Top Star By Luck [EN]: Chapter 112

112

A few years into the near future.

There was one type of content that suddenly became popular.

It was…

[Reverse Charity Review]

This involved starting a challenge and then having the celebrity who popularized the challenge review the participants’ attempts.

This trend emerged as celebrities rapidly expanded their presence on internet video platforms like YouXube and TicX, especially with music-related content.

[Ah, this person really gets it.]

[This person knows how to sing.]

[Okay, you did a great job. As a reward, I’ll give you a 20-dollar Starbucks gift card.]

The distance between celebrities and viewers became smaller.

[I’d like to invite you to the studio. We should go to a karaoke room together sometime.]

They would invite people who covered their songs to film content together, and if they saw potential, they would even release songs together.

Why were these types of content so prevalent and popular, more so than anything else?

The reason was simple.

“It doesn’t take much effort.”

It didn’t require significant time, effort, or money.

All they had to do was turn on the video and watch it while giving their review.

There were no planning costs involved.

“If there’s anything extra, it would be hiring editing staff.”

Even that was straightforward.

JC, as an entertainment company, had plenty of editing staff available.

It’s difficult to intentionally manufacture such a trend, but if you’re simply jumping on the bandwagon and encouraging a trend that’s already happening, what’s so difficult about that?

“Hmm, after hearing what you said, Actor Lee, I think the concept itself is very innovative. And even more so, it’s efficient.”

“Right?”

“I can sense a practical perspective.”

Manager Park Hanmo nodded, seemingly impressed by Lee Minki’s detailed explanation.

“But there’s one thing I’m concerned about.”

“What is it?”

“I’m worried about whether people will actually participate. I think there will be people who won’t cooperate.”

It was a valid question.

If people didn’t participate, the whole thing would be impossible.

But from the start, that wasn’t a real concern.

“People who jump on these trends usually want views, and there’s no reason for them to dislike it if I promote them directly.”

It was obvious.

The success of this content was practically guaranteed; the only question was the degree of its success.

“Then, should we post a challenge or something? Saying that Lee Minki will personally review it. I should also show a sample dance to demonstrate.”

“Where will you post it?”

“SNS [Social Networking Services]. It’s good to have a lot of followers in situations like this. I guess we’ll see the results in about two days?”

Park Hanmo smiled wryly as he watched Lee Minki, who seemed excited as he laid out his plans as if he had been preparing for a long time.

‘As expected, he’s a smart person.’

He’s not just someone who spouts nonsense.

He knows how to make plans, and he also knows how to put those plans into action.

That’s why he’s been successful.

‘It’s not all luck.’

There was a widespread saying about Lee Minki within JC recently.

It was…

[Actor Lee Minki? His luck is insane.]

It was a story about how incredibly lucky he was.

[He failed at Daon, and he happened to know Designer Yoo Gyuyeon when he auditioned at JC. And that person knows Director Seo Jungwoo.]

[He started as a minor role and became a supporting role, and then he became a lead role from a supporting role.]

[When the Kim Doha scandal broke out, I thought he was going to get sued, but it actually improved his image. That was really creepy.]

[He’s participating in Director Hwang Euiseong’s fourth film? And he participated in a fashion show, and then the editor-in-chief of a foreign fashion magazine shared it? If that’s not luck, what is?]

It was truly remarkable luck.

It almost seemed as if the world was helping him with everything he did, and everything was going smoothly.

But Manager Park Hanmo believed otherwise.

‘It just looks like the actor is lucky.’

It’s a matter of probability.

He avoided unfavorable choices like a skilled ski racer and knew how to pick favorable choices.

He made a lot of good choices, and those choices accumulated to produce good results.

It was a probability game that could make it seem that way.

Why, isn’t that how shamans tell fortunes?

[Your shoulders hurt these days, right? And your back is uncomfortable too.]

Where can you find a modern person who doesn’t have shoulder pain or back discomfort?

[You have something you want to say to your family, but you’re working hard to hide it, right?]

It would be even rarer for someone to tell their family everything.

[You work at a company, right?]

Most young people who wear dress shirts in Korea are office workers.

Like this, if you analyze the probabilities well, you can make judgments that seem almost like superstition.

A judgment that looks like luck to an outsider who doesn’t know the full story.

But Park Hanmo, who was always by Lee Minki’s side, thought differently.

‘Everything is the actor’s skill.’

That’s not luck; it’s skill.

Even this [treatment] situation seems like it happened by chance to an outside observer, but in the end, isn’t it thanks to Lee Minki himself showing kindness?

‘They say the world helps those who help themselves.’

That’s what Park Hanmo was thinking as he watched Lee Minki tapping on his laptop.

“Ah, right.”

Lee Minki looked at Manager Park Hanmo as if he had remembered something and asked.

“Manager, do you want to make a bet, just in case?”

“I refuse.”

The answer came back without even a moment’s hesitation.

“I don’t even want to compete against you after you’ve already won, Actor. No, I’ll even refuse yutnori [a traditional Korean board game of chance].”

It was a sharp refusal.

No, what do you think of me usually?

I may be lucky, but is there a need to say it like that?

“Do you want to play rock-paper-scissors?”

“I refuse.”

My heart hurts.

It really hurts.

* * *

These days, Boyana Olsen’s song “Treatment” has suddenly gained popularity, and Lee Minki, who is the character and co-planner (according to Boyana Olsen), is also seeing his stock rise.

“This person dances really well.”

