Selena barely heard Ilya muttering very softly to himself, grumbling about somebody not calling him. She was curious about the person's identity who had the audacity to do that.

{Some guy who only texts.}

Needless to say, the person Ilya was referring to was Woo-Jin.

After they were done evaluating the seventh candidate, the name of the next candidate, Tenno Terua, was heard through the speaker. And the ninth and final candidate was none other than Woo-Jin.

After passing the first round of the auditions, Woo-Jin informed Ilya that he would not be calling him for the time being until the final round was over. After that, he only sent him a few texts from time to time to give his regards, and even after he arrived in LA, he merely sent a text message to let him know of his arrival.

As Ilya was a judge, Woo-Jin deliberately kept a distance from him to prevent people from spreading unnecessary gossip. When Woo-Jin told Ilya he didn’t want people talking about unfounded speculations on how he passed the auditions because of his personal connection with Ilya, the latter had a good laugh. He was very curious as to whether Woo-Jin said it out of confidence or naivety, and he was finally able to confirm it today.

{He’s bi-racial, but his pronunciation was a little off.}

When Terua had finished acting out his part, Ilya evaluated his acting as though he had been waiting to do so. Terua was rather good-looking, but even though he was speaking in English, there were some words Ilya couldn’t understand.

{Even though he’s bi-racial, his mother is French, and he was born and raised in Japan.}

{I thought his accent was rather unique. So there’s a tinge of French accent thrown into the mix. It would’ve been better if he had acted in Japanese. What a pity.}

{He’s good at acting out emotional outbursts. But in terms of acting out a normal everyday situation, there are times when he gets overly emotional. More importantly, the biggest issue with him is his strange accent, which is a mixture of both Japanese and French.}

That was the biggest reason Selena had removed Tenno Terua from the list of shortlisted candidates handpicked by her secretary. Terua showed an emotional performance today. He knew very well that it was his strength. For people like Ilya who weren’t aware of Terua’s usual acting style, it would appear to be a good performance that would likely receive a high score.

Nevertheless, the issue with Terua was his strange English pronunciation. It simply wasn’t good enough for them to cast him in an American film. And thus, he was ultimately eliminated.

{Next up, Chae Woo-Jin.}

{It’s not Chae –– it’s Choi.}

{I beg your pardon?}

{It’s Choi. A few days ago, he announced that he would be using Choi Woo-Jin as his stage name from now on. It’s been rectified on his application form too.}

Ilya showed Selena the form that was in front of him. She didn’t know as she mindlessly skimmed through the form, but his last name was certainly rectified. However, judging from what Ilya said earlier, it didn’t seem like he knew about it from the form itself. He either heard it from Woo-Jin himself or someone else, but both options didn’t seem plausible considering his personality.

Selena instantly knew which actor Ilya liked. She didn’t know how it happened, but the movie production was ultimately able to proceed smoothly because of Chae Woo-Jin. Knowing that all too well, Selena was glad she wasn’t a judge. Since she knew how Ilya felt, if she had been a judge, she would have certainly found it hard to evaluate Choi Woo-Jin objectively.

On the other hand, she felt it was unfortunate at the same time because she wouldn’t have to worry about what to do if he were to fail the audition.

***

After Christopher Eggers was done with his audition, he left the venue via the door he entered from instead of the exit. He bumped into Tenno Terua, whose name had just been called. He instantly wiped his shoulder with a handkerchief that had bumped into Tenno Terua as though something dirty had touched him.

Terua was so caught up in the audition that he failed to notice this as he was in a hurry to get inside. Christopher momentarily stared at his back view and gnashed his teeth for no reason.

{Those dirty yellow monkeys climbed all the way up here without knowing their place.}

Woo-Jin was waiting for his turn with his eyes closed. He opened his eyes when he heard those words coming from in front of him. With reddish-brown hair and black eyes, Christopher was looking down at him with a scornful look in his eyes.

{A white monkey isn’t clean either.}

Woo-Jin crossed his arms and legs and made a sarcastic remark.

{What the hell did you just say?}

{You stink.}

{What?}

{Your mouth and body stink. Do you not take a shower? You dirty bastard.}

With his arms still folded, Woo-Jin tilted his head and looked up at Christopher. His eyes were filled with pity and disgust. Unlike Christopher's baseless, racist remarks, Woo-Jin was looking at him as though he was filthy and disgusting. Christopher subconsciously checked to see if he actually had a body odor; he paused what he was doing and snarled.

