NIS Agent Reincarnated as a Genius Actor - Chapter 228

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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 228. Romance

After finishing his call with Director Park Chan-hong, Yeon-woo scratched his head with a troubled expression as he was about to contact Lee Yong-su right away.

 

“Ah. Come to think of it, I don’t know it. Director Lee Yong-su’s phone number.”

 

Since they had only met briefly during CF shooting days, there was no need for phone calls, so they hadn’t exchanged phone numbers.

 

Since it was late, it would be better to formally get his contact information through the company when morning came.

 

“Director Yoon Mi-yeon would know his contact info. But romance…”

 

Romance felt like a somewhat distant genre, perhaps because he had never done it before, or maybe because it had been so long since he had dated, even including his previous life.

 

‘Hmm, should I read some romance comics or romance novels?’

 

Still, once he got into acting, he could probably manage the immersion…

 

It seemed like he needed to somehow revive the romance cells in his body that were presumably all captured and imprisoned by the rampaging White Blood Army.

 

“First, I should watch a few romance movies on Netflix. Am I counting my chickens before they hatch when I haven’t even seen the script yet?”

 

Although he hadn’t contacted Director Lee Yong-su yet, romance was a genre he would have to tackle someday, even if not for that particular project.

 

Yeon-woo accessed Netflix and browsed through the available titles.

In a way, this was the first time in his life he had clicked on the romance category.

 

Numerous works were listed.

Looking at the thumbnails and titles, it seemed like the usual Yeon-woo would never have thought to watch the romance genre.

 

As he scrolled down checking by cumulative view count, familiar faces caught his eye.

 

– Last First Love [121 min] (Cast Info: Son Jin-wook, Lee Yu-jeong, Kwon Min-ju)

– Summer, That Cold [114 min] (Cast Info: Jin Yu-han, Ji Su-hyeon)

– Two Paris From Seoul [117 min] (Cast Info: Son Jin-wook, Oh Yu-an)

 

“Hmm… Now that I look at it, Jin-wook hyung was a romance machine.”

 

In fact, it was Yeon-woo’s filmography that was far from the typical route most actors take, as most leading actors’ filmographies start with romance and end with romance.

 

Romance machine(?) Son Jin-wook was the same.

 

Of course, actors who mainly appear in romance don’t dislike other genres or particularly prefer only romance.

 

On average by genre, romance is a genre that generates big profits with small budgets, so there’s always high demand and supply.

 

“Since I’m at it, I should watch the works that Jin-wook hyung and Yu-han appear in. It’s good to increase the viewer count of works featuring our agency’s actors by even one person.”

 

Since they were such close friends, it was uncertain whether he could concentrate, but he started playing a romance movie first.

 

***

 

However, the effect was tremendous.

 

“Mmm, I didn’t sleep much.”

 

The next morning, Yeon-woo got up from bed stretching, then turned his body this way and that doing light stretches.

 

The romance movies were interesting in many ways.

He could understand why people go crazy for romance, which is essentially just a series of predictable stories.

 

Not only was it sufficiently entertaining as a pure movie-watching audience member who got absorbed in the story, but it was also fun as an actor rather than an audience member, as he physically absorbed melodrama acting that was slightly different from the acting he had done so far.

 

It seemed like he would need to contemplate how to more effectively convey subtle emotional lines to viewers.

 

In the early stages, it was important to convey fresh emotions as softly and kindly as possible to give viewers a fluttering feeling, and as it approached the climax, the ability to pour out intense emotions that seemed ready to burst in their raw form to make viewers emotional was also necessary.

 

Both the former and latter had to express the single emotion called love, but their methods were completely opposite.

 

‘The world of romance is quite profound too.’

 

Bzzzz─.

 

Just then, his smartphone rang.

 

– Kim Min-su: I’ve arrived at the parking lot.

 

It seemed Kim Min-su’s car had arrived while he was getting ready after a quick wash.

He planned to check in at the company first, then contact Director Lee Yong-su and meet him today if possible.

 

When he went down to the parking lot, Kim Min-su spotted Yeon-woo and drove over.

As the van door opened, Yeon-woo got in.

 

“Good morning.”

“Yes, Min-su hyung. We might have field work today.”

“Oh, that’s fine with me.”

 

Kim Min-su’s car started smoothly and soon arrived at the company building.

