Top Star By Luck [EN]: Chapter 126

126

“……What is that?”

It was literally a mask.

A man wearing a mask appeared in the middle of Gwanghwamun Square, dressed in Hanbok [traditional Korean clothing], dancing merrily.

With a wooden staff in one hand.

It was the kind of dance that often comes to mind when thinking of Korean-style enjoyment of life.

But that was.

‘Strangely sophisticated.’

Sophisticated.

Not just dancing merrily, but a dance with clear angles.

The concept was taken from Korean traditional dance, but it was clear that the core of it was a dance mixed with modern beats, waves, and breaks.

“He’s good.”

It was better than I thought.

Before even considering technique, his dance lines were fundamentally good.

“Is it some kind of flash mob?”

“The vibe is good.”

The audience surrounding Gwanghwamun Square was momentarily taken aback.

Soon, they were drawn into the mask dance, or rather, what resembled a mask dance.

Isn’t that what a flash mob is like?

You’re briefly taken aback, but then you start to enjoy it.

Modern people are no longer so easily surprised by such minor events.

However, the person actually performing the dance was.

‘……Is this really okay?’

He was sweating profusely under the mask.

Unlike his relaxed movements, his tongue tasted like death, and moisture formed on the mask due to his heavy breathing.

‘I came because I was called, but…….’

Who called him?

It was.

‘Where is the actor?’

Lee Min-ki called him.

[Hello. I enjoyed reading your comment about how you would come to Gwanghwamun and dance in a mask if I were Lee Min-ki.]

Perhaps it was because he commented in the cafe.

Lee Min-ki sent him a message asking for his contact information, and in a moment of trembling, he was suddenly summoned to Gwanghwamun.

[How about you actually do it?]

Was he pressuring him, or was he serious?

He was already feeling suffocated as if he had been punched hard in the chest after seeing Lee Min-ki’s verification post, so it was hard to laugh at such a reaction.

However, he had something to feel guilty about, and besides, wasn’t he his favorite celebrity?

[I would really like to see you in Gwanghwamun. I’ll buy you a really delicious meal.]

He came because he was called.

No, he couldn’t not come.

He couldn’t be constantly teased about it in the cafe.

He had never performed a mask dance separately, but fortunately, his major was dance, so he practiced hard and barely managed to grasp the feeling.

‘Ugh, am I the only one doing this?’

The problem was embarrassment.

He was sure they said they would call other people too.

No, shouldn’t Lee Min-ki himself be here first?

He was the one who called him.

Was he trying to inflict shame on him now?

Was he trying to put on a national shame show because he made a mistake of posting a comment in the cafe?

In the middle of Gwanghwamun!

‘Ugh! The dance I prepared is almost over!!’

His heart was pounding as if it would explode at any moment.

Thump-

An overwhelmingly loud sound erupted.

Could it be that his heart, which was beating like an 8-cylinder engine, had finally exploded?

It felt as if his heart had stopped like an old, weathered rock.

Thump-

No, it wasn’t.

There was a leisurely sound following after.

Deonggideok-

Thump-

Deureureureu-

It was the sound of a drum.

‘Drum?’

A heavy yet clear sound, as if beating on his heart.

Such a sound began to be heard from somewhere among the crowd.

No, listening closely, it wasn’t even a drum.

“Janggu?”

“Isn’t that a janggu?”

That’s right.

It was literally a janggu [a traditional Korean double-headed drum].

A janggu that could be seen as a Korean-style drum.

Someone appeared with such a janggu slung over their shoulder, the kind that would commonly come to mind when thinking of samulnori [traditional Korean percussion quartet].

And then.

Tadadadadak!

Thump!

Deonggideok! Dararararara!

They began to play the rhythm spiritedly in the middle of Gwanghwamun Square.

“…….”

“What is it?”

“Are they together?”

The crowd was slowly starting to stir.

Strictly speaking, most of them came to see Lee Min-ki.

They came expecting Lee Min-ki, who had achieved his 1.5 million pledge, to hold a fan meeting here.

But Lee Min-ki wasn’t really visible, and strange people were putting on a samulnori performance.

There was only one thing they could think of.

“Didn’t they plan this together?”

“Attention seekers.”

That the two of them were attention seekers who had gathered from the start with the goal of gaining recognition.

“What are you doing at someone else’s fan meeting, just because there are a lot of people gathered?”

In this day and age, people will do anything if it means getting their name out there.

