Episode 4

Jieun sits on her van while her manager drives her home. She locks her eyes on her window and appreciates Seoul’s surrounding. As her eyes darts on the wilderness of a fascinating city, her mind wanders off to the thought of today’s experience.

Baekhyun once again is the main topic of her mind at the moment. There is something with the said boy that doesn’t get out of her mind. Was it the first meeting again? Probably.

Haneul is her only male friend in the cast, the rest are female. Haneul seems to be very nice and cheerful, but the way he acts towards her doesn’t even get to the point that she’ll think of him the whole day.

A sudden flashback rewinds in her thoughts where Baekhyun self-proclaimed that they are finally friends. That was some sort of relief on Jieun’s side since it means that maybe Baekhyun doesn’t really mind her rude behaviour during their first encounter.

She shakes her head trying to get out of Baekhyun in her thoughts. She assumes that today her actions aren’t even worth worrying. She was just being equally friendly towards the lad.

She smiles once she finds peace in her mind. Maybe this will be the last time she’ll be worrying about the boy.

“Something wrong, Jieun-ah?” Her manager took a quick look on her through the rear view mirror.

“Nope, everything’s alright.” She doesn’t look back at him and just smile towards the window. The next thing she knew, she was off to dreamland.

***

"Hey, Clums!” Baekhyun suddenly arrives and casually place his left arm on Jieun’s shoulder. “Miss me?”

Jieun rolls her eyes. “Not at all, Hyunie, not at all.” She emphasizes the last word. “And don’t call me that!”

It was six in the morning. Filming starts at seven to be exact. But before the set themselves off to film, director Kim has prepared a breakfast buffet near the shooting site. It was outdoors, the buffet is held in a gigantic yellow tent because the sun’s shining bright, but it’s not too hot since the blowing wind was cold. Grass is underneath them and trees are everywhere. The wind that Jieun inhales are fresh and she likes the atmosphere that the venue provides them.

Not all of the casts were still on the set. So far, it is just Jieun, Baekhyun, Joongi, Jisoo, and Hanna. The rest are probably on their way already.

Jisoo is in front of him and Hanna is in front of her. Joongi is on the middle of the table where he sits near Jieun and Hanna.

On the other hand, Baekhyun sits beside her which Jieun low-key dislikes because Baekhyun was undeniably talkative even when his mouth is full, but at the same time she likes his accompany since he gives off a light atmosphere.

Baekhyun pouts at the girl’s statement. “Then stop calling me Hyunie, I mean c’mon I’m older than you for god’s sake.”

“I don’t want to.” Jieun sticks out a tongue.

Baekhyun removes his arm around her and cross his arms. “Then, we’re even.”

“Fine.” She raises both of her eyebrows and resumes on eating her meal.

“Fine.” He replies.

“Fine.” She counters back.

“You two seem very close now, huh?” Joongi comments while looking at the two with suspicious eyes. “Last time I saw you two together in a table, you were both so awkward with each other.” He laughs and Hanna as well as Jisoo laughs as well (because these two knew exactly what happened between Jieun and Baekhyun when they first met. They were the only ones from the cast that both parties had told about the incident.)

“Well,” Jieun swallows her food then clears .” I couldn’t really say we’re that close. Aren’t we, Hyunie?”

“We’re best friends, hyung.” He bluntly says then earns a nudge from Jieun. “What?” He looks at her in disbelief.

“Just get your food.” She rolls her eyes for the nth time.

“Feed me.” He opens his mouth as he waits for Jieun to place some food on his mouth, but in the end Jieun shuts his jaw close by pushing his chin upwards abruptly.

“Ouch! I bit my tongue.” He whispers the second statement where Jieun can only hear it. He hisses in pain as he holds his mouth with both hands. His eyes were shut, his eyebrows are furrowed, and she can see the pressure of his hands holding his jaw and mouth. He looks like he’s in deep pain.

“It’s bleeding.” He adds softly.

Jieun widen her eyes and reacts quickly. She got worried all of the sudden and provided her full attention towards the lad. She panics as she didn’t know what to do.

“I-I’m so sorry, does it hurt badly? Where’s the blood? Oh my god,” She hold his face delicately. He was facing down trying to hide his face in pain.

The rest of the cast looks dubiously at them wondering what was going on between the two.

Baekhyun conceals his face as he lower his head a bit more so that Jieun could not see his face. While Jieun was fidgeting in worry, Baekhyun couldn’t keep his giggle shut. He snickers quietly on his position, but with Jieun’s sharp auditory skills, she’s able to overhear his sly laugh.

She hits his arm real hard this time. “Are you making fun of me?” She expresses blankly and folds her arms together.

“Ouch, now that hurts.” He makes a pissed off face, but immediately shifts his emotions to something that he’s badly making fun of his co-star. “I’m sorry, I can’t help myself.” He continues mocking her.

