Caught
Title: Caught
Pairing: Song Jae Rim/Kim So Eun
Genre: Fluff
Rating: pg-13
Summary: Chase or be chased
I wrote this little fic before SJR's interview came out today, explaining how he's essentially KSE's puppy. It's validating that my intuition is spot-on. As a warning, it's been awhile since I've written a fic, so thanks for your patience as I get back into the swing of things.
He stands before the mirror, his new coif making his already small face look even tinier, as he stares at himself in the mirror. He turns his head slightly to the left and then the right, examining the angles of his cheekbones and jawline, even raising his chin to inspect his signature adam’s apple. He squints a bit, his eyebrows raising, as he attempts to give off a feel of sophistication, the likes of a chaebol, or at least that’s what he’s hoping, but in a matter of seconds, the ends of his mouth turn up into small smile before he starts chuckling at himself. Suave? Someone who’s refined and smooth around the edges? Him? Yeah, right. He runs his fingers through his hair, pushing it off his forehead, before remembering to comb hit forward again. He needs to get used to this new hairstyle.
She had always liked when his hair was off his forehead. His boyish appearance with the long-ish fringe and easy-going manner were safe and approachable, but he knew that she had seen pictures of him when he was at the height of his modeling career and in movies when he played the strong, silent type. She preferred that side of him, handsome and mysterious over the goofy, easy-going image he established on that TV show.
Ah, that TV show. It’s been over a year since their last filming and no one knows that even though they hardly see each other, they exchange texts everyday and talk at least twice a week. It started off sporadic at first, the two of them checking in to see how the other was and comforting each other through the sadness of not seeing the staff (and each other) anymore, and over time, they began to expect texts from each other every day, several times a day, and neither disappointing the other. They had grown close during the time they spent on that show and continued to be there for each other even after they left the show, while their relationship or friendship or whatever it is they have, deepened with each day. As he always did, he supported her, talking her through her decision to star in the spin-off of his web series until she decided that she would jump in and go for it. He also helped her through those months when she had no entertainment agency. She, likewise, would give him constructive criticism on his acting so he could get better while also listening to him when he had lots to say and no one to say it to.
When the idea to star in a drama together came up, understandably, they were cautious. To move their virtual relationship into a drama was risky. Not a lot of virtual couples pursued joint projects after their time on the show ended, so this would be fairly new territory, not just for them, but for other alumnae. She had thought of declining the offer, but after some thought, she decided to do it. She had always been picky about her roles, but after some consideration, the opportunity was too good to pass up. They had talked it through, weighing all of their individual options, and decided that this drama was what they needed. Deep down, they didn’t admit it, but they missed each other and it was an opportunity to spend time together again.
Today, he’s grinning like an idiot at his reflection because he knows that in a few short hours, he’ll be with her again in public, and he can’t wait. He has to remind himself that they need to create the impression that they are close colleagues and nothing more. The physical contact he’s well known for must be kept at a minimum, even if he would prefer touching her whenever they’re together.
“Manner hands, manner hands,” he mutters to himself, though smiling at the thought of being close to her again. “Manner hands...”
He checks his phone and sees that it’s time to leave. His van must be downstairs and so he grabs his bag and heads down, climbing into one of the seats in the back after greeting his team. He puts on his headphones and leans back against the headrest of his seat. Closing his eyes, he listens to a playlist his sister arranged for him. He doesn’t know what he’s listening to and he’s ambivalent about the indie- electro- pop that’s streaming into his ears, but he just needs a distraction, anything to take his mind off of the butterflies that are bouncing around in his stomach.
As he sits quietly, he pictures her face in his mind’s eye and he can feel himself gently smiling at the thought of her. She’s beautiful, yet her beauty has always intimidated him. Seeing her again in person makes him nervous. He should have no reason to feel this way, considering they’re in regular contact, but it does. What will she think of him? Will she think he’s dashing and attractive, or will she think of him as clumsy and uncouth. It shouldn’t matter, right? Essentially, they are portraying specific characters, but it’s off-camera that has his stomach in knots.