I heard that the square in front of Bucheon Station is occupied by BJs [Broadcast Jockeys, or live streamers].

Some scantily clad female BJs dance twerking on the streets in the cold weather, while a male BJ with green hair breaks a store’s window.

With the thought that anything is fine as long as they can get one topic of conversation.

So there was no way they could see their actions in a positive light.

Of course, the people involved were.

‘Who is that person?’

I don’t know either.

‘Wasn’t I the only one coming?

You don’t know either.

Both of them had no idea what was going on.

Of course, the reason they came here was the same.

‘I came to see Lee Min-ki.’

Lee Min-ki.

I came here with a feeling of chewing on my gallbladder because Lee Min-ki called me, not because I wanted recognition or anything like that.

It was said that sharing pain halves it, and sharing gratitude doubles it.

Unfortunately, the two of them were sharing the shame that had been amplified twofold by the chilling gazes of the crowd.

“Eucha.”

Someone joined in between them.

It was Lee Min-ki.

“……!”

Lee Min-ki, who hadn’t shown any signs of appearing for a long time, suddenly revealed himself in the middle of the chaotic scene.

‘Finally!’

‘Wow, wow, wow, it’s really Lee Min-ki, in person, wow!’

The two people who had been putting on a one-man show, no, a two-man show, were so moved that they were about to burst into tears.

What will he do from now on?

Wouldn’t he start the fan meeting in earnest and save us?

Wouldn’t he pat us on the shoulder and say a warm word of thanks for our hard work?

……That’s what I thought for a moment.

“Oh, the weather is nice.”

It was a terribly absurd thing that Lee Min-ki started so casually.

“……A burner?”

“Samgyeopsal [Korean grilled pork belly]?”

That’s right.

Lee Min-ki sat down in a good spot in Gwanghwamun Square, took out a gas burner, and lit it.

And then.

Cheeeee-

He began to grill slices of delicious-looking pork belly until they were golden brown.

“Suddenly?”

“No, why samgyeopsal here.”

“Looks delicious.”

Anyway, the person who was dancing kept dancing, and the person who was playing the janggu kept playing.

The sound of Lee Min-ki grilling samgyeopsal, who had intruded there, echoed softly along with the sound of the janggu.

“Hoo, hoo, hoo, oh, it’s well cooked.”

Lee Min-ki, sitting in the center, muttered to himself as if showing off, and after grilling the meat for a while.

He picked it up, dipped it in ssamjang [Korean spicy dipping sauce], put it in his mouth, and chewed.

Then he shouted.

“Keeuh!”

It was an instinctive exclamation.

‘So delicious.’

It was ssamjang that he was usually not allowed to eat because it restricted sugar.

The samgyeopsal he ate outside of Director Kwon Jun-yong’s control was so sweet.

Of course.

[Good, if you fill up 1,000 more squats.]

It was an act that mortgaged the future.

“What is he doing?”

Whatever the reason, it was an incomprehensible act to others.

But they didn’t know yet.

That even that bizarre performance was just the beginning.

“B-boy?”

Someone came and started dancing.

“Bicycle?”

Soon, they started cycling around them in circles.

“Longboard?”

A person riding a board appeared and started dancing.

“……That’s a bit ordinary.”

Someone comes and plays the guitar.

The melody matched neatly as if it were in harmony with the janggu.

Following that.

“Why is that person lying down there and sleeping?”

One person even brought a fishing chair, aimed a fishing rod at the empty air, and started fishing on the stone floor.

A truly incomprehensible sight.

“What kind of mess is this?”

“I can’t get a sense of it at all.”

“Is this Korea 616?”

Among the procession that was impossible to identify, there was something moving particularly quickly.

‘I don’t know well, but I should share it first.’

It was the fingers of the audience.

* * *

Strange things happened before my eyes.

Things that are hard to see in everyday life, or perhaps things that you may never see even once in your life.

If so.

Even if I don’t know well, shouldn’t I let everyone in the world know?

[Current situation in Gwanghwamun.jpg]

[Lee Min-ki fan meeting live.txt]

First of all, spreading it was the top priority.

In just a few minutes.

In a few minutes, it began to spread from Gwanghwamun Square to the entire online world.

[There’s a janggu and guitar playing in Gwanghwamun right now, and Lee Min-ki is grilling samgyeopsal in between them.

There’s also a sleeping person and someone doing tricks on a longboard.

