The Genius Actor Who Brings Misfortune

Translator: Marctempest
Editor: Rynfinity

Chapter: 8

‘Tomorrow, this misfortune factor will transfer to this person! Around 2 PM? Their clothes will get dirty. This time, it’s relatively minor!’

Indeed, the Mist said that someone would suffer the misfortune of having their clothes dirtied around 2 PM today.

The appearance shown by the Mist was exactly the same as the person I had just seen.

Although I didn’t know exactly how their clothes would get dirty, I suspected it would likely be either from falling while looking around the garden or spilling a drink.

So, I completely ruled out the garden tour, and since there was no way to prevent a drink spill, I watched as closely as I could.

However, the person just drove away in a neat suit.

‘Was it really from falling in the garden?’

I had never so easily prevented someone else’s misfortune before, so I felt bewildered.

It was fortunate that no accident happened, but I was standing there with an inexplicable sense of unease.

“Hey, kid.”

I turned around at the sudden call to find the reporter who had come to take photos today.

“Yes, what is it?”

“I have something to ask you, and I’m not a weird person.”

The man rummaging through his pockets looked sufficiently strange.

I tried not to show my wariness and kept a close watch on his hands, but fortunately, he pulled out a rectangular piece of paper.

“I’m actually not a reporter but a freelance photographer. Would you be interested in appearing in a drama?”

“…Excuse me?”

The unexpected words made me slow to respond.

“A drama?”

“Yeah. Actually, I do a bit of everything, and I’m working with a drama team. We need a child extra, and the lines aren’t long. It won’t be more than two sentences.”

“Oh…”

“Don’t feel pressured. Just do it for fun. Of course, you need a guardian’s permission, so talk to the director and if you’re interested, contact me at this number.”

I couldn’t answer easily and just stared at the business card I received.

The man, having a lot to say, rattled on.

“The shoot is next week, and the director is insistent on naturalness, so they don’t want to hire actors. Oh, sorry. Didn’t mean to curse.”

“It’s okay.”

“Anyway, I don’t know the details, but it shouldn’t be difficult. They said it’s a bright character, and you seemed perfect for it today.”

“Oh, thank you.”

“Heh, alright. If you’re interested, give me a call. You worked hard today. Are you tired? Your energy seems different from earlier.”

The man repeated his request to call him two more times before leaving.

By then, only Director Yoo and I were left, as the kids had run outside.

“Yeon-jae, you did well. Are you very tired?”

“No. You worked hard too, Director Yoo.”

My mind was confused, but I looked at Director Yoo while trying to keep my expression as composed as possible.

Seeing her face full of things to say, I waited quietly for her to continue.

“Yeon-jae, I have something to ask you.”

“Yes.”

Director Yoo repeatedly opened and closed her mouth as if unsure how to start.

“Your behavior in front of the executive earlier… it was very different from your usual self.”

“Yes. I thought he’d like it if I acted a bit brighter.”

For some reason, the director’s frown deepened.

“Yeon-jae, acting a bit brighter and acting like a completely different person are different things. Also, saying you like hot chocolate was a lie.”

“Ah… No, I didn’t mean to lie. I’m sorry.”

“I’m not saying you did something wrong….”

Director Yoo hesitated for a moment before finally saying, “Let’s talk about this later.”

I quietly watched as she turned and walked towards her office.

Even after that, the misfortunes Mist had predicted did not occur until I fell asleep.

* * *

“Yeon-jae!!”

“Oh, you scared me. Why—”

“What did you do?! What did you do!!”

As soon as I opened my eyes, I was confronted by Mist, who was so agitated he couldn’t even breathe properly.

Seeing him unable to answer my question and just repeating the same thing over and over, I wondered what was going on with him.

“Calm down for a moment and take a breath. I have a lot to ask you too.”

“Are you talking about the misfortune not happening?!”

“Yeah, that. What’s going on?”

I asked as calmly as possible, though I was worried that something might have gone wrong.

I hoped Mist would calm down a little.

Of course, it didn’t help at all.

But when I heard what he said next, I couldn’t help but be surprised too.

“All your misfortune factors disappeared for a moment!”

“What? What are you talking about?”

“I’m telling you, all your misfortune factors were gone! I don’t know what happened either. What did you do?!”

What could I have done?

I was still shocked by Mist’s agitated voice, something I had never heard before.

The fact that all my misfortune factors had disappeared was certainly surprising, but what concerned me more was Mist’s pale face.

“Is it really that big of a deal? Just calm down for now.”

“Do you think I can calm down? You had some kind of… Wow, I still get chills!”

“Energy?”

Didn’t he say before that my energy couldn’t be seen because it was covered by the misfortune factors?

Oh, so he saw it for the first time when they all disappeared.

“What’s wrong? Is my energy that bad?”

If the misfortune factors were so densely attached to it, the energy itself must have been terrible.

It was easy to guess since he had already explained it to me, but seeing Mist, who always smiled, so pale meant it was worse than I imagined.

