Superstar From Age 0 - Light Novels

Chapter 257

Lee Seo-jun’s acting is special.

He makes the character seem real, as if he brought them to life.

‘Lee Seo-jun’ disappears and only the ‘role’ remains.

It was the same for Prince Seongnyeong, Jin Natra, and Gray Vainy.

He was not Lee Seo-jun, but Go Joo-won and King Danjong.

Because his acting was so perfect, people distinguished ‘Lee Seo-jun’ from the characters above.

They might imagine Lee Seo-jun in those roles when they still had emotions from watching the movie, but they did not think that ‘Lee Seo-jun’ would destroy the earth or that ‘Lee Seo-jun’ was Gray Vainy.

Because those characters were stories that were far from ‘reality’.

But what if.

Lee Seo-jun acted as a ‘student of his own age’. Would people be able to distinguish between the role and Lee Seo-jun?

Of course, Lee Seo-jun himself and his acquaintances knew the difference between the role and Lee Seo-jun, but the three teachers who judged him did not.

The look of real love in his eyes, the wounded expression, the earnest voice.

The teachers were amazed by Lee Seo-jun’s acting, which seemed more real than reality.

“…It’s acting, right?”

“It seems like acting, but it also seems like not…?”

“Whether it’s acting or making it real, he’s really good. I feel like I didn’t even breathe while watching.”

The teachers were still thinking about Lee Seo-jun’s acting after the free acting was over.

“Oh, this is not the time.”

“They must be waiting.”

The teachers got up from their seats and headed to the conference room next to the staff room.

There were other acting teachers sitting in the conference room.

“You’re here!”

“Let’s see it quickly!”

While connecting the camera to the projector beam, one teacher asked the three teachers who judged Lee Seo-jun.

“How was it?”

“It was amazing. He had a different presence when I saw him in person.”

“Oh. What kind of acting was it?”

“You’ll see it faster if you watch it yourself.”

The three teachers who already knew smiled leisurely.

“Then let’s start.”

The light came out of the projector beam and a blank test room filled the white screen.

Soon Lee Seo-jun opened the door and entered.

Jeong Si-woon smiled fondly at his student who had grown up so much.

Lee Seo-jun introduced himself and started his free acting.

Jeong Si-woon’s eyes sparkled at Lee Seo-jun’s changing atmosphere.

When students act as students, they usually reflect their own selves in their acting, but Lee Seo-jun was perfectly ‘in character’.

The teachers’ hearts ached at the boy’s eyes that were dripping tears but looked wounded at the camera.

Some teachers even reddened their eyes.

The boy’s unrequited first love was bitter just by looking at it.

Lee Seo-jun’s acting ended and the video turned off.

The teachers who were watching with their mouths open came to their senses.

“…He’s good.”

That was the first word that came out.

“But…maybe he was thinking of someone he really likes and acted?”

“I thought so too. He didn’t change his atmosphere as much as other characters, maybe because of that?”

“Really? I thought he changed his atmosphere a lot when he started?”

“It’s because his role is a student.”

The teachers’ eyes gathered at Jeong Si-woon’s voice.

“A student?”

“Yes. For example, think of it like this.”

Jeong Si-woon continued his words.

“Let’s say Lee Seo-jun is blue. Jin Natra is black, William is yellow, Danjong is green, Prince Seongnyeong is light green. Lee Seo-jun changes his color like this every time he acts and paints his own color on the work.”

Oh.

The acting teachers nodded their heads at the easy analogy.

“But this time, ‘Choi Eun-yul’’s acting is very similar to blue. Something like sky blue or navy blue. Or maybe a more similar color…”

Jeong Si-woon took out his phone and searched.

“Midnight blue, cerulean blue, royal blue, cobalt blue…there are many kinds. Anyway, the color of the character ‘Choi Eun-yul’ is similar to ‘blue’, so it looks similar to ‘Lee Seo-jun’.”

“Then if he does something similar to ‘blue’ in the future, that is, if Lee Seo-jun plays a role like an ‘actor’ or a ‘student’, won’t people be confused?”

It wasn’t like that now, but in the past there were people who sincerely thought that actors who played villains were bad.

That was also ‘image fixation’.

Jeong Si-woon shook his head.

“Think about how designers can distinguish colors well. It’s familiarity. You’ll be able to distinguish between midnight blue and blue if you get used to it. It’s just that this video is too short, you’ll be able to tell the difference if you watch it for 10 more minutes. Lee Seo-jun’s acting is so perfect that you can easily tell that they are different.”

“That’s true.”

The three teachers who judged him nodded their heads.

When they looked at the video again, Lee Seo-jun’s appearance before and after acting was different.

They were surprised at the time, wondering if Lee Seo-jun had someone he liked, but Lee Seo-jun who was acting was ‘the boy’ himself.

“Besides, there won’t be anyone who will only watch Lee Seo-jun’s acting once. You’ll be able to tell the difference after a few times. Except for the dull ones.”

Everyone nodded their heads as if they understood Jeong Si-woon’s words.

Then a second-year teacher asked.

“But Choi Eun-yul, do you know this work?”

“Ah. This is a teen drama that MBS did. It was probably a web novel as the original.”

“Oh. Really?”

“Yes. The actor who played ‘Choi Eun-yul’ couldn’t act, so the script was changed in the middle and it ended up as a flop. I don’t know how he got the original script. I heard rumors that Cocoa Entertainment collects all kinds of scripts, but I guess it’s true.”

The acting teachers tilted their heads.

They said it was a failed drama, but Jeong Si-woon knew too well.

“How do you know so well?”

At one teacher’s question, Jeong Si-woon smiled brightly.

“I was the male lead.”

***

[Actor Lee Seo-jun, passed Mirinae High School in advance!]

