I Acted Once, and Now They Call Me a Genius - Chapter 32

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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 32

 

“Wow, our breathing is so well-matched! If we keep this up, we might even take first place!”

 

As soon as the acting ended, Yeon-woo clapped her hands and smiled brightly.

 

It was acting worthy of such praise. The emotional lines were so vividly alive that it was hard to believe this was their first time working together, and all three of them had decent basic skills to begin with.

 

However, Min-hee responded in a businesslike voice.

 

“Sorry to throw cold water on this, but this is an individual competition, not a team one.”

 

“Oh, right. I was having so much fun acting with you two that I completely forgot.”

 

Seon-woo looked at Yeon-woo and sighed inwardly.

 

If only this wasn’t all acting, he would have thought she was a really good person.

 

But it was awkward to say anything about it. Yeon-woo was showing the best possible behavior she could as a team member.

 

“Na-hee blaming Min-seok to avoid blaming herself needs to be unconsciously underlying everything.”

 

“Wouldn’t it be good to make your eye movement feel a bit more anxious?”

 

“Your breathing is too fast. I think it would be better if you slowed it down.”

 

Even her feedback made her seem like someone who truly thought this was a team competition rather than an individual one.

 

For a moment, he even had that thought.

 

Even if it was acting, did he really need to view someone acting like a good person negatively?

 

Whenever that happened, Seon-woo reminded himself.

 

No matter what, when dealing with people, going beyond wearing a mask to actually acting as a completely different character was still problematic.

 

He shouldn’t let his guard down too much.

 

But it seemed like that was noticeable after all.

 

It was when Yeon-woo had stepped away for a moment. Min-hee quietly spoke up.

 

“You find Yeon-woo a bit uncomfortable, don’t you?”

 

“…Was it that obvious?”

 

“Yeah. You’re not usually the type to put up walls, but you’re specifically keeping your distance from Yeon-woo.”

 

“Haha…”

 

Seon-woo laughed awkwardly. He couldn’t exactly say it was because that person was constantly acting.

 

But Min-hee nodded as if she understood.

 

“She’s not an ordinary girl. She is strange.”

 

“In what way?”

 

“Well, just a woman’s intuition, I guess.”

 

Min-hee shrugged her shoulders.

 

“It’s just something feels off. But I’m trying not to worry about it too much. Everyone in the world is weird anyway. You too.”

 

“…Me?”

 

Seon-woo looked at Min-hee with a dumbfounded expression.

 

Why are the sparks suddenly flying this way?

 

Min-hee looked at Seon-woo as if she found it absurd.

 

“What. You’re not weird?”

 

“Of course not. I think I’m extremely normal.”

 

“Even thinking that is weird.”

 

“…”

 

Seon-woo looked at Min-hee with a shocked face.

 

Min-hee chuckled and shook her head.

 

“Anyway, so what if she’s a bit suspicious. Just don’t open your heart to her. Then she won’t be able to do anything to you.”

 

After saying that much, Min-hee muttered in a momentarily melancholic voice.

 

“…Well, the human heart doesn’t always do what we want though.”

 

Her expression was dark.

 

Come to think of it, her expression had been like that ever since yesterday’s four-person play mission.

 

Seon-woo opened his mouth with a deliberately worried face.

 

“Senior, is something wrong by any chance?”

 

“No. What could be wrong.”

 

“But you keep looking unwell.”

 

“…”

 

Min-hee let out a bitter smile.

 

And soon opened her mouth with a sigh.

 

“Don’t worry. It really wasn’t anything serious.”

 

“That’s a relief then.”

 

“It’s just… you know the people who did the four-person play with me besides Yeon-woo.”

 

“Yes.”

 

“I really wanted to get the Golden Ticket.”

 

So that was the reason.

 

Seon-woo nodded. He felt like he could roughly understand what kind of situation it had been.

 

“Well, everyone here is the same, but… those people were also desperate for this opportunity. So I wanted to win for them. No, I hoped to win. For those people.”

 

“…I think I understand how you felt.”

 

Hadn’t Seon-woo himself aimed for the Golden Ticket with the same feelings?

 

If he ultimately hadn’t received it, and Hyeong-bin and Si-on had been eliminated… he probably wouldn’t have felt very good about it.

 

But it was a bit unexpected.

 

Since he had always thought of her as just a stoic senior, he hadn’t known she had such a tender side.

 

“Seon-woo.”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Don’t get eliminated before I do.”

