Become a Star

“Woo-Hee, you mentioned earlier that you were embarrassed by your brother, but in truth, both of you are very close to one another.”

When the host told them to hug each other, the siblings shook their heads simultaneously with a look of disgust on their faces. The audience in the auditorium burst out laughing because they were perfectly in sync, with the same look on their faces while doing the same action.

Recounting moving stories or outrightly professing one’s love for their family was one way of expressing the love between family members, but the Chae siblings simply showed the audience their usual selves. Even though it was subtle, they looked like a family overflowing with happiness, just like how they were in their daily lives.

Woo-Hee had gotten the 48th and 49th questions right; all she was left with was the final question. She opened her pre-selected questionnaire, and when the principal read out the question, the ambience in the auditorium instantly became tense. This was because Woo-Hee was a liberal arts student, and the question she had chosen happened to be a science question.

However, as soon as Woo-Hee wrote her answer on the blackboard after hearing the question, Woo-Jin took a look at it and smiled, feeling at ease. For a very long time after that, people kept talking about his smile when his younger sister was confirmed to be the winner of Golden Ball. The smile was so warm that it made people want the lovely pair of siblings to be happy.

Nonetheless, on this day, Woo-Jin also realized how terrifying high school girls could be. As soon as they were done shooting the episode, hundreds of students flocked towards him. His recent experience of typing continuously for more than ten hours a day to publish his novel was nothing compared to this — he had to sign that many autographs.

Seeing how Woo-Jin was busy taking photos and signing autographs for every student, Woo-Hee couldn’t take it any longer and ultimately screamed at the top of her lungs.

“Oppa! Don’t touch anyone!” Despite feeling disgusted over the host’s suggestion to hug her brother, Woo-Hee ran over to Woo-Jin and hugged his waist tightly as she glared at the students around them. She didn’t do it out of consideration for him because she thought he might be exhausted or having a hard time dealing with these girls — she did it out of anger.

He’s my brother…why are you guys making a fuss over him? Even though they were her friends, she was greedy and didn’t want to share him with them. When he was in public, he might be their Chae Woo-Jin, but Woo-Jin had to be none other than Chae Woo-Hee’s brother when he was with her.

“Hey, just act normal.” When Woo-Jin felt awkward and told Woo-Hee how her actions were bizarre, she also acknowledged that she was acting strange.

“In any case, I’m still in the stormy period of my life. I’m at the age where I don’t need a reason for anything I do, regardless of what it is!” Thus, Woo-Hee proudly declared that she would continue acting strange to her heart’s content.

Surprisingly, Woo-Hee’s classmates empathized with her instead — they were all busy laughing and commenting that anybody with a brother like Chae Woo-Jin would want to keep him all to themselves. They were at the age where they easily made a fuss, easily felt moved, and easily empathized with others.

The students burst out laughing and took a group photo with Chae Woo-Jin instead. They joked that nobody but Woo-Hee was allowed to stand within one foot of him — it was known as ‘The Woo-Hee Zone.’

***

Chae Woo-Jin thought the expression, ‘piles of drama and movie scripts,’ was only applicable to other celebrities. However, he couldn’t exactly jump for joy seeing the tall pile of scripts before his eyes. In any case, he could only pick one out of all of them, or perhaps, none at all. There was a high chance that could be the case.

In order to make a careful choice, Woo-Jin read all the scripts that were piled up in front of him without leaving any of them out. However, after reading the scripts, his thoughts and feelings were different from before. The experience of writing a novel allowed him to assess and analyze the scripts from different angles.

In the past, he would focus on the overall storyline and character’s personality, but now his focus was on the overall composition and dialogues. Because he had read a lot of popular novels these days, he could get a rough idea of how the rest of the script would unfold after reading the initial portion. He could also tell if the novelty at the beginning of the story couldn’t be sustained or if its chaotic development couldn't be rectified.

