I Acted Once, and Now They Call Me a Genius - Chapter 42

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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 41

 

“Jeong Hye-seong.”

 

Lee Mu-beom looked at Hye-seong.

 

His voice was serious as always.

 

Hye-seong looked up at Lee Mu-beom with a tense expression.

 

“Yes!”

 

“Personally, I have high expectations for you, Hye-seong. Can I expect that you’ve led your team to create a good stage?”

 

“Yes. You can definitely look forward to the stage! But… I don’t think I can say I led it. Everyone did so well, each and every one of them.”

 

“Is that so?”

 

Lee Mu-beom smiled quietly.

 

“That makes me look forward to it even more.”

 

Lee Mu-beom slowly looked around at Jeong Hye-seong and his team members.

 

It was a team with many points worth examining in various ways.

 

Yeon-woo, who showed surprising attention to detail,

 

Seo Jin-wook, whose raw charm was still alive,

 

Hyeong-bin, who showed glimpses of his experience in social life,

 

And Hye-seong, who could be said to be almost complete as an actor.

 

Well, among them, the one he looked forward to most was definitely Seon-woo.

 

‘How did this child understand… the silence of the mute?’

 

Lee Mu-beom had called Seon-woo a genius.

 

The superficial reason was Seon-woo’s tremendous growth rate.

 

But looking at the more fundamental reason, it would probably be Seon-woo’s sense for the heart.

 

What is acting?

 

Each actor would have a different answer to this. But Lee Mu-beom’s answer was this:

 

It is expressing the heart.

 

The reason Seon-woo’s acting ability could rise so rapidly was because his sense for understanding and perceiving that heart was several times sharper than others.

 

Because he could instinctively sense what his current acting was like and how it could shine brighter.

 

And this was Seon-woo’s mute.

 

It might seem foolish, but Lee Mu-beom’s heart was pounding at this moment.

 

He was already excited wondering what kind of fresh shock they would deliver.

 

And right now, Lee Mu-beom wasn’t the only one feeling his heart race.

 

‘…I’m a bit nervous.’

 

Seon-woo took a slow, deep breath.

 

Even though he thought he should be getting used to it by now, he still couldn’t help the tension he felt every time he stepped onto the stage.

 

The judges and participants watching him were one thing, but he kept thinking about the public who would be watching him from beyond those cameras.

 

He had already been completely edited to look like a genius in the preview.

 

If he showed mediocre acting here, the backlash would be tremendous.

 

Well, actually, this wasn’t something he was too worried about.

 

He hadn’t prepared mediocre acting.

 

However, as for the question of whether he had prepared acting worthy of being called a ‘genius’… he would have to provide that answer from now on.

 

“We’ll watch your acting.”

 

With Lee Mu-beom’s voice, the stage was plunged into darkness.

 

And shortly after, with a sharp sound, the lighting began to illuminate them.

 

More precisely, this ‘sealed room’ where they were trapped.

 

The characters wake up.

 

Eyes filled with confusion and wariness grope at each other, and further, at the sealed room.

 

The first to speak was the coward.

 

It was Yeon-woo.

 

“Wh-where is this! Wh-what are you people? Did you kidnap me?”

 

Yeon-woo’s acting was flawless as always.

 

An image with the color tone of fallen leaves was wrapping around her. An image that looked so fragile. As if it would just crumble if touched wrongly.

 

Expressiveness that could only be called truly perfect.

 

However, Yeon-woo wasn’t the only one to watch carefully on this stage.

 

“Stop talking nonsense and sit down. We’ve all been kidnapped.”

 

A murky dark purple voice began to fill the sealed room like fog.

 

It was the troublemaker, Seo Jin-wook. A sharp voice as if he would claw at someone at any moment. In fact, to Seon-woo’s eyes, the purple emotion surrounding Seo Jin-wook looked like it was sharply encircling him like a blade.

 

A delicacy that couldn’t be found in the old Seo Jin-wook.

 

He used to only know how to explode. He couldn’t utilize such precisely crafted emotions like this.

 

Evidence that he had definitely grown compared to the past.

 

“…What, what did you say! Who? Why?”

 

“If we knew that, would we be here like this?”

 

“Now, now, everyone! Calm down! I think I roughly understand this situation!”

 

And the Braggart raises his voice.

 

It was Hye-seong. A mental image of brilliant golden color with pink sparkles all over it.

 

His relaxed and cheerful voice, inappropriate for the situation, instantly eased the tense atmosphere.

 

“Preparing a room like this and all… it seems whoever locked us here really dislikes us!”

 

“…So we have a grudge against someone? Then it must be someone who has a grudge against all of us?”

 

“We don’t know that yet! But one thing we can tell is…”

 

“Noisy… is there any alcohol?”

 

A heavily slurred voice cut off Hye-seong’s words.

 

It was the Drunkard, Hyeong-bin. Should I call it murky wine color? Hyeong-bin, whose whole body was stained with the Drunkard’s mental image, looked around at everyone with unfocused eyes.

 

“Wherever this is, *hic*, I don’t care…! Alcohol! Give me alcohol!”

 

“…I’m, I’m scared. Please do something about that man.”

 

“Shut up! Give me alcohol!”

 

“But this drunkard bastard… you wanna die? Won’t you be quiet?”

 

“Heh, try killing me!”

 

The judges’ eyes sparkled as they watched Hyeong-bin.

 

Since all the other members were so outstanding, they wondered if he might fall behind… but he was performing better than expected.

 

…Had he seen that many drunkards during his company life?

 

The atmosphere that had been settling down thanks to the Braggart’s smooth talking instantly became chaotic again due to the Drunkard’s drunken behavior.

