Amber stood at the entrance of the studio, dead on her feet from exhaustion from being awake since dawn and up until now.... and it was already dusk. She stared ahead, although her body might be already at the brink of sleep, her mind wasn’t. Her mind was racing, making more plans and more things she needed to do to improve. As if it hadn’t been that much obvious to her how lacking her abilities in acting was before… it was now.

Acting opposite of Joong Ki was like being dumped into a pool of freezing cold water in the middle of winter. Her body froze at the freezing cold and then she was shivering… gasping for air and felt like she was drowning, with a panic she desperately barely swam to the poolside for safety. But even then the cold seeped into her bones, leaving her shaking and grasping for warmth.

Metaphorically speaking, that was how it felt like. A bit overdramatic but she thinks it was an apt description. She breathed out, she was glad she took those lessons because if she didn’t, she didn’t know how much out her depth she would've felt. As it was, the sense of ineptitude chafed at the short lived sense of accomplishment of having done a two week acting class. How naïve of her.

She sighed and mentally shook herself, she still has time. She could still remedy this she thought with conviction, and then felt someone softly tapped her shoulder to get her attention.

“Amber, I’ve been calling you for a few minutes now.” Joong Ki told her with a chuckle.

“You were? Sorry oppa, I guess I spaced out. I just haven’t been able to sleep properly yesterday.” Amber covered as the need to yawn overwhelmed her.

Joong Ki covered his laugh with a cough. ‘Cute' he thought, it seemed that he was right at likening her to a puppy. Her facial expressions just somehow reminds him of one.

Amber looked at him weirdly when she heard his laugh that he tried to disguise as a cough but said nothing. At the corner of her eye she could see that the car was already there to pick her up.

When the van came to a stop in front of them, Joong Ki took the initiative to open the door for her.

“Thanks oppa. See you at the shoot.”

“You’re welcome. See you soon.” He said with a smile, and with that Joong Ki closed the door.

When the van’s door closed, Amber let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding.

Hearing her make a sound that seemed like a sigh, Hyun Joon looked at her through the rear view mirror and saw that she was just staring out the window in a daze, which was really unlike her because she usually is on her phone either checking her social media or listening to music. “Are you okay?” he asked her worried.

Amber heard her manager’s question but it took her a long time to answer him, “Yeah, I’m fine just a little tired.”

“Is that so? You can sleep for a while, there’s going to be traffic so we’ll probably get back late.”

Amber nodded, and returned to what she was doing earlier.

She unconsciously bit her right thumb’s fingernail as she was ought to do when she was thinking particularly hard, a bad habit she knew… and she really thought she was getting better at not doing it anymore but with a situation like this who would blame her?

She really screwed up big time this morning at the script reading. When Joong Ki started acting, she fumbled and wasn’t able to do her job properly and almost ended up making a fool of herself. But thankfully she remembered what her seongsangnim told her that in acting ‘expecting the unexpected is the job of actors’ and that when that happens ‘the script is your best friend’. When she was told that, she was a loss because what her seongsangnim drilled into her and what she just told her were two different things. But today she finally understood what that meant. Granted, what she did in their script reading was a barely passable job but she survived. But what happened was something she didn’t want to happen… just going through the motions and just doing the bare necessary, because it was her principle that if she has a job to do she wants to do a good job at it.

Mind somewhat at ease than before, she decided to call her seongsangnim and ask if she could continue her acting lessons until it was time to shoot the drama.

Two weeks later…

Today, was finally her first day of shooting. Which was a bit late because from what Joong Ki told her through text, they already started shooting a week ago. But she guesses that the Director and the Writer made some changes in her shooting schedule because she was not yet finished with her acting lessons.

Unknown to her, it had nothing to do with her but with the fact that Joong Ki just had a lot more to shoot than her in the first part of the drama.

As usual, she was almost shaking with nerves. She wants to believe that she’ll somehow get used to this. It was strange, she was not this nervous on her first day of shooting in Entourage, granted in that drama her role was not as important as it is in this drama where it’s success was majorly resting on her and Joong Ki’s shoulders. She sighed, she needed to stop overthinking things.

