Cha Hak-yeon, charismatic leader of the K-pop group VIXX who is widely known as N, is proving that his artistic range extends far beyond the concert stage. In the trending series “Absolute Value of Romance,” he has taken on the ambitious challenge of a dual role that effectively bridges the gap between cold logic and fictional fantasy. The drama utilizes a clever story-within-a-story structure that follows the life of Eui-ju (Kim Hyang-gi), a high school student secretly moonlighting as a popular web novel author. This meta-commentary on storytelling allows Cha to flex his acting muscles by portraying two vastly different personas within a single narrative. In the show’s reality, he plays Woo-su, a cold, calculated high school teacher. Conversely, within the pages of Eui-ju’s BL (boys’ love) novel, he transforms into Si-on, a mysterious and alluring protagonist defined by over-the-top styling, exaggerated acting and a penchant for spitting out cringeworthy lines. “I felt a great deal of vitality from the script,” Cha said during an interview with The Korea Times at a cafe in Seoul o
