CH 20

“Haa… ha… haa.”

“Is it still that spicy?”

“Sor… ry.”

Lee Wooyeon, who found joy in the appearance of an adult man crying over and over just from eating stir-fried octopus, and did not tell him to stop eating until the end, asked that question.

As soon as Choi Inseop finished eating, he apologized and ran to the bathroom to wipe his tongue with cold water, but his tongue had long since lost the pain sensation. After leaving the restaurant and eating the vanilla ice cream that Wooyeon gave, Inseop shed tears for a long time. Even while driving, his tongue tingled, and he made a strange breathing sound and turned the steering wheel.

“We’re here.”

Even after saying that, Inseop drank the bottled water for a long time. Lee Wooyeon, who looked at it as if it was interesting, opened his mouth.

“Can’t you eat anything spicy?”

“What? Ah, just…  little.”

“I don’t think you can even eat kimchi..”

“…I eat. Some kimchi.”

He barely ate Kimchi unless he washed it in water.

However, Inseop did not talk about such a fact. He just wanted to make Lee Wooyeon remember as littles facts about him.

Lee Wooyeon smiled and got out of the car with the script. Choi Inseop also quickly turned off the engine and followed him down. Reporters started taking pictures of him. Lee Wooyeon greeted reporters politely and went inside.

“Hello. Forgive me for being late.”

Although he arrived about ten minutes earlier than the scheduled time, Lee Wooyeon came first and greeted the actors who were waiting for him. Everyone warmly asked him if he was okay and had a friendly first meeting.

– The prince is kind to everyone. Treats everyone like a princess.

Jenny’s voice seemed to have been heard in Inseop’s ear, who was watching him. To Lee Wooyeon, who greeted each person without showing any dislike, the female actors openly expressed their affection.

It was just like Lee Wooyeon.

Choi Inseop, leaning against the wall, thought as he watched Lee Wooyeon sit down. In an instant, he made the people in the conference room look at his side.

“What? Did you just arrive??”

The door to the conference room opened and a man’s loud voice was heard. It was Kang Youngmo. With the script in hand, he found his seat and sat down with a very serious expression on his face. 

“Hello. Nice to meet you.”

Lee Wooyeon bowed his head and politely greeted him, but he did not even turn his head and grumbled with a frown on his face.

“You make people wait for your personal reasons, are you crazy? Wherever you are, you only believe in popularity.”

It was a voice that everyone in the conference room could hear. And if you weren’t an idiot, you could tell who it was referring to.

“I’m sorry, senior. I unintentionally caused trouble.”

Lee Wooyeon said with his head bowed, but Kang Youngmo seemed unwilling to look at his face.

“Well, how do we know if it is unintentional or not? Everyone is busy, so do we have to suffer because of your own schedules?”

Suddenly, the people who were beside them started to look at Kang Youngmo and Lee Wooyeon. “What are you all doing? Without sitting down. Aren’t you going to practice the script? Has everyone read the script? Did Lee Wooyeon read it too?”

“Yes. I read it.”

“Lee Wooyeon, when you receive a script, you’ll read it just once, and you will memorize the entire script, right?”

“I do memorize it, but I have to read it over and over again to understand.”

“Is that so?”

Kang Youngmo picked up the script lying in Lee Wooyeon’s side and threw it in the trash. Even the director was surprised by his sudden action and couldn’t keep his mouth shut. Fortunately, the reporters hadn’t been called in yet, so the incident did not leak out. Kang Youngmo was doing something like that, but no matter how much he looked at it, Inseop felt like it went beyond the limit.

“Why? You didn’t memorize it? Then go and pick it up again.”

Kang Youngmo pointed to the trash can behind his back.

According to the information found by Choi Inseop, Kang Youngmo was insufferable and arrogant, but he did not interfere with work. Inseop realized that most of the information he had found about Kang Youngmo was true, but some were not.

“You don’t want to pick it up, do you? If that’s the case, then don’t lie to me in the first place.Aigoo. I am sorry.”

The director’s expression darkened. So did the other actors.

… It was not to the extent that it did not interfere with work. But he was interfering. That too, a lot.

Lee Wooyeon looked at the senior who was being sarcastic in front of him. His eyes showed no emotion. With a calm face, he only looked at the person named Kang Youngmo.

Choi Inseop quietly approached Kang Youngmo’s back. As he bent over and tried to put his hand in the trash can, Wooyeon called out his name with a firm voice.

“Mr. Choi Inseop.”

“… Yes?”

“Just stay. It’s okay.”

It was a sweet voice that seemed to melt as soon as it touched his ear, but Inseop felt the blade hidden in it and shrugged his shoulders without realizing it.

“Because I memorized everything.”

Kang Youngmo’s expression became even more serious at Lee Wooyeon’s added words. But then, as if to give it a try, he gave his shoulder strength and chin.

“Where do we start?”

“Do it from the 5th. Director, is it okay?”

“No, we need to understand the characters first, so I think it would be better to start with episode 1 in order… ”

Usually, other actors also came to read the script for episode 1, so only a few people read it until episode 5. Moreover, Lee Wooyeon didn’t even have a script. It was almost impossible to start by memorizing the lines of episode 5.

