‟chapter two

Eric places the given script on the little table in front of him and bumps his back against the couch. He closes his eyes for a few seconds, hoping to get even two minutes of sleep. He has been working nonstop these past few weeks - his baby is about to be introduced to the world after all these years. This album means the whole world to him, and Eric knows even if it doesn’t do that well on the charts, he’d still be very proud of it because this would be the very first album where his own taste in music and his true passion is finally allowed to be delivered to the public. Finally, he thought and that very thought almost made him a tad bits too happy because he finally no longer has to sing songs that the publics like, but songs that he likes instead. 

He doesn’t mind even if he has to sacrifices almost three weeks worth of sleep for this album, and he doesn’t mind the fact that he might actually collapse anytime soon from solely depending on coffee to function on daily basis. Not that he’s going on a diet, he doesn’t need to and he also doesn’t want to, but he just couldn’t find the time to eat. His mom would fussed that he has all the time to eat if he even bothered trying to squeeze in some, and Eric knew she was right, but he felt like it'd be a waste of time to just sit and eat. He would rather worked. Mainly, they had pizza in the recording studio, but he found himself not even being able to finish one slice properly before he had to make a run to fix that one sentence that just didn’t sound too right in the song. 

A few knocks on the door disturbed his hope of getting his two minutes of sleep, but Eric pulled himself together and tried to pretend that he wasn’t about to fall asleep. A staff peeked inside to tell him that the recording would be starting in five minutes, and he nodded in response before taking one long sip of his dark roasted, non-sour Americano and headed to the studio. He was surprised himself that his taste in coffee never really changed when his brothers have already started to like a few different tastes than the one they used to always drank. 

Eric greeted the three hosts, and they were elated to see him just as he was to meet them too. His eyes focused on a certain orange-haired woman who stood out the most in the studio and he sensed a familiar presence from her as she walked towards them, but Eric couldn’t decide who she really was from just watching her walked from the other end of the studio. Maybe his lack of sleep really had a toll on him, or maybe he needed to get his vision checked again. He couldn’t really see anything far these days. 

    “Richyung, are you really going to act like you don’t know me?” 

Eric squeezed his eyes again and his head almost spun at the sight. He was never informed who the other guest was, he did know it’s supposed to be a girl group member but he had no idea it would be his former sister-in-law. Maybe he should be grateful that it was not his former on-screen wife. 

    “Hey-“ He tried to play it off by acting nonchalant but Byul rolled her eyes at him in response.

    “So, you were going to ignore me if I didn’t call you first?” She clicked her tongue. “So much for the sweet and gentle Eric Nam.” 

    “Sorry, I couldn’t recognize you with your new hair.” He apologized and hoping on the inside that this conversation would be done soon because he had no idea what to even say. How does one even talk to his former sister-in-law? “But, you look good in it. I mean, it’s really bright but it suits you well.” 

    “Let’s not discuss about my hair, we-“ 

Eric thanks every stars existed in the sky when the director called for everyone to get in their seats as the filming is officially starting. Byul gives him a we’ll talk later look then walks off to her seat and Eric sighs, making a mental note to himself to escape the studio as soon as the filming is done. He has nothing against her, and he doesn’t dislike her or anythinng. He definitely knows about the moonsun ship between her and Yongsun, and he doesn’t care if it was real or not because he felt that wasn’t really his business, and Eric of course knows about the hate the moonsun fans or half of the Mamamoo’s fandom have for him and how happy they were that his on-screen marriage with Yongsun was over. He’s very well aware of all that, but he’s not complaining because he knows that comes with the territory, but Eric also knows very well to just avoids anything involving Mamamoo from now on. He believes that would probably be the best for everyone, and parts of him thinks that’s what Yongsun also thinks. Otherwise, she wouldn’t just suddenly change her number without telling him. 

He took a seat next to Byul, and before he could even adjust himself properly, the slate hit off and the camera started flashing. The hosts smoothly began their parts, and Eric decided to just focus on the show. Just this one filming and he can finally get back to his recording studio and worked on his album. 

    “Have you two met before?” 

Damn it, that wasn’t in the script. 

    Byul’s face lights up into a mischievous smile. Her reply comes a little bit too fast for Eric to even process it. “Yes, we have.” Eric nods and mumbles the same thing after her. She turns to him, and addresses him with both of her hands, the smile never really leaving her face. “He’s my brother-in-law.”

The hosts looked at them confusedly, and Eric only laughed awkwardly in panic. He was very sure his ears were on fire again and he prayed his awkward laugh wasn’t that obvious to the whole nation. 

    “Yes, our leader was in a fake marriage with him in the past.”

    So, this is how you’re going to play, Eric thought as he stared at Byul. Putting on his most realistic smile, he said, “We were for a brief time.”

    “Are you still in contact with her?” The female host asked and Eric was no longer surprised with the questions, he knew these kinds of questions would be asked once someone brought up the topic.

    “Well, she seems to have changed her number.” His tone went a pitch higher in hope that no one would noticed the slight disappointment in his voice. He took a peek at Byul and continued, “For her birthday, I texted her happy birthday, but there was no reply.”

    Byul laughed, this time she was the one hoping the whole nation wouldn’t notice how awkward that laugh was. She turned to him and looked at him straight in his eyes, hoping he’d notice the slight glare she gave him. Trying to squeeze a laugh in between her teeth, she replied, “That’s right, she changed her number.”

    Eric feigned being hurt and heaved an obviously fake sigh. “I hope she’s living well.”

