I Acted Once, and Now They Call Me a Genius - Chapter 31

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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 31

 

‘I need to aim for the top ranks.’

 

Seon-woo quickly organized his thoughts.

 

‘Then it would be good to choose an emotion with as few people as possible…’

 

He looked around.

 

Other people’s eyes were also darting around, and it seemed they had roughly calculated what kind of situation this was.

 

What remained was a battle of wits.

 

‘Who’s there is more important than having fewer people.’

 

Even if there were fewer people, if he chose the same emotion as people like Jae-won or Hye-seong… the competition for top ranks would become that much harder.

 

“What are you going to do, Seon-woo?”

 

Just then, a voice that had become somewhat familiar reached him from the side.

 

He could tell who it was without turning around. The sky-blue aura carried in the voice from behind fluttered and hovered before his eyes.

 

It was Yeon-woo.

 

“Well, I’m still thinking about it. What about you, Yeon-woo?”

 

“Hmm, I’m also a bit conflicted. Joy, anger, sorrow, pleasure… The interesting ones would probably be ‘anger’ or ‘sorrow’.”

 

Rage and sadness.

 

Seon-woo agreed with this part too. In a way, for someone who had done some acting, these were more comfortable emotions than ‘joy’ or ‘pleasure’.

 

Because rage and sadness had such clear colors.

 

But ‘joy’ and ‘pleasure’ were rather ambiguous when it came to properly expressing their characteristics.

 

That meant there was much more to be careful about when acting them.

 

However,

 

‘This person probably doesn’t need to worry about that.’

 

She was someone whose every daily moment was a continuous performance.

 

Wouldn’t these everyday emotions actually be easier for her to act?

 

Seon-woo shook his head. This wasn’t the time to think about others.

 

What emotion should he try acting?

 

‘It’s about time I did some intense acting.’

 

In the preliminaries, he had performed a young love scene from [Fair and Square Love], and yesterday he had done an irritable performance in [Three Brothers].

 

Well, both emotional lines were quite interesting in themselves… but they felt a bit lacking to create real impact.

 

That’s why anger or sorrow were more appealing.

 

He wanted to show the viewers at least once. Not gentle acting, but stimulating and explosive acting.

 

Seon-woo decided to first observe what emotions people were choosing.

 

It would be better to choose an emotion that could compete for higher rankings.

 

Ye-chan seemed to have the same thought. He quietly approached Seon-woo and asked.

 

“Hyung, what are you going to do?”

 

“I’m thinking of going with either anger or sorrow.”

 

“You too, hyung?”

 

“Who else is there?”

 

“Jae-won hyung and Min-hee noona said they’re going that way too. Actually, they both said they’re going with anger!”

 

“…That won’t be easy. What about Hye-seong sunbae?”

 

“Hye-seong hyung is going with pleasure!”

 

“That’s so like Hye-seong sunbae.”

 

Seon-woo nodded.

 

Hye-seong had practically monopolized the lively supporting roles at Cheongseong.

 

There probably wasn’t anyone here who could handle the emotion of joy better than Hye-seong.

 

But who would have thought that both Min-hee and Jae-won would choose ‘anger’.

 

In this case, it would be more rational to choose ‘sorrow’. There was no need to compete against Min-hee and Jae-won unnecessarily.

 

However,

 

“Hyung, you’re going with anger, right?”

 

“…No? Why do you think that?”

 

“Hyung always chooses the hard path. I thought you were planning to go there again because Jae-won hyung and Min-hee noona are there.”

 

“What am I, some kind of masochist? I don’t like difficult things either.”

 

When did his image become like this?

 

It seemed people really thought he was the type of person who deliberately chose only rough paths to challenge himself.

 

Seon-woo wasn’t such a foolish person.

 

…Or was he,

 

‘…Why am I drawn to that side?’

 

Seon-woo’s expression became subtle.

 

Even though he knew that going with anger would be asking for trouble, it suddenly started catching his eye.

 

Was it because he hadn’t properly gotten angry recently?

 

Maybe something had been building up inside.

 

Anyway,

 

【 Time is up. 】

 

【 Now participants, please gather in front of the flag for the emotion you’ve chosen. 】

 

When Seong Jun-il’s voice echoed through the room, Seon-woo felt that his mind had finally been made up for certain.

 

And when he came to his senses…

 

“So we meet here?”

 

“…Yes, senior.”

 

He was already standing between Jae-won and Min-hee.

 

Jae-won looked at Seon-woo with a slight smile.

 

“Looks like we’ll be fighting each other. Please go easy on me, Seon-woo.”

 

“…That’s actually what I wanted to say to you.”

 

“Neither of you has any intention of going easy, so what’s the point.”

 

Min-hee clicked her tongue and shook her head.

 

She was right. If they went easy, it was obvious they wouldn’t even get bone-in scraps, so how could they go easy?

