Chapter 12

“You’re my son, but you’re very cunning,” said Park Eun-Soo.

“There has to be at least one cunning person in our family,” Woo-Jin replied.

“You’re still a far cry from Woo-Hee when it comes to being crafty. Why are both my
children like this… Ah, where did I go wrong?”

“You’ve raised us well, mom. So don’t worry.” Woo-Jin grabbed his mother’s right
hand tightly with his left hand and shook it as he smiled at her.

Even though they had had financial difficulties, he was not lacking in the emotional
wellbeing department. That was because he had his mother and sister, Woo-Hee,
with whom he had shared great days. At this moment, Woo-Jin was happy.

“Woo-Jin, do you want to meet your maternal uncle?” Park Eun-Soo said suddenly.

Woo-Jin stopped walking upon hearing those words, which he could never have
seen coming. He knew that his mother had severed ties with her family after the
divorce, so he was very surprised to hear the word ‘maternal uncle’ coming out of
nowhere.

“Because of your grandfather, I kept in touch with your uncle, albeit not very often.
He’s helped us a lot. He gave us a lot of money as well, contributing a large portion
to our current house.”

Originally, they had been paying monthly rent for their house. However, the owner
of the house had said he needed a huge amount of money to buy a house for his
recently married son. Subsequently, their lease agreement had been changed into
a jeonse[1] one. The amount of deposit quoted by the landlord was rather high, but
his mother had signed the contract without hesitation. At that time, she thought
she had saved enough money for it, but that had not been the case.
“Now that you’ve grown up, I’ve been worried because there aren’t any other adults
in the house to give you any advice, but your uncle said that he wanted to meet
with you to congratulate you on getting discharged from the military.”

Shortly after Woo-Jin entered the entertainment industry in earnest, his mother had
become very concerned. Since he had had some issues with the last agency, his
mother met with her brother to consult him on potential legal issues and the like.
At some point, his maternal uncle had probably brought up the suggestion of
meeting with Woo-Jin.

“No. I’ll meet him another time. Please tell him I’ll treat him to a good meal when we
meet,” Woo-Jin replied.

As surprising as this was, he was beyond grateful to his uncle. He was not grateful
because the latter had given them money for their house, but rather because his
uncle had continued to stay in contact with his mother despite his maternal
grandfather’s rage. It was reassuring to know that his mother had someone to lean
on in times of need, instead of being completely cut off from her family.

However, since his uncle was as rigid and stubborn as his grandfather, even if Woo-
Jin met with him it would be of no use, since he already knew what his uncle was
going to say. Just like his mother, his uncle was also unhappy with Woo-Jin’s
decision to join the entertainment industry. If he was incompetent, it would have
been a different story, but because Woo-Jin was smart, his uncle was going to try to
convince him to take the Legal Education Eligibility Test (LEET).[2]

“Come to think of it, Yi-Yeon and Hee-Yeon must have taken their bar exam and
LEET respectively.”

“Yeah, I heard both of them passed. Yi-Yeon was appointed as a prosecutor last
year, and Hee-Yeon is going to law school this year.” 

Woo-Jin nodded when he heard that both his cousins Yi-Yeon and Hee-Yeon,
who were the same age as Woo-Jin himself, had passed their exams. It was not
surprising at all, due to their competence and circumstances. However, all he could
do was smile awkwardly at his mother while feeling sorry toward her, and tell her
that he was happy for them.
Park Eun-Soo still wanted Woo-Jin to take the LEET. Since everyone, including his
grandfather and uncle, was a legal professional, naturally, she had hopes that he
would follow in their footsteps.

“There’s nothing to be sorry about. I’ve already given up on persuading you. I’m
pinning my hopes on Woo-Hee. She’s very interested in that field,” said Park Eun-
Soo.

“Is that so?” asked Woo-Jin.

“She said she has to fulfill my wishes, so you can do what you want to do.”

Woo-Jin was at a loss for words, and was taken aback for a moment upon hearing
Woo-Hee’s thoughts.

Park Eun-Soo looked at her son, who had a very surprised look in his eyes, and
smiled. “You still don’t know what Woo-Hee is like? If she didn't want to do
something, regardless of what anyone said, she would never do it. She knew saying
that would make us feel bad, so she could use it to get some benefits. She used to
look up to your maternal uncle, so much so that she became very interested in that
field, but she always pretends she doesn’t. Anyway, she’s as cunning as a fox.”

What Park Eun-Soo said was so true that Woo-Jin nodded without realizing it.
Brushing off the guilt he had had towards Woo-Hee for a moment, he was startled
by a dark aura he felt behind him instantly.

“I’m sorry for being as cunning as a fox.” Woo-Hee, who had been heading home
from cram school, overheard her mother and brother’s conversation in the alley
and gave off dark and gloomy vibes as she spoke.

“I’m going to get mad!” she pouted, intentionally squeezing herself between her
mother and Woo-Jin before storming off.

“She’s going to get mad at the slightest provocation,” said Park Eun-Soo.

“That’s because she’s going through puberty,” replied Woo-Jin.

“I’m not going through puberty!” Woo-Hee told them with pride that she had
already been through the stormy period of adolescence and was now an
intellectual who acted on reason rather than emotion. So, she snapped at Woo-Jin
upon hearing what he said.

“Be quiet!” someone yelled in annoyance from one of the houses, after hearing
Woo-Hee’s loud cry. Additionally, the sound of dogs barking echoed throughout the
neighborhood.

Woo-Hee’s face turned red from embarrassment, as Park Eun-Soo joked to Woo-Jin

that their neighborhood was safe because someone had responded to her scream
right away.

On a warm spring evening, the wind carried the scent of flowers from somewhere
else. With the sweet-smelling wind blowing in their faces, their silhouettes stretched
across the alley under the moonlight.

***

“Cut! Bad take.” Director Choi’s sharp yell made the ambience extremely cold,
bringing down the mood.

A week after the shooting began, the character Park Ji-Hyuk, who was being played
by Kwon Sung-Min, suddenly fell apart. There had already been more than twenty
bad takes for one scene. Additionally, they had prepared a water sprinkler for
today’s outdoor shooting of a rainy day scene. Naturally, Kwon Sung-Min and Woo-
Jin, who were being sprayed by the water sprinkler, were not in good physical
condition.

“Kwon Sung-Min, let’s have a chat,” Choi Yi-Geon said.

When Choi Yi-Geon quietly left the set with Kwon Sung-Min, Woo-Jin went to a chair
that had his name on it and sat down. One of the staff handed him a blanket and a
towel. He thanked them and instinctively let out a sigh. Fortunately, he had used an
umbrella in the scene, so his entire body was not drenched. However, there had
been several bad takes over quite a long period of time, so it was cold and his
clothes were wet.
Kwon Sung-Min also had a blanket over his shoulders as he followed behind Choi
Yi-Geon. Even though he had makeup on his face, his lips had turned visibly blue.
Without looking in the mirror, Woo-Jin assumed that he probably did not look that
much different from Kwon Sung-Min. He carefully wiped his face with a towel.

“Sung-Min is a little out of it, more so today than before,” said the makeup artist
who was drying Woo-Jin's hair as she cocked her head to the side. 

Despite being at the young age of 28, Kwon Sung-Min was rather good at acting. He
was not an actor who would normally cause repeated bad takes of one scene like
this. However, Woo-Jin felt that it was only normal, since Kwon Sung-Min had been
messing up since yesterday. Woo-Jin rubbed the nape of his neck with his hand as
he thought about yesterday’s shoot.

***

It was a scene where Park Ji-Hyuk and Na Mi-Yeon stopped in front of the festival
held at their university while carrying their things with both hands. Na Mi-Yeon’s
shoelaces had come untied, causing her shoe to slip off. The rich boy, Park Ji-Hyuk,
hadn’t thought of putting down the things in his hands to tie her shoelaces for her.
In the first place, he had no idea how to tie shoelaces.

Cha Hyun-Seung sighed as he approached the dumb couple who kept looking at
each other, asking what they should do. Thereafter, he got down on one knee and
tied Na Mi-Yeon’s shoelaces for her. Park Ji-Hyuk took his act for granted instead of
feeling offended that some other guy had tied his lover’s shoelaces for her. To
someone like him, who was accustomed to ordering other people around, there
was absolutely nothing to be jealous of.

However, it was an agonizing moment for Cha Hyun-Seung, who could not hide his
excitement and heart palpitations just from touching one of Na Mi-Yeon’s
shoelaces. The camera caught Cha Hyun-Seung’s trembling fingers slipping a
couple of times. Cha Hyun-Seung was embarrassed by the fact that he did not tie
them properly. He looked flustered as he shifted his gaze to the side. That was
when he caught the shadows of those two people kissing each other. 
The immature lover, Park Ji-Hyuk, could not hold himself back while waiting for the
teaching assistant to be done with tying Na Mi-Yeon’s shoelaces. He thought that
sneaking in a secret kiss was a romantic gesture. As usual, Cha Hyun-Seung was
shattered by their action, and had to grit his teeth and close his eyes. Thereafter,
with an expressionless face, he acted as though he had not seen anything, and
hurriedly left.

Cha Hyun-Seung displayed his inferiority complex by being cold, looking at the
couple from afar while being unable to get close to them with his fists clenched. It
was as though he had been betrayed and gotten hurt. Who did he think he was,
staring at the couple who loved each other?

Woo-Jin was grateful that he did not have to portray such a stupid character in such
a manner. Woo-Jin's version of Cha Hyun-seung was a man who might have been
taken aback from seeing the shadow of the person he loved on the ground, but
chose not to close his eyes or turn his head away. His eyes became cold instantly,
but soon, he felt that his own jealousy was so absurd and shook his head. His clear
gaze turned into envy. It was not some kind of dark jealousy, or a sense of
inferiority toward himself. It was jealousy that contained a pure sense of longing.

The reason he did not dare to confess to Na Mi-Yeon was not due to Park Ji-Hyuk
being very handsome or the son of a wealthy family. It was because he knew that
Na Mi-Yeon loved Park Ji-Hyuk so much that he could not come between them.
After tying Na Mi-Yeon’s shoelaces, making sure they would not come loose again,
Cha Hyun-Seung got up and took the things in her hands.

The surprised looks on Na Mi-Yeon and Park Ji-Hyuk’s faces were very real—they
were not in the script. When Cha Hyun-Seung left with the items, Na Mi-Yeon was
the first to snap out of it and come to her senses. She called his name and chased
after him.

Instead of looking at the lovers pitifully from afar, he made her chase after him. Cha
Hyun-Seung smiled pitifully as he felt Na Mi-Yeon’s presence behind him. Knowing
this was as good as it could get for him, he lowered his head with his eyes closed,
consoling himself with the thought that he was only frowning because of the hot
sun. 
When the festival scene ended, the ambience was not bad. The ad-lib they had not
discussed was done on impulse, so Woo-Jin apologized. Fortunately, Choi Yi-Geon
was okay with it and let it be. The problem came after Kwon Sung-Min watched the
video again on the preview monitor. Kwon Sung-Min frowned and asked for a re-
shoot for the parts that he did not like, but his request was denied.

“It’s true that we were given a lot of money for production, but it’s not to the extent
where we can afford to re-shoot a perfectly shot scene.” The director assertively
denied Kwon Sung-Min’s request before moving on to the next scene without
mercy.

From then on, Kwon Sung-Min’s displeasure was evident. He would immediately
make sounds that showed how upset he was whenever Woo-Jin did something
wrong that resulted in a bad take. Every time Woo-Jin asked the director or the staff
a question because he lacked knowledge when it came to shooting, he would throw
a jab and make comments about how it was hard to work with rookies because of
that. Woo-Jin did not know the reason why, but he felt that Kwon Sung-Min did not
like him.

Chapter 13

Woo-Jin was trying his best to get to know each and every crew member, since he
was not working alone. However, it was hard for him to approach the main leads
since rushing to become closely acquainted or trying to be too friendly with
celebrities could lead to misunderstandings. For a rookie like Woo-Jin, he was in a
position where he could not approach these celebrities unless they approached
him first. However, now that it was plain and obvious that Kwon Sung-Min did not
like him, he could not even talk to the latter easily.

“It’s hard,” Woo-Jin said to himself. As he could not mess up his hair that had just
been styled, he wriggled his fingers instead in a bid to straighten out his messy
thoughts as bad memories of the past suddenly flooded his mind, making him feel
helpless.

When he was a trainee, he had lived in a dorm with the rest of his group members
as they were preparing for their debut. They were obviously good friends, and so
there were no issues at first. However, from a certain point onward, the leader of
the group instigated a bully campaign against Woo-Jin. Later on, it became much
more than just sarcastic remarks. They had even beaten him up as a group,
targeting areas on his body that were not visible, so naturally, his face was spared
from all the beatings.

Even though they had recorded an album together, Woo-Jin was excluded from the
group. When the group finally made their debut without him, the discord among
them was so intense that he felt relief instead of bitterness. Even up until today, he
did not have any lingering attachment to the group or the agency. He had no
regrets.

Perhaps because of that experience, in spite of the current uncomfortable

ambience, he was used to it and it did not hurt his feelings. He had been hurt and
betrayed by his close friends, and so, even though it might have been
uncomfortable, the hostility from other people he was not well-acquainted with did
not affect him.

Woo-Jin returned to his normal self shortly after, leaning back against the chair and
closing his eyes. Perhaps having such boundaries was not a bad thing. In the case
of one-sided, unrequited love, it would be even more strange if two men who were
fighting over the same woman had positive feelings toward each other. He still
lacked the skill and experience to completely disconnect real-life emotions when he
was acting, so it might be a good thing. As he thought about it that way, he started
to feel more at ease.

Having pulled Kwon Sung-Min aside for a chat, Choi Yi-Geon lit up a cigarette as

soon as he sat down without asking the former if he was okay with it. He tried
offering Kwon Sung-Min a cigarette, knowing that Kwon Sung-Min was a heavy
smoker. But Kwon Sung-Min turned him down and took out his own cigarette pack
instead.
Being the straightforward person that he was, Choi Yi-Geon asked Kwon Sung-Min
directly, “Park Ji-Hyuk is evidently not a character who is jealous of Cha Hyun-Seung,
so why are you acting like this?”

Today’s shoot had begun with Na Mi-Yeon feeling sick, causing her to miss her
classes for a couple of days. Cha Hyun-Seung could not hold himself back and
decided to visit the studio apartment she resided in. Park Ji-Hyuk then found out
about Cha Hyun-Seung’s feelings for Na Mi-Yeon when he got there. However, the
immature and ignorant Park Ji-Hyuk did not know what jealousy was. He felt he did
not need to be mindful of an insignificant teaching assistant who could not even be
compared to himself.

“Did you fall for Mi-Yeon? Well, it’s not surprising, because she’s a lovely girl.”

That line should have conveyed the pride Park Ji-Hyuk had for the woman he loved,
as well as sympathy for Cha Hyun-Seung, along with the unfathomable question of
‘Why do you love a girl whom you cannot covet anyway?’. But today, Kwon Sung-
Min had chosen to vent his jealousy, annoyance, and contempt on Cha Hyun-Seung
via that line instead.

“What kind of man is crazy enough to leave the guy who likes his girl alone?” asked
Kwon Sung-Min.

“Park Ji-Hyuk is that kind of crazy man. Ordinary flowers are just weeds compared
to the finest flowers in a garden. Don’t you think it’s weird that those beautiful
flowers would be jealous of weeds?” asked Choi Yi-Geon.

“In this case, we’re not talking about flowers but men, so it makes sense,” said Kwon
Sung-Min, expressing his discontent with Director Choi Yi-Geon for making him
repeat the same scene continuously. His voice seemed to carry an aggrieved tone.

“You clearly told us previously that we could portray our characters according to
our own interpretation of them. But why can’t I do it when it’s okay for Chae Woo-
Jin to portray Cha Hyun-Seung in his own way? Cha Hyun-Seung has deviated from
the script and is a completely different character now. He’s now the one setting the
mood. Why can’t I do that? Why are you only criticizing my acting?!” complained
Kwon Sung-Min.
“In order to do that, you should have portrayed the character like that from the get
go!” snapped Choi Yi-Geon, who was filled with a rage that appeared out of the
blue. “Do you know what you’re doing right now? Your character’s personality is
becoming inconsistent! Who’s going to be able to understand why Park Ji-Hyuk
snapped at Cha Hyun-Seung all of a sudden? I made it clear to all of you to study
your own character in depth before acting them out. Besides, don’t you know that
today’s scene is the best opportunity for you to show the audience what kind of
person Park Ji-Hyuk is like?”

Park Ji-Hyuk was someone who was not considerate or understanding towards
other people. He hurt Cha Hyun-Seung with his thoughtless and immature
behavior, but he himself was unaware of the hurt he was inflicting on others. That
was why he was such a cruel person, even though he was always high-spirited and
endearing.

“I know! But if I stick to the original plan and portray him like this, I’ll end up
becoming a villain. Should I not do anything about it?”

This was what Kwon Sung-Min was concerned about. When the main lead turned
into a villain from a certain point onward, the separation between ideals and reality
was unbearable. If things had gone according to the script today, Cha Hyun-Seung
should have been in a foul mood as he loitered around in front of Na Mi-Yeon’s
house on a rainy day, where he would bump into Park Ji-Hyuk wearing a uniquely
innocent smile on his face. Feeling inferior to Park Ji-Hyuk, Cha Hyun-Seung should
have had to portray a much darker and more withdrawn image.

However, since Cha Hyun-Seung’s disposition had changed, Park Ji-Hyuk’s child-like
cruelty became more and more prominent, while Cha Hyun-Seung became more
sad and heartbroken.

“That’s because you’re bad at acting,” replied Choi Yi-Geon.

“I’m sorry?” Kwon Sung-Min burst out laughing at Choi Yi-Geon's blunt words, which
sounded absurd to him. Even though he was not a great actor, he had never heard
anybody say that he could not act.
“You’ve been acting this way ever since you took a look at the scene we shot on the
monitor yesterday. What do you think of it? Your character, Park Ji-Hyuk, was so
spiteful and immature that you wanted to punch him, right?” asked Choi Yi-Geon.

What the director said was true, so Kwon Sung-Min kept his mouth shut and simply
glared. Although Park Ji-Hyuk was an immature person, he was not a spiteful
person. However, Kwon Sung-Min had been portraying him in that light for some
time.

Choi Yi-Geon continued, “That’s why I made you repeat the scene a couple of times
and pointed out your mistakes, but you didn’t listen at all. So, I decided to let it be,
thinking that was the version of Park Ji-Hyuk you wanted. Now that you’ve
personally seen it yourself, you see where you’ve gone wrong, right? But what can
you do? It’s already too late. Do you want us to abandon all the scenes we’ve
already shot and redo everything because of you? The bottom line is that I don’t
want to do so.”

Choi Yi-Geon had already pointed out Kwon Sung-Min’s mistakes. He had made him
repeat the scenes and shown him the videos. He had clearly asked Kwon Sung-Min
a few days ago if he thought that the character was being a little spiteful. However,
Kwon Sung-Min had refused to acknowledge it. He had insisted that he was
portraying the character correctly, and that Park Ji-Hyuk was not spiteful, just
immature. He had ignored everything Choi Yi-Geon  .

And then yesterday, when he was in the same frame as Cha Hyun-Seung, the
realization hit him. Cha Hyun-Seung ended up being a pure-hearted and sad
character, while Park Ji-Hyuk was gradually degenerating into an unlikable,
immature rich boy.

“Regardless of his sorrow, Park Ji-Hyuk is a pure-hearted and reckless person. He

would never look like a villain if you expressed that well. Besides, Cha Hyun-Seung
is a bystander who has a one-sided crush on the female lead. His affection has no
effect on the love between the two main leads. All you have to do is to portray the
love between the two main characters; the type of pure, immature, and beautiful
love one has in one’s twenties. However, you’re trying to insert Cha Hyun-Seung
into the love between the two characters! That’s just not it,” Choi Yi-Geon explained.
In truth, Kwon Sung-Min was not good at acting, and also had a tendency to get
caught up in Cha Hyun-Seung’s feelings. Cha Hyun-Seung was a person that Park Ji-
Hyuk did not care about, but Kwon Sung-Min was constantly conscious of Cha
Hyun-Seung.

That posed a problem. It should have ended with Cha Hyun-Seung being a person
who observed them from the perspective of a bystander. In other words, it meant
that regardless of how much Cha Hyun-Seung loved Na Mi-Yeon, his emotions
should not have affected the main leads’ emotions. However, Kwon Sung-Min was
trying to put him in center stage.

“He may be spiteful or immature, but Park Ji-Hyuk isn’t someone who would be
jealous or hostile toward Cha Hyun-Seung. That’s because he doesn’t feel the need
to. He’s very confident of himself and Na Mi-Yeon’s love for him. In a sense, he’s a
steadfast person who doesn’t waver. That’s the gist of this movie! You said you
didn’t want to be a villain, but should Park Ji-Hyuk become a loser instead? Well, I
think you’ve already taken a step forward in that direction.”

Choi Yi-Geon sighed and asked if Kwon Sung-Min wanted to portray the loser now
that Cha Hyun-Seung was no longer one. Since the genre of the movie was not as
exciting as action movies or horror thrillers, the buildup of the characters’ emotions
was the most important aspect of the movie. Even if there was only one slip-up, it
would be highly risky in the sense that the content could go in an entirely different
direction, achieving an undesired outcome.

“Stay focused. If the main lead doesn’t exude any charm, ultimately, doesn’t that
mean that you’re bad at acting? But if your character’s behavior becomes
inconsistent, it’ll be over for you. I noticed that the actors who fall into a slump after
acting in a G&C romance film are the ones who displayed bad acting. No matter
how much you hate the role or don’t want to be in the movie, as an actor, acting
well is your main job and priority. If an actor does a good job and the movie
becomes a flop, the director and writers will be criticized. If an actor is bad at acting,
I don’t have to tell you what will happen, right?”

