one
Hello, Mr. Actor
Hyunji arrived late. The queue was already long the moment she arrived at the venue. She moved her head, trying to find her friend amidst all the people. Hyunji was terribly sorry for putting her friend in this kind of situation. Her friend was bad at dealing with social stuffs and it must've overwhelmed her to be in the crowd. After all, it was only appropriate for a writer to have a rather timid, closed personality. Hyunji looked a little bit more, and that writer friend of hers was still nowhere to be found.
Someone pushed her from behind for the fifth time and Demi finally turned around to face the annoying person.
"Do you want to take my turn?" she asked to girl behind her. That girl was looking suspiciously scary with her hat and mask on.
The girl mumbled something in reply and Demi didn't quite heard it because of all the voices around them. She sincerely hoped that the girl in the mask would say yes because her turn was approaching really soon and it wasn't really her turn. It was her friend, Hyunji's turn, and since Hyunji told her that she'd be a little late because of the traffic--she waited in line for her. Who'd thought that her 'little bit late' meant 2 hours late with her finally being in the front of the line, only seconds away from her social nightmare. She really didn't want to do this.
Someone tapped her from the side. "Miss, it's your turn,"
Hyunji found her. Demi was slightly being pushed by a staff and she was now approaching the vacant seat in front of Bobby. Hyunji knew she had just missed her opportunity to talk to her her favorite idol, but her mind was now full of Hyunji and how scary it must've been for her. Demi had the tendency to make a fool of herself in social context. That girl had always suffered from cold feet from just trying to order her favorite cup of hot chocolate. There was once this moment when a stranger smiled at Demi and she returned the smile with tears falling from her eyes. That was how nervous she was.
Hyunji got closer to the main stage and she felt a staff's eyes on her. She stopped from her track and folded her palms together in a praying manner.
You can do this, Demi.
"Hello, mind if I ask where's your album?" Kim Jiwon asked the fan before him.
She looked uneasy. "I don't have one,"
It took seconds and some processing going on his mind before Jiwon gave her a new album from under the desk. It was supposed to be some kind of door prize because the cover was different and it was a limited edition, but he didn't mind giving it away. Though, he made sure that none of the staffs saw that.
"And your name is...?"
The fan replied something but her soft voice easily drowned in the loud crowd.
"Sorry, what did you say again?"
"Asdfghjkl..."
"What? Dummy?" he raised his voice, "Your name is Dummy?"
One of the staff signaled her to move forward and Jiwon got no time. He decided to write what he thought he had heard her name was.
To: Dummy
Yunhyeong looked at the previous handwriting of Bobby. "Woa, your name is Dummy?"
The girl didn't reply. She silently wished she got it done quickly so she can escaped from this nightmare.
Yunhyeong felt dark aura radiating from the girl before him, so he signed the album in a hurry. He ended their meeting with a smile, "Have a nice day, Dummy!"
Demi moved to the next person and fell open. She looked as if she had seen a ghost, but rather than a monster, the guy before her was more of an angel.
Koo Junhoe was laughing out loud from something the guy next to him, Jinhwan said. Demi saw how his eyes narrowed and the corner of his lips twitched into a big smile. His voice broke into a ha-ha-ha-ha. And he looked so...., captivating. Radiant.
Junhoe suddenly realized he was being watched. He offered the girl before him an I'm-sorry-smile. "Jinhwan hyung said something about crocodiles and it was hilarious! You should ask about him when you go to him later,"
He was about to sign but then he remembered something. He looked up from the album, "What was your name again?"
His eyes met her bright eyes and he swore it wasn't love at first sight. No, Junhoe despised that kind of thing. He didn't believe in such a cliche. It was more of an attraction. There was something about her stare, the way she looked at him.
The girl grew uncomfortable and she scratched her neck. He noticed that her short hair was being pulled into a messy ponytail, leaving strands of hair here and there.
Come on, how can anyone not feeling attracted to such a lady?
"Do you want to be my Shin Jiwan?" she blurted out. Even Demi herself was surprised of the question she unconsciously palmed .
"Shin Jiwan?"
