When I Opened My Eyes I Was a Superstar - Chapter 114

# 114

Act 1, Scene 1 (1)

“I want to receive a proper apology.”

Koo Cheol-min, who was driving, glanced at Do-wook in the rearview mirror at Do-wook’s cold tone. It was the first time I heard that tone of voice.

Gu Cheol-min asked Do-wook who hung up the phone.

“…Who gets it like that?”

“Reporter.”

“reporter?”

“yes. Reporter Choi Seong-jun. That interview was sent…”

“What? No, why that bastard again! “He contacted you directly?”

Gu Cheol-min got excited. As a manager, I felt bad just because there was a reporter who contacted me directly instead of through the manager, but when the reporter even said that he was ‘Reporter Choi Seong-jun’, it was natural for Goo Cheol-min to get angry.

Koo Cheol-min worked under Director Oh Baek-ho and had a friendly and kind image, but when he got angry, he became quite ferocious.

“What did he say?”

“They said they were apologizing.”

“what? “Can’t I just apologize and wipe my mouth?”

Gu Cheol-min huffed. Dowook calmed down Gu Cheol-min.

“That’s why I said I also wanted to receive a proper apology.”

“good job! But… how?”

“I want to meet you.”

“what? “We met for no reason…”

Gu Cheol-min glanced at Do-wook and expressed his concern.

‘I still wanted to meet you and apologize more formally. There’s something I want to say…’

That’s what reporter Choi Seong-jun answered when asked to meet.

‘That’s what I wanted to say…’

Do-wook planned to meet reporter Choi Seong-jun and receive an apology for this incident. And they also planned to use him to bring down Seo Kang-jun.

“Do not worry. “Is Baekho going with you this time?”

“Oh, Chief? Well then, I don’t have to worry… Anyway, considering that bastard wrote your article maliciously for no reason…”

The car driven by the grinning Gu Cheol-min had already arrived at the square in front of City Hall.

There were about five groups of singers performing at today’s event. Dowook was scheduled to sing two songs to decorate the ending stage.

“A lot of your fans came today too…”

“I see.”

Do-wook parked the car and entered the tent built as a simple waiting room, looking at the situation outside. There were a lot of fans holding key ring cheering tools. More fans than usual attended the event.

It was the first event since the interview caused controversy on the Internet. Fans were worried that Dowook might lose energy due to the unnecessary controversy.

Fortunately, with today’s article, the controversy disappeared and more people became aware of Dowook’s great personality, but fans were still worried.

So, with the mindset of ‘I’ll definitely go today and cheer loudly!’, we gathered one or two people at a time, and the number of people ended up being larger than usual.

“Uh…”

Do-wook, who was entering the tent, stopped as he saw the people greeting each other inside. There were a lot of people wearing black suits and the surroundings were very busy.

When Do-wook stopped, Gu Cheol-min, who was looking at what was going on, said.

“I think the handsome celebrity over there is Seojun, who is the MC today… Who is next to him? Does he look like someone high up?”

Dowook, who was a little surprised to hear that the MC for today’s event was Seojun, quickly nodded.

After 〈Lovers of the Sun and Moon〉, Seo Kang-jun focused more on his image as an actor rather than a singer through his personal activities.

The entertainment programs he occasionally appeared in were mainly cultural programs, and he always maintained a neat and tidy appearance to create a luxurious image.

Seo Kang-jun’s fans followed him, calling him ‘the merciful emperor.’

Currently, the next drama has been confirmed, so although Man to Man was losing out to KK, it felt like Seo Kang-jun himself was continuing to do well.

Do-wook turned his gaze to the person who was greeting Seo Kang-jun.

“Oh… it looks like the mayor of Seoul…”

Since it was an event hosted by the city of Seoul, it seemed like the mayor himself came out to greet the main participants.

Originally, this time was not scheduled, but the mayor of Seoul, who arrived a little earlier than the event time, suddenly said he wanted to meet the cast in the waiting room, so it was created.

There were two feelings that politicians had toward celebrities.

There were many people who looked down on them, thinking they were far below them. However, at the same time, politicians were also people who thirsted for public popularity more than anyone else. In that respect, there were many people who tried to become friends with popular celebrities.

And keeping friends with celebrities also became a symbol of power. It wasn’t for no reason that celebrities were invited to a drinking party and made to serve them drinks, pretending to be drinking buddies.

Above all, Dowook knew full well that politicians and celebrities were involved in dirty things through sponsors.

It wasn’t something that happened directly at Q Entertainment, where Kim Bo-myeong worked, but I often heard that female celebrities from other small and medium-sized entertainment companies were brought in.

For that reason, Dowook did not feel good when he saw politicians trying to become friends with celebrities.

In addition, since Mayor Go Gyeong-hoon was a college classmate and a member of the same golf club as Ara Entertainment’s general manager Seo Jung-won, Do-wook could not possibly view Mayor Go in a positive light.

‘Director Seo Joong-won’s hand… how far on earth has it reached…’

After greeting Seo Kang-jun, Do-wook looked at the mayor of Seoul approaching him with an indifferent gaze.

“Hehe, Go Gyeong-hoon.”

“hello.”

Dowook withdrew his indifferent gaze and politely greeted Mayor Go Gyeong-hoon.

“Thank you for appearing. Please enjoy today’s performance.”

“yes.”

After shaking hands, Mayor Go Gyeong-hoon wrapped his hand over Do-wook’s and again wished him well.

As we shook hands like that, I felt a stinging gaze from behind.

“It feels like it’s been a while since I last saw you.”

“That’s right, senior.”

Seo Kang-Jun neatly dressed in the suit he wore as MC and naturally stood next to Do-Wook.

