This was how Kang Woojin looked when he first stepped into the hallway where the reading room of A10 Studio was located.
"Ever since Kang Woojin got cast, interest has exploded, but doesn't it feel like our voice acting industry is being taken too lightly?"
Two Japanese voices immediately reached his ears. Judging by the conversation, they were voice actors. They were walking a few steps ahead of him, whispering about Kang Woojin as they went. Woojin followed them at an unhurried pace, but they failed to notice that he was right behind them and kept talking. Naturally, the person who understood their conversation most clearly was Kang Woojin himself.
Without showing it outwardly, he narrowed his brows slightly.
'What are they even talking about? They're badmouthing me?'
A flicker of irritation rose inside him. It would not have been strange for him to get angry in that situation, but he had to keep his composure, so he settled into his usual cold attitude instead. It was not that he was suppressing his emotions. He was simply watching to see how far their nonsense would go.
The Japanese voice actors, oblivious, continued talking about him with even more enthusiasm.
At that moment, Han Yejung, with her blue bob and black-dyed ends, stepped up beside him and spoke in a chilly voice.
"Oppa, I think they're saying bad things about you."
She was not fluent enough in Japanese to catch everything, but she understood enough. The word quickly spread through the stylist team, but Kang Woojin calmed them down at once.
"It's fine. Just leave it for now."
The Japanese voice actors kept rambling as they pushed open the glass door and entered the reading room, which looked more like a conference room than anything else.
"Want to make a bet?"
"What kind of bet?"
"Whether he'll mess up from his very first line."
This was exactly the moment Kang Woojin had been waiting for. Of course, from the standpoint of his public image, this was one of those times when he needed to act tough. But even setting that aside, his real personality could not tolerate something like this. Open provocation was one thing he had no intention of letting slide.
So he spoke.
"Fine. Let's bet."
He did not raise his voice much, but his low, weighty tone rang through the reading room all the same. At once, dozens of staff members and Japanese voice actors who had arrived early turned their heads toward the entrance as if they had all been signaled at once. The two voice actors who had been whispering about him jolted in surprise.
Woojin, meanwhile, spoke with maddening calm, making sure everyone could hear.
"Shall we bet on who makes more mistakes? Me, the amateur, or you two, the professionals. What do you think?"
The two Japanese voice actors stared at him, eyes wide.
No, it was not just them. Everyone in the reading room reacted almost the same way.
As a result, the production team of Boy Friend: Remake began murmuring among themselves.
"What did Kang Woojin just say?"
"I think he proposed a bet to them."
"A bet over who'll do better, him or the voice actors?"
"That's what I heard too."
"What is this? Shouldn't we step in?"
The staff, who already knew Woojin was not especially well-liked among the voice actors, went visibly pale. Some of the voice actors seated inside reacted the same way, though in their case it was less shock and more displeasure. His words had clearly rubbed them the wrong way.
Woojin did not care in the slightest. His gaze remained fixed on the two standing in front of him.
"Why are you suddenly so quiet?"
Something in his eyes, that cold trace of ridicule, seemed to freeze them in place.
"Uh, w-we…"
"You're not going to take the bet?"
Of course, Woojin had no intention of letting them slip away that easily.
"You were talking about me on the way here, weren't you? What was it again? 'Today's going to be rough. Kang Woojin's an amateur, so he'll keep messing up.' Was that it?"
"Well, that… I mean…"
"You said other things too, but I don't remember all of it."
"..."
The two Japanese voice actors only fumbled and darted nervous glances around the room.
Meanwhile, Woojin swept his eyes over the reading room, where silence had fallen without warning. Everyone was looking at him. A few staff members looked ready to intervene at any second. Woojin shifted his attention back to the two in front of him.
Normally, in a situation like this, with so many eyes on him, he would have handled it more forcefully.
But this time was different.
"Hmm."
Even so, true to the attitude of a man who did not care about anything, he kept going.
"So this is what they call territorial behavior?"
"..."
"If I hadn't heard it myself, maybe I wouldn't have known. But hearing it directly is pretty unpleasant."
By then, the production team and the voice actors of Boy Friend: Remake had more or less pieced together what had happened.
Ah. So they had been talking behind his back and got caught.
More than eighty percent of the room looked flustered. In Japan's particular cultural atmosphere, such open confrontation was rare.
So what?
That was never Kang Woojin's concern in the first place.
'Do I have to adjust to that too? If something pisses me off, I deal with it right there.'
He spoke again, just as coldly as before.
"You're really not going to take the bet?"
The two voice actors looked practically stunned. They seemed unable to process what was happening, perhaps because they had never found themselves in this kind of situation before.
"…We're really, truly sorry."
"It was a slip of the tongue… We sincerely apologize."
Because of Woojin's firm attitude, the people behind him, including Han Yejung, seemed to straighten up with pride, as though saying, See? That's our Kang Woojin.
At the same time, members of the staff cautiously approached and tried to smooth things over.
"Mr. Kang Woojin, please calm down for now. We're sorry too."
Woojin answered in the same indifferent tone.