Before long, the van arrives at its destination and he opens his eyes. After the initial reading with Lee Ha-Na and her subsequent departure, the director felt it best to schedule another reading, and this time, with Soeun. Solim’s amazing chemistry was the legendary and the director wanted to see it first-hand for himself. Jaerim climbs out of the car and makes his way to the reading room, always making sure to greet everyone he sees, from coordis and assistants to the higher ups and everyone in between. He also keeps an eye out for that one person who’s making him perspire just thinking about being close to her.
When he enters the room, he’s surprised to see her at the opposite end of where he is. She’s early. Well, earlier than him, and he wants to bound up to her, like an excited puppy, but he knows decorum in this professional situation must be observed. He strikes up a conversation with a hoobae, making sure his body is facing her direction, keeping an eye on her and secretly wishing she would see him.
It was toward the ending of their time together on WGM and they had been sitting in their virtual house in Siamri. She had walked into their bedroom to look around and reminisce about their time together. He stood leaning against the doorway, arms crossed, watching as she walked around the room.
“What are you thinking about?” he asked and she spun around to smile that smile that twists a knife in his heart.
“Oh nothing. Just that we used our bedroom all but once.”
“Do you want to use it another time?” raising his eyebrows playfully at her and she scoffs at him.
“If you were a little more suave, I might have considered,” she giggles.
“Shall we do a scene, then?” he asks and he watches as her smile quickens the pace of his heart.
“What kind of scene?”
“One unlike the usual Solim couple interactions.”
“Like a dramatic scene? In character? Ad-libbing?”
“Yes.” He knows they can never maintain their composure, but it seems like she’s game to give it a go.
“And nothing silly. Serious, drama-type interactions?” she asks.
“Yes.”
“Call.”
He walks into the room and she moves toward the window, looking out to barren fields outside the house.
“Here you are. I’ve been looking all over for you,” he says, in a pained expression.
“Where else would I be?” she says, sadly.
“I just thought… Well, I just thought you’d be in Seoul.”
“Why? Our life has been here and now that we’re divorcing, it makes me sad to leave this place.”
“We had a beautiful life here. I’ll always remember it.” He walks closer to her and resists the urge to wrap his arms around her.
“We were doomed after Hye-Jin passed.”
He’s surprised about where she’s decided to go with the scene, but he rolls with it. He could easily play that Hye-Jin was their dog, but he wants to see what their chemistry is like in a more dramatic situation.
“Life isn’t fair.”
She turns to face him, her lip pouting and her eyes filling with tears. “If only our life hadn’t taken such a bad turn.”
“It’s all my fault. I’ll always blame myself,” he says, looking down, the tears stinging his eyes as if the situation were real.
She reaches up to cradle his face in the palm of her hand. “It was an accident. I don’t blame you. Not anymore.”
He looks up to see tears running down her face, which prompts his tears to also fall and for moments, they are the fictional and embattled couple they’ve conjured up. He can feel the breath from her nose on the palm of his hand and so far, she hasn’t broken her gaze from his. She lifts her chin, her lips reaching for his and as if on cue, his head bows lower to meet her mouth. They are so close that he can feel her warmth and her tears that are falling on his hand.
“I don’t want a divorce,” he blurts out hastily, wishing with all his heart that they and the fictional couple stay together forever.
“Oppa,” she says, pleadingly and before they can fulfill the kiss that is about to happen, one of the WGM assistants appeared in the doorway.
“We’re ready to roll in 10 minutes.”
They separate and wipe their eyes and tear-stained cheeks.
“Ugh, my eyes are probably puffy,” he says, and he feels her wiping his cheeks with her hand.
“They are,” she says softly, “But it’s okay.”
The pregnant silence between them is awkward. “We should get going,” he says, trying to transition back to work.
“Oppa always keeping me at arms’ length,” she says softly, and that he acts like he didn’t hear, which he chalks up to her still being in character.
“Sunbae? Sunbae?”
He’s pulled back into the present day by this young actor who’s been prattling on for a few minutes without noticing that Jaerim wasn’t even paying attention to begin with because he was caught up in his own reverie and openly staring at Soeun.
He looks back at the person he’s supposedly speaking to, who’s dumbfounded at to why Song Jae Rim is so preoccupied. Before he can respond, he sees her smiling and waving at him from a distance.
“I look forward to working with you,” he says, moving toward Soeun and leaving the young actor and their one-sided conversation behind.
Soon they are standing toe-to-toe, and not that it mattered anyway, but the world is back to feeling like it consists only of the two of them. Then again, that’s how it always is when they are together.
