Become a Star

Even after going through several in-vitro fertilization procedures, Kim Hye-Ryeong still failed to conceive. And as a matter of fact, Chae Mu-Seok was reluctant to have a child with her. Ever since Kim Hye-Ryeong’s unsuccessful attempts, he started fooling around with other women. He already had a child with a mistress before, so there was no reason to believe he wouldn’t do it again. More importantly, Chae Mu-Seok knew that, unlike his other wives, Kim Hye-Ryeong had no choice but to raise another woman’s child with no complaints.

And so, she decided to look into surrogate mothers, thinking it was a better option as she’d be the one in control. Since the surrogate mothers were selected after going through a stringent vetting process, Chae Mu-Seok didn’t oppose the idea initially. However, when he learned about Chae Woo-Jin’s existence during the crucial period of all times, Chae Mu-Seok acted like someone who had just managed to worm his way out of an onerous task.

There was no guarantee that the child conceived with the surrogate mother would be a boy, and there was no reason to have an illegitimate child when he already had a capable child named Chae Woo-Jin.

Kim Hye-Ryeong’s efforts to somehow conceive a son she could call her own were futile. She was even forced to get a divorce because of the sponsorship incident, so she felt as though her whole world was crumbling down.

“You don’t really know your son that well, huh? Do you think he’ll listen to anything I say? Just give up on Woo-Jin, please. I will give you a healthy baby boy very soon.”

–– Ha! You don’t have to. Having one defective child in the family is more than enough.

Kim Hye-Ryeong’s mother-in-law openly assessed her daughter as a defective product. In stark contrast to how they treated their daughter-in-law, Chae Mu-Seok’s parents were extremely kind and caring grandparents to their grandchildren. However, this didn’t apply to Woo-Ra.

Of course, that wasn’t the case in the beginning. Although they hated that an illegitimate child lowered the family’s dignity and tainted their honor, they didn’t treat her harshly. Yet, as Woo-Ra got older, they realized that she was different from their other intelligent grandchildren, and after that, they immediately began to treat her coldly.

In addition to being less competent than the other grandchildren, she was the child of Kim Hye-Ryeong –– the woman they weren’t even fond of in the first place. Thus, she fell out of their good graces. They already had a perfect finished product, so they didn’t even bother hiding the fact that they didn’t want other defective goods like Woo-Ra.

“Did I make that defective product all alone?!”

–– There’s a reason why there’s only one defective child in the family. This is why people say it is important for men to marry a woman with good qualities. I guess you’re unaware that people have been spreading malicious gossip about us because a person like you somehow ended up marrying into our family. I feel embarrassed and apologetic towards my in-laws too. Oh, well.

Her mother-in-law’s last remark set off Kim Hye-Ryeong’s proverbial detonator. Her parents-in-law had never treated her biological parents as their in-laws; her mother-in-law always referred to them as ‘they’ or ‘your parents.’ This treatment wasn’t too different for Chae Mu-Seok’s second wife as well. Even though they treated them with more respect than Kim Hye-Ryeong’s biological parents, they never saw them as equals, and they didn’t even try to hide it.

The only people they acknowledged as their in-laws were the parents of Chae Mu-Seok’s first wife, Park Eun-Soo. Despite those in-laws hating the Chae family with a passion, Chae Mu-Seok’s parents still sided with them and said that their reaction was only natural. They still perceived Park Eun-Soo to be their daughter-in-law.

Fortunately for Kim Hye-Ryeong, Park Eun-Soo had gotten remarried. If she hadn’t, it was evident she would’ve posed a significant threat to her. Unfortunately, Kim Hye-Ryeong could only rely on herself for years and lived in agony for a long time. Seeing how Park Eun-Soo’s son constantly spelled trouble for her, Kim Hye-Ryeong was certain she had an ill-fated relationship with both mother and child.

“Your beloved Park Eun-Soo was practically the one who brought me into your family. In that case, everything must be her fault, huh? Indeed, you’re right to say it is important for men to marry a woman with good qualities.”

Kim Hye-Ryeong quoted her mother-in-law’s words when she said the wife was to blame for her husband’s affair before mockingly adding that it was ultimately because of Park Eun-Soo that she was able to marry into the Chae family.

