Chapter 629
* * *
At that moment, IP 85.152 was looking at the same article as well.
-Anonymous 102: No fucking way, surviving Betty Images is hard as hell T_T LOL Han Yeoreum is insane
-Anonymous 125: The necklace is pretty.. let’s just give it to Yeoreum
˪Anonymous 142: 222 Let’s just give it to Yeoreum
˪Anonymous 156: 33333 It found its owner TT_TT Aww, princess
˪Anonymous 172: I live in the States and they’re seriously calling Han Yeoreum the T-fany Princess right now LOL
The reactions were right. Wearing T-fany’s Blue Book collection, Han Yeoreum seemed to embody Eastern and Western beauty all at once. She was undoubtedly a kind of diplomatic symbol, a historic point where two aesthetics converged. It was as though the highest authority in the aesthetics of modern capitalism had been bestowed upon Han Yeoreum.
Members of the public who had little interest in such matters would simply be satisfied with the fact that Han Yeoreum had been sponsored with an expensive and beautiful necklace, but from the perspective of someone like himself, who loved art and culture, it was possible to approach it in a different way.
The pinnacle and pride of American high jewelry, with a history dating back to 1845. Just how tremendous was the significance of its main masterpiece, something that had only ever been given to the established elite of Western Hollywood, being handed to Han Yeoreum?
‘Kgh... Hey... This is way too much...!’
This was nothing less than a harbinger that the enormous new paradigm known as K-content was about to sweep across America. IP 85.152 was not satisfied with stopping there and immediately went onto overseas portal sites. There, he searched out the local reactions to Han Yeoreum.
A new title had already emerged.
T-fany’s Princess.
As an intellectual who deeply appreciated culture and art, and as a cultivated individual who wished for the renaissance of Korean content, witnessing such a historic turning point in real time was truly something to be proud of.
It wasn’t because he was a fan of Han Yeoreum.
Seriously.
He only liked her a little.
* * *
The temperature inside the show venue was somewhat low. Special-effect smoke billowed out from beneath the runway. And it smelled pretty nice too. It had that strong first-floor-of-a-department-store fragrance.
The interior was still dark. The soft music playing in the background somehow made my heart flutter. Everyone around me looked impressive too.
Across from me sat not only the children of Hollywood stars, but even pop stars and actors who had once dominated an entire era.
‘I’ve only ever seen them on TV...!’
But not a single person among them had brought as many armed guards as I had. Eight guards had followed me all the way inside the venue.
On top of that, I had been given a good seat even among all these people. I was actually in the very front row. Right across from me, in the pit and floor area, dedicated photographers were pressing their shutters nonstop.
‘The paparazzi must be taking tons of pictures of me right now too.’
I’d seen this kind of thing plenty of times before. It was one of the regular staples of Han Yeoreum’s delusion factory. You sit somewhere like this with your legs crossed and get photographed.
I spent a moment wondering whether I should cross my right leg or my left, then copied Myeong Jeha, who was sitting beside me.
“What are you doing?”
“...Was that a little awkward just now?”
“No. You did fine.”
Myeong Jeha was still impossibly natural. Not wanting to show my nervousness, I straightened my shoulders again, just as the guard had told me earlier.
The jewelry around my neck glittered brilliantly beneath the lights. Every time the dedicated photographers across from me set off their flashes, the pink diamond gleamed.
‘They’re focusing on my face and not the jewelry, right...?’
It wasn’t like I could grab them one by one and say, Please focus mainly on me, please.
With an indifferent expression that seemed to say, ‘She looks like she’s looking forward to the show, but she’s slightly tired from her schedule, and yet she still seems to be enjoying this moment...,’ I took out my phone. Wasn’t pulling out your phone whenever you felt awkward in an unfamiliar place practically an unwritten rule?
I had an incredible number of messages piled up.
I’d answer them all at once later. But even among them, I picked one person and diligently took care of something I hadn’t forgotten.
Input: Senior when I get back to Korea please send a snack truck to Code Name
[Senior Shin Seojin: To celebrate your New York debut? LOL Okay okay]
The reply came quickly. Conscious of the photographers’ shutters, I tapped at the keyboard with an expression that said, ‘Still relaxed and at ease, perhaps a little tired from her busy schedule, but seemingly enjoying this very moment....’
