Top Star By Luck [EN]: Chapter 6

Sixth Episode

‘Why are these people here?’

Lee Minki’s mind faltered.

Kim Ah-sung, the trainer, coming to the practice room was understandable.

He had said he would oversee his practice every morning.

But.

But still.

‘Why are Kim Tak and Yoo Seon-ah here too!’

Were these people not supposed to arrive later than him every time?

Why were they suddenly at the academy early, waiting for him?

His thoughts froze, rendering him immobile.

“What, is this academy crowded from the morning?”

Kim Ah-sung muttered, yawning.

Kim Tak, looking puzzled, asked him, leaving Lee Minki behind.

“Who are you?”

“Me? I’m here to teach Minki-ssi for the time being—every morning.”

At that moment, Kim Tak looked at Lee Minki with an expression as if he had realized something.

*So, he was hiding such a secret. This sly old fox, I knew it. Case closed.* His face seemed to express that thought with all its might.

Of course, in Lee Minki’s eyes, it was just Kim Tak’s usual annoying face.

‘Why is he grinning like that?’

However, Yoo Seon-ah’s expression was unusual.

She covered her mouth with her hand, her eyes wide.

“Trainer Kim Ah-sung?”

“Oh? You know me?”

“How could I not! You’re JC’s exclusive trainer.”

“Really?”

It was the moment Kim Tak’s eyes widened.

“Is that so? Good for you.”

Trainer Kim Ah-sung said, casually sitting on the floor.

“Let’s hear the situation roughly.”

* * *

A few minutes later.

It was around the time they finished telling the story.

“So.”

Trainer Kim Ah-sung pointed at each of them with his finger.

“Minki-ssi here just came to practice as usual. And you guys…”

“Yes!”

Kim Tak said, raising his arm cheerfully like a high school tattletale.

“We promised to study together.”

“Study?”

“It’s hard to be objective when you’re acting alone. Wouldn’t it be better to study together and watch each other? That’s why.”

“You, Yoo Seon-ah, is this correct?”

“Yes.”

Yoo Seon-ah nodded slowly, then glanced at Kim Ah-sung and said.

“We made a promise together after the academy ended yesterday. From now on, we’ll come early every morning to practice, and the person who is latest will buy water as a penalty.”

“Really? Then Minki-ssi would have bought the water today.”

“I didn’t hear anything.”

Lee Minki said in a disgruntled voice, as if feeling wronged, not knowing what was going on.

No, he remembers being told to come early to practice. He didn’t remember at first, but he managed to recall it after working his neurons hard.

But what’s this about a penalty?

‘I really don’t remember that.’

Just how much talk went around behind his back?

“You really don’t remember? Didn’t Tak-ssi tell you?”

“That’s strange. I’m sure I said it there.”

Yoo Seon-ah and Kim Tak were saying something, but he was too confused to understand.

“Ugh, this is making me dizzy. So, to sum it up, it’s this.”

Trainer Kim Ah-sung clapped his hands on the floor!

“I’ll teach Minki-ssi acting, and the three of you will study. Right?”

“Yes.”

“Then that’s fine. It’s not like anyone has a lease on this practice room, and it’s up to each person how they practice. I’ll teach Minki-ssi my way, so the rest of you can chop onions or boil ramen as you please. Got it?”

The conclusion came out quite simply.

*Just do your own thing.*

It was just about time to wrap things up and start the morning practice when someone raised their hand and said.

“Then, can’t you teach me too?”

It was Kim Tak again.

He said with a burning gaze.

“I’m Minki-ssi’s rival in acting class. But if only Minki-ssi gets special lessons like this and gets ahead, that’s cheating, isn’t it?”

Rival, huh?

Cheating, huh?

“Hmm, there’s a point.”

But Kim Ah-sung listened to that and seemed to fall into thought, then said.

“It certainly looks better to teach several people together rather than just one person.”

“Of course! You know what’s up, teacher!”

Kim Tak nodded with his arms crossed.

But a moment later.

Kim Ah-sung said in an indifferent voice.

“But what I promised was to teach Minki-ssi, so…”

“Eh.”

“I’m too lazy to teach anyone else, a little.”

He said he didn’t want to because he was lazy.

