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Life as an ex-supermodel is surprisingly easy during the apocalypse, thanks to the censorship skill Kim Dokja ended up with.
It helps to hide his face and his most prominent features, so that no matter where he goes he won’t be recognised as one of the highest-paid models in all of Korea. Here, shuffling along with his companions, he’s no longer Kim Dokja, the international beauty, but Kim Dokja, the smart companion.
Han Sooyoung is the only one who knew about his old job, and that’s purely because the circle of rich, young Koreans was only so large. He’d bumped into her once or twice at a party, and neither had been too impressed with each other at first.
But he’s happy it’s her that knows. She never mentions it in front of the others. Kim Dokja thinks it’s because she understands a little of the hassle, but also because it means she can pester him as much as she can in private.
However, the anonymity and lack of harassment comes with a downside.
“Sangah-unnie, Ugly Ahjussi is back!”
People think he’s ugly now.
“Lee Jihye,” he calls back calmly, through gritted teeth. It’s not her fault. “Where’s everyone?”
The teenager snickers at seeing his annoyance at the nickname and jerks her thumb behind her shoulder to where the others are all gathered. “Over there.”
He huffs and walks past her briskly, eager to get rid of his irritation.
As someone who had grown up beautiful and had made a fortune off of his face, being called ugly was one of the worst insults that could be thrown at Kim Dokja. Before the scenarios, being ugly was like a death sentence to him, as it was for many models who were at his level of prestige. Ugly meant losing his career and everything he’d ever worked for in his whole life. Ugly was a terrible fate for someone like Kim Dokja.
Especially after all the work he’d put into his appearance. He remembers applying to small modelling agencies and getting accepted excruciatingly slowly, and the torture he endured just to make sure he kept those contracts and got to keep doing what he loved. Eating barely anything made him thin, but would have ruined his skin—sleeping terribly to do all his schoolwork and do his shoots would have given him eyebags. A bad haircut would mean he’d lose out, bad posture, a single misplaced bruise. Everything had to be perfect.
It was impossible to balance, but Kim Dokja had done so either way. And, as a reward for his perseverance, Kim Dokja’s eighteenth birthday had seen him land a golden opportunity, and the rest was history. Soon after he had offers coming at him left and right, big brands wanting him for his figure and his flawless skin. When his manager had proposed the idea of him interacting with fans on social media lives, his popularity had only skyrocketed when they all fell in love with his witty, quick personality. He was beautiful, and, as an interviewer had once joked, sex with mile-long legs. He was Kim Dokja, one of the hottest models in the modern age.
Never had anyone paired with cameras so perfectly. Every shot of him was stunning, every pose he made was graceful, every walk he did left people in awe. The things he modeled and was caught by the paparazzi wearing would go out of stock in a matter of days.
Kim Dokja being ugly is an apocalypse worse than the actual apocalypse. Call him self-centered, but he wasn’t made to be plain-looking. He was made to be stunning, and yet here he is, with a doughy reflection that conceals all of the beauty he’d been born with. He looks nothing like himself and it unnerves him. He just doesn’t know how to turn off the damned skill that hides his face.
Maybe it’s for the better, though. At least now, he knows people like him for him and not for his money, or his looks. That was a struggle in the past, even as a fledgling model who struggled to find the confidence to continue. Everybody liked him without knowing who he actually was, but forgot that he was more than a photo in a magazine. The friendships he has now are genuine, and he wouldn’t give them up for the world.
“Why the hell are you on that billboard?” Jung Heewon says the moment she sees him.
“Hello,” Kim Dokja deadpans.
There's a confused hum behind him, and then a gasp. He turns to find Lee Jihye blinking rapidly.
“The billboard,” Lee Jihye says, eyes wide. “You’re on a billboard?”
Kim Dokja looks at where she shakily points to and finds that there is, indeed, his face plastered all over an old, rickety-looking billboard. Judging by the clothes, he recognizes it to be from his shoot of a fall collection.
The kids are gathered too, looking in the same direction. Instead of looking shocked (or horrified like Lee Jihye), they both look so enthralled by the sight of Kim Dokja posing with another model, arm in arm and laughing in a way perfectly crafted to seem like they’ve been caught in the middle of a conversation, but yet both still look stunning somehow. He even catches a whisper of, “I knew Ahjussi was good-looking.”
Oh, right, he thinks. They found out.
Strangely enough, he’s not at all affected by the fact he’s been exposed. It’s not that big of a deal, really, is it?
[ B ut we r e n ‘t y ou j ust s a y ing tha t it wa s g oo d tha t n ob ody k n ew— ? ]
“I am, aren’t I?” Kim Dokja says, amused.
