The Face Genius Actor

Episode 002

How long had I been asleep?

I opened my eyes, feeling the strong sunlight.

As expected, I could see the sun high in the sky through the gap in the curtains.

The clear sky without a single cloud was impressive.

‘How long have I slept….’

I couldn’t tell if I hadn’t slept deeply,

Or if I had slept too long and it was already the next afternoon.

I searched for my smartphone to check the time.

‘Huh?’

Suddenly, I felt something strange.

The room’s layout felt both familiar and unfamiliar.

The simple structure with a small room containing a desk, bed, and wardrobe was similar to the officetel where I had been living.

But the camera I always used for testing was gone, and the hundreds of script analysis notebooks had disappeared.

‘What is this….’

Unable to hide my bewilderment, I carefully examined the room.

Navy blackout curtains, a poster for the Korean production of the musical Les Misérables, an old laptop on the desk, a denim jacket neatly hanging on the chair…

It was certain.

This room looked exactly like the one I used to have a long time ago.

I frantically searched the bedside for my smartphone.

What I found in my hand was the smartphone I had used long ago, and the screen showed a date from years past.

‘7 years ago?’

I froze, feeling my mind becoming complicated.

‘What on earth is happening? Could this be the regression that I’ve only seen in movies and dramas?’

As I was deeply pondering how to accept this situation,

A white half-mask next to the old laptop caught my eye.

The white half-mask was an object that didn’t exist in this room 7 years ago.

It was so noticeable that I couldn’t understand why I hadn’t seen it until now.

For that reason, I approached the white half-mask as if in a trance.

As I was about to reach out for the white half-mask,

A voice calling for me came from outside the room.

“Si-joon! Wake up! It’s almost lunchtime.”

A familiar yet deeply missed voice.

That voice bound me perfectly as if it were a solid rope.

I felt like I couldn’t move at all, as if all the strength had left my body.

It couldn’t be helped.

Father…

The owner of the voice calling for me was my father.

My father who had to return to a handful of ashes three years ago, unable to overcome pancreatic cancer.

“Si-joon! Aren’t you going to get up?”

Tears burst forth at the voice calling again.

I quickly covered my mouth, but I couldn’t hide the intense emotion at all.

A scream was about to burst out, and tears had already started and wouldn’t stop.

Just as I was about to collapse to the floor, overwhelmed by emotion,

Surprisingly, my body reacted first and started moving.

It felt as if the desire to confirm my father’s appearance with my own eyes was controlling and moving my body.

‘No… I can’t…’

What couldn’t I do?

Show my crying face to my father?

Meet my father again without organizing my thoughts?

Feeling confused, I painfully moved my steps and opened the door.

At the same time, I could see my father, whom I had missed every single day since the funeral.

Father seemed to have shown his skills after a long time, bringing his special stir-fried spicy pork from the small kitchen to the dining table.

“Finally, you’re out. I know it’s only been a month since you were discharged, but aren’t you getting too lazy?”

It had been like this since I was young.

Father always urged me to come out for lunch before setting the table completely.

I always complained about it, finding it annoying.

But now I knew it was father’s small consideration to let me eat while the food was still warm and delicious.

Father seemed distracted and continued speaking without even turning his head towards me.

“Don’t just stand there, sit down quickly. Once I serve the soup…”

Thud!

In the end, I collapsed to the floor before father could finish speaking.

At the same time, father turned towards me in surprise.

“Son! What’s wrong?”

Belatedly, I thought that I shouldn’t cry if I didn’t want to make father sad,

And that if I continued like this, the fact of my regression might be discovered.

But it was already too late.

Facing father’s living, moving expression, I simply couldn’t stop crying.

“Father… hic… hic…”

I cried out loud like a child, and father was at a loss.

“What’s wrong, Si-joon? Huh? Why are you crying? Are you angry because I told you to come out before the table was set?”

And only after receiving that question did I realize why I was crying.

‘Is this all a dream… Is it not true that father has come back to life… I thought I was crying out of worry…’

It wasn’t like that.

I simply missed him.

The slightly furrowed brow when he concentrated on cooking.

The shoulder that was always there for me whenever I needed it.

And the voice that always worried about me as usual.

“No…”

“Huh? What?”

“It’s not… because of the table…”

“Then why are you crying?”

Even while sobbing, I tried to pronounce clearly as I opened my mouth.

“For being… for being alive…”

“……”

“Thank you, father.”

Then father, who had been looking down at me with worried eyes, smiled a beat late.

Then he embraced my shoulders.

“You… thanking me for such a thing.”

“…hic.”

“Father isn’t dead.”

* * *

“Wow. That was delicious.”

I exclaimed as I quickly emptied my second bowl of rice.

“Want another bowl? You’re eating exceptionally well today. I think you’re eating better than on your discharge day.”

Discharge day.

As if completing my military service as a sergeant was such a big deal.

Father had set the table so lavishly it looked like it might break.

Of course, I ate the food on the table deliciously then too, but not as much as now.

It had been almost 3 years since I had eaten father’s cooking.

‘Maybe it’s been even longer than that. If I include father’s time battling illness.’

I quickly organized my thoughts and answered father’s words.

“I’m just particularly hungry today.”

“Why? Is life in the theater troupe not easy?”

“Theater troupe…”

Come to think of it, by this time I was already active as a member of a theater troupe.

In fact, as soon as I joined, I was suddenly given the lead role.

“What was the name of that theater company? Was it Sorisaem?”

While I was trying to recall the name of the theater company that I couldn’t quite remember, my father carefully added:

“Is it very difficult?”

I snapped out of my thoughts and immediately shook my head.

“No. How could it be? It’s something I started because I wanted to.”

But my father’s expression was still not good.

