iii
Just Close Your Eyes for a SecondDespite the silence in the moving vehicle, the atmosphere was far from peaceful. Sunggyu’s palms were moist with sweat as they glided against the surface of the driving wheel; he intentionally avoided looking into his rear view mirror, but he didn’t need to to know that a certain of an actor was glaring at the back of his skull with eyes like daggers.
“I’m going to get you back for this,” Myungsoo declared, his tone intimidating. “I can’t believe you agreed to this in the first place. The top star Kim Myungsoo, dragged to a mental hospital by his own beloved manager—someone has to write a script on this tragedy.”
Sunggyu laughed, as if to lessen the tension in the air. “Oh, don’t be so morbid. For all you know, the doctor might decide there isn’t anything wrong with you at all and let you go home.”
“They’d better,” the actor grumbled, adjusting the dark sunglasses on his face as he leaned back in his seat. “There isn’t a problem with me. Besides—if I have to keep doing these sessions, I’m just going to make your life more miserable than already is.”
<:>
“Your name?”
Upon his arrival at the destined building, Myungsoo and his manager were escorted inside quickly; it would be a loss for both the agency and the clinic if news of his appointments were to be revealed to the public. With documentation already processed the day before by the agency president, Myungsoo entered the doctor’s room without much further delay.
‘Score,’ he thought as he took his seat inside, facing the doctor. Much to his liking, the doctor was a she—and frankly, he found her to be quite cute. She had a baby face, with eyes that gave off a puppy-like, gentle first impression. Though his personal ideal type was more of a mature, pretty face, she wasn’t too far from a second choice.
A smug smirk stayed plastered on his face as he continued scanning her figure, and being too focused at it, he’d failed to catch her question and kept her waiting for his response. Looking up from the documents on her desk, the doctor met his gaze, the implicit rush in her expression throwing Myungsoo off guard.
“Your name?” she repeated.
He tried to brush off his perplexity with a sassy retort. “Isn’t it already written on your file?”
Smiling, she replied, “It is, but I have to confirm my patients’ identities before I start any possibly confidential counseling. So—your name?”
“Kim Myungsoo.” Withholding a grumpy tone, he let his eyes wander down to her chest, taking note of the name engraved on the attached tag. “Nice to meet ya, doctor Lee Jieun.”
“And it’s even nicer meeting you, Mr. Kim.” The expression on her face remained identical; she just kept on smiling. Myungsoo was okay with it at first, but the longer he looked at her, the more he began to grow uncomfortable. It felt as if he was actually a patient, someone with a mental problem that needed patience, understanding and smiles. Plus, the fact that a woman was making him edgy was a scratch at his pride and a source of great irritation. “So,” she continued, clapping her hands together once as if to signal a start. “Why don’t we start by getting to know each other? Tell me about yourself. What’s one thing you like?”
The effort was nice and all, but Myungsoo had noticed how she’d grabbed ahold of a pen to write down whatever he’d reply to her question. He was going to be observed and investigated—but who was to say that he was willing to cooperate?
“That’s easy,” he replied, leaning back and crossing his legs in an almost cocky manner. “.”
He wasn’t sure if it was his response or his attitude that had done the job, but the doctor was definitely flustered. “…alright, fair enough. What about dislikes?”
“Hm…” Myungsoo grinned. He was starting to get some fun out of his immature behavior. “Oh, I know. Abstinence.”
She offered him that smile again—the smile that seemed to say that she understood, but with sympathy. “Well, I can already tell we have a lot to work on.”
He wondered if she’d smile at him in bed, too, as he asserted his dominance over her—both literally and figuratively. “Speaking of this subject, don’t you want to work on me tonight? Let’s get done with this boring counseling session or whatever the hell you call it and… you know, grab a drink with me. Sounds cool?”
All that was returned to him in response was a smile.
<:>
If there was one thing that Sunggyu could predict about the future, it would be that he would die at a very, very young age, all thanks to the nuisance of an actor he worked for. If he’d thought that the ride with the actor to the hospital was hell, he didn’t know what to describe the trip back from it. Kim Myungsoo was in one of the foulest moods he’d seen so far; even though Myungsoo was always irritable, it wasn’t often that he was ever angry.
“Why isn’t the damn sajang picking up his phone? Why carry around a phone if you aren’t going to answer it? Goddamn, what does this stupid agency do with all the money I bring in?” Almost fuming, the Hallyu star slammed his own cellphone onto the floor of his van. “I hope you know already that I’m not going to come to this session crap ever again!”
Sunggyu could only sigh. He was afraid of having to talk back to Myungsoo; but, then again, CEO Lee Joongyup was the one giving him his paychecks, so he didn’t really have any options. “Sajang-nim told me to make it clear that he won’t be offering you a contract renewal next year if you don’t cooperate,” he told the other meekly. “It’s just until the doc says you’re good to go. If you…do well, maybe, won’t that happen pretty fast?”