 

And amidst all that chaos…

 

“…”

 

The Mute remained quietly still.

 

And the judges’ eyes sparkled as they watched him.

 

The Mute that other teams had portrayed so far was roughly one of two types.

 

Either they directed him as a comical character who reacted as enthusiastically as possible, or they gave him some kind of mysterious feeling.

 

The ways to bring a character with no lines to life were obvious.

 

But Seon-woo’s Mute was neither of those.

 

Seon-woo’s gaze wasn’t directed at anyone.

 

He just quietly stared blankly into empty space, all alone.

 

And the other characters showed no interest in the Mute either.

 

Even if there were no special stage directions written in the script, they could have at least shared some minor interactions… but instead of doing that, they chose to simply ignore him as if Seon-woo wasn’t there at all.

 

Of course, this had been agreed upon with Seon-woo beforehand.

 

—Please ignore me completely.

 

The Mute doesn’t open his mouth.

 

Being unable to make any sound in this world. That meant he had given up on communicating with this world.

 

So people don’t pay attention to him.

 

The world, by nature, doesn’t speak first to those who have given up on communication.

 

“But, um… what does that person do?”

 

“Ignore him. He hasn’t said anything since earlier. That bastard’s weird too.”

 

That was the only moment when the Mute briefly received attention from the other characters.

 

A complete bystander. A loner who receives no interest from anyone.

 

Normally, it would be a character that couldn’t be charming no matter how well acted.

 

But why was it?

 

Right now, at this moment, the gazes of countless spectators… couldn’t tear away from Seon-woo.

 

‘What kind of person has eyes like that…’

 

They were eerily inorganic.

 

They didn’t seem like human eyes, or even animal eyes. Like doll’s eyes had been taken and attached… eyes with no light visible in them at all.

 

Just from looking at those eyes, you could tell.

 

That there was surely nothing inside that person’s heart.

 

No dreams, no hope, not even pain.

 

And at the same time, people understood.

 

That the Mute wasn’t just an extra role with no stage presence like they had thought.

 

Seong Jun-il clenched his fists.

 

Lee Mu-beom’s words echoed in his ears.

 

—If you look carefully, you might see it too. What I saw.

 

‘…Is this what you saw, Teacher?’

 

When watching good acting, a smile would always form on Seong Jun-il’s lips.

 

It was simply because it made him feel good.

 

But right now, Seong Jun-il couldn’t smile.

 

This wasn’t acting that could be dismissed with just “good.”

 

A Mute beyond imagination,

 

acting beyond imagination.

 

Yes, let’s admit it.

 

Honestly, it was shocking.

 

Actually, what Seon-woo was expressing now was simple.

 

When you can’t speak, you become disconnected from the world, and the Mute was like that too.

 

But none of the other Mutes in this place had been able to convey that simple story.

 

Not even Seong Jun-il himself.

 

‘Did we really read the same script?’

 

No. It couldn’t be.

 

It wasn’t the same script. The Mute that Seon-woo saw must be a completely different character from what Seong Jun-il had seen.

 

Seong Jun-il finally understood the word “genius” that Lee Mu-beom had brought up.

 

A genius isn’t someone who’s faster, better, or more skilled.

 

They’re just… someone whose standards are completely different from the rest.

 

Meanwhile,

 

“…Fuck, there’s not even a door, so how the hell are we supposed to get out! What do they want from us, locking us up like this!”

 

“I, I want to go out. Please let me out…!”

 

“Hehe, shit… we’re fucked. We’re so fucked~. No booze either, I’m gonna die!”

 

“…”

 

“Everyone calm down! I’m an escape room expert! I’ll find clues somehow…!”

 

“But this crazy bastard is still running his mouth and acting up. Clues my ass, what clues! Is this an escape room? You think they locked us in here to play some escape game?”

 

“…”

 

The play was gradually reaching its climax.

 

Among the extremely agitated characters, Seon-woo’s Mute remained still.

 

Not saying a word, wrapped in silence that had become natural, just staying still like that.

 

That attitude didn’t change even when the characters began facing their own weaknesses one by one and confessing their problems.

 

“…I don’t want to sober up from the alcohol, I’m scared. If you look at me with a clear mind… I’m too ugly.”

 

Even when the Drunkard cried out in tears,

 

“Yes. I also… know. The fact that I’m actually the biggest problem, I already knew that. But what can I do. At this point, what on earth can I…!”

 

Even when the Troublemaker accepted the hatred he harbored toward himself,

 

“…I had to at least have a loud voice. Otherwise, I felt like I would become too small.”

 

Even when the Braggart confessed his own wretchedness…

 

No change occurred in the Mute. He just looked at everyone with those characteristically empty eyes.

 

But as each person left the Sealed Room one by one, and when the Coward, who remained last, faced the Mute,

 

“I’m going to leave here now.”

 

“….”

 

“Aren’t you coming out?”

 

“….”

 

“…I’ll be going then.”

 

And when the lights went out… and came back on in the room where no one remained except him, the Mute finally raised his body.

 

And he stared directly at the Camera.

 

That was the moment.

 

Everyone watching Seon-woo’s face captured on the Screen… felt as if their breath would stop for an instant.

 

“…!”

 

Seon-woo’s gaze had changed.

 

Those eyes that had been endlessly close to lifeless objects slowly regained light and focus, becoming clear… like a moment when something dead was coming back to life,

 

Seon-woo’s mouth opened,

 

And the lights went out.

 

…At the same time, everyone fell into silence as if they had become mute.

 

No sound could be heard.

 

Not even the common sounds of applause or cheers, not even breathing.

 

Yes.

 

They were completely overwhelmed.

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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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