Superstar From Age 0

Chapter 102

Ever since then, the Welton family would gather in the living room and watch The Royal Physician whenever they had time.

They cried their eyes out when Prince Seongnyeong died in episode 14, and they were shocked to see a child who looked exactly like him. In the final episode, they shed tears at Heo Yu-seon’s cry for him to come back.

“Dad! Jun is such a great actor, right?”

“Indeed. The actor who played Heo Yu-seon was also good.”

“It was so sad. Seongnyeong would have been the king if he wasn’t sick…”

“I know. If only his illness could be cured by magic, he would be the king…”

As Laura listened to her parents and Grace’s conversation and wiped her tears, she shared her own thoughts. Then she stiffened.

A missing tail. A king. An illness. Magic!

“This is it!”

“What is?”

“I remembered! The male lead’s past!”

Laura Welton ran to her room as fast as she could and turned on her laptop. She opened the file that she hadn’t touched for weeks and started writing. Laura Welton’s eyes sparkled as she looked at the laptop screen.

“The male lead lost his tail in a battle and only a witch can make a tail.”

Laura Welton thought of Charlie, a werewolf without a tail, and Seo-jun, who was more majestic than anyone on the stage. She combined the two werewolves into one. She couldn’t stop writing as she felt chills and excitement from the episode.

“Let’s just use a big stem for now. I’ll fix it later!”

As Laura laughed and typed on the keyboard, Grace and her mom and dad quietly closed the door.

“I’ve never seen Laura so happy.”

“Sis, do you think she wants to be a writer?”

“Maybe. Grace, do you want to go buy some tarts? Sweets are the best when you use your brain.”

“Yeah!”

***

Tyler, the writing teacher at the high school Laura Welton attended, was worried that he had done something wrong when he saw that Laura Welton hadn’t brought a single page since a few weeks ago.

“But she seemed talented…”

He had just said that her short story was interesting, but Laura Welton had talent. Her writing was easy to read and had unique character settings, but it also had a surprising sense of reality, as if she had experienced it herself.

He had suggested that she expand it into a longer piece, but every time he saw her passing by, she looked troubled. He wondered if he had made a mistake.

“If she could bring me something, even a little, I could tell her whether to continue or not… But she never shows up outside of class…”

“Teacher!”

Tyler’s eyes were filled with relief when he saw Laura Welton’s bright face.

“I wrote something roughly, can you take a look?”

“Sure.”

Laura Welton handed him a USB.

“I’ll keep writing here!”

“Okay.”

Tyler turned on his laptop and plugged in the USB that Laura Welton gave him. There was one file with an untitled name. He glanced at Laura Welton, who was focused on writing, and opened the file.

The male lead, who was the leader of the werewolf pack, lost his tail in an enemy attack.

The tail was an important part that allowed the werewolves to transform.

The colleague who helped the male lead escape gave him a detector that had been passed down and told him to find a witch. Only a witch could make a tail again, he said.

There was only one witch left in the human world. Neither the female lead nor the people around her knew it.

The male lead, who followed the detector to the city, helped the female lead who was lost.

He found himself drawn to the female lead, not the woman that the detector pointed to.

“…This is interesting.”

As he read Laura Welton’s novel, tyler couldn’t help but think of the phone numbers of the publishing company staff he knew.

***

As the end of the year approached, various broadcasting stations were busy preparing for the awards ceremonies.

From the acting awards, to the entertainment awards, to the music festival.

The programs that wrapped up the year together started preparing, and the reporters were also busy predicting the nominees and winners.

Among the various broadcasting stations, the most talked-about one was KBC, which had achieved a 40% viewership rating with The Royal Physician.

[KBC. Who are the acting award nominees?]

[Let’s find out the award categories of KBC.]

[Acting award, rookie award. How far is a rookie?]

[Is it possible to win multiple awards? Impossible?]

-He appeared as a cameo, so isn’t the rookie award too much?

-But he was barely in Reinvestigation, so I think he could get the rookie award for The Royal Physician.

-Um. The awards that Seo-jun could win are the excellence award, the best award, the supporting actor award, and the child actor award.

=What about the grand prize?

-Seo-jun did well, but… Heo Yu-seon is…

-Yeah. Lee Ji-seok did everything in episode 14 and the last episode.

