It was because he remembered the problematic situation that happened as more and more Hallyu stars expanded into China and were chosen more often as advertisement models for Chinese companies.
‘I’m accepting as many commercials as possible right now so that, after I bring down Director Seo Joong Won, I’ll…have the capital to achieve my dream. Still…I can’t sacrifice something important because of it.’
Do Wook thought calmly.
He should not forget his goal or the values he’d held up for the sake of earning capital.
Except for those closest to him, such as the members, the success of < Sweetheart from the Universe > had changed the vibe of the people around him a lot.
It was now loved nationwide, compared to before when it was popular among young people in their teens and 20s, so crowds flocked to him even if he was just walking down the street.
Even the broadcast staff. They had always treated Do Wook nicely, but because of Do Wook’s young age it didn’t feel like they were giving him special treatment. However, now it felt like they were. Everyone gave Do Wook the top treatment and were bending over backwards to get on Do Wook’s good side.
No matter how much Do Wook tried to be modest, people around him would raise him up nonstop.
Filming the drama, shooting advertisements, and doing interviews in such an environment every day, Do Wook’s mood was also elevated more than usual while doing those activities.
‘I might have subconsciously gotten swept up in the excitement…’
Do Wook calmly rewrote his text message.
[Thank you, sir! For the Chinese products however, please look closely into the company’s history and product’s country of origin. There could be aspects that are sensitive in Korea, haha. I’ll entrust it to you.]
After sending the message, Do Wook stepped out of the waiting room.
On his way back, his message notification immediately rang. Do Wook checked his phone, assuming that it was a message from Team Leader Lee Dae Huyung.
However, the message was from Jung Yoon Ki.
[You’re busy, right?]
The tone seemed apologetic for asking something obvious. There was a group chat that was used only among the members, and there was also a group chat that included the managers, so it was rare for Do Wook to receive a direct message. The message was from Jung Yoon Ki personally.
Puzzled, Do Wook immediately responded.
[Is everything ok, Yoon Ki?]
[Yes, it’s just been a while since we’ve seen each other in person lol]
[We had a shoot in the countryside until yesterday. Are preparations for your album going well?]
[Of course lol. When will you be back at the dormitory?]
[After the shoot ends today, probably early in the morning…]
[Then we’ll miss each other again lol]
[Yes. Are you sure nothing’s wrong?]
[Nothing’s wrong lol. There’s nothing to worry about. Take care of yourself when working]
[Thank you haha]
[My mom is nagging me to get your autograph lol. There’s a mountain of things for you to autograph lolol]
It seemed like he had messaged him to get an autograph. Do Wook grinned.
***
At 5 am, Do Wook arrived at the dormitory and crashed out. He woke up to the sound of his alarm 4 hours later. He had another shoot in the afternoon and it was time for him to wake up so that he could get ready, starting with his make up.
However, for better or worse, the afternoon shoot was cancelled.
It was because Wang Hee Jin, who powered through filming the drama and constantly doing interviews nonstop, caught a cold.
Filming for Do Wook’s solo scenes was already done and today’s shoot was with Wang Hee Jin.
When he received the message from Nam Da Woo that the shoot was cancelled, Do Wook, in his half-awake state, wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry.
In the short term, it was nice that he would get to rest today, but it was bad that the broadcast would be postponed. They would have to work even harder on another day to shoot the scenes they were supposed to shoot today.
Anyways, Do Wook was able to get 8 hours of sleep for the first time in a long time.
After getting restful sleep, Do Wook tidied himself up a bit and visited the HIT Entertainment office. Since he had some time, he wanted to discuss the advertisement request with Team leader Lee Dae Hyung.
“Oh my! You’re here!”
When he entered the Fan Marketing Team office, Nam Hyo Jin, who had been working, greeted him while blushing. Do Wook bowed his head and greeted her.
“Are you here to see Team Leader Lee?”
“Yes. He’s in, right?”
“Yes. Ah, by the way, Assistant Manager Do was looking for you..”
He hadn’t particularly heard anything from Assistant Manager Do Ra Hee so Do Wook had a confused expression. Nam Hyo Jin asked him to wait and contacted Assistant Manager Do Ra Hee.
Assistant Manager Do Ra Hee, who happened to be out and about already, came in and noticed Do Wook.
