Become a Star
chapter-76

All’s well that ends well.

But for Woo-Jin to achieve that good ending, there were still things he had to do. Curiously, however, he didn't have a single speck of the courage he had when he had recklessly caused trouble.

He was mainly worried about the controversial escape scene because of his mother’s reaction. Realization, and the subsequent feeling of guilt, had hit the day before, and Woo-Jin had spent the entire day in a state of nervousness. However, even after four days, he had had no queries from his mother.

There had been previous instances where both parties had been busy, resulting in long periods of no contact. There were no real issues with Woo-Jin’s mother not contacting him; Woo-Jin was the only real party sitting on a figurative bed of nails due to his guilt.

[Tsk tsk. You’re not even a kid anymore! Is this funny to you?]

Seeing this message from Woo-Hee, Woo-Jin asked how their mother was doing. However, the response was less than optimistic for Woo-Jin.

[She thinks it’s CG. Dad probably knew it right away, but weirdly, none of them have said anything about it. Though I will say, Mom’s face grew pretty dark around Friday evening for some reason.]

Friday evening would reasonably be enough time for them to figure out the truth. But, thinking his mother was worried about him, Woo-Jin couldn’t just pass over his growing concerns.

“Yeah, I should call her first….”

It was better to take a beating first before asking for forgiveness. Finally, coming to a decision, Woo-Jin picked up his phone to give his mother a call, but Hwang Yi-Young tapped on his shoulder as he did so.

“Woo-Jin, do you know who this is?”

As Hwang Yi-Young’s phone screen came into view, Woo-Jin’s pupils slightly dilated. While her face was covered by a cute fox character, the person in the photo with him was most definitely his mother.

“What about this picture?”

“Last Friday, a new member of Wish Baragi sent this photo while asking for membership. She said she was old friends with you and literally sent the entire fan club into chaos.”

Woo-Jin’s clean-shaven, buzz-cut, youthful self in a military uniform was a scarce sight for fans, especially since it was tough to have a picture with Woo-Jin unless they were exceptionally close friends with him. Fans treasured every single photo of Woo-Jin from his younger days due to their extreme rarity.

The fact that the user ‘Jin-Hee’s Mom’ had a picture with him while saying that they were longtime friends meant that said user had a deep friendship with Woo-Jin. This also meant that they had stories and photos of Chae Woo-Jin that not many people had, hence the ruckus within Woo-Jin’s fan club.

“Yeah, so ‘Jin-Hee’s Mom’ immediately got promoted to a formal member. Fanclub members are secretly trying to ask me about her, but I have to know something first, right? I feel like I have heard the name somewhere, but I can’t exactly remember, so I came to ask you.”

Woo-Jin knew from the get-go where the nickname ‘Jin-Hee’s Mom’ had come from, but Hwang Yi-Young apparently had not gotten that far with her thoughts, only thinking that ‘Jin-Hee’ was the name of someone’s child due to her limited information.

Woo-Jin was at a loss as he read his mother’s post and looked at the picture she had uploaded. After a brief period of thought, noting that his mother had hidden her identity, he figured that spewing around the fact that ‘Jin-Hee’s Mom’ was actually his mother wouldn’t be the best move. However, when Woo-Jin said that ‘Jin-Hee’s Mom’ was speaking the truth, Hwang Yi-Young could only reply with, “Oh, so she IS someone you know! The baragis are going to love this.”

Looking at Hwang Yi-Young strutting around as if it was something to be proud of, Woo-Jin quietly passed a hand over his forehead. He wasn’t sweating, but his palms felt oddly wet for some reason.

“She’s really introverted, so try not to pry too much, please. Also, can you make it so that she doesn’t know that I am aware that she is a member of my fan club? She’d probably leave due to embarrassment.”

“Oh, really? Then I’ll manage this carefully.”

While he didn’t know the backstory, Woo-Jin felt that acting ignorant would be the filial move in this situation.

“Has she written anything else?”

“Nope, not at all. She’s only read a couple posts and added a few comments here and there. Her comments are really short and polite, so I think she’s still getting a sense of awareness of the fan club. Is she on the older side?”

“Well…I guess you can say that.”

Woo-Jin stared blankly into space after deciding not to call his mother. Whatever she was thinking, he couldn’t think of a good way to handle it. Finally, after an interminable amount of procrastination and thinking, Woo-Jin decided to message his mother.

[I'm guessing you were alarmed by the events in the 6th episode, and I apologize for frightening you, mother. I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking about you or the family when filming that scene. I only thought about what was best for myself and that it was fine as long as I was satisfied. I don't regret my decision, but it's also true that you must have been worried after watching it, and that is entirely my fault. I'll make sure to think about my decisions carefully and to also consult you in the future.]

After typing out and deleting his words repeatedly, the message he sent got a reply a few hours later. Contrary to Woo-Jin’s long message, the text he got was a short inquiry.

[You didn’t think so before, so what made you think this now?]

Woo-Jin couldn’t reply immediately to his mother’s probing question. After listening to Hwang Yi-Young’s advice, his train of thought was difficult to explain in words. However, he tried to type out his thoughts as best as possible with the desire to organize his thoughts and heart.

[Well…I now know that, at the very least, I shouldn’t make my loved ones worry about me. The reason people get angry at me because they worry and care for me. My job is to convince my loved ones, but I know now that I completely disregarded all of you. To tell the truth, I should have talked to you first and assuaged your worries. But I was too engrossed in filming to care about my loved ones, thus missing an opportunity, for which I’m entirely at fault. I was avoiding you afterward because I was afraid of your response, and I’m still very sorry that I only contacted you now about this.]

