Chapter 11
Chapter 11
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 11
Chapter Title: I'll Crush You with Acting...?
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I'll crush you with acting...?
The script reading was, nominally, just one practice run.
A light warm-up before turning on the cameras and diving into actual filming.
However, even this warm-up could turn into a fierce battle of wits depending on the situation.
As the saying goes, "Practice like it's the real thing." Professional actors often infused their performances with genuine emotion right from this stage.
A swordsman's weapon is his blade; an actor's is his performance.
In a clash of performances like this, there was scouting, evaluation, and sometimes even intimidation of the opponent.
And this...
applied to Yoon Tae-young, the man stepping into his first script reading of the day.
'Acting with this woman from the get-go...'
Standing before him at that moment was one person.
Chae Soo-jeong.
Someone he'd found distasteful ever since hearing about her.
She'd just thrown him into confusion over Ha Yu-ra moments ago, but Yoon Tae-young still regarded her with a cold gaze.
'Empty-handed, huh. Did she at least memorize her lines? Or... maybe she just forgot the script.'
A total newbie whose name he'd never even heard of.
The very fact that this inexperienced upstart was standing beside him as the lead grated on his nerves.
While he'd clawed his way here through eight years of hellish struggle, the thought that she might've snagged the lead role with one lucky roll in the hay made bile rise in his throat.
And that role was a woman disguised as a man, no less.
Not something a green rookie with half-baked skills should even attempt, yet there she stood, brazen as ever. It was infuriating.
But with the PDs having already made their decision, he had no power to change it.
So, Yoon Tae-young had only one option here.
Flatten her with his overwhelming acting prowess.
Make her feel her own inadequacy to the bone and slink away on her own two feet.
'Pretty face doesn't mean shit. I'll obliterate you with acting you couldn't even imitate.'
Of course, the woman who seemed to have a face of steel probably wouldn't give up easily. But if he demonstrated an insurmountable gap in skill, the PDs would handle it—either by cutting her screen time or recasting her.
With the intent to utterly destroy her through his performance,
Yoon Tae-young gathered his emotions with full force.
Kim Seong-ryong, son of the Joseon Left Prime Minister.
A man of cold, meticulous nature,
yet one who would sacrifice everything for those he held dear.
Following the "image" he'd honed over days of poring through the script countless times, Yoon Tae-young became Kim Seong-ryong himself and began his performance.
The drama's opening scene.
The prologue.
Set in the mid-to-late highlight from the main story, it was shown first to build viewer anticipation.
"Alright, let's start with the first scene. Action!"
At the director's cue, the script reading kicked off immediately.
Yoon Tae-young, emotions already locked in, poured everything into his performance.
*
A man in a blue robe stood holding a bloodied sword.
Kim Seong-ryong.
His gaze fixed on one person.
The figure kneeling before him.
Clutching a wounded shoulder, head bowed, that person faced
Kim Seong-ryong's cold voice.
"It's over. You've lost."
Fury, enmity, a touch of fatigue.
A subdued regret that it had come to this—he declared his "victory" in that tone.
Then.
"...Lost?"
'...Huh?'
The next instant,
a voice with an androgynous edge emerged from nowhere,
and the woman slowly raised her head.
No,
Han-seo, the body double in disguise.
The gaze she fixed on him was chillingly devoid of warmth.
No hatred, no agony, not even anger.
Emptiness.
The hollow stare of a doll with nothing left inside.
And beneath those eyes hung a twisted line.
Forced into words, it could only be called
a smile.
A smile thick with abyssal triumph, reeking of horrific victory from the depths.
Feeling that viscous ecstasy transmit so vividly,
Yoon Tae-young's mind went blank for a moment.
'What... what the hell is this woman...?'
A chilling sensation wrapped around his entire body.
His gripped emotions wavered, and he began to tremble—not from acting, but real fear.
And then.
"No... that's not right..."
She rose from her spot.
'Han-seo' advanced slowly toward Yoon Tae-young.
