“Well, go crush one of them with it.” Hwan laughed and climbed up onto the couch.
“I’m going to meet Lily-ssi at the studio to run lines after I shower,” said Eun Gi. “You should all get some sleep.”
Sung Soo nodded. “No argument here.”
When they finished eating, Eun Gi helped Sung Soo clean up.
“Hyung, do you think this is the right choice for me?”
Sung Soo looked up from loading the dishwasher. “I’m not sure how many more times you plan on asking me that question, but my answer is still yes. It’ll be good for you to try out something different for a while, then you can come back to music refreshed.”
“I’m just still unsure.”
“Well, it’s not so different from when we became trainees. There’s never a guarantee of success. You have to put in the effort and hope you stumble across the right choices to make it all work. We’re here for you no matter what happens.”
Sung Soo poured himself a glass of water and drank it leaning up against the counter. He watched Eun Gi over the rim.
Eun Gi frowned. “I’m bad at being a failure.”
Sung Soo snorted into his drink. “You’ve been many things over the years, but failure isn’t one of them. You can do this. I believe in you completely.”
Eun Gi hesitated.
Sung Soo patted his back and pushed him out of the kitchen. “You know what they say. ‘Even monkeys fall from trees’, so if this ends up with you falling, you’ll just climb a new one. You’ve got this. Now, stop pouting, and get to the studio.”
Lily sat across from him with a soft smile on her face. Ships in the Night by Tessa Hale, which Eun Gi had read before accepting the part, was a tale of bravery, travel, and romance; a young Irish girl in Georgian times escaping poverty by dressing as a man to join the sailing trade routes that eventually brought her to the Kingdom of Joseon.
“Lee Do Yun, I don’t want to get back on the ship. I’ve been so focused on escaping my old life that I didn’t realize I’d already found a new one. I wasn’t running, I was searching for home.” Lily beamed at him, entirely out of character as she rattled off her lines in Korean. “I just wanted a place to belong.”
The script writers had added more soap opera flare to the lines than he remembered from the actual book. While he wouldn’t admit it out loud for the sake of his job, he secretly preferred the original version.
“Joseon is nothing like where you come from. How can you feel like you belong here?”
“The difference is part of the beauty,” Lily said. “Everywhere I’ve been is different from where I’ve come from, but it helped me learn who I am and where I want to be.”
“What is it about Joseon that makes you want to be here?”
“Wow, this guy is obtuse.” Lily laughed, breaking character again. “Lee Do Yun, how can you ask me that?”
“I’m not accustomed to speaking my feelings. I wouldn’t want to presume what may be between us.”
“You presumed correctly when you kissed me last night.” Lily winked at him.
Eun Gi sat up a little straighter in his chair. “We don’t have to practice the kiss now. Just lines, right?”
“Whatever you prefer.”
Eun Gi stood awkwardly and addressed her in English. “I’m going to get a drink. Do you want anything?”
“I’d love some water. Thank you.”
They’d been running lines for the better part of two hours. He sipped his water and flipped through his phone, scrolling through pictures of cute animals to de-stress before venturing over to the news headlines.
Eun Gi choked on his drink and fumbled his phone, dropping the cup but catching the device before it clattered to the floor. He set his phone on top of the water cooler, heart hammering. Grabbing a fistful of paper towels, he knelt to mop up the mess, mind churning.
Lily joined him to help. “Is everything okay?”
“I’m not sure.”
Dread climbed in his gut as he picked up his phone again and clicked into the article. He swallowed, hard. It was never a good thing when any of them showed up in the news. Most of the pictures were fuzzy, but a couple were clear enough that anyone familiar with the group would be able to recognize him. He scrolled, searching for details. Her name was nowhere to be found. Maybe they didn’t know who she was? That would be even better.
Further on were pictures of her leaving the building in the morning alongside an older picture of him wearing the same coat. There was speculation as to who she might be and what their relationship was, but no actual information. The double-edged sword of relief and regret plowed into him. Maybe without her identity exposed she wouldn’t get dragged into a mess, but that didn’t help him at all.
