Chapter 4 (Re-upload)

A Journey Together

 

The van door slammed open. Kibum entered and slumped into his seat. Hyojin timidly followed after him. She was in hot water right now.

 

--Flashback--

“I’m so sorry!” When Hyojin rushed back with the coffee and snacks, the interviewer and cameraman were already preparing for the interview. “Here’s your coffee!” She handed the coffee to an agitated Kibum and dug for the file of Q&As. While the interviewer looked through the list of questions, Hyojin gave Kibum the fruit salad that she had bought for him. Distracted, he popped pieces of fruit into his mouth as he scanned the list himself. Next thing Hyojin knew, Kibum looked like he was going to gag. “Koenchanayo?” she dug a packet of tissues as he choked for a second after sipping his coffee too quickly. “Here, a tissue,” she offered. After calming down, he raised his voice at her. “Ya! Don’t you know I don’t like apples?!”

 

Her eyes widened. “I-I-I had no idea,” she said silently. “What kind of assistant ARE you?!” Kibum had finally exploded. He ran his hand through his hair and looked up to sky. It was only then that he realized the people at the filming site were looking at him, including the interview crew. He released a long breath before drinking the coffee. Hyojin reached out towards Kibum and he flinched. “What are you doing?” She pointed at his head. “Y-your hair. You messed it up a little.” He sighed before looking back at the paper. She tiptoed to fix her hair, before Kibum passed her the file and coffee, and walked to the director. She caught hold of them and tried to balance everything in her hand.


 

“Jinjja choesonghamnida,” Hyojin said quietly. “Where were you?” Kibum asked with his eyes closed, his fingers pinching his nose bridge. After a short moment of silence, she answered his question, “I was memorizing your schedule and interview questions. I figured that the list of Q&As would be similar for all interviews, so I decided to memorize some to inform the interviewer. I got tired, so I took a nap.”

 

Kibum opened his eyes to scold her –who flinched when she saw him move-, but he saw a red patch on her left hand. “What happened to your hand?” She hid her hand gently in her coat pocket, but he pulled it out. “What happened?”

 

“I spilled some of your coffee when I was rushing to you. I’m so sorry! I’ll pay for the coffee!” she said frantically. Kibum saw the look on Hyojin’s face.

 

--Flashback--

 

“Thank you for giving us your time!” Kibum bowed at interviewer Kim Taejin’s words. “Ne, Kamsahamnida.” “And cut!” the cameraman said to them. “You’ve worked hard!” Kibum yelled to the crew. “Kibum-ssi? How are you?” Kim Taejin asked privately. Kibum just smiled and said that all was well. Taejin saw in the corner of his eye that Kibum’s assistant had gotten up to look at Kibum. Of course he noticed the mixture of guilt and fear on her face. How could he forget what happened before the filming?

 

“Did you have a bad day?” he asked Kibum. Kibum replied with a blank face that filming was as usual. “You seemed quite touchy just now,” he commented with a laugh. “Too much into character?”

 

Kibum gave a slight laugh at Taejin’s comment. “Maybe a little grouchy from the lack of sleep.” He tried his best to cover it up.

 

“I see. Well, whatever it is, we must remember to keep our tone down. Sometimes the assistants have it out worse than us and they could do with our cheer and gratefulness,” Taejin advised. He looked over to Kibum’s assistant again and smiled. “Your assistant is quite the character. She reminds me of the fresh-college-graduate characters that we see on TV. Treat her well, Kibum,” Taejin patted Kibum’s shoulder.  “Assistants are like our best friends in the industry. They’re our only confidant and form of ordinary friendship in the life of stardom. Besides, you wouldn’t want to work with an angry and bitter cordi assistant.” Kibum bowed as Taejin left with the Weekly Entertainment crew.


 

“It’s ok. The company will pay, anyway,” Kibum said. Hyojin gently pulled her hand away from his, and Kibum lay back on his seat. “Choesonghaeyo.”

 

“Stop apologizing. I was wrong for exploding at you. I forgot that it’s your first day of work. They change so many times I forget who’s new and who’s not,” Kibum said softly. Hyojin looked at him with surprise and curiosity. “Kibum-ssi, do you change assistants a lot?” Nonchalantly, he replied, “yes.” Hyojin swallowed hard. ‘Am I gonna get fired soon?’ Kibum saw her nervousness and said, “They change the assistant, not me. I’m apparently easy-going, so they assign new assistants to me.”

 

Hyojin nodded and gave out a sigh of relief. Kibum chuckled, “You thought I was going to fire you, huh?” Hyojin nodded with a pout. “I’m usually quiet, so I might be easy-going yet hard to approach. It’s just that you disappeared with all my scripts so I had to borrow spares and call in hope that you’d pick up. Hopefully like my past assistants, you’ll adapt quickly.” Kibum couldn’t help but smile when he saw Hyojin’s mouth curve upwards.

 

“How old are you?” Kibum asked.

 

“I’m 24 this year,” she replied.

 

“Oh! You’re a 89-er? Then I’m your oppa.” She froze in the awkwardness. “Sorry, but if you’re asking me to call you oppa, then it’s not going to happen. I think we should have a professional relationship. Also, there’s the case of misunderstanding with your fans. I wouldn’t want them to catch me calling you oppa and then start some malicious forum to eliminate me.”

 

He smiled in incredulity, “I don’t think they will be THAT bad.”

 

“You never know. I guess you’ve never met JYJ’s sasaeng fans, or heard of the Ivy Chen article, where ELFs told her to stay away? I think that’s pretty hardcore already,” she said to prove her point. “Come on, haven’t you had sasaeng fans?” she answered with a curious smile.

 

“I did, when I was still in Super Junior,” he answered with a slight smile.

 

Her smile dropped. “You mean…” His eyes widened in realization of his own words. “I mean, when I was still promoting with Super Junior.” Her face remained dazed. After seconds of staring into space, she smiled and commented, “Phew. I thought you left the group for a second.”

 

Soon, the van arrived back in Seoul and stopped in front a block of apartments. “Thank you for dropping me off, but you don’t have to do this next time. This isn’t part of the driver’s job. I’ll just go home when the driver drops you off,” Hyojin bowed to Kibum.

 

“Aniya, Hyojin-ssi. It’s my job to make sure you get home safely too. Midnight isn’t a safe time for you to go home on your own,” the driver said. Hyojin thought for a while and replied, “Then can you drop Kibum-ssi off first next time? He needs all the rest he can get. His eye bags must not be obvious the next day. Thanks Mr. Driver.”

 

The driver smiled and told her to call him Jihoo. She smiled with a bow and got out of the door. “Hyojin-ah!” She stopped the door from closing.. Kibum let out a sigh and looked at her hand. “Remember to put some cream on your hands.” She smiled and bowed to him. “Goodnight, Kibum-ssi. Goodnight, Jihoo-ssi.” With that she slammed the door and waited for the van to leave.

 

“Finally; the Kim Kibum that I know. Was wondering at the filming site whether you were taking revenge on her for whatever she did last night,” Jihoo said to Kibum.

 

“Well, you never know. Maybe I felt guilty for yelling at her,” Kibum smiled to Jihoo through the rear view mirror. “sigh Kim Taejin actually told me to treat her well. I guess the angry side of me just exploded on her and everyone misunderstood.”

 

“Or maybe she’s right. Maybe you don’t have enough sleep! Grouch.” Kibum laughed at Jihoo tease.

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Chapter 10 will be up in the day!

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JaeJayBaby_3 #1
Yay! Looking forward to the next chappie. ^_____^