NIS Agent Reincarnated as a Genius Actor - Chapter 244

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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 244. Opening

“Ah, hello! I’m Hong A-yoon, playing the role of ‘Hong Yu-jeong’ in this film. Please take care of me!”

 

Applause could be heard around Hong A-yoon’s words.

 

It wasn’t as cheerful an atmosphere as during “Summer’s Wardrobe,” but it also wasn’t as serious as during “White Blood.”

 

The actors who were cast in roles each stood up to greet everyone, and the camera directors filming the making-of captured those moments on screen.

 

Yeon-woo quietly gazed at Hong A-yoon sitting across from him.

 

As with all productions, script reading is where actors first try to match their acting rhythm.

 

However, in the case of other productions, since most lead roles are played by experienced actors, the actors have either already worked with their co-stars in other productions, or if not, they’ve seen the actor’s previous works so they can understand what style of acting they do.

 

In contrast, Hong A-yoon had only filmed a few commercials and music videos, and had no experience showing long-form acting in films or dramas, so no one knew what style of acting she employed.

 

‘I heard she’s good and has talent, but…’

 

Both Lee Yong-su and Jeong Cheol-min had given quite favorable reviews of Hong A-yoon’s acting.

 

Yeon-woo was also curious about what kind of acting she would show, since except for the theatrical performance Hong A-yoon had given at the small theater when he went for casting, he hadn’t seen any other aspects of her work.

 

The opening part needed CG processing and was mostly scenes of Hong A-yoon acting alone, so they would skip that in the script reading and start from the scene where Yeon-woo and Hong A-yoon meet.

 

“Alright, let’s begin in earnest. Starting from page 4.”

 

At Director Lee Yong-su’s words, Yeon-woo turned the script pages.

Next to Director Lee, Kim Ju-hyeong was looking around nervously with a tense expression.

 

Since Yeon-woo had been involved in the script creation process from the beginning with the two otaku at Director Lee Yong-su’s studio over the past few days, his understanding of the script was already one hundred percent.

 

Yeon-woo began to immerse himself in the role.

 

***

 

A woman lay unconscious on the wooden floor, and beside her a man with a troubled expression dampened a towel with water and placed it on the woman’s forehead.

 

“It doesn’t seem like she’s sick anywhere, just drunk, but then again she doesn’t smell of alcohol…”

 

Placing a wet towel on her head was just a kind of formality.

She didn’t have a fever so there was no need to put a wet towel on, but since he didn’t know what else to do for her, he just placed it there like he’d seen somewhere before.

 

Hong A-yoon reacted to Yeon-woo’s line.

 

Though sitting in the main conference room, since the script called for her to be lying unconscious, Hong A-yoon adjusted accordingly by sliding her hips forward in the chair and leaning back against the backrest.

 

Since sounds made while sitting versus lying down are distinctly different due to body structure.

 

“Mmm…”

 

Hong A-yoon’s nasal sound carried a naturalness as if she were actually lying down.

Yeon-woo found Hong A-yoon’s posture change interesting and immersed himself back into the role, responding with his line.

 

With the detailed acting that aided immersion, it seemed to Yeon-woo as if he saw not Hong A-yoon, but a woman lying in a half-conscious state.

 

“Hey. Are you conscious?”

“Mmm.”

 

Seeing the woman only frown without opening her eyes, the man shook her.

 

“You seem to have sobered up, so try getting up.”

 

Then the woman slightly opened her eyes, startled, and curled up while blocking in front with her hands.

 

“…Mmm? Huh! Who, who are you?”

“Isn’t that what I should be asking? You were drinking, right? When I first found you, I thought someone had died in our front yard and nearly had a heart attack.”

“…Drinking? Front yard?”

 

At the man’s words, as the woman sat up, the water-soaked towel that had been placed on her forehead fell onto the blanket with a thud.

Then the woman looked around and let out a deep sigh.

 

“Hah, is this a dream? Or could this possibly be the afterlife?”

“…The afterlife? Well, if I hadn’t found you and you’d slept outside all night, you might have ended up in the afterlife.”

 

Whether the man spoke or not, the woman paid little attention and muttered while lost in thought, then shook her head again.

 

“Oh, if I’m not dead, could this be delirium from hypoxia? Then this must be my dream or delusion. That sound means the reverse thrust engines worked properly at the end…”

 

Then the man stared intently at the woman’s face with an expression of bewilderment.

 

“What are you talking about? How pure is the oxygen at our house, what hypoxia? Are you still not fully sober?”

 

There were probably only a few houses in the entire country located in a mountain valley deeper than this one.

 

Originally this place was a building used as a small hermitage by the temple behind it, but since it wasn’t being used anymore, the head monk had personally given it to the man who had nowhere to go.

 

But at the man’s words, the woman sighed deeply, looked around, and then looked at the man.

 

“Look, I don’t know if you’re a ghost or my imagination, but I’m a bit confused right now, okay? Anyway, even if you’re imaginary, thanks for waking me up with a wet towel and all.”

 

And she sighed with an expression of not knowing what she was doing and shook her head.

 

“Well, this is all probably just imagination created by my subconscious anyway, so what does it matter. But why do you keep speaking informally to me?”

 

Then the man also made a face like he was seeing all kinds of crazy people and shrugged his shoulders.

 

“Should I not have helped… You look younger than me, you’re a minor, right? A kid already secretly drinking in the mountains.”

“Huh…?”

 

Then the woman looked at him with a dumbfounded expression and chuckled.

 

“Well, I appreciate you saying that, but I’m clearly at least ten years older than you. Oh, is this also a manifestation of my subconscious? Is that why a handsome man is saying exactly what I want to hear?”

