Become a Star

Park Hyun-Man had been worried that Park Eun-Soo would get a heart attack after watching the latest episode of the drama, but she was rather excited by the end of the episode.

“Dramas these days are just like movies. The final scene of the episode looked very cool, wasn’t it?”

“Exactly. In the past, I was astonished to even see CGI ducks awkwardly floating in the pool, but this is nothing compared to that. But still, Woo-Jin must have had a rather hard time shooting it.”

The husband and wife duo was convinced without a doubt that Woo-Jin’s scene was edited with CGI. As such, they were delighted to see favorable reviews about that amazing scene. However, they had a sad look on their face when they imagined Woo-Jin hooked to wires and suspended in the air while acting out that scene. They didn’t know much about shooting, but they knew that wirework wasn’t easy.

“By the way, looking at Louie gave me an idea for a design.” Park Eun-Soo smiled bashfully as she took out her design sketchbook and did a rough sketch. The clasp of the necklace that was made up of dozens of tiny square pendants looked very fancy.

“It’ll be opera length [1] and you can switch between one or two layers with this clasp. You can also make it into a lariat necklace by placing the clasp anywhere in the middle. What do you think?”

Park Eun-Soo had been a self-taught jewelry designer for a long time and she was good at her job. She had won several awards in jewelry design competitions, so even a rough sketch shouldn’t be underestimated.

“Hmm, it caught me by surprise but I can tell you were the one who designed it.”

“What’s wrong with my design?” Park Eun-Soo knew her issues better than anyone else but she feigned ignorance and scowled.

“It’s fancy, albeit too fancy at times. This design is clean but people can tell it’s your design by looking at the clasp. It’s good to have a distinctive style that is uniquely yours. It’ll look good if with some minor touch-ups.”

“Don’t you think it’s similar to Louie’s character? He stirs up your protective instinct because he looks weak, but he is actually stronger than anyone. I want to express the various sides of a person and its changes.”

As Park Eun-Soo watched her son's movies and dramas, she began to differentiate between her son and her son's characters. Park Eun-Soo is less flustered now as compared to before when seeing her son on TV. These days, she enjoys watching the drama while analyzing Jin-Woo's character, and she would share it with Woo-Jin.

“It’s more similar to Woo-Jin compared to Louie. Woo-Jin looks so good that the marketing department keeps pushing for him to be our model.” Choi Min-Woo smiled happily and said that he was put in a very awkward situation because of that.

“I’ve been hearing similar stories from other people too. The designers have also been saying that they’d like Woo-Jin to be their model for the upcoming brand which they’ll be launching. I find it so hilarious every time people tell me that I look like Chae Woo-Jin.”

Both of them had not revealed their relationship with Chae Woo-Jin to the company. Only a few board members had attended their wedding, so unless they told people about it, there was no way any of them would know about their relationship. These board members were trusted friends of Choi Min-Woo and they were aware of his wishes, so they wouldn’t tell others about it.

Thus, the staff only knew that Park Eun-Soo had a son and a daughter. Every time they saw her, they would comment on how similar she looked like Chae Woo-Jin and asked if they were related. Whenever that happened, Park Eun-Soo would neither affirm nor deny it. She simply replied, ‘I get that a lot.’

The reason why they didn’t tell their co-workers that Woo-Jin was their son was because too many of their employees had been pushing to hire him as a model. This was especially true for the upcoming brand whose target audience are youngsters – Chae Woo-Jin was their first choice. Many of the designers who pushed for this idea said that Chae Woo-Jin was their muse.

If they were to tell everyone that Woo-Jin was their son, the company would naturally assume that Woo-Jin will be hired as a model. However, neither of them wanted to burden Woo-Jin with their company’s work-related issues. It would be nice if he signed a contract with them as their model, but they didn’t want him to do that just because he was their son. They figured that Woo-Jin probably had plans for the future, so they didn’t want to force anything upon him just because they were his parents.

“But we can’t hide it forever. Wouldn’t it be better for us to just tell now instead of later?”

