Meanwhile.
An unexpected piece of joyful news reached Taeha’s fans.
It was that Taeha would be starting ‘Planet’.
Yes, yes.
Taeha’s Official Fan Cafe was created around the time first aired.
At that time, AH Entertainment predicted that Taeha would gain considerable popularity through his portrayal of Lee Jae-hyun.
Taeha had already drawn surprising attention even from his brief appearance in , so it was only natural.
Thus, Taeha’s Official Fan Cafe was born.
At first, the number of members was small.
Barely over one thousand.
Even that number was thanks to Han Yun-seong boosting Taeha’s MyStar followers, and Lee Min-joo, a fan of Seon Min-gi, diligently posting Lee Jae-hyun clips on the “clip account.”
The very first thing these members did was to decide on Taeha’s official fan name.
So, AH Entertainment started an official naming contest through the Fan Cafe, and Taeha watched with great interest.
Though he had worked in the industry for a long time, to have actual fans, a Fan Cafe, and even a fan name being decided for him—
As someone who, as a writer, had always watched stars shine from a step behind, all of this felt truly amazing to Taeha.
“I wonder what the fan name will be?”
While Taeha waited with anticipation.
Despite there being just a thousand members, there was a flurry of lively discussion.
Though few in number, they were newly minted Taeha fans, and their passion was intense.
It was always like that.
Sometimes, new fans burned even hotter than longtime ones.
Suggestions for the official fan name included Taeyang, Tae-dong, Taejeong Taese, Ha Tae Hot Tae, Wan Jeon Teo, Hwang Tae Ja, Hwangol Taltae, Hansel and Our Tae, Really Just Go Taeha?, and others.
Among them, the most supported names became the Finalist candidates.
Hen Jel, Complete Tae, Hwang Tae Ja, and Initial Village.
Looking at the Finalists, Taeha mused.
“As expected, something like Hwang Tae Ja is cool, isn’t it? Complete Tae kind of has a vibe too. Hen Jel is a bit of a stretch, but the name itself reminds me of ‘angel’ so it’s not bad. Anyway, it’s just what fans will call themselves.”
He hadn’t even considered Initial Village.
It didn’t really sound cool, and he thought it was just a word cobbled together by association with the syllable ‘Tae’.
But, to his complete surprise, the one ultimately chosen was Initial Village.
“Why on earth?”
Taeha couldn’t understand.
To put it bluntly, ‘coolness’ was nowhere to be found in Initial Village as a fan name.
But after seeing the fans’ reactions, his mind changed.
– It’s decided! Initial Village!
– I love it ㅠㅠ It feels like a place Taeha can always return to when things are hard or painful.
– Or maybe, because it reminds people of the smiling Isanghae-ssi, that’s why it became Initial Village?
– Huh? Didn’t Taeha look more like Firee?
– I thought he looked like Squirtle, but that’s strange.
– It’s strange, so it’s Isanghae-ssi.
– Now that the fan name is Initial Village, I hope memories start piling up here, even from little things.
– ㅇㅇ Every time I log in, I hope it’s a space that warms the heart.
– At the very least, let’s make sure the Fan Cafe can be that kind of place!
– Still, don’t you feel a bit sad about Hwang Tae Ja or Complete Tae?
– Complete Tae was kind of witty, lol, but Hwang Tae Ja is too plain.
– Come on, Hwang Tae Ja is not really suitable for a fan name.
– Wouldn’t it be better to call the Official Fan Cafe Initial Village and the fans Initials…
– Looks like that’s how it’ll be?
– I think that’s best too.
The reason Initial Village was chosen as the fan name.
Seeing this, Taeha felt his heart warm.
Just reading the comments in the Fan Cafe, he could tell how much his fans cherished and loved him.
Having personally gone through hard times, Taeha felt this all the more deeply.
But to say he looked like a Pocketmon character…
“This is a bit embarrassing. My fans think I’m cute?”
Though Taeha had completely gotten used to his new self, inside he was still a man in his thirties, and the feeling was definitely strange.
Honestly, even when he was Ho-jun, Taeha had never been called cute, not even when he wasn’t in his thirties.
Anyway, with the official fan name set as Initial, and the Official Fan Cafe named Initial Village—
Before he knew it, the number of Fan Cafe members had passed three thousand.
The number grew quickly, keeping pace with the rising ratings of .
Amazingly, after Episode 9, membership began increasing by a thousand at a time, and after Episode 13 ended, the Fan Cafe boasted more than eight thousand members.
After the drama ended, the number of members stabilized at around ten thousand.
Ten thousand.
Some might say that was few for a celebrity.
But Taeha didn’t think so at all.
To him, it was an incredibly grateful number and a love he wanted to repay no matter what.
In fact, for a rookie actor, ten thousand was a very large Fan Cafe membership.
Usually, rookie actors with some buzz had about five to eight thousand members.
For reference, top actors in the Republic of Korea had Fan Cafe memberships averaging fifty to eighty thousand.
Once you hit a hundred thousand, there was a saying that you could live just off endorsement deals—it was a staggering figure.
Compared to singer fandoms, Fan Cafe membership for actors was generally low.
Even so, Taeha was objectively receiving plenty of love.
Because of that, he tried all the harder to repay it.