[Mirinae High School passers announced! So when are the practical videos?]

[Mirinae High School practical videos, scheduled to be uploaded tomorrow!]

[Practical videos, scheduled to be uploaded at 6 pm today!]

-It’s here!!

-Practical videos! Practical videos!

-No!! I have to work overtime today!!

=…Today is Friday? It’s Friday night

-Why does no one care about passing?

=? There’s no way Lee Seo-jun would fail, right?

=22 Even if you doubt other things, this is acting, right? How can Lee Seo-jun fail?

-Seo-jun! Congratulations on passing!!

-What kind of acting did he do this time?

=I have no idea

=He did a 10-year-old movie for Yeoul Middle School practical test, right? Maybe this one is also pretty old?

=Whatever it is, I’ll wait!

As soon as it was 6 p.m. on Friday, the videos of the practical skills of the pre-announced successful candidates were uploaded on YouTube.

[541st, Kim Ha-un]

[542nd, Lee Seo-jun]

Seo-jun’s video was at the very end, probably in order of the exam numbers.

What kind of acting would he show this time?

People clicked the play button with excited faces.

***

Bang!

Startled by the loud noise from inside the room, the assistant writer flung open the door.

There was So Eun-jin, a writer who had made a name for herself as a star writer after her debut novel, banging her head on the desk.

“Ms. So! What’s wrong? Are you hurt? Should I call 119, 119?!”

“I’m f-fine…”

“You’re not fine at all?! You looked so happy just a while ago, saying you would find some ideas by watching Seo-jun’s practical video, but you became so depressed in less than 10 minutes?!”

So Eun-jin, who didn’t even notice the assistant writer’s frantic state, shed tears inwardly.

‘How could I have seen this here…!’

The novel she had posted on the internet half-jokingly and half-seriously when she was in high school, following her friends who were reading and writing everywhere.

It became popular and published, and then popular again and made into a drama,

The online novel [Waiting for the Star].

So Eun-jin, who was the original author and a senior in high school at the time, could only stare blankly as the drama became a mess, starting with her most beloved character ‘Choi Eun-yul’.

That resentment became the motivation for So Eun-jin to become a drama writer.

‘Waiting for the Star’ was So Eun-jin’s first work and the one she wrote with the most joy without thinking about the readers or anyone else, but that was also the problem.

‘It’s my dark history!’

So Eun-jin raised her head again and looked at the monitor.

Her forehead was red and the assistant writer made a fuss again, but So Eun-jin only moved her mouse.

‘But Choi Eun-yul is so Choi Eun-yul…!’

It was as if Choi Eun-yul, whom she had only imagined in her head, had really appeared.

As soon as she pressed the play button, Seo-jun moved on the screen.

The speaker played Choi Eun-yul’s voice and both the assistant writer and So Eun-jin were captivated by Seo-jun’s acting.

“Ms. So.”

“Hmm?”

“Do you know what this work is?”

So Eun-jin touched her forehead at the sight of the assistant writer who seemed to have fallen in love with Choi Eun-yul who was shedding tears.

‘There must be more than one or two people like this.’

She thought of those people who would look for the drama and then look for the original novel.

As the original author, So Eun-jin felt happy but also complicated as if she was exposing her diary to the world.

And if the cause was superstar Lee Seo-jun, the aftermath would be enormous.

‘Seo-juuun!’

***

While everywhere was buzzing with Seo-jun’s practical video, there was a gloomy place.

November.

It was the high school seniors who were fighting for college entrance exams.

“Hey, Seo-jun’s practical video is out.”

Break time.

Holding her phone hesitantly, her friend Im Ye-na said to Song Yu-jeong who tilted her head.

“Why don’t you watch it? It’s not even two minutes long, right?”

“I keep replaying it. The college entrance exam is in less than two weeks and if I watch it now, I’ll watch it until I get sick of it. But I don’t get sick of it and that’s the problem.”

She entered YouTube and clicked on Seo-jun’s video.

Now all she had to do was press the play button.

Im Ye-na groaned as she moved her finger back and forth.

“Really?”

At Song Yu-jeong’s calm words, Im Ye-na tilted her head.

“Yu-jeong, don’t you like Seo-jun?”

“No, I do…”

Song Yu-jeong scratched her cheek.

“Well. His works are fun and I always watch them when he appears and I’m happy when he gets an award but he feels too famous and distant. Like he’s not from this world? And I’ve been watching him since he was very young so I feel familiar with him and he feels like a brother. It’s hard to explain in words.”

“There are people like that too.”

Not everyone who liked Seo-jun was a passionate fan.

There were people who jumped from one fandom to another and people who only watched him once.

Im Ye-na, who respected individual preferences, sparkled her eyes and pushed her phone to Song Yu-jeong.

“Then watch this and tell me your thoughts! No spoilers!”

“Do you have to do that?”

“Yes, yes!”

“…Okay. Fine.”

The future Song Yu-jeong would have grabbed the collar of the present Song Yu-jeong who was holding Im Ye-na’s phone and told her not to watch it now, but to watch it after the college entrance exam!

Without knowing anything about the future, Song Yu-jeong took the earphones and phone from Im Ye-na who was smiling brightly. She put on the earphones and pressed the play button.

-Yu-jeong.

A soft voice was heard.

It was a voice that revealed tenderness and loveliness that could not be hidden by the effort to act calm.

-So… Just once. Just once.

-Smile for me too.

Song Yu-jeong stared blankly at Seo-jun who was shedding tears.

His eyelashes fluttering with the blinking, the tears rolling down his cheeks, his forehead twisted with pain.

And Seo-jun’s sparkling black eyes that were in love.

The time that was less than two minutes felt like it stretched to two hours.

Song Yu-jeong unknowingly pressed the play button again.

-Yu-jeong.

-Smile for me too.