Input: Nope I saved you once
[Senior Shin Seojin: What is it what happened please answer quickly^^]
Shin Seojin, who was away on an overseas fan meeting tour, apparently hadn’t imagined that so much could happen while he was out of Korea.
‘By now... his heart is probably breaking every single day....’
There were already the unshakable Three Great Legends above him, but as if that wasn’t enough, naturally gifted ahjussi Yun Hyeonjo had recently begun surging upward, while below him were the fool Seo Eden, the rising Chen Wei, and even Kim Kangil.
‘And four of them got pulled up partly because of me....’
So I compromised with myself and settled for a snack truck instead of a full food truck.
Input: LOL Hyeonjo senior was in the science track but apparently the reason he went into science even though he’s bad at math was
[Senior Shin Seojin: The reason???]
Input: Because he had a crush on his math teacher^^
[Senior Shin Seojin: Whㅏt????]
After that obviously desperate reply, Shin Seojin fell silent for a while.
‘Right... if I’d just left this alone, what kind of catastrophe would have happened....’
Shin Seojin probably knew better than anyone.
[Senior Shin Seojin: Does our Yeoreum like braised short ribs?]
Shin Seojin said he would send a food truck. I didn’t bother refusing.
As soon as I returned to Korea, I had to make the rounds on a variety show for promotion and then immediately go back to filming, so I could use a braised-short-rib buff anyway.
Now that I had successfully squeezed a food truck out of him and had also managed to give off the vibe of a nonchalant star casually using her phone, I raised my head again so they could get some frontal shots.
Before I knew it, more of the seats across from me had filled up. I was just about to look around out of curiosity when it happened.
The fabric of a suit lightly brushed against my bare shoulder. Myeong Jeha leaned toward me.
“Who are you having so much fun with that you’re smiling like that?”
“Ah. It’s nothing much.”
“Who?”
“Senior Shin Seojin. He says he’ll send me a food truck.”
Myeong Jeha looked at my phone screen for a moment, then tilted his head.
“You don’t squeeze them out of me anymore?”
“I’d love it if you sent me one.”
“You’ve changed....”
“What do you mean, changed?”
Actually, I already had an entire plan to wait for the right timing, then when Myeong Jeha’s military variety show aired, coordinate the schedule, post the food truck he sent me on SNS, and piggyback on the buzz a little.
But I did my best to act as though I hadn’t calculated any of that.
Judging by how he was acting, it seemed like he would send one even if I didn’t say anything, which made me smile.
The vendors Myeong Jeha chose were always high quality.
* * *
The venue where Han Yeoreum was seated was the runway show of M Jacobs, the undisputed number one brand at New York Fashion Week.
And Seo Eden, one of the brand’s ambassadors, was sitting three seats away from Han Yeoreum.
Unlike Seo Eden, who had spotted Han Yeoreum the moment he entered, she seemed completely unaware that Seo Eden had even arrived.
Seo Eden’s intelligence suddenly increased.
If he went out of his way to call her here, he would only be handing the reporters a perfect shutter opportunity.
Just then, Han Yeoreum was messaging someone on her phone. Seo Eden picked up his phone as well.
Input: I’m hereee
Input: Left left
Input: TT__TT
Input: Hey I’m right here look
Input: Beside you!!
But the moment he sent the messages, Han Yeoreum raised her head and looked straight ahead.
‘Not in front of you, beside you!’
And then it happened. Myeong Jeha, who was sitting beside Han Yeoreum, looked in his direction.
Their eyes met.
Seo Eden greeted him with his eyes.
Now all Myeong Jeha had to do was tell Han Yeoreum that Seo Eden was sitting over there....
‘Huh?’
Myeong Jeha whispered something into Han Yeoreum’s ear.
Han Yeoreum laughed.
Looking at Myeong Jeha’s face, which seemed excessively high-definition today, Seo Eden grew flustered.
Myeong Jeha had the kind of face that made it seem as though he could storm onto the runway right this second and simply start walking, and not a single person would try to stop him.
Seo Eden’s intelligence instantly rose to its maximum level.
‘What’s with all those shutters just now....’
Photos of the two stars from would immediately appear together on American portal sites, then Korean portal sites would pick them up, then they would spread across online communities, and if that happened...?
‘The reactions...?’
Something as fierce as the frenzy that had swept across Korea when Taeseok-Huijae from was at its hottest would come crashing down.
