Episode 3 Misunderstanding (3)

A man in his 50s with a beard. No, Song Man-woo, SBC's veteran drama producer, had an excellent eye for actors. But He was also extremely picky.

It was a well-earned experience.

After all, he had been directing dramas for nearly 20 years. He had created at least 15 productions, many of which were hits.

When he was first invited to be a judge for the preliminary round of Super Actor, he hadn't expected much.

Even in a pool of 1,000 contestants, maybe one or two would be worth considering.

And even, if they made it to the industry, most would be indistinguishable from the rest—just another face in the crowd.

As expected, the first contestant to be judged was nothing special.

It was Kang Woo-jin.

Producer Song Man-woo's first impression of Woo-jin? 'Why does this guy look like he's missing a screw?'

He looked clueless.

As if to confirm this, top actress Hong Hye-yeon, sitting to his left, whispered—

"PD, doesn't he seem a bit... dumb?"

The casting director from a well-known production company, sitting to his right, had a similar opinion.

"I know, right? He looks completely out of it."

Kang Woo-jin seemed dazed, lost. To producer Song Man-woo, that kind of presence was lifeless. Meaningless.

—

"Senior, listen to this for a second."

A whisper came from the short-haired female producer, the main producer of Super Actor.

Her words made Song Man-woo sigh.

"That guy isn't even an official contestant. He said he was just accompanying a friend—but that friend went to the bathroom and never came back."

"So?"

"If the first contestant gets eliminated right away, it'll kill the atmosphere on camera. Let's just have him act to fill some time, okay?"

"Kill time?"

"Yes. It'd be nice to get at least one gag cut. We need some material for trailers and teasers on YouTube anyway."

In other words, that idiot wasn't even an official participant.

"So, you're basically using him as a sacrificial pawn to hook the audience?"

"Ah, 'sacrificial pawn' sounds too harsh. Let's just say we're giving him a shot."

"······Well, you're the main PD, so you handle it. Just make sure you get his consent, alright?"

"Oh, of course. It's not like I've been doing this for 28 years for nothing."

And so, Kang Woo-jin became either an entertainment sacrifice for the masses or a simple hook. That was the conclusion reached by the three judges, including PD Song Man-woo.

And then, the moment Kang Woo-jin started acting—

The atmosphere changed in just five seconds.

"Huh?! W-Wow!"

The previously clueless-looking Woo-jin was now shocking PD Song Man-woo to his core. The expression on actress Hong Hye-yeon's face was proof of that.

And after just one minute—Everyone in the room stopped thinking altogether.

Not just the three judges who were watching Woo-jin crawl on the floor like a man possessed, but also the fifteen Super Actor staff members present.

The acting Kang Woo-jin displayed carried an overwhelming impact.

The kind that captivated seasoned veterans within just a minute.

"Ugh! Hehehe—"

It was realistic. So dense and immersive that anyone watching could instantly tell—

Kang Woo-jin was in a deep mountain somewhere, being hunted by a gunman.

Producer Song Man-woo witnessed it up close.

'This isn't luck. This isn't just raw talent. This is at least five years of training. Maybe even ten.'

His entire evaluation of Kang Woo-jin flipped in an instant.

Even seasoned actors who make a living from acting rarely reach this level.

'······Emotions become attitudes, and feelings become posture.'

Worry translates into expressions, scent turns into illusion. All of it merges to create a character's presence, and delivering difficult emotions on cue requires meticulous rehearsal.

Actors dedicate their lives to mastering this craft, tirelessly repeating scenes just to get a single perfect cut.

Even top stars and veteran actors fight for their careers in this brutal industry.

But this guy? 'He... just glanced at the script and pulled that off?'

Kang Woo-jin wasn't just good at acting—he became the character.

But what shocked them even more was his completely nonchalant response to a question.

"I just taught myself." Self-taught? This level of acting was self-taught?

'······What kind of lonely road has this man walked?'

At that moment, Kang Woo-jin unknowingly struck a nerve in every industry veteran watching him.

And then—He casually left the room. No one stopped him. They just sat there, their faces frozen in disbelief.

And just then—"S-Sorry!!"

The first actual contestant, Kim Dae-young, ran into the room, looking guilty.

Sturdy and well-built, Kim Dae-young stood before them, when PD Song Man-woo asked his first question—

"The friend you came with. What does he do for a living?"

"······Huh? Ah, he's a designer. Why?"

"He's... a designer?"

"Yes. Just design..."

That single response confirmed everything Woo-jin had claimed.

Even the part about being self-taught.

For PD Song Man-woo, it felt like he had just stumbled upon a hidden genius.

With his head now filled with thoughts of the monster named Kang Woo-jin, he turned to Kim Dae-young and said—

"I understand, Kim Dae-young. Let's see your acting."

"Yes!"

But—"Cut. That's it. Thank you for your time."

It ended in 15 seconds.

.

Ten minutes later—.

At the bus stop in front of the SBC Headquarters Art Center—

A small crowd had gathered. Family, friends, and others who had accompanied today's contestants.

Among them, Kang Woo-jin was seen walking away from the building in a daze.

"Ah... f***."

