“Heol~ daebak”

Even without a cloud in the sky and the sun’s rays piercing through their skin, it was still rather cold. Winter’s coming to a close and Spring is just a few sleeps away but the unexpectedly colder than cold weather is already at the back of Lee Hi’s mind, what shocked her and her crew were the number of fan-girls that has lined up for a ride up Namsan Tower.

“They must be his fans” a coordi unnie of Hayi’s whispered

“Waaa~ These kids are really something…” replied another unnie in an equally hush voice “And it’s a school day today!”

“Lee Hi-ssi? Lee Hayi-sii!” someone shouted real loud, drowning the inaudible mumblings of the young girls in front of them. Everyone fell silent and there was a sudden ambiguous tension that filled the place, all the girls shifted their gaze towards her and Hayi shrunk in between her coordi unnies.

All of a sudden, there were camera flashes going off. “Hayi-ssi, please come this way!” it was the man from before who shouted her name, Hayi and her team were escorted to the front of the line and were boarded on the next cable car that came.

Going through at least about three dozen girls, Hayi felt relieved that there were a couple of her own fans among them who offered their encouragement as she went past them but there were also a few snarky fans of her partner that weren’t as pleased and were vocal about it, “Heol! she’s not pretty enough”,” why is it her?”

At the base of Namsan Tower, Hayi was met by the people from the production house and was explained the brief of the MV’s shoot: cutesy-young couple.

“You think you can do it?” said the gruffy looking director as he ended his lengthy explanation “There’s no other way, you should be able to do it”

On her way to hair and make-up, Hayi came across her co-star and the artist of the MV she was starring in – EXO’s D.O., he was making a debut as a solo artist following his successful OST for his latest drama. The two barely exchanged glances as they passed by each other and bowed.

This MV was one of those rare YG-SM collaboration that happens, Goo Hye Sun appeared on an SM artist’s MV not too long ago but it was actually surprising that Hayi was chosen next. Apparently, the creative directors wanted someone who would match Kyungsoo’s height well and the first & best person that came into mind was Lee Hi.

On set while a few final adjustments were made with the equipment and lighting, the two sat on their own chairs just a foot away from one another but neither bothered talking. The eccentric an loud director noticed the two and said, “Why aren’t you talking with each other?”

The two, who were busy with their own phones, were startled to see the bear-like director standing in front of them. “If you’re going to be like this off-screen, I could only imagine the horrors of what you two would look like from my screen” he continued on “Hey, Kyungsoo-ssi, you’re the man here. You should talk to her first”

“Excuse me?” Kyungsoo quipped with his face looking very confused

“Just talk!” the director cried out, shaking his hands in front of him “Talk!” He would have probably nagged more had he not been called to check the preparations on set.

The director was a few feet away from them but he kept glancing back at the two and they were aware of it, Kyungsoo grew irritated feeling watched but he didn’t bother until Hayi spoke first and introduced herself formally to him.

Hayi’s initiative to greet him first left him flustered as he introduced himself to her, “…Thank you for doing this” he added right after his name

“Oh, it’s no big deal. Thank you for inviting me…” she replied in her soft voice “I listened to your track and it’s good”

“Really?” Kyungsoo said a bit too excitedly which he tried to play down as he added, in a much more collected tone, “Where did you hear it?”

“Yes, really” Hayi smiled faintly at him, she says she heard it while getting her hair and make-up done which left Kyungsoo feeling silly about himself. His song has been on repeat inside the tents since they came.

The director took a quick glance back at his two stars and smiled to himself after seeing the two finally talking, even exchanging a few laughs between each other.

When the cameras started rolling, the awkwardness between the two was less visible especially as the shoot progressed. The two made very brief small talks in between takes but it was enough for both to feel at ease with each other.

At one point during the shoot, some fan-girls managed to get within a few feet from the set. They were asked to leave several times but they kept returning. In the end, the staff allowed them to stay and kept a very strict eye on them, making sure they caught nothing on their cameras or phones.

