Chapter 44: 44

“Getting prettier and prettier.”

However, the subject of the compliment had already gone far, far away. Woo-Jin shrugged and lamented the fact that Song Jae-Hee did not hear the end of the message. For some reason, Woo-Jin felt like he had stumbled upon their secret. He felt as though he was biting into a sweet and sour candy.

“It’s nice to be young,” remarked Woo-Jin while he was waiting for Kang Ho-Soo. If anyone had overheard Woo-Jin, they would definitely scoff at him.

“Whoa~! Who’s that handsome guy over there?” Production Director Son, who was passing through the hallway of the variety entertainment department, saw the tall and handsome Woo-Jin and stopped in his tracks. Judging by Woo-Jin’s appearance, it was evident that he was a celebrity, but Director Son could not recall who he was.

“That’s Chae Woo-Jin. A while ago, after watching the video of him singing ‘Confession’ on the internet, you said that we had to find some way to get him to sing on our show.”

“That’s him?”

The production staff uploaded a video of Chae Woo-Jin singing ‘Confession’ at their karaoke session on the internet before the premiere of Glooming Day as a means of generating publicity. It had only been uploaded for less than two hours, but the producer of a music variety show had been one of the first few people to watch it.

“I said it’s a waste if he did not utilize his extraordinary singing skills. But if I had his face, I’d also choose to be an actor.”

Woo-Jin was the first person who had perfectly sung ‘Confession’, apart from the original singer Im Jae-Beom. Production Director Son was blown away by his voice that was on par with professional singers and wanted to find a way to invite Woo-Jin to their show, but everyone around him shook their heads, saying it would be impossible because Chae Woo-Jin belonged to DS.

DS’ CEO Jang rarely sent out his favorite artists to appear on variety shows if there was nothing particularly beneficial about it. He could not stand to see his precious artists risking their image by appearing on a variety show.

“But I don’t think our show is the kind which will affect their careers?”

“We make them put on a mask and sing, don’t we? He will be covering his face as he sings. Both CEO Jang and Chae Woo-Jin should like that idea. Besides, Chae Woo-Jin is going to start shooting his drama soon, what’s there to lose?”

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“But still…”

Looking at the spot where Chae Woo-Jin stood just moments ago, Production Director Son sighed. It had been a long time since he had fallen in love with someone’s voice after listening to them sing at karaoke.

“It would have been really nice if he had started off as a singer first before becoming an actor.”

“He had almost debuted as the main vocalist of Blue Fit in the past,” replied the assistant production director.

“Blue Fit?” Production Director Son was curious. The assistant director who was standing next to Production Director Son gave him a detailed explanation. While Production Director Son was watching the video over and over again after he fell in love with it, the assistant production director quickly searched for information regarding Chae Woo-Jin. Even though there were only bits and pieces of information on the internet about Woo-Jin’s past as a former trainee of TM, he managed to retrieve more accurate information about Woo-Jin through an acquaintance in the industry. After hearing the story of how Woo-Jin was replaced right after he left TM before the group’s debut, Production Director Son narrowed his eyes, as though something had come to mind.

“About Blue Fit – there were rumors talking about how their main vocalist Min Si-Hoo was not the one who sang their debut single right?”

“Those rumors were secretly circulating at one point. It’s evident that Min Si-Hoo is too talented in singing for him to be an idol. But, up until now, he still hasn’t performed as well as he did in that debut single, both in terms of singing and the emotions in his voice.”

When Blue Fit debuted, they had received a lot of attention because everyone had thought that Min Si-Hoo was an idol who had a lot of talent in singing. It was truly the birth of a great rookie idol, and now, he had become a hallyu star with both wealth and fame because of his success. Nobody could deny that the huge success of their debut single laid the foundation for his current achievements. In particular, the main vocalist’s part in the song was so perfect that it could be called ‘the ultimate fantasy’.

The way he freely moved through the high and low notes, as well as his burst of scream-like belting at the end of the song, was so good that it gave the listeners goosebumps. However, Min Si-Hoo had never managed to replicate the same feeling at live performances. Even with the help of equipment during the recording sessions, there were times where it felt like it was an entirely different person singing. TM claimed that it was intentional on their part by using a different arrangement to create new and different vibes.

Even though it did not seem like TM had used a different arrangement, they had a very solid fandom, so the rumors were soon dismissed. They were able to create such a huge fan base in record time because of their amazing debut single. At the same time, it also led to the rise of a lot of anti-fans.

Since the controversy showed no signs of dying down, TM decided to spread the news about Min Si-Hoo’s alleged medical condition. They made an announcement saying that his vocal cords were inflamed some time after they had recorded the debut single, resulting in him being unable to sing as well as he used to.

It was not known if it was just an excuse or the truth, but ultimately, the public showered Min Si-Hoo with all kinds of sympathy, allowing him to shake off the false accusation. He became known as the unfortunate singer who could not tap into his full potential because of a misfortunate accident.

It was evident that Min Si-Hoo was still an amazing and outstanding singer; it’s just that his singing ability was not as fantastic as it was in the debut single. Many people felt that it was a shame, and they missed Min Si-Hoo’s old singing voice, which they loved but would never be able to listen to again. It was a little strange that he could not recreate the same emotions in the debut single, but the public no longer doubted Min Si-Hoo’s ability as a vocalist.

“If my prediction is right, I think we might be able to arrange for a mask to be put on Chae Woo-Jin. Of course, before that…” Production Director Son had an evil grin on his face as he grabbed the assistant production director’s arm.

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At this moment, Chae Woo-Jin felt an ominous aura and shuddered.

“Are you cold? Should I turn down the temperature of the air conditioning?”

