Published: 07 - 01 - 2016

Happy new year y'all~

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July 2015 - Seoul, South Korea

It was a beautiful day to start yet another episode of Running Man. Thus, the cast were already gathered at the set talking about nonsense and all. Then they got their attentions to a luxurious black car, being driven closer to the set. After it was parked, about three crews carried what looked like a cheaper version of a glamorous red carpet.

“We have a guest?” Gary’s brain now was beginning to figure the whole scene, as well as the others.

“Idol guest?” Kwangsoo and the rest asked with sparkling eyes of hope. The PD didn’t answer them, instead he pointed back to the car.

Once the carpet was all set, the passenger’s door opened, revealing a definite female, obvious by the high wedges and her long lean legs. She was wearing sunglasses, and her face was fully-covered by a cap she was holding to hide her face.

“She looks tall,” Jihyo commented, admiring the guest’s tallness, “She looks very tall.”

“Yah, why you hide your face?” Jaesuk blurted out.

“What did you just say? Yah? Where’s your respect, hyung? She is our guest!”

“Eh?” and then Jaesuk closed his mouth to a straight line. All laughed as Jaesuk became very quiet, even the guest laughed too.

“Chamkkanman? Deanna-ssi?!” Jihyo exclaimed once she noticed her face. The others couldn’t seem to believe. There was no way she was the guest the PD talked about.

“Deanna-ssi? Deanna Kim?!” Jongkook impatiently asked, “The supermodel, Deanna Kim?!”

“Ah geuraeyo!!” Deanna put back her cap on her head and took of her sunglasses, and then joined into the groups. Cheers and gasps could be heard as the supermodel joined the filming set, “Annyeonghaseyo!!”

Well the guest was an up-trend American-Korean supermodel and actress Deanna Kim. She was mostly known for her International modelling career and also for her recent television commercials that went viral around the world.

“Nuna!! Ah jinjjayo!!” without actually thinking, Kwangsoo made a B-line straight to her to embrace hug from an old friend, “Ah nuna, I missed you!!”

“Ha! Kwangsoo yah,” Deanna laughed at the sudden childish contact.

“Yah Kwangsoo, get out of her way!” Jongkook grabbed Kwangsoo’s collar and pulled him away from the precious guest.

“Yah hyung! I’m a good friend of her!” Kwangsoo yelled to the others. Seemed they weren’t listening, “We shared postcards!”

“Yah Kwangsoo, we don’t use postcards anymore,” Gary pointed out, “You’re lying.”

“Aniyo!” Kwangsoo pleaded, “Nuna, help me.”

“Ne, now please come here Deanna-ssi. Why don’t you greet our viewers?” Jaesuk moved to give her some space, much to Kwangsoo’s desperate attempt to reach for her.

“Ah ne. Annyeonghaseyo, choneun Deanna Kim-ibnida. Uh, I can’t wait to play games here with the Running Man, gamsahabnida,” and she ended it with a bow and big applauses from the others, “And I’ve never shared postcards to Kwangsoo.”

“Nuna?!”

“Just shut up Kwangsoo-yah!” Jongkook flinched his arm to smack his head but fortunately Kwangsoo dodged and shifted away from him.

“Kwangsoo just stay there!” Jaesuk ordered, before turning to Deanna, “This is the first time I meet her. And I believe this is your first variety show appearance, am I correct?”

“Ne, you are right. I like to watch Running Man a lot. This is the reason I flew back to Korea, to be on Running Man.”

“You watch Running Man in Los Angeles? Daebakida,” Haha exclaimed, continued by Seokjin who out of the blue asked about Running Man goes to America mission. The cast were all excited by the idea, but of course PD-nim shook his head. But all along they were already ecstatic with the present of Deanna in the middle of them.

“Yah, all of you looks so small compare to Deanna-ssi,” Jihyo’s sentence made the guys alerted about Deanna’s height, “She’s as tall as Kwangsoo!”

