Become a Star

“It seems like the stalker is quite famous around here considering that the management office knows of her as well.” Kim Hak-Cheon remarked to Kang Ho-Soo.

“Well, you’re right.”

The MC started asking questions. After all, he couldn’t just stand around silently while they were on a live broadcast.

“What exactly is happening upstairs right now?”

“The stalker comes to Woo-Jin’s apartment around 10 PM every night and rings the doorbell for trivial requests, so he disabled his interphone recently. However, earlier this evening, Woo-Jin told me she had been banging on the front door and shouting. I told him not to leave his apartment and came here to deal with her myself.”

“This sounds a bit dangerous.”

“It is. She seems to think that she’s Woo-Jin’s lover. Why are there so many people claiming to be his girlfriend these days?”

“Ah…”

Kim Hak-Cheon and Oh Young-Hee exchanged glances at the nuance in Kang Ho-Soo’s words. He had indirectly denied that the woman on the social media account was Woo-Jin’s girlfriend.

“Mr. Chae Woo-Jin is just too popular. Even I’d want to go around and tell people I’m his girlfriend,” Oh Young-Hee said.

“That’s a crime, you know?!”

Kim Hak-Cheon exclaimed this, but Kang Ho-Soo responded bluntly as though it didn’t matter much.

“That isn’t severe enough to be a crime.”

“What kind of environment have you lived in so far to not consider that a crime?!

As Kim Hak-Cheon asked in a stupefied tone, the elevator arrived at the top floor.

“In that kind of environment.”

Kang Ho-Soo spoke, and as soon as the doors opened, he ran towards the spectacle occurring right in front of him. The MCs and production staff got off and followed the manager, but it didn’t take long for them to stop and stare blankly at what they were witnessing. Even though they were told that a stalker was making a fuss in the hallway, what was unfolding before their eyes was clearly different from what they’d been told.

Chae Woo-Jin was grabbing a woman by the wrist and holding her hand high above their heads while another man was behind her, restraining her shoulders and arms. However, the woman was holding a knife, and blood was flowing down Woo-Jin’s hand as he kept her wrist in place.

“119! Somebody call 119!”

“Wait, shouldn’t we call the police first?”

Despite being surprised by the sudden appearance of the crowd standing behind Kang Ho-Soo, Hyun-Min shouted at them with a serious expression.

“Just call both of them!”

A crazy knife-wielding woman was wreaking havoc, and someone had gotten injured, so both an ambulance and the police were necessary on site. Yet, right now, their greatest priority was to stop Kang Ho-Soo from attacking Lee Yeo-Rin.

“Hyung! Hyung, no! Stop! She didn’t attack us; we were trying to stop her from injuring herself!”

Kang Ho-Soo was about to break Lee Yeo-Rin’s left wrist, but he stopped when he heard Hyun-Min’s explanation.

Now that he thought about the situation, it was strange how Woo-Jin and Hyun-Min were outside when he’d told them not to open the door no matter what. Even if Lee Yeo-Rin had a knife and started swinging, no one would get hurt if her targets were safe inside the apartment.

“We were keeping an eye on her through the security camera when she suddenly took out a knife and placed it against her neck. So, we ran out as fast as possible to stop her and got cut a little in the process. She didn’t mean to attack us.”

Woo-Jin had a conflicted expression as he clarified the situation to his manager. No matter how much he hated someone, he couldn’t just sit by and watch them get hurt.

Kang Ho-Soo noticed a thin, shallow wound on Lee Yeo-Rin’s neck, and he stopped trying to attack the crazy woman. Instead, he now readied himself to defend against the knife.

“Why are you always acting so cold when you’re actually worried about me? Why were you pretending not to love me?”

Lee Yeo-Rin complained to Woo-Jin, questioning him as though she couldn’t understand his behavior.

“Excuse me? Isn’t it weirder to do nothing when someone is trying to kill themselves in front of you?” Woo-Jin exclaimed.

“No, you love me. You love me even though you constantly deny it. Are you that afraid of what the public thinks of you?”

“I’m more afraid of you than anything else.”

This exchange had occurred once before Kang Ho-Soo and the others even arrived, so Woo-Jin’s face was riddled with exhaustion and irritation. Nevertheless, Lee Yeo-Rin lamented that his attitude was too indifferent and aloof, acting as if her entire world was collapsing.

“Don’t do this to me.”

“That’s what I should be saying. Why on earth are you doing this to me? Actually, I know why, but don’t you realize that behaving this way doesn’t help you at all?” Woo-Jin asked.

