Episode Nine: 13.23%, Episode Ten: 14.49%, Episode Eleven: 15.39%, Episode Twelve: 16.58%.
While *Fight School*, starring Tae-ha as the solo lead, continued its smooth sailing, Tae-ha remained quite busy even though filming for the drama had ended. This was because the positive response to *Fight School* meant he had to proceed with additional commercial filming.
For starters, the commercial contracts he had signed after *Your Brilliant Sparkle* were mostly still in effect. Because the companies had recognized Tae-ha’s value, they had wanted contract periods of at least three years. Consequently, Tae-ha had to reshoot commercials for those existing companies during this window of time. Of course, he had filmed some commercials during the drama production, so he didn’t have to reshoot every single one, but he still had to film four out of the seven total commercials again.
While fulfilling those existing contracts, new commercial offers poured in. The number of offers was staggering, but it was physically impossible to film them all. Therefore, he asked Im Chan-hyung to select only three or four from among them.
The first commercial selected was a public service announcement themed around the eradication of school violence. He chose this one for the sake of his image and the public benefit, despite the lack of significant profit. The theme of eradicating school violence was highly relevant to *Fight School*, and one of the reasons Tae-ha had chosen that project in the first place was to give society something to think about regarding the issue of school violence. Thus, it was only natural for Tae-ha to film a public service announcement on the subject.
Next, Tae-ha chose a commercial for Mobel, a furniture brand famous for desks, sofas, and beds. Mobel was a furniture brand that already held a high-end image within the country. Consequently, Tae-ha had no choice but to accept Mobel’s offer out of all the various furniture brands that had reached out. He judged that this was a good opportunity to add a mature and luxurious image to his existing young and hip persona.
The third choice Tae-ha made was a commercial for the beer brand Overt. Overt was a brand ambitiously prepared by the domestic beer company AB to compete with foreign beers. As such, they needed a young, fresh, yet luxurious image, and they chose Tae-ha.
For Tae-ha, it was a very pleasant offer. Honestly, among actors in a similar age group, there were almost no figures more promising or with more name value than Tae-ha. However, that wasn’t the case if one expanded the scope to include idols. There were several figures with more name value than Tae-ha in that field. Even so, being chosen as the model for Overt showed just how good an image Tae-ha currently held in the advertising industry. Above all, Tae-ha, who originally liked beer, tried Overt before accepting the offer. It didn’t feel inferior at all compared to foreign brands. Being provided with an unlimited supply of such beer was another benefit on top of the advertising revenue.
Finally, Tae-ha proceeded with a commercial for KS Bank. Bank commercials aren’t something one can film with just a young and luxurious image. A trustworthy image that can instill confidence in customers is required, so being chosen by KS Bank was highly significant. It was proof that Tae-ha possessed a reliable image. This image could be said to have been created thanks to *Fight School*, as the character Lee In-woo was someone who fought for society until the very end without yielding to any powerful external pressure. In other words, it meant he had overcome the younger man image he had gained through *Your Brilliant Sparkle* in one fell swoop with *Fight School*.
Thus, Tae-ha had to film four additional commercials. But he didn’t stop there; he continued his activities as an ambassador.
First, he became an ambassador for the world-renowned luxury brand Louis Vuitton. Unfortunately, he did not become a global ambassador. It wasn’t that his works like *Heureojeo Itdeon Saramdeul*, *Killer X Killer*, *Your Brilliant Sparkle*, and *Fight School* had no response overseas. On the contrary, the response was quite significant, but it wasn’t enough for Tae-ha to become a global ambassador yet.
However, becoming a domestic ambassador was still deeply meaningful for Tae-ha. He wouldn’t have been able to become an ambassador for Louis Vuitton if his recognition within the country wasn’t judged to be sufficient. In fact, there had been no cases among actors Tae-ha’s age becoming an ambassador for a foreign luxury brand. Consequently, the media covered the news using phrases like ‘the youngest ambassador.’
For Tae-ha, who was already a hot topic every day due to the success of *Fight School*, this was another great opportunity to engrave his name into people’s minds.
Tae-ha’s ambassadorial activities didn’t even end there. Next, he became an ambassador for the jewelry brand Bulgari. Bulgari was one of the world’s most famous jewelry brands, counted alongside the likes of Cartier and Tiffany & Co. However, Bulgari’s proposal was unexpected for Tae-ha, as he wasn’t the type to enjoy wearing accessories. At most, he would wear a watch or a bracelet at production press conferences or award ceremonies.
Still, he judged that it wouldn’t be a good choice to reject an ambassadorial offer from a world-class brand like Bulgari. Thus, Tae-ha began his activities as an ambassador for Bulgari, which allowed him to wear various accessories.
“It’s better than I thought?”
In particular, things like earrings, which he had never thought would suit him, were surprisingly good—to the point where he thought it wouldn’t be bad to wear them often.
