A Genius Actor Appears Out of Nowhere - Chapter 2
Chapter 2
“Up we go!”
Bong Seong-hwa shoved the last piece of luggage into his studio apartment room.
“You worked so hard, sir.”
“Haha, a young man like you worked far harder. You did even more work than me! Well, have a good life here~”
“Yes! Thank you very much!”
The mover who had helped Seong-hwa carry his things gave a warm farewell as he climbed into his pickup truck and drove away.
This was Seoul.
Specifically, a neighborhood of old villas in Gwanak District, an area known for having the highest concentration of single-person households in the city.
A red-brick villa with quite a few years on it.
The rooftop room of that building was where Bong Seong-hwa had established his new home.
For someone who had lived away from home for five years, he didn’t have much luggage.
He organized his clothes, set up his bedding, and neatly arranged his books and notebooks. By the time he finished unpacking, it was still before dinner time.
“Man, did you seriously pick a place at the very top of a hill? I thought I was gonna die climbing up here.”
Just in time, a man walked up the stairs toward Seong-hwa’s rooftop room.
Recognizing the face, Seong-hwa looked at the man without a trace of guard.
“Oh, you’re here?”
“You suddenly contact me for the first time in seven years, and the place you invite me to is a shabby rooftop room like this?”
“Shabby? That’s a bit harsh.”
“Damn, though… Bong Seong-hwa, you really haven’t changed a bit. Not a single thing. Feels like I’m the only one who aged.”
“Stop talking nonsense and come inside, man.”
He was Seong-hwa’s high school classmate: Lee Jin-sung.
“Well, the room’s pretty quaint and cozy. Not bad.”
“I put in some legwork to find this place.”
“Guess you spent a lot of time scrolling through real estate apps?”
“Scoured them for ages.”
It was unavoidable, given that Seong-hwa had a limited budget. Even so, a house in this condition was the best place he could secure.
“It’s good to see you after so long.”
“Yeah, same here.”
Even though they were meeting for the first time in seven years, there was no awkwardness between the friends.
The two faced each other and smiled brightly.
“Now you and I are the only ones left in Seoul, Seong-hwa.”
“Well, I only just got here.”
“Either way, you live in Seoul now. Man, I was so lonely.”
Lee Jin-sung spoke as he crushed an empty beer can in his hand.
The place where they were born was a tiny town in Gyeonggi Province—a place most people wouldn’t recognize even if they heard the name.
Most of their classmates who had moved up to Seoul had either returned to their hometown or taken jobs that sent them down to regional headquarters.
By chance, Jin-sung and Seong-hwa were the only ones left in Seoul. Since Seong-hwa had only just moved up, Jin-sung had endured a long, lonely stretch of time before now.
“So you really worked at a nursing home for five years?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“I needed time to organize my thoughts. I had a lot of questions I wanted to ask, too.”
“What kind of questions? What made you work at a nursing home while everyone else was going to college, dating, and job hunting?”
“It’s hard to put into words. I’ll show you later.”
Seong-hwa gave an embarrassed smile as he spoke.
“You’ve been like that since high school.”
“Did I?”
“It always felt like you were living in a slightly different world by yourself. Like you were seeing things no one else could see.”
“When you put it like that, it makes me sound like a weirdo.”
“You are weird! Definitively weird! Nobody thinks of you as an ordinary person.”
Seong-hwa simply chuckled as if amused by Jin-sung’s firm declaration.
“What are you going to do now? Are you really going to act?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you have anything lined up? Like an agency, or an audition, or something like that?”
“Nope, nothing.”
“…You just blindly came up to Seoul?”
“Yeah.”
“…Why?”
“Because almost all auditions are held in Seoul?”
“…Usually, people move after securing at least one solid thing, don’t they? Moving isn’t a small deal…”
“I came because I was sure.”
“You just said nothing was confirmed.”
“Not that. I meant my mind became set.”
“Ha, unreal.”
Jin-sung shook his head with a breathless laugh at Seong-hwa’s unchanged way of speaking. But since this was just who Seong-hwa was, there was nothing he could do.
