Jieun looked over her appearance in the mirror after the makeup artist did her magic. Satisfied that she didn’t look too shabby, she sat down on the couch in the waiting room, her hands placed in front of her.

“Feeling nervous?” Daeyoung’s voice startled her as he entered the room. Jieun noticed that he had some light makeup on as well.

“Yeah, I don’t know if I’ll be able to speak properly later.” She could already feel her voice slightly trembling as she replied him.

“I understand. I’m feeling quite nervous too. It’s my first time appearing on television.” Daeyoung admitted to her. She looked at him in surprise. He’s nervous? But he seemed quite confident to her...

“You don’t seem to be?”

“Haha, I really am. Look, my hands are trembling.” He showed them to her. “But on the bright side, at least there wouldn’t be an audience when we are filming.”

Hearing that, Jieun was slightly reassured. It was already difficult enough being filmed; she couldn’t imagine speaking in front of an actual audience.

“Hey Ji- Oh, both of you are here.” Hoya spoke as he entered the room, followed by a cheerful Dongwoo who waved enthusiastically at them.

“Hello again, Jieun! And yo man!” Dongwoo slung an arm around Daeyoung.

After greeting one another, Dongwoo immediately immersed in a conversation with Daeyoung, while Hoya and Jieun sat next to each other, each waiting for the other one to start talking.

“Uh…” Both of them opened their mouths at the same time.

“Sorry, ladies first?” Hoya offered.

“It’s- It’s okay. You can go first.” Jieun gestured for him to talk.

“Um, it’s nothing much though. Are you feeling nervous?” He said as he eyed her busy fingers. If he hadn’t remembered wrongly, she would play with her fingers whenever she was nervous.

“Quite.” She admitted for the second time that day.

“At least there’s no audience.” He hoped it would reassure her.

“Yeah, Daeyoung told me that too! I am a little less nervous thanks to him.” She gave him a small smile as she glanced over at Daeyoung..

Hoya furrowed his eyebrows. Something about her statement made him displeased. Somehow, he felt that his job was snatched away by someone else, and this feeling was not pleasant indeed. HE was her childhood friend. HE was supposed to reassure her. Not that Daeyoung!

“Howonie? Are you okay?” Jieun waved her hands in front of him, garnering back his attention.

“Huh?” He said out of reflex.

“You look a little unsettled. Is something wrong?” She observed.

He forced a smile, “Nothing’s wrong. I was just running through our stories in my head.” Liar.  A voice sounded in his head. It was a white lie. He told the voice, before realizing he was zoning out on Jieun again.

“Do you need some water?” Jieun grabbed a bottle of water and handed it over to him, looking worried. He didn’t seem fine to her at all.

“Thanks.” He took the bottle from her. He decided to act natural so as to appease her worries.

Just then, the door opened and a staff poked his head in.

“Five more minutes to the start of filming! Please prepare yourselves!”

“Let’s go then.” Giving Jieun a reassuring smile, Hoya patted her shoulders and stood up.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

The actual filming wasn’t as intimidating as Jieun thought. In fact, it went smoother than she thought. The MCs created a bright and fun atmosphere, in which Jieun felt comfortable enough to talk.

During the closing segment, one of the MCs asked, “Miss Jieun, how do you feel about today’s show?”

Jieun smiled politely at the MC, before speaking, “I’m glad to have this opportunity to appear on this show with Howon. I had