I Acted Once, and Now They Call Me a Genius - Chapter 233

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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 233
“Finally.”
Park Hoon checked his watch and tapped his foot anxiously.
He couldn’t help it. He hadn’t seen Seon-woo once in the past ten days.
It was because of Seon-woo’s request.
He’d said he needed some time alone to prepare for the next shoot, so Park Hoon shouldn’t come looking for him during that period.
This was the first time Seon-woo had made such a request.
So naturally, Park Hoon hadn’t questioned it at all.
But he couldn’t help worrying.
‘……He’s been strange lately anyway.’
Ever since filming for The Traitor had begun, Seon-woo seemed like someone intoxicated by something.
The senior actors’ performances appeared to be a tremendous source of inspiration for him. Park Hoon, not being an artist himself, had no way of knowing what that sensation was like exactly……but he could make an educated guess.
Like morphine injected on a battlefield.
Everything in the world vanishes, and you see only the target before your eyes……. Who knows. It might be an even more intense sensation than that. But that was the limit of what Park Hoon could fathom.
In any case, Park Hoon couldn’t help worrying.
An artist was like a gem. Brilliant and luminous, yet capable of shattering from a single mistake.
Which was why he couldn’t help fearing that Seon-woo, holed up in that cave, might not gain something but instead emerge in an unstable state…….
‘At least he’s not a case like Si-hun.’
It was right as Park Hoon was trying to comfort himself.
Seon-woo came out of the house. Park Hoon, who had been waiting in the parking garage lobby, quickly opened the van door.
And the moment he saw Seon-woo in the car, his expression crumpled.
“Sir……!”
“Long time no see. How’ve you been, Hoon?”
“I’ve been fine, but……your face is half gone!”
Park Hoon spoke in a worried voice.
Not quite half, but……Seon-woo was unmistakably gaunt at first glance. His jawline was sharper than usual, and his cheeks were noticeably hollowed.
But Seon-woo answered calmly.
“Ah, you know. This shoot has that scene where I’m observing the three-year mourning period. The director asked me to diet.”
“That’s true, but……how was it staying at home all that time?”
“Nothing much. Just had a hard time refusing my mother’s constant insistence that I eat.”
“……Did you get what you were after?”
“Huh? Ah. Right. That’s what I went there for.”
Seon-woo nodded.
And in that moment, Park Hoon felt something odd. His face was thinner, and naturally he should have less energy than usual……yet Seon-woo’s eyes seemed clearer than they usually were.
His gaze had gained a sharper edge.
“I gained something. Something really good.”
“……I’m glad. I figured you’d naturally get something, sir.”
It was unlike Seon-woo to say such a thing.
He had always been prone to complaints. Even when he’d prepared brilliant acting, he was always dissatisfied with something.
But for him to say so confidently that he’d gained something…….
‘Just how much did he gain?’
Park Hoon stepped on the accelerator without betraying his excitement.
As the car pulled away, Seon-woo reflected.
‘I was acting without even mastering the basics.’
What Seon-woo had done these past days couldn’t really be called acting practice.
He’d simply faced himself and come to understand himself.
Yet through that alone, Seon-woo felt he’d grown several steps forward as an actor.
It was the result of becoming a more mature person.
Understanding himself this way, Seon-woo had worked it all out.
Why he had been so depressed. Why he’d felt no attachment to this life at all.
And the conclusion Seon-woo reached was this:
Seon-woo wanted too much.
One could say his ideals were too lofty.
Wanting to live a colorful life was another way of saying he wanted to live differently from others. To be someone who shone brighter, more special.
For Seon-woo, it was quite a shock to discover.
He’d never thought of himself as greedy. Rather, he’d thought himself free from greed. And no wonder——he had no material desires, no desire to show off.
But he harbored tremendous ambition for himself.
……In a way, one could say his expectations of himself were just as high.
And the reason was a little embarrassing.
