Chapter 32

PS: If I don't ask for votes today, the signed ranking will drop! So I have to ask for votes!

On August 6, 2009, the temperature in Seoul, South Korea, had already reached 30 degrees. However, today, Jiho Park abandoned his usual shorts and T-shirt at home and carefully put on the outfit that Jiyoung Kang had picked out for him. He wore a shirt under a suit vest and a pair of suit pants. Jiho Park looked at himself in the mirror, feeling very satisfied. He highly approved of Jiyoung Kang's sense of fashion. However, the truth was that Jiyoung Kang was just taking advantage of the fact that Jiho Park had never seen "Boys Over Flowers." If Jiho Park had seen it, he would have realized that the boys in the show dressed exactly like this!

After putting on the large sunglasses that cost 5000 won, Jiho Park's confidence soared! He was very confident about today's audition. Indeed, it was the audition for the male lead in TARA's single "Lie" MV, organized by CoreCentensMedia. Jiho Park received a call yesterday, asking him to come to CoreCentensMedia by 9 a.m. today for the evaluation!

After getting everything ready, Jiho Park put himself in the best state possible. Around 8:30, he arrived at CoreCentensMedia. However, when he got there, Jiho Park was shocked. There were so many people, at least 300 or more, queuing up at the entrance!

Jiho Park asked a guy in front of him what was going on. The guy told Jiho Park that this was the first evaluation: anyone under 1.8 meters tall and those who didn't look good would be immediately eliminated! Only those who passed the first evaluation could enter CoreCentensMedia for the second evaluation!

This event seemed to be quite significant, as MBC reporters were even there for an interview. However, the theme of the interview wasn't very positive. It was about the crazy fans among college students, a social news story criticizing the current generation of college students for not focusing on their studies and instead wanting to enter the entertainment industry foolishly!

However, for the new group TARA, what mattered was exposure. Whether it was good or bad, as long as it wasn't something extremely evil, it didn't matter!

Unfortunately, 90% of the participants were eliminated in the first small evaluation. Out of the 300+ applicants, only 32 remained. These 32 people were all 1.8 meters tall and had relatively handsome faces. Jiho Park was one of them!

Jiho Park was the last one. He followed everyone else into a hall inside CoreCentensMedia and sat down in order. This was the second evaluation, which was acting ability. To be honest, Jiho Park wasn't very good at this. If he had to sing a song or play an instrument, he would definitely be the best. While in prison, he had a teacher who had exceptional skills in music and composition. He composed a song called "Black Friday," which, after being heard by five people, led to their suicides. The song was eventually destroyed, and the teacher was secretly imprisoned!

Jiho Park had learned about 30-40% of his teacher's skills, partly because he was a human with an IQ of 150 and had a unique talent for music.

However, not being good at acting wasn't a big issue. Jiho Park was the last one, so he still had time to learn!

The acting topic, however, was very frustrating for Jiho Park. It was about a womanizer. This ridiculous topic—how could a man who spent six years in prison act as a womanizer? Who could he be a womanizer with in prison, except for a few "rabbits"? When he heard the topic, Jiho Park almost wanted to punch the person who came up with it. What was this all about? It felt like it was targeting him!

The 32 people performed one by one. Jiho Park's performance of a womanizer was a copy of one of the male students, exactly the same. One of the evaluators wanted to eliminate Jiho Park, but he had an advantage: while the other 31 were all handsome, Jiho Park was the most handsome of them all!

Fortunately, Jiho Park and nine others were selected to move on to the final evaluation in the afternoon. CoreCentensMedia even gave each of the ten, including Jiho Park, a meal ticket for lunch at the company cafeteria!

The ten male students were very excited because they might get to see some of the stars from CoreCentensMedia. However, they were disappointed. While eating, they only saw a bunch of cafeteria ladies and no company girls, as the students ate half an hour earlier than the staff. After lunch, they all walked into a large lounge that had been arranged for them!

However, when Jiho Park went out to buy a drink, he unexpectedly bumped into a beautiful woman!

This incident happened after Jiho Park finished lunch and returned to the lounge with the other students. The kimchi served at the CoreCentensMedia cafeteria at noon was too salty. The other students only took one bite and stopped, but Jiho Park had a habit from prison: he always finished all the food on his plate. So, he ate all the kimchi, and the tragedy began. When he returned to the lounge, he couldn't stand the saltiness anymore!

So, he left the lounge to find a vending machine to buy a drink. He searched for almost ten minutes. There were none on the second or third floors, but on the fourth floor, he finally found one. Jiho Park was overjoyed; his throat was almost on fire from the salty kimchi!

He immediately took out a coin and happily walked to the vending machine. Just as he was about to insert the coin, a girl's voice came from a distance: "Move, let me buy first!"

Then, Jiho Park felt a soft body bump into him with a 'bang,' and he was knocked to the ground! He was really dazed by the impact! What made him even angrier was that the girl who bumped into him didn't even apologize!

Instead, she kept muttering to herself. Jiho Park leaned in to listen and finally understood. The girl was reciting the names of drinks: "One bottle of fruit juice, one bottle of yogurt, one bottle of sugar-free coffee, one bottle of Coca-Cola. Don't rush, don't rush, there's still time. Lee Juri, don't rush, you can definitely succeed! You won't be punished."

Hearing the girl repeatedly reassure herself that she would succeed and not be punished, Jiho Park finally calmed down. He knew that the girl must be playing a game with her friends. If she couldn't buy the drinks her friends wanted within the specified time, she would face a severe and terrifying punishment. She looked very nervous!

Jiho Park chuckled, thinking it was better to let it go and not argue with such a young girl. He would wait for her to finish buying the drinks and then buy his own. As for her bumping into him, he decided to let it slide, after all, she was a girl. Girls had their privileges, but if it had been a boy, Jiho Park would have made him regret it.

Just as Jiho Park was waiting for Lee Juri to finish, he suddenly heard her scream in despair: "Ah... I'm 500 won short! I miscalculated the money."

After being startled by Lee Juri's scream, something even more terrifying happened.

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