With a clueless face, Chae Woo-Jin looked at Director Choi in anticipation as he blinked. Director Choi could not bear to tell him to his face that they were going to eat pork ribs. As he was grilling the meat, Woo-Jin told them that he had eaten beef while he was in the military, but after he was discharged, he did not have the chance to eat it. Little by little, meat began to pile up on the plate in front of him. 

During the second round, they went to a Korean bar, and Woo-Jin looked very excited. He had told them that he and his friends were not a fan of alcohol, and so, most of the time, they would meet with each other and hang out at cafes. He also said that when he was a freshman in college, he rarely went to drink with his classmates because he was busy with part-time tutoring and a bunch of other things. 

“Are you a college student?”

“Yes, I am currently on leave of absence as I had to complete my military service. I plan to return to school in the second semester.” 

“Which school?”

“Korea University.”

“...You’re good at academics.”

As Korea University was the best college in Korea, everyone was momentarily caught off guard. It was not that there were no other celebrities who went to that college, but it was true that if one went to that school, they would get a huge advantage. Everybody did not expect him to be good at academics, hence, they were surprised. However, Woo-Jin pulled a long face. This was after he had taken a few sips of beer. 

“I am not good at academics.”

They wanted to refute by telling him that it was not true, but because Woo-Jin looked very depressed, they decided to keep their mouths shut and wait for him to continue speaking. 

“I have a few classmates who went to Ivy League schools in America. One of my relatives had passed the bar exam and is now a prosecutor, and another relative, who is the same age as me, had also passed the bar exam and is now at the training institute.” 

Of course, Woo-Jin did not tell them that his grades were better than his friends who went to Ivy League schools. In any case, it was a world where results were everything. He glossed over his cousins Yi-Yeon and Hee-Yeon’s identities and kept it vague by referring to them as his relatives. Even when he was drunk, he did not want to come across as bragging about them by calling them his cousins, hence, he referred to them as relatives to keep some distance. 

“I feel so sorry towards my mother…”

After drinking 500cc of beer Woo-Jin was slightly drunk. In order to comfort Woo-Jin, who went from being a capable student of Korea University to being a son who caused distress to his parents for not being able to excel academically, they continued drinking. After getting drunk to a certain extent, Woo-Jin’s mood had changed once again. 

“Wow~! So this is chimaek. Like what I’ve heard from other people, it’s really delicious. However, I heard that eating a lot of chimaek can cause gout. What happens if I get it? I heard that it hurts a lot.”

[1]

Woo-Jin managed to overcome his fear of gout and fell into the temptation of eating chimaek. His eyes sparkled and he set the mood of the drinking party. He kept smiling and talking to people. Whenever he saw an empty glass, he would approach them and pour them a drink, telling them to consider their health and drink moderately. Still, whenever he saw an empty glass, he would pour drinks into it. When somebody told him that she did not want to get a drink from a man, Woo-Jin shook his head. 

“I was told that women should not pour any drinks,” said Woo-Jin.

“Who said such a weird thing to you?” asked the woman.

“My maternal grandfather. When I was little, my grandfather told me that when I start to learn how to drink, I should not let women pour any drinks. It’s not right!” 

“In that case let me pour myself a drink.” 

“It’s sad and lonely to do it for yourself though.” 

Because Woo-Jin was shaking his head like a pitiful puppy, ultimately, she was forced to drink the glass that he had poured for her. Even though he was polite, he appeared to be a little arrogant, and so it was hard to approach him easily. However, after a few drinks, he started acting a little cute, so they started to grow fond of him. Since such drunken behavior lightened the mood, people secretly welcomed it, and the ambience became better. 

The peak of the get-together was at the karaoke room, for their third round. When Woo-Jin tried to sing Yim Jae-Beom’s Confession, everybody, including Director Choi, tried to stop him. They felt that things had been going really well so far, and they were pleading with him not to ruin it. That was because based on their past experiences, whenever someone sang Yim Jae-Beom’s song at karaoke, it rarely ended well. However, to their surprise, it had gone better than they had expected. He had done such a good job, to the extent that even the people who were in favor of enacting a rule which dictated that only Yim Jae-Beom himself could sing his own songs, were listening to him with their mouths wide open. 

After that, their karaoke session had turned into Chae Woo-Jin’s singing show. He took their song requests and sang everything without hesitation, including songs by girl groups, which somebody had chosen as a joke. That was not all - he had even copied those girl group dances that he had seen in the military without difficulty. In fact, he danced too well. He danced and sang so perfectly that it made them wonder what kind of army allowed them to do nothing else but chase girl groups. 

However, he did not know anything about the girl groups or songs that came out after he had been discharged, so he quietly handed the microphone to the person next to him. When somebody pointed it out to him, Woo-Jin replied with a bright smile.

“Girl groups are the dreams and hopes of soldiers."

“So you don’t like them now?” 

“I am not a soldier anymore. I have found my dreams and hopes in something else.” 

He was very blatant about his affection that lasted for a limited time period. It was as if to say that they were going their separate ways after their business relationship was over, but he would not forget them because of his past affection for them. As if he was trying to prove that, Woo-Jin went back to the stage without hesitation as a familiar melody was heard. It was as though he had no sense of shame - he had no hesitation at all when he did a cute dance that was once popular, which required one to put both fists on their cheeks. Woo-Jin happily complied, not leaving any singing or dance routine out, as if to show that not everybody was cut out to train to be an idol. Seeing as it had been a long time since he had a place to sing to his heart’s content, there was no reason for him to save face.

