How a Loan Shark Survives as an Actor Chapter 32

Chapter 32

 

➝ Is nobody on my timeline awake? Please.

↳ Why?

➝ HOLY SHIT, HE’S HUMAN!!! Hey, hey, are you watching Our Space right now???

↳ Nah, I don’t watch dramas.

➝ No, you HAVE to watch this. Turn on your TV right now. Please, just once.

↳ There you go exaggerating again;

➝ I’M NOT! I’m not exaggerating, seriously!! I just saw something with my own eyes that I still can’t believe!!! If you’d seen it too, you’d be in shock!!!

↳ Okay, calm down;; What’s got you so worked up?

➝ Don’t freak out when you hear this… it’s… ‘Yoo Seulho can actually act.’

↳ ?

 

As soon as Episode 1 of Our Space ended, posts began flooding various online communities.

And most of those posts were filled with question marks.

 

➝ What the hell?? Seriously, what the hell??

➝ Did I just dream that?

➝ I’m not the only one getting goosebumps, right???

➝ I really don’t want to sound dramatic, but this is honestly ridiculous lololol what the hell is this lolol

➝ Has our Seulho changed…?

 

Everyone seemed completely bewildered, unable to process what had happened.

Meanwhile, new posts kept appearing nonstop.

Some people noticed that every time they refreshed, more posts had been added. Convinced they had a viral hit on their hands, they spent the entire night mass-producing edited clips.

Soon, mentions of Yoo Seulho spread beyond online communities and onto YouTube Shorts.

People who weren’t even interested in dramas or acting… ordinary viewers just scrolling through their phones… started seeing him everywhere.

 

[The Nation Is Apparently in Denial: The Latest on “Deadweight Yoo’s” Acting]

[A Clip of Yoo Seulho from Yesterday’s Our Space That You Won’t Believe Even After Watching]

[Shock Warning! How Did Yoo Seulho’s Acting Change? Before & After Comparison]

 

Countless videos appeared with the kind of cheesy, exaggerated titles typical of viral content.

Perhaps because of the recent “nepo baby” controversy at the press conference, the comment sections were even more heated.

Many people reacted negatively to what looked like a sudden movement to praise Yoo Seulho, who had spent years being one of the industry’s most disliked celebrities.

 

➝ Aren’t people overreacting? This level of acting is what actors are supposed to do in the first place;

↳ Honestly, his acting is just okay. People only think it looks good because it’s coming from Deadweight Yoo lolol

↳ It’s not even “okay” lol. The performance feels so artificial. I’m amazed people think this is good acting lol. Do people really have such poor judgment?

↳ Huh? It doesn’t feel artificial at all, though?

↳ Look at this guy tearing down everyone who liked it just because he didn’t.

↳ Hey, I don’t even like Deadweight Yoo, but calling that performance “just okay” is crazy lol. He was genuinely good this time.

 

No matter which video I clicked on, the comments were a battlefield.

Some people even seriously pushed the theory that “Yoo Seulho had been replaced by a clone,” only to get roasted with comments like:

“Do you think this is Hollywood? Stop swallowing conspiracy theories, idiot.”

The explosive interest that began overnight continued straight into Episode 2 the next day.

[“My little brother killed our parents.”]

Just like Episode 1, my performance dominated the ending of Episode 2, and clips immediately spread across the internet after the broadcast.

People joked:

“I thought he was just saying the usual celebrity nonsense when he promised he’d show a new side of himself, but he actually meant it.”

“At this point, isn’t he possessed by somebody?”

The attention expanded far beyond trend-sensitive students.

Busy young professionals, middle-aged viewers, and even older audiences who encountered the clips through recommendation algorithms became involved.

Eventually, parents were sending Yoo Seulho clips to family group chats and asking their children what they thought.

Why had a simple video of an actor performing become so viral?

The reason was actually quite simple.

 

➝ If you open the comment section on a Yoo Seulho video right now, you can see every type of person in Korea.

↳ Koreans seriously can’t stand anyone having a different opinion lol

↳ At this point I think people just enjoy fighting… the argument itself has become the content.

↳ lol, that hit too close to home; I actually relieve stress by fighting in those comments these days.

 

People often say that a true superstar drives both fans and haters insane.

The fact that people who disliked me were far more passionate than my fans was what started all of this.

Whenever someone left even a mildly positive comment, hordes of people immediately attacked them.

That made others wonder:

“Wait… am I the one who’s mistaken?”

So they watched the clips again.

Then they asked their friends.

Then those friends watched too.

Interest snowballed instantly.

The reaction became so intense that even mainstream entertainment news started covering it.

 

[Actor Yoo Seulho’s return through his latest drama has become a major online sensation. While many viewers are praising the performance as ‘outstanding,’ others argue that it is being overvalued, leading to heated debates across online comment sections.”]

 

At that point, whether Yoo Seulho was genuinely a good actor no longer mattered.

What mattered was whether you had seen the clip or not.

Watching it became a measure of whether someone was keeping up with current trends.

Naturally, interest in the drama itself continued growing.

Even though only two episodes had aired, the show’s online buzz kept increasing.

And a significant portion of that buzz centered around Kang Min-woo, the character I played.