“Hi oppa,” she grins, and he has to resist the urge to pick her up in a hug and swing her around. “Really, a baseball cap?” she says, pointing to the top of his head.
He can’t muster up words because even though she’s dressed rather plainly for Soeun’s standards, he can’t take his eyes off her. Her comment about his hat makes him regret not dressing up more formally for this reading, like wearing a suit and making more of an effort with his hair. He should know better, considering she’s a fashionista. He should have actually stepped up his game instead of just wearing a white Harley Davidson t-shirt.
“Oppa, quit it,” she says, slapping his stomach playfully trying to get him to stop staring and to start talking. “Actually, maybe this silence is better than all those cheesy things that come tumbling out of your mouth.”
All he can do is smile and he wishes he could say something, but he’s just so happy to be in her company, he doesn’t know what to do. Texting and calling everyday is great, but actually being with her is amazing.
“How are your parents?” he asks, finally.
“Great. And yours?” She looks amused, no doubt laughing at his awkwardness of reverting back to basic level questions.
“Good. How’s your sister?”
“Fine. How’s YOUR sister?”
“Good,” he says shyly.
“Okay, seriously? Are we doing this right now?” she asks, snickering.
“What?”
“Are we really acting as if we don’t know the answers to these questions?” He shoots her a look like maybe they should keep things under wraps and she quickly pounces, determined to break his façade and terrorize him a little. “Seriously. I just spoke to your mom yesterday and your sister called me this morning.”
“Ssshhh.”
“And you spoke to my mom two days ago.”
“SSSHH!”
“And my sister wants you to text her the name of that actor…”
“Soeun,” he says, moving closer to her until they are inches away from each other, causing her to inhale sharply at their close vicinity. “Please…”
“Why,” she asks evenly, “Are you not wanting your girlfriend to know that we’re in contact?” and she starts looking around the room for an imaginary girlfriend.
“I don’t have a girlfriend. You know that.”
“How am I to know? You’re insisting we don’t talk, remember? So you must be courting someone then.”
“No,” he says, solemnly.
“Why don’t you want people to know we’re in contact?” He can’t answer the question. Was it a habit or was he trying to hide something? “I hate to disappoint you,” she continues, “Everyone knows about us being in contact, oppa. Everyone,” he winces and she emphasizes it even more, trying to get more of a rise out of him. “Every. One. Everyone. Why are you being weird about this?”
He has no idea why he’s acting strange about this whole situation. It shouldn’t matter, but it’s probably because he doesn’t know this cast and crew yet and they don’t yet know them. Well, not together, anyway, but also because he’s paralyzed being around her again. He’s back to not knowing how to interface with her, even though they are very comfortable with each other.
“And another thing, when I was promoting ‘Scholar’, I chose you over Jun Ki oppa.”
“I know.”
“You, oppa! That’s unheard of. We usually have to pick our lead actors, but WGM was over for awhile and I still chose you.” He can tell that she’s crossed the line between joking around to full blown irritation and he now knows to tread lightly, but her rant continues. “I have a question for you, oppa.”
He looks at her with earnest, encouraging her to proceed with her question.
“So do you think you did all the chasing on WGM?”
They both know he did. She admitted it to him herself, so he nods. “Yeah, we talked about it.”
“So for 9 months, you did the chasing?”
He nods.
“And do you think that I continue to hold the advantage in this, whatever this is?”
He nods again, but this time, she moves in close to him to whisper in his ear. “Well, I’ve been chasing you for the past 14 months.” He leans back to look at her, surprised by her words. “It’s been 14 months since our last taping and you haven’t noticed that I’m the one who’s been doing the chasing.”
“We’ll begin in 15 minutes, everyone!” the coordinator shouts out to warn the crowd.
“I need to go to the bathroom,” he tells her. “Do you need to go to the bathroom too?” hoping she’ll catch the hint and she nods quietly. “I’ll go in a minute. You come out in 2 minutes, okay?”
He leaves her, his hope hanging on a thread that she would meet him. There is a lot to be said, so he leans against the wall of the hallway, the seconds passing slowly. She appears and stands before him. “Yes?”
