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nA little later, the interview proceeded.

nAmong the questions was one about Yu Zuung’s lineage, which Hyunwoo wanted the interviewer to ask.

n“I hear you have a Vienamese nationality. Are you from a Vietnamese family?”

n“In fact, my great-grandfather was from a Chinese family, so Chinese blood is running in my body.”

n“I see.”

nThe interview was done without any difficulty and was on air in an entertainment program several days later.

nHyunwoo released everything about her.

nThe first item was her pictorial. Hyunwoo had her photoshoot finished even before the music video ‘Temptation’ was released. He was convinced that she would certainly embrace a day like this.

nAs soon as her pictorial was released, it drew an explosive interest from the public.

nIt was sold as a special edition for 100,000 won and a general one for 30,000 on the internet. The special edition was downloaded five thousand times on average per day, and the general edition twenty thousand times on average every day.

nThere were various reasons for the explosive demands for her pictorials. First of all, it was sold simultaneously in China, Japan, and Southeast Asia. Secondly, there were no official photos of Yu Zuung on the internet.

nLast but not least, Yu Zuung’s beauty was a decisive factor in the explosive demands for her pictorial. She was just beauty itself from head to foot. In particular, the pictorial featured some particular parts of her body to underline her sexual attraction, which excited numerous men in Asia.

nYu Zuung’s sudden popularity invited other woman entertainers’ jealousy. Some of them even tried to challenge her for a beauty contest. They put themselves next to her on purpose and made cute and sexy expressions.

nBut their behavior like that only backfired. Most of the viewers just felt they were pitiful.

n“Tut, tut. I thought she was pretty, but she is just nothing, compared with Yu Zuung.”

n“What the heck? How weird Taehee’s nose is! That’s her soft side, compared with Yu Zuung’s.”

n“Wow, look at the stunning beauty of Yu Zuung! She just puts other talents in the shade.”

nAs the general public praised her tremendously, other female entertainers tended to avoid her. They knew that their weak points plainly came to light when they stood beside her, so they wanted to avoid it by all means.

n“Are you sure Yu Zuung is also on the show? I don’t want to be there.”

n“We can’t send our entertainers to the TV shows where Yu Zuung appears.”

nDespite this, Yu Zuung was always treated as a top guest on TV shows because her appearance was much more helpful in raising the ratings than ten other entertainers.

nThere was once a hot competition between two TV channels. One channel presented only Yu Zuung while the other presented several beautiful entertainers, but the viewers overwhelmingly watched Yu Zuung’s channel.

nSome of the female entertainers confidently decided to appear with her on TV shows. But most of them were comedians or excellent actresses.

nHyunwoo’s second item about Yu Zuung was aggressive marketing of her commercial value in Vietnam and China.

nHer interview with the Korean Broadcasting music program was not only aired in Korea but also in Vietnam, her home country, and China.

nThat was what Hyunwoo intended from the start.

nAs expected, there was a fever of craze for Yu Zuung in Vietnam where the Korean pop wave was firing through the country. In China, her mention of her Chinese bloodline was actively promoted as ‘a proud offspring of the Chinese people.’

nThe craze for Yu Zuung was also pretty strong in Japan and Southeast countries. She woke to find herself an Asian star.

nHer popularity directly led to a steep increase in sales of her pictorial. As she gained increasing popularity, the masks and costumes that the masked dancers put on sold like hotcakes.

nAnd now her popularity began to spread to Europe and America. A magazine allegedly boasting of the biggest circulation in the world chose Yu Zuung as the No. 1 of the world’s top 100 beauty.

nAfter the magazine article came out she was flooded with requests for her appearance on TV and other entertainment programs. Not only Asian but also American entertainment promoters were enthusiastic about getting her on their TV shows.

nYu Zuung was literally swamped with all kinds of requests from TVs and entertainment agencies from around the world. Even she could not believe her sudden popularity. She felt as if it might disappear all of a sudden like mirage one day.

nBut it was for real. Wherever she went, she was recognized by many people, who yelled for joy. No matter how much she split her schedule, she was basically too busy to take a break.

nThanks to her popularity the rest of the masked dancers also enjoyed the intense attention of the public.