Choi Yi-Geon stood up from his seat after putting out the cigarette, saying, “Take
some time to cool off a little before coming out.”
“No, it’s okay. I’ll go with you,” said Kwon Sung-Min.

As Kwon Sung-Min stood up at the same time, Choi Yi-Geon noticed that the look in
the actor’s eyes had become much calmer. Choi Yi-Geon nodded without saying
anything more. Even after they arrived on set, he did not start shooting
immediately. He gave Kwon Sung-Min a little more time, using the excuse that the
latter should fix his wet hair and smudged makeup.

He had kept telling Kwon Sung-Min off for his poor acting, but compared to other
actors in his age group, the latter had good sense and was rather smart. It was not
easy to be that successful at such a young age. If he understood where he went
wrong and was also given the opportunity to rectify it, he would do a good job that
would not fall short of expectations.

As Choi Yi-Geon gave the cinematographer and the sound supervisor instructions,

he glanced over at Chae Woo-Jin, who had already gotten into character. The latter
was now Cha Hyun-Seung. Looking poised with a sullen look on his face, and not
forgetting his half-closed eyes, he looked as though he had something on his mind.
Woo-Jin’s version of Cha Hyun-Seung was as clean-cut and beautiful as always.

Although Woo-Jin’s appearance was very unique, the overall vibe he gave off was
different from the other actors in general. When he started acting, he became a
much more charismatic and beautiful person compared to the original
character. Choi Yi-Geon had not made a judgment on whether that was good or
bad for Woo-Jin as an actor.

Woo-Jin had both skills and looks, so if he were to make full use of a good
opportunity, he would have a bright future. However, it was important for him to
know how to navigate sudden success at such a young age. The kind of actor Woo-
Jin would end up becoming was solely dependent on himself. 

Before he realized it, Choi Yi-Geon had already approached Woo-Jin and stood in

front of the latter, looking at him. Sensing his presence, Woo-Jin slowly lifted his
head and looked at Choi Yi-Geon. It was almost as if Woo-Jin had been possessed
by Cha Hyun-Seung. Not wanting him to break character, Choi Yi-Geon nodded
instead of telling him that they were about to start shooting.
hapter 14

Cha Hyun-Seung stood in the street on a rainy night, looking up longingly at the
five-story building. From the look in his eyes, one could tell that he was very
worried. He could not take his eyes off the light emitting from Na Mi-Yeon’s studio
apartment, as though he missed looking at her face, which he had not seen in days.

“Cha Hyun-Seung?” As Park Ji-Hyuk came out of Na Mi-Yeon’s apartment, he found

Cha Hyun-Seung standing there and called out to him, tilting his head to one side
with a puzzled look.

“Are you here to visit Mi-Yeon? She hasn’t been admitted to the hospital, so there’s
no need for you to come here,” said Park Ji-Hyuk.

In other words, none of her classmates or friends had come to visit her. They had
only told her to take care of herself after finding out that she was down with a cold.
The image of Cha Hyun-Seung standing there with a takeout box bearing the logo
of a porridge restaurant in his hand, in the middle of the night, looked rather
strange.

“Mi-Yeon is sleeping right now, so even if you go to her apartment, you can’t even
see her. Did you buy that for Mi-Yeon?” asked Park Ji-Hyuk, pointing to the bag with
the porridge in it.

Cha Hyun-Seung nodded. He had bought it for her, but he did not buy it thinking
that he could actually give it to her. Feeling embarrassed, standing there pointlessly
by himself with numb feet, his face turned visibly red even though it was dark at
night.

“Hmm, I’m sorry, but I can’t give that to Mi-Yeon. You can’t give cheap porridge with
unknown ingredients to a sick patient.”

Cha Hyun-Seung was at a loss for words upon hearing Park Ji-Hyuk speak without
malice. He was only a man who was concerned about the woman he loved. For the
first time, shame could be seen on his face that was already bright red.
Park Ji-Hyuk stared at Cha Hyun-Seung and asked innocently, “Did you fall for Mi-
Yeon? Well, it’s not surprising, because she’s a lovely girl.”

He spoke casually, as if he had just learned a fact that was neither ridiculous nor
jealousy-inducing. The confidence he had that Cha Hyun-Seung’s feelings had no
effect on their love turned into indifference, which soon led to disregard.

“Mi-Yeon is sleeping, so please leave. I have to go back in after smoking a cigarette.”

Park Ji-Hyuk smiled brightly as he took out his pack of cigarettes from his pocket
and shook it. Even though he seemed rather spiteful, one could also argue that he
was just a naive, sheltered rich boy.

Cha Hyun-Seung turned around and left with the porridge that he was unable to
give to Na Mi-Yeon. As he walked away, Park Ji-Hyuk was busy lighting his cigarette
while holding an umbrella, and did not even shoot him a glance at all. A small speck
of light shone over Cha Hyun-Seung’s shoulder as a thin wisp of smoke began to
rise. 

At the end of the alley, Cha Hyun-Seung suddenly looked back after standing at the
corner of the alley for a while, staring blankly. Before he knew it, Park Ji-Hyuk had
finished smoking his cigarette. He did not see the latter going up to the studio
apartment. When he looked up and looked for Na Mi-Yeon’s unit, the light in her
apartment had already gone out. He had to put the cumbersome umbrella behind
his back in order to look up, as it was blocking the view of her apartment. Without
the umbrella sheltering him, Cha Hyun-Seung lifted his head, allowing the rain to
fall on his face.

Raindrops ran down his hair and forehead, pooling around his eyes before dripping
down his face. It looked as if he were crying, but the droplets were not tears. He
had no expression on his face. He simply looked indifferent. At that moment, he
started revealing one emotion through his eyes. Up until now, Cha Hyun-Seung had
only loved Na Mi-Yeon silently from afar. The very first emotion he showed in a long
time was despair.

---

“Cut!”
Even though the scene was over, Chae Woo-Jin merely stood there in a daze. Choi
Yi-Geon approached him with caution, seeing how Woo-Jin was unable to come to
his senses even though the water sprinkler had been turned off and everyone was
already diligently cleaning up. It was a situation where Woo-Jin could not snap out
of character even after the scene was over, struggling with the waves of emotion.

Choi Yi-Geon had seen that happen every now and then, so he went to pat Woo-Jin
gently on the shoulder. Woo-Jin only came to his senses after that. He glanced over
his shoulder and shifted his gaze toward Choi Yi-Geon. Choi Yi-Geon nodded in
response to Woo-Jin, whose eyes were filled with tears that were not shed during
the shooting. It was as if Choi Yi-Geon had already known what Woo-Jin was going
through without him saying a single word.

“Director?” Woo-Jin asked.

“I know how you feel. You must have a lot on your mind right now,” said Choi Yi-
Geon.

It was normal for Woo-Jin to feel disconcerted, when reality did not seem real and
he could not distinguish whether the world of the movie he acted in was real or
fake.

“Still, no tears. Cha Hyun-Seung doesn’t shed any tears,” the director continued.

Woo-Jin looked at Choi Yi-Geon, who was relieved that the tears had not been
captured on screen. He asked, “I’m sorry?”

“If your version of Cha Hyun-Seung were a loser, he might have cried a couple of
times. But your version of Cha Hyun-Seung is a firm and strong man. He wouldn't
cry over this.”

Choi Yi-Geon was speaking to him as if he were warmly coaxing a child. It was very
foreign and rather creepy. Thus, it helped Woo-Jin snap out of his trance and come
to his senses, but he could not comprehend what Choi Yi-Geon was saying.

“Why would Cha Hyun-Seung be crying?” asked Woo-Jin.

“You’re crying right now, no?” Choi Yi-Geon asked him a question in response.

“I’m the one crying though, not Cha Hyun-Seung.”

“Huh? Why are you crying, then?”

Upon hearing Choi Yi-Geon’s question, Woo-Jin hesitated for a moment and looked
around. Even though everyone was paying attention to their conversation, they
managed to fool Woo-Jin as they pretended to be focused on their tasks. So, he
came clean and told Choi Yi-Geon how he truly felt.

“Earlier on, in the last part of the scene, I was suddenly reminded of the time my ex-
girlfriend wanted to break up with me out of the blue. I shouldn’t have done that… I
was thinking about something else while I was acting… because it was so sad and
full of despair…”

“Ah, I see. So that’s what happened…” replied Choi Yi-Geon in a staccato tone, like a
robot.

In other words, in the historic moment of his career, the swooning ‘look of despair’
on Woo-Jin’s face earlier belonged to Chae Woo-Jin himself, and not Cha Hyun-
Seung. Despite how today’s crappy shooting had unfolded, this was the only scene
Choi Yi-Geon was satisfied with for the day. And that facial expression from the
scene was the one he loved and was pleased with. Choi Yi-Geon kept those
thoughts to himself, not saying them out loud.

Looking at Choi Yi-Geon’s facial expression, Woo-Jin asked in a discouraged voice,

“Perhaps we should shoot that scene again?”

“No!” Choi Yi-Geon cried. How can I possibly shoot that again? He tried to suppress
his thoughts and forced himself to give Woo-Jin a gracious smile. “Even though that
wasn’t acting, it wasn’t bad. Let’s just leave it at that.” 

In truth, it was a decision that went against Choi Yi-Geon Yi-Geon’s values. Even if it
was a memorable scene, based on what Woo-Jin had said, it was not acting. Even
though he felt strongly against producing anything that was not real acting, he
could not give up on that scene. There was no guarantee that they could shoot a
better scene if they were to do it again.

“But it’s very unsettling to me. Even though there were many outtakes today, I want
to do a perfect job…”

“It. Is. Perfect. Enough! So don’t have any weird thoughts!”

Directors were people who would do anything to shoot the scenes they wanted.
Choi Yi-Geon realized that he himself was no exception as well. On the other hand,
actors could only speak via acting.

Woo-Jin felt that what he had done earlier was not acting—it was only a scrap of
emotion. While having these thoughts as an actor was new to him, he wanted to
keep his stance. “It’s not that I have weird thoughts. It’s just really absurd…”

Choi Yi-Geon covered Woo-Jin’s mouth with his hand and told him that he was
already having weird thoughts. That was when Choi Yi-Geon had suddenly
remembered what Woo-Jin had said earlier about his ex-girlfriend breaking up with
him. At that moment, Choi Yi-Geon had a sad gaze, as he looked at Woo-Jin trapped
in his arms.

The despair, the only emotion reflected in Woo-Jin’s expressionless face during the
last part of the scene, was real. It was terrible how that was nothing but Woo-Jin’s
sincerity, which led Choi Yi-Geon to wonder how that had happened. What kind of
love had Woo-Jin experienced at such a young age, for him to have come to know
that type of despair?

“Hey everyone, since we’re done with shooting today, why don’t we have a get-
together?”

The word ‘get-together’ came out of the mouth of Choi Yi-Geon Yi-Geon, a person
who hated the culture of Korean get-togethers. In his head, he could not think of
anything else to manage this situation in a natural way. All he could think of was a
get-together, which would be well-received by everyone in this uncomfortable
situation.
Choi Yi-Geon was not the only person who felt awkward. The people who had been
pretending not to be listening in on the conversation, were somewhat flustered
because they did not know how to deal with the sad and awkward ambience.
Fortunately, everybody was in agreement pertaining to Choi Yi-Geon’s suggestion
for a get-together, and they rejoiced. As they cheered, Woo-Jin didn’t have a choice
but to nod, as he couldn’t possibly be the only person to object.

He had learned that once he messed up a or shot a scene that he was unhappy
with, regardless of how unsettled he might feel, there was no way for him to
reverse it. In the early stage of becoming an actor and learning new things one by
one, how dangerous was it to have trivial thoughts while acting? Regardless of how
good the outcome was, he himself had to bear the shame of knowing the full truth.
From now on, whenever he looked at the scene that was taken earlier, Woo-Jin
would be secretly ashamed of himself and find it disgraceful. For the first time,
Woo-Jin was conscious of how terrifying it was that videos would remain accessible
to everyone forever.

***

Choi Yi-Geon managed to skirt around Woo-Jin’s request to shoot the scene again
by using the get-together as an excuse. He smiled happily at first. He thought about
how get-togethers were not necessarily a bad thing, and decided to hold them
every now and then.

However, four hours into the event, he realized the culture of such get-togethers in
Korea was very tiring and inelegant.

“We’re heading back now, right?” asked Choi Yi-Geon.

For the first round, they went to a charcoal grilled ribs restaurant. After that, they
went to a Korean bar, before going to a karaoke place at dawn. The remaining
people who had gone to all three places were the ones staying at the motel.

The two main leads disappeared at some point after they had left the Korean
bar. Lucky people, Choi Yi-Geon thought. He envied the people who were not
present, as he tried to straighten his defenseless body.
Since his co-workers asked when they would have another get-together, Choi Yi-
Geon changed his mind and told himself that he would not hold one ever again in
the future.  Do you think I’ll show you this unsightly side of me, that’s drunk and
disheveled, again?

As he made up his mind, the view before him gradually became more and more
slanted as he fell to the side. What could this feeling of warm and cozy fabric touching
my face be?

He struggled to open his eyes that were about to close. Looking straight ahead, he
could see Chae Woo-Jin holding the microphone. Listening to the introduction, it
was Yim Jae-Beom’s ‘Confession’.

“Nooooooooo~”

How dare you sing a forbidden song at karaoke? Furthermore, of all the songs, why
was a broken-hearted man singing that particular song? He tried to reach his hand
out in a bid to stop Woo-Jin from singing it, but his body would not obey him.

“What should be done~ What should I do?”

When Woo-Jin’s song started, Choi Yi-Geon lamented to himself about what to do
with Woo-Jin. You’re definitely going to feel so embarrassed when you wake up in the
morning. But you sing really well. 

Choi Yi-Geon looked at Woo-Jin as he slowly closed his eyes. His evaluation of Woo-
Jin as an actor was put on hold, as he could not come to a conclusion on whether
Woo-Jin was a good actor or a bad one.

However, if Woo-Jin was able to express himself through his acting like the last
scene he had shot today, Choi Yi-Geon was confident that Woo-Jin would become a
great actor. He considered an actor to be beautiful as long as they acted well,
regardless of their appearance.

If what Woo-Jin had said was true, it would mean he had used a trick today. It was
such a great scene that Choi Yi-Geon had approved it, even though it was not actual
acting. It was personally a shame, but he had no choice but to give it the green light.
It was against his own rules, but Chae Woo-Jin’s appearance that had been
captured on camera was truly beautiful.
Favorite

Chapter 15

It was fascinating to see layers of social walls between people get torn down via the
get-together. They had done nothing but eat, drink, and sing together, but it felt like
people had entered the first stage of interpersonal relationships already. 

Whenever Woo-Jin was face-to-face with the staff who had grown friendlier to him,
he would smile awkwardly and bow. As he did so, a middle-aged veteran actor
tapped him on the shoulder and spoke to him in a friendly manner. When Woo-Jin
greeted him as politely as he could, the veteran actor gestured it away. 

“You don’t have to greet me so stiffly. You said that your name is Woo-Jin, right?
Let’s have some drinks together the next time we’re free.” 

The veteran actor smiled as he gestured in the manner of drinking from a shot
glass in the air. The actor was not the first who had asked Woo-Jin to be his drinking
partner today. It made Woo-Jin wonder whether he made a good drinking buddy.
He had never liked alcohol to begin with, and most of his friends shared similar
tastes as him. Yesterday’s drunkenness had been an isolated event, as far as he
knew. Even if it wasn’t, everybody who was there was too bad at holding their
liquor, and they were not in a position to tell anyone what had happened later on.
He did not even know much about his drinking habits, so when he did look back on
yesterday’s event, he did not exactly remember having any weird drunk behavior.
Thus, he was skeptical as to why other people wanted to drink with him at all.

Even though he drank and sang till dawn, he felt refreshed when he woke up in the
morning. His body was getting healthier and feeling lighter with each passing day,
as he had been practicing the inner energy mental cultivation technique. Hence, he
later approached the staff who were moving the audio equipment and started
helping out. 

“Hey, we said we’re fine here.You overexerted yourself yesterday too, shouldn’t you
be conserving your energy?” asked one of the staff.

“I felt oddly energetic when I woke up this morning. Besides, I don’t have many
scenes to shoot today, so I don’t have anything to do,” answered Woo-Jin.

“Well, you did sing with all your might till dawn yesterday, but how is it that your
skin looks better?” 

Hearing the words of a staff member, the rest of them turned to look at Woo-Jin. It
was not an overly tight schedule, but since the shooting schedule was crammed
into one month, days of continuous shooting were frequent. Even if actors were
energetic in the beginning, their skin became drier and drier as the days went by,
making it more difficult to do their makeup. However, strangely enough, Woo-Jin’s
skin was becoming clearer and healthier. The makeup artist in charge of
doing Woo-Jin’s makeup even said that it was better for him to go without any
makeup. 

“It’s good to be young,” said one of the staff.

“When I was his age...no, not even then,” another staff member added.

Regardless of how much the staff member thought about it, she realized that youth
might not be the answer to everything, and scratched her head awkwardly. 

“Looking at you, Mr. Woo-Jin, I can tell that you’re polite and kind. But still, out of
curiosity, you weren’t a bully or delinquent back when you were in school, right?” 

“I’m sorry?”

“Recently, people have been talking about how a popular singer bullied a classmate
back in high school, causing the victim to commit suicide.” Having taken a liking to
Woo-Jin, the staff had asked as he seemed to be worried that Woo-Jin’s past
mistakes might come back to haunt him. 
“Something like that happened?” asked Woo-Jin.

Even when Woo-Jin was done with shooting, he did not have the time to take a
proper break, what with analyzing characters or watching how other people acted.
Whenever he returned to his room, he would be busy doing exercises and
practicing the cultivation technique to maintain his health, and would pass out right
after. It was like he had built a wall around him, keeping worldly affairs out of his
life. As a result, he did not know much about recent entertainment news. 

If one were to look at people who became celebrities, they would find that more
often than not, those people were born with different talents from ordinary people.
They had been extraordinary since they were little - there was no other way to
express it other than putting it plainly that they were born with it. Hence, there
were several cases where these people had used their abundance of talents in
school to do bad things. 

Even though Woo-Jin had never bullied anybody, the victim’s story hit close to
home. As he was about to ask for more details about how a person could make
such an extreme choice, his phone rang. After checking the name of the caller,
Woo-Jin’s face lit up.

“Oh~ Jung Hyun-Min, it’s you!” 

- ...why are you acting like this? Why are you pretending to be so nice?

Even though they had been best friends since middle school, Jung Hyun-Min
pretended it was not true. In today’s language, he was what people called a
‘tsundere’. People like him would get mad and insist, ‘I don’t care about that person
at all!’, but that would not last long.

- What, are you being bullied there? Did you get excited hearing my voice because
you’re feeling lonely and are struggling? Which bastard is it? I’ll head over there and
kick their ass. 

As always, the tsun-tsun act did not last for long. The same thing had happened
previously. Back then, Woo-Jin could not tell his family that he was being bullied by
his fellow members in the group. However, when he saw Hyun-Min’s face, he broke
down and told the latter everything he had been holding in. At that time, Hyun-Min
paid for Woo-Jin’s hospital bill, went to the group’s dorm, and raised hell on them.
Because of that, the discord within the group came to light; the agency learned
about it, and several things happened after that, but it was always true that Hyun-
Min was someone he could rely on. The existence of an ally who was always on his
side regardless of what happened made him feel warm on the inside. 

Most importantly, everything worked out for the better in the end, so it was even
better. 

“No, that’s not it. I’m just very happy to hear your voice after a very long time.”

- Don’t like me too much. I’m already taken, so if you keep going for me, you will be
the one getting hurt later on.

Hyun-Min had started dating recently, and was now playing hard to get. 

“That’s true. So, would you like to tell me why a busy person like yourself has called
me?” 

- My mom has been asking me why you haven’t been coming by these days. She’s
been nagging me about how much she wants to hear you play the piano. You’re a
supporting actor, what are you staying on the set so long for? Why are they making
you work so hard, huh?

Since Hyun-Min had a piano in his house, Woo-Jin would practice playing piano
there. His mother really enjoyed Woo-Jin’s performances. His older sister had
played the piano up until she was in high school before ditching it entirely, and left
the piano sitting uselessly in the house. After listening to Woo-Jin play, his mother
used to joke about how springtime had come once again for the piano.

“Even if I’m not shooting any scenes, I’m still observing. From my point of view,
that’s also studying in a way.”

- That’s good then. Honestly, my mom said that if you are going to continue playing
the piano, she wants to give Chirp Chirp to you. It’s better for it to be used as an
instrument by someone else, than keeping it around at home as a mere decoration.
Hyun-Min did not like the sound of the piano, or to be precise, his sister’s playing of
the piano. Hence, he named their piano ‘Chirp Chirp’. 

“The piano? It’s very expensive though.”

Even though the younger daughter of the family played the piano as a hobby,
Hyun-Min’s family was rich, and so, they bought a high-end piano for her. It had
been sitting in the corner of their house for several years as a decoration, but it was
still a good piano from a well-known brand. Even if it was sold as a used piano, it
would still fetch a rather decent price. 

- Even if it’s expensive, it’s still nothing but a white elephant in our house. Even
though my mom likes hearing you play the piano, she said that it is very
inconvenient for you to travel back and forth to practice at my house. Since it’s an
upright piano, it doesn’t take up much space, so you can put it in your room. The
only issue is soundproofing, but since you aren’t living in an apartment, it should be
fine.

