Top Star By Luck [EN]: Chapter 63

63

A park within the apartment complex.

A man sat on a creaky bench, frowning as he watched the children playing in the distance.

“…What am I even thinking?”

The man’s appearance, as he muttered to himself, was anything but ordinary.

His seemingly indifferent eyes and sharp nose gave him a cynical look.

Added to that were his long limbs, completing the overall silhouette.

He had the kind of looks that would etch themselves into your memory with just one encounter on the street, making passersby turn back to look.

In other words, he had the face of an actor.

And indeed, this man’s profession was that of an actor.

“Am I out of my mind?”

The name of this man, who had been repeatedly berating himself a moment ago, was Kim Ji-hwan.

A rising star who had recently been gaining attention rapidly, and one of the two leads in the drama [Cafe del Dia], which was starting its broadcast today.

He sat on the bench, blankly staring at the playground, blinking.

‘Am I out of my mind?’

The reason Kim Ji-hwan was here today.

That was because.

“Have you been waiting long?”

It was to meet Lee Min-ki, an actor who lived in this apartment.

“I just got here.”

“I was surprised to get a sudden call.”

As Kim Ji-hwan stared blankly, Lee Min-ki cleared his throat, approached, and sat next to him on the bench.

Then, looking at the playground in the same posture as Kim Ji-hwan, he asked.

“This is the first time we’ve met separately like this, right? I was surprised that you contacted me, Ji-hwan.”

“I just have something I want to ask.”

That was exactly it.

He came because he had something to ask.

But even though he had spent a long time organizing the words he wanted to say, his lips were stuck together like taffy, refusing to part.

It wasn’t his style.

He also felt embarrassed to come to someone else’s neighborhood out of the blue and ask something.

‘Ugh, seriously, stop acting like a little kid. Who do you think you are?’

Kim Ji-hwan frowned at his own behavior for a moment.

Then, thinking that it didn’t matter, he opened his mouth.

“You’re quite good at acting.”

“Ah, ahem.”

Lee Min-ki was taken aback by the unexpected compliment and cleared his throat, but Kim Ji-hwan quickly followed up.

“How do you practice acting?”

“Pardon?”

“I’m asking how you practice. You’re good at acting, aren’t you? Better than me.”

“……”

Lee Min-ki’s gaze became even more bewildered.

‘Out of the blue?’

But Kim Ji-hwan was serious.

He wanted to know how the other person was able to act so well.

No, it was obvious.

He must have accumulated a lot of input, observed diligently on set, researched a lot, or found a good teacher.

Any of those would be fine.

Even if it was an obvious answer, he wanted to hear a refreshing response from the person in front of him.

Because.

He had been breaking down and agonizing every day for the past few months.

He couldn’t accept it when he first saw him at the Daon audition.

Because he was the one who got the part.

After that, when Lee Min-ki rose to prominence with [Campus Story] and [Forever Green] and became a comparison point, Kim Ji-hwan only felt anger and didn’t think Lee Min-ki was superior.

But standing on the same set, he had no choice but to admit it now.

That Lee Min-ki was one or two levels above him.

“I’ve been thinking about it every day, and I think I’ve done everything I can objectively,” he said.

His pride was hurt, but if necessary, he wanted to lower his head to get what he wanted.

That’s why he came to this place, unlike himself.

“What’s the secret? Why is there a difference between you and me?”

Lee Min-ki gave a sheepish smile at the unexpectedly serious attitude and replied.

“Haha, thank you for saying that, but I’m not good enough at acting to teach someone else anything. You’re also a very good actor, Ji-hwan, just in a slightly different field than me.”

“If you’re not making fun of me, spare me the modesty. I have an eye for acting.”

Kim Ji-hwan interrupted Lee Min-ki.

“Or is that it? You’re going to keep the secret to yourself.”

He was prickly.

Of course, the thought that came to the person hearing those words was this.

