22nd November 2024

“So? You finally got time to meet your best friend?” Myungsoo coldly accuses, as Sungyeol makes himself comfortable on the sofa.

“Not like your royal highness has time for anyway, with your wife and,” he gestures at Myungsoo bouncing his baby girl in the baby bouncer, “your cute baby.”

“She’s really cute right?”

“Beyond cute, like seriously. The world is unfair.”

“I have good genes,” Myungsoo pats himself on the back in apparent self praise.

“And good taste, because your wife also has good genes. Your princess will definitely attract too much attention from boys next time, I promise you.”

“Nope, they have to all pass my scrutiny first.”

“I already worry for them. They’re going to fall so hard,” Sungyeol sighs, “she’s so adorable.”

“Really cute right?”

“Tsk. If you keep telling me how cute your baby girl is, you’re seriously tempting me to play with her, and then you’ll die trying to put her back to sleep.”

“Don’t you dare. If you wake her up, you’re going to have to put her back to sleep.”

“And at the same time you criticize me for not having time to visit my best friend. Good on you bestie.”

“Oh, don’t you say that now, Sungyeol. I happen to know that the national exams have been over for several days already,” Myungsoo stops bouncing his baby to move closer to Sungyeol, “so? Any developments?”

“I’ve been really busy with work.”

“Then? What the heck are you doing here?”
“Well, if not a certain person will criticize me for not having time to visit my best friend don’t you think?”

“Still. If you have no time to sleep, you can always come visit me later.”

“I am so hopping mad at work.”

“Why? Aren’t you the one who is always glad to have work to do?”

“You know, I know that you think that my standards are low, and I actually acknowledge that I have low standards. But you know, I at least have some standards, and this seems to go below them.”

“What did they do to you this time?”

“Just thinking about it makes me so mad.”

“It’s not easy to make you mad.”
“Why do you think it’s even more of an accomplishment?”

“You can tell me, you know?”

Sungyeol sinks further into the sofa, “wow, where should I start?”
“From the start?”

“And you think you’re helpful. And you think you’re helpful. I don’t know what to say sometimes.”

“Don’t bother thinking of a snarky comment and just start from the start,” Myungsoo carefully carries his baby girl from the bouncer, “but before you start, let me put my little princess to bed.”

He scuttles back sometime later and flops onto the opposite couch, “okay, you can start now.”

“You know that I’m a scriptwriter at the cable station right?”

Myungsoo rolls his eyes, “of course I know that. Duh.”

“Yeah, so anyway, they produce mobile dramas. Most of the time they aren’t very high budget. Normally, they cast many idols and generally aren’t very well regarded. Anyway, they were looking to produce a slightly higher budget mobile drama. They didn’t want to put a senior scriptwriter on it, because they would be better used to write bigger productions. So they basically went out and asked for scripts. Not the best exposure, but they gave more control over your script. So the company was calling for scripts, which they would review blind.”
“You submitted your script and yours was selected?” Myungsoo excitedly continues.
“Yup, I was really happy about that to be honest. I don’t know if it was my best script, it probably wasn’t, but it was the closest to heart.”

2021

Sujeong raps on the open door, and Hwajae turns in response, “so, did the director pick your work?”

Hwajae breaks into an arrogant smirk, “what do you think?”

She grins in response, “congratulations.”

“And that’s not even the best part!” he chimes, “they chose mine blind! So it’s not because I used to be an idol or something!”

“So I guess besides renting out your house near the prestigious international school, this is going to be the plan from now on?”

“I guess so. I mean, I’m not very smart. I’m not quite the businessman kind. I can’t start a café which is what most retired idols do. I don’t have any willing or free to run a café. I quite like writing stories.”

-

“SeonIn-ah, do you happen to know anyone good at light renovation work?” Sujeong wonders as she puts the menu away.

“Why? You want to reconfigure your house?”

“Thinking about it. I mean, I thought you might know because you just renovated your place.”

“The contractor wasn’t very much good. Not the best value for money,” SeonIn mildly replies.

“I see.”

“Why’d you want to reconfigure your place?”

“Maybe I was looking for ideas as to how to give the kids more privacy. You know, with the recent developments.”

“Right, your oldest has a girlfriend.”

“That’s part of it, but also because you know, N and Kimyung are brothers, but at the same time, N is the same age as Leo. So those two are very close.”

“So he’s like the odd one out?”

“Something like that? I don’t know, it’s probably because of the momentary gulf in maturity or something. But Ilsoo and Hyesu are super tight. Then there’s Kimyung. I don’t know if leaving three of them in the same room is a good idea.”

“You could always tell that Hwajae to get out of the storeroom so that Kimyung can move in there.”

“How am I supposed to tell the guy to move out?”

SeonIn quirks a singular shoulder upwards, “in the face? Directly? I don’t know, the same way in which he wormed his way in.”

“It doesn’t quite solve the problem of N wanting to bring his girlfriend back.”

“He won’t bring his girlfriend back if there’s no privacy.”

Sujeong shakes her head slowly, “don’t you go around underestimating the precious N. Not him. I don’t even know what he is capable of.”

“Imagine how Kimyung would feel if Leo got himself a girlfriend, and both of them brought their girlfriends home? Oh wow, how awkward he will be.”

“He’ll probably