An Actor Who Has Lived For 10,000 Years [EN]: Chapter 62

62. #14 – Being Recognized (1)

Knock knock.

Knock knock knock knock!

The sound of the door being pounded on as if it would break.

Not just one person’s touch.

The simultaneous sounds were deafening.

My heart started beating fast.

I took a deep breath, filled with fear.

Wait a minute….

Why can’t I suck in any air?

I tried to breathe in and out again, but still, no air entered my mouth or nose.

In that moment, I realized.

This is… a dream.

Even as I realized that.

Knock knock knock-!

“Aren’t you going to open the door?”

The situation before my eyes changed rapidly in an instant.

Soon, the doorknob began to rattle as if it would break at any moment.

“Hyung [older brother or respected male figure]… I’m so scared.”

My little brother was holding onto my leg tightly.

“Shhh!”

I desperately covered my brother’s mouth and held my breath.

Clearly, I didn’t intend to.

But my body moved naturally, like water flowing.

We mustn’t let them know we’re in the house.

Otherwise….

We’ll be caught.

Holding my brother tightly, I lifted my head and saw antique furniture.

And the TV, which was playing silently, was definitely black and white.

Come to think of it, the furniture and various products placed throughout the house seemed quite old.

But it didn’t feel like antiques collected as display.

For real life, things that are being used now.

Then… is this the 1980s?

Crack.

At that moment, the solid doorknob broke under the strong shaking.

I quickly hid under the desk with my brother.

I blocked my brother’s mouth with my hand to stop any sound.

People in black clothes, holding various clubs, rummaged through the house.

Damn it.

“Ahhh!”

In the end, my brother and I were discovered by them.

“Please save us!”

I desperately tried to protect my brother with my body.

But it was impossible to stop the many people who rushed in and the senseless beating.

And it was too much to block them with my bare body to protect my brother.

Something hot started flowing down my face from my body, which was hugging my brother tightly.

My brother wiped the hot liquid from my face with his hand.

“Hyung… blood….”

Slowly.

And soon, I lost consciousness.

My body seemed to have lost all sensation.

I couldn’t even tell if it was day or night.

And my eyes were tightly closed.

Gradually, my mind became clearer, and the buzzing sound tormented my ears.

I still couldn’t open my eyes.

I felt like I was being pressed down by something heavy.

Or maybe my eyes were so swollen that I couldn’t open them?

“Puuh-ack!”

Someone grabbed a fistful of hair at the back of my head.

And my face was submerged in a place I didn’t know.

I couldn’t breathe, and water seeped into my nose, mouth, and ears.

Even my barely opened eyes.

I struggled, shaking my whole body to live.

“Pu-ack!”

And soon, my face was able to come out of the water.

Did I barely regain consciousness in the water?

No, maybe they put my face in the water to wake me up.

“Haa, haa.”

As I gasped for breath, a dark figure was holding my head.

The man opened his mouth.

“You commie bastard.”

I couldn’t understand his words.

A commie….

Why am I a commie?

I was just an ordinary college student.

Just an extremely ordinary person.

A quiet student who didn’t participate in any organizations or even any activities at school.

“Why am I a commie….”

Before I could finish speaking, my face was submerged back into the dark bathtub.

“Pooo!”

I couldn’t breathe.

And their laughter-filled conversation was faintly audible.

“Is he really a commie?”

“What does it matter? We do what we’re told from above.”

“I wonder if he’s going to die like this.”

The sound of several people talking.

But I couldn’t accurately judge their conversation.

Just one thing.

That I was brought here unjustly.

The commie they’re calling me.

I’m definitely not.

And they know it too.

That I was just dragged here.

That this is something ordered by the ‘above’ somewhere.

Why….

When my head came out of the tub again, I struggled to open my mouth.

“I’m not a commie.”

At my words, they smiled and replied.

“We know.”

“Then why… to me.”

“Why?”

One of them bent down, looked into my eyes, and opened his mouth.

