NIS Agent Reincarnated as a Genius Actor - Chapter 202

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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 202. Amateur Basketball Team

The meeting with Director Kim Han-su was scheduled for the very next day.

 

Early in the morning, Yeon-woo headed to the company.

Yeon-woo wasn’t the only one heading to the company because of the familiar name.

 

Son Jin-wook was the male lead of 「Summer’s Wardrobe」, and Jeong Cheol-min was Director Kim Han-su’s university junior.

 

‘And now they’re actors under Saebyeol Entertainment. They’ll be appearing together in this drama.’

 

Yeon-woo recalled when he first met Director Kim Han-su.

 

‘At the audition hall, when I knew nothing about acting and thought I just needed to make facial expressions, I acted according to the script I had prepared.’

 

Still, because Director Kim Han-su had cast Yeon-woo for the role of ‘Cha Woo-ju’ back then, he was able to start his current career right away.

 

Since Yeon-woo then and now had different levels of experience accumulated through various works as an actor, even Yeon-woo himself was curious about how different his acting could be under the same director.

 

When Yeon-woo opened the meeting room door and entered, he saw a familiar face.

 

“Director.”

“Oh, Yeon-woo. It’s been a while.”

 

As expected, he heard that unchanged warm voice.

He was a director who always spoke respectfully to everyone, including Yeon-woo who was a rookie actor and high school student, and all the filming staff.

 

Yeon-woo approached and shook hands with a smile.

 

“You’ve been well, right?”

“Well, I went abroad for a while to rest after my last project. You can see I got tanned, right?”

 

Director Kim Han-su, who smiled while slightly rolling up his suit sleeve, was indeed quite darkly tanned as he said.

 

“You left us behind and went to rest in a nice place by yourself.”

 

When Yeon-woo grinned and joked, Director Kim Han-su looked at him and laughed.

 

“Even abroad, news about you somehow reached my ears. And I heard you’re doing stage work at a small theater these days?”

“Haha. You just returned to Korea recently, right? You’re well-informed about Korean news.”

“I heard it from Lighting Director Im Seong-su. He’s been working with you in Daehangno these days and talked on the phone for an hour about how fun it was. And usually when you’re abroad, you watch Korean news more.”

 

Yeon-woo nodded at Director Kim Han-su’s words.

 

‘Lighting Director Im Seong-su was originally in charge of lighting on Director Kim Han-su’s filming team. So when the director took a break, he looked for side jobs with other teams.’

 

Then the meeting room door opened and Son Jin-wook and Jeong Cheol-min entered.

 

“Oh my, senior!”

“Director, it’s been a long time.”

 

Director Kim Han-su’s eyes widened at the appearance of the welcome faces.

 

“Wait, I wasn’t told that both of you were coming today.”

 

The men who met after a long time and caught up took their seats.

 

CEO Jeong Hyeok, who had been watching them with a smile, spoke up.

 

“As you probably heard through Director Yoon Mi-yeon, our new project has nothing decided except the genre.”

“Yes. I’m well aware.”

 

Then Director Kim Han-su took out a bundle of papers from his bag.

 

“It’s still rough and will need adaptation, but this is the story I had in mind.”

 

Director Kim Han-su distributed the scenario.

No, it was too short to call a scenario, so it would be more accurate to call it a synopsis.

 

Son Jin-wook and Jeong Cheol-min’s eyes widened upon receiving the unexpected synopsis.

 

“Wait, you brought a story?”

“Our senior had it all planned out.”

 

Yeon-woo smiled while looking at the synopsis.

 

“Director, you already had a sports drama you wanted to write?”

 

Director Kim Han-su smiled at Yeon-woo’s words.

 

“Of course I wanted to see you all after a long time, but…”

 

Yeon-woo looked at the synopsis Director Kim Han-su had given him.

It was really rough with just the framework, so much so that there weren’t even names for the main characters.

 

The drama’s main subject was basketball.

The story he quickly skimmed through was a bit different from what Yeon-woo had expected.

 

‘Hmm? It’s about amateur basketball, not professional basketball.’

 

Since it was still just a synopsis, the content could change as much as needed, but as he skimmed through it, he became curious about something.

 

Despite the rough storyline, the main character’s characterization was quite detailed.

 

While the subject matter was written as 「Amateur Basketball (subject to change)」, the description of the main character was written for nearly a full page.

 

“Director. The main character’s description is quite detailed – is there perhaps a real-life model?”

 

At Yeon-woo’s words, Director Kim Han-su smiled somewhat awkwardly.

 

“···Yes. It’s me.”

 

Then Jeong Cheol-min, who was still reading through the content, looked up.

 

“Senior? Is this your story?”

“Well, it’s hard to say it’s completely true to life, and as you can see, I added imagination to a rough story. Still, I wrote the protagonist’s background thinking of myself to some extent.”

 

At Director Kim Han-su’s words, Jeong Cheol-min clapped his hands as if remembering something.

 

“Oh, right! You really loved basketball when we were in college.”

 

At that time, a basketball drama had just finished airing to great popularity, and it was the golden age of Korean professional basketball with such popularity that countless college students played basketball.

 

Still, he remembered that among them, Kim Han-su had particularly loved basketball and was good at it.

 

“Didn’t you always referee basketball games during school sports festivals?”

“Ahem, you remember all sorts of things.”

 

Basketball has such complex detailed rules like timing rules in addition to the commonly known fouls and violations that ordinary people absolutely cannot referee.

Before Jeong Cheol-min enrolled, Kim Han-su had always played as a player in amateur clubs.

 

Yeon-woo nodded after listening to the conversation between Jeong Cheol-min and Director Kim Han-su.

 

‘So it’s an autobiographical story.’

