Become a Star

Chapter 91

Even though there was nothing they could do during the recording, if the sound was rigged before it went on air, it would diminish the emotional impact of a performance. It would be effortless for the production team to tweak the performance so that it will merely sound good but not great. If they were to do that then there would be nothing for people to talk about, and the people in the audience would be the only ones who would debate over the performances.

This way, even if Chae Woo-Jin were to leave the competition of his own volition, Production Director Son would face less criticism for creating such a tight schedule. Furthermore, it would be easier for them to cast other singers. It would be the perfect scenario If someone in their pool of singers defeated Chae Woo-Jin and ascended the throne. However, he hadn’t messed with today’s episode

“Is that so? CEO Park and I are familiar with Woo-Jin’s singing skills, so we’ll know when we watch the episode on TV. In that case, I trust you, Production Director Son.”

–– Do you think I’m someone who would mess with my own show?

“Exactly, you wouldn’t do something like that.”

As they hung up the phone on a friendly note, Jang Soo-Hwan snorted. While Kim Joong-Sun had also given his evaluation, having personally listened to the recordings of Woo-Jin’s practice sessions, Jang Soo-Hwan was dumbfounded when he watched the episode on air.

“If I hadn’t listened to the recordings, I would’ve been completely clueless and gotten deceived! I knew he was going to meddle with it, but they can’t do it right off the bat in the first round.”

Jang Soo-Hwan didn’t know that Woo-Jin had taken it easy and hadn’t put in 100% of his effort in round one. He had only heard Woo-Jin sing to the best of his abilities. Thus, he was infuriated thinking that the production director had already rigged Woo-Jin’s performance.

Since Production Director Son hadn’t done anything yet, he felt victimized for being wrongly accused. However, he was now serious when it came to dealing with Woo-Jin. From now on, Production Director Son would be tearing his hair out while trying to look for singers who could dethrone Woo-Jin in five episodes by using actual vocal skills instead of gimmicks.

CEO Jang Soo-Hwan was very pleased with himself for having a very productive day after fighting to protect the welfare of his artiste. However, that feeling only lasted for three hours.

“Why is he calling again?” For a second, Jang Soo-Hwan felt guilty when he received a call from Woo-Jin’s maternal grandfather, but he quickly realized that he hasn’t done anything wrong. Nonetheless, it didn’t take long for his face to turn pale after confidently answering the call.

***

The reason why 'Doryeong Who Dreams of Becoming a Hanryang' from The King of the Masked Singers became a hot topic was largely due to his dancing skills rather than his singing skills. Since the current generation had no exposure to Korean traditional dances, Hanryang Doryeong’s dance performance came like a breath of fresh air and was a beautiful surprise. Thus, there was a plausible theory that Hanryang Doryeong went on the show to promote Korean traditional dance. It was not surprising that even the experts of Korean traditional dances marveled at his performance, and showered him with praises, saying that his execution was flawless.

<It was brief, but he connected the core movements naturally, thus portraying a perfect butterfly dance.>

<It made me feel that our efforts put into restoring Korean traditional dance over the past thirty years were not in vain. I’m very grateful to Hanryang Doreyong for showing how beautiful our dance is to so many people.>

People had also pointed out that even though Hanryang Doryeong’s getup was more aesthetically pleasing as compared to the other contestants, it didn't do justice to the uniqueness and beauty of hanbok.

“I truly did my best!”

Hwang Yi-Young had also commissioned a hanbok designer to make a stylish hanbok for Woo-Jin. After recalling the beautiful hanboks worn by the scholars in historical dramas, she had complained that it was hard to recreate them.

“On that note, can I tell you a piece of good news?”

“What is it?”

“I heard that a couple of hanbok designers have contacted the production team of The King of the Masked Singers and said that they wanted to sponsor Hanryang Doryeong’s outfits. Of course, they’re fine with him not appearing on the show – they just want him to wear it.”

Judging from round one alone, it was hard to tell if Hanryang Doryeong would become the next Masked King. His performance was rather decent, but he didn’t display singing skills that were worthy of beating ‘Commander of the Universe’, so nobody was certain if he could win. Thus, the hanbok designers weren’t suggesting for him to wear it during the next recording; they wanted to sponsor him in hopes that he would wear the hanbok elsewhere because they coveted his elegant appearance.

