Episode 4) #2. Is Being Handsome Everything?
His mother froze with an expression that said, ‘Is that really my son?!’
“Wh-what in the world happened? Is that really our Yeonho? Good heavens…!”
Yeonho began trotting out the plausible explanations for his sudden handsomeness that he had rehearsed on the way home.
His unruly hair was fixed at Friend A’s family barbershop.
He said Friend B’s father, a dermatology clinic director, had given him free acne treatment.
He said Friend C’s family ran an optical shop and had given him contact lenses.
He lied that Friend D’s family ran an Eastern medicine clinic, saying they had actually been giving him free acupuncture and moxibustion every day for his bulging eyes.
Rationally, it was a string of coincidences too unlikely to overlap, but the fact remained that his appearance had changed drastically overnight. From his mother’s standpoint, she had no choice but to believe him.
“N-no, that’s….”
Yeonho gulped at his mother’s pale complexion.
‘Does she not believe me?’
“What should we do? You’ve incurred so much favor.”
She believes it. She believes it.
Even at that insignificant fact, Yeonho felt greatly relieved.
“To think our son’s looks would become so refined… I was worried because your eyes were so sunken. To think it could be fixed so quickly. I should’ve taken you to an Eastern medicine clinic sooner.”
His mother reached out and caressed her son’s softened face. The bumpy acne was nowhere to be seen, and his skin was milky-white without a single blemish. She instinctively sensed that her son had ascended to the uppermost tier of skin quality.
“I can’t believe it even as I look at you. I wonder if this is really my son. Yeona, doesn’t your oppa really look like a different person?”
“He looks like the oppa on TV.”
The ‘oppa on TV’ Yeona pointed to meant an idol. Even young children knew how to distinguish beauty from ugliness, so whenever the popular boy group T.O.P appeared, chaos ensued.
“Uwah!”
Suddenly scrunching up her eyes, Yeona let out an incomprehensible groan.
“Dear, why are you acting like that all of a sudden?”
“It’s weird! Oppa looks more handsome than the T.O.P oppa. But that can’t be right….”
Yeona had fallen into a state of chaos. She mumbled with her mouth open, unable to continue.
“M-me? I’m better than the T.O.P members?”
Yeonho knew very well that children were cruel precisely because they were innocent. Wasn’t this the same younger sibling who had looked at the acne on his face and without any malice called it ‘mold’?
That’s right. Children are like that. Their honesty easily slips out of their mouths, doesn’t it? But to think this oppa looked cooler than the T.O.P oppas she adored so much?!
“Son, your mouth is going to split open if you keep that up.”
“Huh, do I really look like that even in Mom’s eyes?”
“In Mom’s eyes, my son is the best in the world.”
An unmistakable joy rose on Yeonho’s face.
“Uwah, this is really weird. Why does oppa suddenly look more….”
Yeona, clutching her head, was already in a state of mental breakdown.
However, regardless of his younger sister’s mental breakdown, strength was surging through Yeonho’s entire body. Was this what they called an adrenaline explosion?
“Son, could you give me the contact information of your friends’ parents? You’ve received such a big favor, so I should at least pay my respects.”
His mother’s words had poured cold water on him, but….
With as calm and composed an expression as possible, Yeonho shook his head.
“No, Mom. Ah! More importantly, what happened with the job?”
He changed the subject before she could interrogate him further.
“I found a new job right away. Don’t worry.”
“Which restaurant is it?”
“That’s….”
Trailing off, his mother forced a smile.
“I’ll tell you later. Now, more importantly! To commemorate getting a new job, Mom bought some bulgogi.”
“Wow! Bulgogi!”
Yeona hopped around excitedly, and feeling like he should chime in too, Yeonho even clapped his hands. Having a much younger sibling, he felt his reactions improving day by day.
* * *
The villa rooftop. This was Do Yeonho’s own secret hideout.
It was his personal practice room.
