Superstar From Age 0

Chapter 536

Four days ago.

O Seong-tae, a senior in the film department who was about to graduate, received a phone call while spending a normal day. It was from an actor’s agency.

-Are you Director O Seong-tae, the author of The Unknown Painter?

“…Yes. Yes.”

O Seong-tae, who had been drinking with his friends since noon, answered slowly.

-Our actor really enjoyed reading your work. Have you decided on the actor for the painter role in The Unknown Painter?

O Seong-tae furrowed his brow as if lost in thought, then opened his mouth.

“No. I’m still thinking about it.”

They didn’t mention the actor’s name or the agency’s name, so it must not be a big deal.

‘But where did I send the script? I don’t think I sent it to a small company…’

O Seong-tae reached for his drink again.

-Nice to hear that. I’ll introduce myself again. I’m Jeong Yu-jeong from Cocoa Entertainment’s second team.

“…Cocoa Entertainment?”

O Seong-tae stopped his hand. His friends widened their eyes. They asked if he was drunk. O Seong-tae thought he was drunk too. He didn’t drink that much, did he?

-Yes. Cocoa Entertainment. Our actor Lee Seo-jun…

A dreamlike voice came from the other side of the phone. Cocoa Entertainment, The Unknown Painter, Lee Seo-jun, casting…

…Lee Seo-jun casting?

He felt like he sobered up instantly. He kicked his friends who were nagging him and said.

“Y-you mean, Lee Seo-jun wants to star in my work?”

Wow.

“This guy. He’s a good actor.”

“He should have been an actor instead of a director.”

“Why, he’s good at fixing other people’s works.”

O Seong-tae moved away from the giggling crowd and continued the conversation. He couldn’t stop laughing at what the staff said.

Shit. Cocoa Entertainment. Lee Seo-jun!

O Seong-tae was half out of his mind as he talked.

“…Ha!”

He let out a breath he had been holding after the call ended. He burst into laughter.

He never expected this luck to come his way. He thought he would debut after spending all his money and making an independent film, and doing the dirty work for other directors.

“Lee Seo-jun… As long as I have Lee Seo-jun…!”

What is an independent film?

He could have debuted with a commercial film right away.

His friends who were murmuring looked at O Seong-tae as if he was crazy. He didn’t care about their looks and took out his laptop and sat in front of it.

“But…”

O Seong-tae lit a cigarette and fiddled with his laptop.

“What was The Unknown Painter about?”

***

Twenty minutes before O Seong-tae and Hwang Ji-yoon met.

Han Ye University campus cafe.

Hwang Do-yoon, who was holding a few sheets of paper in one hand and a drink in the other, looked around and found his younger brother sitting at a corner table.

“O Seong-tae, you’re making a movie with Seo-jun?”

Hwang Ji-yoon, who was tapping his laptop with a serious expression, sighed deeply and nodded.

“…Sigh. Yeah. I got a call from Cocoa Entertainment four days ago. They said they haven’t signed the contract yet, but Lee Seo-jun wants to star in it, so it’s almost confirmed. They haven’t decided whether to make it an independent film or a commercial film, but O Seong-tae wants to make it a commercial film. And if they make it a commercial film, they plan to fill the cast with Lee Seo-jun’s squad, get a lot of funding from the investors, and produce it. They’re going to upload it to Plus after they release it in theaters.”

Hwang Ji-yoon kept talking.

“They said they’re going to pick the extras and minor actors from Han Ye University students since it’s the same school. The staff who do the chores too. They said to send the application to O Seong-tae’s email by September 10th. Did they tell you O Seong-tae’s email address?”

Hwang Do-yoon blinked his eyes at the sight of his younger brother spitting out words. He was about to ask ‘Is it really a commercial film, not an independent film?’ for his next question.

“…No?”

Hwang Ji-yoon sighed again and focused on his laptop. The white monitor was quickly filled with black letters.

Hwang Do-yoon rolled his eyes at the sight of his unhappy brother and opened his mouth.

“They asked you a lot, huh?”

“Sigh, yeah. There are a lot of people asking and a lot of things coming in. There are acting majors too.”

“I see. They said they saw you a lot even though it’s summer vacation.”

They all came to school to get a small role because Lee Seo-jun was starring.

“They said they bragged about it everywhere as soon as they got a call from Cocoa Entertainment, so it must have spread to the related departments. They said there might be articles soon.”

