Superstar From Age 0

“Jun! Ji-yoon!”

Grace greeted Seo-jun and Ji-yoon, who had been video chatting with her, with a delighted expression. Seo-jun and Ji-yoon also sighed in relief when they saw Grace.

“How did you know I was here? I couldn't even contact you when I arrived…”

“I met Laura a while ago.”

“Sister?”

Grace widened her eyes at Seo-jun's words.

Grace's sister, Laura Welton, was always calm and composed, but Seo-jun and Ji-yoon were worried about Grace and started looking for her.

“The bodyguards helped us too.”

Ji-yoon said, and Grace looked around. She imagined bodyguards in suits that she had seen in movies, but instead she saw ordinary tourists and couples.

Some of the people who met Grace's eyes smiled and greeted her.

“…! Are they the ones?”

“They’re good at acting, right?”

Seo-jun and Ji-yoon chuckled at Grace's surprised expression.

“Then let's go have lunch. We haven't eaten yet.”

“Did you have lunch, Grace?”

“No. There was only a place that sold cookies.”

Well.

For someone who was bad at directions and had no map or phone, finding the food zone was a very difficult task.

Seo-jun headed to the food zone with Ji-yoon and Grace, and sent a message to Laura Welton that he had found Grace.

-Laura: You found her well!

-Laura: Then enjoy the rest of the day and see you later!

It was a calm reply as usual.

***

The food zone of the international book fair was like a shopping mall's food court.

There were tables and chairs in the middle where people could sit and eat, and food booths on both sides. It seemed that people could buy their own food from the food booths and then eat together at the central table.

“What should we eat?”

“I think we need to look around. There are so many.”

As the word ‘international’ implied, it seemed that all the foods from different countries were gathered in one place. The book fair was just an excuse, and the food zone was also like a festival.

Seo-jun, who wore a sky-blue hat, and the kids decided to look around the food booths first.

There was a French food booth, of course, and also Spanish dishes that they had eaten in Spain, and a booth run by Koreans. It was a chicken booth where you could choose Korean-style sauces such as soy sauce, seasoning, garlic, cheese, etc.

“The price is cheap, right?”

“Yeah.”

The Korean cook, who agreed with Grace's words, smiled and said.

“That's because the portions are small. You need to buy two to get one serving.”

“Oh, really?”

“There are so many other foods here. It's the organizer's consideration to let you try various things.”

Grace thought it was a good idea and bought seasoned chicken. It was definitely not enough for three people to eat, though.

“Are you only doing this today?”

“Of course not. We’ll do it until the book fair ends.”

The cook nodded his head as if it was obvious at Ji-yoon's question.

“Then I’ll come back tomorrow and buy a different flavor!”

“Yeah!”

Ji-yoon and Grace, who were full of thoughts of attending the book fair for ten days, smiled brightly. Seo-jun also smiled.

As they wandered around, seo-jun and the kids had food and drinks for lunch in their hands.

They sat at a nearby table and spread out the food, and it seemed that their appetites were naturally aroused by the delicious dishes.

“Wow! It's delicious!”

“Right! Did they check the taste when they applied for the booths? Why are they all so good?”

“Let's come back with the kids later.”

Seo-jun said that Mina and Charlie would love it, and Ji-yoon and Grace nodded in agreement.

They chatted about things they couldn't talk about on the phone or messages while eating lunch.

“I read that too. I read it in Korean first, but then I found out that there were a lot of mistranslations. So I read it in English, the original language, and it was definitely different.”

“Right. There's a feeling that the original language gives. I read The Mirror with a Korean dictionary.”

Grace and Ji-yoon, who were too excited, mixed Korean and English in their conversation. They both learned both languages, so the conversation continued, but Seo-jun couldn't help but laugh.

Is this bilingual or zero-lingual?

He thought he wanted to record and play it for them, when the topic changed to something interesting for Seo-jun.

“Really! They should have some limits when they adapted it. They cut out all the lines that came out in the foreshadowing, and ignored the character settings. The sets were totally different from the novel too! What's the point of the actors working hard, when the adaptation is ruined. Ugh.”

It was about the movie adaptation of [Eclipse].

[Eclipse], which was released at the end of November last year and ended its screening in less than a month. It had been only half a year since then, so Grace's anger didn't seem to go away.

“I was so happy that my sister's novel was made into a movie… I guess I was too careless about the contract and the conditions…”

He wondered if this guilt would not come up even after a few years passed. Seo-jun and Ji-yoon looked at Grace with a pitying expression.

Seeing their faces, Grace quickly brightened up and told them the good news.

“Oh! It's okay. My sister's novel is going to be made into a movie again! I don't know if this is good news or bad news until it's released… It would be bad news if it flops like Eclipse…”

She tried to cheer up, but Grace Welton became gloomy again.

“So my sister and I, as the original author and the first reader and editor… or sister… Anyway, with that qualification, I'm going to interfere with the adaptation as much as I can. My sister asked me to help too. And this time, I'm going to put it in the contract for sure. No more character destruction!”

She blinked her eyes and spoke, and it seemed that the next movie adaptation would be quite successful.

“What novel is it?”

Laura Welton had been writing new novels continuously after publishing [Eclipse]. Seo-jun had been reading them without fail.

‘Which of those novels is being made into a movie this time?’

Seo-jun's eyes sparkled.

“Why? Are you interested?”

“It would be a lie if I said no.”

Grace smiled brightly at Seo-jun's words, then frowned.

“If only you could star in it! … But I don't know if you would, since you’re so picky about your works…”

She seemed to know well that Seo-jun became very cold-hearted when it came to his works.

