~Chapter TWENTY-THREE~

“Bre, please make sure you’re exactly behind Murphy in the middle sequence,” Andrea said as she gulped down some water. “Otherwise the shot doesn’t work.”

Bre swallowed a gulp of water and nodded, breathing heavily. They were shooting the music video for Miss A, and a new set of problems that Andrea had had no way to prepare for had cropped up. Now, they needed to worry about their positions more than ever, so it seemed in sync and symmetrical in the video. Bre turned to Murphy, who was gulping back his own water, and told him, “Get it right, Murph. You’re ruining the shot,” and playfully pushed him away from her a little.

Andrea watched them, a small smile on her face, not really listening to Murphy’s protests. It was good that despite the last week or so, everyone seemed to be in good spirits. They had finally started filming the music video, and between the language barrier and the fact that Andrea had never choreographed for a professional video before, there were more than enough problems to go around. Nevertheless, her and her dancers were having fun, and they were getting along well with the girls in Miss A, who turned out to be some of the quickest learners Andrea had ever taught. They picked up dance moves easily and quickly. They had done so well that Andrea felt comfortable adding some last minute things to the dance that she had pulled earlier because afraid it would be too difficult. The hardest part for Andrea was making sure that the new movies fit the song and Miss A’s style as a group.

“The director would like to know if it’s possible that everyone moves everything back a meter or so?” The translator suddenly appeared next to Andrea. “He says everything looks too crowded the way it is now.”

“No problem,” Andrea told him. “And tell him I’m sorry I hadn’t realized it earlier.”

The translator nodded and walked back to the director. Andrea watched him go briefly, feeling a little bad that he was the only one here that had his job. Min may have been able to help, but she was just as busy, so the one translator was running from person to person, trying to relay everything to and from Andrea.

Andrea shook her head, silently promising herself that she would buy the translator a gift for his troubles later and turned back to her crew, giving them the instructions for the next shot. Granted, the first day of shooting was a little more difficult than the next few, because on the first day, no one knew what to expect working in a strictly bilingual shoot. But now, on the third day, things had fallen into some semblance of order.

Andrea turned to her dancers. “Everyone needs to back up by a meter,” she said. “We’re too crowded.

Everyone followed Andrea’s instructions, though Brandon audibly grumbled about not being used to the metric system as he did it.

Once everyone was in place, Andrea looked toward the director, who had watched them as they moved. All the director could do was nod in approval, and Andrea felt another pang of guilt.

“Don’t feel too bad,” a voice said behind her. “You aren’t the first foreigner he’s worked with.”

Andrea spun around, a little unnerved that she hadn’t heard him approach or felt his presence behind her. “Oh, hi,” was all she could manage to say.

It was one of the guys she had met in the JYP dance studio. Obviously he had been the one that had done all the talking, but he had changed his hair in color and length since she had last seen him, which did not help at all when it came to remembering his name.

He chuckled and offered Andrea his hand to shake. “Taecyeon. We met—”

“In the dance studio,” Andrea finished, shaking his hand lightly. “Yeah, I remember you, but, I’m sorry, I really couldn’t remember your name.”

Taecyeon laughed out loud. “It’s alright, I get that a lot. Even in Korea, it’s a little bit odd of a name. In America, they had fits over it.”

“I bet calling attendance in school was torture,” Andrea said seriously, earning another laugh from Taecyeon.

“Oh, yeah…” he sighed. “Especially when it was coupled with my last name. ‘Ok.’ As in ‘O-K.’ There were definitely a lot of mess ups throughout school.”

“Oh, I understand. My full name is ‘Andrea Moreau,’ and Americans, for whatever reason, have trouble with French last names. Your situation was probably worse than mine though.”

Taecyeon shrugged. “I got used to it. I like my name. I just felt bad for substitute teachers sometimes.”

They both laughed. Andrea had to admit, talking to someone who was completely fluent in English and wasn’t someone in her crew was really nice. Sure, she had Jay, but with his music promotions, time to see or talk to him was tiny right now.

“Dre!” someone called from set. “We’re ready to shoot!”

“Go, go, go,” Taecyeon urged. “I’ll be hanging around for a while, so we’ll talk in a little bit.”

Andrea nodded and headed back on to the set, a little more reenergized.

