Denials

Inspired by yet another magazine interview (I-Weekly Issue No. 653) Thank you Karen for the translation and Siti for the source. You can view it here . And oh, I'd like to dedicate this to Girlie Moore.

Denials

“Will you and Shin Hye be a real life couple?”

Jang Keun Suk looks at the interviewer, a smile playing on his lips as he digests the translated version of the question posed to him in Chinese.

Man, the media here is a lot more fun than in Korea, he silently muses as he laughs mischievously at the question. No Korean media would dare ask him this question back home. The entertainment reporters know the rules too well. No personal questions linking one actor to the other, please, unless if it has been agreed upon previously by both stars’ agencies to generate more scandal and attention to the drama/movie/project they are collaborating. Questions are even pre-approved by managers and talent agencies before the interviewer sits down with the actors. A lot of censorship goes into play in every interview, every TV guesting, every photoshoot that fans do not know about. Something which has always bothered actors like Keun Suk who want to hide nothing from the public, especially to the fans who love and support him. But the harsh realities of Korean entertainment dictate that he conforms to the system, especially with things that could potentially harm his career, like, questions about his personal life, for one.  People back home are very cautious about everything, Keun Suk complains, too cautious that they are missing all the fun.

But the international media is an entirely different story. As he embarks on his Asian Tour, from Taiwan, Beijing and now Singapore, he became aware that every entertainment industry has its own brand of censorship and norms. In some countries, asking straight-forward questions about an artist’s personal relationship with his co-actors seems to be as normal as asking about the weather, instead of being regarded as intruding. He is amused with the idea.

And man, this guy is persistent, he notes, referring to the over-enthusiastic reporter who fielded him the question. He thought he already dodged the question about him and Park Shin Hye the first time the reporter told him that a lot of fans seem to hope that he and Shin Hye could be a real life couple just like in the drama. Keun Suk had been taken aback by the question. He was not prepared to react to that. Of all the promotional interviews he did for the drama, in his fan meetings and in magazine interviews, no one had ever broached the concept of a “real-life couple” with Shin Hye in the same context as the interviewer was doing now.

He was caught off guard by the question but he quickly recovered from it and gave the safest answer he knew was appropriate for situations like that --- lavishing Shin Hye with all the great attributes he found attractive in her, hoping that the question about his pretty Go Mi Nam would stop there. But he was wrong.

The reporter rephrased the question but essentially asked the same thing over again. Is there a chance that he and Shin Hye can be a real-life couple?

He might have noticed that my answer was not responsive to his question, Keun Suk inwardly laughs at himself. Smart guy, this one.

The interpreter noona starts to repeat the question again but Keun Seuk stops her with his hand, smiling at her sheepishly, as he turns to his interviewer with eyes shining, giving a hearty laugh, before saying, “Who knows?”

In the corner of his eyes, Keun Suk could see Keunsama, his manager, shaking his head in resignation while mouthing the words “Punk” at his direction. He laughs. What did he do now, again? That’s the first thing that came to his mind. Or scrap that. That was the safest thing that came to his mind. So, could anyone blame him for being candid?

~0o0~

Keun Suk checks the clock at his hotel room’s bedside table. 8:00 P.M. It would be around 9 in the evening in Korea now, he calculates the time. Lying flat on his back at the king-size bed, he listens patiently at Snow Patrol’s husky and raspy voice on the other line as he waits for her to pick up.

“Finally…” comes the familiar lilting, soft voice on the other line, a little out of breath, he notices.

“Are you at the gym?” he asks, a little concerned. He waits patiently as she steadies her breath.

“Ani, oppa. I was jumping rope here in my room while waiting for your call,” she confesses shyly.

He chuckles at the thought. “Still being productive even when waiting for me, huh? You’re too cute, you know that?”

He hears her pout over the phone. “I still have a lot of weight to lose, you know that. And the filming is about to start.”

Keun Suk knows that, of course. He pretty knows how Shin Hye can be so stubbornly dedicated to her projects that she would stop at nothing to perfect her craft. “Just don’t get too skinny like chopsticks, ahrasso?”

She laughs. “Even if I want to, you know I couldn’t.”

“You suit me just fine,” he assures her. “Guess what happened to me today?”

“What? Some guy asked you for a kiss again, oppa?” she jokes.

They laugh in unison. He had recounted to her in his last phone call about the weird guy who asked for a kiss in the press conference and obviously, they both haven’t recovered from the hilarity of it yet.

“No. Someone asked me today if Jang Geun Suk and Park Shin Hye have a chance to be a real-life couple.”

He hears her steady breathing as she digests what he just said. “A fan?”

“Ani. A reporter,” he answers.

“What did you say?”

“I told him I have to ask you first,” he teases.

“Oppa! You didn’t!”

He ignores her protest. “So what’s the right answer to that, in your opinion?”

All he can hear from the other line is her breathing.

“Shin Hye!” he warns her, loving the way the conversation is going. Oh, how he loves to play a prank on Shin Hye and push her buttons.

“You probably answered something scandalous again, oppa,” she replies, gnashing her teeth.

“I did not!”

“Then why do I have the feeling that your answer in that interview would land on the top searches in Naver in the next few days, again?” she hisses.

“Just answer me, Shin Hye. Are Park Shin Hye and Jang Geun Suk going to be a real-life couple?” he repeats, mirth dripping in his voice.

“No!” Shin Hye plays along, “Because Jang Geun Suk always loves to make fun of Park Shin Hye. And so Park Shin Hye hates his guts!”

“Do you really mean that?” Keun Suk drawls, dropping his voice a little lower to make it appear that he becomes serious all of a sudden. “You hate me?”

He hears a dejected sigh at the other end. Then silence.

Keun Suk waits patiently, smiling. He knows Shin Hye is just deliberating whether to give in to him or not and he is enjoying her indecision.

Then his reward finally comes through from a thousand miles away. “Ahrasso, oppa. No, of course I don’t hate your guts. I was joking. Mianhe. You know how much I like you, right, Oppa?” she says, her voice tender, her tone sheepish. “I am just not comfortable talking about us in public, you know that. And when you keep dropping hints like that in your interviews, I always get a heart attack. You love to tease me so much I couldn’t outwit you. And I get frustrated every time,” she explains, her words sounding like a lullaby to his tired mind and body.

“Shin Hye…” he whispers to the receiver, missing her a lot now.

“And about the correct answer to that reporter’s question,” Shin Hye continues, “I hope you could have told them the truth, Oppa.”

Keun Suk smiles warmly at her words. “And what is the truth, Shin Hye?”

Her voice drops a few notches, “That Jang Keun Suk will have the chance to be with Park Shin Hye for real…if only…”

He sits up straight at her words. “If only?!” he asks, incredulous.

“Ne, oppa. If only he learns when to stop pushing her buttons, once in a while. If only he tells her outright that he misses her instead of pulling pranks on her every chance he gets. If only he stops mentioning her name in fan meets because he very well knows that she is afraid of the backlash of getting too associated with him. If only he lets her have her way more often,” she sighs, “If only, oppa.”

“Ya! What are you saying? Hey, are we not a real-life couple yet?” Keun Suk asks, suddenly feeling a little insecure, his voice getting huskier as he tries to sweetly pacify an obviously irked Shin Hye.

He flinches at her sugar-coated reply, “Who knows, oppa?”