Become a Star

Hyun-Min greeted Lee Yeo-Rin whenever she showed up at their door, and she always had a different reason for ringing the doorbell every time. Once, she claimed to have made too much food, and the other time, she said she needed help changing one of the lights in her house. There was also the time when she asked them to take a look at her computer because it was acting weird. She only did that at 10 P.M. when Woo-Jin was at home.

Every time she rang the doorbell, Hyun-Min would either tell her to throw away the leftovers, or inform the management office about her light as they would change it for her, or to call technical support because he was not great with computers either. He would say it in a friendly tone, but he never opened the door. Nevertheless, Woo-Jin seemed to be afraid of something and always hid behind the door.

“My body instinctively hid itself, what can I do about it?”

The doorbell continued ringing as Woo-Jin came out from behind the door with an awkward look on his face and walked towards Hyun-Min.

“Does she think we’re friends because we’ve been nice to her?”

“That’s possible. We’ve been too civil with her all this while entire time.”

Hyun-Min replied to Woo-Jin’s question, affirming his thoughts and completely turned off the intercom.

As soon as the sound of the doorbell that was ringing throughout the house disappeared, both of them simultaneously looked relieved. Even though they didn’t open the door and turned off the intercom, her presence alone was rather burdensome, and created a lot of pressure for them.

“By the way, aren’t you preparing for the audition?”

In a bid to take their minds off Lee Yeo-Rin, who was standing outside their door, Hyun-Min changed the topic and asked Woo-Jin a pointless question.

“I am in the midst of preparing for it.”

Woo-Jin lifted up the copy of Confession of White in his hand, which he had been reading since a while ago. Woo-Jin was also currently on a strict diet. He said goodbye to the body he worked hard to create for Guardian Angel, and was currently abstaining from food in order to create a skinny and fragile-looking Lloyd for the audition. Hyun-Min clearly knew about it, so Woo-Jin replied in a way that suggested he didn’t know why Hyun-Min asked that question.

“That’s not what I meant. Are you not going to analyze the films that your other competitors appeared in? You need to know your enemies well in order to formulate a countermeasure.”

“How?”

“Wouldn’t it be helpful to know what their acting style is, and how they act?”

“But they weren’t acting as Lloyd in their previous films.”

If they were actors who acted in the same way for all their roles, then there was no need for Woo-Jin to worry about them. Woo-Jin wondered if it would be of any help if he were to look into their acting styles.

“It doesn’t matter what other people do. Knowing their acting style doesn’t improve my acting, and not knowing doesn’t put me at a disadvantage in portraying Lloyd. More importantly, I’ve already seen all the films they’ve appeared in without going out of my way to look for them.”

None of the actors that passed the first round of auditions were rookies. There wasn’t any drama such as the birth of a rookie with an inspiring story and whatnot. The actors who had been selected were so famous for their top-notch acting skills that it could only be said that the outcome of the auditions was obvious and predictable.

Perhaps, that was the reason why Woo-Jin had already seen almost all of their previous works. He was already so familiar with their acting styles that there was no need for further analysis. He could picture some of their portrayals of Lloyd to a certain extent, and he couldn’t imagine some of the other actors’ versions of Lloyd. He didn’t have to worry about the actors belonging to the first group, and it was a waste of time to review and analyze the works of the actors belonging to the second group.

“Is that so? Fair enough…but even if you can’t beat the rest, you have to beat Tenno Terua!”

“Is this some kind of match between Korea and Japan?”

Woo-Jin passed the first round of the auditions in Korea while the actor Tenno Terua passed the auditions at Midas Agency’s Japanese branch. Tenno Terua was a child actor, and an actor with experience shooting films across various genres, including experimental films. As a good-looking mixed-race actor with outstanding acting skills, he had quite a number of fans in Korea as well.

However, the audition was considered a competition. With a Korean actor competing against a Japanese actor, it was only natural for the atmosphere to be as intense as that during a match between Korea and Japan. There were a lot of encouraging posts stating that it was fine if Woo-Jin didn’t pass the final round of the auditions, but he had to beat Tenno Terua.

