The past and Shin Hye’s POV:

Shin Hye was writing in her diary.  She had kept diaries since she could write.  She would often close her eyes and select a year randomly and then read the entries.  Sometimes she laughed out loud over her antics and sometimes she silently cried over heartbreaks and the sorrow she had endured at such a young age.

The year, 2014, had been glorious.  It was early fall and she was really totally madly in love.  She never thought it would turn out this way.  She had been infatuated with Lee Min Ho during their early Etude House days.  He even stole a kiss from her when no one was looking and then ran off teasing her for days about it.  She was young and had been furious with him at first.  Then she realized she kissed him back.  But she was young and one was supposed to experiment and have crushes.  It didn’t take long for her to realize it was just a short infatuated fling and their lives could never mesh up together.  She was proven right when Min Ho got into a scandal with one of his co-stars.  It was a strange scandal to say the least.  No one ever knew if they were for real or if circumstances landed them in a position to fuel a scandal.  When it happened she was sad for some reason.  She remembered actually crying when she saw the headlines and the photos.  She felt as if she had lost something dear to her heart.  She remembered being sad and how her heart ached for no reason.  But she overcame the sadness and put it behind her.  After all she was involved in more than one scandal of her own and knew how easy it was to get linked to a co-star.  She was often apologetic to her best friends Geun Suk and Yong Hwa.  Geun Suk would tell her she owed him royalties for allowing the world to think they were a couple.  And Yong Hwa was the most funny of the two.  He would tell her he would pay her for the privilege of being linked to her romantically.   Then Yong Hwa and Geun Suk would high five each other and burst into laughter.  She loved them both but not in the way she loved Min Ho.

Funny how she figured out she was in love with him.  She would run into Min Ho about town or during award shows.  She was always aware of him although she wasn’t sure if he was aware of her.  When she got the casting call for “The Inheritors” and discovered Min Ho was the star she knew she wanted to work with him but she didn’t know it would change her life.   Min Ho told her during their LA stay that he liked her more than as a friend.  He told her to not put him in her infamous “friend zone” category.  He would touch her as much as he could and he would sneak small kisses when no one was looking.  She tried to put a barrier up but he broke through.  All she could think of was Min Ho.  It didn’t take long for their relationship to start building toward a fire.  He dazzled her after they returned to Korea.  He was attentive and he made sure she knew he had eyes only for her.  A few of the other actresses made passes at him but he put them firmly into his colleague zone.  She learned quickly that he could scorch a girl’s sense of right and wrong with his gazes.  She learned to trust him.  She learned to open her heart to him.  Everyone from the cast and crew were infatuated with the new love affair blossoming before their eyes.  She became a princess to his prince during the year end 2013 SBS awards show.  They were labeled Juliet and Romeo because she made a reference to dressing like Juliet when their Tan/Eun fans thought they were like Romeo and Juliet.   They were embarrassed and delighted at all the new shipping fan clubs.  It was sweet that all their fans could see how much they cared for each other.  They learned that their real fans adored them as a couple.  Min Ho particularly liked reading all the new fan fictions written about them.  He would both gasp and laugh at some of the more detailed “romantically inclined” stories.  They were wonderful, carefree love filled days.

Their relationship became more serious during the filming of her new movie “The Tailor/Sangiwon”.   When the stills of a bed scene with the King were released, Min Ho was furious.  He was a very jealous man.  He retaliated by going overboard while filming his bed scene in Gangnam Blues.  His female fans were upset because it looked so real that he had to explain in more than one interview that he was acting.  He was apologetic to his co-star who was taking a bit of heat for the “realness” of the scenes.  Shin Hye’s anti-fans (mostly from the fandoms of his previous co-stars) were on another round of attacking her for thinking Min Ho ever liked her.  It was a vicious cycle.  Through all of it Shin Hye kept telling herself that she would regret it if she didn’t hold on.  She was in love and love blinds one.

Min Ho tried to make it up to her for the anti-fans.  His agency took out full page ads in newspapers and magazines apologizing to Shin Hye for the lack of manners of some so-called fans.  It was clear to all those fandoms that he was not happy.  But the fandoms smelt blood and were closing in for the kill.  Shin Hye was bombarded with hate messages on twitter and she had to suspend all her social media subscriptions.  But she still held on to Min Ho.  She was determined to not let a few anti-fans rock her faith in Min Ho.  Min Ho was holding on too.  Both Min Ho and Shin Hye’s agencies were dead set against their love.  They were doing all in their power to split them apart.  Greed is a bad thing when it has the potential to destroy lives and that is what the two agencies were doing.  The argument from both agencies was that they could have love, marriage and each other but not while they were so famous and able to ask top dollar for their popularity.  Once they reached the age of 30, their fans and sponsors would go after the younger set of idols and actors and they could freely marry or be a couple.  Shin Hye was 26 and Min Ho was 29. 

Min Ho asked Shin Hye if she would go on a get-away if he could arrange it so no one knew where they were or that they were together.  She said yes and so they flew to a private island off the coast of Brazil for a 5 day and 4 night escape.  It was a magical time for them both.  They left the real world behind and thought only of themselves for five whole days.  Min Ho wanted to make Shin Hye realize how much he loved her.  He proposed on a glorious moon-lit beach and she said yes.  He gave her an engagement ring and she gave him herself.  He was totally helplessly in love with her.   He realized he had never felt this sort of connection when making love before.  He realized he had never made love before, he had before.  He vowed to not break her heart and to work to make their dreams come true.  It was more than either had hoped for and in time they would both realize just how special.

All too soon they were back in Seoul but Min Ho was trying hard to make time for Shin Hye.  Shin Hye was trying to make time for Min Ho.  They had no idea that miscommunication would forever change the course of their lives.