Joshua

The drama has already begun, it seems. Not that I mind. I like drama!

The crew was about to send that disruptive girl home, but thanks to the efforts of yours truly, I managed to stop them from doing that. The girl has been stuck in one of those media offices, thinking she’s waiting for the ferry to come to the island and take her back to the mainland.

Little does she know that I’m going to be paying her a visit instead. The first dramatic arc in our Wed Game reality show, and this one wasn’t even scripted!

I walk into the room where she’s waiting, sitting on the floor against the wall with a defeated look on her face. A camera crew follows closely behind me to document the whole thing.

She frowns when she sees me, and frowns even harder when she sees the camera crew.

“Oh you’ve got to be kidding me!” she sputters.

“Hello, 152,” I say, glancing at the number plastered on her shirt. In hindsight, I wish I looked up her real name, but it's too late now.

“Wow,” she says. She looks insulted. “What do you want, ? To scold me for TV content? To give the viewers something to watch. Well, I’ll give them a show. you, Hong Pharmaceuticals! you, Joshua Hong!”

Wow. She really is feisty. “We can cut all of that out,” I say. “I’m here to…”

“ Hong Pharmaceuticals! Hong Pharmaceuticals! Hong Pharmaceuticals! Hong Pharmaceuticals! Hong Pharmaceuticals! Hong Pharmaceuticals! Hong Pharmaceuticals! Hong Pharmaceuticals!” she says.

I go quiet until she decides to stop.

“You done?”

“No. you,” she says again.

“Would you just let me speak, please?”

She crosses her arms over her chest.

“We rolled back the footage of what happened. Everything was being recorded, and the camera caught it when the man you punched was making the other girl uncomfortable.”

152 narrows her eyes, side-eying all the cameras.

“I know you sat between them to protect the girl. What you did was very brave… and–”

“Oh, would you shut up!?” she cuts me off. “This isn’t appropriate. You can’t just broadcast this! That girl probably doesn’t want the world to know she was d on national television, so please turn off the ing cameras and have a goddamned heart you disgusting piece of !”

I stand in place, feeling like I’m the one who was punched across the face now. I hesitate. What do I even say in this situation?

But she has a point, and I feel like an idiot for not considering the other girl’s point of view. She was actually harassed and here I am turning that harassment into TV content like an .

I turn to the camera crew. “That’s enough guys. You can turn off the cameras. And just cut out this entire ordeal when you edit this episode.”

When the cameras are lowered and the crew shuffles out of the room, 152 visibly relaxes.

“You’re back in the game,” I tell her, trying to save face and appear like the responsible, cool and level-headed chaebol that I am. “I’ll send word to disqualify that old man so he won’t bother you anymore. But next time, if you have grievances with any of the contestants, maybe don’t punch them. Or insult them. Just let the staff know, and they’ll take care of it.”

“Whatever,” she mutters.

I begin to walk out, but I hear her mumble something.

“What’s that?”

“I said I’m sorry,” she says. “For insulting you. I hope it doesn’t… uh… ruin my chances or whatever. Not that I’m dying to marry your stink or anything.”

I give her a smile.“Don’t worry about it. And thank you for calling me out. It was wrong of me to turn this whole ordeal into reality TV, so I needed to hear it.”

She nods. “Okay then. I’ll be sure to keep calling you out for your bull in the future.”

I laugh. “Maybe not in front of the cameras though. I still have a reputation to uphold!”

“Then can I call you out now? There are no cameras here, right?”

“Nope, no cameras.”

She stands up, then comes closer to me. A little too close. So close I have to resist the urge to step back a little.

She whispers close to my ear: “you don’t deserve to be this ing handsome you flaming piece of !”

With that, she exits. My mouth hangs open and my eyes can’t help but trail behind her.

I’m shocked at how forward and unabashed she is, how she manages to insult and compliment me all at the same time.

And weirdly, I’m a little flattered too.