 

While Kim Min-su parked, he took the elevator up to the 3rd floor cafe.

He could see Son Jin-wook sitting by the window, drinking coffee while looking at something on his laptop.

 

“Jin-wook hyung.”

“Hm? You came to the company early?”

“You came even earlier, hyung. What were you doing?”

 

When Yeon-woo asked, Son Jin-wook showed him his laptop and said.

 

“Seeing you check movie scripts last time suddenly made me want to schedule a movie too, so I was reviewing some scripts.”

 

At Son Jin-wook’s words, Yeon-woo smiled with satisfaction and nodded.

 

From the perspective of the company’s actual owner, such an attitude from his affiliated actor was very desirable and satisfying.

 

“Actually, I watched the movies you starred in last night, hyung.”

“Suddenly? Which ones?”

“「Last First Love」 and 「Two Paris From Seoul」.”

“······.”

 

Son Jin-wook, who had frozen momentarily at Yeon-woo’s words, turned his stiffly hardened body like a machine.

The fact that Yeon-woo, whom he now thought of like a real younger brother, had watched the romance movies he had filmed made him feel embarrassed for some reason.

 

It was like the feeling of suddenly being caught by family while with a girlfriend.

 

“···Why did you only watch romance movies? I’m getting embarrassed now.”

“I was looking into doing a romance movie as my next project, so I searched for references, and your acting ability was so good that I learned a lot from it.”

 

At Yeon-woo’s praise, Son Jin-wook chuckled and scratched his cheek.

 

“What would someone who’s already good at acting need to reference?”

“Especially the love scenes, I don’t think I could ever catch up to you, hyung. You were practically a kissing machine···.”

“···This kid, I knew it. I was wondering why you weren’t teasing me.”

 

Yeon-woo smiled mischievously.

 

Though he said that, both Son Jin-wook and Jin Yu-han seemed to have mastered romance acting.

He felt like he would need to ask for their help a lot during actual filming.

 

“But you’re going to do a romance movie?”

“Well, I’m still just counting my chickens before they hatch, but while making courtesy calls to directors as you taught me last time, Director Park Chan-hong recommended a scenario to me.”

“Oh, is the scenario good?”

“I haven’t read it yet, just heard a brief explanation from Director Park, but it feels good. I’m getting a hunch about it.”

 

So if possible, he planned to read the scenario today and have a decisive discussion with Director Lee Yong-su about production.

 

***

 

He contacted Director Lee Yong-su through the company, and upon hearing Yeon-woo’s voice, Director Lee Yong-su readily agreed to meet.

Since he was planning to visit anyway, he asked Director Lee Yong-su for the address of his studio, but when he actually arrived, it seemed to be Director Lee Yong-su’s home address rather than a studio.

 

“We’ve arrived. This is the building.”

 

At Kim Min-su’s words, Yeon-woo turned his gaze outside the window.

 

Director Lee Yong-su’s studio was unexpectedly not located in Seoul’s forest of buildings, but in a townhouse complex on the outskirts of Ilsan.

 

The view of the townhouses, each finished with the same colored red brick like some quiet English town, gave a cozy feeling.

 

“Hmm, he said there’s a separate staircase that goes directly up to the second floor of the building···.”

 

Hearing Yeon-woo’s words, Kim Min-su drove the car a bit further forward and turned the corner, where they could see stairs leading to the second floor separate from the house’s entrance hall.

 

“This must be it.”

“Then I’ll go in for the meeting and come back.”

“Yes. I’ll park the car up ahead and wait. Call me if you need anything.”

 

Yeon-woo got out of the car and climbed the stairs leading to the second floor.

 

It seemed like the first floor of the same building was used as a home while separating living space from work space.

 

When he pressed the doorbell, he heard movement inside and soon the door opened.

 

“Oh, Actor Ryu, it’s been a while.”

“Director Lee, have you been well? I’m sorry for contacting you so suddenly.”

“Oh, don’t mention it. A precious guest has come to this humble place. Please come in quickly.”

 

The last time he had seen Director Lee Yong-su was during the filming of Lee Hantech’s commercial that involved fighter jets, so about a year had passed.

 

Seeing Director Lee Yong-su greeting him with no major changes from a year ago to now, Yeon-woo smiled and followed him into the studio.

 

“I don’t usually have many visitors and it’s a bit messy from working on various things. Please sit on this sofa. I’ll bring out some tea.”

