I WAS MISTAKEN AS A MONSTROUS GENIUS ACTOR

Translator: Dreamscribe

‘Mountains are mountains and waters are waters. I, Kang Woojin, when was the last time I received a confession from a woman? I can’t quite remember. My life was just… fairly ordinary. That’s why the current world, where I possess the Void space, is absurdly shocking.’ (TL: Mountains are mountains and waters are waters –> Before you study Buddhism, you see everything as their literal form. When you begin to study Buddhism, you come to realize that all things are manifestations of the same truth. When you gain enlightenment, you can appreciate things for what they are, knowing their form is both impermanent and eternal. Read about it more here www.livinglifefully.com/zensayings2.htm)

‘But wait a minute, why am I even thinking about this?’

Kang Woojin’s muddled vision, tangled in the scrambled processing of his brain, gradually cleared. No, in truth, his vision had remained clear all along, but his mind had not been.

“……”

Woojin barely managed to grasp onto the frayed threads of his drifting consciousness. Thanks to that, he recalled the dumb response he had just blurted out.

‘…Huh? Was it? No, I said “Ehng”’

Why? Why did I? Why did I spit out such an absurd response? At last, Kang Woojin re-acknowledged the presence of Miley Cara, standing right in front of him, her golden hair and blue eyes captivating. She was staring at him intently. And along with that, he recalled her soft murmur.

‘I think I like you.’

‘Yeah, just now, Miley Cara, a global superstar, had said that she liked me, right? Ahaha, yeah. No wonder my brain short-circuited. Now I remember everything.’

Although in reality, only a few seconds had passed, Woojin’s brain was processing as if it had been over an hour.

And then.

“!!!”

A million exclamation marks exploded in his eyes. In an instant, as if his brain had rebooted, a flood of emotions erupted.

‘Whoa- Shit, hold on. Wait, wait, wait!’

But his malfunctioning mind didn’t easily return to normal. At this point, Kang Woojin had no room for maintaining any sort of persona or act. He was simply stuck in an endless loop of rebooting.

It was like a computer with a broken component, glitching out and endlessly restarting.

Completely blank.

The only thing Kang Woojin could do now was.

“……”

Stare at Miley Cara, the world-famous superstar, with a frozen expression. Even in this moment, his system was continuously rebooting, his soul drifting in and out.

The same went for.

‘Ack!!!’

Miley Cara, whose strikingly blue eyes wavered noticeably. Though her facial expression remained mostly unchanged, she was internally in complete chaos over the words she had just spoken.

‘Shit!! Shit!!! What did I just say!!’

It was a confession she had blurted out as if she were possessed.

There’s a saying about getting drunk on the atmosphere. Humans sometimes surrender to the mood, letting their instincts take over rather than their reason. That was exactly what had happened to Cara just now.

‘Ah!! Ah!!!’

When her hand briefly brushed against Kang Woojin’s, her heart pounded as if it would explode, and she instinctively admitted that she liked him. Of course, it wasn’t a lie, it was sincere. It was sincere, but this wasn’t the kind of confession she had planned. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. She had only just realized her own feelings moments ago, and yet she had confessed without any buildup, attacking head-on.

‘No! No!!! Take it back! Turn back time!!’

This was the first and likely the only confession in Miley Cara’s life. She wanted to hit the ground a hundred times over with regret, but somehow, she managed to remain standing on both feet.

-Swoosh.

Her trembling eyes slowly refocused on Kang Woojin in front of her. His expression had not changed. Still indifferent, even cold. Cara’s regret surged tenfold, and she even felt slightly betrayed by Woojin.

‘But still! Even if it was a mistake, I confessed! Shouldn’t he be reacting more than this?!’

She was wrong. Kang Woojin wasn’t calm, he was just completely broken. His carefully maintained persona had been stripped away entirely. If Cara were to even lightly poke him right now, he might just collapse in shock. But of course, she had no way of knowing this.

‘Wait, but I think… he said something weird just now, did I mishear it?’

Feeling a sense of crisis from Woojin’s stoic expression, Cara braced herself.

‘That face, completely void of emotion. I’m going to be rejected. I just know it.’

Oddly enough, that realization made Cara feel a little better.

‘Whatever, the water’s already spilled. I’m Miley Cara. Backing down isn’t my style.’ That was her mindset.

It was then.

“…Miley.”

Kang Woojin, who had kept his mouth shut the entire time, was the first to move. He threw out a low-toned question.

“Did you just say that you like me?”

“……”

Miley Cara, who had been watching Woojin with the look of someone expecting the inevitable, swept her golden hair behind her ear and let out a small breath. Then, with an awkward smile, she nodded. Half of it was a surrender to fate.

“I guess I did.”

“Are you joking?”

“I may be reckless, but I’m not some crazy woman who jokes about her feelings.”