‘Not that I can see it anyway….’

I waited for Mist to calm down for a long time, but seeing no signs of it, I sat down on the floor.

If Mist was right, there was nothing I could do to change my energy.

I didn’t know what form the energy took, but even if my energy looked ominous like sticky tar, there was nothing I could do about it.

I just wanted to ask why the misfortune factors disappeared.

“Your energy was really, seriously, wow! It was amazing!”

“I get it. It was that terrible?”

“What are you talking about? It was the brightest I’ve ever seen!”

What?

I looked up, surprised by the unexpected response, while sitting in the chair Mist had conjured for me despite his agitation.

“I still can’t believe it. That brightness… And the smell, it was so captivating for a moment!”

His voice was filled with excitement, as if he couldn’t contain himself.

“I’ve seen the energies of many humans, but I’ve never seen one as pleasant as yours! Even though I only saw it for a moment, I can’t forget it!”

“You only saw it for a moment? You can’t see it now?”

“Yeah! Now it’s covered by the misfortune factors again. Just like before!”

I closed my mouth as I watched him bounce around like a child, overjoyed.

After waiting a while longer, I saw his excited face calm down a bit and then spoke.

“Mist. Can I ask you something now?”

“Yes! Ah~ I feel so good! Hehe!”

“I’m glad. But listening to you, some things don’t add up.”

Mist stopped bouncing around and looked at me, sensing my calm tone.

“Why are you like this again….”

“I’m not saying you did anything wrong, but you said that factors stick to the energy based on the light and smell it emits, right?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“I’ve always had misfortune factors stuck to me without a gap. But if my energy was that bright and good, it doesn’t make sense that the misfortune factors were so densely attached, does it?”

“Uh, I don’t know about that either!”

“…Seriously, what do you even know?”

Finally giving up on being kind, I gritted my teeth, and Mist flinched before making excuses.

“No one ever told me either! I just figured it out over a long time…. But it’s true that factors stick according to the energy!”

“Then why do misfortune factors stick to my energy if there’s nothing wrong with it?”

“I don’t know exactly, but….”

When I sighed in frustration, Mist quickly added.

“I couldn’t see clearly, but there was something attached next to your energy!”

“What was it?”

“It looked like a black stone… Actually, I didn’t see it clearly because the misfortune factors weren’t gone for long….”

“Do you know why the misfortune factors disappeared?”

Mist was silent, indicating no.

He looked so small and pitiful, like a helpless animal, that I felt like a heartless person for even asking.

I would have felt better if he had thrown a tantrum. Seeing him like that, I couldn’t say anything more.

“Sigh, I wasn’t trying to scold you. I was just frustrated, sorry.”

“No! It’s okay!”

As I apologized first, feeling uneasy, Mist regained his energy and smiled brightly.

Then he spent the next hour explaining how bright my energy was and how good it smelled.

The description was so detailed it could be presented in a thesis, but I couldn’t hide my discomfort at the ongoing praise.

He kept saying, “Your smell is so good,” so I begged him to add “energy” in front of it.

“Why did the misfortune factors really disappear? I was so surprised when they suddenly fell off!”

“Do you know exactly when they fell off?”

“Yes! It was when a person who looked like this talked to you!”

As soon as he finished speaking, Mist transformed into Choi Sang-hoon.

When did I talk to Choi Sang-hoon today? It was in the morning… Yeah, his reaction was strange then.

“I thought Sang-hoon’s reaction was strange too. Did he feel something?”

“Humans can’t sense the flow of factors or energy! Didn’t you do something at that moment?”

“I didn’t do anything special. At that moment, I was just thinking….”

I trailed off as I spoke.

At that moment, I was thinking, ‘I am Park Ha-eun.’

I was murmuring it to myself over and over, worried about making a mistake right before moving.

When I mentioned what I had been thinking, Mist’s eyes sparkled as he listened.

He pondered in silence for a while before suddenly opening his eyes wide.

“Yeon-jae! Could it be camouflage?”

“Camouflage? You mean like the organ inside the body?”

“No, idiot! Not that! The thing animals do. Like how lizards change their skin color!”

Camouflage.

[The act of animals changing their color or shape to resemble their surroundings to avoid predators.]

I recalled something I had read in a zoology book.

Camouflage, huh. It could be interpreted similarly.

So if I thought and acted like someone else—

“The misfortune factors got confused for a moment, thinking you were someone else, and fell off!”

Mist finished his sentence, looking triumphant as if he had shouted the correct answer in a quiz competition.

Anyone would think he was a national representative at a competition. Well, still….

“It makes sense.”

Though the basis was flimsy, it was the most plausible theory under the current circumstances.

“Right! Wow, how could this happen! Just by thinking, the misfortune factors fell off on their own! You are really amazing, so cool!”

Mist laughed brightly, as if he found this incredibly fun.

When Mist asked what I was going to do next, I answered simply.

“What else?”

Now that we had a hypothesis, it was time to test it.