Hyun-Min recalled Woo-Jin’s room, and had already calculated the space that Woo-
Jin needed for the piano and was only worried about soundproofing. However,
since it was a solid house that was well-built, the soundproofing was not that bad.
After figuring those things out, Hyun-Min had called it a day.

Woo-Jin, on the other hand,was left in a daze, unable to come to his senses. Even
though Hyun-Min said that the piano was a white elephant, it was not easy to give
an expensive piano away that casually. 

Although Hyun-Min’s family was wealthy, they could only afford to buy things of the
highest quality for their own children. They were not that rich to the extent they
could give away an expensive piano that was worth millions of won to their
children’s friends without hesitation. However, Hyun-Min’s mother loved Woo-Jin’s
piano performances, and had made the final decision to give him the piano. Even
though it was enjoyable for her to be able to listen to the beautiful music, she felt
sorry for Woo-Jin every time he went to their house to play the piano. Hence, she
felt that it was better to leave the piano at his house where he could play instead of
commuting to and fro to practice. That was because she knew that Woo-Jin, whom
she had known since he was a child, would play the piano consistently unlike her
daughter. 

- I just wanted to let you know first. I will take care of the rest.

“What do you mean, take care of the rest?” 

- I’ll take the responsibility to move Chirp Chirp to your room, and if there’s a
problem with soundproofing, I’ll ask your landlord and get permission from her.

“Let’s do it together after I’m done with the shoot.” 

- It’s better to get it done as soon as possible. Since your landlord likes me, I will talk
to her really nicely. Ha, it’s such a pity that everyone’s into me, I think I’m such a
sinner.

With that statement and a hearty laugh, Hyun-Min hung up the phone. It seemed
likely that the landlord would give them permission to do it. She had seen Hyun-
Min hanging out with Woo-Jin over the course of several years, and she was very
fond of the former. Surprisingly, she liked listening to classical music too. She
strongly believed that everybody should be able to play at least one instrument.
She had also told them not to worry about playing the piano or any other
instruments and encouraged them to play any instruments they wanted. With that
in mind, Hyun-Min proceeded with his plan with confidence. 

“Your friend said he’s giving you a piano?” asked Choi Yi-Geon as he popped up next
to Woo-Jin.

Woo-Jin was startled and drew back. 

“Director? By the way, what happened to your face?” asked Woo-Jin.

As always, Choi Yi-Geon was neatly dressed in a suit, but his dark circles were more
pronounced and his skin was particularly rough. 

“It’s been a while since I’ve gone off as far as I did yesterday. Your skin is glowing
though. Is it because you’re young?” 
Choi Yi-Geon mumbled to himself, as he gently stroked his face with the palm of his
hand. It’s so rough when I touch it. This is heartbreaking. 

“Anyway, I unintentionally overheard your conversation. Do you play the piano as

well?” 

“I just started learning not too long ago, but my friend’s mother said that she
wanted to give me their piano. I’m very thankful for it.”

Woo-Jin smiled embarrassedly, as he thought about how he should call Hyun-Min’s

mother soon to thank her. 

“After hearing you sing yesterday, I realized that you’re very good at singing. Yet you
can play the piano as well, and your friend’s mother likes you so much that she’s
giving you a piano. You are well-loved, aren’t you?”

Choi Yi-Geon omitted the words, ‘by God’, when he said that. 

Looking at Woo-Jin staring back at him with puppy-eyes, Choi Yi-Geon asked
confidently, “You are the youngest child in your family, right?”

“I’m the eldest son.”

“That’s not possible. You must be the youngest!” 

“I’m the eldest and I have a younger sister.”

“And all this happens?” Choi Yi-Geon screamed at the injustice.

Apart from Woo-Jin, who cocked his head to the side because he did not
understand why Choi Yi-Geon was reacting this way, everyone else around them
understood his reaction. 

After the filming had ended yesterday, Choi Yi-Geon wanted to order pork ribs at
the charcoal-grilled ribs restaurant. G&C’s CEO Choi had given him a credit card, but
it was her personal credit card and not just any corporate credit card. So, he had no
intention of using it recklessly. Choi Yi-Geon knew how to keep boundaries. 
However, because of Chae Woo-Jin, his original plans were thwarted. Chae Woo-Jin
looked around the restaurant, and as clueless as he was, he told them in a clear
voice that it had been a long time since he had eaten beef. 

The get-together itself was held to comfort Woo-Jin, or to remove the awkwardness
around him in the first place. Though Choi Yi-Geon had decided in his mind that the
dinner was for Chae Woo-Jin beforehand, as soon as he heard Woo-Jin’s words, he
had frozen on the spot. 
Favorite

Chapter 16

Chae Woo-Jin looked cluelessly at Choi Yi-Geon in anticipation as he blinked.

Looking at Woo-Jin’s face, Choi Yi-Geon could not bear to tell him that they were
going to eat pork ribs. 

As he was grilling the meat, Woo-Jin told them that he had eaten beef while he was
in the military, but had never had the chance to eat beef after being discharged.
Little by little, meat began to pile up on the plate in front of him. 

During the second round [1], they went to a Korean bar, and Woo-Jin looked very
excited. He had mentioned that he and his friends were both not the greatest fans
of alcohol, and so most of the time, they would hang out at cafes. He also said that
when he was a freshman in college, he rarely went to drink with his classmates
because he was busy with part-time tutoring and a bunch of other things. 

“Are you a college student?”

“Yes, I am currently on a leave of absence as I had to complete my military service. I

plan to return to school in my second semester.” 

“Which school?”
“Korea University.” [2]

“...You’re smart.”

As Korea University was one of the best colleges in Korea, everyone was
momentarily caught off guard. It was not that there weren’t any celebrities who
went to Korea University, but it was true that if one went to that school, they would
get a huge advantage. Everybody was surprised by his academic proficiency.
However, Woo-Jin pulled a long face after he took a few sips of beer. 

“I am not good at academics.”

They wanted to refute, but after seeing the depressed look on Woo-Jin’s face, they
decided to keep their mouths shut and wait for him to continue speaking. 

“I have a few classmates who went to Ivy League schools in America. One of my
relatives had passed the bar exam and is now a prosecutor, and another relative,
who is the same age as me, had also passed the LEET and is now at law school.” 

Woo-Jin did not bother to mention that his grades were better than his friends who
went to Ivy League schools. It didn’t matter anyway, since it was a world where the
ultimate outcome was everything. He glossed over his cousins Yi-Yeon and Hee-
Yeon’s identities and kept it vague by referring to them as his relatives. Even when
he was drunk, he did not want to seem like he was bragging about his connections,
and thus referred to his cousins as “relatives” to keep his distance from them. 

“I feel so sorry towards my mother…”

After drinking a bottle of beer, Woo-Jin became slightly tipsy.. In order to comfort
Woo-Jin, who mentally digressed from being a capable student of Korea University
to being a son who caused distress to his parents for not being able to excel
academically, they continued drinking. After drinking some more, Woo-Jin’s mood
changed once more. 

“Wow~! So this is chimaek. It’s just as delicious as the rumors make it out to be..
However, I heard that eating a lot of chimaek can cause gout. What would I do if I
got it? I heard that it hurts a lot.” [3]
Woo-Jin, tempted into eating chimaek, managed to overcome his fear of gout. His
eyes sparkled as he set the mood of the drinking party, continuously smiling and
talking to people. Whenever he saw an empty glass, he would sidle up to them and
pour them a drink, telling them to consider their health and drink moderately.
Despite saying that, whenever he saw an empty glass, he would steadily pour
drinks into it. 

At some point, somebody told him that they did not want a man to pour any drinks
for them.  When he heard this, Woo-Jin shook his head. 

“I was told that women should not pour drinks for anyone,” said Woo-Jin.

“Who taught you such a weird custom?” they asked.

“When I was little, my maternal grandfather told me that when I start to learn
drinking etiquette,  I should not let women pour any drinks for me. It’s not right!” 

“In that case, let me pour myself a drink,” one female staff said

“It’s kind of sad for you to pour yourself a drink though,” Woo-Jin retorted.

Because Woo-Jin was shaking his head in such a pitiful manner, the staff ultimately
gave in and drank the glass he poured her. Even though Woo-Jin was polite, some
of the female staff acted extremely aloof, which made it hard to approach them
easily. However, after Woo-Jin poured them a few drinks and acted cute in front of
them, they started to grow fond of him. Since such drinking behavior lightened the
mood, people secretly welcomed it, and the atmosphere became better. 

The get-together peaked in the third round of the night, at karaoke. When Woo-Jin
tried to sing Yim Jae-Beom’s Confession [4], everybody, especially Choi Yi-Geon,
tried to stop him. Based on their past experiences, whenever someone sang Yim
Jae-Beom’s song at karaoke, it rarely ended well, and they pleaded with him not to
ruin the night, saying that everything had been going well so far. 

However, to their surprise, it went much better than they had expected. Woo-Jin
sang so well that even the people who were in favor of the age-old rule which
dictated that only Yim Jae-Beom himself could sing his own songs, were listening to
Woo-Jin with their mouths wide open. 

After that, their karaoke session turned into a Chae Woo-Jin concert. He took their
song requests and sang everything without hesitation, even songs by girl groups
that had been suggested as a joke. That was not all - he had even copied the dances
from the same girl group that he had seen in the military seemingly without
difficulty. In fact, he danced and sang so perfectly that it made the audience
wonder what kind of army allowed them to do nothing else but chase girl groups. 

However, he did not know anything about the girl groups or songs that had come
out after he had been discharged, so he quietly slipped the microphone to the
person next to him. When somebody criticized him for that, Woo-Jin replied with a
bright smile.

“Girl idol groups are the dreams and hopes of soldiers."

“So you don’t like them now?” 

“I am not a soldier anymore. I have found my dreams and hopes elsewhere.” 

He was very blatant about his affection that had lasted for a limited time period. It
was as if to say that they were going their separate ways after their business
relationship was over, but he would not forget them because of their past ties. As if
he was trying to prove that, Woo-Jin went back to the stage without hesitation as a
familiar melody was heard. He shamelessly did a cute dance that was once popular
without any hesitation, which required one to put both fists on their cheeks. Woo-
Jin happily complied with any and all singing or dance routines, as if to show that
not everybody was cut out to train to be an idol. It had been a long time since he
had a place to sing to his heart’s content, and there was no reason for him to save
face.

From the lows to the highs, his clear voice moved freely through his vocal range.
His perfect singing skills captured people’s hearts, making them request more
songs. Despite getting many song requests from those who wanted to hear him
sing,  Woo-Jin readily agreed regardless, with a bright smile on his face. That was
more than enough to ease their boundaries, allowing him to win them over. Even
when people whipped out cameras and recorded him, he did not hesitate to be
filmed. 

As such, everybody assumed that Woo-Jin was the youngest child in his family
without him having to say anything. They thought that Chae Woo-Jin was an
atmospheric person who grew up loved. 

‘Perhaps an eldest son who’s like the youngest child?’

Ultimately, after coming to a compromise on his own, Choi Yi-Geon glanced at Woo-
Jin and asked, “You don’t remember what happened yesterday, right?”

“I did drink a lot, but fortunately, I remember everything, including all the titles of
the songs I sang at karaoke yesterday,” Woo-Jin humbly bragged about how he had
never blacked out before after drinking alcohol. 

“In that case, you must have kicked the covers when you woke up this morning,”
said Choi Yi-Geon. [5]

If Chae Woo-Jin did not feel embarrassed recalling all those memories, Choi Yi-Geon
was ready to affirm that he was a shameless man. 

“I did not kick the covers, but I did get some stretching in,” replied Woo-Jin. 

Choi Yi-Geon, who had finally realized that Chae Woo-Jin was shameless AND
confident, grunted and went to the director’s chair. Even though his face was rough
and looked lackluster, his outfit was on par with a , what with his suit and shiny
shoes. 

Even though Woo-Jin did not have any scenes to shoot today, he was still observing
others act on set. Studying the script alone was insufficient for him, as it could not
capture the flow of the scenes, as well as the constantly changing emotions
between the characters. Even Woo-Jin deviated away from the script with regards
to emotion, so he paid great attention to how the other actors portrayed their
characters. In that way, he would then be able to understand the emotions
between the characters and act accordingly. 
During a short break in shooting, a voice suddenly sounded out next to Woo-Jin. 

“Mr. Woo-Jin, you said you’re 23, right?” 

Song Jae-Hee, the female lead, approached Woo-Jin amicably. In order to keep a
distance from Kwon Sung-Min, she had been distancing herself from the other
actors and production crew. Eventually, Song Jae-Hee had finally caved in
to boredom and approached Woo-Jin first. It also helped that she was more
comfortable talking to him because she was three years older than Woo-Jin. 

“Please speak casually to me. I am younger than you and also your junior in this
field,” said Woo-Jin.

“Shall I do that?”

Even though Song Jae-Hee was only 26, if one added her career as a child actress,
she had 15 years of experience under her belt. She immediately dropped any
honorifics and began speaking casually to Woo-Jin.

“I only just got the chance to say this, but do you know how frustrated I was when I
first saw you?” asked Song Jae-Hee.

“Why?”

“You play an older guy in the movie, but you are clearly younger, in terms of age
and appearance. How ridiculous would the audience think when they see us
addressing you respectfully throughout the movie? I bet you don’t know that as I’m
shooting this movie, I’ve been taking care of my skin more than ever, and that I’ve
been obsessing over these reflectors, right?”

At that point, Woo-Jin realized that there were a lot of reflectors laying around on
the movie set. Since Woo-Jin didn’t have any other movie sets to compare to apart
from Death Hill’s, he didn’t know what was considered ‘normal’, especially since
Deah Hill was mainly shot in the dark. The reflector had mainly been used by the
female lead, if at all. Because of that, he hadn’t cared much about the presence of
an excessive amount of reflectors. He had also speculated that it might have been
Choi Yi-Geon’s attempt to pursue visual beauty. 
“I specifically asked the director for them. I might even peak in visual appearance
with this movie. However, I found out some time ago that Actor Kwon had also
requested for reflectors,” continued Song Jae-Hee. 

Song Jae-Hee addressed Kwon Sung-Min by the ambiguous title of Actor Kwon
because he was older than her, but career-wise, he was way below her in seniority. 

“Don’t I look old? My younger sister has been making fun of me every day for being
a complete uncle after being discharged from the military,” said Woo-Jin.

“That might be true to young kids. After going to the military, men who looked like
children would suddenly look more mature and grown up. The younger people call
it looking old, but at our age, all the young people are just youngsters. Well, of
course, you give off an aura of maturity for your age, but your face itself is the
absolute definition of youth.” 

The beautiful actress in her 20s played around and pretended to be depressed,
saying that time could not be beaten. However, Woo-Jin was the one who was
actually depressed.

“Even so, I still look like a toad,” said Woo-Jin.

It was true that age gave one a competitive advantage over others, but first of all,
having good looks and acting skills were the most important prerequisites one
needed to survive in the entertainment industry. One thing for sure was that Woo-
Jin was very insecure about his looks. 

“A toad? You?” asked Song Jae-Hee.

“Yes. Someone said that I look like a toad.”

After meeting with the casting director Kim Sang-Jin, Woo-Jin went to look up the
chairman of G&C on the Internet. When he saw the chairman and realized how
much he himself resembled a toad, Woo-Jin fell into despair. It was not just his
image but also his face that resembled a toad. Because of this, it reminded him of a
time when his mother asked him out of concern if he could make it as a celebrity
with his face, as celebrities had to be good-looking. Realizing that his mother might
have a point, he was now in a deep swamp of misunderstanding. 

Moreover, as he recalled his previous lives, Woo-Jin’s confidence plummeted even

further. 

In his past lives, he remembered that there were many human beings and different
races who were very beautiful. Additionally, Woo-Jin also had appearances that
were on par with those beings in a few of his past lives, which might have been why
he was not confident with his current face. As a result, he had to think deeply about
whether or not he could succeed as an actor with his face. In the end, he gave up
on his appearance and did his best to achieve his dream in the hope of being
recognized as a talented actor, and eventually achieving the peak of his field as an
extremely skilled actor. 

The biased remark of someone who was blinded by love, saying how a famous
actor looked like her son, inadvertently fertilized the seeds of one person’s dream. 

1. When Koreans go out for the night, they go for “rounds”, each round involving a
different activity, such as a different food or karaoke. Each round usually involves
some form of alcohol. ☜

2. Korea University, also known as Koryeo University (고려대학교), is part of SKY,

which is an acronym used to refer to the three most prestigious universities in
South Korea. ☜

3. Chimaek is chicken and beer. ☜

4. Yim Jae-Beom, or 임재범,  is a famous Korean singer. His song, 고해 (Confession in
English) is famous for being difficult to sing. ☜

5. Kicking the covers, or 이불킥, is an idiom in Korean for ‘feeling embarrassed’ ☜

Favorite

Chapter 17

“That’s nonsense! Who exactly said that? Perhaps they said it out of jealousy?”

“She’s a middle-aged woman, so it’s definitely not jealousy. The truth is that she
probably has really high standards. That’s why I am going to work even harder, to
please people like her.”

Woo-Jin clenched his fists and got into a fighting stance to show that a small
setback like this would not make him collapse. Song Jae-Hee struggled to hold back
her laughter upon seeing that. She had kind of guessed what kind of person he was
during the get-together - he was not stupid, but he was rather slow-witted and
naive when it came to his own matters. Hence, she was slightly worried.

“Woo-Jin, which agency are you from?” 

“I am not signed with any agency right now.”

“Then, have you decided which one you are going to sign with?”

“No. I am planning to be on my own for now.”

Song Jae-Hee shook her head upon hearing Woo-Jin’s answer. Even for famous
celebrities, it would not be easy for them to land as many jobs without an agency.
Not being signed to an agency might have been fine in the past, but in present
times, the entertainment industry worked very closely with agencies. The presence
of marketing and management had been a measure of one’s status as a celebrity
for the longest time. 

“It’s not a bad thing if you are satisfied with continuing with minor or supporting
roles like you are right now. But if you want to succeed, or if you even want to
continue taking on various roles in the future, you will need an agency. Information
and details about auditions for drama or movie roles are first delivered through
agencies. Actors who aren’t signed with any agencies, such as yourself, will only be
able to come into the picture and take on those roles when no one can fulfill those
roles. Naturally, there’s bound to be limited roles for you in the future.”

Of course, if one was lucky enough to be in a one-hit-wonder movie, their chances

of success would increase. But how long would sudden, lucky fame last? Public
opinion changes very easily, and they tend to have a short memory span too.
Furthermore, huge agencies had a tendency to trample on rookies that did not
belong to their agency without remorse. So many actors who were meant to make
it big had ended up disappearing from the entertainment industry as a result.

“It’s a world where a single line in an article can destroy you. Agencies can protect
you as much as possible from such external threats. It’s not just about acting for
actors. There are so many things to deal with, do you think you can do it all by
yourself?” 

Song Jae-Hee continued to praise agencies. Above all, she specifically highlighted
sponsorship and styling management. For example, if an actor were to play a role
of a wealthy person in a drama or movie and the clothes did not match the role, the
blame would rest solely on the actor. There was a limit to what the production crew
could prepare for them. 

“Fortunately, for this movie, CEO Choi had already prepared the styling and clothes
from start to end according to your taste for each scene. In the case of Actor Kwon,
he would have been very concerned about sponsorships because of his role as the
son of a wealthy family. Agencies are the ones who do all the troublesome and
difficult work such as styling behind the scenes.” 

When she saw the way Woo-Jin looked at her, Song Jae-Hee could feel that she had
almost convinced him. Hence, it was dangerous to leave him as he was, without an
agency. He looked like someone who could be won over very easily by any random
passerby. 

“However, not all agencies are good,” said Woo-Jin. 

His past experience was the reason behind his hesitation. 

“Of course! You’re better off being alone than signing with a random sub-par
agency.” 

“In that case, which agency is the best? Just because an agency is well-known
doesn’t mean it’s a good one. Most importantly, if you can’t trust them, there’s no
point in joining it.”

Woo-Jin’s first agency was also a well-known agency in Korea. However, all he had
gotten from that agency was the ugly side of the entertainment industry and a
bitter sense of betrayal.

“Exactly. This is why I recommend DS.” 

“DS?”

“Yeah. My agency! It’s abbreviated as DS, which stands for Divine Shadow. There is a
diverse array of artistes - both actors and singers included. Most importantly, the
CEO is the son of a wealthy family, so he has a lot of money, which is why he will
not make our artistes do anything weird.”

Upon hearing the name of the agency that Song Jae-Hee confidently recommended,
the good-natured Woo-Jin frowned immediately. Of all public exams, the bar exam
was ranked one of the highest in terms of difficulty, and there was a similar exam in
the broadcasting industry. On the other hand, in the entertainment industry, there
was something called the ‘DS exam’. In other words, that meant that entering DS
Entertainment was more difficult than passing any auditions, or becoming a Hallyu
star [1]. 

First of all, the CEO of DS Entertainment was the son of a second-generation

wealthy family, and thus had some distance from the internal conflicts of his family.
However, he had already gained trillions of won through inheritance, gifts, as well
as his own business. Perhaps, that was the reason behind the good welfare and
management of his employees and artistes. He was good at media marketing, and
he did not try to turn the company’s artistes into famous celebrities by overworking
them. 
Not all artistes wanted to become famous celebrities. DS Entertainment’s CEO
provided an environment where all the artistes could do what they wanted, be it
acting or singing, even if they were not celebrities. In a way, he was similar to CEO
Choi of G&C Entertainment. DS’ CEO firmly wanted to help the actors and musicians
that he liked to continue with their work without being hindered by economic
difficulties or unconducive environments. 