“Do Wook!”
“Assistant Manager, it’s been a while.”
“It’s so hard to see your face*! Although I do see it in the drama.”
(TL Note: a better translation would have been “It’s so hard to meet up with you” but I kept it as “see your face” because of the second sentence.”
“Haha. I heard you were looking for me…”
Assistant Manager Do Ra Hee nodded her head and led him into the office.
They went to the area where they keep the pile of supplies and there was a mountain of presents that had arrived for Do Wook. Gifts from fans that arrive at the company were supposed to be sent to the dormitory through Manager Oh Baek Ho, but there were so many personal gifts that even Manager Oh Baek Ho simply shook his head.
It was deemed impossible to move everything to the dormitory immediately, so they just let it pile up in the office.
“Ah…this is what Baek Ho was talking about…”
Do Wook looked at the mountain-sized pile of gifts with his jaw dropped.
“After you got more fans from the drama, the amount of gifts was unbelievable. Manager Oh takes them over once a week, but…I thought it would be good for you to look them over first.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
Do Wook nodded his head and looked over the gifts one at a time. There were photobooks with screenshots of scenes from the drama, and drawings of Do Wook they drew themselves onto a canvas. Health products, clothes, accessories, shoes were a given, but also gaming consoles, difficult-to-obtain CDs from past singers, mechanical keyboard, mixing equipment…There were a variety of items.
There were even three units of the latest model of laptops from the company of the laptop he currently used. There were also 5 units of the same cellphone.
Since he understood how the fans felt. Do Wook never gave the gifts he received to someone else even if he ended up not using it. However, with so many of the same gifts, Do Wook was also at a loss over how to deal with it.
“Uh…letters are small so it might be good to send those over first…”
Assistant Manager Do Ra Hee nodded her head to what Do Wook said.
Nam Hyo Jin, who was standing next to Do Wook, couldn’t hold back her laughter as she watched Do Wook gather the letters first.
‘As expected of you! Kyaa―!’
She couldn’t scream out loud, but she was already screaming internally.
“I think it really is incomparable to what it used to be. Chinese fans are really amazing,”
Assistant Manager Do Ra Hee said in admiration, unable to keep her jaw from dropping. Nam Hyo Jin also quickly added,
“Have you heard that the fans raised money and named a forest in China after you?”
“I hadn’t heard that yet…”
This was the first Do Wook was hearing about it. He was surprised by his own popularity.
“Sounds like you’re working really hard on monitoring, Hyo Jin.”
Nam Hyo Jin laughed pleasantly at Assistant Manager Do Ra Hee’s praise. As an employee, she was working hard on monitoring, but in reality she was getting paid for the ‘fangirling’ she had already been doing.
After finishing a short conversation with the two employees, Do Wook went into Team Leader Lee Dae Hyung’s office. Team Leader Lee Dae Hyung greeted Do Wook.
Meanwhile, Nam Hyo Jin personally brought Do Wook the green tea he asked for.
“Ah, Do Wook. Sorry to make you come into the office when it’s your first day off in a while.”
Team Leader Lee Dae Hyung sat down and started the discussion.
“It’s no problem. It’s my job.”
“About that commercial…after I got your message, I looked into it more thoroughly than I did initially.”
“Yes. Was there anything problematic?”
“Well. You could call it a problem, but…there’s no particular problem with other ones. There is one thing about the 千歲山* health juice that’s a little concerning.”
(TL Note: Qiānsuì shān, thousand age mountain?)
“Which part…?”
Team Leader Lee Dae Hyung slid the paper he had towards Do Wook. On the paper, there was information about the 千歲山 health juice written down. It was about the excellent taste and efficacy of the juice 千歲山 makes as well as the local public’s opinion about the company.
Based on that alone, there didn’t seem to be any issues. Rather, It was a solid company competing for first and second place in the beverage industry and you could tell they had a very good image.
“If you look here at the manufacturer…”
“Ah….”
“And among the bottled waters sold by 千歲山, there’s a water bottle literally called ‘Jang Baek Mountain’.
Do Wook nodded his head.
Since it is a Chinese product, it’s understandable that they would call Baek Du Mountain Jang Baek Mountain, but the question was whether people in Korea would also consider it understandable. It’s a Chinese product and he was shooting an ad that would be aired locally in China, but Do Wook is Korean.