 

Moreover…

 

“Wow, I get to see everyone here~!”

 

An unexpected strong opponent appeared.

 

Yeon-woo was giggling and waving her hand. It seemed she had also chosen anger acting.

 

Seon-woo inwardly sighed. He had hoped they wouldn’t meet here, but it ended up this way after all.

 

It wasn’t that he wanted to avoid her because she was a strong opponent. If he had been concerned about that, he wouldn’t have chosen anger in the first place.

 

It was just that Yeon-woo as a person made him somewhat uncomfortable.

 

‘Come to think of it…’

 

Seon-woo’s eyes narrowed.

 

He suddenly got the feeling that Yeon-woo had followed him.

 

It seemed like she had been hovering around him since yesterday.

 

But no matter how he thought about it, this was too much of an overactive imagination. There was no reason for her to do that.

 

【 Now, everyone will receive a script corresponding to the emotion you’ve selected. 】

 

【 Inside the script, there will be 2-person or 3-person scenarios that match the emotions each of you chose. You’ll need to find partners and select the scenario you want to practice. 】

 

【 Please note that scores will be calculated individually, not by team. 】

 

【 Well then, I wish you all the best. 】

 

Just as his thoughts were about to wander, Seong Jun-il’s voice cut them off perfectly.

 

Seon-woo let out a groan.

 

So it was either a 2-person or 3-person play.

 

‘Who should I team up with?’

 

He needed good teammates.

 

Even though scores were individual, working with good actors would make it easier to deliver better acting.

 

“Seon-woo.”

 

Just then, Min-hee called out to Seon-woo.

 

She opened her mouth with a face that still looked a bit tired.

 

“Want to team up with me?”

 

“Oh, that sounds great to me.”

 

“Alright. Let’s do it together.”

 

“Ahem!”

 

And that was the moment.

 

Yeon-woo cleared her throat and started hovering around them.

 

Min-hee chuckled and turned to look at Yeon-woo.

 

“What, want to team up too?”

 

“By any chance… could I join you guys?”

 

“Well, I don’t really mind.”

 

Min-hee turned to look at Seon-woo.

 

“What do you think?”

 

“…Should we look at the script first and then decide?”

 

That was the best defense Seon-woo could prepare.

 

If they liked the 2-person play script, it wouldn’t be strange to turn down Yeon-woo. Min-hee nodded.

 

“Yeah. Let’s do that. Is that okay?”

 

“Yes! Of course.”

 

Yeon-woo nodded with a pretty smile, showing no signs of being upset.

 

He breathed a sigh of relief for now. Seon-woo felt relieved as he continued reading through the script.

 

How many pages had he turned through like that?

 

“…This one’s here too.”

 

Seon-woo let out an exclamation.

 

It was a scene from a movie he liked. A disaster film called [Swell Wave Forecast]. The story of friends who came to travel to a seaside town, only to get swept up in a tsunami and struggle to survive.

 

And this was the scene where they eventually lose one of their group to the tsunami, and the remaining three friends fight among themselves.

 

Right, three friends.

 

“Swell Wave Forecast is good. You want to do that one?”

 

Perhaps it was because she saw Seon-woo’s expression become serious.

 

Min-hee asked casually. Seon-woo hesitated before nodding his head.

 

“Yes. This one is good, but…”

 

“Then let’s do it.”

 

“…Yes, let’s do that.”

 

The problem was that if they did this, there would be no excuse to refuse Yeon-woo…

 

Seon-woo steeled his resolve.

 

Right. It’s not like Yeon-woo was some kind of monster anyway.

 

Rather than continuing to be ambiguously wary like this, it might be okay to properly see what kind of person she was once.

 

‘I need to properly understand her before I can decide whether to keep my distance or not.’

 

In the end,

 

“Have you decided?”

 

“Yes, let’s work together. We’re going to do [Swell Wave Forecast] – would that be okay with you?”

 

“Yes! I absolutely love it!”

 

And so they decided to work together with Yeon-woo.

 

There wasn’t any particular conflict, more than expected. The only thing that could have caused conflict was role selection, but even this part worked out since they each wanted different characters, so there was no need for confrontation.

 

Min-hee would play Na-hee, the girlfriend of Ji-soo who died swept away by the tsunami.

 

Seon-woo would play Min-seok, who forcibly dragged Na-hee away when she tried to save the dying Ji-soo.

 

And lastly, Yeon-woo would play Do-yoon, who stayed one step removed from all of it, but eventually explodes when Na-hee and Min-seok start fighting.

 

‘Honestly, the combination isn’t bad.’

 

If this had been a team competition, it would have been quite a powerful team.

 

It was almost regrettable that this was an individual evaluation rather than a group evaluation.

 

But just because it was an individual evaluation didn’t mean there were any problems with teamwork. Not to mention Min-hee, even Yeon-woo, to the point where his previous wariness seemed pointless…

 

“Don’t you think it would be better to suppress the emotion a bit more in this part?”

