How a Loan Shark Survives as an Actor Chapter 26

Chapter 026

 

Let’s go back 3 hours from now.

“Mr. Seulho, do you have a moment to talk?”

“Huh?”

Right before filming officially began, Lee Seulgi came looking for me.

She had been speaking the whole time casually, so when she suddenly switched back to formal speech, I wondered what was going on.

Then I noticed a camera was with her.

What?

The camera’s red recording light was on.

It caught me off guard, but I didn’t show it.

However, my expression quickly crumbled at her next words.

“Would you like to do a hidden-camera prank with me?”

“…What?”

Seeing my bewildered reaction, Seulgi burst into laughter.

“Sorry. Was that too direct? I need to talk without Junseo and Ran finding out, so I’m a little rushed.”

“What kind of hidden-camera prank?”

“It’s not anything huge. We just need to fool Junseo and Ran a little. If we succeed, I’ll give you three extra minutes to promote the drama.”

Seulgi confidently held up three fingers.

The camera alternated between filming her cute gesture and my dumbfounded expression.

A hidden-camera prank…

It was unexpected, but there was no reason to refuse.

I might have complained if it were only one extra minute of promotion time.

But three minutes?

There was nothing to hesitate over.

Besides, with a camera filming, it wasn’t exactly easy to say no.

“Okay. I’ll do it.”

“Really? Yay! Thank you!”

After her cheerful shout, Seulgi subtly signaled a staff member.

The staff member immediately turned the camera elsewhere.

Taking the opportunity, Seulgi stepped closer and whispered.

“Sorry for springing this on you, Oppa. The schedule was arranged so suddenly that we didn’t have time to plan beforehand.”

“It’s fine.”

“Honestly, our team isn’t usually big on pranks either. But I know Ran’s personality well… I don’t think we’ll get enough footage today, so doing something like this will make things easier later.”

She furrowed her brows, looking genuinely apologetic.

I reassured her.

“It’s really okay, Seulgi. From my perspective, there’s no reason to refuse. You’re helping secure screen time for me too.”

“Hehe, thanks for thinking that way.”

“So what exactly are we doing?”

“Oh, well…”

Before she could finish, the camera turned back toward us.

Seulgi hesitated for a split second before putting on a mischievous expression.

“We’re secretly dating!”

“…What?”

“The goal is to make Junseo and Ran think, ‘Wait… are those two actually involved?’ If we can make them misunderstand, we win. Pretty cliché, right?”

What part of that was cliché?

The idea was completely unexpected.

I was startled, but I carefully managed my expression.

“Will that even work? I don’t think either of them will fall for it.”

“Why not?”

“Everyone here knows this is our first time meeting. We already had a conversation before the cameras started rolling.”

Even if it was a hastily created concept, it felt incredibly flimsy.

Despite the doubt in my voice, Seulgi remained confident.

“That’s why we just have to act well enough to make them question that fact. Don’t worry! Before becoming an entertainer, I wanted to be an actress. I can pull my weight!”

It wasn’t reassuring in the slightest.

Still, there wasn’t much I could say.

In front of the camera, my answer was already decided.

“Alright. Let’s do our best.”

“Looking forward to it–ah. They’re coming.”

At that moment, Woo Junseo and Choi Ran emerged after changing clothes.

The conversation ended immediately.

Seeing Seulgi suddenly standing farther away while I pretended to be occupied with something else, Junseo narrowed his eyes.

“What’s this? Did you two get close already?”

“Well, just…”

As I trailed off, Ran walked up to Seulgi.

“What were you talking about?”

“What do you mean? Just… filming stuff.”

Like me, Seulgi brushed it off vaguely before quickly urging everyone to start filming.

And just like that, filming began without any chance to rehearse.

Seulgi had told me to focus on filming for now and that she’d create an opportunity later.

Still, I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

Secretly dating, huh.

It wasn’t a particularly difficult role to immerse myself in.

The look people reserve only for lovers.

The tone of laughter.

Even the unconscious tendency to angle your body toward your partner.

There were countless little tells.

Even if I wasn’t a real actor, I could imitate those things without preparation.

But…

Why are we even doing this prank?

No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t understand.

So while Junseo and Ran were carrying out individual penalty missions, I asked Seulgi.

“Well, it’s still a romance drama.”

She shrugged.

“Usually only the two lead actors go around promoting. Sometimes three people appear together, but that’s usually when there’s a second male lead involved.”

“Right.”

“From the viewers’ perspective, it’ll seem strange that you, who aren’t even the second male lead, are here.”

“That’s true.”

“The two leads don’t get along, so it couldn’t be helped. But we still have to do what we can. Wouldn’t it be better to create as many things as possible for viewers to get immersed in?”

“Hmm… So you’re trying to pair me with you and separate me from those two?”

The corner of Seulgi’s mouth curled upward.

“Correct. Top student indeed.”

“Will it actually be effective?”

“Of course. If we become the romance angle first, it naturally creates a similar atmosphere around the remaining two. Even if it’s not real, it works from a production standpoint.”

She grinned.

“If we manage to capture Ran and Junseo saying something like, ‘Are those two dating? Do you know anything?’ during a break, that would be amazing.”

“But the Ran I know…”

“She’d never do that.”

“Exactly. Even if she suspected something, she’d just sulk by herself. So I’m not expecting that kind of scene. Anyway, if you just stop being the middleman between those two, we’ve succeeded.”

