Top Star By Luck [EN]: Chapter 4

4. The Acting Class

“Remember the assignment? Let’s have you come out one by one and do it.”

Minki’s expression hardened at the instructor’s words.

“……”

This is a disaster.

Was there even an assignment?

It feels like such a long time ago that I don’t remember a thing.

I remember the big stuff, like failing auditions. But I don’t remember any class assignments from seven years ago, not even a speck.

“Let’s see.”

The instructor’s finger moved in his direction.

Please curve away, please curve away.

At least point to someone else first.

Then I might be able to remember by watching.

Minki prayed in his heart, but the instructor’s finger slowly moved towards him like a precision-guided missile.

“Then today, Min……”

It was the moment his name was about to be called out.

“Can I go first?”

Someone suddenly raised their hand and shouted.

And that person was.

‘Kim Tak?’

Kim Tak, the attention-seeker who Lee Minki acknowledges as the representative of the Jam Acting School’s acting program.

He looked at Lee Minki with a triumphant expression, one that was familiar to him even from the distant future.

Watch closely.

Watch me do it. Then be compared and suffer.

It was a blatant attempt to humiliate him.

Originally, his acting skills were about 0.5 steps ahead of Lee Minki’s, so it was possible.

In the old days, that smile would have seemed annoying.

But.

That was when he was the old Lee Minki.

‘You know, you were actually a good guy.’

Kim Tak’s smile, as seen by the current Lee Minki, looked like an angel who had descended to save humanity.

“Yes, go ahead.”

The instructor didn’t seem to care about the order and spoke with a nonchalant expression.

Soon, Kim Tak began to act.

Lee Minki was surprised in two ways.

‘Ah, that was the assignment.’

The first was the difficulty of the assignment.

It came back to him.

The theme of this assignment was melodrama acting. It didn’t matter what character you played, but you had to act out a sad scene.

And the second was.

‘Kim Tak, was this guy always this bad at acting?’

It was Kim Tak’s skill.

“No! I don’t want to! Don’t go! I’m still here! What am I going to do if even Dad leaves?”

He was playing a child abandoned by his father, but it was a complete mess.

The movements are stiff.

The expression was nothing more or less than the original Kim Tak.

The voice was exaggerated and jarring.

No, without going too far, everything that could be described with an expression was awkwardly handled with dialogue.

It was typical beginner-to-intermediate level acting.

‘……Abandoned child, right?’

No matter how I look at it, it looks like a delinquent son asking his dad for allowance.

Combined with Kim Tak’s annoying visuals, it looked even more so.

Was Kim Tak originally bad at acting?

‘Judging by how serious the other students are, it doesn’t seem like bad acting.’

That’s right.

Kim Tak’s skills didn’t die.

He was in the same place. However, Lee Minki’s standards had risen.

His eye for acting had greatly improved while working as a professional.

Even though it was a life as a low-level, unknown actor, the difference between having that experience and not having it was extreme.

Amateur and professional.

There was a difference between them like an ant and a stag beetle.

‘But I can’t just be happy about it.’

Lee Minki calmly regained his composure.

Melodrama acting.

And this was an assignment that was usually difficult for him.

Originally, this kind of emotional acting had to be done either completely calculated or completely entrusting oneself to the emotions of the moment.

But Lee Minki was weak in both when it came to melodrama.

‘What should I do?’

It doesn’t come to mind easily.

Does melodrama have to be just sad acting?

Is there a way to get through it smoothly?

No.

Do I have to avoid it? Is there a way to face it head-on? Isn’t this a place to grow?

If I can’t do it, shouldn’t I try to do well in my own way?

“Sniff, sob.”

Soon, Kim Tak’s acting ended with a pretentious sob.

“Good job. Pay more attention to your diction. The final consonants are slurred.”

After a short applause, the instructor’s perfunctory comment followed, and then it was his turn.

“Minki, come forward.”

There wasn’t even a speck of anticipation in the instructor’s expression as he called him.

* * *

The first thought that Lee Minki had when he came to the front of the practice room was this.

‘The atmosphere is lighter than I thought.’

It was light.

Looking back, the atmosphere in the practice room during these assignment presentations used to be so heavy that it was hard to bear, but it wasn’t like that now.

In the end, it was probably because he knew that it was nothing compared to an actual filming set.

‘Okay, inhale, exhale.’

But the sunlight coming through the window stung his eyes. The dust scattered haphazardly around also irritated his eyeballs.

‘Don’t be conscious of it. It’s not enough to pour all your concentration into acting.’

At that point, the instructor gave a signal.

“Start.”

Lee Minki drew a character in his mind.

It was a man.

A man who had been nursing his wife, who had been bedridden since their marriage.

He was usually taciturn, but his love for his wife was sincere.

But the disease had no feelings.

It destroyed the home of just him and his wife, and eventually took away even his most precious person.

‘I’m going to recall that feeling.’

How sad would he be?

What was the man thinking at that time?

Would he resent his helplessness? Or would he resent the disease?

In less than 5 seconds, the framework of the character was established in his head.

Lee Minki opened his mouth.

“We were happy, weren’t we.”

There’s no answer because there’s no partner to ask in the empty air.

But Lee Minki heard the answer from the imaginary partner.

[Thanks to you, I was happy enough to be happy.]

“I know. I’m asking because I know, because I feel like I should know.”

[I don’t know how my darling will live when I’m gone. I wonder if he’ll eat properly?]

