CH 209

“Dustin is too popular with women because of how handsome he is and how nice he is to his friends. I don’t plan on making her unhappy![1]” Woo-Jin said.

“Well, now that we’re on this topic, may I ask what type of standards you have for your potential brother-in-law?” Lee Jin-Ah asked.

“The couples’ opinions are most important, but it has to be someone with a good personality. In addition, I would accept him if he is a prominent figure, has the ability to support his family, is faithful to his loved ones, has good physical and mental health, has similar hobbies as my younger sister, is a good cook if possible, has a good sense of humor, and likes cats….”

“W-Wait! That’s way too specific. Aren’t you talking about your own ideal partner now?”

“No, I just hope that my sister will meet someone who’ll be able to fulfill these small hopes and wishes,” Woo-Jin answered.

“That’s not small at all. Will your sister ever be able to get married?”

Everyone unanimously started to pity Woo-Hee and her fate of remaining single. If Dustin—a world star—wasn’t worthy enough to become Woo-Jin’s brother-in-law, then who else could ever reach his standards?

Woo-Jin was the only one who couldn’t comprehend the others’ reactions and was making an expression that said, ‘what? I’m not wrong.’

“Speaking of which, are you in a relationship right now, Mr. Chae Woo-Jin?”

“I don’t have the time, nor have I found the right person to be in a relationship.”

“Hmm, people are asking whether you’re actually dating several people simultaneously but simply putting on a front.”

“Well, if there hasn’t been a scandalous article about them yet, then I’m really not seeing anyone,” Woo-Jin remarked.

“True, the number of paparazzi following you around these days is no joke. Is that why you moved out and became independent from your parents?”

“Something like that. I felt sorry for constantly bothering my family after a certain reporter recommended that I move out and become independent. He said that if I did this, I could date people freely, cause a scandal, and give him interesting stories to write about.”

The people watching the broadcast instantly started pouring out malicious comments aimed at this unknown reporter. Most of the viewers were Chae Woo-Jin’s fans, so no one was surprised by how sensitive they were about the actor’s dating life.

Of course, that didn’t mean they unconditionally opposed the idea of Woo-Jin dating someone. As long as she was smart, beautiful, wise, and good-natured, then she was always welcome to get together with the actor.

Reading the messages in the chat, Lee Jin-Ah joked that Chae Woo-Jin and his fans were the same when it came to finding prospective partners for their loved ones.

“People say that it almost seems like you’re living life a second time, Mr. Chae Woo-Jin.”

“A second time? What do you mean by that?”

“It means that you seem to remember your past life or something along those lines. It’s an expression people use to describe someone who excels at anything and everything they do.”

Although he was only in his early to mid-twenties, Chae Woo-Jin’s acting showed insight and life experience that was unimaginable for his age. In fact, his performances didn’t feel like an act or mere imitations. It was as if he had actually lived out his roles, to which the audience couldn’t help but watch in awe. Furthermore, not only was he an excellent actor, but he could also do anything skillfully, which led to the theory that he was living life a second time.

Lee Jin-Ah’s explanation had hit the mark. Yet, rather than panicking or looking shocked, Woo-Jin simply shook his head with a slightly melancholic and gloomy expression.

“Once isn’t enough.”

“What?” Lee Jin-Ah asked.

“A person needs to live nine hundred and ninety-nine times to finally become somewhat mature, so there’s no way a second chance at life would make much of a difference.”

Woo-Jin spoke as if he knew this from experience.

After visiting the United States, he had grown a great deal. Before, he would not have been able to say something like this even as a joke, but now he could do it with a smile. But in all seriousness, Woo-Jin truly didn’t believe that one or two past lives were enough to make someone mature or improve their overall abilities.

If Woo-Jin only remembered his most past life, Lansky’s, and not the other ones, then he wouldn’t be the Woo-Jin he was today. In fact, his life would’ve gone in a much more negative direction. By remembering numerous past lives, he was able to balance them all out and avoid becoming obsessed with a particular one.

“You speak as though you actually remember your past life.” Lee Jin-Ah commented.

“Isn’t that obvious, seeing how I haven’t matured yet?”

In response to Woo-Jin’s answer, the chat was filled with crying emojis and messages along the lines of ‘if you’re not mature, then what am I?’

It wasn’t easy to find and pinpoint the interesting, relevant messages in the chat since it was scrolling by so quickly. Yet, rather skillfully, Lee Jin-Ah was able to find the important questions that people were most curious about.

“You’ve played a variety of characters so far, but what kind of role would you like to play next?”

“I don’t know. It hasn't been too long since I finished filming my most recent project, so I don’t have any plans right now. Is there any type of content or character you’d like to see me play?”