Hence, the biggest challenge and the most difficult part of the DS exam was
whether or not one suited the CEO’s taste. Regardless of how talented an artiste
was, if they were not the CEO’s cup of tea, they would not make it into DS. 

“What’s with that look on your face? It’s as if you’re telling me that you’re bound to
fail.” 

“That’s right. I won’t be able to make it.” 

“Umm… I can’t be 100% sure, but there is a high chance that you are what the CEO
is looking for.”

“Does your CEO like toads?”

“Maybe…he might like golden toads?”  

Because no one in the world hated them. Song Jae-Hee’s eyes darted around to
avoid making eye contact with the teary-eyed Woo-Jin. That was because she felt
that she would not be able to hold back her laughter if she were to make eye
contact with Woo-Jin, who looked so serious. It was so fun to tease him that she
could not stop herself from doing so. 

“Na Mi-Yeon, scene 72 is about to start!”

The staff calling out to her was akin to salvation. She hurriedly got up from her seat
and patted Woo-Jin’s droopy shoulders.

“You don’t know how it’s going to turn out to be yet. Don’t be prematurely
disappointed! I will recommend you to our CEO. Even though not all
recommendations end up going through, it still gives you better odds than going
through a regular audition.”

Having been with DS for more than ten years, Song Jae-Hee was qualified enough
to say that she was confident that she knew the CEO’s taste. In truth, no agency
with a keen judgment would reject someone like Chae Woo-Jin. On top of being
very good-looking, he was also charming. He had an unforgettable appearance and
he was good at acting. He had checked all the boxes — young, good-looking, great
acting skills. He was also from a prestigious college, and most importantly, he had
already been discharged from the military. 

***

After she was done with shooting, Song Jae-Hee went straight to the DS
headquarters instead of going home. She went to look for the CEO, Jang Soo-
Hwan. 

“Oho~ It’s Actress Song, who said she did not want to see me for a while. What’s
up?”

CEO Jang Soo-Hwan was personally acquainted with CEO Choi of G&C
Entertainment. They were such close friends that they called each other terrible
people. Hence, when CEO Choi picked Song Jae-Hee as the female lead of Glooming
Day, Jang Soo-Hwan grumbled but did not object to the decision. 

If CEO Jang had protected her, they would have been able to reject Witch Choi’s
request. Hence, Song Jae-Hee could not contain her anger, cursing in CEO Jang’s
face and declaring that she did not want to see his face for some time.  However,
Song Jae-Hee had come to visit Jang Soo-Hwan on her own accord. This was a
situation that perfectly depicted the saying that “you’ll never know what will happen
in life’’. 

“I did not come here to see your face.”

In order not to go back on her words, Song Jae-Hee sat down and faced away from
Jang Soo-Hwan. 
“What can I do? I’ve been friends with the Supreme Witch since we were children.
How can I reject a friend who asked me for a favor? However, from what I’ve heard
from Manager Kim, the movie’s coming out really well. He said that this movie will
be better than any run-of-the-mill piece, right?” 

“I don’t know about that. If everything went as expected, how would it not fail?”

Despite what she was saying, there was a subtle tinge of confidence in her voice.
Even if she was not certain about how well the movie would be received by the
public, it did not seem like the movie would receive much criticism. Of course, the
editing was always the key to a movie’s success, but since Choi Yi-Geon was the
director of the movie, they had nothing to worry about. 

Jang Soo-Hwan chuckled upon seeing her calm response. According to the
information, regardless of the success of the movie, it was important for Song Jae-
Hee to boost her image as a woman instead of a girl. Since Song Jae-Hee had been
a child actor, even though she was now in her mid-twenties, she still could not
escape from her image as a little girl. There was a strange separation between
personas as the vibes she gave off to the audience did not match her adult
appearance. Regardless of how many roles she took on as an adult, she did not
exactly have any chemistry with the other actors. The main reason was that it felt as
though she was a young girl trying to act as an adult. 

Both parties were worried because there were several child actors who failed to get
past the stage of transitioning from child to adult. However, it felt as though the
movie could be a turning point for Song Jae-Hee as an actress. 

“We are both busy people so we should stop beating around the bush. Tell me,
what brings you here, Actress Song?” 

“When are you going to hold auditions for the rookies? The first audition of the year
should be around now, right?” 

“I decided not to do it this year, haven’t you heard?”

“No, but why!” yelled Song Jae-Hee as she turned her head to look at Jang Soo-
Hwan. 
“Even if you hold auditions for thousands of people, only one or two people end up
getting selected. What is this? Looking for pearls in a muddy field? To make it
worse, the rookies who ended up getting selected are getting lower in quality by the
year. I’ll be honest with you, the purpose of holding auditions is gradually
disappearing. However, if nobody gets selected officially, the amount of backlash
we’ll get is no joke. I’d rather take a break this year and have auditions only once a
year next year onwards.”

DS, which was already difficult to get into, had grown even harder to get into.
However, for Jang Soo-Hwan, as the CEO of DS, they were not in a hurry to hold
auditions as they did not lack artistes. Furthermore, there were quite a number of
rookies and trainees who were preparing for their debut. Additionally, in many
cases, the talents he had personally scouted tend to be better than the ones
selected officially via auditions. 

“In that case…”

“In that case?”

“What about recommendations? There were times when people signed with the
agency after auditioning due to somebody’s recommendation.” 

“It depends on who’s recommending and who’s recommended. For instance, if an

idol who debuted this year recommended his younger brother, he would be
rejected. Do you think our company is some sort of flea market?” 

Jang Soo-Hwan did not look too happy, questioning if there were really such
instances. 

1. a famous Korean celebrity who has played a large part in the entertainment
industry ☜
Favorite

Chapter 18

With the tension in the air, Song Jae-Hee hesitated for a moment and wondered to
herself if she was qualified enough to recommend anyone. Then, she thought of
Chae Woo-Jin’s face and shook her head slightly. If she were to let him be, that boy
would be lucky if he did not end up signing a slave contract with a strict agency.
Before that happened, she had to put a safety net in place somehow. 

“Actually, there’s someone I’d like to recommend,” said Song Jae-Hee.

“By any chance, is his name Chae Woo-Jin?” asked Jang Soo-Hwan.

“Ack! What!”

Forgetting she was a dignified female actress, Song Jae-Hee made strange noises as
she jumped up from her seat. She stared at Jang Soo-Hwan with a doubtful look,
wondering if Woo-Jin had performed a blade dance. [1].

“There was someone who recommended Chae Woo-Jin before you.”

“Was it Manager Kim?”

“Manager Kim was the second person to recommend him. You are the third,”
responded Jang Soo-Hwan.

“I’m the third? Not the second, but the third? Who recommended him? Who had the
audacity to recommend Woo-Jin before I did?” 

If it was Manager Kim who had recommended him before she did, she would
acknowledge it, since he had seen Woo-Jin throughout the shooting on set.
However, when she had heard that someone other than her or Manager Kim had
recommended Chae Woo-Jin first, it fired up an unnecessary competitive spirit in
her.  

“G&C Entertainment’s Supreme Witch,” replied Jang Soo-Hwan.

Upon hearing Jang Soo-Hwan’s answer, she gaped for a few moments, but soon
after conceded. She had heard that CEO Choi had personally selected the main
leads, as well as the supporting actor, for this movie. Hence, she logically concluded
she must have been the first person to know about Woo-Jin’s value. However, she
had guessed incorrectly. 

“She had never actually seen him act before, so I asked her why she recommended
him.”

“...”

“She said that he looked like her son,” continued Jang Soo-Hwan.

“Ah, that toad…?”

That was when Song Jae-Hee finally understood the meaning behind Woo-Jin’s
words earlier on during the day. G&C Group’s general chairman was famous for
looking like a toad. So that’s why he was in despair. 

“It’s true that in all honesty, the Supreme Witch, who thinks that her husband is
handsome, has terrible taste. But all the people whom she thinks resemble her son
end up making it big,” said Jang Soo-Hwan, grumbling about how obscure the
witch’s standards were. 

Jang Soo-Hwan continued with his rant. “Regardless of how much the Supreme
Witch recommended him, I said that I would think about it and see how it goes. But
seeing as both you and Manager Kim have recommended him, he must have
something special, hm?” 

“First of all, he has the looks and the acting down. He also has a unique vibe too, in
a positive way. He has the so-called image and the aura of an actor.”
“You’re pretty aggressive about recommending him, huh,” remarked Jang Soo-
Hwan.

Since Song Jae-Hee was not the type of person to recommend someone else, or
actively support them, Jang Soo-Hwan glanced at her with a doubtful look in his
eyes. Any potential scandals had to be managed properly in advance as long as the
other party was a man, even if he was younger. 

“He’s not even an actress who will compete with me, so what do I have to be wary
about? Most importantly, I’m just worried about him because he’s like a lost little
child,” replied Song Jae-Hee.

Song Jae-Hee was the eldest child in her family. She saw Woo-Jin as a younger
brother that was born late into the family. She thought that it would be really cute if
he were to call her ‘noona’ while looking at her with sparkly eyes. If they were in the
same agency, it would be a step closer to making it happen. As the thought popped
into her head, she realized that she had another reason for bringing Chae Woo-Jin
into DS. 

“All the people who recommended Chae Woo-Jin are people I trust to have a
discerning eye, so I will seriously think about it. Of course, the final decision lies
with me and Chae Woo-Jin himself, so stop worrying about this and focus on acting.
Even if the movie becomes a flop, shouldn’t you use this as an opportunity for you
to completely get rid of your image as a child actress?”

Ironically, the biggest reason why Song Jae-Hee was cast in this movie was because
of her image as a young girl, rather than a mature woman. However, this girl was
loved by two men, and her character, Na Mi-Yeon, gradually bloomed into a mature
woman. So, playing that character was fun. There was a default mood or ambience
set by the writer, but the overall outline would subtly change depending on how the
actors portrayed their characters. With 15 years of experience as an actress, Song
Jae-Hee was starting to develop a newfound love for acting again. 

As Song Jae-Hee left the office, Jang Soo-Hwan grabbed the folder he was looking at
right before she went into his office. 

<Chae Woo-Jin>
All the information he could find out about Chae Woo-Jin could be found under the
title of the first page of the file. Jang Soo-Hwan was confident that it contained
information about Chae Woo-Jin that Chae Woo-Jin himself probably did not even
know about. 

“If only he wasn’t a TM trainee…”

Jang Soo-Hwan sighed as he read the document.

***

A month had passed by very quickly. Finally, all that was left was one final
sequence. Choi Yi-Geon and Woo-Jin had a one-on-one talk. 

“Do Cha Hyun-Seung’s tears really fit his image here?” asked Choi Yi-Geon. 

It was a sincere question on Choi Yi-Geon’s part — not an attempt at arguing —

because he could not come to a conclusion about the acting. 

“I think that it doesn’t matter whether or not he sheds any tears. If you can’t come
to a conclusion, wouldn’t it be better to just act according to the writer’s
intentions?” 

Perhaps it might have been the writer’s intention to use Cha Hyun-Seung’s tears to
declare the end of passionate young love; a love that was unable to achieve
anything was forgotten without leaving anything behind. The tears that were shed
as a result of complex feelings could have had different types of meanings, ranging
from sorrow to injustice. 

“Isn’t crying too easy of a way to play it out?” asked Choi Yi-Geon.

“It certainly is,” answered Woo-Jin. 

There was nothing easier than using tears to release and express emotions. It was
difficult for actors to cry naturally, but if said actor could shed tears to tell the
audience how sad the character was, there was no more effective method to
convince them and get their understanding. 
“I feel like our hard work up until now would have been in vain if we use nothing
but tears to unravel Cha Hyun-Seung’s complicated feelings. I’ve also been thinking.
When Cha Hyun-Seung happened to run into Na Mi-Yeon ten years later, he has
already gotten married. I mean, I don’t think that Cha Hyun-Seung will simply
accept reality and marry a random person he did not love,” said Choi Yi-Geon. 

Woo-Jin concurred with what Choi Yi-Geon said and nodded. 

“I feel the same way. My version of Cha Hyun-Seung is someone who knows what
love is. That person is someone who would rather live alone than marry a woman
he doesn’t love.” 

The emotion that Woo-Jin chose when he acted as Cha Hyun-Seung was patience
instead of a sense of inferiority. He played a character that knew what patience was
when it came to love; someone who wanted to protect the love of the woman he
loved, prevent her from getting hurt, and wish for her to shine more brilliantly than
anyone else. 

“Yeah, such a man, who already has a wife that he loves, cried because he saw the
person he used to love?” asked Choi Yi-Geon. 

“There is a saying that a man cannot forget his first love, even though in this case, it
was his first unrequited love,” said Woo-Jin.

“In that case, what do you think would happen if you were him? Would you cry if
you were to run into your first love ten years later?”

Choi Yi-Geon asked Woo-Jin this cautiously, as he knew that Woo-Jin had
experienced a painful relationship, despite not knowing the details. That sudden
question was something Woo-Jin had never thought about before, so he was a little
caught off guard. 

However, knowing Choi Yi-Geon’s intentions, Woo-Jin earnestly thought about it. It
had been almost two years since he had seen his ex-girlfriend. Since it was
completely different from not seeing a former lover for ten years, coupled with the
fact that Cha Hyun-Seung was also in an entirely different position, it was hard to
make a comparison. But the one thing they had in common was that they had both
lost the woman they loved. 

Right now, Woo-Jin was not in love with anyone, but he could imagine it. If he were
to unexpectedly run into her one day and find out that she had completely
forgotten about him, how would he have reacted? Not forgetting the fact that he
had someone else by his side now. 

He felt like he would be about to cry, but ultimately never did, partly due to pride,
partly to respect the one he was currently with.

“Ah…”

Cha Hyun-Seung clearly had a different personality from Chae Woo-Jin, but they
seemed to have similar feelings for their significant other. If anything were
different, Cha Hyun-Seung would have put her wellbeing and emotions first and his
pride second. It would not have been different just because he had a wife. 

Just because his love had ended did not mean love itself was over. It was not that
he had lingering feelings for her, or that he could not forget her. It was the
minimum courtesy and self-respect he could have for his past relationship. He
would have wanted to cry but he would not cry, also out of courtesy and respect for
the person he loved now. 

“If it were me, I wouldn’t cry. Cha Hyun-Seung wouldn’t cry either. He’s more
emotional than anyone else, but he’s a rational person when it comes to his
actions,” said Woo-Jin.

“That’s exactly right! It’s a very common cliche to squeeze out tears because you
cannot forget your first love.”

Choi Yi-Geon had been working very hard in order to shoot a movie that portrayed
uncommon emotions despite having a cliched premise. This was the first
screenplay that the writer of Glooming Day had ever written. The reason why Choi
Yi-Geon had ignored the writer’s intentions was not that he was inexperienced, but
because the sub-par dialogue and the trite content in the script had caused his
blood pressure to rise throughout the production. 
The scriptwriter had compiled all the imagery people had of how “first love" should
be and put it into the script. Choi Yi-Geon was only satisfied with the movie ending.
He truly only liked the ending; the inconsistent flow of the movie caused by the
ending was unbearable. The first half of the movie was very beautiful, as though
they were traveling in a fantasy world, but towards the end, they were brought back
to reality. This was similar to the typical development of a comedy that was
designed to be funny throughout, but was given forced emotions and a sense of
reality towards the end, adding weight to it. In truth, Choi Yi-Geon was curious
about how such a work landed in CEO Choi’s hands, but what could he do even if he
knew? It was useless unless he could go back in time and stop it from happening.

“Just ignore the writer’s intentions, like what you’ve been doing. Follow the
emotions of your version of Cha Hyun-Seung,” said Choi Yi-Geon.

If the writer were to watch the movie later on, they might doubt that it was a movie
based on their screenplay. Most importantly, it was highly likely that CEO Choi
would not like it. This was because all the romance movies that had been produced
so far under her company were tailored to her taste and adhered to the script. But
this time, the movie had deviated far from the script, much less her tastes. Beyond
adding and removing parts of the content of the movie, the mood and ambience
had completely changed compared to usual. 

However, Director Choi Yi-Geon was proud that he had produced a better movie
than the previous romance movies. By making the characters more three-
dimensional, he made their actions legitimate. At least, while watching the movie,
he was confident that there would be no criticisms or debates about how the movie
had excessive emotions or how it did not have verisimilitude.  As soon as he had
resolved the last thing he was worried about, he prepared for the final scene.

Ten years later, Cha Hyun-Seung had become a professor, and he was traveling to
Busan via KTX for a seminar. Out of boredom, he took out his phone and scrolled
through the headlines of the articles. 
1. Blade dances were performed by Korean shamans to channel supernatural
powers from the gods and seek answers ☜
Favorite

Chapter 19

As he scrolled, Cha Hyun-Seung found a familiar name under the economic column
and subconsciously clicked on it. 

<XX Group’s Planning Director Park Ji-Hyuk returns to Korea with his wife after 8
years. Is this the beginning of a full-fledged succession battle?> 

The article started off with how Park Ji-Hyuk and his wife left to study abroad after
their marriage and the numerous achievements he had accumulated at the New
York branch. Due to these successful achievements under his belt, he was now
transferred back to XX Group’s headquarters. Back during college days, he had not
been interested in the management of a financial group, but now, he had the look
of an ambitious businessman. If the article did not have a photo of Park Ji-Hyuk,
Cha Hyun-Seung would never have known that the ambitious looking Park Ji-Hyuk
was the Park Ji-Hyuk he knew. On top of that, the unfamiliar woman standing next
to Park Ji-Hyuk was the granddaughter of a media conglomerate. 

All the articles that wrote favorably about Park Ji-Hyuk were from said
conglomerate. It was strange since 10 years ago, Park Ji-Hyuk and Na Mi-Yeon were
certainly dating each other. Faced with strong opposition from his family, they had
suddenly disappeared from school one day. After hearing the rumors about them
eloping, he had not heard any other news about them. Nobody had talked about
‘so what happened to them after?’, and he had never asked about their
whereabouts, but he now knew what had become of their elopement. Perhaps,
their dream-like “romantic” escape had ended in failure. 
However, Cha Hyun-Seung’s thoughts were cut short by his phone ringing. As he
took the call, the voice of his teaching assistant forcefully shoved him back into
reality. 

- Professor, the food here is really bad!

Upon hearing his assistant whine about the food, the corners of Cha Hyun-Seung’s
mouth upturned slightly. His assistant had gone down to the university where his
seminar was to be held in advance to make some preparations. 

- When you’re here, don’t go straight to the school and have your lunch somewhere
else. There are so many good restaurants in Busan. How can the food in this school
taste so bad?

His teaching assistant, who had a reputation as a gourmet, began to recite every
single famous food in Busan. He had even urged Cha Hyun-Seung to fill their three-
day-two-night seminar schedule with a food tour. As he was amazed by the
teaching assistant’s speech and behavior, which he could have never imagined
himself doing back when he was a teaching assistant, he hung up the phone and
pondered about whether or not he was too easygoing. As he put his phone in his
pocket, light reflected from the wedding ring on Cha Hyun-Seung’s left hand.

When he got off the train, he took a taxi to the university. After he had arrived, he
suddenly remembered what his teaching assistant had said earlier and decided to
have lunch at a restaurant nearby. He was not craving any specific food, so he
looked around and saw a dwaejigukbap [1] restaurant. Remembering that it was
one of the must-eat foods in Busan according to his teaching assistant, he went into
the restaurant without hesitation. 

“Welcome.”

It was after lunch time, so the restaurant was rather peaceful and empty. A woman,
who was either the owner of the restaurant or just someone who worked there,
walked him to his seat carrying a child on her back. 

“Table for one? Just one serving of pork bone rice soup?”
Not thinking much, Cha Hyun-Seung simply nodded his head until he realized the
voice sounded familiar. Lifting his head, he made eye contact with Na Mi-Yeon, who
had a cheap perm. For a moment, he was not sure if she was Na Mi-Yeon herself, or
just someone who looked like her. In his unsureness, he heard her voice again.

“Do you want boiled pork slices too?” 

It was definitely Na Mi-Yeon. As Cha Hyun-Seung nodded slowly, she smiled

brightly, and yelled towards the kitchen.

“One rice soup and one serving of boiled pork slices for table 2!”

As Na Mi-Yeon brought over some disposable dishrags and a cup, he gaped at her,
still in shock. However, she did not recognize him and merely treated him as one of
her customers, like he was a complete stranger. 

When the food was out, Cha Hyun-Seung slowly began to eat while his eyes
continued to follow Na Mi-Yeon around. She was sitting down at a table, holding
her baby and giving him a bottle of formula. The baby looked less than one year
old, and hurriedly drank from the milk bottle. Na Mi-Yeon looked happy as she
watched her child drink milk, coaxing him. At that moment, a short, plump man
with an apron came out of the kitchen. He was neither handsome nor ugly, just
plain, from top to bottom. As this ordinary man turned on the TV, he looked at Mi-
Yeon and her child and smiled delightfully. 

The channel he stopped on after some time seemed to be the news, specifically the
news about Park Ji-Hyuk returning to Korea today. He and his wife, as well as their
five-year-old son who was holding his parents’ hands, were seen leaving the arrival
hall. Shortly after, Park Ji-Hyuk was seen holding his son in one arm as he smiled
brightly at the camera. At the bottom of the screen, the words written were: ‘Full-
fledged succession battle of XX Group’. The news anchors were talking about it as
well. 

“The little boy must be so lucky to be born into such a wealthy family. These days,
we say that children like that were born with a golden spoon in their mouth.” 
Looking at the five-year-old boy instead of Park Ji-Hyuk, the man shifted his gaze to
Na Mi-Yeon and the child she was holding. He looked somewhat pitiful as he gazed
lovingly upon the two of them. 

