The Third-Gen Chaebol Becomes a Genius Actor

Chapter 72: I can be a little spoiled too.

As soon as I got home, I collapsed on the bed. I felt a wave of regret wash over me.

‘Ah, how embarrassing.’

Why did I do that? I buried my face in the pillow. He couldn’t stop the emotions that surged in me.

‘…A grandson can be a little spoiled with his grandmother, right?’

I had a lot of things pent up inside me. I forced myself to get up. The pillow fell to the floor with a thud.

‘Don’t let it get to you.’

This body is mine now. I don’t want any unexpected situations caused by the original’s feelings. I clenched and unclenched my fists, bleeding from the nails. I sank into my thoughts.

[Yeon, Yeon Seo.]

The shocked expression and trembling voice of Park Geumju. I almost stopped and looked back.

I don’t know why the grandmother from the past pushed me away. But Park Geumju now regretted it. 

And she tried to reach out to me, however clumsily.

‘I didn’t mean to, but I paid off my debt to her.’

Park Geumju was the hostess of Juseong and a person with outstanding personal skills. I would need her help someday.

I took out my phone from my pocket and looked at the screen.

There was no contact from Park Geumju.

***

“Shin Juho turned it down.”

“But we had a meeting. The atmosphere was good, right?”

“He said he was sorry, but he felt too pressured.”

The man nodded, not without understanding. Shin Juho was the most likely candidate for the role of Itaewo in ‘The Deprived Season 2’. 

The original author clapped his hands as soon as he saw his face, the sync rate was so good. And Shin Juho was eager too.

“I guess he was too conscious. He hasn’t been an actor for long, right?”

“Sigh… Do we have to bring a 2D character to satisfy them?”

“They wouldn’t be satisfied anyway, right?”

But even Shin Juho couldn’t break through the thick wall of fans. 

He was still a rookie, and he didn’t want to join a drama with so many fans rashly. 

He might lose more than he gained.

“Hmm… Should we hold an audition?”

Of course, that spot was coveted by many aspiring actors.

Then, an employee who was on the phone outside came in and said nervously.

“I just got a call from Halo Media. They said Yoo Yeon Seo is interested in our script and asked us to set up a meeting. What do you think?”

“Yoo Yeon Seo?”

“Yoo Yeon Seo?”

The people who heard the story were stirred. Who wouldn’t know Yoo Yeon Seo here?

“Did we send them our script too?”

“We sent it to everyone we could, right?”

“Is he interested in the role of Itaewo?”

“Yes.”

It was actually a shot in the dark, but they didn’t expect to catch such an unexpected person.

“…His personality is exactly like Itaewo.”

“Why didn’t we think of him?”

They were talking about his personality from two years ago, not the recent one. 

He was rude and arrogant, and his words and actions seemed crazy. 

He was a perfect match for Itaewo.

He wasn’t on the casting list, but… When they imagined Yoo Yeon Seo as Itaewo, it seemed plausible and they all nodded.

“Didn’t they say his character improved lately?”

“His acting got better too. There’s even a rumor that he’s on drugs.”

“He’s been mentioned in the virtual casting lately, right?”

“That makes sense, since his acting got better.”

If it was the old Yoo Yeon Seo, he would have refused as soon as he got the call. His acting was terrible and he didn’t need any investment.

‘The Deprived’ was already a hit from the original, so they didn’t need to put much effort into the promotion. And they had an exclusive contract with a global OTT platform, so they had plenty of production costs.

“Itaewo is a handsome lunatic, though…”

The employee searched for Yoo Yeon Seo and put it on the big screen.

It was a news photo of Yoo Yeon Seo looking back slightly as he entered the Juseong Art Museum with his brother. 

Even though the quality was not clear because it was zoomed in from afar, it had a different vibe like a scene from a movie.

“Wow…”

He clicked on the next photo, and it was a picture of the Juseong Group’s family taken by the Juseong Art Museum’s PR team. Among them, Yoo Yeon Seo holding a champagne glass looked like a painting.

“…Doesn’t he look too rich?”

