Chapter 179: 179

In actuality, the trust Dustin had in Woo-Jin was incomprehensible, considering how they had met each other just recently.

One of the reasons was Dustin’s impactful and memorable first impression of Woo-Jin.

When he first saw Woo-Jin, Dustin wondered whether it was humanly possible for anyone to be so pure and wholesome.

Although Woo-Jin’s neat and beautiful appearance had also played a part in the first impression, Dustin felt like Woo-Jin was very well-behaved and frank when observing him. Thus, he felt comfortable and at peace when they were together.

But the biggest event that made Dustin have faith in Woo-Jin happened the day after the Korean actor’s welcome party.

Woo-Jin showed Dustin a selfie he had taken with a dead-drunk Dustin from the previous night and warned the American actor not to drink too much when he can’t hold his liquor.

Then, Woo-Jin deleted the photo in front of Dustin’s eyes.

When asked why he had deleted the photo, Woo-Jin flatly replied that he had no reason to keep a picture that wasn’t very pleasant to see.

Actors often considered photos taken with Dustin valuable, as those were always well-received by the general public. But those also exerted considerable influence within the entertainment industry because it proved that one had strong connections with a famous celebrity.

Therefore, many stars posted pictures of them with Dustin on their social media to garner attention even though they weren’t really close with the actor in real life.

In other words, a photo with Dustin could be used for publicity, even if the latter was drunk in it.

“I don’t use social media.”

“Do you think it’s a waste of your time?” Dustin asked Woo-Jin.

“No, I’m just too lazy.”

Dustin was impressed by Woo-Jin’s concise answer and thought it was cool that he didn’t scheme around and try to forcibly make connections with influential figures.

After that incident, Dustin started chatting with Woo-Jin, talking about stories that everyone knew and cleverly mixing in some pieces of information that only Dustin knew. However, the conversations and topics the two talked about never spread around to other people.

Needless to say, it was possible that Woo-Jin had told people that weren’t in Dustin’s surroundings and that he was just unable to check them.

But he never heard any rumors or gossip about the things he told Woo-Jin, so Dustin decided to trust him. In fact, Dustin’s weakness was that he trusted and depended on people way too easily. So while he was trying to be careful and wary in his own way, Dustin still decided that Chae Woo-Jin was a good friend and tried to get closer to him.

Friendship was like a business to Dustin, after all. It was like an adventure of a lifetime. If one didn’t invest in anyone because they were afraid of the risk, they would never gain anything.

Currently, Dustin’s ‘friendship funds’ were on the verge of bankruptcy because he was investing in too many people. Thus, he needed a restructuring, a new method. If he failed this time as well, it would hurt him a lot, but even so, he didn’t want to despair and be discouraged.

Humans had always represented hope for Dustin. He didn’t want to live life by giving up hope, so he always looked straight ahead and walked forward without running away.

And the second thing Dustin liked most after people was social media. He was often hurt by malicious comments, but he couldn’t give up on it because he received more comfort, consolation, and praise than hate. Social media and alcohol were outlets and a refuge for Dustin.

Thus, he often posted photos on social media, even during projects, showing the progress of the film and his relationship with the other actors. And unsurprisingly, he posted a picture taken with Woo-Jin on his social media this time around.

The photo was a selfie Dustin took with Woo-Jin in the background, reading the movie’s script. Dustin left the caption, ‘Genie won’t play with me,’ along with the photo.

Not long after he uploaded the picture, strangers who did not usually come to his social media started paying it a visit. Although they left comments in English, most of them were Woo-Jin’s fans from Korea.

There were also quite a few Americans and people of various nationalities, of course, but they all had one thing in common — they were fans of Woo-Jin.

They were happy to finally see Woo-Jin again after a long time. Many were consoling Dustin yet asked him to still look after Woo-Jin, and some people endearingly requested the actor to post more pictures of a similar style in the future.

The fans wanted more photos of Woo-Jin because the actor did not use social media, and the staff members who had followed him to Los Angeles were not posting a lot of news or pictures on the fancafe as they were being cautious.

Previously, Dustin couldn’t understand why his friends constantly tried to gain attention online by posting pictures with him.

But now that he had the same experience but on the receiving end, he realized that it wasn’t such a bad feeling either.

It was interesting to see the various reactions of people who weren’t his own fans but a co-star’s. He also felt the warm and welcoming friendliness of the fans in love with Woo-Jin. The attention and goodwill he received from another person’s supporters felt unusually thrilling.

