The cold sound of the slap travelled across the entire room, shocking almost everyone around. No one knew why the actress did that, especially the victim who got slapped. He stood frozen on the spot, until the tingly warm sensation on his left cheek woke him up. He was expecting some form of apology or remorse from the actress herself. Instead, she continued looking at him, glaring at him and showing no sign of remorse. He was about to shout at the actress when her manager pulled her away.

“I’m sorry Jong Kook-sii. I apologize for what my artiste did. Let me talk to her.”  Before Jong Kook can give her any respond, she had pulled the actress to a far corner. He caressed his left cheek, feeling wronged and angered. What did he do to deserve such treatment from her? He had been courteous to her, and he had met her barely for 15 minutes. As all these thoughts went through his mind, he got even angrier until someone tapped his shoulder.

“You okay?” Cho Pd became concern for the singer.

“Try getting slapped unknowingly by someone before asking the question again.” Jong Kook responded agitatedly. Cho PD held his stiff shoulder and brought him to a corner with a bottle of water. He sat Jong Kook down facing opposite of Jong Kook. He passed the bottle of water to Jong Kook, trying to calm the singer down.  Seeing that Jong Kook had gulped a few mouth of the water down, he asked. “What happened?”

What happened? Jong Kook wanted to know what happened too. All that same thoughts he had went through his mind again, but this time he was slightly calmer. “I don’t know. I did nothing and all I knew I got slapped.”

“Did you do anything to her?”

“How could I have done anything to her when I only met her at the set today?” Jong Kook answered.

“Did you offend her before the set or something?” Cho Pd asked again.

Jong Kook thought hard. Did he meet Song Ji Hyo before? He didn’t recall offending anyone lately, let alone Ji Hyo who he only met only earlier in the day. He thought even harder, only to confirm his own thought. “No. I didn’t.” He firmly replied.

Cho Pd sighed. It was barely the start of the show and such incident happened. How would the program be successful with such a bad sign? “I don’t know what happened between you two. But I need to know this, can you still continue with the filming?”

As much as Jong Kook didn’t want to work with Ji Hyo after this incident, he had to be professional. After all, it was Jae Suk who asked him to join the program, he didn’t want to cause any further in delay because of his reluctance of participating. “The real question is, is she willing to work mutually to me?” He answered Cho Pd.

“If you are willing to, I will talk to her.” Jong Kook nodded and Cho PD smiled. He stood up and patted on his back, indicating to have a good rest for now. He walked towards Ji Hyo’s direction.

***

 Ji Hyo was dragged outside of the café by her manager. Seeing that her manager’s arms were folded, she was getting ready to be lectured. She had done something wrong, terribly wrong. She knew she shouldn’t have done that. But she couldn’t endure it any further. Plus, he deserved it anyway. After what he did, a slap was too light. She should have punched him, or even kicked him. Why did she decide to work with him anyway?

She was r