Become a Star

The barags had found a screenshot from one of the die-hard fans of ‘O! Phelia’ of the post that Park Yeon-Ah had uploaded to social media a few years ago. As a fellow enthusiast, that fan wrote a heartfelt comment that she empathized with Park Yeon-Ah’s feelings. With that, the barags had decided on Yeon-Ah’s gift, but their task at hand was to look for the limited edition pictorial and figurine. With much difficulty, they finally managed to get their hands on it three days ago. Luckily, they were able to get the items cheaper than they had expected from a Korean website that acted as a platform to sell used items. But for some reason, it felt a little bitter because they could sense a mother’s resolve to get rid of her child’s collection coming from the seller.

Having received the best gift, Park Yeon-Ah thanked the barags and asked them how they managed to obtain the pictorial. If, by any chance, they had spent too much money on it, she was more than willing to pay for it herself instead. Technically speaking, even though the pictorial was cheaper than the hairpin that Woo-Jin had gotten for her, it was the best present in terms of value and efficacy.

After the birthday party was over, Wish Baragi gave each of the actors and staff members a two-tiered boxed lunch. There was a drawing of a genie coming out of the lamp like smoke on the cover of the boxed lunch. The cute genie with black hair and round black eyes seemed to be a Chae Woo-Jin inspired character. People knew how Woo-Jin’s fanclub’s name, Wish Baragi, came about so they smiled gently when they saw it. However, each boxed lunch contained a card with an individualized message to its recipient and their name.

Kang Min-Ho’s card read: ‘I thought you were a rather goofy person after seeing you on Huntsman, but you seem a little scary in the drama. You’re such a great actor who can play characters with distinctly different personalities! Choi Joon is scary, but I like Kang Min-Ho oppa~!’

“It would be nice if she added a heart at the end of the sentence. Guess she doesn\'t draw hearts for just anyone?” After reading the sentence that matched the round handwriting, Kang Min-Ho looked at Park Yeon-Ah as he smiled broadly. When he saw Park Yeon-Ah looking rather serious as she read her card in silence, he quietly glanced over her shoulder and looked at its content.

<I saw Memories of the Forest [1] and I thought you were truly a wonderful actress. Since then, I’ve always had faith in every single one of your plays and saw them all. Regardless of the role you took on stage, you’ve always been beautiful and shone brightly. And that’ll remain the same no matter where you go. You always make the right choices.>

The word ‘fighting’ was written next to a drawing of two clenched fists at the bottom of the message. [2]

Even though she was currently shooting a drama, Yeon-Ah had always missed acting on stage and wondered if her choice to pursue acting in dramas was an act of betrayal. Despite the fact that everyone had supported and praised her for doing a good job, she was constantly worrying about that by herself. Seeing how the person who wrote the message seemed to understand her feelings and was telling her that it was okay, Park Yeon-Ah started to get choked up. She gently rubbed her eyes and kept the card.

Everyone was preoccupied with reading their cards before they started eating, so Lee Min-Soo took his card out of his boxed lunch and read it.

<Choi Kang’s acting is indistinguishable from reality! I’m always keeping a lookout for your activities in Blue Fit and drama appearances.>

Lee Min-Soo felt kind of strange - he didn’t know whether the note was a compliment or an insult. Lee Min-Soo’s character, Choi Kang, was an immature and egotistical person. He was not exactly a bad guy, but he was definitely not a good person. And the person who wrote the message simply said they were keeping a lookout for his activities without saying that they liked it or anything along those lines. Hence, it sent chills down his spine; even more so because he felt as though he had received a similar letter in the past before. However, Lee Min-Soo’s train of thought was immediately interrupted by Park Yeon-Ah’s exclamation.

“Wow~! It’s my favorite smoked duck and chilled jellyfish salad.” After opening up her boxed lunch, Park Yeon-Ah was delighted to find her favorite food. The beef seaweed soup that was specially prepared and only given to her for her birthday was still warm. [3] Apart from the main dishes, all the other dishes consisted of her favorite food.

Kang Min-Ho assumed that since it was Park Yeon-Ah’s, Wish Baragi had only prepared foods she liked for all the box lunches, but to his surprise, he found his favorite grilled eel in his boxed lunch. He quickly took a look at the boxed lunches of the people around him and noticed that the contents were different.

