Superstar From Age 0

Chapter 245

“Wow. Is that Lee Seo-jun’s manager? He looks so cool.”

He wore a black suit and looked different from the tired managers who appeared on TV. 

He exuded a professional aura from head to toe.

The employees of Youngwoong Publishing, who were gathered in a place where they could see the hallway leading to the conference room, admired his appearance.

“I guess Hollywood actors have cool managers too. Doesn’t he look like he works out?”

“Right? He must have been to Hollywood too.”

“Of course he has. He filmed Shadowman 3 last year.”

Lee Seo-jun’s manager entered the conference room. 

The employees who were staring at the closed door of the conference room straightened their backs.

“I heard he’s been Lee Seo-jun’s manager for a long time.”

“How did you know that?”

“My daughter is a fan of Lee Seo-jun. When I asked her about his manager, she told me everything. She said he’s a very nice person.”

“Did you… tell her?”

“No! What if it gets out and he says he won’t do it?”

“Right? I quit drinking three days ago.”

“Why did you have to quit drinking?”

“I have a habit of repeating what I heard when I drink. I don’t know when or where I might say something.”

A sales team employee shivered.

“When I woke up after drinking, I saw an article on the internet that said [Actor Lee Seo-jun, starring in the play ‘Mirror’!]. The search rankings and articles were all over the place and the company was in chaos.”

“Wow…”

“And then right away, another article came out that said [Actor Lee Seo-jun, graduation performance canceled!]. If that happens, I think I’ll have to kneel down in front of the company and apologize.”

“That’s right. You did well. Don’t drink anymore.”

The rumor that ‘Lee Seo-jun will quit the project if his identity is revealed’ had become an urban legend that ‘it never happened but it might happen’.

The origin of that rumor was probably Team 2, who had launched a campaign to silence the parents and staff of the child actors when Seo-jun, or rather ‘Na Jin’, starred in the children’s play Spring eight years ago.

If Team 2 and Andaho knew this fact, they would have exclaimed, ‘That’s a long-lasting effect.’

“I hope they had a good talk…”

“It’s win-win, sir! Manager!”

The Youngwoong Publishing employees clasped their hands and looked at the conference room with sparkling eyes.

A long or short time passed.

Soon, the door of the conference room opened.

Lee Seo-jun’s manager, who had a friendly smile on his face when he entered, bowed slightly as he met the eyes of the employees who were huddled together and left the publishing house. 

“…Did it go well?”

“I don’t know.”

“What happened?!”

“We thought of making photo cards, posters, bookmarks, and more!”

“We even found a suitable production company!”

The employees looked at them with eyes like baby birds waiting for food.

The president opened his mouth with a sigh full of regret.

“He said no to the book cover and band.”

“…What?!”

“And no to any other related products either.”

“…Whaaat?!”

“Why did he say that? Didn’t you offer him enough money for promotion?”

“I did. But he said money doesn’t matter.”

The president sighed sadly.

“He said he chose the book because it was really fun, but if he took money for promotion, there could be misunderstandings. And he’s not doing the play alone, but with his peers. The kids might not think so, but their families might. He said he wanted to prevent any complaints that might arise later.”

The employees nodded their heads with disappointed expressions. 

It was a reasonable reason.

“So we can’t promote him at all?”

“No. That’s not it. We can put his name on the book band. And if we write an article about the book concert, it will get a good response.”

The employees breathed a sigh of relief. 

They thought they couldn’t use Lee Seo-jun’s effect at all.

“What about overseas?”

“That too. We can only put his name on the book band.”

The sales team employees thought hard. 

They came up with various band designs and phrases that would be most effective.

“But when can we promote him as Lee Seo-jun? The play hasn’t been made yet…”

“Right?”

They wanted to put a band that said [A novel made into a play by Lee Seo-jun], but they didn’t have any evidence to show, since the play hadn’t been made yet.

“So I have an idea…”

He was the person with the most insight in this situation. 

Even the president perked up his ears. 

***

A Team 2 employee who was buried in work like a normal manager noticed Andaho entering the office. 

He tilted his head at his neat appearance, which was different from his usual casual clothes.

“Huh? Where are you going today, Team Leader An?”

“Oh. Are you going on a blind date?”

Andaho, who had taken a USB and a list of programs that Team 2 had prepared from his desk, shook his head with a smile.

“No. I went to Youngwoong Publishing this morning.”

“I knew that, but I didn’t know you went dressed like that. You must have been really serious.”

“I wanted to intimidate them a bit. I had a hard time dealing with them since this morning.”

Andaho smiled awkwardly.

“Well. They must have been disappointed. They could have made a fortune by selling all kinds of goodies.”

“I thought it would be better than going casually.”

He was glad that the conversation went better than he had worried because of his clothes.

“Are you going straight to Seo-jun?”

“Yes. I found a rehearsal video of the play that he might need right now. I’ll go ahead then.”

“Okay.”

When Andaho left the office, Team 2 employees opened their mouths with a smile.

“Team Leader An is amazing. He must have nothing but Seo-jun on his mind.”

“Right? He even learned self-defense in case there were no bodyguards. And he’s still doing it.”

“He also has an emergency medical certificate.”

“He got that a long time ago. He probably got it right after Team 2 was formed.”

That was when Seo-jun was in middle school, or rather when Andaho and Seo-jun first met. 

