Superstar From Age 0

Chapter 9

Choi Hyun-ji, the planning team leader of the Elephant Series, bowed her head.

“Sigh, what should I do…”

The more she read the comments, the darker her vision became.

Just a week ago, she was happy to think about getting a bonus, but now she felt like she had to write an apology letter instead of getting a bonus.

‘Surely, I won’t get fired… right?’

She had been lucky these days.

She finished her work happily on Friday and won 50,000 won on two instant lottery tickets she bought.

Her work went well, and the clothes she bought online fit her perfectly.

The food she ordered late was delivered in almost 15 minutes, and it was so delicious that she thought it would become her regular place.

She slept well without dreaming, got up early and finished cleaning the house neatly, and was about to watch a movie that had good reviews for being fun…

Bang-bang-bang.

The wind blew. It was the beginning of a storm.

Kang So-ra, the marketing team leader, sent her a frantic message on Banana Talk.

She wondered if she had to work until the weekend and made a face, but now she felt lucky or unlucky that she didn’t.

-Hyun-ji! We’re in big troubleㅠㅠ

[Why? What happened?

-We were going to hire LALA for the CF deal, right? She uploaded a video on YouTube!

LALA was the biggest contributor to the sales of the Elephant Series in the past week.

The formula that LALA fed her daughter was one of the Elephant Series.

She recommended the Elephant Series in her video, and thanks to that, her small formula company was sold out all week.

Not only in Korea, but also in the United States, britain, Australia and other countries where LALA’s videos were watched by parents, they seemed to buy at least one bottle.

From online shopping malls that shipped overseas to domestic marts, they received orders to increase their orders along with the words that they were sold out.

“So we increased our production…”

As soon as she found out the reason for the formula sellout, she proposed that it would sell well for at least three months.

So they were running the factory 24 hours a day, but that was a mistake.

-It wasn’t because of the formula, it was because of the baby mukbang!!

After that, choi Hyun-ji couldn’t take her eyes off her laptop.

She watched LALA’s video first and then JUN’s video next.

To be honest, the baby, or ‘Seo-jun’ according to the man’s voice that could be heard faintly, was cute.

Was there such a pretty baby?

It was amazing. But this video was the cause?

The situation changed quickly.

Choi Hyun-ji read the comments on YouTube and went to a mom cafe where her cousin’s ID was registered and visited various sites.

In the meantime, baby mukbang had at least one post on most sites. It ranked low, but it even took over real-time search terms.

Finally, choi Hyun-ji sighed as she looked through the verification photos taken by the mothers.

“Really?”

It was as if she was hypnotized.

It wasn’t because of the formula, but because of this little baby’s mukbang.

It was amazing that two 10-minute videos had an effect.

-What about our inventory?

It was the weekend, but the factory must be working hard right now.

She felt dizzy at the thought of the mountain-like formula inventory.

The company she worked for, Elephant, was a small but good company that was founded with the intention of making healthy and good formula for babies.

She couldn’t let the company falter like this.

These days, YouTube stars who matched the target group of products were hired for CFs rather than famous celebrities.

So Elephant also wanted to take advantage of that and offer LALA and her daughter a proposal.

But there was someone more amazing than them here. Choi Hyun-ji made a decision.

[Let’s do it.

-Do what?

“Seo-jun. Help your aunties.”

Choi Hyun-ji clasped her hands and prayed.

The fate of the company depended on this little baby.

***

“It finally came!”

Mina’s mom said excitedly.

Seo Eun-hye wondered what was going on.

“No way, it’s only been three days since Seo-jun uploaded his video?”

“You have to ride on it when it’s trendy.”

Proposals poured into YouTube channel [JUN].

The most common ones were promotional models and CF models for formula companies.

And then there were baby clothing and shoe companies, and baby-related product companies.

She couldn’t decide by herself, so Seo Eun-hye called her moms.

Meanwhile, unlike usual when he played with his dolls separately, seo-jun played with his dolls with the babies.

There was a gray bear doll that was twice as big as Seo-jun among the babies.

***

Last weekend night.