 

Yeon-woo had filmed one work where the director brought his own story to create the narrative.

 

Director Park Chan-hong’s “Sketch”.

 

Of course, various adaptations were included, but it was a story that contained the tale of immigrant parents and himself as a second-generation immigrant.

 

‘And I never regretted choosing that work.’

 

Yeon-woo became absorbed in the synopsis again and began reading the content slowly.

 

***

 

The protagonist, born as a so-called ‘rich kid’ with both parents being lawyers running a law firm, played baduk from childhood at his parents’ recommendation, and was a promising youth baduk player who was hard to match among his peers.

 

However, baduk was just part of training to sit still for studying, so his parents didn’t want the protagonist to continue playing baduk.

 

– How distant a prospect it is to make a living from baduk, what useless fantasies is this kid having. You should naturally become a legal professional like us when you grow up. Did you finish the assignment I gave you today? Go to your room right now.

 

The protagonist’s illness erupted around high school, living a life that was endlessly tailored and tightly fitted like his parents’ custom clothes, with excess scraps cut off.

 

The cut-off scraps were his individuality, and the fit tailored to his parents’ bodies constricted his chest, making it impossible to breathe, so it was natural in a way.

 

Whether it should be called an illness or some ability manifesting, he couldn’t know, but he himself thought it was a mental disorder.

 

Everyone’s facial expressions and fingertip movements, the writhing of their Adam’s apples, changes in lip shapes, and so on.

Countless visual information was transmitted to his mind, and like the battle of moves in baduk, he would think one move ahead, two moves ahead, analyzing and predicting the opponent’s next action as if reading the future.

 

Thus, he began to see every single movement of all the people he encountered in daily life slowly and clearly.

Like when he read his opponent’s moves in childhood baduk games, time flowed slowly while he predicted the opponent’s next movement with tremendous speed of thought.

 

But that wasn’t an ability—it was a curse.

 

Though it seemed like an ability worthy of a movie hero, the reality was that his overloaded head hurt as if it would burst, and his heart raced madly, making normal daily life impossible.

 

The protagonist eventually dropped out of high school and lived like a shut-in, only going between home and the hospital.

Then he happened to see people playing basketball at a street basketball court under a bridge by the riverside near his house.

 

Ten people from both teams moved chaotically back and forth, and the protagonist naturally began receiving and analyzing that visual information in his mind.

 

He quickly looked elsewhere, afraid his symptoms might relapse, but unexpectedly, his head didn’t feel like it would burst and his heartbeat was calm.

 

– Huh? What’s this?

 

The movements of the many people on the court he looked at again entered his eyes.

 

– That person will pass to the person in front. Dribbling behind his legs and running left to jump. But he’ll be blocked by the opposing team member running toward him.

 

And people moved exactly as he predicted.

 

– But why am I still okay…?

 

He realized that even when this symptom—whether illness or ability—manifested, he was uniquely fine only with basketball.

 

***

 

Yeon-woo, who had finished reading the scenario, quietly looked at Director Kim Han-su.

 

“Director. If this is developed well, it could be really interesting.”

“You think so?”

 

Then Jeong Cheol-min, who had also finished reading the synopsis, raised his hand.

 

“Senior. This kimbap shop owner—did you write this thinking of me?”

“That’s right.”

“Oh my, how did you know I love kimbap?”

 

Originally, for any sports story, Jeong Cheol-min, who was of a different age group, was thinking of appearing as a director or coach, but according to the story Director Kim Han-su had prepared, since it was amateur basketball, he would play a player role.

 

“Teacher Cheol-min. Can you run around?”

 

When Yeon-woo asked, Jeong Cheol-min grinned.

 

“What do you take the Hyehwa-dong flying squirrel for? Whether basketball or soccer, I was number one in Daehangno.”

 

Kim Han-su grinned at Yeon-woo and Jeong Cheol-min’s playful conversation and continued speaking.

 

“But basketball is played with five people, isn’t it? I heard you’re filming a drama with actors from the entertainment company, so what are you planning to do about the remaining two?”

 

Currently present here were Jeong Cheol-min, Son Jin-wook, and Yeon-woo, making a total of three.

 

Since they were thinking of filming a sports drama, they were aware that they were short on people.

That’s why Yeon-woo had already finished making arrangements.

 

“We’ve decided to solve one spot through a favor exchange. Since I went as a soccer mercenary before, I’m planning to use him as a basketball mercenary. Dong-ha from the idol group XYZS has agreed to join.”

 

At Yeon-woo’s words, Director Kim Han-su clapped his hands as if he knew who that was.

 

“Ah, you mean the person who played that prince role in ‘White Blood’?”

“Director, didn’t you only watch movies and dramas while overseas?”

“Haha. He’s quite famous, you know. The bartender at the bar I frequented asked me first. Whether I came from Korea. Whether I knew ‘White Blood’.”

 

Then Director Kim Han-su asked again with a curious expression.

 

“Then are you casting the remaining one person?”

“No. There’s one more actor who will be joining our agency soon. Jin Yu-han.”

 

At Yeon-woo’s words, Director Kim Han-su’s eyes widened.

 

“Jin Yu-han? Do you mean the Jin Yu-han I know?”

“Yes, Director.”

 

Director Kim Han-su crossed his arms with interest and fell into thought.

Then Director Kim Han-su, who had been silent for quite a while, opened his mouth.

 

“If I write the scenario with all five people already cast like this, I’ll be able to create roles that perfectly fit each actor.”

 

Ryu Yeon-woo, Jin Yu-han, Son Jin-wook, Jeong Cheol-min, Dong-ha.

 

An amateur basketball team of five members was vividly drawn in Director Kim Han-su’s mind.

 

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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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