Her face, not yet fully made up for the disguise, was still stunningly beautiful, but it no longer registered in his eyes.
A monster.
The sensation of beholding something human yet no longer human.
A twisted, warped existence that could no longer be called a person.
Just looking at it stirred indescribable terror. The creature seized Tae-young's wrist firmly.
"The one who lost isn't..."
And then.
-Stab!
"!"
"...you."
The thing yanked the gripped wrist hard toward its stomach.
Forgetting what the action even meant, Tae-young simply trembled endlessly in the horror of this nightmare.
In his ear, the monster whispered softly.
"That child... is mine. Forever...!"
"!"
With those words, the monster collapsed to the floor.
Yet gripped by unrelenting terror, Tae-young could only work his lips soundlessly.
Even sprawled on the ground, the monster's gaze
remained fixed on him...
"...Aren't you saying your line?"
"?!! Wha...?"
A heavy sense of dislocation crashed over him suddenly.
A dazed voice slipped from Tae-young's mouth.
The monster on the floor—no, in that brief moment, back to an ordinary human.
Chae Soo-jeong.
The terrifying presence that had scraped at his soul was gone. There sat only the woman he'd dismissed moments ago.
'What... what was that just now... No way... that was acting?'
Yoon Tae-young snapped back to reality belatedly.
He, who had boasted of crushing her with his skill, now realized:
He was the one crushed.
Overwhelmed so thoroughly he couldn't even resist meaningfully.
Reeling from the shock, Yoon Tae-young stood silently in a daze.
Then.
"Forgot your line?"
"Uh... yeah?"
"Sigh... Check the script already. You're a pro—should've memorized it."
"! N-no, it's not... ugh."
Tae-young got verbally flayed by the unexpected strike.
And it wasn't even intentional snark—it felt utterly sincere, stinging all the more.
Yet he had no comeback.
Anyone could see the scene broke because he blanked on his line.
"S-sorry... Let's... do it again."
Yoon Tae-young fumbled with his script, desperately regathering his composure.
But then...
"...What a letdown. And you're a pro."
A whisper meant only for his nearby ears.
Her genuine disappointment—not sarcasm—sent his head spinning again.
*
The staff watching the script reading.
Half of them had eyed Chae Soo-jeong skeptically until the start.
Even with PD Lee Dong-cheol's orders, putting a rookie in the lead felt like a risky gamble.
Her opponent, actor Yoon Tae-young.
An idol alum who'd carved out a solid rep as a young actor.
More experienced than the other lead Ha Yu-ra, with minor awards under his belt—a veteran in his own right.
He had the skill to overshadow most foes, and they'd expected the same here.
Yet before filming had even begun, the onlookers couldn't hide their shock.
"Gulp..."
"N-no way. Is that really a rookie?"
She vanished from sight.
Yoon Tae-young's presence did.
No—not just him. Everyone around got swallowed by one person's aura in an instant.
Even Chae Soo-jeong herself made them forget she was bare-faced, disguise incomplete.
What they'd just witnessed was the essence of Han-seo, the disguised body double in the story.
The obsession bordering on madness in her heart,
expressed so vividly by Soo-jeong that even they—knowing it was acting—shuddered in fear.
The goosebumps lingered despite seeing it with their own eyes, unbelievable still.
Swallowing dryly, rubbing their arms, they had to admit it.
'That's why they made her the lead...'
'Ahh... Dong-cheol, you're right again today.'
Actors who dominated the atmosphere with performance alone weren't unheard of.
But those who could were top-tier greats, masters of their craft.
A realm reachable by only a rare few after 20 years or more of devotion.
For a fresh-faced young rookie to achieve it shocked everyone present.
Someone casually pulling off the physically impossible.
People call them, with awe,
a genius.
Meanwhile, among those watching in admiration and awe was one standout.
Ha Yu-ra clenched her fist, face flushed red.
'As expected of Teacher! Casually doing what we can't! That's what gets me thrilled! Makes me admire you!'