“Watch something else,” Na Mi-Yeon suggested.

Na Mi-Yeon looked down as soon as Park Ji-Hyuk appeared on the screen. Even
though she asked softly, the man, who appeared to be her husband, did not
comply. 

“All the channels are the same. There is nothing to watch.”

“Why are you watching the news about other people who have nothing to do with
us!” yelled Na Mi-Yeon.

“Other things have nothing to do with us either. Why are you getting upset though?”

“How is asking you to watch something else being upset?”

She raised her voice initially, but it became softer and more cautious towards the
end of her statement. 

“Mommy, Daddy, I’m back from school.”

Just as the atmosphere in the restaurant was growing awkward, a boy, who
appeared to be under ten, walked into the restaurant carrying a bag. 

“Why are you only coming back now? Have you had your lunch?” asked Na Mi-
Yeon’s husband. 

“I’ve already had lunch at a friend’s house.” 

“You should have called then! Do you know how worried your mother was?” The
man chided the boy. 

“Honey, why are you being like this?” asked Na Mi-Yeon.

Na Mi-Yeon tried to calm her overly angry husband down and secretly glanced at
the boy, hinting at him to go inside. The boy, seeing his father’s face, hurriedly
walked past the table Cha Hyun-Seung was seated at before disappearing inside.
When the boy walked in front of him, Cha Hyun-Seung saw — the moment where
the boy’s face and Park Ji-Hyuk’s face on the screen were side by side in front of
him, and how similar the two looked. He could not bring himself to pick up his
chopsticks anymore. 

Na Mi-Yeon was trying to appease her husband while holding a babbling baby. As
her husband subconsciously called the boy an illegitimate child and complained to
Na Mi-Yeon, asking why he had to raise somebody else’s child, she noticed Cha
Hyun-Seung’s presence in the restaurant, being the only customer left in the
restaurant. Feeling ashamed, her face turned red. However, it was because he was
a stranger witnessing a private argument. She still could not remember who he
was. 

Cha Hyun-Seung got up and went to the counter. As he did so, Na Mi-Yeon came
over and calculated the bill. Cha Hyun-Seung deliberately wrote his name clearly on
the signature pad, and she looked at the name written at the bottom of the receipt,
but gave the receipt to Cha Hyun-Seung without much thought and smiled. To think
about it, she could not remember his face; there was no way she could have
remembered his name. 

Cha Hyun-Seung left the restaurant with a sad smile, and ended up loafing around
the entrance, staring blankly at the sky. It was the same season as that hot summer
ten years ago, and the sweltering heat of Busan made his body feel even more
sticky from all the perspiration. After loosening his tie slightly and wiping the sweat
from his forehead, Cha Hyun-Seung looked around the restaurant for the final
time. Na Mi-Yeon was there. She had become the wife of someone else, and not
Park Ji-Hyuk. 

What made him endure that hot summer at that time? Whatever it was, it was not
for this; he had not been that patient or endured that much just to look at her
current plight. His trembling eyes were filled with regret. Letting out a deep sigh,
Cha Hyun-Seung closed his eyes and slowly opened them again, his gaze slowly
firming. He stretched out his left hand to look at the wedding ring on his finger.
Now, he had someone by his side that he needed to love and protect. 

To Na Mi-Yeon, he was a person without a name or a memory. Who was he to

speak about her life or feel sorry for her? Whether he lacked courage, or that he
was too patient, his love was a cry beyond reach; it had come like a shower on a
summer day which then disappeared without a trace. Because he was the only one
who had loved, missed, and regretted, he had to be the one to end this love by
himself. He did not know whether or not Na Mi-Yeon was in love with her husband
right now. He hoped that she experienced a love that she did not regret, and was
still loving a person she did not regret right now. Just like his current self. 

Just then, as if the heavens were answering him, he got a call from his wife. The
moment he saw the word ‘Wife’ pop up on his phone, the edges of his mouth
relaxed. 

- Honey, did you get to Busan safely? I wanted to call you right when you arrived,
but I had forgotten about it while I was working. That’s the way I am, though. It’s
very hot there, right? Have you had lunch?

Upon hearing the voice of his wife, who was rambling on, asking several questions,
Cha Hyun-Seung had a complex look on his face, as if he was both smiling and
crying. He was not one of those people who spent his entire day thinking about his
wife. He would think of her when he was not working or thinking about other
thoughts, and he assumed the same for his wife. However, while his wife was
thinking about him, he was thinking about Na Mi-Yeon. It was not even a previous
relationship; it was an unrequited love. However, that did not mean that it was not
love. As he mentally declared the end of his love, closing a long-overdue chapter on
his youth, Cha Hyun-Seung apologized to his wife in a very soft voice. He did not
know whether or not she heard him, and the only people who could see Cha Hyun-
Seung mouthing his apology were probably the viewers. 

Unable to hear his soft apology, his wife asked him to repeat what he had just said. 

- Hmm? What did you say?

“...”
This time, instead of saying he was sorry, he said something else. Once again, the
viewers were  able to tell what he was saying by reading his lips, instead of hearing
his voice. However, his wife, who could not see his lips or even hear his voice,
replied to him happily, as if she knew everything he said. 

- I already knew that. I love you so much too.

Cha Hyun-Seung was finally able to smile with that answer. His summer was still as
hot as ever. As hot as it was, the shower that previously came was wet and cold.
However, he was no longer alone in the cold rain that came with life. 

“Okay, cut!”

Finally, they were done shooting the final scene of the movie. Woo-Jin, who was
briefly immersed in the emotions left by Cha Hyun-Seung came out of it slowly.
After letting out a long sigh and relaxing his body, Woo-Jin was able to smile
brightly. The feeling of sadness and a sense of accomplishment that came with
completing something strangely made him excited. 

“Thank you for your hard work.”

Everybody clapped for Woo-Jin as the latter bowed to Choi Yi-Geon and the staff.

1. 돼지국밥, or pork and rice soup ☜

Favorite

Chapter 20
In the beginning, everybody could not hide their bitter feelings. It was true that they
had felt as though they had sold themselves for money when they were casted in a
movie they did not want to be in. But after the framework of the movie had been
properly established, the actors immersed themselves in the acting and the
negative ambience was reversed. Everyone started to feel a sense of
accomplishment that stemmed from working on the movie. For the sake of the
movie, Choi Yi-Geon firmly toughed it out and stayed focused, doing what needed
to be done. 

However, nobody could deny that Chae Woo-Jin was the one who
had kickstarted everything. He used his amazing acting skills, which overwhelmed
the main leads, to create beautiful scenes that fulfilled Choi Yi-Geon’s aesthetics
standards. This ended up motivating the main leads to take their job seriously. 

“Great job!”

As they looked at each other, exchanging words of consolation and gratitude, their
gazes naturally shifted towards Choi Yi-Geon. 

“Why are all of you looking at me?”

“Aren’t we going to have a get-together today?”

Now that they were done with the last shooting, and that they had come all the way
to Busan, it would be such a waste if they went back to Seoul right away. It was time
for them to enjoy their final party, spending the night in Busan. In general, that was
what most people did. 

“A get-together? Didn’t I say that there will not be any more get-togethers ever again
in my life?!”

These get-togethers were not elegant. He hated how helpless he felt whenever he
drank, losing control of his body, not being able to distinguish whether the world
was spinning or if he was out of his mind. 
“Oh, we won’t be having a get-together? I thought that I would get to
eat hweh [1] and eel while looking at Gwangan Bridge in the evening when I came to
Busan. Are we just going to go back to Seoul?” 

Woo-Jin already had high expectations for gatherings. As it was his first time visiting
Busan, he decided to look up famous restaurants and places of interest on the
internet, which raised his expectations even further. They did not have a lot to
shoot at Busan, but he thought that they would get to stay the night there, and had
already kept all the places that were famous for their beautiful night views in mind. 

“It ended up becoming futile huh…”

Seeing Woo-Jin’s sad, slightly disappointed smile, Choi Yi-Geon was immediately hit
by a strange sense of guilt. He was clearly smiling, but it did not look like he was
genuinely smiling. Over the past month, that was the look he had seen on Woo-Jin’s
face the most when he acted as Cha Hyun-Seung. There was something about that
expression that made one emotional; it was a crossover between the smiling face
of someone who had given up, and a smiling face with hidden disappointment. 

“What if you don’t drink…” said Song Jae-Hee.

Yeah, it wasn’t that Choi Yi-Geon did not like get-togethers, he just did not like the
drinking culture that came hand in hand with them. Surprisingly, Song Jae-Hee was
the first person to react to Choi Yi-Geon’s remarks. The lady, who still looked
beautiful despite being dressed in cheap clothes and given a tacky-looking perm,
took a credit card from her manager and yelled.

“Dinner and drinks are on me today!”

To be accurate, it was a corporate card given to her by her agency’s CEO, but
perhaps, the headline of the article would be along the lines of ‘Song Jae-Hee
generously buys her crew members food and drinks after shooting had ended!’. 

With Song Jae-Hee taking a step forward like this, Choi Yi-Geon could no longer turn
them down. In any case, the excessive money they were given for the production
was more than enough to cover their accomodation fees for one night. It was the
first time he did not have to worry about money at all when shooting a movie. It
would be hard for him to enjoy this kind of welfare again, so he felt that it might not
be a bad thing to enjoy it while he could. 

When Choi Yi-Geon nodded and gave the green light, allowing everyone to stay in
Busan, everybody looked so happy that they seemed to be happier at this moment
than a while ago when they had just completed the final scene. 

On the other hand, Song Jae-Hee had only been waiting for today to come. Since
Kwon Sung-Min and her had been keeping a distance from each other, in order to
avoid situations where they had to be together, she had been avoiding him entirely.
Kwon Sung-Min was always caught in one scandal or another, so even if her agency
did not warn her, she would have still been uncomfortable being around him. Even
if she wanted to hang out with the staff and the other actors, it was hard for her to
do so only when Kwon Sung-Min was not around, because it would have been very
obvious. However, it was the last day of shooting today, coupled with the fact that
they were in Busan, she could use the geographical location and their meaningful
final get-together as a reasonable excuse. Since she had become the main lead, she
had been worried about not being able to buy them food and drinks at least once.
Hence, she felt lucky to have had this opportunity to do so, even though it was at
the very last minute. 

Shortly after, the crew that had packed up the film set moved to a street that was
lined with restaurants that specialized in sliced hweh near Gwangalli Beach. 

“Oh, there’s a cat!” exclaimed Woo-Jin.

Woo-Jin paused in front of the entrance of a Korean hweh restaurant when he

noticed a stray cat rummaging through a pile of trash bags under a utility pole. 

“Oh? It’s a cheese cat.” [2]

“Cheese cat?” asked Woo-Jin.

“We usually call those pale yellow ochre cats cheese cats. Judging from her body, it
looks like she has just given birth.”
A staff member who called himself a butler went up to Woo-Jin, who likes cats, and
explained it to him in detail. [3]

“You must know a lot about cats,” replied Woo-Jin. 

“I have a few cats at home. You seem to like cats too,” replied the staff.

“A long time ago, when I was little, I had a cat for about two years. Due to the
circumstances at that time, I couldn’t keep him anymore. He was also a pale yellow
ochre cat like that one. He would be about 14 years old right now, so he’s probably
still alive, right?” 

Before Woo-Jin’s parents had gotten a divorce, his family had adopted a newborn
cat. He had it for about two years or so. However, his father’s daughter from the
affair was very fond of the cat. He remembered that when he left the house with
his mother and Woo-Hee, they knew that their life from then on would be unstable,
and on top of that, his father’s daughter from the affair stubbornly said that she
wanted to keep the cat, so he left her behind.

“The average lifespan of a domestic cat is 15 years, but my cat is now 18 years old.
If you take good care of your cat, and make sure it stays stress-free, they can live a
long life,” answered the staff.

“In that case, Woo-Sa is probably still alive now. The child who is taking care of him
really loved him a lot.” 

The staff was able to guess from what Woo-Jin said that the child who was raising
the cat instead was still young at that time. How can you trust the whims of a young
child? However, he was not foolish enough to say that outright.

“That’s probably true. His name is Woo-Sa, huh? Was the name a play on the word
‘wooja’? 

The staff changed the topic and lightly pushed Woo-Jin from the back, entering the
restaurant. Upon entering, Song Jae-Hee, who was sitting at the same table as Choi
Yi-Geon, waved at Woo-Jin and pointed to the seat next to her. 
“Woo-Jin, did you by any chance get a call from our agency?” 

After the initial boisterous atmosphere had subsided, and everyone had settled
down and began socializing with people at their own table, Song Jae-Hee asked
Woo-Jin that question in a soft voice, as she was afraid other people might hear her.
She was sure that the agency would contact Woo-Jin, but things had been too
silent. 

“I haven’t received any calls from them. Were you actually serious about
recommending me to your agency back then?” asked Woo-Jin.

“I was, but since they have not contacted you yet, I feel embarrassed,” responded
Jae-Hee. 

“No, it’s okay! I’m already grateful that you think highly enough of me to
recommend me. Thank you so much.” 

Even though it would have been nice to get a call from them, there was a reason
why people had coined the term ‘DS exam’. Even though Song Jae-Hee had
mentioned it previously, Woo-Jin had not expected anything, and hence, he had
already forgotten about it. Hence, there was nothing to be disappointed about.
Instead, he was worried about whether or not Song Jae-Hee was being
unreasonable by recommending him. 

“Wait, what? You recommended Woo-Jin to your agency?” asked Choi Yi-Geon.

“Ack! You always stay silent and eavesdrop on everyone else’s conversation,” said
Jae-Hee. 

“Of course I’m going to listen to your conversation. Wouldn’t it be even weirder if I

had just sat here and didn't say anything, while you people talk about things you’re
not supposed to say, hoping that I didn’t hear it?” grumbled Choi Yi-Geon, as he
dipped the raw sliced fish he was holding on into soy sauce that had been mixed
with wasabi. 

He also added that it was not polite to talk among themselves while sitting at the
same table. 
“So, you still don’t know the outcome?” asked Choi Yi-Geon. 

“If I don’t get a call, it means that I’ve failed,” answered Woo-Jin. 

Judging from the fact that he had not heard anything about a closed-door audition,
Woo-Jin took it as he had already failed the screening process. 

“You’ll never know. Maybe they did not want to disturb you while you were in the
midst of shooting a movie out of consideration,” said Choi Yi-Geon.

“That’s true! I hadn’t thought of that,” exclaimed Song Jae-Hee.

Usually, Song Jae-Hee and Choi Yi-Geon would bicker with one another. But at
times like this, they were in perfect harmony. On the other hand, with negative
thoughts, Woo-Jin shook his head. DS was not a small agency, so it did not seem
like that they would hold a closed-door audition at the recommendation from one
of their artistes. Most importantly, why would they contact him first? Even if they
did, they would only consider Song Jae-Hee’s recommendation after they had
explored the possibilities to some extent after the movie had been released. In a
bid to divert the attention of the two people, who were discussing when DS would
contact him, Woo-Jin decided to ask Choi Yi-Geon something he had been curious
about for a long time. 

“There is something I’ve always been curious about. Don’t you feel uncomfortable
wearing a suit throughout the shooting?” 

Throughout the shooting over the past month, Choi Yi-Geon had always worn a suit
as he directed. Admittedly, he was more elegant and fashionable than other actors,
but it did not look comfortable. 

“It’s uncomfortable for sure. But still, the set is my workplace. Have you ever seen
an office worker wear casual clothes to work? When people get too comfortable,
they tend to become sloppy and are bound to make mistakes. The workplace is like
a battlefield. It’s only natural for soldiers to go to war in military uniforms.”

“Aren’t you only wearing them because you have too many suits and nowhere to
wear them to?” asked Song Jae-Hee. 
Upon hearing Song Jae-Hee’s remark, Choi Yi-Geon gave her an unamused gaze. In
order to avoid his gaze, she deliberately whipped out her phone. 

“Let’s take a photo to commemorate our final day of shooting in Busan! Woo-Jin
and Choi Yi-Geon, please come closer!” 

“I like taking pictures, but I don’t like to have my pictures taken. Besides, you’re
going to post that on your social media,” said Choi Yi-Geon as he shook his head at
the idea of having his picture taken. 

Song Jae-Hee responded coyly, “In that case, do I take a photo with only Woo-Jin?
What are we going to do if it creates a scandal? You need to be in the picture so
people won’t make up stories. I am famous, and I have an agency, so I can deal with
scandals, but Woo-Jin is a rookie. It’ll be bad if there are rumors about him.”

“In that case, don’t take a picture.”

“We have to take a picture and upload it so that news about the movie will spread,
and we can also gradually reveal Woo-Jin’s face to the world!”

In truth, a scandal would most likely not occur because of that, but Choi Yi-Geon
had already had a few drinks and could not think straight. 

“Is that so?” questioned Choi Yi-Geon. 

Ultimately, he ended up taking a picture with them, with Song Jae-Hee in the
middle.

“I think that Choi Yi-Geon is the type of person who finds it hard to say no,”
commented Woo-Jin with a smile, as he looked at Choi Yi-Geon who sat down right
after the picture was taken with an expressionless face.

“What nonsense! I’m an iron-blooded person who is not that soft!” 

Exactly two hours after he said that, Choi Yi-Geon was drunk and knocked out. That
was the result of not being able to say no to drinks offered by the actors and staff.
On top of that, he had also accepted their proposal to have a wrap-up party after
they had gone back to Seoul. Of course, everything was clearly documented and
solid evidence could be found in the video recordings from that night. For better or
worse, the videos would remain in history forever as evidence of what happened. It
was fair to everyone. 

1. a Korean variant of sashimi, to be precise. It’s cut differently, giving it a more

chewy texture than regular sashimi. Also, the dipping sauce is gochujang mixed
with vinegar. ☜

2. A term cat lovers in Korea use to call yellow cats. ☜

3. Cat owners in Korea call themselves butlers. ☜

Favorite

Chapter 21

As much as he wanted to say that he was on a wonderful vacation, in reality, he was

no better than being unemployed, it was just a normal Sunday for a student who
had taken a leave of absence from school. 

“Woo-Jin! You got cast in Song Jae-Hee’s movie this time?” 

He hadn’t been home for quite some time, so Woo-Jin had been sleeping in even
though it was already rather late now. Ultimately, he had to get up because his
younger sister shook him awake. The only thing he was seeing in his half-awake
state was the face of his overly excited younger sister. 
“Huh, what?”

“The day before yesterday, Song Jae-Hee posted a photo on her social media saying
that it was from a get-together in Busan for the last day of shooting for her movie,
and you were in the picture.”

After hearing what his sister had said, Woo-Jin recalled the photo that Song Jae-Hee
wanted to post on her social media for publicity purposes, before nodding absent-
mindedly. Woo-Hee sighed as she watched her brother rub his half-closed eyes
with his disheveled hair. She thought to herself about how other celebrities had
editorial pictures of them waking up in the morning, but her brother was just an
ordinary person. 

“If I had known that you were shooting with Song Jae-Hee, I would have asked you
to get her autograph for me! Now that the shooting is over, when will you see her
again? When you see her again in the future, can you please get me an autograph~?
Please?” 

As a fan of Song Jae-Hee, Woo-Hee was very upset that she had missed such a good
opportunity to get Jae-Hee’s autograph. She even felt resentful towards her brother
who never told her anything about the movies he was cast in.

“Ah, Jae-Hee unni! If I had known earlier, I could’ve seen her under the excuse of
visiting my brother over the weekend. I’ve always wanted to cry out ‘milky skin Song
Jae-Hee’ in front of her!”

Woo-Hee, who was always focused on unimportant things [1], buried her face in
both hands, and fell to the side. Woo-Jin got up from his seat and glanced at his
younger sister who was sobbing for her Jae-Hee unni. He walked over to his still
unpacked carry-on bag and opened it. He took out the script, which was right at the
top, turned the page, and pulled out a piece of paper before handing it to Woo-
Hee. 

“What’s that?” Woo-Hee asked.

The moment her brother held out the paper, Woo-Hee noticed what it was. She
smiled and made a baby voice, trying to sound cute. She quickly scanned the white
sheet of paper that had Song Jae-Hee’s autograph and some words written on it in
her elegant handwriting. At the bottom of her autograph, these words were
written: ‘Study hard, Chae Woo-Hee! ^^’. 

“It’s truly amazing that you became a celebrity! Life is truly beautiful~!”

Woo-Hee took the paper with both hands and held the piece of paper with Song
Jae-Hee’s autograph to her chest as she smiled so brightly, feeling ecstatic.

“Do you want me to get you Kwon Sung-Min’s autograph too?”

“No! I don’t want it.”

“Why not?”

Woo-Jin found it strange how his younger sister was not interested in Kwon Sung-
Min when he was becoming more and more popular among female students. 

“There are a lot of rumors about him being a player. Regardless of how handsome
they are, I don’t like guys like that.”

Whether or not it was because of the trauma caused by her father, Woo-Hee had
strict standards when it came to that. Be it male or female celebrities, she was
prejudiced against celebrities with a dishonest image. The reason why she was
exceptionally fond of Song Jae-Hee was because of her bright and clean image that
the latter had ever since she was a child actress.

“Celebrities might be different from the rumors about them. Rumors alone don’t
tell you what a person is truly like,” said Woo-Jin.

“So, Jae-Hee is different from the rumors about her?”

“Her personality is better and brighter.” 

“See!”

As expected, Woo-Hee, who was acting all proud for no reason, stroked the piece of
paper and smiled, feeling content.
“By the way, where is Mom?” asked Woo-Jin.

