The Genius Actor Who Brings Misfortune

Chapter 188

“…What’s your name again?”

The one who spoke first was Horn, who had been staring at the wall for a long time.

Jang Yo-seok’s nephew, Kim Ji-hoon, looked surprised for a moment before quickly composing himself.

“It’s Kim Ji-hoon.”

“Your age? No, I’ll just call you by your name.”

“Okay. Do whatever you want….”

Kim Ji-hoon seemed somewhat bewildered.

He didn’t expect Horn to start a conversation.

Horn seemed to sense this and responded irritably.

“What, why. They must have sent you in here to talk to me. We need to exchange a few words before they’ll let you go. What do you expect me to do? You have a home to go back to.”

The torrent of words sounded like the whining of a child or the lament of a tired adult.

Finding it very intriguing, Kim Ji-hoon silently watched Horn.

“What are you looking at?”

Seeing the experimental subject glaring at him with rebellious eyes, Kim Ji-hoon softly smiled.

“You’re… cuter than I thought. When I heard about you from my uncle, I imagined you as having a stern image.”

“What did Yo-seok hyung—no, Agent Jang say?”

“He said you always look expressionless unless you open your mouth.”

“He babbled about useless stuff.”

“….”

Horn’s brows furrowed deeply.

It was clear that his affection for Agent Jang was at rock bottom.

Kim Ji-hoon, watching the experimental subject’s reactions, slowly began to speak.

“I live with my uncle. Ever since he joined this company, we’ve been living together, and for the past five years, I’ve heard about you every day.”

“About me?”

“Yes. When he comes home from work, he talks about you for a long time.”

Agent Jang talks about me?

Horn’s face, with furrowed eyebrows, reflected his thoughts.

He looked like a child whose thoughts were transparently visible.

“Haha. You’re really cute.”

Kim Ji-hoon smiled gently.

For a moment, Horn thought he resembled Kang Seok.

“I apologize on behalf of my uncle for being mean today. He was against me coming here until the very end. He probably took out his anger on you because of me.”

“…Hey. Do you know Seok-hyung? Kang Seok?”

“Are you talking about Dr. Kang? Of course, I know him.”

So they know each other.

Horn stared at the boy in front of him and slowly nodded.

“No wonder… your way of speaking is similar.”

“Dr. Kang and my uncle are very close, so I’ve seen him often since I was young. I could meet you today thanks to Dr. Kang.”

“Seok-hyung?”

“Yes. He said he wanted to make a friend for you.”

Kim Ji-hoon smiled kindly.

“Even yesterday, we had dinner together, and Dr. Kang repeatedly told me to be good to you. He’s a really kind person.”

“….”

You’re really lucky to know someone like that, he continued.

Horn didn’t reply, but Kim Ji-hoon kept smiling.

Maybe it was the few words exchanged that made him relax; his shoulders had noticeably loosened.

Horn, who had been staring blankly, finally asked again.

“…You had dinner together yesterday?”

“Huh? What did you say?”

“….”

Kim Ji-hoon apologized for not hearing him and asked him to repeat.

Horn, watching his kind gesture, spat out his words.

“Let’s do it.”

“Huh?”

“Let’s be friends. Let’s be friends.”

It was an abrupt statement, but Kim Ji-hoon faced Horn’s smile.

Horn was smiling brightly like a child.

“If Seok-hyung wants it, I should do it.”

“Ah, if you don’t want to—”

“No, now that I think about it, I need a friend too!”

Horn’s playful smile was full of excitement.

Seeing that, the corners of Kim Ji-hoon’s mouth also lifted slowly.

“Okay. Then let’s be friends from today.”

“Great! Friends! Haha!”

Horn laughed like a child and extended his hand.

“Let’s shake hands to celebrate our new friendship!”

“Haha, sure.”

Kim Ji-hoon smiled and shook the cute experimental subject’s hand.

“This is really great! Haha!”

Horn kept laughing.

His raised cheeks didn’t come down.

At some point, Kim Ji-hoon felt it was ‘too much.’

“Hahaha!!”

“….”

Horn’s laughter was so excessive it seemed his mouth would split open.

It was such an unnatural laugh that ‘grotesque’ seemed a fitting description.

Instinctively sensing something, Kim Ji-hoon tried to step back, but the hand gripping his was firm.

“Let go of me.”

“Why? Haha!”

“Stop it….”

The boy quickly became scared.

Horn didn’t let go of his hand and brought his other hand to his own mouth.

His gaze remained fixed on Kim Ji-hoon.

Crunch.

Horn bit his hand without any hesitation.

Blood flowed profusely from Horn’s hand, and his mouth was covered in blood.

“…! Let go!!”

Kim Ji-hoon’s face turned pale, knowing what abilities Horn’s blood possessed.

Horn, still laughing, lightly tapped Kim Ji-hoon’s cheek.

The playful touch smeared blood on the boy’s cheek.

“Friend! Why are you like this!”

“I’m sorry, I made a mistake. Please, let go….”

“Don’t worry! If you were really in danger, your uncle would have come. Or…. Haha, Dr. Kang would have come!”

But no one is coming, right?

As Horn said, the iron door remained firmly shut.

The staff watching the scene on CCTV took no action.

Realizing this, Kim Ji-hoon’s body stiffened.

‘I’m screwed….’

In front of the pale boy, Horn continued to laugh.

“This is probably an experiment too! My whole life…. Haha! Maybe it’s an experiment to see how I react when I make a friend!”

Kim Ji-hoon’s pupils dilated.

Horn, looking at the terrified human, forced a laugh.

But with his eyes tightly wrinkled and forced smile, he looked closer to crying.

