Ji-hun Is a Superstar

There were only a few minutes left before the live broadcast. While the floor manager explained to the audience that they should clap when he raised his hand and stop when he lowered it, two staff members could be heard behind the stage.

"I just saw Moon Ji-hun. He's even more handsome than in the pictures."

"Yeah? And he's only twenty-two. I can't believe it."

Someone in the front row was changing seats while the cameras went through their final checks, and backstage, Ji-hun's microphone was being secured inside his shirt.

"Moon Ji-hun-ssi, you can move around comfortably," the set assistant said. "I secured the microphone pretty well."

Of course you did, Ji-hun thought. You've been touching my chest for ten minutes, girl.

By the time the countdown came from the control room, Ji-hun's makeup had already been finished. Dark brown eyeshadow now defined the beautiful eyes no one could seem to look away from, and the highlighter on his cheek had been applied just enough, exactly the way he wanted it.

After years of putting on heavy makeup every night at the host bar, Ji-hun was now expected to do it again for the cameras. He hated doing things like this just to make himself appealing to other people. 

When the countdown began, the floor manager finally turned his attention away from Ji-hun and toward the audience. The moment he raised his hand, the studio broke into applause.

"Good evening!" the host said."This is After Eleven. Every week at this hour, we welcome one guest and hear, from the very beginning, about the road that made them the person everyone knows today."

Ji-hun watched the audience from the dark area right beside the stage. Three women in the front row were already staring at the side he would come out from. When a man tried to raise his phone, the floor manager immediately signaled to him. Ji-hun put his hands in his trouser pockets and leaned his shoulder against the wall. It still seemed a little ridiculous that this many people had come here just to see him.

"It would be almost impossible not to have seen tonight's guest on a magazine cover, a billboard, or social media sometime in the last few months. But Moon Ji-hun's story began long before his modeling career."

Fuck, I miss Ho-jin sunbae.

Shin Ho-jin was probably sitting on the couch watching him right now. From the side of the stage, Ji-hun tried to figure out which camera was taking the close-up. If he found the right one, maybe he could look directly into it when he walked out.

"He grew up as the son of two famous photographers and lost both of them at a very young age."

Here we fucking go...

"At university, he entered a difficult life to support himself, and years later became one of the central figures in an investigation the whole country talked about for months."

Ji-hun looked at the man. No one would be surprised if he said, "And then he died." What the fuck is with that tone?

"Now he's twenty-two, and this time he's not behind the camera. He's in front of it."

I wanna go home.

He really wanted to lie down beside Ho-jin, bury his face in his neck, and spend the whole night without hearing what anyone thought about Moon Ji-hun. 

If the agency had not forced him, he would not even be on this show. 

No, actually, the agency had forced him, but he had already caused a minor crisis by saying he was not going. What the agency wanted generally did not matter much to him despite his contract. 

But when Ho-jin said, "You're going on that show or I'm gonna beat the shit out of you, Ji-hun-ah," he did not have much of a choice.

The host turned to the audience. "Tonight, we're going to talk with Moon Ji-hun from the very beginning. Welcome, Moon Ji-hun-ssi!"

When the floor manager raised his hand, Ji-hun was smiling at a group of university students in the audience. At least there are young people here. Then his attention went back to the stage. Okay, it's showtime, sunbae.

The applause rose again as Ji-hun pushed away from the wall and walked onto the stage. He bowed slightly to the audience first, then to the host, and walked toward the chair waiting for him.

—

Ho-jin watched on TV as Ji-hun sat down in the chair reserved for him. 

The audience was still applauding. Ji-hun straightened the front of his jacket, crossed one leg over the other, and turned to the host. 

Ho-jin put the remote down beside him while sitting in the corner of the couch. He still had not gotten used to people getting this excited when Ji-hun came onto the stage.

"First of all, welcome. It hasn't been very easy to catch you lately."

"So I've heard," Ji-hun said.

A few people in the studio laughed.

Number three, Ji-hun thought. The camera to his right had moved forward a little while ago, and it was getting both of them while the host talked. The one across from him was directly on his face. When its red light came on, he turned his eyes toward it.

Ho-jin raised his eyebrows when he saw Ji-hun looking at him through the screen. You found me, Ji-hun-ah...

"In the last six months, you've done four major magazine shoots, two brand campaigns, and more advertising work than even I can keep track of."

"Looks like you've been keeping better track than I have."

Laughter again.

Ji-hun could more or less tell who was laughing without looking at the audience. Camera two would get an audience reaction in a moment. Sure enough, the moment the operator moved the lens away from the chairs, the young women in the front row appeared on screen.

"Are you counting the cameras?" Ho-jin asked the television.

The boy who had sat in a corner of the room and wanted to talk to no one when he first came to the Photography Club nine years ago was now calculating in advance which camera would turn toward him and when on live television. 

While Ho-jin was thinking about this, Ji-hun was listening to the host's question on the screen and drawing something invisible on his knee with one finger.

"Did you expect to get this far in such a short time?"

Ji-hun did not answer for a while.

Ho-jin knew what he was doing. The question did not matter. Ji-hun was deciding at that moment how he would answer the questions. Answer seriously, Ji-hun…

"No," Ji-hun said eventually. "I didn't expect to become a model either."

The host laughed. "Isn't that a little unfair? There may be people watching you right now who have been trying to become models for years."

"It's not like I stole their jobs."

This time, Ho-jin laughed.

At the same moment, Ji-hun looked into the camera. You're laughing now, aren't you?

So far, the show was going well. Ji-hun was relaxed, as usual. Ho-jin was tense, as usual. The host was a sleazy bastard, as usual. And even Ji-hun had no idea what was about to happen next.