“Of course! She is known as the female version of me.”

Mwo?” Deanna put on an unfriendly shock gaze at him.

“Yah Kwangsoo, don’t say that! You offended her,” Jongkook once again roared his hands to his face, but Kwangsoo decided to hide behind Deanna.

“But she is tall enough to be me, hyung. Look!” Kwangsoo stood up straighter next to her, “See?”

“Aniyo Kwangsoo I’m wearing high shoes,” Deanna raised her foot to reveal wedges shoes she was wearing.

“But still you are tall,” Haha commented. Deanna took her chance to face him only to see Haha looked up at her. Spontaneously she coughed, fail attempt to hide her laugh.

“Even Deanna just admitted Haha’s height,” Jaesuk implied, also laughing at the accidental humour.

“Ha. Ha. Ha,” Haha began to laugh half-heartedly and move away next to Jihyo, “I like you Deanna-yah, but feel better standing here.”

The cast burst in to laughter as soon as he said so. Yah Haroro.

 

***

 

Yoo Jaesuk might be the chattiest member of Running Man. He just talked and talked and talked and kept talking; pretty much about everything to anyone—anyone he had been friends for years.

Well said, when he was forced to sit down across a beautiful female he rarely saw on TV, things became very awkward indeed. He knew he shouldn’t think of this but why God created bladder? Or else he could relax and sit down without worrying about what Deanna and Jihyo talked about.

She was indeed beautiful; he said it earlier on filming. But to be honest even after two minutes she stood with the cast, Jaesuk didn’t recognize her. Maybe because he never met her before, and he already had this image of her being a supermodel wearing top-brand clothing and high-quality makeup, which in reality she was the opposite of that image. He never thought that Deanna could be this down-to-earth.

Now back to the topic—wait, what topic? Jaesuk was trying too hard to search for some great topics, which so far he didn’t get. He was just Yoo Jaesuk, a man who spent most of his life on TV shows; she was Deanna Kim, a woman who spent most of her life not on TV shows. Yes he was known as the Nation MC. But she was well-known around the world, internationally. This was a problem. He needed a strong topic to begin with. Jaesuk wasn’t too familiar with her business, and neither Deanna was with his.

“Deanna-ssi?”

“Ye Jaesuk-ssi?” her eyes looked up from her phone and to him. From that on he knew she was an eagle-eyed person; meant she was good at paying attention, even to small details (Jaesuk made that up actually).

“I don’t want to be rude but true that we never met in person before, ne? I don’t know you well enough, I mean not like Jihyo or Kwangsoo. Are you… related to Ricky Kim?” that sounded stupid, he thought. The idea of asking straight about her relation instead of blabby opening came very lately into his mind.

“Oh ne,” Jaesuk watched as Deanna smiled and leaned her elbows to the surface of the table. Nice. He could say he just ask a right question, maybe.

“And no, we’re not related whatsoever. We may share same surnames…well it is not his real surname anyway, if you didn’t know. He used it as his Korean name,” Deanna chuckled shyly, still keeping manner, “I’ve been working with him for several times and people like to think so too.”

“Ah jinjja? I mean you’re from America. And he is from America. So maybe you two are related,” Jaesuk nodded and continued, “So Kim is your real surname?”

“Ne. Although I have mixed parents, we all use the same Korean surname, Kim.”

“Ah geurom. Miss Deanna Kim.”

Good thing he asked that, she thought. The awkwardness between her and him had been getting on her nerves. Since Jihyo left, Deanna had been thinking of two options she got; to go and follow Jihyo, or to do something with the middle-aged man in front of her. Taking too much time, she decided to cross the first option. But soon she stuck again in option of how to start the talk.

Thank god people created smartphones. She could easily fake paying attention to her phone, even though her phone was actually off. Cunning, wasn’t it?

But soon she could feel the awkwardness died off when he asked about a desperate attempt to start a topic (yes, she noticed this), which she glad to answer. She listened carefully as he asked. Outside she listened carefully but inside she tried hard not to gag. From that on she knew he was one very blabby person.

