NIS Agent Reincarnated as a Genius Actor - Chapter 4

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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 4. Jeong Cheol-min and the Acting Test

“Oh my, sir, these days isn’t succeeding in this field more enviable than professional careers? With your son inheriting your fine looks and being such a splendid young man, wouldn’t it be a loss to the South Korean entertainment industry to let him waste away in other fields?”

Jeong Cheol-min paused to catch his breath before continuing.

“We happen to be running a promotion right now with a free one-month trial lesson event, so why not have him try it out as a hobby! Learning acting teaches you how to express emotions and can help relieve your son’s stress from his studies!”

The staff member sitting in the inner office was amazed that their director, who usually couldn’t sweet-talk anyone, could rattle off words like a machine gun, and around that time Yeon-woo’s father Cheol-woong spoke up.

“Oh, an event happening right now? This must be fate – how perfect! Yeon-woo, what do you think?”

“Yes father, I’d like that. I’ll try my best to learn.”

At the following response, Director Jeong Cheol-min cheered inwardly.

Yeon-woo now had lost even more weight since the start of the school term and had reached a level where he would naturally draw attention from those around him.

‘I have to teach this kid myself, even if I have to pour my soul into it!’

The warm-hearted and good-natured Jeong Cheol-min was someone who used the academy’s monthly profits to cover the small theater’s deficits in order to maintain a stage where his former students, who still hadn’t left the local small theater scene, could continue performing.

In truth, rather than being a shrewd businessman, he was simply an actor driven by passion for acting.

So for him, who was gradually becoming precarious not only in competition with Seoul’s big academies but even in Daejeon’s small commercial district competition, the existence of Ryu Yeon-woo could become the foundation to revive the academy.

Of course, aside from commercial reasons, his looks alone made him someone Cheol-min definitely wanted to try developing as an actor.

“Then sir, I’ll keep that in mind and consult with your son once before setting up a lesson schedule!”

“Yes, let’s do that.”

Jeong Cheol-min shook hands with the student’s father Ryu Cheol-woong while inwardly cheering once again.

‘That level of visuals would be hard to find even among Seoul’s aspiring actor pool. If he loses just a bit more weight, it wouldn’t be hard to find – there definitely wouldn’t be any. Even if he lacks talent, if I steadily build up his fundamentals, he’d be at a level to succeed immediately even in public auditions with hundreds-to-one competition ratios.’

Director Jeong Cheol-min resolved once again to pour his heart and soul into this.

A week passed like that, and around Saturday lunchtime, Yeon-woo visited the academy again and went to the director’s office.

Knock knock.

“Teacher, hello. I’m Ryu Yeon-woo, starting lessons from today.”

As Yeon-woo politely bowed in greeting, Jeong Cheol-min spread his arms wide as if he’d been waiting.

“Oh! Yes, yes. Welcome Yeon-woo, was it difficult getting here?”

“No, it’s right in front of the subway station so it seems really easy to find. The building is really big too. It seems like a good academy.”

Yeon-woo spoke with a gentle eye-smile.

The academy located in a building with good location conditions, even if it meant some strain, was actually Cheol-min’s pride, and since Yeon-woo mentioned this and boosted his spirits, Cheol-min naturally smiled.

“Then shall we do a light test today to see where you’re at?”

“Yes, teacher.”

The two moved to an empty practice room for a simple test.

Being told it was a test in a field he’d never tried before, even Ryu Yeon-woo, who had literally been through everything, felt a little nervous.

Perhaps noticing that expression, Cheol-min quickly added.

“Don’t worry too much just because it’s called a test. The muscles and expressiveness used in acting, the facial expressions, are different for everyone, so I’m just looking at things like which muscles you use when making certain expressions. I’m absolutely not trying to evaluate whether you’re good or bad at it.”

“Yes, I understand!”

At the spirited response from that sculptural face, Cheol-min was already smiling.

“Let’s start with something simple then? Among joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure, let’s express anger first. From now on, think of me as a thug who’s picking a fight and try to intimidate me.”

Thinking he’d probably act like a hoodlum, swagger around, yell, or express some profanity, Jeong Cheol-min started the test with anger, which is relatively easy for ordinary people to imitate and express among emotions.

“Yes, I’ll give it a try.”

Intimidation – in his past life, it was a skill he always carried during operations in danger zones for survival… would it work well with this new body too?

Ryu Yeon-woo, who was having trivial worries about whether his current face, which was far too handsome compared to his somewhat rough-looking previous life appearance, might actually interfere with his expression, looked straight into Jeong Cheol-min’s eyes.

Recalling the past, he used mind control, telling himself this was a danger zone during an operation, and the target in front of him was someone who absolutely had to be eliminated.

“Gasp!”

Jeong Cheol-min’s eyes widened.

An tremendous sense of pressure that made him forget the current situation – that this was just an acting test with a mere high school student – enveloped Cheol-min in an instant.

In that moment, the thought that ridiculously entered Cheol-min’s mind in his own practice room was the feeling that ‘I could die from this. This is a really dangerous person.’

