Aura of a Genius Actor

Four hundred seats in the July Theater.

Ten percent of the seats for each performance had been designated as VIP seats.

Families of the actors.

Agency personnel.

Members of Theater Company July.

Members of Audius.

Given how difficult it was expected to be to obtain tickets even with money, there were certain people who simply could not be excluded.

After reducing and reducing the list, ten percent was the final allocation.

Even among those seats, the invitation tickets for opening night were reserved only for truly important people.

Yu Myeong had been given eight opening night tickets to distribute personally.

Three went to his family.

Two went to Han Seong and Seon Ha.

One went to Yu Seok.

The remaining two tickets, however, were sent to a surprisingly unexpected person.

[Assistant Manager Sa Jun Han

Credit Management Department

Shinil Bank Headquarters]

Jun Han accepted the registered package from the mail carrier with a puzzled expression.

The sender's address belonged to a company called Good Enter, which he didn't recognize.

Riiip—

Picking up a paper knife from his desk, he neatly sliced open the envelope.

The moment he saw the contents, he nearly jumped out of his seat.

The employee beside him immediately leaned over to take a look and began making a fuss.

"Whoa! Assistant Manager Sa, aren't these Peter Pan tickets? How did you get these? I heard it sold out less than an hour after reservations opened."

"Uh... well..."

The commotion attracted Assistant Manager Min from across the aisle.

"Peter Pan tickets? No way, they're real... How did you get these? Don't tell me you succeeded with phone reservations? Wait, no. You were at work that day."

"I'm so jealous... Wow, they're opening night tickets too. Do you have connections or something?"

Only then did a faint memory surface in Jun Han's mind.

"When you get a good job someday, buy me a drink."

"And when you become a professional, send me tickets every now and then. Once an assistant director's mother, always a mother, right?"

He remembered Yu Myeong smiling as he said it.

Had he really remembered that insignificant promise and sent such precious tickets?

For the past two years, Jun Han had watched Yu Myeong on television and movie screens.

Each time, he felt both proud and ashamed.

I failed to recognize an actor like that and only gave him bit parts...

He should have pushed harder for Yu Myeong back then.

No matter how stubborn Cheol Ju had been, he should have convinced him.

The actor they had undervalued had soared high with Audius and become a shining star beyond reach.

And yet he had not forgotten the small promise he made to a mediocre senior.

Something suddenly swelled in Jun Han's chest.

The Credit Management Department at Shinil Bank.

The company he had joined after graduation and the department to which he had been assigned were famous for being among the most rational and emotionally detached places imaginable.

Yet the work suited Jun Han's meticulous personality perfectly, and he had been living a fairly satisfying life as a banker.

But this unexpected kindness awakened something inside him in an instant.

The days when he had rehearsed obsessively for no practical benefit.

The days when he had poured out emotions he never imagined himself capable of expressing.

The days spent laughing, crying, struggling, and colliding with others.

At the mere mention of theater, a familiar thrill raced down his spine.

Envy for those who were still living within that thrill.

And gratitude toward the person who still remembered him.

"Assistant Manager, would you sell me that ticket? I'll pay for it."

"Assistant Manager Park, that's shameless. Do you know how much those are going for online right now? Assistant Manager Sa, if you're not using it, I'll pay whatever you want. I'm a hardcore Yu Myeong fan. I searched everywhere and still couldn't get one."

His life belonged here now.

He had no regrets about that.

Still, if he had the chance to briefly reconnect with that feeling...

The person he wanted to share it with was—

"Assistant Manager Min, would you like to go together?"

"Huh?"

Assistant Manager Min, who had practically rolled up her sleeves in preparation for a bidding war over the ticket, stammered at the unexpected invitation.

"There are two tickets. I'd rather not sell them. Just buy me dinner."

"Wait... what about me?"

"Sorry. I really want to see this play too. And if I only have one extra ticket, I should take care of my supervisor first. Assistant Manager Min, would you like to go?"

"Uh... well... should I? It's a performance I've really wanted to see... I can't exactly say no."

Assistant Manager Min, who had remained aloof despite Jun Han's repeated attempts to ask her out since he joined the company, was decisively defeated by the rarity of the tickets.

Jun Han responded with his trademark crescent moon smile.

It was destined to become their first date.

The sound of hammers echoed through the theater.

The July Theater was a mid sized venue with four hundred seats.

Larger than the small theaters common throughout Daehakro, though hardly what anyone would call a large theater.

Even so, the stage itself was unusually spacious for the venue's size.

It stretched widely from side to side, with the front curving outward in an arch.

The first row held twenty five seats, and each row behind it grew wider until there were more than forty seats across.