He doesn’t know where to begin and he still can’t believe what he had heard earlier. “So, 14 months?” She purses her lips together, a reply not needed, obviously. The ball is in his court and he knows he needs to man up. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
She scoffs at him again. “Seriously? If you knew me, and obviously, you don’t, you’d know that in my career, I have never, EVER been as vocal about my co-stars as I have been with you. Not even with the ones I dated or were rumored to be dating. But things were different with you. You’re different. I thought we, were different.”
He’s baffled. He never thought she felt the same way. Up until this point, he thought he was still chasing her.
“And when I was contacted for this drama, I didn’t hesitate. I said yes. I said yes to hopefully, a second chance, and now you’re acting as if the 23 months since we met was purely for publicity, like the texts we’ve been sending each other were meaningless. Why do you insist on keeping me at armʻs length away?”
He's reminded of those moments in Siamri when she first mentioned that he kept her away from him and he wants to kick himself. “I…” he begins to stammer, but she cuts him off.
“Forget it. I’m going back in. We need to revive our so-called chemistry so let’s do this.”
“I’m sorry,” he says suddenly. “I’m sorry for being stupid. I don’t know why I’m acting like this. I’m just nervous.”
“Nervous? For the drama?”
“No. To be around you again.”
She smiles broadly. “Really?”
“Yeah. It’s been awhile since, you know, we actually saw each other…”
She nods. “Yes, it’s been awhile, but I was looking forward to this. Weren’t you?”
“Yes. A lot.”
He can see her cheeks glowing pink at his answer and he’s relieved. “We should get back, oppa.”
“Want to come to my company later?” he asks, hoping she’ll say yes. “You know, to run over lines.”
“Sure.” She knows that seeing each other outside of filming is now totally justifiable. Of course, they still need to exercise caution to avoid any kind of scandal, but at this point, people are probably expecting it.
“I’ll text you the address later.”
She nods and moves toward the door. “I’m happy to be here, oppa… with you.”
“Me too.”
“I saw the script. There are a couple of kissing scenes,” she says, laughing as she crosses the threshold, leaving him behind to blush and stammer. “Maybe we need to practice that too.”
She turns on her heels and he faces the mirror to look at himself.
It feels nice to be caught. Finally.
Pairing: Song Jae Rim/Kim So Eun
Genre: Fluff
Rating: pg-13
Summary: Chase or be chased
I wrote this little fic before SJR's interview came out today, explaining how he's essentially KSE's puppy. It's validating that my intuition is spot-on. As a warning, it's been awhile since I've written a fic, so thanks for your patience as I get back into the swing of things.
He stands before the mirror, his new coif making his already small face look even tinier, as he stares at himself in the mirror. He turns his head slightly to the left and then the right, examining the angles of his cheekbones and jawline, even raising his chin to inspect his signature adam’s apple. He squints a bit, his eyebrows raising, as he attempts to give off a feel of sophistication, the likes of a chaebol, or at least that’s what he’s hoping, but in a matter of seconds, the ends of his mouth turn up into small smile before he starts chuckling at himself. Suave? Someone who’s refined and smooth around the edges? Him? Yeah, right. He runs his fingers through his hair, pushing it off his forehead, before remembering to comb hit forward again. He needs to get used to this new hairstyle.
She had always liked when his hair was off his forehead. His boyish appearance with the long-ish fringe and easy-going manner were safe and approachable, but he knew that she had seen pictures of him when he was at the height of his modeling career and in movies when he played the strong, silent type. She preferred that side of him, handsome and mysterious over the goofy, easy-going image he established on that TV show.
Ah, that TV show. It’s been over a year since their last filming and no one knows that even though they hardly see each other, they exchange texts everyday and talk at least twice a week. It started off sporadic at first, the two of them checking in to see how the other was and comforting each other through the sadness of not seeing the staff (and each other) anymore, and over time, they began to expect texts from each other every day, several times a day, and neither disappointing the other. They had grown close during the time they spent on that show and continued to be there for each other even after they left the show, while their relationship or friendship or whatever it is they have, deepened with each day. As he always did, he supported her, talking her through her decision to star in the spin-off of his web series until she decided that she would jump in and go for it. He also helped her through those months when she had no entertainment agency. She, likewise, would give him constructive criticism on his acting so he could get better while also listening to him when he had lots to say and no one to say it to.