Myungsoo ruffled his hair in frustration, half-groaning and half-screaming. “You think I don’t know that?! But that damn witch of a doctor won’t ever let me go, I just know it! I take it back—she’s not cute in the slightest! She has the most frustrating, unattractive personality I have ever, ever seen!”
“Oh, come on. It can’t be that bad.”
At this point, Myungsoo was beginning to regret his previous actions. ‘If only I stopped myself from dialing Yeseul’s number,’ he repeated over and over in his head. ‘God, if you exist and you’re out there listening to me—please, please spare me from this agony.’
<:>
An automatic sigh of relief left Lee Jieun’s lips the moment her ears perked up to hear the chiming of her alarm clock. It was finally 6PM, time to go home. Every day was a tiring day at work, but today in particular had felt even worse, as if she had ten days of work balled up into one. She’d been massaging both sides of her temple when a nurse walked into her room, following a knock.
“Will you be going home, doctor?”
Jieun nodded, laughing briefly. “Yeah, Joohyun, I think I will. I’m super tired today.”
“How was it? The counseling with patient Kim Myungsoo, I mean. I could only get a short glimpse of him, and dear Lord—he was the finest thing I’ve ever laid my eyes on, I swear.”
The doctor pursed her lips. “Is he? He is handsome, yes, but I didn’t think he was that fine…” But it was more than his appearance. From her perspective, Kim Myungsoo was problematic, and, most importantly, a patient that needed a lot of work. “I guess he’s really popular, huh? I’ve heard of his name and seen his face plastered in places from time to time, but I’m not really too caught up with TV and stuff nowadays.”
Joohyun’s face brightened up almost dreamily. “You don’t even know, doctor. Being drop-dead gorgeous is one thing, but his acting is just one of the best out there. He’s won so many awards, too! I guess his only blemish in his career is the scandals he’s had with so many females in the industry.” Though there wasn’t anyone else in the room, the nurse lowered her voice, saying, “They say he’s slept with almost every actress he’s been acquainted with. Do you really think he’s a addict?”
Jieun gathered her belongings into her purse before taking off her gown, hanging it on the stand beside her chair. “Can’t say; patient privacy is part of the Hippocratic Oath I swore to when I became a doctor.” She grinned at her own joke as she pat on her nurse’s shoulder. “Good luck trying to figure it out with the rest of your fanclub members!”
Lee Jieun was a psychiatrist. It hadn’t been too long since she’d completed her residency and made it to the position she was in now; it’d been tough, but being the ever-trying nerd she was, marks and grades had never hindered her. She long memorized all the different types of personalities and behaviors, as well as the methods to deal with them. Throughout her relatively short career, none of her patients gave her too much trouble, for her knowledge was enough to handle all of them.
The patient Kim Myungsoo had to be one of Lee Jieun’s biggest “projects,” so to speak. He had been assigned to her for reasons unbeknownst to her, but whatever the reasons were, she knew that her future promotions were at stake. Kim Myungsoo was a public, known figure after all, and many eyes were on her as to how well she was going to get through to him.
She just didn’t know that such a widely known, popular celebrity would be such a nutjob.
Kim Myungsoo as a person was rude, inconsiderate, impolite, and vulgar. He didn’t know how to differentiate things he could or could not say in public, and to strangers, at that. All he talked about was ual ; though she’d figured out along the way that he was doing it intentionally to piss her off, it was still flustering and embarrassing. If she wasn’t a doctor, she probably would’ve filed a lawsuit against him immediately for ual harassment.
“Don’t you want to work on me tonight?”
His words from earlier in the day seemed to haunt her ears. She shuddered. “Disgusting,” Jieun muttered to herself. She began to wonder how a person could be so inappropriate and improper; she let thoughts of Kim Myungsoo float around her head so much that she didn’t see the lights change from green to red as she drove. Once she realized her car wasn’t supposed to be running, she slammed down on the brakes, but it was already too late; the front of her car had smashed into the rear bumper of the car in front of her. “Oh my god…” she whispered, staring at the ruined car through her windshield. “It just has to be a BMW convertible that I run into. Of course, what else did I expect from my luck?”
Her “luck” wasn’t over yet. What she also didn’t expect was that the person stepping out of the convertible, groaning and rubbing the back of his neck, would be none other than Kim Myungsoo, the very person of her daydream that caused the accident in the first place.
hi everyone! long time no see! turns out i haven't updated this story since last last year (2014)... i'm a shame, i know, throw rocks at me. i debated on whether i should return to aff with this story, petals of blood, through the window, or another new story, but this is what i've settled with. i think the casual setting of this one will be best to get me back on my feet in terms of writing (assuming i ever do). how was this update? is it too different or unmatching the previous chapters? let me know-- feedback, feedback, feedback!
iu fans! are you guys still out there? aff is a dying community, sad to say, and i think the iu tag is dying pretty quick :///.
Comments