Become a Star

The necklace had an elegant design with a thin chain and a pendant made of a small six-millimeter pearl. But the woman kept picking it up and putting it down because wearing a pearl necklace during the summer where people sweated a lot didn’t seem fitting. However, surprisingly, it didn’t take her long to make a decision. In the end, she picked up the necklace and headed towards the register. No matter how popular a product was, Gaon sold its products in limited quantities and then discontinued them, so it was the right thing to purchase a product when you had the chance.

“I’d like to pay for this,” the woman said.

It was strange how she didn’t see any staff in the store. The only person she saw was a man behind the register with his back turned. He seemed busy working on something, so he turned around when the customer called for him.

“Um…?”

When the woman saw him, she stared at him blankly, as if expressing her doubt. She kept looking back and forth between the man walking towards her with a bright smile and the signboard posted on the store wall. The man in front of her had the same face as the man on the signboard who had his long hair flying in the wind, half-closed eyes, and a charming smile. The only difference was that the man in front of her had cut his long hair and styled it neatly. The man’s hair was neatly pushed back, and when he folded the sleeves of his white shirt twice, he exuded masculinity. His long legs were accentuated by his black pants that weren’t too tight and had an appropriate fit.

“Chae…Chae Woo-Jin?”

“Welcome, miss. How can I help you?” he asked.

Even though the man said a standard greeting, he seemed embarrassed by what he said and smiled awkwardly. When she checked that the name tag attached to his chest said Chae Woo-Jin, the customer ended up screaming.

“Ahhhhhh! You’re really Chae Woo-Jin!”

When she screamed, the other customers in the store started taking interest as well. At first, they were surprised by her scream, but when they heard Chae Woo-Jin’s name, they craned their necks and looked around the Gaon store. Once they discovered that Chae Woo-Jin was really inside the store, they started crowding around him.

As Gaon’s exclusive model, Chae Woo-Jin’s appearance filled not only the store with excitement but the entire mall as well. At the same time, the Gaon employees on stand-by returned and organized the gathered people.

“Did you want to purchase this necklace?” Woo-Jin asked.

When Woo-Jin picked up the case holding the necklace, the customer who was still spacing out nodded unknowingly. Based on her reaction, she either liked him or was one of his fans.

“You picked the one with a cute design. I think it’ll look good on you,” he complimented.

“W-Why are you here?” she asked.

“I’ve decided to work here as a part-timer for two hours,” Chae Woo-Jin answered.

After hearing Woo-Jin’s answer, the people watching shouted a cry of understanding. People quickly realized that it was an event similar to an autograph event. The fact that Chae Woo-Jin was behind the register meant that they needed to purchase something in order to meet him. Usually, this type of event was held to encourage people to buy their products.

It wouldn’t matter for the people who were satisfied with just looking at him and taking his pictures, but if they wanted to have a unique experience with Chae Woo-Jin, there was only one way. However, since they couldn’t easily buy such an expensive piece of jewelry, right now, more people were watching than they were buying.

“C-Can I hug you just once?” the woman asked.

The woman had been hesitating but had gathered her courage to ask when Woo-Jin personally charged the woman’s card and returned it to her.

“Do you want me to be that easy?”

At Woo-Jin's response, the woman and the other people were far from feeling offended and actually screamed because they liked it. It was because of the influence of Finding the Lion, which had Woo-Jin doing a cameo. After the movie was released, people became extremely excited over the character named Park Kwang-Heon.

Woo-Jin didn’t understand it, but whenever he acted like Park Kwang-Heon, people liked it so much that they didn’t know what to do. That’s why whenever he was in a difficult situation, he acted like Park Kwang-Heon. Moreover, during that time, no matter what he said, the people liked it, and no one felt offended by it.

Usually, Woo-Jin wouldn’t mind giving light hugs, and he usually agreed to his fans’ requests whenever they asked for a picture, an autograph, or a hug. But after something that happened recently, he started avoiding making physical contact with his female fans.

At the time of the incident, Woo-Jin had bowed down and lightly hugged the woman's upper body, but she had suddenly pulled Woo-Jin in, closing the gap between their lower bodies and started touching him. She fondled his butt without hesitation until Kang Ho-Soo forcefully pulled her away from Woo-Jin. Woo-Jin didn’t know what to do since he was surprised but just decided to let it go.

The problem was that a few days later, another fan asked for a back hug. Despite what happened last time, since he wasn’t hugging her from the front, he decided to take a picture with her while giving her a light back hug. Even though it was called a back hug, he simply placed his hands on her shoulders, but the woman forcefully pulled his hand and placed it inside her clothes. Regardless of what he wanted, the woman was making him touch her breast, and this was possible because of the low-cut outfit she was wearing for summer, which shocked him.

Since he became a celebrity, Woo-Jin was prepared to an extent for people to touch him and had given up on preventing that, but regardless of what he wanted, the fact that she was making him grope a person’s bare skin was unforgivable.

They managed to handle it, thanks to Hwang Yi-Young's quick reaction of pushing the woman and yelling at her, but he couldn’t control his emotions at that moment and almost slapped the woman’s cheek. Rather than feeling good about touching her skin, he felt unpleasant and disgusted as if a snake slithered by. Since then, he flat out rejected requests for hugs and back hugs.

“I don’t hug just anyone,” he said.

“Wow! He’s the Crazy Honey!”[1]

Even though he turned down her request, Woo-Jin’s first customer actually liked it. Crazy Honey. They called Park Kwang-Heon — Kwang Honey by combining crazy Kwang[2] and the word honey,[3] Crazy Honey was currently Woo-Jin’s new nickname.

Even though he changed his hairstyle after filming Red Enemy, creating the unique mood that Park Kwang-Heon had was really easy. When Woo-Jin spoke and acted like Park Kwang-Heon from Finding the Lion, everyone gasped because they liked it so much.