“I see. Well, that’s good, but if it gets too hard, you don’t have to force yourself.”

“Yes. I’ll do that.”

Even though I answered without hesitation to reassure my father, it was the same.

Since I had been crying my eyes out just a few minutes ago, my father couldn’t help but be worried.

“Father.”

As I spoke in a low voice, my father, who was picking up some soy-braised beans with his chopsticks, looked up.

“Yes?”

“I know you must be worried because I suddenly said I’m changing my career path and then cried, but I really am fine.”

I tried my best to convey my sincerity.

After I said this much, my father nodded belatedly.

“Alright. If that’s what you say, son, I’ll believe you. But if you ever have any worries, make sure you tell me, okay?”

“I understand.”

Only then did my father’s expression soften.

We looked at each other for a moment.

I could see trust in my father’s eyes, and I returned the same look.

Then my father clapped his hands and changed the subject.

“By the way, son. When did you say your schedule was free?”

I recalled slowly and answered:

“Sunday and Monday.”

“Then let’s set a date soon and have a family meal. Si-hwan contacted me.”

“My brother? Is his time okay?”

“He said most of his filming is in the mornings. It seems his evenings are mostly free.”

My brother. It had been a while.

Since father passed away, I had barely any contact with my brother.

“Are you doing well?”

“Are you eating properly?”

We would exchange greetings like this once every two or three months, with short phone calls.

Most of the time, it was my brother who called.

Sometimes I wanted to call too when I missed my family, but I held back.

It was my own way of being considerate to my brother, who had become a world-renowned model.

He was constantly shooting advertisements and participating in the four major fashion weeks every year.

I thought he must be incredibly busy without a moment to rest.

‘It seems he’s not as busy now as he was then.’

Come to think of it, this was only a year after my brother debuted as a model.

At this point, his popularity was just starting to grow domestically.

Of course, in just another year, he would become so popular that even family would find it hard to see him, but…

“I see. Alright. Just let me know whenever you set a date.”

“Okay. Let’s do that.”

* * *

After finishing my meal and talking with my father, I went to my room.

I was still dumbfounded, but I was slowly regaining my sense of reality.

After talking face-to-face with my father, I couldn’t deny the current situation.

No, rather, I desperately hoped that this current situation was reality.

If all of this turned out not to be real now, I felt like I wouldn’t be able to bear it.

‘Because it’s such a vivid and intense dream.’

After sitting blankly on the edge of the bed for a while thinking like this, I searched for my name out of curiosity.

As expected, I couldn’t find my name anywhere.

The result was the same when I searched for my brother’s name.

As if proving that he wasn’t very famous yet, I could only find a few articles.

‘Did I really get another chance?’

An opportunity called regression that everyone must dream of in a corner of their heart.

But I hesitated in front of this opportunity.

After actually experiencing regression, I had to admit that various thoughts came to mind.

‘Since I’ve regressed 7 years, the first thing I need to do is save father. If I somehow persuade him to get health check-ups twice a year, we should be able to detect pancreatic cancer early.’

Five years ago, father was diagnosed with stage 3 pancreatic cancer and after two years of battling the disease, he finally couldn’t get up from his sickbed.

From the beginning, stage 3 pancreatic cancer was inoperable, so it was somewhat expected, but that didn’t make the sadness go away.

Rather, the fact that there was nothing we could do kept tormenting me.

My brother seemed to be in a lot of pain too, as he was originally quiet but now he completely lost his smile.

That’s how painful it was to watch a family member fight an illness.

‘Shouldn’t I be doing something now?’

I wondered if I should take father to the hospital right away, but I shook my head.

It was clear that nothing would show up if we went to the hospital now.

‘There’s still time and many opportunities. There’s no use in getting impatient now.’

After calming myself down like this, I moved on to the next worry.

The next concern was about my future life.

‘Is it right to act again?’

In the past, my life was focused solely on acting.

It was impossible to talk about my life without mentioning acting.

But now it wasn’t.

It had been only a few months since I joined the theater company to act.

If it was now, I could quit acting and walk a different path.

‘What paths are there?’

The first thing that came to mind was pursuing my major.

Currently, I was majoring in German Literature at a university in Seoul.

It was a major I impulsively chose after being deeply moved by “The Sorrows of Young Werther,” which I happened to read while contemplating my career path.

But for an impulsive choice, I was adapting well to the department and attending classes.

If I hadn’t seen the small theater performance of “The Sorrows of Young Werther” in Daehangno while on vacation, I might have continued studying in this direction.

‘Come to think of it, “The Sorrows of Young Werther” changed my life in many ways.’

I suddenly thought that the Werther effect, which had driven young people across Europe to suicide, might have affected me too.

But I soon shook my head.

Now was the time to seriously consider my career path.

‘Certainly, continuing to study German Literature and working in translation or interpretation wouldn’t be bad. It was a field I was quite interested in.’

As I was imagining myself working part-time at a cafe while preparing my master’s thesis in German Literature, it happened.

Once again, the word ‘acting’ popped into my mind, and simultaneously, I felt a pain as if my heart was being torn apart.

‘If I practice for 7 more years from now, my acting might improve.’

This thought followed the heart-wrenching pain.

And so, I realized what kind of person I was.

I had to act.

Nothing but acting could satisfy me.

Even if it was terrible acting.

I let out a bitter chuckle and rubbed my face with my palm.

It was all laughable.

The fact that my heart ached as soon as I thought of acting, and how my mind eased as soon as I decided to act.

I was a person who couldn’t do without acting.

And perhaps, the reason I had decided to keep moving forward despite numerous setbacks and my father’s death was because of acting.

In the end, acting had held my life together.

‘The answer was already decided.’

Just as I was about to choose the same path again, I noticed a white half-mask that I hadn’t seen before.