The Genius Actor Who Brings Misfortune — Episode 231
The opening moments of episode one were filled entirely with a pair of eyes.
Black irises set against hair as white as fresh snow.
Until the camera slowly pulled back from those dark eyes and framed the full shape of the face, Lee Yeonjae did not blink once.
[“……”]
The eyes were utterly hollow, as still as something dead.
The acting was so convincing that viewers found themselves thinking, Did they film an actual corpse?
He was simply lying there, looking at the boy on the mattress.
And yet, somehow, it felt like watching a crime scene laid bare — raw, unfiltered. People watching the drama frowned at the strange, creeping discomfort of it.
[“H. Get up.”]
The suffocating silence finally broke.
[“Agent Jang Yoseok is on his way in.”]
A distorted voice crackled from the speaker, and at the same moment, Lee Yeonjae blinked, slow and unhurried.
And everything changed in an instant.
[“Aigo~.”]
The corners of Lee Yeonjae's mouth lifted.
[“I almost died of boredom! What took you so long?”]
The childlike voice bounced, bright and springy.
Lee Yeonjae sprang up from the mattress and began changing his clothes.
[“The clothes keep getting smaller. Is it just me?”]
He chattered nonstop the entire time he changed into his combat uniform, never once pausing for breath.
The stale, airless atmosphere — like staring at a taxidermied animal — vanished, and the screen flooded with life.
Only the people watching the drama were left reeling.
What was that?
What just happened?
People stared blankly at the screen.
The Lee Yeonjae in the drama was moving about with effortless energy, as if he'd never once played dead.
It felt like peeking in on something unnatural — a pale corpse regaining its warmth in the space of a heartbeat.
Just then, the steel-reinforced door swung open and Kim Seokjun stepped inside.
Lee Yeonjae, freshly dressed in his combat uniform, answered with a sunny grin.
[“I'm all ready! Clothes are on.”]
Kim Seokjun regarded him without expression and held out a gun.
[“Here. Take it.”]
[“Ooh~. My gun!”]
[“H. From the moment you step outside, you follow my orders without exception. Don't move on your own, and don't cause trouble.”]
[“Got it. How many times do I have to hear this? My ears are growing calluses.”]
Lee Yeonjae accepted the gun with a playful flourish.
Even faced with the image of an affectionate young child, Kim Seokjun's expression stayed stone-hard.
[“Remember it. If you don't—”]
[“What, you'll shoot me dead?”]
Lee Yeonjae gave a thin smile.
It was a surprisingly cynical laugh for a mischievous kid playing a prank.
Kim Seokjun answered with a strictly businesslike face.
[“I don't have the authority for that.”]
[“Tch. No fun.”]
Lee Yeonjae pouted his lips and walked out of the room first.
Kim Seokjun watched his back for a moment, then followed.
The moment the two of them left, the door sealed itself behind them.
Thud.
It was such a heavy door that even the sound of it closing was thick and muffled.
The camera, which stayed behind rather than following the two of them, turned slowly to the side.
The mattress where Lee Yeonjae had been lying, the white clothes he'd cast off — both were caught on screen.
And then, nothing.
There was only the empty room, carrying no trace of everyday life at all.
A moment later, the words Killing Horn appeared at the center of the screen.
The red lettering dripped slowly downward like drops of falling blood before dissolving away.
All that remained was a single letter — H.
The lone surviving H held its ground, lonely and resolute, until the opening sequence swept it off screen.
The names of the director and cast appeared one by one, the opening credits rolled, and the OST began to play.
The viewers watching the drama finally exhaled the breath they'd been holding.
“Whoa.”
The younger brother, forced into watching the drama because of his older sister, let out a silent gasp of admiration.
Lee Yeonjae's acting is insane….
It was true that he'd picked up quite a lot from overhearing his sibling — the celebrity his same-blooded sibling adored so obsessively.
He'd seen Tail, where the guy wore a yellow hat as an extra, and The Butterfly Flower on the Zelkova Tree, his first supporting role.
He'd even watched Twins — the one where the guy supposedly became the youngest ever to win Best Actor at Cannes — once by force because of his sister, and then once more with his own money.