Leaving thank-you messages and closing remarks in the Fan Cafe was a given.
Even while reviewing scripts for his next project, writing scripts, and attending Action School, he uploaded posts to MyStar every week without fail, communicating with fans.
Fortunately, the fans really loved Taeha’s style of MyStar posts.
He didn’t just post stylish photos; his posts always included sincere, straightforward words.
For example, like this:
[Today, after my workout, it ended up overlapping with rush hour.
There were so many people, it was tough.
I’d gotten used to always riding in the manager’s car and forgotten what this felt like,
But once again, I realized how many people get through each day with difficulty.
I’ll live my life with gratitude and strive even harder.
I hope everyone is getting enough rest to take on tomorrow,
Have a peaceful night.]
Content you could relate to.
Content that comforted through empathy.
These were always present in Taeha’s posts, which is why they resonated so much with fans.
But no matter how diligently Taeha uploaded MyStar posts, the fans still had a thirst.
Given that an actor could only put out one or two works a year at best, the off-season felt too long.
So Taeha searched for various ways to get closer to his fans.
That’s when he learned about it through Im Chan-hyung.
It was Planet.
“Planet?”
“Yeah. It’s like a chatroom where you can communicate with your fans via messages.”
“One-on-one chatting?”
“The receiving side is one-on-one, but your message gets sent to everyone. But for the fans, it feels like a one-on-one chat.”
Im Chan-hyung continued to explain.
Fans can’t see each other’s messages.
If they enter a code, you can address them by their chosen nickname.
Voice messages, photos, and videos can also be sent.
The more Taeha heard Im Chan-hyung’s explanation, the more he thought it was a good communication platform.
Unlike live broadcasts, you don’t need to be glued to it, which was quite impressive.
During breaks, while on the move, or when you can’t sleep—
You could chat with fans.
Fans would feel a greater sense of closeness.
There was just one problem.
“It can’t be free at all?”
“Nope. There’s no free service on Planet. You have to subscribe monthly.”
“If they subscribe monthly, can they also chat with other celebrities?”
“They can, but the price is set according to the number of people.”
“Ah.”
This was something Taeha hadn’t expected.
Meaning, if Taeha didn’t actively communicate on Planet, fans who paid for a subscription would be getting the short end of the stick.
“I really have to do it properly. Not that I ever planned not to.”
A few days later, Taeha’s Planet service finally began.
***
Jeon Sun Young was one of the fans who joined Taeha’s Official Fan Cafe a bit late.
She became a fan only after the name Initial was decided and had ended.
Jeon Sun Young hadn’t been a fan of Taeha from the beginning.
In fact, she was usually indifferent to celebrities and hardly watched dramas unless they were really famous.
But, thanks to the mysterious ways of the Al-go-ri-jeum, a post by Taeha showed up on MyStar.
Drawn by a photo with a unique vibe, she clicked the post—an accident that led her to become Taeha’s fan.
Taeha’s post, a plain reflection about people commuting on the subway after work.
For Jeon Sun Young, who dragged her thoroughly worn-out body home after working until dawn all week and, having finally made it out at exactly five o’clock on Friday, found herself trapped in a jam-packed train—it was comforting.
Some might call it coincidence.
But because Jeon Sun Young felt comforted, the next day she binge-watched all the now slightly cooled but once wildly popular over the weekend.
And she realized—
That she had fallen completely for Taeha.
That was why she even bought a monthly Planet subscription.
“Hmmm.”
Recently, Jeon Sun Young had been in a really good mood.
She still had lots of work and rarely got off at a reasonable hour, but what kept her spirits up was Taeha’s Planet.
Taeha’s Planet didn’t feel like the typical “just Oppa and me, only us” kind of message.
Instead, it felt like a lively group chat, and that was endlessly fascinating.
It was like playfully bantering with a younger brother.
Maybe that’s why so many of Taeha’s fans used ‘Nuna’ rather than ‘darling’ or ‘Yeobo’ as their nickname on Planet.
And Taeha, who seemed to be there whenever she logged in, sent messages often, so each time she entered Planet and heard him call out “Nuna, Nuna,” she was filled with positive energy.
But it wasn’t as if Taeha always came off as a kid.
In between, he would leave words full of deep thought and life insight.
Because of this, on the Fan Cafe, people often posted screenshots of Taeha’s Planet messages and commented that he seemed like a wise child.
Sometimes like a younger brother, sometimes like a lover—Taeha’s many sides.
It moved many fans and comforted them in their difficult lives.
And the reason Jeon Sun Young had been in a good mood lately.
It was also because of the reply Taeha sent to her message.
[If I said I could fully understand Nuna’s feelings, that’d be a lie.]
[But what I do understand is—]
[You never need to feel like you have to work so hard that you’d rather die.]
[So don’t try to do even better,]
[Just go in a direction where Nuna can be happy.]
It was the kind of thing only someone who’d worked themselves to death could say.
Jeon Sun Young received great comfort from these words, and since then, she felt courage growing within her.
The courage to stop anytime during these hard times and start a new life.
Of course, neither Jeon Sun Young nor the other fans who received this message knew—
That Taeha truly had worked himself to death once.
This all happened just before filming began for the newly joined Lee Seok-hyun in .