“Yeah, kind of. Itaewo is a bottom-dweller, right?”

“Maybe he can disguise himself well…”

The role of Itaewo that Yoo Yeon Seo was interested in was a screw-loose character who went crazy from lack of sleep. 

He was not on the side of the perfect protagonist, and he was a light and ambiguous character who lived by the motto ‘my side is the winning side’.

The employee then played the making video of ‘Baekhoham’.

“Wow…”

“Did he do that without wires?”

They all opened their mouths and fixed their eyes on Yoo Yeon Seo in the video.

“Honestly, he has the mental strength for this.”

The employee raised his thumb. Itaewo was the licorice role of ‘The Deprived’ and received a lot of attention from his first appearance in the original. 

He was so popular that he topped the real-time search when he died in the story.

The fans attached to the character were not easy either, but Yoo Yeon Seo was not someone who would be swayed by the rice of the original fans like Shin Juho.

“Let’s just see him once, okay?”

The production team’s mind was already leaning towards Yoo Yeon Seo.

Casting difficulties for ‘The Deprived Season 2’… Idol actor Shin Juho fails the final test

Yoo Yeon Seo, in the spotlight for ‘The Deprived Season 2’

[Official] Yoo Yeon Seo, in the spotlight for casting in ‘The Deprived Season 2’… Agency, “We are positively reviewing it”

-Yoo Yeon Seo as Itaewo? He suits him well

Wasn’t he in the virtual casting?

└He must have gained a lot of fans from ‘Dreaming’ and ‘Baekhoham’

└But can Yoo Yeon Seo handle the action?

└└Go watch the making of ‘Baekhoham’, it’s crazy

He received a lot of positive reactions from showing his good side in ‘Baekhoham’ and ‘Dreaming’.

-Yoo Yeon Seo as Itaewo? That’s weird

Why do they want to use a problematic actor? There are plenty of other actors

Shin Juho suited him better, but why Yoo Yeon Seo lol

└It’s a shame, I wish another actor did it

└Does Yoo Yeon Seo have a disease?

└└Not really

└He’s not a criminal, but he’s a bit of a troublemaker

└└The wording is weird, what do you mean by problematic?

└Are you a hater of the original? lol

└└Can’t I express my opinion as a fan of the original webtoon?

└You were saying Shin Juho was bad before lol

But since the work had a lot of extreme fans, the criticism of the actor who was not even confirmed yet started.

-Isn’t Yoo Yeon Seo a low-class actor?

Honestly, I didn’t like Shin Juho much, but Yoo Yeon Seo was also a newbie actor who got too much praise for his improved acting skills.

└He’s not a real actor anyway

└He only did a few months of idol work and now he’s called a newbie actor, that’s too much

└But honestly, he’s not really fit to be an actor, he should just inherit his company instead of meddling in the entertainment industryㅋㅋ

└Are you a fan of real actors or something, you jerk

Some people even tried to force their own standards on him. They said that actors who graduated from major acting schools or had theater experience were real actors, and those who came from modeling were fake actors, and those who came from idol groups were just eye candy. That was the logic of some extreme drama and movie fans.

Y__Yeon Seo

They look good together

But Yoo Yeon Seo was not the type to be intimidated by these things. He posted a fan art of Itaewo and Yoo Yeon Seo from the webtoon on his SNS, as if to show off to the haters.

His fan club, Love Letter, also joined in.

-I hate the original fans’ criticism

If the drama fails, it’s all because of the drama mother’s association

└The original is overrated and the fans are bullshit

└The drama has the rights to adapt it anyway, so it’s okay to change some things, but they act like it’s a live-action remake, that’s legendaryㅋㅋ They’re so arrogant

-Yoo Yeon Seo’s origin talk is so funnyㅋㅋㅋㅋ

He’s the grandson of Yu Changho, isn’t the game over for him? What origin are you talking about, dividing real and fake actors

└He’s the third generation of Juseong, what’s a real actor to him? He’s a royal grandson

└└Lol royal grandsonㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

“Mother, I’m here.”

