Become a Star

“Mr. Chae Woo-Jin! Please head over to consultation room 2.” Woo-Jin got up from his seat and said goodbye to the elderly people before entering the room. When it was time for his checkup, the elderly nudged him and told him to get going, unlike their earlier behavior where they crowded around him to get his autograph and take photos.

As Woo-Jin turned around to go to the consultation room, he made eye contact with the nurses who were taking photos of him with their phones. Unlike the elderly folks, they recognized Chae Woo-Jin as soon as they had laid eyes on him. Woo-Jin bowed slightly and greeted the nurses who were blushing before entering the examination room and had his X-rays taken. While waiting for the results, Woo-Jin took photos with the nurses. Unlike the elders, the nurses did not ask him for his autograph since he had injured his right hand.

“Your bones and nerves were not injured, but inflammation may occur, so please take your prescribed medications. If it still continues to hurt, then please come back again, and use a cold compress religiously.” The attending physician did not know who Woo-Jin was; the physician was kind and had treated him like an ordinary patient, looking at him with a calm gaze that lacked excitement.

As soon as Woo-Jin left the consultation room, a nurse gave him a small bottle of frozen water, and told him that it was more convenient than using an ice pack.

“Woo-Jin, rest in the car while I collect your medicine.” After speaking casually to Woo-Jin previously, Kang Ho-Soo had become more at ease with Woo-jin. It seemed that Kang Ho-Soo wasn’t aware of it, so Woo-Jin tried his best to hold back his laughter and nodded. They went down to the first floor together, but Kang Ho-Soo headed towards the pharmacy, while Woo-Jin walked towards the parking lot.

“Meow~!” Suddenly, Woo-Jin heard the faint cry of a cat and stopped in his tracks. As he looked around the parking lot, he heard the cat crying again. At the same time, he spotted a cat poking itself out between the pillars, making its way towards him.

“You’re a cheese cat too huh.” It was a pale ivory cat with slightly darker yellow ochre stripes. The nickname, ‘cheese cat’, which he had learned from one of the Glooming Day’s staff the other day in Busan, was befitting for it.

Initially, he had assumed that it was a stray cat. It was a British Shorthair that looked rather old. It looked very dirty – it must have either gotten lost, or it had been abandoned because of its old age. Woo-Jin was afraid that if he were to get close to the cat, it would be frightened and run away, so he stayed still. However, the cat came up to him first and rubbed its face against his feet.

Woo-Jin squatted down and examined the cat after hearing its meows. Seeing how happy the cat looked, as well as how it kept showing him affection by purring and rubbing its body against him, a name appeared in Woo-Jin’s mind.

“Woo-Sa?”

“Meow~!”

After hearing the happiness in its cry, Woo-Jin quickly checked the cat’s right front paw. A long time ago, Woo-Sa’s paw got caught in the wheel of his bicycle, and the wound had left a deep scar. There was a visible scar on its paw that could be seen between its fur, causing Woo-Jin to choke up.

“You’re really Woo-Sa.”

Woo-Sa meowed and responded to Woo-Jin every time he said its name, and Woo-Jin was unable to laugh or cry as he stroked Woo-Sa.

“Woo-Jin, what are you doing there?”

Woo-Jin did not go to the car after entering the parking lot, so Hwang Yi-Young stepped out of the car and called out to him. When Woo-Sa heard Woo-Jin’s name, it picked up its ears and tapped Woo-Jin with its paw. When Woo-Jin was younger, they had often played a game where Woo-Sa would go up to him and tap him with its paw every time it heard Woo-Jin’s name. Woo-Jin could not bring himself to smile and picked Woo-Sa up and showed it to Hwang Yi-Young.

“What is this cat? It’s kind of…” Even though Hwang Yi-Young was pretending to be nice, she did not have the heart to say anything harsh to Woo-Jin, who was holding a cat that looked old and dirty. She just frowned.

“This is my cat, Woo-Sa.” Woo-Jin introduced Woo-Sa with a bright smile. They had been reunited after 12 years. Kang Ho-Soo, who had gotten back from the pharmacy, was also very surprised by this coincidental encounter.

