In This Life, The Greatest Star In The Universe

Translator: MarcTempest

Editor: Rxel

Chapter 82

A lobby decorated with marble.

Woojoo was observing a group of animals in there.

They were animals with the scientific name of siblings, and their main features were handsome faces and long arms and legs.

And they made a sound of ‘wow’ and ‘ah’ as they looked around.

“Wow, look at that, guys.”

The lowest-ranking individual in the group pointed at the elevator far away with a fuss.

“Look, there’s a fountain too.”

“Should we put a coin and make a wish?”

“Hyung, do you think we came to play at an amusement park, uh… the vacuum cleaner that lady is using is the latest model…”

And among these fools, the only intellectual who kept his sanity was him, Seon Woojoo.

Woojoo asked incredulously, “Is this so amazing?”

The answers came back right away.

“Yes.”

“Of course.”

“Are you not amazed, Hyung?”

Bijoo nodded as if he agreed.

“Hyung, this is where you’ve been for six years, but we’re amazed. We only heard about it, it’s our first time coming into a large agency.”

“Is that so? I just feel like I came back to the school I graduated from.”

The entrance of the agency that led the Korean wave was splendidly decorated, but it was not that great to his eyes.

Woojoo came here too many times and got sick of it.

And he didn’t leave on a good note last time, so he wasn’t very pleased with the space itself.

“Wow.”

Woojoo wondered what this wow was about, and followed the eyes of the siblings with a smile, and soon realized what they were looking at.

The pictorials on the wall.

There were dozens of photos of celebrities, who could be called the signs of the company, spaced evenly apart.

And the most eye-catching place was the pictorials of eight TNT members, who boasted the best popularity.

With Han Taehyun, who had a smug smile, as the center, there were not only TNT members, but also familiar faces everywhere.

Trainees who didn’t become idols, but changed their careers to actors, models, singers, etc., and his classmates.

Woojoo felt a strange feeling as he looked at them, who went a different way from him, who pursued only the idol life.

“Huh? Look at that empty spot, Hyung. Maybe a new picture is going up.”

“Where?”

“There. The best spot after the TNT seniors.”

Jiho pointed to a large frame leaning against the wall below.

Woojoo explained to the curious siblings.

“Maybe someone is coming to sign a contract today.”

“Really?”

“It’s an event that TJ does when they recruit celebrities. They meet in the lobby and show them the pictorial hanging up, then go up to the president’s office and stamp the contract with a bang, and then give them a tour of the company. Well, something like that.”

“Wow.”

“Come on, what’s so amazing about this?”

In the end, it was concluded with another wow.

Now, while the siblings were curious about who the protagonist of that picture was, Seokhwan came back after writing the visit log.

“What are they looking at and getting so excited about?”

“Someone is signing a contract today. Look, they’re preparing a picture.”

“Oh.”

Seokhwan glanced at the spot where the pictorial would hang and said casually, “It must be a big contract. Look at the location.”

“Right, who is it?”

“I don’t know. There’s no singer who can hang there right now, it must be an actor. There are so many listings in the FA market these days.”

He closed his mouth with that.

A group of people came out of the elevator.

It was time to go back to the mode of sparing words, as Woojoo did at the broadcasting station.

“Hyung.”

Bijoo, who was staring at the pictorials, asked Woojoo, “If our picture gets hung up, where would it be?”

“I don’t know.”

The answer that they wouldn’t be able to hang up at their level was on the tip of his tongue, but he didn’t bother to say it out loud.

Woojoo had to protect his innocence.

That was why he smiled and pointed his finger at a random spot.

“I’ll be somewhere over there.”

***

They arrived at the seventh floor and were immediately guided to the conference room of TJ New Media’s advertising department.

On the wall of the spacious meeting room, where they could see Cheongdam-dong at a glance, there were advertisements that they had produced, hanging like trophies.

In front of them, there were two men with glasses, looking neat and professional.

They were the AEs, or the advertising planners, who were in charge of this ad.

Their job was to communicate between the advertiser, who ordered the ad, and the production team, who handled the filming. They also supervised the overall production of the ad.

They were like the PDs in entertainment shows or dramas.

Maybe that was why they all had bloodshot or tired eyes.

The man on the right, Manager Kim, smiled awkwardly.

“Sorry for the mess. We should have greeted you with a better look, but we’ve been so busy preparing for the PPM. The schedule is tight and we have no time to spare.”

They nodded and smiled sympathetically, as they could relate to the situation.

The meeting started right away.

“This is the concept of the ad. What you need to focus on, New Black, is the ad storyboard that we’re giving you now.”

As the deputy handed out the storyboard, Manager Kim explained.