The moment Kim Tak’s forehead creased, Kim Ah-sung spat out and said.

“And above all, Minki-ssi’s opinion would be important, right?”

He was saying he would pass the choice to Lee Minki.

To be exact, it was closer to saying, ‘I’m too lazy, so you guys decide,’ but anyway.

It was the moment that statement came out.

“Minki-ssi!”

Kim Tak looked at Lee Minki with his eyes turned over and said.

“Is it fair to take classes alone so selfishly?”

“Selfishly? And it’s my first class too.”

“We’re classmates! Aren’t we comrades and allies as aspiring actors?”

At the desperate persuasion, Lee Minki said without even a moment’s hesitation.

“No, we’re not.”

*Comrades, my foot.*

He had never even thought of him as someone he knew.

“Ugh……”

Kim Tak’s soul left his body at the firm answer.

At that moment, Yoo Seon-ah opened her mouth.

“Then, what about just watching from the side?”

Was she negotiating?

Not taking classes directly, but instead just watching.

Lee Minki pondered for a moment.

Soon, he opened his mouth.

“Okay.”

Yoo Seon-ah is someone who will succeed as an actress in the future.

He didn’t want to create a bad relationship, and it would be better to be close.

‘Let’s just do this much for now.’

In the first place, this practice room was not his private property, and the teacher was not a formally hired instructor.

If they were going to do something, there was no point in stopping them.

To delve deeper, the situation itself where he was allowing or disallowing it was ridiculous.

‘It’s enough as long as they don’t interfere.’

That was Lee Minki’s thought.

“Then me too!”

“Yes, yes, Kim Tak-ssi, do as you please.”

“Awesome! I will serve Minki-ssi as my older brother from now on.”

“Yes, yes.”

*This side is a bit annoying, though.*

But in any case, Kim Ah-sung, watching the scene, had a different thought.

‘Did he choose group lessons over personal lessons?’

He thought Lee Minki had made a wise choice.

‘You might think that one-on-one lessons are better for any kind of education, but that’s not necessarily the case in acting.’

Acting is a bit different.

What should he say?

No matter what perfect result is in your head, the result that comes out is completely different.

That’s why the most important thing for a novice actor is awareness and observation.

How do I look in the eyes of others?

What kind of feeling do I give?

How do others digest the same topic? Why did they express it that way?

You had to be fiercely aware and observe every minute, every second, every moment.

‘There’s a big difference in the field between people who have acted with others and those who haven’t.’

Kim Ah-sung knew well because he himself was in a position to pick people.

The truth that actors grow when there are co-stars and audiences.

In other words, Lee Minki himself didn’t know it, but this situation was turning out to be advantageous for him.

He had instinctively made a good choice.

‘If he really wanted to practice alone, he would have prepared a personal practice room. Even though it seems like they’re bickering, they’re being considerate in their own way.’

If he had insisted on personal lessons, he would have become less fond of him.

Because acting aspirants who mistakenly think they’re being deprived of teaching by group lessons are annoying.

But to tell the truth about this.

That’s not the case.

Paying for academy fees was already too much for Lee Minki’s reality.

He couldn’t even dream of a personal practice room, so he was going in and out of the academy practice room from dawn.

But Kim Ah-sung didn’t even dream of this fact.

Not knowing was a good thing anyway.

“Okay, let’s stop with the trivial chatter.”

Kim Ah-sung clapped his hands briefly and said, getting up from his seat.

“From now on, I’m the teacher, so I’ll speak comfortably. Today, let’s first set goals and things to do. Sounds fun, right?”

* * *

The hectic morning schedule was over.

‘Ah, this is really tough.’

Kim Ah-sung’s first class was closer to an OT [Orientation] than a proper lesson.

Starting with what the goal is, and then setting what needs to be done to achieve that goal.

Of course, Lee Minki’s goal is Daon [presumably, a company or agency].

After setting the goal, consulting tailored to the company followed.

[You have acting prepared by the academy, right?]

[Yes, it’s from a recent movie.]

[Forget about that.]

[Yes?]

[Let’s forget about it. Honestly, what the academy teaches is all the same, so it’s cliché from the judges’ point of view. You know when you’re in the position of picking people. I think I know where they taught it too. Instead, I’m going to prepare something a little different… hmm, okay. Let’s pick a favorite work. Movie or drama.]