There had been numerous normal routes that Lee Yeo-Rin could’ve taken to express her affection, so Woo-Jin couldn’t understand why she’d selected the most extreme choices every time. It was unlikely that she’d ever be able to date him even if she behaved reasonably, but she would’ve at least kept her dignity as his fan, and he would’ve respected her.

“You said we’d go together next time. You said you’d be with me everywhere except for heaven, that you can’t even smell any other flower now, and that you’d dedicate your life to me. So why do you keep pretending that I’m a stranger?”

“What? When did I ever say that?”

Her explanation was so absurd and ridiculous that it dumbfounded Woo-Jin. He subconsciously loosened his grip on her wrist, and Lee Yeo-Rin immediately tried to cut her own throat again. Fortunately, Kang Ho-Soo stopped her in time, preventing a bloodbath from occurring.

“Woo-Jin, step aside! Please excuse me.”

Kang Ho-Soo pushed Woo-Jin aside and grabbed Lee Yeo-Rin’s wrist, asking for her forgiveness. He then grabbed the other hand that Hyun-Min had been holding. With this, Kang Ho-Soo had easily subdued Lee Yeo-Rin despite two men previously struggling to hold her back.

“City of Shadows and Red Enemy!” Oh Young-Hee shouted.

“What?” Kim Hak-Cheon asked.

“What she said just now. I was wondering what she was talking about at first, but those are Mr. Chae Woo-Jin’s lines in his movies, series, and commercials.”

“Oh…!”

Kim Hak-Cheon also recalled the lines and nodded affirmatively as Oh Young-Hee pointed them out.

At first, he thought Lee Yeo-Rin’s words had some hidden meaning behind them, but they were just his lines in the works Kim Hak-Cheon had seen. Although the phrases were quite cliché, there was nothing better to whisper in a lover’s ears. Even now, the stalker argued and spoke as if Chae Woo-Jin's words to his character's lovers were directed at her. She yelled and asked why he hadn’t kept his promise, why he didn’t meet her even when she came to his front door.

“Are you okay?”

After leaving Lee Yeo-Rin in Kang Ho-Soo’s care, Woo-Jin was sighing as he inspected the injury on his hand when Oh Young-Hee approached him and took out her handkerchief. Fortunately, the cut wasn’t severe. However, blood wouldn’t stop pouring out from the wound since he’d been tightly holding Lee Yeo-Rin’s wrist. As Oh Young-Hee wrapped the handkerchief around the open wound, the cloth quickly turned dark red.

“Who on earth is that woman? Have you been treating me this way because of her?”

Oh Young-Hee was a notably famous television host, but Lee Yeo-Rin did not recognize her. The stalker glared at Oh Young-Hee with bloodlust in her eyes, trying to swing her knife at the MC. Needless to say, Kang Ho-Soo maintained a strong and firm hold on her, so Lee Yeo-Rin couldn’t do anything.

In the meantime, the management staff and security guards that Hyun-Min had called arrived to help. They inspected the scene before taking Lee Yeo-Rin towards her room with the help of Kang Ho-Soo.

“Won’t the people in that room complain about the noise if you take her there?”

Kim Hak-Cheon asked a pragmatic question. He was worried that the neighbors would complain because of Lee Yeo-Rin’s shrieks echoing in the hallway.

“It’s okay. That’s her apartment,” Hyun-Min explained.

The MCs and film crew’s eyes widened in surprise. They knew a bit about real estate, so Lee Yeo-Rin had to be somewhat wealthy if she were living in that penthouse. Yet, despite her wealth, the woman was acting so pathetically and living such a shameful life, stalking her favorite actor. They even started suspecting whether or not she had moved here to be with Chae Woo-Jin.

“She followed Woo-Jin here after he moved into this apartment,” Hyun-Min confirmed everyone’s suspicions before walking toward Woo-Jin and checking on his friend. Unlike his usual self, Woo-Jin’s face was worryingly pale.

The team of Charge! Open the door were also concerned about the actor’s state, and they rushed to him. They had forgotten that they were broadcasting everything live and were in a state of confusion. Nonetheless, the video jockey didn’t forget his duty and captured Woo-Jin’s haggard face on camera.

Chae Woo-Jin had become skinny and pale. He had lost a lot of weight, and his face was thinner than before. He was dressed in a white t-shirt and comfortable sweatpants. Since he had no time to put on shoes during this dire situation, he was barefoot. Right now, he was leaning against the wall with his head laid back to rest a bit. He gave off such a pure appearance that he resembled a young boy.

“Ugh, I’m so hungry.”

Alas, the words that escaped his mouth completely destroyed that pure and elegant image of his.

“Gimbap, ramen, pork feet…”

“No!”