Seon-woo…….
“Sir.”
“Yeah?”
“I heard you received a proposal to direct. What do you think of that?”
“Ah, I haven’t really thought about it.”
Pulled from his reverie by Park Hoon’s question, Seon-woo shrugged.
“It doesn’t seem like something I need to decide right now.”
“……I’d prefer if you stayed, sir. I want to keep following you.”
“If I leave Wilde, would you come with me?”
“Of course!”
Park Hoon answered without a moment’s hesitation.
Seon-woo was slightly taken aback and turned to look at him.
“……Isn’t the director your uncle?”
“That doesn’t mean I have to chase after my uncle forever. My uncle——I mean, the director——opened the door for me, and I met a great actor like you……so if you move, the director will understand.”
“That’s…… moving.”
Park Hoon was more sincere than Seon-woo had expected.
He hadn’t known he’d say something like that without hesitation.
“Good. Let’s always be together, no matter what happens.”
“Of course!”
There were more people in the world who cared for him than he’d realized.
Seon-woo smiled anew at this fact.
* * *
“What’s with your face? Did you starve yourself on purpose?”
Senior Jin-wook was shocked the moment he saw Seon-woo.
It was a face worthy of shock. Seon-woo had never lost weight like this before.
“I ate nothing but salad every day.”
“……Your muscle definition’s gone too. But you never looked this emaciated before.”
“That’s rich coming from someone who collapsed just standing still.”
“…….”
Senior Jin-wook was at a loss for words.
After all, it was he who had actually keeled over, so he was hardly in a position to comment on anyone’s frailty.
‘But…….’
Senior Jin-wook looked at Seon-woo’s eyes and tilted his head slightly.
For someone who’d done such an extreme diet eating only salad……his eyes were remarkably bright. In fact, his gaze seemed clearer than usual.
He seemed like a person with more substance to him.
And it wasn’t just Senior Jin-wook who thought so.
Seo Tae-rok caught sight of Seon-woo and his eyes lit up.
“You’ve lost quite a lot of weight in such a short time. But……it’s a bit odd to say this given the situation, yet your face looks better.”
“Haha, does it?”
“Yes. In a way, you look more like Yi Bang-won now.”
Seo Tae-rok nodded with satisfaction.
He’d requested the weight loss, but he’d also been worried. Yi Bang-won had to be someone brimming with energy. If there was even a hint of frailty, that would be a problem in itself.
But the Seon-woo he saw now looked good in every way.
It was like looking at a blade that had been honed to perfection. Yet at the same time, it wasn’t jarringly sharp——the person’s presence felt perfectly composed.
Yes, one could call it a maturing.
‘……What happened in just that short time?’
But Seo Tae-rok was not surprised.
Given the right catalyst, humans were creatures capable of growth even in mere days.
Today’s shoot was the three-year mourning period section.
The historical setting was March 1392, four years after the successful return from Wihwado, when Lee Seong-gye suffered a fall from his horse and stayed at Byeokran-do.
Sensing this as an opportunity, Jeong Mong-ju sent all of Lee Seong-gye’s right-hand men——Jeong Do-jeon, Jo Jun, and the rest——into exile.
Of course, this was all part of the process to eliminate Lee Seong-gye entirely.
To deliver this news, Senior Jin-wook, as Lee Bang-gan, was going to find Yi Bang-won at the tomb, and that was the scene they were about to shoot.
Yi Bang-won, who had been peacefully guarding his mother’s tomb in the mountains where birds chirped, would finally rise after hearing his brother’s words.
There was only one thing Seo Tae-rok wanted in this scene.
To reveal that Yi Bang-won was a giant.
No matter how young or naive, Seon-woo’s acting had to convey that his every movement set the nation’s destiny in motion.
Yi Bang-won stepping out of the shelter had to feel like a giant rising.
Even for Seo Tae-rok, it was an excessive demand.
