He looked at her with a small smile and said while pointing at the edge of the stage, “You should get going. Your scene is coming up again. Don’t waste time here thinking unnecessary stuff.” Her eyes widened as she stood up.
She turned around and said, “Don’t think you will get away from me before answering that question. I’ll be back.” And then made her way towards the edge.
The drama continued as he walked back on stage one more time for his next part with the teacher’s character. Acting the same way again, he noticed Hea-Jung’s and the special judge’s gaze fixed on him as if he was their favorite toy. He couldn’t stand their gazes and walked back after his part was done.
The drama continued and finally ended. All the actors walked onto the stage with the ‘director and screenwriter’ Roh Ji in the middle and the main actors beside her. He stood at the end, where it was almost impossible to see. All of them were waiting for remarks from the Judges. Most of the audience had already exited except a few parents who were eager to hear the remarks and crazy people who had too much time in their hands like Hea-jung.
Needless to say, all of them had an expectant look on their faces while waiting for praise from the producers in the middle as they looked at the judging table. There were three judges. Apart from the producer, the Vice-dean and the teacher who taught them the basics of acting when he first arrived in the world.
The Vice-dean was the same man who identified and gave Jung0hwa her role. While all three of them were looking at the stage, he noticed the general dissatisfaction on all of their faces. The Vice-dean gave a nod of approval to Jung-hwa before his face went blank.
“Now, I’ll start first then and then your teacher followed by our special guest Mr.Hwan.” The Vice-dean was the first to break the silence as he looked at the other judges and both of them agreed to his suggestion.
“Let me be blunt. The drama is bad. The story writing is bad and seeing here it seems like the writer is actually Roh Ji? Don’t ever try to write a story for a movie ever again. It’s bad.” He was as blunt as he could be. Joon-won was surprised a little when he remembered something Jung-hwa told him during their private sessions.
“Joon-won, the Vice-dean is really a nice guy. I asked about him and heard he is hated by many professors and the other Vice-dean too. I head he is very sincere when it comes to acting and you know isn’t like the teachers and other Vice-dean here.” She murmured, even though they were in a closed room.
He looked at the Vice-dean and thought what she said was true. It was no secret around the university that the students could bribe their way through their life there. The teachers and even the other vice-dean were corrupt. No one saw the dean, and so most of the powers were in the hands of the two deans.
He noticed Roh Ji’s pale face and her trembling body. She was one of the people who boasted the most about getting into the Star Batch, and she looked down on many people because of that. Now that the Vice-dean was straightforward with the story writing and how bad it was, she hated him. She bribed all the teachers and got top scores.
She would have gotten top scores even in this exam if it was the other Vice-dean instead of the old man before them.
The Vice-dean completely disregarded her feelings and continued, “Now the actors,” making everyone a little stiff, including famous Hyeong Myung.
“Most of your acting skills need improvement but it’s on the right track. I wouldn’t say it’s up to the standard of where it should originally be at your age, so I’m disappointed in that. Now the main leads, both were good but I don’t understand why did you both get the part of the lead even when there are better actors in this group. Overall, the drama is barely qualified to pass.” Ending his comments.
Now, most of the actor’s faces were pale along with Roh Ji’s, especially the two main actors. It looked like the proud Hyeong Myung. He looked like he was about to spit out blood from the comment he just got. He bloated and acted as the king of the class thinking how good-looking he was and was above the rest cause his family was richer than the rest. So he naturally believed he had the best acting skills.
Luckily there weren’t many people left to gear those harsh comments coming out the vice dean’s mouth. Joon-won could clearly see that the one who was having the most fun was Hea-jung with a popcorn bucket in her hand holding in her laughter. He got puzzled seeing the bucket of popcorn and wondered where the crazy girl got it from.
Next was their teacher. The middle-aged man looked at all of them with a smile and said, “All of you did better than I expected. Of course, you all are still experienced and could improve further. Roh Ji your story writing was ok but it could do better. The actors you guys outdid yourself and I’m impressed. That’s all from me.”
His comments were clearly partial, and everyone in the class knew people bribed him. So his comments were rather far from the actual truth. The special guest who didn’t know this raised an eyebrow but kept silent meanwhile Vice-dean still had his neutral face going, ignoring him.
Now everyone’s eyes were on the man in the middle of the table, wearing a suit. He had a clean-cut and a shaved face. Pushing up his glasses, he opened his mouth for his remark.
“The whole drama was so bad I wanted to puke.”