{You’re lying through your teeth! You Asian monkeys are always lying whenever you open your mouths anyway. And you’re so shameless at that. How dare you try to audition for Lloyd’s part with that skin color of yours? Brazen bastards.}

His voice was soft compared to the grim expression and menacing aura. His attitude was such because he knew his remarks were too inappropriate for others to hear. In other words, he was truly a despicable guy, who knew what he was doing was wrong, but still did it anyway.

{I’m paler than you.}

Christopher was briefly at a loss for words after hearing Woo-Jin’s short and bold rebuttal. He had eyes as well, so he knew for a fact that Woo-Jin had clearer and brighter skin compared to his flushed and tanned skin. Moreover, he couldn’t even find a single freckle on Woo-Jin’s face.

For today’s audition, instead of dressing up according to the actors’ own image of Lloyd, the candidates were asked to not wear any makeup. The restriction was placed to enable the judges to clearly look at their facial features and accurately verify if they had any scars and blemishes. Thus, Woo-Jin and Christopher were both bare-faced at the moment.

However, even though they were both not wearing any makeup, Woo-Jin’s bright and blemish-free face was so distinctly different from his own face that it was meaningless for him to find fault with his skin color. In fact, it seemed like it would backfire on him instead because of the possibility of being criticized for being worse than the Asian that he looked down on.

Since there were other people present, he couldn’t raise his voice. Nonetheless, simply walking away like that would hurt his pride, so he couldn’t tolerate it. Just then, Woo-Jin’s neat and luxurious outfit caught Christopher’s eye. Thinking he could use it against Woo-Jin, Christopher looked him up and down before mocking him.

{Is this your take on Lloyd? Indeed, when will such an opportunity come knocking on the door for someone like you? You want to use this opportunity to stand out in front of the director even if you fail, right? Oh my, what’s that black thing on your nails? You’re such a dirty bastard indeed.}

As Christopher talked, he noticed the dark red stain on Woo-Jin’s nails and burst out laughing.

{What’s the point of wearing the nicest clothes in your closet? You should thoroughly wash your nails.}

Despite being mocked by Christopher, Woo-Jin wasn’t bothered by him and proudly stroked his shirt instead.

{My outfit looks good, huh? I bought it at Fashion Town for 70 dollars just for today’s audition. As expected, it’s so well-designed that it looks just like a luxury suit, no?}

{You just keep lying, huh. How can it only be 70 dollars!}

Regardless of how Christopher looked at it, it looked just like a luxury suit from Italy, so he laughed at the absurdity of it all. Woo-Jin grinned after hearing what he said while fixing the hair around his ears with both hands. Woo-Jin then got up from his chair with a very satisfied look.

He was one centimeter taller than Christopher. Just like how a slight difference separates luxury goods from the rest, the one-centimeter height difference created a huge gap between the two of them. Looking directly into Woo-Jin’s eyes that were slightly looking down at him, Christopher was momentarily shocked and took a step back.

Up until now, he had been looking down at him from above; he had never looked straight into Woo-Jin’s eyes. Even when Woo-Jin closed his eyes or looked up, his eyes were covered by his eyelashes, so he couldn’t take a proper look at his eyes.

However, there was a playful and mischievous look in his eyes right now; he seemed like a lunatic whose emotions constantly fluctuated from being emotionally unstable. Unbridled emotions poured out of those eyes, and looking at them alone made him feel suffocated.

{This is why one shouldn't talk to people who don’t know anything about art. Where did you find these shabby clothes?}

Woo-Jin frowned because looking at Christopher wearing his white T-shirt and old jeans alone annoyed him.

{Shabby?! Do you know how much my clothes cost? A country bumpkin like you don’t even know what limited edition apparels are….}

As he was talking, Christopher shut his mouth halfway after seeing the look on Woo-Jin’s face. He was smiling so brightly at him with a smile so beautiful that it gave him goosebumps. Looking at it alone was breathtakingly fascinating, but he was afraid he would get devoured if he were to get too close.

He couldn’t understand how looking at one person could bring about emotions that were completely different.

{You’re very noisy. Like a frightened dog [1].}

{....}

{But you can’t bark anywhere. Or you’ll die.}

Woo-Jin whispered in Christopher’s ear as if he was telling him a secret no one else knew. He placed both hands into his pockets and shook his leg. He looked just like a total gangster. When he pulled his hand out of his pocket, it seemed like he had a gun in his hand, so as soon as Christopher subconsciously backed away, Woo-Jin took his hand out of his pocket and gently waved his empty hand.

{Don’t worry. How can a frail man like me beat up a bastard like you without any weapons? Isn’t that so? But I’m a little curious. If we meet again the next time around, will you still be breathing then?}

Christopher’s legs suddenly felt weak and wobbled when Woo-Jin said they would meet again if he was still alive, as though he was trying to leave a lasting impression on Christopher.

