Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Rain was falling on the screen.

The same alley, the same downpour as the opening scene of Episode 1.

Park Songmin buried his face in a cushion.

‘...This is so embarrassing.’

Watching his own acting with his own two eyes made his whole body want to curl in on itself.

Live reaction posts were open on his phone.

His finger hit refresh faster and faster.

-Finally starting

-Can’t believe it’s already the finale. Why did time go so fast

-The dopamine in my life is disappearing...

-Going back to the rainy alley gave me chills

-If I cry tonight, I lose

-Already lost

The story moved quickly.

The true culprit was caught, the organization collapsed, and the detective played by Yoo Yeonjae handed in his resignation.

As the runtime crossed the fifty-minute mark, Park Songmin swallowed hard.

‘...It should be soon.’

The screen changed.

A hallway with a fluorescent light hanging crookedly overhead.

A sign attached to an iron door.

[Interrogation Room]

‘...Hoo. Here it comes.’

Embarrassing or not.

As an actor, he had to monitor his own performance.

‘...Actor? Me?’

Park Songmin flinched at the thought that had surfaced unconsciously.

The door opened.

Yoo Yeonjae entered carrying a file and pulled out a chair.

The camera caught the back of the man sitting across from him.

Head lowered, veins visible along the wrists beneath the handcuffs.

Then his head rose.

[...I’ve been waiting.]

-????

-Wait

-Who the hell is sitting there

-Park Songhu?

-HOLY SHIT IT’S PARK SONGHU

-WHY IS PARK SONGHU SUDDENLY HERE???

-What the hell is that face seriously

-No but that tone just now

Only Park Songmin’s eyes were peeking over the cushion.

‘...That’s me?’

He hadn’t realized it on set.

All he remembered was the cold metal chair, his pounding heart, feeling intimidated in front of Yoo Yeonjae, and Kang Yunho flooding into him in the middle of it all.

But... the man sitting on the screen now didn’t look nervous in the slightest.

‘...Do I actually have talent for acting?’

The scene continued.

Yoo Yeonjae’s interrogation went on, followed by the lines Seo Hayoung had added on set.

The handcuffs struck the metal table with a clink.

Then came the final line.

[...Because that was the only way I could live.]

His voice came out hoarse and fractured.

The shot lingered on his face.

-Fuck

-Insane

-What the hell is this twist

-Chills

-Is that really Park Songhu? His acting never used to be like this

-I run an account making compilation clips of Park Songhu’s terrible acting. I’m shutting it down today

└ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

└RIP

-What are those eyes seriously

-He isn’t even crying or yelling so why am I crying

-That last line delivery was fucking insane

Park Songhu’s fan club, Songhuru, was in an uproar too.

For reference, Songhuru was derived from tanghulu.

...Because just looking at his face was sweet enough to rot your teeth.

-Songhuㅠㅠㅠㅠ

└Please look at our baby, look at him one more time

-I loved him even when he couldn’t act, what am I supposed to do now that he can act too...

-Did you see his chin trembling at the end? DID YOU

-He just endured everything all this time without saying a word. It kind of felt similar to Songhu’s own situation so I got way too immersed

└Same, I think that’s why I got even more into it ㅠㅜㅠㅠ

-Company do your damn job, why doesn’t he have a next project? You’re going to waste acting like this?

-But why is our Songhu so skinny? Is he eating properly?

└It’s makeup calm down

-My teeth are rotting, lost my molars today too

└We’re Songhuru, let’s all rot together

“...”

Park Songhu was watching the screen.

It was his face.

The angle of the cheekbones, the jawline, even the shadows beneath the eyes were all his.

And yet he wasn’t inside it.

‘...I tried that tone at least a hundred times.’

The character Park Songmin played on the screen was alive.

Once again, he had no choice but to acknowledge his younger brother’s talent for acting.

‘That’s literally just the character sitting there.’

Even with Yoo Yeonjae, an actor renowned for his skill, pressing him hard, the center of gravity remained with his brother.

And by the next day, articles began springing up everywhere.

[<​Hwain> Ends on a High Note at 24.9%... The Name That Stole the Final Five Minutes]

[A Cameo Swallowed the Ending, Park Songhu’s Interrogation Scene Hits a Peak Minute Rating of 29.4%]

[Writer Seo Hayoung: “Why I Added More Lines on Set That Day”]

-I stopped even looking at Park Songhu after his personality scandal last year. But watching that scene yesterday, I completely forgot about all that. I didn’t know he could act so well

-Looks like he studied acting hard during his hiatusㅠㅠㅠ

-I always knew he was handsome but I’ve never seen him look that unpretty before

-The scary part is that he acted without using his face at all...

