When I Opened My Eyes I Was a Superstar

“I’m Kang Do Wook.”

“Nice to meet you. I really wanted to meet you, and here you are.”

Director Seo Joong Won shook hands with Do Wook.

The moment his hands touched Director Seo Joong Won’s, Do Wook felt goosebumps all over his body.

‘If Seo Kang Jun is the devil, this person gave birth to that devil. To think that I have to shake hands, though briefly, with such a person.’

It felt like his hands were rotting, but Do Wook didn’t show his feelings.

He was simply more expressionless than usual. He greeted him politely as he would any other adult.

Seo Joong Won observed Do Wook sharply.

M2M, a group Ara Entertainment ambitiously produced. KK who was getting in the way of M2M. No matter how much he thought about it, the reason KK got ahead of M2M and won the Rookie of the Year award couldn’t be any other than because of this person Kang Do Wook.

‘It’s a shame that we missed out on someone like this. How did he end up in HIT Entertainment…’

That was the first thing he thought of as Ara Entertainment’s Director and de facto President.

He’d watched KK’s performance and had seen them in the Yoo Sung Electronics advertisement, but now that he was seeing him in person, Do Wook was much more impressive.

Of course he was more handsome than the camera could do him justice, but he had some kind of ‘spirit’ with a gaze that seemed to be focusing on something.

It was a presence that was hard to feel in his son Seo Kang Jun.

‘I heard he composes too. It’s true that it’s a shame we missed out on him.’

Seo Joong Won thought after exchanging greetings with Do Wook.

‘But even if he were in our agency…with Kang Jun’s personality, he wouldn’t be able to stand the sight of someone better than him.’

Seo Joong Won knew his son well. He had raised him that way.

It was ok if he were conceited. However, if he wanted to be conceited he would have to be the best.

And even if it was a shame, he couldn’t turn back time. Kang Do Wook was HIT Entertainment agency's celebrity.

He was simply one of the countless people they had to step on for Seo Kang Jun to become the top celebrity of his generation.

The gaze of Seo Joong Won, who had turned around, was like a snake.

Looking at Seo Joong Won from behind, part of Do Wook’s heart felt burning rage.

‘Seo Kang Jun, … It’s not just Seo Kang Jun’s downfall. I have to destroy the source that gave birth to that devil too.’

The back door opened and TBN Broadcast Studio’s President and the Director of the Drama Department came in.

“Oh…Mr. President, Mr. Director!”

PD Shin quickly walked to the door and greeted them.

Based on how PD Shin greeted them, the cast couldn’t help but know the identities of the two elderly middle-aged men. All the cast members were overwhelmed by the major figures showing up and hesitantly got up from their seats.

Director Seo Joong Won, who happened to be in front of them, exchanged greetings with the two of them.

“I guess Director Seo has beaten me here.”

“Yes sir. He came with Ms. Joo Min Ah.”

“Ah ha! Ms. Joo Min Ah. It’s been a while.”

Joo Min Ah, who was standing on one side of the room, tactfully approached them and exchanged greetings with the President. She seemed to be on friendly terms with the Director too.

The cast who didn’t have any connections with the higher-ups were blankly watching the scene unfold.

Do Wook, who had come to the table read without a manager, and the female lead, who was chosen through auditions, were the most out of the loop.

“What brings you here, sir…”

Only once PD Shin asked, did the President greet the cast and say,

“There are very high expectations for this drama. So I came to say hello.”

PD Shin greeted him, then the writers expressed their gratitude, then the cast followed.

It seemed like it was such an anticipated project that even the President came to visit.

After the President greeted Do Wook, the female lead, the main cast, and a few of the veteran actors, he asked them to give it their all.

It was like a courtesy greeting. Do Wook felt a little tired.

“Then I’ll stop bothering you and head out. Thank you all again.”

Once the President said his final goodbyes, the Director of Drama helped him and opened the door. Director Seo Joong Won joined them.

“Let’s go, Director Seo.”

“Yes. I made reservations for lunch today.”

“Ah. Any restaurant you recommend always tastes great!”

The three of them could be heard talking in the hallway as they got further and further away from the room.

It seemed like Director Seo Joong Won was treating the TBN President and the Director of Drama today.

After the uneasy vibe had settled, the table reading started in full swing.

“This is Part 1 Scene 1!”

The Assistant Director yelled and started reading the script.

Inside a loud classroom. Male high school students are rambunctiously playing. In the back of the classroom students are playing leapfrog, and there’s even a student with his head down on his desk and sleeping.

After showing the entire classroom, a close-up of a student with his head down, sleeping.

“Hey, Min Ki! Min Ki! Wake up!”

The first line was said by Kim Min Ki’s friend. He read the script, pretending to shake his shoulder.

Because he was famous as a theater actor, everyone naturally expected Park Dong Hui to be good at acting, and they were proven right.

Even though he only said one line, he brought a mischievous male high school student to life.

Do Wook swallowed hard.

His voice had to sound like he had just woken up. He said his first line as if he were clearing his voice so it wouldn’t sound hoarse.

“Why, what’s going on?”

A low voice as if having just woken up flowed out from Do Wook’s mouth.

‘Oh?’

The cast, who were seeing Do Wook act for the first time, were a little surprised deep down.

“This isn’t the time to sleep. Things are crazy in the classroom next door!”

“What’s going on in the classroom next door?”

“Yeon Joo, your best friend, is…”

“What, did she hop a fence again following an idol?”

