Become a Star

{Didn’t you say you wouldn’t cling onto me anymore?} Woo-Jin asked.

{I’m not clinging to you. I’m simply making a request.}

Dustin chuckled like a child, claiming that no one could stop him once he started pestering someone.

{So you won’t see any of your friends until we’re done filming the movie?}

{Yep, because I felt like I was going to make another mistake. That wouldn’t be good for the movie’s publicity either,} Dustin replied.

For now, he was trying to avoid his friends, as seeing any of them would just make him furious. The suspicions and disappointments accumulated in his heart over the years had been stored away with a tight lid. But now, they were about to burst open all at once.

So while Dustin was avoiding his problems instead of facing them, it was best to keep his distance when his emotions were still haywire.

Only after Dustin promised several times not to drink alcohol did Woo-Jin nod and accept his request.

However, Woo-Jin only kept his end of the promise a few days later.

The schedule of one of their co-stars had gotten complicated, so he had to film a few scenes ahead of time, keeping him very busy for a while. But Dustin was also working tirelessly for three days and nights that he didn’t even have the leeway or energy to feel lonely during that time.

Nonetheless, once they got a break after three grueling days, Dustin called Woo-Jin out as he couldn’t endure it any longer.

{One of your fans told me not to make you drink alcohol.}

At Dustin’s sudden remark, Woo-Jin stopped dead in his tracks and turned to the actor.

He was well aware that his fans were asking questions and digging for information from Dustin since Woo-Jin didn’t use social media. However, he didn’t know that his fans had even made such requests to Dustin. Woo-Jin’s eyes narrowed as he asked back.

{How on earth have you been living so far that rumors have spread all the way to Korea that you’re a drunkard?}

{In this industry, you start being called an alcoholic when just a couple of pictures where you’re drunk spread on the internet,} Dustin stated.

{Putting the others aside, you drink much more frequently than the pictures of you that surface online, so that excuse doesn’t apply to you.}

{Geez, you can be so cold sometimes.}

Although Woo-Jin had a kind and friendly impression, he could be pretty cold and indifferent. He didn’t react to superficial behaviors such as flattery, acting cute, or overreacting. But as long as someone treated him with sincerity, he would also behave sincerely, something Dustin quite appreciated about Woo-Jin.

{But why the hell do you drink something so foul? You should drink the instant coffee instead!}

Dustin took a sip of the Americano Woo-Jin had ordered, frowned in disgust, and then recommended the instant coffee he loved.

The first time Dustin tasted the instant coffee being used as a movie prop, he fell in love with the taste and got an entire box after asking Woo-Jin for some.

{You’re in no position to criticize the taste of Americanos. No matter how disgusting you think it is, at least it tastes better than alcohol. Why do you even drink something so bitter?} Woo-Jin asked.

{I also have no idea. The first time I drank alcohol, it tasted so bitter that I vomited and made a fuss about it. But from a certain point onwards, it started tasting pretty good.}

{People say that you become an adult when alcohol starts tasting sweet and tasty,} Woo-Jin commented.

He stared at Dustin carefully, then slowly shook his head.

{I feel like you were insulting me in your head just now,} Dustin grumbled.

{It wasn’t a compliment, but it wasn’t an insult either.}

As they continued chatting, Woo-Jin looked outside the coffee shop window they were sitting next to.

He observed over twenty paparazzi waiting outside. Seeing those people holding their cameras like weapons and aiming them at the shop entrance, Woo-Jin could somehow understand Dustin’s feelings about human interactions.

{Even though I think you’re pathetic sometimes, I also admire you when I see those people outside. How do you endure being in the spotlight constantly?}

{You don’t endure it. You can only give up. But the most difficult thing is when….}

Dustin paused. But then, he didn’t finish his sentence and shook his head.

His last remaining pride didn’t allow him to say aloud that he was having a hard time because of his family and friends.

{But you’re also really popular in your homeland. Aren’t you used to these kinds of situations already? You always seem so surprised when you see paparazzi around,} Dustin asked.

{It’s not this bad in Korea. They usually take pictures secretly from a distance.}

Woo-Jin brought his hands to his eyes and pretended to be looking through a pair of binoculars. He taught Dustin about the Korean entertainment world as the American actor was curious about it.

Then, the conversation somehow naturally shifted to their movie’s plot.

{About the scene we filmed yesterday, your acting when Jin almost killed Robert was incredible.}

The scene Dustin was talking about was the moment when Jin accidentally attacked Robert when getting ambushed by a group of mysterious assailants.