Standing beneath the tangerine-colored sky as the sun set, he felt in strangely high spirits, as if he had rented the entire rooftop to himself. Moreover, wasn’t today a day he had eaten plenty of meat for the first time in a while? Drowsiness seemed to be creeping in, but this degree of it was a pleasant grogginess.
“Hoo.”
Looking up at the sky, he exhaled evenly. His wish was ‘Role change!’ but regardless, at this point in time, doing the Dooho role well was his duty. Having resolved to walk the path of an actor, he couldn’t do any role half-heartedly. So today too, it was practice with everything he had!
He recited the lines in a voice as small as a mosquito’s, as if muttering.
“……Were you talking to me?”
No matter how deserted the rooftop was, he couldn’t speak loudly.
“…Stop! Stop it!”
Theater was continuous acting without cuts. A single mistake could be fatal. Like the neural bundles in his brain suddenly getting severed, forgetting his lines, or having a problem with his blocking and falling over, or dropping props, and so on. There were more than one or two things to fear.
To overcome these fears?
Yeonho thought that thorough preparation was the only answer.
Thorough preparation would lower the probability of uncertainties that could ruin the performance. For that reason, meticulous script study was essential.
“……I wish it hurt!”
His voice spread through the silent air.
Clutching the rolled-up script, Yeonho soon shook his head.
“Hmm, I’m not getting the feel.”
If Theater Club’s Teacher Shin didn’t change his role, he would have to take this role whether he liked it or not. He couldn’t grasp what the emotional line was. Even though he had been doing this on the rooftop for over a month, he still had no idea.
‘If only it wasn’t the Dooho role……. The other roles are all doable.’
The internal motivations, inherent flow, and emotional lines of the other roles came through clearly, but only the Dooho role was puzzling. Personally, he thought the character was a pathetic hikikomori, so he couldn’t feel any charm in it either.
* * *
The next day after school, Yeonho hurriedly ran to the theater club room. The moment he saw Teacher Shin, he spilled what had happened (?) on the rooftop last evening.
“……So! I was thinking it might be good for me to change my role.”
Teacher Shin had a merciful impression like a Buddha, but when it came to being firm, he was the firm type.
“No.”
A stubborn rejection without a moment’s hesitation.
“Teacher! Please reconsider!”
“No.”
Yeonho’s expression was asking.
‘Why on earth not?’
Adjusting his glasses that had slid down to the bridge of his nose, Teacher Shin smiled slightly.
“To the rooftop. Go.”
“Huh?”
He was dragged to the school rooftop in a fluster.
Teacher Shin stuck both hands in his pants pockets and said nothing, and Yeonho’s body automatically became polite and bowed his head.
‘Did I act out too much?’
The heavy atmosphere flowing between the teacher and himself. He wondered if this mood was being created by Teacher Shin’s will to scold him manifesting.
“Do Yeonho, why are you cowering like that? I’m not trying to scold you.”
“Then……?”
“Anyway, why have you become so handsome? What on earth happened in the span of a month?”
“Ah, that’s…….”
He recited the same repertoire he had been using all this time. It worked on Teacher Shin just as it had on everyone else.
“I see. Well, anyway, from now on is the main topic, alright? Do Yeonho, there are two reasons why I assigned you the Dooho role.”
“There are two reasons?”
“Yes. Did you catch on to what they are?”
“No! I have no idea!”
“You are that type, after all. You’re not the quick-witted type, are you? Then first, let me explain the first reason.”
Unfolding his index finger from his clenched fist, Teacher Shin continued.
“The reason the male lead position isn’t yours, and the reason you ended up with the minor Dooho role, lies here. It’s precisely because you’re a first-year high school student. I can’t ask someone with zero skill to act, but if they have a certain degree of basics, I have no choice but to give the third-years a chance first. They have fire on their feet because of the college entrance exams.”
“Ah…….”
Only then could he understand. Why he had no choice but to be far from the protagonist role. And why that senior had been entrusted with the lead role.
“And the second reason.”
Teacher Shin’s middle finger unfolded.