Aura of a Genius Actor

Yu Myeong was slightly startled when he saw Kyler walk into the studio.

He had seen him on the day of the live broadcast as well, but the stage and the judges' seats had been some distance apart, and the stage itself had been the brightest area, so he had not gotten a close look at Kyler's face.

But now that he could see him clearly...

His silver blond hair shimmered like °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° pale strands of gold, but even more striking were his deep, lake-blue eyes.

His gaze and Yu Myeong's remained fixed on each other for a long moment.

Miho's quiet voice sounded beside his ear.

{His energy is strangely clean...}

The recording of episode twenty two, led by Jerry, was packed with topic after topic that viewers had been eager to hear about.

"One thing everyone is wondering is how two performances suddenly became four. Even in the preview at the end of the previous episode, there were only supposed to be two, weren't there?"

"That's right. Originally, there were two teams: Derek and Yu Myeong, and Natalie and Marta. But Natalie raised an objection. She said that with actors that good, she wanted the chance to share the stage with both of them."

At that, the studio audience looked at Natalie with moved expressions.

Her passion for acting was already well known.

"How did you arrange the scripts? If the schedule changed that suddenly, preparing four scripts must have been difficult."

Eva answered that question.

"I had originally prepared two scripts. My plan was to customize them overnight once the finalists were confirmed after the second live broadcast, so there was no possible way I could have taken on two additional scripts as well. But the moment I heard Natalie's suggestion, I thought of Mi Young, who had recently been exchanging inspiration with me very actively."

"How do the two of you know each other...?"

"Ah...we met in a writers' community."

Eva blushed and trailed off.

She could hardly reveal that the community in question had actually been a contestant's fan club, and that what they had been exchanging was not inspiration but fan theories and scraps of content.

"Writer Yook was also the head writer of Entertainment Studies, Yu Myeong's first drama in Korea. I hear TW is importing it this time. It's an extremely charming series, so I highly recommend it to Yu Myeong's fans."

"But the two of you...really do look alike. Your skin tones are different, and your hair and eye colors are clearly nothing alike, but somehow your overall image and even your gestures feel so..."

Eva and Mi Young looked at each other and smiled.

"We were shocked too. We get along so well that we wondered whether we might actually be long-lost sisters. We've decided to write together for a while. Our writing styles are similar, but our specialties are different, so we stimulate each other tremendously."

"I'm very excited to see what kinds of works come out of that partnership.

All right, then. So that explains the scripts. I can understand why the production team welcomed the idea with open arms, and why the contestants were in no position to object even if they were boiling with resentment. But Derek...why did you agree?"

"I'm not mild-mannered enough to turn down a fight someone brought to me."

Derek glanced at Natalie as he spoke, and Jerry immediately seized on his words with the look of someone who had found his opening.

"Oh...so you're saying it was a challenge from Natalie?"

"Wanting to act on the same stage opposite the same actor means exactly that, doesn't it?"

Natalie did not particularly deny it and met his gaze with cool dignity.

Yu Myeong clicked his tongue inwardly.

On Korean entertainment programs, anything sensitive was usually avoided somehow, but here, people openly discussed things this bluntly without much concern.

Or perhaps that was simply Derek's personality.

And Jerry eagerly fanned the flames.

"Now, regarding the performances each of you did with Yu Myeong, Director Kyler over there gave Natalie's performance a perfect score and Derek's a ninety nine. Some people have interpreted that to mean Derek lost to Natalie. Not that I personally think so, of course. Derek, what do you think?"

Derek's expression twisted slightly.

"That's exactly what I'd like to ask. Where did that missing point go, Kyler?"

Derek crossed one leg over the other and asked with apparent ease.

But everyone watching could clearly tell that he was angry. He did not sound like a polite contestant asking a judge to explain his score. He sounded like a powerful man demanding to hear what excuse the other person had prepared.

Kyler, however, merely smiled as though he were accustomed to this and replied lightly.