 

Min-hee looked at Seon-woo.

 

It didn’t feel like a casual remark. Her tone seemed like she was making a sincere request.

 

Thinking that answering too seriously would make the atmosphere too heavy, Seon-woo deliberately replied cheekily.

 

“You too, senior.”

 

“Right. Let’s try to survive together as long as we can. …But you know.”

 

“Yes?”

 

Min-hee suddenly hardened her expression.

 

A serious atmosphere. As Seon-woo looked at her with unnecessary tension, she opened her mouth with a grave voice.

 

“How long are you going to keep calling me senior?”

 

“Pardon?”

 

“Call me noona.”

 

Seon-woo fell silent for a moment.

 

Was it too sudden? Just as Min-hee was about to scratch under her nose in embarrassment,

 

“…But we’re the same age?”

 

An unexpected answer came back.

 

Min-hee froze in place and turned to look at Seon-woo, opening and closing her mouth.

 

“…You’re twenty-six?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Born in 2000?”

 

“Year of the Dragon.”

 

“…”

 

“….”

 

“….”

 

“….”

 

“Let’s practice.”

 

“Yes, senior.”

 

* * *

 

Joy, Anger, Sorrow, Pleasure.

 

If someone asked Seon-woo to rank these emotions in order of difficulty, he would answer like this.

 

In the order of Sadness (Sorrow), Rage (Anger), Joy, and Pleasure.

 

It seemed people’s thoughts weren’t much different.

 

7 people for Sadness.

 

11 people for Rage.

 

15 people for Joy.

 

And lastly, 19 people for Pleasure.

 

Rage wasn’t too bad just looking at the number of participants.

 

Making it to the top ranks among 11 people would be easier than among 19 people.

 

The problem was that those 11 people were generally high-level.

 

Right off the bat, Min-hee, Jae-won, and Yeon-woo were all in the same Rage category.

 

If he couldn’t beat at least one of them, he wouldn’t even make it to the top ranks.

 

‘I need to get at least 3rd place…’

 

He could already see how treacherous this journey would be.

 

And Si-on’s situation wasn’t much different.

 

“I’m scared…”

 

Night.

 

Si-on hugged his pillow with a gloomy face.

 

“There are only people who are too good. I feel like I… won’t be of any help.”

 

“You don’t need to be helpful. It’s an individual competition anyway.”

 

“Still, I feel like I’ll somehow disrupt the flow in the middle…”

 

What Si-on had chosen was Sadness.

 

He wondered why Si-on had chosen such a difficult emotion, but Seon-woo could only nod at Si-on’s answer.

 

“I find sad acting the most fun and enjoyable… so that’s why I chose it.”

 

Well, acting is best when you follow your heart’s direction.

 

He had chosen anger for the same reason.

 

“Don’t think about too many things.”

 

Seon-woo patted Si-on’s shoulder.

 

“Just think about what kind of acting you want to do.”

 

Ironically, this was advice that Seon-woo needed as well.

 

The scoring system was like that. You try to think only about acting, but when you see the quantified results right before your eyes… you can’t help but want to score more points.

 

In that outside world, the real field, money would probably be that score.

 

In a way, maybe the production team was showing them in advance. What kind of dilemmas they might face as actors.

 

‘Am I reading too much into this?’

 

Anyway, the important thing was that focusing on acting was the right answer.

 

He had to show good acting. It was obvious that doing so would naturally lead to better results too.

 

Seon-woo thought about his current acting.

 

Setting aside whether it was 7 points or 8 points… about what kind of acting he was doing now.

 

‘Shallow.’

 

Yes. It was shallow.

 

Seon-woo recalled Do-young’s acting.

 

An enormous depth that seemed overwhelming just to face.

 

But while Seon-woo’s emotions were clear and intense, they weren’t grand.

 

He couldn’t refine emotions into beautiful forms like Min-hee, nor could he show the detail of controlling every strand of emotion like Yeon-woo.

 

It meant he was lacking in all aspects.

 

“Maybe you’ve never felt that level of rage before?”

 

And Min-hee’s reaction to that was as above.

 

“Can you express emotions you’ve never felt? I think it’s difficult. That’s why they say actors need to experience many different things.”

 

He had never felt proper rage.

 

It wasn’t wrong. In reality, Seon-woo wasn’t the type to get angry easily.

 

Though he could feel anger through the Color Orb, what the Color Orb allowed Seon-woo to experience were emotions within the bounds of what Seon-woo could ‘imagine.’

