Chapter 262 (1/2)

Dongwook, who was smoking in the smoking area of the building, turned his head around when he heard the familiar voice. A man dressed in a suit was waving his hand as he approached him. What entered his eyes first was not the man’s face, but the watch on his wrist. As his job required him to interact with celebrities, he was used to seeing brand-name items, and he was able to tell that the approaching man’s watch was a very expensive brand.

“Uh, yeah. Long time no see.”

Dongwook smiled stiffly as he looked at the man.

“How long has it been? Have you been doing well?”

“Well, I’ve been doing okay.”

He wanted to act boldly in front of this man, but he couldn’t because of the brand-name watch on his wrist.

“It’s been what, 10 years? No, it should’ve been more than that. I heard rumors about you. I heard you became a journalist at a TV station after you passed that extremely hard exam. Right?”

His junior scanned him from top to bottom as he said those words. His gaze reached Dongwook’s tattered shoes and the no-brand coat that he bought from the streets, and Dongwook declined replying by turning away slightly.

His junior smiled faintly after licking his lips.

“Senior. Here’s my business card. Call me up some time.”

His junior, who was very quick-witted and considerate, turned around and left. Dongwook sighed as he saw the junior’s business card. 10 years ago, they were close like brothers. He could barely remember that they talked about their bright future over a drink. Dongwook agitatedly sucked on his cigarette because he was frustrated at the fact that he couldn’t even talk with the guy properly due to his embarrassment. TV journalist. If he had that title, he might have acted close to that guy and maybe they would’ve gone out to a meal tonight.

‘It’s all pointless.’

He only lamented for a brief moment. Dongwook thought to himself that money made people look like proper people as he rubbed his cigarette off on the ashtray. He picked up his notepad and returned to the conference room with his camera. Only a few companies were permitted to videograph the ad-through. Internet journalists like him had to wait until the end and take photos of the actors at the very end when they were leaving.

‘Anyway.’

Dongwook’s eyes followed one youth. He seemed to be a high school student. The way he flipped over the pages of the script as he leaned against the wall was quite a picture to look at. His eyes and lips showed an indifferent expression. It wasn’t that he was peerlessly handsome, but he had a good face for an actor.

Of course, that wasn’t the reason he grabbed Dongwook’s attention.

‘I can tell from looking at him.’

“You did well back there.”

Dongwook sat next to the youth.

“...Thank you,” the youth nodded his head once before looking at his script again.

Dongwook inwardly found him precocious.

“I haven’t seen you before. Which company do you belong to? Or maybe you don’t have one yet?”

The youth did not reply to his question and just stared at Dongwook. He seemed wary of Dongwook. Dongwook immediately took out his business card from his wallet. This was the master key to getting kids to talk - the journalist business card. He secretly covered up the name of his company with his thumb. As this country’s education focused on teaching courtesy, they taught that it wasn’t polite to return a question with a question. Youths would begrudgingly reply first if he showed them his business card like this, ten out of ten times.

The youth looked at his business card.

‘That should be enough.’

Just as he was about to retract his hand back, the youth nicked the business card off his hands. This was the first time such a thing happened, so Dongwook blankly looked at the youth.

“Mint News? Which company is this?”

That was his first question. Dongwook felt as he just received a smack on the back of his head. He never knew that this kid would be as bold as to steal the business card off his hands. What was more absurd was the youth’s words.

“You were giving me this, right? It’s a business card.”

Dongwook barely smiled with his twitching lips as he nodded his head. That was the entire purpose of a business card, so he couldn’t say no.

“Mint News… is relatively well known around here. Do you not know?”

“Is that so? A news company, huh.”

The youth couldn’t look more natural as he took out his wallet and put the business card inside it after looking at it for a while. His actions were smooth and refined as though he was already used to such a thing. Usually, kids around his age would just stand there doing nothing because they did not know what to do with it, or just rudely stuff it inside their pockets, but this fellow was clearly different.

“So you seem to be a journalist.”

“Well, yes,”

“Are you here to interview sir Yoon Moonjoong?”

“Yeah, well.”

Somehow, he was no longer the one asking questions. Dongwook gave the nodding youth a question. After all, it would be a loss on his side if this was the direction the conversation was going.

“Rather than that, I thought I asked you. Which academy do you go to? Or maybe you belong to a company?”

Dongwook was not interested in already popular stars. It was too easy to write articles about them. After all, cameras followed them everywhere. However, it was incredibly difficult to find any valuable news from them. The entertainment companies protected their contracted stars very meticulously and did not allow bad news about them to be written, and the stars themselves never did deeds that might be controversial. In the end, the only valuable news regarding stars would be news about their marriage, the release of their new work, or their good deeds. In other words, those news would act in their favor. The customs in this industry meant that those kinds of news were given to select news companies or journalists that the entertainment company had a contract with.

A beautiful flower would have attracted many bees to it, and it would be hard to get any honey from it. As such, journalists that did not belong to major companies looked for new actors that had potential, but did not blossom fully, and make connections with them early on. They would write good articles about those young people with good potential, and become close to them through that. Once that youth becomes a star, then the journalist that made early connections would use their friendship to get good articles from them.

In Dongwook’s eyes, the youth in front of him had enough attraction. His potential was proven with the act he did during the read-through. Those with potential would immediately grab attention from the public with the right opportunity. He didn’t look that bad, and his indifferent image seemed like he would be popular with the girls. No, Dongwook predicted that this boy would lead a noona brigade. In any case, he judged that this boy would become popular, meaning that it wouldn’t do him bad to get close to him now. He first had to find out if this guy belonged to a company, or just passed the audition without a company backing him. If he did not belong to any company, it would become easier for him to become close to this guy. After all, no one would have told him about how to act in front of journalists.

“So you want to know where I belong to?”

“Huh?”

Dongwook blinked and looked at the youth. Usually, even the most wary people would answer obediently. After all, there was nothing harmful about it. Despite that, this youth did not answer him. In fact, he squinted his eyes as though he was trying to probe Dongwook out.

‘This boy….’

Dongwook judged that this boy was someone with society experience. At the same time, he was sure that he belonged to a company. He should have been educated not to answer questions asked by journalists.

‘But at the same time, they are told something else as well.’

They had to be vague about any answers, but had to act kind. Performers were not supposed to get in a bad relationship with journalists in any way. Especially if new. The companies always taught not to get on the bad side of journalists.

As such, simple logic told Dongwook that he would soon be able to eek out some information from him, yet,

“I’m just a newbie actor that’s aspiring to make a living out of it.”