I Will Live As An Actor

Chapter 66

Thump, thump.

It was the first time I stepped onto the stage since my previous life. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous. 

Especially since it was the same stage that I belonged to in my past life, the Comet Theater Company. 

As if by fate or coincidence, I found myself on the theater stage again. And ‘Morning of the Western Sky’ was my debut play in my past life.

‘Is this some kind of cosmic joke?’

I couldn’t believe it. When I heard from the staff that they were looking for someone to play the role of Do Jeong-su, the supporting actor, I felt like this was all a prank that God had arranged. I didn’t care if it was a divine joke or a random chance.

‘Let’s have some fun.’

As the prologue began, the stage lights shone down on me, and the audience was packed. 

At that moment, a man (Young-guk) with a thick layer of charcoal on his face and a limp in one leg appeared on the theater stage. He walked with a wooden peg under his arm. He finally threw the peg away and said,

“What a bloody hard world, isn’t it?”

Act 1, Scene 1.

The stage was a street scene. 

Merchants and people were coming and going, and the man was sitting there. He was a shoeshine boy, but no one paid him any attention. 

It was no wonder, since it was right after the Korean War. It was a time when people were lucky to have shoes, let alone shine them. 

The boy muttered to himself, but his natural voice carried to the audience.

“Listen, I was conscripted as a student soldier to fight the commies who came down from the Nakdong River. Back then, I didn’t know anything and just held a rifle in my small hand with the idea of saving the country. All the older brothers who went with me died and fell, and I was the youngest one who survived. And this is how I ended up with a crippled leg. Hey, you sir, passing by. How about a shoeshine?”

Tsk.

“Look, in this day and age, a shoeshine boy can’t even make a living. I’d be better off as a beggar. But I can’t even do that because there are too many ragamuffins around. Where was I? Oh, right. I have to tell you from when I was in the trench.”

Before long, people start to gather around the boy who is polishing shoes and talking to himself. 

His voice and expression capture their attention, like a storyteller who claims to have traveled to the old capital of Hanyang. 

He picks up a wooden leg that lies on the ground and holds it as if it were a rifle.

“Do you think a kid like me ever touched a real gun? Outside the window, bullets were flying and grenades were exploding, and above my head, bloody chunks of who knows what were falling like rain. All I could do was shiver. Then one day, my brother next to me got shot and fell down with a thud. Without thinking, I felt blood rushing to my head. I thought, this is it, and I stuck my head out the window and fired like crazy. And by luck, I hit the North Korean commander right in the forehead. Then, out of nowhere, some guys from the army came and praised me, gave me rice and meat soup, and even promoted me. That’s when I should have run away. If I did, my leg wouldn’t be like this. Do you want to hear the next story?”

Meanwhile.

Actor Seo Jong-in was sitting in the center row of the audience, watching the stage. His eyes were fixed on Do Jeong-su (Young-guk), who was on the theater stage. So were the other spectators. 

They seemed to be drawn into his voice, as if they had fallen into a swamp. Surely.

‘He said he had never done theater before.’

It was unbelievable.

Theater acting and film acting were different.

Unlike films, where the audience was behind the screen, theater met the audience on a proscenium stage close to the seats. 

That’s why the habits he had acquired while acting in films were almost useless. He had to transform everything from his voice projection and tone to his facial expressions that conveyed emotions. 

That’s why many film actors had failed miserably when they tried theater. But.

‘Is this even possible?’

On the stage, the Young-guk soldier looked as if he had merged with Do Jeong-soo, the student activist.

***

Playwright.

If you were to name the most famous playwright in South Korea, it would undoubtedly be Jeong Yong-dae. 

He wrote many plays that spanned the modern history of Korean theater, and his most renowned work was ‘Windless (Silence)’, which won the Korean Literature Prize in 1985.

This play had captivated the hearts of not only the Young-guk, who called their land the holy ground of theater, but also the American playwrights, who remade it in a Western style. 

