The Genius Actor Who Brings Misfortune

Chapter 191

The staff watching the camera thought to themselves.

‘This is insane….’

It was their first time on set, so they couldn’t tell if this was normal.

Is this how it usually is? Do actors normally act this well?

‘It’s like he’s a different person.’

The courteous, sparkling celebrity who smiled and thanked them was gone.

In his place was Horn, with white hair soaked in red blood, staring blankly at his opponent.

“I believe you can do it.”

Lee Jung-hyun, playing Kang Seok, delivered his line smoothly.

“Don’t disappoint me.”

Whether it was rehearsed or ad-libbed, the two actors held each other’s gaze for a few seconds.

Bang—!

And Horn shot Kang Seok.

To be precise, it was Kang Seok’s finger that pulled the trigger.

But the exact facts didn’t matter to Horn.

As soon as he heard the gunshot, Horn realized.

This moment, this memory would haunt him for the rest of his life.

“Hyung…?”

At first, Horn looked bewildered.

The loud gunshot right in front of him.

The warm blood gushing out as if something had burst.

Seok-hyung falling backward without strength.

There were many elements flooding his brain, but they all scattered and confused him.

Horn couldn’t immediately comprehend the fact that ‘Kang Seok had been shot.’

He stood there blankly for a moment.

Then he noticed Kang Seok writhing in pain, blood pouring from his mouth.

“Hyung. This….”

“……Ugh.”

“Is this an experiment too? Oh….”

Still disconnected from reality, Horn instinctively tried to stop the bleeding from Kang Seok’s abdomen.

When he pressed his hands to the blood-soaked area, more hot liquid gushed out.

“Horn.”

“…….”

“I think I’m about to die…. Cough, ha, I wanted to see you before I died, but I guess that was too much to ask.”

It hurts more than I expected. It really surprised me.

Despite the situation, Kang Seok made a joke with a gentle smile.

What snapped Horn back to reality was that kind smile.

‘This might be the last time I see that smile,’ the thought filled Horn’s mind.

“Why…?”

Horn finally started moving his hands frantically, his face turning pale.

He quickly took off his white shirt and wrapped it tightly around Kang Seok’s wound.

“It hurts, Horn….”

“Be quiet.”

Horn’s mind went blank, like a white sheet of paper.

He gasped for breath, not knowing what to do, like a scared child.

Kang Seok was dying in his arms.

The desperate movements of a child wanting to save ‘Seok-hyung’ were heartbreaking.

“Why!! Why!!! Why are you doing this to me!!”

“…….”

“Damn it, don’t just stand there, do something!!”

Horn alternated between crying like a child and yelling at the agents watching from the sidelines.

Meanwhile, both their clothes were soaked with Kang Seok’s blood.

The heavy, blood-soaked clothes felt like an inescapable prison.

That’s when Horn realized.

This person was really going to die.

‘Kang Seok is dying.’

In the end, you’re the one abandoning me first.

“Why…?”

“…….”

“What did I do… so wrong?”

He whispered so softly it was barely audible, and Kang Seok, still barely alive, smiled faintly.

He seemed to want to say something, but it was indecipherable.

And then Kang Seok completely closed his eyes.

* * *

The script described it like this:

Horn embraces Kang Seok, who has completely stopped breathing, and screams in anguish.

An exhausted Horn eventually collapses, and Jang Yo-seok carries him.

Jang Yo-seok says, “Experiment over, returning to base,” and the scene fades out.

“Sob. Huh….”

Horn cried, clutching Kang Seok, who was no longer breathing.

His mournful cries were filled with such agony it seemed he might die from the pain.

A staff member rubbed their goosebumps-covered arms.

‘This is insane.’

This scene was the most emotionally challenging in *Killing Horn*.

It had to powerfully convey Horn’s sorrow as the victim between Kang Seok’s extreme decision-making and the company that condoned it for their talented doctor.

It was an intense emotional scene, difficult for any child actor to handle, but no one doubted Lee Yeon-jae’s acting skills.

It was already hard enough to take care of their own work without worrying about an actor who had won the Best Actor award at Cannes as the youngest ever.

Everyone knew Lee Yeon-jae was a great actor.

The shock the staff felt was a natural reaction despite all this.

‘Isn’t he going to get dehydrated from crying so much?’

Lee Yeon-jae, as Horn, was crying like a child.

His heart-wrenching cries were chaotic and disoriented.

His aimless eyes, tear-stained face, and sobbing made him seem utterly lost.

Yet Horn’s hands kept trying to stop the bleeding from Kang Seok’s wound, either unconsciously or deliberately.

‘We all know it’s acting….’

The staff knew this.

But they couldn’t help but tear up.

A boy who had lost his only reason to endure.

His anguished cries were vivid and heart-wrenching.

They almost wished he would pass out soon.

‘Shouldn’t the PD cut the scene by now?’

To help the actor focus on their emotions, the camera had been rolling since the start of Kang Seok and Horn’s dialogue.

Since Lee Yeon-jae couldn’t handle live ammunition, he mimed shooting Lee Jung-hyun with a fake gun, and Lee Jung-hyun pretended to collapse suddenly.

The raw, unpolished scene could have looked comical, but the ensuing emotional display was overwhelming.

The seemingly endless sobbing gradually subsided.

