Chapter 211: She has a stronger personality than I thought.

That was not the end of it.

As threw himself into work at a construction site, reproducing the workers' movements and speech habits exactly.

As volunteered at an orphanage, smiling with the same soft, innocent brightness as the little children.

As. As. As.

None of them were As.

He was merely the one piece that fit most naturally into each group.

What the hell is this...? This is acting?

Working as a paparazzo, she had seen countless stars in "disguise." No matter how ordinary their clothes were, no matter whether they wore masks or tried to blend into a crowd, they always stood out. It was not necessarily because actors possessed some extraordinary aura. It was simply obvious that they did not belong in that space.

But if that actor hid himself in a crowd...?

She was no longer confident she would be able to find him.

Screech—

The tip of her pen scraped across the metal table without her realizing it, and she flinched and pulled her hand away.

She looked around.

Everyone was staring in a daze, bewitched by the performance of a man who changed his protective coloration at will like a chameleon.

They seemed even more astonished than Phoebe. After all, they were people who had already spent nearly a month growing accustomed to the character of As Predator.

There was only one person who was not surprised.

Derek caught her eye and slowly walked over, wearing an expression that seemed to mock her.

Damn it. She hated her own eyes for instinctively admiring how handsome that nasty-looking face was.

"How was it?"

"...What kind of absurd movie are you people making?"

"Tell me about it. I'm curious too. I wonder how far it'll go."

"Did you come all this way today just to see this? Is this the highlight of the movie?"

"Hardly. It hasn't even started yet. I haven't appeared."

His way of speaking had not changed at all.

It was the same arrogant manner that had made Phoebe recoil every time she heard it while she had been following him around.

"This isn't so much acting with your soul as it is a talent show. For him, it's probably as natural as breathing."

"And yet I heard you deigned to grace us with your precious presence specifically to see this scene."

"Not so much the scene itself. I thought it would be entertaining to watch people react to Shin Yu Myeong performing it. Phoebe Taylor's reaction was especially amusing."

Her face flushed so violently it seemed ready to steam.

"Either way, I was right, wasn't I? I told you there was nothing to criticize about his acting."

"I'll admit that. But his private life may be another matter. Don't think about interfering. I have permission from his agency."

At that, Derek raised one eyebrow and gave a quiet laugh.

"Well...do whatever you want. If you're the one who exposes a Shin Yu Myeong scandal, I might even find it endearing in its own way."

"Endearing...?"

"Even I sometimes wonder whether he's actually human."

Derek tossed out the strange remark, then stared directly at her face.

"And Phoebe Taylor is trustworthy, at least."

"...?!"

Calling a paparazzo trustworthy—was that supposed to be a compliment?

Her face went blank. She was accustomed to being called vicious or compared to a leech.

"You cling to people so disgustingly that it makes me sick, but you're not the kind of trash who prints something that never happened as though it were true."

Leaving behind words that could have been either praise or an insult, Derek sauntered away.

 Scene 43.

"Explain."

As stood facing Hetty.

Her face pale, she pressed him to tell her the truth.

"No, I just...wanted to experience different things..."

"Drop the expression you manufactured."

Several photographs lay scattered between them.

They showed the many places As had wandered through. In every location, he wore different clothes and a different expression, as though he had become an entirely different person.

Yes. She had found out.

She knew he was not normal.

He tried producing a suitably troubled expression for a situation like this, but Hetty did not so much as flinch.

Of course he could not deceive her. She was the kind of person who never turned away from the situation before her.

The moment he thought that, the expression gradually vanished from his face without his realizing it.

The woman before him saw his true self for the first time in years and instinctively began to tremble. Her instincts were as sharp as ever. Like her dog, which still tucked its tail and shook whenever it saw him despite their having lived together for months.

And yet she did not avert her eyes.

So he declared,

"Yes. This is who I am."

"......"

"How do people know which version of themselves is real? I've never known. I've always acted while calculating what kind of person I needed to be so I wouldn't seem strange."

"...Since when...?"

"Since the first moment I can remember."

Looking dizzy, Hetty pressed a hand to her head and closed her eyes.

What emotion did a person feel when the one closest to them revealed that every feeling they had ever shared was false?

There was no data on that.

He was probably the only person such a thing had ever happened to.

As he began to tell her his story, a small expectation stirred within him.

Surely even Hetty Lamb will react like an ordinary person this time.

The emotions that had never existed from the beginning. The life he had spent imitating them.

Perhaps because of that, a thought kept issuing commands inside his head: he had to gather more data. That was why he had secretly visited all kinds of places, learning about more varieties of people and their behavioral patterns. The photographs were the records he had kept.

This was how he had lived his entire life.

When his story ended,

Drip—

Tears suddenly spilled from Hetty's eyes without warning.

"You must have been...so lonely. It must have been hard."

"I don't know. I don't even really understand what it means for something to be hard."

"You said you became obsessed with collecting data so you wouldn't look different from everyone else. That already means your heart was suffering, even if you didn't know it."

"I don't know...maybe."

Her body was still trembling, yet her eyes held concern and love.

Why...?

Was she not afraid of him like this...?

He was a person without emotions. Worse, he had deceived her for years by pretending to be normal. According to every human pattern he had analyzed, she should have found him repulsive and frightening.

Why is she...looking at me like that?

Even though he knew the script, that part of his mind was empty, as though the ending had been blurred out. He could not predict Hetty's actions.

Words he had only intended to think slipped out past the tip of his tongue.

"Then...is it over {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} between us?"

Naturally.

No matter how far she strayed from ordinary patterns, it was only natural that she would distance herself from someone as strange—and perhaps as dangerous—as him.

But then,

she raised a violently trembling hand toward his cheek.