Some of the Young-guk even praised him, the Asian playwright, as the second Shakespeare.

But even he had his worries.

Slump.

It was a fate that no writer could escape. 

Even the best-written stories would suddenly seem foggy and unclear, as if a mist had descended over them. 

That was why Jeong Yong-dae had been suffering from a severe slump for almost three years, unable to write even the first sentence of his play.

“The morning of the western sky…”

He was in a slump and the place he sought out was none other than Daehak-ro. 

This place, where youth and romance filled the air, was also where the most vibrant theater scene in South Korea took place. 

They all struggled with hunger, barely surviving on a bowl of ramen, but they never lost their passion for theater. 

Jeong Yong-dae decided to revisit his original intention and watch a play at Daehak-ro again.

The curtain of the theater stage rose.

As time passed, what caught Jeong Yong-dae’s attention was not the lead actor of the play. 

The play, which depicted the horrors of the Korean War, had no flaws in its intermission, scene transitions, or stage details. But what drew his eyes the most was none other than a supporting actor.

‘Do Jeong-su.’

Jung Yong-dae wonders in his heart. With such acting skills, he surely had the talent to be the lead actor. 

Unlike movie actors who move along the frames behind the screen, theater actors have to show all their emotions on the stage.

In that sense, the young actor who played the role of Do Jeong-su had a blocking (movement) that was nothing short of dominating the entire stage.

After the play was over, the playwright Jung Yong-dae’s mind was filled with nothing but the face of the actor who had played Do Jeong-su throughout. He was not an ordinary-looking man. His tall stature and distinct features could not be hidden by the charcoal mask. He wished he could go to the dressing room right after the play and find out who he was, but he had deep feelings.

“That’s not very polite to your juniors.”

I didn’t want to interrupt their time to unwind after the play. But the most important thing was that the actor who played Do Jeong-soo had sparked the inspiration for my writing that had been clogged like a sewer until now.

I returned to my studio and typed away without a break. Twilight fell outside the window, and dawn rose again. 

A day had passed, but my typewriter showed no sign of stopping. How much time had gone by?

“Ah, I should have asked his name at least.”

I stretch my sore shoulders as I get up from the couch. 

The couch sighs in relief as it inflates back to its original shape. I grab a can of beer from the fridge in my studio and pop it open. 

I gulp down the cold liquid and turn on the TV, something I haven’t done in the past three years. Ever since I hit a writer’s block, I avoided TV like the plague. 

That’s when it happened.

“Pffft!”

Beer sprays out of my mouth. 

On the screen, I see the actor I met last night on the college theater stage. He must have filmed a TV commercial. 

He was the one who had an indescribable aura on stage. And now he is winking at me from the brown tube.

-He likes apples.

***

Winter.

The movie shooting was also nearing its end. I had been running hard for the past three months. 

Now, wearing a priest’s robe felt as natural as wearing a school uniform. 

On the days when I didn’t have to shoot, I sometimes visited the Comet Theater troupe on Daehak-ro.

‘It was a mess.’

I only filled in as a supporting actor once, but somehow the news got out and there was even an article about it. I had to get scolded by the boss. 

He told me not to wander around alone without a manager. So these days, Bong-chui hyung always follows me around like a nanny.

“Hey, Young-uk, are you going to attend the SBC Acting Awards next week?”

“Is it already that time?”

“Of course. The agency has been calling me several times a day. They’re worried that you might not be able to attend the ceremony because of your movie shooting. The director said that the shooting schedule is tight and you might not make it, but PD Kim Jin insisted that you have to be there. He said you’re going to win an award and the main character can’t be missing. How would that look?”

I guess it makes sense.

The drama ‘Youth’ was the work that solved the long-cherished wish of SBC Drama Department that they couldn’t achieve for years. Moreover, as a teen drama, it was phenomenal that it surpassed 40% in ratings. By the way.

‘Did I ever receive such an award in my past life?’