“You probably already know this, but this ad won’t be aired on TV. We’re going to distribute it mainly on SNS platforms. You know those ads that pop up before you watch a YouTube video?”

“Yes, we do.”

“That’s how it’s going to be.”

Soon, the storyboard was placed before their seats.

Woojoo felt a surge of pride as he saw the words ‘Ad Model – New Black’ printed on the freshly printed paper.

And at the end of the storyboard, where there were countless titles and names of the ad agency, production, AE, AD, PD, CD, CW, and so on, one name caught his eye.

Advertiser – KG International

It was the company that owned the school uniform brand ‘Everdream’, for which they were the models.

Before they met with the advertisers last time, Woojoo had searched them up and found out that they were a trading company under the KG Group, a conglomerate.

They had a wide range of business fields, such as raw material trade, clothing, hotel management, and so on. They were the models for the school uniform brand, which was a minor part of their clothing business.

Of course, it was a small fraction of their sales, but they felt a bit pressured by the image of a conglomerate.

Was that why?

As Woojoo carefully flipped through the storyboard, he listened attentively to the explanation from the agency.

“The advertiser wants to shed the old image that the brand has had. According to our research, the keywords that come to mind when people think of Everdream are mostly ‘school uniforms that parents choose’, and ‘old-fashioned’. To break away from that prejudice, this ad will be different from the previous ones. It will have a unique concept.”

He elaborated.

“Since the core target of the ad is teenagers, we’re not going to go with the clichéd CFs that only show you being cool and fancy. We’re going to use a dramatized concept, with an interesting story inside.”

“A drama? So there’s a story?”

“Yes, it’s different from a normal ad. You can think of it as a short film.”

An ad with a story like a drama.

***

From the perspective of the viewer, it seemed like a very interesting concept.

The problem was whether they had the ability to pull it off.

Since Jiho was the only one among them who had proper acting training, Woojoo couldn’t help but ask a slightly worried question.

“Is there any need for emotional acting…?”

“No, there isn’t.”

The deputy sitting on the left waved his hand and said, “We also took into account that you are newcomers, so there are only one or two scenes that require serious acting. The rest are all content that you can handle in everyday life. The goal is advertising, not drama, so you don’t have to worry about that.”

“However, I hope you understand that the more prepared you are, the more discretion the director and the advertiser will have on the spot.”

He meant that he didn’t ask for anything difficult, but he hoped that they would prepare very hard.

Seokhwan, as the person in charge, answered on their behalf.

“Yes, we will prepare well so you don’t have to worry.”

As he said that, they started to flip through the script.

It was amazing.

They had seen scripts for variety shows while doing broadcast activities, but this was a completely different kind.

It was drawn like a comic, so easy to understand intuitively.

Each scene was marked with ‘#1’ and so on, and there was a narration of what dialogue was needed.

As Woojoo read, he could picture the advertisement in his head.

Wait a minute.

This was a bit of a strange content.

Woojoo was looking at it easily with his eyes, but he felt like he couldn’t process it in my head.

It wasn’t crazy or twisted, but it wasn’t the typical content that you would think of for a school uniform advertisement.

The material was very unique.

“It’s unique, isn’t it?” The other side smiled and said, “Actually, we also provided various ideas when we prepared for the competitive PT, but we didn’t expect the advertiser to choose this one.”

Woojoo could see why.

It was surprising that a conservative conglomerate chose this kind of advertisement.

Woojoo looked over the content again and asked, “So, the kids in the script are magicians, right?”

“Yes, the story of magic school students. That’s the concept of this advertisement.”

They were told to look through it once before they got into the formal meeting, and they flipped through the script calmly.

The sound of paper rustling filled the quiet conference room.

The advertisement content was simple.

It was a short story of the mishaps that happened to magic school students as they learned magic.

The beginning was especially impressive.

If it came up as an advertisement on YouTube, you would pause for a moment before pressing the skip button.

It was light, but not too light.

As they looked at the content, their eyes became more serious.

Woojoo was also focusing on it.

Woojoo looked at it once, then skimmed it backwards. He tried to get a feel for it by imagining what kind of content it would be.

He thought.

This.

It feels…

“How is it?”

The AE asked them how they liked the advertisement content, and they all sorted out the words that came to their minds.

The sound of paper rustling echoed in the conference room.

Against the backdrop of the sunlight coming in through the window.

Their youngest was looking at the script with a very unfamiliar expression.

Not with his usual blank face, but with a very serious face.

He looked at the narration several times, like a person who checked the OMR card several times while taking an important exam.

He didn’t answer when they talked to him.

It felt like they shouldn’t interrupt him, so they waited for him to finish.

He was like that for a while, and then he finally closed the first page and looked up.

They all turned their eyes to him.