Rather than feeling frightened by Woo-Jin’s words, he was more focused on how the aura Woo-Jin exuded was truly like that of a murderer. The playfulness in his voice was terrifying –– he was taking murder so lightly, like a child enjoying playing a game.

Goosebumps started appearing on Christopher’s forearms, and his body began to tremble. He couldn’t swallow his spit, and the saliva pooling in his mouth started dripping from his mouth.

Just then, a staff member called out Woo-Jin’s name. In the brief moment when he glanced over at the employee before shifting his gaze back to Christopher, the aura surrounding Woo-Jin changed immediately.

{Looks like it’s my turn now. Thank you for talking to me. I managed to squeeze some practice in towards the end because of you.}

{Oh, what?}

Woo-Jin said a simple goodbye to the confused Christopher. He had turned into an entirely different person as he walked towards the audition hall. The murderer Christopher met earlier was nowhere to be found.

***

Woo-Jin stood in front of the judges as the final candidate of today’s audition. It might seem as though it was more advantageous for him because he had more time than the other actors, but there wasn’t a huge difference. Midas Agency had distributed the scripts solely used during the auditions among the actors at different times according to their numerical order. Therefore, the actors were given the same amount of time to read, practice, and memorize their lines.

He might have been given a little more time to contemplate things, but since he had already spent a lot of time worrying about the role, giving him just a few more hours didn’t change anything.

The audition hall was pretty much the same everywhere –– the judges sitting on their chairs, the camera, the employees that facilitated the audition process, as well as the space prepared for the actors to act out their scenes — nothing was that much different just because they were in a different country.

However, there was something special today.

A no. 20 canvas used for portraits and some painting tools were placed in the center of the audition hall. Judging by where they were placed, it was definitely a stage for them to act. As expected, as soon as the employee pointed to the front of the canvas, Woo-Jin stood in front of it and faced the judges.

{Choi Woo-Jin, you have read the script that was handed to you an hour ago, right?}

{Yes.}

{In that case, paint a portrait of Albert on the canvas behind you.}

{Albert?}

{You can just pretend to paint the portrait. We want to see you act out the circumstance that led to Lloyd doing a painting of Albert, as well as the process, so please act out that scene.}

They assigned him a task and asked him to act out the scene as he pleased.

As they handed him a script used solely for the audition, he assumed they would be evaluating based on the delivery of his lines within the script. But the script turned out to be a hoax.

Lloyd had the ability to take the color from a person’s body and use them like paint to recreate the exact same thing in his paintings. The color of other people’s hair, eyes, and blood was akin to paint, which he used to paint a picture. The unchanging colors were clearer and more vibrant than any paint and were truly beautiful. And the person from whom he took away their colors had their hair and skin turn white, just like Lloyd.

However, it wasn’t that important. Imprisoning a person’s soul within a painting was his truly amazing yet terrifying ability. And so, the soul of the first person Lloyd imprisoned within a painting belonged to his adoptive mother.

His soulful paintings emitted a strange aura. Depending on the backstory of the painting, looking at them made one feel fearful, sad, or happy, as though those emotions were flowing out of the painting. That was Lloyd’s unique way of painting, which nobody could imitate. Thus, people were crazy about his paintings.

That was why Lloyd never painted Albert, as he was afraid he would make the mistake of trapping his soul within the painting by accident.

Lloyd painting a portrait of Albert? Be it why it happened or the circumstances behind it, he had to imagine them all by himself without the help of a script and act it out.

As soon as he heard what Director Pharrell said, Woo-Jin took off his outerwear first. He removed his suit jacket, set it aside, and folded his sleeves three times. He then took off his shoes and stood barefoot in front of the canvas.

The canvas was new and clean, but looking at the damp brushes and paint splattered all over the floor, Woo-Jin could easily guess that the other actors also painted on the canvas. They were probably given the same assignment as Woo-Jin. It seemed like they were planning to judge the actors’ acting based on how they interpreted the same situation differently.

Woo-Jin didn’t think too much about it and squeezed a tube of red paint onto the palette. He was going to get himself into character and go into the situation thinking like Lloyd instead of coming up with a story like he did when he was improvising in the waiting room during his face-off with Christopher.

Woo-Jin dipped his brush in the red paint and quickly began to paint on the canvas. It was a portrait of a man painted with fast strokes that were void of any hesitation. Although it was painted with just one color, red, the light and shadows were well-painted such that anybody could quickly tell whose portrait it belonged to.

1. 개새끼 can refer to puppy/dog, but it can also mean son of a bitch. ☜