It was almost eight years ago, and no one was surprised.

“He also studied nutrition when Seo-jun entered middle school. He said he had to grow well during this growth period. He also said he had to feed him well during filming.”

“That’s why you can keep working with Seo-jun, right?”

“Oh, by the way,”

One of the employees who had worked with Ahn Da-ho for the longest time in Team 2 remembered something.

“Seo-jun’s contract was until this year, I think…”

At that, all the Team 2 employees gasped.

***

Thud!

Lee Min-joon stabbed a large watermelon with a kitchen knife. 

He rotated the watermelon as he sliced it, and the round fruit was cut in half.

“Seo-jun has been staying in his room even after he came back from vacation.”

“He still doesn’t skip his acting practice, though. He has plenty of time since it’s summer break, so it’s not a problem, right?”

“But half of his break is already over.”

“Time flies so fast.”

Half and half again.

Seo Eun-hye cut the red flesh into neat squares and stacked them in an airtight container. 

The perfectly fitting pieces looked like she had done this more than once or twice.

“Do you think we can watch Seo-jun’s graduation performance?”

“The students who are performing can invite their families, according to the notice.”

“Really? That’s good.”

In the meantime, one whole watermelon was neatly dismantled.

“Okay, we’re done. Bring a plate to Seo-jun, too.”

Lee Min-joon set aside some watermelon for the three of them and put the rest in the refrigerator. 

Seo Eun-hye picked up one of the two plates of watermelon that Lee Min-joon had left and knocked on Seo-jun’s door.

“Mom, can I come in?”

“Yeah.”

Seo Eun-hye opened the door slightly and smiled at the sight inside.

“It looks like a writer’s room, not an actor’s room.”

“Hmm. It is a bit messy, isn’t it?”

Seo-jun scratched his cheek as he put down his pen.

“I don’t think it was this bad when I was studying for exams.”

Seo Eun-hye looked around Seo-jun’s desk area. 

Seo-jun’s large desk and its side were already filled with piles of paper.

The script and novel of the original work. 

The play and book adapted from the novel. 

The scripts and videos of plays that he liked. 

Papers and pens with various notes.

It seemed chaotic, but it was a space that Seo-jun had organized in his own way.

Seeing the plate of watermelon, Seo-jun quickly gathered the papers that were spread out on one side of his desk. 

Seo Eun-hye placed the plate on the empty spot and asked.

“How much have you done?”

Seo-jun stabbed a square piece of watermelon with a fork.

“I have a rough outline. But it’s hard to express what’s in my head in writing.”

“Yeah?”

“I think I know why Director Choi Dae-man got canned. My head is getting dull from staying here all the time. So I’m going to work at Cocoa Entertainment’s practice room tomorrow.”

Seo Eun-hye laughed at Seo-jun’s words. 

The story of Director Choi Dae-man getting canned at a five-star hotel during Escape was always amusing to hear.

“What did the writers and directors say?”

Seo-jun’s adaptation was more interesting than he expected. 

He told his acquaintances that this happened and they might ask him about it later, and they all seemed curious. 

He also received requests to show them when it was finished from more than one or two people.

Unlike acting, which he wanted to show to anyone and everyone, showing his adapted script made him feel a little shy. 

So Seo-jun wanted to make his script more perfect.

“I’m going to show it to Ji-seok hyung later.”

“That sounds good. Ji-seok is experienced in theater. Then work hard.”

“Yeah! Thanks for the watermelon.”

After Seo Eun-hye left, Seo-jun put a piece of watermelon in his mouth and turned his eyes back to his desk.

The open book [Mirror].

The middle part of Mirror was worn out more than the others because Seo-jun chose the second story out of the three stories in Mirror. 

Of course, he didn’t ignore the first, third episodes and the overall story.

The scenes, lines, and descriptions that Seo-jun wanted to include in his play were marked with colorful colors. 

From scenes with low importance to scenes he wanted to emphasize. 

They were clearly distinguished and easy to see.

Seo-jun first extracted the lines from the book and arranged them in order. 

He inserted the characters’ feelings expressed in sentences into the descriptions. 

He added appropriate lines, movements, and descriptions where they were awkwardly connected or cut off.

Once he had a rough frame, he added various stage effects.

He checked the types of stage effects at Yeoul Hall, where he submitted his graduation performance application, and watched last year’s Yeoul Middle School graduation performance on YouTube to get a sense of the atmosphere.

“It’s different from Spring.”

The children’s play Spring that he performed at the Eunha-su Center.

He was only interested in acting back then, but he sometimes saw the adults who were making the stage.

He remembered clearly how the shoddy Cheongryong-nim and the props and stage effects changed into something dazzling with money poured into them.

“But I can’t change the machines.”

The graduation performance was different from a play that was performed dozens of times on the same stage as one work. 

Not only Seo-jun’s play, but also other kids’ plays had to go up, so he couldn’t change the stage equipment at will.

“But our school’s stage equipment is good.”

It was better than most small theaters because it was the same ATR Foundation as the Eunha-su Center, and it came down to Mirinae High School and Yeoul Middle School.

Seo-jun looked at the monitor where the play was playing and the list of stage equipment at Yeoul Hall for a moment and picked up his pen.

“Then I’ll use this here.”

Seo-jun’s script, which was full of his ambition, was slowly modified for various realistic reasons.