Ch.41Honey, how have you been?

High Dream episode 12 ratings 23%.

Lee J’s La Campanella performance ratings 26%.

With 4 episodes still remaining, the show was experiencing a steep rise in ratings.

And just like the ratings, various online communities were showing heated reactions.

ㄴAh… Lee J, tomodachi takara yo…

ㄴLee J < Is this guy’s last name possibly Uchiha? The character setup is suspiciously similar…

ㄴIs he a genius? o

ㄴDid his family life get destroyed? o

ㄴIs there someone who follows him around calling himself a friend until the end? o

It was the era of One-Navel.

Ninjas waging the 4th war,

A rubber man fighting to save his fire-human brother,

The final human slash about to kill the Death King.

People seriously debated about Lee J’s position in all this.

ㄴSince when was Lee J such a penny-pincher?

ㄴI believe the F4 era is over, I hereby declare the era of ‘Penny-pincher Lee J’

ㄴPenny lol pincher lol

ㄴBut it feels like they artificially extended his screen time?

ㄴRight, no matter how you look at it, Kim Donghu < He’s just crushing everything with his acting, so they must have modified the content.

ㄴThe flow should have been High Dream winning, but;

Penny-pincher Lee J.

The expression of contempt for inferior kids he showed early on,

And the face with tears streaming down after being called a friend in episode 12.

These two photos were placed side by side and began circulating online.

Originally, they weren’t particularly funny photos.

But Kim Donghu’s handsome face somehow made them amusing.

The piano performance was the same.

ㄴBut did he really play this himself?

ㄴSeems fake… seems fake… faaake faaake;;;

ㄴI definitely smell something burning~

ㄴAbsolutelynotI’mNaKangsikwhowasinthesameclassrightbesideDonghuinmiddleschoolwe’rereallyclose friendsandDonghuisreallyperfectsothispianoperformanceisnothingtohimdon’ttalkaboutwhatyoudon’tknow

ㄴUse some spaces, what are you saying, I’m going to lose my mind

A performance skill that even a layperson could tell was high-level.

An impossibly handsome face, great acting skills, and now he plays piano well too?

Of course people would be suspicious.

ㄴHmm… need to investigate this

ㄴKim Donghu’s past controversy revealed!!!!!!!!!!

ㄴWhat is it?

ㄴKim Donghu appeared on <Hehe Doctor!> LMFAO He was a penny-pincher from birth~

ㄴ(GIF of Kim Donghu doing stretching exercises on Hehe Doctor!)

ㄴI wondered why our J grew up so handsome, it’s because he did his stretching exercises properly^^

ㄴWow but even as a child he looked different from others, seriously impossibly handsome

ㄴThe real controversy is something else, I was once hit by Kim Donghu

ㄴOh yeah, sure you were~

Belatedly, it was revealed that Kim Donghu had appeared on <Hehe Doctor!>.

As his popularity grew, people wanted more information about Kim Donghu,

So they began digging into his past to scrape up everything that existed.

ㄴWe should stop investigating Kim Donghu

ㄴWhy?

ㄴHe trained in MMA for 7 years and was good enough to get a brown belt…

ㄴ….I just found out he was top of his class.

ㄴHandsome, good at fighting, good at piano, good at studying, how can the world be so unfair

ㄴIn exchange, you could have your penny-pincher memes plastered all over the internet LMAO

ㄴ LMFAO God is fair after all

Drrrrrr.

Monitoring all these reactions,

“Ahhhhh, I can breathe now.”

Writer Lee Minha stretched her arms and let out a sigh of relief.

Looking at the community reactions, positive reviews outnumbered the negative ones,

So she concluded that the response to upcoming episodes wouldn’t be bad either.

‘About 4 episodes left, and during that time, Lee J can appear here and there to keep things interesting.’

The upcoming romance parts would surely secure even higher ratings.

If that happened, breaking the 30% ratings barrier wasn’t just a dream.

‘Even Secret Garden filmed by SKS exceeded 35% ratings.’

Why couldn’t they do the same?

Plus.

‘Instead of removing Lee J here, we brought him in…’

If things go well, it wouldn’t be strange to have him appear in High Dream 2.

‘This much maintains the theme of High Dream, and we don’t need to modify the ending.’

It’s just the original ending with Lee J’s position added.

‘If things go well, actor Kim Donghu might want to work with me on his next project…!’

While she was indulging in happy fantasies.

Ring ring ring.

Her phone rang aggressively, demanding attention.

‘Director Kim Cheoldo?’

Why is he calling at this hour?

Let’s answer first and think later.

“Hello.”

-Hahahahaha! Writer Lee Minha! How have you been? Good afternoon.

“Yes, yes, I had a delicious meal. Have you eaten, Director?”

-Ah, I’m about to eat now. Actually, we’re planning to hold a High Dream Special Concert soon, and I was wondering if you could come and grace us with your presence.

