[Showbiz] I Became a Top-Tier Idol After Debuting as the Center

[Main story complete. Anti-piracy chapters make up 70%, and the update schedule is rather irregular. This is a brainless wish-fulfillment story, so don't take it too seriously. Lots of forum-style chapters.] [For another completed story in the same series, a career-and-romance wish-fulfillment story, see From Cartoonist to Top Screenwriter. Pre-release: From Novelist to Top Director.] The director of the global audition show Shining World took one look at intern Jiang Tinghan and thought he'd struck gold. The girl was stunning, with a sharp, aggressive, viper-like beauty that fascinated and intoxicated countless people while keeping them at a distance. She was worthy of being called “Medusa incarnate.” She also had a genuinely impressive academic background, rare among idols. So the director invited her to join. Even the smartest college student couldn't resist the combined temptation of an internship certificate, course credits, and weekly pay. Jiang Tinghan had originally planned to lie flat, but a netizen's comment, “A pretty but useless girl won't last past the first episode,” stirred her fighting spirit. More importantly, the director told her, “If you make it to the end before getting eliminated, I'll give you one million.” She couldn't help it. He was offering way too much. * That million wouldn't be easy to earn. The global audition show was based in Korea, and as a Chinese contestant, she'd have to shine even brighter to win the audience's favor. A beginner with no singing or dancing experience? Then play to her strengths and hide her weaknesses: use emotion to make up for technique, disguise her dancing with stage design, and secretly work herself to the bone! When it comes to outworking everyone, Chinese people never give up. Are idol-producers more popular with fans? Teach herself! The one thing a Chinese student with gaokao experience knows how to do is cram at the last minute! She'd use her first self-composed song for her solo stage and make one exhilarating all-or-nothing gamble! Is there a hidden favorite in her group, getting all the screen time while her own footage is cut? No problem. She can break out through fan-cam videos! She can also stir up a CP with the princess of the favored contestants and ride the wave to some commercial opportunities. The king of the dating pool has more than one fish, and there's a flavor of CP for everyone. Pick your favorite. For the sake of buzz, she'll sell whatever sells! What does it mean to be a player? She just can't stand to see girls cry. She's maliciously edited to look like a villain who gives her teammates the cold shoulder? Just wait for her teammates to show their true colors, and then she'll get: “My Han is so talented. Isn't it normal for her to be annoyed with people who slack off and drag the group project down?” “So Jiang Tinghan is just being genuine. She was trying to help viewers realize how ridiculous her teammates were. We judged her unfairly!” “My Han did all the work while her teammates leached off her, and now they're getting her dragged through the mud. Sob, I hope she gets out of there soon and never gets shipped with anyone again!” The internet's opinion can turn around overnight. It's a perfect way to make fans suffer and turn casual fans into devoted ones. She also has a knack for making fans feel adored: Pretend she isn't good at something, then work hard at it because her fans want to see it; Try to remember the names of fans who come to see her regularly. If she accidentally gets one wrong, apologize with a little plushie and agree on a secret phrase they can say next time to get her attention; Most importantly, label her self-composed song “A gift for my fans!” In the end, Jiang Tinghan, who'd even randomly chosen “Coldy” as her stage name, unsurprisingly became A CP magnet stirring up endless drama; A terrifying fan-attracting machine who could reach No. 1 in trending topics with a single wink; A scandal-ridden top-tier star whose every word inspired “Coldology” analysis; Watch her become an all-around ACE and debut in the center position in just three months! Some people hated her, some envied her, some despised her, and others were obsessed with her and wanted to possess her. But in the end, they were all crazy about her. Standing on stage, she raised one finger to her lips in a “shh” gesture. It looked like she was asking everyone to be quiet, but really she was declaring to the audience “I'll always be No. 1.” But if you ask Jiang Tinghan why she worked so hard for a million... First, it was a million in just three months. Second, she had a humanities degree. P.S. She won't go into private tutoring. * After finishing his military service, Kwon Jiyong kept up his habit of following new variety shows from his days in the army. He happened to see Coldy trending and got interested enough to watch a few episodes. The more he watched, the more hooked he became. He even stayed up late to catch up to the latest episode. His one pick was naturally the beautiful girl who was equally skilled at singing and dancing, wrote her own songs, had a vision for staging, and knew how to bring out the best in her teammates. Countless people wanted to be the next GD, but this girl boldly admitted, “I don't want to become GD, because even if I wanted to, I could never reach the groundbreaking heights he achieved.” But... She didn't seem as innocent, sincere, and