Amber psyched herself by doing her group’s cheer:

“One. Two. Three. f(x)!” feeling a lot calmer she opened the van’s door and saw that Hyun Joon was already outside waiting for her.

“Are you feeling better?”

“Yes, oppa. Still nervous but a lot more better.” She smiled at him and together they left the parking lot to go to the studio warehouse where they were going to shoot today.

Amber’s heart was pounding louder in her ears and there was an uncomfortable feeling on her stomach that in her mind she identifies as – being nervous and at the same time excited for what the day might bring. It might be a total disaster... but she really hopes not.

She entered the warehouse and found out that the staff members are scrambling to complete the set. She greeted them a good morning before she asked a passing staff for the location of the Director. She thanked the staff before she went to the direction the staff member told her. And there she found the Director giving instructions to the staff to adjust the angle of the furniture, lights, the works. She let the director finish before she approached him and greeted him.

“Good morning, Director-nim.”

“Good morning Amber. You’re as early as they say.” he chuckled, “You can go to the dressing rooms to get ready, although we won’t be starting yet so you can still relax.”

Amber nodded, even though she had a hard time believing that she would be able to relax this close to her first shoot, “Thank you, Director-nim.” She bowed and then went to the dressing rooms as was instructed to get ready.

Although it was not the first time, it was still surprising how different she looked like by just altering her make up and clothing. Amber was thankful that Eun Ji-unnie and the others were mindful not to take her clothing and make up out of her comfort zone. Her clothes right now – a simple white shirt that was tucked in a faded straight cut jeans with a plain thin black belt, a denim jacket and a simple low cut white Converse. While the ensemble as a whole was something that she won’t specifically choose for herself... it was comfortable and wasn't a too harsh of a change that people who are familiar with her image and the way she dresses will not have a whiplash from how much contrasting her current image and the usual Amber is.

Taking another look at the mirror she told herself, “Today, you’re not Amber. You’re Min Young.”

Satisfied with her pep talk she strode out of her dressing room with her script in her hands to the direction of the set that one of the staff had told her earlier.

Once she had come near the set, there she saw Seul Gi and Hong Jong Hyun —who she had never officially met. True, they saw each other at the script reading weeks ago but as expected, that day was just too chaotic for her that she thinks she haven’t properly introduced herself to anyone else except for Joong Ki, Seul Gi, the Writer and the Director. Her ears burned at the reminder how rude she was that day. Granted, there were extenuating circumstances…

Anyways, it was her chance to make a better impression now and hope that there won’t be lasting effect on how her co-stars and other staff’s impression of her.

Amber took a deep breath before she approached her co-stars, “Good Morning!” she greeted them cheerfully.

Both of them turned to her and returned her greeting.

“Amber-ssi, can I drop the honorifics?”

“Yes, Seul Gi-sunbaenim.”

Seul Gi laughed quietly, “You don’t have to add the sunbae-nim you can just call me Seul Gi-unnie.”

Amber smiled shyly and said, “Ne, Seul Gi-unnie.”

"Me too, can I also drop the honorifics? After all, I'm going to be your on-screen older brother." Jong Hyun suggested, then added "You can also drop the honorifics."

Amber smiled and just cheerfully nodded.

There was an awkward silence before Jong Hyun cleared his throat and started conversationally, "So Amber, is this your first drama?"

"Actually no," she said shyly "my first drama was 'Entourage' the one starring Seo Kang Joon-sunbaenim. Although I didn't have many scenes with him. It was mostly with Boss- " she coughed, "I mean, Jo Jin Woong-sunbaenim."

"Really?" Seul Gi asked.

"Yes," Amber answered, but then hurriedly added "but don't try to watch that" she laughed humorlessly "it was just plain really bad at acting." Amber finished in a flat voice, remembering the cringey acting that she did in that drama... goosebumps erupted on Amber's arms when she remembered it.

"It can't be that bad." Jong Hyun said in consolation.

