Become a Star

{Oh, god. What did you do?}

All Dustin wanted was to look like a cool king, and as soon as Woo-Jin’s hand stopped covering his eyes, the first thing Dustin did was run over to Mac to take a look at the picture.

{Oh~! It turned out well!}

Even though it wasn’t the concept he had in mind, the picture they took was rather nice too. In all honesty, as long as the photo looked good, that was all that mattered to Dustin.

{For some reason, this picture makes it seem like the two of them working together is enough to destroy a country or two.}

{There’s always a cunning person like that behind a foolish king.} Woo-Jin succinctly explained the background context of the picture.

Focusing on the picture, Dustin zoomed in on his face on the camera’s screen and scrutinized it. Although his eyes were covered, he liked how his contorted eyebrows and forehead emphasized the sinister feel of the photo. Furthermore, the vile look on Woo-Jin’s face and eyes as he whispered into Dustin’s ear was so terrifying that it sent chills down his spine.

{You make a pretty good villain yourself.}

If you put aside his acting skills, Woo-Jin looked so kind and honest that Dustin thought he wasn’t suited to play a villain, but clearly, that wasn’t the case. The eyes that gazed into the lens of the camera looked truly wicked, like a secretive conspirator. The person who wielded and enjoyed the absolute power that originally belonged to the king was none other than the individual controlling him from behind. The conspirator portrayed by Woo-Jin might seem vicious, but he also came off as being stronger beyond any measure.

Their photo turned out so well that it could even be used as a poster for a movie. In fact, Dustin even asked Mac to send him the picture; that’s how much he liked it. Once he received it, he immediately sent it to Selena. It was his way of bragging and reassuring her that he was having fun without drinking. In addition, the photo was also a refreshing shock to the other people who shared the preconceived notion that Woo-Jin was not suited to take on villain roles.

***

Dreams come at night when one sleeps, and they vanish in the morning when the sun comes up. It was a simple fact Woo-Jin should have known. As soon as he entered the VIP room of the 3-Star Michelin restaurant, Woo-Jin realized his dream was truly futile. He looked at the closed door wistfully, wishing he could follow the now-departing waiter that had led him here.

{So, we meet again.}

Ilya had always been unfriendly towards Woo-Jin whenever the latter dropped by the bookstore, but this time around, he greeted Woo-Jin with a delighted look on his face and a cheerful voice. This was incredibly uncharacteristic for the bookstore owner Woo-Jin knew. Instead, Ilya was acting like the person Lansky was familiar with, which made Woo-Jin feel flustered. It felt like he was behaving that way because he knew something, so it instantly sent chills down Woo-Jin’s spine.

Kang Ho-Soo had accompanied Woo-Jin today. After sitting down, he peered at the man in his sixties that was looking at Woo-Jin. He then glanced at Woo-Jin with a quizzical expression on his face as though asking if he knew this man. Woo-Jin had no choice but to nod his head.

“I met him by chance, and somehow we’ve crossed paths again.”

Woo-Jin forced a smile and greeted Ilya. {Hello. I’m surprised to see you again here.}

{My thoughts exactly. I didn’t know at that time that I would be this interested in you. I suppose you never know what will happen in life. How long are you going to stand there like that?}

As soon as Ilya gestured to the seat in front of him, Kang Ho-Soo mouthed the words ‘Who is he?’ to Woo-Jin. For a moment, Woo-Jin agonized over how he should introduce Ilya. He was caught in a difficult situation –– he didn’t know if he should introduce him as the owner of a used bookstore or tell the truth and introduce him as Ilya Turner, the novelist.

{Let me introduce myself. I’m Ilya Turner.}

Ilya didn’t understand Korean, but he could make a rough guess as to what was going on judging from the looks exchanged between Chae Woo-Jin and his manager, as well as their facial expressions. Hence, Ilya took the initiative to satisfy Kang Ho-Soo’s curiosity.

{Ah, Ilya Tur…ner?}

People knew Shakespeare, Hemingway, and Hermann Hesse’s names, even if they weren’t interested in literature. That was the same for Ilya Turner’s name. As someone who left his mark in the history of modern literature, more often than not, even people outside of the field had heard of him. This was especially true since one of his novels was made into a movie, which he had received the Palme d’Or[1] at the Cannes Film Festival for. Thus, Kang Ho-Soo was familiar with his name.

To add to this, Kang Ho-Soo wasn’t so detached from the cultural world that he didn’t know the man who was currently known as the living godfather of culture. More importantly, he was also a fan of Ilya Turner.