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–– A malignant person like you only says spiteful things. I wonder if anything ever goes well for you.

“It won’t do the Chae family any good if nothing goes well for me. You seem to often forget that I, Kim Hye-Ryeong, am the daughter-in-law of this family, so it’s very concerning. You should get tested for dementia just in case. Also, I have power and authority, unlike a certain someone, so on that note, I’m going to hang up because I’m busy. If anything happens to father, you may call me then.”

–– You!

Kim Hye-Ryeong didn’t wait for her mother-in-law’s response and simply pressed the button to end the call. Then, she threw the phone at her secretary.

“From now on, tell her I’m not home whenever she calls.”

Since Kim Hye-Ryeong didn’t pick up her calls whenever she called her cell phone, her mother-in-law had started calling the landline at some point. When she called her son, he wouldn’t listen and simply gave her half-hearted responses, so she decided to call her pushover daughter-in-law.

Chae Mu-Seok’s parents didn’t raise him well, resulting in him being the person he was today. Kim Hye-Ryeong wondered about the type of person who’d expect their daughter-in-law to deal with the consequences of their son’s poor upbringing. Additionally, they were undeserving of a distinguished daughter-in-law, yet they looked down on her. It was unsightly to see them acting so self-righteous despite being such snobs.

Kim Hye-Ryeong drank the glass of cold water that her secretary had brought over and wondered why her mother-in-law had called at this hour. It was very late in Nice; the time difference between France and Korea was seven hours. Of course, for people who couldn’t sleep through the night, it was early in the morning. Yet, her mother-in-law had a tendency to go to bed and wake up late because of her ill husband. Generally, she never would have been awake at this hour.

While Kim Hye-Ryeong was thinking about why her mother-in-law was awake or why she even called, she turned on the TV because something came to mind. She’d only pressed the remote control a few times before Chae Woo-Jin’s face immediately appeared on the screen.

The scene of Chae Woo-Jin walking down the red carpet switched to when he was sitting in the Dolby Theater shortly after, clapping. And the caption below stated, ‘Red Enemy starring Chae Woo-Jin won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.’

“They ended up getting the award, huh?”

When she heard people talk about how Red Enemy would most likely win the award, she mocked them, saying they were fussing over it for nothing. But in the end, they had been right, so she frowned.

In the video where Director Yoon Seon was holding the Oscar in one hand and giving his acceptance speech, the thrilled hosts and panelists of the broadcast kept making one comment after another.

–– Although our films have been nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film every year, they have never made it to the finals, right?

–– Yes, this is the first time. Unlike the other prominent film festivals, we have never won a single award at the Oscars prior to this, so today’s award will be significant for Korea’s film industry. In particular, it is proof that people all over the world can appreciate our historical films as well.

–– Indeed, we make good movies.

At the Academy Awards, even though films were not judged solely on commercial viability but also on their cinematic quality, they used Hollywood as a yardstick. And when it came to Hollywood, commercial viability was important. Winning the Academy Award meant that Korean films were appreciated in America, and so this then led to increased anticipation that the film could be a commercial success.

While this wasn’t necessarily the case for every film that won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, there was no need to pour cold water on such a happy occasion. More importantly, in Red Enemy’s case, it became a hit in the US as well, so things ended up working out.

However, the public’s excitement was not limited to the film’s box office success and film festival awards. Chae Woo-Jin was beloved on the red carpet and at the pre-awards party, and this was all captured on video and aired in Korea. This footage had the greatest impact on the people in Korea.

To further explain, despite constantly hearing about Red Enemy’s success and Chae Woo-Jin’s popularity in the US on TV and in the media, the public found it hard to believe. It might have been a different story if Chae Woo-Jin had appeared on a famous talk show in America, but most people felt that it was hard to determine how Americans felt about him through just a few interviews. Since the media always hyped things up and oversold trivial things, people thought they were just exaggerating the facts.

Naturally, he was the most popular in Korea and Asia, but they were skeptical about whether or not that would be the case in America as well. Yet, after witnessing the crowd and cameras for themselves with every passing moment on the red carpet, they realized they had underestimated Chae Woo-Jin.

