When I Opened My Eyes I Was a Superstar

A FaceNote post popped up on the cell phone screen.

It was a post from just a few days ago.

Poster: Jung Soo Ji

Latte World trip to celebrate school break lol

#BoMyung #Yumi #JungMinCross

The uploaded picture was a group picture in front of the merry-go-round at the amusement park Latte World. Do Wook furrowed his brows as he looked at the picture. He couldn’t understand it at all. In the picture, four female students were smiling brightly while holding up a V sign with their hands.

‘Which one…is Kim Bo Myung?’

Kang Seo Hyun sent two links. Confused, Do Wook clicked on the next link.

It was another FaceNote post from Jung Soo Ji again.

Kim Bo Myung fell asleep with her mouth open after eating cup ramen in the study room lol

#KimBoMyung #Ifyoufeelwrongedyoucantakeapicturetoo

-Hey, Bo Myung must have been very tired loll. Top students are something else~~~

-Kim Bo Myung is working too hard…haha

-Does Bo Myung know this was posted? lolol She don’t even do FaceNote.

-Best picture ever lol

This time it was a picture of a female student with short hair sleeping with her head on the table in the study room lounge, as the caption described. It was the student who was on the far left in the previous picture.

Do Wook was frozen in place, mind blank. An employee passing by in the hall saw Do Wook in that state and looked at him suspiciously. Do Wook gave a stiff bow and greeted her. Even as he was greeting her, his mind was only filled with thoughts about the picture.

Do Wook called Kang Seo Hyun again and asked for a detailed explanation on how she found Kim Bo Myung.

First off, she found the middle school Seo Kang Jun attended. Along with Seo Kang Jun’s fame, more and more people were popping up all over the internet saying they used to go to school with him, and one fan even released a graduation picture of him, so it was easy to find out his middle school.

Then, through communities, she found the graduation album for the year Seo Jang Jun graduated from middle school.

Although only few in number, there were people who wanted to buy the graduation album so they could keep Seo Kang Jun’s graduation picture. Thanks to that, nobody thought it strange that someone was looking for it.

However, acquiring it took a lot of effort. She had competition so she had to pay quite a bit of money. Of course she resold it to an actual Seo Kang Jun fan after getting the information she wanted from the graduation album.

She was able to find Kim Bo Myung within the list of students in the graduation album.

Senior year, Class 7 Kim Bo Myung. There was but one student with the name Kim Bo Myung.

Then, she found the FaceNote page of the Class 7 students, and went from one link to another trying to find Bo Myung’s FaceNote page by any means necessary. However, she was certain that Bo Myung unfortunately didn’t use FaceNote.

Whenever she had time, she searched and searched all over FaceNote, scrambling for any traces of Kim Bo Myung as if she were playing a mobile game. She started looking for Kim Bo Myung through the email address written on the graduation album at the same time. That was how she found the person.

“Still…it’s possible that this student isn’t…”

-It’s not the person you’re looking for? I’m pretty sure it is…Kim Bo Myung isn’t a common name.

“…That’s true.”

Do Wook muttered absent-mindedly.

Either way, it was still hard to believe. Do Wook stared at the female student in the picture again. He was living in a world where his soul and life were switched. It finally crossed his mind that everything might not be as he thought.

‘Where is the original Kang Do Wook’s soul, and why did I end up entering this body of all things.’

He was stunned as the thoughts he had been repressing started to surface one by one.

‘I’ll have to go verify this myself.’

Do Wook recalled his past self’s face, in other words Bo Myung’s face. It might be because some time had passed, but for some reason it was hard for him to recall his face.

He worried that his original body and related memories might be erased at this rate. Once he started thinking about it, he really missed his parents.

One side of his heart started to throb. It felt as if the longing and fear he had been hiding came flooding in.

He even remembered the sight of his parents kneeling to Seo Kang Jun’s parents in the principal’s office.

Once he remembered up to that point, it was hard for Do Wook to be still. Kim Bo Myung, who hadn’t been able to do anything, had cried as he hid and secretly watched that happen.

Do Wook shook his head. He came to the painful realization that nothing will change no matter how sad he was about it.

‘I’ll go as soon as I have time. I’ll start with looking for the female student in the picture.’

Determined, Do Wook moved on.

***

First place for 10 consecutive weeks.

It was a new record.

‘Very Sorry’ created a boom with its additive song and choreography.

The public was saying KK was able to get first place because singers who were capable of preventing them from getting first place were out of the picture on overseas tours, preparing an album, etc. They were certainly lucky with their timing, like robbing a vacant house, and luck is a skill too.

Even if there were other artists around, they probably would have still been able to get first place for at least 6-8 weeks.

Anyways, at the end of their 10th consecutive week of first place, KK finished up their activities for their first full-length album. Since the activities for ‘Very Sorry’ went on an especially long time, they were planning on not doing activities for a follow-up song.

Instead, they decided to release a repackage album a month later with just one additional song, and do a short one- to two-week-long additional activities.

The additional activities were for fan service, but the reason for releasing it as a repackage album was simple. The repackage album sales still got counted among the first full-length album sales, so it was a way to increase the album sales.

After finishing their goodbye performance at the final music broadcast, the KK members and core employees had a small company dinner.

The company dinner was held at the meat restaurant near the company. Since the company dinner included the members, they looked for a restaurant that had private rooms. The organizer of the company dinner was Kwon Heung Jo, the Production Director.

Director Kwon sat in the centermost seat with Manager Oh Baek Ho and PD Yong Soo Chul sitting next to him. The Album Production Team Leader Shim Joon had plans, so he called saying he’d join afterwards.

“PD Yong. Thanks to you, I feel very reassured.”

Director Kwon thanked Yong Soo Chul first as he took a sip of water.

