Become a Star

{What is this terrible customer service?}

{I guess it’s going to be hard for us to stay here.}

{What should we do? Leave?}

{I don’t know. I think that flight of stairs leads to the second floor. Shall we go up?} It looked like a two-story cafe from the outside. There weren’t any available tables on the first floor, so Hugh thought they should go up to the second floor before figuring out their next move. Hugh beckoned to Rayford, and as he was about to take the next step, someone who appeared to be the owner of the cafe approached them.

“Hello! Nice meet you…?[1] Is that how you say it? In any case, welcome![2]” Just like his employee, the owner did not have a good command of English. He smiled awkwardly and led them straight to the second floor. Even though they couldn’t communicate with each other, he could tell they were customers. Kim Tae-Hwa didn’t have any trouble serving foreigners back when she was working part-time at the cafe. At times like these, the cafe owner missed her a lot.

The second floor was packed with customers. Fortunately, there was an empty table. The boss led the foreigners there and spoke to a customer who was sitting by the window beside the empty table.

“Um, Woo-Jin! I’m sorry to bother you, but are you good at English?”

“What. Ah…” Woo-Jin saw a foreigner standing behind the cafe owner and immediately understood his plight. Woo-Jin had arrived ahead of time for his meeting with Hyun-Min, so he readily agreed to help the owner. Woo-Jin got up from his seat and approached the men who were staring blankly at him and spoke to them.

{Excuse me, the cafe owner asked me to translate for him. Would that be alright?}

{Ahh…} As soon as Hugh nodded with a blank expression on his face, Woo-Jin asked if they were customers. Woo-Jin then told them if they were customers, this was the only table remaining and asked for their kind understanding.

{May I help you with your order?}

{O-of course. That would be great.}

Woo-Jin handed them the menu on behalf of the owner and gave them his honest opinion.

{To be honest, I only drink the Americano here, so I’m not the best person to recommend drinks to you. If you have a favorite type of coffee bean, you can order from the list here.}

Since the menu was written in both Korean and English, Woo-Jin did not have to explain each and every item. However, because Rayford and Hugh told Woo-Jin about their taste and preferences, Woo-Jin was able to recommend drinks to them.

Hugh went with Woo-Jin’s go-to Americano, while Rayford ordered a cinnamon sprinkled café mocha. Both of them exchanged glances. Rayford looked very proud and pleased with himself as he was the person who dragged Hugh to this cafe. He looked at Hugh with a slightly arrogant look.

The way ‘ordinary travelers’ could meet a top celebrity like the one Hugh had been talking about earlier was to go to the right cafe. Waiting in front of a school? Searching on the internet? Learning Korean? None of those were the answer.

Naturally, they didn’t know such great fortune was awaiting them when the cafe owner led them to the second floor. Even when the cafe owner spoke to the man sitting by the window, they still didn’t know his identity. The moment the man by the window turned his head towards them and stood up, Rayford closed his eyes for a moment because of the sunlight pouring in through the window. As the blinding figure approached them with the sunlight shining against his back, both of them could tell right away who he was.

Rayford had found all the movies and shows Genie acted in and watched them several times on a big screen. Because of that, he was confident he could recognize Genie’s face in any situation and at any moment. Thus, with glasses being Genie’s only disguise and the absence of a hat or a mask, there was absolutely no way Rayford couldn’t recognize him. More importantly, he was even more appreciative because of their encounter with the fake Genie the day before.

Both of them were able to put themselves in the shoes of fans who met their favorite celebrity when Genie walked up to them and initiated a conversation to help them with interpretation. It seemed as though the other customers in the cafe were already aware of Genie’s presence – initially, they’d stare at Genie for a while before looking somewhere else. They had either gotten over their initial excitement before Rayford and Hugh arrived, or were mature enough to respect the privacy of celebrities. Regardless, Genie seemed to be enjoying his leisure time in peace.

Under the table, Hugh gently stepped on Rayford’s foot. He was trying to tell Rayford to try talking to Woo-Jin, but Rayford was currently in a trance, staring at him. In situations like that, Rayford was the best at being thick-skinned.

{It’s my first time visiting Korea, so I don’t know what to do.} Rayford quickly exclaimed as soon as Genie was about to get up. In truth, he wanted to tell Genie he didn’t know what to do after running into him in this cafe.

{Did you come to Korea to sightsee?} Fortunately, Genie seemed interested in having a conversation. Hugh nodded in response, but Rayford shook his head. Both of them then stared at each other as though they wanted to kill one another. Hugh sighed on the inside and thought to himself: You can’t even get this one thing right? This time around, he shook his head, but Rayford nodded.

{We came here for business and pleasure.} Ultimately, Hugh replied that they came to Korea for business and pleasure. And then there was a moment of silence at the table. The ambience was very tense – it was either filled with awkwardness or nervousness.

{You’re very handsome. By any chance, are you an actor?} Rayford couldn’t tolerate the silence anymore; he spoke amiably to Genie first. Hugh kicked him in the shin under the table right after that. They were hiding their identities, but even then, Hugh felt embarrassed by Rayford’s typical conversation starter.

If Rayford had said that in Hollywood, everyone would have been happy and flattered to hear that. However, this time it would only result in the other party being more guarded.

{Thank you for thinking so highly of me.} Genie neither confirmed nor denied it; he merely accepted Rayford’s compliment, and reacted in a prudent manner.

{I’ll get going…}

{Is there a travel destination you’d recommend to foreigners like us?} Hugh the tourist interrupted Genie and looked at him innocently. He also didn’t forget to take out the travel brochures and memo pad from his bag. In that way, it would make him look like a fairly enthusiastic tourist. He thought he would be able to pique Genie’s interest, even if it was just a little.