-KBC is dominated by The Royal Physician.

The internet was buzzing with Seo-jun’s chances of winning. It had been a few months since The Royal Physician ended, but the emotions that people felt while watching the drama were still vivid.

-He should only get one award even if he wins, so that other actors can get some too.

-But he acted so well, it’s a shame to get only one.

-You can only get the rookie award once.

-Seo-jun did really well for the rookie award.

-There’s also the child actor award.

-KBC must have a lot of trouble.

Just like the people’s thoughts, KBC was also struggling to decide the nominees and winners.

“What should we do?”

“I don’t know.”

“We decided everything else, but… Seo-jun is the problem.”

“Hmm. He only appeared once as a cameo, can he get the rookie award?”

They all sighed.

There were too many awards to give to Seo-jun, who made the viewers cry.

***

“Seo-jun, do you want to do a congratulatory stage for the acting awards?”

“A congratulatory stage?”

Seo-jun tilted his head at Ahn Da Ho’s words as he read the script.

“KBC asked if you would do a congratulatory stage for them.”

“A congratulatory stage means singing?”

“No. They asked if you would do the performance you did at the Halloween festival.”

Seo-jun blinked.

When the edited version was uploaded to the fan cafe, people who edited and uploaded personal videos on YouTube also appeared. Seo-jun also saw the comments that said the quality was poor.

“Um. That’s short, is that okay?”

“They said they would be happy if you just showed up.”

The ratings would explode no matter how short it was. Seo-jun nodded at Ahn Da Ho’s words.

“I’ll do it. They said they want to see it in good quality.”

“Okay. I’ll tell the broadcasting station.”

“But, Da Ho hyung.”

“Yeah?”

“Can I wear different clothes for that?”

Seo-jun laughed happily.

[Actor Lee Seo-jun, performing on the congratulatory stage!]

[What will Lee Seo-jun show us? A song or a dance?]

-I’ve never seen Lee Seo-jun dance.

-He must be good. He’s good at sports too. And he sings well. He’s not a jack of all trades.

-I’m curious about that. The Halloween stage! The video was so shaky. And the quality was low!

-Ah. It would be nice if they filmed it like a YouTube edit.

=That one had the best composition. It looked great.

As the acting awards ceremony approached, seo-jun received more clothes.

The brand of the suit he wore at the WTV Film Festival two years ago, Aresis, had grown noticeably since then, and Seo-jun received more clothes.

Of course, this ceremony was a domestic one, so there were more domestic brands than foreign ones.

From brands he had never seen before to brands with famous designers. Seo-jun looked at the boxes of clothes piled up in a corner of the Cocoa Entertainment practice room with a bored face.

“There are so many.”

“It’s definitely more than the film festival.”

“Do I have to try them all on?”

Seo-jun asked, and Ahn Da Ho, who was thinking for a moment, shook his head.

“Let’s just pick a few that you like and try them on and decide.”

“That’s a relief.”

Seo-jun opened the boxes and saw various designs of suits. He looked at the clothes and put them back in the box, opened the box and put them back. As he repeated that, one box caught his eye.

“Aresis?”

“Yeah. They sent it even though it’s a domestic ceremony. Do you like it? Do you want to wear it?”

“Let me see a bit more.”

He put it on the candidate list for now. Seo-jun, who was looking hard at the clothes, opened the last box of clothes.

“Wow.”

Seo-jun exclaimed as he took out the suit. On the black suit, there was a faint dark thread that embroidered the giraffe pattern of the official uniform that Seo-jun wore in The Royal Physician.

Of course, the design of the giraffe pattern was simple, but it was recognizable at a glance.

Ahn Da Ho also admired the suit. From a distance, it looked like a plain suit, but up close, the giraffe pattern was visible.

“It has a good meaning too.”

As it was a ceremony where he stood as The Royal Physician, this special suit fit Seo-jun’s taste perfectly.

“I want to wear this!”

“Okay. Let’s try it on and adjust the size. Is there anything to fix?”

Ahn Da Ho looked at the suit, and Seo-jun called him. There was another piece of clothing in the box.

“Da Ho hyung! There’s a dragon version too.”

“Is that a dragon… the pattern on the king’s clothes?”

“Yes!”