-So what’s Park Songhu’s next project

└Apparently nothing yet

└Somebody cast him already

Yoo Yeonjae uploaded a still cut to his social media.

The two men sitting across from each other with the metal interrogation table between them.

[Thank you, Kang Yunho.]

The comments passed five thousand almost instantly.

Tonight, the most frequently spoken name in the country was Park Songhu.

The clip views, the articles, the comments beneath Yoo Yeonjae’s photo, all of it.

And the guy who had actually created all that was currently...

“Hey, wake up already.”

“...Mnya.”

Still sprawled asleep at two in the afternoon.

‘...Shouldn’t I feel cheated?’

Park Songhu searched inside himself.

There should have been resentment there.

But there wasn’t.

Instead... for some reason, pride was swelling up.

‘This is ridiculous.’

***

Third floor of a production studio in Hapjeong-dong.

The waiting-room door opened and the assistant director walked in.

He was holding single sheets of A4 paper.

“Director’s orders. This is what we’ll be using for today’s audition.”

The pages passed from hand to hand.

The assistant director walked right back out, and the door closed.

Actor Oh Junghan took the sheet and skimmed it.

Scene 27. Inside a container.

Taesik chews expired bread.

That was it.

Three lines.

No dialogue.

“...”

The waiting room went silent before murmurs quickly began spreading.

“This is all?”

“Isn’t there another page?”

“There isn’t.”

“Did they print this this morning? I swear I can smell the ink...”

Someone brought the sheet to their nose.

It really did smell.

Oh Junghan looked down at his bag.

The script inside had been marked with five different colors of highlighter.

The labor-office scene, the hospital scene, the final rooftop scene.

He had spent two months digging into those three scenes.

All of it had been blown away by a single scrap of paper.

‘This guy really is exactly like the rumors. A complete tyrant.’

Cha Minseok, sitting across from him, sighed.

“For his last project’s audition, apparently he gave everyone apples instead of scripts.”

“...Why?”

“Told them to eat them. Just eat.”

“...Isn’t that easy?”

“Yeah. And then all twelve of them failed.”

A hollow laugh went around the waiting room.

“But why bread this time?”

A rookie asked.

Cha Minseok shrugged.

“It’s in the script. Scene 27.”

“I know that, but why that scene out of all of them?”

“Because there’s the least to show.”

Oh Junghan answered instead.

“No excuse to cry, no excuse to get angry, and no lines. There’s nowhere for an actor to hide.”

“...”

“That’s why he picked it.”

The temperature in the waiting room seemed to drop.

Oh Junghan set the sheet on his knee and tapped it with a finger.

‘Chews bread.’

He had to survive several minutes in front of five judges with nothing but that.

As if everyone wasn’t already desperate after the role had gone uncast for three years.

“...By the way.”

A rookie in the corner spoke.

“Actor Park Songhu is on today’s list.”

“Yeah, saw that.”

“Is he really coming?”

“If he’s on the list, I’d assume he is.”

“When is Actor Songhu getting here?”

“There’s still some time.”

“The other senior hasn’t arrived yet either. Maybe we should call and ask when he’ll be here.”

One actor spoke as though something had suddenly occurred to him.

“Did everyone watch <​Hwain>?”

“Of course. Who didn’t? It was everywhere.”

“...I was honestly shocked. He was really good.”

“I’m not exaggerating when I say I thought they’d used a body double.”

“Haha, how do you body-double that face? It’s basically a one-of-a-kind national treasure.”

“Apparently that scene was a one-take.”

“...?”

“I heard it from a staff member who was there. Writer Seo Hayoung watched it and added more lines on the spot.”

“...!”

Oh Junghan’s eyes widened.

Seo Hayoung rewriting the script on set was unheard of.

“...But why Taesik? You know what Park Songhu looks like. A day laborer from a tiny-room village with that face?”

“True, that’s a little...”

“Someone with an aristocrat’s face hauling bricks? Feels like that’d kill immersion...”

“It’s also surprising that Park Songhu’s even auditioning.”

“Right? At his level, he must’ve gotten other offers too...”