When Mayor Go Gyeong-hoon and the suit corps assisting him left the tent, the tent became much larger. Seo Kang-jun raised the corners of his mouth as he recognized the fact that others were glancing towards him and Do-wook.

“I heard things are going well these days.”

Do-wook looked at Seo Kang-jun with dumbfounded eyes as he laughed and said something sarcastic.

Now, he was not hiding his malicious intent with Seo Kang-jun. Do-wook had a clear reason, but it was safe to say that there was only one reason why Seo Kang-joon felt malice toward Do-wook.

Being better than yourself and daring to criticize yourself. For that reason alone, Seo Kang-jun, an immature human being, was showing malicious intent.

When Do-wook did not give any reply, Seo Kang-jun laughed and provoked Do-wook.

“How long do you think this will go well?”

“Iknow, right.”

“what?”

“I was asking you how long you think you will continue to thrive.”

Seo Kang-jun raised his eyebrows and distorted his face at Do-wook’s words. However, he soon became aware of his surroundings and relaxed his expression.

Do-wook even found Seo Kang-jun’s pretentiousness funny.

“Then I’m busy doing well.”

Do-wook walked toward where Gu Cheol-min had prepared a seat in front of the table with his name written on it.

Seo Kang-jun glared at Do-wook’s back.

“That bastard…”

Seo Kang-jun suppressed the anger rising up, spitting a low curse between his lips. From Seo Kang-jun’s perspective, Do-wook was truly a thorn in his eye.

If it weren’t for Do-wook, Seo Kang-joon would have been the only talent with outstanding acting skills and popularity among idol-turned-actors.

At a time when it was absurd that Man to Man was pushed out by KK, it was hard for Seo Kang-jun to bear the fact that he had to share his attention as an actor with Do-wook.

His father, General Manager Seo Jung-won, also disapproved of Do-wook.

‘This was a good opportunity to ruin that bastard’s image… but he slipped away like a loach…’

Seo Kang-jun bit his lower lip and walked out of the tent.

Newspatch maintained a good symbiotic relationship with Ara Entertainment. Instead of reporting paparazzi shots of Ara Entertainment’s celebrities, the news patch first released Ara Entertainment’s major news.

Of course, kickbacks also came and went frequently. Ara Entertainment mainly gave money to Newspatch to silence them.

At a drinking party with the News Patch director, Seo Joong-won, head of the headquarters, secretly shared his negative feelings about KK and Kang Do-wook.

He was the director of Newspatch, who was well aware of the rivalry between the two groups.

I also knew that Ara Entertainment was recently exhausted because Man-to-Man was not performing as well as expected.

“I would be very grateful if Director Chae would just pay attention.”

“Aha… We can’t make up words that don’t exist. “Kang Do-wook is very popular these days, so there’s nothing good about turning your back on him.”

“Is Kang Do-wook the only star? Is it because you’re scared of corner stores like Hit Enter? “Director Chae, I didn’t look at it like that, but you’re smaller than I thought.”

“If I go to the supermarket and buy something, will anything happen to me?”

“Why are you doing this unless you’re working for a day or two?”

“Well… I’ll see if I get a chance once in a while.”

Anyway, publishing an article full of ‘aggro’ wasn’t going to be a big problem.

Rather, it would attract a large number of clicks and increase advertising revenue, and it was obvious that a small place like Hit Entertainment would not be able to respond in any significant way if a half-hearted apology was made.

***

A few days later, reporter Choi Seong-jun was waiting for Do-wook at the meeting place.

I would apologize, but there were some parts that needed to be explained. In fact, the article that Seongjun Choi wanted to write was not about that kind of content.

The article that was published as a correction was originally written by Choi Seong-jun.

It was true that he had an antipathy toward idols, so he conducted the interview in a crooked manner simply because he belonged to the idol category, but he had no intention of publishing an article like that.

During the interview, Choi Seong-jun had to see Do-wook again, even though he didn’t want to admit it.

No matter how crookedly the questions were asked, the answers that came back were all straight. Preconceptions about idols inevitably crumbled in front of the ‘real’ person.

It was the manager who chopped up Choi Seong-jun’s article.

“Are you going to drive clicks like this? Reporter Choi. “Is Kang Do-wook a bad person?”

Seongjun Choi couldn’t help but be embarrassed when he handed over the review of the article to the manager and got it back.

“If you leave it like this…”

“What! Reporter Choi worked as a social affairs reporter, so I guess he doesn’t know much about it, but this is how it sells. “It should be like this.”

It was exactly what the manager said.

Once the article was published as edited by the manager, it received a huge number of clicks. At the same time, controversy over Kang Do-wook’s personality quickly spread.

Choi Seong-jun felt fortunate to be able to publish a corrected article.

However, Seongjun Choi felt that he was also responsible for conducting the interview with that type of question. I wanted to apologize properly for that part.

As Do-wook remembers, he was the older brother of a victim of school violence by Seo Kang-jun.

Choi Seong-jun’s younger brother was subjected to violence at school by Seo Kang-jun using subtle techniques, and his body and mind were devastated.

Choi Seong-jun’s younger brother, who was already weak, could not bear Seo Kang-jun’s bullying and attempted suicide.

Fortunately, the suicide was an attempt, but normal social activities were impossible. After dropping out of school, my younger brother lived alone in his room.

Choi Seong-jun and other family members had to live in shock and disappointment as they watched their youngest child like that.

However, because Seo Kang-Jun was harassing her so cleverly, she could not proceed with the complaint. It was a fight I was sure I would lose.

Meanwhile, Seo Kang-Jun debuted as an idol.

Choi Seong-jun, who was working as a social affairs reporter, was just as shocked as when his younger brother attempted suicide. The guy who had trampled on his younger brother’s life was on TV smiling brightly.