“So, you’re saying that this is the cat you had left behind in your father’s house when your parents had gotten a divorce? How can you be sure of that?” All the cats of the same breed and color looked the same, and so, Kang Ho-Soo found it hard to believe the cat was his.

“Firstly, its breed, eye color, and the patterns of its fur are exactly the same, according to what I remember. And it has the same wound on its front paw over here. Also, Woo-San?”

“...”

“Woo-Hee!”

“...”

“Woo-Sa!”

“Meow~!”

After seeing Woo-Sa’s immediate response, Woo-Jin looked at Kang Ho-Soo triumphantly.

“Most importantly, I just know it. Even though we only spent two years together, I remember Woo-Sa very clearly, just like how Woo-Sa recognizes me.

“Alright, alright. I got it. It’s great but we have to bring it to the vet first,” said Hwang Yi-Young out of disgust. The protagonist of the beautiful story was great to look at, but Hwang Yi-Young could no longer stand the sight of Woo-Jin holding the cat and continuously rubbing his face against it. After searching for the closest animal clinic and arriving there, Hwang Yi-Young was finally at peace.

“Is it a senior cat?”

“Yes. It’s around 14 years old..”

“Judging from its condition, did the two of you just reunite after you lost it recently? I think it had been roaming the streets for a few days. In my opinion, it would be better for you to take it to the clinic you normally go to.” Since it was a senior cat, there must have been a clinic which it visits regularly. The director of the animal clinic had recommended them to take it there, as there were various reasons why it would be more beneficial than taking it to a clinic they had never been to before.

“A few days?” However, Woo-Jin had something else on his mind. It was fortunate that Woo-Sa had not been on the streets for too long, but the thought of Woo-Sa roaming the streets for even a few days made Woo-Jin’s heartache. Hwang Yi-Young then recounted the story to the director on behalf of the depressed Woo-Jin.

“It’s amazing how both of them still recognize each other after 12 years.” Normally, people would not readily believe such a story, but the director easily understood and empathized with Woo-Jin’s situation. He knew from experience that it was not unbelievable, as he was someone who understood the connection between humans and animals better than anyone else.

After being washed and groomed at the pet groomer, which was run by the animal clinic, they took Woo-Sa’s X-rays before running quite a number of tests.

“Fortunately, it doesn’t have any major illnesses. However, it has arthritis because of its old age. There aren't any major problems apart from it being slightly malnourished as it hasn’t eaten much in the past few days.” The cat hadn’t sustained any injuries despite living on the streets for a few days so the director went on to praise Woo-Sa for being a smart cat since it meant that it must have been good at avoiding dangerous situations.

As if he was the one being praised, Woo-Jin felt flattered. He was in a good mood and thus, he bought a bunch of cat supplies from the animal clinic.

“Are you planning to keep it?”

“Of course.”

“Although you’re its original owner, would it be okay for you to do that? You need to consider the fact that there is someone else out there who has been raising this cat for 12 years.” Kang Ho-Soo proceeded to tell him that it would be fine to keep the cat if it had been abandoned, but if the owner lost the cat, they might be having a hard time looking for it. He continued to argue that if they had raised the cat for 12 years, it would mean that they loved the cat very much. Thus, it would not be right to overlook it.

“If they had lost the cat, they'd be looking for it right now. If that’s not the case, it would mean that they had abandoned it,” said Hwang Yi-Young coldly, as she ran a search on a website for missing cats. She also added that they could search for missing cat posters in the area later on during their free time. After hearing what she had said, the three of them rushed back to the filming site with a peace of mind.

They were unexpectedly delayed because of Woo-Sa, so when they returned to the set, the ambiance was quite tense. Kang Ho-Soo had only informed them that they would be slightly late, so all kinds of speculations as to whether Woo-Jin’s injury was more serious than they had thought had been made because they were unaware of the details.

Contrary to their concerns and worries, Woo-Jin arrived at the set smiling brightly. He was holding a cat they had never seen before and was busy showing it off to the people there. Woo-Jin indirectly recounted the story of what had happened 12 years ago, and thanked the action actor who had caused this fateful meeting. Woo-Jin was so polite and treated him as though he was his benefactor that it made the actor feel awkward.

