Superstar From Age 0

Seo-jun turned on a YouTube live stream as background music and replied to the birthday messages from his acquaintances that arrived right after midnight.

He received messages from Kim Jong-ho and Lee Ji-seok, who were filming in the US, to Hollywood actors, Korean friends and acquaintances. Seo-jun's fingers were busy typing.

He didn't forget to watch the YouTube live stream from time to time.

After 15 minutes, the movie theater in the live video changed.

The seats were a bit narrower than before, but the enthusiasm was the same.

[This is Busan, south Korea!]

It was a movie theater in Busan.

The person in charge of this place told the sprouts who were sitting in the seats that they were on live broadcast and paused the screening of [48 Hours]. Then, he gave a short time to send a birthday message to Seo-jun.

The sprouts raised their voices in unison as if they were singing along.

[Seo-jun! Happy birthday!]

The movie theater location would change every 15 minutes like this.

And after an hour, they would leave Korea and go through Japan, the US, and other countries, planning to circle the globe.

Seo-jun groaned at the sight of new fans.

“I don't think I can sleep…”

He had enough stamina to stay up for a day, right?

As Seo-jun was pondering, he received a message with a thud.

-Ahn Da Ho: You're not planning to stay up all night, are you?

-Ahn Da Ho: Go to sleep within an hour.

“That's what they call ghost-like.”

Seo-jun smiled faintly and fell into thought.

He had to go to school tomorrow.

He had classes to attend and a daily life to live, so he couldn't watch the live video even if he wanted to. He thought he could only watch it comfortably now and in the evening.

‘Sorry, Da Ho hyung!’

Seo-jun apologized in his mind and sent a reply to Ahn Da Ho-

[Okay! I’ll go to sleep soon!

He turned off the lights so that his parents wouldn't worry and turned on the desk lamp on his desk.

Then, he quickly wondered if there was any suitable ability among his abilities.

From an ability that was like an energy drink that pulled out his future stamina to an ability that made him feel like he slept well even if he slept for a short time, to an ability that restored his physical and mental strength even if he didn't sleep.

“I didn't think I’d use them here.”

They were originally things he remembered for when he became an adult and had overnight shootings.

Seo-jun recalled his abilities and made a plan.

He would listen to the fans’ birthday messages after the movie theater changed in the live video, then fall asleep right away and wake up with only his abilities.

He thought he could get up within 10 minutes.

Seo-jun looked at the fans in his fine pad.

They were all smiling happily while watching the video.

They didn't hold back their reactions as some noise was allowed, though it wasn't as noisy as a sing-along screening where everyone sang along.

It was a cheerful and happy sight that made the viewer smile involuntarily.

A moment later.

The movie theater in the live video changed.

As soon as Seo-jun heard the fans’ birthday messages, he closed his eyes and headed to the Library of Life.

He saw two doors.

A normal-sized door and a huge door that he had to look up at.

The small door was the door to the library where all the books from low-grade to high-grade were gathered, which Seo-jun usually visited, and the very large door was the door to the library where the highest-grade books that had not yet been opened were located.

Seo-jun shrugged his shoulders as he looked up at the highest-grade door with a sore neck.

“It won't open anyway. I’ll try it tomorrow.”

He had no time to hesitate. Seo-jun entered the Library of Life and quickly brought out the ability he had thought of and woke up from his sleep.

The movie theater hadn't changed yet.

Seo-jun sighed with relief and activated his ability.

[(Good) Night Watchman of White Nights-Middle Grade-is activated.]

[(Good) Night Watchman of White Nights-Middle Grade]

You are a watchman who protects the land where the sun never sets.

For a certain period of time, it restores your physical and mental strength even if you don't sleep.

Maximum time: 240 hours

***

Morning came.

There were quite a few articles since midnight on March 10th, but from when people woke up and moved around, articles poured out in earnest. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

It was an unprecedented event where fans from all over the world participated, so it filled up the entertainment section articles and was mentioned in the morning news, and from 6 a.m. when the 6-hour Imit was reached, the reviews of the sprouts (domestic and foreign) also started to be posted.

[This year is epic! Actor Lee Seo-jun's birthday event!]

[The world is screening actor Lee Seo-jun's works right now!]

[24 hours a day! This is the class of a superstar!]

[Birthday messages are pouring out on SNS too!]

-…This is really epic.

-They must have prepared a lot for this. They had to negotiate with movies and dramas and rent movie theaters. They also needed people to manage it.

=22 The effort is amazing.

=333 The planning skills too. Normally, you wouldn't even think of such a scale;;;

-Is this only for Seo-jun's fans? It's free, right? I want to see it too.

=?? only sprouts.

-Is there anyone who can watch it for 24 hours straight?