“By any chance, is Cha Young-Joo one of those designers?” Out of all the different hanbok designers, Hwang Yi-Young wanted Woo-Jin to wear Cha Young-Joo’s hanbok the most. Kang Ho-Soo smiled brightly instead of answering her question. However, it would be unreasonable to expect them to make a hanbok in time for the upcoming recording on Wednesday.

For now, Hwang Yi-Young got the production team to deliver a memo with Woo-Jin’s body measurements to Cha Young-Joo, and told them to pick a hanbok that best matched Woo-Jin’s size from the ones that had already been made.

“Cha Young-Joo would be able to guess that Hanryang Doryeong became the Masked King.” It was obvious because they requested them to send it over by Wednesday, which was the day of the recording, without giving him ample preparation time.

“The production team will take care of it and be careful. The most important thing is that Hanryang Doryeong’s identity has to be kept secret.”

“Nobody has mentioned Woo-Jin’s name yet, right?” Hwang Yi-Young asked. Hanryang Doryeong had a completely different singing style from Chae Woo-Jin, and it was difficult to make out his figure because he was wearing a hanbok. As far as she knew, nobody had mentioned Woo-Jin’s name thus far.

“I went on Wish Baragi’s page just a while ago, and some people have speculated that Woo-Jin might be Hanryang Doryeong.”

“Already?”

“Did you think the same people who could tell that the Slipper Young Man was Woo-Jin just by looking at his back view can’t recognize him just because he wore a mask and a hanbok? But the majority of them are still uncertain, so the general consensus was to observe first and see what happens. After all, Woo-Jin used a completely different singing style.”

Even though both of them watched the recent episode with the knowledge that Hanryang Doryeong was Woo-Jin, the tone of his voice on the show was so different that it made them second guess the truth. Even his fans were uncertain.

“It’s more interesting if they don’t know his identity, so I’m a little concerned.”

“In any case, the barags will be busy this Thursday in the evening, so they probably won't have time to think about the Masked King.” Like Kang Ho-Soo said, the episode of TV Star with Woo-Jin as a guest star would be airing on Thursday. The world would be at peace until the end of TV Star’s episode on Thursday evening.

Articles containing speculations were uploaded all over the internet, and people on every open discussion site had their own opinions and ended up causing confusion. However, the two most unruly groups of people were unexpectedly quiet. Blue Fit’s anti-fans were the only ones who went on a rampage.

–– What did we just watch today?

A chill ran down Hwang Yi-Young’s spine after hearing Ma Do-Hee’s voice; it was calmer than expected. Ma Do-Hee was rather calm even though she called Hwang Yi-Young as soon as the episode was over.

“It’s exactly what it looks like. Because Kang Hee-Joo talked about the foundation, Woo-Jin subconsciously revealed what happened back then. It was not a lie, even though it was an unintentional mistake. He had also impersonated Min Si-Hoo’s voice back then in the recording studio and sang his part. We don’t know what’s going to happen after this. But Woo-Jin has solid evidence to prove the physical abuse.

–– Umm…

“You’re free to blow up the matter as much as you want because we know the cause and have the evidence to back it up.”

–– Can we? As Chae Woo-Jin’s fans, we should always have good thoughts and say beautiful things.[/ref] This is a reference to what Woo-Jin said to the girl on the subway in chapter 80. [/ref]

Hwang Yi-Young could hear the grim laughter from the president of Wish Baragi’s over the phone. Everybody knew about the subway incident, where a Blue Fit fan insulted Chae Woo-Jin right in front of him. That was because her friend that was with her posted about it on social media on the same day.

Even though Chae Woo-Jin had personally heard the girl insulting him right before his eyes, he still acted politely to her. As his fan, Ma Do-Hee said, “We’ll protect what we need to protect.” For some reason, those words sounded more terrifying than anything else.

<DS’ Statement>

There were several occasions where Chae Woo-Jin had impersonated Min Si-Hoo’s voice and sang in the recording studio under the instructions of the producer. However, Chae Woo-Jin clarified that he has absolutely no knowledge of Blue Fit’s song recording process that had taken place after his departure. He firmly states that any further questions should be directed to TM.

