How a Loan Shark Survives as an Actor Chapter 19

Chapter 19

 

“Rolling. Ready–”

Hearing Director Jang’s voice, I lowered my gaze.

I could feel the dog in the distance looking at me, panting happily, but right now I tried to focus on this moment.

‘Kang Minwoo.’

An older brother who believes he lost his parents because of his younger brother.

A piece of trash who blackmails and beats that younger brother, exploiting his guilt to extort money.

A shameless bastard whose head is filled with nothing but women.

A man who drifts through life without a single serious thought.

I gathered together all the fragments of Kang Minwoo that had been scattered across various lines and scenes.

The moment those fragments came together and took the shape of a complete human being…

“Action!”

That person began to move.

 

***

 

‘Mijin said she was working today, right?’

Maybe I should meet Subin instead?

No. She’s way too obsessed with money. If I meet her, I’ll have to lock myself inside for two weeks afterward.

“Ah, I’m bored.”

Normally I would have killed time at a PC café, but even that felt tedious today.

Sure, I could earn more money by taking an extra shift at the factory.

But somehow that felt like a waste of time.

‘I’m already the one bringing in money anyway.’

The one who should be working extra shifts was the younger sibling who got above his station and went to college.

If I started bringing home even more money, I might fail to educate my little brother properly.

‘Honestly, where are you gonna find a brother like me?’

Mijin kept telling me to stop bullying my brother, but she just didn’t understand.

How could someone who only saw me once or twice a week know everything about me… or about us?

Besides, it would hurt a man’s pride to explain every little detail like that.

I let it slide when she said it, but honestly, I felt wronged.

‘If it were anyone else, they’d have done at least this much to their younger sibling.’

Other than occasionally smacking him on the back of the head, what did I even do?

It’s not like I threatened him with a knife like some families.

It’s not like I brought women home to the place we lived together.

Compared to that, wasn’t I actually a pretty nice guy?

‘Ah, I said I’d stop thinking about Kang Minjun.’

Without realizing it, I was thinking about him again.

Ever since that moment in the alley when I looked into my younger brother’s eyes for the first time in ages, thoughts of Kang Minjun kept creeping into my mind whenever I had a spare moment.

Even though I considered myself justified, some vague discomfort I couldn’t explain kept making me mutter to myself like this.

And those mutterings comforted me.

Yeah.

I deserve this.

It’s okay for me to be like this.

“Damn it. I should just go home.”

As if trying to clear the clutter in my head, I roughly raked my fingers through my hair.

Then I turned around and started heading home.

That was when…

“Pant, pant.”

“Shit, you scared me. What the hell?”

A dog suddenly appeared.

More precisely, I noticed a dog that had apparently been running toward my back.

The dog had been sprinting toward me as if it had mistaken me for someone else from behind, but the moment it saw my face, it froze.

Then it hesitated and looked up at me.

Its expression seemed uncertain.

“Who are you? Where’s your owner?”

A red leash hung around the dog’s neck.

But the owner who should have been holding it was nowhere to be seen.

The dog still didn’t approach me.

Instead, it wandered around nearby as if searching for something.

“No owner? Don’t tell me you got abandoned?

You fucking asshole. What kind of idiot abandons a dog on the street?”

A surge of anger rose inside me.

I crouched down.

When our eyes met, the dog’s tail wagged ever so slightly.

Usually, dogs either barked loudly at me or ran over and annoyed the hell out of me.

But this one was calm and well-behaved.

For some reason, I liked that.

‘It kind of reminds me of Kang Minjun.’

The thought made me grin.

It looked like the kind of dog that would listen to me.

“Should I raise you instead of your owner?

What do you think?

Wait… what do dogs eat?

Dog food?

Isn’t dog food expensive?

Hey, could you survive on plain rice?”

No matter what I said, the dog remained silent and stayed where it was.

When I sat down on a chair abandoned in front of a building, the dog hesitated before approaching and sitting beside me.

“Oh ho? You know how to suck up to people.

Hey, you’re better than my little brother.”

Chuckling, I spent a long time rambling about meaningless things.

The dog gave no reaction.

And somehow that made me feel comfortable.

“But where are your parents?”

At some point, the words started coming out without passing through my brain first.

“I mean your dog parents, not your human owner.

The dog that gave birth to you.

Do you know where they are?

How they’re living?

Do you have dog siblings too?”

“Pant, pant.”

Of course, the dog gave no answer.

“Yeah, what would you know?

Still, maybe it’s better not knowing.

Maybe that makes you lucky…”

I wish I hadn’t known anything either.

The faint murmur escaped my lips.

I felt the dog looking at me.

I lowered my head and looked into its black eyes.

Then, in a tiny voice, I whispered a secret I had never told anyone.

“My little brother killed our parents.”

 

***

 

“Cut!”

Director Jang’s voice snapped me back to reality.

I blinked once.

The dog was still there, calmly looking at me with its tail curled into a circle.

The sight immediately brought a smile to my face.

“Good job, Wooju.”