He’d asked for weight loss, yet simultaneously demanded the presence of a giant? Wasn’t that the same as asking him to act sickly yet healthy?
But there was no helping it.
This feeling absolutely had to come across in this moment.
From his frailty, Yi Bang-won’s filial devotion as a son;
From his strength, Yi Bang-won’s bearing as a king.
……Most actors would have worn an anguished expression upon hearing such direction.
Asking why he had to bear such a burden.
Of course, Seo Tae-rok hadn’t given Seon-woo this direction yet. It was something he should naturally feel while reading the script.
He could give feedback after seeing how Seon-woo chose to act.
“Shall we get started with the shoot?”
“Yes!”
Seon-woo went into the shelter.
There were many cuts to film. The cut of arranging his seat in the shelter, the cut of pulling weeds around his mother’s tomb, offering his respects…….
‘It’s rough.’
Seon-woo adjusted the mourning garment he wore.
It was made of hemp and certainly rough. If his skin brushed against it forcefully, he felt it might actually draw blood.
Yi Bang-won had observed the tomb guarding period in this hemp robe.
If Lee Seong-gye hadn’t fallen from his horse, he would have completed all three years of mourning and observed the full rites. Thinking of that, he could truly feel Yi Bang-won’s conviction.
Three years could hardly have been a short time, whether in Joseon or Goryeo.
Rather, it would have been an even longer stretch. Moreover, since Confucianism hadn’t yet taken firm root in this era, the three-year mourning period wasn’t necessarily something strictly demanded.
Yet Yi Bang-won observed it anyway.
Solely out of his own conviction.
‘……The more you know, the greater he becomes.’
And Seon-woo was acting such a person.
Which was why he thought it was truly good that he’d taken time to understand himself.
Without properly knowing himself, there was a limit to how deep he could portray Yi Bang-won.
Which was why, to earn Seo Tae-rok’s approval, he’d always had to immerse himself in method acting to the point of forgetting himself.
So that only Yi Bang-won’s emotions could guide him.
But today, Seon-woo intended to perform his acting differently.
Those ten days had been for this very purpose.
“Bang-won!”
The voice of Senior Jin-wook——Lee Bang-gan——comes through.
Seon-woo doesn’t answer and quietly wipes his mother’s tombstone.
Then Lee Bang-gan’s voice comes closer.
“Bang-won! Aren’t you listening to me! Bang-won!”
“……Our mother is resting, isn’t she, brother.”
“Huff, huff. This is no time for that!”
Lee Bang-gan’s face is ashen.
The colors of anxiety and fear that flow from him are intensely dark.
Added to his basic savage and aggressive temperament, he scattered those colors irregularly, such that in the past even Seon-woo couldn’t help but be somewhat affected by them. But now, in this moment, the summer trees painted around Seon-woo……were not touched by Lee Bang-gan’s colors at all.
Seon-woo was maintaining complete control of his emotions.
And so,
“Father had a fall from his horse. And……Po-eun——that Po-eun——he’s exiled Jeong Do-jeon and Jo Jun and everyone else! Exile! What are we to do? Huh?”
“…….”
Even to Senior Jin-wook’s desperate cry, Yi Bang-won’s inner world didn’t waver in the slightest.
But,
“……Where is father?”
When Yi Bang-won finally spoke, the mood of those trees changed in an instant.
The branches swayed as if meeting a strong gust, and the leaves scattered in all directions, scattering and dancing……
“By, by Byeokran-do. He is at Byeokran-do!”
When Lee Bang-gan stammered, it was impossible to tell whether it was acting or if he was actually being overwhelmed by Yi Bang-won’s presence.
And so,
“……Let us go. To Byeokran-do.”
When Yi Bang-won rose, Seo Tae-rok found himself clenching his fists.
Everything he’d hoped for—though he thought it would be too much to expect—was here now……with Seon-woo.
A perfect Yi Bang-won beyond compare, was right here.

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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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