Kim Hee-sang, the damn friend of Seo Eun-hye and Lee Min-jun, rushed to their newlywed house after watching Seo-jun’s video and gave Seo-jun a bear doll as a gift.

“Wow, our mukbang star. Seo-jun!”

“What are you doing so late?”

Lee Min-jun, who opened the door with a nervous face, hugged Seo-jun, who was still energetic.

He slept well during his nap, so his eyes were clear. His mom, who had been tormented by messages and calls all day, fell asleep early.

“Abububu!”

‘Oh. Gift uncle.’

“Don’t you think Seo-jun recognizes me now?”

Pat-pat-pat.

Kim Hee-sang smiled brightly as he saw Seo-jun waving his arms at him.

Lee Min-jun hit Kim Hee-sang’s back.

“What’s going on?”

“Ah, this.”

Kim Hee-sang brought a box that was about twice the size of Seo-jun from behind the door.

“Ooooh!!”

‘Oh!! Is it a werewolf in human form?’

“You bastard, again…”

Lee Min-jun was about to say something, but Kim Hee-sang shook his head vigorously.

“No. This one is not! Absolutely not!”

Kim Hee-sang opened the box.

Gray fur appeared.

It was one doll, but it was a bear.

Seo-jun was disappointed.

It was an ordinary teddy bear that looked soft and cute like the ones that came out on TV with babies.

It didn’t have sharp teeth or fierce eyes.

It didn’t have sharp claws on its fingertips.

It was really a bear doll.

‘Ah, uncle is disappointing.’

“Ooboo.”

“…A bear doll?”

With a disappointed face, seo-jun slumped in his dad’s arms, but Lee Min-jun turned pale as he asked.

“Really? Is it just a normal teddy bear?”

“Yeah. A normal teddy bear.”

Kim Hee-sang said proudly.

“No. I was watching Seo-jun’s video and I saw a twin-head troll behind the chair.”

“…?!”

Lee Min-jun’s face turned white.

Seo-jun thought that he had played with it and left it there like an ordinary baby in his rebellious phase.

“No… really? Was that there?”

He threw the bear doll he was holding in his hand and took out his phone.

He looked at the video of Seo-jun stored in the gallery.

“It was in the baby food version.”

“Baby food. Baby food.”

Kim Hee-sang took Seo-jun from Lee Min-jun, who was looking at his phone in a hurry.

Seo-jun’s lips were pouting.

Kim Hee-sang noticed that.

“Did you get disappointed because uncle brought a normal doll?”

“Abububu!”

Seo-jun slapped Kim Hee-sang’s arm with his hand.

Um. Kim Hee-sang understood what he meant.

His friend’s son… seemed to have a strong preference already.

“Oh no. Seo-jun is disappointed. I think I haven’t seen you often enough, right?”

Distant… enough…?

He might not understand everything, but he understood the word disappointed.

That was how Seo-jun felt.

While Lee Min-jun was looking for the green doll in the video, Kim Hee-sang quietly took the bear doll that was lying on the floor and said to Seo-jun.

“There is, if you open the zipper like this…”

Kim Hee-sang opened the zipper on the bear doll’s belly that was hidden by the fur. There was a small black doll inside. It looked like a shadow.

Seo-jun’s eyes widened.

‘No, that is!’

“Abu?! Abububu?”

“Yeah! This is the doppelganger!”

It was a doppelganger!

The nice bear doll was controlled by the evil doppelganger.

Seo-jun was surprised by the twist and shouted abububu while waving his arms.

Kim Hee-sang got hit by Seo-jun’s arm on his cheek, but he smiled and put the black doll back into the bear doll’s stomach.

“This is a secret between Seo-jun and uncle. Promise!”

“Abu!”

Seo-jun came down to the floor and hugged the bear doll.

‘No, this twist bear! Uncle is amazing!’

Unlike his son who was happy to receive a doll with a twist, Lee Min-jun was serious.

They might be known to the whole world as having a strange taste in dolls, whether it was his parents’ taste or his baby’s taste…

“No, where is it?”

But he couldn’t find it.

He watched the video several times at double speed, but he couldn’t see the twin head troll.