The moment I smiled warmly at him, unlike before, the dog seemed to realize the atmosphere had changed and immediately jumped into my arms.

“Woof!”

The adorable display made the staff burst into laughter.

“Wow, he’s seriously a genius dog! A genius dog! How does he do that?”

“Our drama’s going to become famous. Even the dog can act… this is going to be a huge hit!”

As the staff laughed and praised him, the dog’s tail wagged even faster.

I petted him as though rewarding him.

‘I thought he’d do well, but…’

He performed far better than I had expected.

To be honest, I had anticipated something like this even before arriving on set today.

It was hard to explain why.

But for some reason, I had been certain the dog would listen to me.

Was it confidence originating from Yoo Seulho’s body, which I was currently wearing?

Who knew.

“That was great just now!”

After reviewing the footage, Director Jang gave me a thumbs-up.

“You pulled off something difficult. We kept Wooju out of frame and got Seulho’s solo shot first.”

Director Jang liked filming long one-take scenes first before breaking them down into increasingly detailed shots.

It wasn’t common for him to approve a one-take scene immediately, which made me feel even better.

‘Looks like I analyzed the character correctly.’

Kang Minwoo wasn’t a particularly deep thinker.

If anything, he was more instinct than reason.

The kind of person who would look at the phrase ‘a household with a pet’ and immediately feel burdened by the idea of having another mouth to feed.

Unlike the male lead, whose life had been crushed by reality to the point he had no room to breathe.

If Kang Minwoo saw that same phrase, he’d probably think:

‘Must be nice not being alone!’

Because feeding the pet, taking care of it, cleaning up after it, and taking it to the vet…

None of that would be his responsibility.

His younger brother would do it.

Because, in his mind, his younger brother was supposed to do those things.

That was why Kang Minwoo had absolutely no reason to dislike dogs.

When Director Jang and the assistant writers first decided to increase Kang Minwoo’s screen time, they originally planned to emphasize how trashy he was by showing him treating animals poorly as well.

But there was some risk in showing animal abuse in today’s social climate.

Besides, viewers probably wouldn’t want to see something like that in a drama.

That was why, two days ago, I had said this to Director Jang:

‘I think Kang Minwoo would be kind to dogs.’

‘Oh really? You want to highlight an unexpected side of him?’

‘No. Not like that. I think it works if we push him as someone who simply doesn’t think.’

Kang Minwoo wasn’t the type to actively hate or torment an animal that had done nothing to him.

He simply didn’t think.

He lacked enough thought to understand the circumstances of the younger brother who had lost his parents just like him.

He lacked enough thought to realize that a woman clearly getting close to his younger brother would feel uncomfortable if he hit on her.

And the same applied to dogs.

Director Jang listened carefully to my reasoning and revised the script accordingly.

That was the scene we filmed today.

The female lead, Seo Yuna, played by Choi Ran, loses her dog during a walk.

Kang Minwoo ends up looking after the dog until Yuna finds it again.

Unlike the male lead, the female lead sees how friendly Kang Minwoo seems toward the dog and develops a favorable impression of him as a person.

But that impression doesn’t last long.

And the dog’s behavior already reveals why.

The dog, which had immediately run to the male lead despite his lack of enthusiasm toward dogs, kept its distance from Kang Minwoo and observed him uncertainly.

That alone showed that Kang Minwoo’s true nature wasn’t particularly good.

“Oppa, your acting was really cool today.”

At some point, Choi Ran had finished changing clothes and getting her makeup done and walked over.

The unexpected compliment was so unlike her that I was a little surprised.

“What’s gotten into you?”

“Nothing. It’s just… This was your first time filming alone, right? I mean, without another actor. Without another human actor.”

She glanced at the dog while speaking.

Only then did I realize it.

“Oh. You’re right. Yeah.”

It really was my first time acting completely solo.

“To be honest, when you were filming with Woo Junseo, I wasn’t sure.

I kept wondering if it was just the Woo Junseo effect.

I even wondered whether I’d act as well as you if I were acting opposite him.

But after seeing today’s shoot, I’m convinced.”

She continued simply.

“You’re a good actor, Oppa.”

The praise was straightforward.

“Are you finally admitting it?”

“I don’t have a choice.

What am I supposed to do when you’re actually good?”

That kind of compliment was very much like Choi Ran.

I smiled slightly.

Only now, seeming embarrassed, she pouted.

“I’m honestly curious what kind of change happened to make you this good.

You probably don’t notice because you’re immersed in the role when you act, right?

The staff are all whispering about it.

People have even started saying you’re like a completely different person.”

“I didn’t realize it was that bad.”

“Next time, don’t play the male lead’s older brother. Just play the male lead. Honestly, your face is better than Woo Junseo’s anyway. That way maybe I could actually immerse myself or something.”

Listening to her complaint-filled remark, I tilted my head.

“If I did a romance scene with you, would you be able to immerse yourself more?”

“…Ah, why do you always have to pick apart everything I say?”

Choi Ran shot me an annoyed glare.