=I can spend 24 hours on games.

=When I cram for exams. I stay up all night and go take the test???

=22 But when I get home, I pass out right away.

=The world record for not sleeping is 11 days and 1 minute. You could probably endure it, but your physical condition would get much worse.

-Is anyone going to faint?

=??? They make a list and kick them out as soon as 6 hours pass. And they immediately notify other regions so they can't go to other movie theaters.

=They’re really thorough;;;

=It's Seo-jun's birthday, they can't let bad articles come out! All the sprouts think the same.

-I watched until 6 a.m. and just came in. I'm going to sleep soon.

=Wow. What did you watch?

=The Royal Physician. It was really good to watch it on a movie theater screen after watching it on a small TV. But there was a 6-hour Imit??I couldn't watch it all and came out. The last part, the treatment scene and the upper body scene, I really wanted to see them on the screen??

=Upper body??

-Did they also hand out tissues at the theaters?

=Tissues are essential when watching Seo-jun's movies.

-The Survivors screening was a mess.

=??Why??

=???What???

=They were supposed to play the theatrical version, but they played the director's cut. It was originally theatrical version-break time-director's cut. But the director's cut came out first.

=No one noticed at first because it was the same??but uh… uh… uh?? And then Ian Weaver died.(expressionless)

=…lol???

=Wow… that's a bit harsh????

=…The seats were filled with shock and horror. That silence was really… (A sprout who watched it at that theater)

=I was going to come out during the break time after watching only the theatrical version…(A sprout who watched it at that theater2)

=…But I ended up watching it till the end. They all acted so well. I couldn't take my eyes off them?? (Sprout3)

=Then I healed myself with the release version. Ian Wish?? Hyunwoo-ya?? (Sprout4)

-Even the emergency exit guide video at the theater was fun.

=I laughed too??One step??

=222 Is this an emergency exit guide video or a movie viewing??

=But it definitely stuck in my head.

-During the break, seo-jun also played the Christmas music show where he appeared as a baby angel??

=Blue Moon music video and music show too??We all sang along with the light sticks??

=22 It felt like an idol concert???

=Everyone is a fan of Lee Seo-jun?? Why do you know the lyrics of Blue Moon??

-Sunlight's fan-made video was also shown??

=It was so powerful on the big screen. That's why I ordered a beam projector as soon as I got out of the film department.

=?????

***

Ding. Ding.

The phone rang.

At that sound, two objects started to squirm in the dark room where no light came in through the blackout curtains.

One on the bed, one on the floor.

The object on the bed stretched out its hand outside the blanket, then groped around on the blanket to find the source of the sound.

“Ugh… What is it… What time is it?”

“Quick… Turn it off…”

Lim Ye-na and Song Yu-jung squirmed with sleepy voices. It was too noisy. Who was calling at this hour?

But what time is it? We came in at 6 a.m., so… Uh… Why did we come in at 6 a.m.? Oh, seo-jun's birthday… It was fun… But I feel like there was something else to do today…

Suddenly, the two people who were squirming under the blanket stopped moving.

Their half-dreamy minds became clear and cool as if they had eaten a candy cane.

“Delivery!”

Lim Ye-na and Song Yu-jung shouted and jumped up at the same time.

Their eyes sparkled as if all the sleepiness had flown away.

Lim Ye-na quickly answered the phone.

“Yes, yes! You can leave it at the door!”

As expected, it was the delivery man. Song Yu-jung, whose hair was messy from sleeping, looked at Lim Ye-na with an excited face.

“He said it's on the first floor!”

“Woohoo!!”

Clap clap. Song Yu-jung, who was clapping with joy, looked at her phone.

“But why isn't there any contact for mine?”

“It must be different for each neighborhood. We made the reservation together, so it’ll be here soon.”

“You think so? Ugh. I wish it would come quickly.”

Lim Ye-na smiled and turned on the light in the room.

“But how long did we sleep?”

“Judging by how hungry we are, I think we slept quite a long time. What do you want to eat?”

Song Yu-jung picked up her phone to order some delivery food and Lim Ye-na pulled back the blackout curtains.

A clear and blue sky appeared. Lim Ye-na, who was admiring the scenery, paused for a moment.

“But if the sun is over there…”

“…It's already 4 p.m.?!”

It was already 4 p.m. They had slept for 10 hours.

“It feels like we just wasted a day. It’ll be hard to adjust our day and night cycle.”

Song Yu-jung shrugged her shoulders and said in response to Lim Ye-na's sighing words.

“It's the weekend now, so we can adjust it little by little, right? What do you want to eat?”

“Chicken?”

“Chicken right after waking up… Good choice!”

