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Breaking News:

Rookie actress Byun Baekhee is reported to be joined by popular actor Oh Sehun in Kim Junghwan’s comeback movie One Step at a Time. This is the first time in over a decade that Kim Junghwan has directed a big screen film. Many are anticipating his comeback with this romantic comedy film, as some are even calling it the biggest hit of 2015. All the buzz, however, is on the lead actress. This will be the up and coming actress’s debut on the big screen as the love interest of the eye-candy actor Oh Sehun. Her recent acting in Monday/Tuesday drama Black Pearl has left critics raving over her performance. More details are set to come out within the next week.

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A loud banging on the door resonated through the small apartment, waking up the sleeping resident inside. The sleeping girl groggily sat up and brushed her fingers through her dyed brown locks, eyes not even opened to see the world. Her thin fingers her closed eyelids a few times before she grumbled and opened her eyes. She peered over to the clock and groaned, getting out of bed to stop the obnoxious knocking from annoying her even further. Who would even knock at such an ungodly hour? Lazily, she walked towards the living room and opened the door, only to be attacked by her best friend.

For a minute, Baekhee was confused. Her best friend never came to her apartment in the morning due to the former’s love of sleep. Her schedules had been pretty hectic lately and with her recently finished drama and constant commercial shooting, she lacked the proper sleep she once owned.

She was about ready to push her best friend off of her when her best friend decided to speak up.

“Oh my gosh! Baekhee, you are going to be partnered up with Oh Sehun! The Oh Sehun! The one you’ve been crushing over since forever.” She squealed and continued jumping around. Baekhee’s best friend stopped jumping when she noticed Baekhee just staring at her. Kyungah looked at her best friend with confusion all over her face, “Why are you not spazzing with me? You’ve always wanted to work with Oh Sehun.”

The girl in question stared at her best friend, eyes half-lidded, before she finally grasped the words that came out of Kyungah’s mouth. The minute she realized what her best friend had said she immediately woke up.

“What do you mean I’m going to work with Oh Sehun? In what?”

Kyungah rolled her eyes and held the newspaper straight in Baekhee’s face, “In your new movie of course!”

Baekhee scrunched her face and grabbed the newspaper right out of the doe-eyed girl’s hands. She quickly shook her head as she read the article, “That’s not right. Park Chanyeol was the guy who was casted as the lead of the movie. They would’ve told me if they changed main actors.” Baekhee continue to look at the article with uncertainty in her eyes.

“According to reports, Chanyeol back out of the project last minute to film another movie so Oh Sehun is the one who is going to replace him. Aren’t you happy?”

Baekhee stepped out of her apartment and looked around before grabbing Kyungah’s arm and dragging her inside, not forgetting to close (read: slam) the door behind her. The two best friends stared into each other’s eyes before joining their hands and jumping around in glee some more.

For as long as she could remember (okay fine, it was when she was in middle school), she had always harbored a massive crush on the actor Oh Sehun. He was the epitome of teenage heartthrob. He had the face, the acting skills, and the body to have the whole teenage population drooling over him. Baekhee was no exception. It helped that he was only a few years older than her. There were hardly any girls who didn’t have a poster of him up on their wall.

Oh Sehun had previously been a kid actor who grew up to be a dashing young man that the public seemed to adore. Even Baekhee’s grandma and mom liked Oh Sehun. He appealed too many due to his versatile acting and his wide range of projects. He was very high in demand.

Baekhee’s dream had always been to become an actress. Even when she was younger her parents used to record the plays she would put on at home. When she saw Sehun’s first drama she knew that one day she would be able to act with him, or at least she really wanted to anyways. She started off in a few acting gigs and commercials but nothing really serious.

At age eighteen she auditioned for a lead role in the upcoming drama Black Pearl. She hadn’t expected for her to actually get the role but by some luck they picked her for the job. Her parents and Kyungah were so excited for her when she told them the news. From there, everything just took off. And now there she was jumping around with her best friend because her dream was finally coming true.

Working with Park Chanyeol, another heartthrob, would have been satisfying enough on her first movie project. He was tall, handsome, and a pretty good actor too. She spent her most recent nights looking at pictures of him and imagined what they’d look like together (for acting purposes, of course). She watched his acting cuts on YouTube and maybe one or two (or all) of his kissing scenes.  She studied the way he kissed. They were set to have some kisses in the movie. But all her researched proved to be futile when he dropped out of the project.

Baekhee stopped jumping. She turned wide-eyed to her best friend, who had been puzzled by the abrupt stop of her friend. Grabbing Kyungah’s shoulders, Baekhee gripped down and slightly shook the other in a worried manner.

