There Are Four Top Idol Uncles - Chapter 250

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Part 2, Episode 76
* * *
“…Why did you call me here?”
Seoa gripped the towel Yewon had wrapped around her shoulders, murmuring the words under her breath. She’d been too tense earlier to notice the cold, but now that warmth surrounded her, she suddenly became aware of how long she’d been shivering.
Part of her was grateful, but another part felt this was unwelcome meddling. Didn’t Yewon have her own role to manage? Why was she busying herself looking after someone else like this?
“Look… I’ve been meaning to say this for a while now because I felt like I was overstepping. When you’re acting, Seoa—does it get hard for you to make eye contact with people?”
!
At Yewon’s words, Seoa’s expression stiffened as though her secret had been exposed.
But she soon exhaled, as if resigned to the truth.
“…Yeah. You played my scene partner, so you’d have no way of not knowing. You’re right.”
“I see…”
“Did you call me out here just to remind me of something I already know?”
“That’s not it. I just—”
Yewon took a deep breath and squeezed Seoa’s hand firmly. She needed to explain herself before Seoa could misunderstand.
“I think you’re absolutely right for the role of Hui-kyung. That’s why I wanted to help.”
“…”
At those words, Seoa—who had been avoiding her gaze the whole time—slowly looked up at Yewon.
She’d thought it before, but this girl was unnecessarily kind. Suddenly suggesting they go on a trip together. Constantly looking after someone like herself who’d never planned on making friends in the Film Club. All of it.
The sentiment was unfamiliar, but not unwelcome. But still…
“I appreciate it, but how does that help?”
Kindness isn’t some superpower that solves everything.
“Do you think I haven’t tried? I’ve been to several hospitals, been to counseling over a hundred times. And yet—”
She didn’t want to say the words that always followed: that it only worked for that moment, and by the next day everything would be back to the way it was.
“I’ve been through something similar, so I think I understand how you feel.”
!
Seoa’s eyes widened. This girl who made every role look effortless—she’d had a similar problem too?
“…You’re lying.”
She couldn’t believe it. Seoa studied Yewon with doubt-filled eyes.
“I’m serious.”
But Yewon was sincere. She really had gone through it.
…Though it was in a past life.
When no one in the world stood beside her, when everyone was cruel to her.
Yewon had found it agonizing just to stand in front of a camera.
She knew she was supposed to deliver her lines, but it was as if someone had her throat in a grip—no sound would come. She understood she was supposed to match the other actor’s rhythm, but because she couldn’t trust anyone, she couldn’t find that rhythm either.
“…So, will you trust me and tell me? What is it that makes this hard for you?”
“……”
If it hadn’t been for that trip, Seoa wouldn’t have trusted Yewon.
She would have sensed early on that the girl was kind, but that would have been it—she wouldn’t have been able to open her heart.
But during that trip, Seoa saw how the people around Yewon regarded her.
The way those who fully trusted and loved her looked at her.
It wasn’t simply because this girl was lovable and talented.
It was because she was always the kind of person who tried to help those around her.
…Just like now.
Seoa looked down at her own hands. One was gripping the towel Yewon had given her; the other was held fast in her grasp.
“…I hate being judged.”
!
“You don’t know. The feeling of failing audition after audition. The way every audition brings a new criticism of my flaws. I fix one thing and come back, and they point out something new. If it were about my acting ability, I wouldn’t care. But…”
Sometimes her height was called “too small.” Other times she was told she looked “too chubby.” Sometimes her nose was too big, her face shape “unsuitable for the camera.”
After facing so much judgment, she lost her nerve wondering how she’d look on screen, how shabby she’d appear in the eyes of a scene partner who seemed so perfect.
Seoa stared at the floor, her eyes dimmed.
“So that’s why. I don’t know how I’m going to look. In my head I know they probably don’t think like that, but once the camera starts rolling…”
“You think they’re judging you.”
“…”
Instead of answering, Seoa nodded.
“You know what I think about when I’m filming and looking at the other actor?”
“…?”
“Seo-jin cares about Hui-kyung. Thinks of her as the best friend, the most precious person.”
“…Yeah.”
“So when I see you through Seo-jin’s eyes, I see nothing but your strengths.”
!
