박배우 X 김남팬

PARKBAEU X KIMNAMPAEN

MANGA

STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
4
RELEASE
January 3, 2020
CHAPTERS
171

DESCRIPTION

What if you could talk to your favorite fictional character every day? And what if they make you feel like the most special person in the world? “Good morning,” “I was thinking about you,” “Sweet dreams,” “See you tomorrow”... Some fans dive into their TV/movie/book obsessions on social media by interacting with accounts that take on the persona of their favorite characters. But what if the person behind that fictional account is actually...the very star who played that role?

(Source: Lezhin)

CHAPTERS

REVIEWS

nicknugat
100/100
The sweetest and most diabetic thing I've ever read~
SPOILERS BELOW!! FINISH READING THE STORY FIRST IF YOU HAVEN'T CUZ IT'S PEAKKK~

I genuinely loved this series so much, and I just want to talk about it in a very unstructured way.

The premise of this story is honestly pretty simple, but I just want to express how much I enjoyed it. At the time I'm writing this, I'd say this is one of my favorite—if not my favorite—series of all time, BL or not (to be fair, most stuff I read/have been reading is BL anyway lmao).

Quick little synopsis

The story follows our MC, Fanboy Kim, who is a big fan of an actor named Star Park (yes, the names are very literal, haha). The idea of Character-bots are introduced to us in the first chapter: they are basically people that act as a fictional character that you can talk to (think Character AI, except the person you're speaking to is actually a real person lmao). And so, Fanboy makes a Twitter post requesting a C-bot for the character Kang Chan, a character that Star played in a show called "Sweet." Normally, it's just some random person that plays the role for the character, but little did Fanboy know that Star would be the one to accept his request and end up being the one to act as his C-bot.

Now Fanboy is obviously just happy to be talking to (someone acting like) the character he admires. He also acts but only in plays at the time (and acting is actually something that he got into after being inspired by Star). And one day, his C-bot shows up at one of his plays and sends him a picture, and Fanboy is obviously very happy about that.

Fast forward a little, and his C-bot tells Fanboy that he had a connection and was able to get him a spot to act on a show with Star. Obviously, he was very shocked and happy. Before the day he was to go in, the C-bot told Fanboy that he would wear a ribbon. When he showed up that day, deep in thought, Star sat down next to him without him realizing, and he freaked out, of course, haha. After they made some small talk, Star was like, "Oh, by the way, Star Fan (that's Fanboy's name on Twitter), why didn't you wear a ribbon today? I was looking forward to seeing you in it." Of course, Fanboy freaks out and gets very flustered and confused. He then goes on about seeing his plays and liking his enunciation and diction during his acting. After that, he reveals that he was the one receiving all the good morning texts from Fanboy. :D

Anyway, the whole story is just really sweet and diabetic—I genuinely adore them both so much ?. Their dynamic is so adorable, and Star is just the perfect boyfriend. There's not too much I can really talk about, both because I don't remember due to my bad memory and just that the story is pretty straightforward, but it's honestly just something you have to experience for yourself because it's just so cute and amazing.

SPOILERS BELOW!! (I would've added spoiler tags but the bullet points wouldn't have worked properly...)

Now, of course, as with every series, I do have my small criticisms—or should I say, things that I wish were, weren't, and were changed—of the story.
- If there was more background on Star's family, I think that would've been great. We did get to see his mom and his cousin (when Star was at his play when he was younger and got inspired by his acting) but nothing else from what I recall. There was no father figure discussed either (but it might've just been too irrelevant to mention).
- We did get to see Fanboy's mom and sister (W sibling), but I also don't really recall much of their screen time. We also don't really get any discussions on he also doesn't have any father figure in the picture.
- This was basically the whole premise anyway, so I never really wanted to say it out loud because it felt kinda mean and just very blunt, but I did find it a bit weird how obsessed Fanboy was with Star, moreso before they met and formed a connection. It seemed like every waking moment was dedicated to worshipping and fanboying (his name is so fitting in these moments) over Star, even to the point where he was yapping about it all the time to his best friend, Dong-ryo (I actually love him, by the way, he's a W friend—especially for listening all the time and being supportive—and also very cute). I would never shame anyone for their interests, even if they are actors and stuff, but I just found his obsession a bit much at times (I'm so reluctant to use the word "creepy" just because Fanboy is so cute and I know he would never mean any harm ? maybe he does tho LMAO, especially with that one time when he vowed to not join a chatroom exchanging photos of Star but once he was informed there were photos from a semi-nude album, he immediately changed his mind ?).
  
  As his relationship with Star shifted from a parasocial one to a friendship, then to a romantic relationship, while he was still a fan of him, it was in a much healthier way and it was coupled with his love for him for who he is as a person rather than the surface-level attraction he had merely toward his acting and appearance.
  
  I find it so sweet how Star was so accepting and understanding toward Fanboy throughout the entire duration of their relationship. Even when he was still getting to know Fanboy, he never once was creeped or weirded out by his behavior (even when he found out he was in a chatroom for exchanging possibly semi-nude photos of him ? I still find that crazy cuz- is strange behavior that normal to him, does he just care at all, or does he just love Fanboy that much?).
God, I genuinely had to sit here and THINK to figure out what I had gripes about in this story, just because I LOVED IT SO MUCHHH WAHHH~

But despite everything, this is a 10/10 from me based on how I feel personally and subjectively, not objectively. No series will ever be completely perfect, and that's just a fact. However, are they perfect in my heart? Yes.
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