Become a Star

“Unnie, your dress is beautiful. I wanted to wear an off-the-shoulder dress too…. Doesn’t my dress make me look too prim and proper?”

Kwon Eun-Mi was wearing a light yellow gown that completely exposed her shoulders. The gown fluttered in the wind on the red carpet, allowing the curves of her body to be seen; she looked like a work of art. Her dress fluttered to the back with every step she took, like butterflies dancing, creating a dreamy vibe. She looked so beautiful in that dress that she even captivated fellow women.

On the other hand, even though Oh Ha-Na wore a mini dress that fell above her knees, it was long-sleeved. She felt the design of her own dress was rather old-fashioned. The accessories they wore were different as well. Her necklace adorned with yellow sapphires and diamonds was very glamorous and beautiful; her matching set of drop earrings and hair accessory made up of several pearl pendants was very pretty as well, but they seemed too modest in contrast with Kwon Eun-Mi’s accessories.

Of course, even though she knew matching such a fancy necklace with her outfit and appearance would look rather funny, it was only natural for people to compare her to Kwon Eun-Mi. There was already chatter about Kwon Eun-Mi being one of the best-dressed celebrities at the Golden Dragon Film Festival. Fortunately, people spoke positively about Oh Ha-Na as well, but most of them said she was cute. She was very disappointed as she was going for the mature look.

“I got compared to you because we walked on the red carpet together.”

Today, Oh Ha-Na and Kwon Eun-Mi arrived together and walked down the red carpet with one another. Originally, Woo-Jin was supposed to make an entrance with them and walk down the red carpet with the two women on each side, just like their current seating arrangement, but something cropped up earlier. He was supposed to shoot a commercial the previous day, but it got rescheduled for today because of an issue with the piano used as a prop. Thus, it became hard for him to meet with both of them in time.

He shot a coffee commercial earlier today. Since he had played the piano for the viewers in one of the episodes of Life Depicted, they decided to follow that concept and reflect it as it is in the commercial. An invigorating cup of coffee in the morning and relaxing piano music went very well together, creating a nice ambience. The ambience Hyun-Min wanted to capture was recreated by Woo-Jin in the commercial instead.

Woo-Jin had to walk down the red carpet alone because of the commercial, but more people were in favor of that instead. Of course, male and female fans each had their own opinions, but the majority of the people preferred seeing Chae Woo-Jin make a red carpet entrance alone without the two beautiful women on each side.

“We each have our own charm — it’s not like either one of us looks bad. I think you look extremely cute today, though?” Kwon Eun-Mi’s compliment instantly made Oh Ha-Na’s cheeks turn red.

“Not you too, unnie~!”

Oh Ha-Na looked secretly pleased, while Kwon Eun-Mi looked delightfully at her. Sitting in the middle, Woo-Jin had now completely given up. It wasn’t the first time both women had done something like this, and for some reason, their relationship seemed to have gotten better with each passing day. It wasn’t a bad thing, but Woo-Jin was amused to see women build their friendships in such a manner.

When they met one another, they were quick to compliment each other. However, because they looked at each other with gleaming eyes, he was initially slightly skeptical of their relationship. Previously, he had heard something about it from Hwang Yi-Young, so he had honestly thought there was something more to their relationship.

However, after seeing a recent interaction between his sister and her friend, he came to the realization that it was not a strange phenomenon. Even though it had only been a few days since they last saw each other, his sister and her friend hugged each other and acted as though they hadn’t seen each other in years. They even started the conversation by talking about how the other party had become so pretty and proceeded to exchange all kinds of compliments with one another, causing anyone listening to their conversation to cringe.

From Woo-Jin’s point of view, Woo-Hee’s friend hadn’t changed much from the last time he saw her. There was frankly nothing else to comment about her appearance, apart from the fact she looked ordinary. However, Woo-Hee acted as though she had just seen the most beautiful girl in the world that had taken her breath away.

Knowing his sister, he knew she wasn’t faking it. Woo-Jin figured that perhaps she was blinded by her affection for her friend. Just like how people regarded the person they loved as the most beautiful individual in the world, it seemed like Woo-Hee found it hard to find any shortcomings in a friend she was fond of.

After that incident, Woo-Jin had gotten used to the relationship between Kwon Eun-Mi and Oh Ha-Na, but that didn’t mean they had always gotten along well with one another. There were moments when Kwon Eun-Mi would ruthlessly criticize Oh Ha-Na — like what she did a while ago, leading to fights. They had once fought so badly, as though the world was going to end. It caused the mood on set to be so tense to the point it seemed like they had been transported to the era of the Cold War. And then, sometimes, both of them would link arms with one another the very next day. Thus, Woo-Jin would let them be regardless of what they talked about.