 

Meaning the Color Orb wasn’t omnipotent.

 

“But I think your acting is good right now too. It feels like the kind of reaction an ordinary college student would show, so I like it.”

 

“But shouldn’t we also consider that we’re ultimately people who act in plays?”

 

It wasn’t Seon-woo who asked that question.

 

It was Yeon-woo. She crossed her arms and tilted her head.

 

“Even if they’re ordinary college students, when actors perform, those characters can’t be ordinary. They need to show vivid, exaggerated emotions that are hard to see in reality. That’s what the public wants.”

 

“…Well, that’s true too.”

 

Min-hee didn’t bother to argue back.

 

Yeon-woo looked back at Seon-woo. Though she was smiling, her face remained unreadable as always.

 

“But Seon-woo, can emotions only be expressed if you actually feel them?”

 

“…Not necessarily, but don’t you need to feel them to some degree?”

 

“I think emotions are ultimately technique.”

 

It was an extremely radical claim.

 

But since it was Yeon-woo saying it, it wasn’t something to dismiss outright. After all, Yeon-woo was demonstrating superior acting ability here more than anyone else.

 

“How do people tell when someone is angry? They judge based on what they can see. The tone becomes sharp, breathing gets rough, the body trembles, veins bulge, the face turns red… the voice gets louder. If you consciously control all of that, couldn’t you express any emotion even if you’ve never experienced it?”

 

“…Do you act that way, Yeon-woo?”

 

“Oh.”

 

Instead of answering Seon-woo’s question immediately, Yeon-woo let out an exclamation. She might have sensed the hidden intention behind that question. At this moment, Seon-woo was thinking about all the acting Yeon-woo usually displayed.

 

Yeon-woo’s eyes narrowed.

 

And the refreshing sky blue aura surrounding her also dimmed.

 

Of course, it was only for a brief moment. Yeon-woo smiled brightly again, and soon the sky blue aura, thick as a blanket, wrapped around her once more.

 

“Yes. There’s somewhat that feeling to it.”

 

“…Then what do you think from your perspective?”

 

Seon-woo openly asked for help.

 

Though he didn’t agree with everything this person said, he acknowledged that emotions needed to be approached somewhat technically.

 

Was it because he started acting through Color Orbs?

 

Seon-woo felt like he was doing acting that was too driven by emotions. Of course, that wasn’t necessarily bad, but if things continued this way, he would only end up dependent on Color Orbs.

 

He had to do something too.

 

“How do you think my emotions could come more alive?”

 

Yeon-woo answered as if she had been waiting for this.

 

“Try enhancing your physical response. Add more of a panting feeling to your breathing, and when you furrow your brows, scrunch your forehead too, and put more tension in your body. So much that it feels uncomfortable to move.”

 

“Yes.”

 

It was surprisingly detailed coaching.

 

But what was even more surprising was the change that occurred when he actually acted that way.

 

“It’s not our fault. So please just stop. Stop it—!”

 

“Stop? How can I stop? I did something wrong. Right?”

 

At the timing to counter Yeon-woo’s lines, Seon-woo applied all the advice she had given him.

 

And he was amazed. Just by tensing his body with full strength… Min-seok’s color that had been circling only around him, that angry emotion began to overflow.

 

Yes, just like waves.

 

Thanks to that,

 

“Wow~ You’re doing it right away? Your learning ability is extraordinary.”

 

“Right. Good. That was the most refreshing one I’ve seen so far? It’s definitely different.”

 

Yeon-woo and Min-hee also nodded with exclamations.

 

Seon-woo felt strangely moved. He had never thought of emotion as a technique before, but this actually worked.

 

‘When I released tension during the four-person play, that was also a technical approach to emotion in a way.’

 

The character Seon-woo had handled then, Second Son, was in an extremely sharp state due to work stress.

 

But when he showed himself somehow suppressing it, not only did the way his color radiated become more stable… it also became a character more suitable for others to harmonize with.

 

“….”

 

Seon-woo’s eyes grew serious.

 

He felt like he was finally starting to understand.

 

How to handle this color.

 

How to do this thing called acting.

 

That’s why.

 

“Yeon-woo.”

 

“Yes?”

 

Seon-woo looked at Yeon-woo.

 

Whether Yeon-woo was acting or whatever, that didn’t matter right now.

 

What mattered was that the advice Yeon-woo had given him was very effective.

 

“Is there anything else you’d like to point out?”

 

He had to learn.

—————
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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