Hearing the long response from Do Hwan, Joon-won once again felt his brain go blank for a second. He didn’t respond for another 5 minutes as his brain just blacked out. Seeing that Joon-won went silent, Do Hwan said.

[Alright, then Joon-won. I’ll have to go now. Think carefully about what I just said right now. Sit on it for some time before getting back to me. But also remember Joon-won. Even the present offers might get retracted because of your delays. The movie crews just can’t wait for long for a rookie. Ok, I have things to do, bye.] and the phone call finally ended as the phone dropped out of his hand while Joon-won slept on the grass, looking at the blue sky.

Time passed by and after another 10 minutes of blankly staring at the sky, his eyes regained some focus as he took a deep breath before exhaling it completely. He slowly got up and leaned on the tree while plucking the grass a bit as his thoughts slowly formed once again. 

The more he thought, the more he understood the underlying meaning of Do Hwan’s long message over the phone. The bottom line was that he was a no-named small-time actor with very little to no fame in his name. He was a nobody with no connections. His family wasn’t as big as Hea-Jung to get a very nice role for a debut. He was at the literal end. He slowly once again came to the realization that he was Kim Joon-won, not Zhen Su, the world-famous actor. So, he no longer had any power to choose his next character or script. 

‘I am a nobody and even with all the support I am getting Do Hwan with these small roles, I am still acting almighty trying to be the chooser. I have no right to be the chooser. If I didn’t even have Do Hwan or Hea-Jung’s support, I probably wouldn’t even have a role under my belt. I need to get my shit together and start acting smarter than I am now. As Do Hwan said at the end, these film crews won’t wait for me to go to an audition. There are many people out there who would be glad to take even a small role like that. Let’s keep our head down and get to work. I am right where I started. It is going to be long but hopefully a fulfilling ride.’ as he slapped his cheeks hard enough to make both his hands and cheeks red with a smile on his face.

[Wow, what a realization. Looks like the week started as rough as it could ever have . I thought you would slowly realize these things, given that you faced many things in your old life, after the number of things you saw as a young man and as a king. But it looks like the sudden freedom to chase your dream has clouded your judgment and could only wake you up by two rude awakenings, one a conversation with Min-Seok and another right now. I guess you are just like everyone.]

The ever silent system suddenly came out with a sarcastic remark. But even after hearing its very sarcastic remarks, Joon-won couldn’t say anything about it. He would normally retort, but his mind was just stuck as he looked back into the week. It’s only been 3 days and these 3 days were the toughest he had faced. 

His mouth slowly opened as he muttered, “Then why did you not at least point me in a direction? I thought you would help me make useful suggestions on my journey. That has what you said when you initially introduced yourself.”

[I am a Guidance system. I am here to help you make the right choice when you are stuck, and I have done that a handful of times already. But I am not your nanny to point out your problems. Especially not to you, a person who has quite some experience with the stuff. So just shut up. I will do my part when you need it. The last thing I need is a delusional person to tell me about how I should run my thing. I am only a side character, nothing more. I will pop up when needed. It is you who has to do and realize the majority of the stuff. Now don’t disturb me again. Now before I go, I highly suggest you take the role in script no.3. It will do you good. Again, it depends on you.]

Then it went completely silent as the system went silent. Joon-won now could only take another deep breath as he realized how much deep delusion he was in. Even though he acted normal and was completely fine, it was still very different. The old Zhen Su would have never done the mistakes he had. He would have probably worked even harder to get roles and try to at least attempt stuff. But as the system said, this new freedom in this completely different world changed him. He was far more relaxed when this was supposed to be the last moment in his life to be relaxed. He was yet to enter the prime age of his life and so he had to start grinding now to utilize his prime much more efficiently. 

As he continued to be in his thoughts, he felt his phone ring and noticed it was Min-Seok calling him. He slowly stood up and closed his eyes while facing towards the sky before murmuring to himself.

“Let these past few months be the past. I need to now change and get things going so that I have the future I hoped I would. It said Script 3, right? Let’s see what this script is actually about tonight.” he opened his eyes and made his way towards the dorm building. He reached there and noticed the three. 

Min-Seok noticed him and called out, “Joon-won, come here. Let’s go and have lunch now. Gah Soo, you should join us too.” as he turned towards Gah Soo.

But this time Gah Soo shook her head as she declined his kind offer before telling her she already had plans to attend with a friend soon and she had to be going. Min-Seok nodded as he and Yun-hee thanked her before they separated. 

Min-Seok turned towards Joon-won before asking, “So what did you do until now? It looks like you were nearby, too.” Joon-won just replied he slept under a tree as the three of them walked out of the campus. He decided to take them to ramen near his university, which was a couple of minutes away in the cab. They reached the shop and all three of them ordered their food. 

As they waited for their food, Min-Seok looked at Joon-won, who closed his eyes before asking, “Is there any problem Joon-won? You seem a bit off.” 

Joon-won could only shake his head, reassuring him everything was fine, and before Min-Seok could say anything, their ramen arrived and everyone dug in. Min-Seok paid for the ramen and they went back to Yun-hee’s university to drop her off. 

As they arrived back at her campus and in front of her dorm building, she immediately hugged Min-Seok tightly before she slowly cried a bit. Min-Seok could only laugh at how his tough daughter was acting at the last moment. He slowly hugged her back before saying.

“It’s going to be alright. I mean, you can always call me or your brother to pick you up and if you feel this is not for you and you can’t stay here, you can always come back home. So do not worry now. Everything is going to be alright. Do you want to take a couple more days to join? We can do that.” 

She quickly shook her head as she wiped off a few tears that were built before turning towards Joon-won. Joon-won just patted her head with a smile before saying, “You can call me anytime and come crash at my house. I told you, I always have my couch empty for you. Ok?” She just slapped his hand away before she looked at both of them for one more time as she turned around and walked into the building. 

Joon-won looked at Min-Seok before saying with a smile, “Now why are you crying? Do you want to call her back?”

Min-Seok slapped his back before saying, “Stop the nonsense. Let’s go back now. I need to still get in time to my bus. We only have 3 hours till my bus time.” as he turned around.

****************************

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