“Sorry, I have to go home and review the scripts for tomorrow,” I said. “Maybe some other time?”

Kevin ginned. “That's okay. Don't work yourself too hard!”

I nodded gratefully at his understanding and smiled.

I suddenly felt a hand on my arm, and I spun to see Kyran pointing back to the set, where everyone was getting ready for the next scene.
I sent Kevin an apologetic look. “Sorry, I have to go...”

He shook his head and waved my off with a grin. “Go ahead. I'd better get going anyway. See you later!”

And with that, he strode away and was soon out of sight.
“Xyla-sshi! We're starting!” the director called. I hurried over and took my position on the bench. This was the scene where I was supposed to be crying and Kim Jaehoo, aka Dongho, was supposed to comfort me.
I sat on the bench and I forced a lump in my throat to rise. My vision was suddenly cloudy with tears, and I blinked several times for tears to form.
“Action!”

DongHo slowly strode up to me, he bent down quietly. “Are you okay?”

I bit my lip and didn't say anything.
“Don't let what he says go to your head,” Dongho said quietly. “He's just like that.”

Silence. DongHo bent down and picked up the novel that was sitting in the dust, putting it on the bench next to me.

He took the broken glasses from his pockets and carefully laid them on top of the book. I carefully glanced over, and I made my lip tremble.
“Sorry about your glasses,” DongHo said quietly.
I sniffed and swallowed hard. “Don't be. It's not your fault.”
DongHo gave me a reassuring smile and chuckled softly. “Well, at least you stood up to him. We need more people like you around here. No Woohyun is used to getting what he wants.”

I didn't say anything.
“I've seen you around school before,” he said. “What's your name? You're in my class, right?”
I nodded slowly. “I'm L-Lee MinHyun.”

DongHo beamed. “Cool. I'm--”

“Kim JaeHoo!” I blurted out, then quickly covered my mouth. My character was supposed to have a crush on this guy.
DongHo laughed good naturedly. “Hey, you do know me!”
I made my face flush red, then nodded slowly.
“Here, take this,” DongHo took out a Snickers bar from his pocket. “You need this more than I do.”

I looked up and saw DongHo holding out the candy bar in his hand. I froze. In this part, it would cut to a flashback scene.

“G-gomawo,” I bowed and took the candy. I stared at it for a while.

DongHo raised an eyebrow. “What's wrong? Don't you like those?”

I waved my hands. “No, no! It's not that! It's just that....Snickers bars, they....remind me of someone.....”
DongHo grinned. “A boyfriend?”
I bit the corner of my lip. “Um, no, not exactly...” I shifted on the bench and shook my head. “Nevermind, it's a long story. Sorry, I shouldn't have brought it up....”

DongHo linked his fingers and put his hands behind his head, leaning back in the chair. “No, no. It's okay...Come on, tell me. I've got time....”

I paused, turning to face him. His hair light hair glowed golden in the sunlight, and the way his hair just fell over his eyes....

“I—well,” I shifted in my seat. “No WooHyun was right. I am an o-orphan.” I stumbled on the word. DongHo winced in sympathy, but my eyes widened. “No, it's okay! I like where I am now. The family that took me in is really nice....”

I paused, and DongHo gave me an encouraging smile to be go on, and I felt my face flush.

“I was in this orpahage in Busan,” I continued. “The first week I was there, I always hid in the garden, next to the rosebushes, where no one could find me...”
I looked up right on cue, and DongHo nodded sympathetically.
“...but one day, someone came up to me—a boy—he told me not to be sad. And he gave me...” I glanced at the candy bar in my hand. “...a Snickers bar.”
DongHo leaned forward. “This orphanage...it wouldn't be called...Nae Won Orphanage, would it?”
I widened my eyes. “What? You know that place?”

He nodded. “You—didn't happen to be, like, 5, when this happened, did you?”
I nodded wordlessly.

DongHo dropped his gaze, calculating.

I frowned. “You, wouldn't be that boy that was there, were you...?”
“CUT!”

Director Choi was absolutely beaming and both DongHo and I stood up.
“That was great! You guys work together so perfectly! How do you do it?” he asked.
I curled a strand of hair away from my face, shrugging.
DongHo put a hand on my shoulder. “I guess we just have chemistry!”
Director Choi laughed. “Well, DongHo-sshi, you're done for the day. We have some scenes we need to do with Xyla-ssi...”
DongHo nodded then bowed. “Okay. See you tomorrow, then.”

