Become a Star

“How much longer do we have to do this…?”

Woo-Jin muttered as he stared down at the bear mask on the table.

“That’s why I said we should invest in stocks instead,” Hyun-Min complained.

“So? How would that help us at all?”

Woo-Jin’s decision not to trust Hyun-Min when it came to stocks was firm and unshakeable. Moreover, other students from their major had already lost even the initial 100,000 won they’d invested in stocks.

In comparison, their earnings might have been low today, but they hadn't suffered a loss.

“Besides, the stocks of the company you suggested have been falling like crazy recently, you know?” Woo-Jin reminded his friend.

Hyun-Min had guaranteed Woo-Jin that a certain videogame company would do extremely well. However, with the company’s new mobile game doing terribly, the stocks had been taking a nosedive.

Woo-Jin still had chills down his spine when he remembered how they had almost bought those stocks. His doubts about Hyun-Min’s opinions on stocks were truly reasonable and perfectly timed.

“That’s….”

Hyun-Min couldn’t say that he was just unlucky this time around because he had always been ‘unlucky’ with stocks so far. He could only keep his mouth shut. But since he felt frustrated, he still protested to Woo-Jin.

“Things would be so much easier for us if you just showed your face to everyone.”

He understood that Woo-Jin had a hard time today, but if he took off that heavy mask, their soaps would’ve sold out much faster. However, Woo-Jin refused to show his face no matter what and kept the mask on.

“That’s why I’m putting on a show out there to help with sales. Still, aren’t we doing pretty well so far?”

Although today’s profit wasn’t satisfactory, Woo-Jin wondered how they had fared compared to the other students.

“There are rumors that Kim Yi-Seon made more than 500 thousand won already, while those who pooled their initial funds together and started a business earned at least 100 thousand won each,” Hyun-Min said.

Since Woo-Jin wasn’t too familiar with the news and rumors going around in the department, he was dejected at Hyun-Min’s words.

“Seriously? She actually made 500 thousand won? How did she earn so much in ten days?”

“She’s really dexterous. She made some ornaments with beads and sold them through social media. She already had a lot of followers, so it was easy to promote the products. She also made them regularly as a hobby before the assignment and was often asked if she ever planned on selling them. Basically, she had enough publicity and a bunch of potential customers from the start.”

Woo-Jin let out a deep sigh at Hyun-Min’s explanation.

When they first received this assignment, many people offered Woo-Jin to partner up and work together. If they didn’t plan on investing in stocks, having Woo-Jin as a teammate when running a business would make it a guaranteed success no matter what.

Because of that, Woo-Jin had turned down all the offers. He was disillusioned by their schemes of using him to make money easily. He didn’t want to do all the work and let them profit from it like leeches.[1]

Still, the only friend Woo-Jin could trust was Hyun-Min, so he suggested pairing up together first. Except, this time, it was Hyun-Min who was somewhat unenthusiastic about Woo-Jin’s proposal since he planned on making money through stocks.

Nonetheless, Woo-Jin somehow convinced Hyun-Min—who still couldn’t give up on investing in stocks—to start a homemade soap business. Hyun-Min’s girlfriend made soaps as a hobby, and her skills were good enough to go professional.

Woo-Jin had thought of this project when he remembered how he and his family had loved the soap bars they had received as gifts from her the other day. Thus, they paid Hyun-Min’s girlfriend the cost of the raw materials along with the labor fee, and they finally started selling the first batch of products today.

The sales were much better than they had initially expected, but the profits were too minimal compared to the energy and hard work they had put into selling them, which demotivated Woo-Jin.

“But are you really okay?” Hyun-Min asked.

"Oh… Yeah.”

Woo-Jin glanced at the production crew before answering Hyun-Min’s question. Two days ago, he had his interview for the bar exam.

However, he had gotten into a minor accident as he was leaving the house in his car. Another vehicle was rushing towards the passenger seat of Woo-Jin’s car. But thanks to Woo-Jin’s quick reaction and evasion, only the rear-end of his car was slightly bumped by the oncoming vehicle.

On the other hand, the other driver turned the steering wheel right before running into Woo-Jin’s car but couldn’t reduce their speed and crashed into the wall. Woo-Jin’s family was startled and ran outside when they heard the loud crash and felt the house tremble. Only when they reached Woo-Jin did his brain process what had happened and woke up from a daze. The accident had happened so quickly that his mind couldn’t register it fast enough.

His family was relieved when they saw that Woo-Jin was safe as he slowly got out of the car. They then immediately reported the accident to the police.

‘Are you injured anywhere?’

Woo-Jin’s mother checked her son’s condition as she worried about his health. Woo-Jin shook his head before checking the time. He had left the house with a lot of leeway until the interview, so he had plenty of spare time to wait for the police to arrive.

His mother told him not to go to the interview in this situation, but Woo-Jin was truly fine. He was pretty surprised but not shocked enough to give up on the exam.