‘Huh? This feels familiar?’

He had definitely heard similar words somewhere before.

Do you have a secret? Why are you keeping it to yourself? Are you being stingy? Teach me if you know.

These were all too familiar words, and the culprit soon came to mind.

‘Ah, it’s Kim Tak.’

This was Kim Tak.

The way he clung to him and begged to learn was reminiscent of Kim Tak.

In reality, there was no secret or anything, but he wouldn’t believe it even if he told him, and he would stick to him like a leech, trying to steal it himself, which was exactly like Kim Tak.

‘I wondered what he was going to say on his day off, but suddenly he’s become Kim Tak?’

That was somewhat surprising from Lee Min-ki’s perspective.

‘No, Kim Ji-hwan is good enough at acting.’

He didn’t know why he was asking him in the first place.

He was doing well on his own.

No, it wasn’t just doing well.

Right now, they were being compared to each other, but in his past life, Kim Ji-hwan was a star in the sky that he couldn’t even dare to look up to.

Lee Min-ki was a nobody among nobodies.

Kim Ji-hwan was a popular actor who was growing from an anticipated rookie to a veteran.

The levels were different.

Even if Lee Min-ki had become better in his new life, it didn’t mean that Kim Ji-hwan had become worse.

He was still an outstanding rookie.

‘He seemed to improve quickly.’

Overwhelming learning ability.

Kim Ji-hwan had that.

Even if he was criticized just once, he would fix it so much that he wouldn’t be caught out in the next shoot.

He must have practiced hard, but he also had talent.

‘This guy has a lot of pride.’

He knew because they had been through thick and thin together on set for the past few months.

He was the type to hole up and rack his brains rather than ask for help from others.

Yet he had come all the way here.

And to the person he would least want to bow his head to.

Why was he doing this?

Why was he even enduring humiliation?

Lee Min-ki had one thing in mind.

‘Is it ambition?’

He suspected that Kim Ji-hwan’s true personality was someone who felt a greater thirst for growth than a handful of pride.

Well, it wouldn’t be strange, considering how quickly he was improving.

Nevertheless, to be honest, he was hesitant to give advice on acting.

‘If I were as used to teaching people as Teacher Ah-sung, I might know what to do.’

Since he and the other guy were about the same level, advice might not be meaningful.

Rather, it would be poisonous if he acted presumptuously.

But if he didn’t say anything, he looked like he was going to try a single-leg takedown right away.

‘If we fought, I’d lose, right?’

There was an absolute height difference.

He seemed to go to the gym separately too.

“You don’t want to teach me?”

When Lee Min-ki didn’t say anything, Kim Ji-hwan asked again, as if pressing him.

“I’m lowering my pride as a fellow actor to ask you, and you don’t even want to tell me that much?”

Hey, that’s not how someone who’s asking a question talks.

But given Kim Ji-hwan’s personality, Lee Min-ki could sense that even that level of speech was desperate enough.

Also.

He was slowly sensing something.

‘What if this is also luck?’

Since entering this life, he thought he had become particularly blessed with people.

From his classmates at the academy to his colleagues on set.

What if Kim Ji-hwan was also one of the blessings he could gather?

‘What if helping him turns out to be beneficial to me in the long run?’

It was a narrow world.

Even if the other guy was pushed back by him, he was undoubtedly a star in the making.

As long as they were active in this industry, they would run into each other many times in the future, so wouldn’t it be beneficial to fix their relationship?

In the first place, there was no reason for them to be on bad terms.

And also.

The luck that Lee Min-ki felt in this life wasn’t always like a convenience store scratch-off lottery that came immediately.

It often came in a slightly different form.

Sometimes, what he had been accumulating steadily, like a housing savings account, would snowball.

‘What if this moment is one of those?’

It was a seed.

Lee Min-ki, having finished organizing his thoughts, opened his mouth.

“Well, it’s not a big deal, but let me ask you one question.”