Jin had been alone for nearly a thousand years and wasn’t used to fighting ‘alongside’ someone else. So he didn’t pay attention to his surroundings and used a wide-range attack, almost slicing off Robert’s head in the process.

Jin’s eyes trembled as he noticed the thin line forming on Robert’s neck as blood seeped out.

It was a very brief moment but an important scene that showed how Jin and Robert’s relationship had evolved. When Dustin later checked the footage, he was moved to the extent that he sniffled as his nose got red.

The emotional change within Jin, who only regarded Robert as a fun conversational partner, could be felt so clearly that it was only natural for Robert’s eyes to also change as he noticed Jin’s gaze.

Dustin was shocked by how he had been unintentionally influenced by Woo-Jin’s acting during the filming. He was well aware that one actor’s acting could influence their co-star as there was a mutual exchange of emotions.

But this was the first time Dustin had experienced it firsthand.

{It’s amazing how one gaze can replace so many lines and show the change in the relationship between two characters so dramatically,} Dustin commented.

He had watched The Red before Woo-Jin arrived in the United States, something he never told the Korean actor.

Since Dustin’s character, Robert, would be spending most of his time in the movie alongside Jin, he wanted to know more about Chae Woo-Jin, an actor he was unfamiliar with. So when he learned that Chae Woo-Jin’s movie was released in the cinemas in the United States, he went to watch it with no prior knowledge about the story.

He was expecting it to be an erotic movie because of the title, but by the time he finished watching it, he realized that there was no sexual connotation in the title at all.

In all honesty, after watching the movie, Dustin fell in love with the actor named Chae Woo-Jin.

Even though it was in a language he didn’t understand at all, and even though he usually hated having to read subtitles, he could not take his eyes off the screen as he was afraid he would miss one of the lines.

Despite being unfamiliar with the culture and having no knowledge of Korea’s history, Dustin had no problem understanding and accepting the film's content. That was how good the editing and translation were. But most importantly, the main character was just so charming.

It was the first time Dustin’s heart shook because of the main character while watching a movie.

In his eyes, Prince Myeong-Hwan was a hero who didn’t lose out compared to the superhero movies trending in Hollywood these days. Although the movie was a biography that depicted the heroism of a single person, the content was sufficiently descriptive and beautiful to entertain its audience.

Films like this were rare in Hollywood today. If there were movies of a similar style, it was painfully obvious that they were produced simply to win awards at film festivals. Moreover, something those kinds of movies had in common was that they weren’t entertaining.

On the other hand, The Red managed to stay interesting and fun. The audience mirrored the emotions of Prince Myeong-Hwan as they laughed, grieved, raged, and despaired alongside the character.

Thus, highly empathetic people felt a strange sense of catharsis when the movie was over as they got physically and emotionally exhausted.

Dustin first watched the film as a spectator and then watched it a second time as an actor, trying to evaluate the movie from an objective point of view.

Needless to say, the first watch was more than satisfactory.

However, in the latter situation, Dustin was enveloped in a complex, inexplicable emotion, a mixture of envy and desire. How could someone act so well at that age?

Dustin was also envious of how this Chae Woo-Jin had the ideal conditions and circumstances to play the perfect role for him.

But alongside those feelings of envy, the anticipation of getting the opportunity to film a movie with such a great actor kept Dustin awake at night in excitement.

However, when he finally met Chae Woo-Jin, he was not the person Dustin had seen in The Red.

The passionate man full of restrained madness was nowhere to be found, and all there was in front of Dustin was a man who was so gentle and polite that Dustin had a hard time adapting to Woo-Jin.

It was terrifying, so to speak.

Even though Dustin was an actor and knew better than anyone else that Woo-Jin was acting in The Red, the moment they met each other, he was looking for Prince Myeong-Hwan in Woo-Jin.

But he couldn’t find any trace of the prince. Their personalities did not have anything in common, and even their appearance looked different at first glance. To be more precise, Dustin thought that Woo-Jin was a high schooler.

If someone asked Dustin if he could pull off the same feat, he would have no choice but to shake his head in embarrassment.

Even though they both were actors, Woo-Jin seemed so distant and out of reach from Dustin’s grasp that he got grumpy and said Woo-Jin looked too young.

Dustin tried to look for aspects where he could win over Woo-Jin and ended up challenging the latter to a drinking contest. But even then, he was completely annihilated.

In the end, Dustin became infatuated with Woo-Jin and ended up in a state where he was proactively approaching the Korean actor to get to know each other better.

Just like with Selena, Dustin was weak against the people he liked, which now included Woo-Jin.

{Could you come over here for a moment?}

Dustin pulled out his phone and sat with his back against the coffee shop’s window, beckoning Woo-Jin to come closer. They took a picture with the table between them and the view outside the window as the background.