When the idea to star in a drama together came up, understandably, they were cautious. To move their virtual relationship into a drama was risky. Not a lot of virtual couples pursued joint projects after their time on the show ended, so this would be fairly new territory, not just for them, but for other alumnae. She had thought of declining the offer, but after some thought, she decided to do it. She had always been picky about her roles, but after some consideration, the opportunity was too good to pass up. They had talked it through, weighing all of their individual options, and decided that this drama was what they needed. Deep down, they didn’t admit it, but they missed each other and it was an opportunity to spend time together again.
Today, he’s grinning like an idiot at his reflection because he knows that in a few short hours, he’ll be with her again in public, and he can’t wait. He has to remind himself that they need to create the impression that they are close colleagues and nothing more. The physical contact he’s well known for must be kept at a minimum, even if he would prefer touching her whenever they’re together.
“Manner hands, manner hands,” he mutters to himself, though smiling at the thought of being close to her again. “Manner hands...”
He checks his phone and sees that it’s time to leave. His van must be downstairs and so he grabs his bag and heads down, climbing into one of the seats in the back after greeting his team. He puts on his headphones and leans back against the headrest of his seat. Closing his eyes, he listens to a playlist his sister arranged for him. He doesn’t know what he’s listening to and he’s ambivalent about the indie- electro- pop that’s streaming into his ears, but he just needs a distraction, anything to take his mind off of the butterflies that are bouncing around in his stomach.
As he sits quietly, he pictures her face in his mind’s eye and he can feel himself gently smiling at the thought of her. She’s beautiful, yet her beauty has always intimidated him. Seeing her again in person makes him nervous. He should have no reason to feel this way, considering they’re in regular contact, but it does. What will she think of him? Will she think he’s dashing and attractive, or will she think of him as clumsy and uncouth. It shouldn’t matter, right? Essentially, they are portraying specific characters, but it’s off-camera that has his stomach in knots.
Before long, the van arrives at its destination and he opens his eyes. After the initial reading with Lee Ha-Na and her subsequent departure, the director felt it best to schedule another reading, and this time, with Soeun. Solim’s amazing chemistry was the legendary and the director wanted to see it first-hand for himself. Jaerim climbs out of the car and makes his way to the reading room, always making sure to greet everyone he sees, from coordis and assistants to the higher ups and everyone in between. He also keeps an eye out for that one person who’s making him perspire just thinking about being close to her.
When he enters the room, he’s surprised to see her at the opposite end of where he is. She’s early. Well, earlier than him, and he wants to bound up to her, like an excited puppy, but he knows decorum in this professional situation must be observed. He strikes up a conversation with a hoobae, making sure his body is facing her direction, keeping an eye on her and secretly wishing she would see him.
It was toward the ending of their time together on WGM and they had been sitting in their virtual house in Siamri. She had walked into their bedroom to look around and reminisce about their time together. He stood leaning against the doorway, arms crossed, watching as she walked around the room.
“What are you thinking about?” he asked and she spun around to smile that smile that twists a knife in his heart.
“Oh nothing. Just that we used our bedroom all but once.”
“Do you want to use it another time?” raising his eyebrows playfully at her and she scoffs at him.
“If you were a little more suave, I might have considered,” she giggles.
“Shall we do a scene, then?” he asks and he watches as her smile quickens the pace of his heart.
“What kind of scene?”
“One unlike the usual Solim couple interactions.”
“Like a dramatic scene? In character? Ad-libbing?”
“Yes.” He knows they can never maintain their composure, but it seems like she’s game to give it a go.
“And nothing silly. Serious, drama-type interactions?” she asks.
“Yes.”
“Call.”
He walks into the room and she moves toward the window, looking out to barren fields outside the house.
“Here you are. I’ve been looking all over for you,” he says, in a pained expression.
“Where else would I be?” she says, sadly.
“I just thought… Well, I just thought you’d be in Seoul.”
“Why? Our life has been here and now that we’re divorcing, it makes me sad to leave this place.”
“We had a beautiful life here. I’ll always remember it.” He walks closer to her and resists the urge to wrap his arms around her.
“We were doomed after Hye-Jin passed.”
He’s surprised about where she’s decided to go with the scene, but he rolls with it. He could easily play that Hye-Jin was their dog, but he wants to see what their chemistry is like in a more dramatic situation.