“Isn’t it hard to have a conversation when you’re sitting this far apart? Should we switch seats?” Since Woo-Jin was sitting in the middle, it wasn’t easy for the women sitting on either side to talk to each other. They leaned forward and talked to each other while maintaining eye contact, so Woo-Jin couldn’t move as he was sandwiched between them. Hence, it seemed like Woo-Jin was better off switching seats with one of them.

“Oh my! You don’t have to do that.”

“That’s right. I’ll fill you in on the details later on, unnie.”

It seemed that they had already covered various topics thus far, but both of them felt a little disappointed for not being able to continue with their conversation. Looking at Oh Ha-Na, Woo-Jin suddenly thought of the past. He could still vividly remember how she looked when she confidently asserted that Kwon Eun-Mi had a sponsor. However, seeing as both Oh Ha-Na and Kwon Eun-Mi ended up being so close that they were practically joined at the hip, Woo-Jin found it fascinating.

“Do you still think Kwon Eun-Mi has a sponsor?”

Woo-Jin had once asked her this question when both of them were alone during the promotional event in one of the cities after the movie had been released. He had only asked because he was rather amused to see the both of them becoming closer with one another, as opposed to how they were back during the production days, but Oh Ha-Na grabbed him by the collar.

“Say that again, and you’ll pay for it!”

The person who had originally said it became mad at Woo-Jin instead. She seemed angry upon hearing the ridiculous rumor and appeared to deny having said that before in the past, so Woo-Jin simply went along with it quietly.

However, judging from the things Kwon Eun-Mi hinted at from time to time, Woo-Jin had an inkling that she might have already known about Oh Ha-Na’s thoughts, as well as what she had said. Word spread around fast, so it was inevitable for Kwon Eun-Mi to learn about it. Nonetheless, Woo-Jin felt she sincerely adored and cared about Oh Ha-Na, so he arrived at the conclusion that Kwon Eun-Mi was a person with a bigger heart than he thought. Needless to say, it was evident that the relationship between both women was so strong that his thoughts and evaluations had no influence over it.

Even though they said they would continue their conversation later on, Kwon Eun-Mi and Oh Ha-Na resumed talking to each other once again, with Woo-Jin sandwiched between them. All three of them sat together, but Woo-Jin felt a little lonely, so he decided to focus on the second segment of the event that was about to start.

As he watched a K-pop girl group perform at the halfway mark of the film festival, Woo-Jin suddenly thought of Chae Woo-Ra. He wondered if Berry Rose would’ve performed here today if nothing had happened. From what he had heard, based on her character, she most likely would’ve refused to perform in front of fellow celebrities, so he didn’t think he would be seeing her here.

He knew it was unfair of him to project the negative feelings he had towards his father onto her. However, not seeing her at this very moment made Woo-Jin very happy. He wanted to refrain from inevitably running into her by chance. That was a little self-centeredness on Woo-Jin’s part, as well as close-mindedness that was hard to overcome. This was the same feeling he had when he saw Bareunjeong Foods’ logo in the backdrop earlier today.

After the girl idol group’s performance was over, Woo-Jin quickly brushed these unpleasant thoughts aside. Even though his head was occupied with all kinds of thoughts, Woo-Jin smiled and clapped his hands on autopilot. Whenever the award recipients gave their speeches, he would give an enthusiastic response. He nodded as they gave their speeches, hoping he would be able to stand there one day and make his own speech.

When he won the Best New Actor Award at the Great Eastern Film Festival last week, as well as the Best Supporting Actor Award in the first segment today, Woo-Jin’s speeches were rather dry. Since he had expected himself to receive an award to a certain extent, he had prepared his speech in advance. However, the more he wrote, the more long-winded his speech became, so he gave the standard speech — he thanked everyone and said he would work hard.

He had even chastised himself as he walked down the podium, and he probably would only be getting his next opportunity the following year. But, as he listened intently to the other acceptance speeches for the sake of reference, he realized that experience was something that couldn’t be disregarded.

As he watched other people receive their awards, it was now time for the Popularity Award category, for which Woo-Jin was nominated.

“In my opinion, the meaning behind the Popularity Award is very significant. That is because it is an award bestowed by the public. It gives actors a sense of accomplishment different from the one derived from evaluations of veterans of the entertainment industry and critics. Let us take a look at the male actor nominees for the Popularity Award.”