From low notes all the way to the high notes, his clear voice moved freely through the vocal range. His perfect singing skills had captured people’s hearts. Even though people kept requesting songs, as they wanted to hear Woo-Jin sing, Woo-Jin readily agreed regardless with a smile. That was more than enough to ease the boundaries set by them, allowing him to win them over. Even if somebody whipped out a camera and recorded him, he did not hesitate to look at the camera. 

As such, everybody assumed that Woo-Jin was the youngest child in his family without him having to say anything. They thought that Chae Woo-Jin was a mood maker who grew up in a home full of love. 

“Perhaps an eldest son who’s like the youngest child?”

Ultimately, after coming to a compromise on his own, Director Choi looked at Woo-Jin and asked, “You don’t remember what happened yesterday, right?”

“I drank a lot, but fortunately, I remember everything. I remember all the titles of the songs I had sung at karaoke yesterday,” 

Woo-Jin humble bragged about how he had never blacked out before after drinking alcohol. 

“In that case, you must have kicked the covers when you woke up this morning,” said Director Choi.

[2]

If Chae Woo-Jin did not feel embarrassed recalling all those memories, Director Choi was confident that he was a brave man. 

“I did not kick the covers. I did some stretching though,” replied Woo-Jin. 

Director Choi, who had finally realized that Chae Woo-Jin was shameless but brave, grunted and went to the director’s chair. Even though his face was rough and looked lackluster, he looked perfect today, just like a model with his suit and shiny shoes. Even though Woo-Jin did not have any scenes to shoot today, he was still observing on set. This was because studying the script alone was insufficient as it could not capture the flow of the scenes, as well as the emotions between the characters that were constantly changing. Woo-Jin alone deviated away from the script, so he paid attention to how the other actors portray their characters. In that way, he would then be able to understand the emotions between the characters and act accordingly. 

“Mr. Woo-Jin, you said you’re 23, right?” asked Song Jae-Hee.

Song Jae-Hee, the female lead, approached Woo-Jin and talked to him first during the short break. In order to keep a distance from Kwon Sung-Min, she had been distancing herself from the other actors and production crew. Song Jae-Hee finally caved 

in to

 boredom and approached Woo-Jin first. It also helped that she was more comfortable talking to him because she was three years older than Woo-Jin. 

“Please speak casually to me. I am younger and also your junior in this field,” said Woo-Jin.

“Shall I do that?”

Even though Song Jae-Hee was only 26, she had 15 years of experience 

as she used to be a

 child actress. She spoke to Woo-Jin casually immediately.

“Do you know how frustrated I was when I first saw you?” asked Song Jae-Hee.

“Why?”

“You play an older guy in the movie, but you are clearly younger, in terms of age and appearance. How ridiculous would the audience think when they see us addressing you respectfully throughout the movie? I bet you don’t know that as I’m shooting this movie, I’ve been taking care of my skin more than ever, and that I’ve been obsessing over these reflectors, right?”

That was when Woo-Jin realized that there were a lot of reflectors laying around on the set of this movie. Since Woo-Jin did not have any other movie sets to compare to apart from Death Hill’s, he did not know what was considered ‘normal’, especially since Deah Hill was mainly shot in the dark, so, the reflector was mainly used by the female lead. Because of that, he did not care much about the presence of an excessive amount of reflectors and just let them be. He had also speculated that it might have been Director Choi’s attempt to pursue visual beauty. 

“I specifically asked the director for them. Perhaps I might look the best I’ve ever been in this movie. However, I found out that Actor Kwon had also requested for reflectors,” continued Song Jae-Hee. 

Song Jae-Hee called him Actor Kwon because he was older than her, but career-wise, he was way below her in seniority, and that title was ambiguous enough. 

“Do I look old? My younger sister has been making fun of me every day for being a complete uncle after being discharged from the military,” said Woo-Jin.

“That might be true to young kids. After going to the military, men who looked like children would suddenly look more mature and grown up. The younger people call it looking old, but at our age, all the young people are just youngsters. Well, of course you give off an aura of maturity for your age, but your face itself looks young.” 

The actress in her 20s played around and pretended to be depressed, saying that age could not be hidden. However, Woo-Jin was the one who was actually depressed.

“Still, I guess I look like a toad after all,” said Woo-Jin.

It was true that age gave one a competitive advantage over others, but first of all, having good looks and acting skills were the most important prerequisites one needed to survive in the entertainment industry. One thing for sure was that Woo-Jin was very skeptical about his looks. 

“A toad? You?” asked Song Jae-Hee.

“Yes. Someone said that I look like a toad.”

After meeting with the casting director, Kim Sang-Jin, Woo-Jin went to look up the chairman of G&C on the internet. Just like what Kim Sang-Jin said, he did indeed look like a toad. Upon seeing that, Woo-Jin was disappointed. It was not just his image but also his face that resembled a toad. Because of this, it reminded him of a time when his mother asked him out of concern if he could make it as a celebrity with his face, as celebrities had to be good-looking. Realizing that his mother might have a point, he was now in a deep swamp of misunderstanding. 

Moreover, as he recalled his previous lives, Woo-Jin’s confidence plummeted. In his past lives, he remembered that there were many human beings and different races who were very beautiful. Additionally, Woo-Jin also had appearances that were on par in one of his past lives. Perhaps, that was why he was not confident of his current face. As a result, he had to think deeply and hard about whether or not he could succeed as an actor with his face. In the end, he gave up on his appearances and did his best to achieve his dream in the hope of being recognized as a talented actor. The biased remark of someone who was blinded by love, saying how he looked like her son, inadvertently sowed the seeds of one person’s dream.