Superstar From Age 0

Chapter 289

When Seo-jun and Jeong Bo-ram were filming, a staff member from the art department who was watching the set from afar said to his colleague.

“Don’t you sometimes see those actors?”

“Those actors?”

“Those who get so immersed in their acting that they mistake it for real.”

The colleague nodded, understanding what the staff meant.

“Yeah, sometimes. Those actors.”

The youngest staff member, who was listening attentively for his name to be called, looked at the two staff members.

“They mistake their acting for real?”

“They get caught up in the emotions when their co-star is too good at acting or when they are too invested in their role. They delude themselves.”

“But it’s just acting?”

The two staff members who had been working in this field for a long time laughed at the innocent question of the youngest staff member, who was brought along to do errands for them.

“Well. For example, when Kim Jong-ho plays a villain, he still looks scary even after the shooting is over.”

“Yes. He was scary even on TV.”

I might unconsciously back away if I met him in person. 

The youngest staff member nodded repeatedly. 

The art staff continued.

“If such bad emotions linger, how much more would good emotions linger?”

“Oh. Is that why some actors who play lovers in the work become real lovers?”

“That’s right.”

The art staff nodded. The colleague tilted his head.

“But why do you suddenly bring that up?”

“Well. Seo-jun is good at acting, right? Too good.”

The three heads turned to the set.

Despite the huge camera lens right in front of them, Seo-jun and Bo-ram’s fresh love acting was so amazing that it looked rather unrealistic. 

Their playful gestures made them involuntarily smile. 

The youngest staff member who was giggling suddenly covered his mouth.

“…Then there could be dating rumors?”

Dating rumors about Seo-jun.

It seemed like the aftermath would be enormous even if he thought about it for a moment.

The art staff shook his head at the barely audible voice of the youngest staff member.

“No. The opposite.”

The OK sign came from PD Gong Hee-chan.

The atmosphere of the two actors, who were full of pink just a moment ago, changed in an instant. 

It was a sight that amazed them every time they saw it.

“I don’t know how they can have no emotions left after acting so well. It’s really amazing.”

“That’s true. Seo-jun is famous for being good at switching on and off, but…”

The staff members looked at Bo-ram with strange eyes as she smiled innocently while monitoring with Seo-jun and PD Gong Hee-chan.

“…Is she an acting genius too?”

***

“Bye. Bo-ram.”

“Seo-jun, you too.”

Today’s shooting was over.

Bo-ram greeted Seo-jun and got into the car. 

The manager who was sitting in the driver’s seat looked back and said.

“Good job. You don’t have any schedule tomorrow, so just rest well.”

“Yes.”

Bo-ram smiled and fastened her seat belt.

The manager saw Seo-jun’s car leaving the parking lot. 

He tapped the steering wheel with his fingers a few times and hesitated before opening his mouth.

“…Are you okay with acting with Seo-jun?”

“? What do you mean?”

“No, I mean. That thing.”

He rolled his eyes and sighed.

“…Don’t you have any romantic feelings?”

Bo-ram burst into laughter at the manager’s words. 

Hahaha. 

Her laughter filled the car. 

The manager touched his forehead.

“This is why I didn’t want to ask you.”

She laughed so hard that she almost cried and said.

“Did they ask you at the company?”

“Yes. I told them I couldn’t feel anything like that when I saw them filming, but they said they didn’t know people’s hearts and told me to ask you.”

“There’s nothing. Nothing at all. Not even 0.001 percent.”

“I knew it. Bo-ram. Call the team leader and tell him. He didn’t seem to believe me at all.”

The manager started the car, remembering the loud voice of the team leader. 

Bo-ram picked up her phone and called the team leader.

-What?! How can there be no attraction at all?!

The words that there was not even 0.001 percent seemed to arouse more suspicion.

-The script is like a real video! How can you not have any feelings when you see it right in front of your eyes? There are so many people who became Seo-jun’s fans with that video!

Bo-ram and the manager shook their heads as they heard the team leader’s voice from afar.

