“These days you can’t get a job just by studying, right? You need credentials. That’s also part of why I worked part-time during the semester.”
The part-time job was something he’d started to get someone’s number.
“So during the break, I’m planning to do some outside activities. I still don’t really know what I want to do either……”
From the moment his secondary gender presented, Yong Cheonha’s sole life goal had been to live alongside a beautiful alpha.
Having his first experience with a stunning alpha, enjoying everything life had to offer, and then meeting his end in a state of blissful excess — that had been his life’s ambition. But now that he was on the verge of achieving that dream, what couldn’t he do?
“I want to try a lot of things I’ve never done before during the break and explore my career path. I’ll go at it hard all break, and if I still can’t figure it out, I’ll take a leave of absence.”
“Ah……”
Chae Songhwa let out a soft sigh.
Well. Who goes to university to study these days, anyway? People attend because they need the degree to get a job.
So when the time to actually get employed comes around, the majority haven’t even decided what they like to do or what field to enter.
There were plenty of people who only started searching for direction after becoming a senior year student, or after landing a job that didn’t even suit them and spiraling into regret.
But this person isn’t even wasting his summer break at twenty.
The one he’d privately thought of as immature was actually a freshman living life to the fullest — earning money during the semester, building experience, genuinely working hard.
All of a sudden, he felt ashamed of himself for telling him so flatly not to do it. Who am I to be giving anyone advice?
“Isn’t it a bit difficult to be helping me during such an important time in your life?”
“If hyung just talks to me casually, I don’t think it’ll be difficult at all. Seriously. And I’m not trying to burden you — I do have something I’d like from hyung too.”
Having something he wanted in return lessened the feeling of debt. He couldn’t do anything particularly grand, but he at least wanted to hear it first.
He’d received so much help already — if there was something he could do, he wanted to do it wholeheartedly.
“What is it that you want from me?”
“Hmm. There are places you can’t go alone, right? So what about filling in the headcount for those kinds of things? Honestly, I’m still not great at doing stuff like going to the movies by myself. I want to go to an amusement park too, but it’s a little embarrassing to go alone.”
There were roughly a hundred people he could text and they’d come running — but Yong Cheonha shamelessly played the introvert.
“That’s something I can do.”
Not knowing just how thick Yong Cheonha’s skin was, Chae Songhwa nodded in understanding. There were more places than you’d think that turned away solo customers on the grounds of low average spend.
“So I’d like you to come along when I have plans like that. Don’t worry about the cost. I’m actually quite well-off.”
It was actually the truth, but Chae Songhwa took it as the bravado and bluster of a twenty-year-old, and naturally intended to cover the financial expenses himself.
That way it’d probably be about even with the cost of getting the imprint removed, so it might ease some of the sense of debt.
“Alright. Then for now, let’s coordinate our schedules.”
“Informal speech.”
“C-coordinate, then.”
He’d seen people get on his case for using informal speech, but someone getting on his case for not using it was a first.
In order to align their pheromone shower session schedule, the two of them shared their calendars. Yong Cheonha had only his part-time shifts — Chae Songhwa’s schedule was packed in alternating bursts.
“It’s the end-of-semester season, so there are quite a few short-term part-time gigs at pojangmachas and draft beer places. There are also days I need to go in for extra shoots……”
The part-time work schedules far outnumbered the shoot dates. What? Why are there so many warehouse center shifts? What kind of actor schedule is this?
“Are you the king of part-time jobs? You’re going to be rich……”
“I don’t get weekly allowance pay, so rich is a bit……”
That’s not what he meant by that. Is this what a normal actor’s schedule looks like? He was taken aback. When do you ever go out and have fun?
“Is an actor’s schedule usually like this?”
“I told you I’m an actor nobody buys.”
No, what is the agency even doing? Isn’t the whole point of splitting the revenue that they invest in and support the actor so they can focus on their craft?
This is just……
“Does the agency know about this?”
He laughed as if it were the most obvious thing in the world and said:
“I’m an actor in name only — I don’t even think of myself as an actor. I call myself one because I’m under an actor contract with the agency. If you don’t have talent, you need to find another path. My contract period is ending now anyway.”
At Chae Songhwa’s words, Yong Cheonha nearly cried out without thinking. What do you mean no talent? His face can carry everything on its own — his face IS the talent. Why!
In the entertainment industry, an entertainer — someone who looks better the bigger the screen — had a job where looking handsome was itself a magnificent talent. Wasn’t it?
Lookism this, lookism that — but in the end people love beautiful things and go wild over them.
And the person most obsessed with that was none other than Yong Cheonha himself.
“Doesn’t the agency — the agency say anything? They must’ve invested a fair amount, right? What about renewal? I mean, even just shooting minor CFs would get you noticed fast, right?”
How bad could the acting be? No wait — ad modeling doesn’t even require method acting, you just have to be pretty.
Just leave your face in the frame. Show nothing but the face, so intensely you can’t even tell what product is being advertised.
