Superstar Husband & Genius Wife - Chapter 3：The Presurred Actor

A woman with long hair was staring at a man who was standing not far from her. The woman’s gaze was filled with admiration yet filled with sadness.

“NG!”

“NG!”

“NG!”

“NG! Stop! Can you even act? Who recommended this useless rubbish?!” shouted someone behind the monitor screen while pointing at the woman who made a mistake.

“I am sorry. I am sorry.” The woman kept bowing while apologizing. Even if it was her first drama, her debut drama, the woman could act well. It was just that her partner actor seemed to have another aura when he was acting, and it made her felt intimidated and overwhelmed.

“Sunbaenim*, I am sorry,” after bowing her head multiple times to the man behind the monitor screen. The woman stared at the red-haired man who was her partner.

(*Senior)

“Ah, it’s okay.” Said the man

“Let’s have a 15 minutes break. If you still make a mistake after that, I don’t care about the people who back you up. I will kick you out of here,” said the man behind the screen.

Hearing those words, the scolded woman could only duck her head down. This was her first debut drama. Whatever it is, she has to debut soon.

“Thank you, Noona*” said the red-haired man who was called Ethan. He took the drink given by the long-haired woman.

(* a term used by man to call an older woman)

“You shouldn’t have a lousy partner like that right now,” snorted the long-haired woman.

“Never mind, Noona, this role is pretty cool anyway,” replied Ethan, who was now sitting in one of the chairs provided and flipping through his script.

“Are you sure you don’t want to just follow their orders? To meet Ara?” asked the woman with long hair.

“Mi Sun Noona! I told you I don’t want to follow that path! I will show it with my own abilities!” said Ethan.

“Then let’s just resign! You can ask uncle for help to pay the compensation,” replied Mi Sun. But Ethan stayed silent and kept flipping through his script.

Seeing that, Mi Sun could only take a deep breath. She didn’t really understand why Ethan would stick with an agency that no longer respected him.

“Ah, writer Hong, you are here?” asked the man who was busy staring at the monitor screen.

“Yes, I brought the script for the next episode. By the way, who is the actor who plays Sung Woo’s character?” asked writer Hong.

“Ah, him, his name is Nam Ethan, why? He doesn’t match your expectations anymore? I told you. You don’t need to come to the set; we can send someone to pick up the script like before, “said the man back.

The woman shook her head, “No. It’s the opposite. He played Sung Woo’s character perfectly, is he a rookie?” asked writer Hong.

“He…if I’m not mistaken starred in two dramas before this, and in his last drama, he won the Best New Actor award,”

“Then why is he taking Sung Woo role, who is the younger brother of the female lead that rarely gets screen time?” asked writer Hong. As the writer of the drama “My Wife’s Men”, writer Hong knew each character’s ins and outs very well and thought that the man playing Sung Woo can at least be the male lead or the second male lead, instead of a supporting role.

My Wife’s Men tells a story about a woman who married a well-established doctor from an arranged marriage between her recently deceased father and the doctor’s father. At first, she refused the arranged marriage but remembering that she lived alone with her brother, Sung Woo, and their finance dropped after their father passed away. She finally married the doctor.

Everyone around her said that she is lucky to marry that doctor, but that is not true. Her husband was too busy and cold, making her feel neglected. However, that changes when the woman attends a school reunion and meets her ex, who still has feelings for her.

“Why do you think an actor with such good acting, winning the Best New Actor award, and having a good personality, would play Sung Woo’s character after getting the award?” the man asked, glancing at Ethan, who now seemed to be helping the new artist who is his partner before..

Writer Hong followed the man’s gaze and could only sigh.

“Either the executives in his agency are blind, or…”

“He offended someone who shouldn’t be offended; the entertainment world is always like this, writer Hong. You’ve been here a few years and still don’t know the unspoken rules?” asked the man. Yet, writer Hong could only stay silent. The unspoken rules. Who knows how many people have fallen as a result of not obeying this rule.

Writer Hong regretted Ethan’s talent. This is his 8th year in the entertainment world. There have been 5 drama scripts written by him before he finally decided to take a hiatus for 3 years.

He rarely found a suitable actor or actress to play the character written by him during that time. In fact, in his last drama, he had an argument with the director because he felt that the actor and actress did not match his characters. However, his voice wasn’t really needed in the actors and actresses’ selection process as a writer. That is why he is reluctant to come to the set since he feared that the actors and actresses who play his character couldn’t play them well.

