I Acted Once, and Now They Call Me a Genius - Chapter 82

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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 82

Every character has their own Color Orb.

Then what about real people in reality? Do they also have their own Color Orbs?

Seon-woo naturally thought they would.

Color ultimately means the heart.

Everyone would have their own Color Orb.

Seon-woo had been curious about his color for a long time.

What color would his heart be shining?

What Seon-woo hoped for was pastel tones.

Light yellow, light green, sky blue… He thought it would be nice if it were such calm and pretty colors.

Of course, it was just wishful thinking.

Even he thought he wasn’t such a bright person.

Realistically speaking, Seon-woo thought the colors he could covet were limited to vivid blue or cool silver embracing a rainbow.

Right.

At least he didn’t know he would have such a gloomy and menacing color.

‘This is my color?’

Seon-woo stared blankly down at his body for a long time.

Gray mist wrapped around him tightly, and occasionally bright red light burst through the mist like lava.

It felt like he had become a bubbling lava human.

Seon-woo couldn’t understand it.

After meeting Acting, surely… he should have become more colorful.

He thought he had.

Why was his mental image still showing such colors?

‘Does Writer Ryu… know the answer?’

Probably so.

Since he wrote this script. If he met him, he could ask about this… Seon-woo ended up chuckling at that thought.

To think he wanted to meet that creepy person. He never thought the day would come when he’d have such thoughts.

Seon-woo let out a sigh.

“Can’t be helped.”

He had to accept it for now.

That he was a human with such Color Tone anyway.

In the old days, he might have been a bit shocked by this situation.

Not even the old days. Even until the early stages of filming [One Room], if he had known his Color Orb was like this… he would have been quite discouraged.

But now, while this was shocking, it wasn’t discouraging.

That’s because,

—People are… shining in their own way from their respective positions.

He had learned that being gloomy doesn’t mean not shining.

Seon-woo had spoken so confidently in front of the Judges. So now he couldn’t be discouraged just because his color was exactly the same as Kim Seon-woo’s.

Though he was still curious about why his mental image was such a color… that could be pondered later.

For now, he had to analyze what effect this changed Color had on his Acting.

‘Kim Seon-woo is already absorbed in this game.’

He could feel it.

Kim Seon-woo was completely captivated by ‘One Room’.

Just like when Seon-woo first encountered Acting.

In a way, only the object they gave their hearts to was different, Seon-woo wasn’t much different from Kim Seon-woo.

Seon-woo through Acting, Kim Seon-woo through One Room… they felt they were alive.

Anyway, since it was such a familiar Emotional Line, expressing this didn’t feel that difficult.

Rather, the problem was in a completely unexpected place.

It was that afternoon.

“It, it was you, wasn’t it?”

He felt the change right after entering filming.

Precisely, it was after he started coordinating with others.

“…What?”

“You kept saying that. That we should eliminate that person. Since things weren’t going your way, you went and killed him! Right?”

‘…The colors.’

Though it was very brief, Seon-woo felt his Immersion waver for a moment.

It couldn’t be helped. When the colors others emitted while Acting reached Seon-woo… their emotions rushed to Seon-woo like a tide.

‘What is this?’

He had experienced something similar before.

When Seon-woo first acted with Do-young in the past, he felt his Immersion break as he was overwhelmed by Do-young’s emotions.

But now was different from then.

Their emotions weren’t as overwhelming as Do-young’s… and Seon-woo’s Acting wasn’t lacking either.

Then why exactly…

‘…Is this because I have more composure?’

That was the answer that came to mind.

Kim Seon-woo’s emotions were too familiar to Seon-woo now. So perhaps he even had the composure to feel other people’s emotions.

It wasn’t a very good phenomenon.

If he made a mistake, he might not be able to focus sufficiently on Kim Seon-woo’s emotions.

Especially in this scene, that danger became even more pronounced.

“You never know. I might be the one who killed that person.”

A scene where Lee Yeon-woo and Kim Seon-woo subtly probe each other.

“…Hmm, I don’t think that’s it.”

“Why not?”

“Just because. I just somehow don’t think it is.”

Every time Lee Yeon-woo’s mouth opened, every time that voice dyed in clear sky blue approached him, he could feel Lee Yeon-woo’s subtly chilling emotion. Utterly human yet simultaneously inorganic, he could feel Lee Yeon-woo’s twisted heart.

Dangerous.

His immersion wasn’t just wavering—it felt like his mental image would gradually be dyed in Lee Yeon-woo’s color…

“———Cut!”

What saved Seon-woo was Park Myeong-jin’s cut signal.

Seon-woo let out a sigh of relief.

Just maintaining immersion had been overwhelming.

It must have been terrible acting.

And,

“Seon-woo.”

“Yes.”

“Your emotional line is quite unique?”

As expected, Park Myeong-jin immediately pointed out Seon-woo’s change as soon as the acting ended.

Seon-woo lowered his head with an embarrassed expression.

“I’m sorry. I was trying to express Kim Seon-woo’s change, but it seems I fell a bit short.”

“Hmm…?”

Park Myeong-jin tilted his head.

Watching Park Myeong-jin like that, Seon-woo felt his heart sink again.

