Chapter 136. The Youngest Member of Elephant Theater Company
[Title: 2/10]
[Web Message]
[Civil Defense Online Notice]
[View Notice: www.dprkarmy.co.kr]
They send civil defense notices this carelessly?
I followed the link.
This time, there were three videos again.
The first thumbnail showed several people gathered on a stage talking.
The second was some kind of filming set, with an unfamiliar man who seemed to be playing the lead role.
The third showed a drinking party at a floor-seating restaurant.
I didn't recognize anyone in any of them.
Should I watch the filming-set video?
No.
I needed to be more careful this time.
I could only watch one of the three.
The filming-set image looked like the best opportunity, but even if Serin got another acting offer right now, she wouldn't take it.
Then the drinking party?
A drinking party sounded like the sort of place where all kinds of information might come out.
Still, drunk people's conversations were usually incoherent.
And even if the spam had chosen it because some important conversation happened there, I didn't get the feeling it would dump several pieces of high-value information on me at once.
I chose the first video.
For some reason, I had a feeling that place was Elephant Theater Company before it went under.
Since I hadn't been able to watch the deleted video, I had no idea when the theater company would fail.
But this way, I might learn why it failed, and as a bonus, what its failure had to do with me.
I played the video.
"That bastard Woong-jae. His acting was only so-so, but damn, could he sing. But that bastard cared way too much about money. When he said he was going to do trot, I seriously thought he was joking."
"Still, he succeeded, didn't he? Didn't he blow up through 〈Street Trot Fighter〉?"
"He did. He got famous from that, then immediately used the popularity to go on 〈Mask Singer〉 and even became Mask King. You think someone that talented didn't stand out here too? That's why nobody said anything even when he worked the younger ones half to death. His vocal foundation was basically cheating. Even if he acted exactly like a textbook, the moment he opened his mouth, your ears cleared right up."
"Come on. His acting was decent too."
"Who said he was bad? I'm saying he was good enough, just not extraordinary. Anyway, when that bastard was here, nobody could touch him. So you kids should know how easy you have it. If Woong-jae were still here, you wouldn't even be allowed to join a conversation with us like this."
The video had been recorded on April 16, 2025.
Judging by the early hour, they seemed to be doing morning cleaning.
While the people in the video talked, younger-looking members wiped down different parts of the stage or swept beneath the audience seats.
It was a small theater with roughly fifty seats.
If this really was Elephant Theater Company, then at least it wouldn't close down before April of next year.
Still...
Woong-jae.
Lee Woong-jae had supposedly worked the "kids" half to death.
Just watching the seniors stand around chatting while juniors cleaned was enough to tell me what kind of culture they had.
And even these people thought Lee Woong-jae had gone too far?
Then he probably hit them quite a bit too.
I kept watching.
"How bad was he? Was Lee Woong-jae really that awful?"
One of the juniors asked.
As he spoke, he turned on the recorder app on the phone tucked into his back pocket.
He was up to something.
When I looked closely, I realized he was the same actor I'd seen as the apparent lead in the thumbnail for the other video.
For now, I focused on the footage.
"What? 'Lee Woong-jae'? Is that bastard your friend?"
"S-Sorry."
"This! This is the kind of thing you couldn't do when that bastard was here! If he didn't like something, he'd slap you first. He'd smoke inside the small theater, then put the cigarette out on a junior's back. If ash fell from the cigarette he was smoking, he'd immediately gather all the younger kids and tear into them again. I was lucky I joined the company at the same time as him. Otherwise... he was a demon. A complete demon."
Ah.
That was a bit much.
It hadn't happened yet, but even so, I felt bad for them.
Those juniors were probably still working there right now.
It looked like I needed to visit and hear the details for myself.
"Check the theater schedule before you go~!"
A man's booming voice echoed like karaoke reverb as he shouted without looking up from his phone.
I searched Elephant Theater Company online and came to the area near Marronnier Park.
The company was tucked deep inside an alley in Hyehwa-dong near a walking path.
The sign was still hanging.
I headed downstairs toward Elephant Theater Company.
Through the slightly open door, I could see the exact place where the future conversation had happened.
I'd met plenty of trainees who said they'd come from theater companies.
So this was the kind of place they'd worked in.
I already knew who I was looking for.
The junior who had deliberately baited his senior into insulting Lee Woong-jae and immediately started recording it.
The same junior actor who, in the near future, would become successful enough to play a lead role on a filming set.
Just as I was about to open the door, the ticket-booth window on the opposite wall slid open.
The person who stuck his head out was that exact junior from the video.
"Are you here to buy a ticket? We're not selling them yet. Don't tell me the schedule's already up online?"
"No. It isn't."
I handed him my business card.
"I'm Do Jun-hyeok from Universe. I'm casting actors right now. Could we talk for a moment?"
"Actors? Oh. Universe. Yeah, it is the Universe I know."
The junior examined my business card as though it were some strange object.
Then he said,
"Go inside. Rehearsal just ended, so all the actors are resting."
So casting here followed seniority too?
I'd approached Jung Woon-young in Guro in a similar way before, and it had worked reasonably well.
I shook my head.
"No. I came because I liked your acting. Sorry, but what's your name?"
"What? Me?"
He looked genuinely surprised that I'd seen him act.
No, not just surprised.
Almost shocked.
Was he exaggerating his emotions because he was an actor?