“Can I spray water on your face?” someone asked.

“Of course not. You’ll only regret it,” Woo-Jin answered.

“I want to regret it!” they yelled.

Even while his fans were reacting enthusiastically, he grabbed the necklace that the woman paid for just now and placed it around her neck.

“It’s so pretty! You picked a good one,” Woo-Jin said.

Although he wasn’t the one buying it, Woo-Jin seemed satisfied with the purchase. Seeing that, the next person who wanted to make a purchase lightly pushed the woman at the register and stepped up. Then, the Gaon staff approached the customer who purchased the necklace and gave them Chae Woo-Jin’s autograph prepared beforehand and a small gift that Gaon had prepared for them.

“You’re going to purchase a ring?” Woo-Jin asked.

“Yes!”

The second customer grabbed whatever she could just to see Woo-Jin, and luckily, she grabbed a ring. She was worried that her heart would stop beating if Woo-Jin put the ring on her just like he did with the customer in front of her.

“The ring is tiny,” Woo-Jin said.

“It’s probably because they made it specifically for pinky fingers,” the customer said.

“It’s cute. I guess they don’t make different sizes for this,” he said.

“This one has different sizes, so it may not fit me. In that case, I’ll have to find one that fits me,” the woman said.

She sighed. If the ring didn’t fit her, then not only was it going to be annoying, but she would’ve lost her chance to wear the ring that Chae Woo-Jin put on her finger.

“Then I should pray that this ring fits your finger, ma’am,” he said.

As Woo-Jin raised the ring, he made a heart-thumping sound and put the ring on her pinky. It got slightly stuck on her knuckle but seeing the ring fit her finger perfectly caused Woo-Jin to raise his hands and ask for a high five. Thinking that she could return by wearing the ring Chae Woo-Jin put on her, she happily high-fived Woo-Jin.

After watching the situation, the others who weren’t planning on buying anything started looking around the store. It was chaotic because they wanted to interact with Woo-Jin, and to do that, they needed to buy something, but the store staff skillfully helped them with their purchase.

“Can I call you oppa?”

The woman that looked like she was in her late-20s asked Woo-Jin hesitantly. In terms of their age, she could never call him oppa, but whenever she saw Woo-Jin, she couldn’t contain her desire to call him oppa.

“No matter what you call me, it won’t change the fact that I’m Chae Woo-Jin,” he answered.

When Woo-Jin happily gave her permission, the woman smiled brightly and immediately called him oppa.

“Oppa! Can you say one of the lines that Crazy Honey said in the movie?” she asked.

“Are you sure?” he asked.

Park Kwang-Heon's lines in the movie were really popular, but they were too impractical to use in everyday life. Honestly, Woo-Jin felt really embarrassed because he was saying the lines without being emotionally prepared.

“Say any of them, please!” the woman yelled.

When the woman gathered her hands and looked as if she was praying, Woo-Jin smirked and lifted his bangs using his hand. Since none of the lines that Park Kwang-Heon said were normal, it wasn’t easy to say them to an ordinary person. After thinking about it, he thought of one.

“After hanging out with dark people, did you get blinded when you saw me?” he asked.

“Yes!” she yelled.

Unlike the customer that nodded fiercely, Lee Chae-Ryeong had coldly asked him, ‘Are you crazy?’ in the movie. Even though the customer didn’t follow the script, Woo-Jin finished his line.

“I think I’m going crazy because of how wonderful I am,” he said.

It was normal for people to think that Park Kwang-Heon was crazy because he said these lines shamelessly. However, no matter what he said or did, everyone understood because he was Park Kwang-Heon, and he was so popular and loved by the public.

As the event continued, some customers made unreasonable requests, but others just asked for an autograph. At times, some customers looked like students, and when he thought they were making an expensive purchase, Woo-Jin gave an excuse that it didn’t look good on them and picked something else.

“Could you sing us a song?” another customer asked.

“Is there a specific song you want me to sing?” he asked.

“Any song that you’re comfortable singing,” she answered.

She must’ve been a timid person because she couldn’t make eye contact with him and mumbled. Since she suddenly asked him to sing, he couldn’t think of a song. However, a song suddenly popped into his head when he realized how this moment would remain in her memory for a long time since she was acting shy in a crowd of aggressive people. So, Woo-Jin lowered his head and quietly sang a song while placing the hairpin that she chose in her hair. As he sang Lim Tae-Kyung’s Mark, Woo-Jin quietly left a mark in his shy fan’s heart, but not all the customers were like her.

“Please put the brooch here.”

The area that the woman pointed was her chest. Even though the woman was wearing a fancy yet light blouse, it was obvious to Woo-Jin that she wasn’t wearing any undergarments. She probably prepared for this by going to the bathroom and removing it.

It was a situation where he couldn’t help but sigh. A bitter smile appeared on his face because it seemed like fans like her were abundant these days. Woo-Jin grabbed the brooch and cautiously placed it in a slightly higher area than what she wanted, and made sure his finger wasn’t touching her body.

“I wanted you to place it here,” she said.

The woman complained as she emphasized her chest.

“It looks better here. If you place the brooch down there, people will look there and won’t be able to see your pretty face,” Woo-Jin said.

When they made eye contact, Woo-Jin’s kind words caused her face to turn red and agree with what he said. He wasn’t sure whether she felt embarrassed by what he said or if she just accepted it as a compliment, but he managed to handle it without hearing another complaint.

1. This ‘honey’ isn’t the one made by bees, but the form of address like ‘sweetheart.’ 자기 ☜

2. Refering to hanja. ☜

3. This ‘honey’ was written in English and refers to the form of address. ☜