He had a good reason to be like that. In his previous life, he had only played minor and supporting roles in dramas. 

Even then, he had never received a decent award until his acting career took off. He had lived a life far from the word ‘blessing’ when he was a rookie.

“Why isn’t Actor Seo here today?”

Bong-chui hyung looks at the closed waiting room door with curiosity. 

Ever since we went to the theater group Hye-seong together, I had become close friends with Actor Seo Jong-in and we always hung out together on the days we had movie shoots. But today, he won’t be coming.

“Today’s scene is emotionally important, you know.”

I pick up the script again and show it to him. Bong-chui hyung discreetly leaves the waiting room without making a sound. Yeah, today’s shooting is kind of important. 

I can tell by the fact that Actor Seo Jong-in, who is usually talkative and easygoing, hasn’t shown his face in the waiting room. Of course, it was a difficult scene to get into the mood for. For instance.

“It’s like getting stabbed in the back by the axe you trusted.”

I smile as I look at the mirror in the waiting room.

****

“Scene number 101, the truth is revealed!”

Detective Seo Do-gwang (Actor Seo Jong-in) rushes out of the autopsy room. His face is filled with anxiety and urgency that he had never shown before. 

And he had a good reason to be like that. 

The fifth victim had been found.

The wound that damaged the heart and the cross scar on the chest indicated that it was the same killer. But the truth was more terrifying than that.

“Damn it!”

Seo Do-gwang curses as he grabs the steering wheel. It was because of the clue that the coroner had told him. 

The killer, who had never left a single fingerprint, hair, or blood, had put something inside the chest of the victim after cutting it with a cross.

-It’s a cross statue, it doesn’t look like something you can buy in the market, it looks like someone made it. The weapon that matched the scars that had been made so far was also a wood carving knife that had been sharpened.

When the coroner showed him the cross statue that had been found in the victim’s body, Seo Do-gwang’s eyes widened as if they were about to tear. 

On the dashboard, he sees the cross wood carving that he had placed there.

-Do you want one too, brother?

A few days ago, when he visited the diocese, a young priest who was an assistant gave him one. 

It was exactly the same as the cross statue that was found on the victim’s body. He didn’t know yet if the young priest was the killer or not. It could have been done by the killer to frame him. But.

Detective Seo Do-gwang’s intuition told him. The young priest was the suspect. He immediately called the diocese and checked the young priest’s location. He heard that he was attending a fundraising event at an orphanage. He turned his car around and headed to the orphanage where the fundraising event was held.

“Father Matthew, where are you!”

Seo Do-gwang, who had a fierce look on his face, grabbed a teacher at the orphanage and interrogated him. The teacher, who was startled by Seo Do-gwang’s sudden question, hesitated. But as soon as Seo Do-gwang showed him his police badge, he started to stutter.

“H, he’s talking to Congressman Kim Min-cheol right now.”

“What! Where is he!”

“On the third floor, in the director’s office.”

Detective Seo Do-gwang bit his lip and ran up the stairs. 

The cinematographer followed him with a handheld camera. Blood was already seeping out from under the door of the director’s office on the third floor. Seo Do-gwang kicked the door open with his foot, and saw the director of the orphanage hiding under the desk, trembling with fear. And Seo Do-gwang faced him.

“······!”

The elderly congressman was lying dead, brutally killed. 

As expected, his heart area was stabbed with a sharp woodworking knife. Between the buttons of his torn shirt, a cross pattern was drawn on his chest, just like the other victims. And.

Thud.

A young priest in a black cassock was standing there. 

His cassock was full of bloodstains, as if red drops were scattered on a black canvas, and the white collar of his Roman collar was also dyed crimson. But what surprised Detective Seo Do-gwang (played by Seo Jong-in) was not that. 

The eerie eyes under his neatly combed hair told him that he was the killer, but the voice that followed was full of the piety of a clergyman.

“Brother, you’re here.”

The young priest’s mouth curled up like a mad man.