Superstar From Age 0

Chapter 444

[Will this Christmas be a white Christmas?]

[Mirinae’s announcement, today’s year-end performance!]

[Short films and plays! If they are good works, they will be officially performed!]

[Actor Lee Seo-jun, today’s graduation performance!]

[What is the content of actor Lee Seo-jun’s original play?]

[In front of Mirhol! Actors Kim Jong-ho, Lee Ji-seok, Park Do-hoon, Lee Da-jin!]

[+) Actor Kang Tae-young!]

[+) Lee Seo-jun’s troupe!]

[+) Brown Black!]

-I’m more nervous about the announcement performance than Christmas

=You don’t have a lover…

=Do you have one?

=? I didn’t say I do.

=

-Is it a year-end performance or a graduation performance?

=For the first and second graders, it’s a year-end performance and for the third graders, it’s a graduation performance.

-I want to see Seo-jun’s play too! Please make it an official performance!

=An original play! I’m so curious!

=But even if it happens, we can’t see it.

=?? Why can’t we?

=We’re unlucky.

=22 We’re not lucky fans.

=33 Let’s wait for the YouTube upload.

=Ah…

-The article They added one by one and then they just called it Lee Seo-jun’s troupe

=But they’re all people who worked with Seo-jun.

=It looks amazing when you see it like this…

-BB’s article was a bit late

=They’re all acting people and they’re the only ones from the music side

=The reporter must have wondered whether to include them or not

-But really, don’t just count the celebrities. If you look at the fame, it’s like a film festival.

=22 They really need to roll out the red carpet.

-Kim Jong-ho is going to America this time, I heard.

=?? Is that a rumor?

***

Seo-jun was checking out the situation at Mirhol while reading the articles. He scrolled down the messages that arrived.

-Mom: Mom and dad arrived.

-Mom: Rachel and Evan too!

-Dad: Mom and dad have to go to the family seats and Rachel and Evan have to go to the staff seats.

He remembered that it was the same when he was at Yeoul Arts High School.

-Mom: Mom and dad are sitting here.

-Mom: (Picture) Can you see us from the stage?

-Dad: Seo-jun. Do your best!

-Dad: I wonder what kind of play it is!

Mom sent a picture of her sitting in the family seats. 

Seo-jun roughly guessed where she was sitting and scratched his cheek at dad’s message.

Soon after, he also received messages from Rachel Hill and Evan Block.

-Rachel: We met at the staff seats!

-Rachel: (Picture)

Rachel Hill sent a picture.

The actors, directors, and writers who gathered in the staff seats with Rachel Hill, who wore a black hat to hide her shiny blonde hair, were all genuinely surprised and laughed.

-Lee Ji-seok: No way, why are these people here?

-Park Do-hoon: Did they come to see Seo-jun’s play?

-Kim Jong-ho: It seems so.

<Yes. They even gave a special lecture.

-Lee Da-jin: Oh my… There are people like us…

[Escape] Those who had seen the two actors during filming were somewhat calm, but those who saw them for the first time were not.

-Kang Tae-young: !!!

-Kang Tae-young: Evan Block is sitting next to me!

-Kang Tae-young: Seo-jun! Next to me!!

-Kang Tae-young: Evan Block!!!

Park Do-hoon sent a picture of Evan Block in the center with Kang Tae-young on his left holding his phone frozen and Woo Jeong-han on his right chatting with Evan Block.

-Park Do-hoon: He kept looking at him

-Park Do-hoon: I thought he was jealous so I switched with him.

Seo-jun smiled softly at the playful message.

Not only Kang Tae-young but also Brown Black, directors, writers, and everyone else sent messages saying that they were so excited that they didn’t scream. 

Seo-jun replied to his friends who had their hearts sink after coming to see the play. He lifted his head.

This was [436] team’s waiting room at Mirhol.

The early arrivals were waiting for their teammates while contacting their families on their phones, calming their minds by reading the script, or checking their costumes and props.

“Sorry! Am I late?”

“No. There’s still time left.”

“There were a lot of people in front of me.”

As time passed, all the team members arrived.

Seo-jun looked around [436] team.

Acting team, music team, art team, and everyone else, they all looked a little excited and a little nervous for the upcoming performance.

