Hidden Stars

Chapter One

"Action!"

I stepped forward and barged through the front door of the house we'd been using for the set. Seunghyun was sitting with his legs crossed at the dining room table with a cup of coffee in his hands. He looked at me with intensity and set the coffee down slowly before standing up in disbelief.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, his English a little weary.

"I came back. I need you to come with me." I replied.

"Why would I come with you? I'm just trouble!"

I walked closer to him and he walked closer to me. I had to look up to make eye contact because he was so much taller than I was. He was standing a little over a foot away from me, staring me down awaiting my reply.

"You aren't trouble, Ahn Min Ho, you're normal. This is what happens when you take jobs like this. You get caught and you get in trouble. It's normal for your job and I'm not going to leave you behind just because you're on the run. I want you to come with me and we can leave together, just you and I-"

He stepped closer and put his hands on my shoulders, tears forming in his eyes and in mine. He didn't say anything and a light smile washed across his face before he returned to his usual straight-faced demeanor. Then suddenly, he pulled me in to a tight hug. I could feel him shaking from crying but I couldn't do anything but hug back and wish that the scene would be over soon before I started crying, too.

"Cut! That's a wrap."

Seunghyun pulled away from me slowly and wiped his face with the sleeve of his black sweatshirt. The crew from the movie scrambled around set cleaning up various things at the end of the day. Seunghyun and I just stayed where the scene had left off, awkwardly making eye contact and laughing about how emotional we both got.

The director came over and stood beside us both, laughing. Everyone on set spoke Korean and I did, too, despite my appearance. Except some times, people forgot that.

"You did a good job! Real good job." the director said in English, smiling wildly and giving two encouraging thumbs up.

"Thank you, it means a lot!" I replied in Korean.

He looked at me in amazement. "I forgot you spoke Korean!"

Seunghyun started laughing at the wild look on the director's face. "I do, too. It's strange!"

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow, seven in the morning. Be here early!" the director said, walking off in his usual joyous mood.

He'd always confused me. From what I'd seen, directors were strict and critical. But this director was easygoing and had a sense of humor just like my own. He'd made things so much easier for us all on set.

"Ah, I better get going." I said, running a hand through my hair awkwardly as Seunghyun kept looking at me strangely.

"Me, too." he replied, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "Do I have your phone number?"

"Me? No- at least I don't think so." 

He pulled his phone out of his pocket and opened the contacts to make a new one. "I'll do this just in case, so I can call you when it's important."

He handed me his phone to put in my info. I typed in my number and set my contact name with smiley emojis next to it. I handed his phone back to him and he checked it over, smiling at the little touch I gave to my name.

"See you tomorrow, then."