The fans of Dustin’s previous co-stars had not been very fond of him. In the case of male co-stars, the fans didn’t like Dustin as he overshadowed them, while for female actresses, the fans felt like Dustin was being rude when ignoring them.

It was only natural that Dustin ‘ignored’ his female co-stars since he had publicly stated that he had a one-sided crush on someone from a young age, so he didn’t see his female co-stars as women in that sense.

Dustin drew a clear line with the actresses even in private to avoid any misunderstandings or scandals, but his attitude offended the actresses’ fans instead.

Thus, the goodwill he received from Woo-Jin’s fans was rather fresh and special.

Dustin’s eyes got slightly watery as he imagined his fans behaving the same way to others.

Woo-Jin’s fans showed affection and goodwill for just a single picture he had taken without much thought and even thanked Dustin for uploading it. Dustin’s heart ached as he imagined his own fans also behaving the same way when someone else uploaded a picture of him.

With a renewed sense of love for his fans, he posted a message stating exactly what he felt later that night, only to flail around in bed the next morning in embarrassment.

However, the reaction from his fans was good. The content of his message was quite shameful and cringeworthy as he had written it in the dark of the night when he was overflowing with emotions and sentimentality. Yet, since it was basically a message about his realization and gratitude towards his fans, no one criticized his post.

So when Dustin tried to erase the message as soon as he woke up in the morning, his manager actively and eagerly stopped him. Thus, Dustin didn’t have a choice but to leave it as is since his fans also appreciated the post.

However, his actions caused another repercussion. Dustin’s fans misunderstood that he had been able to express his gratitude and write sensible messages to his fans as a result of his friendship with Chae Woo-Jin.

The fans who had always wanted Dustin to make a true, reliable friend welcomed the two’s friendship with open arms. And in consequence, Dustin and Woo-Jin’s fans started having good relations with each other.

Now, all that was left was for Dustin and Woo-Jin to actually become real friends.

***

“You still haven’t thrown away that shirt? Wait, scratch that. Why on earth did you bring it all the way to LA?!”

Dustin was on his way to visit Woo-Jin before they started filming when he heard a voice shouting in an unfamiliar language. Even though he couldn’t understand the words, he could guess from the atmosphere that Woo-Jin’s fashion coordinator had gotten angry and was scolding him.

“Look at the people’s reaction! They’re insulting me, asking why your fashion coordinator still hasn’t thrown away that shirt.”

Woo-Jin’s coordinator despaired as though the world was ending and slumped down on the table, pretending to bawl her eyes out.

In front of her was Woo-Jin, staring blankly into the air with an embarrassed look and a forced smile.

{What’s going on?}

The atmosphere was dark, but judging from Woo-Jin’s expression, it didn’t seem to be a serious situation. Nonetheless, seeing the coordinator’s attitude, it was clear that something embarrassing had happened.

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“Listen to this! Our Woo-Jin wore this shirt again. He wore this dirty t-shirt with paint stains and wandered around LA, only to get photographed by a tourist and get an article published about it!”

Although Hwang Yi-Young could understand English to some extent, she could only talk in short sentences, so she gave up entirely on explaining the situation in English and rapid-fired her words in Korean at Dustin.

Even though he couldn’t understand her, Dustin looked at the laptop she was showing him and saw an article with pictures of Woo-Jin.

In the photos, Woo-Jin was wearing a white t-shirt with a cardigan wrapped around his waist, yawning in some and staring blankly forward in others while leaning his head forward.

{What’s wrong with these? Were you caught secretly staring at some women in bikinis or something?}

{No, the clothes I’m wearing in those pictures are pretty old, so people are telling me to buy some new outfits.}

A few people visiting the Hollywood Forever Cemetery took some pictures and later found out that Woo-Jin was standing behind them, visible in their photos.

Moreover, they were uploading their pictures on their social media in real-time, so one of Woo-Jin’s fans recognized the actor on their posts and raised some suspicions.

Since they had used a high-quality camera, the image resolution was good enough even when they zoomed in on the photos.

And sure enough, once they zoomed into the background of the image, Chae Woo-Jin was standing there as expected.

It was a funny coincidence that Chae Woo-Jin, who was filming a movie in Los Angeles, was photographed there. But rather than the actor’s presence becoming a hot topic, the clothes he was wearing became a bigger issue.

