Become a Star
chapter-75

Although the contract stipulated that the agency had the right to veto ‘dangerous situations’ and ‘shoots that threatened the health and life of an actor,’ the important issue here was that Chae Woo-Jin did not see it as a ‘danger’ and just accepted his task.

<The actor himself was not afraid of performing the stunt and neither was he forced to do something against his will – he only did it because it was within his means. To Chae Woo-Jin, the building escape scene in episode 6 of City of Shadows was a very easy accomplishment that was just a part of his job as an actor.

However, our agency considers this to be a reckless move on Chae Woo-Jin’s part as he is an actor who is unaware of his position. DS plans to actively intervene and take charge of any future action scenes that Chae Woo-Jin will be involved in. Please understand that it was an inevitable choice by our agency, as the safety and health of our actors is our top priority.

We would like to clarify that this does not mean that the shooting of all action scenes is prohibited. We give you our word that the public will always be able to see the cool side of Chae Woo-Jin in an action scene as long as it is deemed necessary. We will take the plot of the story, the actor’s wishes, and his safety into consideration.>

Park Eun-Soo had a very serious look on her face while she was reading the article. There were a lot of things she wanted to know but the article had limited information. She was torn over whether she should personally call her son or not. He was in the middle of shooting at the moment, so she was very worried that she might interrupt him.

“What are you looking at with such a serious…oh my! Do you like Chae Woo-Jin too?” The youngest designer of design team 3, Ryu Na-Ye, was happy to see the article Park Eun-Soo was reading. Ryu Na-Ye often said that Chae Woo-Jin was her muse, so Park Eun-Soo simply nodded in response.

“You must be shocked too. Initially, I too thought that it was CGI, so I was very shocked when I watched the behind-the-scenes video. What kind of drama would make their actors shoot something like that? In any case, I knew that Park Jong-Hyuk would eventually stir up some trouble! I even prayed in front of a bowl of jeonghwasoo!”

“Is the PD that notorious?” Ryu Na-Ye fumed with anger in response and told Park Eun-Soo about Park Jong-Hyuk’s past deeds.

“When Genie said that he would be working with Park Jong-Hyuk, we knew that this day would eventually come.”

“Genie? We?” Park Eun-Soo tilted her head in bewilderment. Ryu Na-ye then proceeded to explain the backstory of Chae Woo-Jin’s nickname and his Fancafe in detail.

“Oh, there’s such a platform too.”

“If you sign up for his Fancafe, you can get information about Genie faster than other people. His fans are quick when it comes to getting information about him. Additionally, if there are malicious comments about Genie, the fans gather quickly to respond to these comments to defend him.”

As soon as Park Eun-Soo expressed interest in joining the Fancafe, Ryu Na-Ye elaborated on her work at the Fancafe and gave a brief introduction on the nature of the fans.

“Ah! The hairpin that Genie gave his co-star Park Yeon-Ah for her birthday is our company’s product. Park Yeon-Ah uploaded a picture of it on her social media, so the accessories department was kicking up a huge fuss today, saying they hit the jackpot. The CEO even gave them a corporate card to use for their get-together.”

Park Eun-Soo seemed to have taken an interest in this piece of information that she was unaware of. Seeing how Ryu Na-Ye was more up to date with information about her son by using a platform she didn’t know about, Park Eun-Soo developed a strange sense of jealousy. On the other hand, Ryu Na-Ye was so excited that she hadn’t noticed the look on her team leader’s [1] face. People usually got excited when they talked about the things they liked, and would tattle on endlessly if the other party showed any signs of interest.

“The barags decided to put up with the current situation for the time being. The drama is on track to hitting a viewership rating of 20%, so we cannot criticize the PD right now. Naturally, people are saying that the PD made use of our innocent Genie, but what will doing that accomplish? Hmph! I’m just waiting for him to wrap up the shooting of the drama. This is just like the cooling period in The Clinic for Married Couples: Love and War. [2] Park Jong-Hyuk has to suffer big time, seriously! He doesn’t know how important Genie is, and if this drama becomes a success, Park Jong-Hyuk is going to become even more successful. I don’t want to see him succeed like that! Even if I want to make a voodoo doll of Park Jong-Hyuk, I can’t do that until they’re done shooting the drama.”

