Become a Star

“Come to think of it, I’m getting a little scared.” As Park Yeon-Ah was applying the handmade hand cream that was given to her by Wish Baragi, she rolled her eyes at Kang Min-Ho after hearing what he said and told him off.

“What are you saying? At least put down the black garlic extract you’re drinking right now if you’re going to say that. I was talking to the president of Wish Baragi earlier and when I thanked her for all this and said it must’ve been difficult, she said that Woo-Jin’s manager and fashion coordinator helped them out a lot. She said they were only thinking about how not to disgrace Woo-Jin. How can they be so nice and humble? I’ve never been envious of other people’s fandoms before, but I’m a little envious today.”

Park Yeon-Ah was misunderstanding something. Ma Do-Hee had spoken the truth, but if they were to look back at the situation, the actors would see that these girls were well-aware of how a celebrity would be criticized for their fans’ actions. The barags were very familiar with the standards and knew for a fact that they would be thoroughly scrutinized, so they had prepared by learning from the past mistakes people had made.

Blue Fit’s anti-fans had heavily criticized Blue Hole’s food truck from yesterday and it had caused displeasure amongst the fans of the other actors of the drama. While treating the actors and staff members who had been working hard to a great meal was a nice gesture and the other fans were thankful for that, Blue Hole’s love for their oppas had been too excessive and they had overdone it.

People felt that it was too much of them to plaster Blue Fit’s logos and photos everywhere when it wasn’t a promotional event for Blue Fit’s music or a variety TV program with Blue Fit as guest stars. It was fine for them to say things along the lines of ‘Please take good care of Lee Min-Soo,’ but they were mocked for saying ‘Best actor Lee Min-Soo! God of acting!’.

To put it bluntly, there were so many great actors in City of Shadows and yet they had the audacity to call Lee Min-Soo the ‘god of acting.’ Additionally, the main lead Chae Woo-Jin and Lee Min-Soo were the same age and the former had been getting praised by the media for his peak performance, so people wondered what Blue Hole was trying to insinuate.

Despite getting criticized like this, everyone knew that Blue Hole would probably repeat the same behavior again the next time around. Blue Hole was a fandom with a strong sense of superiority because of Blue Fit’s popularity. Because they perceived other people’s complaints as jealousy and groundless criticisms, they kept making the same mistakes and received the same criticisms. In fact, there had been quite a number of people who became anti-fans of Blue Fit because of Blue Hole.

On the other hand, Wish Baragi’s barags were clearly aware of what kind of anti-fans they themselves were and hated the idea of anti-fans like themselves sticking closely to Chae Woo-Jin. At the very least, they didn’t want to be the reason why people became Chae Woo-Jin’s anti-fans. Since acting was not a one-man job, they had prepared the boxed lunches and gifts in the hopes that Chae Woo-Jin would get along with the other actors and work in a comfortable environment. They had even put in all the time and effort into preparing Lee Min-Soo’s boxed lunch, just that it lacked love.

After being ignored by Chae Woo-Jin’s fans and having a terrible lunch, Lee Min-Soo was in very poor condition. He took some medicine to aid digestion and also drank some nutritional supplements a little while later.

“Darn it, today of all days…”

He wanted to somehow postpone the shoot in the afternoon, but he couldn’t. They were shooting the scene where Louie and Choi Kang met for the first time today and it was going to be physically taxing because of its fast pace. From the start, that hadn’t been a good sign. As Lee Min-Soo thought about how he was going to be in the same frame as Chae Woo-Jin, he started grinding his teeth without realizing it.

There was nothing he could do about singing, but he absolutely refused to lose to Woo-Jin in acting. It was an important day for Lee Min-Soo today to establish himself as Actor Lee Min-Soo, and not an idol who acted.

***

Woo-Jin looked around the set that had been transformed into Choi Kang’s room and checked his path of movement several times. He went back and forth between the window sill and the bed over and over again and consulted with the cinematographer as well.