He slumped onto a chair at the bus stop and pressed his temples.

His head hurt, but more than that, he was trying to process the utterly surreal experience he had just gone through.

'A black square appeared next to the script, right? And when I pressed it, I got sucked into some strange space.'

An endlessly dark subspace.

'The script I received was floating there, and when I grabbed it... I was suddenly in a damn mountain. I definitely died there, right??'

Yeah. He was sure of it. Kang Woo-jin had died once in that dark mountain.

By the hand of a faceless gunman. It wasn't a dream, or a mere trick of the imagination.

His body had moved. He had experienced it firsthand, 100% real.

Even now, it was still vivid in his mind. If he wanted to, he could perfectly recreate the emotions he felt in that place.

'It's like... time travel, isn't it? What the hell was that subspace? Why did it make a normal person experience death?'

"Why is something like that even possible?"

And just at that moment—His phone, buried deep inside his thick winter coat, let out a long vibration.

It was a call from Kim Dae-young.

.

Five minutes later.

From a distance, Kim Dae-young—sturdy as ever—came running, nearly in tears.

"Hey! Kang Woo-jin!"

As soon as his friend arrived, Woo-jin grabbed him by the collar.

"You crazy bastard. Did you go take a shit and end up saving the country or something?!"

"...Ha ha ha. Sorry. it keeps coming up. I thought I was gonna die."

"Shut up. I was the one who almost died."

"What?"

Kim Dae-young tilted his head in confusion. Meanwhile, Kang Woo-jin let out a long sigh and finally released his friend's collar.

"Ha—whatever. Anyway, how'd the preliminaries go?"

"Oh, I did it. Ah! But did you go in instead of me??"

"Why?"

"The judges kept asking about you. They were like, 'What does your friend do?'"

At that moment, Woo-jin, remembering the sheer embarrassment from earlier, quickly changed the subject.

"Tsk, nothing special happened. So, did you pass?"

"Nope. Got cut after 15 seconds. Instant elimination."

"Congratulations, dumbass."

"Well, I wasn't expecting much anyway. By the way, did you see Hong Hye-yeon? You saw her, right? Wasn't she insane?"

At the mention of the top actress's name, Woo-jin's face turned dead serious.

"She looked like an angel. No—she is an angel."

"How can someone be that pretty? I swear, I've never been criticized for finding someone beautiful before." He added.

"I feel you. When are we ever gonna see Hong Hye-yeon up close like that again? I even talked to her."

"I'll never see her again, but I'll remember this for the rest of my life."

"Yeah. Seeing Hong Hye-yeon was the highlight. Everything else was trash."

Then—Woo-jin's eyes landed on something sticking out from Kim Dae-young's side.

The three-page script he had seen earlier. He glanced at it for a moment, then casually held out his hand.

"Hey, give me that script for a sec."

"Huh? Oh, uh—yeah, sure."

The page script in Kim Dae-young's hand was just a standard script. Nothing unusual.

But the moment it landed in Woo-jin's hands—'Ah, shit.'

A black square appeared next to the script. A swirling mix of gray and black, like the shadow of the script itself.

'I'm seriously losing my mind.'

Whatever this was, it had appeared again.

Meaning—if he touched it with his index finger, he'd be sucked into that damn space again.

Not happening. Not now.

With a completely neutral expression, Woo-jin flipped open the script.

To be honest, this was his first time actually reading it.

And the moment he read the first line, he was convinced.

'I knew it.'

The script's content was identical to what he had experienced.

[A frightened man in a brown windbreaker, a mysterious figure with unclear emotions and features, a dark forest, the sound of rustling leaves, a cold wind, the stab of a blade, the man's desperate screams, his panicked attempt to flee, and then—another stab.]

'I must've chosen the role of the scared man or something. So, in short—the character and situation in the script become my reality...'

Who the hell would believe this kind of insane nonsense?

But Woo-jin was certain. For now, though—'I need to test a few things.'

If he ran some experiments and confirmed a few theories, he could decide whether to embrace or ignore this phenomenon.

And so—"Hey."

He turned to Kim Dae-young, who was staring at him like he'd lost his mind.

"Your house is in Pangyo, right?"

"Uh, yeah? Why?"

"Do you have any scripts at home? Preferably recent ones. Doesn't matter what kind."

"...I mean, yeah, there should be some. They tend to pile up. But why scripts all of a sudden? You barely even watch TV."

"Just because."

Without another word, Woo-jin pulled out his phone and opened a taxi app.

"We're going to your place. Right now."

.

Two hours later—

At Kim Dae-young's house.

Kim Dae-young, built like a tank, lived with his parents in an apartment near Pangyo Station. However, his parents weren't home at the moment, and Woo-jin walked straight into Kim Dae-young's room without hesitation.

The moment he stepped in—"Wow, you pig. Do you poop in your sleep? What the hell is this smell?"

A musty odor filled the air. Woo-jin immediately regretted breathing. But Kim Dae-young just shrugged, completely unfazed.

"Dude, this is normal. Men's rooms are supposed to smell like this. Your clean, flowery house is the weird one."

"Yeah, okay. Smells like something died in here. Open a window, now."