There’s also someone dancing in a mask]

[Bullshit]

[lol, you’re just saying whatever comes to mind because your mouth is open]

[Who would believe that?]

[I work in front of Gwanghwamun, and when I look out the window, it’s true]

[No, no~ I don’t believe it~]

Realistically, who would believe such words?

A normal member of society wouldn’t believe it.

It’s a normal reaction to interpret it as a trick to get attention on social media.

But in the end, it’s a matter of whether there is evidence or not.

[It’s real?]

[Iwaejin (abbreviation for Why is this real)]

[??]

[?????????]

Lee Min-ki is grilling meat.

Behind him, there is a person dancing in a mask, and there is a person playing the janggu.

Someone is doing tricks on a bicycle.

There is also a person dancing on a longboard, and even a person who has fallen asleep.

[I’m going crazy.]

It already seems like it’s enough just up to here, but unfortunately, enough seems to be a relative value.

Tak! Tak! Tak! Tak!

Later on, there was a person jumping rope.

“Apple…… Pineapple…… I’m exhausted…….”

A person studying with a desk.

Even people who brought laptops and monitors and sat on the bare floor to play games.

Amidst the chaos of all kinds of people.

The audience slowly began to guess.

‘This is it!’

At some point, the speculations of some audience members finally came full circle and reached the truth.

‘They’re really doing it.’

‘Wow, I didn’t think they would really come, even though they only said it.’

Lee Min-ki wrote a verification post on the fan cafe, but no one believed it.

Rather, they mocked him, saying that if you’re Lee Min-ki, then I’m Choi Yu-chang.

They criticized him for being an attention seeker, but it turned out that it was really Lee Min-ki himself.

It was already a famous anecdote among people who were interested in actors.

No, it spread widely to internet communities.

[ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

[Aren’t they really showing up?]

[Would you have wanted it if you knew it was Lee Min-ki? ah ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

But it’s really being realized.

There was one person who was smiling inwardly amidst the scene that deserved to be called Gwanghwamun Chaos, and that was Lee Min-ki.

‘First, I’ll spread the topic.’

That’s right.

Right now, this chaotic scene itself was Lee Min-ki’s fan meeting performance.

‘At this point, there’s no way there won’t be an article.’

There’s something I’ve recently realized.

That a topic starts with stimulation.

No matter how good the quality of the prepared content is, shouldn’t it catch the eye first?

So it was content that was prepared.

To make it come into the eyes and ears of many people first.

If it doesn’t work, I’ll make it that way by force.

‘People who gathered on the internet came out to keep their promises one by one, so you can’t help but take a look.’

This event.

It didn’t just happen by chance.

I contacted all the people who commented on the fan cafe individually.

Since you commented, please really come out.

I said I would buy them all a meal after the event.

At first, I wondered if they would come if I called them.

I thought it would be nice if even one or two people showed their faces.

‘I wasn’t going to resent them even if they said they would come and ran away.’

I couldn’t help but doubt it a little.

But.

[Really???]

[Can I brag to my friends?]

Who are the people in the fan cafe?

Each and every one of them was a fan of Lee Min-ki.

The actor they usually desperately admire is meeting them in person and buying them a meal, so is there any reason to refuse?

‘It’s an opportunity.’

You have to sharpen your sword and prepare as if preparing for a single moment in your life.

Even if you can’t do it, you have to know how to do it!

It’s not just them.

The reporters clicking away in the distance were also within Lee Min-ki’s scope of arrangement.

They didn’t visit by chance.

Some people came directly to cover the topic of Lee Min-ki’s fan meeting, but JC also invited them on its own.

‘This performance will definitely be spread far and wide by reporters. If I’m lucky, it will spread a lot on the internet too.’

And luck.

This was the thing he was most confident in recently.

But.

Even Lee Min-ki didn’t know one thing yet.

“…….”

“……?”

Among the audience.

A man walked out step by step.

It wasn’t someone Lee Min-ki called.

He wasn’t even someone he had contacted.

But.

He was definitely someone he knew.

‘Senior Choi Yu-chang?’

Choi Yu-chang, a ten-million actor [referring to actors whose films have sold over 10 million tickets] who is one of the most famous in Korea, appeared among the audience.

As if he were taking a stroll around the neighborhood.

Infinitely relaxed.

‘Meat?’

In one hand, he was holding a 300g pack of Korean beef.