OATCG 22

Chapter – 22

“Are you going to do it?”

“Wouldn’t it be good to at least give it a try?”

“They said they’d even pass us through the document screening. Going to the preliminaries doesn’t seem like we’d lose anything.”

“…But won’t it clash too much with the troupe’s schedule?”

“Yeah. Why did the director even introduce this to us?”

After hearing about the sudden audition advertisement, the members’ reactions were roughly like that.

Everyone did want to audition, but they were worried that if they all left together for an audition, it might end up harming the troupe.

But Jihwan cut off those worries at the root.

“We’re planning to take a one-month break to match the audition schedule. We’ve also decided to rent the theater out to another troupe during that time.”

It was an atmosphere of fully backing this audition.

In fact, even PD Im Young-do hadn’t expected things to go this far. When he first heard about it, he waved his hands in refusal.

“I don’t plan on dragging your actors along and burdening you. Aren’t you pushing yourself too hard?”

“Senior. I want our kids to keep acting for a long time.”

“…What does that have to do with this?”

“It might sound strange coming from someone who runs a theater troupe, but… theater doesn’t make money. If they stay only here, eventually they’ll have to quit acting.”

That was an undeniable reality.

The people who continued doing theater even as they got older were either those who filmed dramas or movies and did theater in their spare time, or those who worked as instructors.

Making a living off theater alone was practically impossible.

Keeping the actors tied to Cheongsong might seem beneficial in the short term, but in the long run, it wasn’t.
If their livelihood wasn’t guaranteed, there would inevitably come a moment when they’d have no choice but to give up acting.

“If they become famous and never come back here at all—”

“Then that’s good too.”

“…You really have no selfishness.”

Im Young-do laughed bitterly.

But he understood Jihwan’s feelings well. This really was the healthiest way to create a positive cycle for Cheongsong, too.

If word spread that Cheongsong was a troupe that produced many great actors… wouldn’t that mean even more young, healthy blood flowing in?

“Well, honestly, it’s good for me too. In the end, with audition programs like this, who appears is the most important thing. The more dark horses that can drive ratings, the better.”

“If our kids go on, you’ll be well-covered. There are so many truly solid ones. And don’t even think about doing any devil editing. If you do, I really won’t let it slide.”

“…Ahem. I don’t do that kind of thing. Anyway, you’re really confident. You trust your kids that much?”

Jihwan nodded without hesitation.

Despite Cheongsong’s relatively small size, it was considered one of the hottest troupes entirely because of its actors.

How could he not be confident?

“At least this one thing, I can guarantee.”

“What is it?”

Jihwan smiled contentedly.

“That the winner will be one of our kids anyway.”

Sunwoo made up his mind.

He would go on the audition program.

Jihwan had even postponed Cheongsong’s auditions and performance schedule so they could focus on this—wouldn’t it be too disappointing not to try?

He’d already been frustrated, repeating minor extra roles while waiting and hoping for some kind of opportunity to come along.

If an opportunity like this was given, he had to grab it.

Most of the other members felt the same way.

“I’m doing it.”

Hyesung spoke up first.

“It’s ultimately your own decision, but… you guys should apply too if you can. We all know that actor audition programs like this barely ever happen, unlike for singers.”

“I’ll do it too.”

Minhee nodded.

“I’ve been stressed lately because there haven’t been any auditions… If we can go on a program like this, I couldn’t ask for more. And they’re giving prize money too, right?”

“How much was it?”

“Two hundred million won.”

“…That really is huge.”

Hyesung clicked his tongue.

With 200 million won, you could focus on acting comfortably for at least a few years.

But if you reached the point of receiving that money in the first place, you wouldn’t even need to worry about that anymore.

The winner of I Am an Actor would get the benefit of becoming the lead in a new drama produced by YBS.

Strictly speaking, you didn’t even need to win.

Just making it into the Top 10 guaranteed a role—if not the lead, then at least a supporting role—in that drama.

“All you need is tenth place. Just tenth place… and debuting on a public network won’t be a dream anymore.”

“When you put it like that, it sounds kind of easy?”

“It won’t be. There’ll be at least thousands—no, tens of thousands—of applicants.”

The competition would be brutal.

Only the top 100 would pass the preliminaries and move on to the main round, so the preliminary competition alone would be hundreds to one.

Even if many were filtered out at the document stage… they’d still have to beat odds of at least dozens to one.

“If your acting’s half-baked, you might get eliminated right in the preliminaries.”

“No matter what, you can’t drop out there. You’ve got to at least breathe the air of the main round.”

That was roughly the mood among the members.

Somehow, make it to the main round.

To do that, they had to polish their audition performances as perfectly as possible.

For I Am an Actor, the audition performance was free acting.

However, they had to act out a scene from an existing movie.

It was a slightly dangerous condition.

It would be hard to beat the original performance. They’d be lucky if they didn’t get criticized.

Yechun muttered with a tense face.

“If we mess this up, we might seriously embarrass ourselves.”

“…Well, if our skills are lacking, we’ll have to accept it.”

“Ugh, but getting my shortcomings permanently recorded in front of the whole nation is just too much…”

That was probably why.

Not all Cheongsong members expressed interest in participating in I Am an Actor. Some felt burdened by appearing on a variety-style program, others thought they weren’t ready yet.

If you really thought about readiness, Sunwoo—who only had a few months of acting experience—should probably have passed on this opportunity too.

But if he cared about that, he wouldn’t have auditioned for a leading role in Four Years Old in the first place.