“Jaesuk-ssi?”

“Ne?”

“I don’t really know much about TV shows. You think, you could tell me what to do on the filming later?”

“Ah Deanna-ssi, do you really like to watch Running Man in America?”

“Of course. Well actually when Kwangsoo told me about it, the name tags, the bells, water guns, I couldn’t understand. But I watched the first episodes of it and it seemed fun,” Deanna explained, “And there’s nothing similar as Running Man in USA. So it was new and original and I like it.”

“You’ve noticed how Kwangsoo acted?”

“I did. He is a totally free-spirit. Just like the way he is.”

“Then be that.”

“Ne?” Deanna blinked and turned to him, “Be Kwangsoo?”

“No, not him,” Jaesuk cracked a laugh at the sudden forwardness of her, “I mean be yourself. Be the way Deanna Kim is.”

“Huh?”

“Yeah! The things you did at the beginning, you laughed at Haha, you yelled at Kwangsoo. I think you couldn’t help that, did you?”

“Well, I think so. It just kind of came out.”

“Let it all out, Deanna-yah, really. Be the strong and angry woman you always are.”

“O...kay, I’ll take that as a compliment,” Deanna shrugged and chuckled, “Gamsahabnida, oppa.”

“Ja, the bus is here. Now come, we need to gather with the other,” with that Jaesuk stood up and get off from the bench. Deanna soon followed up, “Let’s go!”

“Let’s go!”

The two then walked to the bus area, meeting up with the others.

 

***

 

Deanna hoped that she would be teaming up with Kwangsoo or Jihyo, since they actually knew each other better. But over the past hours Deanna had followed Jaesuk’s advice to be just herself. And that made her felt a lot more comfortable when she interacted with her team. It also gave her a confident boost when she was asked to do missions. But of course she was still a human and her anger was shown to the TV when Haha and Kwangsoo cheated on a mission and unfairly won.

During the break, Jaesuk found her talking and laughing at whatever she and his dongsaengs were discussing. To be honest, he couldn’t help but very excited to see her completely a different person from the timid and nervous girl he met earlier to be a very energetic woman welcomed to the Running Man family. It had been five years and Running Man had indeed brought the best out of people.

His phone suddenly beeped, blurring his attention on the crowd. He took it and read the message he just received. Actually he just realized he had received a missed-call and a message; two messages with the recent one. Reading the words from the small screen, he frowned at a thought of an answer.

After a quick reply, he sighed hard. As if replying any messages was the hardest thing to do.

“Oppa! Jaesuk-oppa,” Jaesuk snapped his head up to the sound but relieved when it was only Deanna reaching to him with a cup on her hand, “Kwangsoo said macchiato is your favorite.”

“Yah don’t bother me, really. But thank you,” he said, carefully grabbing the steaming cup of latte. He took a small sip of the cup and quickly retreating, “Bah! I should slow down.”

“It’s hot for a reason, oppa,” Deanna simply smiled and shrugged, “And I think we’re ready to go to the next place.”

“Of course! Let’s go then,” Jaesuk stood up and headed to the parking lot alongside Deanna, “So Deanna-ah, how’re you getting on?”

“Fun! I found this as a very great way to spend my time. Though, I’m not sure if I was too hard on Haha-ssi.”

“Ani, Haha is fine. I saw you laughing with Haha back there. Don’t worry about him,” Jaesuk implied, “And don’t worry about you did right or wrong. Trust me we said worse things. Editing, remember?”

“I know, I know,” Deanna nodded in amuse, “After a second thought, this is slightly similar with photo-shoots.”

“Yeah?” The two just reached the bus door. Being a gentleman, Jaesuk let Deanna entered first. He then sat down on a chair behind her, “Then you’ll be okay.”

“I just need to do things in a natural way. If I think too hard, I’ll confuse myself and get lost,” Deanna chuckled and turned over, “I guess I can do that here.”