Woo-Jin wasn’t all that picky with his roles, so he asked the fans instead what they wanted from him. Prior to this, he had always played roles that he wanted to take on. As such, it didn’t seem like a bad idea to do what the fans wanted from him at least once. However, the responses that quickly stormed the chat were so uniform that Woo-Jin had no choices or options to pick from.

“A dark melodrama… That’s not bad, but are these people actually my fans? I hear that your average fan doesn’t like seeing their favorite actor in kissing scenes. So why is everyone doing this to me?”

Woo-Jin was disapproving as he read the new messages flooding the chat. In an instant, the chat was covered in descriptions of 19+ content. At first, they were simply referring to some melodrama scenes, but as people started writing detailed descriptions of what they wanted, the genre gradually shifted to erotica.

“People are saying… ‘we’re your fans,’ ‘if we can’t do it with you personally, then we’d rather see you do it with another actress on screen.’ Someone says… ‘there’s nothing more beautiful than a skin-colored screen’… Damn, these people sure know what they’re talking about.” Lee Jin-Ah observed as she read the chat.

“It seems there’s many who gained this knowledge from watching melodramas.”

As Woo-Jin spoke, the chat was covered in ‘lol’s,’ ‘lmao’s,’ and laughing emojis.

Within the chat, some messages written in English could often be seen. When she would see these, Lee Jin-Ah would point at them and ask Woo-Jin to interpret for her. Since this was an internet broadcast, it was easily accessible even from abroad. Thus, there were several languages mixing in with Korean in the chat.

“That’s not English; it’s French. They said they became a fan after watching Death Hill and hope to see me at Cannes next year.”

After translating the message, Woo-Jin then replied in French, ‘Thank you. I hope to see you at Cannes next year too.’

“Turns out the person who’s most knowledgeable was actually by my side. Oh! That one’s in English, right?”

Lee Jin-Ah was admiring Woo-Jin’s French pronunciation when she pointed at a foreign language that showed up between the words of praise in the chat.

“They’re asking what I think about the role of a murderer, and if I can, they also want me to perform as one. That’s an interesting request among all the demands for melodrama in the chat. Maybe they didn’t get swayed by the crowd since they can’t read Korean,” Woo-Jin said.

As a way of being considerate to any foreigners watching, the broadcast had been translating Woo-Jin and Lee Jin-Ah’s conversation into simple English, Chinese, and Japanese in real-time with subtitles on the screen. By doing so, foreigners were able to roughly understand and follow the content of the broadcast.

“A murderer? Haven’t you already played that role in City of Shadows?” Lee Jin-Ah asked.

“Louie was a killer, and this viewer is asking about an ordinary murderer.”

“Aren’t those the same thing?”

“A killer kills as a job. A murderer does it as a hobby.”

In response to Woo-Jin’s answer, Lee Jin-Ah said she was scared and rubbed her upper arms with both her hands. Killers and murderers were both horrible people, but the latter was a bit more vicious and terrifying.

“Come to think of it, Louie was a gentle and kind killer, so I feel like the audience didn’t reject him as much because of that.”

“That was why I was quite worried back then. A person whose job is to kill people shouldn’t garner sympathy. And Louie wasn’t gentle; he was just insensitive since he lacked emotions. Someone like that can never be a good person. The only difference is whether he enjoys killing or not. However, in the end, he still doesn’t respect or acknowledge human lives and kills people, which makes him a bad person regardless.”

Lee Jin-Ah seemed to understand Woo-Jin’s explanation, but she couldn’t quite get the difference between murderers and killers.

“Then, could you act like a murderer right now? That way, we can compare it to Louie.”

Woo-Jin laughed awkwardly at Lee Jin-Ah’s request.

This sudden request caused him to be a bit perplexed as he didn’t know what he should do to play a murderer without any given setting. He couldn’t just put on a scary and vicious expression; he had to imagine and create his own character.

“That was a huge jump from acting in a melodrama to suddenly playing a murderer,” Woo-Jin remarked.

“You can’t exactly perform a melodrama properly here. Though, I wouldn’t mind being your partner for such a scene.”

Lee Jin-Ah straightened her posture and said she was always ready if Woo-Jin needed a romantic partner to act out a melodramatic scene.

“Then, I will try to act out a murderer whose hobby is killing people.”

Seeing Woo-Jin choose the other option immediately without thinking twice, Lee Jin-Ah turned her head and clicked her tongue. The chat was now filled with clapping emojis.

“You do this even though you people were asking for melodrama just moments ago!”

Lee Jin-Ah complained to the viewers who had been asking for a melodrama scene before changing their minds.

