NIS Agent Reincarnated as a Genius Actor - Chapter 21
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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 21. Holiday
“Oh my, my children are here. Come on in quickly.”
A smile bloomed on Yeon-woo’s face at the sight of the adults warmly welcoming Yeon-woo and his family.
According to Younger Sibling, Uncle and his wife had adored Yeon-woo and So-hyeon since they were young, saying Yeon-woo ate so well and heartily even as a child.
“Oh my, is this really Yeon-woo? Of course I saw him on TV.”
“Hello. Have you been well?”
Eldest Aunt came out of the kitchen at the commotion and clapped her hands while welcoming Yeon-woo and So-hyeon, and Yeon-woo naturally greeted her as he entered the living room.
“Oh my, sister-in-law. You’re already cooking when you haven’t even recovered from your shoulder surgery yet?”
Yeon-woo’s mother put down her luggage as soon as she arrived and rolled up her sleeves.
“Oh dear, rest a bit. You just got here, there’s plenty of time.”
“You know my personality, it’s better to finish things quickly.”
Eldest Aunt and mother went into the kitchen, and Yeon-woo also greeted the adults who had arrived first, then rolled up his sleeves and entered the kitchen.
“So-hyeon, follow me. Let’s help with the cooking.”
“Okay.”
At Yeon-woo’s call, So-hyeon also followed into the kitchen.
Uncle whispered to Cheol-woong while watching Yeon-woo.
“How did he change so completely like that? He really grew up well.”
“Brother, kids change and grow quickly. Hahaha.”
Ryu Cheol-woong’s smile stretched from ear to ear as his shoulders rose with pride at his eldest brother’s praise of his upright son.
Other relatives arrived afterward, and the family’s topic of conversation was undoubtedly Yeon-woo.
The elders took out their smartphones and took photos in awkward poses, saying a notable person had emerged from the Ryu Family Clan.
And the relatives who perked up their ears at every word Yeon-woo said.
Such a harmonious atmosphere continued.
Until the Ryu Family Clan’s villains, ‘Little Uncle and his wife,’ arrived.
Ryu Jeong-woong is Ryu Cheol-woong’s youngest brother.
Unlike his brothers who were generally good students from childhood, he spent his time causing trouble, but when he entered his forties, a clothing wholesale business in Dongdaemun that he started by chance went quite well, allowing him to handle considerable money.
However, their late mother always looked after his brother, who was a civil servant, first, saying ‘he’s suffering doing work for the country.’
‘I contribute the most money for family events, so why does she always look after brother Cheol-woong first? Work for the country my ass. Is he the president or something? He’s just an ordinary civil servant, what work for the country.’
Even after their mother passed away, his resentment grew day by day, and Ryu Jeong-woong took out his anger in the wrong place.
While Cheol-woong’s fat son couldn’t even function properly as a person and was somehow gloomy, rarely coming out of his room during holidays and barely greeting people, his own daughter was kind and pretty, monopolizing the adults’ affection.
Not satisfied with that, every New Year or Chuseok, he would find fault with Cheol-woong’s son Yeon-woo, telling him to lose weight and asking if he didn’t know how to greet properly, taking out his stress toward his brother by needlessly harassing him.
Such Jeong-woong and his wife annoyingly appeared late in the evening, just as the cooking was finishing.
Still, thinking he had become spoiled from growing up as the youngest, the relatives gathered at the Ryu Family Clan welcomed him without showing their displeasure. It was a holiday, after all.
“Here, take this gift set, brother. Hey hey, you punk. That jeongjong is expensive, so you need to handle it carefully. Do you know how much that costs? Tsk.”
Jeong-woong started with harsh words to Uncle’s second son Ryu Jin-woo, who had rushed over to receive the gift in case it was too heavy for him.
Naturally, Jin-woo’s expression also soured.
Then So-hyeon, who had been watching blankly from the side, saw the unseemly behavior and spoke clearly.
“Little Uncle, jeongjong is the wrong expression. It’s a Japanese remnant. Teacher said to use cheongju.”
“…What? You little thing, jeongjong or cheongju…”
Jeong-woong’s wife Yeom Suk-kyung glared at So-hyeon while supporting her husband.
Muttering ‘That family really…’ she entered the living room and looked around.
“Where did that Yeon-woo kid go? This kid was on TV a bit and doesn’t even come out to greet his Little Uncle?”
Jeong-woong spoke smugly with a laugh, thinking it was a joke in his own way, but the gathered relatives really didn’t like hearing it.
Then Eldest Aunt came out from the kitchen, rubbing her aching arms and legs after cooking.
“Hey you punk, unlike someone else, he came early to help with cooking and is now on the veranda cleaning grease.”
Eldest Aunt spoke while glaring at Ryu Jeong-woong and Yeom Suk-kyung, who avoided her gaze.
“Oh my, sister-in-law. We were busy with work, what can we do? Why do you speak like that?”
“Ugh, you ungrateful brat. I married into the Ryu Family Clan at nineteen and raised you, even packing your lunch.”
Eldest Aunt clicked her tongue, completely opposite to the warm gaze she had when looking at Yeon-woo.
“There she goes with that story again.”
Shaking his head, Ryu Jeong-woong headed toward the veranda.
“That, that rude bastard! Anyway, why are all the Ryu Family Clan men so weak-willed that they just leave that guy alone?”