“A special concert?! Of course I should go! Will actor Kim Donghu be there too?”

-Yes, yes, we just finished coordinating. What would it be without our lucky actor, hahahahaha.

“That’s wonderful, please send me the schedule and I’ll make sure to be there!”

-Alright. Then I’ll see you then!

“Yes!”

Hahahahaha.

The phone call ended with a hearty laugh.

A special concert, how wonderful!

‘The response within the broadcasting station must be amazing too.’

That’s Kim Donghu for you, right?

He must be really happy right now.

While Writer Lee Minha was thinking this.

At the same time,

In the room of a certain extremely handsome actor.

“Aaaaarrrggghhhh! How did they find a video of me doing exercises as a child?!”

Because of his dark history,

Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!

Along with screams, the blanket was being assaulted by countless kicks.

++++++

Time leisurely flowed to the weekend when High Dream episodes 13 and 14 would air.

Han Seongmun, the president of Brilliant, was trembling in the reception room.

He didn’t know what result this meeting, on which the company’s fate depended, would bring.

“…Am I trembling right now?”

“Yes, you’re trembling a lot.”

“Right, I can’t help it, can I?”

“That’s correct.”

“I thought this would lead to success.”

The bidding war to secure Kim Donghu.

Brilliant had clearly overextended itself to win that battlefield.

A contract worth hundreds of millions of won plus various royalties.

An investment that was obviously excessive for a newcomer who had just debuted on TV.

But Han Seongmun thought it was the right move.

‘Just looking at public opinion now, everyone is talking about Kim Donghu, and that Kim Donghu will appear wearing our school uniform.’

Thanks to such a bold investment, they had to use a relatively inexpensive idol trainee as the female model.

But who cares? It didn’t matter as long as they could secure Kim Donghu.

Ding-a-ling.

The end of such waiting is always good.

Feeling a premonition that things would go well,

‘He’s here.’

Han Seongmun turned his gaze toward the sound of the bell.

Kim Donghu.

The extremely handsome man currently heating up the online world, known as penny-pincher Lee J.

He had thought it might be camera magic when seeing him on screen, but.

‘This doesn’t make sense.’

Seeing him in person, he wondered if the camera actually failed to do him justice.

‘Does an aura actually appear behind someone’s face when they’re too handsome?’

Despite his otherworldly appearance, there was nothing burdensome about it.

Rather, he felt familiar, if that makes sense?

Handsome people should feel strange or unfamiliar, but without that feeling, he looked even more handsome.

Just a genuinely, inexplicably handsome kid,

Walking toward him with steady steps, Han Sangmun momentarily lost his words.

“Hello, I’m Kim Donghu.”

Bow.

Despite being a currently very successful actor who could afford to be arrogant,

He bowed so deeply in greeting.

‘He’s extremely polite.’

Han Sangmun was surprised at first.

He was used to managers bowing politely.

But an actor being this extremely courteous was unfamiliar.

“Let’s go inside first, would you like some refreshments?”

“No, I’m fine. We’re really comfortable even now, so we can get straight to the point.”

“Oh, is that so? Then I’ll explain as we sit down.”

The business conversation between Han Sangmun and Choi Seokho proceeded very quickly.

In fact, there wasn’t much to discuss.

The conditions were so good for both parties,

And any additional modifications had already been coordinated in advance.

So what was the purpose of this meeting?

“Then can we proceed directly to the model photoshoot?”

It was for the photoshoot that would follow immediately after signing the exclusive model contract.

If the contract was smoothly concluded,

They would immediately take school uniform photos in the studio.

“The female model is also here, so it might not be bad to greet each other briefly before shooting.”

“Donghu, what do you think about that?”

“Sure, why not? Getting friendly before shooting might help us look more affectionate in the photos.”

“Then I’ll guide you to the waiting room.”

Han Sangmun immediately guided Kim Donghu to the waiting room.

“Ah, Chairman, by the way, I have a few suggestions regarding the photoshoot.”

Before everyone could enter the waiting room together to greet each other,

Choi Seokho stopped Chairman Han Sangmun’s steps,

And began discussing good business items,

Sensing that the adults’ conversation would be lengthy, Kim Donghu just entered the waiting room first.

And there.

‘Wow, she’s really pretty?’

There was a girl with sculptural beauty.

Looking at her face, she seemed like a peer, but her proportions were model-level.

She could pass for a high school student.

Kim Donghu was about to bow his head to greet her, but.

“Kim Donghu?”

Whoosh!

Suddenly the girl opened her eyes wide and threw herself into Kim Donghu’s arms.

“Ex-excuse me?!”

Kim Donghu was flustered.

“It’s me, don’t you remember?”

He couldn’t answer the girl’s question hastily.

He really didn’t remember.

“W-who…?”

The future globally famous top star idol.

“It’s me, your bride, Ryu Jaerin.”

Ryu Jaerin looked up at Kim Donghu and smiled brightly.

“How have you been, honey?”