Lee Jihye gapes at his nonchalance. “You’re modeling. On a billboard. For Saint Lauren.”
“Saint Laurent,” he corrects. “But what’s wrong with that?”
“You were a model?!” she cries. “You look so pretty! What?! I’ve been calling you ugly but you look like that?! How?! Why do you look so—different?”
“Skill issue,” Kim Dokja says, feeling smug that she’s so shocked. He hears someone choke at his words and finds Yoo Joonghyuk staring at him from behind.
“Skill issue," he repeats, eyebrows drawn. “Do you even know what that means?”
“Did you guys not know?” comes Han Sooyoung’s late contribution to the conversation. She grins at Kim Dokja, and dangles a lollipop from her hands in the way one would hold a cigarette. “He’s an international star. Korea’s Sweetheart. One of the richest male supermodels in Asia—”
Kim Dokja cuts her off swiftly when Lee Jihye’s face turns an interesting shade of puce. “Alright, I think they all get it.”
She turns her lollipop to him like a weapon and hisses, “No. No. I’ve been so quiet about this for so long, I have to say it. Everyone’s seen your face before, but none of these guys recognize you! It’s infuriating!”
He frowns. “Nobody recognized you either, Miss Highest Paid Web Novelist in South Korea.”
“Alright, Hottest Male Model 2020.”
“Bestseller at thirteen years old.”
“Met Gala, 2021.”
“Most Popular Female Web Novelist 2022.”
“You got a shoot with Gucci on your eighteenth birthday! I got, like, a Cartier bracelet!”
“And you’re... complaining? You got two webnovels adapted into dramas, and you’re acting like I’m the more successful one?”
Han Sooyoung scoffs. "Of course I'm complaining, I have an entire stack of those from all of my birthdays over the years. It's unoriginal and tacky—oh, whatever. Your face is on a billboard!”
“You got offers to model with me at a party five years ago. You could have been on a billboard too.”
“I was twenty one and had acne scars, sue me for being scared! You were sex-on-legs at twenty one! How could I even think of being next to you on camera when I looked like hot shit?!”
“Again, with the sex-on-legs… you looked just fine at that party. Also, you’ve won awards. I just have names that every famous person in South Korea can have. I think everyone has ended up being Korea’s Sweetheart at some point!”
“Stop,” Yoo Joonghyuk suddenly snaps. “Just—enough. We get it. Stop yelling.”
“What the fuck,” Jung Heewon is mumbling to herself, her face overcast by distress. “They’re both famous? And rich? And pretty? And young? Why—but—”
Yoo Sangah seems to understand whatever crisis Jung Heewon is going through and even adds to it. “We’re all more or less the same age… but I work in an office cubicle and you two are so successful…”
“Yoo Joonghyuk was famous too,” Kim Dokja points out. Technically, he’s right. In the world of Ways of Survival, Yoo Joonghyuk was an extremely popular gamer and streamer. And since, technically, they’re somewhat in the world of Ways of Survival, he too is popular.
“Doesn’t count. He’s from a book,” Han Sooyoung huffs, and Yoo Joonghyuk’s face has a fantastic little spasm attack at the reminder. Too soon. Poor guy’s probably still coping.
Lee Jihye shouts out next, looking distressed beyond belief that she didn’t know any of this before. “How famous can either of you be if I haven't heard of you? I called Ahjussi ugly, like, seconds ago. And he’s not even ugly?! But he looks ugly!”
“It’s a skill issue,” Kim Dokja laments.
“Skill issue,” Yoo Joonghyuk mumbles to himself. “What a dumbass.”
“Skill issue?” Jung Heewon asks. Yoo Joonghyuk looks more and more constipated with each repetition of the word.
[ Th is is Ki m Dokj a’ s fa ul t. ]
Huh? Bck then, you fought me when I tried to check my skills list...
[ Y ou r fa c e wo n’ t g et yo u ki ll e d b y co nstel lati on s. Id i o t. ]
What?
[ Sh ou l d h a ve as k ed at l e a st. St up id Ki m D ok j a. ]
You—fine. Turn off my face censor, then.
[ F or a l itt l e w h ile on l y. ]
There’s a small click in the back of Kim Dokja’s head, rather like a switch being turned off, and then his face suddenly feels a lot clearer than it had done a few seconds ago. There’s numerous gasps, and one cackling laugh.
“Y-Your face, Dokja-ssi,” Lee Hyunsung stammers. “It’s—”
“I know,” Dokja says, grinning, and Lee Jihye actually gawps.
