Superstar From Age 0

Chapter 32

The theaters were buzzing with excitement as April came with blooming flowers. T

oday, shadowman and Greenwing were released.

“Mom! Dad! Hurry up!”

Seo-jun was bouncing on his feet at the front door, holding his slime backpack.

Seo Eun-hye and Lee Min-jun, who had packed Seo-jun’s snacks and belongings, smiled at his impatience and quickly helped him put on his coat.

“Seo-jun, it’s still chilly outside. Put this on.”

“Okay.”

Seo-jun obediently wore his coat, but his feet were still restless.

The couple couldn’t help but laugh at his eagerness.

“Do you like it that much?”

“Yes! I’m in the movie!”

On March 10th, when they were still in the US, they had a birthday party for Seo-jun.

Their planned two-year business trip to the US had been extended to four years due to Lee Min-jun’s company situation.

They were worried that it might be longer, but luckily, their US trip was finally over.

They had to leave the US soon and go back to Korea, so they invited the people they had been close with in the US for a farewell party.

As they were eating, playing, and chatting, seo Eun-hye got a call on her phone. It was from director Ryan Will.

Ryan confirmed Seo-jun’s casting and congratulated him.

Seo-jun cheered and ran around until his mom scolded him, but there was no sign of the smile fading from Seo Eun-hye’s face or the faces of the others.

They all congratulated him and promised to watch the movie with Seo-jun.

And then they arrived in Korea.

Time flew by as they unpacked, cleaned, and looked for a kindergarten for Seo-jun.

And today.

Shadowman was finally released.

Seo-jun had been shining his eyes and staying at the front door since this morning.

The couple had wanted to wait until the release date passed, because they thought Seo-jun might have a hard time with the crowd, but Seo-jun couldn’t sit still since he saw the ‘Marina Studio’s advertisement, so they booked the movie tickets early.

“Greenwing might win! We have to go see it soon.”

“I didn’t know that’s what you meant.”

In the elevator, seo-jun couldn’t move around, but he couldn’t keep his upper body still either.

Seo Eun-hye shook her head at him.

They were shocked when they saw the ‘Marina Studio’s advertisement for the first time in Korea.

It was an advertisement that showed the two heroes of the Marina Studio, shadowman and Greenwing, facing each other.

And the advertisement said that you could vote online with the movie ticket, which encouraged the competition.

And they said they would send a figure of the hero and some prizes by lottery, so the internet was heated up even before the movie was released.

Seo-jun had been anxious since then.

He was confident in the audition, but movie versus movie. He was worried about how Ryan edited it.

‘If [The Fantasy of the Smiling Mushroom Face] worked, he wouldn’t cut it for sure…’

Seo-jun remembered Ryan Will’s face, which was calm even after the filming was over.

He patted his head and said he did well, but was that really true?

Seo-jun trembled his legs nervously.

The elevator reached the first floor and the family headed to the nearest theater.

It was the biggest theater in the neighborhood.

The theater was crowded with people everywhere.

Seo-jun had never seen so many people before, so he held his mom and dad’s hands tightly.

“Shall we watch Greenwing?”

That word pierced Seo-jun’s ears like an arrow. Seo-jun pouted his lips.

And after that, he only heard stories about Greenwing. Seo Eun-hye and Lee Min-jun kept turning their heads.

“The promotion is really scary.”

“I know. It was a mess when I heard that Redbone had a car accident.”

As soon as they left the subway station, they were greeted by a sea of movie posters from Marina Studios.

Lim Yeon agreed with her friend, Park Seonga, who looked fed up with the sight.

It had been a chaotic time.

Fans of Redbone, the star who had fallen ill, flooded the SNS with video messages and vows to boycott any movie without him.

There were even news of serious terrorist threats that appeared on SNS, which didn’t seem like jokes at all.

Lim Yeon got the tickets she had reserved from the machine.

She had settled for Shadowman, since Greenwing was sold out. It didn’t matter to her, though.

She planned to watch both movies anyway.

“But you have to hand it to Marina. They know how to create a buzz with this rivalry thing.”

“I think I’ll watch both too. It’s interesting to see two rookie directors with different characters. One famous, one unknown.”

“Greenwing will probably win, right?”

“Most likely. The director of Greenwing has won a lot of awards, after all.”

They took and opened the pamphlets that were available.

Marina Studios had made the promotion of the two movies into a competition, as one pamphlet had Greenwing on the left and Shadowman on the right.

Greenwing in green and Shadowman in black.

They also listed the directors’ achievements below.

The Greenwing director’s award history was clearly longer.

“It’s weird, though. Usually, for this kind of competition, they would pair a famous character with an unknown director and an unknown character with a famous director, to make it fair.”

“Yeah. This looks like Shadowman is doomed from the start.”

Lim Yeon was familiar with Greenwing, but she only learned about Shadowman when the movie was announced.

Park Seonga, who had been pondering for a moment, said.

“Or maybe, they’re trying to manipulate people’s psychology.”

“People’s psychology?”

The people who came to get the pamphlets were listening to their conversation.