“Then I’ll show you my ‘reaction’ now.”

Blood quietly soaked the floor, flowing out from the torn flesh.

Horn lifted his blood-soaked hand and cupped the boy’s face.

Kim Ji-hoon was in complete panic, unable to resist or move.

Satisfied that enough of his blood had smeared onto the boy’s face, Horn slowly raised his hand.

“…….”

Kim Ji-hoon’s gaze followed Horn’s hand, fixed on it.

Horn brought his thumb and middle finger together.

He welcomed a friend as best as he could, just as Kang Seok wanted.

* * *

“When I say ‘Killing Horn,’ you all shout ‘Let’s hit the jackpot!’ Got it? Killing Horn~!”

“Let’s hit the jackpot~!”

The barbecue restaurant was filled with the loud, simultaneous shouts of dozens of people.

The sound of clinking glasses could be heard all around, but our table remained quiet.

“Seo Ji-oh.”

“Huh?”

“Snap out of it and eat more meat.”

“Oh….”

Tsk, the kid seemed out of it.

‘It was a tough shoot.’

Seo Ji-oh’s role as Kim Ji-hoon was just a one-time appearance, but it wasn’t an easy character to portray.

People show various reactions when they panic.

Their breathing becomes erratic, their bodies tremble, they stutter, and their eyes dart around. Simply put…

‘It’s easy to get criticized for bad acting.’

Luckily, Seo Ji-oh’s performance was excellent.

It was so good that the PD organized a spontaneous dinner party.

I had expected Seo Ji-oh to smile loosely and say something like, “I got lucky.”

But instead, he just stared blankly.

Tired of telling him to pull himself together, I shoved some meat into Seo Ji-oh’s mouth.

“Umpf.”

“Even if you don’t feel like eating, you need to eat at least five more pieces. You used up a lot of energy today, so you need to eat something. Otherwise, you’ll collapse.”

Seo Ji-oh chewed diligently, then seemed to want to ask something.

“Yeon-jae—”

“I’ll answer everything after you eat five more pieces of meat. Then you can ask.”

Seo Ji-oh hesitated for a moment but obediently followed my instructions.

After seeing him wrap and eat five pieces of meat, I finally spoke.

“What do you want to know?”

“So, how do you handle these emotions? Can you snap out of character immediately after the director yells ‘cut’?”

“Sometimes it takes a while. But after doing it a few times, it works out. If you practice, it becomes manageable.”

I understood the confusion Seo Ji-oh felt since I had also struggled to detach from the characters I immersed myself in initially.

I answered each of Seo Ji-oh’s questions thoroughly.

I kept feeding him meat wraps, and he eagerly ate to ask his next question faster, which was quite endearing.

‘I wonder what this feels like.’

Is it like raising a child? No, that’s not it.

The feeling was different from when I talked with Mist or Han Ha-ram.

To be more precise…

‘It feels like mentoring a junior.’

As soon as I organized that thought in my head, I sighed inwardly.

Anyone would think I’d been in the industry for ten years.

‘I already sound like I’m trying to be a senior. I’m hopeless.’

I worried that I might unwittingly give advice full of the arrogance known as ‘senior pride.’

I tried to speak less, but Seo Ji-oh’s barrage of questions made it impossible.

He was so full of curiosity, asking endless questions like a bottomless pit, and I answered each one.

By the time the dinner was wrapping up, Seo Ji-oh had finally returned to his usual self.

“I got too excited. Sorry.”

“No, it’s okay.”

I actually felt a bit regretful.

Trying to hide my true feelings made me feel awkward.

Seo Ji-oh stared at the empty grill and suddenly asked,

“So, does Kim Ji-hoon, the character I played, not die?”

“Right. The next episode starts from that scene we shot earlier.”

Horn pretended to snap his fingers, waiting for the staff, but the iron door remained shut.

Kim Ji-hoon fainted alone, and Horn returned to the mattress with a complex expression.

The following scene would be a conversation between Kang Seok and Jang Yo-seok.

The two old friends and colleagues were in conflict over how far to push Horn.

Jang Yo-seok believed, “This is enough to use him as a weapon.” But Kang Seok disagreed.

He passionately argued, “Horn’s abilities have great potential for development.” He insisted on pushing Horn psychologically to develop his remaining abilities.

Ultimately, both had the same goal.

To use Horn for murder to gain economic profit.

The daily experiments aimed to determine “how efficiently Horn could take a life.”

Other companies also tried to hinder the success of Kang Seok and Jang Yo-seok’s company, which had grown with the success of the ‘H Project.’

During the first shoot, we filmed an action scene involving an attack, later revealed to be orchestrated by a rival company.

‘Killing Horn’ was ultimately about adults fighting over a being that could bring them immense economic profit.

And in between, it was the story of Horn, who was dying.

‘I can’t wait to see the edited version.’

Since the script was dark and realistic, the PD mentioned balancing it with dynamic action scenes.

SF dramas weren’t a huge hit in Korea, but the PD was confident it would achieve moderate success, if not a blockbuster.

Though I hadn’t voiced it, I thought similarly.

And this guy seemed to think so too.

Seo Ji-oh hesitated for a long time before whispering to me.

“How successful do you think this drama will be? Because of my mom… if it’s going to be a hit, I need to prepare myself mentally.”

He lowered his voice, knowing he was asking an embarrassing question.

I clenched my teeth quietly.

I had tried hard not to show it, but I must have lacked the acting skills.

“…Yeon-jae. Would it be better if I just laughed?”

At his soft-spoken words, I finally burst out laughing.

This guy was really funny.