Contrary to his fans’ concerns about him being a wallflower there, Chae Woo-Jin acted like he was the most comfortable person on the red carpet. He was receiving as much attention as any of the biggest stars there, and it was evident that he was truly enjoying himself. As a young actor, Chae Woo-Jin might have gotten overly excited or intimidated by the ambiance, but he was calm and carried himself with the same poise as an actor with decades of experience. This was in direct contrast to other actors that were invited to the awards ceremony for the first time, who looked confused or overly excited.

–– How can he be so relaxed and confident?

–– His calm and upright character play a part as well, and he has good posture. Even when he's standing, Chae Woo-Jin’s posture is so great that one of his nicknames is ‘handsome bones.’ He doesn’t slouch at all and stands straight, so people say his beauty extends all the way to his bones.

Although the hosts were feeling excited and were laughing amongst themselves, quite a few members of the older crowd could relate to what the hosts were talking about. Those who were more elderly shared the notion that Chae Woo-Jin was smart and capable, but they also tended to see him as a foolish celebrity. Since he was still young, they felt sorry for his courage which stemmed from his ignorance about the world.

However, even though he was interacting with famous people on the international stage, he didn’t flinch at all. In fact, he was the one taking the lead. Witnessing that allowed the older people to see him in a new light. He wasn’t young and ignorant –– he did everything perfectly, which made them feel as if he wasn’t lacking in anything.

There were many moments throughout the awards ceremony where Chae Woo-Jin was caught on camera. It was inspiring to see the moment that the film won the award, but it made people excited to see how elegant, confident, and amazing he looked.

However, Kim Hye-Ryeong had just turned on the TV; she couldn’t understand why people were making a fuss over the film winning one award.

“Did he win the Best Actor Award? It’s just the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, and yet people are creating such a big fuss. This is why people are not making progress. How pathetic!”

Kim Hye-Ryeong didn’t need to watch anymore, so she turned off the TV. She tossed the remote control somewhere, feeling nervous because she understood why her mother-in-law was still awake at such a late hour.

Perhaps, her mother-in-law shared the same sentiment as her, that winning the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film was not a big deal. However, they both came to different conclusions. Her mother-in-law must have been worried that Chae Woo-Jin wouldn’t quit the entertainment industry now that he had become so famous. She desperately wanted him to stop being an actor as soon as possible so he could take over the family business. Her desire for this was so high that she even called Kim Hye-Ryeong despite her hatred towards her.

On the other hand, although Kim Hye-Ryeong downplayed the achievement, she couldn’t help but secretly feel jealous. Chae Woo-Jin was currently enjoying everything Kim Hye-Ryeong once dreamed of as an actress. She knew better than anyone that it was a great achievement that couldn’t be disregarded.

How many actors in Korea left the industry without winning a single award at a domestic film festival? As for Kim Hye-Ryeong herself, she had only received the Best Rookie award and a few other minor awards. Even then, it only happened because of the huge efforts made by her agency behind the scenes. Still, that alone solidified her reputation as an excellent actress up until now.

After looking into it, Kim Hye-Ryeong learned that Chae Woo-Jin had won the awards based on his own abilities and not his agency’s efforts. Since DS’s CEO Jang wasn’t the type to pull strings behind the scenes, Chae Woo-Jin’s value and prospects undoubtedly stemmed from his skill.

Luckily for her, Chae Woo-Jin was on a roll as an actor and had no interest in his father’s family business. Nevertheless, Kim Hye-Ryeong was still annoyed and upset. She simply hated all the achievements Chae Woo-Jin had attained. It pissed her off even more after comparing him to Woo-Ra.

Originally, Kim Hye-Ryeong’s plan was to groom Woo-Ra into a talented singer-songwriter. She was rather skilled at singing, so she wanted her daughter to make a debut as a solo artist before sending her to a college that specialized in music.

However, there was an issue. Regardless of how many classes Woo-Ra was put through, she just couldn’t learn how to read sheet music. In the end, she debuted as a singer in a K-pop girl group, and after she gradually gained popularity and had adjusted to the entertainment industry, her next step was to try to release a solo album and establish herself as a singer.