“Why nott? Lee Wooyeon said that he memorized everything anyway, and everyone else has a script, so why don’t they read it themself?”

Everyone in the conference room knew that Kang Youngmo was doing that on purpose to suppress Lee Wooyeon’s spirit. The director could not step forward in haste because he knew that it would be better for peace in the future if he did not get involved in the fight for pride between the actors.

Besides, Kang Youngmo was rumored to have a dirty personality, so if he took the wrong side for nothing, he would end up getting headaches over and over again. Although the production company of this drama was the entertainment that Kang Youngmo belonged to, and although his personality was dirty, once Kang Youngmo appeared, he was able to catch the viewership ratings. In terms of acting, he was a hard-to-find person, so even if someone worked with him and got insulted like that from behind, he always got the script.

Anyway, that was a bit harsh.

Everyone looked at Kang Youngmo with that expression. But no one had the courage to speak out such a thought.

“I am okay. It doesn’t matter if others do as they please.”

Everyone turned their attention to the generosity that came out of Lee Wooyeon’s mouth.

“Yeah, that’s right. In that case.”

A twisted ridicule hung around Kang Youngmo’s lips.

Choi Inseop watched him nervously from behind.

“Where do we start?”

“From page 14 of episode 5. How is it? The scene where Kim Youngha and Lee Wonsik meet at the market on the street.”

“Yes. That’s fine.”

Everyone was sitting in their seats, but no one opened their mouths hastily because they only looked at each other’s eyes.

“Then I’ll start first.”

Kang Youngmo cleared his throat and started his own lines.

“Then do you think all this is wrong now? Just because you close the door, close your ears, and don’t speak up, can you count these things as non-existent?”

It was an enormous volume. Even if this work was not an orthodox historical drama, it was obvious that the vocalization should be different from that of a typical modern drama. In this work, which dealt with the conflict between intellectuals set in the late Joseon Dynasty and the era of the enlightenment, Kang Youngmo and Lee Wooyeon were the protagonists who stood in opposition to openness and isolation of the country.

Kang Youngmo’s character was a scholar who studied abroad in China, and was an intellectual who argued that Joseon should change according to the flow of the times. .

After finishing his line, Kang Youngmo looked at Lee Wooyeon with a triumphant expression. The pronunciation, tone, and usage of modern dramas were very different from those of modern dramas, so it was a historical drama in which the pronunciation was twisted even when reading the script. No matter how much he memorized the script, it was very difficult to counter the other person’s lines in the absence of a script.

“Because I consider it to exist, I am trying to protect it. It is something I want to protect because it is here now, before, and in the future. Have you ever thought about whether the forces that come in with new things are only treating us with favors?”

It was a soft and mellow tone, like flowing water. However, the power and eyes contained in the voice more than overwhelmed the audience.

There was a depth in Lee Wooyeon’s eyes. The people sitting in the conference room could see the face of a scholar who was agonizing while embracing the anxieties of the country.

“Don’t you still understand that the world changes and we must change too?”

“We should discuss who is holding the reins.”

“We will hold it. Knowing, studying, and tasting new things, we hold it and move forward. You, too, must change your mind.”

Lee Wooyeon laughed. There were no lines in the script saying that Kim Youngha should laugh, so everyone thought he was laughing because he forgot the lines.

“Should I change my mind?”

Lee Wooyeon, who was smiling, asked again with a dry tone. It wasn’t the noble and honest scholar’s face he had just shown.

“Should I change my mind? Me?”

A cold contempt for the other was glimpsed in the half-turned eyes. This episode was a scene where two people who met in front of Yukjo street ministry were sharing their thoughts. Kim Youngha, played by Lee Wooyeon, quietly refutes Lee Wonsik’s thoughts from start to finish, but there was no line anywhere that he should be angry or ignore Lee Wonsik.

“I didn’t expect this at all. I never knew the day would come when you would say that to me.”

This line sounded like he was saying a monologue in a self-helpful tone with bitterness, but Lee Wooyeon laughed at Kang Youngmo with narrow eyes and seemed to speak directly to him. Kang Youngmo’s face turned red and he threw the script he was holding onto the table.

“Are you telling me to listen now?”

“What?”

Like a person waking up from a dream, Lee Wooyeon asked in surprise. When he asked again, “What are you talking about?” Kang Youngmo began to scream.

“Where is the line? Isn’t that what you said to me now?”

“IThat’s not true. Sunbae.”

Lee Wooyeon shook his head.

“If there are any shortcomings in my acting, I will accept it as much as I can. It was just acting, and I’m sorry if I offended you.”

“…!”

It was acting, but Kang Youngmo was uttering the words that he was immersed in the drama to the point of being confused with reality. Unable to do this or that, Kang Youngmo trembled with the hand holding the script and barely opened his mouth.

“Ep 3, page 19, from the second scene again!”

All the actors sitting in the conference room couldn’t help but smile wryly. In the reading of the script that followed, Wooyeon showed a perfect role without ever forgetting the lines, and gave out the spirit of lovingly telling the lines of other people who made mistakes.

When reporters came in to take pictures, it was no exaggeration to say that Lee Wooyeon almost led the flow of the play. In the end, Kang Youngmo said that he was not feeling well that day and got up from the middle and left.

It was Lee Wooyeon’s victory.