Godsent Top Star [EN]: Chapter 17

017. Manager or Actor? (2)

November 17, 2021

“……!” Like a light bulb suddenly illuminating, like a flower bud unfurling its petals, Kwon Seong-hyun’s face lit up brightly. “Thank you, Yeon-woo.”
“I’m not sure how helpful I can be. The ‘feeling’ you’re talking about is just my everyday life, so I don’t know how it differs from others.”
“It’s okay. It’s my job to figure that out. Just showing me a perfect example is a great help.”
“Yeah, well… I understand. Oh, and it would be better if you stayed a bit further away.”
“Yes…?” *’Because when you’re around, evil spirits and thoughts can’t approach me,’* he swallowed the words back down. “Anyway, you’re saying I just need to walk around as I normally do?”
“Yes. That’s enough. Oh, right! Instead of this, why don’t we just try walking around on the set directly?”
“Excuse me?”
“That would be more helpful.” [Yeon-woo, the bundle. Remember the bundle. Got it?!] The hamster squeaked, saying he had to be pulled out of the water and the bundle had to be taken care of.
“…….” Before he knew it, Kwon Seong-hyun had led him to stand on the set. The feeling of watching from a distance and standing directly on the set was quite different.
*’How fascinating?’* He never thought he would be standing here like this. The pouring lights, and even more sparkling, the countless gazes directed at him. Just standing in the middle of the set, he could feel the countless eyes of those hidden in the shadows.
“Yeon-woo. I got permission from the director, so feel free to move around comfortably.”
He glanced back and saw the director and writer watching him with curious expressions. Kwon Seong-hyun personally setting up a person seemed to surprise them.
“Have you read the script by any chance?”
“Yeah, well. I read it a bit out of boredom.”
“Great. Then, could you do it just once as ‘Kim Tae-hoon’?”
After saying that, Kwon Seong-hyun disappeared out of the light. Yeon-woo slowly approached the desk on the set. The back was processed in green, which would be handled with CG [Computer Graphics]. In other words, the set Yeon-woo was in was an office inside a tall building.
*’It’s… not bad, actually.’* It was an unfamiliar space, but it didn’t feel unpleasant. The awkwardness of being on a set quickly disappeared. He had been pretending not to see ghosts for over 20 years, so tricking his brain into seeing what wasn’t there was easy. Maybe that’s why Yeon-woo’s steps began to move naturally.