“If ‘above’ says you’re a commie, then you’re a commie.”

“What does that….”

He looked straight into my eyes and raised the corner of his mouth.

“That’s all.”

My breath was gradually getting heavier.

Inside this black space somewhere.

Screams were constantly heard from the space presumed to be the next room.

“Ahhh!”

“Please save me!”

This place is full of sounds of terror.

And they said to me.

“It’ll be easier to just admit you’re a commie.”

With those words, my tightly bound arms and legs began to be beaten with clubs.

And again, my head was submerged deep into the water.

Soon, my consciousness gradually faded.

팟- [sound of something abruptly stopping].

A white ceiling in front of my eyes.

I jumped out of bed, thinking I had woken up from a dream.

And I quickly breathed in and out.

What kind of dream is this?

The dreams I’ve had so far have been exciting or even thrilling when I woke up.

But this dream, the feeling of my heart beating fast.

It was a different kind of excitement than the previous dreams.

A dream with a very bad feeling.

The more I breathed out and recalled the scene I saw in the dream, the calmer I became.

Why suddenly this kind of dream….

Something flashed through my mind.

It was the script.

The drama that came to me with a lead role casting.

I quickly started rummaging through the script I received from Manager Kim.

The background seemed similar to what I saw in the dream.

No, it was definitely the same.

But the content of the drama was a completely different history from my dream.

It wasn’t the history I experienced in that era, in my dream.

I wasn’t a commie, and I hadn’t committed any crimes.

And they inflicted terrible torture on me that I couldn’t even utter to many people.

Just because of one word ordered by the ‘above’.

But there wasn’t a single line like that anywhere in the drama script.

Not a single scene.

The drama was about arresting commies who had caused riots.

Rather, the place that shouted ‘above’ was justified, and there were full of lines praising them.

That was all.

It’s a distortion of history, but it’s a fact that I now know exactly through the dream.

Is this why I felt uneasy after seeing the script yesterday….

I looked at the script and sighed deeply.

Suddenly, when I looked in the mirror in front of me, my face was a mess.

My whole body and face were covered in sweat because I had a hard dream.

I hurried to the bathroom.

Leaving the house with a clear mind and heading to the company.

The script in my hand.

Since it was the first time I had received a lead role, I decided to think deeply about it.

Of course, since it’s a drama, it wouldn’t be strange if fiction was mixed in.

But I thought that just being fiction and history being different were completely separate issues.

Even if the importance changes, I didn’t think this drama would be appealing.

The script was exciting and dynamic, but I somehow wasn’t drawn to it.

Drama writer Choi Na-hyun and director Baek Hyun-sung.

Looking at that writer-director lineup, viewership was guaranteed unconditionally.

But is it really right for me to do this drama?

***

“Hello.”

Team Leader Park greeted me as I entered the company.

“Oh, Hee-sung. You came to work today too?”

“Of course. I need to prepare for the next project soon.”

He looked at me with a pleased face.

Team Leader Park is the person who welcomed me since I joined HS Entertainment.

“I don’t know how lucky it is that Hee-sung came to our HS Entertainment.”

He pointed to a chair for me and continued.

“If another company had taken you, we wouldn’t have been able to see you. Haha.”

I sat facing him and replied.

“Thank you, Team Leader.”

He handed me a drink next to his seat.

It was the first time in a while that I was facing him.

Come to think of it, it seemed like it was the first time since I received the offer to join the company.

“I’ll enjoy it.”

“Okay.”

He pointed to Manager Kim’s empty seat and said.

“Manager Kim has some business to take care of, so he’ll be here a little later.”

“Ah, okay.”

Team Leader Park snapped his fingers and opened his mouth.

“By the way, Hee-sung, I heard you got an offer for a lead role this time?”

“Ah….”

The script in my bag, he must be talking about that drama.

“That writer and director are amazing.”

Team Leader Park’s voice was filled with admiration.