“I like how there’s a subtle lack of soul.”

“This person even sang the song himself.”

It seemed that people were constantly trying to capitalize on the views through cover videos.

But as always…

These covers were often done spontaneously, without expecting a big reward.

Amidst the videos being uploaded as a small hobby…

[Oh?]

A nuclear bomb dropped in between.

[Hello, this is actor Lee Minki. Thank you to everyone who loves singer Boyana Olsen’s “Treatment.” This was unexpected for me as well, so I feel like I’m living in a dream every day.]

It started with a review.

Thank you for loving “Treatment.”

Thank you even more for visiting my SNS through that song.

The important thing was the sentence that followed.

[While I was wondering how I could share this joy with my fans, I came up with a good idea.]

It was the beginning of a challenge.

[I am announcing the official “Treatment” challenge.]

[Cover the part of the dance that I danced in the video and take a dance video of less than 30 seconds.

I will personally review the videos you send me and give prizes according to the ranking.]

He was asking them to cover his video.

Lee Minki would not only evaluate it himself but also rank the well-made videos according to his own standards.

After that, he would even give material rewards.

[This is it.]

There was no reason not to apply.

Originally, there were few viewer participation contents during this period, so it was a shame.

This was especially true for dancers.

In this situation, a rising star like Lee Minki was offering to promote them directly, so why would they refuse?

[I’m participating too.]

[Oh, you too, hyung [older brother/male friend] ?]

[I like the underground scene. I can work freely without being tainted by commerce.]

[Stop bullshitting and participate.]

[Yes.]

People from all directions voluntarily filmed videos and sent them to Lee Minki.

Like scraping gold from a mine, even people who weren’t originally interested in “Treatment” poured out videos.

[I’ll do it.]

[Our school’s dance machine is going out.]

[Honestly, I dance pretty well.]

Not only students from all over the country…

[Manager, this looks fun, right?]

[The president told me to go out and do it? He said it would be good for promotion?]

[Yes?]

Office workers.

[We fight with quality.]

Even professional dancers aggressively declared their participation in the [Lee Minki Challenge].

In the meantime…

One person, whom even Lee Minki himself had not expected, was biting his lip while watching the Lee Minki Challenge.

“Do I really have to do this……?”

There was one timid person.

A person who was particularly quiet and had no presence.

There were not many people around who knew him, and he was a student who was more famous at school by his nicknames, U-Dangtang [clumsy] or Dark Templar [a reference to the stealthy unit from the game Starcraft, implying he is unseen], rather than his name.

Paak!

Someone hit him on the back of the head and said.

“Hey, loser, I told you to dance properly.”

* * *

The next day.

As a result, Manager Park Hanmo’s worries were unfounded.

“……Are this many applications really coming in?”

Submissions poured in.

No, I don’t know if it’s okay to just gloss over this with a simple verb like ‘poured in’.

“I thought a lot of people would apply, but even so, to have over 1,000 people apply…”

In just one day, there were 1,134 submissions asking him to directly review their challenge videos.

It’s not a two-digit number.

It’s not a three-digit number.

It’s a four-digit number.

‘Even though the challenge conditions are easy, are this many people gathering in one day?’

It was even more surprising that more than half of them were submissions from abroad.

The actions of people around the world are really no joke.

“The competition rate is much higher than any ordinary audition.”

Even Manager Park Hanmo, who was running around on the front lines of the Korean entertainment industry, was shaking his head.

“Did you see that?”

Lee Minki chuckled and said.

“We’ve stopped recruiting for now, but we’re going to be busy together from now on.”

“Hoo, are you really going to do that?”

“Yes, I have to watch them all. Even if I don’t do a review, I’ll watch the videos.”

That’s right.

Lee Minki was thinking of watching all 1,134 videos with his own eyes and posting reviews.

‘Even if I watch them without resting, I’ll have to spend a whole day.’

Park Hanmo sighed and said.

“Even so, there are too many, so you should first leave the initial filtering to other employees.”

“That’s one way to do it.”

Lee Minki stretched and replied.

“But those people all spent their time and worked hard to practice and apply. They firmly believe that I’ll watch them.”

“Well, that’s true, but no one’s going to know either way.”

“I don’t want to do that.”

It’s nothing special.

You can just see it as stubbornness.

But Lee Minki didn’t want to deceive others, even in these trivial matters.

‘There were a lot of people who said they didn’t even properly look at my audition application and threw it away.’

I don’t like that.

I don’t like it because I’ve experienced it, and I don’t want to do it to others from their perspective.

Even if there’s no situation where I’ll be recognized by others, I want to do my best if there’s a part where I can.

“And I also have time left over.”

“Are you talking about the Fashion & Fashion press screening?”

“Yes, it’s coming up soon.”

The [Fashion & Fashion] premiere was not far away.

Anyway, it was a resting period until then.

Except for the times when I was called by CEO Yoo Gyuyeon to make clothes, I had nothing special to do, so there was nothing wrong with spending my remaining time like this.

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, so let’s start slowly.”

“Hoo, I understand.”

“Do you want to watch together?”

“Yes, of course.”

That was the moment when the two of them turned their eyes to the monitor together.

Stop.

Lee Minki’s finger, which was clicking the mouse cursor, stopped in the empty air.

It’s not just the mouse.

Lee Minki’s pupils stopped as if he had seen something he shouldn’t have.

And then it shook.

‘That.’

Three familiar letters came to mind.