The shop’s window was a magic mirror, so people couldn’t see the duo from outside. But the paparazzi could be clearly seen in the photo’s background.

Since they were sitting on the second floor, they could clearly see the entire road, and the paparazzi came out really well in the image.

{Are you going to upload that on your social media again?} Woo-Jin asked.

{Yep! ‘The people disturbing my date’ is the caption I’m going with.}

{Gross!}

Woo-Jin shuddered at the word ‘date’ but did not stop Dustin’s actions.

When Dustin first uploaded a picture of Woo-Jin and commented about their interactions, the public’s reaction was so positive that the filmmakers and Dustin’s agency encouraged him to continue doing so.

By the way, the filmmakers in question were Hugh and Rayford.

They said it was always good publicity for a movie’s cast to get along very well and urged Woo-Jin and Dustin to continue portraying a friendly relationship online.

“It may be realistically impossible, but you can use us as your role models!”

Director Rayford chuckled happily as he placed his arm around Hugh’s shoulder. But the latter’s face was completely twisted in disgust.

Seeing their interaction, Woo-Jin tried to take Dustin’s phone to delete the long message he had posted on his social media.

However, the filmmakers’ earnest request to keep things as is, put some pressure on Woo-Jin. And most importantly, when he was told that their fans had absolutely loved it, Woo-Jin lost strength in the arm with which he was trying to take away Dustin’s phone.

{This dirty and corrupt business world!}

Woo-Jin gulped down his Americano to calm his burning and raging guts.

Films were projects that could flop even with a great director, great actors, and an interesting premise.

Although it was the same in every film industry, people in Hollywood did not hesitate to use any methods to achieve a box office success since the production costs per project were enormous.

Woo-Jin had nothing to say as the people with common sense were actively encouraging Dustin’s actions, and he lost the will to resist.

But what Woo-Jin found the weirdest was Dustin.

{Aren’t you too enthusiastic and too much on the offensive?} Woo-Jin asked.

{Is that how it looks to you?}

{Yeah, a lot.}

It was plainly obvious to anyone that Dustin was infatuated with Woo-Jin at first glance. Dustin liked people and was prone to feeling lonely, so it was understandable that he wanted to be friends with Woo-Jin.

However, there was a subtle difference between the pure friendship Dustin wanted and the bromance that the filmmakers wanted between the two.

Would any man enjoy being forced to pretend to have a good friendship and bromance with another man?

Well, apparently, Dustin happened to be such a man, as he was enjoying their situation quite a bit.

And when Woo-Jin wondered whether Dustin had gone through a similar experience in the past, he learned that it wasn’t the case. Dustin’s friendships were mainly led by the consumption of alcohol and a lot of wasteful money-spendings.

Woo-Jin heard that Dustin and his previous co-stars always tried to pretend to be friendly with each other. Still, their relationship eventually turned awkward and sour because of their competitive spirit.

Woo-Jin then wondered whether Dustin was behaving in such a friendly manner because he was expecting some benefits from Woo-Jin, so he bluntly and openly asked Dustin about it.

But surprisingly, Dustin paused for a moment, thinking to himself, before hesitantly explaining his situation as though he acknowledged the strangeness of his actions.

{Although it never worked out, I tried dating other girls to try to forget Selena,} he explained

{Selena? Oh, that one-sided crush of yours?}

Woo-Jin tilted his head in confusion at the sudden and abrupt change in topic but nodded as he quickly caught on. Dustin checked their surroundings once more before continuing his explanation.

He clarified how Selena worked in Los Angeles for a job related to Hollywood and that he still saw her from time to time.

{But even when I pretended to be friendly with other women, she only ever told me to do my best with them.}

{Seems like she really isn’t interested in you,} Woo-Jin said bluntly.

{There’s no way! I’m sure she has at least a bit of interest in me. About this much? No, this much….}

Dustin made a ten-centimeter gap between his thumb and index finger but gradually narrowed the width with a hesitant face as he got more and more uncertain.

In any case, Dustin denied Woo-Jin’s words, saying that she seemed to have at least a tiny bit of affection for him.

{Let’s assume you’re right. But why are you talking about Selena when I asked you about us?}

{Well, if I can’t make her feel jealous by getting friendly with other women, I thought, why not try it with men….}

Woo-Jin stared intently at Dustin, who was staring back with a naïve expression and twinkling eyes, before sighing and turning his head away.

“You’re such a….”

Unable to understand Woo-Jin’s words, Dustin continued the discussion by showing his social media as he thought his explanation had been insufficient.