Cha Minseok folded the sheet and slipped it into his pocket.

“Well, we’ll know once we see him act today.”

Confidence or recklessness.

***

The first actor sat in the chair.

He opened the bread wrapper.

Took a bite, chewed, and his shoulders began to shake.

His throat tightened.

Unable to swallow what was in his mouth, tears fell, and eventually he lowered the bread onto his lap and pressed the back of his hand to his eyes.

Jung Jaeseung rested his chin on his hand.

He held a pen, but wrote nothing on the page.

“Next.”

Second.

He chewed the bread, then punched the wall.

Thud, the sound echoed through the studio.

Anger.

At the world, at his life, at the expired bread in his hand.

“Next.”

The third treated the bread like something precious.

Carefully opening the wrapper, cupping every crumb as though it mattered.

Then he took one bite and smiled sadly.

“Haa. Next.”

The fourth laughed while chewing and then cried.

The fifth sat holding the wrapper without eating at all, then crushed it at the end.

After the sixth actor left and the door closed.

Clack—

Jung Jaeseung tossed his pen onto the desk.

The casting director beside him flinched and turned.

“Director.”

“...”

“Should we take a break?”

Jung Jaeseung leaned back in his chair.

“They’re all acting poverty. None of them have lived it.”

The production company representative carefully interjected.

“Director, still, they’re all skilled...”

“I didn’t invite anyone who wasn’t skilled.”

Jung Jaeseung tapped the desk with his finger.

“Listen carefully. Kim Taesik isn’t sad about eating that bread. He’s just hungry. If he has enough strength left to feel sorry for himself, then he isn’t Taesik.”

The casting director turned the list and asked cautiously.

“Director, it’s already been three years of delays.”

Jung Jaeseung pressed his fingertips against his eyelids.

“So what if it’s three years? If I call something right when it’s wrong, I lose ten.”

The production company representative swallowed a sigh.

In the end, he couldn’t bring himself to mention that the investors were waiting for today’s result.

Meanwhile, the atmosphere in the waiting room was heavy too.

“...The director’s disappointed right now, isn’t he?”

“That’s way beyond disappointed.”

Oh Junghan watched the monitor with his arms crossed.

He was ninth.

Somehow, he was certain the director would still be sitting there with that same expression when his turn came.

And he was.

He opened the wrapper and took a bite.

Dry.

There was no sound as he chewed.

Jung Jaeseung wasn’t even watching him.

His eyes remained lowered to the documents while the pen spun between his fingers.

‘...Is he even evaluating me?’

The instant that thought entered his mind, his chewing rhythm broke.

“Next.”

When he closed the door and stepped into the hallway, his palms were damp.

He felt like his soul had been stripped bare.

‘...So that was it.’

Only then did he realize he hadn’t been judged on whether he acted well or badly in there.

The question had been whether he had lived it or not.

In other words, how deeply he could enter the character, how completely he could become the character himself.

Oh Junghan gulped cold water in front of the dispenser.

Only then did the bread crumbs stuck in his throat finally go down.

Tenth.

Eleventh.

Before anyone knew it, the clock showed five in the afternoon.

The studio air had grown stale from the lights being on so long.

The script supervisor swallowed a yawn, while the cinematographer rested his arms on the tripod with his eyelids drooping.

The casting director checked the final line of the list.

“Director, one person left.”

“...”

“Actor Park Songhu from JH Entertainment.”

Jung Jaeseung finally looked up from his documents.

“Ah, that handsome actor. He auditioned for me once before.”

“Yes.”

The production company representative smiled from beside him.

“He has the biggest buzz in the industry right now, Director.”

“What does that have to do with anything? You think I haven’t cast this role all this time because I couldn’t find someone famous enough?”

“Of course not, but...”

“And honestly, he might be too handsome for the image I had in mind for Kim Taesik.”

At that moment, the assistant director called toward the hallway.

“Actor Park Songhu, come in.”

The door opened.

That instant.

“...?”

“...!”

All five judges flinched at once.

Even Jung Jaeseung raised his eyebrows.

‘Th-That outfit...’

A hoodie with such a stretched neckline that it drooped off the left shoulder.

White lettering across the chest, cracked so badly that only half remained.

“...”

The audition hadn’t even started, but Jung Jaeseung had to retract what he had just said.

‘That atmosphere... erased his looks.’

...Kim Taesik was standing there.

The Genius Actor Is Hiding Twins