Ji-yoon laughed at that, and Seo-jun scratched his cheek.

***

That evening.

Seo-jun and the kids, who had finished their day's work, gathered at the accommodation. They all looked very happy, as if they had a satisfying day.

“Nice to meet you. I'm Grace Welton. You can call me Grace.”

Mina and Ji-woo, who met Grace Welton for the first time, exchanged greetings.

“Grace, are you going to have dinner with us?”

“Yes!”

The dinner menu was the French dishes that Mina and Charlie had learned in their class today.

Of course, they were not very difficult dishes since it was the first day, but thanks to the two's excellent skills, a table full of restaurant-quality food was prepared.

The six kids had a lively conversation about their day while having dinner.

“They were all good at cooking. Maybe because it was a short-term program, there were quite a few people who are running their own restaurants there. They said they participated to learn from systematic cooking lessons.”

Mina, who had become friendly with the adults in her class, talked about their restaurants that she was told to visit sometime.

“I also got to attend some other classes besides Professor Albert's lecture. I was worried if it was okay, but they all welcomed me. They also asked me about the medical school classes in Korea. I didn't know much since I'm still a freshman, so it was a bit hard to ask my senior.”

Seo-jun asked Ji-woo, who had increased the number of lectures she was auditing.

“Do you have time to attend other classes?”

“Professor Albert's special lecture only lasts for about three hours. I went early today to greet him.”

“I see. Was the lecture content not too hard?”

Ji-yoon, who remembered Ji-woo's worries, asked her, and Ji-woo smiled brightly.

“It was hard, but Professor Albert said he would explain the contents of today's special lecture in an easy way tomorrow morning.”

“Oh. He sounds like a very nice person.”

Charlie said, and Ji-woo nodded her head repeatedly as if she had received a compliment. She looked like Park Ji-hoo who had met Choi Si-hyuk, and Seo-jun and the kids laughed softly.

“How was the book fair?”

“It was fun! There were so many interesting-looking fairy tales and novels that it was hard to choose. I can't carry them all, right?”

“There was a food zone there, and there were a lot of foods from different countries. The book fair is open on weekends too, so I think it would be nice to go together then, what do you think?”

The kids nodded their heads with interest at Seo-jun's words.

The conversation of the excited kids didn't seem to end, so the dinner time was a bit longer than usual.

After having dinner and finishing the dishes, it was time to go back when the sun had completely set.

“Be careful on your way.”

“See you tomorrow.”

Charlie decided to take Grace home. The two said goodbye to Seo-jun and the kids and left the accommodation.

“Hmm. Should we go to bed early today?”

The kids, who had yawned softly, nodded their heads at Seo-jun's words.

They didn't sleep well last night because they were excited, and they had been too tense all day, so they were very tired.

“Good night, seo-jun, Ji-woo.”

“You too, good night.”

The kids quickly washed up and went to their rooms.

Seo-jun, who still had a lot of energy, locked the door last and headed to his room.

He had just entered, but Ji-woo was already in a deep sleep that she wouldn't notice anyone coming in. Seo-jun smiled.

She must have been very nervous.

It wasn't an easy thing to send an email to an unknown professor, get a reply, meet the professor, and listen to a difficult lecture.

Mina and Ji-yoon must have felt the same.

“But it must have been fun.”

He was happy to see his friends enjoying themselves.

“I should look around here and there from tomorrow.”

There might not be a big festival like a film festival, but there would be performances like plays or musicals.

He smiled softly and lay down on the bed, covering himself with a blanket. And soon he fell into a deep sleep like his friends.

***

Seo-jun opened his eyes. As always, it was the Library of Life.

He stretched and headed to the Library of Goodness.

“It's changed a lot here too.”

From a door that was smaller than a doghouse to a door that he had to look up to see.

The doors of the library that had been divided according to the level were all gone and integrated into one door. The Library of Evil was the same.

“But this one is still the same.”

He looked at the small and black door where the first book of life was. He wondered if it was a special treatment because it was the first book of life.

“But now that I've opened the highest-level door, there won't be anything else.”

He sat down on the chair as usual and picked up the book on the desk. It was the book he had been reading until yesterday.

“I read up to here.”

He opened the book at the bookmark and started reading.

The book he was reading was still [Golden Mermaid]. He had read a lot, but there were still many books left.

He looked at the bookshelf full of [Golden Mermaid] books to get the next book when he finished one.

“I guess I’ll be able to finish it by the time I go back to Korea?”

He might be able to finish it by the time he reached the last destination, England, if he sped up a bit.

He hoped that it would be a suitable ability for Andaho, since it took so long.

“Notification.”

As he was about to take out the next book, a notification window appeared in front of him.

[You have reached the maximum number of invitations from the (Good) Gourmet Orc.]

Seo-jun froze.

“…What?”

[The level of the invitation from the (Good) Gourmet Orc increases.]

The book he was holding fell to the floor with a thud. Seo-jun's eyes widened.

…This feels familiar.

[The level of the invitation from the (Good) Gourmet Orc increases from low-medium to medium.]

Seo-jun's mouth opened wide.

Was this… something that could increase in level too?

A notification window appeared as if to confirm his death, showing the newly updated ability.

[(Good) Gourmet Orc's Invitation-Medium]

You invite those with weak mental power to a meal.

You make the food look delicious.

The atmosphere of the meal changes positively according to the target's preferences.

You have a certain chance of meeting the gourmet orc in your dreams.

“Could this… appear more?”

Apparently, the words he had said a while ago, ‘there won't be anything else’, were a flag.