“Coo, is our Hee-sung finally rising to become a drama lead?”

Team Leader Park shouted excitedly at the news of the lead role casting.

But I was barely able to hide my embarrassment because I was thinking of rejecting the drama.

I hadn’t talked to Manager Kim yet, so I couldn’t rashly tell Team Leader Park first.

When I didn’t open my mouth, Team Leader Park opened his mouth again.

“Hee-sung is so good at acting, so he’s already rising to the lead role….”

“I’m back.”

Before he could finish speaking, Manager Kim approached and bowed to him.

“Oh, Manager Kim, you’re here?”

“Yes, I’ve taken care of what you mentioned.”

“Good work.”

Manager Kim turned his head and looked at me.

“Hee-sung, you came early?”

“Yeah, I came a little while ago.”

Team Leader Park nodded and gestured for me to leave.

I jumped up from my seat.

Fortunately, the story about the drama was cut off.

I hurried to Manager Kim’s seat.

The conference room I entered with Manager Kim.

After closing the door tightly, I took a seat in front of Manager Kim.

And when I put the script on the table, he opened his mouth first.

“Did you read the script again?”

“Yeah.”

He opened his eyes wide and looked at me.

A face that seemed to be trying to hear the answer he wanted from me.

But unlike his expectations, I offered a different answer.

“Hyung [older brother or respected male figure], I don’t think this is good.”

Then Manager Kim’s eyes widened.

“Is it that bad?”

When I nodded, he tapped the script with his finger and replied.

“I thought it was 괜찮던데 [gwaenchantdeonde, meaning ‘not bad’ or ‘okay’] overall, especially since the writer and director are amazing.”

At Manager Kim’s words, I made a tsk sound and carefully opened my mouth.

“That’s true, but this is a bit… no, completely different from actual history.”

“I don’t know what to say.”

Manager Kim raised and lowered his shoulders with a look of relief and continued.

“Dramas and reality are different anyway. If you make reality into a drama as it is, there won’t be any stimulating elements.”

“I know that, but I don’t think it’s right to be different from history.”

Manager Kim bit his lower lip at my words.

He didn’t look flustered.

Just a face that seemed to be lost in thought with a different opinion from me.

A moment of silence flowed between him and me.

Manager Kim pulled the script towards him.

Then, after looking at the script for a while, he raised his head.

“Hee-sung-ah.”

“Yeah.”

“It’s our first lead role.”

Manager Kim’s low voice.

This was the most important point.

First lead role.

I hadn’t excluded that either.

Because just being the lead role in a mini-series drama was very sweet.

“…….”

“Of course, it’s a cable channel, but still, once you take on a lead role, lead role offers will start coming in the future.”

His words were convincing enough.

In the future, lead role offers will come in other dramas or movies.

If not, casting for supporting roles with a large weight will come in.

But even at his words, I shook my head.

“But… this drama is uneasy.”

“You know too. It’s very difficult for an actor to rise to the lead role level.”

I know.

Whether you rise to the lead role even once or not determines your life as an actor.

He continued with a serious face.

“Isn’t it too much of a waste?”

At Manager Kim’s words, I nodded.

“But hyung also knows. If you fail once, all the responsibility goes to the lead actor.”

“That’s true, but Hee-sung this time….”

I cut off his words sharply.

“Hyung.”

At my call, he raised his eyebrows.

“I’ve listened to everything hyung has said so far.”

“That’s right.”

“But this doesn’t feel good.”

I had never said anything like this before.

I had never rejected what Manager Kim recommended.

I followed his words.

Perhaps that’s why Manager Kim had a rather surprised face.

But he couldn’t give up such a good opportunity right away with just my one word.

“Then… let’s think about it a little more.”

When I avoided his gaze at his words, he said to me again.

“No, it’s okay to reject this….”

“No. I’ll think about it a little more.”

At my words, Manager Kim nodded with a faint smile.

“Okay.”