When the graduation performance started, the music team and the art team would go to the Mirhol audience seats and the acting team would practice in the waiting room, so this was the only time they could all meet before the performance.

Of course, the art team would come back in the middle to help with the background installation and makeup.

Seo-jun opened his mouth.

“Anything can be as important as the process, but especially for us, only the result is shown. So we have to know how hard we worked.”

Performance. Exhibition. Concert.

They lived in a world where one time could change their evaluation. Seo-jun smiled and spoke to his teammates who knew that.

“So I wanted to say this before the performance. Thank you all. You’ve worked really hard from September to now. Midterms, finals… college entrance exams too… You’ve been practicing and preparing.”

Everyone smiled brightly at Seo-jun’s sincere gratitude.

“Well, it’s ‘our’ performance!”

“Team leader, you’ve worked hard too!”

“But when you say that, the schedule was really no joke!”

“That’s right.”

The waiting room was filled with a pleasant tension as they laughed.

‘Good.’

Seo-jun didn’t hide his overflowing heart and smiled broadly. 

He suggested what he always did.

“Are we really going to do this?”

“Why not?”

The [Mirror] team members who had tried it once laughed at Han Ji-ho and Kang Jae-han’s conversation, and the [436] team members also burst into laughter.

Seo-jun, who smiled brightly, reached out his hand first and the others put their hands on top of his.

Sturdy hands that matched their overflowing hearts gathered.

“Let’s do our best today!”

The team members of [MOEB-436] responded loudly to the team leader’s words.

One, two!

“436! Fighting!”

****

Beep-

The curtain fell and the lights in the audience seats turned on.

Mirinae’s graduation performance was already down to the last one.

During the 10-minute break, some students took out their drinks and moistened their throats, and some families got up and headed to the bathroom.

“They’re all good!”

“That’s right.”

Some people looked at the actors sitting in the staff seats and tilted their heads at two people who looked familiar but strange.

But that was only for a moment.

The break time passed quickly and soon it was time for the play made by ‘that Lee Seo-jun actor’. 

The students and families sat back in their seats.

The directors who were in charge of filming the graduation performance held their cameras and took their positions.

They made sure not to disturb the audience and to film properly. 

And they remembered the route that [436] team had told them in advance.

Soon, the broadcast came out.

[The next order is acting department 3rd grade Lee Seo-jun, Kim Joo-kyung, Han Ji-ho, Kang Jae-han, 2nd grade Park Yeon-ji, 1st grade Kim Young-chan, music department 3rd grade Kim Chae-yeon… art department 3rd grade Lee Sol… 1st grade Park Min-hyung… This is an original play they created, ‘MOEB-436’. Please give them a round of applause.]

Finally.

A loud applause filled Mirhol and the curtain slowly rose.

***

Under the cold blue light. 

There was already one person standing on the stage that had risen.

A woman in a white gown was doing something with her back to the audience.

The stage background came into view of the audience.

[436] team actively used a large screen on the stage.

They used a beam projector to show images,

As if it were a spaceship, the top and bottom parts of the screen were covered with metal material and the middle part was filled with black background and twinkling stars as if to tell them that this place was space.

It was as if they were looking at space from a large monitor in a spaceship cockpit.

In the center of the stage, there was a cockpit of a spaceship that seemed to be made into reality, full of buttons and machines that they didn’t know what they were for. 

There were two small tables and chairs.

And on the right and left sides of the stage, there were two rooms with a line drawn to separate them.

The woman moved her hands busily.

A sound of something being manipulated came from the speaker, like tapping keyboards and beeping buttons.

The audience’s eyes moved to the right.

There was something strange next to the woman. 

It was a square box-like thing connected by long tubes that seemed to be connected to the spaceship (cockpit).

It looked like it was made of transparent glass or plastic by reflecting the light, but it was not visible because it was covered with white cloth inside.

-Eukreusmeu.

She raised her head and looked at the monitor (screen) and muttered softly. It sounded like a line, but it was a meaningless word.

The woman moved around in front of switches and pressed buttons.

She adjusted something up and down. 

On the monitor, there were letters that they couldn’t understand and lines that seemed to indicate life signs. But at a glance, they were flat lines that showed no response at all.

