I Acted Once, and Now They Call Me a Genius - Chapter 225

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 225
Jeong Do-jeon.
He was a great man.
When speaking of Joseon’s founding, a figure who could never be omitted alongside Lee Seong-gye.
The wisdom to foresee how every figure in Goryeo would move, to envision a nation that could endure for a thousand years…… and the execution and audacity to realize all of it—that was Jeong Do-jeon.
While reading the script, Seon-woo had sometimes wondered how he would perform the role if he took on Jeong Do-jeon.
And inwardly, he’d admitted defeat.
Jeong Do-jeon was, in a sense, a character more difficult to portray than Yi Bang-won, who had matured and possessed the qualities of a king.
Jeong Do-jeon’s depth of mind was extraordinary.
One could call it a vessel of great capacity.
Despite possessing both the scheming and charisma to create a new world, the fact that he could set Lee Seong-gye forward instead of becoming king himself—this was something Seon-woo found difficult to comprehend.
Jeong Do-jeon had devoted his life to Joseon.
If he had given his entire life to founding this nation, it would be natural to want to possess it…… so how could he plan to offer it to another?
From Seon-woo’s perspective, Jeong Do-jeon was a figure of too transcendent an order.
It was like looking upon a god from a human’s vantage point.
……And naturally, Seon-woo had no confidence that he could fully understand a god’s heart.
If he had taken on the role of Jeong Do-jeon, he would have managed only to imitate him at best.
But Jeong In-gi was different.
He acted as a scholar devoted to study his entire life writes—without a trace of hesitation, rigorous yet fluid at once.
And so,
“—Cut! Seon-woo, your timing was too late.”
“……I apologize. Let me try again!”
It was unavoidable that Seon-woo’s spirit had momentarily fled.
He had been overwhelmed by Jeong In-gi’s performance, and simultaneously captivated by it.
It was beautiful acting.
The kind he could watch blankly for hours. Merely knowing that such an actor, such a person, such a character existed in this world—he was intoxicated by that very fact.
But he couldn’t afford to be.
“Seon-woo.”
Jeong In-gi was looking at him.
He neither expressed disappointment nor offered words of consolation. He simply gazed at him with quiet eyes.
But precisely because of that, Seon-woo felt the pressure all the more acutely in this moment.
He wanted to live up to those expectations.
He wanted to become a part of that picture Jeong In-gi was painting—that beautiful picture.
‘Come to your senses.’
Seon-woo burst a Color Orb.
And then, at last, the world that Jeong Do-jeon had darkened…… Yi Bang-won’s world began to recover some semblance of its true colors.
Of course, it was nothing compared to when he acted alone.
Jeong Do-jeon’s presence could not be erased simply by trying not to be aware of it.
He could feel it. Real-time, this world…… and his very existence—being stained by the colors of Jeong Do-jeon.
“Ready, cue.”
But before Seon-woo could fully prepare, Seo Tae-rok’s cold voice rang out.
A stern voice that would not entertain weak excuses.
And,
“——Hahaha!”
Jeong In-gi, too, gave Seon-woo no quarter, bursting into wild laughter immediately.
“So you, you read the general’s heart? Is that what you’re claiming?”
Performing the same scene consecutively, he showed no loss of power compared to moments before.
If anything, his body had warmed to the work, and the force behind it felt even stronger.
“……How could I possibly read someone’s heart? I merely read the flow…….”
“Cut.”
And before Seon-woo could even finish his line, Seo Tae-rok called cut.
It meant he was dissatisfied.
“Let me go again. Ready, cue.”
This was the first time Seon-woo had experienced such a thing.
In a sense, Seo Tae-rok had just declared that Seon-woo’s acting was not worth seeing further. He had never received such an evaluation, no matter what role or scene he’d performed.
But Seo Tae-rok’s attitude didn’t feel disappointing to him.
It was because Seon-woo felt it too.
‘This isn’t enough.’
The problem wasn’t merely that Seon-woo had failed to properly immerse himself in the character of Yi Bang-won.
As things stood, even if he achieved that immersion, Yi Bang-won would inevitably appear far too small before Jeong Do-jeon.
And that was a problem.
Of course, if Yi Bang-won amounted to nothing compared to Jeong Do-jeon right now, ultimately he was still destined to become a king.
Even if a cub, it is still a tiger.
He had to express that.
He had to think about why Yi Bang-won was a tiger, and when standing before Jeong Do-jeon, a being incomparably greater than himself…… what kind of reaction he would show as a tiger.
“Cut.”
The filming repeated.
For the first time, Seon-woo truly felt why Seo Tae-rok was a notoriously demanding director. The moment he sensed the slightest instability in Seon-woo’s performance, he called cut immediately.
There was no rebuke.
No “Why can’t you do better?” or “Try acting like this.” No such direction.
“Ready, cue.”
Only the same signal repeated.
That one wasn’t good. Try again. That one wasn’t good either. Again.
But that was a far more terrifying pressure than a barrage of curses would have been. A feeling that he had to show something, quickly.
His heart pounded.
Tension made his spine run cold, and his palms grew slick with sweat.
A pressure so overwhelming that panic seemed ready to descend at any moment of carelessness.
In the midst of such pressure,
‘Find it.’
Seon-woo’s eyes, paradoxically, grew calm.