“Kyungah! Me and Chanyeol were suppose to have lots of kisses and even a heavy make out scene. I can’t do that with Oh Sehun! What if he thinks I’m bad kisser? Wait, I’ve never even kissed a boy or even had a boyfriend. I mean Kim Minseok hardly counts. The most we ever did was flirt and hold hands. Oh my gosh, what am I going to do?”

And just like that the two girls’ high calmed down as they slowly sat on the couch. Kyungah had known about all of Baekhee’s personal relationships and none of them ever included a boyfriend. Baekhee sat on the couch head in her palms as Kyungah gently rubbed her back.

“Well kissing isn’t that hard. You just need some experience with it and then you’ll do fine.”

Baekhee looked up from her palms and stared at her friend, rolling her eyes in the process, “It’s easy for you to say since you already have a boyfriend. Plus, you lead a normal life, no offense. How I kiss affects my reputation. I don’t want to be labeled as the rookie actress who can’t kiss. Who will want to act with me then?”

Kyungah sighed and patted the panicking girl’s back once more, “I’m going to let that comment go because you are distressed right now. But for now I think you should talk to the director or maybe even Sehun and tell them. The last thing you need is to be embarrassed when the scene is actually filmed.”

Baekhee nodded and hugged her best friend. Best friends always know what to do. Even if it wasn’t a good plan (most of Kyungah’s aren’t) Baekhee would still be appreciative of her ideas.

Telling Sehun directly that she’d never kissed anyone before in her life would practically be a social disaster. What if he laughed at the nineteen year old girl? Sehun, himself, has filmed quite a few kissing scenes. Being a twenty-two year old hotshot had those perks. He had no trouble in the intimacy department. Maybe Kyungah was right. Baekhee had to let Sehun know so that she wouldn’t embarrass herself too much.

The next time she saw Sehun alone, Baekhee vowed to let him know of her problem.

Three weeks had passed and she still had yet to tell Sehun about her plight. Sure, Kyungah offered her kissing lesson’s from one of her boyfriend’s friend. But Baekhee didn’t want to randomly kiss some guy, especially one that she didn’t know. How absurd for Kyungah to even suggest that. But then again she can’t really blame Kyungah, she was only trying to help Baekhee. For that she was thankful.

Her fame from Black Pearl had surely put her on the map of avid drama watchers. With an average 27% viewing rate, it was a no wonder people kept pointing and looking at her. She was being recognized by many. She had taken pictures with people and even gave them her autograph when they courageously came up to her when she was waiting for her coffee order. She very much enjoyed the attention she was receiving. The only real downside, though, was that she couldn’t openly hang out with her friend as much.

She really did enjoy people complimenting her and asking her questions that she was able to answer (some questions were off limits, according to her manager). Baekhee finally received her order and walked out to her car. It was the script reading that day and she had to be prompt to her first movie reading.

She noticed many actor and actress walking in and finding a place to sit at the round table. Just by looking around she knew she was probably the youngest and most inexperienced actor there. Baekhee inhaled and exhaled before going to find a seat.

The script reading went smoothly, if Baekhee was being honest. They got through the script and heard the director’s comments and guides that would help them for the actual shoot. This was Baekhee’s chance to talk to Oh Sehun and introduce herself to him personally but due to his busy schedule he left as soon as the script-reading was done.

She wasn’t disappointed, not even the slightest.

Baekhee stared at his retreating back and blew up into her bangs. It would definitely be tough to talk to Sehun before the actual shooting.

When Baekhee got to set the next morning she walked around the set and greeted everyone. She wanted to leave a good impression on those who were making her dreams come true. She got to the set designers, producers, and director before she was called in for hair and makeup. Baekhee hadn’t even had a chance to greet her co-stars yet, including Oh Sehun.

After Baekhyun’s makeup and hair was done she was immediately led to set. Being on her very own movie set for the first time scared her because the idea of being in a movie, let alone as the main character, seemed too surreal. She would be acting on this stage with Oh Sehun under Kim Junghwan’s guidance. It was real but it didn’t feel real.

She was still unfamiliar to the atmosphere and the people around her but she knew she would eventually call this place her second home, especially because it was going to be for the next two months of shooting.

Everyone was scurrying around trying to perfect the set and the actors. Baekhee was just standing off stage after being asked to for final preparations by the set crew. Once everything was set and ready, the director yelled out to everyone on set, “Okay, we will start with Sehun and Baekhee’s scene where they enter her room. Everyone places.”