“We’re not going to hide it forever, but I don’t think we should take away Woo-Jin’s freedom of choice at this point in time. We can ask for his help when his fame spreads in the future – ‘Son, can you become a model for our company?’.”

Contrary to Park Eun-Soo’s worries and expectations, Woo-Jin was currently doing well. Although Park Eun-Soo was not good at surfing the internet, most of the online articles and posts which she had come across about her son were positive in nature. Fortunately, a lot of people seemed to like him and she didn’t need to search far to see the people’s positive reception of him. Louie became the recent obsession of her fellow designers at work. They complimented Chae Woo-Jin on his acting skills as well as his appearance daily, and they were fascinated with the character Louie.

Park Eun-Soo felt both relieved and proud, but she was also concerned if Woo-Jin was put under a lot of pressure to perform well. Naturally, her greatest desire was for Woo-Jin to quit acting and focus on his academics, but there was nothing she could do about it. Every parent had a soft spot for their children, and she was his mother after all. Just like how she had gone against her father’s wishes in the past, it was her son’s turn this time around. And this time, Park Eun-Soo would be on the losing side.

“Let him decide for himself which commercials he wants be in, like how he decides which roles he wants to take on in acting.” Park Eun-Soo smiled brightly and nodded after hearing Choi Min-Woo’s words.

Woo-Hee looked at the amicable couple and quietly hid her behind her back. Woo-Hee looked for the behind-the-scenes video after the episode ended and had come running into the living room to tell them about it, but she couldn’t bring herself to say anything. Woo-Hee decided to keep it to herself for the time being so that her parents could get a good night’s sleep. It might not be the case for her mom, but her dad was going to find out about it the next day, so there was no need to upset them a few hours in advance. Hence, she stealthily tiptoed back into the room, unlike how she ran out of the room earlier.

***

From episode 6 onwards, City of Shadows had officially surpassed The Blue Castle’s Master. Judging from the huge disparity in ratings, popularity, and rerun statistics, City of Shadows had become the top Wednesday and Thursday drama. The viewers were able to experience different emotions with each episode and it was fun to predict future developments by picking up on the subtle hints and foreshadowing that the writer had dropped.

As the drama started trending, Louie’s fashion sense had also caught the public’s attention. Wearing jeans with a comfortable T-Shirt was a common style that could be seen anywhere. However, Chae Woo-Jin was the one who was wearing it, so it didn’t look ordinary. To put it bluntly, he stood out even when he wore flip flops and sweatpants with knee bags.

Even though the outfits were ordinary and not fancy at all, which was in line with his character, the unbranded clothes that Woo-Jin’s stylist had personally shopped for still looked good on him. They were very well-received by the public because it seemed like anybody could pull off the look with simple but decent-looking clothes. Louie’s style could easily be classified as shabby-looking if they weren’t careful, but it looked so good that people were praising Woo-Jin’s stylist for putting her soul into it.

Chae Woo-Jin was not the only one getting all the attention – Kang Min-Ho, who played Choi Joon, the extremely rational character that gave the viewers goosebumps; Park Yeon-Ah, who played Lee Yoo-Ra, the strong female character that was loved by two unusual men, started to get noticed as well. The popularity of both actors had increased significantly and more people were taking an interest in them due to their ability to bring their characters to life, as well as their phenomenal acting skills.

Even though the drama was centered on a love triangle, a lot of the viewers shipped Louie and Lee Yoo-Ra together. People used to refer to them as the ‘milk’ couple,[2] but interestingly enough, the couple was always centered around coffee instead of milk. Hence, many people referred to them as the ‘latte’ couple.

The biggest driving force behind the drama’s popularity and their number one ranking in viewership ratings was Louie’s escape scene, which was shown in the preview at the end of episode 5. It looked like a scene out of a movie and so it drew people’s attention and piqued their interest.

Louie’s escape scene at the end of episode 6 instantly increased their ratings to 24%. Thus, it increased their expectations of the ratings for the next episode. Their aim was to reach at least 20% for the next episode.

The footage used in the drama was different from the ones used in the promotional video that was shown at the press preview and the preview. The action and development were different from what the viewers had expected. It provided them with satisfying visuals and fed their curiosity, giving them greater satisfaction.