The barags’ hated Park Jong-Hyuk so much that they wanted to make a voodoo doll of him. But under the current circumstances, if anything were to happen to him, they knew that it would negatively affect the drama and ultimately harm Chae Woo-Jin. It probably wouldn’t happen but Ryu Na-Ye was so upset about not being able to make a voodoo doll that she looked like she was going to cry.

“You must really like Woo-Jin a lot.” No parent could bring themselves to hate someone who genuinely liked their children this much. Park Eun-Soo smiled gently and put her jealousy aside.

“Wow~! When you called him ‘Woo-Jin’ with that look on your face, it really feels as though you are Genie’s mother.” Park Eun-Soo looked very similar to Chae Woo-Jin, and she was very kind with a good personality. Hence, whenever Ryu Na-Ye looked at Park Eun-Soo, she wondered if Chae Woo-Jin’s mother was like her. Initially, she had theorized that they were mother and son, but that couldn’t have been the case. If it were true, the rumors would have already spread and the company would have immediately hired Chae Woo-Jin to be their model. But more importantly, she couldn’t be that lucky. Ryu Na-Ye got lucky because she was a true fan. Ryu Na-Ye, who had been laughing until a moment ago, suddenly looked disappointed. After seeing that, Park Eun-Soo decided not to call Woo-Jin for now.

Park Eun-Soo sat in front of the computer in the evening and hesitated for a long time before entering Wish Baragi’s site. The signup process was relatively simple. After setting her username as ‘Jin-Hee’s Mom’, she proceeded to answer some questions like if she liked Chae Woo-Jin, to which answered ‘yes’ without hesitation. After that, all she had to do was to type out the name of the productions in which her son had appeared to date.

However, this was when she started facing difficulties. A sprout appeared in front of her username, signifying her status as a new member. She wasn’t granted access to the posts that she wanted to read. In order to get promoted to a full-fledged member, she had to check-in for ten days in a row, and upload at least three posts about Chae Woo-Jin on the bulletin board.

“I have to wait ten days before I can read the posts?” muttered Park Eun-Soo helplessly, as she looked at Production Director Park Jong-Hyuk’s name and the titles of the posts pertaining to this incident. She felt frustrated because she wanted to read them immediately but was unable to do so.

“Did you sign up?” Choi Min-Woo asked quietly. Park Eun-Soo didn’t sense his approach; she turned around and looked at him in surprise.

“You know about this site too? Did you happen to sign up too?”

“I didn’t sign up but I know that it’s Woo-Jin’s Fancafe.” Choi Min-Woo remarked that he should at least know about it, causing Park Eun-Soo’s face to turn red. As his mother, she had only found out about her son’s Fancafe today. Park Eun-Soo started to reflect if she had been too indifferent. She told Choi Min-Woo about her conversation with Ryu Na-Ye today and became despondent.

“You’re not indifferent towards Woo-Jin – you’re just not good at getting information online. Hmm…it says here in the terms and conditions that if you have taken a photo with Woo-Jin, you can be promoted right away.”

After hearing what Choi Min-Woo said, Park Eun-Soo went to look for the photos which she had taken with Woo-Jin on her phone. Among the photos, Choi Min-Woo picked the one where Woo-Jin was wearing a military uniform from when he was on vacation during his military service. Even though his hair was shaved, he looked good and his features were striking. It was definitely not an unflattering photo.

“This is what you would call a rare item.” Choi Min-Woo covered Park Eun-Soo’s face with a cute fox character and uploaded the photo to the cafe before applying for promotion.

“But is it okay for me to lie like that?” Along with the photo, they had written a story about how ‘Jin-Hee’s Mom’ was well-acquainted with Chae Woo-Jin’s parents, and that she had known Chae Woo-Jin since he was a child.

“Then are you going to tell them ‘I’m Chae Woo-Jin’s mother!’?”

“Of course not.”

“More importantly, it’s true that we know his parents very well! You’re also not lying about knowing Woo-Jin since he was a child.” Park Eun-Soo hit Choi Min-Woo on the back and laughed. Meanwhile, Choi Min-Woo whistled softly as he refreshed the page to check if their application had been approved. Just today, there were many posts that were posted on the site so that people could get promoted. Choi Min-Woo gently looked at Park Eun-Soo as he told her she most likely wouldn’t be approved today

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“You seem to be doing better than I had expected.”