Since Woo-Jin was not a picky eater and ate all kinds of food, his boxed lunch contained balanced and nutritious side dishes. The roasted garlic at the side was a little strange but he figured it was meant to be eaten together with the meat. The barags had prepared the boxed lunches so meticulously he felt bad eating it without them. Earlier, Woo-Jin had asked the Wish Baragi members to join them but they shook their heads in unison. Putting his happiness aside, he was choked up just thinking about what they had done and felt as though he might not be able to digest his food properly.

Even though most of them were older than him, it felt like they were younger than him when they blushed and acted very shy. Hence, Woo-Jin became gentler and more friendly towards them. The barags could also sense Woo-Jin opening up to them and treating them more warmly. It was a moment where they shared an unspoken communication and were considerate of each other’s feelings.

Just then, Lee Min-Soo interrupted them as he approached and greeted them. “Thanks for the boxed lunch. It’s your first time doing something like this; it must have been hard, right?” Just like what Chae Woo-Jin had done the day before with Blue Hole, Lee Min-Soo expressed his gratitude and waved at the barags.

For a moment, the barags who saw him froze on the spot and couldn’t do anything. However, that pause was very short and only the other members noticed those barags being shaken up. 70% of the barags who had shown up today on behalf of Wish Baragi to distribute the boxed lunches were the original members. In other words, seven out of ten of them were people who hated Blue Fit. And the remaining 30% were juniors who had been well-educated by them, even though it was over a short period of time. As expected, they followed their seniors and hated Blue Fit unconditionally.

They quickly observed and read the ambience between Woo-Jin and Lee Min-Soo. Regardless of how much they hated Blue Fit, if Woo-Jin wanted to heal the rift between them and get along with them, Wish Baragi would respect his wishes; they had no reason to make any fuss. However, the way Woo-Jin looked at Lee Min-Soo was dry and indifferent. They could tell at one glance that his current emotions were strikingly different compared to when Kang Min-Ho and Park Yeon-Ah were present. There was no need to look at Lee Min-Soo’s reaction; Chae Woo-Jin was the most important person to the barags, so they only cared about his feelings. After clearing up the confusion, the barags did a navel bow [4] and greeted Lee Min-Soo politely.

“Nice to meet you.”

After greeting him and telling him ‘I hope you enjoy the meal even if it’s not up to your standards’, they simply stared vacantly at him. For a moment, Lee Min-Soo was thrown into confusion and was at a loss for what to do next when Woo-Jin’s fans didn’t make any moves after greeting him. It wasn’t that he wanted them to call him ‘oppa’ and follow him around like everyone else, but at the very least, he thought the barags would have asked for his autograph and taken photos with him like they had done with Kang Min-Ho and Park Yeon-Ah earlier.

“What’s wrong?” Woo-Jin broke the silence and awkwardness that had been present for quite some time and looked at Lee Min-Soo, as though he was asking if he had anything else to say.

“Nothing. I just came over to say hello.”

Lee Min-Soo had come over thinking about what had happened between his fans and Woo-Jin yesterday, but in the end, he returned to his seat feeling lonely. Ma Do-Hee, the president of Wish Baragi, spoke to Woo-Jin in a very soft voice as she looked at Lee Min-Soo’s back. “It’s our first time seeing an idol in person, so we feel very awkward and didn’t know how to treat him. Did we come across as cold and disrespectful by just greeting him? What if you’re close friends and Lee Min-Soo gets upset later because of us?”

Woo-Jin shook his head gently at Ma Do-Hee, who had lied in a natural way about seeing an idol for the first time.

“Rather than being rude, you were overly polite. And also, even if his feelings were hurt, we’re not that close to even talk about something like that in the first place.” The barags subconsciously clenched their fists when Woo-Jin shrugged. They smiled happily after realizing that they were right about Woo-Jin and Lee Min-Ho’s relationship.

The actors looked at each other’s food in admiration when they found out that each of them had received different boxed lunches. The barags had prepared their favorite food for all of them; the attention to detail had made the actors very happy. Kang Min-Ho snooped around, taking pleasure in looking at the different boxed lunches. He took a look at the quiet Lee Min-Soo’s boxed lunch.

“That looks like deep-fried ginseng. Ah! Didn\'t you say that you really liked eating it on TV before?”