“See? No difference!” Jaesuk nodded also feeling the vibe, “So how do you—,”

“What are you guys talking about?” Kwangsoo butted in, taking the empty seat next to Deanna, “Nuna, borrow me a portable charger?”

“Sure, sure, let me get my bag,” with that, Deanna got to the front of the bus and talked to her manager.

Jaesuk stared in awe when he found out that her manager had a Mexico-ish accent and she was talking to her in very fluent Korean. And when they let out some Mexico words (or at least that was what he thought), he couldn’t help but smile in amuse.

“Kwangsoo-yah?”

“Ye hyung?”

“I want to ask you something.”

“Ye hyung,”

“How old is Deanna-ssi?”

“YE?!”

“Shush!! Keep your voice down,” Jaesuk immediately closed his mouth, glancing at the people who fortunately still engrossed to other things, “I realized you call her nuna all the time. So how old is she?”

“Ah,” Kwangsoo nodded, “Ah geuraeso. Thirty-two. Wae hyung?”

“Ani, I was just curious. She looks much younger,” Jaesuk nodded, slightly turned his head to have a better view of the yeoja he was talking about, “I could name an international celebrity as a guest, but I missed her.”

“Well, I knew that she wants to be in our show since a long time,” Kwangsoo said, “She said that since I first debuted in here.”

“And she seems to enjoy it so far,”

Kwangsoo nodded, “You know hyung, she actually a big fan of you.”

Jaesuk hummed in amusement and slightly nodded his head, “I believe you and her are very close.”

“Ye hyung, she was my mentor back days when I started modelling,” Kwangsoo then took out his phone from the jeans pocket. Few touches and he showed the screen to him, “This is my first photo taken with her.”

It was a definitely younger and thinner Kwangsoo with a woman who appeared to be a younger Deanna with blonde hair, sitting on his lap lovingly holding his face. Her blonde hair made her face slightly tanner, but she was still beautiful after all.

“Ah johayo, good photo.”

“Gomabda hyung. I look good, don’t I?”

Jaesuk annoyingly made an attempt to slap the dongsaeng, “Ha, not you! You’re ugly.”

“Yah hyung?” Kwangsoo looked at the laughing man wide eyes, though he couldn’t help but to laugh as well, “Jinjja Deanna-nuna is a great model. I admire her. It’s not shocking that she becomes an international model now.”

“And you?”

“Modelling is not my thing. I’m only booked because I’m tall but nuna makes it so much easier,” Kwangsoo put it back to his pocket once Jaesuk was done looking at it, “Trust me hyung, modelling is not an easy thing to do.”

Jaesuk didn’t really understand the modelling world completely. So he just nodded in polite and talked more about some other topics.

“Kwangsoo-yah, igeyo,” Deanna called out once she already had the portable charger on her hand. Getting no response, she snatched his phone and plugged it to the cable. She chuckled slightly as the screen lit on, “Kwangsoo, Seo Eunjung messaged you something. Who is she?”

“Hey?!”

“Who? Seo Eunjung?” Jaesuk looked at Kwangsoo, took his phone back, “Your girlfriend, Girin-ah?”

Kwangsoo’s red face told them million words, “A-ani hyung! Just a friend I met recently.”

“Ah, my Kwangsoo is growing up!!~” Deanna sang out loud and pulled his head as a hug, “Oh my, I’ve been away for years now. You need to tell me about all of this.”

“Kwangsoo has a girlfriend?!” Haha blurted out at the back of the bus, “Whoa finally!!”

“Aniyo, she’s just a friend!” Kwangsoo grunted and glared at Deanna instead, “You started this, nuna!”

“Who wants my charger, hey?” Deanna laughed when Kwangsoo froze without words, as he shook his head in defence.

“What about you, Deanna-yah? Got a boyfriend?” Gary asked, changing the topic to the young lady.

