Become A Star

Chapter 65

Chae Woo-Jin returned to the set on Friday afternoon, the day after the second episode was aired. Some people had regarded it as the appearance of the main lead, while others saw it as the return of the prodigal son. Regardless of what they called his return, Woo-Jin had a brutal filming schedule ahead of him.

“Did the shooting of Choi Kang’s scenes go well?” At dinner, Woo-Jin acted like nothing was wrong and asked Kang Min-Ho about Lee Min-Soo.

“Yeah! He shot them with his best effort up until this morning. He had as many bad takes as you and Yeon-Ah, and there was a lot of swearing and cursing on set. I’ve never seen Production Director Park so angry before. But starting last night, he got a lot better. Frankly speaking, he’s very good at adapting to circumstances.” Woo-Jin nodded absently in response to Kang Min-Ho’s reply.

“Weren’t you in TM before?” asked Kang Min-Ho.

“Yes, how did you know?”

It was a piece of information that could easily be found on the internet, but Kang Min-Ho was not interested in digging up Chae Woo-Jin’s past.

“I heard it from Lee Min-Soo when he mentioned that both of you used to be idol trainees. He’s very amiable and good-natured. Even though Production Director Park kept cursing at him, he continued to work hard without even a frown. He was also friendly towards Yeon-Ah and me and called us ‘noona’ and ‘hyung,’ making me reflect on my past prejudices against idols.” Woo-Jin nodded once more after hearing Kang Min-Ho sing Lee Min-Soo’s praises. Since he had already been in a similar situation before, he wasn’t surprised. 

“I’ve known what kind of person Lee Min-Soo is since a long time ago.” Woo-Jin smiled brightly, saying nothing seemed to have changed, and Lee Min-Soo was still the same as back then. He truly had to hand it to him for being consistent.

***

Louie and Choi Kang would be meeting each other for the first time in episode 10 – they didn’t have any scenes together before that. Although Choi Kang would be consistently appearing in the drama from episode 5 up until the finale, they only had a total of three scenes together. Hence, Woo-Jin didn’t expect to see Lee Min-Soo’s face anytime soon. However, their reunion happened much faster than he had assumed.

Monday morning saw Lee Min-Soo arrive at an amusement park, that day’s outdoor filming site. Park Yeon-Ah and Woo-Jin had already begun preparing for the shoot. The filming had commenced very early as they had to finish shooting the child actor’s parts before the amusement park opened to the public. Louie and Lee Yoo-Ra’s scenes would be filmed after the park opened at 10 a.m. Given the early hour of the shoot, the standby staff had been famished. Lee Min-Soo went around the set, followed closely by his manager, and greeted everyone present with a bow. To the staff members’ delight, he also handed out small paper bags containing a bottle of Dutch coffee and a sandwich each to show his appreciation. This was not an unfamiliar scene as previously, Kang Ho-Soo had given out snacks to the staff on Woo-Jin’s behalf.

However, the staff could not understand why Lee Min-Soo specially made a trip down to the amusement park for such a small thing, even though he didn’t have any filming scheduled for the day. If they were shooting downtown, he could easily brush it off by saying that he happened to be in the area. But that was not the case here, so Woo-Jin was rather curious about his intentions.

After greeting the staff, Lee Min-Soo walked towards Woo-Jin and Park Yeon-Ah as they went through their lines together. When he saw Woo-Jin, he smiled brightly and approached him with his arms wide open as though he had seen his best friend. Given the danger of being hugged by Lee Min-Soo if he stayed still, Woo-Jin forced himself to cough as hard as he could. His bent-over posture from the “coughing fit” looked severe enough to shock Park Yeon-Ah, and she patted Woo-Jin on the back to comfort him. Lee Min-Soo had no choice but to lower his arms.