[Showbiz] I Just Want to Ride the Hype

Completed Korean Showbiz story in my author page: “A Talented Actor Lets Loose After Going on a Variety Show.” Currently serializing: “Have You Reached the Top Before Daring to Date?” Blurb: After Xu Yue, who is of Chinese-Korean heritage, debuts in a South Korean girl group, her agency goes bankrupt. Another company picks her up, and two years after her solo debut, her new agency is on the verge of bankruptcy too. The last show they book for her before going under is an obscure travel variety show that no one cares about. Unexpectedly, a senior idol who has weathered one controversy after another in recent years suddenly joins the show to take a break. The little-known program becomes an overnight hit, and Xu Yue gets to ride the wave of attention. To revive her career, Xu Yue decides to hog the camera! Who could have guessed that, before long, the senior idol himself would keep coming over to her as if he didn’t care about money? After the show ends, Xu Yue gets more offers than she can handle, a smash-hit song, and a boyfriend. And thanks to the sound and stage of her first album, she earns the title of “a woman who knows how to toy with people’s hearts.” From the male lead’s perspective: On a whim, he decides to join a travel variety show. To his surprise, one of his fans is on it! Watching the fan who loves him but can’t bring herself to say so grow bolder and bolder about approaching him on the show, Kwon Ji-yong thinks, “Well, what can I do? You have to spoil your own fans.” Then, after the show ends, he discovers the whole thing was livestreamed, including all the moments when he was getting the wrong idea! The only way to make up for it: get her to really become his fan! If that doesn’t work, well, being his girlfriend is fine too. He never expected that this girl, who seemed like a little sister, would have him wrapped around her finger once they started dating! From the CP fans’ perspective: Romance on the variety show, ship it! They’re at the same company and keep turning up at the same events, ship it! They don’t make their relationship public, but get caught wearing matching items, appearing in photos together, and performing on the same stage to show off their love, ship it! They’re caught red-handed and don’t deny it, ship it! They seem to have broken up after a cold war, but one of them gets teary-eyed when they meet, ship it! They seem to have gotten back together and one of them is full of life again, ship it! That’s right! We have one mission: ship them! A mixed-heritage little moon × South Korea’s scapegoat senior idol Click to see a longboard-loving, drum-playing, free-as-the-wind female soloist win over a battle-scarred, guarded leader of a second-generation group that reached the top. Warnings: 1. Both leads have exes, and neither is a virgin. 2. The heroine’s career storyline takes place after the variety show ends. 3. There will be a “breakup” and reconciliation arc. (The blurb and title are tentative as of December 15, 2023.) Theme: May you always be as free as the wind.