That’s how the first lesson ended with just picking a role model for a long time.

After that, each person practiced freely as usual.

But it became a tiring practice as they were conscious of each other.

‘Why do they keep glancing at me like that?’

Kim Tak and Yoo Seon-ah, the two of them kept looking at him.

They were scrutinizing him as if he had honey smeared on him, and as he was conscious of it, he felt like his mental strength was being drained twice as much even while doing the same practice.

As a result, Lee Minki was exhausted even though he had just finished the morning practice.

‘Hoo, still, today is over.’

There are no afternoon classes.

Because today was originally a day off from classes.

That’s why Lee Minki had already decided what to do today.

And that is…

‘Go to the gym.’

It was the gym.

Even with the same body, there’s bound to be a difference in appearance between someone who has actively exercised and someone who hasn’t.

If you’re skinny or fat, isn’t it all the same?

No.

Covering muscle with fat is different from just having a lot of fat.

Just being skinny and being toned skinny are completely different!

The silhouette is different!

Moreover, Korean movies are now mainly driven by dramas to save production costs, but in the future, blockbuster movies will increase, and action acting will become almost essential.

‘It’s right to invest at least 1 hour a day in exercise.’

But even knowing this fact, Lee Minki in his past life was quite skinny.

Was it because he was lazy?

No.

It was simply because he kept getting injured whenever he tried to exercise in earnest.

The only exercise he could do was light jogging.

No, even jogging was a fight against injuries.

If he slipped even a little, he was likely to sprain his ankle, so he had no choice but to be weak due to bad luck.

Moreover, it’s weight training, which is already easy to get injured.

To him, who was a human glass cannon, machines were no different from machines that squeezed people to death like sesame oil just by looking at their visuals.

‘But not anymore.’

He also had a normal level of luck, so he was able to exercise in earnest.

But going to the gym is not something you can do alone.

Even a normal person with normal luck is exposed to the threat of injury if they rush in without learning.

But there’s no way he has the money to get formal PT [Personal Training].

So, he devised his own method.

‘I heard you can go to a gym run by a head coach.’

A gym run by a head coach.

Unlike regular gyms that are mainly operated around PT, it was a type of gym where the head coach directly goes around and guides.

‘Fortunately, I heard there’s a gym near my house that costs 30,000 won a month [approximately $25 USD].’

He heard it as a passing story.

There’s a gym around here that had pretty good facilities but strangely went bankrupt quickly.

He’s thinking of going here first.

He walked around looking around for a while.

“I think it was somewhere around here……”

Soon, he was able to reach a certain point he had aimed for.

[Gym Near Home]

It was a gym near his home.

Not meaning that it’s around his house, but literally the name of the gym is [Gym Near Home].

The six characters in the serif font written on the sign swayed precariously.

No.

[Gym Near H ― Place]

One character was missing.

“……Hell Place?”

Lee Minki rubbed his eyes, not believing his eyes.

But the sign was in the same place as the blue spring pine tree.

‘Is it a place of hell?’

Is this place okay?

‘Just looking at the exterior, it looks quite old and shabby.’

It’s almost like looking at the Kowloon Walled City of Hong Kong [a densely populated, ungoverned settlement known for its dilapidated conditions].

Is there a reason for 30,000 won a month?

But the cheapest place in this area other than here is 50,000 won [approximately $42 USD].

He can’t complain in his poor situation.

‘Beginners will be similar no matter where they go anyway.’

This was also a delusion.

In any case, Lee Minki felt his heart pounding as if he was entering a dungeon and went down the underground stairs.

And a few seconds later.

“Oh?”

He couldn’t help but exclaim.

‘The facilities are good.’

Unlike the shabby exterior, the interior was extremely pleasant.

And.

Squeak, squeak.

There were people in the corner who were devoted to exercising alone, with several monster-like weights attached.

Thighs as big as an average woman’s waist.

And huge latissimus dorsi muscles that resembled stingrays.

Above all.

‘There are quite a few grandfathers?’

Almost all of them had white hair.

A space with an unusually large amount of white hair.

The moment Lee Minki filled his eyes with the sight, he thought.

‘……Did I come to the right place?’