"It's nothing out of the ordinary."
"Ah… right. We're sorry."
Several staff members from A10 Studio, along with members of the planning team, began apologizing one after another. Naturally, the two voice actors standing in front of him did the same. Woojin had no experience as a voice actor, but he was still the male lead of Boy Friend: Remake, so no one could simply ignore the weight he carried.
Not long after the apologies began—
"..."
Woojin stared at them in silence for a moment, then moved as though nothing at all had happened. With the same detached face, he gave a polite bow toward the Japanese voice actors already seated in the reading room.
"Hello, I'm Kang Woojin. I'm glad we'll be working together today."
Whatever else happened, greetings were greetings.
Woojin was not the type to hold grudges.
One by one, the voice actors awkwardly bowed back to him. In an instant, Kang Woojin had taken complete control of the awkward atmosphere in the room.
After that, he calmly moved along the U-shaped table, checking the cast list laid out in front of the seats. Naturally, his own name was listed right at the top.
He sat down without fuss and opened the script.
The Japanese voice actors, meanwhile, were too busy gauging the mood of the room to focus on anything else. They said nothing aloud, but their eyes all seemed to be asking the same thing.
'What kind of strange person is this?'
A moment ago he had looked ready to freeze the room solid, then he had politely introduced himself, and now he was calmly reading through the script. It was only natural that he came across as eccentric.
The production team of Boy Friend: Remake was quick to grasp what kind of person he was.
Or rather, that was the kind of impression he gave off.
"Wow, Kang Woojin's presence is no joke."
"Right? The last time we met him, I thought he was just quiet, but today his charisma is overwhelming…"
"He's the kind of person you almost never see in Japan."
"Look at the voice actors' faces. They're completely down."
Oddly enough, the people most satisfied with the whole thing were Kang Woojin's own team. Among those seated in the temporary chairs around the U-shaped table, chief stylist Han Yejung was the first to speak.
"Talking behind his back? Idiots. This is Kang Woojin."
It was a new nickname Woojin himself had no idea he had acquired.
──────────
After a while, more and more people started filing into the reading room, whose atmosphere had only grown heavier.
Well-known Japanese voice actors arrived, along with A10 Studio staff, executives, and other officials. What had begun with around twenty people quickly rose past fifty, and the seats were nearly full. At the same time, the story began spreading among the voice actors.
"Really? Kang Woojin actually said that?"
"Yes, really. He straight-up bet on whether he, an amateur, or the professional voice actors would do better. He looked completely confident."
"…Of course, the voice actors were the ones who messed up first. Still, isn't he a little too confident? Does he even have any voice acting experience?"
"I heard this is his first time."
Kang Woojin's blunt declaration spread in an instant.
The reactions were mixed. Some voice actors looked at him with curiosity, as though he were some completely new kind of human being. Others watched him with a strange sort of admiration, unsettled by just how confident he seemed.
Then, at that moment—
"Hello, everyone."
A female voice actor stepped into the crowded reading room.
She wore a fitted short-sleeved top and loose jeans. She was petite, with a pretty face, wide eyes, and slightly noticeable crooked teeth. It was the sort of look that fit Japanese beauty standards well.
She was Natsumi Umi, the woman cast as Enma Kyoko, the female lead of the anime Boy Friend: Remake. In the Japanese voice acting world, she was treated almost like an idol.
In both name recognition and popularity, she ranked among the very top.
"Huh? Why does it feel so heavy in here?"
Her voice, too, was pleasant. It was clear and gentle, almost like that of a newscaster. Buoyed by her explosive popularity, Natsumi Umi had very high self-esteem. The moment she entered, she greeted several of the other voice actors and quickly heard the rumor making its rounds.
"Oh wow, that really happened?"
Of course, the subject was Kang Woojin.
Natsumi Umi glanced toward the front row, where Woojin was seated. No one was approaching him. It was as if some dark pressure were radiating from him.
'Wow, is he crazy? He looks kind of gloomy too. No… it's more like he has the same vibe as Sengoku Toru.'
Even before coming here, Umi had heard Kang Woojin's name plenty of times. He was popular even among the actors she was close to. Still, this was her first time actually seeing him in person.
'He's more intense than I expected.'
After clearing her throat once, Natsumi Umi walked over to Kang Woojin. As the female lead, she had to greet him, and besides, her curiosity had kicked in. With her popularity and the confidence that came with it, she thought getting close to him would be easy enough.
"Um, excuse me—"
In the end, were men not all the same?
Standing beside Woojin, Natsumi Umi smiled brightly.
"Hello?"
At the sound of Japanese and the faint scent that drifted over with her, Woojin turned his head.
The moment she saw his face clearly, Natsumi Umi nearly screamed inside.
'Wow!! He's seriously a cold-faced handsome guy!'
Woojin looked at her, but there was not the slightest change in his firm expression.
"Yes. Hello."
It was part of his persona, of course, but at the same time it reflected his genuine feelings.
'Who's this? Ah, another voice actor. Wow, there are a lot of cute ones among voice actors.'
