I Acted Once, and Now They Call Me a Genius - Chapter 96

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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 96

“Well, thank you all for your hard work today!”

When all is said and done, this would probably be the moment the actors look forward to most.

Right now, when Park Myeong-jin’s voice flows out announcing the end of filming.

It couldn’t be helped.

No matter how much you love acting, after spending all day on edge and waiting around, you’re bound to want to rest.

Seon-woo let out a sigh.

‘…I’m drained.’

Still, fortunately he had managed to get Park Myeong-jin’s okay sign.

Up until he first faced off against Lee Mu-beom, he had wondered if he might not be able to pull off a single scene all day, but he had avoided the worst-case scenario.

‘No, actually this might even be considered the best outcome.’

It had been acting done half on instinct, but Park Myeong-jin seemed to have viewed it favorably.

Should he call it good luck?

“No, that wasn’t luck.”

But Min-hee shook her head at those words.

“I just acted according to my feelings though?”

“You kept thinking about it to get those feelings.”

“But I acted without properly analyzing those feelings?”

“Well, do actors have to analyze everything? That’s a critic’s job.”

Min-hee shrugged her shoulders.

“In the end, what’s most important for us is properly expressing our feelings. That’s what I think. …Though it’s a bit much for someone who got eliminated first to say this.”

“Ah, there you go again. We agreed not to worry too much about that.”

“But I still can’t help worrying about it.”

Pffft.

Min-hee exhaled and made her lips flutter.

Then she glanced sideways at Seon-woo.

“But you consistently treat me well as a senior, right? Even though we’re the same age.”

“Wouldn’t it be more awkward to be friends at this point?”

“…Well, it would be kind of creepy if you called me Min-hee.”

“Should I try it once?”

“No, please just get lost.”

That’s a bit harsh.

When Seon-woo put on a deliberately hurt expression, Min-hee burst into laughter. Using that good acting ability for something like this.

“By the way, Teacher Lee Mu-beom coming here… I was a bit scared at first, but looking back now, it really seems like good fortune.”

“That’s true.”

Seon-woo’s eyes sparkled upon hearing Lee Mu-beom’s name.

Lee Mu-beom’s appearance was truly like a gift to them.

Just watching his acting gave them a sense of direction about what they should aim for in their own acting.

You could call him a walking teaching material.

‘There really were a lot of changes too.’

Seon-woo recalled the colors he had shown when acting today.

The colors of Yoo Ji-eun, Park Moon-hyeon, and Justin had tinted his lava. He still didn’t quite understand how such a thing was possible.

‘One person can display multiple people’s colors?’

It was unfamiliar.

He thought there was a problem.

But it was from then on. The colors of all the characters visible to Seon-woo’s eyes began to change.

More precisely, you could say they became like Seon-woo.

Stain-like marks were appearing here and there in the colors surrounding them.

How those stains formed was clear.

‘They’ve been staining each other with their colors.’

Of course, he had often witnessed colors mixing before too.

Since hearts are naturally meant to blend, he had never thought it strange.

But this case was different.

It wasn’t already expressed emotions mixing.

The emotions were already stained before being expressed.

But the strange thing was that these kinds of stains hadn’t been visible before.

At first he wondered if all the actors had suddenly grown at once… but that seemed unlikely.

It was probably that Seon-woo had become able to see things he couldn’t see before.

‘…They say you see as much as you know.’

Acting.

Furthermore, as his understanding of people deepened, perhaps the variety of colors Seon-woo could see had become more diverse. In a way, it meant he had grown more.

The problem was that Seon-woo still didn’t properly understand this.

What colors represented were the characters’ mental images, their hearts.

But could hearts really be stained so easily by those around them?

Just as his thoughts were about to deepen, Min-hee looked at Seon-woo with puzzled eyes.

“What are you thinking about so hard?”

“Ah, about today’s acting.”

“Today’s acting was good though.”

“Was it?”

“Yeah. Why. Still not satisfied with it?”

“It’s not that I don’t like it… I’m just curious. I wonder what parts looked good.”

“Can I answer that for you?”

At that moment, a voice interjected.

Hearing that voice, Seon-woo and Min-hee were startled and straightened their posture. Lee Mu-beom had somehow come to their side.

