When I Opened My Eyes I Was a Superstar

On a flight to New York’s John F. Kennedy airport.

Do Wook was realizing that a 14-hour period was indeed difficult. He had never flown for this long in his previous life either.

If it was this difficult when he was sitting in the business section that’s said to be comfortable for long distance flights, Do Wook was worried about how hard it must’ve been for the staff sitting in the economy section.

When he took off the sleeping mask and checked the screen, there were still 5 hours left until they landed.

‘I thought I had slept quite a bit…’

Do Wook took his laptop out from under his seat.

Even before he got on the plane, Do Wook was preparing fervently for KK’s third album. The trip to New York was a sudden decision, but Do Wook’s firm position was that it couldn’t disrupt KK’s schedule.

It was a relief that a big framework or direction for the next album was set before leaving for New York.

Park Tae Hyung’s ‘Double Quick’ music broadcasts that he was doing with Hyun Ji were also settling down. With the power of the two fandoms, they swept 1st place in various music broadcasts and were floating around 10th place in the music charts.

Park Tae Hyung definitely had a gentle personality off the stage, but on stage he was sexy and charismatic and was attracting fans in their 20s on the internet as a ‘turnabout man’.

Do Wook put his headphones in his ear and opened the file he had already worked on. The foundation of the song that would become the title song of their 3rd album was quietly playing through the headphones.

“At least turn the light on. You’ll ruin your eyes.”

It was Team Leader Lee Dae Hyung who was coming back from the restroom.

The person joining the trip to New York this time was Fan Marketing Team Leader Lee Dae Hyung. The manager and stylists were sitting in the economy section and only Team Leader Lee Dae Hyung and Do Wook were in the business section.

They wondered if it was something that needed Team Leader Lee Dae Hyung to tag along, but it was related to marketing, and it turned out Team Leader Lee Dae Hyung had been an exchange student to America so he was fluent in English.

“Ah.”

Do Wook nodded his head and turned on the reading light. It was an evening flight, so the plane was overall quiet and dark inside.

“You’re not going to sleep more? It’ll be morning when we arrive. Wouldn’t it be better to sleep more?”

Team Leader Lee Dae Hyung asked in a whisper.

“I want to as well, but I think I’ve slept as much as I can.”

“Is that so? That’s good then. Are you working on a song?”

“Yes.”

Unlike Do Wook, who was still wary of Team Leader Lee Dae Hyung, Team Leader Lee Dae Hyung was putting in a lot of effort to get closer to Do Wook.

It was because it was obvious that current work at HIT Entertainment centered around Production Direction Kwon Heung Jo among the executives and Do Wook among agency celebrities.

“Take it easy.”

“Yes. Thank you.”

Team Leader Lee Dae Hyung looked Do Wook over, then checked the economy section behind them.

In the economy section, there were not only staff including Gu Chul Min, but also fans of Do Wook.

Before boarding the airplane, Do Wook and the staff had gone through a lot of trouble because of Do Wook’s fans swarming around them. There had been many young fans who had just clung to them, and there had been fan page masters who had come with professional grade cameras while going crazy and pushing each other to get an up close picture of Do Wook.

Even Do Wook, who had tried not to harden his expression, couldn’t have helped but frown a little because of the Fan page masters, who were so called ‘picper’* who even had strobes attached to their flashes.
(TL Note: Shortened for picture taking person. The actual Korean word, jjiksa, is a term that came about with the invention of digital cameras and cell phone cameras.)

Manager Gu Chul Min had warned the fans several times, but there had been too many.

“Do Wook!!!”

“Over here please, look here!”

“Kang Do Wook!”

“Ah, man! I said don’t push!”

“Take off the hat!!!”

“Hurrr, under his hat I think his hair color is different.”

“Hey! I said to get lost! And don’t grab the camera, bastard!”

“Have fun in New York~!”

As they had escaped the noisy fans, Gu Chul Min, who had been frowning, had sighed. As the number of fans had increased during that time, he had just been worried that if there were this many people when it was just Do Wook leaving the country, what would happen if KK left the country as a group.

Up to Japan or China was understandable, but there were several fan page masters who had somehow found out they were going to America and had reserved seats on the same flight.

As he had stood in front of the gate to board, Team Leader Lee Dae Hyung had been in awe. He had also sounded a little tired.

“It’s really amazing.”

“I heard that it’s even worse for Sa Bang Shin Hwa,”

Gu Chul Min had replied, shaking his head. Lee Dae Hyung had briefly thought about what Gul Chul Min had said and had compared the two. There had been a time Team Leader Lee Dae Hyung had accompanied Sa Bang Shin Hwa for an America tour after they became very popular. It had been a similar situation.

“Maybe. It seems about the same to me.”

“Oh…is that so?”

“Yes. It really feels like their popularity is growing day by day~”

The fact that HIT Entertainment was overall more friendly and active with fans compared to Ara Entertainment was one reason so many ‘producer’ fans like fanpage masters came to be.

Using fans to promote their agency’s singers was one of the know-how that HIT Entertainment came to learn while raising Monster.

Large agencies such as Ara Entertainment had many opportunities to do promotions through broadcasts, even if fans didn’t take pictures to post them on communities and promote for them.

Also, it might not be to the extent of mysterious, but they wanted a certain amount of distance between the fans and the celebrities. Actually, in the 90’s or even up to the early 00’s, it was a policy that worked.

However, fans these days want two-way communication. HIT Entertainment took on a policy of utilizing those fans well to gather other fans.

Of course, there were times there was trouble because of the increased number of aggressive fans on set because of that, but the positive effects were bigger for now regardless.