“I want the vibe to be a little dreamy. The moonlight shining against Louie’s back through the window, creating a backlit figure, as he slowly approaches Choi Kang.”

“Like a spirit from a ghost movie?”

“That’s a horror film!” Woo-Jin looked a little disappointed when the cinematographer firmly rejected his suggestion.

“But Choi Kang does feel afraid of Louie in this scene though. I understand the image you’re going for, but what if Choi Kang’s fear gets canceled out?” Perhaps the cinematographer had his own thoughts after Woo-Jin comments because he started stroking his chin with a serious look on his face. When he had discussed the scene with Production Director Park Jong-Hyuk, they had only talked about Louie’s dreamy appearance and the overall ambience without taking Choi Kang’s emotions into consideration.

“Wouldn’t there be a fundamental fear of strangers regardless of the ambience?”

“But sir, we need to get the message across to the viewers, not Choi Kang. Since the viewers know who I am, they won’t feel any fear amidst the dreamy ambience.” So, it was highly likely that the audience wouldn’t be able to understand Choi Kang’s fear and fail to empathize with him.

In this scene where both parties met, the viewers had to look at Louie from Choi Kang’s perspective. However, the problem was that unlike with Choi Kang, Louie was not a stranger to the viewers at all. Instead, they liked Louie because he was the main lead. If actors were to go with the dreamy route, then it would only end up making Louie stand out even more.

Having compassion and affection for the main lead with a sad childhood was not a bad thing, but ultimately, Louie was a killer. Regardless of how many stories they came up with, it didn’t change the fact that he was a murderer. Woo-Jin did not want such a character to be loved and understood by the public just because he was the main lead. At this point, the viewers needed to clearly recognize that Louie was a killer, a slaughterer who took people’s lives.

The viewers had to be terrified and horrified as they looked at Louie, but at the same time, they must not be able to look away or lose their affection for him. It was like how Lee Yoo-Ra hated Louie, but she could not get away from him and continued to hold onto him.

“But Choi Kang’s fear is not the most important thing in this scene. In other words, we need to take into account Louie’s ruthlessness too. Wouldn’t it be better to create a dreamy ambience with both conflicting emotions?” Producer Director Park Jong-Hyuk interrupted them. He had been quietly listening to the conversation the entire time. Ultimately, both the production director and cinematographer refused to give up on creating a dreamy ambience.

“It’s my task to show fear, so don’t worry. I will do my best to make the viewers empathize with my character,” said Lee Min-Soo. He entered the set after he was done with his makeup. Woo-Jin had an ambiguous expression on his face as he looked at Lee Min-Soo’s pale face.

“If things go wrong, it might not fit the mood and our acting might not connect and the scene might not work,” said Woo-Jin.

To put it simply, today’s scene was akin to a nightmare on a beautiful moonlit night. Even though the background was beautiful – it was a terrible reality for those who came into the nightmare or dreamed about it. If the actor made a mistake, it could seem like he was leaping around alone on a beautiful flower hill. Woo-Jin was not only worried about Lee Min-Soo’s acting; he was also worried about his own. However, it seemed as though Lee Min-Soo did not interpret it that way.

“Are you trying to say that you don’t trust me? All you have to do is act well. Don’t worry about other people’s acting and just do your part well. Don’t just talk about the ambience!” Lee Min-Soo became sensitive and snapped at Woo-Jin, removing the ‘mask’ he usually wore. The staff had never seen this side of him and even though they were staring strangely at him, he didn’t sense it. That was because Lee Min-Soo had also agreed with Production Director Park Jong-Hyuk and the cinematographer’s opinions.

If the shooting progressed as Woo-Jin said it should, then it was highly likely for Choi Kang to look pitiful and miserable. It would have been better for Lee Min-Soo to act properly in a better ambience. Lee Min-Soo planned to act in a way that evoked compassion and fear from the viewers. Even if Choi Kang was afraid of Louie, he wasn’t going to look pitiful. Instead, Lee Min-Soo intended to make the viewers sympathize with Choi Kang and acknowledge Louie as the villain.