 

The man also snorted at the woman’s words.

 

“You’re ten years older than me? I’m twenty years old.”

“What’s ’96?”

 

The woman tilted her head as she looked at the questioning man.

 

“Can there be a generation gap even with a fictional character created by my imagination? Looking at your soft peach fuzz, you were born in the 21st century, right? Since you said you’re twenty, born in ’06?”

“Can there really be a generation gap with a fictional character I created in my imagination? Looking at how soft and fluffy you are, you must have been born in the 21st century, right? You said you’re twenty, so you were born in ’06?”

“…You’re really out of your mind. This is 2006.”

The man thought for a moment, then continued speaking.

“Wait, when you said ‘guyuk’ earlier, don’t tell me you meant you were born in ’96? That would make you ten years old right now, wouldn’t it? Are you high on drugs instead of drunk or something…?”

The man wondered whether he should report it to the police.

Meanwhile, as the woman engaged in various conversations with the man before her, whom she believed to be a figment of her imagination, her senses that had been numb as if anesthetized seemed to gradually return.

And even the creaking floorboards when she slightly shifted her position because her seat was uncomfortable.

 

‘…Hmm, but this is too detailed, isn’t it?’

 

The woman kept tilting her head in confusion.

The woman kept tilting her head in confusion.

“Hmm, anyway, you don’t seem to be from this neighborhood. Don’t you have anyone with you? Try making a phone call.”

 

Then the woman muttered something to herself before looking at the man.

 

“Right, that’s right. A phone call. I don’t know what this is all about, but if, just if there’s even the slightest chance this is reality, there’s an important place I need to contact immediately at the national level. Could you lend me your smartphone? I mean, could you please lend it to me?”

 

Then the man made an expression like he didn’t understand what she was talking about.

 

“…Smartphone? What’s that?”

Then the man made an expression as if he had no idea what she was talking about.

June 2006.

 

The man had definitely said it was 2006 during their earlier conversation too.

 

But of course, it couldn’t actually be the past.

 

Most people with basic education know how absurd the idea of time travel is, but as a scientist, she understood in much more detail than ordinary people exactly why it was nonsensical.

 

So assuming this was reality, which would be more plausible: the man in front of her suffering from mental illness, or time travel?

 

“…So you’re saying you don’t have a smartphone, or rather, a mobile phone?”

“…Cho, chocolate?”

 

The jet-black mobile phone the man pulled from his pocket must have been about 20 years old, yet incredibly, it was in impossibly good condition just as the man claimed.

 

As if it really was the latest model.

 

‘He went through the trouble of finding and using an antique in A-grade condition…?’

 

With this level of dedication, if he was crazy, he was meticulously crazy.

As if it were actually the latest model or something.

‘Using an antique in A-grade condition like this…?’

With this level of dedication, even if you’re crazy, you’re methodically crazy.

The man in front of her was starting to seem a little scary.

“Y-yes. Anyway, thank you so much for saving me, and if I could just use the phone for a moment… Huh?”

Then she discovered that the necklace her mother had given her was hanging around her neck.

He had been too distracted to pay attention, but when he looked closely at the clothes he was wearing, they were the familiar clothes his past self had worn.

It was a pair of light blue jeans, a white t-shirt, and a thin black cardigan—clothes I had bought several years ago and wasn’t even sure were still somewhere in my closet at home.

‘And this is my mother’s necklace that I lost when I was twenty-four…’

It was the only keepsake I had from my mother, and when it suddenly disappeared, I cried and searched for three days and nights but never found the necklace.

I sensed that something was seriously wrong.

The woman snatched the latest chocolate-colored phone from the man’s hand and hurriedly entered a number.

***

It was a scene with a tremendous amount of dialogue.

The dialogue between two people continuously coming and going in one location easily exceeded thirty lines, and even that is a scene where actual conversation and soliloquies are intricately mixed together.

Even while exchanging dialogue at a rapid pace, it must naturally help the audience understand the situation the characters are currently facing in the play.

It was clearly a difficult scene, but the dialogue meshed together like clockwork, as if they had rehearsed it together, and the staff and actors in the conference room were inwardly amazed.

‘Ryu Yeon-woo is subtly leading by bringing his breathing in at the precise timing to make it easier for the female lead to deliver her lines. Of course, that said, the actress following his lead also has impeccably clean acting skills.’

Actress Oh Hye-sook, who played the role of the ‘supermarket grandmother,’ initially had doubts when she heard about the production company’s decision to cast newcomer Hong A-yoon.

Of course, it wasn’t his place to complain since he was only cast as a supporting character with a relatively small role, but deep down he wondered if the production budget had run short because they spent so much on casting Ryu Yeonwoo.

However, according to industry rumors, I heard that Ryu Yeonwoo was directly involved in the production, so I didn’t think that would be the case.

Listening to the tiki-taka exchange of lines between the two right now, he felt that when they entered actual filming, it would fit perfectly with the roles in this movie.

 

And Director Lee Yong-su, who was watching this, felt his heart swell with emotion.

 

Though it was still just the introduction, he was moved that the movie scenario he had written was coming into the world.

 

Yeon-woo, who was actually performing the acting, didn’t notice the gazes around him and was absorbed in the script.

 

‘Acting is fun…’

 

As he exchanged lines with the actress Hong A-yoon in front of him, he suddenly thought it was fun.

 

Of course, acting was always fun and interesting, but this time there was something new added to that.

 

Though it was still just a script reading where they were merely exchanging lines, all the processes felt vivid as if he had fallen into that world.

 

‘I want to hurry up and film this movie.’

 

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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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