Kang Min-Ho recalled Lee Min-Soo had appeared in one of his favorite TV programs that showcased famous restaurants. On the show, Lee Min-Soo had mentioned that he liked deep-fried ginseng as he enjoyed a plate of it. Kang Min-Ho nodded and said, “Woo-Jin’s fans are truly so meticulous. Ginseng beef roll, stir-fried octopus, and grilled abalone? They’re all delicious food.”

“Exactly. Would you like to have some?”

“No, it’s okay. I have eel!”

Lee Min-Soo forced himself to smile at Kang Min-Ho who said that he loved eel more than anything else, and reluctantly picked up the spoon. Lee Min-Soo’s boxed lunch contained all the food he had eaten and said he liked on the show. In truth, he hated bitter food, as well as the slippery texture of seafood, but he had lied about it on TV. He loved anything sweet but didn’t want people to find out that he had a child-like taste when it came to food, so he had lied.

Somehow the boxed lunch didn’t contain any of his favorite food. It was truly amazing how the barags had managed to avoid every single one of his favorite foods.

Regardless of what he said on air, Lee Min-Soo’s fans knew his taste in food very well. Even though he had lied to cover up his child-like taste in food, his fans felt that Lee Min-Soo was absolutely adorable.

Seeing how Woo-Jin’s fans could have found out if they had spent a little more time looking into it, Lee Min-Soo cursed inwardly as he called them callous. There was nothing he liked about Chae Woo-Jin’s fans.

“Wow! They have even tailored the staff members’ boxed lunches according to their dietary needs – whether they have diabetes, high blood pressure, or simply on a diet.” Kang Min-Ho looked at the staff members’ boxed lunches after seeing that everyone had received different types of boxed lunches. He couldn’t stop marveling at how meticulous Woo-Jin’s fans were.

Even though their boxed lunches were not uniquely different like the actors’ ones, they had prepared separate ones for the staff members who had special dietary needs. It was amazing how the boxed lunches were catered to their specific needs and all the food they had prepared was delicious. Woo-Jin’s fans hadn’t ordered these boxed lunches from a catering company.

“Seriously, Woo-Jin’s fans are incredibly sincere and devoted. Come to think of it, they had written messages to the staff members as well.”

It didn’t just stop at the boxed lunches; the barags had also prepared a handmade lip moisturizer and hand cream in a pretty paper bag with a picture of a cute genie on it, as well as soap and scented candles.

The paper bags given to the actors had cute stickers of the faces of their characters in City of Shadows on them, and the ones for the staff had stickers of drawings of cute characters, instead of photos, on them – the sound crew’s character was holding a recording device; the art crew’s characters were either holding a brush, a camera, or a light reflector. Needless to say, they were each given a shopping bag with a sticker that matched their profession.

Since the drawing style was not consistent across all the stickers, it seemed like the fans had divided the labor and drew them one by one. It was an arduous task for just one or two people, so that meant that several people had participated. While the celebrities had received a lot of tributes from fans, it was their first time seeing fans being so meticulous towards other people.

In truth, it didn’t matter what the staff thought, but for other celebrities, the fans’ tributes might not be as pleasant for them. As people of the same profession, there were many times they felt a sense of relative deprivation as the tributes did not suit their tastes and only catered exclusively to the specific celebrity.

A good example would be the food truck prepared by Lee Min-Soo’s fans the day before. Everything they had seen and touched had Lee Min-Soo and Blue Fit’s faces imprinted on them. It made other actors feel uncomfortable because it felt like Lee Min-Soo’s fans were trying to imply that the other actors were lesser than their idol, thus making them feel upset.

However, the drawing of the Woo-Jin-inspired genie coming out of the lamp was so cute and it wasn’t used excessively. Additionally, their photos didn’t look bad next to his. More importantly, judging from the food and personalized cards, everyone could tell how much effort and attention to detail they had put into the preparation. They felt as though they had been treated with sincerity, and they felt very touched. They were also envious of how Chae Woo-Jin’s fans treated him, as well as how important he was to them.

1. One of Park Yeon-Ah’s plays. ☜

2. Koreans say ‘fighting’ (pronounced as ‘hwaiting’) to cheer someone on. It’s equivalent to ‘good luck’, ‘you can do it’, or ‘fight on’. ☜

3. In Korea, seaweed soup is traditionally eaten on birthdays or after giving birth. ☜

4. It’s a formal respectful bow that is mostly used by women in uniform, especially flight attendants and salespeople. They clasp their hands together at the navel position when bowing. ☜