Kim Hye-Ryeong started this mission with the hope that Chae Woo-Ra would make it big within the entertainment industry and easily get into a college. However, the controversy about her being an illegitimate child had made it impossible for that to happen.

Nonetheless, she was relieved that Chae Woo-Ra could still enter the middle to upper-tier colleges via the special admissions route that was available to celebrities. However, that relief was short-lived when Chae Woo-Hee attained a perfect score on the CSAT and was accepted into Korea University, causing people to compare both girls to one another.

Her husband had been against the idea of Chae Woo-Ra making a debut in the entertainment industry since the beginning, but she managed to convince him. He had grown angry with her, saying she made his entire family suffer in humiliation because of the gossip.

Additionally, Chae Woo-Jin’s maternal family was currently in possession of the evidence that incriminated Kim Hye-Ryeong as a sponsorship broker and had increasingly put pressure on her. They told her condescendingly that they would let it slide this time around, but because of the rumors, she hadn’t been able to attend any social gatherings of late.

When the secret was exposed, the people in her social circles turned their backs on her and started severing ties. Ironically, her husband was the first person to take action. That was because he found a substitute named Chae Woo-Jin, and if he could get his hands on him right away, all his problems would be resolved.

Due to his divorce from Park Eun-Soo, Chae Mu-Seok struggled for a period of time as his business and connections to Rome had been cut off. Now that he had overcome those problems and was financially independent, he would be able to spread his wings and expand even further by regaining his old connections with Chae Woo-Jin by his side.

“Now I’ve reached a point where there’s nothing I can do….”

Kim Hye-Ryeong had to let go of the marriage immediately. She tried to do that, but she couldn’t adapt to the circumstances like Chae Woo-Jin’s mother did. Hence, she tried to create some sort of weakness to destroy them, but her plans fell through as well. Instead, she was constantly hearing complaints from the woman who tried to connect with Chae Woo-Jin back then[1].

The moment she learned about Chae Woo-Jin’s maternal family, the woman told her that a chill went down her spine. She then went on to harshly criticize Kim Hye-Ryeong for trying to ruin her life, completely burning any bridges they once shared. The whole situation was so ridiculous because, just a while ago, she’d been lamenting about how it was a pity she didn’t get to connect with Chae Woo-Jin all those years ago.

“Who’s the crude one? And yet she has the audacity to criticize me?”

In truth, Chae Mu-Seok wasn’t aware of what Kim Hye-Ryeong was up to. He was focused on restoring his business and getting over the setback caused by his divorce from Park Eun-Soo, so he didn’t have the luxury of time to pay any attention to her. To be more specific, he didn’t care what she was doing outside.

And then, while he was in the process of establishing Bareunjeong Foods, he only started paying attention to her because of the aid her connections gave him. Subsequently, he soon learned about Kim Hye-Ryeong’s business dealings, and he began to place more emphasis on her usefulness rather than his affection for her. She was akin to a business partner.

Therefore, when her father-in-law collapsed from a stroke and moved to France, Kim Hye-Ryeong started going on the offensive and took over the house. In any case, regardless of her choice, none of it mattered to Chae Mu-Seok. All that mattered was which side had greater use and would be more helpful for his business. As such, one day, he unintentionally told his aide that he regretted getting a divorce from his first wife, and Kim Hye-Ryeong overheard it by chance.

“It’s not that the first one is intrinsically important. The first one is always valuable, but I didn’t know that before. Be it wives or other things, the second one and any that follow it will always be just a substitute. That’s how it is with replacements –– it’s not a pity to abandon them at any moment.”

Since he was someone who made such a statement, he was planning to abandon Kim Hye-Ryeong without any regrets. Now that Bareunjeong Foods was as successful as he’d hoped, her connections had become his connections. He had already established himself as a solid business partner without needing Kim Hye-Ryeong as the middleman.

In other words, he didn’t need her anymore. Because of that, Chae Mu-Seok’s decision was swifter and more relentless than ever. Yet, that didn’t mean she had the intention of leaving empty-handed. Kim Hye-Ryeong still had many years ahead of her. She felt it was too unfair if she were to just lose everything here.

1. The sponsor. ☜