Woo-jin scowled as fresh air finally rushed in. Then, without missing a beat, he extended a hand toward Kim Dae-young.

"Where's the script?"

"Oh, right. Hold on a sec... I got a new one recently—ah, and the one I was reading is here too."

Kim Dae-young rummaged through his overstuffed bookshelf. Woo-jin watched with mild disgust as papers and random junk tumbled out.

.

Three minutes later—

"Found them! Two drama scripts and a movie screenplay. That good enough?"

"Yeah."

Woo-jin took the scripts—two bound booklets and a thick stack of loose screenplay pages.

And then—'Just as I thought.' A black square appeared next to each script.

The sizes varied slightly, but the effect was the same. That was his first confirmation.

"Haa..."

He let out a long sigh and checked the time. [11:41 AM].

Then, steadying his slightly trembling index finger, he reached toward one of the floating black squares.

From across the room, Kim Dae-young snickered.

"What the hell are you doing? Are you ET?"

Woo-jin didn't break eye contact. His expression was dead serious.

"Just watch me. Got it?"

"...Okay?"—Poof!*

The moment Woo-jin's finger made contact, his whole body felt like it was being sucked into a vortex of heat.

A bizarre sensation rushed over him—Then, a brief moment of weightlessness.

And suddenly—"Again, huh?"

He was back. And all around him was an endless dark void.

He had entered that space again. The eerie feeling of floating was the same.

But this time—"Huuuuh—"

He turned around. And there, floating in the darkness, was the white square he had seen before.

Only now—"It multiplied?"

There were two white squares instead of one.

"So it stacks up every time?"

That meant the more scripts he touched, the more of these squares would appear here.

Even without checking up close, he was certain—the new white square represented the script he had just grabbed in Dae-young's room.

But he didn't approach it yet. There was something else he needed to test first.

"Alright then." He took a deep breath—And yelled.

"GET OUT!" Nothing.

"LOG OUT!" No change.

"OUT! LEAVE! BACK TO REALITY!" Still nothing.

For the next five minutes, Woo-jin screamed every command he could think of.

"HEY! RETURN! DISCONNECT! LET ME OUT! END SESSION! SYSTEM OFF! KILL SWITCH!"

Nothing. Not even a flicker of change. This was the problem.

And then—"Oh-san! EXIT!"

The moment Kang Woo-jin said the word "exit," his body was suddenly engulfed in a swirl of gray.

It happened in an instant. "Urrrgh!"

A groan escaped his lips before he even realized it.

Then—"Hey! What the hell just happened? Are you okay?" Kim Dae-young's voice snapped Woo-jin back to reality.

He turned his head slowly and saw his friend staring at him with a mixture of concern and confusion.

He was back. Back in Dae-young's messy room.

A slight sense of dizziness lingered, but there was no doubt—he had successfully exited the subspace.

Which meant only one thing—'Exit. So That's the command to leave.'

To confirm, Woo-jin immediately checked the time.

[11:41 AM.] The same as when he first entered.

'I was inside for about five minutes... but time didn't move?'

That meant external time completely stopped while he was in that space. Either that, or it ran at an entirely different pace.

A valuable discovery. With that noted, Woo-jin turned to Dae-young.

"What did I look like just now?"

"Huh? Uh... you just stood there with your finger sticking out like ET. Why?"

"And after that?"

"You paused for a second, then suddenly gasped like you were out of breath. Hey, are you seriously okay?"

Woo-jin rubbed his chin thoughtfully. 'Interesting...'

It seemed that no one else could perceive what happened in that space. To Dae-young, he had simply frozen for a brief moment.

This was getting more and more intriguing.

Woo-jin extended his index finger again, preparing for another test.

But then— The sudden, long vibration of Dae-young's phone broke the moment.

Dae-young glanced at Woo-jin with concern before picking it up.

"Yes, hello?" A brief conversation followed.

Then, still holding the phone to his ear, Dae-young turned to Woo-jin with wide eyes.

"Uh... it's the PD from 'Super Actor.' They want to talk to you."

Woo-jin frowned. Reluctantly, he took the phone.

"Hello?."

On the other end, a lively female voice came through, slightly flustered.

["Mr. Kang Woo-jin?? Wow, you just disappeared so suddenly earlier! That was unexpected!"]

As soon as he heard her tone, Woo-jin's confidence kicked in.

The embarrassment from earlier had faded.

He straightened up, voice composed.

"So, may I ask what did you call for?"

["Ahaha, well... Mr. Woojin, are you interested in appearing on Super Actor again?"]

"Why?"

["You passed! You made it through the first round! We'd love for you to join the second preliminaries. I mean, the story is great! You just followed your friend here and accidentally aced the audition? That's fun, right?"]

'Fun? Were they trying to turn me into some kind of joke? Noy way I'm going back!'

Woo-jin's expression darkened. His voice dropped to a deep, low tone.

"I'm not interested." To solidify his stance, he added a justification—

"I was just having fun." His intention was clear: 'Forget about it. It was just a meaningless fluke'.

However—The PD on the other end took it a completely different way.

["...That acting... was just to have fun?"]