Peninsula: My e-sports dream shattered, I chose to become an actor.

Li Mingye gently lowered the brim of his baseball cap, blocking the somewhat glaring sunlight from his eyes.

He has a rather important schedule today – a meeting with the person in charge of GG's filming.

According to his agent, Kim Hyun-seok, the brand extended the offer proactively.

The brand's name is Olens, a local Korean contact lens brand. It started as a chain of contact lens retailers and focused on expanding its offline stores. By the end of 2012, Olens had 43 chain stores in South Korea and enjoyed great popularity and reputation there.

We're now planning to start airing some GG content on TV as a trial.

Since it was a "trial run," the budget was naturally not generous, and they couldn't afford to hire top-tier celebrities. This gave the opportunity to Li Mingye, a "potential stock" with an excellent reputation, since he was really cheap at the moment.

It's said that the inspiration for GG's head came from a fashion magazine. In that photo, Li Mingye, wearing a gray suit, leans lazily against a mottled wall. His deep eyes stare directly at the camera through the paper; despite the lack of elaborate expression, they possess a fatal attraction, as if they could easily see through people's hearts.

The person in charge was so excited on the phone that he was incoherent, exaggerating his abilities to the skies, which made Li Mingye feel a little embarrassed.

"Excuse me, are you Li Mingye?"

As Li Mingye and Jin Xianshuo were quietly confirming the upcoming schedule, a young woman with slightly flushed cheeks and exquisite makeup timidly approached. Her eyes sparkled with excitement, and her fingers nervously twisted the hem of her clothes.

Although he hasn't officially debuted yet, he's already quite well-known in the industry. Occasionally, you can run into some passersby on the street who are impressed by him.

Li Mingye stopped, nodded slightly, and gave the girl a sincere and gentle smile.

Fans are like family, and he never hesitates to show kindness to those who like him.

Of course, sasaeng fans are an exception. Fortunately, so far, he hasn't encountered any of those extreme fanatics.

After receiving confirmation, the girl's voice trembled with excitement: "I've been following you ever since I saw that photo of you in front of the JYP building! Can I get your autograph?"

Li Mingye readily agreed, took the paper and pen she handed him, and signed his name smoothly.

The girl clutched the autograph to her chest as if it were a priceless treasure, then mustered her courage and tentatively asked, "Oppa, when will you be able to act? Everyone is really looking forward to seeing your work."

"I'm still looking at scripts, hoping to find a suitable role as soon as possible and try not to disappoint everyone," Li Mingye replied with a smile, his tone humble.

"Ugh, JYP is such a jerk, they don't even give us any resources. Oppa must have been fooled by them in the first place," the girl complained.

Li Mingye chuckled but didn't reply.

JYP did try to find him other partners, but Kim Hyun-suk and he himself had high standards and didn't think they were suitable.

After saying goodbye to the enthusiastic fans, the brand's representative came forward to greet them.

"Wow... Mingye is more than ten times more handsome in person than in the magazine!" the person in charge exclaimed, his eyes filled with the joy of finding a treasure.

Li Mingye exchanged a few polite pleasantries before getting down to business.

"This time, we'd like Mingye to wear our new 'Deep Sea Blue' contact lenses." The person in charge opened the sample box, showing a pair of contact lenses with a faint blue glow. "We believe that only you, Mingye, can perfectly pull off the mystery and story that these contact lenses bring."

"Regarding the plot, we envision it as follows..."

Li Mingye listened patiently to the person in charge and nodded.

He was very satisfied with GG's design concept. The other party didn't treat him casually just because he was a newcomer; on the contrary, they provided a remarkably high-quality script. With that, what more could he ask for?

Both parties successfully reached an agreement and agreed to start filming two days later on the beach in Jeju Island.

After saying goodbye to the brand representatives, Li Mingye stood by the roadside, thought for a moment, and then took out his phone to send a message to Lin Nayeon.

He replied almost instantly.

"Really? That's great! I'll be able to see you on TV soon! What kind of guy are you?"

Looking at the series of messages she sent, Li Mingye's lips unconsciously curled up into a smile.

"You'll find out when you watch it. I'll tell you the broadcast time. Just look forward to it."

"Ugh~ Why are you teasing me again!"

A pouty bunny emoji popped up on the screen. Even through the screen, Li Mingye could imagine her adorable, sulky face.

"What if Nayeon finds out beforehand that she won't be watching?"

How could I not watch!

I'll stay up even if it's past midnight!

Imagining Lim Nayeon's confident tone, Lee Myung-yeop couldn't help but laugh out loud.

They're chatting more and more frequently now. Lim Nayeon often takes the initiative to text him when she's free, and he does the same.

Although he rarely made phone calls—after all, trainees' schedules are packed, and it's hard to find a long stretch of free time, and calling at night would disturb his roommate's rest—he actually enjoyed the ambiguous tug-of-war between them through text messages.

His previous romantic experiences were mostly simple and direct, so this kind of back-and-forth, tacit testing felt quite novel to him and made him particularly excited.

I had just finished chatting with Nayeon when my phone vibrated; Tzuyu had also sent me a message.

"Ugh... I got scolded by the teacher again. (｡•́︿•̀｡)"

She also said I'd never debut in my lifetime...

This was followed by a meme of a crying puppy.

Without hesitation, Li Mingye replied instantly:

"If Tzuyu can't even debut, JYP should just disband as soon as possible."

"Hehe (*∩_∩*) Oppa, you're from JYP too."

"There's no point in staying at a company that lacks vision."

"kkkkk"

Looking at Chou Tzu-yu, who had been coaxed by him in just a few words, Li Mingye showed a fatherly smile of satisfaction.

Aside from the initial awkwardness and tentativeness of the first few days after exchanging contact information, the two quickly became close. Chou Tzu-yu was incredibly open to sharing with him, sometimes even telling him how many pieces of meat she ate at night, more frequently than Lim Na-yeon and Momo.

Knowing that Chou Tzu-yu is introverted and has low self-esteem, Lee Ming-ye always uses encouragement when talking to her. So far, it seems to be working well; Chou Tzu-yu recently shared with him that she's started actively making friends.

Li Mingye originally thought she was a complete shut-in, but after getting to know her, he discovered that she was actually a talkative and adorable girl who would sometimes even make fun of him.

"She's much cuter than Dorn."

Lee Ming-ye couldn't help but compare his younger sister to Chou Tzu-yu, who was about the same age, and finally concluded that he wished Chou Tzu-yu were his sister.

Just then, the phone rang abruptly—it was Kim Hyun-seok.

"Mingye, how's your acting training going?"

"Hmm..." Li Mingye hesitated for a moment, not wanting to make any absolute statements, "It shouldn't be a problem if it's not a very deep role."

"That's good," Kim Hyun-seok's voice sounded cheerful. "There's news about your debut project."