In truth, Woo-Jin felt that his own writing was more interesting than these scripts. Even though his novel had many flaws, its storyline was undoubtedly rather interesting. He had been fortunate thus far — all the productions he had worked in had decent storylines, but most of the scripts he looked at today were below average. Because of that, Woo-Jin started the second semester of his academic year without deciding on his next production.

“L Instinct Woo-Jin is here.” One of Woo-Jin’s classmates greeted him with a smile as he entered the classroom. After the episode of Golden Ball had been aired, many words had been used to describe Woo-Jin. When Woo-Jin had first arrived at Woo-Hee’s school, he had stiffened his back and sat up straight next to the principal as though he was being punished. When people saw how he looked, they started calling him ‘L Instinct.’

Woo-Jin appeared on Golden Ball in the capacity of a guardian, thereby softening his previously perfect image and also making him seem more human. His parents also had fun watching it, and everyone he met was amazed by this side of him and became more friendly towards him.

“Why are you calling hyung-nim names! Please sit here, hyung-nim.”

“Hyung-nim?”

Another classmate told the first classmate off for teasing Woo-Jin, and shook the chair next to him, offering Woo-Jin a seat. However, Woo-Jin became very guarded after hearing another male student referring to him as ‘hyung-nim.’

“If I marry your sister, you’ll be my brother-in-law, so it makes sense for me to call you ‘hyung-nim.’”

“Hey, you shouldn’t be eyeing a high school student! Did you see the look in Woo-Jin’s eyes change? You’ve been blacklisted from this moment onwards.” Woo-Jin nodded and agreed vehemently with the person that chided the classmate who called him ‘hyung-nim.’ That wasn’t enough — Woo-Jin walked over to a seat as far away from the blacklisted person as possible before sitting down.

Unfortunately, after that episode of Golden Ball had been aired, people had been asking Woo-Jin to introduce Woo-Hee to them, both celebrities and schoolmates alike. If they too were high schoolers like Woo-Hee, Woo-Jin would have complied, but they were adults in their mid-twenties, so it was disgusting. When he got mad and went, ‘What the hell are you talking about, she’s just a high school student,’ they responded with, ‘Why does it matter? She’ll be a college student in a few months anyway.’

Woo-Hee was as good-looking as her older brother, and she was smart; she wasn’t lacking in any aspect. However, dating was something only Woo-Hee should decide for herself. Woo-Jin might be her older brother, but it wasn’t up to him to determine whether he should introduce someone to her or not. The people Woo-Jin thought would be good for Woo-Hee didn’t make a move, while the ones who, in his opinion, should stay as far away from his sister as possible had been badgering him.

“Why? It’s not like I’m asking her to date me right away. She’ll be enrolling in our school next year, no? By then, we would be close….” Of course, some said these things as a joke, while others meant what they said. In this case, it was the latter.

“My sister has high standards.”

Unlike Woo-jin, Woo-Hee nitpicked on a lot of things, from appearance, academic and family background, to character. As days went by, she became more and more demanding in terms of what she wanted in a partner. When Woo-Jin told her earnestly that she would be spending the rest of her life alone at this rate, she responded that one should set high standards to start with, so they could lower them gradually when needed. From her response, it was apparent she had never been in a relationship before.

While she said that, the people who heard it interpreted it differently. As someone who grew up together with an older brother like Chae Woo-Jin, Chae Woo-Hee was not impressed by most of the male population.

“For some reason, I feel worse because I can’t refute it.” The male classmate was treated like the world’s number one prince at home, but in front of Chae Woo-Jin, he couldn’t help losing his groundless confidence. In this situation, the expression ‘wishful thinking’ was so apt that nobody sided with him.

“By the way, your maternal uncle worked for the Seoul District Prosecutors’ Office?”

That was another consequence of Golden Ball. The people who weren’t interested in Chae Woo-Jin, the celebrity, were very interested in his maternal uncle’s identity. They were mainly the people who had taken the recent bar exam and were currently waiting for the results of the second round. In a bid to get out of the earlier situation with the blacklisted classmate, Woo-Jin happened to sit behind a classmate who had also taken the recent bar exam.