Choi Min-Woo was out of the office for the entire day because of work and hadn’t seen Park Eun-Soo in the office today. Choi Min-Woo briefly asked her if she was okay over the phone, but even though she said she was fine, he couldn’t relax until he met her face to face. When he saw Park Eun-Soo, she seemed to be coping better than he had expected, so he thought it was a little strange.

“You cried back then.” Choi Min-Woo recalled the time when they watched Death Hill together and tapped her nose with his finger. He was upset that he couldn’t comfort her properly because he was flustered back then, but for some reason, he felt that it was a pity because he couldn’t comfort her today.

“I was shocked, but I didn’t cry. Do you think that I cry every day?”

“I came in here hoping to hug you when you cry. It’s a shame I couldn't do that.” Park Eun-Soo smiled broadly and told Choi Min-Woo that she would hug him instead, before putting both arms around his waist and hugging him tightly.

“This is not bad either. But are you really okay?” Choi Min-Woo asked Park Eun-Soo. She was sitting down and hugging him while he was standing. He held her face with both hands, tilting her face up towards him.

“I was shocked and angry, but after watching the behind-the-scenes video, I saw Woo-Jin smiling brightly. After seeing my child smile so happily, I couldn’t bring myself to ask why he chose to do something which would make me sad. I’ve been thinking about it for a while – Woo-Jin should continue doing what he wants to do, even if it’s not something that I approve of. But every time he does that, I won’t argue with him.”

It was impossible for Park Eun-Soo to cry every single time Woo-Jin did something that upset her. Thus, she made the decision to become stronger and more open-minded with each passing day as she watched her son’s movies and dramas. That’s because Park Eun-Soo feels that parents should become the sea that embraces their children. Even though Park Eun-Soo was a flower that was grown in a greenhouse, she was not delicate or weak. If that were the case, she wouldn’t have been able to find the resolution to live with her two children.

It was not easy for her to make the decision, but once did, she moved forward without looking back. And Woo-Jin was a lot like Park Eun-Soo in this regard. – they did not have any regrets regardless of what they did. No matter what path they chose, they would always do their best and be proactive.

Perhaps that was the reason why she was not as shocked as she had been in the beginning. But rather, it was shocking in a different way. Park Eun-Soo saw her son working via the behind-the-scenes video, and she saw how much he enjoyed it. It looked safer than what she had imagined in her mind, and she found out that it was a collective effort of several people which made that scene possible.

In order to create what they wanted, designers would choose the materials and the method to smelt each gem, one by one. A designer would not give up on any design which they truly wanted. She guessed that Woo-Jin had probably felt the same way. It was just like how she didn’t care about anything else if she wanted to turn a specific design into reality.

Park Eun-Soo also felt the need to understand Woo-Jin’s work a little more after her conversation with Ryu Na-Ye. She decided not to be afraid or have second guesses. Thus, she wanted to join Wish Baragi.

“You’re brave, Park Eun-Soo.” Choi Min-Woo usually spoke to Park Eun-Soo with honorifics, but sometimes it was natural for them to speak casually since they were of the same age. Choi Min-Woo said he was proud of Park Eun-Soo, and stroked her hair before kissing her on the lips. And he naturally segued into the subject which he had been wondering how to bring up the entire time.

“I met with Senior Jang today.”

“Because of Woo-Jin?”

The ‘Senior Jang’ that Choi Min-Woo had been referring to was none other than CEO Jang Soo-Hwan.

“To be precise, it was because of you. Since you’re being brave, why don’t you try opening your heart to other people?”

“To who?”

Choi Min-Woo looked down at her gleaming eyes and sighed softly. He answered, “Your father.”

1. Park Eun-Soo ☜

2. It’s a TV program that portrayed the story of a husband and wife who seek a divorce, while a panel of judges analyses the marital problems and suggests some solutions that might help the couple with their marriage. The cooling period is a period of time given to couples to reconsider divorce, in order to prevent them from getting a divorce in haste. ☜