The skies were gradually turning into a blazing orange as twilight approached and the temperature dropped even lower. Getting the lighting on set became trickier as they fought time for sunlight.

“Are you cold?” Kyungsoo asks Hayi when he notices her blowing into her hands “Would you want to take a sit first?”

“No, no, no. I’m good” she replies with an okay sign but her face says otherwise, she was wearing a flimsy white dress and her legs were exposed, Kyungsoo could only imagine how cold she must have been.

“Here, take this. You need more” he offers her his hot pack which was in his pocket but she refuses saying hers would do. Kyungsoo insisted but she refused again and again. In the end, he could only look at her with sorry eyes as they continued on with the shoot.

Her tenacity made quite an impression on him especially after he held her hands which were freezing cold.

That was their final scene together and after that, the only scenes left were the ones where only Kyungsoo were in. The whole production team made their way back to their tents and the two & their coordis followed.

The fan-girls squealed when Kyungsoo walked past by them and he bowed slightly at them but just a few meters after there was a scream, “YOU ! YOU DON’T SUIT HIM! STAY AWAY FROM HIM!”

A few of the production people along with Kyungsoo and his staff, turned to take a look and saw that Hayi was splashed with water by one of the fans that were there. Kyungsoo, rattled with anger and a sense of urgency, started darting back but he was stopped by his manager hyung who said “Ya! Don’t be stupid! Don’t get involved there!”

He tried brushing his manager off but he kept pulling Kyungsoo back, he only calmed down when the fan was finally escorted away from the set and Hayi passed by him.

“You could’ve ruined everything if you went back there!” Kyungsoo’s manager hyung said as he paced back and forth inside Kyungsoo’s tent “Thank goodness I stopped you. You’re not thinking about your solo debut, it could have been ruined by that- Ya! Where are you going?”

“Just shut up!” Kyungsoo shouted as he made his way out. He went straight to Lee Hi’s tent, hoping to apologize to her but her staff told him she was busy getting prepared. He waited, outside in the freezing cold for fifteen minutes before she came out.

“Are you okay?” he asks her without being able to look her in the eye “I’m really sorry for what happened. She was a fan but I didn’t think that-“

“It’s fine. I understand” Hayi says, she knew it wasn’t his fault. If anything, she was just shocked that it happened but she knew how boy group fans are “Are you okay?”

“Huh?” he was surprised, how could she manage to ask him that when she was the one who got water thrown to her “I’m really fine, I’m really sorry about it”

“It’s alright… Really!”

Kyungsoo had smiled seeing her smile with her bright doe-eyes, there was something about her that he found quite endearing.

“I’ll be looking forward to your song and for this MV to come out” she tells him with an excited tone “I hope this comes out beautifully. I’ll be sure to stream it!”

“Really?”

“Of course! I’m pretty sure it can hit the roof of the charts”

“Eyyy~ that’s a bit too much” he says, turning a bit red “I doubt that”

“How about we bet on it?” Hayi smiles widely as she proposes that if Kyungsoo’s song gets no.1 on the charts and even on a music show, he’ll have to do aegyo during the encore stage which he found embarrassingly silly even when he agreed to do it. “How about you? What’s your bet?”

Kyungsoo thought for a moment and smiled to himself, even blushing at the idea in his head. “How about we have dinner if it doesn’t?”

“What?”

“I mean, like a celebratory dinner with all the staff!” he quickly clarifies

“A celebratory dinner for not winning number 1?” Hayi giggled “That’s a first!”

“I’ll pay for everything!”

“Waaah~ that’s so cool” Hayi teases him “I bet you’re only saying that because you’re so confident you’ll win no.1”

“No way! I may just have to prepare my credit card” he pretends to mope. The two were having a good laugh and were still talking about their bet. Towards the end of their conversation, Kyungsoo tried his best to non-chalantly ask for her number which she gave. On his way back to his own tent, Kyungsoo couldn’t help but smile to himself. Never was losing this appealing to him.