Panicking wouldn’t help. What he needed in this moment was the answer that was Yi Bang-won. Jeong In-gi’s Jeong Do-jeon was more formidable than Seon-woo had anticipated? The real Jeong Do-jeon would have been too. Perhaps he carried an aura even more unreasonable than this.
Yi Bang-won would have faced such a Jeong Do-jeon.
At an even younger age.
……What had Yi Bang-won’s heart felt in that moment?
What kind of being was Jeong Do-jeon to Yi Bang-won?
‘It would have been no different.’
Seon-woo somehow understood.
To Yi Bang-won, Jeong Do-jeon would have appeared endlessly vast. And the pressure Yi Bang-won would have felt in that instant would have been immense.
“Cut.”
He would have wanted to earn that man’s recognition.
Or perhaps to surpass him.
If he could not attain the same vision, could not possess a vessel of the same magnitude…… then he would know he could never rightfully have this Joseon that Jeong Do-jeon was building.
“Ready, cue.”
At times, he must have hated Jeong Do-jeon, and at times, he must have found him utterly irresistible.
He had to understand Yi Bang-won’s heart.
……That helpless feeling, that yearning that made him acutely aware of his own smallness each time they met…… he had to pour it out completely.
“Cut.”
To do that, what must Seon-woo do?
There was only one method Seon-woo could think of now.
If he still lacked the capacity to fully understand that heart…… then he would erase himself. He would obliterate the existence called Kim Seon-woo from this place.
So that only the being called Yi Bang-won remained.
Seon-woo burst Color Orbs ceaselessly.
Of course, the world remained stained with Jeong Do-jeon’s colors.
There was no helping it. This wasn’t merely a matter of acting. It was a matter of the scene itself, a matter of the role.
In this moment, the character Yi Bang-won himself seemed so naturally inclined to be colored by Jeong Do-jeon—and Seon-woo was desperately suppressing his own nature.
Then what did Seon-woo color when he burst the Color Orbs?
It was Seon-woo himself.
Neither Jeong Do-jeon’s colors nor Yi Bang-won’s—his own soul, which remained untouched—Seon-woo in this instant did not hesitate to drench it entirely in Yi Bang-won’s hue.
From the surface of his psyche to the depths of his unconscious, he let only Yi Bang-won’s colors flow through.
And,
“How could I possibly read someone’s heart?”
In this instant, Seon-woo’s Yi Bang-won felt completely different.
“I merely read the flow.”
Was he displaying a presence intense enough not to be overshadowed by Jeong Do-jeon?
Of course not. Hadn’t he said it? In this moment, Yi Bang-won naturally had to yield in presence compared to Jeong Do-jeon.
Then what had changed?
What had changed that Seo Tae-rok, unlike before, was now……
“…….”
His eyes gleaming like a prospector who’d found gold?
It was difficult to express in mere words.
For there were far too many emotions contained in Yi Bang-won’s eyes as he beheld Jeong Do-jeon.
Before that voice, which needed only a few words to command the room, Yi Bang-won did not resist. He fully feels Jeong Do-jeon’s words resonating through his very soul, seeping into his being.
But he does not yield.
Despite his eyes betraying an eagerness to make Jeong Do-jeon his mentor and follow him at any moment, there’s a palpable effort to suppress his heart—like a child desperately restraining himself before a plate of sweets.
“The flow? What flow did you read?”
“The flow in which new leaves sprout where petals have fallen. Am I mistaken?”
“No, you saw it correctly. That is why I marvel. Well seen. Now let me ask you this: what comes next in this flow?”
“The steps that turned toward Yodong now turn toward Gaegyeong. And the mouths of Gaegyeong are all empty as can be. By now they must be posing questions without answers in every corner. And that the great minister has come here…… surely it is to provide answers to those questions.”
And precisely because of that, tension bloomed as if about to burst, despite the scene not warranting it.
“Great Minister, might I…… share in that answer as well?”
It was an ambiguous line.
But because it was ambiguous, how one delivered it mattered greatly.
It wasn’t merely about swaying the people of Gaegyeong—it was about yearning to become part of that grand design of founding Joseon itself.
And Seon-woo delivered this line with utter desperation.
By desperation, he meant: suppressing the heat roiling in his chest, restraining the urge to forget his dignity and plead like a child, and speaking with all his might in refined tones despite it all.
It was ironic.
The more one tried to conceal sincerity, the more clearly it shone through.
Jeong Do-jeon, seeing such Yi Bang-won, turns away without further remark. And he takes his leave.
And in the moment Yi Bang-won’s eyes, watching that retreating figure, grew wistful,
“What are you doing?”
“……Yes?”
“Come along.”
“Ah, I’m…… coming!”
At Jeong Do-jeon’s urging, Yi Bang-won breaks into a bright childlike smile and follows after him.
Where before he had displayed keen intelligence despite his young age, now he showed nothing but pure childlike innocence.
All who watched him found themselves wondering: just how much joy and happiness might await at the end of those steps……
“Cut.”
And Seo Tae-rok’s voice rang out.
A word he had spoken dozens of times already.
But this cut was different from all the rest.
Because,
“…….”
“D-Director…….”
Seo Tae-rok was smiling.
With a face of utter satisfaction, beaming brightly.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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