Jieun prepares her fist. She doesn’t care if Baekhyun’s a boy and she’s a girl. When it comes to fist fight, gender is not involved. Besides, she heard Baekhyun is the weakest among the EXO members and she thought she had advantage, but she remembers she’s physically weak as well. Nevertheless, she’s still on for a fight even if they’re both even.

“Okay, that’s it I’m gonna—“

“OKAY” Jisoo interrupts with a cough. “Maybe it’s a good time to stop this small trouble eh?”

“That’s right.” Hanna joins the conversation. “We’re at work, better avoid fights maybe? Right, Jieun?” She smiles very sincerely.

Jieun looks at her female co-star and back at Jisoo and Joongi who were probably entertained with their small fight earlier, but was just forced to stop it because of Hanna.

“You’re right, what am I doing?” Jieun sighs, and fix herself up. She straightens her posture and faced her body towards her food. She feels like she’s going to punish herself later for throwing out an embarrassing outburst today.

“What are you talking about Jisoo? This is a friendly fight, right Clums?” Baekhyun clangs his arm around her neck which Jieun swears that she might get suffocated at any moment.

Jieun didn’t respond and just roll her eyes again.

“We love each other!” Baekhyun defends.

“Yeah, right.” Jieun says sarcastically. Deep inside, Jieun assumes Baekhyun is out of his mind—in short, he’s crazy.

***

Their relationship continues to be like that. Baekhyun is the annoying one while Jieun throws punches at him when he tries to irritate her. When their friendship starts to blossom, they maintained this kind of treatment with each other. They were like having a love-hate relationship, but both sides know that every time they fight is less than anything serious.

Baekhyun and Jieun were dubbed as real life Wang Eun and Hae Soo by their co-stars and staffs. Both fictional characters and actors have portrayed a very similar personalities and relationships with one another. In this case, Jieun realized director Kim’s decision on casting Baekhyun as Eun. Eun and Baekhyun were practically almost the same people.

Filming ended earlier as usual. It was nine in the evening and everyone is already packing up their things—ready to leave except for Jieun. She and hanna are still stuck at their waiting room.

Apparently her manager is nowhere to be found. The last time she saw him was before dinner. He ask her for permission to go back to LOEN Company to deal things up with their CEO. Manager oppa promised that he will return to the filming site before eight.

“Will you look at the time?” Jieun scoffs. “He said before eight. It’s already nine!!” She screams out of frustration.

“Calm down, Jieun. You’ve been so stressed today.” Hanna comes near her and pats her back.

“I want to go out. Maybe have a nice fancy second dinner would do.” She sighs.

“Oh!” Hanna snaps. “Speaking of that, Haneul came up to me earlier.”

“And??” Jieun asks in anticipation.

“He said Joongi oppa is inviting all of the cast for a dinner at Hongdae. He told me to tell you though.” Hanna says.

“Hondae?” Jieun hums and thinks for a while. “How do we get there?”

“Through Joongi oppa’s van!”

“Who are coming though?”

Hanna suddenly smiles ear-to-ear. Jieun could see that Hanna’s fangirling side will come out in a moment. “Well…”

“Let me guess, Sunwoo oppa coming?” Jieun rolls her eyes. She definitely knew it. Hanna is not fond of group gatherings especially when it involves boys, but she has always have a huge crush on the 9^th prince that’s why she’s eager to join the dinner.

“C’mon, everyone is coming and not just Sunwoo oppa. Jonghyun, Kijoo and Joohyuk are the only ones who can’t come due to conflict of schedules.” She defends herself.

“Right, right.” Jieun smirks.

“Jieun!”

“What?”

“Stop teasing me!” Her cheeks and ears are red.

Jieun laughs at her friend. “I’ll go just because I want to hook you up with Sunwoo oppa.”

Hanna groans and hides her face with her hands. Her cheeks are still red and Jieun continues to laugh and .

The next thing she knew, she texted her manager as she tells him that there will be a group date among the casts. She does not wait for his approval as she casually join the groups gathering in Hongdae.

***

The group dinner date went well unexpectedly. Everyone was extremely talkative especially Joongi who apparently drank some alcohol while they eat. Jieun is also fond of drinking, but since it’s their first gathering she decides not to drink yet.

They ate in a fancy Korean restaurant and all of them were wearing disguises to hide their identity from people around them.

“I don’t want to go home yet.” Haneul complains.

After the dinner ended, they stayed outside the restaurant as they wait for some sort of activity to do next.

“How about we wonder around Hongdae? We’ll just meet up here again, sounds good?” Joongi suggested and everyone seems to be fine with it.

Everyone decided to split into pairs or trios. It was Jieun and Hanna, Joongi, Sunwoo and Haneul, lastly Jisoo and Baekhyun.

They bid their goodbyes in front of the said restaurant and Jieun and Hanna directly went to a women’s clothing shop. The rest went somewhere else other than a clothing shop.

“Unnie, wait.” Jieun halts her friend from dashing through clothes in the store.

