Become a Star

Right before the release of Glooming Day, the public either ridiculed the movie or were generally indifferent. The only people who felt sorry for the cast or even looked forward to the release of the movie were the fans of the main leads and movie aficionados who loved Director Choi Yi-Geon’s work.

Even though they did everything they could and used every means and tool possible to promote the movie, it did not do much. The prejudice that all G&C romance films were bad had been very deeply ingrained in the public’s minds. It was to the point that there was even a joke circulating about how Glooming Day would be considered successful if it had a tenth of Woo-Jin’s “Confession” video’s viewers.

The constant ridicule and negative reactions to a movie that had not been released or seen yet spread like wildfire. Nobody had any expectations for this movie. The trailer of the movie was very beautiful and touching, but like it was for all such movies, everyone expected the trailer to be all there was to it.

When the first press screening turned out to be better than expected, many people said it was because of G&C’s aggressive support. G&C’s unusually excessive amount of promotion had actually created an adverse effect. The public thought of it cynically as they said that G&C had bought the media with huge amounts of capital. The public said that’s how it had been for the previous films, but it had still been flops. In the end, the film was released to the public with poor reception on the first day.

However, looking at the facts, Glooming Day had been treated unfairly. Compared to how they had acted with previous romance films, G&C was making a completely different move this time. Previously, it used to be - publicity? What publicity. I Like terrible parents who were embarrassed by their inadequate children, G&C would screen the movies in as few theaters as possible, and secretly reduce its screening duration.

However, the public did not remember that, and the only thing ingrained into their minds was that the G&C romance films were below average. Naturally, the main leads’ fans were the reason behind the increase in the number of reviews written by the public. Needless to say, the public did not think much of their biased ratings and mocked them. The public felt that despite the good ratings left by these fans, it did not change the consensus that the movie was bad; most of the comments under each review mocked the reviewers, asking them if they were part-timers hired by G&C or fans of one of the actors.

However, after about a week of the movie’s release, the negative reception started to show some change. One by one, people began to watch it – some accompanied their friends to watch it without any expectations, some watched it with their parents because there was nothing else to watch, while others watched it because they had originally liked the genre.

Soon, the public began to appreciate the movie as viewers, and not simply as any of the actors’ fans. It was a movie that reminded them of their first love and left them feeling heavy-hearted at the end of summer. It was not refreshing, nor was it clear, or even happy, but it still left behind a strange sense of excitement and sadness in their hearts. The bleak reality of their beautiful first love dying miserably was frustrating while also leaving behind a bittersweet aftertaste in their mouths.

The word of mouth was frightening. The reviews gradually went from ‘I watched it without expectations but it turned out to be surprisingly good’ to ‘It’s a movie that’s worth watching at least once,’ and eventually evolved into ‘It’s a movie you must watch.’

The stifling midsummer heat remained hot even with light showers as it left behind a subtle heat. After the heat, showers, and storms had passed, the arrival of fall evoked memories with faint nostalgia. Like this, the movie told its viewers about the love of a glorious day, as well as its emptiness.

Furthermore, the cinematography of the movie was very beautiful. Everyone was so in awe of every single scene that was shot beautifully that they could not help but compliment the director saying, ‘As expected of Director Choi Yi-Geon.’ While the storyline was not particularly exciting, the natural development of the plot and the portrayal of the individual characters made the directing and the actors’ skills stand out. But, that only made the three characters within the movie even sadder and more pitiful. While the characters’ love was beautiful, the choices they made were understandable and relatable that the viewers had no choice but to accept it.

“Darn it, I watched it with no expectations but what is this!” One of the viewers grumbled as they left the theater after the movie was over, pressing their fingers to the corners of their eyes. This good-natured grumbling was more like a compliment than a complaint.

“It was actually pretty good, right? The movie wasn’t particularly interesting, but it was just so calm that you lose track of time and end up getting hooked on it.”

“Yeah! To be honest, I don’t really remember much about the storyline, but even now, the beautiful scenes are still lingering in my mind. Wow, the actors were absolutely gorgeous.” Their friend had coerced them into watching it, but instead of being dissatisfied with it, they ended up liking the movie a lot; all they could do was sigh and marvel at how good it was. Everyone within earshot of the comment nodded and wholeheartedly agreed.

Even after the movie was over, the impression it left did not go away for quite some time. While the viewers discussed it with the friends or family members they had watched it with, everyone basked in the afterglow of their experience as they shared the same sentiment as the stranger who had made that comment.

“What kind of Devil Fruit did Chae Woo-Jin eat? How can he be so pure and pitiful?”

“I knew he was handsome, but he was so beautiful that it can’t be described in words. Do you remember the scene where he was leaning against the window, holding a paper cup? The scene where he sparkled in the sun, as though he had absorbed the sunlight, was so beautiful, right? Chae Woo-Jin has a nice voice, but it was a pity he didn’t have a single line. They should have at least used his version of “Confession” as the background music.” The viewers, who had become fans of Woo-Jin after watching the video of him singing “Confession,” felt that the only downside of the movie was that they could not hear his voice.

“He didn’t have any lines?”

“Nope.”

“Wah, for real! I didn’t even realize it until you mentioned it. I thought he clearly looked sad, but he really didn’t have a single line at all!” Everybody was surprised by that belated realization. Chae Woo-Jin had easily displayed all kinds of emotions without even a single in the movie.

The people who had seen the movie mistakenly thought that he had conveyed countless emotions through several words and lines. Because of that, only after the movie ended did several people realize that Cha Hyun-Seung, Chae Woo-Jin’s character, had no lines. This led to a different topic that deviated away from the movie.

