Become A Star

Chapter 98

The conversation came to a halt.

He was laughing internally but ended up laughing out loud, so the people around him suddenly stopped talking. They had assumed he was asleep the entire time and paid no attention to him, only to be startled for a second when they heard his laughter. After that, nobody spoke again because of suspicions that he had overheard their conversion while pretending to be asleep.

As the conversation came to an abrupt end and the surroundings became quiet, Woo-Jin eventually pretended to be asleep; he intentionally tossed and turned and snored softly. Thanks to his acting skills that were wasted in a place like this, the girls seated in their chairs soon let their guards down and started talking again.

“I’m really not asking for much — I simply hope that I can live with Woo-Jin for just one day. I’ll be happy for the rest of my life if I can have that one day with him.”

“And it would be a nightmare for Chae Woo-Jin which he would try to forget for the rest of his life?”

After that, the group of friends exchanged some dirty jokes among themselves. Listening to their conversation made Woo-Jin writhe, and he was at a loss for what to do. While it was hard to put up with insults, listening to people make sexual jokes about him was also hard. As was finding himself in a tough spot, not being able to get up and leave or do anything about it; fortunately for him, they got up and left first.

“Don’t you think the guy next to us was a little weird?”

“In what way?”

“His head was hanging low, but whenever we said something, he would flinch. I honestly doubt he was actually sleeping.” Finally, the girl came clean and told her friends her reason for purposely making the dirty jokes — she wanted to test the man’s reaction. Just as she expected, he flinched and looked uncomfortable, so she urged her friends to leave earlier than planned.

“Yeah! Recently, whenever I see that guy, he’s always covering his face with a mask and a hat, looking so suspicious. People normally remove their scarves when they study, right? I wonder if we should report it to the management office because he looks so suspicious of being covered up. Besides, didn’t he look like a loser earlier? Crouching down the entire time.”

Nonetheless, the man seemed to be studying very hard, so she couldn’t bring herself to report him. She ended her story there, and the girls soon forgot about the man’s existence. As soon as those people left, Woo-Jin also got up. Hearing what people had been saying about him was an interesting experience for him. He also gained a lot from this experience as he learned how the public viewed him and what they thought about him.

“Nonetheless, the part where she said she wanted to lock me up in a basement was kind of….”

Woo-Jin happened to see a life-size cardboard cutout of himself in front of one of the branches of the telecommunications company on his way home from the library. Because of what he had overheard earlier, he found it hard to move along casually like it was nothing. Just like what one of the girls had said earlier, a few people were waiting to take a picture with the life-size cutout.

“You have to wait in line for your turn to take a photo.” Someone told Woo-Jin to get in line behind them. As soon as Woo-Jin shook his head and said he was just looking around, they pouted their lips in displeasure. They seemed to have misunderstood him, thinking he was mocking or judging them.

The store was playing Hanryang Doryeong’s song while people outside were lining up to take pictures with Woo-Jin’s life-size cutout. Woo-Jin felt this moment to be incredibly bizarre and looked at the current situation like a bystander.