Kim Ji-hwan’s gaze became sharper at Lee Min-ki’s words.

Almost as if he was picking a fight.

Lee Min-ki looked at the children playing in the distance to neutralize his gaze and said.

“What’s your input-to-output ratio, Ji-hwan?”

“Input to output?”

“I mean, what’s the ratio of time you spend watching works to the time you spend practicing and appearing in them?”

“Why are you asking that?”

“I’m asking because I need to know.”

At Lee Min-ki’s words, Kim Ji-hwan frowned as if he was puzzled, but then slowly raised his fingers one by one and said.

“I watch at least one movie a day. I practice in my free time.”

One movie a day.

Since it was about 2 hours, it was an average figure for an actor.

No, it was quite good, assuming it was consistent.

‘Surprisingly, there are many actors who don’t watch movies during their active period.’

Once they start acting, just the act of watching something during their break becomes labor rather than rest.

But.

Lee Min-ki thought a little differently here.

“My input is 8, and my output is 2.”

“Input is 8?”

Kim Ji-hwan asked back as if he was surprised, and Lee Min-ki nodded and continued.

“I watch all day, and I actually spend less time acting directly.”

Overwhelming input compared to others.

This was what Lee Min-ki considered his strength.

Why was that possible?

Why had it become a habit?

That was because the period when he wanted to act but couldn’t was too long.

“I spent my days watching movies, dramas, and animations in my room.”

Then he lived like that for a while, fell forward on the stairs, and died with the back of his head smashed.

Anyway, for Lee Min-ki, input was almost the meaning of life.

And as a result of watching and watching again.

It had become a habit that stuck to him without him even realizing it.

“Isn’t that just playing around?”

The moment Kim Ji-hwan asked back with a questioning voice, Lee Min-ki said as if he knew he would be stabbed like this.

“Well, I also think about it every time I see other actors acting on set.”

It was observation.

Lee Min-ki continued, watching the children in the playground in the distance.

“How would I have acted if I were in that scene? What is that actor thinking when they’re acting that character? Why doesn’t the director point out the obvious acting mistakes? I keep thinking and thinking about it.”

At those words, Kim Ji-hwan asked back as if he couldn’t understand.

“Isn’t that what every actor does?”

“That’s right. They all do it.”

Lee Min-ki didn’t deny it.

Rather, he affirmed and answered.

“But the important thing is the quantity and accuracy. In fact, there’s a limit to understanding someone else’s actions transparently unless you open their head, right?”

“Are there times when you can’t figure it out?”

“Of course. I’m not a genius.”

“…You’re not?”

“No.”

Lee Min-ki repeated it once more, as if putting an exclamation mark on his words.

“Unfortunately, no.”

He wasn’t a genius.

Absolutely not.

He knew better than anyone that he wasn’t a genius.

Looking at Kim Ji-hwan’s expression, it was difficult for him to accept Lee Min-ki’s words, but he seemed to be letting it go because he said so.

‘I’m even having these kinds of worries.’

It felt like yesterday that he was treated as a failure at the academy, but he had changed a lot.

He had always thought that the person in front of him was a genius, but now he was being treated as a genius.

Lee Min-ki smiled wryly at the ironic situation and said.

“Still, I keep thinking about it. While eating, while walking, while exercising. I keep thinking and thinking about it in my head. Other people’s actions.”

“…Are you saying you can improve your skills just by doing that? Just by thinking?”

His voice was hard to believe.

At that reaction, Lee Min-ki chuckled and said.

“There’s something a actor I like once said.”

“What is it?”

At the curious question, Lee Min-ki raised his finger and said.

“If you think about the reason for any action three times, there’s nothing in the world you can’t understand.”

“……!”

There was a noticeable agitation in Kim Ji-hwan’s pupils.

His shoulders also hunched slightly.

His breathing also became noticeably smaller.

It meant that he was focusing his five senses on the other person’s words.