"Personal taste."

Jerry followed up.

"Personal taste?"

"Yes. I prefer plays about people over plays about incidents."

Plays about people.

Once he put it that way, it was not difficult to understand.

Kyler Unshow was a director so focused on the human being that he chose not actors to suit his screenplay, but wrote his screenplay to suit the actors.

"In Analog Love, I liked Sophia, the character Natalie played. Sophia begins as a rigid woman living a life surrounded by machines. Through Milton, she experiences an analog way of life that is inconvenient but warms the human heart, and little by little, the gentle expressions trapped inside her are released. Her tender smile at the end, when she wipes away her overflowing tears and struggles to smile, was truly beautiful."

Derek questioned him sharply, almost as though criticizing him.

"But Director Kyler, your role here was that of a judge, wasn't it? Then shouldn't you judge as a judge? Was The Door to Door Salesman lacking compared to Analog Love?"

"No. The Door to Door Salesman was also an excellent play. If anything, it had more than enough rather than too little. That's why...I gave it a ninety nine."

Derek faltered.

A ninety nine was undeniably an exceptional score, one difficult to receive at all. But...

"Still, Analog Love appealed more directly to my tastes. Surely I'm allowed to let personal taste affect one point. Taste has a definite influence on how deeply something moves you."

Kyler presented an irrefutable argument with perfect gentleness,

and Yu Myeong clicked his tongue inwardly.

Derek is actually being overwhelmed...

Judging only by outward presence, Derek should have been more than capable of overpowering Kyler, yet somehow he could not gain any ground against him.

Yu Myeong still could not tell whether Kyler possessed exceptional force of character, or whether Derek simply had a weakness for him.

 Questions about Marta's future plans.

Each judge naming their favorite performance.

The judges' interpretations of and debates over the four final-stage performances.

As the discussion moved through a wide variety of topics, Yu Myeong continued to feel a gaze resting on him.

Because of its uniquely clear quality, it did not feel unpleasant, but the eyes that pursued him with almost obsessive persistence throughout the recording belonged to Kyler.

Is he...observing me?

"Now then, Director Kyler. When do you expect filming to begin on the new project starring Yu Myeong, the one everyone is waiting for?"

"From a practical standpoint, we can begin at any time. TW is desperate for it."

Hahahaha-

The studio audience burst into laughter.

Naturally, TW must have wanted the movie released as quickly as possible, before the public's blazing interest had time to cool.

"Then is there some other issue preventing you from starting immediately?"

"The script isn't finished. I haven't written even the first line."

That gaze again.

"Oh...then the rumor that 'Kyler Unshow writes his scripts around the lead actor' must really be true. I assumed you at least had a basic scenario in place before tailoring it to the actor."

"Yes. It's true. And..."

This time, he looked directly at Yu Myeong as he spoke.

"I don't think it will take very long."

And with that, the final recording came to an end.

Episode twenty one, with the last live broadcast and the announcement of the winner, had already felt like the conclusion, but now it was truly over.

Yu Myeong had removed his makeup and was about to leave when he encountered Derek.

The words Derek had spoken backstage after The Door to Door Salesman during the previous live broadcast.

-You acted opposite me without yielding an inch, so why in the world did you earlier...

This was the first time Yu Myeong had met Derek alone since then.

Yu Myeong greeted him first.

"You worked very hard throughout the show. Thank you for everything."

"Now explain it."

"...Explain what?"

"Why didn't you give it your all when you acted with Natalie?"

Yu Myeong stared at him for a moment, then answered calmly.

"I did give it my all."

"That was your best? Do you think I'm blind? Of course the character and atmosphere were different, so I'm not saying you should have performed at the same heightened intensity as in The Door to Door Salesman. But Milton...with your ability, Yu Myeong, you could have made him far more compelling."

The one who answered was not Yu Myeong, but someone who suddenly appeared from the other side.

"Why are you picking a fight with him just because you're angry at me?"

It was Kyler.