Each time the host called the names of the actors, their faces would appear on the big screen above the stage, one after another. Woo-Jin looked on unenthusiastically as his name and face appeared on the screen. It was akin to looking at this moment through someone else’s eyes. Hence, he was half-dazed as he listened to the names of the award nominees.

Woo-Jin had shot a commercial in the morning, and as soon as it was over, he went straight to the film festival. Additionally, Red Enemy would most likely win the Best Picture Award, so he had to stay till the end, even though he was tired. Woo-Jin held back his yawn and hoped that time would quickly fly by.

“I will now announce the winner of the Popularity Award. Hmm, I see. I like this actor a lot as well.” Choi Sun-Hye still looked as beautiful as ever in her forties. She smiled beautifully when she saw the name on the card.

“The winner of the award is…Red Enemy’s Chae Woo-Jin.”

Chae Woo-Jin clapped enthusiastically when Choi Sun-Hye called out a very familiar name. He looked at the big screen on the stage, feeling a little envious. The faces of the other nominees disappeared, leaving one person’s face on the screen. Woo-Jin saw himself clapping enthusiastically on the screen; he tilted his head slightly because he didn’t know why they were showing his face. The more clueless Woo-Jin looked, the louder the applause grew. Oh Ha-Na couldn’t take it any longer and nudged him with her forearm.

“Why aren’t you getting up?”

“What?”

“She just called out your name.”

“Me?” Woo-Jin asked, pointing at himself. As soon as the camera captured his gesture and showed it on the screen, laughter erupted everywhere. Only then did Woo-Jin look around before looking up at the screen again. He got up from his seat and verified the current situation with Kwon Eun-Mi.

“Did she call my name earlier?”

“Yes, she did.”

“I don’t think so, though. I didn’t get up for nothing, right?”

“I’m telling you she did call your name.”

Kwon Eun-Mi pushed Woo-Jin from the back out of frustration. Woo-Jin staggered slightly and made his way to the aisle before walking toward the stage. He couldn’t believe what was happening and was confused. After thinking about it, it seemed as though Choi Sun-Hye had indeed called out his name.

“Mr. Chae Woo-Jin, stop wandering about over there, and please make your way to the stage.” Woo-Jin was still hesitant — he confirmed the situation once more with Kang Min-Ho, who was seated somewhere else, so Choi Sun-Hye called out to him. After Kang Min-Ho confirmed his doubt and Choi Sun-Hye called out to him, Woo-Jin finally stopped hesitating and went up to the podium.

“Why did you take so long to make your way here?”

“I wasn’t expecting my name to be called.” When Woo-Jin had a look of disbelief on his face, Choi Sun-Hye showed him the card she was holding in her hand. After seeing his name on it, Woo-Jin smiled bashfully.

Woo-Jin had to make his speech after receiving a bouquet of flowers and the award, but he hadn’t prepared any speech. He had roughly prepared his speech earlier for the Best Supporting Actor Award by borrowing bits and pieces of the conversation with the host. But that wasn’t the case this time around. Since he couldn’t reuse his speech, he was at a loss for words.

“I’ve said everything I wanted to say earlier, so I can’t think of anything right now. First of all, I would like to say I’m sorry because I didn’t expect to receive this award.” Woo-Jin first apologized to the host and the staff members behind him for taking some time to go on the stage.

“Director Yoon Seon said this to me when I was hesitant about taking on the role of Prince Myeong-Hwan: ‘I want to give Prince Myeong-Hwan and the countless other Prince Myeong-Hwans in this world a taste of spring. Just as he said, Red Enemy had given me the gift of spring and allowed me to blossom like a flower.”

Woo-Jin looked down at the trophy in his hand. He was momentarily lost in reminiscence.

“I started acting because I wanted to make myself happy. I think that perhaps Prince Myeong-Hwan also lived his life in pursuit of happiness, just like me. But right now, his life brings joy and sadness to us. That’s what I want too. I hope that my acting will not be a source of joy for only myself but also for everyone else. I will do my best and strive to become such an actor. Thank you! Oh, and Mr. Kim Woo-Hyung, please send me an invitation. I will definitely attend your wedding.”

After his speech, Woo-Jin thought about his promise to Reporter Kim Woo-Hyung on the red carpet and shook his trophy. Even though he had made that promise because he wasn’t expecting himself to win an award in the second segment, he was more than happy to keep it.