< Synopsis : Boyfriend from Outer Space >
PART 1. “Do you know who I am?”
The current Top Star in Korea, Han Song Hee. Her occupation is actress. No, not actress. A star. “That’s still an actress, what makes her a star?” you ask? It’s because she consistently shows terrible acting skills that’s surprising to a level beyond what can be called an actress. Despite that, thanks to the beauty and charm that she was born with, her popularity has shown no signs of declining from when she debuted at 19 to this day at 29 years old.
‘After acting for that long you’d think her acting skills would improve, but…being bad at acting for this long is a skill too’, ‘Did you see what Hang Son Hee posted on social media today? She said she had an iced hot chocolate, lol. She’s so stupid’. ‘My friend is the manager and said that not only is she stupid, she’s rude too.’ ‘Her face isn’t what it used to be either.’
Popularity wasn’t the only thing that had followed her over these last 10 years. Malicious comments also did. Still, it was ok. Han Song Hee just laughed it off, saying they were just jealous.
Ha. Ha. Ha.
Even though she was laughing…Even though she was laughing alone in the spacious and pleasant 100 pyeong* luxury villa that she just moved into, tears suddenly fell. She broke down and bawled her eyes out. Tears coming out must mean that she’s supposed to take a tear-filled selfie, right? She wiped her tears with the back of her hand.
(TL Note: 1 pyeong is about 35.58 square feet)
Her family was busy spending the money she had earned, and she had been living a hectic life since she was 19 years old, so she had no friends to reach out to at this time of day. She had dated before, but there were only those who would just blab about having dated Han Song Hee once they broke up.
Somebody knocked on Han Song Hee’s glamorous-looking-but-lonely life.
It was the person next door.
PART 2. “You, what in the world are you?”
The guy next door, who looked at least 5 years younger than Han Song Hee, talked to her with an emotionless, hardened expression. He said she was being noisy. She could laugh if she wanted, or cry if she wanted. He may be her neighbor, but his place is 100 pyeong away, she felt it was ridiculous that he was saying she was being noisy.
She thought that perhaps he was doing this so he could meet her in person so she was about to report him to the security office, but he really was her next door neighbor.
So they fought. She wasn’t even being that noisy. He caught her when she was feeling sad and lonely so she took it out on this man, who didn’t know whether she was Hang Son Hee or Baek Song Hee or Man Song Hee, this man who didn’t look like a Korean citizen. What the heck did I do so wrong? Huh? Tell me! She was pointing and yelling at him at one point, asking, ‘don’t you feel sorry for me?’, then she suddenly started crying. Hang Song Hee’s ranting made the face of the next door guy, who had a blank expression, crumple.
After getting rid of the next door guy like that, she felt better and fell asleep.
The next day, when she went to the set of the shoot for the newly contracted advertisement, the company’s Manager was there. Why was he so young when he was a Manager? No, that was not the issue. Why did he look so famili– … Right. The next door guy, who she had ranted at yesterday, was on the set.
Are you stalking me or something? She wanted to ask him that when she ran into him at the broadcast station parking garage. However, the next door guy ignored Han Song Hee and went past her with a gaze that said, “how ridiculous”. He knew from his two encounters with her that the solution was to not get mixed up with her.
However, at that moment, an unidentified vehicle sped towards Han Song Hee and put her in danger. It was speeding too fast for her to avoid and she thought that that was how she’d die. At that moment! The next door guy, Chun Min Joon, who had been standing far from her, the one who would become her lifesaver, picked up Hang Song Hee.
How? How did he save me? Is that humanly possible?
Amidst the questions, Han Song Hee looked at Chun Min Joon’s face. Chum Min Joon did not seem phased at all but Hang Song Hee was extremely rattled. Otherwise there was no way her heart would race this fast!
PART 3. “Humans of Earth seem to call creatures like me an alien”
His physique makes him look like he’s around 25, but he’s already 32. People find Chun Min Joon confusing and difficult. He looks young, but when you talk with him, it’s boring and frustrating like you’re talking to someone from the Gojoseon era.