Ahn Da Ho burst into laughter. He felt the designer’s wish for Seongnyeong Daegun to become king even at the ceremony. He probably was a fan of The Royal Physician.

***

December 31st, the day of the ceremony.

Seo-jun arrived at the KBC Hall, where the ceremony would be held, earlier than others because of the rehearsal for the congratulatory stage. His mom and dad were going to come later with uncle Chan.

Seo-jun looked at the stage that was ready.

The stage of the KBC Hall was bigger than the Halloween festival.

“I’m going to go like this from here.”

At Seo-jun’s words, the directors and cameramen marked the route on their notes. They followed the little kid around and figured out the route and camera composition. One of the cameramen asked.

“How fast?”

“Uh. Like this?”

Seo-jun ran on the stage. It was similar to the speed when he turned into a wolf in the fog. The cameramen who were filming and estimating the speed nodded.

“When you’re on the main stage, you’ll run on four legs, so you’ll have to lower the camera than now.”

“Where do you stand when you stand on two legs?”

“About here.”

Seo-jun told them his plan as it was. And he asked the directors to run on the stage without the smoke that rose in clumps, standing on two legs as he did during the performance.

Seo-jun moved from the end of the stage to the zigzag, moved his steps slowly in the middle, stood still for a moment at the front, and ran to the back of the stage.

The cameramen who followed him with the camera all nodded.

“Thank you, actor Lee Seo-jun.”

“No, thank you. Please film well.”

“Yes. Don’t worry.”

We don’t want to hear any complaints either.

They all swallowed their last words.

When an article about Seo-jun’s congratulatory stage came out, people picked ‘the transformation of a werewolf’ as the most likely candidate over a song or a dance.

-I was so frustrated watching only the personal shooting videos on YouTube.

-KBC camera, do a good job!

-If they shoot it with their feet, I’ll blow up the homepage.

There were many comments on the KBC homepage. The homepage was going to explode even before Seo-jun’s stage came out.

After greeting the filming crew, seo-jun headed to the waiting room prepared by KBC.

Knock-knock-

Seo-jun, who was spending time with Ahn Da Ho in the waiting room wearing comfortable clothes, looked at the door at the knock.

“Hi, seo-jun.”

It was Ji-seok hyung. Seo-jun smiled brightly and greeted Lee Ji-seok, whom he met after a few months.

“Hyung! You came early!”

“I wanted to enter with you. It’s our first time participating in the ceremony together.”

“Move. Jerk.”

“Seo-jun, hi!”

Not only Ji-seok hyung, but also Uncle Jong-ho and Do-hoon hyung were there.

They were all ready to go on the red carpet right away, with their neat suits, neatly combed hair, and makeup.

Seo-jun looked at Park Do-hoon’s head with a proud face.

There was no pattern on Do-hoon hyung’s head, who he met a few days after the last broadcast of The Royal Physician.

It was still clean even after a few months.

‘He must be okay now.’

He seemed to have become strong enough to get out of the influence of the power, even if he didn’t have a strong mind. Seo-jun smiled brightly and greeted the three.

“Was the Halloween festival fun?”

“Yes. It was awesome!”

“Seo-jun always causes a fuss whenever he does something.”

“Have you decided on your next work?”

“Not yet. How about you, Uncle Jong-ho?”

“I’m going to try a modern drama this time.”

Lee Ji-seok smirked at that. A gangster? Kim Jong-ho hit Lee Ji-seok’s back. Ouch! Lee Ji-seok made a fuss, and Park Do-hoon and Seo-jun laughed.

“Seo-jun. Let’s change clothes now.”

“Okay.”

Ahn Da Ho, who checked the clock, said. Seo-jun changed his clothes in the corner of the waiting room and came out.

The stylist who was waiting did his makeup and hair. It didn’t take long because he was still a kid.

The three actors who were watching behind the stylist and Ahn Da Ho looked at Seo-jun’s clothes with surprised faces.

“This is amazing. You can see the embroidery when you look closely.”

“Is that a dragon?”

“The one in Gonryongpo?”

Seo-jun nodded and said.

“The place that sent me these clothes sent me a giraffe and a dragon, and I decided to wear the one with the dragon.”

“Wow. Seo-jun, I didn’t know you were ambitious. Do you want to be a king next?”

Seo-jun and the adults laughed at Lee Ji-seok’s joke.