How a Loan Shark Survives as an Actor Chapter 7

Chapter 7

 

The day of the script reading for ‘Our Space’.

The reading was scheduled to begin in the afternoon, but I spent the early morning at a café near the meeting venue.

Of course, together with Yoo Seulho’s manager, Hyun Jingae.

“Ha, if I skip this golf appointment, I’m seriously screwed.”

Hyun Jingae grumbled to himself beside me, but I ignored him.

Today, too, he kept whining that he had a golf appointment with some Director Shin or Director Shim or whatever, and that I should go to the reading alone. So I told him that unless he wanted to try playing golf with only one arm, he should quietly follow me.

“A manager not accompanying an actor’s schedule is a much bigger problem. What’s the big deal about missing one golf appointment?”

“Hey, you know Director Shin too! Do you think I’m doing this because I like it? If I don’t suck up to him over there, it could end up affecting you too!”

“Don’t use me as an excuse. You just want to play golf.”

“That’s not–”

“It’s really not? Want to bet your right arm on it?”

“……”

When I asked that while glancing at his right arm, he trembled and shut his mouth.

Then, with a somewhat dejected expression, he muttered,

“Once this drama is over, go back to playing nice characters. This drama’s eating you alive…”

Looks like he still thought I was acting like this because of acting practice. I couldn’t tell whether he was innocent or just stupid.

‘Think whatever you want.’

Once I changed agencies, we’d never see each other again anyway. Whatever misunderstandings he had were none of my concern.

Leaving the manager’s muttering behind, I sat facing the café entrance and stared intently at the building where the meeting would be held.

Even from early morning, the building was bustling.

Most of them looked like staff members in their twenties.

I carefully observed the young men and women rushing in and out of the building nonstop.

“But shouldn’t we be heading in soon? There’s only an hour left.”

“No. We’re going in twenty minutes before it starts.”

“What? Then why did we come out this early? I thought you came early on purpose because you cared about your image.”

The manager looked completely baffled, but I didn’t bother explaining.

Of course, if Yoo Seulho were a rookie actor, he should arrive early, help the staff, and greet the other actors.

But among all the actors appearing in this drama, none had more experience than Yoo Seulho.

‘Even if it’s a meaningless career, numbers still matter.’

Some people might call it a pointless power struggle, but from my experience, the way people treated someone changed depending on the attitude they displayed.

There were already plenty of people who disliked Yoo Seulho. If he started bowing and scraping just to earn favor, he’d only look more pathetic.

In the current situation, people were more likely to think, ‘He can’t act, so he’s trying to make up for it by doing that,’ rather than, ‘Wow, look how diligent he is.’

In times like this, the best approach was to arrive a suitably polite and suitably ordinary twenty minutes early.

“If I knew we were just going to sit here all morning, I would’ve brought a book. What a waste of time.”

“Hyung, you don’t read books.”

“I read a lot, okay?!”

“Want to bet your right arm on that?”

“……”

Hyun Jingae hurriedly shut his mouth and turned his back on me like a sulking child.

Thinking it was fortunate that he’d finally gone quiet, I returned my attention to the building.

‘Why come this early if we’re only going in twenty minutes before?’

Well, there’s a saying: ‘Know your enemy and know yourself, and you’ll win a hundred battles.’

I had memorized the cast list, but I had no idea who the staff members were.

I watched carefully, memorizing the faces of the people who seemed to be constantly running errands and moving in and out of the building.

“Let’s go in now.”

Twenty minutes before the meeting started, I stood up.

“Finally. Ugh, my body’s aching.”

Without waiting for Hyun Jingae to stretch out his stiff body, I strode ahead.

“You disloyal bastard. Hey, wait up!”

Ignoring his shout, I walked even faster and held the door open for a woman in her early twenties who was just about to enter the building.

“Ah, thank you… Huh?”

The exhausted-looking woman widened her eyes the moment she recognized my face.

“Hello. Does this need to go up to the seventh floor?”

“Uh, yes, yes.”

I naturally took the box she was carrying.

While the woman stammered in confusion, I told her to come along and introduced myself.

“I’m Yoo Seulho. What’s your name?”

“Ah… me? My name?”

After blinking several times, the woman introduced herself as Lee Soeun.

‘Among the staff, probably the busiest one. Most likely the youngest. Lee Soeun.’

I muttered internally while smiling brightly on the outside.

“I look forward to working with you, Soeun.”

“Y-Yes…”

“Hey, I said let’s go together!”

Together with Hyun Jingae, who came running over irritably, we got into the elevator.

Unlike my manager, who suddenly started acting refined after spotting Lee Soeun beside me, I kept making small talk the entire ride with questions I wasn’t actually interested in.

By the time the elevator reached the seventh floor, her expression had become much brighter.

“So that’s what’s trending these days. I had no idea. How do you know all this stuff, Soeun?”

“I check social media and read newsletters. Keeping up with trends is part of our job.”

“Wow, that’s really impressive.”

“It’s nothing…”

The woman who had sounded exhausted earlier was now smiling proudly.

Watching her defenses crumble in an instant, I entered the reading room together with her.

“Hello.”

I greeted the actors who had already arrived with a slight bow while discreetly placing the box I was carrying on a table in the corner.

