“N-no!”

     Jieun noticed Myungsoo and Sungyeol suspiciously looking at her.

     She swallowed hard and laughed ridiculously.

     “YAHHHH! W-What are those stares for? I just thought that Eunjung didn’t know her at all, because if she did, then I should have known.” she said while continuously blinking.

     “Do you also know her?“, Myungsoo leaned towards her he seemed not convinced at all.

      Jieun leaned backwards and pretended to be sleepy, showing her exaggerate yawning.

      “Maybe Jieun needs to rest right now. Take care!” Sungyeol managed to understand her gestures. He and Myungsoo bid goodbye to her after a few minutes.

     After the two left, Eunjung was frustrated by what her friend did.

     She pinched Jieun’s cheeks and said, “Why did you lie to them? Don’t you know that Mr. Lee is a talent scout and a producer? He can create a superstar out of you! Why didn’t you strike while the iron is hot?! AISSSHHHH!!”

     “B-but, it’s just so embarrassing! You don’t know how I’m feeling! I’m not ready for the attention everybody is giving to that random girl. I don’t think I can reveal myself to the public just like that!” Jieun felt reluctant.

     Meanwhile, Myungsoo thought that he left his phone inside Jieun’s room so he went back to look for it. Then he overheard their conversation upon opening the door.

      Eunjung continuously convinced her friend, “I know how you feel, but come on…this moment is rare! This is life-changing! This is the way to stardom. And only a few will be chosen!”

     “B-But I’m scared…what will happen if I expose myself as the random girl?”

     “Where were you when God distributed brains? Girl, think again. This is a huge opportunity!” Eunjung poked her head.

     “Jieun is the random girl?” Myungsoo wasn’t actually surprised. At that moment, he realized that he didn’t bring his phone at all, so a soft smile was formed on his lips for the weird chance to hear a random secret.

     A sudden announcement made Jieun and Eunjung stop mocking at each other.

Reporter:

     “Breaking news: Superstar Idol Kim Taeyeon held a press conference early this morning. She revealed that she had recently broken up with her boyfriend and producer Lee Sungyeol due to personal reasons. She also exposed her plans of leaving Korea for a year for her upcoming World Tour, leaving her fans in Korea devastated.”

     Jieun suddenly screamed while wiping continuously dripping tears from her eyes, “NOOOOOOOO!!! How about us fans? We’ll be missing her for a year?! That’s unfair!”

     “H-He broke up with Taeyeon? I wonder what happened between them…Hmmm”, instead of sympathizing with her friend, Eunjung bursts out with curiosity.

      Jieun felt totally depressed by the news that she never stopped crying every time she remembers that her long time Idol will be gone from the country for a year.

     Instead of resting, after her discharge from the hospital, she immediately went to the convenience store where she applied few weeks ago for her new part time job to relieve her emotional stress.

     One time, several teenage girls were watching the “random girl” video inside the convenience store and Jieun eavesdropped on them.

     “I wonder how she looks like”

     “Maybe she’s ugly that’s why she didn’t want to show her face in public...”

     “What? U-Ugly? Who told you I’m ugly?! These kids want me to slap them one by one! AISSSHHH!”, Jieun controlled her temper and continued eavesdropping on them.

     “But you know what, I really envy her. She’s such a lucky girl!”

     “Me too! If I were her, I’ll show myself in Star King. Then I’ll be so popular after that, and be able to share the same stage with my idols! Oh my God!”

     They giggled and squealed while fangirling over their favourite stars.

     At that moment, Jieun realized how lucky she really is. The girls were right. All she needs to do is show herself in public, be popular and that will be the only way for her to get connected to Taeyeon forever.

     Finally, she made up her mind. The next day, she met up with PD-nim for the exclusive interview.

“Let’s welcome, the mysterious ‘random girl’ who amazed everyone with her angelic voice...Lee Jieun!”

“Omo! She’s good at singing and she’s pretty too!”

“Please give us some lines in the song you used to sing in this video”

     Jieun sang few lines and then bowed to the audience. Afterwards, the hosts gave her a surprise offer. It was a recording contract from a newly established company, Starlight Entertainment.

     She was so surprised that she could not believe her eyes on how fast everything was happening to her.

     “And to present the recording contract, here is the representative of Starlight Entertainment- Mr. Lee Sungyeol.”

     Jieun suddenly felt uneasy upon seeing Sungyeol once again, “N-No way! This is so embarrassing...I almost wanted to hide my face. I just told him that I didn’t know who the random girl is.”

     Sungyeol approached her and acted as if he didn’t remember how Jieun lied to him. In his mind, he’s totally curious as to how far can Jieun compete with her Idol Taeyeon in the near future. “I know this isn’t right, but I’ll be doing everything to ensure that Taeyeon will taste defeat.”

     Without second thoughts, Jieun agreed immediately and accepted the contract offered to her.

     He congratulated her then suddenly grabbed her right hand and kissed it.

     Jieun blushed, “W-why?”

     The crowd giggled.

     “Woah! What a charming lady, I’m so jealous!”

     “Isn’t he the one whom Taeyeon dated before?”

     At the backstage, Jieun ran towards Sungyeol to apologize about why she lied before.

     “I’m really sorry- “ she bowed at him several times.

     “It’s alright. From now on, you have to be honest with me; I’ll trust you no matter what.”

     Jieun’s face flushed while asking, “But, why did you do that? I-I mean, kissing my hand? It’s not that- but- I just don’t want Taeyeon to get mad at me.”

     “It’s my own way of welcoming you. Taeyeon will never get mad at you, we’re over.”, he said with his low, sulky voice.

     Jieun felt relieved. When she was about to bid goodbye to him, Sungyeol suddenly remembered something and asked her help.

     “Well, since you’ve already accepted the contract...we have one problem left. All the composers I knew were all busy with several comeback albums scheduled this year. If I can still remember, you composed a song before, am I right? But we still need a good composer enough to put your songs on top of the music charts.”, Sungyeol sighed.

     Jieun suddenly uttered, “I know someone good enough to compose songs. But it’s not that easy to convince him.”

     “Who is he? I want to meet him soon...”, Sungyeol smiled.