As soon as the misunderstanding had cleared up, Production Director Park realized that he had been worrying over nothing, and yelled at Woo-Jin, “Hey, Chae Woo-Jin! Is the cat the most important thing right now?” Even though he was glad to know that Woo-Jin was in a much better condition now because of the cat, it was not important now.

Since Woo-Jin had been doing a good job with the action scenes thus far, they were able to save more time than expected. However, that did not mean they could afford to procrastinate and relax. Filming a drama is a race against time, so they had to save time whenever possible.

“Understood, sir!”

Time was also precious to Woo-Jin since he had to wrap up quickly so that he could go over to Hyun-Min’s house to work on their group project. However, it was also Woo-Jin’s job to soothe Woo-Sa, who did not want to leave his side. Luckily, Woo-Sa was sitting quietly nearby, feeling satisfied with Woo-Jin watching over it from nearby. It had made a clever judgment about the situation and was aware of how it should behave.

“By the way, what have you been doing since just now?” On their way back, Kang Ho-Soo finally realized he had been speaking casually after Hwang Yi-Young had brought it up. After some deliberation, they had decided to speak casually to one another since things had already come to this. Woo-Jin’s apology to Hwang Yi-Young and Kang Ho-Soo’s casual speech earlier had helped them get closer, so the ambiance between them had improved.

Hwang Yi-Young had asked Kang Ho-Soo that question out of curiosity, as Kang Ho-Soo had been searching for something online for quite some time. Judging from his serious facial expression, she wondered if something terrible had happened and she was worried.

“It’s about Woo-Sa. I don’t think we have to look for its owner anymore.”

“I’ve also searched on the website for missing cats earlier, but I couldn’t find anything. It’s hard to say for sure.”

“No, I’m certain. I looked up Woo-Jin’s half-sister’s social media accounts just in case, and she wrote a post yesterday evening, saying that the cat she had raised for 12 years had died.” Hwang Yi-Young was startled after hearing what Kang Ho-Soo had said and stood up immediately. Woo-Sa, who was sitting next to her, pricked its ears and glanced furtively at Hwang Yi-Young.

“Oppa, do you know who Woo-Jin’s half-sister is?” asked Hwang Yi-Young in surprise. She did not know much about Woo-Jin’s family history, so she asked Kang Ho-Soo about it.

“It’s written in the data given to me by CEO Jang. After talking to Woo-Jin about it, he didn’t seem to know who she was, so I tried to tell him about it, but he said he didn’t want to know about it.”

“I see. But what did she write on her social media? She said that Woo-Sa died?”

“It’s a simple caption. She just said that she’s very sad that the cat she had raised for 12 years died, and asked people to comfort her. She even uploaded a photo of Woo-Sa.”

Looking at the posts that she had uploaded previously, the cat sitting next to them was clearly Woo-Sa. Woo-Jin’s half-sister emphasized that she was a cat lover who had raised a cat for 12 years, and made use of Woo-Sa to create this fake online persona.

The truth might be different, but Kang Ho-Soo had a strong hunch that this was the case. “I don’t think that she had abandoned Woo-Sa – she might have lost it. However, she was probably too lazy to look for it, so she just assumed that it’s dead and called it a day.”

“Woooow~!”

Hwang Yi-Young could not contain her curiosity and tried to snatch the phone that Kang Ho-Soo was holding, but was unsuccessful. The tall man raised his hand and quickly locked the screen, leaving the woman to flail her arms in the air.

“Can’t you just show it to me?”

“Even Woo-Jin himself doesn’t know who she is, so it’s not right for you to know her identity.”

“Woo-Jin said he doesn’t want to know, but I want to know.”

“This is someone else’s family business. Just drop it.”

Since Kang Ho-Soo was firm about it, Hwang Yi-Young couldn’t ask more and had to keep her mouth shut. However, regardless of how much she told herself to be patient, she eventually reached her limit and asked another question in a softer voice.

“By the way, is the half-sister the same age as Woo-Hee?”

“Yes.”

“Then, does Woo-Jin have any other half-siblings?”