Lee Min-Soo felt under the weather but it could be a blessing in disguise. Everything was in place, and like what Hwang Yi-Young said, he naturally gave off a frail vibe. With subtly different purposes, Woo-Jin and Lee Min-Soo began working together. It was their first time shooting a drama together so they practiced their lines and moves, as well as shared their opinions with one another. The shooting commenced when both of them had thought they were ready. Even though Lee Min-Soo had gotten a bad take in the beginning, he got the hang of it shortly after and made no mistakes.

Choi Kang was deeply asleep when he suddenly woke up at some point. His vision was blurry; he blinked his eyes and sluggishly got out of bed. He was shivering because of the cold wind that was blowing from somewhere else. Choi Kang saw his unkempt hair blowing gently in the wind and shifted his gaze to the window. His window had been closed before he went to bed, but it was wide open now. Looking out of the window, there was a waning moon hidden within the gray clouds. It looked quiet and still. The thin curtains that fluttered in the wind looked so beautiful, like a painting.

Suddenly, Choi Kang saw a shadow of a person leaning against a desk that was pushed against the wall by the window. He tried to strain his unfocused eyes in his half-awakened state and spoke to the person standing there with the moonlight shining against his back.

“Hyung?”

As soon as Choi Kang spoke, the tall and slim shadow that was leaning against the desk stood up. The person who was taller than Choi Joon cast an elongated shadow over the bed where Choi Kang was laying in.

“Who…who are you…?”

Regardless of how sleepy Choi Kang was, he could tell that the person standing there was not his older brother. He sprung to his feet and tried to retreat but he was blocked by the bed’s headboard and wall; he had nowhere to run.

The shadowed man stared at Choi Kang as he scratched something on the desk indifferently with a well-forged dagger in his hand. Choi Kang wanted to scream but was beside himself with this bizarre scene. He simply exhaled heavily. Perhaps, he was convincing himself that he’s having a terrible nightmare right now.

At some point, the black shadow approached closer and closer to Choi Kang. As the winds blew the clouds and allowed the moon to peek through, the intruder’s face could gradually be seen. His sharp jawline and face appeared as though they had been painted on black paper; his lifeless eyes that were void of all emotions had been revealed too. He had pale and chapped blood-stained lips. He wasn’t smiling at all.

The moment where the intangible shadow transformed into a person was strange and beautiful. However, his voice that cut through the night air was cold and sharp like the sound of thin ice crunching.

“You better be quiet,’ whispered the shadow, no, the man standing next to his bed, as he held the sharp dagger against Choi Kang’s carotid artery.

“Which do you think would be faster? For the people to come to your rescue after you scream or for you to die after getting stabbed? The choice is yours.” Even though the man’s voice was flat and soft, his pronunciation was clear and he conveyed his message clearly.

“Do you know what you’re doing right now? How dare you do this despite knowing who I am…” Choi Kang tried to argue slightly loudly but he clenched his teeth and suppressed his voice when he felt the blade gently pressing against his carotid artery. His voice faded into a mumble and fear began to creep into his voice. However, the man looked at Choi Kang with a look on his face that seemed to suggest that Choi Kang had said something weird.

“It doesn’t matter who you are.” If that had been the case, this wouldn’t have happened in the first place.

“But why are you doing this?” Choi Kang swallowed his saliva out of nervousness; the blade pierced slightly into his skin. As soon as he was startled by that, the man jokingly tapped Choi Kang’s neck with the dagger. Beads of sweat trickled down to his neck, drenching the neckline of his pajamas.

The man answered Choi Kang’s burning question, sounding like he was bored, “The most important thing is that you’re Choi Joon’s younger brother.”

“Don’t tell me he’s…”

Choi Kang thought about how Choi Joon looked at him with a cold look in his eyes a few days ago and felt goosebumps forming as he wondered whether the man was acting on his brother’s instructions. Regardless of how much his brother hated him, how could he hire someone to do this? The man shook his head slightly after seeing the anger in Choi Kang’s eyes.