’t have to wait long.

“You’re going to confess?”

“Yeah.”

It was the very next scene.

A classroom scene appears, with boys in school uniforms chatting together.

A boy writing a letter with great care, his expression full of excitement.

No, Seon-woo.

“…?”

“?”

Question marks immediately appeared on Jeong-hee and Young-sik’s faces.

No matter how they looked at it, that was their son, Seon-woo. But why on earth was Seon-woo up there?

And moreover….

“I told Ye-bin to meet me this evening.”

“…She said she would?”

“Yeah.”

What was that acting ability?

It was such realistic acting that for a moment they forgot the person in front of them was their son. He didn’t seem like Seon-woo, but really like a high school boy in love.

Jeong-hee turned her head to look at Seon-jun.

Seon-jun looked at Jeong-hee and just smiled without saying anything.

If this weren’t a theater performance, she would have demanded to know what on earth this situation was about right now, but she couldn’t do that.

‘What on earth is going on?’

She was so shocked that it felt like her heart had dropped.

Something wasn’t right. Had he started theater acting as a hobby, became the lead, and invited them to the stage as a surprise? She tried to think that way, but… no matter how she looked at it, that didn’t seem to be the case.

Jeong-hee looked back at the stage.

Seon-woo was still acting.

‘Is he…the lead?’

Yes.

The more she watched the play, the more she could tell.

Surprisingly, their son Seon-woo was the lead.

Just how long had he been acting? To be good enough for a lead role, he surely hadn’t been acting for just a day or two. Had he been secretly acting since university?

Had he been nurturing this dream for that long?

I don’t know.

Jeong-hee just watched Seon-woo’s acting.

“What do you mean? Huh? Who… died?”

Seon-woo acted.

The despair of losing someone you love.

“If I just jump off… if I just die, I can go back?”

Pure devotion that could even accept death for one person.

“Why… why did Ye-bin die again?”

“…That wasn’t it? Ye-bin decided to die?”

Hee-jae goes back to the past countless times, struggling desperately to eliminate the causes that would lead Ye-bin to death.

Standing up to the bullies who led Ye-bin’s ostracism to protect her,

Confronting the teacher who would humiliate Ye-bin in front of the kids for ridiculous reasons,

And even fighting with the stalker who kept following and tormenting Ye-bin under the pretense of liking her.

Despite all this, Ye-bin continues to die and return as a corpse.

And Hee-jae, to save such a Ye-bin… jumps off the bridge again and again.

And when she came to her senses, Jeong-hee found herself deeply immersed in that play.

‘…What am I doing right now?’

Clearly at first, she was only thinking about Seon-woo.

Why on earth he was here. Why he hadn’t talked to her all this time. What he was planning to do from now on…

But then she thought Seon-woo’s acting ability was much better than expected, and now… she was completely absorbed just watching the play he was presenting.

It was good acting.

She wasn’t saying this because he was her son. Seon-woo’s acting had a captivating charm that made viewers lose themselves in it.

That made sense.

It was acting ability good enough to make her forget he was even her son and just enjoy the performance.

How should she put it.

At least right now, it didn’t seem like her son standing on that stage.

It really seemed like the character ‘Hee-jae’ from this play had jumped out into reality.

Jeong-hee glanced around at her surroundings.

The audience members were all watching Seon-woo’s acting with their mouths agape, as if enchanted by something.

Although he had never worked in acting… when you live long enough, you come to know certain things.

Namely, that nothing is more difficult than winning people’s hearts.

But Seon-woo’s acting was accomplishing that difficult task all too easily.

‘Seon-woo had… this kind of talent?’

Jeong-hee’s hands slowly began to tremble.

And Young-sik quietly took hold of those trembling hands.

Jeong-hee turned to look at Young-sik. When she gazed at him with eyes filled with all kinds of emotions, Young-sik smiled silently.

And so they quietly watched the stage for a long while.

After Hee-jae repeated dying for Ye-bin countless times, he finally realizes that Ye-bin’s death wasn’t because she had a reason to die… but because of the absence of a reason to live.

And he goes to find her and pleads.

Even if there’s no reason to live, even if each day is difficult, couldn’t she please just stay alive? If she dies, he feels like he won’t be able to live either.

“Even if there’s no reason to live, even if each day is difficult, couldn’t you still stay alive?”

“…”

“I don’t even ask for a reason to live. Just, a reason not to die… couldn’t I be that for you?”

A soul worn ragged from repeating countless deaths, from facing Ye-bin’s suicide over and over.

But even though worn so ragged, if there was something that still sparkled and shone… it would be Hee-jae’s love.

It could be felt.

From his eyes moistened as if he might cry at any moment, from his lips trembling forlornly, how sincerely Hee-jae wished for her to live.

“…Alright.”

So it didn’t feel strange that Ye-bin, who had chosen death no matter what, would break her stubbornness.

Because the heart that Seon-woo’s Hee-jae conveyed came across so vividly.

If they felt this much, the person standing in front must feel even more. That’s what they thought.

Jeong-hee stared at Seon-woo in a daze.

He’s a good actor. An amazing actor. But that’s her son. She just can’t believe it.

She wonders if she’s dreaming.

Before she knew it, the stage had ended.

And then came the curtain call. As she listened to the applause that rang out each time the actors bowed, Jeong-hee thought.

Her head was spinning.

She couldn’t even begin to figure out how to process this.

By anyone’s standards, this wasn’t acting done at a hobby level.

She could already guess what words Seon-woo would say after this.

What kind of reaction should she show to those words?

She didn’t know.

What she could know was… just one thing.

“And… the reason she won’t die, ‘Hee-jae’!”

Along with the MC’s announcement, Seon-woo came up on stage.

Cheers poured out as if they had been waiting… incomparably louder and more boisterous than for any of the previous actors.

Her hesitation was brief.

She didn’t know what reaction to show as a mother, but the reaction to show as an audience member was already decided.

It was good acting.

Amidst everyone’s cheers, the sound of Jeong-hee’s applause quietly blended in.

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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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