Then he found the comments.
He shouldn’t have looked.
Mixed in among the genuine curiosity was a hearty helping of vitriol, tainted with any and all horrible names the commenters could come up with to describe the apparent mystery woman.
Eun Gi forwarded the article to Kyung Mi, adding a brief explanation as to his relationship, or lack thereof, with Tessa Hale.
The response was instant.
Kyung Mi:
I’ll keep an eye on it from here. I’m heading back tonight. I’ve sent it on to the company. Please don’t do anything stupid.
“Too late for that,” he muttered.
Eun Gi:
When do I ever?
He couldn’t see her, but he knew she’d be sighing deeply.
Soon enough another dozen articles from various sources featuring the pictures were published. Unable to focus on his practice with Lily, he opted to cancel the rest of it. He squeezed the phone to keep the trembling in his hands under control. Pictures were bad. Pictures led to scandals and scandals ended careers.
Stop it.
His phone rang.
“Hello?”
“They want to do a press release to nip this in the bud.” Kyung Mi’s voice was sharp.
“Is that necessary? You can hardly tell it’s me in the pictures.”
“The comments say otherwise. I know you don’t want to do this, but we have to.”
“But none of the articles list her name. If we do a press release we’ll have to reveal it and expose her. I don’t want the writer to be under scrutiny for nothing.”
Kyung Mi was silent for so long, Eun Gi lifted the phone to be sure the call hadn’t dropped.
“Talk to this woman and get her prepared for a release if necessary. I’ll do what I can, but we can’t have this affecting your reputation.”
“Wouldn’t it make more sense for you to talk to her?” Eun Gi asked.
“No, no, no. That’s not how this is going to work. I’m cleaning up as much of this mess as I can from my end. You’re cleaning things up from your side. If you tell me there’s nothing, then that’s the angle we’ll work with, but whatever your relationship with this woman is—”
“There’s nothing, I—”
“Whatever your relationship with this woman is,” Kyung Mi repeated, “you are obligated to handle this like an adult. Talk to her.”
“Fine.”
They hung up, and Eun Gi shoved his phone into his pocket.
Reminding himself to never be nice again, he paced restlessly in front of the doors of the studio until his car service picked him up and carted him back to his apartment.
Circular arguments swirled in his head, and he slammed down on them. He’d already helped her, and there was nothing to be done about it now except to try to mitigate the potential damage.
Shoving a hand through his hair, he tapped out a message he dreaded a response to.
Eun Gi:
Kelly-ssi, can you please pass my number along to Tessa-ssi?
Have her call me?
Chapter 5
Tessa
“Tessa!” Kelly threw herself onto the couch where her friend was curled up resting and reading. “Tessa, Tessa, Tessa! Guess what!”
She lowered her book. “What?”
“Guess who wants you to call him!” Kelly beamed a megawatt smile at Tessa.
“Who?”
“Your favourite iiiidol,” Kelly sang.
“Oh God. Why?” A blush flooded Tessa’s cheeks, and she tucked the book back in front of her face to hide.
“Why don’t you call him and find out?”
“I can’t call him. I’ve already embarrassed myself plenty. I don’t need the opportunity to do so again.”
“Come on, live this dream for me.” Kelly poked her in the ribs. “Your idol bias is giving you his phone number. This is the stuff of fairy tales. Maybe you made a better impression than you thought.”
Tessa groaned and slunk down, burying herself under one of the couch pillows. “I’m pretty sure that’s not the case. Passing out from a drunken migraine is about as bad as it gets, short of throwing up on him.”
“Well, you’re at least a step above the worst.” Kelly snared Tessa’s phone off the side table and shoved it into Tessa’s hands. “Call him.”
“Please don’t make me.”
“Girl, stop being a chicken. This is your chance to redeem yourself to this guy. Don’t you want him to have a more positive memory of you?”