He was not particularly impressed. To him, Natsumi Umi was simply a pretty voice actress. He was already surrounded by actresses whose beauty completely overwhelmed most people.
Not knowing any of that, Natsumi Umi held out her hand toward him. Usually, when she did that, men would break into foolish smiles and rush to shake it.
"Mr. Kang Woojin? You're really handsome. Nice to meet you. I'm Natsumi Umi, and I'm playing Enma Kyoko. I hope we get along well from now on."
Woojin rose slowly, took her hand in a loose grip, and replied in a low, short voice.
"Nice to meet you."
Then he sat right back down.
The whole exchange took less than five seconds.
This was not the reaction Natsumi Umi had expected. Slightly flustered, she stared blankly for a moment and thought to herself—
'That's not how this is supposed to go?? Isn't he kind of… kind of arrogant?!'
She quickly lowered the hand that had been left hanging awkwardly in the air and bit her lower lip.
'Tsk. Why is he so cold? What's his problem? Is he acting like that just because he's doing well these days? Whatever. I'm still more successful in the voice acting industry.'
Just then—
"Woojin."
A middle-aged woman's voice interrupted the moment.
When they turned, a woman with dark brown hair neatly tied back and a gentle expression was approaching. It was the famous voice actress Sayaka Asami, the same woman who had once crossed paths with Kang Woojin through a piano performance at a hotel.
Surprised by the sudden appearance of her senior, Natsumi Umi gave a quick little bow.
"Ah! Hello, senpai!"
Sayaka smiled warmly and waved a hand.
"Yes, hello."
Then she spoke to Kang Woojin directly.
"It's been a while. Ever since that SNS incident, I kept wondering whether I should contact you. I was worried I might have caused trouble."
Woojin was already on his feet.
"No, not at all."
"That's a relief. Thanks to you, my daughter smiles all the time these days. Thank you very much."
"Really?"
"Yes. Oh, and did you know? I heard you're incredibly popular at my daughter's school. She talks about you all the time."
"That's the first I've heard of it."
"She prays every day for you to do well. If you run into any difficulties with voice acting, please tell me anytime."
"Thank you."
It was an unusually peaceful conversation.
But to Natsumi Umi, who was watching from the side, it did not feel peaceful at all. The way Woojin was speaking now was completely different from the way he had spoken to her.
'Why is he so nice now? Why does he have such a huge difference in attitude? Does he like older women or something?!'
At that exact moment—
"Alright, everyone, please take your seats."
A man wearing round glasses stepped up to the front of the U-shaped table and began organizing the reading room. He was an executive at A10 Studio and the chief director of Boy Friend: Remake.
"Hello. I'm Sakuchi Mahiro, the director of Boy Friend: Remake."
He was a well-known director in the animation industry. Because of that, everyone, including Kang Woojin, Sayaka Asami, and Natsumi Umi, quickly took their seats. The director introduced dozens of voice actors, including male lead Kang Woojin, female lead Natsumi Umi, and Sayaka Asami, before moving on to introduce the production staff and executives of A10 Studio.
Soon after, he said,
"Now then, as a warm-up, let's do a light read-through of episode one."
As the director sat down, the large monitor placed in front of them began playing the animation. Since it was not yet the final version, there was no opening, no OST, and no title song. It jumped straight into the episode itself.
Even as they focused on the screen, dozens of voice actors, including Natsumi Umi, kept sneaking glances at Kang Woojin, who sat there wearing the same calm expression as before.
'He'll make a mistake, right?'
'He talked that boldly, so he must have practiced a lot, but getting the very first line right is never easy.'
'Is he really not nervous at all? Why does he look so calm?'
A subtle expectation drifted through the room, as if everyone were waiting for Kang Woojin to slip up.
The only person who seemed sincerely worried for him was Sayaka Asami.
'I hope he doesn't feel too much pressure.'
Then, right at that moment, the male lead of Boy Friend: Remake appeared on the large monitor. A man with messy hair and glasses was waking up groggily in bed.
It was Sengoku Toru.
Just before the first line, Kang Woojin looked calmly at the monitor and opened his mouth without the slightest hesitation.
"Ha… what a pain. Quiet is best. No, my room is the best."
The character's chaotic lip movements matched Woojin's voice perfectly. There was not the slightest mismatch.
Kang Woojin had already experienced the world inside Boy Friend: Remake for himself. Now he was reproducing Sengoku Toru with complete precision.
The lines that followed were no different.
The rhythm, the pauses, the emphasis shaped by the character's emotions and the situation all matched the movements of his mouth exactly. Woojin's own expression did not change even once.
The director seated at the very front stared at him in shock.
'I've never seen anyone deliver the first line this cleanly. And this is supposed to be his first time doing voice acting?'
Soon every single one of the dozens of voice actors had their eyes fixed on Kang Woojin.
The look in their eyes had gone beyond surprise.
It was closer to awe.
Especially—
'…Huh? Huh??!'
Natsumi Umi unconsciously covered her mouth with one hand.
'No way! This cold, handsome man is ridiculously good!!'