Baekhee froze. There was no way the director would make her start off with the most intimate scene in the movie. Baekhyun hadn’t even met or talked to Sehun yet and now they wanted her to make out with him just like that? Sure, Sehun and Baekhee would share other playful and sincere kisses through the movie but this one, this one was the scene. The one she feared. The one she worried about the most.

The way the script had the scene going down was like this: Baekhee and Sehun, or rather Eunkyung and Jisoo, were both buzzed from a party they had both attended and on the verge of doing the deed. Jisoo and Eunkyung talk about their relationship before making out heavily on the bed. Just as Jisoo is about to take off her pants Eunkyung stops him from going all the way.

Baekhee could picture it now: Sehun underneath her breathing heavily as she straddles his waist and bends down to devours his mouth with her own. If she managed to kiss right she hoped that’s how the scene would turn out. Or at least something of that nature.

“-hee. Baekhee are you ready?” The stern voice brought Baekhee back to reality as she looked for the voice that was calling her. She recognized the voice coming from the director and she immediately bowed as she scurried onto set.

“Sorry.”

The director smiled and patted her head. “It’s okay Baekhee. I know you are nervous with your first scene. I’ll let you and Sehun get acquainted while we check the camera equipment one last time.”

Baekhee nodded and waited for further instruction. A tap on her tense shoulder had her immediately turning around. She didn’t want to inconvience anyone else.

As she turned around, she found a male almost a full head taller than her with broad shoulders standing in front of her. Using his charming smile he held out his hand for Baekhee to take before introducing himself, “Baekhee right? I’m Oh Sehun, your new co-star. Sorry we had to meet so late into the process but I’m sure we will do great.”

The dainty girl looked down at the rather larger hand in front of her before looking back up to the owner of the hand. Sehun was having an inner conflict about whether or not to retreat his hand back. Carefully, he pulled it back when he noticed lack of response from the smaller girl.

“I’m sorry. I’m Byun Baekhee, a nineteen-year old chocolate lover and your new co-star.” Baekhee inwardly cringed at her introduction. It was the way she used to introduce herself to people back in school. The only difference was that she was eleven and it wasn’t that big of a deal to her classmates.

Here she was already embarrassing herself in front of her longtime celebrity crush. She face-palmed herself and was ready to apologize for her stupid introduction when she heard a low chuckle.

“You’re cute. I can’t wait to work together with you.”

Sehun walked away from her, probably heading to the make-up table one last time to get a touch up before they started shooting the scene.

Being in front of Sehun made Baekhyun extremely nervous. She couldn’t think straight, she couldn’t talk properly. She was just a mess.

Baekhee stayed behind on set and started pacing back in forth to calm her nerves.

Come on Baekhee. We managed to talk to him already and he called you cute. Maybe if you pretend to know what to do, he won’t even realize that you are a bad kisser. Pull yourself together for this one scene. It’ll only take about two maybe three tries at most. You got this Byun Baekhee! You are a talented actress and no one is going to bring you down, especially not over a lousy kissing scene.

Baekhee stopped pacing and started nodded her head in satisfaction, smile slowly creeping up on her face. She knew a small pep talk with herself would calm her down and give her the confidence she needed to get through the scene. Who better to support her than herself?

“All actors on set. We are ready to begin shooting.”

Crowds of workers and actors made their way to the set. Last minute touch ups were done and everyone got into place.

Baekhee got into place behind the closed door that led to her on-set bedroom. Sehun soon joined her and nudged her.

“Don’t worry too much. It’s okay to make mistakes. Just act natural.”

Baekhee smiled and looked down. The director’s loud voice echoed through the studio, “Quiet on set. We are about to begin. Take one and action.”

The scene started off as Sehun and Baekhee walked into the room, acting intoxicated, laughing and being very touchy with each other. Sehun placed his hand on Baekhee’s lower back as they headed toward the bed. There they both sat down at the edge.

“Eunkyung, is it wrong of me to want to kiss you right now?”

“Jisoo, you know we really shouldn’t even be together. My brother might find out about us and it’s too risky.”

Sehun grabbed Baekhee’s cheeks to face her, “You shouldn’t let your brother stop our love besides he’s not even here. He won’t find out.” Baekhee, as Eunkyung, hesitated but slowly nodded her head.

“I want you to kiss me Jisoo.” With that Sehun leaned in to kiss Baekhee. Baekhee couldn’t help but stare at Sehun’s lips. This was it the moment she had been waiting for, her on-screen kiss with Sehun.

What if I’m bad? What if my breath smells? Oh my gosh, I ate sour cream and onion Pringles but wait that was at lunch. But wait again, what if that scent is still lingering in your mouth. I should’ve eaten a mint. Abort the kiss.