Choi Yujin, the vice president of JSENM, visited Yu Chairman’s mansion. Park Geumju greeted her with a smile.

“You’re already busy enough, aren’t you uncomfortable with your mother-in-law? You come here so often.”

“But you’re happy to see me, right?”

Park Geumju shook her head as if she couldn’t stop her. As they sat in the living room, a servant brought a tea set and brewed tea.

“So, what’s the matter today?”

“Today is Yeon Seo’s first variety show. I wanted to watch it with you.”

“······Really?”

Park Geumju sighed. Since her grandson left at the charity event, she had only glared at her phone, but she hadn’t contacted him first.

‘I thought I had lived enough······.’

She didn’t know how to talk to him if she contacted him first.

‘Should I call Dr. Hwang······.’

Dr. Hwang was the psychiatrist who had been in charge of her mental counseling for several years.

[Do you know how you look to me?]

When he said that, Yoo Yeon Seo’s expression was miserable. His voice was trembling so much that he could feel the fear and terror in it.

‘Then he must be seeing Heeseo now······.’

She wondered how he looked.

Park Geumju then looked at her husband, Yu Chairman, and her son, Yu Gunmin.

[Yeon Seo, isn’t he doing well these days?]

[Mom, he doesn’t tell me much. I can tell he’s going through something hard, but he won’t talk······ Should we have a meal together this time?]

Yu Chairman was happy to see his changed grandson, and Yu Gunmin was trying to find a way to help his son, who had a dark expression lately.

[Doesn’t he tell you what he sees?]

[What does he see?]

[No, never mind.]

But Park Geumju was the only one who reached out to him first when he was young and asked for help.

‘Not now, later······ I’ll contact him later.’

She was afraid to face the grandson she had ignored.

Choi Yujin looked at her mother-in-law with a worried expression.

“Did you have a bad talk with Yeon Seo?”

“How did you know?”

“Actually······.”

Choi Yujin confessed that she had told Yoo Yeon Seo that Park Geumju was the mastermind behind the media play. Park Geumju narrowed her eyes and looked at her daughter-in-law.

“Why did you tell him that?”

“He misunderstood me. It was going to be revealed anyway. You’re not going to keep it a secret, are you?”

Park Geumju realized that she had been sighing a lot lately.

“I don’t know how to talk to him. Don’t you?”

“I don’t know either. I haven’t been close with Yeon Seo for long.”

She said that with a bright expression.

“You like him so much, even though he’s not your own child?”

“I do. I can’t get pregnant anyway, so where can I find two handsome and talented sons without ruining my body with childbirth?”

Park Geumju stroked her hand with a pitying look.

One of the reasons why Choi Yujin could enter Juseong as a daughter-in-law was that she was infertile and would not threaten the positions of Yu Eunho and Yoo Yeon Seo.

“Right, you and him seem to get along well.”

They went to the awards ceremony together, and they looked good talking and smiling calmly on holidays.

“I tried hard to get close to him.”

“That’s right······.”

In that respect, Choi Yujin was much better than Park Geumju. Yoo Yeon Seo had a fit when he suddenly got a new stepmother. But Choi Yujin didn’t give up and tried to get along with her new son.

When the whole family was focused on Yoo Yeon Seo’s trauma, Choi Yujin was the one who approached Yu Eunho, who was left out. She was happy these days. She felt like she was finally getting rewarded for her efforts.

“I think it’s time for you to reach out to him.”

“······.”

“Like me.”

Park Geumju sighed as she hit the mark.

“But were the commercials always this long? Wow, that’s too much.”

The real owner of JSTV said. Park Geumju looked at her daughter-in-law with a curious face. 

How could she like him so much when he wasn’t even her own child? She would have believed it if Choi Yujin was his blood relative, not Park Geumju.

“Oh! It’s starting. It’s starting, mother.”

The long commercial ended and finally ‘Welcome to the Guest House’ began. 

Park Geumju turned her head from her daughter-in-law who was making a fuss and fixed her eyes on the TV.