(TL Note: Baek Du Mountain is a famous mountain in Korea, even mentioned in the national anthem)
“I wasn’t sure if I needed to worry about this kind of stuff too, but…”
Team Leader Lee Dae Hyung muttered his words at the end. It was rare to look this thoroughly into this kind of stuff to begin with. He wasn’t certain if it was something that was worth bringing up to Do Wook. Still, he knew that Do Wook thought things over as much as possible before making a decision, so Team Leader Lee Dae Hyung brought it up.
Do Wook had observed countless celebrities get their image ruined and crumble over something ridiculous. He couldn’t block everything, but still he wanted to prevent it as much as possible.
The higher he climbed, the more people’s attention would be focused on him, the more careful he would have to be.
“Hmmm…I’ll turn this one down just in case. I’m already doing a drink commercial in Korea anyways.”
Team Leader Lee Dae Hyung’s eyes grew wide, a little surprised by Do Wook’s quick decision. He had already informed Do Wook about the unit cost for the advertisement.
“But the unit price is honestly too high to refuse, as you might have seen…”
Unit prices of Chinese advertisements were on a different level from those in Korea. Do Wook fell within the top 5 in model fees in Korea, but in China he was even receiving at least 500 million to 1.5 billion Won* for modeling fees.
(TL Note: 346,000 to 1.04 million USD)
The modeling fee proposed by 千歲山 was 1 billion. 1 billion for a 2-day shoot, 6-month contract. It wasn’t an easy amount to turn down because of ‘just in case’.
(TL Note: 692,000 USD)
“No, it’s ok. We’ll receive other advertisement offers anyways, right?”
You could clearly tell from Do Wook’s answer where his values lie. Team Leader Lee Dae Hyung felt it was a bit of a pity, but he knew that image isn’t something you can exchange for money so he nodded his head. Furthermore, Do Wook was only getting started.
As Do Wook said, they received new advertisement offers even today.
“Ah, then since you’re here anyways…”
Do Wook focused on Team Leader Lee Dae Hyung’s words with a relaxed expression.
***
Do Wook, who had returned to the dormitory after finishing the meeting with Team Leader Lee Dae Hyung, was hoping to have dinner with the other members for the first time in a while.
Also, Do Wook, who was rumored to be solemn and quiet when working, was itching to tell the members the news he heard from Team Leader Lee Dae Hyung.
All the members, except Park Tae Hyung, were already gathered in the living room.
As soon as he opened the front door, the members’ gazes fell on him in unison. Once they realized that it was Do Wook, they shouted his name with urgency.
“Do Wook!”
“Do Wook, you’re here!”
Do Wook responded in a dazed manner to the hasty greeting.
“Uh…what are you all…I have something to tell you guys too…”
“Do Wook. You said you’re off today, right? Come sit over here. We haven’t been able to tell you the past few days, but…”
Jung Yoon Ki let out a deep sigh. Do Wook frowned, getting a bad hunch.
“You say your news first.”
Do Wook was eager to hear what Jung Yoon Ki was talking about. Seeing Jung Yoon Ki hesitate, he felt he should just quickly say his news first.
“Uh, it’s really good news…”
“Is that so?”
Kim Won asked with an odd expression, neither frowning or smiling.
“We might go on an American TV show…”
“What?”
The eyes of the members all grew big. They hadn’t even imagined that they’d get such news during their inactive period. Do Wook was surprised too. Team Leader Lee Dae Hyung had tipped off Do Wook that they were currently discussing the dates for the shoot and they would schedule it as soon as Do Wook was finished filming the drama.
After making it onto the Billboard chart, KK’s song was on the chart for about 8 weeks. The broadcast station had sent the offer after realizing KK’s global popularity was noteworthy.
They all couldn’t contain their surprise and either covered their mouths with their hands or muttered to themselves. They had truly expanded into America with KK’s song.
However, the members, who were briefly happy, hardened their expressions again. Do Wook urged Jung Yoon Ki.
“Yoon Ki. What’s going on?”
“Well…have you reached out to Tae Hyung recently?”
Jung Yoon Ki’s expression was extremely dark.
—
Next chapter: What is going on with Tae Hyung back at home?
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