How a Loan Shark Survives as an Actor Chapter 50

Chapter 50

 

“Already the final episode. Time flies~!”

Noh Hamrak nodded at his girlfriend’s comment.

Not just with Our Space, but whenever he watched the live broadcast of any drama, he always ended up thinking the same thing.

‘But the time it took for this drama to actually reach the world was probably several times longer.’

Of course, that was only something he knew intellectually. He had never experienced that kind of hardship himself.

At most, the stage play he performed in high school was the entirety of his practical experience.

‘If I had continued pursuing acting after that…’

The thought came naturally, and he quickly shook his head.

‘Tch, pointless thought.’

Too late anyway.

He forced himself to focus on the TV.

 

***

 

[“Yuna.”]

[“Hm?”]

[“Now… when I think about a life without you, it scares me.”]

The male lead’s sweet line opened the final episode.

Since it was the finale, it was only natural, but the male and female leads had already become an official couple after confirming their feelings for each other.

The kissing scene had happened long ago.

‘Compared to other dramas, it was pretty slow though.’

These days, romance dramas usually followed a formula where the two protagonists hated each other in Episode 1, started flirting in Episode 2, and confirmed their feelings in Episode 3.

After that, there was nothing left to do, so suddenly someone would die in Episode 4 and a serial murder case would start.

‘Why? Because once the couple gets together, interest drops sharply.’

The driving force of romance dramas was the suspense of, Will those two end up together?

Of course, everyone already knew they would.

The audience was curious about the process.

Once that process was completely resolved, viewers stopped wondering.

No matter how handsome and beautiful the couple was, the moment they advanced beyond the flirting stage, the excitement cooled dramatically.

People were passionate about the process of falling in love, not the completed relationship itself.

‘But you can’t keep delaying the relationship either.’

Then viewers complained that the story was dragging.

That was why, after the leads became an official couple around the middle of the series, another crisis was introduced to separate them and keep viewers anxious.

And the production team’s chosen crisis was Kang Minwoo.

The male lead’s older brother, Kang Minwoo, played by Yoo Seulho, had originally only been a character who creepily flirted with the heroine during script readings.

However, starting from Episode 3, his backstory was added, and his screen time suddenly increased.

After several script revisions, he ended up appearing frequently throughout the latter half of the story.

 

***

 

[“Ah, this is humiliating.”]

The reason his younger brother had rebelled against him for the first time was a woman.

He tried to ignore it, telling himself he was simply avoiding unnecessary trouble, but the memory of that day kept tormenting Kang Minwoo.

His pride had been wounded because instead of hitting his disobedient brother, he had actually stepped back.

[“Hmph. They can both go to hell. What’s he gonna do if she decides to date me?”]

So despite what he had told his brother, Kang Minwoo began pursuing the heroine.

But since she was already involved with the male lead, she showed no interest.

Enraged, Kang Minwoo unleashed his trump card.

[“If you stay with that bastard, you’ll die too. Did you know that before you started seeing him?”]

[“Excuse me?”]

[“Our parents died because of him too.”]

The heroine did not even bother responding to such an absurd statement.

Still, deep down, she thought it probably wasn’t a complete lie.

Of course, she could have immediately run to the male lead and asked what his brother was talking about.

But then the drama would be boring.

[“You know you’ve been acting weird lately?”]

[“……”]

[“You keep spacing out and ignoring what I say.”]

[“……”]

[“Say something!”]

At the same time, unrelated problems began piling up around the male lead, causing misunderstandings to grow.

Naturally, the misunderstandings were resolved fairly quickly.

In the end, the heroine chose the male lead’s side.

The furious Kang Minwoo, having been completely rejected, came looking for the protagonists at the end of Episode 11.

And so, as Episode 12 began, Kang Minwoo approached the couple just as they were exchanging sweet lines about not being able to live without each other.

Startled, the male lead immediately pulled the heroine behind him.

A brief scuffle broke out between him and Kang Minwoo.

The male lead couldn’t use his full strength because he was worried the heroine might get hurt.

Kang Minwoo, meanwhile, charged with everything he had.

Unfortunately, it accomplished nothing.

[“Stop it, both of you!!”]

At the heroine’s horrified shout, Kang Minwoo exploded.

[“What do you mean stop?! Fuck, who the hell are you to get between us?!”]

Veins bulged at his temples as he roared.

[“Hey, Kang Minjun. Is this really the ending to the family you kept singing praises about? Throwing away your family because you’re obsessed with some girl… that’s your idea of family?]

[“…Get it straight. The one who abandoned the family wasn’t me. It was you.”]

[“What?”]

Kang Minwoo let out a hollow laugh before being swallowed by uncontrollable rage.

[“Don’t make me laugh. I abandoned the family? I even accepted you after you killed our family. And now you’re the one abandoning me.”]

Then he pointed at the heroine.

[“You think she’s going to become your family? Huh?!”]

Apparently that still wasn’t enough.

He started glaring at the heroine and hurling insults at her.

[“Leave her out of this. If you keep going, I won’t hold back either.”]

It was then that the male lead, who had maintained a calm tone until now, finally changed expression.