Lee Yeonjae can act.
Any Korean with even a passing grip on the internet already knew that.
And yet Lee Yeonjae's presence, filling every inch of the screen, was so overwhelming that it hit him like a fresh shock all over again.
Kim Seokjun's expressionless face in his combat uniform was striking in its own right.
It was an unfamiliar side of him, after his recent run of romance-comedy leading roles.
It was a fairly memorable performance — but unfortunately, Lee Yeonjae's acting chewed it up and swallowed it whole.
If that kid hadn't become an actor, what would he have done?
The younger brother was sitting there dazed with that thought when—
“Hic.”
A sound of crying came from beside him, and he turned his head.
His own flesh and blood — Kwon Inah, president of the Lee Yeonjae fan club — was crying.
“What's wrong with you? Why are you crying?”
“This sh☓t…. It's already sad.”
“…?”
Had there been a sad scene just now?
As her brother stared at her in bewilderment, Kwon Inah shot him a sidelong glance. Idiot.
Rather than explaining to her dense younger sibling, she simply let her tears fall in silence.
Having watched more dramas than she could count, her instincts had already spoken.
The instinct that this drama was going to end in an agonizingly heartbreaking finale.
Why is my intuition never wrong?
Just imagining Yeonjae — smiling so innocently right now — ending up soaked in blood like in the second poster made her chest feel like it was being torn apart already.
Bambi, please, stop taking heartbreaking roles….
Couldn't there be a role as a spoiled rich kid who grows up without a care in the world, just once?
Wiping her tears, Kwon Inah resolved that the next time she saw Bambi, she'd have to beg him — please play something bright and happy.
Oblivious to all of it, her brother watched the ending credits of the opening with a tense face.
Why am I so on edge?
The drama hadn't even properly started yet, but a strange tension was already thick in the air.
Lee Yeonjae's dead-eyed expression from the opening wouldn't leave the back of his mind.
While the siblings were lost in their own thoughts, the opening sequence came to an end.
The two of them passed through security check after security check before finally making it out of the building.
And then Lee Yeonjae — no, Horn — stepping outside a building for the very first time in his life, went round-eyed with wonder.
[“Wow!! It's so biiig!!”]
[“H. Step back.”]
[“Wow, did you see that? That's insane! Is that tree alive? Wow! It's the first time I've ever seen a living tree!”]
Horn's voice grew louder and louder.
At Agent Jang's instruction to follow orders, his cheeks puffed out in a pout, but his eyes were still sweeping the surroundings.
The camera captured his black eyes glittering in the sunlight.
Amid the dense forest and the crisp, clean air, Horn smiled brightly without even realizing it.
[“H. The mission begins now.”]
Agent Jang's rigid voice cut in.
[“Three targets. Two men in black suits — heads. The white suit — legs.”]
[“Got it!”]
[“Remember. Never hesitate. The instant you hesitate, even a little, everything falls apart.”]
Horn immediately drew the gun at his waist.
His weapon trained on the three men moving carefully through the forest.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The massive gunfire filled the forest.
Confirming that his targets had collapsed to the ground, Horn smiled with satisfaction.
[“Hee. I did good, right?”]
[“Yeah. Your hyung will praise you for it.”]
It was an innocent, beaming smile, with not a shred of the unease that should have come with killing a person.
The two men shot squarely in the head didn't move an inch, while the man hit in the legs was screaming and writhing in agony.
[“Do I pop them now?”]
[“No, in five minutes. Right before they die.”]
[“Ugh. What a sick hobby.”]
[“It's the client's request.”]
The viewers listening to the exchange between Horn and Agent Jang tilted their heads.
Pop what?
Their curiosity was answered by the very next scene.
[“Five minutes are up. Do it.”]
At Agent Jang's words, Horn raised his hand, smiling.
As he brought his thumb and middle finger together in a finger snap, a light little tick rang out where his fingertips met.
And at the same instant — splat! — the man on the ground exploded.
From the bullet-riddled leg all the way up to the head. All of it.
The body, shattered completely to pieces, was laid out raw and unflinching on the screen.
Holy crap….