But after seeing Ethan act as Sung Woo, he felt like the man was really the Sung Woo that he thought when he wrote the character.

Sung Woo is not a complicated character to portray. Still, it will be completely wrong if the actor portrays him wrongly. He is the character of a rich boy from a rich school who lives his life peacefully, and he never breaks any rules. But after his father passed away and his friends left him because of his family’s bankruptcy, he turned into a rebellious boy at school. That becomes worse when his sister accepted to marry a doctor that her sister doesn’t love. He hates his sister, who “sells” herself to a man for money.

The scene writer Hong saw earlier was the scene where Sung Woo chose to cruelly dump his girlfriend first before she could leave him like his friends did.

The scene might seem cliché, but Ethan succeeded in showing the expressions of fear within the cruelty of Sung Woo.

“By the way, our drama will air tonight, right?” asked writer Hong. The man nodded

“The scene earlier will be aired in episode 4, huh?” the man nodded once again.

“Why is this writer suddenly asking so many questions?” He thought.

“Okay then, it looks like there are some scripts that need to be changed. I’ll go first,” said writer Hong, who suddenly got the idea of changing some parts of Sung Woo’s character.

“Okay. The break is over, everyone goes back to your positions, and you, if you still fail, the exit door is over there,” said the man behind the monitor.

The woman could only smile bitterly. However it is, she had to succeed this time

“ACTION!”

***

Mi Sun could only sigh deeply. After Ethan get the Best New Actor award, her career as his manager should have accelerated rapidly, but who would have thought that the man would be trapped in a situation like this.

This situation started when Ethan won the Best New Actor award.

The day after he received the award, Ethan was called into the office to face Ha Joon, the Art Director.

“Good morning, director. Did you call for me?” greeted Ethan when he entered Ha Joon’s room.

Inside the room, Ha Joon was talking with a girl. She looked like she was around 18 years old.

“Why are you so formal? You can call me Hyung*, oh right, have a seat,” replied Ha Joon

(* a term used by man to call an older man)

“It’s okay, director, we are in the office too,” refused Ethan, then took his seat next to the girl.

“Duh, this boy is too formal, oh yeah, anyway this is Ara,” Ha Joon finally introduced the girl who was also sitting in that room.

“Halo Ethan Oppa, I am Ara,” said the girl while holding her hand out.

“Halo, Ethan,” Ethan replied and took the girl’s hand.

“Okay then, Ara, I’ll see you again later, okay? There is something I want to discuss with Ethan,” said Ha Joon when Ethan and Ara were greeting each other.

Ara only nodded and smiled, then she walked out of the room.

“She is Ara, one of the children of the shareholder; it seems like she is interested in you,” said Ha Joon, but Ethan didn’t say anything.

“You don’t have any schedule today, right? Accompany her to shop,” said Ha Joon again

“But director…”

“No buts, this is an order from the company!” replied Ha Joon

“What if paparazzi caught us together?” asked Ethan, trying to find an excuse from doing the order.

“That will be a public relations problem to solve, but if you can, don’t get caught by the paparazzi. Go. She is waiting for you. Remember to treat her well,” warned Ha Joon. Ethan could only smile bitterly before heading out of Director Ha Joon’s room.

“How? What did Director Ha Joon say? Do you get a good offer?” asked Mi Sun, who was waiting outside the room.

Ethan looked at Mi Sun and smiled, “It seems like my Noona will get a holiday,”

“What holiday? You just won an award yesterday, you must be getting lots of work offers coming now, of course, I can’t be relaxed, let alone the holiday,” replied Mi Sun

“I am serious Noona. Today you can take a day off. Don’t worry, it won’t be reduced from your leave permit, really,” replied Ethan again.

Mi Sun, who has started to know Ethan’s character, felt that something was not right, but she didn’t have the chance to ask again. The girl who left Director Ha Joon’s room earlier approached them.

“Come on, Oppa, I’ve been waiting for a long time,” said Ara, who immediately took Ethan’s arm.

“I’ll explain later, Noona,” Ethan said before reluctantly following the girl.

Mi Sun who saw that couldn’t do anything; it seemed like she really needed an explanation of what happened!