As if someone else controlled her body, Baekhee moved her head to the side. A bell rang and booming, “Cut!” had Baekhee murmur a small damn under her breath. She turned towards the director and bowed her head.

“I’m very sorry director. I was just nervous.” Baekhee fidgeted in place and bit her lip.

“It’s okay Baekhee, don’t worry about it. We’ll just pick up from when you tell Jisoo you want him to kiss you. Places, everyone. Take two and action.”

Baekhee got back into character, “I want you to kiss me Jisoo.” Once again Sehun leaned in to kiss Baekhee, this time she’s ready for it. She was more mentally prepared. Nothing could wrong now.

She sees him leaning closer and closer, eyes closing as the distance was getting smaller. Baekhee, too, closed her eyes and leaned forward when she felt it. A little itch in her nose and that tingling sensation every person gets when they have to—No! Baekhee you will hold it in. You’ve already messed up once and you can’t afford to do it again. Hold it in!

Baekhee’s face starts to scrunch up and she can no longer hold it back.

“Achoo!”

When she opened her eyes she wanted to just crawl in a hole and live there forever. In front of her was Sehun, covered in her spit. As if things weren’t already bad, she sneezed two more times also in Sehun’s face.

Really, though who only sneezes once?

She can hear the director sigh from his chair, “And cut.”

“I’m really sorry again. I’ll do better this time.” She turned back to Sehun who was wiping her spit of his handsome face. She didn’t know how he was going to react to her gross mistake. Sehun seemed to be expressionless at the moment. She quietly apologized to him, “Sehun, I’m so sorry. I really didn’t mean to sneeze and ruin the scene and I didn’t mean to sneeze on you three times.”

Sehun waved off the apology, “No worries. I know these things happen. Let’s just do better this time around okay.” He gently patted her hair.

“Are you ready Baekhee?”

“Yeah I’ll get it right this time.”

“Okay take three and action.”

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Baekhee groaned and pulled at the ends of her hair. It was already take sixteen and she still hadn’t kissed Sehun and out of all the mistakes she made, only one was an accident. Anytime Sehun got close to her and was about ready to kiss her, she would do something to prevent it. It was really petty and she knew she was frustrating the crew but she couldn’t help it.

She always felt mentally ready to just do the scene but every time she saw Sehun’s face lean in to hers, she freaked out. Her mind went haywire and acted on its own to prevent the kiss. She wanted everything to be perfect. She wanted to do well. She wanted Sehun to not think she was a crappy kisser.

On take six, she had moved her head away again. On take 8, Baekhee had murmured unscripted lines. On take 11, Baekhee had tried to divert from the kiss and improvise her lines. Let’s just say the director was less than impressed that once again Baekhee had messed up. On her latest take, take 16, it actually hadn’t been her fault. Sehun had messed up his line before she could even mess up.

“And cut! Let’s just take a short break.” The director talked lightly but it was obvious to anyone with eyes how frustrated he was. Baekhee knew it was all her fault and she knew how word would get around that she was unprofessional.

Baekhee, feeling defeated, walked off set and over to the snack table. She really should’ve listened to Kyungah. Kyungah had herself a boyfriend and knew that kissing for the first time was nerve wrecking. Her best friend had told her that it took 5 months before she even kissed her boyfriend because she was scared that she would be bad at it. But after she talked to Jongin she was reassured that it would take practice for her to get better.

Now Baekhee saw Kyungah and Jongin kissing everywhere as if it were the most natural and comfortable thing in the world.

“Having a rough time?”

Baekhee jumped in surprise. She didn’t even realize that Sehun had walked up right next to her, his hand stretching out for a few cut up apple slices.

“Huh? Oh. I’m really sorry, I really didn’t mean to mess up the shoot or anything.”

Sehun chuckled, “Relax, I’m not mad or anything. In fact, I messed up on purpose so that we could take a break and I could come talk to you. Do you not want to kiss me or something? Do I make you uncomfortable?”

“No, it’s not that. It’s just that it’s my first kissing scene or rather my first kiss and I’ve been your fan since I was younger and I’m really nervous to kiss you and whoa I didn’t mean to sound creepy but yeah. I’m sorry.”

Without any words, Sehun leaned down, grabbed the back of Baekhee’s nape and pulled her in for a kiss.

Fireworks exploding, heart pounding, uneven breathing were all symptoms of Baekhee as she was lip locked with Sehun. His lips felt soft and magical and it was everything she knew it would be like. But it was short.

Just as she was about move her lips, Sehun retreated back. Both actors stared at each other.

“Did that help you?”