Having come back to check on the actor after entrusting Lee Yeo-Rin to the management staff and security guards, Kang Ho-Soo suddenly shouted. Although Woo-Jin rarely ate those types of foods in general even when instructed to do so, after going on a diet, he now had cravings. Kang Ho-Soo then kindly consoled Woo-Jin.

“Let’s go to the hospital first. You’ll be fine when you get some nutritional supplements.”

“I feel like everything will be fine once I eat some pork belly. I even lost some blood, so pork belly would be the perfect treatment….” Woo-Jin muttered.

“Where’s the closest hospital again?”

Kang Ho-Soo pretended not to have heard him and asked Hyun-Min. As Hyun-Min was about to answer, the elevator dinged and opened again. Everyone turned to the door, wondering if more guards had come to help them, but to everyone’s surprise, police officers and paramedics got off the elevator and approached.

“We received a report about a knife attack.”

The officers looked around and spoke, and Kang Ho-Soo stepped forward to explain the situation to them.

“It wasn’t quite a knife attack. There was a person who was trying to harm themself while the other attempted to stop her, but they both got injured in the process.”

“We’ll need to investigate to confirm that.”

The officers couldn’t judge whether it was self-harm or assault toward any of the parties yet. Kang Ho-Soo understood the officers’ careful attitude and promised to provide security camera footage to help with the investigation. Meanwhile, the paramedics noticed Woo-Jin’s bleeding and approached him first.

“Please check on her before tending to me. She got a small cut on her neck, but I think the wound opened and got worse as she fought back earlier,” Woo-Jin said.

Initially, the tiny cut hadn’t bled at all, but when Lee Yeo-Rin tried to attack Oh Young-Hee and started to struggle after being stopped, the wound had opened up, and blood was flowing down her neck now.

Most importantly, Lee Yeo-Rin took priority over him since she needed to be checked both physically and mentally. She didn’t seem to have any family or friends in the area who could look after her right now, and it was urgent to prevent her from harming herself again.

“But who called the police and paramedics?”

Kim Hak-Cheon suddenly asked and tilted his head in confusion, sensing something strange. He hadn’t seen anyone here making a phone call, and he hadn’t done so either. Although Hyun-Min had told them to call 119 and 112,[1] everyone was so shocked and dumbfounded that no one actually ended up calling the emergency services. Even Hyun-Min had only contacted the management office to ask for help.

Everyone shook their heads, denying their involvement.

“Then who reported it?”

“It seems like it was the viewers.”

The answer came from the producer who moderated the chat during the live broadcast. She explained that she had been too distracted and hadn’t checked the chat until now, but when the producer finally read through it, she saw that the chat had descended into chaos. The viewers were frustrated by the film crew's inaction during the emergency and reported the incident themselves.

However, since there were over a hundred thousand people watching the live broadcast, many of them had reported the incident simultaneously. The entire nation was in chaos as people called emergency services everywhere. In fact, it was possible that this place was the calmest and quietest location in the country right now.

“What viewers?”

Woo-Jin was still unaware of the situation, and he asked this with a tired voice. Although they had never met in person yet, he was familiar with Kim Hak-Cheon and Oh Young-Hee, so Woo-Jin greeted them casually before making another inquiry.

“Come to think of it, what brings you here?”

He thought that perhaps they had come to see another person in the building but had stopped by to visit him as well. However, as Woo-Jin scrutinized the area, the film crew and the general atmosphere seemed awfully familiar.

“Are you headed somewhere for a broadcast?”

“Yes, we are currently filming Charge! Open the door.”

“I see. Good luck with your….”

Suddenly, Woo-Jin stopped leaning against the wall and straightened his body, scanning his surroundings again. Only then did he notice the DSTV logo on the camera, and he quickly remembered today’s date.

Woo-Jin was well aware of what kind of broadcast Charge! Open the door was. He had forgotten about it since he was so occupied with Lee Yeo-Rin, but if it weren’t for her, Woo-Jin would’ve been waiting anxiously for the broadcast to begin tonight.

“So, um… The person you’re, uh, filming today is….”

Woo-Jin slowly pointed at himself with half-certainty, and Kim Hak-Cheon could only smile apologetically and nod.

“Then, that camera must be filming me live right now….”

“Indeed.” Kim Hak-Cheon confirmed.

Woo-Jin quickly looked at his current state, starting with his injured hand. He also checked his clothes and bare feet. With this, Woo-Jin stared blankly at the camera again before quietly turning around. He then ran into his apartment with swift and hurried movements, a stark contrast from how he was grumbling and complaining about being hungry moments ago.

1. 119 is the ambulance and emergency service while 112 is the police ☜