“Life isn’t fair.”
She turns to face him, her lip pouting and her eyes filling with tears. “If only our life hadn’t taken such a bad turn.”
“It’s all my fault. I’ll always blame myself,” he says, looking down, the tears stinging his eyes as if the situation were real.
She reaches up to cradle his face in the palm of her hand. “It was an accident. I don’t blame you. Not anymore.”
He looks up to see tears running down her face, which prompts his tears to also fall and for moments, they are the fictional and embattled couple they’ve conjured up. He can feel the breath from her nose on the palm of his hand and so far, she hasn’t broken her gaze from his. She lifts her chin, her lips reaching for his and as if on cue, his head bows lower to meet her mouth. They are so close that he can feel her warmth and her tears that are falling on his hand.
“I don’t want a divorce,” he blurts out hastily, wishing with all his heart that they and the fictional couple stay together forever.
“Oppa,” she says, pleadingly and before they can fulfill the kiss that is about to happen, one of the WGM assistants appeared in the doorway.
“We’re ready to roll in 10 minutes.”
They separate and wipe their eyes and tear-stained cheeks.
“Ugh, my eyes are probably puffy,” he says, and he feels her wiping his cheeks with her hand.
“They are,” she says softly, “But it’s okay.”
The pregnant silence between them is awkward. “We should get going,” he says, trying to transition back to work.
“Oppa always keeping me at arms’ length,” she says softly, and that he acts like he didn’t hear, which he chalks up to her still being in character.
“Sunbae? Sunbae?”
He’s pulled back into the present day by this young actor who’s been prattling on for a few minutes without noticing that Jaerim wasn’t even paying attention to begin with because he was caught up in his own reverie and openly staring at Soeun.
He looks back at the person he’s supposedly speaking to, who’s dumbfounded at to why Song Jae Rim is so preoccupied. Before he can respond, he sees her smiling and waving at him from a distance.
“I look forward to working with you,” he says, moving toward Soeun and leaving the young actor and their one-sided conversation behind.
Soon they are standing toe-to-toe, and not that it mattered anyway, but the world is back to feeling like it consists only of the two of them. Then again, that’s how it always is when they are together.
“Hi oppa,” she grins, and he has to resist the urge to pick her up in a hug and swing her around. “Really, a baseball cap?” she says, pointing to the top of his head.
He can’t muster up words because even though she’s dressed rather plainly for Soeun’s standards, he can’t take his eyes off her. Her comment about his hat makes him regret not dressing up more formally for this reading, like wearing a suit and making more of an effort with his hair. He should know better, considering she’s a fashionista. He should have actually stepped up his game instead of just wearing a white Harley Davidson t-shirt.
“Oppa, quit it,” she says, slapping his stomach playfully trying to get him to stop staring and to start talking. “Actually, maybe this silence is better than all those cheesy things that come tumbling out of your mouth.”
All he can do is smile and he wishes he could say something, but he’s just so happy to be in her company, he doesn’t know what to do. Texting and calling everyday is great, but actually being with her is amazing.
“How are your parents?” he asks, finally.
“Great. And yours?” She looks amused, no doubt laughing at his awkwardness of reverting back to basic level questions.
“Good. How’s your sister?”
“Fine. How’s YOUR sister?”
“Good,” he says shyly.
“Okay, seriously? Are we doing this right now?” she asks, snickering.
“What?”
“Are we really acting as if we don’t know the answers to these questions?” He shoots her a look like maybe they should keep things under wraps and she quickly pounces, determined to break his façade and terrorize him a little. “Seriously. I just spoke to your mom yesterday and your sister called me this morning.”
“Ssshhh.”
“And you spoke to my mom two days ago.”
“SSSHH!”
“And my sister wants you to text her the name of that actor…”
“Soeun,” he says, moving closer to her until they are inches away from each other, causing her to inhale sharply at their close vicinity. “Please…”
“Why,” she asks evenly, “Are you not wanting your girlfriend to know that we’re in contact?” and she starts looking around the room for an imaginary girlfriend.
“I don’t have a girlfriend. You know that.”
“How am I to know? You’re insisting we don’t talk, remember? So you must be courting someone then.”
“No,” he says, solemnly.