“The… The… You… How did this happen! Seriously?”

Generally, people had an image in their mind whenever they heard the name ‘Ilya Turner.’ They would picture a man standing with his arms crossed, leaning back against a packed bookshelf. Ilya Turner didn’t like revealing his face, so even if he were to do an interview, pictures weren’t taken most of the time. If he needed to have his photos taken, he would insist on taking a full-body shot against a wide background to ensure his face looked small. From some point onwards, pictures taken using bookshelves as a background became Ilya Turner’s symbol.

This meant that it would be difficult for the public to recognize Ilya Turner in a normal setting, regardless of how many photos they had seen of him. Kang Ho-Soo was no exception to this. Despite the actual person standing right before him, he couldn’t be certain if he was the same Ilya Turner in the photos. The only thing he could do was become overwhelmed with emotions, excited about seeing Ilya Turner in person, and stutter.

As he looked at Kang Ho-Soo, to a certain extent, Woo-Jin could understand Hugh Miller’s reaction three days ago when he couldn’t hide his excitement. If Woo-Jin weren’t Lansky in his previous life, he would’ve undoubtedly reacted in the same way as the two of them right now.

“I’ll explain things to you later.”

As soon as Woo-Jin knew the person he was meeting with today was Ilya Turner, Woo-Jin suddenly felt burdened from Kang Ho-Soo accompanying him. His vision, in particular, was going dark as he imagined the conversation they would have today.

{I’ve already heard about it in advance, but does he have to accompany you?}

Ilya pointed out Kang Ho-Soo’s presence as if he had read Woo-Jin’s mind. Regardless of how much Hugh vouched for Ilya and reassured Woo-Jin, since Kang Ho-Soo was in the dark about who he was meeting today, Woo-Jin couldn’t attend the meeting unescorted. Hence, he asked for Ilya’s understanding in advance, and Kang Ho-Soo escorted him there.

{No, of course not! I’ll take my leave now, please don’t worry about me.}

{I’m sorry for reserving a separate table for you to eat by yourself.}

Seemingly anticipating Kang Ho-Soo’s reaction, Ilya had made a separate dinner reservation for him. And despite the fact that he was openly hinting to leave them alone, Kang Ho-Soo was so starstruck that he viewed everything with rose-tinted lenses. He even saw it as an act of consideration on Ilya’s part, and he looked at him with kind eyes.

Notably, Woo-Jin seemed to know Ilya Turner personally for some reason, and his expression didn’t have any signs of animosity. After studying Woo-Jin’s face, Kang Ho-Soo came to the conclusion that while he may be feeling awkward, he didn’t appear unhappy to see Ilya.

If Woo-Jin had shown any signs of reluctance, Kang Ho-Soo would’ve reacted differently, even if the other party was the Ilya Turner. The most important things to Kang Ho-Soo were Woo-Jin’s opinions and safety; even the novelist he admired was no exception.

However, Woo-Jin subconsciously revealed he was fond of Ilya Turner, although it didn’t seem like he was aware of it. After he saw Woo-Jin’s expression that he only showed around people he liked, Kang Ho-Soo promptly took his leave.

Once Kang Ho-Soo left, Woo-Jin sat down as well and studied Ilya’s face. His mind was filled with many thoughts about how to interpret this unexpected meeting, and simultaneously, he was happy to meet with Ilya again like this. The affection he had for Ilya was the same affection he felt when he met Selena.

It was evident that Lansky acknowledged and liked Ilya Turner a great deal. Yet, because of his indifferent personality, he didn’t recognize the affection he had for Ilya, the boy whom he had supported from an early age, and watched him grow.

Lansky would’ve been elated if he had personally seen how Ilya had developed over time into a fantastic writer. He was Lanky’s child, whom he was very proud of; there wasn’t a more accurate way for Lansky to describe Ilya. However, that didn’t mean Woo-Jin enjoyed being here. He wondered how Ilya discovered who he was. Furthermore, he also wanted to know why he had called Hugh to set up this meeting. After all, he had no connections with Hugh.

{How did you find me?}

{How did you know I was Ilya Turner?}

{Know?! I had not the slightest clue who you were before you told me just a while ago.}

Without thinking about it, Woo-Jin instinctively feigned ignorance.

{You may be good at acting, but you’re a terrible liar. I might not know much about acting, but I know exactly how you looked at me that day. You didn’t know who I was initially, but you recognized who I was after that, didn’t you? Don’t take a novelist’s insight too lightly.}

A novelist who wasn’t observant or didn’t have the ability to infer wouldn’t be able to attain the success Ilya had today. In addition, the current Ilya was not the young man Lansky once knew –– he was now older, and on top of being competent, he also enjoyed a high degree of social success. He was also so imaginative that it had become extremely difficult for someone to go against him.