‘He must be about to pass out now.’

Just as the staff moved to wrap up the scene, they froze at the sight of Horn.

‘…What?’

Horn stopped crying in an instant.

His cheeks were still wet with tears, but no more flowed from his eyes.

‘Is he even breathing?’ Horn sat perfectly still, not even moving his eyelashes.

As if someone had turned off his battery, he stopped everything, including his breathing.

The clear change in his eyes losing their light happened instantly.

“…….”

The utterly deranged look in Horn’s eyes silenced everyone around him.

The staff and actors held their breath.

The silence, which felt like it would last forever, was broken when Horn’s eyes slowly moved.

**Chapter 191**

**The Genius Actor Who Brings Misfortune (191)**

Horn stared for a moment at the cold body in his arms, then stood up.

Instead of collapsing, Horn calmly got up and brushed off his knees.

Checking if his broken right arm had healed, he spoke to the extra standing nearby.

“Hey.”

“…?”

“Take this to my room. I’ll be heading straight to the lab.”

The extra, who was supposed to stand silently without any lines, couldn’t hide his confusion.

When there was no response, Horn stopped rotating his wrist and frowned.

“Are you deaf?”

“…No, but if it’s this….”

The extra’s voice was low and hoarse after standing silently for hours, which added to the feeling of a ‘nervous agent.’

“Would you prefer if I called it a corpse? Fine, I’ll do that.”

“…….”

The extra broke out in a cold sweat, trying to figure out how to respond to the ad-lib.

Then Kim Seok-jun, playing Jang Yo-seok, intervened.

The extra saw the signal to step back, bowed his head, and retreated.

Watching this, Horn muttered a curse.

“Damn. My words must sound like crap to them.”

Jang Yo-seok looked at Kang Seok’s body with a complicated expression, then at Horn.

Horn, seemingly unaffected, checked if his right arm was fully healed.

“H. You….”

“We don’t have time. Let’s head back to the facility. We need to see if Seok-hyung’s wish was fulfilled.”

“…….”

Horn started to walk past the speechless Jang Yo-seok but then stopped abruptly.

Tilting his head, he poked Jang Yo-seok’s cheek.

“Just in case, don’t mess with that, okay?”

He wore a playful smile.

“…….”

“If I go back to my room and it’s not there, you’re all dead. Got it?”

Horn pointed at Jang Yo-seok’s cheek with a smile.

Jang Yo-seok, stunned, touched his cheek.

Blood smeared slightly on his fingers. It wouldn’t be life-threatening, but that wasn’t the point.

The message Horn conveyed was clear.

‘I can kill you all now.’

Jang Yo-seok looked at Kang Seok’s body lying on the floor.

“Is this what you wanted?”

There was no answer from the corpse.

It felt like a glimpse into his own future, making Jang Yo-seok sigh and close his eyes.

“……Cut!”

Even after the PD’s loud shout, the tension didn’t ease.

Most people didn’t seem to understand what had just happened.

As they breathed in the silence, Lee Yeon-jae quietly moved.

“Writer.”

“Yes, yes? What?”

Lee Yeon-jae approached the head writer, who stood dazed.

“I got too immersed and improvised more than I should have. I’m sorry for changing the script.”

“Oh… no, no. Yeon-jae, don’t worry. I loved it. Truly.”

The head writer shook her head quickly.

Actors ignoring scripts and changing the story was always unpleasant.

Some writers hated even a few ad-libs.

Lee Yeon-jae had walked off instead of fainting as the script described.

It was a complete deviation from the script, but the head writer held his hands tightly.

“Yeon-jae, thank you….”

She couldn’t fully express her feelings in words.

She had just witnessed the moment her character became complete.

She knew how rare such experiences were from her long career in writing.

“No one but you could have played Horn. Thank you so much.”

Lee Yeon-jae smiled gently at the heartfelt gratitude.

“I’m glad you’re not upset. So, can we skip reshooting according to the script?”

“I prefer the revised version. What do you think, PD?”

When the head writer called, the PD stepped in eagerly.

“Of course we’re going with this version! Thank goodness the writer agrees. Yeon-jae, how do you act so well?”

Lee Yeon-jae responded with a quiet smile.

Seeing him look fine despite shooting a highly emotional scene, the PD smiled with satisfaction.

‘Perfect.’

It was the moment he thought they should continue shooting to maintain the flow.

A large man approached with long strides.

Instinctively stepping back, the PD realized it was Lee Yeon-jae’s manager.

“PD, writer, I’m sorry, but can we take a short break before continuing?”

“Oh… yes. We have time, but isn’t it better to continue? It’s hard for the actor to regain the emotional momentum.”

Despite the PD’s reasoning, An Jin-bae shook his head firmly.

“No, he needs a break. Please understand.”

His polite but very firm tone left the PD nodding involuntarily.

‘He really looks after his actor.’

The PD had heard about Lee Yeon-jae’s overprotective manager, and now he saw it firsthand.

‘A break? He looks fine to me.’

He turned his head, still thinking this, and saw Lee Yeon-jae smiling like a doll.

‘……Huh?’

The PD’s mouth fell open slightly.

An Jin-bae ignored the reactions around him and gently lifted the actor’s chin.

He met the blank, black eyes of his actor.

“Breathe, please.”