Superstar From Age 0

The next day.

After finishing the Friday morning class [Introduction to Acting], seo-jun and his friends gathered at the student cafeteria for lunch. The internet was still buzzing with stories about [Babel Tower] and Seo-jun's cameo scene, as it had been less than a day since the drama ended.

-Look at this. They’re fishing with Babel Tower scenes abroad???

=(link)

The post linked by the comment had the title [Actor Lee Seo-jun, standing at the UN conference] and several captured scenes.

The comments below were full of question marks, asking when he gave such a speech and why there was no news or articles about it.

-Why isn't it on the foreign news corner?

=Yeah. I looked everywhere but there's nothing.

-When other Hollywood actors gave UN speeches, there were a lot of articles… Is it because JUN is a foreign actor? ??

-Where can I watch the UN speech video? It's not on YouTube either. I want to see the full video.

These were the reactions of people who liked Lee Seo-jun, but not enough to look for the Korean drama he appeared in as a cameo.

-Nope! This is a Korean drama scene! Fiction!

The foreign Sprouts who watched Seo-jun's cameo scenes regardless of the time difference commented, but the comments about the fishing post were faster. There were also people who knew the truth and spread the fishing post as a joke.

The comment section became chaotic with misunderstandings and explanations.

-It's a mess????

-??I have to show this to my mom??

-I already sent it to my dad?? He said he was so proud?? It's a drama??

-This is the era of big fishing??

***

“Ji-yoon. Have you seen this?”

Hwang Ji-yoon, who was writing a synopsis with her head buried, looked up at the phone that her friend from the film department showed her with a smile. The phone screen had a post that translated the English comments full of confusion into Korean.

“What is this? Haha.”

Hwang Ji-yoon laughed at the comments that were mixed with misunderstandings and explanations. Then she stretched her arms up lightly. Her friend smiled brightly.

“It's good to take a break when you’re stuck.”

“Thanks.”

“Don't mention it. Let's go for lunch.”

“Okay.”

Hwang Ji-yoon packed her stuff and got up from her seat with her friend. They headed to the student cafeteria. The menu was the spicy chicken mayo they always ate. Hwang Ji-yoon and her friend started to eat lunch while talking about [Babel Tower].

“I only saw Lee Seo-jun in the speech scene. Is that the power of a top actor?”

Hwang Ji-yoon nodded at her friend's words.

“He's really good at controlling his strength. In the speech scene, he showed a strong presence that made the extras invisible, but in the waiting room scene, he acted just enough to make the actors look like ordinary people. He's adjusting his presence according to the other roles and scenes.”

Hwang Ji-yoon recalled Seo-jun's previous works and said.

“His previous works were like that too. He showed the appropriate presence for his role and scene. When he was alone or in an important scene, he drew attention with his intense acting, but when he was with other actors, he adjusted himself not to stand out. That's why he's a top actor.”

Her friend nodded her head in agreement.

“Oh. Top actor Lee Seo-jun.”

Seo-jun coughed lightly at the words of the two people who had inadvertently heard their conversation. His friends giggled.

Hwang Ji-yoon was sitting right behind Seo-jun and his friends, but maybe because it was a noisy student cafeteria and they didn't care about other people, they didn't seem to notice.

“Seo-jun must have done his part too.”

“He would be good at being a spy, don't you think?”

“That's what I'm saying.”

Seo-jun shrugged his shoulders at his friends’ expressions as if they were asking what he was.

“They must be from the film department.”

“Yeah. Hwang Ji-yoon is a senior. Film department, third year.”

…Ju-hee?

Seo-jun and his friends looked at Yang Ju-hee with trembling eyes. Jeon Seong Min opened his mouth with a nervous expression.

“Do you know students from other departments too?”

“I don't know them all. She's Hwang Do-yoon's younger sister.”

Was it just a feeling that the word ‘all’ bothered him?

Yang Ju-hee seemed to have someone she knew in every department of Korea National University of Arts.

The eyes of his friends turned to Hwang Ji-yoon across the table. Seo-jun also glanced back.

‘She looks like Hwang Do-yoon…’

If the real siblings, hwang Ji-yoon and Hwang Do-yoon, heard that, they would have been ecstatic.