Han Sooyoung isn’t at all affected by his face, and instead whistles whilst inspecting him up close. She gets so in his face that Kim Dokja almost shoves her away in surprise, but he reels it in when she leans back quickly enough.
“All that time of fighting and sweating and barely taking showers in lakes, but your skin is still perfect?” She grouses. “So not fair. How are you thirty one and you look twenty three? Even I didn’t look this good when I was actually twenty three.”
“Yours is fine,” Kim Dokja points out, and he’s right. Han Sooyoung really should have taken up that modeling offer back then.
She clicks her tongue at him. “Yeah, but I buy shit from the Dokkaebi store. You don’t.”
"Moisturizing skill."
Yoo Joonghyuk's spine straightens at that, and he looks like he's found answers to all his questions. Was he also so curious about Kim Dokja's skincare routine?
“Plastic surgery!” Lee Jihye cries. “Or—or something! It has to be.”
Kim Dokja sympathizes with her a little. Only a little. He’s allowed to be petty after all those times she called him ugly and bruised his massive fucking ego.
“What did you look like at my age?” Lee Jihye next demands. “Show me a picture or something!”
Kim Dokja freezes at that, remembering all the shoots he did at twenty one. He then distinctly remembers that he had done many shoots and therefore has many pictures, and that he looked just as good back then as he does now.
“No,” he decides for the sake of Lee Jihye’s pride. She’s pretty, sure, but he’s Kim Dokja. One doesn’t become a supermodel easily. He can’t do that to her self esteem, especially not when he knows how insecure some people can get.
“Why not?”
But Han Sooyoung agrees with him on this one, thankfully. “It’ll literally smash your ego into a million pieces. Trust me.”
Lee Jihye only looks more determined. Her face flushes pink with indignation. “No, show me. This has to be plastic surgery.”
Thirty three seconds and one Google search of Kim Dokja age 21 has her face going completely pale at the close up of young Kim Dokja’s face, hair blonde and a wink directed towards the camera.
“Told you,” Han Sooyoung says, offering a lemon lollipop to the now distraught Lee Jihye. "I told you and you didn't listen, so I have no sympathy for you at all.”
“What about us?” Lee Gilyoung pleads at the same time as all of this, though he’s asking out of genuine excitement instead of disbelief. “What did Hyung look like at my age?”
“I wanna see too,” Shin Yoosung says, eyes shining. “Ahjussi has such nice cheekbones.”
The picture that Han Sooyoung pulls up genuinely has Kim Dokja flinch in second hand embarrassment. Why did he ever bleach only half of his hair? It took ages to grow it back out, but he had to dye it in the meantime to do other shoots. Ugh. The bad ideas of youth.
“Wasn’t that hairstyle a trend back then?” Yoo Sangah says kindly, probably noticing his embarrassment. “Even I did the half-coloured style—with temporary dye, of course—when I was younger.”
“Ah, yes, I guess it was,” is all Kim Dokja says. He doesn’t tell her that he started the trend when a picture of him went viral on the internet. He nonetheless appreciates the sentiment of her comfort.
However, Han Sooyoung is on a mission to make his life hell, so she says it for him. “Yeah, he started that trend. It was ridiculous, everyone was praying for their parents to let them dye their hair like that.”
“Oh my god,” Jung Heewon whispers. "This is so fucked."
Kim Dokja sneaks a look over at Yoo Joonghyuk’s face when everyone is distracted, eager to see what his reaction is. He’s caught off guard when he finds the protagonist staring at him instead of the many phone screens.
Yoo Joonghyuk… his face looks incredibly angry, and yet Kim Dokja knows that’s not it. The intense look is something much quieter than the usual irritation, and the ex-model feels a sudden embarrassment as the staring continues.
“What?” he says, instantly bashful. It’s a little humiliating to call himself good-looking when in the presence of Yoo Joonghyuk, after all. But—and pardon him, he’s had a lot of experience at knowing what people look like when they think he’s pretty—Kim Dokja gets a feeling that Yoo Joonghyuk is not at all unimpressed with his face.
He glances up again, and finds Yoo Joonghyuk frowning thoughtfully, still watching him.
“You must have been a very successful model,” the protagonist starts off. “But you still had time to read my… read that story?”
Instantly, Kim Dokja is overwhelmed by memories of sneaking his phone out to read inbetween car rides and various styling breaks, when he’d cover his grins and carefully dab away his tears when reading. He’d been scolded about ending up late to functions and ruining the powder which stopped the light glaring off his skin with laughter and crying, but it hadn’t ever occurred to him that he wouldn’t read the day's chapter of Ways of Survival, as and when it was posted.