Woo-Jin went through some more enlightenment as he sent the long text to his mother. While his behavior to relieve his loved ones’ worries and better his communication had changed, Woo-Jin himself had not changed much. He would still continue to act in the scenes he wanted to without fear or falter, thus making him unable to say the words, ‘I’ll never do it again in the future.’

[You said you were afraid, and yet you texted me first.]

[Because you’re my mom. Rather than being afraid of you scolding me, I’m more afraid of you being worried about me. I know all this, but I’m going to continue acting this way in the future, so I’m really sorry. I know what you’re thinking, but I won’t falter in what I do and probably will have to apologize again. I know you’ll accept what I’m doing because you’re my mom and always care about me. I’m always thankful for you and sorry because you have to go through such emotions because of me.]

When Woo-Jin really thought about it, he was a very unfilial son. He knew very well what his mother wanted from him but kept walking his own road in the end. However it was put, he was a reckless and undutiful son. He had made his choices because he had a mother who trusted him, respected him, and watched over him with care.

[It must be nice having a mom like me.]

The unexpected jab made Woo-Jin flinch.

“How do I respond to this?”

Woo-Jin thought about how to respond to this message. His grandmother on his maternal side had passed away when Woo-Jin was seven, and it was unclear whether his mother had just thought of the incidents happening then or was actually complimenting herself.

[Why is it that I’m a great mom, but my father is like this?]

Another message came in as Woo-Jin was trying to get a grip on his disorganized thoughts. This seemed more like grumbling rather than an inquiry, so Woo-Jin took a deep breath. His mother wasn’t one to bring up his grandfather easily, and while Woo-Jin didn’t know the backstory, it was clear that something had happened.

[That’s because you and Grandfather are different, just like I’m different from you, mother.]

[You call me ‘Mother’ after calling me ‘Mom’ for so long? That is true though; we are different. When I’m in a bad mood, I end up hating everyone, but in the end, you’re my beautiful little son, while my father is still an irritable old man. I need to work now, so film your scenes well. And Mom is trying to understand you, so don’t worry too much about me, alright?]

After that final message, Woo-Jin finally understood why his mother had joined the fan club. Maybe it had been the correct decision to pretend to be ignorant of that certain situation. With a lighter heart, Woo-Jin sat up and left.

Woo-Jin thought he should plan on going home to see his family tomorrow, no matter what. Rather than text, he wanted to meet and talk honestly about his feelings face-to-face.

While Woo-Jin was shedding the heavy weight on his shoulders, Park Eun-Soo’s sigh weighed heavily on the office floor. The team members glancing at her wondered whether the leader’s designs had not worked out well or whether their designs were just that terrible.

This time, Team 3 and Team 5 had been picked as the main design teams for the new brand about to be launched. While no changes had been made yet, the team names would be changing shortly, and no decisions were made about which designs among the many would be selected as final products. A sigh would not have been strange in such a situation. The designers who still hadn’t met their quotas lowered their heads and focused on their design.

While the team members were buried in their misunderstandings, Park Eun-Soo thought about personal things, specifically Choi Min-Woo mentioning her father. She still didn’t dare to meet him, especially after his outburst towards her. She still had some prejudice against him and was afraid of what he would say.

‘Did I never give my father assurances on anything?’

From a parents’ standpoint regarding success, they had trusted Woo-Jin to succeed with anything he did, so they allowed freedom of choice despite personal worries.

That’s how much trust they had in Woo-Jin. Was it that, or was it just blind faith? Or a mixture of both? Either way, when analyzing that in reverse, she had never given her father the opportunity to have confidence in her, and he too never had faith in her, making her heart feel heavy.

[Did you not trust me that much?]

Park Eun-Soo impulsively sent her father a message.

Even if she hadn’t saved it, she had no hesitation in pressing her father’s still unchanged phone number. While her number had changed once, the last four numbers had remained the same. So if he remembered her number, he would know the meaning of the message from the unsaved number.

While she had taken some time to respond to her son’s message due to personal thoughts, Park Eun-Soo received a response from her father in almost no time at all.

[It’s not that I didn’t trust you, but I didn’t trust the people like me living in this society.]

Park Eun-Soo chewed on the message she had received for the first time in a long while from her father. But then, another message found its way to her father.

[Then what about now?]

[Nothing’s changed about me. However, I know you were in the right.]

Her father’s speech was straight and to the point as usual. However, even with this, a knot sitting in Park Eun-Soo’s heart loosened just slightly.

[Then, do you still hate me?]

Her finger, wandering aimlessly for a bit, boldly pressed send. This was a question she could never ask her father in person, but she could predict the response. Even if she did know how he would respond, she couldn’t help the childish desire to want to confirm in this way.

‘I did this because you’re my mom.’ Like Woo-Jin’s response to her, Park Eun-Soo’s inquiry to her father was because she was his daughter.

[I’ve never hated you. How could I ever do that? I’m just disappointed and apologetic…I just want to see you again.]

Park Eun-Soo’s expression crumpled with the response she had been expecting. She quickly covered her face with both hands, in case someone saw, and quietly sighed. Of course, 12 years of resentment and concerns wouldn’t dissolve immediately, but the emotions she had covered up with much effort caused ripples in her heart as they resurfaced to the forefront of her mind.