Sunwoo immediately began preparing his performance.

The problem was choosing which scene to act, but on this point, the members were in agreement.

“It has to be as stimulating as possible.”

“Right. Passing the audition is one thing, but not getting edited out is important too.”

On programs like this, it wasn’t rare for someone to make the Top 10 and still end up as background decoration.

If all you wanted was a drama appearance, aiming only for the Top 10 wasn’t bad… but it would be better to prepare for the future as well.

Considering that, they needed to deliver a performance that would leave a strong impression on both the public and the PDs right from the start.

‘What kind of emotion should I show?’

Sunwoo thought.

Many emotions came to mind.

Anger, sadness, love, self-loathing, jealousy…

For each emotion, suitable scenes surfaced in his mind—countless famous scenes that had once deeply moved him.

Now he had to choose one.

‘This is fun.’

Just thinking about meeting new characters again made his heart flutter.

Sunwoo smiled as he looked at the colored droplets floating before his eyes.

Now then—what color should he choose?

Time really does fly.

Before he knew it, it was already the day of the I Am an Actor preliminary audition.

That wasn’t to say the preparation time had been short.

Sunwoo had prepared roles with massive amounts of dialogue, like Heejae’s. Preparing a single scene wasn’t that difficult.

At the very least, he could be confident of this.

For this audition… he had prepared the very best he could show.

Still, separate from that, he couldn’t help feeling nervous.

Just looking at Minhee—

“Sunwoo, can you see my dark circles?”

“Just a little. Did you not sleep?”

“Yeah. I couldn’t really fall asleep.”

She was clearly tense.

Sunwoo gave a wry smile as he watched Minhee fixing her eye makeup.

Dark circles so deep that makeup couldn’t hide them.

But it wasn’t just Minhee.

Hyesung, Yechun, and the other members all had hollow-looking eyes—anyone could tell they hadn’t slept.

“There are a lot of people here.”

Jaewon, standing next to Sunwoo, looked around with a strange expression.

There had to be at least several hundred people lining up nearby.

“They said the preliminaries would run for a week. Is this how many people got assigned to today?”

“I guess it means there are that many desperate people.”

“…Yeah, I suppose so.”

Jaewon nodded as if he understood.

All the Cheongsong members participating in I Am an Actor were present today. The organizers had probably grouped them together as one batch.

And among them…

‘He’s quiet.’

Seo Jinwook was there too.

He stood in a corner, lips tightly shut.

Sunwoo looked at him with a complicated expression.

After getting closer to the seniors, Sunwoo had learned that Seo Jinwook didn’t actually have much standing within the troupe.

He acted tough only toward the youngest members, but among the seniors, he was more often ignored.

…Well, considering his behavior, wouldn’t it be stranger if he weren’t?

Sunwoo withdrew his gaze from Seo Jinwook and looked at the other participants.

There was a surprisingly wide range of people.

A middle-aged man who looked like a typical office worker… and even an elderly man who had to be at least in his sixties.

‘…That’s really amazing.’

Sunwoo felt his nose sting as he looked at the elderly man.

It was as if all the journeys that man must have gone through to arrive here flashed before his eyes.

‘This place… is full of people who dream.’

It was a beautiful sight.

But he couldn’t just stand there admiring it. Those people would soon be his competitors.

If he didn’t want to get eliminated in the preliminaries, he couldn’t let his guard down.

He had to show his best.

“Number 591! Please enter the judging room!”

“Ah, yes.”

At the call of his number, Sunwoo jumped to his feet.

By chance, he ended up being the first among Cheongsong to be judged.

“You know the first impression matters, right? Go show them the Cheongsong class.”

“Yes. I’ll come back with a pass.”

Sunwoo entered the judging room.

And only then did it really sink in that he was appearing on a TV program.

Surrounded by more than a dozen cameras, he spotted faces he’d often seen on TV since childhood.

Sung Jun-il, who had consistently held leading roles in films and dramas.

Yoo Mi-yeon, who had never been left out when people talked about the nation’s top three actresses in her prime.

And… Lee Moo-beom, a veteran actor with fifty years of experience, also known as the nation’s father.

Every single one of them was a giant in the industry.

No one had spoken yet, but just their gazes alone felt intimidating.

Sunwoo swallowed.

It reminded him of the days when he’d gone around job-hunting, attending interviews. Maybe it was because the judges were all dressed in formal suits.

And seeing the countless cameras filming him… made him realize anew.

He was challenging a public broadcasting network.

Then Sung Jun-il flipped through the documents and spoke.

“According to your application, your acting experience is… five months now?”

“Yes. That’s correct. I started late, but I’m working hard to learn!”

“…Hmm. I see. That’s nice.”

Sung Jun-il nodded with a flat, emotionless voice.

Maybe he’d been judging for hours already—his energy seemed a bit low.

“What did you prepare for your free acting today?”

“I prepared the confession scene where the male lead confesses to the female lead in Honest and Upright Love.”

“Hmm… confession scenes are surprisingly hard to get the emotions right.”

Yoo Mi-yeon raised her head and looked at Sunwoo.

A gaze that seemed to ask, Are you really confident?

But Sunwoo didn’t bother answering verbally.

This wasn’t a question to answer with words.

“Well, let’s see the acting first.”

“Yes, understood.”

This was something to answer with acting.

Sunwoo closed his eyes.

He had it in him. He’d prepared thoroughly.

No need to be nervous.

Just do what you always do.

All he had to do was paint it.

Himself—and the judges, too…

In vivid, colorful hues.