After the episode had been aired, reporters and fans of both Blue Fit and Chae Woo-Jin sent several inquiries to DS. However, DS drew the line and stated that they didn’t have any information as ‘Shining Star’ was TM's song.

<An expert on speech research in Korea, Professor Oh Myung-Hwan, did a cross-analysis of the song that Chae Woo-Jin sang on TV Star the day before and Blue Fit’s debut song, ‘Shining Star’. The results revealed that the spectral similarity between Min Si-Hoo’s part and Chae Woo-Jin’s song was 94%. If the assessment exceeds 90%, it means that the song was sung by the same person …redacted… Professor Oh Myung-Hwan stated that the high notes and vibrato in Chae Woo-Jin’s song on TV Star displayed a higher level of skill and better developed techniques compared to Blue Fit’s ‘Shining Star’.>

Many of the public’s questions had been answered by science. Professor Oh Myung-Hwan was a speech and audio researcher; his answer dispelled several doubts that the public had. All that’s left was TM's response.

<TM remains silent. All the telephone lines in the headquarters are down.>

Silence implied consent at times. Even though TM should have refuted these allegations a long time ago, they still avoided giving a definite response. Since they had tacitly acknowledged stealing Woo-Jin’s voice and lip-syncing, the last matter of interest was about what happened to Chae Woo-Jin back then that made him sympathize with the youth victims of violence.

<Chae Woo-Jin has been consistently donating to the Foundation for Youth Victims of Violence for more than three years. Judging from the time period, it meant that he continued donating even after he enlisted in the military. This tells us that the Slipper Young Man’s good deed was by no means accidental. He has a heart of gold that matches his beautiful appearance. While he was becoming silent and solemn about his actions, at the same time, the curiosity about what happened to him back then was growing.>

–– It’s so obvious. Chae Woo-Jin was bullied, his song was stolen, and then he got kicked out.

? It hasn’t been confirmed yet, what are you talking about?

? Please accept reality. It’s a 94% match. The professor even said that Chae Woo-Jin sang it better than Blue Fit’s album version, which was why it wasn’t a complete match. If Min Si-Hoo can sing the exact same way as he did in the album, I’ll acknowledge that they didn’t steal Chae Woo-Jin’s song.

? You should get your facts right first before you speak. Si-Hoo oppa has vocal cord inflammation!!!

–– It’s not like he has vocal cord nodules; he has vocal cord inflammation, how terrible! But he’s doing well in The King of the Masked Singers, right? Frankly, everybody in the world knows that Min Si-Hoo is a great singer, no?

? He’s good at singing everything else except the five high notes. Nevertheless, doesn’t that mean that Chae Woo-Jin is so good at singing that they had no choice but to use his vocals? Strangely enough, Min Si-Hoo’s songs lack emotions. It feels as though he doesn’t have a soul. Now I know the reason why. He’s a psychopathic bully, so he has no emotions.

? I took a screenshot of your comment. They’re going to sue you.

–– You can tell that Chae Woo-Jin has no lingering attachment towards Blue Fit when he was answering the questions while being hooked to the lie detector. If I were him, I would have wanted to get out of that hellhole too. When Chae Woo-Jin said that their ideals weren’t a match, it showed how magnanimous he was!!!

? Magnanimous? Oh please! Ultimately, he revealed everything. Who’s the root cause[1] of this situation?

? That’s because people kept talking about the Slipper Young Man, so Chae Woo-Jin felt embarrassed and said that it was nothing at all. Then, Kang Hee-Joo started talking about the donation to the foundation. Chae Woo-Jin got so emotional while he was talking about it. Go and take a look at Chae Woo-Jin’s face during that moment. I’m not even his fan but I almost cried when I saw that!! Also, he isn’t the root cause – he only sparked this debacle.[2] You ignoramus!

1. The writer used ‘??' here, which means ‘cause’ (of the problem). ?

2. ?? is used here. It means ‘problem’. It’s telling the readers that the person commenting above used the wrong word (‘??’ instead of ‘??’. It’s a fairly common mistake Korean speakers make because they sound rather similar. ?