Lee Min-ki took advantage of this momentum and said as if he was going to see it through to the end.

“Then, at some point, you start to feel it. The other person’s thoughts. From then on, you can oversee the scene from various angles.”

Oversee.

This was what Lee Min-ki was confident in, at least in acting.

Acting while drawing even beyond the camera in his head based on observation.

“After understanding why this scene is running like this, I fit in the acting that I can do best. Like a one-line piece in Tetris.”

He didn’t know if the analogy resonated.

Lee Min-ki, who had been talking for a long time, cleared his throat as if he was belatedly embarrassed that he had spouted out words as if he knew it all, and said.

“That’s all. Nothing special, right?”

As he said, it was nothing special.

It was also an action that any actor could put into practice.

But it was also an action that they didn’t do.

If they were the lead, they were even more likely to ignore it because they were used to being fed what others had prepared for them.

Lee Min-ki might have acquired the knack out of necessity because he had been rolling around as a supporting actor and extra for a long time.

Therefore.

It came to Kim Ji-hwan with a slightly different feeling.

“You mean understanding the scene?”

Literally, with a different feeling.

“That’s all?”

He just asked out of curiosity, but Lee Min-ki flinched and said as if distancing himself.

“Why, why, what, why? Don’t believe it if you don’t want to. I bothered to tell you.”

“……”

Kim Ji-hwan raised his eyebrows slightly at the somewhat sensitive reaction.

He didn’t mean to argue, but it unintentionally sounded that way.

But apart from that, Lee Min-ki’s words were worth considering.

‘If I were to analyze my own acting, I could do that much easily.’

But if he were asked if he fully understood the acting of other actors on set on a regular basis.

“……”

It was difficult to be sure.

That was because Kim Ji-hwan was that kind of actor.

His ego was too strong, so he had a weak awareness of considering others as objects of understanding, unless they were competitors.

People around him had treated him as someone who was allowed to do that since he was young.

Born as the son of a pharmaceutical company, he had always grown up in the center of crowds with his innate looks and personality.

So he rarely tried to be conscious of others.

He was in a position where he was allowed to do so.

Because he was so used to this kind of relationship, Lee Min-ki’s seemingly obvious words came to him a little differently.

‘Was this the secret to his acting skills?’

There was an image that was commonly associated with the name Lee Min-ki.

[Wow, really?] [Haha, Min-ki keeps asking.] [Oh, was I being rude?] [Not really, I’m just curious. I think you have a very strong curiosity.] [I was surprised to see you acting, actor-nim (actor-ssi). When I saw you acting earlier, I was so immersed without even realizing it.]

Even when it wasn’t his turn to act, he would tenaciously observe the acting of other actors.

Even during breaks in the middle of filming, he would often exchange opinions with others rather than reviewing his own acting.

‘If that was this actor’s secret?’

If understanding was the same as skill?

If this hypothesis was true, wouldn’t that be the part that he was lacking?

If so.

If that was really the case.

“……!”

The foggy mind cleared up a little.

Meanwhile, Lee Min-ki’s thoughts as he looked at him, who was silently lost in thought, were like this.

‘Is he sulking?’

Was he pouting?

‘Could it be because I refuted him just now?’

No.

Even I think I spoke a bit abstractly, so he wouldn’t have taken it strangely, right?

What if he thinks I just spouted some grand bullshit because I had nothing to say?

This is really all there is to me.

‘Ah, now that I think about it, I’m embarrassed for no reason.’

I got carried away and said too much.

Anyway, if that person asked and got advice, he should say something in response, but why is he just standing there silently?

‘That, that, he’s doubting me inside.’

He’s not a kid.

It was a moment when they were both lost in their own thoughts due to a lack of communication.

“I see.”

Kim Ji-hwan dusted off his butt from the bench, got up, and said with a frown, hesitating.

“Thank you.”

“Pardon?”

What was ‘thank you’?