 

She was taking the lead in giving feedback to this extent.

 

Moreover, that feedback didn’t feel like it was just thrown out carelessly.

 

“Let the anger flow out little by little… Instead of deliberately trying to explode, something more like this, you know, holding back and holding back until you can’t help but burst? That kind of feeling would be better.”

 

“That’s definitely true.”

 

What he felt while acting together this time was that Yeon-woo’s ability to handle emotions technically was at an astounding level.

 

Her ability to approach and analyze emotions logically felt superior to Seon-woo’s, no, superior to anyone he had ever seen.

 

‘Well, this is probably why she’s always acting in her daily life too.’

 

Such a thought crossed his mind for a moment.

 

Maybe she was so serious about acting that she acted even in her daily life? It might be a kind of training.

 

But Seon-woo inwardly shook his head.

 

To brush it off like that, he couldn’t shake off this strangely cold feeling.

 

Even so, wouldn’t someone who’s always acting even in daily life be somewhat strange?

 

He didn’t know.

 

This wasn’t a problem he could solve right now. There was no need to find an answer either.

 

For now, he just needed to focus on acting.

 

Seon-woo brought up Min-seok’s Color Orb.

 

Min-seok’s Base Color was originally blue.

 

But having lost a friend in a sudden disaster and having his life threatened, that color was now darkly tainted.

 

It was a color like looking into the night sea. When acting, it felt like his very soul was getting soaked… a color containing terrible fear and panic.

 

“What was I supposed to do in that situation? If we’d been even 10 seconds late, we would’ve been swept away too. What could I have done? Just let you die?”

 

He delivered the lines.

 

Not just delivering them. Seon-woo’s goal was to compress this color that Min-seok possessed as much as possible, so that wherever his voice reached, it could be stained with his damp emotions.

 

Simply put, he wanted to dominate the stage.

 

“You should have let me die! At least you should have let me decide whether to stay there or not! Who are you to drag me and run! Huh? Why… why did you make me survive…!”

 

“Stop… please, both of you stop.”

 

But against Min-hee, that was never an easy task.

 

A huge forsythia-colored flower bloomed around Min-hee.

 

A flower that had tightly closed its buds to protect itself, with petals rotting here and there.

 

A heartbreaking image just to look at.

 

It was a visual that made you understand at a glance what the human heart looks like when torn and defiled by terrible disaster.

 

“I had no choice. If I hadn’t dragged you out then, you would have died too!”

 

“Right. But you didn’t have to abandon Ji-soo! Who are you to save me? Huh?”

 

“Does that even make sense? Should I apologize for saving your life?”

 

“You didn’t save me, you stole from me. You didn’t even give me the chance to make that final choice. Ji-soo, Ji-soo was looking at me until the very end…!”

 

Even while acting, Seon-woo was newly amazed.

 

It was acting that made him instantly understand why Min-hee always secured the female lead roles in Cheongseong.

 

‘How can the emission of color be this beautiful?’

 

Min-seok’s color that he had painstakingly painted was barely noticeable in comparison.

 

But right now, Min-hee wasn’t the only one to pay attention to.

 

“I told you to stop!”

 

Yeon-woo raised her voice. After trying and trying to stop the fight between Seon-woo and Min-hee, she finally exploded.

 

And that was the moment.

 

‘The color…!’

 

A hedgehog.

 

That was the first image that came to mind. Pale, sickly colors rose up around Yeon-woo like spikes.

 

As if trying to pierce everything around her.

 

And indeed, the colors that Seon-woo and Min-hee had created were being torn apart helplessly the moment they touched Yeon-woo’s color.

 

He hadn’t known that color could be sharpened this keenly.

 

“What’s the point of fighting each other right now! It’s nobody’s fault!”

 

Amazing.

 

Seon-woo was honestly impressed.

 

It was perfect acting ability. Breathing, expression, gesture, tone… nothing felt awkward.

 

He could tell.

 

This person was controlling every single detail when it came to emotional acting.

 

It was truly an overwhelming performance.

 

‘…I have to compete for rankings with people like this?’

 

For a moment, he lost confidence.

 

It was inevitable. Just from those few lines of dialogue, he could tell.

 

This person was several levels above Seon-woo when it came to acting.

 

But Seon-woo steeled his resolve.

 

Didn’t the old saying go that even if you enter a tiger’s den, you can survive if you keep your wits about you?

 

In the end, it’s a matter of mindset.

 

If you set your mind to it, you can do it.

 

You can do it, but…

 

“It just… it just couldn’t be helped. It’s not our fault. So please just stop. Stop it—!”

 

Watching Yeon-woo’s thorns rise again, tearing through their facade, Seon-woo let out a hollow laugh.

 

…Could he really do it?

—————
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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