Whether it actually sells the product is debatable, but the name recognition would hit hard.
They’re wasting a face like this? He was born with looks like that and they’re just not using them? Are the people at the broadcasting stations and agencies all blind or something?
There was so much he wanted to say, but not knowing where to start, Yong Cheonha could only stare in disbelief. Chae Songhwa, watching him, gave a small smile and said:
“I debuted at eighteen. My contract with the agency is for five years, and I’m twenty-three now. Five years into my debut and I’ve never once landed a role with any real presence. I don’t have talent. Not even a little bit — I really, truly don’t.”
“……”
“No talent, no passion, no fighting spirit. I need to find another path quickly.”
If everything he said was true, it meant his self-awareness was impressively sharp — but listening to it was strangely painful.
“My seniors say that getting hired is also a matter of luck. They say 99% of the time it’s not that you weren’t good enough — it’s just that you didn’t get lucky. Who told you that you have no talent? Seriously. Bring them to me. I’ll set them straight. I’m pretty good at giving people a piece of my mind.”
He’d never actually drilled a stranger before, but still. He genuinely wanted to see the face of whoever it was.
Just who do they think they are to call someone with that face untalented?
“The president said it. That I have no talent.”
“……”
Isn’t that gaslighting? Aren’t they lowballing him to try and push for a renewal?
Honestly, someone with those looks would’ve had no shortage of temptations. Just having a slightly decent body with a perfectly ordinary face was enough to get countless DMs a day asking if you’d want a sponsor on social media.
Yet here he was — splitting his schedule and sleep to hold down part-time jobs honestly, living sincerely and diligently. And a person like that had no passion? No fighting spirit? Someone that capable had given it his all and it still didn’t work out? That was the thing that didn’t make sense.
“What else did the agency say besides the talent thing? I’m pretty sure they said a whole lot of absolute garbage.”
“Hmm.”
The way he made a sound of affirmation but hesitated, unable to say it — that confirmed it.
A pitiful beauty, delicate as a single bloom, looking as though he might cry at any moment — being beaten down by some old guy who was neither young nor beautiful?
“God. Okay, let’s get out of here first. This isn’t a conversation for a café. Let’s go out and grab a drink.”
“It’s still daytime.”
“If you drink in the daytime you get to drink longer. Drinking at night makes you sleepy so you can’t drink as much.”
Is, is that so?
Seeing him look so visibly furious, Chae Songhwa — who had never done daytime drinking in his life — followed along.
“My uncles say that even if it tastes bad, soju is the best thing when you’re ticked off.”
But then he thought — he couldn’t feed a first-class carcinogen to a beautiful person.
“I’ll be the one drinking, so our actor can just order whatever bar snacks he wants, alright? Hyung can just watch me drink.”
Yong Cheonha, who could put away bottles of liquor without a single side dish, walked into the nearest place and immediately ordered soju.
He personally preferred whiskey or brandy and never touched soju — but today, just for today, he made a special exception and cracked one open.
It was sweet in the way that things loaded with artificial seasoning are sweet, but the aftertaste was nothing but overwhelming and rank. Why on earth do people drink this.
The alcohol-lamp stench hit the moment it went down and made him grimace involuntarily. His already bad mood soured even further.
“So…… what exactly did those agency bastards say? What are they, anyway? What have they even done for him?”
“Just — well, they say I have no talent, so I should try making an effort in other ways. Being a small agency, they don’t seem to have done anything particularly remarkable. Though I could be wrong. Maybe they did something I just don’t remember.”
“No, why are people who haven’t done anything acting all high and mighty? If he looks like this, shouldn’t they be the ones figuring out how to generate buzz — rumors, anything — and pulling something in? Why are they dumping it all on the actor? What is an actor supposed to do on his own? That’s their job.”
Entertainers are manufactured products. With products that are indistinguishable from one another, it always comes down to marketing.
In a world these days where beautiful XY chromosomes had practically run dry, the entertainment industry was no exception. With no beautiful newcomers entering the field, the stunning rookies who had debuted beautifully were simply still holding down the beauty roles even as they matured into seasoned veterans.
Into this barren world, someone who had grown up beautiful organically — by his own power alone — had stepped forward, and they couldn’t sell that?
These days, the demand for handsome men far exceeded supply more than at any other time. The product itself is outstanding, and yet the people failing to capitalize on it want to talk about effort?
Can’t act? Then coin some buzzword like “visual-type actor” and push it aggressively, lock him in a practice room until he can hold his own, and make it work — isn’t that how it’s done?
Especially when mediocre-looking people with wooden acting are being hyped up as handsome left and right.
Who was the one lacking effort, really? Wasn’t it the agency? What more could an individual possibly do beyond that?
“Honestly, the more I hear this the angrier I get. What kind of nonsense is he saying so proudly? Eeeeffort?”
“It means don’t waste your pride on things that don’t matter — and take a sponsor.”
Excuse me? I think I misheard.