 

However, the office was quite neatly arranged, contrary to Director Lee Yong-su’s words.

 

When Yeon-woo sat down, Director Lee Yong-su went into the kitchen attached to the office to bring out something to drink.

 

‘Hmm? Is this it?’

 

Yeon-woo discovered a scenario placed on the table.

 

– 「Moon」

 

Seeing the scenario’s title with just one simple character written on it, it seemed to be the scenario that had made Yeon-woo come all the way here.

 

‘Moon… That’s right. It’s a word that well expresses the plot I heard from Director Park Chan-hong in a condensed way.’

 

Since it was placed on the table for him to see anyway, Yeon-woo picked up the scenario and started reading.

 

Since he had roughly heard about the plot from Director Park Chan-hong, he read through it quickly, and in the meantime, Director Lee Yong-su brought out tea.

 

“Well, it’s not much of a story, but I didn’t expect Actor Ryu to suddenly show interest. I’ve never submitted it anywhere or circulated the scenario to film companies···.”

 

Director Lee Yong-su spoke quietly while watching Yeon-woo read the scenario.

Then Yeon-woo looked up from the scenario and nodded with a confident expression.

 

“Director.”

“Yes?”

“Let’s produce this together. I really want to act as the male lead in this work.”

“···So suddenly like this?”

 

Lee Yong-su had worked as a commercial director for such a long time that he couldn’t muster the courage to readily challenge a feature film.

 

Of course, he was filled with the desire to create, which is why he had shown the scenario to Director Park Chan-hong, but he needed a bit more resolve to step outside his established career and take on a challenge.

 

“Well, I don’t really know any production companies, and I’m a rookie when it comes to feature films. I’d need to find investors too… Of course, if Actor Ryu takes the lead role, that would be manageable…”

 

Watching Director Lee Yong-su ramble on, Yeon-woo grinned.

 

“No. You don’t need to find anything. I’ll be the production company, the investor, and the lead actor.”

“…Excuse me?”

 

Since Lee Yong-su had only handled commercials and music videos for directing, he wasn’t directly involved in film or drama production, so he didn’t seem to know much about Saebyeol yet.

 

Yeon-woo explained slowly.

 

“Saebyeol Media under our Saebyeol Entertainment will handle the production. I’m not planning to receive external investment, but if you’re worried about the production costs increasing later, I can arrange investors too.”

 

With Baeksol’s reach uncertain, external investment had to be handled carefully.

But Yeon-woo had connections with conglomerate companies that Baeksol couldn’t possibly touch.

 

Yeon-woo thought of Chairman Seo Tae-gwang of Ihan Group.

Judging by SL Electronics’ friendly attitude lately, it would be worth inviting them to invest too.

 

Since he was confident about making the film a success, there would be no problem even if he received some external investment through his connections.

 

Director Lee Yong-su clasped his hands together and fell into deep thought at the sudden proposal.

Actually, it wasn’t really a sudden proposal.

 

He wouldn’t have come all the way from Seoul to his studio in Gyeonggi Province just out of curiosity about what the scenario looked like.

 

When he suddenly received contact from Ryu Yeon-woo, the hottest actor these days, and heard that he wanted to see the scenario, Lee Yong-su’s heart had honestly been beating like crazy.

 

Lee Yong-su looked at Ryu Yeon-woo’s autograph, which was placed at the very top among the framed autographs of various stars displayed on his studio bookshelf.

 

‘How happy my daughter was when she brought that home.’

 

Though his daughter knew that her father met various celebrities through his job, she was usually indifferent even when he brought home idol autographs and albums.

 

But when he brought home Ryu Yeon-woo’s autograph, his daughter was unusually excited and came over to chatter away happily.

 

When he later brought home a Korea University notebook that Ryu Yeon-woo had used, she even got teary-eyed.

 

‘She was so happy over a piece of paper, so what if I became the director of a film starring Ryu Yeon-woo?’

 

While Lee Yong-su was letting his imagination run wild, the studio door burst open and someone entered.

 

“Dad! Mom is asking if you finished organizing the stones where she’s going to plant the plum tree in the backyard…”

 

Lee Yong-su’s daughter walked in and saw the face of the unfamiliar male guest sitting on the sofa.

 

“Ah…?”

 

And for a moment, she couldn’t believe her eyes.

 

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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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