Hwang Do-yoon nodded his head as he drank his drink. It was natural that Lee Seo-jun was starring. It was strange that it had been quiet until now.

“How’s the script? Are you writing well?”

“Yeah. I remember everything I read. I just have to write it.”

Hwang Do-yoon looked at Hwang Ji-yoon, who was typing hard, with pity. It was a rare look between siblings.

“Some people have no luck… Some people are making a work with Lee Seo-jun, and some people get hit by ransomware, have their external hard drive broken, and get their cloud hacked, and lose all their scripts and data.”

…Huh? Huh? Huh!? Aaaah!!!

Hwang Do-yoon remembered the day Hwang Ji-yoon screamed.

‘That all happened at once…’

Their parents, who knew the importance of data and backup well as IT-related professionals, said they should do a ritual. Hwang Ji-yoon ignored them with one ear.

“…Are you high?”

Hwang Ji-yoon raised his head and looked at his worst enemy. He glared at him with his eyes. Hwang Do-yoon quickly raised both hands. Hwang Ji-yoon’s eyes caught the papers in Hwang Do-yoon’s hand.

“What’s that?”

“Oh, this? O Seong-tae’s work summary.”

“What for?”

“Not for anything. I was curious what kind of work Lee Seo-jun chose, so my friend gave it to me. He said he was bragging about it everywhere, and when I read it, it was well written for him.”

Hwang Ji-yoon frowned for a moment and reached out his hand. Hwang Do-yoon handed him the paper.

“He wrote a good work, that O Seong-tae? The guy who always steals and plagiarizes other people’s works?”

“Speaking of which, you fought with O Seong-tae again, right?”

“No, O Seong-tae plagiarized a freshman girl’s work, right? The one who’s still squeaky and young!”

“Worth fighting for.”

Hwang Do-yoon nodded his head repeatedly as Hwang Ji-yoon looked at the paper.

[The Unknown Painter]

[Director: O Seong-tae]

[Painter role: Lee Seo-jun]

“Ha, he already wrote it all.”

He said he hadn’t signed the contract yet.

Hwang Ji-yoon tried to calm his petty heart.

But he couldn’t calm down. He wanted to go to Cocoa Entertainment right away and expose the misdeeds of O Seong-tae and his gang. But O Seong-tae’s gang had done it so cunningly that there was no evidence.

Hwang Ji-yoon sighed.

“If Oh Seong-tae succeeds, his future is clear…”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

It was obvious that there would be people who would lose their works to Oh Seong-tae.

“…Is this also stolen from someone else’s work?”

Hwang Ji-yoon flipped the first page with a suspicious look. The first sentence appeared.

Hwang Do-yoon was sipping his drink and fiddling with his phone. As expected, there was no news about Oh Seong-tae’s work.

“…This…”

“It’s better than you think, right? It’s hard to believe that Oh Seong-tae wrote such a work…”

“It’s mine!”

Hwang Ji-yoon jumped up from his seat and shouted, making Hwang Do-yoon spit out the drink that was in his mouth.

***

“Really? It’s really your script?”

“Yes! It’s my work, even if the setting has changed! It’s mine!”

Hwang Ji-yoon was snorting and running around the campus like a bull that saw a red cape of a matador. Hwang Do-yoon followed him.

“This crazy bastard, he even stole mine!”

“Hwang Ji-yoon. Calm down a bit…”

“There he is!”

As he had been for the past four days, Oh Seong-tae was at school today, receiving the admiration and envy of the students. He didn’t need to brag anymore, since the students did it for him.

“Crazy! You’re the only one who made a commercial film from your debut.”

“And the lead actor is Lee Seo-joon, right? Isn’t that a guaranteed ten million?”

“How much money do you make?”

“They say Lee Seo-joon’s troupe actors might join, too?”

Oh Seong-tae shrugged his shoulders and said casually.

“Well, that’s my opinion, but I guess the director’s opinion matters a lot in casting. I hope Kim Jong-ho or Lee Ji-seok would take the role. Well, if not, other actors are fine, too. Like Park Jung-hyun?”

The other actors that Oh Seong-tae mentioned were also high-class.

Wow, it was enough to make an involuntary exclamation.

“I’m thinking of making it into a theme park like Escape after building the set.”

“Wow! Can you afford it?”

“Hey. Don’t you know that Plus’s vice president is in Lee Seo-joon’s troupe? Plus has so much money!”

“Really crazy!”

It was an amazing thing for the debut film directors, let alone the college students who hadn’t even debuted yet.