Demi avoided looking straight into his dark eyes. She fidgeted nervously. "Well, if you happened to have read a book titled 'Day One Yesterday', the main character's name is Shin Jiwan and I wrote it, I guess? We already have movie contract coming soon and you look like Jiwan a little bit. I mean, a little bit a lot."
"Oh! So you're the author, Laline?"
Demi liked how he pronounced the name la-lin. She just realized that Junhoe was saying it out loud and it might blew her cover.
"No, yes, I mean no! My name's Demi,"
"I couldn't hear you. What?"
Yunhyeong poked Junhoe with him elbow. "Her name is Dummy, you dummy,"
Junhoe looked utterly confused. "Dummy? But you said you are Laline?"
Realizing how messy everything turned out to be, Demi grabbed her album and was about to leave when Junhoe suddenly held her wrist. "You probably should talk to my manager about it, but I wrote my number just in case,"
Apparently Jinhwan noticed what Junhoe had written on the album. He signed the album and handed it to Demi. A meaningful look on his face.
That was the longest 15 minutes of her life. Demi stumbled to the nearest wall, trying to find something concrete to lean on. If she was some character in a webtoon, they'd draw a white thing looked like ghost trying to get out from her. Turned out having her soul leaving her body was a dizzying experience. She rested her head to the wall, suddenly feeling thirsty.
Hyunji handed her a bottle of mineral water which Demi took and gulped it in hurry.
Hyunji her back gently. "You hold it in so well. I'm so glad you didn't throw up!"
Demi replied with a barely audible ha-ha. She was about to give Hyunji the album when the girl stopped her. "It's your reward after all,"
Hyunji graduated from university with a major in psychology. No wonder she tended to put her knowledge in use and came up with these mission-reward thing as some kind of therapy. Sometimes it did help and other times they didn't. Like right now, Demi just felt tired and angry at Hyunji.
The made their way to the exit with Demi looking like a ghost. People stared at her but they didn't give it a second thought since as fans they all understood what a shocking experience it was to meet with their idols.
A girl walked passed them and elbowed her friend. "Hey, don't you think that short-haired girl looks familiar?"
The friend turned around and narrowed her eyes. "Her face is so mainstream, though," and they walked away.
Finally, Demi thought. It was late afternoon and the streets before her was packed in a traffic jam. She breathed in the air filled with pollution and felt a little bit better.
"Sooo, how was B.I?" Hyunji asked out of the blue. She noticed that B.I and Demi had a quite a long time talking with each other back there.
Demi furrowed her eyebrows. "Who's that?"
"The last guy."
Oh. That strange guy that asked what her favorite ice-cream flavor was. It was vanilla, obviously. "He was nice," she replied.
"Was he umm..., you know really y?"
"I don't know. It's not like I went to bed with him,"
Hyunji looked surprised. "Woa, girl! But anyway would you with anyone, like ever?"
Junhoe's face crossed her mind. Demi got chills from the sudden thought. "I don't know,"
Judging from the redness on her cheeks, Hyunji knew there was someone. Demi with a love interest? Ah, things were getting interesing~
ImBookIndie was located quite away from the bustling city center. Their building had a nice terrace and great view to a lake, something that was hard to find the city. Indie location for an indie publishing, just as Ms. Yoon, the founder of the company had stated. Not just the location, but the whole building was also designed to match their indie-antimainstream theme. They had a pastel rainbow as their wall color and strangely it went well with the Spanish style furniture. The lobby was currently renovated, upgraded into an all-glass and modern looking look. It was only after Demi's success with her book that the company was able to afford this grand dream.
Demi walked into a bright meeting room. Three chairs were occupied. Her editor, Shin sat on the left side with the head event planner, Rocky next to her. The madame of the house of course, sat in the middle.
Ms. Yoon turned around in her chair. "Well, good morning, my international bestseller, Laline!"
Demi offered a quick smile and took her place on the right side of Ms. Yoon.
Rocky began the meeting with his presentation for the upcoming release of Laline's newest novel. They went on with the same plan as they did with Day One Yesterday's release; a book talk. The talk of course wouldn't be conducted by Demi. She had no part in all of this live event. She didn't even understand why she was here in the first place, listening to this boring plan.
"Same old and boring, right?" Ms. Yoon said, as if reading her thought. "That's why we came up with an idea of making you go-public."