When the police arrived, his father stepped forward and spoke to them first. He asked whether they could let Woo-Jin leave to take his interview as they had a black box in the car and the CCTV camera installed in front of the house. Just to be sure, the officers had Woo-Jin take a breathalyzer test before letting him go. His father then lent him his car and his chauffeur, and Woo-Jin was able to arrive for the interview on time.

Only when he came home after the interview did Woo-Jin find out that the other vehicle’s driver was Lee Yeon, a Blue Fit member. He had bumped his head and lost consciousness when he crashed into the wall. When the ambulance arrived and opened Lee Yeon’s car door, the stench of alcohol had spread everywhere inside and oozed, especially from him.

Woo-Jin’s father had prevented Woo-Jin from approaching the other vehicle until the ambulance arrived because he had recognized Lee Yeon in the driver’s seat. He had thought that Woo-Jin would’ve been shocked and upset to find out that Lee Yeon was behind the accident.

‘Was he badly injured?’ Woo-Jin asked.

‘He only has a small scratch on his forehead. Apparently, he just couldn’t gain consciousness properly because of the alcohol.

Woo-Jin understood why Lee Yeon had committed such an extreme act.

He had apologized at the press conference with the rest of Blue Fit and tried to get back to work after a little while. However, things didn’t go their way. In particular, Woo-Jin was gaining more and more popularity, which prevented Blue Fit from finding a place to stand in the entertainment industry.

However, Blue Fit’s Lee Min-Soo was being misunderstood because of the recent sponsorship rumors. People assumed that Lee Min-Soo was able to join Blue Fit by accepting the sponsorship offer Woo-Jin had refused.

Although the suspicions weren’t aimed at him, Lee Yeon felt like his throat was only getting tighter and tighter, unable to breathe properly. He was feeling extremely anxious that the prosecutors were investigating the deep-rooted problems in the entertainment world.

As he drowned his stress in alcohol, Lee Yeon directed his fury at Chae Woo-Jin.

If that was its extent, Woo-Jin could still sympathize with him.

He’s crazy.

But he couldn’t forgive Lee Yeon. If Woo-Jin had reacted any slower, both of them could’ve been gravely injured in a horrible accident.

If he forgave Lee Yeon’s crazy behavior, Woo-Jin would be just as crazy as him.

Fortunately, he wasn’t injured anywhere. Thanks to the mental cultivation technique he practiced every day, his muscles hadn’t cramped, and his blood vessels hadn’t burst anywhere. Once the sun rose the following morning, his body felt refreshed and light again. Woo-Jin got himself checked at the hospital just in case, but the results showed no abnormalities in his body.

However, Hyun-Min was still worried for his friend, so he told Woo-Jin to just cover his face and sit next to him at the stand to rest for the day. But Woo-Jin still wore the bear costume as initially planned and helped with the sales since he was truly okay.

Despite the weather being chilly today, Woo-Jin was exhausted from the heat because the costume and the clothes he wore underneath were so thick. Nevertheless, Hyun-Min worried that it might’ve been because of an aftereffect of the accident.

“Geez, you really don’t listen to anyone, do you?”

Hyun-Min spoke bluntly while careful with the wording since the production crew around them were still unaware of the incident.

In any case, Hyun-Min was somewhat relieved because Woo-Jin had a good complexion and didn’t seem to be hurting anywhere.

“Come to think of it, how did your interview go?”

The director was silently listening to the friends’ conversation before suddenly asking Woo-Jin.

Although they had no idea what Woo-Jin and Hyun-Min were talking about, the director thought it was related to the interview and intruded on their conversation.

“It went okay. The atmosphere was more easygoing than expected, and it wasn’t too stressful.”

There had been a moment when Woo-Jin had to mull over a question in the form to fill in before the interview, where he was asked why he wanted to become a judicial officer. But otherwise, everything had gone fine.

The group discussions dealt with topics he had expected, while the individual interviews did not have any harsh or trick questions.

Woo-Jin wondered whether that was only the case for him, but when he asked the other examinees, it turned out that most people had experienced similar things. Rather than being a test to eliminate the examinees, the interviews were more like a procedure they had to experience as a formality.

But while Woo-Jin felt like he had finally climbed to the summit of a mountain, the assignment was currently blocking the magnificent view and kept bothering him.

Hyun-Min then suggested a change of plans.

“This project is too exhausting and doesn’t make us a lot of profit. We need a different business plan.”

“What ideas do you have?” Woo-Jin asked.

“Let’s go somewhere with lots of people and charge them money to hug you and receive your autograph! I’ll gather the customers and receive the payment next to you.”

“…”

“So, what do you think? It’s a great idea, no?”

Woo-Jin reacted by squeezing the cup of water in his hand tightly.

“Even Kim Seon-Dal[2] sold physical water in return for money at the very least!”

“And I’m selling people good memories with you instead of water. You’re a bear. My lackey bear. And I’m the money-making master. It’s a win-win situa— I’m sorry.”