“Honey, seahorses live in monogamy with one mate for the rest of their lives. When they go a long distance, they tie their tails together. Like people holding hands.”

[…….]

“I’ll eat well. I’ll remember everything you did for me.”

Thank goodness.

I’m getting into the emotion.

Thanks to recalling the saddest scene in the movie I’ve ever seen, I even felt like I was falling into the background of the movie.

A quiet hospital room.

The curtains swaying sadly in the occasional breeze.

And the sunlight shining subtly from outside the window…sunlight…sunlight…….

‘Ah.’

The sunlight is stinging my eyes.

The sunlight keeps pouring in from outside the window.

It wasn’t like this when Kim Tak was acting, but in that short amount of time, the sunlight began to shine into the practice room exquisitely.

‘Ah, why now of all times.’

I’m so unlucky.

My emotions welled up and the immersion in the acting broke.

“……”

Damn it.

I missed the line timing.

Lee Minki tried to regain his emotions and concentrate on acting again.

But the world didn’t let him.

‘Ah, dust.’

This time, a piece of dust floating in the air landed lightly on his eyes.

It stings.

I want to scratch it right away.

But if I do, this acting is definitely ruined.

I have to hold back, I have to hold back.

It’s a 50-second acting assignment, so there are only a dozen seconds left.

Let’s endure.

I have to endure.

Lee Minki endured and endured with all his might. Whether the world’s luck tormented him and his eyes itched or stung, he glared and endured to the end.

And.

This led to a new ending.

“……”

The instructor stared blankly at Lee Minki’s acting with his mouth open.

The instructor, who had been so perfunctory for so long, couldn’t take his eyes off Lee Minki’s acting at this moment.

‘Is he doing a tearful performance right now?’

Lee Minki.

His eyes were red.

He’s not crying, but he’s not not crying.

It’s just dyed red.

But this subtlety made Lee Minki’s acting even more outstanding.

‘It’s hard enough to just shed tears, but he even controlled the pace?’

It doesn’t make sense.

Was he originally a student who could do that?

Is it a coincidence?

But it was a bit much to dismiss it as a mere coincidence, given the level of acting he had shown until just now.

From diction to understated gestures, he used only what was necessary.

It was clearly at a professional level.

At first, I just thought he practiced a lot.

But when tearful acting was added on top of this, the next dimension appeared.

The image of the head of the family enduring even the tears flowing down to be with his wife in her last moments.

Sadness spread throughout the practice room in that great performance.

“……Honey.”

The moment I started to see a hospital room that was invisible and shouldn’t be seen.

Tring-ring-ring-ring-ring-ring-ring-ring-ring-ring-ring-ring-ring-ring ―!!!!!!

The alarm I had set rang violently.

The instructor, who had been immersed for a long time, finally came to his senses, cleared his throat, and said.

“Hmph, good job. Ahem. Good job. Really good job. I have nothing to point out. Please do as you did today.”

Only then did the students seem to barely come to their senses and pour out a quiet applause.

“Wow.”

“The tearful acting was amazing.”

Yoo Seon-ah also admired inwardly.

‘This person, he was this good at acting. He was hiding his skills. I want to see more.’

I knew he was usually diligent.

But I thought he was stuck behind a wall and couldn’t take the next step, but he overcame it in this way.

Kim Tak was also shocked.

‘Did he secretly take lessons somewhere?’

While everyone was admiring, Lee Minki himself didn’t know what he had done.

‘What? Why are they praising me?’

I just want to scratch my eyes because they sting.

* * *

Jam Acting School.

The director’s office.

A man was sitting in that office, where everyone was usually busy being on edge, in a relaxed posture.

A hoodie and black slacks.

He was dressed in extremely comfortable clothes and wasn’t very old.

But the director couldn’t show off his arrogance in front of him, and instead seemed to be watching him carefully.

Because he was Kim Ah-sung, the core talent of JC and a trainer.

‘He’s young. He’s arrogant because he has a title.’

From the director’s point of view, he didn’t like him.

Shouldn’t the hierarchy be solid in the actor industry?

The younger generation isn’t necessarily like that, but the director wasn’t from the younger generation.

He was just an old-timer who had appeared in a few works a long time ago, felt his limitations as an actor, and then started his own academy.

But even if he didn’t like it, he couldn’t shout at him recklessly.

‘This is all about the academy’s performance. Let’s be patient.’

He was the one who worked hard to bring him in.

The relationship had to be good in order to push at least one more internal student in somehow.

I had no choice but to suppress my thoughts.

On the other hand, trainer Kim Ah-sung was very relaxed.

‘I want to see that student acting properly in the morning.’

He was more concerned about the student in the morning than the director in front of him.

Aside from whether he was good or bad, he seemed quite skilled.

It’s not a skill he’s tried for a day or two.

Maybe I’ll run into him on set in the future.

‘I don’t know why he’s trying to go to Daon, but he’s still quite interesting.’

He leaves an impression.

He doesn’t usually pay attention to outside matters, but he caught his eye like a drunkard who had fallen in an alleyway on a dark night.

Kim Ah-sung asked with a hint of curiosity.

“By the way, that student was very diligent, right?”

“That student is……?”

“His name was Lee Minki? He’s in the preparation process.”

“Lee Minki in the preparation process, if it’s Lee Minki.”

A moment later.

The director said with a dumbfounded expression.

“If it’s that student, he’s the most behind here……?”