Chapter 9: Rival
The role Kwon Xuanhe was auditioning for was the male lead's best friend, Bai Jing.
He is the female lead Eun Dan-oh's fiancé, a playboy from a private high school, exuding a bad boy aura, whose temper often fluctuates greatly because of the female lead. Due to his outstanding appearance, he is surrounded by many girls.
Although the setting of this drama is novel, its essence is a campus romance drama, so the character settings are quite simple, and the acting difficulty is not high.
Especially the plot setting where an ordinary girl is exclusively loved by a rich and handsome guy, it perfectly caters to young female audiences who love Mary Sue plots, and it never fails.
His appearance is more than enough for this role, and it's not even him being narcissistic, what if he overshadows the male lead at that time?
The main audience for this type of idol drama are young girls who only care about looks and nothing else.
After entering the waiting room, Kwon Xuanhe looked around and saw his competitor, Li Zaixu.
He has a classic Korean male appearance, with a long, thin face, narrow, upward-slanted eyes, and high cheekbones.
On the internet, praising an ugly man is now called 'ugly-handsome.' Insisting on marketing appearance is clearly wrong.
This is a new term proposed by capital to regulate the public when the quality of products launched by them is substandard, in order to cut corners and reduce costs.
Ugly is ugly, handsome is handsome. There is no such thing as 'ugly-handsome', nor is there a need to 'get' beauty and handsomeness.
Beauty and handsomeness are objective, not subjective.
You can praise someone for being charming, but descriptive words targeting appearance like handsome and beautiful, once misused, gradually become a misleading change of concept for the public.
There weren't many people in the waiting room, just a few. They were all competitors, so they just glanced at each other and then looked away, each holding their script and preparing for the upcoming audition.
Kwon Xuanhe was no different; he held the script and constantly pondered the character's personality.
On the other hand, Li Zaixu turned his head and secretly sized him up.
He was originally ninety percent sure of getting this role in this drama; auditions arranged by his own company usually didn't go wrong. But who knew Kwon Xuanhe would appear?
It is said that his background is BH Company?
BH Company's scale and influence are greater than those of his agency, VAST Company. Although it was founded by Hyun Bin, it has only been established for two years and lacks deep roots.
Kwon Xuanhe is also his main competitor.
As soon as he thought of this, Li Zaixu felt a little less confident about this audition.
Although Kwon Xuanhe has not officially joined BH Company, his uncle, as a middle-level manager at BH Company, personally handles these matters for him. Even if he wasn't, in the eyes of outsiders, there's no difference.
"Li Zaixu!"
The staff member hosting the audition called him. Li Zaixu got up, walked past Kwon Xuanhe, left the waiting room, and entered the adjacent conference room to begin his audition.
"Director Kim Sang-seop, Screenwriters Song Ha-young and In Ji-hye."
Li Zaixu greeted them properly, then began his audition.
...
Kwon Xuanhe, waiting outside, watched Li Zaixu leave. Faintly, it seemed he had received fragmented information about him from his previous sixth sense.
But no matter how much he thought about it, there was no specific information.
However, this did remind Kwon Xuanhe.
Since he had an impression of Li Zaixu in his previously triggered information, it means that Li Zaixu might become a famous actor in the future, or an actor known for something else.
Aside from his strong company background, he doesn't seem to have anything else going for him.
Kwon Xuanhe thought so.
After about ten more minutes, Kwon Xuanhe was finally called.
He stood up and went to the conference room door, just as he saw Li Zaixu finishing his audition, his expression unreadable.
The two exchanged glances, simply nodding politely as a greeting.
Kwon Xuanhe knocked on the door and entered the conference room, ready to begin his audition.
In the conference room, there was a row of tables, and opposite them were the main creative staff of the production team: the director, two screenwriters, and also the producer, etc.
After a brief self-introduction, Kwon Xuanhe waited for the next instruction.
Director Kim Sang-seop looked at the young man in front of him, as if he had already prepared what to ask.
"Perform a scene from the character's script. You can choose any part."
It's well-known that in Korea, dramas are often filmed while being written, but this drama is a webtoon adaptation, and the plot still follows the main framework of the webtoon, which made it more convenient for Kwon Xuanhe to prepare for the audition.
Kwon Xuanhe took a deep breath and chose a scene he had carefully prepared.
The process of Bai Jing awakening from the webtoon, breaking the fourth wall, realizing that he is also a pre-set character, and questioning the male lead.
He acted as if he was facing an invisible enemy, performing convincingly to the empty air.
"Who exactly are you?"
"I asked who you are? Haru?"
"What do you mean 'change of scene'? Can't I remember? Don't joke with me, speak clearly, kid."
During his performance, the three main creative staff sitting opposite him nodded occasionally, looking at each other and conversing in low voices.
This drama is an idol drama; naturally, those with excellent physical conditions should be used. Frankly, acting skills only need to be sufficient. No one will comment on the acting in an idol drama with an entirely new cast.
"Please tell us your understanding of the character."
After he finished performing, a screenwriter asked.
Kwon Xuanhe answered fluently. He had read too many web novels and similar materials, so he understood this kind of setting perfectly.
"I believe the character's charm mainly lies in the later stages, with the contrast after awakening, and the process of Bai Jing re-pursuing the female lead. There's a lot of chemistry in between."
"A somewhat rude and unreasonable but gradually awakening troubled youth."
Kwon Xuanhe had an advantage; through his sixth sense, he knew how this character should be played, what it would look like, knew the online reviews, and had all sorts of information at his fingertips. If he still couldn't do well, he might as well just bash his head against a wall and die.
His understanding of the character was very correct, and his summary was excellent.
Both screenwriters nodded.
"Go back and build a stronger foundation."
Director Kim Sang-seop finally concluded the audition.
After Kwon Xuanhe finished his audition, he called Park Zhengting.
"The audition is over?"
Park Zhengting seemed to have expected it and asked him proactively.
"Just finished. It felt pretty good."
"How was your first audition?"
Park Zhengting's influence was enough to secure the male lead's best friend role in such a small-budget idol drama; the audition was basically just a formality.
"It wasn't difficult."
Kwon Xuanhe felt good about himself and thought there were no problems.
"Why do you say the audition shouldn't involve some kind of unspoken rule?"
Kwon Xuanhe said so.
He has a high tolerance for unspoken rules. This 'unspoken rule' doesn't refer to sex, but rather more to exchanges of interests, networking, capital dominance, and many other aspects.
If the unspoken rule was only about sex, wouldn't it mean whoever was more willing to sell their body would become more famous?
But is that the reality?
Things are not that simple; if it were only about sex, then things would actually be simpler.
He had already prepared himself mentally for entering the entertainment industry.
"You should be glad you have me, your uncle."
Seeing him speak so bluntly and matter-of-factly, Park Zhengting couldn't help but feel that his decision was correct once again.
Kwon Xuanhe really should enter the entertainment industry and stir things up.