Tessa huffed. “Fine. What’s his number?”
Kelly squeed and immediately sent the number to Tessa’s phone.
Tessa unburied herself and stared at the screen with dread. Her fingers shook as she pressed the link and jacked up her call volume so Kelly would be able to hear. Speaker-phone would sound obvious, but she wanted the backup just in case.
“Hello?” UpBeat answered in his smooth Korean.
“Hi, um, Baek Eun Gi-ssi, it’s Tessa.”
“Ah! Thank you for calling.”
Tessa relaxed a little. He didn’t sound upset, which went a long way to loosening the ball of nerves in her chest.
“Have you seen the news?” he asked.
“The news?” Tessa looked quizzically over at Kelly who popped open the search engine on her phone. Kelly’s mouth dropped open, and she turned her phone to Tessa.
“Oh my God! We— we’re in the news.” Tessa’s stomach clenched.
“Yes,” he replied, “but only my name.”
“Well, that’s…” she paused, unsure how to respond, “…good?”
“For you, yes. I’ve discussed what to do about it with my manager.”
Tessa stared wide-eyed at Kelly. “Um, forgive my ignorance, but why do we need to do anything about it?”
He sighed softly.
“The rules surrounding relationships in this industry are incredibly strict. Some companies are worse than others, but the media is never to find out about relationships for the safety and sanity of all involved.”
“But we’re not in a relationship.”
“You know that, and I know that, but the media decided there’s something there. The company wants to do a press release. If we do that, your name will become public.”
“What happens if I say no?”
She desperately hoped he would let her say no.
There was silence and hesitation on his end for a few moments. “I’m not sure. If we keep quiet, they may keep searching for you. If we don’t do a release, then the media will continue to speculate. Scandals are easy to create and hard to make disappear, especially when there are pictures.”
Tessa pressed her forehead to her knees. “What do you think I should do?”
“I’ve dealt with scandals before.” His voice gentled. “It’s the company you’d upset, not me. If you don’t consent, I’ll handle them.”
She wondered if that was actually the case or if he was just being nice to spare her from whatever was to come. Would he get into trouble if she didn’t cooperate? Nerves clenched her chest again.
Tessa muted her mic and turned to Kelly. “Vote?”
“That depends on if you want your name associated with him or not. The fans and press can be pretty relentless.” Kelly squeezed her cheeks, grinning. “It’s a shame you guys don’t have something going on. How cute would the lead actor and the writer falling in love be?”
Tessa snorted. “Oh please. That’s never going to happen.”
Kelly grabbed Tessa’s phone and unmuted it before putting it on speaker-phone. She joined the conversation in Korean.
“Baek Eun Gi-ssi, it’s Kelly. Have the company and studio discussed protection for Tessa if she gives her name?”
Tessa hadn’t even considered that aspect. She’d seen enough mentions of sasaeng incidents in the news to know that some fans took things way too far.
“Normally people in these situations have access to security, door monitors, and a team of people to help them,” Kelly continued. “Tessa doesn’t have that.”
“A fair point,” he agreed. “I’ll talk to them, and we can discuss the matter again.”
“Thank you for being so patient with this, and for taking care of Tessa.”
“Kelly, quit it!” Tessa lunged for the phone, but Kelly held it out of reach.
“It’s no trouble,” UpBeat assured. “I have to go, but I’ll keep you updated.”
“Thank you,” Tessa said.
They bid one another goodbye, and Tessa cast pleading eyes at Kelly. “Why do we need security?”
“I just want to be prepared.”
Tessa kneaded her scalp.
Kelly placed a hand on Tessa’s knee. “You okay? You’re not getting a migraine, are you?”
“No, I don’t think so. This is all so ridiculous.”
Tessa spent hours reading over the articles that were out, staring at the images of herself plastered across the internet. She hunted down past scandals and issues with sasaeng fans, trying to pick apart enough details to judge what might be ahead of her.