Woo-Jin checked the time and asked about the whereabouts of their mother, who
wasn’t home for some reason. He worried as he wondered if she had to work on
Sundays too.

“She went on a date with Uncle[2],” replied Woo-Hee.

“Ah, right. It’s Sunday.”

It was a great day to go on a date in this beautiful fine spring weather. 

“Do you dislike Uncle?” asked Woo-Hee out of the blue.

“There’s nothing to dislike. Mom is still young. If she happens to meet a good man,
she should go out with him.”

This was the first time their mother had officially dated after the divorce. They had
known each other for a few years because of work, but they had started dating last
winter after he confessed his feelings to her. That man had lost his wife and
children in a car accident 10 years ago when a vehicle collided with them after
running a red light. The accident had also left him with a leg impairment, but it was
nothing compared to the death of his family. He struggled for a long time because
of the shock and guilt of losing his family in a car accident where he was the driver.
Woo-Jin had met him once. He was a good man who knew the importance of
family. 

“What would you do if Mom married Uncle?” Woo-Hee asked Woo-Jin.

“You know something, don’t you?”

Since Woo-Hee was Park Eun-Soo’s daughter, Park Eun-Soo used to talk to her
about personal things that she could not talk to her son about, especially when it
came to anything related to the affairs of the heart. It must have been more
difficult to talk to a son about things like that. 

“Mom said that Uncle proposed to her not too long ago,” answered Woo-Hee.
“Did Mom give him an answer?”

“It seemed like she was hesitating for a variety of reasons. Uncle told her that she
didn't have to answer right away.”

Park Eun-Soo was distrustful of men because of her ex-husband’s affair; she was
also worried about how her inflexible father, who was already disapproving of her
divorce, might not accept her remarriage; and lastly, she was worried about her
children. Those were probably the reasons why she was not able to readily accept
the proposal. However, if Woo-Jin were to consider things from his mother’s point
of view, it was really rare for her to find a marriage partner with the same
qualifications as that man’s. He was 48 years old, the same age as his mother. He
looked personable and handsome, and he was also well-educated. He had a luxury
jewelry company that had a solid structure and was financially stable. Hence, his
mother wouldn’t have to worry about finances. Besides, his mother had already
known him for a couple of years because of work, thus, she was certain of his
personality and sincerity. 

Previously, Park Eun-Soo only dated three months before marrying, so she was
extremely cautious after what happened with her ex-husband, but she told Woo-Jin
and Woo-Hee that the Uncle was a good person. 

“If Mother wants to get married to him, I don’t object to it,” said Woo-Jin.

“Me too.”

“In that case, tell Mother not to worry about us. You should be the one telling her
instead of me. She will feel less awkward that way too,” replied Woo-Jin. 

“No, it’s better for you to tell her. If you tell her first, Mom will feel more at ease.
What I’m trying to say is that she’s been walking on eggshells around you when it
comes to this.” 

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah.”
If Woo-Hee said that, it must be true. He had not thought about the fact that it was
more difficult and embarrassing for his mother to talk to her own son about this, as
compared to talking to her daughter. Hence, his mother would have no choice but
to be cautious and walk on eggshells until Woo-Jin brought it up first. 

After Woo-Jin nodded and agreed, perhaps Woo-Hee felt relieved, she decided to
do something nice for him. 

“Should I prepare some food for you?” asked Woo-Hee.

“It’s not exactly the time to have breakfast though,” responded Woo-Jin.

“You will never skip your lunch, right? In that case, I’ll make you a sandwich with a
lot of tomatoes and lettuce.”

Woo-Hee left the room, with her precious autograph from Song Jae-Hee in her
hands, and Woo-Jin followed behind her. Now that he had woken up, he wanted to
wash up before eating anything. 

“By the way, what are those rag-like slippers? Is it a movie prop?” Woo-Hee asked as
she pointed to the worn-out slippers while preparing the ingredients. 

A pair of slippers that were held together with tape and strings were placed in the
corner of the hallway. She was going to get rid of it because it smelled bad, but she
left it there just in case he still needed it. 

“Of course not. I saw an old man wearing those slippers at the subway station last
night. I was kind of worried for some reason, so I switched shoes with him.” 

Yesterday, he went to a photoshoot for a commercial. On his way home, he

happened to see an old man picking up waste papers at the subway station.
Looking at the slippers tied with strings that barely held them together, Woo-Jin
approached the old man and suggested to him to wear his slippers. Fortunately,
their feet were the same size, so Woo-Jin came home wearing the old man’s
slippers instead.

“Wow~ are you that kind?”

“It’s not that I’m kind… I’m just doing that to go to heaven.”

It was neither sympathy nor compassion. Woo-Jin had realized how cold-blooded
and cruel his soul was after remembering his past lives. His soul basically had a
cold heart that had no compassion for humans. Fortunately, he was no longer like
that in the present day. However, was he heartless, or indifferent? Fundamentally
speaking, he was not interested in anybody except his friends and family. 

Compared to his past lives, if one were to argue that these emotions had evolved, it
could be said that Chae Woo-Jin was kind. However, he was still lacking a lot of
compassion. Hence, he decided to make a conscious effort in becoming more
attentive and considerate towards other people. Since he kept getting reincarnated,
he could not be sure if there was heaven or hell, but if they existed, he was worried
that he might end up going to hell. He had never committed any major sins in his
current life, but if he were to take all the sins he had committed throughout his past
lives into account, his soul was bound to go to hell. 

‘I have to lighten my negative karma, even if it’s by a little!’

For all he knew, perhaps he might end up being dragged in front of the king of the
netherworld without reincarnating after he died for the thousandth time. That’s
why Woo-Jin was determined to do a lot of good deeds in this lifetime. Giving his
sneakers to an old man who was collecting waste paper was only the beginning.
Fortunately, he had been donating to charities by chance since a few years ago, he
wasn't starting from zero in terms of accumulating points to go to heaven. 

“You’re getting old. You’re worrying about the afterlife,” commented Woo-Hee.

“How disrespectful.”

After tossing the smelly slippers in the trash bag outside, Woo-Jin washed his hands
and walked towards the piano in the living room. Originally, the piano was
supposed to be in Woo-Jin’s room, but Woo-Hee wanted to learn how to play it too
so it had been placed to one side of the living room instead. Their mother, who was
very good at playing the piano, had been very delighted and was having a lot of fun
teaching Woo-Hee how to play these days. 
“Do you have a song request?” asked Woo-Jin.

“Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata! The sound always expresses its essence, hehehe!”
answered Woo-Hee.

As she was holding the knife she was cutting the tomatoes with, Woo-Hee smiled
insidiously. 

“I get the Moonlight Sonata part, but what do you mean by the second half of your
sentence?” 

“There’s a manhwa in which the male protagonist is a very talented pianist. That’s
what the side character says when she sees the male protagonist play Moonlight
Sonata.”

“Ahh~”

It seemed like the cause of Woo-Hee’s sudden interest in piano could be found in
one of the manhwa books occupying her bookshelf. Woo-Jin sat down and started
playing Moonlight Sonata without the sheet music. 

Even though Woo-Hee had requested the song, she did not think that Woo-Jin was
actually going to play it. As they were siblings who shared the same childhood, she
knew that Woo-Jin had only started learning the piano recently. Furthermore, when
she saw him trying to play the song without looking at the sheet music, she
lamented that her brother was going to continue bluffing to that extent. However,
when Woo-Jin started playing the first movement, Woo-Hee stopped cutting the
tomatoes and looked at her brother. 

It might be different for others, but when Woo-Hee listened to Moonlight Sonata,
she was reminded of the gentle hand of the moonlight as it made its way through
the dark night. It tried to open the window that was tightly shut, carefully and
covertly, before attempting to lovingly persuade it to open. In the end, it would lose
control of its emotions and shake violently. She had listened to the song after
reading about it in the manhwa because it had piqued her curiosity. When she
heard it, the illustrations of the scene in the manhwa overlapped with the music
making her feel a surge of emotions. She was unable to do anything for a while as
she listened to Woo-Jin’s piano playing, which was as good at stirring emotions as
other pianists.

“Where is my sandwich?” asked Woo-Jin, who looked behind at Woo-Hee after

playing all three movements. 

Woo-Hee, who was still standing still holding onto a knife, snapped out of her
trance and came to her senses. 

“Hang on. It’s almost done. By the way, how are you playing the piano so well even
without sheet music? I definitely know all about your past. You never learned how
to play the piano, did you?”

Woo-Jin and Woo-Hee were in the same situation, where they did not have the
luxury of time and money to learn an instrument as they were busy trying to
survive. Even if Woo-Jin started slightly earlier, it was impossible that he could play
this well in such a short span of time. 

“Even though I just started learning not too long ago, I’ve been practicing how to
play the piano in my head before that. As I did that, I ended up memorizing the
sheet music.” 

This was a more realistic justification than saying that he used to be a musician in
his past life, and that he had suddenly remembered every detail of all his past lives
when he woke up one day. 

“How is this fair? We have the same genes, but I can’t do it!” complained Woo-Hee.

“That’s the difference between dominant and recessive genes,” replied Woo-Jin.

“Are you dissing me?”

As Woo-Hee was quibbling about how ludicrous it was, she was still holding on to
the knife. She had not thought about letting go of that knife at all. 

“I’m saying that I have the recessive gene,” responded Woo-Jin.

“So why can’t I do it?” asked Woo-Hee.

“That’s because geniuses have always been arrogant and don’t make any effort.”

“I’ll take that! I guess I’ve been a little arrogant these days.”

Seeing Woo-Hee contemplating things while holding on to her knife, Woo-Jin asked
her when he could have his sandwich in a cautious manner. After many twists and
turns, Woo-Jin finally went into his room to eat the sandwich that Woo-Hee had
made for him. He checked his phone for any missed calls and texts that came while
he was gone. He blinked. He had a missed call from an unknown number, but after
he had looked at the text message that came from the same number, he realized
that it was not unknown at all. 

[This is Kwon Ji-Ah, the casting director of DS Entertainment. I tried calling you, but
you didn't answer, so I decided to send you a message instead. DS is very
interested in working with you. That’s why we contacted you first to discuss us
moving forward together in the future. Please send us a text message with your
availability so we can contact you accordingly. We can also do a video call if you’d
like.]

1. The original Korean idiom used was 제사보다 잿밥에 which is directly translated
as focusing on the ritual’s food than the ritual itself. It means to focus on the
useless personal interest rather than the important tasks ☜

2. This is 아저씨, which is a middle-aged man. A man close enough to be called

‘uncle’ but of no blood relations. Can also be used as a general address for middle-
aged men. ☜
Favorite
Chapter 22

At the end of the message, Ji-Ah had attached the link to the company’s website,
where a short introduction of her was written, just in case Woo-Jin was doubtful or
suspicious of the text message. It seemed like she had mentioned doing a video call
so he could match her face to the picture on the website. In any case, if he were to
personally make a trip down to their office, he would be able to learn the validity of
this text message, so it was not a big deal. What surprised Woo-Jin was the content
of the message. It was surprising that DS was interested in him but even harder to
believe the part where she said they wanted to discuss moving forward together.
He thought that even if DS contacted him, he would have to audition first, and then
make a decision before signing the contract. 

That was a reasonable guess on Woo-Jin’s part as an unknown rookie without any
achievements yet. He had never imagined receiving a call from them, offering to
sign a contract and discussing working together. He even read the message a
couple of times to see if there was anything hidden between the lines. After
checking Kwon Ji-Ah’s face on the website, Woo-Jin replied to her message, telling
her that he was free to do a video call right now. 

***

After speaking with Kwon Ji-Ah on Sunday, things moved quickly. Without going
through any other parties, Woo-Jin had a private one-on-one interview with DS
Entertainment’s CEO Jang Soo-Hwan directly on Monday. 

“You look better in person.” 

That was CEO Jang Soo-Hwan’s first impression of Woo-Jin. He had thought that
Woo-Jin was very good-looking, after looking at his videos and photos countless
times prior. However, those videos and photos could not be compared to how
Woo-Jin looked in real life — he looked so perfect in person. He was dressed
unfashionably and plainly, but if he were to receive the same amount of treatment
and care as the other celebrities, he would definitely stand out. 
“Oh my, scrutinizing one’s appearance is a habit of mine; it comes with my job.
Have a seat. We haven’t signed the contract yet but it’s fine if I speak casually to
you, right?” 

“Yes, I’d prefer that too.”

“Hmm, you have a nice voice too. It’s a pity we don’t get to hear such a nice voice
on Glooming  Day.” 

In his usual relaxed and confident body language and voice, CEO Jang Soo-Hwan
frankly evaluated Woo-Jin. Perhaps he was satisfied with his decision — the look on
his face softened and his smile grew bigger.

“You must have been very surprised to receive our call, right?” asked Jang Soo-
Hwan.

“Yes,” replied Woo-Jin.

“What were your first thoughts? You can be honest.”

It was uncertain what kind of answer CEO Jang was expecting, but he had a strange
look on his face. It seemed as though he wanted to hear what Woo-Jin thought of
DS. 

“I could not tell if the people in your agency were insane or if I was delusional and
unable to comprehend what I was reading. Are you really going to sign a contract
with me?”

They were immediately offering to sign a contract with him without asking him to
audition first, and it was DS, of all agencies, who contacted him first. He would be
crazy if he blindly believed that. 

“That’s right. If you want to sign with our agency, we will sign the contract right
here, right now.”

“Without an audition?” asked Woo-Jin.

“I don’t know about you, but there isn’t any issue on my end because I have already
seen your portfolio.” 

It had been almost two months since G&C’s CEO Choi recommended Chae Woo-Jin
to him. Over the course of those two months, CEO Jang Soo-Hwan hadn’t just been
thinking it over.

“To be honest, when I was deciding whether or not to sign the contract with you, I
had several concerns of my own. However, after hearing the comments of the two
people I asked to evaluate you, I was determined to recruit you.” continued Jang
Soo-Hwan. 

For Chae Woo-Jin’s case, while Jang Soo-Hwan cared about the opinions of the
people who recommended Woo-Jin, he himself was also interested in Woo-Jin.
Nevertheless, he had been hesitant to sign the contract with Woo-Jin because if he
were to sign him with their agency, he was certain that things would get messy with
TM. Additionally, while he himself did not seem to be aware of it, Woo-Jin’s family
history would inevitably pose a problem in the future. 

Jang Soo-Hwan wanted to become the Medici of the entertainment industry and he
had been working hard to make it a reality. Some people saw him as nothing more
than a businessman who made money from the entertainment industry. However,
at the very least, Jang Soo-Hwan was doing his best to protect his artistes. He had
also supported them to the best of his ability to ensure that they could produce
their best work in the most optimal environment. However, what Jang Soo-Hwan
hated the most were the messy scandals that were riddled with rumors. He could
not stand the fact that his artistes couldn’t focus on their work as a result of that, as
well as the company suffering from criticisms internally and externally. 

Furthermore, Jang Soo-Hwan’s family was opposed to him entering the

entertainment industry because they were afraid that his business would have a
negative impact on the group’s image. Taking that into consideration, he had to be
more careful. 

Recently, large conglomerates had been stepping up and entering the

entertainment industry. However, Jang Soo-Hwan’s family was much more on the
conservative side, so they were still against the idea of dabbling in the
entertainment industry. That’s why whenever a person was selected, everything
from their personality to their environment would be scrutinized. Regardless of
how much DS wanted to recruit them, if there was a major problem, that person
would be ruthlessly abandoned. 

However, even though Chae Woo-Jin could potentially bring about a couple of
problems in the future, Jang Soo-Hwan could not let go of him. Apart from those
potential problems that could arise, Chae Woo-Jin had an attractive appearance, as
well as checking off all the other boxes. Coupled with the hunches that Jang Soo-
Hwan had as a result of being in this industry for so many years, it made it hard for
him to give up on Woo-Jin that easily. He had to contemplate for a long time
whether Chae Woo-Jin was worth signing a contract with, and being prepared to
deal with all the issues. However, he could not come to a conclusion, and so, he
ultimately turned to the two directors. 

“I personally asked Director Moon Seung-Kwon and Director Choi Yi-Geon what
kind of actor you are,” said Jang Soo-Hwan.

Jang Soo-Hwan himself had personally contacted the two directors. Since it was
very rare for Jang Soo-Hwan to personally come forward because of a contract with
an actor, they could tell how concerned he was. 

“One could not stop singing your praises but there was only one conclusion. As for
the other person, he did not particularly shower you with any compliments, he only
said one thing. However, both of them said the same thing. They want to make a
movie with you as the male lead.” 

The first person was a renowned veteran, a director who represented Korea’s film
industry. The second person was a rising contender known for his unique style and
new way of directing; a director who was more established abroad as compared to
Korea. The former was a typical director at the box office; the latter was a director
who pursued art films and had won several awards at film festivals abroad. 

Chae Woo-Jin was acknowledged by these two individuals, who had very different
dispositions, as an actor. 
“Furthermore, both of them sent me some of the edits of their movies on their own
accord without me asking for them. I looked at them and came to the decision that
I want you as one of DS’ actors,” continued Jang Soo-Hwan. 

Truth be told, Jang Soo-Hwan fell in love with Chae Woo-Jin as an actor the instant
he watched the edited clips of the movies. On top of having good looks and
outstanding acting skills, Chae Woo-Jin also had a great screen presence and aura
— qualities an actor should possess. Jang Su-Hwan couldn’t take his eyes off of
Woo-Jin the entire time until the scene was over. 

“You’re a great actor.”

“Thank you for liking my work. However, I’m a little worried. They were good only
because the directors did a good job directing the movies.” 

“So you’re not confident about future projects?” asked Jang Soo-Hwan in an offhand
manner, as he had come across many people who were humble and modest. 

“Regardless of whether I am confident or not, I am now relying on my own efforts

and sincerity. However, I am worried because I am very well-aware of the fact that I
am not the best version of myself at the moment. While I will continue to work hard
and do my best, I also know that hard work doesn’t necessarily yield the best
results.”

Whether it was the end of his trainee days that had happened recently, or the
countless experiences he had gone through in his previous lives in the distant past,
Woo-Jin knew the bitterness of life all too well. He knew that hard work did not
always yield the best results, and that good luck in the beginning did not guarantee
a happy ending. 

In truth, he had been very lucky recently. He was fortunate enough to meet people
who thought well of him and had fun working together with them. However, it was
scary at the same time for him as well. How long was this good luck going to last?
He was afraid that he would not be able to overcome trials and tribulations with his
own strength and effort without luck on his side. 
Hence, he came to think more favorably about signing a contract with an agency.
Initially, he wanted to be on his own for a while because of his experience with his
previous agency. However, Song Jae-Hee’s attempt to convince him had a huge
impact. An agency would offer a much higher level of protection against external
threats that he would be defenseless against by himself. He felt that an agency was
trustworthy if their artistes trusted and relied on them. However, Woo-Jin was no
longer the naive person that he was back then — someone who felt happy and
excited just by landing a contract with an agency. 

“In other words, progressive effort? I like that answer better. There are a lot of
young people these days who mistakenly believe that they can become stars right
away after receiving compliments from people around them and believing in their
own skills, which are lacking to begin with. What you are trying to say is that you
have not reached the level you want to be at yet, and you don’t know what will
happen in the future, and you’re worried that if you were to blindly sign a contract
with us, you might end up being mistreated, right?” 

CEO Jang Soo-Hwan picked up on the emotions that Woo-Jin struggled to express.
Woo-Jin’s previous agency, TM, was one of the few agencies that were recognized in
Korea, but it could not be compared to DS. Just like the saying that there would
always be someone better, DS’ status, planning ability, etc. were by far the best and
they did not lack anything. However, there was no guarantee that DS wouldn’t do
the same thing to Woo-Jin, like what TM did previously. 

In the entertainment industry, people were thoroughly exploited instead of being

tossed aside, and the agencies were at the apex of the entertainment industry.
They were places that were capable of committing menacing acts that were worse
than abandoning an artist without any guilt.

“I am well-aware that in my current circumstances, if DS offers to sign a contract

with me, I have to accept it. This is because this is as good as it gets. To be honest, I
don’t know what you saw in me, but you are known to have good judgment, so I
think that you must have a good reason for choosing me. If there is something I
lack, there must be a way for me to make up for it.” 
Upon hearing Woo-Jin’s words, CEO Jang Soo-Hwan nodded with satisfaction. This
was because he was confident that DS was the best agency when it came to
supporting and helping celebrities and artists. 

“However, I don’t want it to be a sponsorship,” said Woo-Jin. [1]

“...!”

At first, Jang Soo-Hwan was taken aback and confused by what Woo-Jin said, but
eventually it was cleared up. In the report containing Chae Woo-Jin's information,
according to the statement from TM, there was discord amongst the members in
his group. However, Jang Soo-Hwan could not comprehend their decision because
if he was the CEO of TM, he would never let Woo-Jin go. Even if the group couldn’t
debut together due to internal discord, it was not the end of his journey. With his
good looks and great singing skills, he could have been placed in a new idol group,
or groomed into an actor. TM had quite a number of actors as well, so it wasn’t like
they were out of options. However, the CEO chose to drop Woo-Jin instead. 

“I’m only asking just in case...did TM by any chance…”

“TM said that they would not let me debut if I did not accept the sponsorship,” said
Woo-Jin. 

“So did you accept it?” asked Jang Soo-Hwan.

“Of course not. When I rejected it, they threatened me, saying that I have to spend
the rest of my life as a trainee.” 

“But they let you go.” 

If they had threatened him, it meant that they did not intend to let Chae Woo-Jin go
that easily, but that was not in line with the outcome. 