“Teacher! Yes… please, I’d appreciate it.”

Seon-woo, who was about to say no for a moment, quickly changed his mind.

The opportunity to work with a great actor like Lee Mu-beom wasn’t something one could easily have. Moreover, the chance to openly ask for help like this would be even rarer.

“What do you think was different between when there were NGs and when there weren’t?”

What was different.

Seon-woo thought about it. And in the midst of that, Min-hee spoke first.

“As you advised, Teacher, when I let go of trying not to waver too much… it felt more natural instead.”

“That’s right. It’s good to have ambition as an actor – wanting to act well, to maintain immersion… but when acting, what’s inside the camera shouldn’t be the actor. It should be that character from the work itself.”

Lee Mu-beom nodded with a pleased smile.

His eyes were full of affection, as if looking at his own granddaughter. While Min-hee fidgeted with her fingers under that gaze, Lee Mu-beom turned to look at Seon-woo.

“But that wasn’t the only difference. Seon-woo, you answer. What else was different?”

“…That is.”

Seon-woo moved his lips slightly.

He knew the answer. The colors of those who had already died had surfaced in his color. But how should he explain that? What could it mean for someone’s color to be tinged with another’s color?

“Justin, Yoo Ji-eun, Park Moon-hyeon…”

Seon-woo began to speak as if muttering.

Fragments of inspiration that weren’t properly organized, that he couldn’t even dare to organize, flowed out through his mouth in a disorderly manner.

“When facing you, Teacher, those three people came to mind. It felt like their hearts had been engraved on me, or transferred to me… that kind of feeling.”

“What does that mean?”

“I don’t know.”

Seon-woo honestly admitted it.

There was no point in pretending to know. Especially not in front of Lee Mu-beom.

Now wasn’t the time to answer.

It was time to ask questions.

“What is the heart, Teacher?”

“…”

And Lee Mu-beom smiled pleasantly.

As if Seon-woo had hit the core of the matter.

“There’s a saying that you are what you eat. That’s true. At least when it comes to this body. But what makes up my heart, my soul…?”

“…I don’t know.”

“It’s people.”

Lee Mu-beom’s voice was filled with conviction.

It wasn’t a tone like ‘this is what I think.’ It was a tone without a trace of doubt, as if stating an obvious truth like humans need to breathe to live.

“The character of my parents who raised me, the memories of friends I grew up bickering with, the laughter and sighs of my spouse who stayed by my side for life – these all make up who I am.”

“…”

“And the worries of our junior colleagues in front of me now will also become part of me from now on.”

At that moment, both Min-hee and Seon-woo found themselves opening their mouths in a daze.

Just because something is said in an ordinary tone doesn’t make it ordinary words. They could feel it in this moment. The wisdom that an elderly man who had lived a long time had gained over his lifetime was contained in those words just now.

That doesn’t mean they clearly understood what those words meant.

Originally, the words of elders can’t be understood just by hearing them. To fully understand those words and make them their own, they would have to go through many more trials and errors. Unfortunately.

‘Were they always together?’

But that doesn’t mean those words were completely incomprehensible.

Seon-woo thought.

The colors of Justin, Yoo Ji-eun, and Park Moon-hyeon had always been with him.

Their deaths had already left deep stains on Kim Seon-woo’s soul. It’s just that Seon-woo hadn’t been aware of it.

As time passes, those stains would eventually melt into Kim Seon-woo’s heart.

Perhaps a person’s color is determined by countless such stains mixing together.

“Thank you, Teacher.”

Seon-woo bowed his head.

It would be hard to say he had realized something, but he had gotten a sense of it.

Watching such a Seon-woo, Lee Mu-beom smiled quietly.

As mentioned earlier, one of the biggest reasons Lee Mu-beom had supported this work was Seon-woo.

Seon-woo seemed to be happier when acting than anyone he had ever seen. He thought that acting beside him would make him feel the passion and initial intentions he had forgotten.

And that thought seemed to be correct.

Whenever they talked about acting, seeing those sparkling eyes of Seon-woo… just that alone made him feel completely satisfied.

‘Good.’

He could feel it.

The child named Seon-woo was slowly filling up his heart.

* * *

The filming proceeded smoothly.