“Oh him,” Kwangsoo stressed out the subject and cunningly stared at her back, “How is he?”

“Who again?” Seokjin looked at the youngest people in the group who seemed to be the only one knowing the information.

“Aniyo. We, err…broke up months ago,” Deanna slightly frowned, but shrugged anyway.

“Waeyo?! I thought he was a great guy,” Kwangsoo’s stupid face came again. But this time filled with an authentic confusedness, “You’ve been gone for too long, Nuna. Waeyo?”

“Uh, is this recorded?” Deanna glanced at the camera.

“The camera is recording for forever, Deanna-yah,” Jaesuk pointed out, “Editing, remember?”

“Nuna, waeyo?” Kwangsoo insisted.

“I guess we didn’t really have a real connection,” Deanna shrugged as if nothing matters, “So we decided to end it about three months ago.”

“Oh wow. Nuna mianhae,” Kwangsoo sniffed and balled up his fist in the air, “You’re gonna regret this, hyung!”

It meant to be a justice but other might have seen it as a usual Kwangsoo’s act of bravery, which turned out to me humorous other than heroic.

“Ja, if that’s so, what are your exact boyfriend materials?” Seokjin spoke out.

“Don’t dare you say tall!” Haha blurted out, still feeling heavy with the height issue.

“No, no. I actually find short men are more attractive—,”

“Ah nuna!”

“Yah shut up!!” Jongkook roared and dragged her to the back seat, “Stay there.”

“Ani jinjja. The height doesn’t really matter to me. I just want him to feel comfortable with himself and myself. Confident men are kind of y.”

“Ah geuraeso?” Seokjin said, adding a bit of pride to it, “Ha! Deanna-yah, I’m a very confident man.”

“Are you kidding me, hyung?!” Jaesuk barked out, shockingly pointed a finger to him, “Tell your wife that!”

 

***

 

After a rather tiring and jumpy mission at the field, the cast were headed to the next area which was a borrowed resort and cottage just outside Seoul; it took just about two hours to get there. Some of the cast preferred to spend the precious hours by sleeping, Jihyo for example. While others like Jaesuk, Jongkook, and Haha decided to stay awake.

“Ah Deanna-yah, you don’t sleep?” oh, she did too.

Deanna shook her head to Jongkook, “Aniyo oppa, I cannot sleep.”

“Waeyo? Is it too cramped there? Mianhae,” Haha who was sitting beside her attempted to get up and moved to seat next to sleeping Kwangsoo. Deanna however pulled him back by the arm, preventing it.

“Ani gwenchanayo oppa. I drank coffee earlier so…yeah.”

“Oh okay,” Haha shrugged, “Yah, any schedule you have for your modelling thing?”

“Ne, I actually will be attending a modelling program held in Seoul in few weeks,” Deanna explained, “And since I have a lot of time before that, I accept the PD’s offer. I couldn’t resist.”

“Ah so that’s why you are here! Cool!” Jongkook said as he raised his hand meaning for a hi-five which he got from her. Deanna just laughed at the sudden hand movement.

“Deanna-yah, so modelling, when did you start doing it?” Jaesuk then made a go for a question.

“Well, I like posing foe camera. I’ve been doing that since I was a kid. But when I was about thirteen or fourteen eomma made me be her make-up sample. She took a picture of me and shared it a cosmetic agency. It was meant to show the make-up, but the editor saw me instead. And since I am abnormally tall,” Deanna snorted, “I was booked for local magazines.”

“Ne, you’re tall indeed,” Haha couldn’t help but laughed, “How tall are you?”

“Uh last time I checked I was one-eighty six...ish,” she sheepishly shrugged and sighed, “I guess that’ll do. Eomma and appa are tall enough. Appa’s height is over two meters.”

“Wow jinjja? Fair enough,” Jaesuk nodded, “And then what happen?”

“Ne. Bigger agencies soon noticed me and from there, when I was sixteen, I started became a model professionally. I mostly considered as a runaway model only, for my height,”

“You like modelling?”