“What?” She looks at her clueless. She’s still holding some clothes that she wants to try it on.

Jieun runs a hand through her hair. She runs her hand through her pockets and bag. She finds nothing. Her phone is missing.

“I think I left my phone at the restaurant.” She mentally face-palmed at herself. How can she be careless at this moment? “I’m going back, its okay if you don’t come.”

“No, I’ll go.” Hanna insisted as she slowly returns her clothes back to where it came from. Jieun can tell Hanna’s disappointed when they have to leave the store so early.

“You don’t have to go. You seem to enjoy shopping. I’ll be fine.” Jieun gives her the most sincere smile she could ever give. She’s being honest on being alright at going back because she didn’t want to ruin her friend’s free time. She knew it’s been a while since Hanna had time for herself.

“Are you sure?” Hanna looks at her worriedly.

“It’s just a few blocks away, I can do it.” She reassures the older one.

“Really?” Hanna’s face looks in doubt.

Jieun rolls her eyes “I’m 23 for Pete’s sake.”

“I’m just worried, Jieun-ah.”

“I’ll be fine.” Jieun smiles at her once again. “I’ll get going, you’re manager’s going to fetch you right?

“Yup, maybe if you’ll go back here, I won’t be here anymore.”

“That’s fine, I’ll just make my manager fetch me at the restaurant.” They bid their goodbyes as they hug each other before they parted ways.

Jieun quickens her pace as she suddenly gets anxious over her phone. If some stranger had found her phone, it’ll be the death of her.

She hurries to find her personal belonging. It wasn’t hard to find the restaurant again. She enters the eating place and asks the manager if they found a Samsung phone.

“I’m sorry, but there were no reports over a missing phone this evening.” That was their reply.

She knew it. Someone must have taken advantage of her phone and she couldn’t do anything about it anymore. People will always take advantage of a celebrity’s phone and she’s not quite ready for its consequences.

“You’re so stupid, Lee Jieun.” She groans as she walks back to the main streets of Hongdae. She hasn’t even tried hard enough to find her phone, she has already given up.

She was not yet too far away from the restaurant until a man blocks her way. “Lost a phone, miss?” He tells her.

Jieun looks up at the familiar voice and finds Baekhyun holding up her phone with his hand. “How careless of you.” He smirks.

Jieun sighs in relief. “Give it back.”

“No,” He sticks out a tongue.

“I’m not playing jokes, Baekhyun. I’m tired. Give it to me.”

“How about let’s stroll around Hongdae first?”

“You crazy!?” Jieun bursts. “Paparazzi are everywhere, what if they saw us together!? It’s a dating scandal I tell you!”

“Why worry about it? It’s not even true.” He simply comments.

Jieun‘s eyebrows furrowed. Her head is throbbing from headache. “Why are you so confident about it?”

“Because media always find something bad about us to make them famous. Besides it’s not true anyway we can defend ourselves and what’s wrong with hanging out with a friend? Can’t we act like normal people too?”

“That’s not the point. We’re celebrities, Baek. We’re a bit different to most people.” She snatches her phone from Baekhyun’s hand. “I’ll be taking this.”

“Hey!”

“Where’s Jisoo anyway? Weren’t you with him?”

“He already left. You’re no fun, Clums! I wanted to hang out more.” Baekhyn cross his arms and looks a little bit sad.

“Sorry,” She gives him a smile and taps his face. “We’ll hang out on set instead. I’ll be going first before paparazzi sees us.”

She walks ahead of him. Baekhyun is left dumbfounded at his last position as Jieun makes a huge distance between them. But when she opens her phone, countless messages appears in her home screen. Most of it came from her manager and her CEO. Suzy and Yoo Inna also send her a message as well.

From: Manager Oppa,

What did I tell about paparazzis, huh? I told you to be careful! I’m fetching you right now Lee Jieun!!

From Manager Oppa,

The articles are going crazy! CEO-nim is contacting me! Are you still at Hongdae!?

From: Manager Oppa,

Lee Jieun, answer your phone!!!!!!!!

From: CEO-nim

Jieun-ah, we’re in trouble. Please reply as soon as possible. The company is in turmoil right now.

From: Suji,

Heol. You’re trending real good. Call me asap when you get this message. I need confirmation!

From: Yoo Inna unnie,

Jieun-ah, please call me.

Jieun eyes widen at the messages she received. Her manager is mad at her, her CEO is having company crisis and her friends are demanding to call her. What did really happen?

She hastily opens her Naver account and browsed the internet. She stops at the ‘trending’ section as she finds her name in the top spot.

Her blood is rushing and her heart is beating faster as she finds numerous articles about her and Baekhyun dating.

A/N: Have you guys watched SBS drama awards? IU, LJG, BH and more ML casts won an award! Congrats to them!! ^O^ AND THANKS TO KAREN, MY FRIEND FOR MAKING THE FAKE ARTICLE U DA BEST HAHAHA <3