Even to those who are significantly older than him, Chun Min Joon sometimes speaks like he’s the older one, which angers them. Traditionally…since long ago…He has been an absurd guy starting with the fact that he habitually uses those words.
Unlike what’s on his documents, his actual age is 239 years old. Chun Min Joon’s appearance has not once changed from 100 years ago, when his spaceship crashed onto Earth alone while he was on his way from planet Xxw123 to planet Hqw215 for vacation, to now.
Therefore, he kept forging documents and making new identities. He continually lived the life of a 20- to 35-year-old. During that time, he would insist that he looked young…Afterwards, he would disappear without a trace, live in another country, then come back and live a new life.
So, the alien lived alone for a hundred years pretending to be an Earthling. He waited for his planet, which gets close to Earth once every 100 years.
85 days before returning to his planet, Chul Min Joon couldn’t fall asleep easily. With his ears that are about 20 times more advanced than those of Earthlings, he could hear the laughter and cries of a woman.
His encounter with that woman, Han Song Hee, turns Alien Chun Min Joon’s life upside down!
.
.
Manager Oh Baek Ho rubbed his eyes.
“Alien?”
The ‘alien’ in the title, which Manager Oh Baek Ho thought was just a symbolic thing, was really an extraterrestrial one.
KK’s 3rd full-length album activities were coming to an end. Once the full-length album activities ended, individual activities were scheduled again.
In Do Wook’s case, he hadn’t done any projects since ‘Blue Whale’, so they planned on quickly starting acting activities again.
In fact, they were receiving a substantial amount of various drama casting requests. It wasn’t just one or two that they had rejected due to his schedule. Among them was a 50-episode specially planned drama as the childhood version of the male protagonist as well as the supporting role in a ridiculously popular mini series that got a rating of 27%.
They were all roles that would have been good if Do Wook took it on, so Manager Oh Baek Ho, as well as the company, felt it was a pity. However, KK’s activities took priority so there was no change in Do Wook’s position of not taking acting roles while on activities, even if they didn’t overlap.
The company didn’t want to overwork Do Wook either, and they knew that Do Wook liked to focus and give his 100% to one thing, so they turned down all those roles.
As a result, the 3rd full-length album was having immense success so they had no regrets about missing out on a few projects.
Moreover, after the success of ‘Continue’, even blockbuster filmmakers were sending over manuscripts. There were barely any supporting roles, and significantly more leading roles.
However, Do Wook expressed that for now, he wanted to do dramas rather than movies. It was true that the age of drama main characters was younger than the age of movie main characters, and Do Wook’s intuition on wanting to play roles of that age range was definitely right.
Therefore, around the time the full-length album activities were wrapping up, HIT Entertainment asked Lee Kang Yeon, who was Do Wook’s acting instructor for his entrance exam, for help again.
Normally, even renowned actors have to continue to grow, so there are many situations where they hire acting instructors. It wasn’t just for guidance on acting, but also to get help from them as a mentor on a mental level.
Through his experiences in college, Do Wook had already learned a lot. Of course he was solid on the basics, and his acting skills were leaps above actors of his age group, but as an actor he hadn’t reached perfection yet.
The company felt that they would need a lot of effort and help from picking projects to getting into a character and acting. Another problem was that there were no specific systems within the company on raising actors.
Currently, anyone could tell that Do Wook would make it big even as an actor. It was unreasonable for non-experts to only rely on Do Wook’s skills.
To give him a push and to pull him forward, they needed to get help even if it was from someone outside the company.
It was an order from Department Head Jo Anna, who was in charge of operational planning. She was painting a bigger future, and Do Wook was the focus of it.
Idols had huge influence over not only entertainment but also the drama world. HIT Entertainment absolutely had to be able to raise their celebrities as actors on a company level too in order to expand the scope of their activities.
They couldn’t simply wait around for an outstanding individual like Do Wook to appear. Therefore, they first had to give their all to firmly establish Do Wook’s position as an actor. It was Department Head Jo Anna’s opinion that that way, they’d gain the know-how to raise the next person and the person after that.