kind as she appeared. Maybe she was a calculating, self-serving person after all ^_^ Kwon Jiyong couldn't help being interested in her. 1. A shameless K-pop story, steeped in girl group and boy band lore. If you don't like it, don't report it. The idols date, and the career and romance plots progress together, so don't read if that's not for you. 2. The heroine isn't perfect. She commits fully to putting on an act. The author has a No. 1 obsession, so both leads are the most popular and talented at everything. Maximum wish fulfillment. The pairing is a shoe salesman just back from military service, working hard to make his comeback as Dragon, with the currently popular female idol Han. 3. The leads are more than ten years apart in age. He's a very mature older senior, and might be a slightly fatherly boyfriend. 4. This is part of a series, but you don't need to have read 1.0 to enjoy it. The characterization differs from 1.0, and some details have been removed. Blurb written on August 3. Blurb for From Novelist to Top Director: (Timeline starts in 2006. All screenplays are original.) As a Chinese money-sucker, Jiang Tinghan loved two things most in life: making money and creating. She came to Korea at fifteen with no money and worked part-time while writing novels. Her novels weren't very popular and didn't earn much, but they helped her meet a trainee named Kwon Jiyong. They were both poor, but they also earned their first paychecks at nearly the same time. Jiang Tinghan used her writing fee to buy Kwon Jiyong a belated birthday cake. And Kwon Jiyong used his appearance fee to buy Jiang Tinghan a camera. “Our Tinghan is so pretty, we need to take more beautiful pictures of her.” Jiang Tinghan used that camera to turn a story she'd written into a short film. She'd originally intended to keep it as a memento, but it unexpectedly went viral on YouTube. At fifteen, she started filming a scruffy little pup who was eighteen. The puppy became handsome and dazzling, and gained a name known around the world: G-Dragon. Jiang Tinghan went from filming music videos to TV series, commercials, and movies, eventually becoming “one of the greatest directors of the 21st century.” And she gained a third favorite thing: dating GD. * GD's longtime fans all know he has a “pen pal little sister” who's never appeared in public. He's mentioned her often ever since he first debuted. When “Lies” changed from a solo song to a group song, GD ran off to the beach in the middle of the night. His pen pal little sister searched for him for three hours that night, found him, and comforted him. When GD was falsely accused of plagiarism and attacked across the internet, even showing signs of depression, his pen pal little sister confronted the antis in person. She wiped away the red insults they'd scrawled in Hongdae and had them taken to the police station. The effort wasn't one-sided. When his pen pal little sister struggled with her homework, she'd ask GD for help as her senior. She also asked him for advice before performing at her school festival. His pen pal little sister loved creating things, but someone stole and published her personal essay. GD helped her resolve the matter, firmly demanding an apology and compensation. When his pen pal little sister was stalked and harassed, GD acted as her knight in shining armor for a week, successfully catching the creep and taking him to the police station. They had restaurants they often ate at together and had taken plenty of photos together. GD's lyric notebook contained his pen pal little sister's novels, while her novel notebook contained GD's lyrics. There were more stories than anyone could count. GD always mentioned her openly, but it was hard to believe the two of them were just friends. Still, GD had never admitted they were in a relationship. The fans had gotten upset, jealous, and hysterical, but she was just a girl who'd never shown her face. Even the most obsessive fans had investigated, but found nothing. Some fans even wondered if she was a hallucination caused by GD's poor mental state. They could clearly tell, though, that some of the footage GD had filmed in the past had far superior camera quality, composition, color grading, and pacing. But perhaps she was just a brilliant staff cinematographer? Wasn't the pen pal little sister a novelist? Eventually, the fans accepted it. They'd even accept her being their oppa's real girlfriend, because this pen pal little sister had been through thick and thin with him and had become his emotional anchor. When rumors broke that “top star GD and popular director Coldy are secretly meeting,” the fans split into two camps. One insisted on the first-love theory, while the other thought a real woman was much better than an imaginary one. But they never imagined that director Coldy was the pen pal little sister herself! 1. We'll walk together from the streets of Seoul to the top of the world, from obscurity to roaring crowds. No storm can ever separate us. 2. Tinghan writes and directs her own work. The career and romance plots are still split evenly, and it's a pure, brainless, sweet romance. 3. They still dote on each other, completely besotted and head over heels. A hopeless romantic and a hopeless romantic, an artist and an artist: a perfect match. 4. This is 2.0. You don't need to have read 1.0. Blurb written on June 20, 2025. It may be changed at any time before publication. Theme: Climb boldly toward the summit