WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Potter
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Genius Writer Who Will Never Fall Again ◈
Chapter 10: Casting (2)
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If someone asked who Korea’s greatest actress was, there was always only one answer.
Joo Young-wol.
Seong-hun’s mother and the wife of Park Tae-jin, the current WBS drama bureau chief.
Three consecutive dramas that reached 50 percent ratings.
The female lead of the drama that still held the all-time record of 63 percent.
The only Korean actress to headline five films that surpassed ten million admissions.
A woman with enough Best Actress plaques piled up to play chess with them.
From the days when entertainers were dismissed as mere performers to the distant future, when K-pop conquered the world, the pinnacle of Korean actresses had never changed since her arrival.
But just because it had always been that way did not mean it always would be.
And had no one truly threatened Joo Young-wol’s throne?
There had been.
Countless challengers had coveted her place.
Ryu Cheong-a had been one of them.
...No. More precisely, she had been the only one qualified to become the throne’s new owner.
[Actress Ryu Cheong-a reaches the royal road the moment she debuts!]
[A second-year rookie actress takes home the Baeksang Arts Award.]
[Ryu Cheong-a again this year. She sweeps the Blue Dragon Film Awards.]
Some people were born to become stars.
People who, no matter how low they tried to keep themselves, would be lifted up by fate and placed in the heavens.
People who caught everyone’s eye just by walking down the street.
People whose voices made the world fall silent to listen.
People who turned everything but themselves black and white when they stepped onstage.
People so noble that everyone had no choice but to look up at them.
Ryu Cheong-a had been like that in her prime.
The era had been named Ryu Cheong-a, and every endless spotlight had belonged to her.
Even when I had suffered two failures and begun to lose faith in people.
“Ryu Cheong-a said she’ll be in my work?”
“Yeah. She picked this one herself and said she wanted it. Writer Han, your filmography is finally going to bloom.”
“Haha...”
Back then, I had shut myself away for quite a while.
I treated failures that had not been my fault as proof that I had not worked hard enough. I kept telling myself that if I wrote better, things would change.
The work Ryu Cheong-a chose was the result of that effort, Sword Pact, One Lord.
I thought my effort had finally borne fruit.
Hope rose in me that I could finally say goodbye to those exhausting failures.
That belief was sealed the moment I met her in person.
“Hello, Writer. I read the script. It was so good!”
Ryu Cheong-a had an especially clear air about her.
She seemed like something pure that had never encountered malice.
Like someone who had been loved all her life and knew nothing of negativity.
Without thinking, I thought this.
She would not pull some ridiculous stunt like those first two bastards.
She would act in a way worthy of that uprightness and become my lifeline.
And the beginning really was good.
“The work was wonderful. I even thought I absolutely, absolutely wanted to act in it before my life ended.”
She praised the work unstintingly and showed enthusiasm.
“This line here, my interpretation is...”
She never stopped trying to understand her character.
“Ah, thank you! How could I ever repay you... Ah, no! How could I not repay you! I’ll make sure the project goes well, then at least buy you a meal...!”
She never gave up on being moral and honest.
That made her reliable.
By the time the drama aired, my excitement had grown enough to wash away every anxiety left by my past experiences.
The drama’s first-week rating was 19 percent.
The people drawn in by Ryu Cheong-a’s name praised my work lavishly and declared that nothing but smooth sailing lay ahead.
Unless it crashed spectacularly, ratings around 30 percent were expected. That was the kind of figure that made someone an S-rank writer in the industry.
How could it possibly fail?
I had confidence in my writing, and even more confidence in the cast.
“You really worked hard. Once we make it properly to the end, I’ll get you a gift or something...”
“Could you buy me a meal instead of a gift?”
“Pardon?”
“I’d rather you bought me a meal.”
“If that’s enough, then... yes, let’s do that.”
“It’s a promise!?”
“Did something good happen?”
“Hehe. I’ll tell you later.”
I was genuinely happy.
I thought that day would be the reward for all my suffering.
That was true only until then.
“...I’m sorry, Writer.”
A single, short phone call destroyed everything I had.
I had felt uneasy that day.
My heart would not settle, and then, at the worst possible moment, the call came. She left those words and hung up.
A strange feeling, something like instinct, wrapped around my whole body. I immediately went looking for Ryu Cheong-a.
I prayed desperately that nothing had happened.
But.
“...Ah.”