-           -           -           -

True to his word, Taecyeon stuck around, and, in between takes and resets, would visit with Andrea as much as possible. About halfway through one of their conversations, Andrea began to wonder what Taecyeon’s work actually was. He was obviously in shape—Andrea had always been good at spotting someone’s fitness, no matter how much clothes they wore—but he hadn’t come to dance. He had just come to watch, it seemed.

Andrea had been trying to muster up the courage to ask what Taecyeon did for a living, when Min came over and asked, “Taecyeon, are 2PM recording right now? I saw Wooyoung leaving one of the studios, but didn’t get to ask.”

Andrea had never been more grateful that she had spoken in English.

Taecyeon answered in English, saying, “We’re only recording a little bit, since we just released a mini-album, but yeah, we’re working on some stuff.”

But then Min, after an apologetic look at Andrea, asked something in Korean, and the two of them were off. Andrea, in fact, didn’t mind. It gave her a chance to check up on everything, including text messages. She was now in almost constant contact with her dad again, so she always looked forward to seeing new texts in her phone. This time though, there was another one, not from her dad.

It was from Jay, asking if she wanted to be picked up when her work was over and go out for a meal. She quickly replied that she would, and gave Jay the address of the building she was at and the time she would be done.

She got a quick reply of confirmation from Jay, and then went back to work feeling a lot more energetic.

“Text from Jay, Dre?” Tyler teased, as they set up for the next shot.

“Shut up,” Andrea warned, but not before a smile crept on her face.

After they were finished, Dre let her dancers go first, lingering to talk about the progress of the video with the director, and because she didn’t want her crew around when Jay showed up. Not because she was afraid people, on either end, would get angry, but because she desperately didn’t want to be teased.

Andrea, after her talk with the director (again, through the overworked translator), packed up her things and began to leave when she heard her name being called and saw Taecyeon running up to her.

“You headed home?” he asked.

Andrea shook her head. “No, I’m going to dinner with a friend.”

“Do you need a ride?” Taecyeon asked.

Again, Andrea shook her head. “They’re coming to get me.”

Taecyeon nodded. “Let me take your bag. I’ll wait with you for them.” And before Andrea could protest, Taecyeon had taken the bag Andrea had slung over her shoulder out of her hands and had it slung over his own shoulder. She shrugged and they walked outside side by side.

For a while, Andrea and Taecyeon talked, waiting for her ride to come. They talked about America, about her dance crew, and about Miss A as artists, dancers, and friends, and Andrea was enjoying herself so much that she didn’t notice that it was getting later and darker.

Taecyeon seemed to notice at about the same time, and he asked, “Does your friend know where they’re going?”

“They should…” Andrea answered quietly, suddenly afraid something had happened to Jay.

It was right then that her phone went off.

It was a text from Jay, and it said, “I’m flashing my lights at you right now.”

Andrea began looking around, and, from about half a block away, there was a car flashing its lights in her and Taecyeon’s direction.

“Oh, there he is,” Andrea sighed, reaching for her bag that Taecyeon still had.

Taecyeon handed over her bag and asked, “Do you want me to walk you up there?”

Andrea looked back at Jay’s car and at Taecyeon. “No,” she answered. “I should be fine. Thanks, though.”

Taecyeon shrugged. “Alright, but I’m going to wait here until you get to the car. That’s a dangerous distance, you know.”

“Half a block?” Andrea chuckled.

Taecyeon nodded. “It’s deceiving just how dangerous half a block can be, you know.”

“Uh huh,” Andrea said disbelievingly, still laughing a little. She started to walk towards Jay’s car, but turned back around to wave good bye to Taecyeon, who waved back, a large grin on his face.

Andrea walked to Jay’s car. When she got there, she heard the door unlock, so she opened the door and slipped in.

“Sorry I’m late,” Jay said quietly.

“It’s fine,” Andrea answered as she arranged her bag on the floor of the car. “I had company.” She sat back up, and waited for Jay to start driving.

But he didn’t.

Andrea turned to look at Jay, and noticed he looked different. She would have said nervous, but that wasn’t even it. He just looked like he wasn’t sure of what to do, but was trying to hide it. He wasn’t looking at her. He was looking ahead, as though he were watching the road already.

Andrea watched his face until he finally let out a breath and reached for the car gear.

“You okay?” Andrea asked quietly as they pulled into traffic.

 “Yep,” Jay answered, a genuine smile on his face. “Perfectly perfect,” he said, making Andrea laugh.

Thanks for reading/subscribing~!

Again, I must thank everyone for their continuing patience.

:D