She spoke with surprising professionalism.

Then she glanced at me.

Like she was sharing a secret, she lowered her voice.

“And honestly, there’s a personal reason too.”

“Personal?”

“Yep. I’m curious how Ran will react if she starts suspecting we’re dating. When else would I ever get the chance to trick Miranda?”

Her eyes curved into crescents, practically overflowing with excitement.

That conversation had taken place one hour ago.

If I’m doing this, I should do it properly.

Whether the drama succeeded or failed was irrelevant to this variety show.

The fact that an outside program cared this much about creating romantic chemistry for the two leads wasn’t something to take lightly.

Meanwhile, Junseo and Ran… completely oblivious to the staff’s deeper intentions, continued calling for me nonstop.

I’m not raising children here.

Every minute they summoned me because they didn’t want to talk to each other directly.

Seriously…

Still, work was work.

I had no idea how much of this hidden-camera segment would actually make it into the broadcast.

But if I’d been given an opportunity, I needed to do my best.

“What about you, Seulgi? What do you want to eat?”

“I’ll have…”

At the snack counter, Seulgi secretly blinked at me behind the others’ backs.

It was the signal we’d arranged beforehand.

Now.

After giving me the signal, she cheerfully continued while looking at the menu.

“Oh, they have kimbap too? I’ll have some–”

“No! There’s cucumber in that!”

I immediately delivered the line we had prepared.

My voice came out louder than intended, as though it had escaped me unconsciously.

An enormous silence followed.

“……”

Everyone stared at me with wide eyes, clearly startled by my sudden interruption.

But the person with the widest eyes was me.

“Ah…”

I put on the expression of someone whose mind had gone blank from shock but was desperately trying to recover.

After opening my eyes wide, I blinked once.

Then I consciously avoided blinking again.

My mouth opened halfway before closing.

“Um…”

When I finally spoke again, my voice sounded slightly hoarse.

“I read it in an interview once. That, uh… Seulgi has a cucumber allergy or something.”

“…An interview from a long time ago? Seulgi only became unable to eat cucumbers recently.”

Ran frowned.

Her tightly knitted brows practically screamed:

Then how do you know that, Oppa?

“Ah, I misspoke. A recent interview. I read an article recently… Right, Seulgi?”

“Yes, yes! That’s right! I mentioned recently that I can’t eat cucumbers. Haha, so you’ve been reading my interviews? My, my~”

Seulgi’s follow-up sounded even more awkward than my excuse.

“Well, anyway… let’s skip the kimbap. I think I’ll get another cup of sikhye.”

We hurriedly retreated.

Before leaving, I didn’t forget to briefly glance at the camera.

Was that okay?

I wanted to see how my acting had looked.

Unfortunately, this was a variety show, not a drama.

There was no way to immediately review the footage.

No time to hesitate. Just keep pushing forward.

Two hours remained until filming wrapped.

The real performance was only beginning.

 

***

 

The main PD of Wise Hot and Cold Baths, Myung Changgyu, had thought this earlier that morning:

This shoot is going to be rough.

If he had to choose the guest he expected the least from among today’s three guests, he would have selected Yoo Seulho without hesitation.

In fact, even if he hadn’t needed to choose, he would have gone out of his way to pick Seulho anyway.

After all…

The guy’s boring.

In variety shows, entertainment value was everything.

No matter how handsome someone was.

No matter how talented they were at their main job.

If they weren’t entertaining, they ended up edited out.

And Yoo Seulho was nothing more or less than a beautiful but hollow shell.

There were already endless rumors that he had absolutely no chemistry with other actors.

So when he heard Seulho was tagging along to promote a romance drama, Changgyu had been annoyed.

Huh…?

But once filming actually started, his opinion naturally began to change.

Seulho smoothly picked up the comments Seulgi tossed out.

He knew how to read the room.

More importantly, the two lead actors who had come to promote the drama spent all their time following Seulho around.

Woo Junseo and Choi Ran.

Industry rumors claimed they absolutely hated each other.

Yet contrary to expectations, the two of them looked surprisingly good whenever Seulho was around.

“Seulho, play a game with me.”

“Oppa, there’s a massage chair over there. Let’s sit together.”

“…Can’t I just do nothing?”

Sure, it still wasn’t exactly ideal behavior for the stars of a romance drama.

But watching them bicker with Seulho stuck in the middle was oddly entertaining.

“Come on, make a choice. Him or me. One of us–”

“Let’s play a game. Whoever talks first in the next ten minutes loses. Starting now.”

It was a complete rediscovery of Yoo Seulho.

Like a parent dealing with troublesome children.

Whatever it was, it created a fantastic variety-show character.

Contrary to all expectations, they had already gathered plenty of usable footage.

Changgyu was beginning to regret suggesting the hidden-camera prank.

He definitely won’t be able to act.

Everyone in Korea knew Yoo Seulho couldn’t act.

The prank segment had been hastily planned so they could at least use his bad acting as a comedic moment.

But now he felt like he might end up humiliating the one guest who was not only doing well but had become the episode’s only real hope.

What should I do?

Should he cancel it now?

Just as PD Myung was wrestling with that question…

Yoo Seulho’s acting began.

…What?

And that was the moment he witnessed something he had never seen before.