***
“Is that guy an actor?” Director Heo, who had granted Kwon Seong-hyun’s sudden request, blinked his eyes wide.
“I don’t think so? Seong-hyun said he was a manager. Right, Seong-hyun?” Writer Min asked, turning around. Instead of answering, Kwon Seong-hyun wore a faint smile. His eyes had been focused on Yeon-woo’s every move for a long time.
“There’s no way someone like that is a manager…? How can a regular person give off that kind of vibe? When a regular person stands there, their gaze is awkward, but there’s none of that. He doesn’t even seem intimidated. You don’t think he seems intimidated either, do you, Writer Min?”
“That’s what I’m saying. He just looks like he’s in his own room? Or is he making it look that way? How can he have such a presence? Wow. He doesn’t even look like the same person I saw earlier. He really looks just like Kim Tae-hoon… Ah, of course, Seong-hyun is much more…”
Writer Min seemed to realize she had made a mistake and hurriedly tried to fix it. But Kwon Seong-hyun, again, only chased after Yeon-woo with his eyes instead of answering. The first scene is where the protagonist, Kim Tae-hoon, looks out the window and stares at the still swarming ghosts. Weary. The expression on Yeon-woo’s face as he looked out the window perfectly matched that word.
Soon, Yeon-woo got up from his seat, frowned slightly, and walked forward with large strides. *[How tiresome.]* The original line was omitted, but the emotion was conveyed through each subtly changing expression and slightly rough gesture. He seemed to be looking at something, then casually turned his gaze away, carelessly clicked his tongue as if displeased, and then returned to a blank face. The change in expression was fleeting. If you weren’t paying close attention, you wouldn’t have noticed it.
“He’s incredibly detailed,” Writer Min muttered.
“It’s not contrived at all, and it’s very natural. It really looks like something’s there…”
Shiver. Writer Min shuddered. Yeon-woo’s movements were extremely restrained. The movement of his pupils, the eyebrows that slightly furrowed and then returned to their original position, even the lips that curled up sarcastically and then closed tightly. Every step he took contained the emotion Kwon Seong-hyun had wanted.
“He seems better than most actors… Doesn’t he seem completely born for this?”
“Hmm. Should we have started filming? It’s too good to just watch and pass by.”
“You should have. You’re making a making-of film anyway, right? Just film it all. Ugh, we’re missing out on something precious.”
“No… I didn’t know he was this good. If I had known, I would have picked up the camera first…”
“Don’t make excuses.” There was a slight excitement in the voices of the director and writer. They were people who had been rolling around in this industry for a long time. There were plenty of people trying to enter the entertainment industry, but it was hard to find real gems among them. But what about this manager they were seeing now? Could it be that they had discovered a new gem? That kind of excitement slowly began to rise within them. And Yeon-woo, who had followed the script and left the set, approached.
“I didn’t really do anything special, so I don’t know if it will be helpful. Is this enough?” Yeon-woo shrugged his shoulders as he spoke. Yeon-woo, who had been like dry leaves with weary, tiresome, and dry emotions, had returned to the person Kwon Seong-hyun always saw. He was his usual cynical and cool self. That subtle difference was very stark.
“He changes completely when he comes out of the set…?”
“Director, ask him. It’s worth a shot.”
The eyes of the director and writer, who were whispering, showed curiosity and greed. A golden light flickered in his vision. He was still just a rough stone, but people with eyes would surely recognize him quickly.
“Yes. It was helpful,” Kwon Seong-hyun smiled.
“Very perfect.”
***
Yeon-woo was a little troubled.
“Excuse me. What’s your name…?” It was because of the people who kept approaching him. The director and writer were the main culprits, and he couldn’t figure out why they were doing this.
*’Didn’t they say they were the busiest people on set? Especially the writers, I heard they don’t usually come to the set?’* That’s what Kwon Seong-hyun’s manager had told him. He thought that maybe Min Soo-ji was the type to check the set, so that’s why she was here.
*’Then she should be looking at the set, why is she looking at me?’* Writer Min Soo-ji’s gaze, which combined the sensitivity and delicacy unique to writers, stared intently at Yeon-woo.
“You really won’t tell me your name?”
“I believe you were introduced to me.”
“Come on. We haven’t formally introduced ourselves, have we? Right?”
“…?” What business does a mere assistant manager have to formally introduce himself to the head of the drama? It would be different if he was a formally hired staff member, but Yeon-woo was at best a temporary worker. He was just a manager in name only, to get a free pass.
“My name is Min Soo-ji, what’s your name, Manager…?”
Something was strange. Min Soo-ji was known to be one of the most down-to-earth star writers, but…
*’She wouldn’t be interested in a nobody like me, would she…?’* But since Writer Min was acting like this, he couldn’t just ignore her.
*’Penalty. I have to be careful of penalties.’* Yeon-woo’s penalty formula 1: Doing anything that harms Kwon Seong-hyun is likely to result in a penalty. It was now lifted, but considering the circumstances of the penalty being lifted, he couldn’t be too careful.
“Kang Yeon-woo.”
“Ah, Yeon-woo. How old are you?”
“Twenty-three.”
“Still young and fresh. Ah, perfect.”
What was perfect?
“You seem quite close to Kwon Seong-hyun. Will you continue to work as a manager?”
“I’m not sure. That’s still…”
“Ah, it’s not confirmed? Why wouldn’t you continue if you’re Kwon Seong-hyun’s manager? It’s not a position anyone can get.”
“Well, you never know what will happen in the future, right?”
“That’s right. You never know what will happen in the future. But if you’re working as a manager, you must have some interest in the entertainment industry?”
“Yeah, well…”
He was very interested. How could he not be interested when there were so many stray lifespans coming and going? It was only natural that he kept being drawn to a field he hadn’t paid attention to before. But something was strange.
*’Why do I feel like I’m being interviewed?’* Was it just his imagination?
“So, even if you quit being a manager, you might come to the entertainment industry?”
“I’m not sure?”
“There are quite a few people who make a name for themselves on various programs and debut on television while working as managers here. The comedian Jung is actually a former manager.”
“…Is that so?”
“These days, there are also many programs where managers and stars appear together. There are even cases where a manager is more famous than the talent and shoots commercials.”
“Ah, yes…”
“Former managers often adapt to this industry faster than rookies who have only taken acting classes. After all, they have direct or indirect experience in the field, so they know the industry well and have connections.”
“That makes sense.”
Listening to her, it seemed to make sense. *’Me acting?’* He had never thought about it. He had only acted once just now because Kwon Seong-hyun had asked him to.
*’Of course, it wasn’t a bad feeling.’* But right now, it felt like he was chasing after a pipe dream. [Yeon-woo, I think Writer Min is interested in you. No matter how I think about it, it seems like she’s throwing bait to hook you!] The Child God was convinced, but Yeon-woo was different.
*’Why would a famous star writer be interested in me?’* It seemed more plausible that she was just talking to him out of boredom.
“But Writer.”
“There are also managers who practice acting with their actors, so their acting skills… Yes?” Writer Min, who had been enthusiastically explaining the advantages of former manager entertainers, stopped talking at Yeon-woo’s call.
“Haven’t your shoulders and neck been a bit stiff lately?”
“My shoulders and neck?”
“Yes. And I think you’ve been having headaches too.”
“Oh, I have. But I’ve always had headaches.”
“Weren’t you feeling a little better a week ago?”
“Wow. How did you know? The press conference went well and the first script reading went smoothly, so I felt relieved and a little better.”
Writer Min Soo-ji’s eyes widened in surprise.
*’How did I know?’* Yeon-woo’s lips curled up slightly. It was none other than Yeon-woo himself who had gotten rid of her headache.
“Have your legs been hurting a bit lately too?”
“Wow! How did you know that too?”
“Every time you get up and walk, you feel like your feet are dragging on the ground.”
“That’s right. I think it’s because my days and nights keep changing since we started filming. I haven’t been able to sleep properly lately, so I got some IV fluids…”
“It didn’t really work, did it?”
“No, it didn’t. So I’ve been taking herbal medicine lately…”
But judging from her expression, it didn’t seem to be working. Of course.
*’How effective can it be to take herbal medicine with all those clinging thoughts?’* Herbal medicine can give you energy, but it’s only temporary. The newfound energy will be sucked away by those leech-like thoughts.
*’Tsk tsk…’* Yeon-woo’s gaze turned to one place. There, as before, a small child was struggling. It was heartbreaking to see him struggling to tear off the thoughts that were bigger than his body.

“But how do you know so much? Were you in the medical field? Or the health care field?”
“Well, you can think of it as similar.” Whether it’s fixing the body or fixing the soul, fixing is fixing after all. It seems like the fields are a little different, but it’s just a feeling. The body and soul are inseparable, so it’s not entirely wrong, is it?!