She forced her body, which instinctively wanted to flee, under the control of her will. Very slowly, she guided her hand forward and rested it against his cheek.

"It's all right. Because I love you."

Why did she...

"Let's get treatment together. I'll stay by your side."

Why...

Though she had clearly been wounded deeply, why did her eyes face him so directly, without a trace of falsehood or hesitation?

Unable to analyze.

Once again, warning lights flashed inside As's mind.

 Emotionless.

As he passed through the narrow space, Yu Myeong mechanically shaped his face into an apologetic smile for the staff member whose shoulder had bumped into his.

Normally, he would have felt sorry or startled...so what was this?

A being incapable of understanding humans.

When he had been asked to portray that, Yu Myeong had bought a slab of meat.

It was large enough that he had to hold it in both arms. He engraved its smell, texture, and weight into his mind, then tried to think of people as walking slabs of meat.

Each with a different scent, a different texture, a different taste.

But still only meat.

Perhaps that was what imitating humans felt like to As. Constantly observing in order to pretend to resemble something utterly unlike himself, something he could never understand.

The exercise had worked, and Yu Myeong was gradually sinking deeper into the character of As.

The only issue was that he had always found it exceptionally easy to enter and leave a role.

Yet lately, there were moments

when he had to make a conscious effort to remember human emotions.

 "She's stronger than I expected."

"Who?"

Derek pointed with his chin toward Erhi, who stood in the distance murmuring through her script.

Natalie made a somewhat displeased face. She had visited the set early on to watch Yu Myeong act, but had then been absent for quite some time. As an actress at the height of her popularity, she had a long line of other commitments waiting for her.

Derek, on the other hand, had not shown his face at all in the beginning. Yet for the past few days, he had apparently been prowling around the set.

He was the kind of man who became absorbed as if playing a game whenever something caught his interest, but the person now making his eyes gleam was unexpected.

"She still looks...more ordinary than an ordinary person."

Natalie Kassen.

She prided herself on being someone who strove to live a fair and dignified life.

But she was an actress.

Her pride was far too great for her to be pleased that an utterly unknown actress, not even worthy of ranking, had been cast as the female lead while she herself was only a supporting character. The fact that she showed no overt discomfort toward Erhi could itself be considered proof of her character.

"She's solid."

"...Is she?"

"She's handling the role surprisingly well. Even so, she's been getting the cold shoulder around the set, but she doesn't seem bothered by it."

Natalie looked puzzled by Derek's words.

"The cold shoulder? Who would treat the lead actress that way?"

"That's exactly why. Everyone knows Kyler forced Erhi Dever into the cast, and from TW's perspective, it's only natural to think she ruined an otherwise flawless casting lineup. Most of the staff here are TW employees or contractors working for them."

Natalie considered it, then nodded.

Erhi had no powerful agency behind her. Nor did she appear likely to remain successful after this production. She was an ordinary actress with little presence.

It would have been difficult for her not to be disregarded.

"But other people's opinions don't shake her. I can't tell whether she's the type who simply goes her own way, whether she's mentally strong, or whether this opportunity is so desperate for her that she can ignore how they look at her. The more I watch, the more curious I get."

"......"

"Sometimes I wonder whether Hetty Lamb really did come from Erhi."

At that, Natalie frowned slightly.

Hetty Lamb was her favorite character in the script.

Hetty was simply less conspicuous than other people. She was, nevertheless, more beautiful than anyone.

She possessed the strength to trust her own judgment and emotions without allowing anyone to shake her. Even if every bit of love she had received had been false, she could still say it was all right because her own love was real.

That strength aligned closely with the life Natalie aspired to live, which was why she had coveted the role so fiercely.

"Surely not."

Erhi looked timid on the surface. Yet she did have a certain resolve.

Was that alone enough to equate Erhi Dever with Hetty Lamb?

Natalie acknowledged that Director Kyler had created Hetty using Erhi's faint presence as inspiration, but placing the two on the same level made no sense.

Derek saw the discomfort on Natalie's face and smirked.

"Try acting opposite Shin Yu Myeong later. Then you'll understand what I mean."

 Although Olivia Predator held the fourth most significant role in the film, she did not have many lines.

She appeared in only around ten scenes between the beginning and middle of the story, mainly to explain the character of As.

That was why nearly all of her filming had been concentrated into the week beginning today.

"I look forward to working with you, Natalie."

"Likewise."

On the first day of shooting, As had displayed his "typical expression" in Scene 1.

Still flushed with excitement over the brilliant idea and the acting skill that had brought it to life, Natalie had been forced to leave for her own schedule without seeing Scene 2 filmed.

Later, she heard that Scene 2 had been even more overwhelming, leaving every member of the crew stunned.

Since then, Natalie had been imagining Yu Myeong's As constantly.

The thought of facing him today sent a tingling sensation all the way to her fingertips.

"All right—we'll begin with Scene 5!"

This scene followed Scene 2, the scene that had shocked everyone on the first day.

As walked along the embankment road, revealing his true self.

Near his house, he washed the crushed beetle from the sole of his shoe at a public faucet, then went inside.

"I'm home."

His adoptive parents always watched their son with wary eyes.

As's mother hurriedly flipped over the sneakers whose soles were still wet.

They were clean.

But why were the bottoms of his shoes wet on a clear day?

"You...don't tell me you did it again."

"I stepped in a puddle."

He smiled innocently, as though wondering why she was asking, then turned his back on his mother as she stared at him with heavy suspicion.

He went upstairs to his room and set down his bag.

Scene 5 began from there.

Knock, knock—

A knock sounded at the door.

Then it opened.

As's stepsister, Olivia Predator, who looked nothing like him, stood in the doorway.