There were only ten rows in total, making the theater far wider than it was deep.

The advantage of such a layout was that even audience members in the back row could clearly see the expressions on the actors' faces.

The disadvantage was that such a wide stage could easily feel scattered and unfocused.

But no one involved with this production was worried about that.

"Platform secured!"

The stage design was remarkably simple, as though it intended to fill the space through acting alone.

One week before opening, the theater was cleared out and the stage installed.

Only then could the cast finally graduate from rehearsing on taped practice floors and begin working on the actual stage.

A rehearsal room and a real stage felt entirely different.

The texture of the floor.

The apparent size of the space.

The way lines resonated when projected from the diaphragm.

No matter how perfectly things had come together in the rehearsal room, adjustments always became necessary once they stepped onto the real stage.

Fortunately, the set pieces had already been built and only needed assembly on site.

Installation finished quickly, and rehearsals began in earnest.

"This is Neverland~"

Peter Pan gestured beside Wendy.

That gesture was the cue.

The lighting operator raised a lever.

A flood of brilliant colors poured across the stage.

"He possesses a power that enchants people~"

On the cyclorama, shadows multiplied.

One.

Two.

Ten.

Twenty.

As though depicting the people drawn into dreams by Peter Pan's spell.

While carefully matching the timing of lights, sound, and performance cues and filling the cue sheet with notes, Baek Yi Shin suddenly raised his voice during a break.

"It sounds loud because the theater's empty, but once the seats are filled, the audience will absorb a lot of the sound. Project more. Especially Wendy. You're getting buried."

"Yes, understood!"

The company director quietly approached him.

"Damn... this is impressive."

"Director, you're here."

"There are some pretty brutal parts, but honestly, that just makes it impossible to look away. This has an age restriction, right?"

"Fifteen and up. We've already announced ID checks at entry."

"Hmm... Right. Any chance July could use this later as part of our repertoire? Maybe I should discuss performance rights."

"I don't know. If we revive it later and can't reproduce this quality, it'll just be embarrassing. Do we even have young actors at July capable of this kind of performance? And it's not like we can put a forty year old veteran on stage and insist he's Peter Pan."

"Why are you always so blunt? That hurts. I'm the director, you know."

"You hired me because you enjoy being hurt."

Pretending not to hear that, the director continued watching rehearsal.

Those two actors whom Baek Yi Shin had once lamented being unable to cast.

Was he tempted?

No.

Not even tempted.

They were too large a prize to swallow.

He would have choked on them.

But there was Se Mi.

"Treatment impossible. Our medical team has found no solution for these three cases. However, many experts have expressed concern that if children like these grow into adulthood and enter society, numerous serious problems may result. Therefore, our official conclusion is—"

Her pronunciation was sexy and crystal clear, reaching every corner of the theater.

The Doctor in a white coat.

Tall in high heels.

Crossing the stage from end to end with measured clicks.

Chu Se Mi's presence had grown astonishingly during the last three months.

The director could already envision her becoming one of the key figures in July's generational transition.

"Let's take that scene one more time—"

Little by little, the rhythm of full stage rehearsal became increasingly precise.

9:50 p.m.

Hiss— Click.

Ban Sun Ho and Park Yu Seon opened cans of beer.

They had delivered the tape just in time after making revisions right up to the final moment.

Rather than going out somewhere, they had decided to monitor the broadcast from the station lounge.

"Good work."

"You too."

Clunk.

The dull sound of aluminum cans colliding echoed through the room.

Neither of them had properly gone home during the last month.

Even while they worked frantically in the editing room, new footage kept arriving.

Wanting to capture events as close to opening night as possible, they continued adding scenes.

Sixty minutes wasn't nearly enough.

There had been far too many moments worth keeping.

"They were incredible kids, weren't they?"

"Who knows? Maybe we just documented the early days of actors who'll become legends ten years from now."

"Maybe. It's been a long time since I've worked this hard and actually felt rewarded."

"It's because their youth and passion rubbed off on us. Watching people work that hard makes you want to work harder too. Though at our age, the effect probably wears off after a week."

"Heh."

Commercials flashed by.

The final advertisement before the broadcast was for Crude.

They found themselves watching the face of an actor they had spent almost every day staring at in the editing room.

His glasses came off.

A vibrant smile appeared.

That same expression of vivid life.

The expression he always wore when acting.

"I hope we captured enough."

"Well, it was filmed by Park Yu Seon."

"And edited by Ban Sun Ho."

They laughed again and clinked their cans together.

A beer enjoyed after finally putting a broadcast on air was intoxicating in its own way.

[KBK Special Documentary: Actor]

The program began.