Genius Idol’s Strategy to Conquer the Entertainment Industry

Chapter 267

“He’s experienced it all too.”

‘Well, of course.’

With over 20 years in the entertainment industry, the amount of experience he must have accumulated is immense.

Come to think of it, Muk Hye-sung’s idol experience is even greater than ‘On Raon’s’ entire life experience.

But I didn’t know what exactly to ask him.

Fanatical fans issue?

I mean, we all know that the laws are so weak that there’s nothing we can do about them.

It’s not like I can say that I can’t sleep well because of a surprise encounter with a corpse.

Muk Hye-sung spoke again, seemingly frustrated with my indecisiveness and my lips moving without sound.

“If you’re facing multiple issues, at least one of them might be related to what you were doing in front of my house.”

Wow, life experience really can’t be underestimated.

“Am I wrong?”

“No….”

“Why were you doing that?”

Since we had gotten this far, I couldn’t keep my mouth shut any longer.

“Actually….”

I confessed that while following my schedule, I felt inexplicable irritation and discomfort among the people who cared for and considered me.

I felt uneasy, like someone was constantly watching me, even when I walked down an empty road.

I hated this part of myself so much, but I worried about how pathetic and unreasonable people would think I was if they found out.

So I wanted to rest somewhere alone.

At that moment, your empty house came to mind.

But when I arrived, I didn’t know the new password, and my energy drained away.

I confessed all this quickly, without the hesitation that usually kept my lips sealed in embarrassment.

“…….”

Having said everything I couldn’t tell anyone else, I felt a bit relieved.

The reason I could tell Muk Hye-sung, and no one else, was probably because he was a close yet distant relative who took good care of me.

But I still viewed him with a certain distance, considering him a difficult person because he was a senior in the same industry.

“…….”

Muk Hye-sung remained silent without any usual interjections or affirmations while I spoke, and I started to worry,

‘What if he’s thinking about how to straighten out this ungrateful punk.’

If that happens, I’ll just take his advice to heart and correct myself, like when he previously criticized my dance. There’s no article about my personality issues yet, so it should be fine.

Just as I was steeling myself, Muk Hye-sung finally spoke.

“That’s not strange.”

“Yes. I was wrong… What did you say?”

“I said, it’s not strange or wrong.”

—

I blinked stupidly, wondering what I had just heard. Muk Hye-sung let out a shallow sigh.

“It’s strange not to feel bad when someone who doesn’t know you well interferes. No matter how well-intentioned or kind they are, it’s generally not easy to accept.”

“Is that… so?”

“Yes. You don’t know anything about the other person, yet they act like they know everything about you, even though you don’t even know their name or age.”

Muk Hye-sung spoke in a somewhat sharp tone, comparing it to the feeling of being investigated.

“People think they know you. It might feel worse lately because of your diagnosis and issues, but.”

“……”

“As you become more famous and spend more time as a celebrity, people will talk to the imagined version of you rather than the real you.”

He added that it’s like when an actor who plays a villain in a drama gets treated coldly in a restaurant.

“That’s an exaggerated example, but it doesn’t seem reasonable, right?”

“Yes. It feels strange.”

“So, you don’t need to be too affected.”

Muk Hye-sung’s explanation continued calmly, his voice deep and pleasant to listen to.

“No matter how much they talk like they know you well, most of them don’t know anything except for a few. What they know about you is a few lines from the internet or a few minutes from a broadcast.”

Muk Hye-sung made a rectangle with his thumbs and index fingers, mimicking a phone screen, then brought it to one eye like he was taking a picture.

Before I could start seriously pondering why he was doing something so uncharacteristically cute, he continued speaking.

“This much of the whole.”

Fortunately, his serious tone kept my thoughts focused, and my gaze remained fixed on his eyes.

“It’s very small.”

Speaking with a self-deprecating tone, he lowered his hands.

“In our country, most idols and celebrities are seen through this small lens.”

“But being seen is, in a way, the essence of our job, right?”

“Yes. Even if you dislike excessive attention and find it uncomfortable, if people stop looking at you, your career as a celebrity is practically over.”