“Now Seong-tae’s path is full of roses!”

“If you shoot this work, you’ll be in Lee Seo-joon’s troupe, too, right?”

“Yeah! Then you might go to Hollywood later!”

“What do you mean later? I’ll be known all over the world after shooting this!”

Hollywood.

That word made Oh Seong-tae’s heart beat wildly, who had only thought of the domestic film industry. Yeah. He thought he could do anything.

The students around Oh Seong-tae were excited and chattering as if they were Oh Seong-tae themselves.

“That’s right! Seong-tae senior’s work is so good that Lee Seo-joon liked it! It will definitely work overseas, too.”

“Hwang Ji-yoon is just making a fuss about plagiarism or something, but Seong-tae senior is good from the start!”

“Right. That senior always does that. He says it’s his work without any evidence!”

Oh Seong-tae’s body flinched slightly at the name of Hwang Ji-yoon, but no one noticed it in the noisy atmosphere.

“Seong-tae! Do you need any staff? I don’t care where!”

“Senior! Please let me do it, too!”

The students of all ages clung to him, and Oh Seong-tae was immersed in a sense of superiority. Hwang Ji-yoon saw him.

The work was the first priority.

He glared at Oh Seong-tae fiercely, and Oh Seong-tae smiled and said.

“Hwang Ji-yoon. What do you mean by calling me a son of a bitch? A son of a bitch. That’s why they say the film department is a mess.”

“You’re a son of a bitch, so I call you a son of a bitch. What did you say? You were using my laptop to search for something, but you were stealing my work?”

“Don’t talk back to me… Well, never mind. And like I said before, I was just searching for something for a moment.”

“What are you carrying your phone for?”

“…Hwang Do-yoon.”

Oh Seong-tae looked at Hwang Do-yoon, who went to the same middle school as him.

Hwang Do-yoon also smiled fiercely like Hwang Ji-yoon. They were siblings who were programmed to fight from birth, but only I could tease my brother.

“I didn’t have any battery then.”

“Oh, really. You don’t have any friends to lend you a phone, do you? Well, you were like that in middle school, too.”

You were stealing other kids’ stuff and got caught, so you had no friends.

Oh Seong-tae clenched his teeth and smiled brightly. He was not the stupid self he was back then.

“So, what’s similar between your work and mine, Hwang Ji-yoon?”

“First of all, the main character is a nameless painter.”

“Well, nameless protagonists are rare, but they exist, right? And there are also many works where the protagonist is a painter.”

The others nodded at Oh Seong-tae’s words.

Hwang Ji-yoon suppressed his boiling anger and continued.

“There’s more. The point that the painter’s actions are observed from the perspective of another protagonist.”

“Third-person observer perspective works are not nonexistent, either.”

The nearby students spat out the names of the works they learned in class.

“The fact that the protagonist painter can’t draw.”

“There’s always a trial for the protagonist. If the protagonist is a painter, not being able to draw is the biggest trial, right?”

“The relationship between the painter and the observer is bad, too.”

“The relationship that was bad at first meeting and gradually gets better is also a common one in movies.”

…The problem is that they are all in one work. You son of a bitch.

Hwang Ji-yoon gritted his teeth at Oh Seong-tae’s calm answer. And Oh Seong-tae kept rebutting point by point.

“People’s imagination is limited, you know.”

“Right. Do you think you’re the only one who can come up with a good work?”

Hwang Ji-yoon’s expression faded at the students’ murmurs. Oh Seong-tae smiled leisurely and said.

“My observer in the work is a child, what about you?”

“…No.”

“Then, what’s the evidence that you wrote it before me?”

None.

‘But if only the data hadn’t disappeared…’

He thought he might have been able to find it.

‘No. Maybe not.’

Unlike Hwang Ji-yoon, who had both the painter and the observer as adults, Oh Seong-tae’s painter and observer were an adult and a child.

‘The events may be similar, but the dialogue between adults and adults and the dialogue between adults and children must be different.’

Oh Seong-tae looked at Hwang Ji-yoon, who closed his mouth, and raised his lips and said.

“There’s no evidence. And isn’t it too hasty to accuse me of plagiarism or something based on the plot alone? The plot has a lot of omitted parts, and the character’s personality and important scenes may be different.”

A good work.

“Of course, I’m not saying that I plagiarized. I’m just telling you to be careful from now on.”

Thank you. Hwang Ji-yoon.

“Don’t bother innocent people.”