"I'm Son Min-woo. But there's no way you've seen me act. I'm just ensemble."
"Ensemble?"
Basically the musical-theater equivalent of a backup dancer.
Someone who mostly sang in choruses and danced in group choreography, with maybe a named role but at most one line.
A small theater production had ensemble members too?
I looked through the doorway again.
Beyond the audience seats where the actors were cleaning, the stage looked surprisingly large.
It seemed much wider than the seating area itself.
"Exactly. Ensemble. That's what impressed me. You know we mainly manage idol groups, right? It's the same when I recruit actors. Whether you had a lot of dialogue or barely any doesn't matter. Lines are just something everyone does when they're told to."
"Really? Hm... I don't know about that. You are Universe, right? This is starting to feel a little scammy."
Harder to handle than Jung Woon-young.
"A scam? You know how difficult it is to shine even in that kind of position, don't you, Min-woo?"
"Still, saying anyone can act well if you give them lines is a little..."
"Then was my eye wrong? Are you the kind of person who'd fail if I gave you a good role? You can't handle dialogue?"
Apparently not.
Min-woo shook his head.
Of course.
Wasn't he putting up with menial work in a place like this because he wanted better roles and actual lines?
I told him he didn't have to decide anything immediately.
We could simply talk.
"I don't know when it'll happen, but our goal is to eventually create our own theater company. Produce original plays, rent large theaters, put on proper productions. Obviously, not right away."
"Really?"
"Yes. You know actor Kim Min-jun, right? Kim Min-jun and Kim Serin become your colleagues. For now, you'd start with individual acting work, gradually build your skill and popularity, and later we'd recruit more actors and stage large-scale musicals."
Min-woo stopped arguing.
He was starting to waver.
"If this place did something like Les Misérables, they'd never let you play Jean Valjean, right? The seniors would take every lead and supporting role, then push the juniors into ensemble. No matter how skilled you are. Isn't that how it works? But if Jean Valjean suits you, I'll let you play Jean Valjean."
"I'd rather play Javert than Jean Valjean..."
"Right, Javert. Now that you mention it, Javert suits you. Nice."
Min-woo completely pulled his head out of the ticket window and glanced around several times.
Then he abruptly pushed the door shut behind him.
"Why'd you close it?"
When I asked, Min-woo lowered his voice to a whisper.
"Let's go outside and talk for a minute."
Kim Min-jun was good at finding his own roles.
He was basically like real estate that paid rent reliably every month.
As long as the agency didn't ask him to do anything bizarre, he was satisfied with his current life.
Serin was taking a break from acting and would focus only on group activities for a while.
I'd already been ignoring acting offers anyway.
Bringing in Son Min-woo wouldn't suddenly make me much busier.
"Haa... Sorry, but would it be rude if I smoked in front of you?"
"Ah, not at all. Go ahead."
Once we stepped outside Elephant Theater Company, Son Min-woo took out a cigarette and lit it.
"The problem is, if I leave this place, I'll keep running into those seniors."
"Come on. Why would that matter? I heard Lee Woong-jae, who's doing great on 〈Street Trot Fighter〉 these days, used to belong to a theater company too."
I tested him immediately, just in case.
Min-woo gave a hollow laugh when he heard Lee Woong-jae's name, then put the cigarette back between his lips.
"Lee Woong-jae came from Elephant Theater Company too."
"Really?"
"Yeah. I never personally experienced it, but I heard the abuse and hazing were terrible... That's not the important part, though. Anyway, by the time he entered that trot program, he was already the highest-ranking person here. Meaning nobody could steal an opportunity from him."
Then under normal circumstances, would the offer I was making Son Min-woo now get stolen by someone else?
Was that even possible?
I wasn't casting from the theater company itself.
"If I get cast somewhere, then to the seniors, I'm the selfish junior who lurked inside their company waiting for an opportunity, then ignored them the moment one showed up."
"Then I guess we need to crush the Elephant Theater Company seniors first."
My explosive remark visibly startled Son Min-woo.
"Crush them?"
"What's the best way... Ah. That abuse you mentioned earlier. Could you introduce me to someone who can explain it in more detail?"
Min-woo moved his lips as though deep in thought, then took another drag from his cigarette.
"What exactly can you do for them?"
My guess was that although I didn't yet know the details of the abuse, there were only two reasons someone would stay in the company after going through it.
One.
They had nowhere else to go.
Or two.
They believed the abuse was still worth enduring.
For the second group, they probably clung to the vague hope that if they slowly climbed from ensemble to lead roles and kept performing, someone might eventually discover and cast them.
Then all I had to do was fulfill that hope.
First, I could have them appear as anonymous guests on Aran's 〈Aran, Do You Know or Not?〉.
Naturally, we'd blur their faces.
We wouldn't mention Lee Woong-jae's real name either.
We'd simply talk at length about this kind of abuse in the theater world and build up some so-called energy around the issue.
Then, right before Serin's Mask King match began, we'd reveal the real names and start beating Lee Woong-jae and the senior members of Elephant Theater Company directly.
Serin was supposedly going to lose the Mask King match anyway.
If I knocked Lee Woong-jae down beforehand, Serin could succeed in her second title defense, and Son Min-woo could come over to my side without fear.
"Then I guess I'll have to contact some of the seniors who worked in the company with Lee Woong-jae but already quit acting."