“I can just start looking for work now. If acting doesn’t pan out right away, I can keep preparing while doing part-time jobs.”
“But still…”
Jin-sung was about to say something realistic, but caught himself.
Either way, they were twenty-seven years old—an age where people gradually began entering the workforce. For the faster ones among their peers, it was an age where they had already successfully landed jobs.
However, Jin-sung hated hearing such talk himself, so he felt it wasn’t right to lecture others.
As if reading Jin-sung’s mind, Seong-hwa added a brief note.
“I came because I’m confident. Don’t worry too much.”
“Oh, what, mind reading now?”
“A little bit?”
Leaving behind such silly chuckles, the two caught up on lost time.
In the process, Jin-sung ended up getting quite drunk and ultimately fell asleep at Seong-hwa’s place.
The next morning.
“Whoa…! I am so screwed…!”
“What’s wrong?”
Seong-hwa, who had just finished his morning run and shower, looked at Jin-sung, who was pulling at his hair in panic the moment he woke up.
“I have a general education exam today!”
“…And a guy like you drank that much in front of me last night?”
“…I guess the alcohol made me forget the exam date… Ah, seriously, not this again. This is already a retake!”
“If it’s an exam you care so little about, just don’t go. Haven’t you already given up on it?”
“The base points are totally different between missing the midterm entirely and turning in an answer sheet with zero points! I need this class to graduate, so I have to avoid getting an F! I haven’t missed a single attendance check until now…”
Seong-hwa stared blankly at Jin-sung, who was drowning in self-reproach.
“Is being late already guaranteed?”
“…It’s a nine o’clock class.”
“…It’s already past nine.”
“Ah, seriously, I’m in huge trouble. What do I do?”
“But isn’t the point just turning in a zero-point answer sheet anyway?”
“…Yeah. But?”
“If we drive from my house to your university right now, I think we can get there within thirty minutes.”
“…! You have a car?”
“Yeah.”
Seong-hwa had acquired a used car while working at the nursing home.
Actually, he hadn’t bought it with his own money; the director of the nursing home had lent him the car he used to drive as a sort of work vehicle. When Seong-hwa resigned, the director transferred the ownership entirely to him as a farewell gift.
“Shall we go?”
“Gah! If you had something like that, you should’ve said so earlier!”
Jin-sung roughly slicked back his hair and threw on his clothes. Seong-hwa quickly changed into clothes as well.
Before long, the two climbed into the old used car parked next to the villa.
“Whoa, this looks like my grandfather’s old car.”
“Our director is probably around the same age as your grandfather.”
“Does it even run?”
“Older cars are the true classic masterpieces.”
When Seong-hwa turned the ignition, the vehicle emitted an unstable engine rumble. As power coursed through the car, the radio turned on automatically.
—Last night, a group of celebrities was caught taking drugs at a luxury room salon in Gangnam and arrested on the spot…
He turned off the radio and drove the car toward Donghan University, where Jin-sung was enrolled.
“Man, thanks so much, Seong-hwa! I’ll call you after the exam. Stay nearby, I’ll buy you lunch!”
“Sure, hurry on in.”
After parking the car in the Donghan University parking lot, Jin-sung dashed toward his lecture hall like the wind.
Seong-hwa watched Jin-sung’s frantically running figure with a blank stare.
‘He’s even more frantic than he was in high school.’
Even back in high school, Jin-sung hadn’t been particularly sharp or organized, and college hadn’t changed him. But he was the type with grit, so he usually managed to pull things off in the end.
“Shall I take a look around Donghan University?”
Seong-hwa exited the parking lot and began exploring the campus.
“It really is nice. The campus, I mean.”
Given its long history, there were antique-style buildings with traditional architecture, alongside sleek, newly constructed facilities. Overall, the campus felt like a well-harmonized blend of the old and the new.
A few students walked around holding iced Americanos, and people who looked like professors or staff members were frequently spotted.
Among them, a specific group grabbed Seong-hwa’s attention…
‘Film department?’
It was a group of students wearing long padded coats emblazoned with the words Donghan University Film Department.