“I mean, I suppose I made time,” Kim Dokja shrugs very nonchalantly. “In the car and stuff. I found a way to read it, always.”
“Ew,” Han Sooyoung says emphatically. He ignores her because Yoo Joonghyuk looks rather pleased with his answer, and he’s had enough of her talking anyways.
“You haven’t stopped staring at me, you know,” Kim Dokja boldly says. “Am I that good-looking or something?”
Yoo Joonghyuk scoffs and abruptly looks away. “Who cares about your looks, you fool?”
It’s not a no. Kim Dokja spies red ears and a shifty gaze, and he smiles.
“For the record, you could be a model too,” he decides to say, instead of pushing further. “You’re not so bad yourself.”
A small ding distracts him from Yoo Joonghyuk’s retort, and he gives a curious hum. Funnily enough, there hadn’t been anything from the channel so far. Maybe he didn’t notice anything?
It’s a system notification, and Kim Dokja feels the life draining from him when he reads it.
[ Warning: Please unmute your system notifications! You have received 999+ donations and messages from the channel! ]
His plush mouth twists into a grim smile. The constellations are probably shitting bricks right now—Uriel is probably either dying or suffocating.
Ah, he thinks cheerfully. Well.
...at least they won't call him ugly anymore?
Extra:
[ ERROR: Channel <BI-90594>'s messages exceed 999+ messages. As a result, only the latest indirect notifications are shown. Streamer 'Biyoo' should therefore contact <Dokkaebi Channel Support> for additional advice on... ]
[ The constellation, Demon-like Judge of Fire, is smiling happily. ]
[ The constellation, Lily Blooming on Aquarius, is wary of another outburst from the Demon-like Judge of Fire. ]
[ Many constellations of <Eden> flinch at the reminder of the Demon-like Judge of Fire's hysterical sobbing. ]
[ The constellation, Guardians of Youth and Travel, laughs outwardly at the Demon-like Judge of Fire's hysterics over a mere incarnation's face. ]
[ The constellation, Demon-like Judge of Fire, would like to remind everyone that the Demon King of Salvation is not just an incarnation. ]
[ The constellation, Demon-like Judge of Fire, sponsors 10,000 coins. ]
[ The constellation, Demon-like Judge of Fire, tears up and proclaims they always knew Incarnation 'Kim Dokja' was handsome! ]
[ The constellation, Abyssal Black Flame Dragon, calls bull■ and says that Incarnation 'Kim Dokja' is average-looking at best. ]
[ The constellation, Demon-like Judge of Fire, asks if the Abyssal Black Flame Dragon wants to fight. ]
[ The constellation, Abyssal Black Flame Dragon, says they aren't scared to get into a fight! ]
[ The constellation, Demon-like Judge of Fire, says the constellation Abyssal Black Flame Dragon is a ■■ that ■■■ who can ■■ and she'll ■■ and he can ■■■ since he's ■■■! ]
[ The constellation, Abyssal Black Flame Dragon, flinches. ]
[ The constellation, Abyssal Black Flame Dragon, quickly says they did not send that message. ]
[ The constellation, Prisoner of the Golden Headband, compares their hair to that of Incarnation 'Kim Dokja' ]
[ A constellation who is fond of botany sponsors 200 coins. ]
[ The constellation, Secretive Plotter, is looking approvingly at Incarnation 'Kim Dokja' ]
[ The constellation, Secretive Plotter, sponsors 3000 coins. ]
[ The constellation, Demon-like Judge of Fire, praises the Secretive Plotter's good taste but scolds their stinginess. ]
[ A constellation who likes to change genders sends 500 coins. ]
[ The constellation, Secretive Plotter, says Incarnation 'Kim Dokja was always beautiful. ]
[ A few constellations wonder what that means. ]
[ The constellation, Abyssal Black Flame Dragon, calls the Secretive Plotter whiped. ]
[ The constellation, Secretive Plotter, says whipped* and asks if a child like the Abyssal Black Flame Dragon is allowed to be unsupervised on the <Star Stream> ]
[ The constellation, Abyssal Black Flame Dragon, screeches. ]
[ The constellation, Abyssal Black Flame Dragon, rors bravely* ]
[ The constellation, Secretive Plotter, says roars** ]
[ The constellation, Secretive Plotter, says that the Abyssal Black Flame Dragon's screaming is commendably loud. ]
[ The constellation, Secretive Plotter, sponsors 10,000 coins. ]
[ The constellation, Queen of the Darkest Spring, smiles proudly at the Prince of the <Underworld> ]
[ The constellation, Father of the Rich Night, sponsors 50,000 coins. ]