When Eldest Aunt shot lasers from her eyes toward the Ryu brothers sitting on the sofa, they all turned their heads pretending not to hear.
Meanwhile, Yeon-woo, who had been cleaning the grease from the pan used for pancakes on the veranda and washing it with a scrubber, looked toward the door as someone entered through the opening veranda door.
‘That person must be Little Uncle. The one So-hyeon described as annoying.’
Recalling the face from the photo he had studied yesterday, Yeon-woo greeted him.
“Hello, Little Uncle.”
“Oh ho, you look completely different from before, I can’t even recognize you.”
Jeong-woong rolled his eyes up and down looking for something to criticize, but couldn’t find any particular fault.
“I’m sure your mother instigated Eldest Aunt to badmouth your little aunt, right? About being late. You heard it while cooking, didn’t you?”
“…Excuse me?”
As they say, a guilty conscience needs no accuser—while cooking, no one had even mentioned Little Uncle and his wife, but Ryu Jeong-woong made his own assumptions and glared with snake-like eyes.
“And when an adult comes in, you should quickly run out and greet them. Really, such bad manners.”
“Ah, I’m sorry. I was focused on washing dishes and didn’t know you had arrived.”
“Didn’t know? You pretended not to know.”
After being reborn in a new body, perhaps because of his handsome appearance, everyone had been kind to Yeon-woo, so this absurd nonsense and openly displayed hostility felt refreshing.
“Oh my? This kid thinks he’s something special these days and dares to look Little Uncle straight in the eye? Should I give you a beating like last year to take the strength out of those eyes?”
Yeon-woo chuckled at the ridiculous situation. It seemed the relationship between Little Uncle and Ryu Yeon-woo was more one-sided than So-hyeon knew.
Yeon-woo stood up while taking off his rubber gloves.
“What do you mean by that?”
Feeling unreasonable hostility for the first time in a while, Yeon-woo unconsciously tilted his head and stared at Ryu Jeong-woong with the bottomless abyss-like eyes from his days rolling through battlefields.
This was different from the Anger Expression Acting he had shown during his first acting test with Jeong Cheol-min.
Like how even the fiercest neighborhood dog would wet itself when a dog catcher appeared—that aura built from countless experiences.
“Uh, uhik!”
Suddenly overwhelmed by fear, Ryu Jeong-woong unconsciously stepped back, stepped on a flower pot stand, and fell backward.
Crash!
“Hmm, are you alright, Little Uncle?”
Watching that scene, Yeon-woo asked in a flat tone.
When Ryu Jeong-woong fell on the veranda with a loud noise, all the adults in the house came running.
“What’s this? Why did you go to the veranda and fall by yourself? Are you hurt anywhere?”
Yeon-woo’s father, Ryu Cheol-woong, checked on his younger brother.
Then Eldest Aunt, who had rushed to the veranda, turned red-faced and pointed accusingly.
“You damn bastard! After everything, now you’ve broken my most precious flower pot?! It’s a flower pot I’ve had for over 40 years since I got married. Are you trying to have a fight with me today?”
“No, no. Just now that kid Yeon-woo…”
Ryu Jeong-woong pointed at Yeon-woo with his finger and stammered as if wronged.
Even as he spoke, he had nothing to say.
Yeon-woo had simply stood up and greeted him.
“You rotten bastard! I was watching the whole time worried about what you might do to Yeon-woo again, and you’re trying to blame Yeon-woo?”
Eldest Aunt, extremely angry, grabbed a broom from the veranda despite her injured arm, and all the adults rushed out to stop her.
And Jeong-woong, who had fallen and gotten covered in soil from the flower pot, left with his wife saying he needed to wash up and change clothes, returning silently only when it was time for the ancestral rites the next morning.
Without even looking at Yeon-woo, he only performed the rites and left again as if fleeing, while Yeon-woo distributed envelopes containing pocket money to his elderly relatives.
Yeon-woo’s parents quietly wiped away tears in a corner, wondering when their son had grown up so much as they watched him give pocket money to the family elders.
***
The first day of March.
It was the national holiday of March 1st Independence Movement Day, and also a personally special day for Yeon-woo.
It was the day of the wrap party for ‘Summer’s Closet’, which had been airing since January 3rd.
He had heard about attending the wrap party in advance, and since it might interfere with going to school tomorrow, which was the first day of the new semester, he had notified the school beforehand.
Around two o’clock, a van arrived in front of his house to pick up Yeon-woo.
Yeon-woo left home to handle an official schedule for the first time in a while.
As Yeon-woo exited the apartment’s main entrance and approached the car, the van’s automatic door opened.
“Hello.”
“Ah, hello, actor Ryu Yeon-woo. I’m manager Kim Min-su, who will be working with you starting today.”
As Yeon-woo got in, he turned around and greeted him respectfully.
“Yes. Nice to meet you, Min-su hyung. Please speak comfortably.”
“Ah, if it’s okay with you, I’m more comfortable speaking formally…”
At Min-su’s words, Yeon-woo nodded.
Everyone was different.
“Ah, then please do whatever’s comfortable for you.”
“Yes, understood. Then we’ll go to Seoul first and stop by the salon.”
“Yes!”
Kim Min-su drove smoothly and after going up the Jungbu Expressway for a while, he asked Yeon-woo.
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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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