“Well, I guess I would have thought so too if I hadn’t seen it myself.”

“That’s true.”

-Why not? Is Seo-jun different from his image in real life?

Bo-ram answered with a smile at the team leader’s question.

“No. He’s exactly like his image. He’s a handsome guy who is kind and loves acting. So… It’s a lie to say that I don’t get nervous, but that’s only during the shooting.”

-…What?

“Seo-jun is so good at acting that the role and the actor are so! Clearly! Perfectly! Different.”

The manager nodded in agreement as Bo-ram emphasized.

“There’s a look in Yu Seong-jin’s eyes when he looks at Kim Seo-yeon. It sparkles and looks very happy. You’ll see it in the drama too, team leader. The director said he captured it very well.”

She would be lying if she said she didn’t feel anything after seeing the yellow umbrella scene.

‘Who wouldn’t like that?’

But she knew for sure in the next day’s shooting. 

She couldn’t delude herself even if she wanted to, because of the changing eyes right in front of her.

The eyes of love and the eyes of no love.

It was a clear difference, like black and white.

“So when I know that look, I can clearly tell the difference between Seo-jun’s eyes after the acting. 

He smiles the same, but it’s completely different.”

The change in Seo-jun’s eyes in a second was shocking.

To be honest, ‘Yoo Seong-jin’ and ‘Lee Seo-jun’ felt like completely different people. If he felt attracted to someone, it would be ‘Yoo Seong-jin’, not ‘Lee Seo-jun’.

***

“Really?”

“You don’t know how much I beg you.”

Seo-jun laughed at Jeong Bo-ram’s words.

His mom and dad looked curious too. 

He wondered if it was because of this reason. 

It was natural to be curious about acting with a girl of his age, especially a romance.

‘Da-ho hyung is watching me on the set, so he knows that there is no such thing, but mom and dad don’t.’

He decided to tell them today that there was nothing like that.

He smiled as he imagined his parents’ bored expressions.

“We have to worry about dating rumors now. I didn’t care about that when I was young.”

“I know. He’s an adult once he finishes high school.”

“Speaking of which, next week is the entrance ceremony. Time flies.”

Jeong Bo-ram nodded at Seo-jun’s words.

They were talking about various things about Mirinae High School when they heard the assistant director’s voice.

“We’re starting filming!”

At the shout of the assistant director, Choi Hyun-woo, Seo-jun and Jeong Bo-ram got up from their seats.

***

The filming of ‘Spring has returned’ went smoothly,

And March came with flowers.

March 2nd.

The entrance ceremony for elementary, middle, and high schools across the country was held.

Mirinae High School, where Seo-jun was going to enter, was also scheduled to have an entrance ceremony today.

The staff of Mirinae High School guided the parents directly to the Mirinae Hall where the entrance ceremony would be held at the school entrance and allowed only the students to enter the school.

“Then we’ll go ahead.”

He waved his hand at his parents who were heading to Mirinae Hall and looked at the paper posted on the bulletin board in front of the main gate.

‘Art department, music department, acting department…’

He found the acting department on the bulletin board and was about to lower his eyes when he felt a movement around his shoulder.

“You’re in the same class as me. Class 1-1.”

It was Han Ji-ho.

“Really?”

“Joo-kyung and Si-young are also in the same class.”

After that, familiar names came out one after another.

Well, 21 out of 40 students were from Yeoul Art Middle School, so by simple calculation, 10 of them were acquaintances.

“I looked at the names on the bulletin board and it seemed like they split them exactly 10 and 9.”

Seo-jun nodded at Han Ji-ho’s words.

Perhaps, the teachers had divided them appropriately so that the students from Yeoul Art Middle School would not be clustered on one side.

“It’ll be fun to have new kids.”

“I know. They had fresh reactions on their way here.”

Even as they walked here, the students and parents from Yeoul Art Middle School greeted Seo-jun familiarly, while the students and parents from other middle schools looked at Seo-jun with surprised eyes.

Han Ji-ho laughed at Seo-jun’s words. He could imagine it without seeing it.