‘What? Did I just get intimidated by a mere high school student?’

Having lived in theater companies in Hyehwa for over 20 years meant he’d seen all sorts of things, and Jeong Cheol-min thought he wasn’t the type to get scared or intimidated when someone picked a fight with him.

“Teacher?”

Ryu Yeon-woo called out to Jeong Cheol-min.

Startled awake from his thoughts, Cheol-min quickly responded.

“Huh? Oh, right. Yeon-woo, making a scary expression with that pretty face is unexpectedly terrifying, isn’t it?”

“Is it?”

‘Was that… acting? Or could this kid have… hung around somewhere rough? He was definitely said to be first in his class.’

Cheol-min momentarily had strange thoughts.

“Um, then this time shall we try a slightly more difficult emotion among joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure – sorrow ? Sometimes students get confused, but it’s not the ‘ae’ for love, but the ‘ae’ for sadness.”

“Yes, I understand.”

“Should I set up a situation to help you grasp the emotion? Or do you have any sad experiences you can think of?”

Jeong Cheol-min wanted to help, thinking what could be so deeply sad in an eighteen-year-old’s life.

Yeon-woo nodded, recalling his past life that had been so tumultuous. Surely there would be something that could touch his emotional strings.

“I’ll try it first. Please help me if it doesn’t work well.”

Cheol-min was excited by Yeon-woo’s proactive attitude.

“Alright Yeon-woo, tell me right away if it doesn’t work. For an ordinary person who hasn’t learned acting, forcibly summoning sad emotions isn’t as easy as you might think.”

In fact, even in variety shows, when asking actors to perform, they often ask how quickly they can shed tears, and ordinary people watching actors quickly concentrate and shed tears say they have good acting skills.

“Yes, I’ll begin.”

Yeon-woo closed his eyes and simply concentrated.

Would thinking of someone make him sad?

He never had family to begin with.

Friends… he had hardly any close friends either.

Colleagues who had departed in the past?

Deaths during operations were really uncommon, and in fact, Yeon-woo in his past life had been too busy just surviving in his hamster wheel-like existence to ever feel deep relationships with those around him.

Jeon Su-hwan’s emotions, worn away through living an intense life, had been eroded and eroded again until the surface became hard.

A wall of emotions that had hardened so much that not even a needle could find a hole to pierce.

Though he concentrated in silence, Yeon-woo couldn’t find true sadness.

“Teacher, I’m not sure what I should do.”

At Yeon-woo’s words, Jeong Cheol-min thought ‘Of course,’ and brought out a candle from the cabinet in the corner of the practice room.

Cheol-min dimmed the lights and lit a single candle, then told Yeon-woo to look at the flame.

Among Cheol-min’s arts university classmates was a therapist who treated emotions through acting.

This was a method he learned from that classmate, like a kind of meditation therapy that makes one look back into their own heart.

When done repeatedly, it was surprisingly effective for guiding students who were clumsy at emotional expression, so Cheol-min used it well.

Following the guiding words that Cheol-min spoke, Yeon-woo looked back beyond his short current life to his past life. He thought about himself, not about others in his life.

He reflected on his lonely and rough life itself.

Becoming ‘Ryu Yeon-woo,’ essentially a different person from himself, and recalling the past Jeon Su-hwan from a third person’s perspective made it feel more objective, and pain and loneliness pierced his heart like a blade, cutting deep.

The wall of emotions that had been worn away and dulled had hardened solidly, but paradoxically, it was in a precarious state where it wouldn’t be strange if it collapsed at any time.

A mind that seemed like it would have collapsed soon even if he hadn’t died during an operation in his past life.

What had been gently soothing that and serving as a lubricant was, now that he thought about it, the pure and innocent heart of ‘Ryu Yeon-woo,’ the original owner of this body.

Though it was a mind weakened by bullying, deep inside was a heart more virtuous and bright than anyone’s.

When he removed that heart that was struggling to endure, he could see the desolate sand desert of the Middle East.

‘That’s where I died.’

Why was I born so lonely and died so lonely?

Why couldn’t I give my heart to anyone or receive it from anyone?

Was there a chief mourner at my funeral?

No, even the fact of my death would be top secret.

Was there anyone who felt sadness at my death and treasured it?

Poor soul.

When barely ten-odd seconds had passed since Yeon-woo closed his eyes, tears like chicken droppings fell from Yeon-woo’s eyes, flustering Cheol-min.

He hadn’t expected to be full from the first spoonful and had only thought to make him feel that there was a pathway to draw out his emotions.

Soon Ryu Yeon-woo collapsed as if falling, pouring out tears and snot, and began wailing as if his own blood relative had died.

From this unexpected trigger, Ryu Yeon-woo completely shook off all the darkness from his past life that remained in his heart, and in its place settled the virtuous heart and purity that the original Ryu Yeon-woo had possessed.

Ironically, through the method of expressing emotions – like the flowery words Jeong Cheol-min had used to persuade Ryu Yeon-woo’s father – he had shaken off the last traces of dark emotions remaining in his heart.

“Oh my, Yeon-woo? Ryu 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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