Chapter 143: 신사 (Gentleman)

{Girls On Top: Episode 10, Scene 5}

“Are you going to keep running?” Ho Young asked as he caught up with Maya.

“Leave me alone,” Maya walked on without looking at him.

“Maya…” he said her name, and reached out to grab her arm.

“Let me go,” she pleaded as she tried to shrug him off.

“You’re ending it like this? Just because of a guy who has blown you off more times you can remember?” he said.

“What I do is my own business. I don’t need you to chaperone me.”

“Listen to me for a moment,” he said as he tugged her on her arm roughly, bringing her to a stop.

“Aah… you’re hurting me…” she said as continued to struggle away from him.

“Keumanhae!” he shouted at her, and she stilled for a moment.

“Mianhae,” she said, her voice choking with emotion.

“I don’t want an apology,” he said as he turned her so that they were face to face.

“I can’t give you anything but an apology,” she said.

“You owe me more than an apology,” he insisted.

“I know…” she half-whispered. “But it’s too late.”

“Why? Tell me why? Why is it ever too late?” he asked her gently. “We can always start again.”

“It’s too late,” she repeated. “Si Won and I…”

“What about you and him?”

“We’re married,” she said.

{End of scene}

[Sierra’s POV]

I’m sitting in the dressing room, worn out from yesterday’s recording session and this morning’s filming for ‘Girls On Top’.

“Coffee?” Darren stopped beside me and held out a paper cup.

“No thanks,” I smiled. “I’m allergic to caffeine.”

“Really?” he raised an eyebrow. “Then how do you keep awake for all those recording sessions?”

“Decaf…” I said.

“Ah… no wonder you look so tired. There’s nothing like a kick of caffeine to get you going,” he said.

“I know that… but sadly… I can’t afford that.”

“Huh?”

“Back to my first answer: I’m allergic to caffeine.”

“Oh…” he smiled. “Gotcha,” he said, and turned to walk off.

Last night’s recording session was the toughest. I couldn’t capture the mood for my solo piece, and I had to do it again and again. The producers didn’t understand that the sexiness starts to wane when you get tired. By the time I did my 20th take, I was already feeling far from confident and sexy.

“Hyung,” I spoke into the talkback microphone, signaling for my manager to talk to me.

Shi Kyung hyung clicked on the button.

“Wae?”

“I can’t go on,” I said.

“One more take,” he urged me.

“My voice is cracking up,” I said. “I can feel it, you can hear it.”

He sighed and looked at the producers. They nodded, and all at once, I could taste my freedom.

“Okay,” he said. “It’s a wrap for today. We’ll come back here tomorrow afternoon.”

“Thanks,” I said.

After my next scene on ‘Girls On Top’, I’ll need to rush back to the studios. Skye had made me a flask of warm honey this morning, which I had been sipping whenever I had a free moment. It was a very uncommon gesture from him. I supposed that he felt that he had to take care of me since Shoei wasn’t around. Shoei was usually the one who did these things for us. Surprisingly, it tasted fine.

Shoei had been filming his first episode for ‘We Got Married’ yesterday. Today would be the first morning of his ‘marriage’. I’m wondering how he fared.

[Shoei’s POV]

I was awoken by the smell of cooking. I opened my eyes slowly and looked around my foreign surroundings. It took me a minute to remember that I wasn’t at home; in the apartment I shared with nuna and Skye.

I sat up, rubbed my eyes and yawned. I didn’t feel like waking up, and I am guessing that the crew is outside filming Su Bin as she cooked. I’ll need to make myself presentable before I got in front of the camera.

“Oppa…” I could hear Su Bin calling.

Should I pretend to be asleep? Or should I walk out and face the cameras? I decided to be a slob. I stood in front of the mirror and straightened out my hair as much as I could, then jumped back into bed to pretend I was asleep all along. As soon as I got into bed, I heard a soft knock on the door.

“Oppa…” Su Bin whispered as she slowly opened the door. “Are you awake?”

I lay still, the blankets covering my face. I felt the mattress sink as she climbed onto the bed. She grabbed the blankets and tugged it away from my face.

“Oppa… wake up,” she said.

“Hmm?” I said, pretending to be confused as I slowly opened my eyes.

“Wake up,” she smiled at me. “I’ve made us breakfast.”

“Nuguseyo?” I said sleepily, and covered my face with a pillow.

“Oppa!” she exclaimed, laughing. “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten you’re married?”

“Huh?” I said as I threw the pillow aside and sat up abruptly.

“Oppa… wake up,” she laughed as she lightly patted my face on either side with her hands.

“Oh… Su Bin,” I said, with my best expression of a dazed person.

“Good morning,” she smiled.

She was always smiling. She’d been smiling ever since she came into the room. Didn’t her face feel tired?

“Good morning,” I yawned.

“Oppa… we have a mission today,” she said.

