NOVEL NEXT chapter 53
It is something he cannot even dare to imagine now.
But unfortunately, at that time, the human rights of child actors could practically be considered nonexistent.
Easily replaced, easily yelled at, substitutes who could not complain about unfair treatment anywhere. Kids of that age wandered in and out of audition halls purely because of their parents’ ambition or vicarious satisfaction, which made it even easier.
Of course, Seo-eul had been one of them.
A child with a gentle, innocent-looking face at first glance, led by his mother’s hand, nervously looked around the whole time. Even among the hundreds of people crowding the audition hall, his remarkable beauty stood out so much that all the staff had shared the same thought. Ah, even if he fails here, he’ll get in somewhere. At the very least, he’ll end up as some kids’ model.
It would be really nice if he had even a speck of talent to go with that. Thinking that, they watched his acting without high expectations. This kid is already this pretty—if he can act well too, that’s practically cheating, they thought, but the very next second, that tiny child showed them that exact “cheat.” Unlike the other kids, who only recited the passages from the Korean textbook their moms had forced them to memorize, he acted with real emotion.
Naturally, everyone flipped upside down, and they even sent the remaining numbers home, saying there was no need to see anymore. Having passed the audition with that single attempt, Seo-eul did not disappoint afterward either.
He did not seem to be doing it because he liked it… but really, what sense of ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) professional duty do kids that age have. Except for the exceptionally gifted few, most just do what adults tell them to do, and if they’re told “good job, good job,” they work hard.
The misfortune began from there.
Humans are creatures born greedy and treacherous.
As Seo-eul’s presence drew far more attention than expected, the director began to grow greedier. The ratings as well. At first he thought, I’ll have no regrets if we just surpass thirty percent, but now he felt they could go even higher.
Then dissatisfaction began to arise. The kid acted smiling and crying well enough, but acting fear—trembling in terror—felt lacking. Of course, he knew it was inevitable. The kid looked every inch like a pampered young master. It is not easy for a child to imagine and act a world he has never experienced.
True, it is not easy.
Thinking up to that point, the director thought.
Then he can experience it, right? Then he will understand.
For any human with a normal brain, it would be unthinkable to do that to a child, but later, when this man became permanently disgraced under charges of prostitution with minors, facilitation, and drug-related offenses, it made sense—he had been rotting black from the beginning.
Because of that, starting with the following shoots, he began capturing not “acting” but “the real thing” on camera.
People whispered behind him, asking what the hell he was doing to a ten-year-old child, but that was all. No one could confront a man with a prestigious career and countless connections. While everyone kept their mouths shut, young Seo-eul grew quieter and quieter, and the only person who looked after him was So Garam—who had many scenes with him and thus knew everything that was going on.
‘That crazy bastard.’
She put her jacket around the child soaked in bathtub water, her arms trembling as if she herself had fallen into the water. Seo-eul-ah. You don’t have to do this. You can stop. Please talk to your dad. Okay?
Then Seo-eul would quietly reach out his wet hand and touch the trembling corners of So Garam’s eyes. When he habitually said that he was fine, a small sound of crying would return.
But that’s not it. Other people want to do this and still can’t, and I’m already enjoying so much. If I say I don’t want to do this just because I can’t handle this one thing, then that makes me a truly bad kid.
At that time, nothing terrified Seo-eul more than becoming a bad kid. Even though he did not know what dying was, he feared that more.
Maybe that was why.
The next day, when he was suddenly shoved off a second-floor railing without warning, Seo-eul finally understood. Ah. So this is dying. This sudden flood of fear, this choking feeling in the chest as if his heart stopped. This.
Even though he landed without a scratch on the mattress prepared for filming the falling scene, he could not calm the pounding that felt like it would explode any second. Stiff and unable to do anything but freeze, he could not make a sound. Staff members from the first floor ran to him with horrified faces and said something, but Seo-eul’s gaze was fixed on the camera on the second floor watching him. Then nausea surged up violently.
Ueck.