“I don’t feel cold, but for some strange reason, I just felt a chill.” Woo-Jin waved at the worried Kang Ho-Soo, gesturing him not to worry about it, as Hwang Yi-Young, who was sitting next to him, covered his knees with a blanket. She grumbled, “That means you feel cold. We’re going to the table read now. It’ll be bad if your throat starts to hurt.”

Woo-Jin could not refuse the kind gesture and covered himself with a blanket even though he did not feel cold. Judging from the road conditions, it seemed like there was heavy traffic. Not wanting to waste any time, Woo-Jin took out the script for ‘City of Shadows’.

Chae Woo-Jin was supposed to act as a killer named ‘Louie Ahn’ in ‘City of Shadows’. He was adopted overseas and ultimately fell into the hands of a criminal syndicate after being repeatedly abandoned and he grew up to become a killer. Since Louie Ahn had been trained to kill since he was a child, it had become second nature to him. One day, the syndicate dissolved and he was granted freedom. Freedom was a foreign concept to Louie Ahn. Experiencing freedom for the first time threw him into a state of confusion and caused an identity crisis, leading him to return to the country where he was born. It was a homing instinct without meaning or purpose.

However, the list of things that Louie Ahn could do was very limited. There were very few jobs in Korea that were open to foreigners who had no parents or educational background. If he had been a complete foreigner, he would have been able to become an English teacher, but because he looked Korean, they did not acknowledge him as an native English speaker.

Since his only interest was coffee, he had opened up a small cafe with the money that he had saved up. The small cafe was located in an alley in the neighborhood and only had a few customers. This gave Louie too much free time, and he did not know what to do. Free time and thoughts were directly proportional to one another – the more time he spent alone with his thoughts, the deeper Louie fell into the dark rabbit hole. Louie ended up rethinking his purpose in life, and decided to once again become a contract killer and killed people without any guilt.

One day, he got hurt and met a doctor whom he was strangely attracted to. Since he did not know what love was, he could not comprehend his feelings for her. One day, he was hired to kill her father. He felt guilt for the first time when he looked at her while she cried. He was confused and learned what jealousy was because of her partner. He then found out later on that her partner was the one who had hired him to kill her father.

The reason why Chae Woo-Jin was fascinated by Louie’s role was because it was interesting to watch the character, who was initially void of emotions, learn and change into a whole new person. It was similar to a newborn baby learning about the world and growing bit by bit.

The script for the first fourteen episodes of the sixteen-episode drama had already been released. Woo-Jin could see the process of the transformation of Louie’s emotions. Louie blossomed into a human being because of one person. However, as the female lead got closer to learning the truth, she gradually became more and more devastated and fell apart.

Yoo Soo-Min did not seem to have any intention of saving the female lead from desolation, and both male leads, who were by her side, were not normal people. Both of them were just accessories who ended up being the reason behind her tragedy. Perhaps it was the writer’s take on the phrase ‘wander alone like a rhinoceros’, as she did not offer the female lead any salvation or breakthrough. [1]

Dramas that had bitter romance but did not guarantee happiness for the main characters did not fit into the trend these days. If it was not for K Broadcasting Station’s all-stars drama, ‘The Blue Castle’s Master’, it might have been hard for City of Shadows to get selected and scheduled. Instead of giving up on the ratings, it seemed as though the broadcasting company wanted to save their image by producing a good drama.

Perhaps that was why they had spared no effort in putting together a decent team of production crew, and increased the budget of the production costs. It was because of the anticipation of the birth of the so-called masterpiece of a drama. However, because Park Jong-Hyuk was the production director, it had led to several limitations.

The actors were reluctant to work with him, so they had a hard time casting the main leads. Nevertheless, they managed to smoothly cast the supporting actors, who were older veteran actors with several years of experience under their belts. But the younger actors, who would be the main leads, were all unwilling to be a part of the drama.

The actors had no reason to regret their decision as competing against ‘The Blue Castle’s Master’ was already going to be an impossible task, coupled with the fact that Park Jong-Hyuk was the production director. As a result, rookies were casted for the three main leads.

Even though the female lead Park Yeon-Ah was a rookie, she was a veteran in the theater industry. The other male lead, Kang Min-Ho was an actor who was gradually becoming well-known in the film industry. Both Park Yeon-Ah and Kang Min-Ho willingly accepted their roles with great determination, regardless of who the production director was, because they wanted to enter the drama industry.

Before they had officially started shooting the drama, the three actors got to know each other better through several meetings and table reads, and they quickly became close. In particular, Park Yeon-Ah and Kang Min-Ho, who were both 32 years old, started speaking informally to one another and became friends, while they treated Chae Woo-Jin like their younger brother.

“Choi Joon is just a very greedy person. He wants to have both his company and his woman, so he would get rid of anything which he considers to be an obstacle.” When Kang Min-Ho was explaining the role he was playing, Park Yeon-Ah refuted him and said it was absurd.

“Aren’t you glorifying your role too much? No matter how I see it, Choi Joon is just a psycho.”

“Psycho people have a mental disorder though. In my opinion, Choi Joon is a perfectly normal person. Perhaps his problem is that he’s frighteningly rational, making him extremely calculative and ambitious. A cold and rational man who loves passionately and cares only for himself is not a psycho.”

“You’ve just described a psycho. Woo-Jin, you think so too, right?”

While the two people were working hard on analyzing the character, Park Yeon-Ah sought solidarity from Woo-Jin, who was working hard at grilling pork collar meat at the side.

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1. The phrase ‘wander like a rhinoceros’ is a reference to a Buddhist text called ‘The Rhinoceros Sutra’. <i class="far fa-hand-point-left">

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