Because Park Min and Do-Ya revealed their scores to the public while using the media to sway public opinion, people became aware that the auditions were akin to a game where actors were ranked based on their scores.

“Recently, instead of telling me to pass the audition, a lot of people have been telling me to beat other actors.”

Even though Dustin himself didn’t pass the first round, he still congratulated Woo-Jin from the bottom of his heart after hearing he had passed. However, towards the end of their phone call, Dustin told Woo-Jin to beat Christopher Eggers at all costs, revealing the resentment he had towards his rival.

It seemed unlikely that the good-natured Dustin would say something like this just because he didn’t pass the audition. Woo-Jin thought that they either weren’t on good terms to begin with, or that something must have happened during the audition.

Unfortunately, Christopher Eggers was one of the actors Woo-Jin was wary about. Woo-Jin hadn’t the slightest clue about his acting.

“So, you’re not confident?” Hyun-Min raised his eyebrows and asked after hearing Woo-Jin’s complaint. The match between Korea and Japan was already happening in his mind, so he couldn’t condone his friend being in distress.

“I’m trying to say that instead of telling me to beat one person, it’s far more effective to cheer me on and tell me that I’ll get Lloyd’s part.”

In the first place, Woo-Jin auditioned for the role because he truly wanted to play Lloyd’s character. It wasn’t because he wanted fame, or that he had the competitive spirit and desire to beat any one of the other actors. He merely had the strong desire to portray Lloyd, and he had no intention of giving in to anyone. Woo-Jin was truly going to do his best at the audition. Hence, he definitely had a reason to beat his competitors even if nobody asked him to.

Be it the people who saw it as an extension of a match between Korea and Japan, or people like Dustin who was cheering Woo-Jin on because of their personal feelings, they ultimately didn’t care about the outcome as long Woo-Jin he beat the people they hated. In their opinion, it would be great if Woo-Jin were to pass the final round, but even if he didn’t, all he had to do was to beat Terua and Christopher.

However, Woo-Jin’s goal was to defeat more than just one or two actors, which was why he didn’t know how to react whenever people told him he had to beat so-and-so. Even though he was more audacious than he was in the past, he still didn’t have the guts to confidently say that he’d beat them all and pass the audition.

“Hold up. What’s that sound?”

Hyun-Min was startled by the sudden sound of music playing in the quiet house, so he went to take a look at the intercom. Fortunately, it was turned off and there wasn’t any sound coming from it. After being harassed for so long, it was easy to mistake a cell phone’s ringtone for the doorbell.

“It’s my phone. Why is Ho-Soo hyung calling at this hour?”

Feeling worried, Woo-Jin quickly answered his phone because more often than not, calls that came late in the evening were rarely ones with good news.

–– Woo-Jin, are you okay?

“Huh? I’m fine. Did something happen?”

As soon as Woo-Jin answered the phone, Kang Ho-Soo hurriedly asked if he was okay. His voice sounded tense with a sense of urgency. Woo-Jin’s voice sank, thinking something bad had happened without his knowledge.

–– Are you sure nothing’s wrong? Where are you now?

“I’m at home of course.”

–– Somebody from the management office called and said something seemed to have happened to you, though?

“What do you mean? I’m clearly at home…ah! I know what’s going on. I’ll deal with that first and call you back.”

As soon as Woo-Jin hung up the phone, he turned on the intercom that was previously turned off. The anxious faces of Lee Yeo-Rin and an employee of the management office appeared on the brightly lit screen as they kept ringing the doorbell. The sound of the doorbell rang loudly within the quiet house.

The management office was given Kang Ho-Soo’s phone number as the emergency contact. They were supposed to contact him right away if anything were to happen, and it seemed like they had utilized it for the very first time today.

Hyun-Min wondered what was going on, so he walked over and stood next to Woo-Jin, before looking at the screen on the intercom.

“She’s really pulling out all the stops.”

As soon as he saw what was going on, Hyun-Min could guess what had happened. He got angry and opened the door forcefully.

“Ah, you were home after all.” As soon as the staff from the management office saw Hyun-Min, the staff member looked relieved.