“Let’s go in then.”

“Okay.”

As he walked with Seo-jun to the class 1-1 classroom, Ji-ho opened his mouth.

“Have you been to Mirinae Hall?”

Seo-jun shook his head regretfully.

“No. It was closed when I took the practical exam.”

There were two auditoriums in Mirinae High School, one was Miru Hall, a performance hall of the same size as Yeoul Hall that only students could use, and the other was Mirinae Hall, a large performance hall that sometimes rented out to outsiders.

“I just went there and it was bigger than Yeoul Hall. The facilities were also good.”

“Really?”

Seo-jun’s eyes sparkled. He had seen the exterior when he visited Mirinae High School, but he had not seen the interior. 

He had not been to Mirinae Hall, but he had seen the performances of Mirinae High School on YouTube and knew how good it was.

“I watched the videos on YouTube and it looked like it would be really fun to do a play there.”

“Don’t you want to go to the Milky Way Center too?”

“It would be nice to do both.”

Han Ji-ho nodded and smiled at Seo-jun’s words.

“But when does the drama promotion start? It airs on the first week of April, right?”

“They said they’ll start TV ads in two weeks.”

As he chatted with Han Ji-ho and headed to the classroom together, Seo-jun occasionally looked around at Mirinae High School, which was bigger than Yeoul Art Middle School. 

He was worried that it was bigger than Yeoul Art Middle School when he took the entrance exam, but he had a chance to find better abilities when the door of the advanced library opened earlier this year.

‘But there are so many people I know…’

He knew a lot of people in not only the first grade but also the second and third grades. 

They wouldn’t be so surprised to see Seo-jun, so he thought intermediate abilities would be enough.

It’s not because they seemed hard to find.

“Oh, Seo-jun! Hi!”

“Ji-ho is here too!”

When they entered the class 1-1 classroom, Kim Joo-kyung and her friends welcomed Seo-jun and Han Ji-ho.

“Hi.”

When Seo-jun greeted them with a smile, two reactions appeared.

Seo-jun could tell at once who was from Yeoul Art Middle School. 

It was because half of them greeted him normally and half of them were surprised.

The kids who experienced Seo-jun’s aura for the first time looked at him blankly.

Seo-jun smiled brightly at those kids. 

He knew their names and faces even though they hadn’t introduced themselves yet, because he had seen all the videos uploaded on YouTube.

He talked about the YouTube practical videos and greeted his new friends in class 1-1 when the classroom door opened. It seemed like a student from second or third grade. 

The senior opened his mouth nervously.

“Is… Lee Seo-jun here?”

“Yes.”

When Seo-jun raised his hand, the senior was startled.

Kim Joo-kyung blinked her eyes as she watched him. 

Huh. 

It seemed like a scene she had seen somewhere before.

“Lee Seo-jun is the freshman representative, so… you have to go now…”

“Okay. I got it.”

As Seo-jun followed the senior out, Kim Joo-kyung and other students from Yeoul Art Middle School exclaimed.

“He’s both middle school and high school freshman representative, that’s amazing.”

At that, other kids also shone their eyes.

They realized that they could see the entrance ceremony of Yeoul Art Middle School, which only remained as a postscript, in person.

***

“I wonder if Seo-jun is also a representative this time.”

“Probably.”

Lee Min-joon and Seo Eun-hye sat in the parent seats of Mirinae Hall with cameras in their hands. 

They brought the best cameras that could capture Seo-jun clearly wherever he was.

They waited for a while and then the door of Mirinae Hall opened and the third and second graders came in. 

And finally, the freshmen who entered this year came in by department and stood side by side in front of the audience seats.

Lee Min-joon looked for familiar faces among the kids.

He couldn’t see Seo-jun near Han Ji-ho and Kim Joo-kyung in class 1, or near Kang Jae-han and Yang Joo-hee in class 2.

“Seo-jun is not here after all.”

“He must be the freshman representative again.”

Lee Min-joon and Seo Eun-hye waited for the entrance ceremony to begin with a smile that they couldn’t hide.