Episode 15

Kai and Soomin continued texting each other after filming that day. Soomin wondered why Kai didn’t mention anything about the engraving at the back of the watch and was waiting for her to say something instead. She wanted to bring it up but never had the opportunity to. Although in the beginning it was slightly awkward during filming, it slowly got better. She didn’t want to make things awkward again by bringing the engraving up so she decided to remain silent.

He was glad that they were back to normal. Soomin was no longer behaving strangely around him and returned to joking and teasing him in their text messages. He considered calling her but he couldn’t find the courage to do so. So instead, he decided to text her more often. He thought it would scare her to call her out of the blue and ask about her day. Although he wanted them to be closer, he knew he shouldn’t rush into things.

Soomin was working on her comeback album when a mission card was delivered for her. She was excited at first but when she read the words, her heart sank. She tried to maintain a cheerful image as she read the words out loud to the camera. “You and Kai would be taking your wedding photos. The actual photo shoot would be next weekend but you will need to think of various concepts that you would like to do. Have fun!” She forced a smile. “What is this? A wedding photo shoot?”

Kai didn't feel too excited about this mission as well. He pretended to think. "What would be a good concept for a wedding photo shoot?"

They both knew that with the wedding photo shoot, it meant that filming would come to an end soon. They had only been a pretend married couple for around three months. He didn't want it to end so quickly. He hardly had enough time to do things an actual husband would do. All he got out of these three months was their friendship. It was good enough but he could do more.

She didn't want it to end either. Though she and Kai had unpleasant past memories, she liked how things were between them now. It was as if that through this program, they could start afresh from the beginning. The more she thought about it, the more upset she got. She would have to go back to living life without Kai... Again.

The next day, Kai and Soomin met up as scheduled to plan their wedding photo shoot. They were looking through some pictures on the Internet at a cozy cafe.

"How about we do something cute and serious?" Kai suggested, pretending to be enthusiastic.

Soomin thought and nodded while maintaining a straight face. "We could just go along with EXO's recent concepts and change it slightly? Wolf and a school theme?" She typed in the keywords and a bunch of pictures came out.

"It's good! Let's go with this!" He raised his hand for a high five. Soomin responded reluctantly, to his disappointment. He wished that he knew what she was thinking. She always looked like she was deep in her thoughts.

Filming was brief that day. Kai and Soomin waited for their managers to pick them up. She decided to stand alone instead of him. He found it weird and decided to start a conversation with her. "Are you excited for this photo shoot?" He approached her slowly. He spoke softly so the staff around couldn't hear what he was saying.

She paused and shrugged. "Not really. I don't know." She said quickly before walking to the other side of the pavement.

"Oh..." He was a little taken aback by her response. She was awkward before but this time it seemed like it was intentional. She wasn't thinking of avoiding him, was she?

She didn't know what made her react that way. She could see Kai's confused expression from the corner of her eye. All of a sudden she couldn't stand talking to Kai knowing that soon it will all come to an end. She felt like she was too immersed in this role.

The day finally came for their wedding photo shoot. They had their makeup done separately and the hair would be styled accordingly to the photo that they would be taking. Filming began as they walked toward the photo studio.

“Are you nervous?” Kai asked, watching her facial expression closely. After meeting to discuss the photo concepts, her text message replies became shorter. He was slightly worried but he knew not to ask too many questions.

“Not really. It should be just like any other photo shoot right?” She smiled slightly which he could tell it was forced. She did look nervous. He placed his hand gently on her back as she walked into the studio as if to assure her that it would be fine.

The photographer greeted them at the door. “Hi I’m Mr Park Jungsoo and I’ll be your photographer for today.” He introduced himself while shaking their hands. “We’ll start off with the school themed photos first. You suggested that we should do it cutely right?” Kai and Soomin both nodded. “Perfect! Let’s go get you ready!”

Kai was done getting dressed first. He wore a grey school uniform and he had his hair gelled and combed neatly. He paced outside the dressing room waiting for Soomin.

When she finally appeared, he almost stopped breathing. He had never seen her dressed up like that before. She had on a white collared shirt and a grey school skirt but instead of a jacket she had on suspenders. Her hair was neatly tied up into two ponytails. He thought she looked adorable.

They moved over to an open space where they would be taking their first set of photos. While walking through the hallway, Soomin noticed something. “Jongin… You didn’t plan for us to wear the same shoes, did you?” She whispered into his ear.

He looked at their feet and sure enough, they both had on a pair of red sneakers. He smiled. “That wasn’t me. But you gotta admit, red looks good on both of us.”