“What is it?” I asked.

“We have to go grocery shopping, and make a meal together,” she said.

“Did they specify what sort of food?” I said, scratching my head.

I am so ruining my sex god image. Here I am in my pajamas, scratching my head…

“It has to be something we both can cook,” she said.

“Hmm…” I pondered for a bit. “Let me wash up and we’ll talk over breakfast.”

“Okay,” she smiled and slid off the bed.

The cameras followed her, giving me a moment to dash into the bathroom to make myself presentable. 10 minutes was all I needed. I took a quick shower since we’ll need to go out, and quickly got dressed and slicked back my hair.

“Wow! You’re fast!” she exclaimed when I walked out.

“Years of practice,” I laughed. “You need to learn how to get ready quickly if you want an extra 10 minutes of sleep each morning.”

“It’s easy for guys,” she pouted. “Girls need makeup.”

“You’ll need to learn to put it on while moving,” I laughed.

“You’re so funny, oppa,” she laughed. “Come see what I’ve made for breakfast.”

It turns out that she could actually make a basic meal. There was rice, kimch’i pancakes, seaweed soup and some side dishes to go with everything.

“Did you have help?” I smiled at her.

“I made the rice, pancakes and soup. The side dishes are from my mother.”

Here was another Solbi; reeling her mother in to help. At least she wanted to do a good job.

“Looks good,” I said as I sat down.

“Try it,” she said as she sat down in front of me.

I picked up my chopsticks and used it to break off a piece of pancake. The texture was fine, but the flour was pretty tasteless if not for the kimch’i.

“Eottae?” she looked at me with big searching eyes.

“It’s alright,” I smiled. “Needs a bit salt… for the flour.”

“Really?” she said and put a piece in her mouth.

She chewed thoughtfully for a moment, as if willing the taste of the pancake to change for the better, then her expression crumbled a little.

“You’re right,” she sighed.

“It’s not too bad,” I smiled and picked up my spoon.

I put a spoonful of soup in my mouth and immediately started coughing and sputtering.

“Oppa!” she exclaimed. “Kwaench’ana?”

I could only nod as I tried to control the cough. Tears were starting to form in my eyes.

“What’s wrong with the soup?” she asked and she tasted it herself.

I was about to stop her, but I was too late. She started coughing like crazy as well.

“Too much pepper,” I wheezed as I grabbed the glass of water next to me took a sip.

“Mianhae…” she coughed, and I passed her a glass of water, which she accepted gratefully.

“Don’t you taste the food when you’re cooking it?” I asked, and she shook her head.

“I thought it would be fine,” she said mournfully.

“It’s not too bad,” I said, realizing that she was starting to feel bad.

I put the bowl of soup in front of me, picked up my bowl of rice and tipped it into the bowl.

“Oppa! You don’t have to… you can’t drink something like that,” she exclaimed.

“It’s okay,” I smiled, as I stirred the rice into the soup. “If you put the rice in, it won’t sting so much. Now that I know it’s spicy, I won’t have such a drastic reaction. The pepper was unexpected, that’s why we reacted that way.”

I put a spoonful of the soup and rice in my mouth. It was still a little spicy, but bearable now. It could be the pepper was on the surface of the soup earlier.

“Wanna try?” I asked her, and pushed the bowl towards her.

She took a tiny scoop of it and put it in her mouth, then her face lit up again when she realized it was actually edible now.

“Oppa, mani meokgo,” she smiled, and started helping herself to the other food.

I laughed and shook my head at her antics. A moment ago she was devastated when she thought she’d failed. Now that she realized she hadn’t, she was bright and chirpy again. It’s going to be interesting to see how I will fare with a girl who had such volatile moods.

[Su Bin’s POV]

Shoei oppa was a nice guy. Shoei oppa is a very nice guy. I’m starting to believe that nothing can make him react the way Darren oppa was hoping he would.

The pepper on the soup had been on purpose. I thought he’d have blown up and yelled at me for being a bad cook, or anything along those lines. I never thought he’d actually try to eat it anyway. He really is a patient guy.

I can cook… I’d been trying hard not to cook in the past few days. I don’t know how long I could stand my bad cooking, let alone Shoei oppa. Maybe this wasn’t the way to get him to react negatively towards me. But how do I do it without making myself look bad along the way?

“I’ll clean up,” he said as soon as we’d finished eating.

I immediately felt bad that I’d left such a mess in the kitchen.

“It’s alright, I can do it,” I quickly said.

“I’ll do it,” he said as he picked up all the dishes on the table and walked into the kitchen.

He stopped as soon as he got to the door. I cringed, wondering what would be his reaction. Then… he started laughing. I turned to look at him.

“Yah!” he laughed as he walked in to put down the dishes in the sink. “Did you blow up the kitchen or something? This is unbelievable.”

This is the last time I’m doing this. I’ll have to find some other way to egg him.