Byul laughed awkwardly again, and this time she hoped no one would noticed how much she wanted to smack Eric for acting this way. She mentally cursed both of them for putting her in this situation and made a mental note to herself that she would catch him after the recording ended and talked to him about this. It has been two years, surely someone needed to fix this by now and if they both are not going to do this, then she will. 

Eric silently sighed when they finally moved on from the topic and decided to start with Byul’s segment first. Throughout her whole segment, he tried to pretend that nothing happened, and occasionally, he would initiated a conversation or asked a few questions so they wouldn’t look too awkward on the camera but Eric could sensed that the younger girl was also trying her best not to curse him out on a variety show for pretending that nothing happened before the filming. 

Given the time restrain, they move onto his segment immediately after watching Byul’s and Eric was almost relieved at that. She didn’t appear in the first segment, and the topic was long forgotten by now. He was relieved even though his segment was trashing his own sweet-guy-Eric-Nam image that he wanted to get rid of. He’s not sweet, and he’s not that kind of guy everyone believes he is either. Eric thinks he’s cold, but no one else would believe that other than himself. Not even Yongsun, but he didn’t feel the needs to make her believe him either because there was nothing for him to be cold about when it came to her. Not until recently, when she changed her number out of the blue, but he wasn’t exactly mad. Perhaps, he was just a little bit upset. Perhaps, he’s really upset about it, but if there is a chance, he wanted to ask her first because he doesn’t want to just get upset. Maybe she has her own reason. And, perhaps she might also has a reason as to why she pretends she didn’t see him that last time they bump into each other at the recording studio in her company. 

A short break was announced after they finished watching his segment, and before Byul could asked him to talk in their waiting room, Eric excused himself to the bathroom as quick as he could. He flashed Byul an apologetic smile and speed walked towards the direction of the bathroom even though he wasn’t really that urgent. He heard Byul called after him, but he disappeared into the bathroom and sighed. God, he must be going crazy. Why was he even running away?

If he didn’t have his face covered in all these makeup, Eric would considered splashing his face with cold water just to wake himself up. He’s draining, and it’s driving him crazy. He was even more annoyed that out of all the things he could do, out of all the questions he could have asked Byul, he chose to just avoid her instead. 

The second segment of the filming was for another episode. There was still a few more hours until he could escaped to his recording studio, but Eric felt like he might just go straight home after this filming because he was especially exhausted. He wasn’t sure if it was from his sleep deprivation or from the amount of time he’s been trying to avoid Byul during this filming. He was just exhausted and now he couldn’t even think straight anymore. It didn’t even help him much when the soulmate Byul introduced in her second segment was his previous on-screen wife, looking pretty as ever in her new but now faded pink hair. Eric couldn’t help but admit that she looks good with any hair color. 

    Byul feels the needs to turns to Eric just to see his reaction and he gives her exactly that. Half surprised, half exasperated, he raised his eyebrows in an attempt to hide his real reactions. “Who is she? She looks familiar.” 

I can’t believe him, Byul thought but she faked a laugh anyway. 

    Continuing to feign ignorance, he turned to her and asked, “Ah, are you close with her?” 

    I seriously want to smack him. Byul swallowed down her thought and forced another laugh, “Yes, we’re very close. We’re best friends.”

    “Ah!” He nodded as if this was a fact he came to learn about just now. 

Seeing this as a perfect opportunity, the hosts further by mentioning that this was his ex-wife who changed her phone number. Eric pretended to laugh at that, but by now he’s almost panicking. Out of all the people, Byul had to meet Yongsun for today’s segment. 

    Turning to Byul, he asked, his voice a little too happy that it sounded fake even to himself. “How is she?”

    “Ah, she’s doing very well.”

    Facing the camera, Eric half-yelled, his pitch remained high and Byul almost couldn’t resist not smacking him for real. “How are you? How are you doing?”

Throughout the rest of the filming, he couldn’t really focus on anything. He had been fine for a while now, he was used to the absence of her presence in his life after two whole years. He was slowly adapting to it, but now seeing Byul, Eric felt that his efforts throughout this whole time was a complete waste. 

When the filming officially ended, they both tried to greet the staff as quick as they could for their own reasons. Eric managed to greet another group of staff goodbye before he rushed out of the set, but Byul being the competitive person she is, yelled after him leaving him no choice but to stop because people were looking at them.

    “I can’t believe you. You didn’t greet me when you saw me, and now you’re planning to leave without saying goodbye too?” 

    “I was just in a rush to complete my recording for my album-“

    Handing her phone to him, she said, “Give me your number.” 

    Eric raised his brows at her confusedly. Shrugging, Byul said, “You said you were working on your album right now, and I’ve been interested in doing collaboration with other singers these days, so just in case.” 

Eric knows that wasn’t exactly the only reason but he dials his own number into her phone anyway. Byul returns the favor back and waves him goodbye. Walking towards her manager, she grins to herself as she forwards the number to a certain pink-hair leader she knows. 

    010-2626-1817, call him first and thanks me later.

hiiiiii, 
chapter 2 is up and this entire chapter is based on how byul and eric met during this show called it's okay to go a little crazy
i just couldn't help but imagine what would happened or went down between them both behind the scene, so yeah haha xD
also guys, the phone number is fake asfdsfasd, i got this from google image search while searching for an example of korean phone
number xD
but anyway, i hope you enjoy reading thissss. have a nice dayyy♡