The two AEs asked him the same question they had asked them.

“How is it?”

“It’s interesting, but…”

He finally opened his mouth and explained what they had felt very simply.

“It seems too good to waste on an advertisement.”

The mood brightened up after that, and they were able to finish the meeting in a friendly atmosphere.

“Yes, then I’ll see you on the shooting day.”

As they were packing up and sorting out the documents, the manager, who had been loosening his sleeve buttons and catching his breath, came over as if he had something to say.

“By the way, this is just a friendly heads-up.”

“Oh, yes.”

He looked around as if no one was listening.

“It seems that the staff at KG International have changed, and they are reviewing the business sector a lot. They seemed to be very meticulous about everything. Especially the person in charge of this advertisement, he was so passionate that he paid a lot of attention to the details.”

He was trying to be discreet because of the location, but his roundabout words meant this:

The executives of that company have changed their lineup, and they are checking whether their work is profitable and running smoothly.

And they are doing it very intensely.

Because of that atmosphere, the advertisement manager was also freaking out over every little thing, so you guys should be careful.

Seokhwan and Woojoo nodded.

“Thank you for telling us. We’ll do our best to prepare.”

“Yes, please do.”

They finished the meeting and left the conference room.

Woojoo handed over the continuity to Seokhwan, afraid that it might get lost, but their youngest looked very disappointed.

“Ugh, it was so fun.”

“Was it that fun?”

“Didn’t you guys think so? I was totally focused on it.”

He did.

He felt a bit weird when he recalled the scene he saw earlier.

It was strange to see their kid, who usually giggled all the time, suddenly quiet and staring at the continuity.

“I imagined all kinds of things while watching it. It seemed like there were a lot of things to add later, and it felt like a prologue?”

“Really? I just thought it was fun.”

The other siblings agreed with Woojoo’s opinion.

“It’s a shame to leave it as an advertisement, but I don’t know if it’s that good.”

“Me neither. Isn’t it just a Harry Potter knockoff?”

“I still don’t know what the story is about. It was fun, though.”

“Ah, I’m frustrated. This feels like there’s something more to it…”

Their youngest was saying that when the ignorant brothers were annoyed.

They left the advertising agency office and went to the lobby, but something was weird.

The staff at the desk were gone.

And there were people gathered in front of them, making a lot of noise.

“Wow. Amazing. How can a person look like that?”

“So, did the contract go through today?”

“I think so, the director is taking him around and showing him the inside of the company.”

The staff who had greeted them with a calm face when they came were now whispering with sparkling eyes.

Even the staff who were in the office came out and joined the crowd.

***

They tilted their heads at the sight.

“Who’s here?”

“Maybe it’s the person who was trying to hang a poster on the first floor earlier.”

“Oh.”

It must be him.

Woojoo was going to wait until the crowd dispersed, but he decided to head to the elevator, considering the time for the next schedule.

When he was halfway behind the crowd, he couldn’t help but open his mouth wide at the figure in front of him.

“Wow.”

It was the thirteenth wow he heard today.

But this time, it was justified.

The person who was greeting the people surrounded by them was one of the hottest top stars in Korea right now.

Actor Lee Gyeonwoo.

He rose to fame last year as a guard who loved the princess in a fusion historical drama, and then he became a Hallyu star earlier this year with a life role as a painter with superpowers.

He was a person who showed his face on the entertainment section almost every day, so they were also amazed.

And his appearance.

“Wow…”

Woojoo had never seen anyone so handsome before.

His head was very small, and his eyes, nose, and mouth were unrealistically placed.

TV really couldn’t capture the real thing.

But that admiration was only for a moment.

Woojoo scratched the back of his head at the sight of the person next to Lee Gyeonwoo.

He was there too.

A middle-aged man with a calm expression, wearing a luxury suit and gold-rimmed glasses.

He was Han Yeongjun, the general manager who told him that he was kicked out of the debut team when he left TJ Entertainment.

It wasn’t a bad memory, but he felt a strange feeling.

Junghyun asked Woojoo, “Do you know him, Hyung?”

“Yeah.”

“Should we say hello… Oh, it’s hard.”

Woojoo was going to say hello and go, but there were too many people around.

It would be awkward to go through that department store bargain sale scene to announce his existence.

“We’ll be late for the next schedule. Guys.”

“Yes, sir.”

Woojoo gave up on waiting for the timing to greet them and walked around the hallway.

Someone in the crowd noticed them and called them first.

It was the Hallyu star, Lee Gyeonwoo.

“Huh? You’re New Black, right?”

How did he know them?

Woojoo was about to greet him with a big smile.

But next to him, Han Yeongjun recognized Woojoo and widened his eyes.

“…Seon Woojoo?”