As Woo-Jin gripped onto his cup of water tightly and stared intently at Hyun-Min, the latter stopped blabbering about his new business plan and apologized to his friend. Though, Hyun-Min didn’t feel too disappointed because he was mostly joking.

They planned on selling soaps again tomorrow, but they’d only make a bit more than 50 thousand won in two days. There were obviously some classmates who were in the red and struggling to profit at all, but Hyun-Min and Woo-Jin could only see the backs of those running way ahead of them, earning more than 100 thousand won.

“Do you ever plan on releasing a photobook?” Hyun-Min suddenly asked.

“A photobook?”

“An artbook-ish photo album. We could make 200 thousand won just by selling a hundred photobooks for two thousand won.”

“Two hundred thousand….” Woo-Jin muttered.

Even though he had refused to give hugs and autographs to his fans, Woo-Jin lifted his head at the sound of 200 thousand won. Well, technically speaking, he was more interested in his grades than the money.

Hyun-Min noticed Woo-Jin’s shaking eyes and quickly came up with a plan in his mind. He had spoken of the photobook casually without much thought, but it wasn’t a bad idea at all.

As someone who enjoyed taking pictures and was skilled at it, Hyun-Min had experience making a photobook as a club activity. If he took the photos and edited them personally with Woo-Jin as his model, they could easily advertise the photobook and sell them all.

“I’ll pick out the best photos I’ve taken of you before and take some new ones as well to make a photobook. So if we sell out next week just like we did today….”

If they sold two hundred photobooks, they’d probably place in the top half of the class for the assignment in terms of profits.

“But this isn’t something I can just do because I want to. I need to ask the agency first.”

Although Hyun-Min had expected Woo-Jin to outright refuse, the actor unexpectedly showed an ambiguous reaction and used the agency as an excuse. Hyun-Min then stared at Woo-Jin and raised his eyebrows in suspicion.

“Wearing that costume is harder than you think, you know…?”

Woo-Jin averted his gaze and murmured that he’d prefer modeling for photos rather than dancing around in a thick bear costume for hours just to gather people’s attention.

“Right, people need to make use of their special skills in life.”

Hyun-Min turned toward Kang Ho-Soo with puppy eyes at his friend's response.

Hyun-Min was simply working on his course assignment, but since Woo-Jin was still being filmed for a show, Kang Ho-Soo and Hwang Yi-Young were accompanying them.

“Ho-Soo hyung!”

If they needed permission from the agency, it was best to ask them directly rather than beating around the bush.

So first, they needed to latch onto Kang Ho-Soo and beg him, as he had been watching them from the beginning and knew of their current circumstances better than anyone else.

At Hyun-Min’s call, Kang Ho-Soo grunted in his mind and turned to Woo-Jin.

Currently, Woo-Jin’s emotions were divided into two categories. One half was full of greed to make more money to get higher grades. The other half thought it’d be easier to take pictures than wearing a costume for hours.

Woo-Jin quietly avoided Kang Ho-Soo’s gaze, brought up the cup he had been holding onto tightly, and awkwardly drank all the cold water inside.

Hyun-Min proactively showed his blog to Kang Ho-Soo to brag about his skills as a photographer. Considering he was an amateur, Hyun-Min’s blog was quite famous and popular among photography enthusiasts. The photobook he had published in the club was also very well received.

“If we don’t publish it for commercial use but think of it as a combination of course work and an event, it’s a simple matter. It’s also great content to air on the show,” Hyun-Min pointed out.

Woo-Jin always struggled to find a good theme and ideas for upcoming shoots of Depicting Life, so Hyun-Min’s idea was also a great opportunity for the actor. If they filmed and aired the processes of creating and selling the photobooks, it would end up as entertaining content for the show.

Since they’d only make a small number of photobooks for an assignment instead of selling them in large quantities as a real business, it could become a rare, special, and fun event for Woo-Jin’s fans as well.

Moreover, since all the process and backstory would be broadcast on TV, later on, they didn’t have to explain the reasons and origins of the event.

Kang Ho-Soo sighed softly as two grown-up men stared at him with sparkling eyes.

Despite saying he was fine, Woo-Jin had still gotten in an accident two days ago, so Kang Ho-Soo wasn’t comfortable with the actor wearing a thick costume for hours on end.

Kang Ho-Soo finally took out his phone and left the coffee shop’s break room. He first needed to report the situation to CEO Jang and ask his opinion.

1. It's the same idiom from chapter 160, meaning, "the bear does all the work and the master/king taking all the profit/credit for it." But since the classmates wouldn't really be taking ALL the profit/credit if they worked with Woo-Jin (in fact, most people would realize that Woo-Jin had done the work and praise him instead), I rephrased it so that it's more like they're jumping on the bandwagon to get good scores using Woo-Jin's fame. Hence the "leeches." ☜

2. Kim Seon-Dal (봉이 김선달, Bongyi Kim Seon-Dal) is a swindler from the late Joseon Dynasty who famously sold off the Taedong River. ☜