After watching the behind-the-scenes video that was uploaded after the episode ended, the viewers learned that the footage from the rehearsal was used in the promotional video and preview. In other words, that meant that Louie’s smile in the preview was reflected the real Chae Woo-Jin, so his fans edited that part separately and kept it. Due to the nature of Chae Woo-Jin’s characters in the previous two movies and City of Shadows, there was no reason for him to smile brightly. Hence, it was very difficult for them to see Chae Woo-Jin smile. His smile was so rare that this was enough to satisfy his fans.

However, not all the feedback was positive, and they had come from somewhere unexpected. The production team of The Blue Castle’s Master expressed their concerns about the lack of safety in an interview, saying that the production director’s recklessness could have killed the actor. This has caused the public to be concerned that the production director might have made unreasonable demands towards the actors for the sake of getting high ratings.

As several articles that sympathized with them were posted online, it quickly became the center of a controversy.

<Is this ‘auteurism’? Is this a crazy act of ‘auteurism’ for the sake of ratings!>

<Will Production Director Park Jong-Hyuk’s greed lead to an actor’s demise?>

<How far should an actor go when it comes to acting? All that’s left to do is to jump off a plane.>

<Compared to the other dramas, The Blue Castle’s Master’s production team loves their actors! Safety comes first!>

The person who had received the most criticism was Production Director Park Jong-Hyuk. Considering his track record, people thought it was another one of his unreasonable doings. However, Chae Woo-Jin looked like he was enjoying himself in the behind-the-scenes video, so it was unreasonable to only criticize the production director.

Some people suggested that Woo-Jin had gone insane while trying to become famous, but their comments didn’t get as much traction as others who posted long but polite comments to defend him. They also stated facts saying that Chae Woo-Jin had no reason to do something this crazy to become successful. This incident was evidently upsetting for Woo-Jin’s fans but it was a great topic for people who liked to stir trouble.

- The PD is crazy. What would a rookie actor know? Judging from the behind-the-scenes video, Chae Woo-Jin seemed to be amazed and excited as it was his first time doing a stunt like that. The PD didn’t stop the ignorant actor and must have continued to egg him on.

└ Even though he’s a rookie, he’s still an adult. He must have known the risks that he was getting himself into. There are so many people in the world who are crazy about becoming famous. What makes Chae Woo-Jin any different from them?

- That PD had always been notorious. There was once where he broke the ice of a frozen river in the middle of winter and made an actor go into the water for hours, saying it didn’t matter if it was a reality TV program. Even famous actors can’t escape his clutches, let alone a rookie like Chae Woo-Jin.

- If he had just fallen to his death, more people would have talked about him and his fame would have increased. What a pity for Chae Woo-Jin. He missed his chance at making history.

└ That would only apply to people like you. Even if you die, I’m not sure if anybody would even talk about it in the news. How pitiful. You’re just a lowlife who has no legacy to leave behind.

The internet became a battleground. It was divided between Chae Woo-Jin’s fans, who were upset with the production director, and the attention seekers who wanted to take advantage of the situation to troll. However, the tide gradually changed as the fans of actors who had suffered in the hands of Production Director Park Jong-Hyuk took Chae Woo-Jin’s side.

The fans of the other actors had always gnashed their teeth in anger when it came to Production Director Park Jong-Hyuk. They began to complain about him and vented their anger towards him. Their detailed stories highlighted Production Director Park Jong-Hyuk’s notoriety even more. As a result, Chae Woo-Jin’s recklessness was dismissed as a rookie’s innocent mistake. The ignorant rookie did something dangerous by acting out on his own volition, but he was very brave and professional. However, his fans hoped that he would be careful in the future.

Shortly after, DS Entertainment released an official statement.

1. 26 to 35 inches ☜

2. This was most likely their ship name. It comes from Louie (루이) and Yoo-Ra (유라). Milk in Korean is 우유, and so, the 루 in Louie became 우, and their ship name became ‘우유’ 커플 - ‘milk’ couple ☜