Han Dong Hui and Do Wook’s dialogue progressed smoothly like flowing water.

It wasn’t a part that required much skill, but everyone could feel it.

‘They’re good!”

Kang Do Wook was very natural and could hold his own against Han Dong Hui. Additionally, his low voice was very pleasing to the ear.

The cast, who were decently good actors, could already tell that the drama would be successful, no, that actor Do Wook would be successful one day regardless of the drama’s success.

***

Do Wook, who had made headlines recently when he was accepted to the KNUA, made headlines again with his first attempt at acting.

(TL Note: An idol who goes into acting.)

As Do Wook expected, thanks to the favorable reviews Seo Kang Jun gained through , the public’s opinion on idols going into acting wasn’t bad.

Additionally, there were already expectations established that Do Wook must be good at acting to a certain degree because he was accepted to the KNUA.

A majority of the comments in every article was cheering for Do Wook’s drama filming.

However, it was only regarding Do Wook himself. Expectations for the drama itself were not very high.

It was because, looking at the characters and planning intention, you could tell it was close to a family drama instead of the mini series dramas with young male and female leads that were popular these days.

Do Wook didn’t particularly dwell on the fact that the drama didn’t draw a lot of attention.

‘It’ll snowball after the first broadcast airs anyways. Every day will beat the previous day’s rating record.”

He felt that knowing the future could sometimes make a person complacent.

To avoid that, Do Wook always reflected on himself after gaining some mental stability.

‘I can’t make a drama that’s supposed to succeed become a flop because of me.’

So he put in a lot of effort.

He was busy because it was pre-production. Still, compared to other dramas that were filmed in front of a live audience, the schedule was better.

“Do Wook, they said the next scene is the last scene for today’s shoot.”

“Is that so?”

One corner of the set that was an exact replica of a 1999’s neighborhood. Gu Chul Min approached Do Wook, who was sitting on the staff chair and going over the script in preparation for the next scene.

Gu Chul Min was a road manager that Hit Entertainment had newly hired.

His physique wasn’t big for a manager, and he was rather on the meek side, but he was also someone who had passed Manager Oh Baek Ho’s rough interview.

Contrary to his spaced-out appearance, he was known to be a very capable person when it came to security.

In any case, Manager Oh Baek Ho was less burdened since hiring Gu Chul Min.

It was really fortunate that he was hired before Do Wook or Jung Yoon Ki’s individual schedules started ramping up. The newly hired Gu Chul Min was assigned to manage Do Wook’s drama filming for now.

“It looks like we’ll be done around 10?”

“It seems so. That’s a relief.”

Do Wook thought as he checked the time.

Today was the first broadcast of ‘Show Me the Honey’ that Jung Yoon Ki was in. The members had decided to gather in the dorm and watch it together.

The group chat room on Do Wook’s cell phone was bustling in anticipation of the first broadcast.

Do Wook also had high expectations for Jung Yoon Ki’s show.

It hadn’t aired yet, but Jung Yoon Ki was currently participating in the broadcast with a live audience.

The results were decided through voting in the concert hall during the live broadcast, and even if he were eliminated at the first performance next week he would still be in the Top 10.

‘As long as there aren’t big changes, he has a chance of making it to even runner-up…’

Do Wook smiled proudly as he thought about it.

“You don’t have filming for the drama tomorrow, but you have a different urgent shoot scheduled.”

“A shoot?”

“Yes. The chicken ad with all KK members that Manager Oh has mentioned before. When they were trying to figure out the schedule, tomorrow was the only day that worked so they set it for tomorrow.”

“Ah······.”

Do Wook nodded his head. He felt like he had heard about it in passing. Like the school uniform advertisements, chicken advertisements had recently become an ad popular idols had to film at least once.

Gu Chul Min felt sorry even though it wasn’t his fault. He hadn’t been working with Do Wook for long, but he could feel the weight of Do Wook’s busy life even within that short time.

Even when Gu Chul Min was resting while they waited, Do Wook tirelessly looked over the script again or worked on composing while listening to music.

It was his first job after getting discharged*. Like most Korean men, Gul Chul Min had believed idols had it easy. However, looking at Do Wook, he realized it wasn’t easy for them.

(TL Note: In Korea, males have to do 2 years of mandatory service in the military.)

Gu Chul Min could see why he was so successful.

“I’m sorry when it’s your first day off in a while.”

“Huh? Why are you sorry?!”

“Haha. Just. I’m just sorry.”

Gu Chul Min scratched the back of his head.

The Assistant Director then approached them and told Do Wook filming would start soon.

It was when Do Wook was getting up from his seat.

From one side of the filming site a staff member’s cellphone ringtone started to go off.

“Who left their ringtone on when we’re about to start filming? How unprofessional!”

It was the Camera Director who yelled. The Camera Director was the oldest and most experienced person on site. As the Camera Director, who was on edge because of the continuous filming, yelled, the staff scrambled to find the source of the sound.

In the meantime, the ringtone continued to play.

The ringtone was a famous Chanson.

Contrary to the chilling atmosphere, it was such a famous Chanson that Do Wook was singing along with the ringtone without realizing it.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”

One of the filming staff yelled and quickly turned their phone off.

“We’re starting Scene 43! Places everyone!”

The Assistant Director yelled. Do Wook handed the script to Gu Chul Min and went on to the set.

Pop, a passing thought came into Do Wook’s mind the same time the lights that were off switched on.

—