nIn particular, Soyun Han was in the spotlight. Jiah was already identified by the press, so Soyun was the only one of the three masked dancers whose identity had remained veiled up to now.

n“Who is that girl?”

n“Her dancing is so sexy. I wonder if her face is just as sexy.”

n“Why are they refusing to disclose her face?”

nMany people strongly asked Ani & Funny to disclose her face, and Hyunwoo felt that the time to disclose her face was coming closer.

nNo matter how strongly they wanted her to disclose, Hyunwoo could not do it on his own. It was her judgment call, after all.

nOf course, he could ask her.

nHe called Soyun to ask about her intention, “When do you think is the best time to disclose your face?”

n“I think you can disclose my face when the music video Temptation is ranked tenth and above of the Billboard Hot 100. You can announce it as a promise officially.”

nBillboard Hot 100 was the main chart that ranked the top 100 songs of the week the world over. As it was the stage for the world’s top singers, it was really commendable for a Korean singer to even get ranked within the top 100.

nAccordingly, it would be a terrific achievement if Temptation could be included in the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100.

nBut Hyunwoo was not surprised. As Jinhon and Angela’s Duckling Fly was still enjoying the top place in the chart, he didn’t think it a great goal for Temptation to get ranked as one of the top ten songs of the chart.

nThanks to Yu Zuung’s popularity Temptation was also gaining more and more popularity in the US market. So, it would be a matter of time to see it get traction on the Billboard chart.

nHyunwoo thought he should seize the opportunity when it came along.

nSo, he didn’t make any further schedule for the masked dancers in the Korean market. As soon as they were done with all the existing performances, Hyunwoo decided to send them to America.

nHe clenched his fists and said to Soyun, “Got it. Be strong and hang in there! You are not alone here. No matter what happens, your colleagues will stand by and move with you.”

n“Thanks so much!”

nSeveral days later, Soyun came back to her studio late at night. As she was terribly busy working late, she was exhausted. But she didn’t feel tired because she knew her dream would be coming true sooner or later.

nShe turned on the TV instead of going to bed. She monitored the Korean Broacasting’s music program by pressing the replay button on the TV.

nSomeone from Ani &Funny said in an interview like this:

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nYea, 10th place in Billboard chart. she mumbled before she knew.

nShe would not have achieved her dream if she had been stuck in her past. Her nightmare life during the past several years flashed into her mind. And now the time was approaching for her to end it.

nTears rained down her cheek, which were tears of joy, happiness and hope, above all.

n***

nHyunwoo went back to Ani & Funny office.

nWhen he entered, Kyungsu briefed him about the business report.

n“I have received all the entries of the students’ animation movie planning finally.”

nHyunwoo’s face brightened at that. It was welcome news that he had been waiting for with patience.

nUnlike short animated stories, it usually takes lots of time to produce an animated movie.

nFirst of all, it took a considerable period of time to review all the entries submitted to the open contest. Though the summary of a short story was only one page, an animated movie required at least three pages of summary and 30 pages of text.

nTo save time, Hyunwoo had his staff work on the introduction of the movie only. He was thinking of a 60-minute playing time, but the first 20 minutes was produced based on the storyboard submitted by the students.

nHe felt even that first portion was interesting enough to generate the people’s attention.

n“Really? Have they submitted the entries without any exception?”

n“Yes, all the eleven teams submitted.”

nHe wondered how interesting they were.

nBut he had to wait. Even experts could not enjoy the movie production draft composed only of the storyboard.

n“Just send them to the Vietnam branch. Let them make webtoons first. Based on that, let me select the final entries for movie production.”

nKyunsu sent all the eleven entries to the Vietnam branch.

nEven though they were done with creating the storyboards, the students could not afford to have free time yet. There was lots of other work to do.

nHyunwoo went down to the first floor to encourage them.

nBut he didn’t need to. They were so absorbed in working on other projects that they didn’t know Hyunwoo was there.

nCome to think of it, it was natural that they bent over backwards like that. They clearly knew Hyunwoo gave them due cash rewards for their hard work.

nHe came back upstairs in order not to disturb them and asked Kyungsu, “I think we had better raise our cash awards for our students.”

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