“Yeah, I’ve been surrounded by fashionable people. My mother is a make-up artist. My grandmother used to be a Miss World contestant. I guess it was inherited to generations.”

“Ah geuromyeon,” Jongkook nodded, “So now you still live in America? Los Angeles?”

“Yeah, but actually I’m having this idea to move in to Seoul,” Deanna said, “I’m not a full-time model anymore. It’d be better to spend my time in here.”

“Ah waeyo? I thought you enjoy modeling?” Haha asked.

“Ani oppa, I’m not quitting. I’m just not as active as ten years ago.”

“And the reason is??”

Deanna scrunched into a thinking smirk and hummed slightly, “Hmm, I’m not in a good physique anymore. So—,”

“You still look good to me,” Jaesuk said without even realizing the stare he got after that. He mentally slapped his own forehead, “Eh mianhae, but I mean...you know.”

“Ani gwenchana,” Deanna smiled, “Infection primarily, I got a swollen lung and just gone through a surgery to pull it off ten months ago. I live longer now but my asthma is getting worse. So I decided to take a rest.”

“Yah, mianhae Deanna-yah, I didn’t know,” Haha frowned.

“Nah gwenchana oppa, I’m recovering and feeling better. I have the medical kit with me.”

“Ah! So when you had an excuse to go, you use the kit?”

It can be said only Jaesuk (even though Kwangsoo and Jihyo already knew about the asthma) who noticed Deanna asked for permission to the PD every time after she did something, especially after the running mission. During the break, she, accompanied by her manager, went to the staff tent. At that time he noticed her manager was carrying a sling bag.

“Ye, I saw your manager carried it,” Jaesuk nodded, “Anyway, when are you going to live in Seoul??

“In two, four weeks top,” Deanna shrugged, “The paperwork has been done. I just have to move all the furniture in.”

“Okay then. I’ll drop by to see it,” Jongkook nodded, “Do you mind that?”

“Of course not. I’ll invite you over. You’re all very welcomed,” Deanna eagerly bubbling her head up and down, “So, you guys must hang out so often, off the camera.”

“Well you can say that. Jongkookie, Gary, and I often go to the same gym. And we usually have dinner and watched new episodes together,” Jaesuk nodded.

“Ah daebak! Haha-oppa goes to the gym too??”

“Of course—,”

“Never,” Jongkook cut in before Donghoon could finish.

“Ah hyung, jinjja I went to the gym with you guys...sometimes.”

“That’s nice though. I don’t do that often with my family. All of them are quite busy. As an active public relation, appa could be out overseas; eomma is a stylish so she also goes abroad many times. My brother—,”

“Brother? You have a brother?” Haha asked.

Deanna nodded as she slowly took out her phone and began scrolling for something. She then showed it to the rest, “These are my family.”

A family of four; obviously the Korean man with a suit and a Hispanic woman in a gown were the parents. Standing next to the father was the pretty teenage Deanna on a dress. And standing next to the mother was a handsome young boy also in a tuxedo.

“I didn’t know you have a brother,” Haha said. At that time he accidentally swiped the screen revealing the next picture, “This is him?”

“Ah geurom,” Deanna smiled, “We’re very different.”

“Hey, I was just going to tell you that!”

They were. Having mixed-blood parents made them a lot different. Deanna Kim was a total copy of Kim Hosung; black hair, brown eyes, and the shape of his face, although she had her mother’s olive skin. As for Lloyd Kim, who was four years younger than her, he was a perfect copy of Jillian Kim; obvious Hispanic with brown hair, green eyes, and also tall.

Soon they reached the point where all of them were too tired to talk, because all eyes turned to a building towering above everything. It was of course a great resort. Sometimes Jaesuk still couldn’t help but thought of how the producer could rent it.

Jaesuk sat back down, his eyes still locked on the building. He could tell they would go to the lobby to start the segment. He noticed a lot of cameramen were heading that way.