“Did something happen?”

“This lady over here said something must have happened in the house. I called from the management office, but there was no answer, so I came up to make sure everything’s okay.”

Lee Yeo-Rin was not a mere visitor –– she was also a resident living in a penthouse just like Chae Woo-Jin, so the staff couldn’t disregard her words. She knew Chae Woo-Jin was undoubtedly at home, but regardless of how many times she rang the doorbell, no one answered the door, so she cried and asked for help. The management office was also in a state of panic.

“This lady has been ringing the doorbell every night, so I turned off the intercom because it was too noisy.”

“Ah…”

After hearing the angry Hyun-Min’s explanation, the employee from the management office glanced over at Lee Yeo-Rin with a look that suggested the employee understood what was going on.

As there were many celebrities living here, the employee was very experienced when it came to dealing with their fans. Even though something like this had never happened before, there wasn’t a rule that banned fans from being residents.

As soon as Hyun-Min said that, Lee Yeo-Rin refuted with an unhappy look on her face that seemed to suggest that she had been wrongfully accused.

“What are you talking about! Everything was normal whenever I swung by here every day, but today I couldn’t get ahold of any of you so I was shocked. And what if you’re the only one who’s fine! I can’t leave until I make sure that our dear Woo-Jin is safe and sound.”

The nuance of Lee Yeo-Rin’s words was rather bizarre, so the employee felt a prick of conscience and had a guilty look on their face. Lee Yeo-Rin casually called Woo-Jin ‘our dear Woo-Jin’ in a friendly way, and judging from what she said about coming to their house every day, the employee wondered if there was something going on between them. The employee also wondered if Woo-Jin was pretending not to know her because they had broken up after dating for some time. There were times when former lovers would show up to kick up a fuss, so the employee wondered if this was one of those cases.

However, Lee Yeo-Rin happened to be a resident, so the employee was in no position to blindly stop her or kick her out. Regardless of the reason behind the dispute among residents, it was always difficult for employees of the management office to intervene. Hyun-Min also felt the same way and was about to argue back, but Woo-jin appeared and stepped forward, while pulling Hyun-Min behind him.

“Thank you for your concern, but you’ve gone too far today. You ring the doorbell every day at 10 P.M., asking us to change the lights, or to fix this and that. We’re on the verge of going insane as well. You may be our neighbor, but I hope you’ll maintain a little decorum and respect our boundaries. Would we have turned off the intercom if things hadn’t gotten this far?”

“Woo-Jin!”

Lee Yeo-Rin’s eyes trembled as though she was in shock, and tears rolled down her cheeks. Her tears flowed down every time she blinked; she looked very sad and pitiful to people who didn’t know what was going on. Even Hyun-Min felt a little guilty towards her for a moment for treating her so harshly.

“Everyone who knows me knows my name, but don’t you think it’s kind of rude for you to call my name like that as a neighbor? Please be respectful, then only will I will be respectful to you as a neighbor. Until then, we will treat you just like every other stalker that loiters outside our house.

“Stalker? How can you say something so harsh!”

“That’s something that you yourself know best.”

After holding back his emotions as much as possible and bluntly advising Lee Yeo-Rin, Woo-Jin looked at the management staff.

“I’m sorry for causing you so much trouble. You must have been very startled, right?”

“Ah, no, it’s fine.”

Chae Woo-Jin always greeted the employees whenever he ran into them, and apologized to them for dealing with his fans that came all the way here. He had also taken care of a myriad of things in the management office. Even the employees always praised him daily for being a very polite and kind young man.

Chae Woo-Jin was not the only celebrity who was currently living here. There were other celebrities who used to live here in the past. However, the employees had never seen any celebrity as polite and self-aware as Chae Woo-Jin. He was so nice that even the employees of the management office were worried that a kind person like him wouldn’t be able to survive in the jungle-like entertainment industry.

Even though his attitude towards Lee Yeo-Rin was very cold, he became polite when he shifted his gaze towards the employee, despite still feeling angry. Judging by that, the employee could tell that Chae Woo-Jin was absolutely not a pushover.

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