Kelly finally took her phone away when Min Joo arrived home with several bags of food.
“Fried chicken and beer!” He smiled brightly, setting the bags down on the table.
Tessa welcomed the distraction. She leapt up to get plates and glasses, and they sat at the table together. Kelly filled her husband in on things between bites.
“Oh!” said Kelly. “In all the excitement, I completely forgot that I found you a date. Technically two dates, so you can meet both or either.”
“Or neither,” Tessa added.
“Come on, you promised.”
Tessa sighed. “Fine.”
“Good, now, they both work with Joo at the university. Ae Ja is a first-time sessional teacher. She’s a bit of a newer friend, but she’s pretty and loved your book. Pyong Ho is a little bit younger—”
“How old is younger?” Tessa asked.
“He’s twenty-three.”
“Kelly, he’s practically a baby.”
“Twenty-three is hardly a baby. It’s only a four year difference and he’s super nice,” Kelly insisted.
“How old is Ae Ja?”
“Nearly twenty-four.”
“Baby.”
“Oh, for the love of God. Tessa, they’re not babies.” Kelly swallowed down half her beer. “They’re adults who’ve expressed an interest in you.”
“But I’m awkward, and dating is literally hell for me.”
“Dating is hell for everyone. Your mom asked me to push you outside your comfort zone while you’re here. New country, new experiences, all that jazz. I promise it won’t be so bad. You get to hang out with me and Joo in addition to your date.”
“Why do you hate me?”
Kelly laughed into her plate. “I do not hate you. I love you. You can make some Korean friends, and then I can use them as leverage to convince you to move here.”
“Ah, the ulterior motive emerges.” Tessa munched her chicken.
“It was never hidden. Besides, I’m allowed to want you to be closer. An eleven-hour flight makes it very difficult for us to be maximum besties. I can’t use me for leverage, I’m the one who came over here. I gotta get you hooked o
n the locals.”
“I don’t know you well enough to speak to your compatibility,” Min Joo piped up, “but I know them, and they’re good people.”
“Min Joo, not you too.”
He looked emphatically down into his beer. “You did promise Kelly.”
Tessa pouted. “Fine. I’ll meet both.”
“Aww yiss.” Kelly pulled out her phone and sent the potential dates a note on KakaoTalk. They pinged back a moment later. “Sweet, we’re scheduled with Pyong Ho for tomorrow and Ae Ja for Sunday.”
“Oh Lord,” Tessa grumbled, stuffing a bite of rice into her mouth. “Don’t get too excited.”
“Too late!” Kelly grinned. “Excitement has been achieved. Embrace it. Fear it.”
Min Joo smothered his laughter behind his hand before giving up altogether and pulling Kelly into his arms. He murmured an “I love you” against her temple.
She sank back against him with a contented sigh, holding his arm across her chest. “I love you too, Joo.”
“Quit being so nauseatingly cute,” Tessa teased. “You’re making me lonely.”
“No can do. We’re precious at all times. It’s a rule, and you just need to adapt.”
Eun Gi
Eun Gi skimmed his phone before getting out of bed. There was nothing new on the potential scandal situation, and both the studio and company were sitting on their hands as things appeared to be calming down.
He climbed out of bed and dipped into the bathroom.
Hwan was toying with his hair in the mirror. “Are you excited to start filming today?”
“I think so.”
“Sung Soo said we’ll go see you for lunch.”
“If you guys make trouble, you’re going to get kicked out.”
“Trouble?” Hwan batted his eyelashes and unraveled a length of floss. “Me? I am hurt that you’d ever think I’d make trouble.”
Eun Gi rolled his eyes and hip-checked Hwan over so he could reach his toothbrush. “I have to shower. Get out.”
“I’m flossing.”
“Out.”
Hwan rolled his eyes. “Fine, be a bathroom hog.”
“There’s a mirror in the hall,” Eun Gi said as he closed the door in Hwan’s face.
Heart and Seoul (The Seoul Series Book 1) Page 4