What awaited me was the most terrible future possible.
Ryu Cheong-a was dead.
There had been no accident, no outside involvement. It could only be called suicide.
She had died just as she was finally about to make something of herself.
[Actress Ryu Cheong-a...]
For a long time, every time I opened a portal site, there was nothing but news about Ryu Cheong-a’s suicide.
The drama?
Of course it stopped airing.
They said they could not continue broadcasting a drama featuring an actress who had taken her own life when they could not even properly establish why she had done it.
Why had she died?
Everyone must have wondered, but no one could have wondered more than I did.
How could I not?
Why had someone who had been fine until yesterday suddenly done that today?
Why had someone who spoke of life after the finale thrown away that trivial tomorrow with her own hands?
What kind of story could possibly have been behind it?
“What kind of fucking incredible reason could there have been...”
How could she betray all those people who had run toward the drama’s success?
The people who had looked forward to it.
Me.
I knew it was an ugly feeling, but I could not shake it off.
Something sticky and unpleasant settled inside me.
Her suicide?
Of course I was sad.
Knowing what kind of person Ryu Cheong-a was made it even more painful.
But what about me, who had waited for the paltry tomorrow she promised more than anyone?
What about me, who had to rot away in a tiny room with no one beside me while Ryu Cheong-a received the mourning of the whole world?
What about me, who had lost the one remaining lifeline in my life?
Who would comfort me, who had to keep living in pain?
Who would pity me? Who would mourn me?
My third failure was a vicious curse that made the first two seem like nothing.
That incident seemed to be telling me that the rest of my life would turn out the same way.
I could not accept it without learning the reason.
I felt that I could only pull myself back up if I learned why Ryu Cheong-a had died.
One year.
I spent another whole year digging into the truth behind her death, just to soothe myself.
I investigated everything and traced the path Ryu Cheong-a had walked through life, but it was useless.
The only thing I learned was that I had known far too little about her.
Countless interests had been tightening around Ryu Cheong-a’s neck.
There were countless suspicions, but none of them made sense, so I dug deeper.
At some point, though, the case crossed into territory I could no longer investigate.
The helplessness I felt then was enough to crush my shoulders.
The rest was obvious.
Unable to shake off the curse, my life followed the same path of failure, and at its end, I chose a surgery that was all but suicide.
Then time rewound, and I was given a second chance.
Given that choice, I should never have become involved with Ryu Cheong-a again.
But this was the situation I found myself in.
“Then I’ll begin!”
A question came to mind without my meaning for it to.
Was fate trying to force me to stand beside misfortune?
Was it trying to say that Han Jae-kyung belonged in a pit like that?
If so, it was a message close to humiliation.
Wasn’t that funny?
I had hated this person so much.
“I can’t pretend I didn’t see someone collapsed in the street. Enough, just eat.”
Yet when I watched her play Hyang-dan...
“What more is there to it? You eat, sleep, then grow old and die. I’d eavesdrop on the traveling peddlers’ stories and giggle to myself.”
When I watched her recreate something from a history that no longer existed, with a younger face than before...
“D-don’t drag me into this! I’m only letting you have a room, so when the gentlemen come, handle it yourselves!”
The resentment that had been grinding away inside me seemed to crumple.
Her presence alone, which so purely captivated others, did that to me.
Wasn’t it shameless?
The tyranny of the talented.
Ryu Cheong-a’s acting still had the power to erase everything in the world but herself, then fill her surroundings with a backdrop worthy of her words.
The bare audition room became the wooden floor of some tavern the moment she began playing Hyang-dan.
I could clearly picture Yeongho, not even cast yet, sitting beside her with a sullen look. His faction would be nearby, laughing good-naturedly among themselves.
More than a few people were stunned by the effect.
“O-okay! That’s enough!”
Go Young-chan spoke hurriedly.
The fluster in his voice made it clear that his emotions had been stirred.
“You worked hard. Get home safely!”
“Ah, ah...!”
“We’ll notify you of the result by text later! You haven’t failed yet, so don’t look so down!”
“Ah! Okay! Yes!”
Go Young-chan spoke in a satisfied tone.
Ryu Cheong-a had looked dejected, then immediately beamed and bowed deeply.
Was it because she was a rookie?
The way she fidgeted with nerves was almost comical.
‘Who would think she was that tough Hyang-dan from a moment ago?’