“I recorded my conversation with TM's CEO. I used that to threaten him a little,”
explained Woo-Jin.
Sponsorships had to be kept confidential. That’s why the CEO had personally
contacted Woo-Jin and made the secret proposal. According to the standard
practice, it was common for subordinates to step in and handle issues, but if the
problem became more severe, the CEO would nip the problem in the bud while
feigning ignorance. 

He speculated that the sponsor must have been an important figure who needed
things to stay confidential since the CEO had personally stepped in to handle it. In
any case, because of that, Woo-Jin was able to terminate the contract without much
repercussions or rumors within the company. 

“So you were the one who wanted to leave TM and not the other way around. Did
you give them the recording?” asked Jang Soo-Hwan.

“I gave that to him,” answered Woo-Jin.

“That?” 

“There was no way that the CEO would have spoken to me only once or twice. I
recorded everything each time, but I had only revealed the existence of the last
recording.” 

In order to not let the CEO find out about the other recordings, Woo-Jin had
pretended to be naive and told the CEO that he had recorded their conversation on
the spot. He had acted as though he had recorded the conversation only on that
day because he could not take it any longer, intentionally pretending to be excited
so that it seemed believable. Woo-Jin had told the CEO that if he did not terminate
the contract immediately, he would send the recording to the media and spread it
to the public. Fortunately, it worked out. Needless to say, everything would blow up
and the CEO was reluctant to let other employees know about the sponsorship
issues, that’s why, he called in a lawyer and terminated Woo-Jin’s contract on the
spot. In return, Woo-Jin had to give the CEO the phone with the voice recording in
it. 
1. Most of the time these sponsorships require sexual favors from the artists in
Korea. ☜
Favorite

Chapter 23

The CEO had rushed to resolve the matter since he did not want to give Woo-Jin any
opportunity to save a backup copy of the voice recording; he did not know that
Woo-Jin handing over his phone was a ruse from the get go to avoid further
suspicion. TM's CEO had always thought of Woo-Jin as an innocent and kindhearted
young lad. However, innocence did not equate to stupidity; people often got them
mixed up. It was a mistake that was usually made by people who only saw schemes
as either an act of conspiracy or an insidious act. 

“Got it. However, what is the reason why you’re telling me this? What if I did the
same thing to you as TM's CEO did? Now that I know about it, I could be more
crafty, right? Or are you telling me about it because you trust that I will never do
that to you?” 

Jang Soo-Hwan would not do something like that, but he was curious about Woo-
Jin’s intentions.

“For the time being, I trust Song Jae-Hee’s words, but I don’t know what will happen
in the future. That’s why I told you about it. I want you to state it explicitly in the
contract. I would like you to put it down in black and white that the contract would
be automatically terminated if either the company or myself propose or consent to
sponsorships.”
According to what Song Jae-Hee mentioned in passing, DS had zero tolerance when
it came to their own artistes making any sponsorship agreements in private. She
told him, somewhat pridefully, that if they were caught, they would be kicked out of
the agency with immediate effect. She encouraged Woo-Jin to join DS, telling him to
trust her and that joining DS would be good for him. 

However, just like he hadn’t known that TM would do something like that, he did
not know what DS would do behind the scenes as well. Hence, by being upfront
about it ahead of time, he was preventing it from happening entirely. He knew that
not all celebrities had sponsorships, as well as the fact that not all agencies
recommended sponsorships. Nonetheless, Woo-Jin’s past experience made him
want to err on the side of caution. Just in case DS proposed to their artistes to
accept sponsorships, he needed a smokescreen to ensure they would not do it to
him. 

“If that’s what you want, I’m more than happy to do that for you. I am someone who
thinks that celebrities are artisets who represent the modern times. Artistes should
be judged based on their work and talent, and make a name for themselves
through that. I have no tolerance for anything else that degrades or cheapens
them.”

When Jang Soo-Hwan first entered the entertainment world and opened his agency,
there were many businessmen and politicians who offered sponsorships to his
artistes. If he had accepted their proposals, it would make him no different from a
pimp. It was absurd. In a way, their actions could be seen as an insult to him, that
was why, he had given it some time and gotten back at them one step at a time. 

Fortunately, he had the resources, power and finances to pull it off. The
businessmen who had made such a proposal had either become bankrupt or had
lost management rights and authority, thus becoming insignificant people.
Politicians and civil servants in high positions had also lost all power and authority,
disappearing from the public eye. 

According to Jang Soo-Hwan, people who only see the arts as a tool for satisfying
one’s sexual desires, instead of appreciating it, were a menace to society. 
“Sponsorships were not originally meant as a sexual transaction; the purpose
behind them has been strangely distorted. In DS, I’m the only sponsor. As a lover of
the arts, I started this agency because I wanted to genuinely support, protect and
care for my artistes, helping them to bloom and reach their potential.”

Jang Soo-Hwan chuckled out loud, and asked Woo-Jin, “There needs to be one or
two other wealthy people who do the same thing as me, don’t you think so?” Chae
Woo-Jin agreed with him, making him feel very happy. 

If there were agencies like TM that pushed for disreputable sponsorships, then
there were also cases where it was the other way around. There were quite a
number of celebrities that personally got themselves sponsorship deals as a means
to attain quick success and wealth causing the agencies to end up being in a pickle
instead. Even if these people were selected in the beginning, the CEOs were
unaware of the dark desires of their hearts and ended up being stabbed in the back
by these artistes instead. In that regard, Jang Soo-Hwan and Chae Woo-Jin were on
the same page. 

“There is also something else I’d like to tell you,” said Woo-Jin. Unlike Jang Soo-
Hwan, who was in a good mood, Woo-Jin still maintained a serious look on his face. 

“Go ahead and tell me anything that’s on your mind. Before signing the contract, we
have to iron out all the details and reach an agreement.” 

“If I sign a contract with DS and do well, it is highly likely that TM will harass me,”
said Woo-Jin. 

“You’re aware of that?” 

Woo-Jin nodded in response to Jang Soo-Hwan’s question. Judging from his

reaction, Jang Soo-Hwan seemed quite surprised.

TM had the tendency of obsessing over valuable artistes that got away. However,
they were not like that with every single one of them. TM allowed those who had
already been famous at the time they joined the agency or those who left after
becoming famous by debuting under TM to leave without bearing any grudges
against this group of celebrities. But, that was not the case for trainees or artistes
who had debuted under TM and were unsuccessful, so they would leave only to
eventually gain recognition elsewhere.

It wasn’t that TM wanted them to come back to their agency. Instead, they wanted
to destroy those artistes, ruining their chances of success entirely. That was how
their obsession worked. It was as though TM were trying to show that they let them
go because those artistes had issues to begin with, not because the agency
themselves had poor judgment. Their modus operandi was so subtle and
uncommon that the public was still not fully aware of it. 

Truth be told, if one were to think about it, how many stars did TM successfully
produce? Furthermore, instead of destroying these artistes personally, they used
the help of a third party to create terrible scandals that would lead to the demise of
their entertainment careers. They also had strong ties with some reporters that
specialized in dirty work like this, hence, things had always gone smoothly for
them. 

“Not many people in the industry know about TM's shady actions. Indeed, the
biggest reason why I hesitated signing a contract with you was because you used to
be TM's trainee. Nonetheless, I’ve made my decision, and that means that I will deal
with everything. But how did you know about it? They are very sly.” 

He had wondered about it, but when he heard that Jang Soo-Hwan had already
known about it, Woo-Jin finally felt at ease. He realized that even if he didn’t talk
about it,  he had unknowingly been worried about it. The moment Woo-Jin learned
the truth about TM, he had been looking for an agency that would protect himself. 

“To be honest, I only found out about it recently. No, I felt it. Recently, a trainee,
who was a few years my senior, was caught up in a scandal. I saw how he got
destroyed. Thereafter, I looked at all the other cases and found out that they had all
left the entertainment industry in a similar fashion. I also came to learn that it was
always the same couple of reporters that raised the initial doubt and presented the
evidence to the public,” explained Woo-Jin. 

“You’re talking about Lee Hyung-Jin.”

Lee Hyung-Jin’s scandal had recently shaken up the entertainment industry. After
being a trainee at TM for a considerable amount of time, he eventually left for
another agency. At the beginning of this year, he started to gain some recognition.
He went on a variety-music TV program and was recognized for his great singing
skills. Every single song he had released swept the charts. He was truly on a roll. He
had also become more famous by appearing in commercial films, as well as all
kinds of variety shows. It would not be an overstatement to say that Lee Hyung-Jin
was certainly the number one rookie who shone in the first half of the year. 

However, one day, rumors started to circulate. It was said that Lee Hyung-Jin was a
bully back when he was in school, and that a fellow student had committed suicide
because of the bullying, which had been instigated by him. One by one, testimonies
from his former classmates surfaced, and the photo of him and the student that
committed suicide was released. Apparently, it was a photo of Lee Hyung-Jin
grabbing his friend by the neck. While it was hard to see his friend’s face due to the
angle, Lee Hyung-Jin was smiling brightly in the photo, thus resulting in a bigger
uproar. 

“I heard that the news of the death of his friend was truly shocking to Hyung-Jin.
They were really good friends. When I first met him, he was very deep in his slump
to the point he could hardly sing. His friends at school were not exactly model
students, but they were not school bullies either. They used to hang out quite a bit
together, but I heard that after Hyung-Jin became a trainee, he spent less and less
time with them. During that time, some of those friends turned into actual bullies
and started bullying Hyung-Jin’s friend.” 

“Are you saying that not only did they hide the truth, they had also distorted it?”
asked Jang Soo-Hwan.

There was so much evidence and testimonies against Lee Hyung-Jin that even Jang
Soo-Hwan, who knew that TM was behind a lot of scandals, had also thought that
Lee Hyung-Jin was guilty. The reason why Jang Soo-Hwan had been very invested in
this incident was because he had been extremely interested in poaching Lee
Hyung-Jin before the rumors circulated. Since Hyung-Jin had already signed with
another agency at that time, Jang Soo-Hwan had been stuck in a dilemma about
whether he should wait until the end of Hyung-Jin’s contract with them, or if he
should pay the penalty and recruit him right away. 

Since it did not happen often, Jang Soo-Hwan had chosen to overlook the
relationship between TM and Lee Hyung-Jin briefly. However, when the scandal
broke out, he was reminded of the atrocities that TM had committed. Around the
same time, people recommended Chae Woo-Jin to him and Jang Soo-Hwan had a
lot more to contemplate over. 

“Hyung-Jin said that he had only found out later on that his friend had been bullied.
One time when he was drunk, he cried as he told me how hard it had been at that
time. Of course, I had only heard his side of the story, but I’d like to believe that a
person who was drunk and not in the right mind would not have intentionally lied
to me. I’ve also seen the picture that has gone viral on the internet in Hyung-Jin’s
wallet. It was taken when they were fooling around. Even though his friend’s face
could not be seen, he said that he treasures that photo because it was the last
photo he had taken with his friend.”  

However, the truth had been buried, and Lee Hyung-Jin had turned into a murderer
who drove his friend to death. The only people who sided with him was the family
of his deceased friend who had committed suicide. Lee Hyung-Jin was at the funeral
the entire time, and even now, six years later, he still visited his friend every year on
the anniversary of his death. However, that meant absolutely nothing to the public
who was already biased against him. 

When an article that served to clarify the truth was released, another article that
rebutted it surfaced again, portraying Lee Hyung-Jin as a shameless person who
wore a mask to deceive the bereaved. They were persistently bent on destroying
him, making it so that Lee Hyung-Jin had no chance of recovery at all. 

According to something Woo-Jin had heard before, one of the students who
instigated the bullying was the son of a wealthy man. Additionally, his uncle, who
was a prosecutor, intervened and everything was taken care of and covered up
despite the presence of a suicide note. Woo-Jin, who still remembered how it made
Lee Hyung-Jin even angrier to the point of exploding, had been absolutely taken
aback. 
The friend’s family were only ordinary citizens with no power, and Lee Hyung-Jin’s
current agency was just a small to medium-sized agency. They had no power to
protect him. Even if the truth were to be exposed later on, it would be hard for
things to go back to how they used to be since once a person’s image was to get
ruined, it would be difficult for them to undo the damage done. 

It was apparent that there were bound to be some people who would not believe
the actual truth and stick to the distorted facts to the very end, and be distrustful of
Lee Hyung-Jin. The existence of prejudice against celebrities that could not be
shaken off was so fatal to them that it was uncertain whether or not they could
recover from it. That was TM's goal. 

Even if the truth were to be revealed later on, the public would always be
suspicious of them. Once distrust was established, people were generally
unreceptive to new evidence. It was human psychology to not want to admit their
own mistakes when it came to blaming innocent people. There were several people
who had forgotten about the rumors and were not interested in the truth that was
revealed later on. 

Woo-Jin’s first movie, Death Hill, was set to be released three weeks from
now. Glooming Day would also be released six to seven weeks from now. It was still
uncertain whether or not his movies would become a box office hit. Even if they
were, it was highly likely that Woo-Jin’s name would not be noticed. However, from
now on, no one knew what TM would do to him as he made his first earnest step
into the entertainment industry. 

TM always attacked the artistes on their hit list just before they became famous,
when their fandom was still weak and when they still lacked the strength to resist.
That was because it was the best time for them to get rid of these artistes easily. 

“There isn’t much TM can use against me. I only studied hard in school, and I did
not have any enemies. I only had friends who were similar to me, and I haven’t
fallen out with anybody yet. The only thing they can potentially use against me is
the fact that I got taken out of the pre-debut group due to the discord among the
members, and that I was terminated from TM,” said Woo-Jin. 
Even if they wanted to frame him or start some rumors, there needed to be some
basis. However, they didn’t have any dirt on Woo-Jin. 

“Nonetheless, a few years ago, there was a female artiste who completely
disappeared from the big screen after leaving TM, due to rumors of her having a
sponsor. For some reason, I have a feeling that they might do something similar to
me. Either that, or using testimonies of the members from my pre-debut group to
portray me as complete trash,” added Woo-Jin. 

It was without a doubt that someone else must have taken over Woo-Jin’s place that
he had rejected. Woo-Jin could guess who he was, but if a scandal broke out, he
had a feeling that his name would be brought up instead of that person’s name.
Either that, or that there would be rumors circulating that he was the person
behind the discord among the members, causing him to be unable to debut with
the group in the end. 

In any case, there were five of them. If they corroborated their stories well and said
the right things, it would not be surprising if Woo-Jin was portrayed as the villain.
Jang Soo-Hwan had searched and reviewed everything pertaining to Chae Woo-Jin.
He knew that there was nothing in his past that might pose a problem. The only
thing was the discord among the idol group, known as Blue Fit, where Chae Woo-Jin
was the victim, a fact that Jang Soo-Hwan had already known. 

Woo-Jin did not know but Jang Soo-Hwan had already gathered all evidence and
materials pertaining to him. Hence, even if he were to get attacked, they would be
able to defend him sufficiently. 

However, no one knew when the two ticking time bombs would go off - 1. The
secret about Woo-Jin’s father’s family; 2. False rumors that could be spread in the
future. Nonetheless, Jang Soo-Hwan who had considered everything was confident
that he could deal with it. Hence, he decided to work with Woo-Jin. The increase in
the number of possible circumstances that could arise did not change anything. 
Favorite
Chapter 24

“If we knew with certainty how they would operate, then it would allow us to
prepare,” said Jang Soo-Hwan.

DS was better than TM when it came to utilizing the media. If TM's CEO was smart,
the wisest thing for him to do would be to leave Chae Woo-Jin, who was now a DS
artist, alone. Truthfully, Jang Soo-Hwan thought it was highly likely that things
would pan out that way. He wanted to believe that TM's CEO was not foolish
enough to do anything reckless to DS.

“Most importantly, I have clear evidence,” said Woo-Jin.

“That’s right, you really did a good job with the voice recordings. Nothing can top
that. However, what are we going to do about the discord among your former
group members? There are five people on their side, so we’re at a disadvantage.” 

Even though they had already secured the evidence, Jang Soo-Hwan wanted to
know what Woo-Jin thought. 

“Do you think that I only recorded my conversations with TM's CEO? Besides those
recordings, I also have videos.” 

Jang Soo-Hwan stared blankly at Woo-Jin, who was smiling, for a moment. He knew
that Woo-Jin was smart, but he had assumed that was only the case when it came
to academics. He did not expect Woo-Jin to be able to adapt to circumstances that
well. 

As a matter of fact, it was Woo-Jin’s friend, Hyun-Min, who suggested that he take
video and audio recordings. When Hyun-Min found out that he was being bullied by
the other members, Hyun-Min had told him that he needed to collect evidence first.
Hyun-Min taught him how to secretly record videos and gave him all kinds of
recording equipment. Hyun-Min also added that he should take multiple recordings
at the same time, because if the members were to find one of the recordings, he
would still have the remaining ones as a backup. Thanks to that, he had been able
to capture the conversation where the CEO proposed a sponsorship deal to him as
well, which happened around the same time. 

When Hyun-Min saw the video of Woo-Jin being beaten up by the other members,
he lost his cool and went all the way to his dorm to kick up a fuss about the matter.
However, neither one of them revealed the existence of the video. Even though it
was not guaranteed when he would use it, Woo-Jin kept the videos as an insurance
since nobody knew what would happen in the future.

When Jang Soo-Hwan met Woo-Jin’s eye for a moment, they laughed at the same
time. Jang Soo-Hwan liked how Chae Woo-Jin was unpredictable in this manner. He
was not bad at all. Woo-Jin was a very charming actor on screen, and in reality, he
was bright and wise. There was no one else this perfect. 

“So now, it’s time to discuss our contract.” 

With the last obstacle out of their way, there was no need to hold off on it any
further or reassess anything. 

***

While preparing dinner for his mother who had just gotten off work, Woo-Jin told
her about what happened today.

“Mother, I signed a contract with DS today.” 

“DS? What’s that?”

“DS is an entertainment agency and it’s very well-known. I’ve just signed a contract
with them today.” 

“Did you look through the contract thoroughly? It’s not a slave contract or an unfair
one, right? Your uncle[1] said to look for him if you have to sign any contract. You’ve
already signed it?” 

While Park Eun-Soo was not interested in the entertainment industry, she closely
followed the news about it. She was very concerned about the chronic problem
pertaining to contracts within the entertainment industry. Likewise, his uncle
seemed to be very concerned too. Woo-Jin laughed when the image of his mother
and uncle putting their heads together, worrying about him, came to mind.

“I’ve looked at every single word carefully, so please do not worry. And please help
me thank Uncle for being concerned about me.”

“But still, what happened the last time…”

“Although I was young back then, I nitpicked so much to the point that their lawyer
got fed up with me; there was nothing wrong with the contract itself. That was why
there wasn’t any scandal when I left the agency. It’s no different this time. I caused
the lawyer to get fed up again this time and made sure to get the maximum
benefits possible.”

Even though they had severed ties with Woo-Jin’s grandfather, his mother was still
from a family of legal professionals. While it was still kept under wraps, Woo-Jin was
also preparing for the bar exam to fulfill his mother’s wishes. Naturally, he was
different from ordinary people who did not know anything about the law, especially
since he now possessed memories of his past lives. 

Although they were very different from the law in the present day, his jobs in his
past lives had been related to the law. That’s why he was well-versed in the
principles and ways of living in this world. Not to mention, Woo-Jin had been an
Italian mafia boss based in New York in the life just before this current one. He had
been forced to take over as the boss because it was a family business, but he had
still made a name for himself in the world as a remarkable mafia boss. The fact he
had been able to survive in the dark world of that era and die of old age instead of
an unnatural death was proof of his competence. He had been so notorious that if
one were to search his name on the internet, they would be able to find a lot of
information about him. 

Although he had been a person who wanted to become an artist, as an avid

collector of famous paintings and old books, he had lived a life where he was above
the law, dominating over others. He had mastered the ways of escaping the law
and illegalities, which were known as the evils of the world. 
However, despite all the knowledge he possessed, as well as his memories, Woo-
Jin’s core was so firm and strong that his character and nature did not change.
There was no way for someone like Woo-Jin to sign a contract with a mere agency
when that contract was unfavorable to him. 

“First, we are splitting the earnings evenly at the start. Thereafter, we will be
allocating the earnings using the sliding scale instead based on the amount of
money I earn, which will cause the ratio to change at all times.” 

“If you’re using the sliding scale, it means that the more you earn, the bigger the
share you get, right?” asked Woo-Jin’s mother.

“Yeah, originally, the contract pertaining to the distribution of earnings would only
be renewed every one to two years depending on the circumstances, but I
managed to change it to once every six months.” 

Right now, it was fifty-fifty, but after he had hit a certain level of income and fame,
he would eventually be able to adjust it to twenty-eighty at best, in favor of Woo-Jin
of course. 

“Is that a good thing?” asked Woo-Jin’s mother.

“It is bad if I don’t get any jobs or am unable to become successful, but it would be
very beneficial for me if I suddenly become famous within a short period of time,
and if my earnings suddenly increase because of commercial films or other
projects. If the ratio changes only every one or two years, the agency would get
more money during that period while I end up getting less,” explained Woo-Jin.

“Will that day ever come?” asked Park Eun-Soo seriously. She did not sound like she
was joking. Because of that, Woo-Jin avoided her gaze and looked like he was about
to cry.

“Don’t say that. I’ll be sad,” said Woo-Jin.

One of the reasons why Park Eun-Soo did not want her son to enter the
entertainment industry was because his odds of becoming successful were very
low. Although she thought he looked very handsome from all angles, she thought it
was because she was blinded by her motherly love to a certain extent. She had
always underestimated her children’s looks. 

Undoubtedly, whenever she compared her children to other people’s children, she
thought her children were certainly considered to be good-looking. However, that
was the same for all the other parents. They would always think that their children
were the most precious and beautiful people in the world. 