Soon all the casts were awake, even some of the faces was really in a bad condition. Jihyo for example, couldn’t open her eyes until Jongkook gave her some water.

“Whoa, it’s a bit cold here,” Gary said while stepping out of the bus. The cast were wearing the famous track suit, but still they could feel a heavy cold wind around the atmosphere.

“Listen up. For this segment we’ll need the Red team to enter the building first. Blue team will catch up later on. Ja!” the staff pointed to the lobby of the resort.

“Deanna-yah,” Jaesuk called her with her stage name even though there weren’t any cameras around them, “You forgot your cap. It’s a windy night, don’t forget.”

“Ye oppa, Gamsahabnida,” putting on the cap, Deanna bowed a little and caught off with the rest.

That was the last thing Jaesuk did to the yeoja before she disappeared into the distance. He then had a talk with his teammate Kwangsoo for many times on the day.

 

***

 

“Hana, deol, set...cut!” PD-nim simultaneously yelled out as Deanna clapped her hands above her head. The ending scene continued by applauses by rest of the cast and crew, “Nice work, all of you. Let’s give applause.”

With all cheers and shouts, one Running Man episode was officially done. It still needed some editing and effects, but overall that day turned out to be very successful. But tomorrow they would have to do the same thing all over again.

“Deanna-ssi is staying with us for one more day?” Jaesuk asked out loud when he realized that Deanna wasn’t even prepared to go home.

“Ah jinjjaro? That’s cool!” Haha exclaimed, also pleased with the news, “I guess I should wear my shoe-pad tomorrow.”

“Ha! That’s no use, hyung. No use at all,” Kwangsoo pointed out, mocking him right on his face. Haha just grunted and shook his head. But soon he joined the laugh with other people.

“So Deanna-yah, tell us about your business. Your modeling career,” Seokjin opened up a topic to discuss which for Jaesuk, Jongkook, and Haha already knew.

But Deanna nodded and explained without any boredom, not as long as the bus rides but still understandable to the fresh ears. She loved when she told about her job. It made her very proud of what she did, of what she had achieved.

“That’s good, right?” Seokjin nodded, “But to be honest, you’re more of an American model rather than Korean model, geuraeji?”

“Ah ne. If I have to be honest, modeling in America has been a lot easier. There were times when I tried to work with Korean agencies. But it just doesn’t work well with the public,”

“The public? Why?”

“Ehm, I...uh,” Deanna looked hesitated and glanced at Kwangsoo. He noticed her struggle and decided to pipe into the conversation.

“Hyung, can you pass me the ketchup?”

Seokjin grabbed the bottle and gave it to him, before waiting back to Deanna. Deanna gave a glare to Kwangsoo that practically shouted; useless.

“Deanna-yah?”

“Ne?” She answered rather stubbornly, “Oh ne! geurom, I see Korea as a very traditional place. So when I do something that is breaking my Korean background, let’s just say when I do mature scene, people here just...judge. You know.”

“Totally agreed!” Jihyo piped in, before continuing her meal.

“Hm, I guess you could say that,” Jongkook nodded, “I don’t like when people judge other because of one thing they do. Just that one thing and then...terror!”

“Yeah that’s true, oppa. And that’s why I chose to work in America, since it was more liberal and better for my career,” Deanna nodded, “Modeling is one of the most complicated jobs to do. So I need to be careful with a lot of factors. The place is one of them.”

“I see then,” Seokjin hummed slightly as he bobbing his head, began understanding the basic of the occupation hazard.

“My turn!” Haha exclaimed, cheekily laughed like a proud kid getting his chance to step up, “Your ex-boyfriend, who is he?”

“Oppa, you won’t even know him.”

“Oh course I won’t. Ha!” Haha snorted, slurping his drink before continuing, “But you don’t look for another boyfriend? Or maybe a husband?”

“Husband?”

“Ey Donghoon-ah, you asked too much!” Jaesuk snickered at how deep the questions were. Then he turned to Deanna, “What do you think about having a husband?”