“I’ll leave this here.”

“Yep! Ah, thank you. That thing’s really heavy.”

“It’s okay. It’s lighter than my manager hyung.”

“Huh? Hahaha, thank you!”

As the woman repeatedly thanked me in a cheerful voice, the people in the reading room turned to look our way.

Pretending not to notice, I made a little fist-pumping gesture and told her to keep up the good work before slowly turning around.

“Hello. I’m Yoo Seulho.”

Then I greeted the nearest male actor.

The warmth left behind by the woman’s bright laughter still lingered in the room.

“Ah, yes! Nice to meet you, sunbaenim!”

Thanks to that, I was able to have a pleasant conversation with the first actor I greeted, and more and more people gradually gathered around.

“Hello, Sunbae Yoo Seulho. I’m rookie actress Heo Eunhye.”

“Nice to meet you. I enjoyed your last movie. ‘Time on the Hill’, right?”

“Huh? That’s right! How did you know? Not many people know that one…”

Based on the information I had researched beforehand, I carried on conversations as naturally as possible.

It didn’t matter what these actors normally thought about Yoo Seulho.

What mattered was that, at this moment, the conversations were warm and friendly, and the atmosphere around us was lively.

“Haha, really?”

As I chatted and laughed with the people around me, the people in the reading room naturally split into two groups.

Those hovering around, waiting for their turn to greet me.

And Woo Junseo and his lackeys, sitting in the corner deliberately ignoring me.

‘Just as expected.’

Perhaps because of our hostile last conversation, Woo Junseo had completely dropped the act of being a polite junior and was openly ignoring me.

His face was full of dissatisfaction, and the lackeys beside him kept glancing at me while watching his reactions.

‘A junior staying seated when a senior arrives? Seriously?’

In an industry as steeped in seniority culture as the entertainment world, that was especially unacceptable.

Watching Woo Junseo stubbornly remain seated despite clearly knowing that, I suppressed a laugh.

‘Well, he probably thinks he doesn’t need to care because he’s the main lead anyway.’

If he wanted to behave like that, even better for me.

Excusing myself from the people I was talking to, I headed toward Woo Junseo.

As I approached him with a smile, I could feel everyone in the reading room watching.

“Junseo, long time no see. You got home safely that day, right?”

When I greeted him gently, Woo Junseo nodded halfheartedly.

“Yeah. I got home fine.”

“That’s good. I’m really glad we had a chance to exchange advice at the end.”

The moment I finished speaking, one of Woo Junseo’s eyebrows twitched upward.

Ignoring him, I greeted the lackeys beside him.

Unlike the others, who awkwardly returned my greeting while watching Woo Junseo’s mood, one particularly skinny man laughed loudly.

“Seulho, long time no see. You’ve been doing well, right?”

The laugh was almost uncomfortably loud.

Meeting his oddly gleaming eyes, I responded with an appropriate smile.

“Of course. You doing well too?”

Park Sangin. Twenty-five-year-old actor.

From my prior research, he and Yoo Seulho had appeared in one project together.

I’d come assuming they knew each other because of that, but I hadn’t expected them to be close enough to speak casually.

Park Sangin glanced at Woo Junseo before breaking into an exaggerated grin.

“You still taking acting lessons?”

“Hm?”

“You know, you said before that you were thinking about taking acting classes. That you had no idea how to act. Still, it’s lucky this role is an easy one.”

The atmosphere instantly turned cold.

Watching the corner of Woo Junseo’s mouth curl upward, I smiled.

“You’re right. I’m hopeless at acting.”

“What?”

“But there are a lot of talented actors around me, so that puts me at ease. I should learn a lot from you guys. Take good care of me, okay?”

“Uh, well… sure.”

The conversation ended with Park Sangin giving an awkward smile.

Still smiling, I returned to the people I had been talking with earlier.

“Sunbaenim, did you know? Among the recent new releases…”

Immediately, people started talking to me with far more friendliness than before.

Their expressions practically screamed sympathy, as though they were looking at a classmate being bullied.

‘To be fair, Park Sangin didn’t actually say anything wrong.’

But in society, even correct words depend on how you say them.

Maybe he thought it was fine to openly mock Yoo Seulho because nobody liked him.

But it’s hard to ignore the impression someone leaves right in front of you.

No matter how many hateful comments Yoo Seulho received, or how pathetic people thought he was, if the Yoo Seulho standing before them was smiling brightly and getting along with everyone, then the person openly bullying him would never look good.

Faced with the unexpected shift in atmosphere, Woo Junseo left the room with a scowl.

After watching Park Sang-in and the other lackeys hurriedly follow him out, I waited a moment before saying I was going to grab a drink and heading out as well.

“Ah, damn it. What the hell?”

As I quietly walked down the hallway, I heard Woo Junseo’s irritated voice from around the corner.

“You worked with Yoo Seulho before, right? Was that bastard always the type to talk back and never back down?”

At that, Park Sangin hurriedly replied.

“No! I told you already. He was a complete pushover! That’s why I recommended him!”

One of my eyebrows rose.

Aha.

‘So it was you?’

‘The bastard who handed Yoo Seulho over to Woo Junseo.’