Baekhee could not speak. She couldn’t believe Sehun had just kissed her. Her crush, her role model, her co-star.

“I’m really glad Park Chanyeol dropped out…uh I mean yeah that helped.” She cleared and acted as if nothing happened, “Was it—was the kiss okay for you? Did I mess up? Did my breath stink?”

Sehun smiled and kissed her again. Both had delved into a deeper, longer kiss. Baekhee knew that Sehun was trying to get her comfortable with kissing him.  It was totally working.

Sehun pulled away and his lips while Baekhee pouted at the loss of lips pm her own, a feeling she very much enjoyed.

“There. Don’t worry about what I think. Just do what you know you are capable of doing. Now let’s knock this scene out and then we can talk afterwards.” Baekhee inwardly squealed.

Both walked back onto set smiles upon their faces. The director seemed to also be in a less stressed mood. He looked over at the actors in the on-set bedroom, “Okay are you guys ready to try it again?”

Baekhee looked over to Sehun who winked at her. “Yeah I’m sorry for my previous mistakes director. This is actually my first on-screen kiss as well as my first actual kiss. But Sehun and I talked so it’s okay.”

The director seemed to give a knowing grin and arched his eyebrow, “Oh he helped you? Then we should be able to get the scene right, right?” Kim Junghwan walked over to his chair and sat down before yelling out, “Everyone places, take seventeen and action.”

Baekhyun stared into Sehun’s eyes with sincerity, “I want you to kiss me Jisoo.”

Sehun leaned in again for the seventeenth time. Baekhee now knew what to expect and knew that she was able to do it correctly this time. No more trying to avoid this scene any longer. Sehun kept leaning in closer and closer until finally their lips crashed together.

A small sigh of relief could be heard from off-screen.

The actors had found their own rhythm and their lips moved together in sync. It was not a hard kiss but it also wasn’t a soft kiss. It was just right. It was enough to have Baekhee thinking how she’s kissing Sehun rather than Eunkyung kissing Jisoo.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and stood up in front of him. She was breathing heavily as she pulled away from Sehun, a string of saliva still connected their lips together. Baekhee pushed Sehun back down onto the bed as she straddled his hips.

As if by reflex, Sehun’s arms settled on her waist and softly her sides. Baekhee once again leaned down to kiss Sehun straight on the mouth. This time around she was acting more on her emotion and she just let the kiss go where Sehun would take it.

Sehun’s hand moved down her waist and onto her , giving little squeeze. Baekhee didn’t mind because she knew they were still in character. She was definitely no expert but she knew that kissing Sehun was leaving her breathless, literally and figuratively. Baekhee slightly gasped when she felt Sehun bit down delicately on her lower lip. Her parted lips made it easier for Sehun to slip his tongue inside and Baekhee was feeling a whole different kind of bliss. She let his tongue roam around in , exploring all there was to be explored.

Baekhee once again broke away from the kiss and trailed soft kisses down the actor’s sharp jaw and down his neck. She nibbled and placed small kisses on his neck one more time before she smiled up to Sehun, who had stared at her with such passion, and attached their lips.

Sehun soon moved his hand down to the front of Baekhyun’s pants. He placed a hand over the button before a small hand stopped it from ing.

“Jisoo, I really enjoy this, I enjoy us but I don’t think I’m ready for that yet.”

Sehun moved his hand and lightly moved some of Baekhee’s hair behind her ear, “I’m sorry. I think I got a bit carried away there.”

Baekhee smiled and pecked Sehun’s lips before sliding off of him and curling up to his side.

“Promise that you won’t let my brother separate us?”

“I promise.” Baekhee closed her eyes and secretly tried to even out her breathing.

“And cut! That was perfect! I can already see it now. Kiss of the year! Kiss of the decade.” There was a lot of applause as Baekhee opened up her eyes. She looked up to Sehun, whose arm she was still wrapped in and chuckled.

Finally! It was over. No more stressing out, no more pathetic excuses and mistakes. They could finally move on.

Sehun helped Baekhee off the bed and fixed her messed up hair for her. Looking at Sehun, the actress noticed how swollen his lips were and the disheveled position of his hair. One only knows how she looked.

“You did great Baekhee.”

Said girl blushed, “Thank you for helping me, sort of.”

Sehun combed his fingers through his own hair, “It was no problem, you are actually a great kisser. I can’t wait for our other kiss scenes.”

Baekhee’s mouth hung open as Sehun walked away to talk to the director.

“Oh Sehun just said I was a great kisser. Kyungah is not going to believe this.”

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+Word Count: 4471

+Currently Listening To: Waiting For Love by Avicii