Sunday, December 27, 2009

Chapter 4: Testing The Waters

“Let’s take it slow. I don’t want to make mistakes. You’re too beautiful to be a mistake.”

CHAPTER 4

TESTING THE WATERS


Did he just say he’s going to pick me up? Like here at my house? Shin Hye stares at her cellphone incredulously and let out a silent scream. She feels her cheeks burn so fast she fears her fever is coming back. Down girl, down, her rational mind quickly reminds her, it’s just part of the job.

She purses her lips and looks at herself in the mirror. “Yes, I know. But can I just be allowed to squeal like the excited girl with this huge crush which I actually am, even just for once? There are no cameras around. No anti-fans. No media. No Oppa. I think it’s safe to admit it, right?” she speaks loudly to her reflection.

Her tousled hair and burning cheeks stare back at her, waiting. She clears her throat. “Oppa, I think I like you. And I’m sorry I feel this way. It’s childish and you will probably kill me if you know about it. But don’t worry, it’s just a school girl crush. Or…or like a fan liking you. I will probably get over this soon. You won’t even notice it. I promise.”

You’d better, or you are so dead, Shin Hye, the voice in her head warns her. And she cringes again in self-loathing. If only she could divert her growing affections to anyone else.

If there’s something she can do best when it comes to emotions, it would be her ability to downplay her feelings. Shin Hye is not a girl who lets her emotions rule her. She can talk herself out of any situation by controlling her feelings. This is why her parents always call her Sensible Shin Hye. She thinks before she acts. She is never impulsive with her actions. Of course she is as emotional as the next girl but only when she wants to. She rarely displays negative emotions in public. If she gets offended by other people, she never reacts the way people expects her to be. She only wants to be happy all the time, to have a positive outlook in life no matter what and in the business she is in, she knows that controlling her emotions is one sure way to survive.

But don’t let her happy demeanor fools you, her older brother always love to point out, because underneath those smiles and sunny, giggly side of my sister is a girl who has enough spunk to fight for whatever she puts her heart into. Like how she can talk herself out of any negative feeling, she also has enough charm to talk other people into believing in her personal causes, just like when she talked her parents into letting her join the entertainment business at such a young age. Or when she suddenly developed the need to bring home every stray cat or dog in the neighborhood much to her mother’s exasperation…she wins her little battles all the time because she always has the determination to get the results she wants at any cost.

But she has never liked a boy before. Oh, she has had tons of crushes growing up, that’s for sure but all of those were never boys that she knew personally. Foreign and local actors, singers, sports stars. But never guys around her. Or, if the friend of her brother who plays awesome guitar chords can be counted, then that would be the first. But she quickly outgrew the crush when she found out the guy was dating an unnie she personally knew. She talked herself quickly out of it pronto when she learned about it because she knew it would be so useless to harbor such feelings any longer. Besides, if her brother knew about it, she knew he would forever blackmail her for it. So much for a short-lived crush.

Her first on-screen kiss was her real kiss in her life ever. She remembered feeling a little sad when the kiss was over and she realized that she just had her first real kiss with someone she barely knew in front of everyone else. But that’s part of your job description, she reminded herself then, some of the little sacrifices you must make as an actress. But when she was told to do a torrid kissing scene in a CF a year ago, she felt herself chickening out at the prospect. Can I at least save that for my real bf first? She screamed silently in her mind the moment the CF director asked her about it. But she was asked that question in front of everybody and before the actor she would be sharing the kiss with that she felt like a deer caught in the headlights. She acquiesced to the idea then, blindly trusting her instinct that Jang Keun Suk, the actor playing her partner in the CF, would be a gentleman at the very least and that he would at least somehow make it worthwhile to be her first torrid kiss.

And he didn’t disappoint. He was a perfect gentleman, taking the time out to rehearse with her, giving her heads-up on what he would do, what angle he would take the kiss from, where his lips would be. And he made it a point to calm her nerves before the take which she deeply appreciated. He was considerate and he was kind. She immediately liked him then, as a sunbae and as a colleague in the industry.

But I never knew I would like him this way, she hears her heart murmur as she applies a fresh coat of lipstick on her lips. She checks her watch and it says 1:45 PM. In fifteen minutes, she expects him to be at her doorstep to pick her up for their meeting. Date, the school girl in her counters and she smiles at the thought.

“Shin Hye, your date is here!” her brother calls out, banging at her door which makes her dash for it to shush him out. “Oppa, shut up!” she hisses through gritted teeth as she makes her way to the living room.

“Keun Suk oppa, I don’t believe you’ve met my brother,” she greets Keun Suk as soon as she sees him. She detects how her voice sounds a little shrilly and prays he doesn’t notice it. Damn these nerves.

“We’ve introduced ourselves already,” her brother interjects and she hears Keun Suk laugh.

“Yes, that’s right. I believe your parents are not here today,” Keun Suk says, smiling.

“No, I’m afraid they aren’t. They went for an errand out of town,” she confirms. I hope you meet them next time, she thinks wistfully.

“We’re just heading out to grab a bite while we discuss a script we have to do next week,” Keun Suk explains to her brother and her brother nods politely. But knowing him, Shin Hye can actually see the veiled “Yeah right” reaction of his brother at that moment. Oh brother, you actually think I stand a chance with him, right? Thank you for your confidence, she muses, warming up at the thought.

“So, I guess we better go, Oppa. I’m ready,” she cuts in while her brother can still shut his mouth, and turning to him, she bows and heads to the door.