The set had two tables and two chairs, just like how it would look in a classroom. They were told to start posing. Soomin tried not to think too much about it and treat it like any other photo shoot she had done before. She knew if she thought about Kai being present she wouldn’t be able to keep her focus and instead start to feel nervous. She sat down in the chair and started posing right away. Kai looked at her and started laughing loudly.

She felt herself turning red, a little embarrassed. She wondered what she did wrong. “What are you laughing at? They told us to start posing.”

“I’m sorry. It was cute! I couldn’t help it.” He continued laughing and all of a sudden, they heard a few clicks. They realized the photographer had captured them laughing.

“It’s good! Just be natural! You don’t have to pose so formally. Just have fun!” Mr Park encouraged them.

Upon that, she immediately shot Kai a playful look and threw a few weak punches at him. “That’s for laughing at me!”

This made Kai laugh even louder than before. He never saw this side of her. She was usually calm and rather serious. This was his first time seeing her have fun doing something work related. He nudged her playfully and ran to the other side of the set.

“Hey!” She shouted, before dashing after him.

They played catching around the set while Mr Park continued to capture their every movement. He was satisfied with how the photos were coming out. When he felt they had enough shots to work with, he ended this session and got his workers to prepare them for the next. “We’ll move onto the next concept, the wolf concept. It’ll be a cool, slightly y kind of concept so this time you will have to do actual posing instead of just having fun.”

Kai was dressed in a black suit with a white shirt on the inside. His hair was styled to look a little neat and yet messy. He even had some makeup done around his eyes. Soomin was shocked to see Kai looking like that. She couldn’t seem to take her eyes off him. He looked really handsome.

He felt someone staring at him and turned around to find Soomin standing there. In contrast to what he was wearing, she had on a short red dress, her hair was curled loosely and left untied. Her makeup was smoky and her lips bright red. He gasped slightly before quickly regaining his composure.

The set this time was slightly different from the previous one. It was dimly lighted and there were much more props than before. The set up made it look like an actual forest.

They quickly got into the first pose as directed by Mr Park. Kai stood behind a tree, glaring at Soomin fiercely. Soomin just had to look innocent and the photographer was pleased with her. He kept praising her for her poses. Kai was glad that she was receiving compliments but at the same time he felt the photographer was paying too much attention to her. It was their wedding photo shoot after all. He shouldn’t be paying attention to only one of them.

Without any delay, they moved onto the couple shots. Kai was told to stand behind Soomin and she was to pose while leaning against him slightly. They continued posing - changing their poses with every shot - while Mr Park clicked away. Soomin was so focused she forgot she was filming with Kai.

“Now let’s do a kiss shot.” Mr Park instructed.

“What?!” Kai and Soomin shouted at the same time.

Mr Park laughed at their reaction. “Just a light peck would do. If you can make it look y, that’ll be great.”

They both hesitated, moving around clumsily before deciding on where they wanted to stand. It was impossible to hide their nerves even from the camera. It wasn’t like they have not kissed before but kissing on camera and it being many years later made it feel very different. Plus back then, they were actually in love and were dating but now… their relationship was different and very complicated.

Kai took a deep breath and approached her slowly. She closed her eyes quickly and tried to block out her thoughts. If she imagined she was just working with another actor or model, it wouldn’t be that bad. Kai stopped before his lips touched hers. He sighed. “I’m sorry, let’s try this one more time.”

They got back into the same position and this time, Kai gave her a light peck on her lips successfully and without any hesitation. Mr Park praised them continuously and was very pleased with how the photos came out. He thought they looked like professional models. They would now take a break for lunch and the photo shoot – now outdoors – would resume after.

“Jongin!” Someone called out.

Soomin and Kai turned and found Suho standing there. “Hyung! What are you doing here?”

“I brought lunch. Come and eat!” Suho waved them over.

“I’ll be right over. Soomin go ahead and start eating first.” Kai hurries off to the toilet. With that, they decided to continue filming after lunch so as to allow the crew some time to rest and charge up their cameras.

“How was the photo shoot? Kai went off to wash the lipstick off his lips didn’t he?” Suho asked, chuckling softly.

“It’s not like that, oppa.” Soomin blushed, stuffing with food quickly.

Suho titled his head. “Why do you look disappointed? Everything alright?” He chuckled. “Was the kiss bad?”

She shook her head. “It was over quickly so…”

“Oh so you’re disappointed because it was too quick?” He laughed.

“Oppa… It’s not that…” She sighed. “It’s just for the show. It’s no big deal.”

Suho chuckled again. “I’m sure he really wanted to do it too.”

“What?”

“Soomin… I don’t know if you still like Jongin but I sure hope you do. I know he still likes you and cares about you.”