It seemed difficult to express intense emotions through acting, but it was surprisingly easy. Naturally, if one could not act at all, then regardless of what they did, it would only end up looking like a funny and childish expression of emotions. However, mediocre acting skills were enough for one to passionately portray emotions, or blatantly display sadness and anger, with good acting being thrown into the mix occasionally. It was the case where a person’s outstanding acting skills in one role could be called into question in an entirely different role. That was the same reason why actors, who lacked decent acting skills, continued to take on similar roles to the characters they had executed well.

It was a well-known fact that Chae Woo-Jin had been taking the center stage as the remarkable rookie in Death Hill. Many directors and producers in Chungmuro had been paying attention to him and did their best to cast him in their films. It was only natural. Whether it was his eye-catching appearance that made Park Min (who was known as Korea’s most handsome man) look like an ordinary person or the amazing chemistry he had with the female leads on screen that made the viewers’ hearts flutter or to his amazing acting skills - he lacked nothing.

Nonetheless, the image people had of him was still limited. The strong image he had in Death Hill was one that made him seem like a dangerous and depraved man, while the image that was portrayed in the Biltman photo shoot was one that showed his charisma, arrogance and sexiness. In other words, he was still instilling an image of himself as someone with a bold personality. This meant that even though the public had recognized his great acting skills when it came to playing characters with a bold personality, it was still uncertain whether or not Chae Woo-Jin was an actor who could play a variety of roles.

However, in Glooming Day, Chae Woo-Jin had once again deviated from the image he had created for himself. His expressive and beautiful acting calmed the hearts of the viewers. It was not that his character could not speak; he had proven his acting skills by displaying his ability to convey the emotions and opinions of his role without a single line. The look of despair on his face as he stood in front of Na Mi-Yeon’s house on a rainy day was specially mentioned and praised across different media outlets.

“What’s wrong?” Park Yeon-Ah asked out of curiosity when she saw Woo-Jin turn off the display on his phone after reading an article on his phone and thunk his head on the wall. ,

“Nothing, it’s just the remnants of my shameful past are haunting me right now.

“What’s the problem? The reviews have been pretty good and the movie is doing well these days, no?”

“I guess humans don’t know how to be satisfied.” Woo-Jin sighed. Park Yeon-Ah squatted down next to him as she snorted and began teasing him lightly. “What did you say previously? ‘Remember your mistakes but don’t take them to heart?’ Right now you seem to be keeping a lot of things bottled up, though?”

“Even if I don’t want to keep them bottled up, what can I do when they continue to linger around in the form of proof and attack me from time to time? I’ll be stuck with them for the rest of my life, right?” Contrary to what he was saying, Woo-Jin looked at Park Yeon-Ah with a look on his face that seemed to be saying, ‘Please tell me the answer is no’.

“Unless you’re doing theater plays, your mistakes will be stuck with you for the rest of your life and career, perhaps even for posterity and become history, if you’re doing movies, dramas, and whatnot. That’s why if you don’t want to be humiliated from your grave, you have to do your best when you shoot.”

Even though she did not know the details, she was able to guess what it was about when she saw Woo-Jin’s reaction after he saw the article. Regardless of how good the compliments and praises were, what good was it if one was not satisfied with themselves?

“Even if it’s humiliating, I’d be happy to see articles about me getting published.” Even though she knew how Woo-Jin felt, she felt somewhat envious of him. Park Yeon-Ah took a sip from the cup of coffee in her hand.

“Agh! It tastes awful.”

“I’m sorry.”

The coffee that Park Yeon-Ah drank was an Americano made by Woo-Jin himself when he acted as Louie, his character, who ran a cafe in the drama. Woo-Jin apologized because he thought that the coffee he made tasted bad but Park Yeon-Ah shook her head.

“Usually, I only drink instant coffee so I can’t drink black coffee like this. Nonetheless, what can I do? Lee Yoo-Ra loves Americano.”

In the drama, Lee Yoo-Ra was a true Americano addict. Because of her taste in coffee, she became a regular at Louie’s cafe and got closer to him as a result. However, Park Yeon-Ah herself could not drink Americano. So, she was in the midst of training herself to get into the habit of drinking it whenever she had the chance to.

“Well, you’re suffering too. The writer is too much for making you ruin those pretty nails like that.” Louie had a habit of expressing his emotions through biting his nails whenever he was deep in thought or panicking. As a result, the nails on Woo-Jin’s left hand were ruined. He had deliberately bitten them to the point that the flesh under his thumbnail could be seen. He had followed everything that was written about Louie in the script down to a T.

“Doesn’t it hurt?”

“It’s fine, I didn’t bite it until it hurts.”

Looking at how Woo-Jin seemed indifferent, Park Yeon-Ah smiled and patted him on the shoulder. There were many reasons behind people’s success; they were either very lucky, or it was the result of their skills and hard work. While luck was on Woo-Jin’s side, it seemed like hard work had also played a huge part in his success.

Motivated after looking at Woo-Jin, Park Yeon-Ah frowned as she took another sip of the Americano. She planned on training herself and getting used to this tasteless drink till she could drink it without grimacing subconsciously at all. She could have added sugar to the Americano, but for some reason, her pride did not allow her to act without putting in a huge effort.

“The losers are gathered here, huh?” Kang Min-Ho said as he suddenly appeared. He stood there looking down at the two people who were squatting in the corner.

“Did you say losers! That’s a very insulting remark. Is that a challenge?”

“Challenge? Do you want to get cussed out by the production director and get kicked out of the set?”

Upon hearing Kang Min-Ho’s jeers, Woo-Jin and Park Yeon-Ah could not lift their heads up as their shoulders drooped down. One of them could not stop grimacing whenever she drank the Americano, and the other one kept getting bad takes without knowing the reason. Even though they were being called ‘losers’, they had nothing to say or refute.