Throwing up everything he had eaten for lunch, Seo-eul, for the first time, was not okay.
After that day, every time he remembered he had to go to filming the next day, he ran to the bathroom. The public praised him, saying a child acting prodigy had appeared. They said he was doing well, to keep going, and the drama, buoyed by popularity, was extended. Someone kept pushing him from behind.
‘Hey, Lee Seo-eul. What’s wrong with your face?’
And then, Seo Sa-heon returned.
After a whole year apart, the moment he saw him, that kid rushed at him with a frightening expression. He grabbed at his cheeks and eye area roughly, grinding his teeth in a fury far too fierce for his age.
What is this. Why won’t you talk? You stopped eating again because I wasn’t here? You said you’d eat well while I was in Australia. And what the hell is all this, fuck.
Seo-eul blinked up at that furious Sa-heon as he clutched him.
After a year, the kid in front of him now had skin slightly tanned and had grown a handspan taller.
Watching him, spewing out the curses he had newly learned instead of anything useful from language training, for some reason made Seo-eul’s throat burn, leaving him unable to say a single word. I did eat. I ate properly because you told me to. But I threw it all up. I didn’t break the promise.
I didn’t. He wanted to say that. But instead of those words, tears burst out as if something inside him broke. He had never cried once on set, in the bathroom, or even in his own room, but seeing Sa-heon, who greeted him by checking his face before anything else, made everything he had pressed down alone crumble away.
As he bawled like a child, the one who fell speechless this time was Sa-heon. Sure, he had snapped—no, gotten angry—but that alone would never make Lee Seo-eul cry. This mild idiot was someone who almost never cried unless Sa-heon himself deliberately pushed him into it; he only ever acted coy around him.
Tracing that thought to the end, Seo Sa-heon’s chest suddenly lurched the way Seo-eul’s had that day. Ever since he was young, his intuition had been sharp, and just from seeing that crying face, he knew something was wrong. What is this. Confused, he hurriedly reached out. Seeing that white cheek drenched in tears in only a few seconds felt like getting smashed in the head with a hammer.
After coaxing and soothing the crying child until he finally fell asleep on his bed, and confirming he was fully asleep, Seo Sa-heon swung open the door at the end of the hallway.
There, Seo Su-ran, sprawled on the bed, turned around with a face like she was chewing on something sour. Even though it had been a year since she last saw her little brother, there was not a speck of welcome in her expression.
‘What, when did you come back?’
‘What’s wrong with Lee Seo-eul.’
‘What?’
‘I said, what’s wrong with Lee Seo-eul. The kid’s not okay.’
‘Huh? Seo-eul just came home? When? Hey, why did only you get to see him? So unfair!’
She looked ready to bolt out of the room, so Sa-heon answered by slamming the door shut. She clicked her tongue in disappointment. Then Seo Su-ran tilted her head and said, as if surprised he did not know. No way, does he not know?
‘You don’t know? Seo-eul’s acting in a drama these days.’
‘……Why the hell is he doing that?’
‘How would I know? He suddenly auditioned and got the role. I heard from Mom. Auntie seems really thrilled about it, but….’
Whatever, anyway, it’s number one in ratings now. The plot is insane, and Seo-eul’s acting is possessed. Our mom cried watching it yesterday. She knows it’s acting, but said it hurts her heart because the kid seems to be suffering so much.
Upon hearing that, Seo Sa-heon’s eyebrows twisted violently, and he immediately pressed the power button on his sister’s laptop. Even when she shrieked beside him about why he was turning on someone else’s laptop without permission, he ignored her completely and typed the three letters “Lee Seo-eul” into the search bar.
He paused at the profile blurb that popped up first when he hit enter, then scrolled straight down.
He skimmed through the article titles and images and clicked on the video with the most aggravating headline. Something about the genius child actor’s unbelievably realistic fall scene. It was clearly clickbait, but he could not skip it—his intuition pricked again.
Click—after a brief loading moment, the video began to play……
And at the horrifying sight that followed, he could only freeze in place.