Soon, she slightly raised the hand that had briefly brushed against Woojin’s.

“My heart is still trembling just from that small touch with you. That means this is absolutely not a joke.”

“……”

Woojin, trying his best to maintain his indifference, lowered his gaze and looked at Cara’s hands. They were trembling slightly. At this moment, if he weren’t in his concept act, Kang Woojin would have smacked his forehead hard.

‘This is insane. Is this for real? A global superstar of this caliber confessing to me???!’

A brief flash of his past ran through Woojin’s mind like a panorama. Confessions, yeah, he supposed they had happened before. Maybe back in middle school? But ever since his military discharge, there had been absolutely none. So, any emotions related to confessions had long since disappeared. And yet, here he was, all the way in Hollywood, being confessed to by none other than one of the world’s top actresses and pop stars.

Feeling so shocked he could almost throw up, Kang Woojin gave up on trying to restore his malfunctioning brain functions.

“Mm.”

He let out a meaningless hum to buy time, even though it was utterly useless. Because he had no idea what the hell he was supposed to say here.

On the other hand, Cara, as if she had already reached enlightenment, ran her fingers through her golden hair again and said,

“You’re staying so calm. But I understand.”

She recalled Maria Armas. More specifically, she remembered Maria’s lines about her seducing Kang Woojin.

“You’ve probably been in situations like this plenty of times before. Honestly, among my colleagues, Woojin is quite popular.”

“……”

What kind of ridiculous misunderstanding was this now?

‘I mean, I’m not a eunuch or anything, but saying I’m popular is seriously a reach.’

It was the first he had ever heard of it, but Kang Woojin kept his mouth shut. Meanwhile, Miley Cara, having lowered her raised hand, took a step closer to Woojin.

“But you’re really giving me no reaction at all. Say something. Even if it’s a rejection, I don’t care.”

The faint scent she gave off helped to calm Woojin’s mind, but only for a moment before it became jumbled again.

Ah, shit. Whatever.

Kang Woojin realized that struggling against this was pointless.

“…Thank you.”

So, he decided to be honest.

‘Screw pretending to be tough or keeping up some persona. What’s the point of that now? When a woman is coming at me this directly, being indecisive would just make me look like a total idiot. I won’t panic, I’ll just be myself.’

And so, he spoke exactly what was on his mind.

“I’m genuinely surprised.”

“Were you?”

“Yes. By your courage, Miley, by your straightforwardness.”

“Honestly, I blurted it out without thinking. But no one can stop that kind of thing, right? Still, it’s true.”

“……”

“I’m a little scared to hear your answer, but still, Woojin, how do you feel?”

How did he feel? Of course, Kang Woojin had feelings for Cara. I mean, come on, it’s Miley Cara. Not just him, but anyone in the world would feel something for her. It’s just that, since he thought there was no possibility whatsoever, he hadn’t given it any real thought. It’s not like he was madly in love with her, but yeah, he did feel something.

However, something was weighing on his mind.

‘Hoo- would dating be a problem?’

Right now, Cara had no idea who the real Kang Woojin, the ordinary citizen beneath the persona, actually was. Letting out a small sigh, Woojin muttered.

“Hoo- Miley.”

Without hesitation, Kang Woojin dropped his act. Without maintaining his usual gravity, he revealed his true self to Cara. I mean, come on. When a woman is being this sincere, wouldn’t keeping up a persona in response be, well… kind of lame? So, Kang Woojin answered her confession as if responding in kind. The atmosphere, unlike usual, was soft.

“How should I put this? You confessed, and my response was kind of a mess, right? I went, ‘Ehng?’ That’s the real me.”

“…What?”

“What I mean is, I have a separate, real self. You know what a ‘concept’ is, right? In Korea, we call it ‘concept-playing’. Anyway, my true self is different. Somehow, from my acting debut up until now, things just happened this way.”

Miley Cara furrowed her brows slightly. But Kang Woojin, scratching his dark hair, continued speaking honestly.

“Publicly, my image is cool, cynical, kind of crazy bastard, that sort of thing. But my actual personality isn’t like that. I’m not saying I have multiple personalities or anything. It’s just that I deliberately crafted a concept. Miley, you might actually like the ‘concept’ version of Kang Woojin.”

He went for it. The first time he had ever admitted this was probably to Choi Sung-gun. The second was during the ‘Pierrot: The Birth of a Villain’ audition. But that time, he had done it intentionally. And now, this was the third time. Just in case, Kang Woojin added an explanation.

“I’ve admitted this a few times before, but at this point, people don’t even believe me. But it’s true. Anyway, it’s hard to explain everything.”

“Woojin.”

Cara interrupted his explanation. A slightly bittersweet smile lingered on her lips.

“If you don’t like me, just say so. Like you usually would. Why are you suddenly saying all these weird, long-winded things?”