Yong Soo Chul was receiving a lot of recognition for his composing and producing skills after making one successful album after another for Hit Entertainment Agency singers like KK and Monster. He was on the rise as a producer that lots of singers or producers sought out for the best songs.

His trademark gold chain necklace was getting thicker and thicker. It was blinding.

Yong Soo Chul laughed. He didn’t say anything to acknowledge it, but he didn’t outright deny his contribution.

He had released a series of hit songs. He had gotten affirmation that the current trend was clearly loving his artistic instincts.

Director Kwon scoured through the menu that the server brought.

The members were treading on eggshells as they swallowed their saliva. This meat restaurant was known for their Korean beef. However, the members saw the price list and assumed ‘today’s menu must be pork belly’.

“The raw rib eye, 14 servings for now please.”

Everyone’s eyes sparkled when they heard Director Kwon give the order to the server.

Director Kwon added to the members that they can order more food if it’s not enough. When they were told that they could eat as much as they wanted, the members applauded and said “thank you’ in unison.

Truthfully, the KK members were in a position deserving to eat Korean beef like this. KK was now the company’s cash cow.

While waiting for the meat, Director Kwon encouraged the KK members.

“Thank you all for your hard work during the active period.”

“Thank you!”

Jung Yoon Ki replied as a representative for the members. Director Kwon had a pleased smile.

“Yes. It must have been especially hard for you as the leader, Yoon Ki.”

“Not at all. They all followed directions well…”

As he replied, Jung Yoon Ki looked at Ahn Hyung Seo for no reason. Ahn Hyung Seo complained, mouthing "Why, what, why!"

"Good. The company of course made it their goal to make KK the best. There were many who felt it was impossible, but you guys are doing a great job regardless…”

Director Kwon briefly chose his words. He was a founding member of HIT Entertainment. He was working with a large entertainment production team when he was scouted by the CEO.

In other words, he was working as a team leader at a large company like Samsung and then became the president of a neighborhood no-name hole-in-the-wall shop, but of course, the opposition from people was severe.

However, Director Kwon had his own aspirations.

In a large agency, there was a clear limit to what aspects he could be involved in. Director Kwon wanted to cross that line and wanted to taste the joy of seeing a person you ‘personally produced’ from the ground up become a star.

In reality, the thrill he felt when Milky Way, whom Director Kwon had been with from the planning stage, became incredibly successful was an indescribable feeling.

Milky Way and Monster after that. How much he was involved was different, but regardless, stars were born from Director Kwon's hands.

Colleagues he worked with at the large agency fell behind due to bad networking as well as internal politics, eventually moving to a different company. Even those who made it to a high position considered rapid retirement after clawing their way up.

Meanwhile, HIT Entertainment grew from a small agency to a mid-sized company.

The problem was growing from a mid-sized agency to a large one. Director Kwon intended to put HIT Entertainment on a bigger market through KK.

He had a lot of concerns as he made plans, and those around him told him not to overdo it too much.

It was because it was difficult to squeeze into the market that the three major powerhouse agencies had already established to a certain extent. Skills, luck, capital. You couldn’t be missing even one of those.

Despite that, Director Kwon was thinking ‘It's worth trying’.

Not long ago, they were contacted by an investment company who wanted to invest capital in HIT Entertainment. It was currently the thing they were lacking and needed the most.

Director Kwon wasn’t directly involved since it was a vice president level decision, but he had heard that the meeting with the investment company would happen soon.

"KK is growing faster than the company anticipated."

Director Kwon looked at each member one by one. He made eye contact with Do Wook.

‘Maybe it became worth the try after recruiting Do Wook as a new member through auditions?’

Suddenly, an idea engulfed Director Kwon.

Director Kwon knew that Do Wook had drawn in a lot of attention for various reasons from before his debut up to after his debut, because he had heard people talk about it. Do Wook was also a co-composer of the song ‘Very Sorry'.

As if reading Director Kwon's thoughts, Do Wook looked at Director Kwon with sincerity.

"That's why we plan on making small adjustments to the previous album plans and our overseas expansion schedule that we made."

"Is the overseas expansion happening earlier?”

After returning from their Japan performance, they had received invitations to several future overseas performances. Manager Oh Baek Ho, who was expecting it a little, asked.

"We’ll have to talk about it again in a meeting later, but most likely. We will also sign a contract with Japan within this year to release an album."

"Is the Japanese expansion in association with the Nakamoto group?"

It was Do Wook who spoke. Entering Japan was difficult without a contract with a local record company.

The record company you choose and how you lock down favorable terms is incredibly important. Once the topic of Japan was brought up, Do Wook mentioned ‘Nakamoto Group’ as if he had prepared in advance.

The biggest companies for expanding into Japan were Nakamoto and Aio.

Currently, Aio was a bigger company, but Aio would end up falling under poor management later. Consequently, it would affect the promotion and album sales of contracted Korean groups. Q Entertainment, where Do Wook used to attend, had also suffered from this problem.

"Nakamoto and Aio, we’re in talks with two companies but… Do Wook, are you familiar with the Japanese market too?”

Director Kwon, who was in fact talking to two companies, asked back in surprise.

"Oh, I remember reading an informative article about it on the Internet. The article said Nakamoto has stability.”

"You seriously surprise me every time we meet Do Wook."

Do Wook hoped that his words would have an impact when Director Kwon chose a company to sign with.

"You were interested in that aspect too? That's impressive."

Oh Baek Ho was in awe, as was Director Kwon. Having no way to answer, Do Wook gave a vague smile. Fortunately the meat they ordered came out at that moment.

***

A few days later, Do Wook, who was in the recording studio preparing for the repackage album, headed toward the conference room after being called by Oh Baek Ho.

In the conference room, Lucas was sitting with Oh Baek Ho.

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