Upon The Stars

U-Jin

“To the left!” My director shouted as I continued posing for my photoshoot.

“Good, good! Okay now next outfit!” He set down his camera as the stylists and makeup artists came over to me quickly and fixed my hair and started picking out my new outfit.

“This one is perfect!” The stylist said as he handed me my outfit and pushed me over to the dressing room.

My next outfit was a nice sweater and tan slacks. More of a comfort outfit. I sat back down on the couch and started posing again as the photographer continued taking pictures. In China, I was the perfect boy for everyone. Girls are obsessed over me, boys wish they were me and parents wish they had a son like me.

“Okay U-Jin, that’s the last photo of today. We’ll see you tomorrow” My manager said as she continued marking stuff into her notebook.

I nodded and followed her outside as we walked to my car. Girls were outside waiting for me to get done, so I gave them a small wave and smile before locking myself into the car. Tonight I had promised my friends I’d go out with them to dinner after the photoshoot.

On my way over to our meeting place, I was stopped in the streets by a streetcaster to join their entertainment company. I just politely declined their offer and continued walking, that was the tenth time this week to be stopped by a streetcaster. Whenever I entered the restaurant, all four of them were waiting for me at a table near the bar.

“Sorry I’m late. The photoshoot ran longer than I thought”

“No worries U-Jin! Just join us for a drink and we’ll forgive you”

“Ah, no I'm good. I have another photoshoot tomorrow so I can’t be drinking any” I pushed the cup away from my face as we continued talking with each other.

They were okay buddies. I mainly hung out with them because they were my only friends, but I didn’t enjoy it much. They did a lot of stuff that could cause some trouble with me being famous.

“Well tonight was fun, but I must get going since I have a photoshoot early in the morning. Good night” I picked up my bag and started to walk away before one of my friends grabbed my wrist.

“Come on U-Jin, one drink” He held a glass up to me as I shook my head. “No, I must be going now”

They were all drunk and I just needed to get out of there before my headache got worse.

~~~

I finished up some acting scenes for that day before heading to karaoke with my friends. I enjoyed karaoke because that’s the one place my friends actually calm down at. At the karaoke place, my friends were already in a booth and singing some songs. I just sat down and scrolled through instagram. Just this month I wracked up another 10,000 followers.

“U-Jin! You’re turn” One of my real friends came and handed me a mic so I could sing.

I took it and grabbed the remote and started flipping through songs. My first song was a Gen10 song that I knew decently well. While singing I could hear my friends clapping along with me and some people were trying to stare in through the door. After the song ended I started to walk back to my seat before all my friends jumped up and started freaking out.

“A 100?! Oh my god! U-Jin rocks!” One of the guys shouted as I turned around and saw my perfect score.

I had expected a good score, not a 100. I started jumping around with the guys as I took a picture and posted it to instagram with the caption, ‘Guess I’m not just good at acting’ and a winky face.

~~~

For weeks after my perfect score in karaoke, my friends would not leave me alone about this survival show in Korea. I didn’t want to become an idol because I was already successful and had a good career path set for me.