“It’s right here. Green.”

“…This?”

He looked at where Kim Hee-sang pointed.

On one leg of the baby chair where Seo-jun was sitting, there was a really small pixel… green… something like a piece of paprika. Just… square… green…

Lee Min-jun muttered faintly.

“What is this…”

“It’s the foot of the twin head troll. You should have seen how surprised I was.”

Lee Min-jun decided.

“You’re going to die today!”

“No! I told you?! You don’t like these dolls, so I came right away to tell you when I saw it on Seo-jun’s video?!”

“Be quiet! It’s night, so be quiet! And if you didn’t give him these dolls, it wouldn’t happen!”

“Seo-jun loves them so much!”

While dad and uncle were quietly fighting, seo-jun fell asleep buried in the fluffy bear doll.

***

That’s how the first normal-looking bear doll appeared in Seo-jun’s living room.

The bear doll controlled by the doppelganger was popular among the babies, asit passed their aesthetic sense.

Seo-jun and the babies played with their dolls together for almost the first time. They all grabbed the big bear doll’s limbs and moved them around.

“First of all, my Mina likes Elephant formula best. They use organic and healthy ingredients.”

“My Ji-yoon likes I-mama formula. She didn’t like other formulas.”

“The twins also like Elephant. I tried feeding them because they eat a lot, but they poop well and it’s good.”

The moms looked at the proposals that came in and gave their opinions. Seo Eun-hye shook her head.

“No way. We’re not saying we’re going to do an ad…”

“This is also a trend. Make a lot of money and give it to Seo-jun.”

Mina’s mom, who had been hired for internet ads several times, scanned through the proposals with fire in her eyes.

“First of all, let’s exclude the formulas that have bad reviews among moms.”

“Yeah. Seo-jun has an image too.”

The twin’s mom chimed in.

“Also filter out companies with bad images.”

“Then let’s exclude this one and this one.”

“We have to choose a formula that Seo-jun can eat well. If his face gets distorted because of the formula, how many times do you have to feed him? You have to eat it deliciously and take a good shot at once, so Seo-jun doesn’t suffer.”

Mina’s mom nodded her head. She remembered the scene where her five-year-old daughter had to drink milk several times for a CF.

“Really?”

Ji-yoon’s mom was surprised.

“No way, Elephant is that good?”

She was the only one who fed her baby a different brand of formula.

Since her close friends were all feeding their babies Elephant formula, she wondered if she should change it too.

Now that she thought about it, Elephant formula was a smaller company than others, so she didn’t trust it and never tried it on Ji-yoon.

Mina’s mom nodded her head.

“It’s good. The president of the company was a mom who had a hard time finding a formula that suited her baby. She said she started to try to make a healthy and good formula since then.”

“I don’t know much about the company, but the ingredients seem similar to other formulas, but the amount is more compared to the price. Considering how much the twins eat…”

The twin mom tapped her forehead. Seo Eun-hye also joined in.

“I bought the formulas that were recommended on the mom cafe and fed them to Seo-jun. The one he liked best was Elephant formula.”

“Is that so? Should I try it too?”

The word-of-mouth effect was already showing. Mina’s mom smiled at that.

“No way, this is the advertising effect!”

“Right? Is Seo-jun going to sell out?”

“Then shall we go with Elephant?”

Seo Eun-hye said. The decision was quick, unlike the worry. As Mina’s mom said, this trend was also temporary. Even if he appeared in an ad, the model would be forgotten soon unlike the product.

Besides, if it was Elephant, it was a formula that Seo-jun liked too. She thought this would be a good memory too.

‘It would be better if we could make money and help Seo-jun.’

“What about Seo-jun’s dad? What did he say?”

“He knows about the ad offer, but he’s still undecided.”

“Then ask him later. This is something that couples have to do together. It’s about the baby, but if only one parent decides, it will be a mess later.”

Mina’s mom, who had been actively agreeing to YouTube because of Mina’s dad, said.

“Okay.”

Seo Eun-hye agreed with her.

And that night, with dad’s approval, the future superstar Seo-jun’s first CF shooting was decided.