While Song Yu-jung ordered some chicken through the delivery app, Lim Ye-na brought in the delivery that had arrived at the front door.

“Wow…”

“It's just a cardboard box.”

Lim Ye-na and Song Yu-jung burst into laughter.

Their hearts were fluttering with excitement, and even a small thing or a joke made them laugh.

They carefully opened the cardboard box with a knife and saw three photobook boxes and two light stick model boxes among the filler materials.

Unlike the photobooks, which had no resale date set, the light stick models were planned to be sold continuously, so Lim Ye-na had only bought two for now.

Lim Ye-na took out one of the photobook boxes.

It was a box with a pastel-toned green and white gradient that looked like a fluffy cloud.

“Open it! Open it!”

“Wait a minute…”

Lim Ye-na peeled off the vinyl of the photobook box with careful hands, like a doctor performing surgery.

Song Yu-jung held her breath and watched her.

The cover of the photobook was white, and in the center, seo-jun's name was written in green.

[Lee Seo-jun]

[SEO-JUN LEE]

Song Yu-jung's eyes sparkled at the graceful font that looked like it was handwritten with a brush pen, not a stiff typeface.

“Did Seo-jun write this himself?”

“I think so? But I need to put a cover on this. It's pretty in white, but it’ll get scratched easily.”

“Well, maybe the skilled fans will upload some cool covers? Like the transparent photocards. Make sure Seo-jun's name is visible.”

…Wow!

Lim Ye-na raised her thumb with a snap.

Just as Song Yu-jung was about to burst into laughter, the doorbell rang.

“Is it the chicken? They came really fast!”

“Who would order chicken at this time?”

“That's true.”

Song Yu-jung went to the door and came back with the chicken. And then the two of them faced a dilemma.

Chicken or photobook?

“What if we look at the photobook and get so absorbed that the chicken gets cold?”

“Let's eat first.”

Song Yu-jung and Lim Ye-na, who were gazing longingly at the photobook, quickly prepared to eat. Their eyes and ears were bored, so they went to the YouTube channel [Sprouts] that was still live streaming.

“Where is that?”

“Isn't it somewhere in Europe?”

The two Sprouts marveled at the sight of the diverse sprouts filling the movie theater.

They knew that Seo-jun was a global superstar, but seeing the sprouts’ faces with their own eyes made it feel real.

“What are they watching?”

“Judging by their reactions… Over the Rainbow?”

Lim Ye-na guessed by looking at the moved audience's reactions to Song Yu-jung's question.

At that moment, a violin melody flowed from the speaker.

The two of them laughed.

They ate the chicken, cleaned up the table, and washed their hands.

In front of Lim Ye-na and Song Yu-jung was a box with a light stick model.

The photobook was pushed back again.

“How should I put it… I want to see it, but I also want to save it for later?”

“I feel like I want to see it later because I'm nervous and excited.”

They felt like they wanted to postpone it a little because their hearts were too full and fluttering before seeing it.

“And I think we’ll be looking at the photobook for hours.”

Lim Ye-na's words made Song Yu-jung nod her head repeatedly.

So they decided to open the light stick model first.

They knew what the light stick model looked like because it was posted on [Sprouts], but they were still excited.

“The box is the same as the photobook.”

A pastel-toned light green cotton candy was drawn on the box.

Lim Ye-na carefully opened the box.

A round half-sphere model that could be connected to the light stick handle came out.

Inside the snow globe-like half-sphere, the bottom was green like a meadow and there was a tree in the middle.

It was a tree that had grown from a tiny sprout.

Song Yu-jung and Lim Ye-na laughed.

“It's a commemoration of becoming an adult. It fits perfectly.”

“Right. Should we change our names to trees too?”

From sprouts to trees.

The two of them laughed again.

The brown tree trunk was short, but the leaves were lush.

Between them, colorful round fruits could be seen. There were small pictures drawn on those fruits.

“These must be Shadowman. 1, 2, 3 are all here.”

Song Yu-jung pointed to a fruit with a teddy bear and a pair of shoes drawn on it.

Next to it, there was a fruit with a shadow that seemed to swallow something up, and another fruit with two teddy bears drawn on it.

“This is We Are In The Sea Now, right?”

Lim Ye-na pointed to a fruit with a whale drawn on it.

There were also pictures of works that anyone who had seen Seo-jun's works would recognize on the fruits hanging from the tree.

“This bag is… Survivors? Director's cut?”

“I think so? Hyun-woo carries it around thinking it's Ian's. Oh, I'm crying again.”

“Then this paper and pen are Opening Night, right? He wrote a letter at the end.”

“It was such an emotional scene.”

They thought they would see the light stick model quickly… But Song Yu-jung and Lim Ye-na had spent 30 minutes in no time.