So, the plan they picked first was to hire Instructor Lee Kang Yeon again as an expert acting coach. They agreed to pay a bigger amount than when they got help for the entrance exam.
It was in return for raising Do Wook starting from selecting projects.
Instructor Lee Kang Yeon already had quite a few actors that were under her care, so she was not someone that would be swayed by money when it came to long-term contracts. However, Instructor Lee Kang Yeon had recognized from the beginning that Do Wook is talented. She immediately accepted HIT Entertainment’s offer.
Since then, Instructor Lee Kang Yeon personally reviewed some scripts that were sent to HIT Entertainment. She would talk with Do Wook, who was busy with his activities, over the phone and they would discuss together which projects to accept.
There were two or so dramas they were discussing, and they were also negotiating back and forth with the production team.
Then the fast-moving production companies started sending the scripts directly to Instructor Lee Kang Yeon instead of HIT Entertainment when they learned that Instructor Kang Yeon was looking after Do Wook.
After reviewing the synopsis and scripts, Instructor Lee Kang Yeon in turn sent them to Manager Oh Baek Ho. Among them was ‘Boyfriend from Outer Space’.
Manager Oh Baek Ho was reading it with interest for Part 1 and Part 2.
He didn’t enjoy watching dramas, but regardless, he knew big trends as someone who worked in the entertainment industry. He had been enjoying it, but Part 3 made his mind go blank.
He had agreed to call Instructor Lee Kang Yeon after reviewing it, so Manager Oh Baek Ho tried hard to shake off the begrudging feeling and called Instructor Lee Kang Yeon.
-Yes, hello? Manager Oh?
Instructor Lee Kang Yeon was someone who spoke with a tone that was pleasant no matter when you hear it.
‘I think people who teach acting are definitely different.’
Thinking that to himself, Manager Oh Baek Ho got to the point.
“Yes, sir. I read the synopsis you sent. But, aliens? I mean. It seems like seriously anything is written as a drama these days. It’s not even laughable.”
-Ah, yeah, that’s understandable. I was a little taken aback at first too.
“Haha. I guess I’m old now.”
He meant that he didn’t understand it at all. Instructor Lee Yeon replied with an understanding tone.
“Aliens…I thought the subject was a bit out there too. You’ll understand once you read the character introductions, but the male lead role is particularly good.”
“Is that so? Hoho…”
Manager Oh Baek Ho tried hard to give a pleasant laugh. Even Manager Oh Baek Ho couldn’t treat Instructor Lee Kang Yeon haphazardly. She wasn’t someone within the company, so she wasn’t someone under him nor above him.
She was a big help during the Korean National University of Arts entrance exam and she was still the top acting coach in Korea, so there was no doubt whether it was ok to entrust the task of picking Do Wook’s projects to Lee Kang Yeon.
“Yes, it’s…it’s aliens, so he has psychic powers. Has a lot of money. He’s a male protagonist with a lot of talent, and he has to leave for outer space soon so there’s emotional scenes to capture people’s hearts.”
“Ah…”
Instructor Lee Kang Yeon said in response to Manager Oh Baek Ho’s lukewarm response,
“But the subject is rather out there, isn’t it? I really like the character, but I’m hesitant because of the subject too.”
“Yes…thank you for recognizing that.”
“Then we’re decided on Do Wook taking part in ‘Snow White Sister’ as originally discussed…I’ll have to show this project to another actor under my care as well,”
Instructor Lee Kang Yeon said, with a male actor one year older than Do Wook in mind.
Manager Oh Back Ho replied “Okay.” He finally answered with a relaxed voice.
“Yes, then I’ll consider the matter settled.”
“Do Wook’s busy these days, isn’t he?”
“Yes, today is the last broadcast so he can take a breather now. Is it ok if I don’t show this scenario to Do Wook then?”
“Please do whatever you’re comfortable with.”
“Ok. Thank you for always looking after our Do Wook. I’ll give you a call again once the contract for ‘Snow White Sister’ is signed.’
With that, Manager Oh Baek Ho ended his call with Instructor Lee Kang Yeon.
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