Seo-jun, who had grabbed the Shadowman poster, pricked up his ears.

“Why. When it seems like a one-sided loss, people tend to root for the underdog.”

“Oh, that makes sense.”

“Well, they’ll do what they want. It’s Marina.”

“But when is Redbone 2 coming out?”

“I bet they’re aiming for the summer break, so maybe in the summer.”

The two people who were chatting casually turned away. Then, the people who were listening to their conversation also looked away and acted as if they hadn’t heard anything.

It wasn’t just Park Seonga and Lim Yeon.

The theater was filled with people who came to watch the movies from Marina Studios, and everyone was talking about Marina.

Two movies made by the same studio.

It was the clash of the century, they said, and they all rushed to the theater like cold-blooded movie critics, ready to cast their votes.

“There are more people watching Greenwing, of course.”

“Greenwing is popular, you know.”

“I’m going to watch Shadowman! Underdog!”

“Where did you hear that?”

The two people laughed at Seo-jun’s words. Seo-jun looked at the movie ticket his mom gave him.

Shadowman, theater 3.

He turned his head around and said,

“Mom, theater 3!”

Seo-jun, who could now read numbers well, spotted the number 3 on the wall.

The family held their pounding hearts and stepped into theater 3.

================

“Wow, Greenwing is amazing.”

“Seriously, the world felt so slow. I thought time had stopped.”

Greenwing’s screening ended first.

The audience came out and shared their impressions.

“The background music timing was incredible. When Greenwing hit a villain, it sounded like a bang! at the exact moment of impact. It felt like hitting with music. It wasn’t 4D, but it felt like it!”

Some people were planning to watch Greenwing for the nth time, while others shook their heads, saying it was not as good as they expected. But even those people could not help but nod at the dazzling visual effects and say, ‘As expected of Marina.’

“It’s hard to get out, isn’t it? Maybe because there are so many people.”

“That’s how this theater is. It’s really hard to leave.”

As people were lining up to slowly exit Greenwing, shadowman’s screening ended.

The door of theater 3 opened. People came out, but not many.

A theater employee who had seen Shadowman beforehand shouted loudly with a resigned expression on his face.

It was loud enough for even the Greenwing audience who were leaving next to him to hear.

“Shadowman’s screening is over. Please take your belongings and leave. Tissues are prepared in front of you.”

As the theater employee said, there were several boxes of tissues next to him.

The Greenwing audience wondered. Shadowman was a movie from Marina, the rival of Greenwing.

It was supposed to be a thrilling superhero movie, so why tissues?

As soon as the theater employee finished speaking, someone showed up. He was a person who came to watch Shadowman alone, and he was so busy crying that he didn’t even notice the door opening.

“Sniff. I… need… sniff… some…”

“Here you go.”

“Thank… sniff…”

The rest of the audience came out after him.

Some of the Shadowman viewers were crying.

They were only about 10% of the audience, but they stood out more because they were sobbing.

Some people took tissues while crying, and some people came out with the support of their friends.

Their friends were bewildered.

“Why are you crying so much?”

“Will… William was so pitiful…”

“I mean, I also felt sorry for him, but… is it worth crying like this?”

Lim Yeon kept pouring out tears.

“Hey, you’re embarrassing me.”

Park Seonga quickly grabbed a tissue from the box next to the theater employee and gave it to Lim Yeon.

Lim Yeon continued to cry even as she wiped her tears with the tissue.

Even after Lim Yeon came out, there were occasional viewers who came out crying from theater 3 where Shadowman was screened.

They cried regardless of age or gender.

The Greenwing audience stared at the Shadowman viewers.

What kind of movie was it?

The audience who were satisfied with Greenwing became curious. Some of them were already booking tickets for the next Shadowman movie on their phones.

“Sniff.”

Seo-jun cried.

Lee Min-jun and Seo Eun-hye, who were sitting next to Seo-jun, gave him tissues with subtle expressions and wiped his tears.

Seo-jun, who was in his father’s arms, blew his nose with the tissue his mother gave him.

“William… was so… pitiful…”

“What are you going to do if Seo-jun sees you crying and cries too?”

Lee Min-jun lifted Seo-jun from his seat and hugged him.

“But… he was so pitiful… sniff.”

Seo-jun buried his face in his father’s shoulder.

Even though he had little mana and low resistance, the effect of [Smiling Mushroom’s Illusion-Low] that made even the skill owners cry was amazing.

“Seo-jun, look. Your name is up there.”

“Sniff? My name?”

Seo Eun-hye quickly changed the subject as her son cried too much.

Just then, the names of the production company, actors, and staff appeared on the screen that turned black along with Shadowman’s OST.

In the meantime, seo-jun Lee appeared in fairly large letters.

His tears blurred his vision, but Seo-jun saw it clearly.

[Seo-jun Lee]

The white alphabet seemed to sparkle.

Seo-jun couldn’t take his eyes off his name that slowly rose, even as he shed tears.

Meanwhile, the internet was in an uproar with reviews of Shadowman.