“She's a film major?”

“Oh. I know that senior too.”

Everyone looked at Han Jinho with curious expressions.

Yang Ju-hee had a lot of connections, but how did you, a freshman, know a senior from another department?

“There's that class. Literary Analysis.”

“The one that the film and playwriting majors take?”

Its official name was [Literary Analysis from Ancient to Modern Times]. It was the class that Han Jinho struggled with during the midterm exam.

“Yeah. I saw her in that class.”

Seo-jun and his friends listened to Han Jinho's words with interest.

“That's not a group project and there were a lot of people from other departments. How did you know? Don't you usually just take the class and leave?”

Kim Joo-kyung asked and the others nodded.

Unless it was a group project, even if you took a liberal arts class with students from other departments, you wouldn't remember their faces. But Han Jinho shrugged his shoulders and said.

“I'm not close with her, I just know her face.”

Oh.

Han Jinho's pink days,

“I saw her fighting with a senior in the classroom.”

“…Huh?”

…Fighting?

Their eyes widened at the unexpected story. It didn't seem like they heard it wrong by looking at each other's faces.

A fight between a junior and a senior from another department.

It was a personal matter, but people's affairs were not always rational.

Park Si-youngSi Young asked quietly and Han JinhoJi-ho shook his head.

“Uh… Um… With a senior from our department?”

“No. With a senior from the film department.”

“…Ah.”

‘Well. It's none of our business.’

Seo-jun and his friends felt relieved.

“But why did they fight?”

They waited for Han Jinho's answer to Seo-jun's question.

“I heard it from a friend in the film department, so I'm not sure…”

Han Jinho leaned his upper body forward and lowered his voice. Seo-jun and his friends also bent their bodies.

“I heard that the fourth-year student stole the first-year's movie theme.”

“…!”

Seo-jun and the kids froze in shock. They felt their hearts go cold. In the situation where no one moved, only Yang Ju-hee looked like she had expected it.

Han Jinho continued.

“There was a class in the film department where they had to write and present a movie synopsis. The fourth-year student presented first in another class, and the first-year student had nothing to do. I think Hwang Ji-yoon senior fought with him in the classroom.”

The surroundings were noisy, but it seemed like only their table was filled with heavy silence.

“But there was no evidence, so my friend wasn't sure if he really stole it or not. He said it could have been a coincidence that they had similar themes, but…”

“It must have been stolen.”

Yang Ju-hee's words drew attention to her. Seeing the friends’ eyes asking for an explanation, Yang Ju-hee continued.

“That group of fourth-year students, they’ve been doing that for a long time. They say they’ll give advice and then take the theme if they like it, or write it themselves if they like the plot.”

Kang Jae-han stuttered and barely spat out the words.

“…Shouldn't we report this somewhere?”

“That's the problem. There are too many excuses to deal with it legally. They can say they’ve been thinking about the theme for a long time. And they don't copy it exactly enough to cause trouble.”

“They’re too meticulous for nothing.”

Seo-jun frowned and said, and Yang Ju-hee let out a sigh-like word.

“That's what I'm saying. It's hard enough for professional directors to solve this, let alone students. It's not even an official work, just a college assignment… They just stepped on shit and moved on.”

Jeon Seong-min opened his mouth.

“Then can't we teach the first and second-year students? Those seniors are bad.”

“That's the problem. It would cause trouble if we talk openly, but there's a rumor going around…”

Yang Ju-hee smiled bitterly.

“Those fourth-year students are pretty good at their skills and they got some recognition from their external activities. Of course, they're still far from the pros, but they look like they're doing well to the first and second-year students. They show off their awards and make them fall for it.”

The thought that it might be true makes them complacent.

The story that was more serious than what he had heard from his film department friend made Han Jinho swallow his saliva and say.

“I have to tell my friend. He's in doubt right now… What did he say? The fourth-year student told him. He said he would help him debut by using him as an assistant director if he became a director first. He said it would be faster to debut if he used his theme.”

It was an excuse that made him swear.

And the problem was that there were people who fell for it.

‘It makes sense if you think about it. It's something like connections or school ties.’

