Chapter 59
Chapter 59
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 59
Chapter Title: Acting Practice (4)
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Acting was easier for Jeong Soyul than anything else in the world.
Easier than eating a meal, even.
Acting well?
That was a given.
She hadn't started acting as a child, but from her debut onward, she'd ridden a wave of success, never once feeling like she'd failed at it.
Sure, she'd been called out now and then for misanalyzing a character, but acting deficiencies? She'd never even considered them.
Among actors her age, she thought herself the best.
Aside from a handful of veteran seniors who were truly renowned, she didn't think anyone outacted her.
It might come off as arrogant, but that was her honest take.
Some young actors got overhyped just for their looks.
There were no real actors among her peers.
Just model-types peddling their appearances.
That only made her prouder of her skills.
They were too outstanding for anyone to dismiss.
So, she hadn't often experienced her acting improving thanks to a co-star.
Her fellow actors had said it sometimes, though.
"Acting with you makes it so easy, Soyul."
"You set the mood perfectly; immersion comes naturally."
"How are you this good when you're no veteran? Acting feels effortless."
They said her performance made it easier for them.
Back then, she hadn't gotten it.
A co-star's skill alone changing your immersion?
Did that even make sense?
She understood if a bad performance broke it.
Facing shoddy acting naturally shattered her focus.
It happened sometimes when the mood she'd carefully built got disrupted.
But a good co-star changing the vibe?
"No way that's possible..."
She'd thought it impossible.
Something she'd never experience.
And yet.
"How the hell is he this good?"
Jeong Soyul stared at Kim Jinwoo's performance, doubting her own eyes.
The tempo didn't even feel like acting.
The atmosphere, his gaze, his voice, his expressions, his breathing.
He wielded every element of acting perfectly for the character.
Back on the rooftop, things had happened too suddenly to notice.
"He's straight-up pro level."
Now, watching closely, she realized Kim Jinwoo's skills transcended imagination.
Pro level?
No—even top actors would be awestruck by his pure talent.
Of course, it helped that it meshed so well with his personality.
Normally, when amateurs "acted," their speech and breathing felt forced.
A common newbie mistake.
Nothing like that from Kim Jinwoo.
Perfectly balanced—not overdone, not underdone—like a golden scale weight, he embodied Choi Youngdo flawlessly.
The street thug scraping by at rock bottom.
Arrogant and obsessive.
A man overflowing with masculine and feral charm more than anyone.
He nailed it completely.
And with Kim Jinwoo at the center, the air shifted.
His aura made Jeong Soyul shrink back instinctively.
Not because of the acting.
Pure primal fear.
The dread prey feels toward predator.
In that moment, she got it.
"Ah, now I see why my co-stars said acting with me elevated their own performances."
The atmosphere.
Just being in this overwhelming presence made her know exactly what scene to play.
A foe radiating crushing terror.
Someone exuding that fear and intimidation, fixated on her.
This wasn't mere threat.
It was a man's affection, lashing out because he desired her.
Twisted affection.
An intense heat no normal love could match.
"Ah, is this why she was drawn in?"
The script said Lee Jisoo kept getting pulled toward Choi Youngdo's world, so opposite her own.
Lee Jisoo, from a life of wealth.
Choi Youngdo, from the total opposite.
Opposites attract, right?
Lee Jisoo always liked the twisted love Choi Youngdo had for her.
But her position as a noble heiress, chaebol daughter, always blocked his expression of it.
All those emotions of Lee Jisoo's from the script.
Emotions she'd only read before.
Now they etched densely into Jeong Soyul's mind as one vivid scene.
She looked at Kim Jinwoo.
No—at the man who had become Choi Youngdo.
His rough speech.
His solid muscles.
His black shirt sleeves rolled up to his biceps.
His cocky expression.
Nothing appealing about him.
Yet every time she saw this man, her heart raced.
Not some fluffy flutter.
A thick, somehow twisted affection.
As obsessive as his hold on her.
Her emotions twisted just as deeply.
Jeong Soyul felt Lee Jisoo's emotions.
Only now could she feel them.
Lee Jisoo harbored something stickier than what Jeong Soyul had read in the script.
Maybe.
A self-destructive desire.
To be slammed against the wall by force.
"Kkh!"
A massive man seizing her nape, pinning her down.
His grip on her throat felt vividly real.
Fingers thick and rough, nothing like a woman's.
"Better I ruin you all than let some other bastard take you."
"How's it feel, dressed in those fancy clothes, getting wrecked by trash like me?"
His insults hurled at her.
"Cheeky bitch. All money, no substance."