I could easily understand what he meant.

“Fortunately, we can choose what image to show the public. It’s not impossible to control the image that appears on a smartphone, which is why the concept of image management exists.”

Muk Hye-sung seemed to understand very well what aspect of himself he was showing me at that moment.

I quietly listened to his words.

“And the image you show could be the real you or a fake one.”

“Then… which side do you show to the public, teacher?”

Muk Hye-sung answered without hesitation.

“Right now, it’s the real me.”

I wasn’t surprised.

Muk Hye-sung was the same on and off camera.

“Are you telling me to show my real self to others, just like you?”

But his tone suggested that wasn’t quite what he meant.

“No.”

—

His tone was firm.

“If you’re not planning to retire after earning some money by working for just three or four years without renewing your contract, there’s one thing you need to understand.”

“And what is that?”

“People change.”

“Oh, I thought you were going to say love changes.”

“……”

“Have you ever been dumped? If so, how could someone dump you? Or did you dump them? Saying they changed? Oh, I didn’t expect that. You must be a bad guy…”

“On Raon.”

“I’m just joking. I felt the atmosphere was getting too serious.”

I received a piercing look that seemed to ask if I really had the leisure to talk nonsense, so I quickly wiped the playful smile off my face and asked for a detailed explanation.

“So how do people change?”

Muk Hye-sung looked as if he was holding back a sigh and asked,

“Can you be confident that your twenty-year-old self will be the same at twenty-five or thirty?”

Thirty-year-old me?

I didn’t need to see it to know that the youthful and fresh aspects of my current face would mostly disappear, replaced by a mature and sophisticated charm, embodying the true essence of ’30 Sexy.’

Of course, I could easily understand that Muk Hye-sung wasn’t talking about that, so this time I answered seriously.

“I won’t be the same. Even if I compare myself from a year ago to now, there’s a big difference.”

Muk Hye-sung somehow reluctantly agreed with my words.

“You’ve really changed a lot.”

Hearing this made me curious.

“How have I changed?”

“At first, you seemed meek and lacked spirit, but lately….”

Muk Hye-sung, who added that he was only talking about my appearance, hesitated to continue.

“Lately?”

“……You’ve become cheeky.”

After carefully choosing his words for a long time, he reluctantly spit them out at my urging.

If I unwrap the somewhat polite term “cheeky” typically not used directly at someone’s face, it probably means: disobedient, prone to talking nonsense, noisy, rude, light-hearted, immature—anyway, a bunch of undesirable traits.

……Right?

Feeling uneasy, I returned to the original topic and asked,

“What do you think suits me best?”

Muk Hye-sung, who had been looking at me with a peculiar expression, opened his mouth after a while.

“That’s something you should think about.”

“If you know, just tell me!”

“No. It’s your issue.”

Ha, I wish Muk Hye-sung were not just a simple answer sheet but a detailed guide with explanations…

Seeing my expression, Muk Hye-sung spoke as if he couldn’t help it.

“Let me give you some advice and a hint.”

“Yes!”

I really like advice and hints.

“Something that was truly you at one time might no longer be yours, and something you fabricated might one day become part of you.”

It was difficult, but I thought I understood his advice.

“And the hint.”

I straightened my posture.

“You have the power to make people believe without a shred of doubt what you show them.”

“…What?”

Why do I feel like I’ve been spoon-fed the answer but couldn’t digest it and spat it out?

When I wore a subtle expression due to the uneasiness,

“One more thing, really the last.”

“What is it?”

“As much as you worry about the image you show the distant public, it’s equally important that those close to you, whom you trust, know your true self and hear your story.”

I responded to Muk Hye-sung’s words with a slightly awkward expression.

“You said that not love, but people change. What if someone I thought I could trust turns out not to be?”

“Even so, that wouldn’t be your fault.”

“…”

“I don’t see how trusting people and showing them your true self could be wrong.”

With those words, Muk Professor’s lecture on entertainment studies, the kind you couldn’t buy with money, concluded.