{We wanted to have a free and easy impromptu trip, but as you can see, we can’t speak any Korean. Since we didn’t make any plans beforehand, we don’t know anything. I know it might be rude on our part to ask you about it, but we’re just glad we finally got to meet someone whom we can communicate with for the first time in days. You’re the only one we can currently turn to for help.} Rayford had once told Hugh that he would have become a scam artist if he hadn’t become a screenwriter. The latter begged Genie as he looked at him with tears in his eyes.

{It would be much better for you to go through a travel agency instead of me.} Hugh refused to give up even after looking at the innocent look on Genie’s face that implied he didn’t know anything about sightseeing either.

{It’s supposed to be a free and easy trip though – there’s no romance in engaging the services of a travel agency. Isn’t encountering and developing an unexpected connection with a stranger at a travel destination the beauty of traveling?} As Hugh spoke, he tapped Rayford in the shin once again with his toes. He was trying to tell Rayford not to remain quiet and to help him out. However, he soon realized it was a bad call.

{We met here because of fate. Shall we exchange phone numbers?} Hugh noticed how Genie’s eyes trembled slightly as he looked at Rayford whipping out his phone with a gleam in his eyes. It was not like Rayford was trying to hit on Genie, so Hugh wondered what he was trying to pull. Hence, Hugh gathered all the strength in his toes and kicked his friend in the shin as hard as he could.

{Ack!}

Rayford suddenly lowered his head and looked like he was in pain. Genie looked at him and was puzzled by his reaction. Hugh said calmly.

{Don’t worry, he’s fine. He has a chronic disease. It’s about time for him to have a seizure.}

{In that case, he should take some…}

{There isn’t any medicine that can cure him.} Hugh waved his hand and told Genie to forget about what his friend had just said.

{Ah! Come to think of it, we don’t know each other’s names. I’m Hugh, and that sick person is Rayford. You can just call him Ray.}

This was their first meeting, yet one person asked to exchange numbers while the other person casually revealed their names. Woo-Jin looked at them and sighed. He wondered if they were even telling the truth when they said it was their first time in Korea and that they were currently traveling. Woo-Jin was even more suspicious of their identities, but Woo-Jin’s name was not a secret in Korea, and he had no reason to hide it either.

{My name is Woo-Jin.} Fortunately, his name was not difficult for foreigners to pronounce. When the two foreigners heard his name, they were thrilled and exchanged glances with each other before exchanging whispers. Woo-Jin roughly heard the word ‘Jin’ and something about destiny.

Seeing as the two people were having a conversation between themselves, Woo-Jin tried to leave for real this time as he had no reason to stay. However, Woo-Jin felt something tugging him, so he looked down and saw Rayford pulling the hem of his clothes.

Woo-Jin looked at Rayford’s face and the hem of his clothes that was in Rayford’s hand, alternating between the two with a suspicious look on his face. Rayford then gently let go of his clothes; he swept his blonde hair back with his fingers and asked Woo-Jin a question.

{Do you know me by any chance?} As soon as the blue-eyed caucasian with blonde hair looked at him with gleaming eyes and asked the question, Woo-Jin’s first reaction was to look at his surroundings. Woo-Jin thought these two people had been acting kind of strange since a while ago, but he finally understood what was happening. He thought it was a hidden camera prank, which he had only heard of up until now. However, there weren’t any variety TV programs these days that had a hidden camera segment, so he wasn’t too sure.

{I don’t know who you are.} As soon as Woo-Jin gave an honest answer, Rayford trembled, looking very shocked. Hugh sat across from him and witnessed the entire thing. He was seen covering his mouth, trying to hold back his laughter. At this moment, Woo-Jin was convinced that it was a hidden camera prank.

He didn’t think it was a regular segment – he thought it was a hidden camera for a one-off event of some variety show. Since Red Enemy was about to be released soon, Woo-Jin speculated that the production company or his agency must have planned it in secret for the sake of creating publicity.

CEO Jang Soo-Hwan was still not a fan of variety TV programs, but he didn’t stubbornly object to them as much as he used to in the past. He might have given the green light if it was needed to create publicity.

{Really? Do you really not know who I am?} Woo-Jin was conflicted for a moment as he watched Rayford ask him again in desperation. Woo-Jin quickly thought about the best way to make the situation as interesting as possible, as well as the best way to react in this situation – if he were to be too patronizing, he would seem like a pushover, and it would make things difficult for him in the future. If he were to act coldly, it could worsen his image.

{Do I have to know?} Woo-Jin tried to be as polite as possible while maintaining his distance. After hearing his response, Rayford tugged on his hair and exclaimed.

{I can’t believe this! How can you not know who I am?} Woo-Jin took a closer look at Rayford after hearing his words. Woo-Jin thought he might have been a famous celebrity overseas, but Woo-Jin didn’t recognize him.

{I’m sorry. He’s quite famous in America, so he thinks everybody would recognize him wherever he goes. He doesn’t know how big the world is.}

{Ah, I see. If you’ll excuse me, I’ll get back to my business now.} Woo-Jin answered flatly and bowed before returning to his table.

Perhaps, the concept behind the hidden camera prank today was ‘Chae Woo-Jin’s reaction when meeting a foreign celebrity’. It was evident that it was an experiment about choosing between protecting his pride, or showing everyone how flustered he was.

After returning to his seat, Woo-jin pretended to drink his coffee that had already cooled down while observing the foreigners’ reflection in the window. Even though the reflection was blurry, he could see Rayford and Hugh arguing with one another. Woo-Jin guessed that they were probably discussing their next move or getting instructions.

1. This was written in Korean, but basically English with a Korean pronunciation. ☜

2. This is 100% Korean ☜