“Hee-gyeong always stands so straight, her eyes bright with conviction, her mouth set with such composure. Even when she expresses herself in sign language, she never hesitates. I admire all of it. And so when I thought I was losing you in this scene, when I realized I might never see you like that again… I felt as though my heart was breaking.”
Seoa was taken aback, unable to say anything. She’d been about to tell Yewon not to be ridiculous, no matter what she said.
But Yewon spoke with such genuine sadness in her expression that Seoa couldn’t bring herself to say it.
“And I think the director—Eun-o—feels exactly the same way.”
“What?”
Yewon laughed softly at the incredulous look on Seoa’s face.
“You don’t know how much your senior loves and cares about his characters?”
“…?”
That man, capable of loving something? Seoa couldn’t believe it.
Every time she saw Eun-o, she felt a faint kinship of exasperation, so she had no faith in Yewon’s words.
“Come on. Let’s ask him together.”
“…”
She really didn’t feel like it.
As Yewon dragged her along, Seoa wore an expression of thorough reluctance the entire way.
“Senior!”
“…?”
When Yewon arrived with Seoa in tow, Eun-o’s face carried the look of someone thinking, ‘I have no idea what she’s about to say, but I’m already not interested.’
See?
Kindred spirits, I’m telling you.
Seoa gave Eun-o a deeply disapproving look.
“Who is Hee-gyeong, senior? What does she mean to you? Could you tell Seoa?”
“…”
At the way Eun-o’s expression grew subtly awkward, Seoa shot Yewon a look that said ‘I told you so.’
But then he spoke.
“Hee-gyeong is unshakeable.”
“!”
“She’s someone who always has conviction, and who gives that conviction to everyone around her. That’s why everyone’s despair deepened when the waves took her.”
“…!”
Seoa was startled.
Not simply because Eun-o’s description was gentler than she’d expected—it was the affection that shone unmistakably in his eyes as he spoke of Hee-gyeong.
Did this man even know how to make such a soft expression?
“Everyone doubts, everyone wonders whether Hee-gyeong fell into the sea by accident or surrendered to it willingly. From the moment the film begins to the moment it ends… I believe it’s precisely because she appeared so solid and unshakeable that such ambiguity could exist.”
“And why did you give such a role to Seoa?”
“…”
Eun-o looked at Yewon with frank displeasure, his gaze carrying a clear reproach: how dare you make me say such things aloud.
“Because I saw that solidity in you.”
“!”
The moment Eun-o reluctantly opened his mouth.
Seoa’s eyes widened sharply.
“If I hadn’t seen that in the audition, I never would have given you Hee-gyeong. I cast you because I saw that strength in you. That’s all.”
Eun-o said this, glared at Yewon once, then turned and walked away.
“Did you hear?”
“…”
Seoa couldn’t answer Yewon right away. She was too stunned.
“Of course Eun-o and I both—we’re human, so we can’t help but evaluate the people in front of us. But the Hee-gyeong we saw in you is exactly that kind of person. Someone so solid that you can’t help but trust and admire her.”
“…You knew about…”
Seoa hesitated before asking.
“How did you know he was thinking like that?”
“Of course. He was someone considering whether to create a new role just for you.”
“!”
She didn’t realize how jealous she’d felt.
When she discovered that he’d tried to create an entirely new role—one that didn’t exist in the previous version—just to give to Seoa.
It was such a joyful thing as a friend, knowing he valued Seoa so highly. But at the same time, it had stung with envy.
Yet pushing the jealousy down as if it had never existed, Yewon nudged Seoa forward.
“So go and show him. Show him your strength.”
“…!”
“I’ll be watching you as Seo-jin.”
“…”
At Yewon’s words, Seoa looked down at her feet, thinking quietly for a moment.
Then she nodded slowly and squeezed the hand clasped in hers with newfound strength.
“…Thank you.”
“!”
“And.”
Seoa hesitated before continuing.
“…The Seo-jin that Hee-gyung sees is, more than anyone else……. A transparent person. So transparent that while watching her, I found myself wanting to entrust myself to that clarity. A transparency like summer—impossible not to love.”
“!”
“At least, that’s how I read it. I’m going now.”
Without meeting Yewon’s eyes, Seoa abruptly unwrapped the towel from herself and thrust it into Yewon’s hands, then rushed toward the camera.
Yewon stood dazed, watching that retreating figure, and before she knew it, she was laughing softly.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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