“Hey hyung?!” the almost empty room was filled with laughed across the table at Jaesuk’s bluntness. But soon it died down.

“Husband? Ah I haven’t thought about it really, but I guess it’s an okay thing. I don’t know,” Deanna shrugged, “I’m too much worrying about my job; I don’t think that far.”

“Yah, you’re in your early thirties. That’s the perfect time to settle down,” Seokjin commented, “That’s what I think.”

“Eonni, what do you think of that?” Deanna asked out lout to Jihyo, who was busy eating her food.

Jihyo just blinked, “Eh mwo?”

“That! That’s what she thought of it.” Jaesuk joked, getting more laugh at the night.

The dinning went by pretty quick. After all done, the PD shared them the keys to their own rooms. When PD did that, meant that there would be a morning wake-up mission like usual, or at least that what they used to do.

The time was ten p.m. and some of the member decided to take a good rest for tomorrow. But of course others were just as rebel as a teenager that they still joking and laughing about things at the lounge.

But not all things came out perfect as they all wanted.

“Ah Jaesuk-oppa.”

“Ye?”

“How’s Kyungeun-ssi doing?”

Jaesuk turned to her and put on a small smile barely there, “She’s fine. You know her?”

“Ne. I met her few times at some shows years back. It has been awhile since I met her,” Deanna smiled back leaned on the heading of sofa, “And your son. To be honest I didn’t know you have a son. What’s his name?”

“It’s Yoo Jiho. He is six years old now,” short and simple, not as dandy as the usual Yoo Jaesuk.

Deanna noticed a falling frown on his face and soon realized that something had gone wrong. Kwangsoo who was also sitting nearby, suddenly feeling tensed and kept glancing with awkwardness, occasionally on Jaesuk. As if on cue, Jaesuk excused to go to his room.

Deanna’s frown dug deeper as the door were closed as if nothing had happened.

“Kwangsoo-yah, did I do something wrong? Huh?”

Deanna was a very straight-away person, Kwangsoo knew that. So he wasn’t even surprised when she suddenly attacking him with questions.

“Kwangsoo-yah—,”

“Nuna, relax! This has nothing to do with you,” Kwangsoo sighed and leaned on the wall, “It just, he has been living through a lot lately.”

Deanna frowned at the lack of knowledge on that answer. She was about to open when Kwangsoo stopped her.

“Jaesuk-hyung got divorced about a month ago. That, and he also lost his custody on his son, Jiho. So yeah, he has been living through a lot.”

Silence finally crept in their sofa and the two former models just sat still without any single words came out. They were just too stunned to figure out what happened, especially Deanna.

“Oh,” Deanna managed to choke out, “I didn’t know.”

“Nobody knows,” Kwangsoo nodded, starting to get mellow all of the sudden, “Hyung is really good at hiding emotions. For weeks, he faked jokes and laughs to hide it.”

“But the inside, he was broken,” she frowned deeper, “Do you know why?”

“I’m not so sure. He’s a highly classified person. He keeps secret of pretty much everything,” Kwangsoo implied, “All the Running Man cast and crew already knew, but we just knew. He didn’t give more details. I think Seokjin-hyung knows deeper, but we will never know.”

“Who else knows this news?”

“His family, obviously. Some of his best buddies too. Us. And you,” Kwangsoo scratched his hair and shrugged, “He wanted to keep it as a secret. He didn’t want to disappoint anybody.”

“Huh?”

“You know, the big wedding and stuff,” again, Kwangsoo shrugged.

Deanna nodded and placed her elbow on her knee, copying what Kwangsoo did. She now knew that Jaesuk wasn’t the person she used to know; fun, exciting, humorous, friendly, joker, other entertaining stuff. He was now broken and in pain deep grief of losing his life.

If only she knew, the man she was talking about was now crying in his room, alone, regretting everything in his life.

 

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Thanks for reading^^