Rebirth: King to Superstar

Just like Jung-hwa, who was sitting at the front, Gah Soo was sitting a few rows back, with her friends beside her. She was holding her phone, waiting for Joon-won to come on stage, as he told her he was going to be on the first scene. She was very excited about Joon-won. After working with him for the past 2 weeks, she got to know him better and even saw him act a minor role in their exam drama she went to with the boss. 

Now he was on a huge stage and was also playing a villain role in her favorite drama house. So she wanted to see how well he really acts to get that role. She looked to the side and saw her friends were also excited to watch the drama, as it was not every day they could get tickets.

The tickets were all her hard work. The day they released the tickets, which was always at Thursday midnight, she was awake in her dorm refreshing the website continuously, and managed to snag a few tickets for themselves. 

The curtain opened, and she finally saw Joon-won on the stage wearing a suit facing another actor. He had a small smile on his face and she heard his voice throughout the theatre. She continued to look at his acting and even forgot to record the first scene like she thought. 

The drama continued as the entire theatre remained silent until halftime when the curtains closed for a break on a serious note of the villain finding out what was going on behind him. Jung-hwa remained in her seat as people passed by her to go out. She continued to look at the closed curtains with her eyes wide open, thinking about the amazing first half she just saw. She couldn't believe the guy playing the villain was the same person she joked around the night before. His acting was out of the world. She knew he was good, but on the bigger stage and with a bigger role, he was completely on another level compared to the exam where he had a puny role. 

She didn't get up from her seat the entire 5 minutes break and the curtains opened once again with Joon-won on stage. She continued to watch the entire drama with her eyes wide open, like a zombie. The drama ended and people started to slowly get up and walk away. A few people were still in their seats looking at the closing curtains and Jung-hwa was one of them. 

The drama ended, but her thoughts were filled with the ending scene. The drama ended with a monologue from Joon-won alone on stage expressing his thoughts about the whole ordeal he, aka the villain, went through.

*A Few Minutes Prior*

Joon-won was sitting in the backstage, ready to do the last scene of the drama. He was a little hungry because of the light breakfast and couldn't wait to get some lunch inside him. The theatre would be providing them food and he knew it was going to be something good just by what he ate last time. 

He looked at the stage and saw the current scene. It was the scene of both the leads dying and Kar Jung overlooking the entire process from the side of the stage. The next scene was in the office with Kar Jung reporting him about it and him expressing his thoughts. 

The scene ended and it was time for him to get on stage. He walked up to the stage behind the curtains and sat on the chair facing the audience. The curtains opened up again as Kar Jung knocked on the fake door on the stage, a few feet from the chair he was sitting on. 

Joon-won didn't turn around and said in an emotionless voice, "Come in." 

Kar Jung walked in and closed the door before walking towards the desk. Standing in front of the desk, he said, "It's done, young master. Just like we planned." 

"Were there any problems or mistakes done? I want nothing attaching it to me directly." 

Kar Jung nodded and replied, "Yes, young master. Everything was clean, and there was no one around at the time. The cover-up went fantastically and tomorrow's headlines would be about a tragic couple passing away because the car fell off a cliff. You can close this chapter in your life now young master." 

Joon-won nodded and remained silent for a few seconds as he continued to look at the huge audience in front of him. He could see various emotions on each face of the audience. Some were looking at him with hate, while some looked with pity. 

"Alright then, take your leave for the rest of the day. I need some time alone." he waved his hand and Kar Jung simply nodded before walking off the stage. Joon-won stood up and walked to the front of the stage, looking at the audience with an expressionless face. 

He exhaled a little and said, "It didn't have to be like this at all. You could have simply come to me and told me that you didn't like the marriage at the beginning. You could have at least come to me when you found a new love and told me to break off the marriage if you feared your father. But you did none of this and broke the trust I kept in you by going behind my back and keeping it a secret." 

"The person I hoped would be for the rest of my life, filling up the hole I had in my entire life just ended up making me a murder instead." He shook his head with a melancholy look before walking off the stage. There was one last narration left and after that everyone got on stage before bowing as the audience drowned the theatre in a round of applause. 

*End Of Flashback*

Walking off stage, everyone went to the rest room as the food was served there. Joon-won took a box from the bench and walked to the corner his bag was at before he started downing the box. If anyone from the audience saw him then, they would never think he was the same elegant, cold villain they saw on stage a few minutes prior. 

He felt someone pat on his back and looked up to see it was Kar Jung with his own box of homemade food. Kar Jung sat beside him and said while opening the box, "That was a good run. You did great for your first drama. Almost like a vetaran in the industry. Oh, looks like my wife also liked it and is inviting you to dinner? What, no way. I'm telling you are going to be busy." he started with a light tone before grumbling as he checked the message he received on his phone.

Joon-won ignored the old man and finished his food before opening his own phone. As soon as he did, he saw his notifications flooded. There were over 50 messages and he didn't know who they were from. He opened the app and noticed all of them were from his university classmates and felt something went wrong. 

He opened the first chat and saw it was someone reacting to a story. He immediately knew what was blowing up. It was a picture of the poster outside and felt unhappy about the person who posted it. Opening the story, he noticed the user was Jung-hwa and immediately gave her a call.

Jung-hwa, who was outside among the crowd, making her way towards the bus station while still thinking about the drama, noticed her phone ring. She checked and noticed it was the one person she hoped it wasn't and also knew she was going to get an earful from the person. Taking a deep breath, she said before Joon-won could say anything, "That was an awesome drama Joon-won. I didn't even move at the halftime break because of how good it was. Your acting is so much better." 

As soon as she stopped, she nervously waited for a reply, but she didn't hear one. She looked at the phone and saw the call was still connected. Before she asked if he was still there, she heard his emotionless voice. "Don't you dare try cover what you did, with sweet words Jung-hwa. Do you think I am a kid? Why did you post a picture of the poster on social media? Were you out of your mind? Now, because of you, I have my entire chat box filled with people asking about this. This was the last thing I wanted to happen."

Jung-hwa didn't reply immediately. She knew she fu*ked up this time and her trying to compliment him won't cut it for someone like him. Her brain couldn't think of an excuse for the stupid mistake she did, even after he told her he didn't want others to know about the whole drama house thing. She stuttered for an answer but couldn't get anything out.