Then Ryu Cheong-a raised her head, and our eyes met.
I maintained my blank expression until the end.
A moment passed, though it felt terribly long.
Only then did Ryu Cheong-a leave the room.
Silence followed.
Then the other two spoke excitedly.
“W-wow... Wasn’t she an unknown actress? Her expressions, her voice, everything...”
“I don’t recognize the agency’s name. Is it some family-run agency? She seems to have only just started acting, but that aura...”
It was not a surprising reaction.
She had been a monster from the very moment she began acting.
No matter where or how she started, she would have been the same.
“Writer Han! Don’t you think she was incredible too!?”
What answer could I give to that?
“...We should watch more first. There might be someone better.”
Even as I spoke, I knew.
“That’s it for Hyang-dan’s part! Let’s call it a day!”
“Good work, Chief!”
“...Good work.”
There had not been a single actor at that audition who was better than Ryu Cheong-a.
Or even as good as Ryu Cheong-a.
Before the sun, fireflies looked like dust.
* * *
After leaving the audition room, Cheong-a let out a breath.
“Huff!”
‘I was so nervous.’
Could she have done better?
She had some regrets, but she had not made any mistakes, so maybe she could relax.
Then someone’s face passed through her mind.
‘The writer...?’
He was tall and thin, with sharp features that made him seem almost irritable. Yet oddly enough, being around him had made her feel at ease.
She could not explain why.
Cheong-a did not have the words to describe something she felt only through instinct.
‘Still...’
Maybe it was thanks to him.
‘...I focused better than usual.’
She was used to other people’s eyes, so she knew.
That sharp-looking writer had watched her acting more closely than anyone else in the room.
It felt as though he had paid attention to everything, from her breathing and gestures to every movement of her eyes.
‘Did I do well? I hope so...’
At first, she had not thought much of it.
But after he watched her so intently, she found herself hoping she had done well.
If that person said she had acted well, she thought it would make her very happy...
‘...Huh? Happy?’
The thought startled her.
She had never found acting enjoyable before.
She had never even thought about wanting to become an actress.
She had only heard things like, “You’ll be good at it,” and “You have to do it.” She had focused only on doing her best.
So why was this different?
‘Hmm... Ah! Right. Maybe it’s because he wrote Hyang-dan.’
She had read through the script to prepare for the audition.
As she studied Hyang-dan in order to play her better, she eventually became deeply immersed in the role.
She had come to care about her.
More than anything, Hyang-dan’s story made it impossible not to care about her.
‘That’s what I like about Hyang-dan. It feels like she’s gradually being filled up. Like she’s finding people to lean on.’
She began alone.
Then her relationships grew, and within those growing relationships, she found happiness through those people and learned how precious they were.
Yes, that had to be why.
‘Of course it would make me happy if the person who created Hyang-dan approved of me.’
A small laugh escaped her.
When she left the building, her parents were waiting for her.
Anxiety filled their eyes.
“Cheong-a. Did you do well? You didn’t make any mistakes, did you?”
“How did the judges react? Hm?”
“I didn’t make any mistakes! And their reaction was... um, I think it was okay?”
“Really? Do you think you’ll pass this time?”
“I don’t know... Ah! But, you know, the writer was much more...”
“That’s not what’s important! You know you have another audition next week, right?”
Her words abruptly stopped.
Cheong-a hurriedly put on a smile.
Something was strange.
“...Haha, right. I forgot.”
“Where is your mind? Hm?”
Her stomach felt strangely sick.
“Ah! And drink this! You’ve been going hungry while preparing for auditions! Mom mixed you a multigrain drink.”
“Mm...”
“You need to drink this and keep up your strength.”
Until just moments ago, she had been so excited. Why had it suddenly changed?
“Oh, how did we end up with such a precious daughter? Right, dear?”
“That’s right. There’s no one like our Cheong-a! Of course not!”
The thick longing in their eyes.
Their gazes, clearly fixed only on her.
The desperation she felt from the hands holding hers.
“You know you’re our family’s hope, right, sweetheart?”
“That’s enough. When have you ever seen Cheong-a disappoint us?”
“That’s true. Hoho!”
Why did it feel strange today?
She was not supposed to feel that way.
So Cheong-a smiled.
“Obviously. I told you, just trust me.”
She took the multigrain drink and swallowed it.
It was definitely sweet, but it left a dry taste in her throat.
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