It wasn’t ‘thank you’, it was ‘thank you’.

Because of Kim Ji-hwan’s unique stiff way of speaking, the emotion was hard to grasp.

Lee Min-ki decided to ask again.

“What did you say just now?”

“I said thank you.”

“Huh? What did you say just now?”

Kim Ji-hwan bit his lip at Lee Min-ki’s words, repeatedly asking as if he hadn’t heard.

“…I’m saying that your words were helpful to me, Min-ki.”

“Oh?”

“You can take it that way. I’ll buy you something next time, so let’s talk then.”

Kim Ji-hwan said this much and then frowned and turned his gaze away, as if something was uncomfortable for him alone.

Like a child who grimaces and swallows bitter medicine against their will.

Lee Min-ki’s impression as he looked at him was like this.

‘Wow, did he really say thank you?’

Did that Kim Ji-hwan really thank me?

That Kim Ji-hwan who walks his own path, no matter what others say on set?

That venomous Kim Ji-hwan to the god of the set, the director?

Of course, it could happen.

About the same probability as drawing three 5-star characters in the first tutorial draw of a mobile game.

A situation that is rarely seen in reality, so he was still unsure.

‘Whatever.’

Lee Min-ki laughed it off cheerfully.

Did he have to actively say thank you?

It didn’t matter.

Originally, even if the input is the same, the output is different.

Lee Min-ki chuckled and was about to get up and tidy up his seat.

Unexpected words came out of Kim Ji-hwan’s mouth.

“Daon’s eyes are crooked.”

“Pardon?”

“For dropping Min-ki. The CEO’s eye for talent was strange.”

This was a funny thing to say.

No, it was really funny because the person who pushed him out was saying those words.

‘Did the actor Kim Ji-hwan also know how to joke?’

His expression was more serious than ever.

Lee Min-ki smiled slightly at the gap and said slyly.

“Everyone makes a wrong choice once in their life.”

“……”

“There’s an old saying that not recognizing talent is a human disaster? In the end, CEO Daon is just a human who couldn’t recognize the talent that is me…”

That was the moment.

Kim Ji-hwan made a blank expression without saying a word, and Lee Min-ki also realized that he had made a mistake.

‘Ah, the ad-lib failed.’

Look at that expression.

He clearly didn’t understand.

He looks like he has a lot of friends just by looking at him, but his actions show that he has a thorough Confucian spirit.

Maybe the words he said earlier weren’t really a joke.

‘Oh well.’

It was a failure.

Lee Min-ki said, feeling the bitterness of failure.

“Well, either they or I lacked luck.”

“Luck, you say?”

“They say that relationships between people are luck, right? Daon lacked luck. Or maybe it was my luck to be dropped and enter JC.”

In fact, these words contained the nuance of ‘I’m someone you can only take if you’re lucky!’, so Lee Min-ki was secretly hoping that Kim Ji-hwan would poke at this part.

“Luck, there’s some truth to that.”

This serious person didn’t even read the signs.

There’s no answer.

He’s someone who doesn’t understand jokes.

Lee Min-ki laughed heartily and said.

“You came all the way here, so let’s grab a bite to eat. There are many good restaurants here.”

Koreans need rice to live.

Thinking that, he was about to take Kim Ji-hwan to a nearby rice bowl restaurant.

“Hmm?”

In the distance, he saw someone walking towards them.

Whether he had been grocery shopping, he was holding a large shopping bag in one hand.

The silhouette of that person was a bit familiar.

A rarely handsome face, with long limbs.

He was a human being who looked like an actor as much as Kim Ji-hwan.

“……”

“……”

It was Kim Tae-yang.

He, who was living in the same house as Lee Min-ki, walked to within close proximity of the two and asked with sharp eyes.

“Actor Kim Ji-hwan? Are you close?”

Lee Min-ki instinctively tried to shake his head from side to side, but showed a bit of consideration and shook it up and down.