-Eudeuseukdeudeuk!

She grabbed her hair and groaned. 

They couldn’t understand what she said, but they could feel her anger well enough.

Then, the line on the monitor started moving.

Beep-beep-beep-

She lifted her head sharply at the sound of a heartbeat.

-Eubeudeuk!

The blue light slowly disappeared.

The blue light that remained alone shone on the square box. 

The place that had been hidden by white cloth revealed a man in a white T-shirt and pants with his eyes closed.

It was Seo-jun.

He looked pale as if he had lost all his blood because of the blue light.

Beep-beep-

A sound came. 

The woman moved busily.

Hiss-

With a sound of air escaping, the transparent box opened.

The man opened his eyes and looked at the audience seats. His emotionless black eyes made the students sitting in front rows shiver.

He stepped out. But he couldn’t put enough strength in his legs and fell to the floor with one step.

The long tubes connected to his back were visible to the audience.

-Eukeudeuk, Jina!

He heard it.

“Yoo-jin!”

As the man fell, the woman in a white gown ran toward him, waving her gown. She called his name, Yoo-jin. Yoo-jin. With a pitiful voice.

The man, Yoo-jin, barely opened his eyes and uttered in a thin voice.

“Is, is my name, Yoo-jin?”

“Yes! My son! Yoo-jin!”

The woman hugged Yoo-jin tightly with a happy face.

“Son. Yoo-jin.”

Yoo-jin looked at the air.

An image of something being downloaded came out on the monitor (stage screen). A long bar was filled quickly.

When the download bar was full, a notification popped up saying ‘Download complete’.

Yoo-jin, who had been staring blankly at the air, blinked his eyes. 

And he looked at the woman.

“Mo, mother.”

“Yes!”

He muttered as if he had learned new knowledge.

“I am Yoo-jin. You are mother.”

“Yoo-jin!”

The audience focused on the woman who cried out in joy and the being that looked like a human, but was not.

Even those who didn’t know much about SF could tell that the woman who was called mother was a scientist and that the man who was called Yoo-jin was not an ordinary person.

‘Is he an android?’

Those who had some knowledge of SF thought of it right away.

Android.

He was a robot made in the image of a human.

“Come on. Let’s get up.”

The woman wiped her tears and smiled. A warm light shone on the stage.

Yoo-jin held the woman’s two hands and got up, shaking his legs like a newborn deer.

“Now. Let’s walk slowly.”

“Walk. Walking.”

Yoo-jin’s eyes wandered in the air. A new download bar appeared on the monitor.

“Tsk.”

The woman clicked her tongue.

“I put less because I was afraid of overloading…”

But she soon changed her expression.

“No. You’re my son Yoo-jin. I just have to teach you slowly.”

She smiled like a merciful mother.

The air that Yoo-jin was looking at blinked at the same time as the download was finished.

Yoo-jin took a step forward, trembling. 

The long tubes connected to his back were pulled tight.

He looked happy and looked back. His mother was smiling kindly.

“Look. Mother. I walked like this.”

“Well done. My son!”

The woman walked toward Yoo-jin with a smile and opened her mouth.

“I’ll teach you a lot of things.”

The audience saw the woman pointing to the right room.

“This is your room. That room is mom’s room. If you want to come in, you have to knock. Or call me. I’ll open it anytime.”

“Yes. Mother.”

Yoo-jin followed the woman with a smile.

“Shall we eat first? You have to eat every day. Your energy efficiency is bad.”

It was a bit awkward sentence for a human, but neither the woman nor Yoo-jin cared much.

“Here. Sit down.”

At the woman’s words, Yoo-jin naturally sat on the chair. The woman sighed lightly and lowered her head.

“I guess this is stored too. I’ll have to sort it out later.”

She said that and busily prepared the meal. Empty plates, forks, and knives were placed on the table. 

The two people sitting face to face looked peaceful.

“Yoo-jin. Eating is really important to maintain your body’s energy. Water, protein, fat, minerals. Remember them well.”

“Yes. Mother. I will. Don’t worry.”

“If your body lacks energy, your hair color will fade first. And if your eye color changes, it’s dangerous, so remember that well.”

Yoo-jin nodded with a smile.