Mi Sun decided to go back to Ethan’s place. She was waiting for the man to come home and asked him about it directly.

After waiting for a bored 10 hours at Ethan’s house, she finally heard Ethan’s car. Mi Sun, who was tired of waiting, quickly approached Ethan before he could get out of his car.

“Noona! You surprised me!” said Ethan when he saw Mi Sun.

“Come on, tell me what exactly happened!” urged Mi Sun.

“Ahh .. I’m hungry, Noona, have you eaten? You still have stock of ramyeon, right?” muttered Ethan, ignoring Mi Sun and walking into his house.

Mi Sun stayed quiet and followed him inside, ‘there must be something wrong,’ she thought. Ethan barely ate ramyeon to keep his body fit, and usually, he would eat ramyeon when he felt tired or stressed.

“Go take a shower, let Noona prepares the food,” said Mi Sun, and she directly headed towards the kitchen. Ethan didn’t answer, and went into his room.

“Slurppp … Ahh .. Ramyeon made by Noona is the best!” said Ethan while eating his meal after taking a shower and giving her Noona a thumb up.

Mi Sun said nothing and only focused on eating her food.

Silence. The two of them didn’t say anything. Only the occasional slurping sound coming from Ethan could be heard.

That girl was Ara,” Ethan finally spoke. “She is one of the shareholder’s daughters. I was ordered by Director Ha Joon to accompany her,”

“What kind of order is that ?! So all you did today was accompanying her?” asked Mi Sun. Ethan nodded

“It can’t be helped, Noona. Director Ha Joon said it was a company order. If I didn’t do it, I’d have to pay the penalty, “said Ethan.

“Then, what about your career? Are you just going to keep accompanying that girl?”

“Eii… Of course, my career won’t be like that, right? That girl must be just curious about me then asked me to accompany her for a while. The company definitely won’t treat me like that, right?” Ethan said.

However, Ethan’s prediction was wrong. Tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, and the next day, his company always asked him to accompany Ara, whether for shopping, going to the salon, or just attending the girl at her house.

Until one day, Ara asked him to join her in a private party held by her friend. Of course, Ethan was reluctant to do that, but Director Ha Joon once again says that it was an order from the company, which made Ethan had no choice but to do it.

But Ethan did not expect that when he went inside, aside from the girls, there were also men who only wore underwear and were made servants by the women there.

“Ara, you came!” a girl approached them and greeted Ara with kisses on her cheeks.

“Uhh … who is this sweetie that you brought?” her eyes stared at Ethan seductively; she bit her lower lip slightly.

“Ara! Where are you taking me?!” said Ethan, who was uncomfortable with the situation.

He wouldn’t think that Ara would “sell” him. Ethan is a normal man, but what Ara did was undoubtedly wrong. He didn’t want to enter that world again.

The next day, Ethan was called by Director Ha Joon again.

“This is your next job,” said Ha Joon directly, taking out a script from his desk drawer.

Ethan took the script, he read it, then he frowned upon reading the script.

“This…” Ethan said when he finished reading it.

“Your next job, it’s already decided. You can go out now,”

“But director, what about the play written by writer Lee?” Ethan asked. Two days ago, an article came out. It was mentioning that writer Lee, the famous writer, that always wrote drama with ratings above 20%, and whose scripts are often sought by other actors and actresses, saying that he wanted the male lead in his latest drama to be played by Ethan, but of course the decision would lie in the director’s hand.

“Ah … about that, the company felt that the drama didn’t suit you,” said Ha Joon.

“Bullshit!” Mi Sun, who decided to come into the room with Ethan, finally spoke up.

“My Ethan is the winner of the Best New Actor award, yet he doesn’t fit the drama written by writer Lee? Wow, this is one piece of crap that I haven’t heard in a long time!” said Mi Sun, who disagree entirely with what Ha Joon said.

“So you get arrogant because you won an award?! This is an order! There are no more drama scripts left! It has been decided. No objection! Tomorrow you must come to the address written on it for the first script reading. This conversation is over, please come out!” said Ha Joon, who then went back to his job. He didn’t even look at Ethan and Mi Sun anymore.

Mi Sun was about to reply, but Ethan immediately grabbed her arm, gesturing that they have to get out.

Neither Ethan nor Mi Sun is stupid. The company is trying to pressure Ethan, and Ethan believed that this has something to do with Ara.