Woo-Jin made a few mistakes earlier. When Ilya introduced himself to Kang Ho-Soo, he erroneously acknowledged him too quickly. He should’ve acted surprised alongside Kang Ho-Soo, feigning ignorance until the very end. And he had been too complacent, disregarding Ilya’s curiosity.

His actions during their last encounter before today were enough to raise Ilya’s suspicions. With Ilya’s current abilities and resources, he had the capacity to investigate the background of a stranger that walked into his bookstore, especially since Woo-Jin had recently appeared on various media platforms. As such, it wouldn’t have been too difficult to find the actor if Ilya were to chance upon his face on any of those platforms.

No, in fact, Woo-Jin shouldn’t have come here in the first place. The problem was that he took the bait with the hopes of being cast in a movie possibly written by someone important.

{Thank you for the birthday wish and gifts that day.}

The chocolates Woo-Jin gave him that day inadvertently became a birthday present.

{Ah, yes…}

After looking at Ilya’s eyes, it seemed as though he had believed Woo-Jin’s excuses to a certain extent that day. Even if Woo-Jin wanted to ask how he could believe such absurd words, there was only one way out for him right now.

Reviewing what happened that day, it seemed as if Ilya was rather interested in the supernatural. Rather than believing in it, he enjoyed the process of breaking it down with reason and logic. If he had already decided to look deeper into this mysterious situation, Woo-Jin had no way of stopping him.

The best defense was a good offense. Woo-Jin realized that blindly avoiding it was not the best tactic, and at the same time, he gave a closer examination of his thoughts and feelings. Just because it was his past life, it didn’t mean it was something he could avoid forever. More importantly, Woo-Jin had the desire to continue his relationship with Ilya, and this wasn’t because he became a great writer.

It was similar to how Lansky called L by his given name in his previous life. The little boy’s small hand had strangely caught his attention. Back then, Lansky was more concerned with the child’s bruised hands and chapped skin instead of Emperor Nicholas’ beautiful gun that he was holding.

He was a child who wanted someone to call him by his name but was afraid to be called. Lansky was well-aware of how Fiancé operated, perhaps more so than anyone else. He knew exactly what it meant to have one’s name called over there. If an adult called a child by their name, that meant they had been exchanged for money from that day onwards.

I’m not L, but no one even calls me by my name.

Lansky detected fear and loneliness in that short sentence. The insignificant words written in the little boy’s messy handwriting stirred the emotions within him, prompting him to call the young child with small hands by his name. The child appeared to be around the same age as his grandson, but he was skinny and inconspicuous, a sharp comparison to his grandson’s plump and lovely cheeks.

Through his grandson, Giorgio, Lansky learned how lovable a child could be, but on the other hand, Ilya made Lansky realize how fragile a child could be. As a result, Ilya was the first person to receive Lansky’s charity out of pure compassion for the vulnerable, without looking at his potential value or the possibility of him attaining success.

However, strangely enough, the Ilya sitting before him still evoked the same emotions in Woo-Jin as he had when he was little. Instead of small and bruised hands, his hands were now wrinkled and lonely.

What would have happened if Lansky had been more affectionate back in the day? Woo-Jin felt that it would’ve been nice if he had occasionally treated Ilya like a grandchild or son instead of a child he was sponsoring. This thought caused an apologetic feeling to form.

As Woo-Jin was reading Confession of White, these feelings intensified because he could sense the alienation and loneliness Ilya must have felt back then. On behalf of Lansky, Woo-Jin felt a strange sense of guilt and pity towards Ilya.

Just like how it was with Selena, Woo-Jin realized it was getting harder and harder for him to turn a blind eye to the people that were connected to Lansky. It wasn’t necessarily about getting anything or doing something for them. He didn’t intend to purposely visit them, but he didn’t want to go out of his way to cut off all ties with them.

Instead, Woo-Jin was determined to hide the fact that he was Lansky in his previous life. Ilya was a special case, but if the average person had heard the story about him being possessed by a ghost, they would’ve called him crazy.

When Selena stared at him somewhat repulsively, it frankly made Woo-Jin upset.

{There must be a reason why you want to meet with me.}

Woo-Jin said to Ilya as though he was insinuating something. As much as he decided not to blindly avoid it, he was determined to answer as honestly as possible in his own way.

1. The highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. ☜