People's mouths fell open.
So that's why it's billed as sci-fi action? THIS is what it is?
Before the shock of the viewers had even begun to fade, Horn giggled.
[“Came apart nice and clean! Ooh, I'm getting praised for this one.”]
It was an image of pure childlike innocence, hopelessly at odds with a scene of grotesque carnage befitting an R-rated role.
When Agent Jang asked whether it wasn't disgusting, Horn made a puzzled face.
[“Is that disgusting? Why?”]
A boy who didn't even register the fact that he had just killed a person.
[“Forget it. Doesn't matter. Mission complete. We head back to headquarters.”]
[“You always ignore what I say.”]
Horn's grumbling voice was unnervingly cheerful — and that cheerfulness unsettled the viewers all the more.
[“Yoseok hyung.”]
[“I told you not to call me that.”]
[“Tch. Fine. Agent Jang, sir. So can I pop the other two before we go?”]
[“Do as you like.”]
Horn snapped his fingers again and again, grinning.
Each time his fingers met, the sound of something exploding in the distance rang out in succession.
[“Hehe. I love that sound.”]
Pure evil — playing with corpses the way a child plays with toys.
Confronted with a cruelty that sat so ill with Horn's delicate young face, the viewers were plunged into an even deeper shock.
Now I see why it's rated R.
The gory spectacle of human bodies bursting apart was nothing, in the end.
It was Lee Yeonjae's expression acting — killing people with a smile of radiant innocence — that chilled them to the bone.
It was disturbing, and yet they couldn't tear their eyes from the screen.
Then it happened.
A colossal explosion roared out, and Agent Jang and Horn were both thrown through the air.
[“Aww, ow….”]
Horn, who had rolled down the hillside several times, scrunched up his face.
He glanced to the side — Agent Jang lay collapsed on the ground.
Blood was pouring from his abdomen; he must have taken the brunt of the blast.
As Horn rolled his eyes quietly, wondering what on earth was going on, a crowd of masked figures swarmed toward them.
Horn shut his eyes quickly.
[“Target located. Both appear to be unconscious.”]
One of the masked men reported into a radio.
[“The test subject? Is he uninjured?”]
[“The test subject is unharmed.”]
[“Kill the other one, and capture the subject alive. Bring him to us. Remember — not a single wound. Not one.”]
The man answered yes into the voice coming through the radio.
[“You and you — pick up the subject and move him to the vehicle. You, follow me.”]
[“Yes, sir.”]
The men who'd received their orders lifted Horn into their arms.
Horn's body hung limp, as if he'd lost consciousness.
The man holding him kept slipping, and he was just shifting his grip to hold him better when—
[“Excuse me.”]
[“…?”]
A bright, cheerful voice cut in.
A cold sensation pressed against the temple of the man holding Horn.
[“What do you think you're—”]
Before the man could finish, Horn pulled the trigger.
With a massive gunshot, the head of the man cradling Horn burst apart.
[“Ugh.”]
Dropping to the ground, Horn immediately rolled sideways.
The hands of enemies scattered in every direction grazed past him by a hair's breadth.
Moving with agile speed despite his small frame, Horn aimed without hesitation — always for the head.
Bang! Bang!
As the enemies fell one and then another, the panicked men raised their guns.
At that moment, the man who'd answered over the radio shouted at the top of his lungs.
[“No! Don't shoot! Do not hurt him!”]
Then how the hell are we supposed to subdue him?!
The men's unspoken indignation reached all the way to the viewers.
In the meantime, Horn fired his gun without pause, and Agent Jang, belatedly coming to, joined in as well.
Picking off the enemies one by one had apparently grown tedious, because Horn simply hurled the entire magazine.
The magazine, packed full of bullets made from Horn's own blood, dropped into the space where the enemies had clustered.
A single finger snap — and the magazine detonated all at once, erupting into a massive explosion.
Without even a final scream left to give, the enemies all burst apart and died.
Flesh and blood of every kind blanketed the hillside.
[“……Wow.”]
Prodding idly at a piece of flesh that had landed on his shoe, Horn grinned.
[“Khehe, your hyung will praise you for this!”]