With the premium advice of the great actor Lee Mu-beom accompanying them, it would have been difficult for things not to go smoothly.

No matter who it was, Lee Mu-beom didn’t spare his words for anyone who seemed to need help.

And ironically… it was actually Hye-seong and Yeon-woo who gained wings because of this.

It wasn’t that Lee Mu-beom particularly cared for them more than others.

After all, what Lee Mu-beom had left for Hye-seong was just a single sentence.

“Hye-seong. You can become a protagonist too.”

Seon-woo, who heard that story, honestly couldn’t understand why such words had come up.

But it seemed to have resonated tremendously with Hye-seong. As soon as he heard those words, Hye-seong had an expression that looked like he was about to cry, which was so unlike him.

…And after that, his acting changed to an earth-shattering level.

Jeong Hye-seong had an inconspicuous beige-colored mental image.

There were some stains from other characters here and there, but they weren’t that noticeable.

But after hearing that advice…

‘A rainbow.’

Yes. Almost at rainbow level, all sorts of stains began filling Jeong Hye-seong’s color.

Not only the colors of the players participating in [One Room], but even the colors of the family members he was supporting outside were visible.

Seon-woo honestly almost lost his fighting spirit watching that acting.

‘This isn’t even Dragon Ball.’

It was like suddenly taking off dozens of kilograms worth of sandbags and showing his true ability.

Hye-seong’s acting when he properly got serious and performed… was at a level where one wouldn’t dare think of competing against it.

He had thought he understood all of Hye-seong’s abilities until now, but it turned out even he had been hiding his strength.

The problem was that Hye-seong wasn’t the only one whose presence had suddenly changed like that.

Yeon-woo.

In Yeon-woo’s case, she had received such advice from Lee Mu-beom before.

You have no core. Find your core.

And while performing this time, she had been acknowledged as ‘seeming to have found your core.’

So he thought there wouldn’t be any more room for growth beyond this… but she too, after having a private conversation with Lee Mu-beom, suddenly had her acting change.

It wasn’t like Jeong Hye-seong showing stains of all sorts of colors.

From the beginning, Lee Yeon-woo’s color emission showed strangely no stains at all. As if others couldn’t have any influence on her heart whatsoever.

Instead, her color began subtly erasing the colors of others around her at some point.

Yes. Just like how the GM’s white light erased their colors… erased and ignored their hearts, like that.

Clearly when looking at just her expressions and gestures, she seemed to smile brightly and maintain courtesy in a way that didn’t match the situation… yet the emotions being expressed were endlessly chilling like that.

‘Could I do acting like that?’

At least he wasn’t confident about doing it like Yeon-woo right away.

That was definitely acting that only Yeon-woo could do.

Anyway, these were two people who were already championship candidates. With both of them powering up even further, now Seon-woo and Jin-wook couldn’t help but feel pressure.

He didn’t know how many people would die in this episode.

One, or maybe two. At least two would need to remain to film the final episode.

It seemed unlikely they would eliminate as many as two people. Having three rather than two would be better for making the final episode’s volume more substantial.

But it was a situation where nothing could be certain.

Even if two people were eliminated, he had to be able to endure it.

The problem was, if things continued like this…

‘Could I beat Yeon-woo or Hye-seong hyung?’

If things continued like this, it would be difficult.

But Seon-woo decided not to be too obsessed with winning and losing.

After all, his reason for jumping into this path wasn’t for wealth and fame.

There was no need to focus on competition.

No, he shouldn’t focus on it.

What he should look at was color and painting, only that.

‘Let’s act without regrets.’

Already, as he began to be conscious of paintings and stains, the things Seon-woo had to pay attention to while acting had become much more than before.

As details that weren’t visible before began to show, it felt like the difficulty of acting itself had increased.

Moreover, the script for episode 4 that came next…

“Wow…”

“How do we act this?”

“Exactly. This is going to be really tough.”

Everyone reacted like this because the difficulty was so high.

In various ways, it was a situation where Seon-woo’s head could only ache more.

But,

‘Focus.’

Seon-woo decided to think simply.

In a way, what he had to do now was simple.

‘Focus.’

Act better.

Paint a better painting.

‘Focus!’

And if he could dye the viewers’ hearts with his color as well,

That would be his victory.

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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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