They were busily moving back and forth, carrying heavy metallic cases that appeared to hold filming equipment.
They seemed to have a shoot scheduled near the school—or perhaps somewhere on campus itself.
Seong-hwa slowly followed where they were heading. If it was a filming location, he could at least observe the set; if things went well, he might even get a chance to strike up a conversation with the film students of Donghan University.
Donghan University’s Film Department was ranked among the top three film programs in the nation.
For aspiring film students, getting accepted into Donghan University’s Film Department was a matter of great prestige, and famous child actors rushed to submit their applications to gain admission.
However, a gap between reputation and reality was a common sight.
There were slacker students who got in purely through good luck. There were untalented ones who lacked skill but overflowed with passion. And there were plenty of students who had given up on film altogether, deciding to just graduate and settle for an average corporate job.
Naturally so—for that was the stark reality of any film department.
However, Park Sang-hyun, a fourth-year student at Donghan University, was different.
He was a talented director in the making, the top student of Donghan University’s Film Department, and a favorite among the professors.
Yet now, as he was filming his graduation project, he had run headfirst into the worst crisis of his four years of college.
“…So. We’re hit rock bottom, right?”
“…Yes, senior.”
“…Our lead actor… overnight… became a criminal?”
“…Yes.”
Donghan University.
Kang Woo-joo, a former famous child actor turned adult performer who had enrolled there, was the lead actor scheduled to star in Park Sang-hyun’s graduation project.
He hadn’t shown up at the set.
Rather, he couldn’t. Because he was currently sitting inside a police detention cell.
Last night, police raided a luxury room salon and arrested celebrities engaged in a drug party on the spot.
Kang Woo-joo—the lead actor of Park Sang-hyun’s graduation film—was among those caught at the drug party.
Since he was caught red-handed under the influence, there was no room for excuses or denials. He was immediately detained in a jail cell.
It was highly likely he would be transferred to a detention center and remain there until a verdict was rendered. Meanwhile, Park Sang-hyun’s graduation project needed to finish filming right away.
“…Kang Woo-joo, that absolute bastard… No wonder his eyes looked totally unhinged lately…”
“The set is already fully prepared, though…”
Park Sang-hyun let out a heavy sigh as he looked at the junior student acting as the assistant director.
The set was already completely set up. Why? Because the exclusive report breaking the news of actor Kang Woo-joo’s drug use had been published at nine this morning.
However, the crew had gathered at seven-thirty this morning to begin setting up the location.
After sweating blood for an hour and a half to finish setting up, their lead actor had ended up behind bars.
“Isn’t there… any actor we can call?”
“Everyone has already been drafted into the graduation projects of other seniors…”
“Ah, seriously, we are so screwed.”
“Should we post an emergency casting call right now?”
“Same-day audition and same-day shoot? Hahaha!”
Park Sang-hyun laughed like a madman.
A graduation project was like an aspiring director’s official entrance ticket into the film industry.
It was a statement declaring: I am this talented, and I possess this level of skill. Any producer or production company looking to hire me, contact me right now—because this is your chance to buy low on a future blue-chip stock.
That was what a graduation film was supposed to represent.
At this rate, however, he was going to show the world nothing but his absolute rock bottom before getting wiped out.
“Argh… Arghhh!”
Park Sang-hyun grabbed at his hair in despair.
Up until he cast Kang Woo-joo for his graduation film, he had thought a smooth highway was laid out before him. Yet that flower-paved path had turned into a bed of thorns in an instant.
“Please… Just one guy who can act at Kang Woo-joo’s level… I don’t even care about name recognition anymore…”
“Oh, then how about me?”
“Eek!”
“Whoa, who! Who are you?!”
“Ah, I’m an aspiring actor who happened to be passing by.”
In the middle of the filming set where everyone was plunged into despair, Bong Seong-hwa had naturally blended into their midst.
“Same-day audition and same-day shoot? I’m confident I can handle that.”
“W-W-What? Who on earth are you?!”
“Bong Seong-hwa.”
“No, I didn’t ask for your name!”