“Why don’t you want people to know we’re in contact?” He can’t answer the question. Was it a habit or was he trying to hide something? “I hate to disappoint you,” she continues, “Everyone knows about us being in contact, oppa. Everyone,” he winces and she emphasizes it even more, trying to get more of a rise out of him. “Every. One. Everyone. Why are you being weird about this?”
He has no idea why he’s acting strange about this whole situation. It shouldn’t matter, but it’s probably because he doesn’t know this cast and crew yet and they don’t yet know them. Well, not together, anyway, but also because he’s paralyzed being around her again. He’s back to not knowing how to interface with her, even though they are very comfortable with each other.
“And another thing, when I was promoting ‘Scholar’, I chose you over Jun Ki oppa.”
“I know.”
“You, oppa! That’s unheard of. We usually have to pick our lead actors, but WGM was over for awhile and I still chose you.” He can tell that she’s crossed the line between joking around to full blown irritation and he now knows to tread lightly, but her rant continues. “I have a question for you, oppa.”
He looks at her with earnest, encouraging her to proceed with her question.
“So do you think you did all the chasing on WGM?”
They both know he did. She admitted it to him herself, so he nods. “Yeah, we talked about it.”
“So for 9 months, you did the chasing?”
He nods.
“And do you think that I continue to hold the advantage in this, whatever this is?”
He nods again, but this time, she moves in close to him to whisper in his ear. “Well, I’ve been chasing you for the past 14 months.” He leans back to look at her, surprised by her words. “It’s been 14 months since our last taping and you haven’t noticed that I’m the one who’s been doing the chasing.”
“We’ll begin in 15 minutes, everyone!” the coordinator shouts out to warn the crowd.
“I need to go to the bathroom,” he tells her. “Do you need to go to the bathroom too?” hoping she’ll catch the hint and she nods quietly. “I’ll go in a minute. You come out in 2 minutes, okay?”
He leaves her, his hope hanging on a thread that she would meet him. There is a lot to be said, so he leans against the wall of the hallway, the seconds passing slowly. She appears and stands before him. “Yes?”
He doesn’t know where to begin and he still can’t believe what he had heard earlier. “So, 14 months?” She purses her lips together, a reply not needed, obviously. The ball is in his court and he knows he needs to man up. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
She scoffs at him again. “Seriously? If you knew me, and obviously, you don’t, you’d know that in my career, I have never, EVER been as vocal about my co-stars as I have been with you. Not even with the ones I dated or were rumored to be dating. But things were different with you. You’re different. I thought we, were different.”
He’s baffled. He never thought she felt the same way. Up until this point, he thought he was still chasing her.
“And when I was contacted for this drama, I didn’t hesitate. I said yes. I said yes to hopefully, a second chance, and now you’re acting as if the 23 months since we met was purely for publicity, like the texts we’ve been sending each other were meaningless. Why do you insist on keeping me at armʻs length away?”
He's reminded of those moments in Siamri when she first mentioned that he kept her away from him and he wants to kick himself. “I…” he begins to stammer, but she cuts him off.
“Forget it. I’m going back in. We need to revive our so-called chemistry so let’s do this.”
“I’m sorry,” he says suddenly. “I’m sorry for being stupid. I don’t know why I’m acting like this. I’m just nervous.”
“Nervous? For the drama?”
“No. To be around you again.”
She smiles broadly. “Really?”
“Yeah. It’s been awhile since, you know, we actually saw each other…”
She nods. “Yes, it’s been awhile, but I was looking forward to this. Weren’t you?”
“Yes. A lot.”
He can see her cheeks glowing pink at his answer and he’s relieved. “We should get back, oppa.”
“Want to come to my company later?” he asks, hoping she’ll say yes. “You know, to run over lines.”
“Sure.” She knows that seeing each other outside of filming is now totally justifiable. Of course, they still need to exercise caution to avoid any kind of scandal, but at this point, people are probably expecting it.
“I’ll text you the address later.”
She nods and moves toward the door. “I’m happy to be here, oppa… with you.”
“Me too.”
“I saw the script. There are a couple of kissing scenes,” she says, laughing as she crosses the threshold, leaving him behind to blush and stammer. “Maybe we need to practice that too.”
She turns on her heels and he faces the mirror to look at himself.
It feels nice to be caught. Finally.