Hi! Thank you for your wonderful response to the earlier chapter. I had originally intended to end it there, since I wrote it as a one shot. However, as I had forgotten to mark it as completed, many of you expected some more, that set me thinking and led me to write a brief history of how they were.. I intend to end it with the next chapter at the most. Thank you for reading, I really appreciate it. 

Two years earlier

He kissed her. 
She kissed back.

She never kissed back. Not even when they kissed onscreen. Why did she kiss him back now?, he wondered vaguely. Her cheeks were flushed and her speech was slurring. Of course!, he thought. She was drunk. On second thoughts, so was he. No wonder they kissed. It made sense. Well, it made no real sense in his alcohol driven mind but he didn't care then. He kissed her again, she kissed him back again and again and again. 

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Five years earlier 

He was dating a girl when he first met her. It wasn't anything serious, they were both young and having fun. He liked the girl enough to lie and escape from his dorm multiple times, a stuffed paper dummy bound in bedsheets as his alibi to avoid getting caught by the manager. 
That was until her met her, Park Shin Hye. 

The day he met her, the day of the script reading of his first show was also the day he said good bye to the girl he was dating. 
He couldn't be involved anymore as he was going to be in the public eye, he told her. She understood. It was always meant to end, she knew only too well. So she made no fuss and moved on. 
He wished he was being honest with her. Though it sounded like it, it was far from the truth. 
It was the girl he met. Park Shin Hye. He was smitten by her. She was already a known face, he thought she would be snobbish and hard to approach, at least that was his first impression of her. But she completely took him by surprise by being very forthcoming and friendly. He was mesmerized by her. 

What he didn't know was, she was just as drawn to him. She had just gone through a tough break up. In her teenage mind, she had even made plans for a dream wedding in Jeju island with her boyfriend of one year. He was possessive and insecure, she felt suffocated enough to suffer disillusionment and heart-break. She had recovered and sworn never to get into a relationship until she was at least 25. She had not considered her heart in the decision which as it's bound to, decided to rebel. There she was, falling for her second lead in the drama, quite hopelessly and she didn't even realize it. 

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Bolmae Jung.

A guy whose charm increases as you get to know him better. That was the nick-name she gave him. Bolmae Jung. Whether she knew it or not, her heart sure knew who it beat for.

They hung around each other a lot. Being a newcomer, he needed help with his acting, so she helped him. When she was tired, he would gladly offer his shoulder to lean on. They were friends, thick as thieves. Sharing stories, worries and everything in between. Before they knew it, they had enough material to blackmail each other for the rest of their lives. They knew everything about each other, except one thing - what they really felt for each other, deep in their hearts. 

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Sleepless nights 

It was the only time he wished he had a phone. Every night his mind would be filled with things he wanted to tell her. What he wanted to share were normal things, nothing to lose sleep over but her reactions to whatever he said made everything worth it. 
She often wondered if it was the stress of the shoot that was keeping her up, if it was, why was she going through every conversation she had with him over and over in her mind? He treated her like one of the guys - didn't he? Maybe he treated everybody well? Because he sure as hell treated her with a lot of respect. He was also very caring and comforting and incredibly jealous. She laughed out aloud at the thought. Why was he jealous though? She smiled to herself and turned around trying to catch a wink of sleep but the thoughts of a certain guy kept interrupting her journey into dreamland.

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One of the guys.

That was their excuse. She was one of the boys. Her character and attire helped perpetuate the myth. They were buddies. Back-slapping, same-glass-sharing, fixing-each-other's-hair-type friends. That she blushed unexpectedly when he got too close was only incidental. That he had eyes only for her even when the set was full of people was because she was his best friend. Of course. 

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No.1 fan

He still remembers how she once claimed to be his No.1 fan.. When someone pointed out that he had made a lot of fans through his drama. She sulked for hours. Until he found her and assured her that she was indeed his no.1 fan just as he was hers. After all the support she had given him during his toughest phase, he felt intensely grateful and indebted to her. So much so that he decided to bury any feelings he may have had for her. Nothing was worth losing her friendship he decided. So that was that. 

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Because, I miss you..

When she missed him, she convinced herself that she was having trouble getting out of her character and tried to stay as far away from everyone in the cast. Including him. Especially him. 

What she didn't know was that he was staying away from her as well. He signed up for a virtual marriage reality show. He was committed to make his band popular since he felt responsible for them, he had decided to go as far it takes. So if being married on TV was what worked then that's what he would do. 

Strangely, she understood. She was not sure why it bothered her as much but she completely understood why he chose to do it. 

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We part to meet again.

Call it fate or destiny, they were together again in his very next show. This time he would get the girl. Onscreen that is. Of course.

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