But if he really kept his word, it would be fine, but it seemed more likely that he would just suck the juice out of him.

Unfortunately, Yang Ju-hee's words didn't end there.

“There were also people who acted bossy because they were seniors, but not as bad as the fourth-year students. They made the staff do this and that and run errands when they filmed their own works. For free.”

He unconsciously let out a groan.

“I thought our department seniors were so nice that other places were like that too… But they weren't.”

Kim Joo-kyung's words made Seo-jun and his friends nod, and Yang Ju-hee said.

“We had them too in our department.”

“…Huh?”

“People who said they knew famous directors well and would get them into their works, people who stole the roles of their juniors, people who forced themselves into the juniors’ works.”

“…Really?”

The kids’ eyes naturally turned to Seo-jun. If there were such people, they would have definitely come to see Seo-jun. Seo-jun shook his head vigorously. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

“No. I've never met anyone like that.”

‘…I can guess, though.’

He remembered the people who were dizzy from his abilities.

Yang Ju-hee explained with a smile.

“There were a lot of people who acted bossy, but now there are only a few left. Hwang Do-yoon senior and the student council seniors turned them over. They said the acting department's atmosphere is good thanks to the seniors.”

The unexpected history of the acting department made Seo-jun and the kids exclaim.

“Wow. The seniors are amazing!”

“Right. I didn't know there was such a thing! The seniors are so cool.”

“Let's teach the other kids too. It's too good to keep it to ourselves.”

It was a passionate reaction that would have made the acting department Hwang Do-yoon and the student council members shy but smile.

Seo-jun finished his lunch and headed to Building C for his next class. Building C was a music department building with practice rooms ranging from one-person rooms to large rooms for orchestra practice.

“Then we’ll start the group practice now.”

One hour of the two-hour class time was spent listening to the professor and the other hour was spent practicing in groups.

At the professor's words, they scattered into their practice rooms in pairs. Seo-jun and Kwon Se-ah, who had become close in a month, also headed to their assigned practice room.

“Then I’ll go first.”

“Okay.”

Kwon Se-ah rested her chin on the violin and started playing.

Seo-jun listened to her performance and traced the changes in the melody over the past month in his head. He saw Kwon Se-ah's progress, who had improved her weaknesses pointed out by Seo-jun and the professor.

‘She's too good to be in a slump…’

The pen in his right hand spun around. Come to think of it, Kwon Se-ah had performed in front of many people at the entrance ceremony. Then it didn't seem like a problem to stand in front of people.

‘Then why doesn't she go to concerts or competitions?’

If she didn't have any interest from the beginning, he wouldn't know, but she would have built a good career.

In the end, looking at Kwon Se-ah who hadn't done any external activities until now, seo-jun suddenly remembered the conversation he had with his friends at lunch.

‘…Is it because of the seniors?’

Kwon Se-ah, who changed when she entered college.

It could have been the seniors or the juniors.

When Kwon Se-ah's performance ended, seo-jun clapped lightly. Kwon Se-ah smiled and sat down, waiting for Seo-jun's words. Seo-jun, who had been thinking for a while, opened his mouth.

“I don't know if I can ask you this, but…”

“It's okay. Ask me anything!”

Kwon Se-ah's cheerful look made him smile slightly and ask.

“Se-ah, why don't you go to concerts or competitions?”

Kwon Se-ah was surprised and looked at Seo-jun.

He wondered if he had asked too directly, and Seo-jun quickly added.

“Oh, you don't have to answer if you don't want to. I just wondered if you had any worries. I thought it would be better to talk to someone, even if it's not me.”

At Seo-jun's words, Kwon Se-ah shook her head.

“No, it's not that. It's just that… I wanted to tell you, but you asked me first, so I was surprised. I really want you to listen.”

It seemed like a good thing, as she smiled a little and said. Seo-jun's eyes widened.

‘You wanted to tell me?’

Seo-jun rolled his eyes. He had no idea what it was.

When Seo-jun was confused, Kwon Se-ah, who had been fidgeting with her hands, lifted her head. And then she said in a firm voice, as if she had made up her mind.

“I… want to make movie music.”