“Damn, that’s so cheesy.”

Noh Hamrak’s girlfriend stared at the screen with sparkling eyes.

She claimed it was cheesy, but she was obviously enjoying it.

Watching her, Noh Hamrak suppressed a laugh.

‘Well, if it’s cheesy enough, it actually becomes entertaining.’

If the male lead was stoic and otherwise boring, he needed at least this kind of charm.

‘Definitely a youth romance kind of line.’

While Noh Hamrak and his girlfriend chuckled lightly at the line, Kang Minwoo couldn’t.

[“You little…”]

For a moment, it looked like he completely lost his reason.

Then he lunged straight at the male lead.

Or at least, he tried to.

[WOOF!!]

Out of nowhere, the heroine’s dog jumped in front of the male lead.

For a second, Noh Hamrak thought,

‘That dog is always wandering around outside.’

But he kept quiet so his girlfriend could stay immersed.

[“W-What the hell?!”]

Caught completely off guard by the sudden appearance of a large dog, Kang Minwoo immediately slowed down.

His feet tangled in the process.

And he fell over in an incredibly pathetic manner.

[“Freeze! What’s going on over there?!”]

That was when the police arrived.

The officers, arriving just in time, took away the agitated Kang Minwoo.

Standing beside the heroine and her dog, the male lead made a decision.

He no longer needed to think of his older brother as family.

He reminded himself that he was now an adult.

‘Even though he’s only twenty.’

Ridiculous.

From Noh Hamrak’s perspective, that was still far too young to be independent.

Still, he accepted the drama’s logic.

He couldn’t nitpick every second.

[“I really wanted us to live together. But it’s okay now.”]

The male lead handed his brother the house blueprint he had completed long ago.

[“I still want you to be happy. Live well.”]

[“……”]

Not understanding the feelings contained within the blueprint, Kang Minwoo glared at him and threw the papers onto the ground.

[“Thought you were giving me money. Why’re you giving me trash? Whatever. Don’t ever contact me again.”]

With those harsh words, the older brother turned around.

Just as the male lead stared blankly at his brother’s retreating figure…

[“Can I keep this?”]

The heroine snatched the blueprint before the wind could carry it away and smiled beside him.

Only then did the male lead smile.

The two clasped hands.

And the drama ended.

 

***

 

“Wow~ That was good! What did you think?”

“It was alright.”

“Me too! Doesn’t feel like I wasted my time. Ah, what should we watch next week?”

His girlfriend immediately picked up her phone with a smile.

Meanwhile, Noh Hamrak fell into thought.

‘The fact that it rediscovered Yoo Seulho alone makes this drama worthwhile.’

Originally, he hadn’t liked the actor.

No… he had hated him.

That was why saying something like this still felt strange.

Even so, the truth was the truth.

Our Space had proven that villain roles suited Yoo Seulho.

And that he wasn’t a bad actor.

‘I wonder what project he’ll do next.’

The protagonists of the drama were Woo Junseo and Choi Ran.

But the only person left in Noh Hamrak’s mind was Yoo Seulho.

Just as his thoughts began to deepen…

“Holy shit, what is this?”

His girlfriend covered her mouth after checking the flood of messages on her phone.

The messages had started piling up ten minutes before the drama aired.

Since she had set her phone aside to focus on the episode, she only noticed now.

“Why? What happened?”

“You know Jiye’s a Woo Junseo fan, right? She sent this… look.”

She flipped the phone around.

Noh Hamrak glanced at it casually.

Then his eyes widened.

“What? Workplace abuse?”

 

***

 

“How the hell did this happen? Did the company know about this?”

The company dinner wrapped up awkwardly, and Director Jang dragged Woo Junseo outside.

Choi Ran and I quietly slipped out through the back door and eavesdropped on their conversation.

“Have you lost your mind?! Talk! We need to know what’s going on if we’re going to deal with this!!”

Director Jang wasn’t even using honorifics anymore.

He threw away the ever-present “Actor Junseo” and started every sentence with curses.

“You bastard! You’re supposed to be a lead actor, and you can’t even manage your manager? If you don’t have enough influence to suppress an article like this, why the hell are you abusing your manager in the first place?!”

“Ah! It’s not like I’m the only one who treats managers that way!!”

“Wow, what a thing to be proud of, you bastard. Why don’t you print that on your forehead? Go announce to the whole world how proud you are of abusing your manager! Huh?!”

“Ha…”

Enduring Director Jang’s nonstop sarcasm, Woo Junseo rubbed his face irritably.

Then, perhaps because he was frustrated himself, he began explaining in detail how this had happened.

Even though talking to Director Jang wouldn’t solve anything and could only hurt him further, he seemed so overwhelmed that he needed someone to vent to.

“PD-nim, you know how hard the last few days have been for me. I admit I was sensitive. But secretly giving interviews like this is wrong too. I really thought of him like family… Who treats family like this?”

Looking at Woo Junseo as he said that, I saw Kang Minwoo.

An actor who had played the role of a domestic abuse victim was now speaking the lines of an abuser.

The world truly was impossible to understand.