“It’ll definitely be good to wear things like this when I’m on stage, right?”
Tae-ha led a busy daily life, even taking on the role of Bulgari’s ambassador. Of course, the reason Tae-ha was this busy wasn’t just because of commercial filming and domestic ambassador activities.
***
There was another reason Tae-ha was busy. First, it was because of the writing for his next project.
Tae-ha had been writing his next project intermittently even while appearing in *Fight School*. After filming for *Fight School* ended, he focused on the writing in earnest, but unfortunately, the volume didn’t pile up as much as he had expected. He had only written enough for four chapters.
This result wasn’t because Tae-ha was too busy or had fallen into a slump. He could afford enough time for writing activities, as he wasn’t filming commercials or doing ambassador activities every single day. The reason only four chapters had accumulated despite that was simple: Tae-ha was preparing two different projects.
In other words, Tae-ha had written four chapters for each of the two projects. Ultimately, he had written a total of eight chapters’ worth of content so far. But one shouldn’t misunderstand; Tae-ha wasn’t preparing like this to proceed with both works. That was physically impossible due to time constraints.
So Tae-ha also wanted to pick just one project to write. But it wasn’t easy, because the material for both projects was incredibly appealing to him.
“I still have to pick one project. I can’t keep dividing my time like this. And…”
Tae-ha had now solidified his mind to some extent. It was because of something he had thought about while working as an ambassador.
‘Overseas recognition.’
That was it. Currently, Tae-ha’s recognition overseas was somewhat lacking. This was the reason he had been appointed as a domestic ambassador for Louis Vuitton and Bulgari rather than a global one. Of course, Tae-ha didn’t think of this as a disappointing result; it was a natural one. Until now, Tae-ha had focused his efforts on establishing himself domestically.
However, he couldn’t limit his activities to the domestic market forever. Above all, these days, it was much easier for K-content to challenge the overseas market than before. Therefore, Tae-ha, having sufficiently established himself domestically, could no longer ignore this aspect. Fortunately, among the two projects he was preparing, there was a material more suitable for such a challenge.
‘So I should make this my next project.’
Of course, that didn’t mean Tae-ha was doing the project solely to target the overseas market. Tae-ha was of the opinion that a project not recognized in the domestic market could not be recognized overseas either. This was the very reason K-content could achieve its current status. It wasn’t just about trying to develop content that suited foreign tastes, but about developing high-quality content that could work globally. This was the decisive reason the current craze was possible.
Tae-ha had also chosen his material to write such a project.
‘Come to think of it, the other of the two materials I was torn between is just a repetition of what I’ve done before.’
Thus, Tae-ha chose his next project and decided to immerse himself in the work. But there was something he had to do before that: the band activities for Freequeen.
‘Actually, this side is more urgent. This is the main reason I’ve been so busy lately.’
Currently, Frikill was in the middle of preparing for practice with the goal of performing at Tae-ha’s fan meeting. Tae-ha had actually been thinking about the fan meeting even before *Fight School*. His active role as a special guest at Seon Min-gi’s fan meeting was also for this reason.
After much deliberation, the timing for the fan meeting, coordinated with AH Entertainment, was set for one week after the conclusion of *Fight School*. Tae-ha had originally prepared for this fan meeting to be around the level of him singing the OST for *Fight School*. However, his thoughts changed as Prill began their activities. He thought it would be good to use the fan meeting as Prill’s debut stage.
Of course, this didn’t mean Tae-ha was using the fan meeting venue to promote Prill. He simply wanted to show Initial first—what kind of people Tae-ha was working with and what kind of activities he was doing now. Therefore, Tae-ha intended to sing the OST of *Fight School* at the fan meeting as well. The Prill stage was merely a bonus.
“It was definitely like that, but now… the scale is gradually increasing.”
First, the scale of Tae-ha’s fan meeting grew. Originally, Tae-ha had planned to hold the fan meeting with a 400-seat capacity. He had reserved the venue and even finished the poster shoot. However, a huge backlash arose within Initial because of this. They asked how an actor of Tae-ha’s caliber could hold a fan meeting in a venue with only 400 seats.
Eventually, articles related to this broke out in the press, and AH Entertainment hurriedly increased the scale of the fan meeting. The final choice was the SW Handball Gymnasium located in Songpa-gu, which had a 5,000-seat capacity. There were suggestions to increase the scale even further, but since it was his first fan meeting, they decided to be satisfied with this much.
Thus, the fan meeting became much larger than when he had first asked the Prill members to perform. This scale naturally pressured the Prill members, including Tae-ha. But that wasn’t the end of it.
“Since it’s come to this, why don’t we just release a mini-album? I actually wrote a decent song after being inspired by Prill’s practice.”
TT had brought this up after hearing the news of the fan meeting performance. And so, the Prill members suddenly found themselves making their official debut at Tae-ha’s fan meeting.