No, no, no, no, no. Please, don’t misunderstand. Kang Woojin hurriedly responded.

“No, it’s not that. It’s not that I dislike you.”

For a moment, Miley Cara’s blue eyes gleamed.

“So you don’t dislike me?”

Sensing that something was slightly off, Woojin decided to just answer.

“…No.”

“Then that means you do have some interest in me.”

“Of course. But as I just said, what you like about me-”

“Yeah, yeah, that whole concept thing. I’ll believe you.”

You don’t believe me! Kang Woojin wanted to grab her by the shoulders and shake her. Believe me! Just believe me!

“Miley, don’t I look completely different from usual right now?”

“You do. But I don’t care. Whether your words are sincere or just an excuse, let’s do this instead.”

Miley Cara glanced briefly toward the hallway before speaking.

“We have to start filming ‘Beast and the Beauty’ soon. Even though I blurted out my feelings, we’re professionals. I don’t want to create a situation that could negatively impact the project. You feel the same way, right?”

“Of course.”

“Let’s talk again after ‘Beast and the Beauty’ finishes filming.”

Lowering her voice even further, Miley Cara added,

“By then, I’m sure you’ll think about me more..”

Then.

Whoosh.

Miley Cara suddenly moved. Kang Woojin instinctively reached out to stop her. But he couldn’t.

“Miley, we’re not done talking yet?”

Because her team members were approaching from a few steps away.

Kang Woojin thought to himself.

‘Ah, fuck.’

Pushing forward any further would just be reckless. So, blending back into his usual persona, he simply gave a polite farewell to Cara, who had now joined her team members.

“…Miley, I’ll see you at the script reading.”

Sweeping her golden hair back, Cara nodded.

“Yeah. See you then, I’ll contact you.”

That simple ‘I’ll contact you’ from Miley Cara made Woojin’s emotions waver. Not just a little, a lot. if he were alone, the corners of his mouth would have curled up way earlier. But he had to maintain his composed expression.

“Woojin.”

By now, Choi Sung-gun and Woojin’s team had also approached, following Cara’s team. Cara glanced at Woojin once more before walking down the hallway with her team.

At that moment, her manager, Jonathan, asked,

“Miley, what were you and Kang Woojin talking about for so long?”

Cara shrugged and casually brushed it off.

“Just about the project.”

“…Really?”

“Yeah. What else would we have to talk about?”

Jonathan looked at Cara with a slightly suspicious gaze. Meanwhile, Miley Cara wore a relaxed smile. But her heart was still pounding wildly. Of course, it was. From earlier until now, she had been desperately pretending to stay composed. Soon, she thought of Kang Woojin, who was behind her.

‘Alright, I managed to buy some time somehow.’

Shortly after, Cara and her team stepped into the elevator. For a moment, silence filled the space, but it was Miley Cara who broke it.

“Jonathan, don’t you think Kang Woojin’s image is getting too bad right now?”

“You’re right. It’s worse than expected, way too noisy.”

She was referring to the ‘Tonight Show’. The controversy about Woojin supposedly ignoring the other Best Actor nominees at the ‘Emmy Awards’. Even though more than a week had passed, his image was still being tarnished by global media and public opinion, including Hollywood. However, for some reason, this particular issue was being blown up even more than usual.

And there was a reason for that.

Countless rumors, gossip, and fabricated reports were all piling up. Add to that Woojin’s ‘Palme d’Or’ acceptance speech, where he mentioned the Academy Awards, the press conference for ‘Pierrot’, the moment he was confirmed for ‘Beast and the Beauty’, all of it had fueled a surge of malicious comments and attacks. And Miley Cara didn’t like it.

“If we just leave it as is, it’s going to affect everything, from my album to ‘Beneficial Evil’ and even ‘Beast and the Beauty’. They’re all things connected to me, aren’t they?”

“……Hmm.”

“We need to tone it down a little. How about this?”

Cara whispered something to her manager.

Meanwhile, a bit later than Miley Cara, Kang Woojin was moving when Choi Sung-gun asked him,

“What were you two whispering about?”

Kang Woojin, his face indifferent, remained silent for a moment before responding.

“I don’t really remember.”

He meant it.

The next morning.

Despite the shocking events of the previous day, Kang Woojin’s schedule remained unchanged. He woke up early and began preparing for work, hurrying to get ready to head to the set of ‘Pierrot: The Birth of a Villain’. However, as he washed his hair in the bathroom, his mind was still filled with thoughts of Cara.

“……I still can’t believe it.”

At that very moment, while Woojin was in the middle of his morning routine, one of Hollywood’s major media outlets had just dropped an exclusive breaking news report.

『LA TIMES / Last year, Miley Cara nearly died on a music video set. The man who saved her life at that time was none other than Kang Woojin, who is at the center of controversy.』

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