“Yeah.”

“Could you tell me his name?”

“Why? He’s no longer working there. What’s the point of knowing his name…?” Nobody was better than his maternal uncle when it came to seeking connections in the industry. Hence, Woo-Jin couldn’t lie and replied evasively.

“I don’t know any legal professionals, so I was wondering if I could get some advice for the interview stage if I pass the second exam… I’m kind of shameless, right?” As his classmate spoke, perhaps he felt ashamed, so he scratched his head. While he was indeed shameless, anybody in his situation would have had the same concern and done the same thing. Woo-Jin did not think negatively of him after thinking that way. On the other hand, if Woo-Jin were in his situation, he might have been equally shameless and asked for the same favor.

“It’ll be hard for my maternal uncle. He’s very busy these days. Also, if you pass the second round, wouldn’t you be fine for your interview? Nobody has failed the interview in recent years.”

“I guess so.” Instead of feeling disappointed by Woo-Jin’s reply, his classmate became less nervous, and his face became brighter. He checked his surroundings before asking Woo-Jin softly. No one else could hear him.

“What about you? Do you think you’ll pass?” He had run into Woo-Jin during the second round of the bar exam. When he saw Chae Woo-Jin’s name on the list of candidates who had passed the first round, he was a little skeptical. However, there weren’t any rumors, and none of the professors mentioned it as well, so he assumed it was someone else with the same name. He knew people had talked about it on the internet momentarily, but the topic immediately disappeared. However, he happened to run into Woo-Jin right when he left the exam venue after the exam ended.

At that time, he wondered why Woo-Jin was taking the bar exam, but after watching Golden Ball, he could kind of understand why. Even though it was his maternal side of the family, if any of them were legal professionals, Woo-Jin might feel pressured to take the bar exam against his will. Thus, his classmate speculated that Woo-Jin's family was highly likely to have more than one legal professional.

“I think I’ll pass.”

“Wow~!” Hearing Woo-Jin’s straightforward and honest answer, the classmate deeply admired him. Some people around them noticed it and shifted their gazes towards them.

“I envy you.” Even as he said it, his classmate couldn’t decide what he was envious of — the fact that Chae Woo-Jin could say that he would pass with confidence or just his overall confidence. It was hard for him to tell which was the case.

However, everybody who went to school with Chae Woo-Jin acknowledged his abilities. They didn’t doubt Woo-Jin’s academic achievements and considered them a fluke or questioned whether he played any dirty tricks. Hence, his classmate wasn’t jealous of him even though Woo-Jin was confident of passing the exam. Somehow, he was envious and scared because Woo-Jin seemed so perfect that it was meaningless to be jealous. On the other hand, he had also wondered what Chae Woo-Jin’s final destination would be. They were in the same place, but Woo-Jin was no longer here.

***

Rayford looked around as he left the airport.

{What’s wrong?} Hugh frowned after seeing his friend’s strange behavior.

Rayford exclaimed in disbelief, {There’s not a single reporter! No one came to welcome us. Is this even possible?}

{Of course. This is an unofficial trip to Korea.}

{But still, how can anybody not know that I’m here!}

Rayford was a world-renowned movie director and producer with two consecutive box office hits under his belt. He was a well-known figure whom the paparazzi tended to follow around. The cameras followed him wherever he went, documenting his every move. Naturally, nobody could have known about their trip to Korea because they did everything stealthily like the characters in a spy movie.

{What did I even expect from people with sloppy intel?} Rayford came to a strange conclusion as to why nobody from Korea approached them about the movie.

After arriving in Seoul and unpacking their luggage at the hotel, they headed downtown without much thought. In any case, they were tourists who were currently touring around Korea. As they walked and checked for the touristy routes and famous restaurants they had looked up in advance, Hugh saw a large billboard on a building. He nudged his friend.