Become A Star

Chapter 78

Maybe it was because of that, but recently, Lee Min-Soo only had a venomous gaze. Irrespective of his internal thoughts, previously he had at least pretended to be friends with Woo-Jin and was polite to others. However, after the article was released, he stopped with his pretenses altogether.

Surprisingly, the directors actually understood this side of Lee Min-Soo, almost as if it was expected. Since he was a famous idol, it would be pretty strange for him to not act like this even after appearing kind to people around him. However, given his striking resemblance to Choi Kang’s haggard and anxious self after the character had gotten a death threat, everyone put up with the sudden change in his behavior.

Thanks to that, Woo-Jin had a much easier time filming than before once their true emotional distance was revealed, not needing him to force any interaction with Lee Min-Soo. Before this,  Woo-Jin had to put up with Lee Min-Soo’s various attempts of buddying up with him even when he tried his best to ignore Min-Soo. But now, there was no need for that, and in its own way, everything was going peacefully.

The bothersome article was removed from the news portal a few hours later due to the combined efforts of both TM and DS. It was, however, too late as it had already spread to many internet communities at that point.

Like Kang Min-ho had said, no side was slandering the other, and people were simply curious about the reason for Woo-Jin’s dismissal from TM. There was only a sense of mocking, and some insults hurled toward CEO Kim Seok-Hyung.

With City of Shadows achieving a steady 20% TV viewership, the number of viewers of the drama increased, and more people began to recognize Chae Woo-Jin. Of course, that meant more people were talking about him as they went about their lives. If one were to look around in any randomly chosen restaurant, all the different tables would be found discussing Chae Woo-Jin in many different ways.

“I’ll be honest; I thought he looked like a dandy, but after watching some of the behind-the-scenes videos, even as another man, I thought he looked really cool.” A male student commented on Chae Woo-Jin’s action scenes and behind-the-scenes videos and gave him high praise, saying that he would have never been able to do it if it were him.

“If an actor gives that much effort, it’s really not a waste of money. But look at Park Min; he has a salary of 100 million won per episode. He literally took two billion won’s worth of the budget. The man has no morals, especially when you look at his acting.”

“Every time there’s an action scene, he uses a stunt double. Is he one of the female leads? Why is he acting like a pretty boy?”

Chae Woo-Jin’s acting and Park Min’s salary were often mentioned among a group of guys. Simultaneously, a girl sitting at an adjoining table was feverishly looking up information on Chae Woo-Jin while ignoring everything, to the point of angering her boyfriend.

“You’re not going to eat? You said you wanted to eat tteok-galbi!” [1]

“Yeah, yeah, I’m eating. You should eat too, honey.”

Without raising her head, the girl raised her spoon haphazardly and ate just the rice with no care in the world. She was so busy looking at the fanmade gifs of Chae Woo-Jin that she didn’t have the time to even pay attention to the tteok-galbi.

“Ugh, seriously?!”

In the end, the boy slammed his utensils down on the table with a bang, making the girl finally lift her head. Then, she looked back down at the gifs before smiling broadly and speaking to her boyfriend, “I must really like you, honey.”

“What?”

“When I look at you after looking at Chae Woo-Jin for so long, you don’t look ugly; instead, you look lovable.”