With his newly improved brain, Seo Eden recalled something else.
Once the door to thought had opened, there was no stopping it.
“You really are a woman after all.”
He remembered it incredibly vividly.
“Losing sleep because you’re thinking about Oppa.”
The words Yoo Jiwook had said when he came to the VIP premiere of .
“But don’t like Oppa too much. I’m leaving.”
A professional who had mastered every romance imaginable.
No, a master.
No, a majesty.
‘This is totally... something I’ve seen a lot before....’
Seo Eden reached his conclusion.
‘They’re villainesses, aren’t they?’
Deliberately creating misunderstandings right in front of her and even preventing him from saying hello—it was unmistakable.
Yoo Jiwook and Myeong Jeha were villainesses.
This was a cliché among clichés.
Seo Eden marveled at his own incredible deductive abilities.
Especially considering how they had deliberately gone all-out with their styling and were pretending to be men beside Han Yeoreum, there was no denying it.
They were definitely trying to turn him into a wallflower.
Seo Eden made up his mind.
‘I... too....’
But this was exactly when he couldn’t allow himself to become discouraged.
Seo Eden refused to be intimidated.
‘I’m going to become a man too....’
As the ambassador of the brand whose show was about to begin, he had practically already fulfilled the basic requirements of being a man.
And although he wasn’t as senior as Yoo Jiwook, he was still more senior than Myeong Jeha and older than him.
The real man was over here.
Seo Eden unbuttoned one more button of his shirt.
* * *
Even before the show began, candid photos of the stars seated in the front row rapidly spread online. Apparently, the reporters weren’t satisfied with the photo wall alone and were determined to broadcast every single shot in real time, demonstrating admirable diligence.
Quite a few of them were focusing their cameras on the actors who had come from Korea.
There were even plenty of reporters who completely turned their backs on Hollywood’s representative nepo babies sitting in the first row just to photograph T-fany’s Princess.
Having lived with paparazzi around them since birth, they raised their eyebrows in disbelief, but there was nothing in the world more brutally honest than the battle for buzz in New York.
At least inside this show venue, the rising star wearing T-fany’s Blue Book around her neck was the protagonist.
The pink diamond shone dazzlingly throughout the endless bursts of flashes, drawing every eye toward it. Even seasoned professionals who had attended practically every runway across all four major fashion weeks found themselves captivated by its extraordinary brilliance.
T-fany’s Princess was already becoming a monster of views, drawing American netizens in by the thousands.
She had pushed past Hollywood stars who had attended New York Fashion Week so many times that people were sick of seeing them and claimed the very top of the headlines.
‘I should get her from as many angles as possible while I’m at it!’
Joshua, a senior photojournalist for Women’s Wear Day, or WWD for short, smiled the entire time he pressed the shutter.
“Move, mister!”
Nearby, an unusually short and young-looking Asian girl with bobbed hair was also taking pictures of T-fany’s Princess like crazy.
For some reason, a childish desire not to lose to her welled up inside him.
He threw himself into taking pictures.
Flashes and shutter sounds continued without pause.
Then, suddenly, the entire venue sank into a heavy silence.
It was enough to create the illusion that the venue’s already cold air had grown even chillier.
‘Huh...?’
Joshua lowered his camera and turned around.
Light from outside spilled through the gap in the doors of the darkened venue.
Someone was walking in with that light behind him.
Accompanied by numerous guards.
“Erno....”
“It’s Erno!”
Erno himself had appeared in person at a brand show in New York instead of Paris, France.
The runway music, which had been playing softly, somehow seemed to grow louder and louder.
𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞
It meant that everyone was watching him while holding even their breaths.
Under the guards’ tight security, Erno finally stopped walking.
The place where he stopped was the seat beside T-fany’s Princess.
“...!”
Erno sat down beside her.
A seat beside the head of LMVH.
It was something barely permitted only to those who had won the Academy Award for Best Actress three or four times, members of European royal families, or global VVIP collectors who purchased tens of billions of won worth of luxury goods.
Click.
While everyone else stood frozen, the bob-haired Asian girl beside Joshua calmly pressed her shutter.
And as though that had been the signal, shutter sounds exploded wildly from every direction.
Like an explosion.
Every camera was focused on the same place.
On Han Yeoreum.