While Lee Jin-Ah read the chat and entertained the audience, Woo-Jin quickly brainstormed his murderer character. Although he had spoken boldly, playing a murderer who was different from Louie required complex emotional acting. To maximize their differences in a short period of time, he needed to exaggerate the portrayal and also needed a short story behind the character.

When Woo-Jin thought of a murderer, the image that immediately popped into his mind was Lloyd from Confession of White. After he returned to Korea, Woo-Jin read Confession of White once again and focused on analyzing Lloyd’s psychology this time.

He thought that it might be at least slightly useful in helping him understand Ilya’s feelings. As a result, he naturally ended up thinking of Lloyd when he tried to imagine a murderer. In his mind, it wouldn’t be that poor of an idea to portray Lloyd if he didn’t have any other reference to think of, but Woo-Jin also felt like it wouldn’t fit this situation.

During this performance, Woo-Jin wanted to play and emphasize a human being who should never be pitied or sympathized with, whether it be a killer or a murderer. However, no matter how terrible of a person Lloyd was, he could not be easily hated. His flaws won the readers’ sympathy, his beautiful looks grabbed their hearts, and his anger was understandable, making his character far too attractive and endearing to hate.

Although he wanted to attempt the portrayal, the burden of the role itself and the anxiety that he wouldn’t be able to play Lloyd properly fought against this desire. In the end, Woo-Jin decisively gave up on Lloyd as he did not fit the situation. Instead, Woo-Jin took a few of Lloyd’s scenes and backstory and used them to create the history of the new character he was going to portray.

After pondering for a moment, Woo-Jin lowered his head. Lee Jin-Ah turned to the camera and put an index finger to her lips.

Though it was impossible for the viewers to disturb Woo-Jin since they weren’t physically present, most of the people watching the live broadcast swallowed their saliva at this very moment. The chat that was endlessly scrolling slowed down gradually as well.

Woo-Jin kept his head down and held his two hands together, wiggling his fingers. The busy hand movements seemed to show his nervousness as he exuded an uneasy feeling. Then, Woo-Jin suddenly raised his face to the camera, and the viewers froze.

The murderer they had imagined was a person with a vicious aura and a cruel gaze. 

When people thought of a murderer, most of them envisioned a serial killer. They visualized the eyes of the criminals who appeared on the news, wearing masks to hide the rest of their faces. The bloodthirst and calmness that exuded from their murky eyes aroused fear. The acting that people expected from Woo-Jin did not deviate much from this image in their heads, but then, Chae Woo-Jin raised his head and destroyed everything that they had predicted.

With eyes that tilted upwards, he bore a smile so beautiful that it bewildered everyone. They couldn’t comprehend the passing of time and simply stared at the actor blankly. At that moment, however, Woo-Jin’s red lips twitched as though he were about to say something, and the viewers’ mouths dried.

They couldn’t understand how he could be so lovely and endearing. If Woo-Jin ever requested anything with that expression, they would want to grant it unconditionally, no matter what he was asking of them. He was like a delicate and weak little animal that they needed to protect. Just as butterflies approached flowers without prudence, the viewers subconsciously brought their faces closer to their screens.

“I thought you were a butterfly, but you’re an ugly and disgusting caterpillar. You’re no fun at all.…”

At that moment, Woo-Jin spoke to an imaginary person before him and laughed. He stopped scratching the tip of his fingers with his thumb, and his brows increasingly contorted in annoyance.

His face—which was pure and beautiful at first—became entangled with anger and resentment. It resembled the whining of a child whose playtime was interrupted, as well as the anger of an adult who got disappointed by an object he was excited about.

Woo-Jin was losing his temper towards this fictional person standing in front of him as his face morphed into a crazed expression. His anger grew like a wildfire and gradually changed to bloodthirst. The process of transformation from an angel’s face to an insane murderer’s was clearly captured on camera.

Yet, at some point, Woo-Jin’s eyes sparkled, and he smiled refreshingly as though he had found the solution to his problem. The initial sweet and lovely smile could be seen on his face again, but it didn’t fill the viewers’ hearts with adoration anymore. In fact, it shook their hearts in a completely different way.

They were overtaken by fear and despair. The chat did not load a single message for a few minutes afterward. They weren’t even enraged at this murderer, nor did they have any desire to bring this criminal to justice.

They were drowning in an absolute terror that could not be resisted.

1. The Korean sentence was 누구 마음고생 시킬 일 있습니까 which is directly translated to: Do you plan on making her suffer/heart break. So the implication is that because Dustin is too popular with women, his wife would become jealous and unhappy and Woo-Jin has no intention of having his sister suffer like that. ☜