 "Picking a fight? I'm raising a legitimate question."

"From what I saw, Yu Myeong gave the best performance possible."

"That was the first time you'd ever seen him."

Yu Myeong stood before their confrontation, unsure what to do, and quietly observed the situation.

Their lack of formality could be explained by the fact that they were childhood friends, but there was a slight edge in Derek's attitude toward Kyler.

And the way Kyler smiled as he argued back...somehow made it seem as though he were deliberately trying to provoke Derek.

"He spent two weeks in my class. And I've watched him complete audition assignments for more than two months. Do you really think I don't know what he's capable of? He could have made a much greater impact, but he clearly held back."

"Calling that 'holding back' is entirely your interpretation."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Yu Myeong has an exceptionally strong directorial perspective."

Feeling slightly embarrassed to hear himself discussed in front of him, Yu Myeong subtly turned his head away.

"In Analog Love, the perspective through which the situation is viewed belongs to Sophia. Correct?"

"...Yes. But Milton-"

"Listen. Milton does not change. Of course, he has his own special dramatic background: he remembers a promise to his young daughter and comes searching for her. But in truth, he is merely a medium through which Sophia is healed and reminded of her essence. We cannot even know whether he truly exists, or whether he is nothing more than a dream or hallucination Sophia imagined."

"....."

"The most immediately striking character in that play is Milton. What would have happened if he had asserted more presence and dominated Sophia? After the performance ended, the audience would have remembered only Milton's charm instead of Sophia's sorrow and the process of her healing."

The corners of Yu Myeong's lips rose slightly where no one could see.

"Yu Myeong gave Sophia complete control of the rhythm. At the most important moments, he deliberately moved so that the audience's attention would fall not on Milton's lines, but on Sophia's face as she listened to them. It was...remarkable enough to inspire genuine admiration.

That is why everyone said afterward that Sophia's emotional performance was so good. I said earlier that Sophia was the more compelling character as well. But who created that impression...?"

Derek pressed his lips together, then objected.

"I'm not dismissing that. But along that boundary, he could still have done a little more-"

"No. Normally, dismissing that is exactly what an actor should do. An actor ought to give everything to their own role and play it to the maximum. Coordinating actors who all want to stand out the most and extracting the best possible scene for the audience is the director's responsibility."

Kyler smiled brightly, then added something chillingly at odds with that smile.

"Under normal circumstances, I would have told him not to be arrogant. Lowering his own limits is something an actor must never do."

At that moment, Yu Myeong arrived at his conclusion.

He had wondered whether Kyler possessed force of character or whether Derek was simply weak against him.

This director, who gave off such an oddly pure and delicate impression, was by no means as gentle as he appeared.

And by Yu Myeong's standards, that was deeply satisfying.

Kyler turned his eyes away from Derek and looked at Yu Myeong.

"But...you judged it perfectly. You found the most exact degree of restraint. Isn't that right, Yu Myeong?"

Yu Myeong looked at him in silence.

"From Derek's perspective as an actor born for the stage, it probably seemed slightly insufficient. But from my perspective as a director...it was almost frighteningly precise.

As though you were capable of watching your own performance from outside yourself. Not adding or subtracting even the slightest thing, giving only exactly as much as would bring the play to life in the most delicious way possible... I cannot understand how you did it."

Kyler looked back at Derek.

"Derek, under normal circumstances, you might be right. But words like that are meaningless when directed at someone who understood the play that thoroughly and brought it to life so completely."

Derek finally seemed convinced by Kyler's argument and fell silent.

The remaining crease between his brows made him look like a mischievous child who was still slightly sulking.

Then Kyler abruptly asked Yu Myeong a question.

"Ever since I first saw you...I've been extremely curious."

"...?"

"Are you really human?"

Yu Myeong nearly laughed at the absurd question, only to freeze at what came next.

"You feel profoundly unfamiliar...almost as though several different energies are mixed together inside you."

Miho froze with him.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!