Demi's eyes widened.
"We will get the publicity we want. Who would've thought that their beloved author, Laline turns out to be the heiress of KimSon corporation and a figure skater, too!"
felt tight but she managed to reply. "Ex-figure skater and--"
"Yeah, but you were great! You used to be nation's beloved. I've seen all the videos, you know,"
Demi wondered if there was a footage of her mother pulling her hair in the dressing room. What a silly thought. If there was even any videos like that, they'd probably had gotten rid of it.
Shin reached out for Demi. "You don't have to do this. I mean, you must've got your own reason for hiding your identity,"
Ms. Yoon nodded. "Was it because you ran away from your family?"
"Ms. Yoon!" Shin exclaimed.
"Okay, okay. You don't have to do this, sweetie but it'll be great if you do,"
Rocky cleared his throat. "Do you have any ideas, Demi, for what are we going to do with the upcoming release?"
"I don't know," she replied.
Ms. Yoon looked like she was really about to lose her patience and Shin realized it so she tried to divert the conversation. "The release is still 2 months away. We can always have another meeting. I think it's better if we talk about the movie contract for One Day Yesterday. The production crew contacted yesterday and they wanted us to come with a suggestion list for the actors. They said that the writer might knew what they're looking for."
She felt their heavy stares on her and fidgeted nervously. "I will come up with the list if you agree not to publicize my identity,"
Ms. Yoon finally lost her patience and no one could do anything about it. "Christ! That was not negotiable! This arrogant prick doesn't know what she's talking about," she stormed out of the room. Shin gave Demi an apologizing look and went after her boss.
Rocky was left alone with Demi. He looked at her. "We can brainstorm ideas, what do you think about it?"
The sushi place was deserted as always. That was the reason Demi liked this place. Her voice would not compete with others. Hyunji thought the sushi in this place wasn't that amazing, but she said yes anyway when Demi asked her to meet in the sushi place.
They took their place in the corner of the room. Hyunji looked wasted after a long day at work. She worked in the human resource some fancy department store, something she considered as a waste of her studies. "Again, we basically just interview people. Not diognizing and offering solutions to people. I mean, sometimes we do but you know...," she put a salmon roll on .
"I had a rough day too," Demi replied.
"Tell me about it,"
"Well...,"
Hyunji's eyes suddenly went bright. "Oh! It's Ikon!"
For a second Demi thought that Ikon was coming to the restaurant but then she turned around and found no one at the door. Then she realized that Hyunji was immersed watching the television on the wall. She looked up and there they were. Ikon on a live show.
The MC was a guy in his late 30s. "Is there any secrets only the members knew of?"
The group went ooo... and stole teasing glances at each other. Jinhwan suddenly raised his hand. "I don't know if I should tell this or not, but you see Junhoe was rejected by a girl."
Junhoe went red in the face. "Hey!"
"The girl didn't call him back and he was so frustrated that he wrote a poem about it,"
Chanwoo vigorously nodded his hand. "It was called La-lin and so cringey me and and hyungs couldn't stand it,"
Hyunji eyes were glued on the television. "La-lin sounds similar to your pen name, doesn't it?" she remarked as she stuffed more salmon rolls into .
The MC seemed intrigued. "Was it perhaps, a Chinese beauty?"
"Hahahaha....." Junhoe let out a nervous laugh.
"Well then, Junhoe, do you have any more secrets to spoil?"
Junhoe smiled to camera. "Lately I've been considering to be an actor,"
"AND CUT!" the director shouted.
Junhoe glared at Jinhwan. "Ya, hyung! What was that about?"
The latter smiled nonchalantly. "If the girl sees this, she'll probably call you,"
Hanbin had overheard them. "Wait, you mean the short-haired girl?"
"Oh! Dummy!" Jiwon exclaimed.
Chanwoo seemed interested. "What about this Dummy girl?"
Jinwan patted Junhoe's shoulders. "This guy was stunned by her,"
Donghyuk chucked, silently estimating that Junhoe's infatuation would only last for a week. Junhoe had the tendency of liking and getting over someone very easily.
Hanbin seemed to be in deep thought. "I think it'll not be long until she contacts you, June. Her favorite ice-cream is vanilla after all,"
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