Instead of trusting biased sentiments and reckless bravado, Park Eun-soo had
always taught her children how to be humble and pragmatic. Because of how their
mother brought them up, both Woo-Jin and Woo-Hee had a tendency to be critical
when it came to their own appearances. They spent their entire lives with the
mindset that they had to work hard and increase their skill sets in order to survive
in the difficult present era where looks were highly valued, as people who lacked in
many areas. 

“I will work hard instead,” added Woo-Jin.

One’s efforts would never betray them, but it was not guaranteed that they would
lead to success. Even so, Woo-Jin had always lived his life trying his best every time.
That was Woo-Jin’s way of loving himself and his family. 

“Yeah, I trust my son. If you are happy doing what you’re doing, I will be happy too.”

Park Eun-Soo hugged her son and patted him on the back. She was worried that
she might have been too cold by reminding him to be realistic. However, just as
always, Woo-Jin remained resolute and did not waver at all.

“That’s the same for me. So Mother, you should take the path that will make you
happy, without worrying so much about what other people think.” 

“...!”

“I heard from Woo-Hee that Uncle Choi proposed to you. It’s good to think it
through carefully, considering all the different factors, but I don’t want you to worry
about what we think. I hope that you won’t walk on eggshells. We’re both grown up
and we’ll find our own way to make ourselves happy in the future. Similarly, you
should find your own happiness. It would be very sad if we’re the obstacles
obstructing you from making the choice you want.” 

Park Eun-Soo burst into tears when she heard her son’s words. Looking at her son
who was smiling as he wiped her tears tenderly, she gently nodded.

Her first marriage had been decided by her family. They had not considered her
feelings or opinions at all. It was an arranged marriage; in any case, she did not
have the power to say no from the get go. She had believed that her father would
find the right person for her. It had been a marriage that checked off all the boxes,
in terms of family, educational background etc. And although it had been a loveless
marriage, she had still tried her best to make it work. 

After their children were born and grew older, she had started to fall for her
husband. But, it had been nothing more than her own delusion. Even her father
resented him after they saw his true colors. That’s why, she did not have any
regrets getting a divorce and severing ties with both her husband and her father. 

On the other hand, she had been elated when Choi Min-Woo, the man she was
currently dating, proposed to her. Imagining their breakup alone was enough to
make her sad and gloomy. However, she could not help but hesitate when it came
to accepting his proposal. That was because fulfilling her duties as a mother of two
children was more important to her than being a woman in love. However, her
children were telling her to live as a woman instead of a mother from now on. 

“Your decision has always been right. That’s why, Woo-Hee and I have always
trusted any choice you made, and we have always been happy with it. So don’t
worry about anything at all. We will continue to live happily like we always have.” 

“Yeah, I’ll do that.”

Seeing his mother, who was smiling brightly and looking more at ease, Woo-Jin
smiled too. Even if she made the wrong choice, there was nothing to worry about. It
might be difficult and painful at that moment, but as long as they were together as
a family, she could always start over. 
After their conversation ended, Woo-Jin went into his room and sat down at the
desk. He was determined to study hard even if he had debuted as an actor.
Nowadays, celebrities with a good educational background had received a lot of
attention on their own because of the great synergy effect. Even though there were
not many of them, there were a few of them from Woo-Jin’s college whose value
increased and became more popular. Since Woo-Jin had given up on using his
looks, he was going to do everything, apart from his skills, that allowed him to catch
the attention of the public. If he had a good educational background on top of good
grades, people would be interested in him twice as much. 

“Is this what people call attention-seekers?”

As Woo-Jin thought about doing everything he could for the sake of getting
attention, he took out the civil law book. Although he had no intention of entering
the legal industry, his mother’s greatest wish was for him to pass the bar exam. He
wanted to prove to everyone, especially his grandfather, that it wasn’t that he
couldn’t do it, he simply had not done it. 

He felt bad for his mother instead of being annoyed by his mother’s desire to prove
to everyone that she was able to raise her children well on her own after getting a
divorce. His mother was still kept in the dark, but as soon as Woo-Jin had entered
college, he had already started preparing for the LEET. If he managed to enroll in all
the classes he wanted in the spring semester, he would be able to take all the
prerequisite law classes. If that went well, he was planning to give the LEET a try
next year. 

Comparing all 999 lives, Woo-Jin had never loved his family as much as he loved his
mother and younger sister. That’s why, he wanted to do his best to achieve what
both of them wanted. Doing one’s best for their beloved family was a token of
affection, not sacrifice. 

“Well, even if I only get through the first round, it will help my fame.”

There was nothing wrong with using that as a stepping stone to help him get closer
to achieving his dream. What he had come to realize after living several lives was
that studying was always useful. 
***

Woo-Jin’s manager looked muscular and fierce enough to be a bodyguard.

Nevertheless, he had a pretty name.

“My name is Kang Ho-Soo. I am 30 this year.”

“I am Chae Woo-Jin. I am 23, so please speak to me casually. How should I address

you?”

If he were to add ‘Mr.’ before Kang Ho-Soo’s name as a young man, It would be
rather distant and disrespectful. However, if he were to directly address Kang Ho-
Soo ‘hyung’ without asking for consent, he was worried he might come across as
being rude. Woo-Jin was wary of that. 

“If you’re okay with it, you can just call me ‘hyung’.”

“In that case, I will call you Ho-Soo hyung from now on. Please feel free to call me
Woo-Jin as well.”

“I am uncomfortable speaking casually from the beginning because I’m rather

introverted, but I will try my best.”

Contrary to his appearance, Kang Ho-Soo smiled coyly. It was evident that he was a
shy person, but he still had a somewhat scary look on his face. Woo-Jin shook Kang
Ho-Soo’s massive hand, but his hand was trembling without realizing it. He had
expected Kang Ho-Soo to be a former athlete or soldier, however, he was trained
professionally as a manager. 

Kang Ho-Soo also revealed that it had always been his dream to become an
executive at DS in the future. When Woo-Jin asked him if his goal was to start his
own agency, he said that since he developed good judgment because of DS, he
wanted to stay in DS and work his way all the way up, such that the CEO was his
only superior.

“Are you ambitious?” asked Woo-Jin.

“Yes, I am,” asserted Kang Ho-Soo with confidence.

He was as meticulous in his work as he was when it came to his aspirations. Woo-
Jin could easily tell how considerate he was.

“Tomorrow, you will do a health checkup first. The only thing you have to do is start
fasting from this evening onwards, and follow the instructions written here. We will
meet with a stylist the day after tomorrow, who will get a feel of your overall style. If
you have a favorite brand, color, or style, please write it here. I plan to take a
picture for your profile after you’re done with styling. Is there any photographer in
particular that you want?” 

Kang Ho-Soo passed to Woo-Jin several sheets of paper containing questions.

Within the questionnaire, there were many questions about his date of birth, family
relations, detailed information about his educational background up until now, as
well as several questions about Woo-Jin’s personal preferences, etc. Basically, they
were information that would be very useful to a manager. 

1. This time, it’s blood-related uncle — mother’s brother ☜

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Chapter 25

“Is there anything you’d like to learn?” asked Kang Ho-Soo.

“Anything I’d like to learn?” 

Woo-Jin, who was writing down his answers on the questionnaire, lifted his head
and looked at Kang Ho-Soo. 

“Yes, such as musical instruments, foreign languages, etc. Normally, you need to
take classes on history and general knowledge, but I don’t think that’s necessary in
your case. Also, you have some time since your acting classes are put on hold until
after your movie gets released - we will decide after looking at it.”

While Woo-Jin was supposed to be trained by his agency on how to conduct himself
during interviews, as well as social etiquette, he did not have to take any classes on
general knowledge and academic subjects. It was also uncertain whether it was
necessary for Woo-Jin, who had been highly praised by the two directors, to take
acting classes so they were temporarily held off.

However, if the agency’s artists were specifically interested in learning other things,
they were more than welcome to use the budget allocated for them. 

“If I can learn an instrument, I would like to learn the violin.” 

Woo-Jin was now proficient at playing the piano, but he had not gotten an
opportunity to learn the violin. He was confident that if he were to practice playing
the violin as much as he did with the piano, he could be proficient at it too. Now
that this opportunity had finally presented itself, Woo-Jin’s voice was full of
anticipation. 

“String instruments are somewhat…”

“I can’t learn it?” asked Woo-Jin.

“Well, you might get calluses on your hand. Furthermore, violins tend to leave some
marks on your jaw,” replied Kang Ho-soo.

“That’s true.”

“You can take those lessons when you get the chance to learn it later on. Since
you’re still a rookie, you have to show your face a lot and you can’t afford to have
any flaws or blemishes on your face. The public is not forgiving when it comes to
things like that,” explained Kang Ho-soo.

In contrast with his intentions, Kang Ho-Soo’s smile looked cruel. Regardless of
whether he understood what Kang Ho-Soo meant or not, Woo-Jin simply swallowed
his saliva and nodded. On the other hand, when Kang Ho-Soo asked him if there
was anything else he would like to learn apart from instruments, his gleaming eyes
were extremely fierce.

“What about Chinese?” asked Woo-Jin.

“Chinese? It’s a good choice. If you are thinking about expanding into the Chinese-
speaking market, of course, it’ll be good for you to learn it. You’re going to start
learning from the basics, right?” 

“No. I can understand, speak, write, and read Chinese, but…because I’m self-taught,
it’s not entirely perfect or natural, especially when it comes to pronunciation,”
replied Woo-Jin. 

In one of his past lives, Woo-Jin had been born in China and had lived there in the
olden days, so his pronunciation was very different from the Chinese that people
spoke in the present era. He knew several Chinese dialects, including Mandarin and
Cantonese, etc., but he had to correct his pronunciation to match the modern
version of those dialects. 

“I understand. I will look for a teacher who is a native speaker, but I have to say that
it’s amazing how you were able to learn Chinese on your own,” remarked Kang Ho-
Soo. 

“I’m fortunate enough to be good at picking up languages, so I’m able to speak

some foreign languages.”

Woo-Jin, who had unintentionally developed more skill sets via recalling his past
lives, felt embarrassed by his self-praise and scratched his cheek awkwardly. 

“Smart men are rather popular these days. However, don’t reveal how talented and
capable you are in the beginning – I think it’s better to reveal your skills to the
public one by one, pretending you only found out about them by chance. People
won’t like it if you’re a showoff and your public image would suffer as a result, but
that doesn’t mean you have to pretend to be terrible at what you do.” 

Woo-Jin tried to deflect the praise, saying that because he was mostly self-taught,
he hadn’t mastered it perfectly, and he wasn’t very good at it. Kang Ho-Soo was
rather relieved by his humility. He had been worried that Woo-Jin would have a
temper since he was a student at a prestigious college and a rookie whom the CEO
thought highly of. However, his worries were unfounded and he had a very good
impression of Chae Woo-Jin.

However, seeing Woo-Jin continuously write his answer to the question, ‘What
languages do you speak?’, Kang Ho-Soo shook his head, as if he was tired of it. He
did not know that Woo-Jin did not even use half of them. 

“How old are you?” Park Si-Yeon asked.

“I’m 23.”

“You’re only 23, so why do you give off an old person vibe?” 

Park Si-Yeon, the stylist that DS’ fashion director had made an appointment with,
scratched her chin, feeling confused the entire time. Woo-Jin wore jeans and a
white short-sleeved T-Shirt to go to Park Si-Yeon’s boutique with his manager. Even
though it was just an ordinary style, his physique was great enough that he was a
stylish actor who could become a model. 

When it came to his appearance, he was also more good-looking and beautiful
compared to anybody she had seen recently. However, the thing was that Woo-Jin
gave off the vibes of a war veteran instead of the fresh vibes that a young man in
his early 20s should give off. 

“He was discharged from the military earlier this year, and he’s the eldest son in the
family, so I think that’s why he has a unique sense of maturity.” As if he understood
what Park Si-Yeon meant, Kang Ho-Soo answered on Woo-Jin’s behalf. Similarly,
when he had first met Woo-Jin, Kang Ho-Soo had also paused for a good second or
two because he had also felt that Woo-Jin was very mature for his age. 
If Woo-jin was startled by Kang Ho-Soo’s appearances, then it could be said that
Kang Ho-Soo had been a little intimidated by Woo-Jin’s vibes. He must have come to
his own conclusion now because he explained his thoughts to others as if they
were the correct answer. 

“I’m not saying that it’s necessarily a bad thing. To be honest, Mr. Woo-Jin’s age is
somewhat within the awkward range – he’s too old to take on a child’s role and too
young to play a member of society. When I first heard your age, I thought that I had
to purposely give you more of an ‘adult’ look, but it’s good that I don’t have to.
Young people should dress like young people. What concept is the agency going for
in Mr. Woo-Jin’s case?” asked Park Si-Yeon.

“They want him to give off the vibes of an intelligent dandy guy,” replied Kang Ho-
Soo.

After discussing with the fashion director, they decided not to change his current
look. It wasn’t like he was an idol; they didn’t need to create a fresh and bright
image just because he was young. 

As Park Si-Yeon had mentioned earlier, Woo-Jin was at the age where he was still at
the crossroads between youth and adulthood. It could be a dark period for an
actor. That’s why, unless he was only playing the role of a vivacious college student,
Woo-Jin’s maturity was not necessarily a bad thing. 

Just like how it was difficult for a child actor to transition into an adult actor, it
wasn’t a matter of good or bad acting, but rather a matter of prejudice that came
with certain images.

“However, he cannot look old.”

“You’re talking about an intelligent ‘young man’, right? A young man! A man who
has entered adulthood, exuding an air of sexiness, who is no longer a boy or a
teenager!”

Park Si-Yeon’s eyes gleamed as she spoke in an excited tone, probably because she
had suddenly captured the perfect image for Woo-Jin. 
“Can he be sexy?” asked Kang Ho-Soo.

“Don’t you know about the subtle sexiness of an intelligent man? That’s what I’m
talking about! The austere sexiness of a refined gentleman. That’s the dream of
every woman.”

Park Si-Yeon rebuked Kang Ho-Soo for not knowing anything and hummed to
herself while she took a measuring tape before taking Woo-Jin’s measurements.

“Is your family well-to-do?” Park Si-Yeon asked Woo-Jin out of the blue as she was
measuring his neck.

“No.”

“Middle-class?”

“A little more on the lower middle side,” answered Woo-Jin.

Woo-Jin measured the standard of living using the family circumstances of his life
back when he was little, as well as his friends’. Understandably, if he used that as a
yardstick to calculate what middle class was, his current life was considered lower
middle class.

“Is that so? You look like you come from a wealthy family. In that case, the clothes
you wear daily might be an issue. You can wear sponsored clothes or clothes that
your wardrobe stylist has prepared for official public appearances, but I’m afraid
that you’ll have to wear your own clothes in your daily life. These days, the
paparazzi follow celebrities all the time. I’ll recommend some brands, so even if
you’re hard up right now, try to buy a few pieces and wear them.” 

“You don’t have to worry about that, feel free to pick what you like. Here’s the
corporate card,” Kang Ho-Soo said to Woo-Jin, as he held up the corporate card and
smiled. Park Si-Yeon whistled in response.

“I’m guessing CEO Jang has high expectations for Mr. Woo-Jin, huh? Even though DS
provides their artists with ample support, they don’t normally care about their daily
lives.”
“Not that he’s never done that,” responded Kang Ho-Soo.

Park Si-Yeon nodded and said that she understood. She had worked with DS a lot
and so, she was well-aware of the current situation with Woo-Jin. Her question was
essentially the same as DS’ answer – the higher the expectations, the more
understandable it was for them to take care of trivial matters. Looking back on
similar cases, all of the people who were highly regarded by the CEO ended up
becoming the top celebrities in DS. 

“Indeed, there’s no way he would send any ordinary rookie my way.”

Who was Park Si-Yeon? She was someone who had personally taken care of, and
was still taking care of, the fashion needs of the most famous celebrities in Korea.
She was a famous celebrity herself as well. As such, not every DS artist would end
up getting sent to her. However, Kang Ho-soo said that Chae Woo-Jin was even
more special than the chosen ones. 

“You’re going to Mr. Choi to get his hair done, right? I will contact him and discuss
Mr. Woo-Jin’s concept in advance. However, Woo-Jin’s wardrobe stylist isn’t here
today?” 

“She is in China right now because one of the groups she’s in charge of is having a
concert. The handover hasn’t been completed yet. She will be here the day after
tomorrow.” 

“By groups, you mean idols? If she’s styling for idols, will she be able to adequately
take care of Woo-Jin’s styling needs?”

Singers and actors sought completely different styles and images. That was why
Park Si-Yeon was frowning. She was not happy with the fact that a wardrobe stylist,
who used to be in charge of idols, was going to be the one taking care of Woo-Jin. 

“She’s someone with a great sense of style, but frankly speaking, she is not a good
match with the idols she was in charge of. She wanted to go for a modern look, but
the parties involved did not like it, even though it was well-received by the fans. 
“Oh, I know who she is! If she’s the stylist you’re talking about, she will be a good fit
with Mr. Woo-Jin. As soon as she gets back, tell her to come here. For today, shall
we check out the styles that match Mr. Woo-Jin one by one?

Woo-Jin looked at Park Si-Yeon, who was smiling broadly at him. He did not know
anything up until then – what it was like to try on dozens of clothes before getting
evaluated and then having his photographs taken. 

“As the saying goes, ‘the face completes the fashion’. It’s not wrong, but it’s also not
necessarily the truth. In my opinion, confidence completes the fashion! So
straighten your back!” exclaimed Park Si-Yeon, on top of hitting him on the back
and correcting his posture. 

It was advisable for him not to put his hands in the pocket when wearing this top
because of the details on the edge of the sleeves. That top focused on the waistline,
so he had to know how to sit, showing his side profile, while allowing the shoes to
be seen in a natural way, etc. Fashion was more difficult than academic subjects in
school. 

“You have a fair and clear complexion, so all the colors look good on you, which is a
good thing. You probably usually wear dull colored clothes, but sometimes it’s nice
to change things up a little with a striking color like this.” 

“Is this the color of a yellow chick?” asked Woo-Jin.

“Umm, lemon yellow to be exact.”

When Woo-Jin looked at the bright yellow T-shirt, he was dumbstruck and said it
was the color of a chick, but Park Si-Yeon corrected him. However, lemon yellow or
other shades of yellow looked like the baby chick yellow to Woo-Jin. 

“It’s really hard for most men to pull off this color, but it suits you very well – you
look as bright as a forsythia that has just bloomed! If you wear this on an ordinary
day in your daily life, you will stand out and draw attention to yourself.”
Unlike Park Si-Yeon, who was full of confidence, Woo-Jin questioned it in his head
on the other hand and sighed. He doubted that he would even head out in this
outfit.

“By the way, when is your official debut?” asked Park Si-Yeon.

“The first movie will be released in approximately three weeks,” answered Kang Ho-
Soo on behalf of Woo-Jin, who was floundering with a soulless look in his eyes due
to exhaustion. 

“In that case, from now on, you have to go to places such as cafes and libraries
when you have time.” 

“I’m already planning to do that,” replied Woo-Jin.

“Tell me in advance where you’ll be going. I’ll coordinate with you accordingly.” 

As a rookie whom no one knew about, Woo-Jin had to deliberately show himself in
public places everywhere so that people would post comments and captions,
saying ‘I’ve seen that person somewhere before, and somehow he caught my eye.
He turned out to be a celebrity after all! He’s so good-looking, that’s why I took a
photo. Could he be Chae Woo-Jin?’ later on. 

After becoming famous, things that happened in the past would start to surface
everywhere. The more attention he drew from people when he was just an
ordinary person meant that he was more likely to become a hot topic of discussion
and make it big. 

Hence, before they released the movie, it was necessary for him to pretend to be
an ordinary person in the midst of the general public, and get their attention. Of
course, in the event that nobody paid any attention to him, and in turn failed to
become a hot topic of discussion, the agency would have also taken photos and
made preparations for that.

“Ah, by the way, what’s the title of the movie? When it starts screening, I’ll have to
watch it.”
“Death Hill, a movie directed by Director Moon Seung-Kwon,” answered Kang Ho-
soo once again, on behalf of Woo-Jin, who still lacked energy. 

“Ah! I know that movie. I’ve been very interested in that movie since its early stage
of production. Mr. Woo-Jin acted in it? What was your role?” 

Upon hearing Park Si-Yeon’s question, Kang Ho-Soo paused for a moment and
looked at Woo-Jin. That was because the movie was shot before Woo-Jin joined DS,
and hence, Kang Ho-Soo had not heard anything about the role he played. 

Noticing the awkward position his manager was currently in, Woo-Jin answered
instead, despite being in a state of exhaustion. 

“A horrible loan shark who bullies and sexually harasses the female lead.
Ultimately, he gets beaten by his co-workers and stabbed to death. Ah! Did I just
spoil it for you by saying he died? It’s a small supporting role though, so it’s not a big
deal.”

“...”

Kang Ho-Soo and Park Si-Yeon were both at a loss for words for a moment upon
hearing Woo-Jin’s answer. He was still half-dazed due to exhaustion. When their
gazes met, they both opened their mouths at the same time. 

“He has to have the image of an intelligent and decent person; an ascetic man.”

“More importantly, he needs an image that portrays him to be classy, sexy, and
pure.”

They did not know what would be the end result of combining all these images
together, but both of them were firmly on the same page. The outcome was that
Woo-Jin had to try on dozens more clothes but that was not important now.

The words that were stuck in their minds now were ‘terrible loan shark’, ‘sexual
harassment’, and ‘tragic death’. As Woo-Jin was preparing to become a celebrity,
step by step, the release date of Death Hill was approaching quickly.
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