Contrary to PD Jang’s concerns that the drama’s genre balance might collapse, most reactions toward Kang Minwoo were overwhelmingly positive.

Many viewers said that without him, the show would have been little more than a somewhat flat romance between a cheerful heroine and a wounded hero.

By inserting Kang Min-woo between them, the male lead’s emotional wounds became deeper, and the heroine’s role as his savior gained far more weight.

Besides, modern romance dramas often veered into absurd territory anyway, suddenly killing off characters or turning into serial killer mysteries halfway through.

Compared to that, Kang Minwoo was perfectly reasonable.

 

➝ This is the kind of drama I’ve been waiting forㅠㅠ How long has it been since all the lead actors were actually in their twentiesㅠㅠ

 

Unlike the endless wars raging in comment sections, opinions about the drama itself were overwhelmingly positive.

People had grown tired of seeing the same actors appear in the same kinds of productions over and over again.

Most modern leads were in their thirties or older.

Even when younger actors were cast, the story usually began with childhood scenes before jumping forward ten years and handing the lead role to thirty-something actors anyway.

In a drama landscape dominated by doctors, police officers, lawyers, and psychopaths, Our Space stood out simply because its protagonists were ordinary college students.

The fact that it was an original story rather than an adaptation of a webtoon or web novel also worked in its favor.

 

➝ If this had come out ten years ago, people would’ve called it cliché. Why is it so fun?

↳ Modern dramas try so hard to be unique that something classic actually feels refreshing now.

 

Some viewers also felt that I helped balance out what might otherwise have been an overly light romance.

That was how much impact I had made on the drama.

In other words…

I had finally thrown away the title of “Deadweight Yoo.”

Of course, I wasn’t the only beneficiary.

“PD, did you answer your phone? The Director wants to have dinner with you.”

“What? The Director? Hahaha!”

The production staff were practically suffering muscle aches from how much their shoulders had risen.

The network had treated the drama as little more than emergency filler.

Yet it had suddenly become one of the hottest topics around.

And this wasn’t even a simultaneous OTT release.

These days, a drama’s success often depended on how quickly it appeared on streaming platforms.

For a traditional network drama to explode in popularity like this was nearly unheard of.

The staff couldn’t help but feel grateful toward the one person who had made this miracle possible:

Yoo Seulho.

Of course, some people questioned my sudden improvement.

 

➝ Unless he literally became a different person, how does someone’s acting improve this much overnight? It’s not like he even took a long break.

➝ I think the character just suits him really well~

➝ I agree with the comment aboveㅇㅇ This is Yoo Seulho’s first villain role. If he’s only shining now, then logically speaking it’s more likely that he’s not actually acting well… he’s just a trash person in real life finally showing his true self.

↳ You called that logic? That’s just fanfiction lol.

↳ Nah, but I kinda get what he’s saying lol. It feels a little too real to be acting.

 

The reason people said things like that was because the performance felt so realistic.

In fact, many victims of domestic violence reported feeling PTSD symptoms after watching the scene where Kang Minwoo beat his younger brother.

The reactions became serious enough that later rebroadcasts included viewer-discretion warnings.

Was it because Yoo Seulho was genuinely a terrible person?

People whispered among themselves.

For the first time, everyone suddenly became interested in the private side of Yoo Seulho’s life.

And just as the speculation reached its peak…

 

[Instead of Our Space, It’s Woo-Choi-Yoo! (Woo Jun-seo + Choi Ran + Yoo Seulho) | Wise Hot-and-Cold Bath EP.37]

 

The production team released the variety show at the perfect moment.

And people saw it.

They saw Yoo Seulho smiling brightly at Woo Junseo.

They saw Yoo Seulho treating Choi Ran with kindness.

They saw Yoo Seulho playfully responding to Lee Seulgi’s jokes.

People unfamiliar with me thought:

“Huh? He’s surprisingly good at talking.”

People who had watched my previous variety appearances wondered:

“Wait… was he always this good at talking?”

Even my handful of fans became confused.

Normally, I was known for smiling nicely.

Not for being witty.

Not for being entertaining.

Not for being quick on my feet.

People didn’t call me a “decorative houseplant” for nothing.

But in this variety show, I wasn’t a flower.

I looked like a living, breathing man.

That unfamiliar feeling reached its peak during the hidden-camera episode.

 

➝ Wait… why am I getting butterflies…?

➝ What’s happening to me… I used to hate you…

➝ Damn it; he’s ridiculously handsome.

 

Everyone knew it was acting.

Yet the way I smiled at Lee Seulgi looked real.

The handsome face that had long been hidden behind my negative public image finally got a chance to do its job.

The comments became a strange mixture of people panicking because they found me attractive and people begging someone to teach them how to stop replaying the video.

Just as people had previously argued over my acting ability, a new debate emerged:

“Is it okay to be attracted to Yoo Seulho?”

And before long, the internet was filled with Yoo Seulho.

Everyone hated Yoo Seulho.

And everyone loved Yoo Seulho.

 

***

 

Meanwhile, at that exact moment, I was driving somewhere alone.

The car I had left sitting in the hotel parking lot for so long was finally back on the road.

And my destination was…

“How may I help you today?”

“I have an appointment. We agreed to discuss things face-to-face.”

The office of a private investigation agency.

Where the investigators worked.