“I felt this after coming here, but I think the Fan Marketing Team has done very well. At this company.”

Gu Chul Min had nodded his head at what Team Leader Lee Dae Hyung had said. Gu Chul Min also learned a lot after joining the company from watching people like Manager Oh Baek Ho or the company staff.

Do Wook’s trip to New York had started with an invitation from Lucas.

Lucas’s brand ‘Kiss, Lucas’ was doing a show at this year’s New York fashion week.

New York fashion week was one of the world’s 4 top fashion weeks along with London, Milano, and Paris.

New York fashion week, held in the center of New York, was an event of enormous influence in the fashion world.

The reason that Lucas happened to aim for New York among the 4 of them and got to participate was because of the New York fashion week’s style.

Just as the unique New York city, the New York fashion world was also a place to pursue more urban, sophisticated, and practical fashion than other places. There was a part of that kind of image and Lucas’ fashion world that went well together.

During fashion week, countless fashion people went around showing themselves off on the streets, and celebrities whose names alone would make you nod attended and made the place shine.

Fashion week’s charm was that it was not limited to the inside of the fashion show venue, but one could easily see and enjoy the colorful fashion of fashion people in the street.

Various fashion-related magazine reporters and photographers gathered in New York and fervently captured fashion people’s fashion in photographs and published them.

That Lucas was participating in such an amazing event was awe-inspiring.

While opening his first fashion show in New York, Lucas had recalled his first runway in Korea. Lucas thought it had been more meaningful because Do Wook personally attended.

At that time, Do Wook had had less recognizability than now, but that hadn’t been a problem for Lucas.

What Lucas was looking for were image and aura. Do Wook had those things.

So, that he really hoped Do Wook would come to this deeply meaningful place even if he couldn’t have him as a model in New York fashion show was what Lucas had said in his text.

It was a really good offer for Do Wook.

Korea fashion was already excited about Korean designers who made it into New York fashion week. People who had already liked Lucas’s brand anyways were now completely praising him.

If Do Wook were to attend the New York fashion week, all sorts of fashion magazines would definitely be plastered with Lucas and Do Wook.

It was clear that Do Wook’s image as a fashionista, which had been building up to a certain degree ever since he modeled for the ‘7 days’ advertisement, would be even more highlighted.

So both the company and Do Wook had gladly accepted Lucas’s invitation. The relationships he had cultivated well were definitely becoming a huge help.

‘Lucas’s brand received help from Yoo Sung Fashion and is advancing really quickly…’

Do Wook had thought when he had heard the news.

Networking was important in the fashion world. Expanding to New York would also have been a little later or more difficult without the power of Yoo Sung Fashion.

At the same time, the fashion world was also a place where connections alone weren’t enough. Lucas’s outstanding skills received Yoo Sung fashion’s power and he was utilizing it well.

In fact, there was news that Yoo Sung Fashion President Lee Yoo Min would also personally attend New York fashion week to find out trends in the fashion world. It was obvious that most of the fashion world people in Korea who were experts would go to New York during this period.

Do Wook thought it would be good to go a little further than being acknowledged as a fashionista in the Korean fashion world.

‘A little more…if I can grab the opportunity, I should.’

***

Do Wook and the staff who had arrived at John F Kennedy airport dragged their bodies that were tired from the long flight and headed to the hotel.

It was around lunch time when they arrived in America.

After resting up at the hotel today, they were going to Lucas’s show tomorrow.

Tomorrow they not only had to attend Luca’s show, but it was also important to catch the attention of photographers taking pictures of street fashion.

They didn’t have big expectations, but from the company’s perspective, they wanted to give a little more meaning to this New York trip.

Team Leader Lee Dae Hyung also strongly agreed, and the stylist team wasn’t the normal team that did the styling for KK performances, but new, urgently recruited people who were stronger in street fashion and had experience working in the New York fashion world before too.

Do Wook took off the dark gray beanie he was wearing when he got to the hotel lobby.

There had been a few fans who had followed them to the hotel after having gotten off the plane, so Do Wook had put his hat back on.

“Wow, you really have a different vibe,”

Gu Chul Min said as he pressed the elevator button to go up to the room.

Do Wook’s hair was dyed in a light pink color. He had dyed his hair up to bright brown during active periods before to escape his black hair, but this kind of bleached hair was very unconventional.

He wondered if it would suit him well, but he pulled off the pink hair really well too.

Also, perhaps because the color of his hair and eyebrows were lighter, he gave off a softer and lighter impression.

“I’m still not used to it. I’m not sure if it even suits me…”

Do Wook said shyly as he looked at his reflection in the elevator mirror. The stylist Han Jung Ah, who was next to him, shook her hands side-to-side and complimented him.

“Ah~ I recommended the color, but it looks soooo good on you so don’t worry~!”

“Haha. That’s good then.”

Do Wook had already changed his outfit once from head to toe on the plane.

Lavish accessories you couldn’t often try in Korea hung all over Do Wook’s clothes, but it didn’t look unbalanced at all and matched well.

He pulled off the fashion so well that, if there were an opportunity, she wanted to keep styling for him and not just for the duration of the fashion week.

“Ok. Go get some rest.”

“You should rest up too! Tomorrow might be difficult.”

“Yes.”

After saying goodbye to the staff including Gu Chul Min, Do Wook grabbed his room key and headed to his room.

A woman jumped out from the room next to Do Wook’s. The black-haired woman was carrying a pile of clothes. The woman who was rushing out dropped a hat from her pile of clothes before she got far.

Do Wook grabbed the hat and called out to the woman.

“Excuse me.”

—