His crude curses oddly thrummed her heart.
It was bizarre.
She'd never felt this with Hwang Junho.
Or any other actor.
But now, through Kim Jinwoo, Jeong Soyul did.
"S-stop."
The confident Jeong Soyul was gone.
Here now was Lee Jisoo, the chaebol heiress caught by Choi Youngdo.
She'd fully become Lee Jisoo.
"What, that's all you've got now? You know it too. Without Daddy's cash, you're nothing."
Pure degradation.
Jeong Soyul might argue, but Lee Jisoo couldn't.
It rang true.
Whether the line matched the script didn't matter anymore.
Emotions were what counted.
She wriggled to escape as his grip loosened slightly.
She struggled free with effort, but in the pitch-black cinema with no escape, nowhere to flee.
The screen showed a dim warehouse.
Capturing events in a cramped space with just the two of them.
She saw her own face on camera.
An artificial expression devoid of feeling.
Awkwardness only she could spot.
So that's the face I made.
And the director let it slide?
Didn't feel the disconnect?
Wonder what my face looks like now?
She could tell without looking.
Probably.
The kind no actress should ever show.
Hwang Junho appeared on screen.
A performance totally different from Kim Jinwoo's Choi Youngdo.
She watched the hulking man before her on the massive screen.
He looked like he could devour Kim Jinwoo.
But presence-wise, the opposite.
Kim Jinwoo standing before her devoured Hwang Junho's entirely.
A colossal presence.
An overwhelming one.
Aura practically rising from him—Jeong Soyul, no, Lee Jisoo stared, entranced.
Comparing directly, it clicked.
Masculinity and feral allure.
The absolute chasm in primal male power.
"Ah."
That's why it hadn't worked.
A guy like Hwang Junho couldn't pull off that performance.
"Eyes on me. Look at me."
Choi Youngdo spoke.
For some reason, defying him felt impossible.
I'm Jeong Soyul, Lee Jisoo.
This shouldn't be happening.
Yet she backed away unconsciously.
"Think you can run now?"
"W-wait..."
"You'll never escape me."
Choi Youngdo stepped closer.
"No matter where you flee, I'll find you. Backwoods village in Korea, your secret villa in America, Dubai, Europe—even Africa. I'll track you down."
His gleaming eyes brimmed with obsession.
"Still wanna stay a pretty doll? You said you craved freedom. I can give it—why run?"
"Truth is, you don't wanna, right? No real urge to escape."
"Ah, so you preferred being a fancy doll after all?"
"Selling smiles like a whore, peddling your body to tie family alliances—that your role?"
He prodded every trauma Lee Jisoo held.
Someone else's story, yet fully immersed, Jeong Soyul felt each word scrape truly.
As much as her stellar acting.
She was lost in the role too.
"Don't talk like you know. You're not one to judge."
"Think they value you as highly as you do?"
"What?"
Kim Jinwoo's arm grabbed her shoulder.
Slamming her back against the wall.
Thud!
No sound, probably.
The soundproofing was top-notch, as she'd trusted.
"Why haven't those bastards come save you yet?"
Not in the script.
No line like that.
Not this storyline.
But Kim Jinwoo layered his interpretation, directing the scene.
Choi Youngdo, kidnapping Lee Jisoo out of obsession.
His fingers brushed her cheek.
Skinship now without hesitation.
"If they loved you like I do, they'd have found us by now. I could."
"Y-you..."
Emotions surged.
Anger?
Despair?
No.
Not that.
Not anger, despair, or even resignation.
This was.
Yearning for Choi Youngdo's obsession with her.
Couldn't call it love, but Lee Jisoo felt powerfully drawn to this man fixated on her.
Had anyone ever craved her like this?
Not the chaebol heiress Lee Jisoo.
Just Lee Jisoo, with nothing.
"Told you. I'll love you, any state you're in."
The screen had switched scenes already.
But they were lost in their own moment.
The screen brightened, lighting the room.
Kim Jinwoo—no, Choi Youngdo's face sharpened in the glow.
His expression clearer now.
The longing gaze of a man craving her.
Sticky shine sweeping her body.
Lee Jisoo met that gaze.
"I love you, you fucking bitch."
Fierce love confession.
Lee Jisoo swallowed unconsciously.
Then the video cut.
With auto-on settings, the cinema lights flicked on.
Her face reflected on the black screen.
And Jeong Soyul saw it.
Her expression beyond the screen.
Dilated pupils.
Flushed cheeks.
Saliva trickling from parted lips.
The face of a woman enthralled by temptation.
Thump thump.
Her heart pounded wildly.