Amber smiled at him and said "Believe me, it was." it was then her smile turned into a grimace.  "I didn't have any experience at that time. I couldn't even attend a single acting class back then... it may sound as an excuse but I was really busy at that time. And then I was suddenly offered a role in that drama. I could've refused, but my company insisted that I should take it. Because it was 'something that I should experience at least once' they said." She laughed awkwardly, and said in a low voice "I should've insisted on taking those acting lessons before."

There was another bout of silence, and then before they could continue the conversation a staff called for their attention because the director was looking for them.

They then followed the staff to the director who was behind the cluster of monitors on just in front of the fixed set.

When the three arrived, they saw the Director - Kim Jun Soo - busy checking the angles of the cameras, instructing the staff to arrange the props and the camera work that would be done by the camera men.

"Yes, you should put that there. That way it won't obstruct the -" he stopped in the middle of his instruction when he saw his three actors waiting for him, "okay, that's good. Thanks" continued when he saw that the staff put the prop in his desired position. He turned to them and greeted them;

 "Good morning, did you all have a good night sleep?"

Although confused, Amber said yes. Which was a bit of a lie because she slept at 2:00 in the morning and she had to be on set at 8:00 but because the set was a out of the city they had to leave at 5:30 on the dot, if they didn't want to be stuck in traffic. Especially today which was also Monday, where you could expect that there will definitely be built up of cars of people that are going to work. That meant she woke up at 5:00 and only got a maximum of three hours of sleep. Which was, in Amber's dictionary that is,   enough to function properly in a day of work. Thankfully the traffic was not as bad she expected because it only took them one and a half hour, although it should normally take an hour of driving. 

Jun Soo eyed her critically, as if checking the truth but made no further comment about it. 

"As you can see we have finished the construction of the major sets that we needed for the shoot. The filming schedule is gonna be tight, but I'm pretty confident that we can do this ahead of schedule." The director told them with certainty.

He then continued "This is going to be Amber's first scene for this drama, and it's going to be a little heavy for a first scene. But I wanted to ease her into the sequence of the script and not make her jump to the fourth volume of the script if I can." he explained to his actors then added, "I ask you to assist her for this particular scene, Seul Gi-ah and Jong Hyun."

Seul Gi and Jong Hyun nodded. Amber also nodded nervously in acquiesce. The Director then informed them, "We're going to start as it was stated on the script. Min Young, or Amber, just came back to Korea..."

The Director finished his summarization of what he expected to be done and what the actors should focus on. He then turn to Amber, "Are you ready Amber?" he asked worriedly and if Jong Hyun was not mistaken, he could also detect some excitement on his tone too. The worry he could get, but the excitement? It's just, there was just so many variables to consider when you act with a newbie actor or an idol-turned-actor. Don't get him wrong, this wasn't the first time that he was casted in a drama where he had to co-star with an idol... but this was the first time where he absolutely had no idea on what to expect in terms of acting skills of his co-star. The Director just instructed him and Seul Gi to assist Amber but this was the first time they met and to be frank he wasn't even familiar of her even as an idol so there wasn't anything he could build on. He casted a glance at Seul Gi while the Director was giving further instructions to Amber but Seul Gi just shrugged, and Jong Hyun liked to think she was just as lost as he was in terms of assisting their new co-star. Jong Hyun resisted the urge to sigh, he did not want to make Amber more nervous, which she was (understandably) especially if you could take account of the rhythmic foot tapping that she was doing. 

The Director finished his instructions and told his actors to take their positions, they all went to their places before he shouted.

"Action!"

SOOO, Hi everyone who still patiently wait for my updates. It has almost been a year before the last update.TBH, I had a major writer's block and only just found my muse (I actually didn't have one before) Mr. Jang Ki Yong thank you for existing hehehe. Also, when I started this story, I didn't know the dilemma that I would face where I had to create two stories for this project... AmberxJoong Ki's and the Drama's. I had to make new characters that they needed to interpret as actors, and let me tell you... it was not easy. Me and my OC self just makes things harder for myself LOL.

Anyways I'm currently working for the next chapter. And if my brain works with me, I can probably work on my other stories. Probably.