Woo-Jin had brought the ugly t-shirt that the ‘The Slipper Young Man’ was wearing all the way to the US and wore it on his outings. Those who knew of that incident could easily recognize it.

At first, people were just surprised he hadn’t thrown it away yet and found it remarkable that he had taken it to the US. But not long afterward, they started complaining about Woo-Jin’s fashion coordinator, Hwang Yi-Young, who had followed the actor to the US, and asked why she was making him wear those old clothes again.

Hwang Yi-Young had nothing to do during the movie's filming because the production staff took care of everything for Woo-Jin, from his makeup to his costumes.

Nonetheless, she had accompanied him to LA to make him pay attention to his casual clothes and activities outside of filming.

However, the day Woo-Jin visited the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, an idol Hwang Yi-Young had once worked with was holding a concert in LA. So she decided to attend the event and help out with the preparations and clean-up after the concert since she was already there. But when she returned later that evening, this article had spread online, falsely accusing her of being bad at her job, which frustrated her.

{If you aren’t contracted to a brand, it shouldn’t matter what clothes you wear in your daily life, right?} Dustin asked.

{That’s exactly my point. That shirt is so comfortable….}

Woo-Jin responded with a smile as Dustin took his side in the argument. Suddenly, Hwang Yi-Young raised her head from the table and glared at him.

“Wear comfortable clothes at home! I was getting praised for your outfit at the airport, but now everyone has already forgotten about it and turned their backs on me!”

The style of Woo-Jin’s clothes at the airport when leaving for LA was quite a sight. That December day, he wore a long, black, open coat with a white, knitted top with a round neckline and a black, buckle-style belt.

Every time Woo-Jin took a step, the hem of his coat flapped backward, and his slim waistline was displayed to the world, which overall had an attractive sexual appeal to it.

Hwang Yi-Young felt wrongly accused as she started getting insulted despite being a hardworking fashion coordinator.

{You were in the wrong.} Dustin changed his mind.

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{Do you even understand what we’re talking about?}

Woo-Jin asked suspiciously as Dustin suddenly took Hwang Yi-Young’s side.

{I didn’t get the details but got the rough idea. But above all else, whenever I make a mistake and Ellen gets angry, she has that exact expression. And when I look back on it later on, she was almost always right.}

Ellen was Dustin’s fashion coordinator. Dustin then added that things never went wrong for him whenever he listened to Ellen’s advice.

Once everyone teamed up and blamed Woo-Jin, he finally relented and promised Hwang Yi-Young to throw away that t-shirt when they returned to Korea.

“Why not throw it away now?”

“I feel bad throwing it away in a foreign land….”

Hwang Yi-Young was dumbfounded as Woo-Jin was acting like he was being forced to abandon his pet animal during a trip overseas.

“That shirt must be made in China anyway! Fine, then. Why don’t you fly to China and throw it away over there since it’s where the shirt was born?”

At Hwang Yi-Young’s words, Kang Ho-Soo, who had stood quietly this whole time without a sound, finally burst into laughter.

“And why are you laughing?! You should’ve paid more attention to Woo-Jin’s outfit since I wasn’t there!”

Hwang Yi-Young turned to Woo-Jin’s manager and exclaimed.

At that time, Kang Ho-Soo didn’t think Woo-Jin’s t-shirt was problematic and he still didn’tknow why she was making such a big deal out of it.

He felt that it was unreasonable of Hwang Yi-Young to criticize him and tell him to take better care of Woo-Jin’s attire, as it wasn’t part of his job as a manager.

Feeling wrongly accused, Kang Ho-Soo was about to talk back to her, but Dustin tapped him on the shoulder.

{From my experience, things will stay troublesome for a long time if you refute her now.}

Kang Ho-Soo glanced at the fervid Hwang Yi-Young and closed his mouth shut.

In the short moment when everyone stood silently, Dustin stepped forward and spoke to Woo-Jin.

{Genie, when we’re done filming today….}

{No.}

{I’m not going out drinking. I decided to stop drinking alcohol until the end of the shoot, so I won’t cling to you anymore.}

{Now that's good news. I’ll cheer for you from the sidelines!}

{If you’re gonna cheer for me, do it from the frontlines instead.}

Although he had proudly declared that he wouldn’t cling to Woo-Jin anymore, Dustin had no choice but to do that right now.

For the time being, he needed an excuse to refuse to meet his friends, but he also needed someone to spend time with to appease his loneliness.

Thus, Dustin asked Woo-Jin to hang out together after they were done filming for the day.

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