Oska turned to Zeno so fast he found himself growing dizzy.
“But—” Oska tried to argue, but he couldn’t find the courage to speak up against the chairman.
Zeno held the chairman’s gaze, making the latter smirk.
“Weren’t you supposed to be the original Hajin?” he asked.
Zeno didn’t respond, still not breaking their gaze.
Annie’s breath got caught in her throat, while Risa’s heart started racing in her chest. She observed the chairman’s face, and his smirk still hadn’t faltered. She didn’t know what to expect from him, but her heart was leaning toward the fact that he wanted to humiliate Zeno in front of everyone.
Make him act and then drop him just like that.
Meanwhile, the chairman himself didn’t know why he came down to the conference room. He even had to postpone the filming of his movie for the day because of it.
However, he was utterly curious. He wanted to understand what Daeshim had said to him during their last conversation.
What made Zeno Han so special?
The chairman couldn’t wait to find out.
Zeno could feel everyone’s gaze on him. However, he didn’t feel an ounce of nervousness.
Still, his heart was beating fast, so he could only interpret it as excitement. The hairs on his arm stood, and he felt like something was squeezing his heart.
He sighed and shook his head before finally starting the monologue.
[Silver Tongue Activated]
“They say life is what you make of it,” he started off, his voice sounding softer than compared to his normal speaking voice. However, his diction seemed much better than Oska’s already, his voice reverberating through the room despite the soft volume.
“However, most days, it feels more like something already made—like a script written without asking for my lines.”
He paused for a while, letting the words linger.
“I wake up. I check my phone. I take a shower. I go to work. Then I come home and do it all again.”
“It’s not bad. It’s not good,” he casually said like he was speaking to a friend.
Annie listened intently as the words she wrote came to life. Daeshim PD, on the other hand, couldn’t even look at the chairman as Zeno spoke. Again, this kid had something that somehow drew him in.
“People call it normal. I call it… distant.”
Risa noted the slight pauses that Zeno made, and she realized that although he was new to the industry, he knew a lot about the theory and methods of acting. However, she couldn’t dwell on it too long as she was immersed once more in his monologue.
“It feels like I’m watching someone live a life behind a glass wall. It moves. It functions. It smiles when it needs to. But I don’t know if it’s mine.”
“Of course, sometimes, I feel things. I’m not made out of artificial intelligence,” he softly chuckled, and it coincided with his line—that he felt joy despite it all.
“They’re not grand or earth-shaking. They’re more like small sparks.”
“Like when I level up in a game, or when a story pulls me in and doesn’t let go, or even when I eat that one brand of ramyeon I really like, even though I know it’s not that special.”
Somehow, when he said these words, it felt like a projector had been cast at the very middle of the room, showing Zeno doing such things. It sparked the creative imagination of the producers and other writers. Daeshim PD, too, saw the vision.
It felt easy to execute.
“I laugh. I breathe. I sleep. I don’t cry much, but I sigh a lot. I’m not lonely, I think. But I’m not quite happy either.”
[Lament’s Embrace Activated]
“There’s no tragedy in my life. Just a dull, persistent wondering.”
“Is this all there is?”
The question sent those listening into introspection. He had a tone that also made them want to seek the answer of the question.
“Some days, I climb up to the rooftop. Just to look. Morning spills in without asking, and night returns just the same.”
“Maybe I’m overthinking. Tired, as well. Or maybe I’m finally hearing something beneath the hum of ordinary days.”
“Sometimes I step closer to the edge, not because I want to fall, but just to see if I can. If the sky might say something back…”
“… and for once, it did.”
Instead of flipping onto the next page, Zeno set it down. Somehow, that made the others disappointed. They wanted to hear more.
Suho lifted his head for what seemed to be the first time of the day. He glanced at Zeno and smirked, enjoying how he had shown Oska Baek what it meant to read that certain monologue.
At that moment, he didn’t feel too bad because he knew he wouldn’t be able to channel such emotions.
Just what did this guy go through to make him speak this way? It seemed that the world was on his shoulders, and he had lived multiple lives with burdens. It had the resignation of someone who truly wanted to leave the world or maybe make something more out of his life.
Annie finally smiled. Although nothing was certain yet, she was happy that she got to witness the monologue from Zeno.
Risa, on the other hand, wanted to cry out loud. Zeno was clearly better than Oska Baek. If they still failed to see this, then she would lose hope for the world!
The staff, too, was left in a strange mood. They had stopped eating the sandwiches that Oska had brought and started comparing the two.
“I actually preferred Zeno’s version better.”
“Can there still be changes?”
“Now I see why he was chosen first.”
“Are you guys crazy? Oska’s perfect for the role already. He’ll be the best for the production, as well as the sponsors.”
That statement, despite being said softly, somehow rang throughout the entire room. The employee covered her mouth when she realized that she had captured everybody’s attention.
“Oops,” she muttered.
Oska clenched his fists by his side. He then turned to Zeno and once again found his expression to be neutral. He hated it. Why was it that he still appeared unbothered by all of this?
“Continue,” the chairman said, surprising them all. “Go to the next page.”