She hears Keun Suk exchange goodbyes with her brother as she opens the door and waits for him outside. The chilly air somehow calms her nerves a little and she takes a deep breath.

“Are you feeling any better, now?” she hears Keun Suk’s voice from behind her.

“Yeah, the fever is gone. It’s nice to be out after three days on house arrest,” she jokes as she trails him to his car.

She bows as he opens the passenger door for her. Buckling for the seatbelt, she asks curiously, “Oppa, how did you know where I live? I was planning to text you the direction earlier but it somehow slipped my mind.” She was really going to text him but buckled the last minute because she wanted to know how he would find her house without her help.

He tilts his head to her and smirks, “I have my connections, Avant-Hye.”

If I were Go Mi Nam I could have done a pig-nose already, her mind screams as she forces out a nonchalant laugh. “Oh, I see.”

She doesn’t remember giving her address to him before. But she does remember talking about her neighborhood one time and Keun Suk said that he lives just a mere 10-minute drive away from hers.

“I asked it from your manager.”

She feels herself turn rigid all of a sudden. She didn’t even tell her manager about this meeting. She figured that she would just inform him later and besides, Keun Suk did tell her that he was asking the meeting as friends discussing a project together which meant that he would be meeting her alone without his manager and the usual entourage. That was what he told her the second time he called her last night.

Hours after his first phone call to her yesterday, she got another call from him that night. She sensed the hesitation in his voice the moment she heard him speak out her name.

“Shin Hye-ssi…” his voice trailed on, she could hear a soft tapping sound in the background.

“Oppa?”

“Mmmm…I just want to let you know that…mmm…tomorrow, I wouldn’t be bringing my staff with me at our meeting…coz my manager is going out of town and so…is it okay if you come alone, too? I mean, it’s just in the neighbourhood anyway…unofficial business between friends,” he blabbered on.

Unofficial business between friends. “Ahrasso, oppa,” she answered immediately, not knowing what else to say. The thought of spending time alone with him was making her feverish again, she swore. But she did know this side of Keun Suk. He likes to be in public places, not minding his star status. He likes to blend in with the crowd and although she knew that being seen with her in a public place could spark a scandal between the two of them, not to mention generating a million of antis for her, she did not have the heart to turn him down.

“Don’t worry, the place is really quiet and the customers are usually ahjummas and ahjussis sipping teas quietly by themselves. They wouldn’t even give us a second glance,” he assured her as if reading her thoughts.


So why on earth did you have to involve my manager all of a sudden? “You called my manager to ask me about my address?” You could have just asked me.

He nods. “Yeah, I figured I would inform him myself that I asked you to meet me today. I do not want to get you in trouble in case this meeting leaks out somewhere. You know how the media can be crazy with things like this. I just wanted to tell him I will be responsible if a scandal breaks out,” he chuckles.

“Thank you, oppa,” she smiles warmly at her. Be still, my heart.


The afternoon passes quickly as the two starts on reviewing their scripts. They throw ideas at each other, exchange anecdotes of their own respective past experiences in hosting and trade stories about their acting experiences.

“Have you ever been on Champagne?” Keun Suk asks, suddenly curious.

Shin Hye shakes her head. “The one with the ‘Ideal Type World Cup’?”

“Yes, that’s the one. I will be taping for it when I get back, before the Melon Awards. And I think I know someone who’s gonna be in my list of contenders,” he baits, teasing her.

She almost chokes on her tea. “Well, oppa, I hope you don’t eliminate me too soon. Spare my pride,” she pouts with puppy-dog eyes which cracks him so much he bursts out in laughter.

“I’ll definitely choose you over Go Mi Nam,” he blurts out.

“Oh, thank you for the honor, oppa,” she says, humoring him.

Keun Suk looks at her and a thought suddenly comes to mind. “Tell me, if you’re the one on the show, who would be your top 5?”

She ponders for a second then says, “Well, since you’re in front of me right now, I guess I have to put you in the list, right?”

He laughs. That’s a good one. “Okay, let me rephrase the question then. Top 5 attributes you look for in a guy?”

“Hmmm…that’s easy. A good heart, a good mind, one who has something he’s passionate about, one who loves kids and one who loves life.”

“What about being handsome?”

“Well, that would be top 6,” she grins.

Good girl. “You’re really an ahjumma trapped in a 20 year-old’s body, you know that?”


As he drives Shin Hye home, he ponders on what he feels now that he had just spent a whole afternoon with her alone and he is not surprise to feel light-hearted. It was like spending time with an old friend. He feels comfortable with her as usual but somehow being with her made him a little giddy at some point. And he wants to spend some time with her again. There are a lot of things he wants to confirm from himself which he could only do if he is with her. He wants to know her more, too. He does not want to scare her, though, so he knows he must tread carefully around her. He looks at her from the corner of his eyes and sighs softly. You might not look the part, but something tells me that you are unbreakable. But still, I want to be responsible.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I realy feel that I'm reading the real story of JGS and PSH life, not just your imagination :)...If you want to be true with the JGS and PSH life, I think you will give us an open ending...and I dont mind an open ending coz we never knew the real score between them and we never knew what lies in the future for them, but as fans we still could hope for them to be together lah:) :)...right now I will enjoy the ride of your story and anticipate what will you write in your next chapter :) :)

Anonymous said...

I agree with Agustien. I feel like I'm reading their true life story! Jjang! :)

Anonymous said...

awwwww as i read this, i'm imagining the two of them together.....
doing this in real life...as if it actually happened in real life and if only it did....it would be fantastic lol
man i want ppl to write story about them!! i want to be giddy too! lol

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