The First Night 

Wheein, the producer, their staff, basically everyone fought an uncertain battle for months and no one dared to have high expectations for a positive outcome.
Just picture their surprised expressions and shared joyful anticipation when that TV station ‘SBS TV’ approved to publish a brad new version of ‘The Bachelorette’.

Was it risky to dare a step towards an uncertain future? Maybe. Was the idea to publish a lesbian based dating show in a rather illiberal country a good one? Wheein answered this question with a simple “Yes, of course” and finished her first press conference with rather mixed feelings. She knew that their society would never in her life accept her, she knew that she would face a lot of hatred from no now on. But all that didn’t matter.

It never has been one of her dreams to become a public person but the particular circumstances allowed her to become more than just a forgettable and temporary celebrity. No, Wheein’s plans were far away from such a simple purpose.

However, the newest incidents ruined her plan down to the ground.

Maybe it was her own fault that she trusted her manager more than she should have done. During the preparation period of the show, Wheein befriended her arranged manager, Moon Byulyi. The charming woman only was a few years older than herself but the moment she found out that Byulyi was a decent fan of her art and that she has visited one of her minor art exhibitons, those two simply clicked with each other. Wheein never met a fan due to the fact she never thought of presenting herself on social media. She hated the pressure and faked support. That left a big impression on the producers when she applied for being the main focus in the show and it didn’t need more confirmation that no one else would be a better fit for such an innovative show.

If she only acted less careless.

Of course, Moon Byulyi was a woman of trust. She never took decisions without Wheein’s approval but at some point she got annoyed and stressed, so she asked her manager and friend to take care of some things by herself. Choosing the candidates was one of those things.

One would think that the choice of attendants was important to Wheein, but in reality it wasn’t. She trusted her producers enough not to invited total disastrous cases and with that she wasn’t wrong, technically. And who knows if it was fate, bad luck or just a very unlucky coincidence that one of the chosen 20 candidates happened to be the least person she ever expected to meet there. 

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Her usual cool façade betrayed her the moment she saw the limousine arriving at the end of the ridiculously long red-carpet. Until now, everything felt like a surreal, silly dream. Never in her life did she watch one of these shows, nor did she ever think of attending in one of them. But now she was in the center of attention, watched by millions of people. She hated it.

It’s for a good cause. It’s worth it. Bear with it. You’ll get used to it. Just wait; just wait a bit longer…

Wheein tried hard to calm herself down. A useless attempt.

For a long while which felt like eternity, nothing besides the loud silence in Wheein’s head could be heard until, finally, the door of the luxury car swung open. She was more than ready to run away but as soon as her eyes caught a quick glimpse of those long, never-ending legs, her brain stopped to function abruptly. Unaware of this short moment to be the last chance to escape, Wheein simply stood still in awe. Whatever person would get out of the car must be someone with a great sense of style. The unknown woman wore a simple bodycon in black, not quite tight but tight enough to present her remarkable curves to which Wheein focused on the most, unintentionally of course.

And maybe, in this split second, Wheein forgot that there were about 13 cameras perfectly placed everywhere to record her in any possible angle. Her distressed gaze confirmed that she was no longer in charge of controlling her own body and facial expressions.

The least bit that hide the identity of the seemingly appealing woman got revealed when her feet touched the ground for the first time. And it was exactly then when something inside of Wheein snapped. But she immediately knew that it was too late now. Within the blink of an eye, a new range of unreadable expressions were found on her face and all she could do was to hope that no one would notice her sheer fear.

By the second step the woman made, Wheein’s body started to freeze for a whole new reason. Was she smirking at her now? Focus Wheein, focus!

The third and fourth step felt like piercing her heart and soul, as if Wheein was the ground she walked on with those dangerously high heels. It just pained her so badly.

Five, Six, Seven, Eight… And even more terrible slow steps were approaching her, a clear warning now ringing in her ears, her own vision somehow betraying her. There’s no way that what she saw was reality.

But it was...