Director Choi acknowledged DongHo by nodding, then continued directing the staff that were busy getting ready for the next scence.

The staff was busy moving equipment inside the school, since the next scene was going to be be with me and my 2 best friends in the school cafeteria.

I was suddenly surrounded by more make-staff that was dusting my uniform and retouching make-up. Between people smearing more BB cream on my face, I was able to spot Kyran and NiRa going over the scripts with a producer.
“5 minutes!” Director Choi called after everything was set up.

A lot of extras were gathering in the cafeteria, taking their places as hungry students waiting in line for food. I took my place among them, taking out a tray from a tall stack and filling it with food.
“ACTION!”
Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted the little red lights on the camera turn on, and I felt lenses zoom in on me. I took a deep breath before moving.
I filled my tray with scoops of rice and other food before walking over to an empty table on one side of the room. I sat down with a sigh then proceed to eat my food.
“Anneyong~!” a voice said, then I felt someone's hands cover my eyes.

“Annyeong JiHyun,” I grinned and I felt Kyran lift his hands.
He sat in the seat across the table from me.

“How did you know it was me?” he pouted.
“Yah, Kang JiHyun, you know you're the only one that does that!” I laughed.
He shrugged then proceeded to take out several large textbooks from his backpack.
“Loser!” someone came up to him and flicked him hard, on the back of his head, making him grimace.
I automatically cowered under Rynn and Saylan's presence.

“Yah, Minhyun-ah!” Saylan put his brilliantly white basketball shoes on the edge of our seat and began to pick off the mud from the bottom of his sole, dumping it onto Kyran's backpack. “I didn't know you hung out with losers like Kang JiHyun here.”

My gaze drifted to the ground and I clenched my teeth tighter.

Rynn scoffed. “Typical. Come on, JiWook...”

I watched the two of them turn their backs and sit down at a table full of laughing girls with short skirts and designer bags.
“Jerks,” Kyran muttered, dusting off his backpack. “One day, I'm gonna--”
He made a violent gesture in midair.

I laughed shortly. “Well I hope you accomplish that.”

Kyran scowled. “Whatever. I have a test today, so I'd better study up.”

In my mind, I laughed. This was some really good acting, since the Kyran I knew rarely studied for anything. I watched him stick a pencil on his ear then proceed to read the enormous text books.

“Studying for that test, JiHyun?” a voice asked.
I turned and saw NiRa standing behind me.

I smiled. “Anneyong GaYun.”

She took a seat next to me.
“Yup,” Kyran said shortly, not taking his eyes out of the book.

NiRa, aka GaYun, sighed, propping her head on the table with one arm.

I raised by eyebrow at her. “What's wrong?”

“That kid, Park JiWook,” she huffed. “I am so gonna kill him.”
“Join the club!” Kyran piped up, still reading.
“What did he do this time?” I asked, taking a sip from my orange soda can.
“He kicked a soccer ball at my head last period, in gym,” she muttered, rubbing her head, making her hair messy.
I winced sympathetically.
She shot daggers at the back of Saylan's head, muttered a string of violent threats. I rolled my eyes but I heard Saylan laugh.

“That guy is a jerk to everybody. The only ones that he's nice to is to all of those...people over there.” I said, nodding at the table where Saylan had his arm wrapped around a girl. “So is No Woohyun.”

NiRa laughed shortly, “Those guys have some kind of bromance going on.”

I laughed.

“CUT! Take 5 minutes!”

We stood and the staff immediately surrounded us to re-do make-up. Saylan went up to Kyran and ruffled his hair.
“I didn't hurt you too much, did I hyung?” he asked innocently as Kyran scowled at him.

“Directior Choi,” I heard NiRa begin. “This scene is the beginning, right? I mean, it's the scene before Xyla is on the bench outside...?”
The Director nodded. “We would have filmed this scene first, but Dongho-sshi has another schedule, so we had to film his scene first.”

I managed to glance at a clock, and I realized we had been here for a while. Today seemed to be going smoothly as planned. I couldn't wait until tomorrow. 

NEXT CHAPTER (chapter 55)