What now? What else was wrong? Just as he was thinking that,

“Why are you apologizing? I thought that acting just now was really good.”

Words he hadn’t expected at all came out of Park Myeong-jin’s mouth.

Seon-woo looked at Park Myeong-jin with a dumbfounded expression.

“It was… good?”

…Why?

* * *

That day, Seon-woo had to adapt to this unexpected change throughout the entire shoot.

Every time he acted with someone, Seon-woo was captivated by each color they emanated. He was swept away and captivated by their emotions.

But the most bewildering thing was that in all those scenes, Park Myeong-jin showed the reaction of,

“Good. Let’s continue just like this.”

Surely it must have been a much more unstable performance compared to before, and it wouldn’t be strange to think he couldn’t immerse himself in the character, yet Park Myeong-jin approved.

And that presented a new perspective for Seon-woo.

‘…Maybe my immersion wasn’t broken after all?’

Thinking about it, at some point Seon-woo had been thinking that he shouldn’t be influenced by other people’s acting.

There was no particular reason.

Because immersion was basically something you only did for your own character.

Of course, you had to interact with other characters, but if you were swayed by their emotions, it would ultimately lead to character breakdown—that’s what he had thought.

‘But Kim Seon-woo is a character who has no choice but to react more sensitively to other people from the start.’

Kim Seon-woo was an empty person.

And being that empty, he was also someone who filled his own heart by looking into others’ hearts.

Then reacting more sensitively to others’ emotions like this… might actually be the most Kim Seon-woo-like behavior of all.

‘…Am I doing this in reality too?’

That question occurred to him for a moment, but Seon-woo didn’t think more deeply about it.

There was no time to spare for self-exploration right now. He needed to be certain about how to act.

Park Myeong-jin was giving good evaluations for now, but… receiving good scores for acting he wasn’t confident about was meaningless.

If he was going to receive praise, it should be for acting he intended.

Otherwise, all of this would just remain a stroke of luck.

Seon-woo decided to change his thinking for now.

If reacting to other characters’ emotions didn’t lead to character breakdown… wouldn’t it be better to accept those emotions rather than guard against them?

So when he entered filming again,

“Are you okay?”

“Ah… yes. I think I’m the one who should be saying that. Your cheek is quite swollen.”

“Well, it’s fine. What’s a swollen cheek in this situation? Rather, you’ve seemed out of it since this morning, Seon-woo. You were… close with Park Moon-hyeon, weren’t you?”

Seon-woo began to feel Lee Yeon-woo’s sky-blue voice touching his skin exactly as it was.

Cool. A texture that seemed soft yet firm. A feeling that somehow brought to mind the scent of summer ocean.

Within it was contained Lee Yeon-woo’s essence.

Perhaps it might be Yeon-woo’s essence.

His intuition spoke before his thoughts could process it.

Lee Yeon-woo must have worked very diligently to produce this voice.

To have that smile that wouldn’t be ignored by anyone, wouldn’t be hated by anyone, he must have practiced thousands and tens of thousands of times in front of the mirror.

And beyond that effort, Lee Yeon-woo’s desire to ‘live’ was felt so vividly that,

“Rather than being close… we had some conversations.”

Seon-woo smiled.

In the script, this scene describes Kim Seon-woo as ‘smiling bitterly.’

Seon-woo had thought that bitterness was about the dead Park Moon-hyeon. But right now, in this moment, he thought that might not be the case.

‘Kim Seon-woo might have seen through Lee Yeon-woo’s true nature.’

He probably didn’t see through to the fact that Lee Yeon-woo was a serial killer.

But he must have sensed it intuitively. That she wasn’t as completely innocent as she appeared on the surface.

Once he realized this, he had a better sense of how to act.

“…But, it’s strange.”

“What is?”

“For someone going through something difficult, your face looks pretty good.”

“My face…?”

“Yes. Just looking at your face, you look like someone who got a good night’s sleep. Oh, is it rude of me to say that?”

“You’re a strange person.”

It was an unfamiliar feeling. If before it felt like he was just reciting lines… now it felt like the lines were rising from within his heart.

It felt like those were the only words he could say in this moment.

“Me?”

“Yes, the way you don’t lose strength even in this situation… Everyone’s pretending otherwise but they’re all wary of each other. Aren’t you scared of me? You never know. I might be the one who killed that person.”

“…Hmm, I don’t think that’s the case.”

“Why?”

“Just because. For some reason, I just don’t think so.”

Color layered upon color.

The subtle current created by emotions intertwining with emotions.

The picture drawn by that current felt much clearer than before.

And in that process, Seon-woo quietly realized.

In the end, acting was like brushstrokes.

Completely different results appeared depending on what color you used and how much force you applied.

Looking at it this way, he could see how clumsy his previous acting had been.

It was like putting a little paint on canvas and saying, look, I made such a pretty color.

‘…Am I only now taking my first step?’

In terms of painting, it was the stage of just learning how to mix paints.

Seon-woo decided to think of it as the stage of just beginning to hold a brush.

And apparently, that wasn’t just his own thought.

“———Bravo! Great! So good!”

When the acting ended, Park Myeong-jin was beaming with joy.

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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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