On the bus ride home, I search for news articles released today about our show.
Breaking News: Highly Anticipated Fantasy K-Drama Fated Destiny Set to Premiere Today at 9 p.m. KSTI
Tae Kim Dishes on His New Show Fated Destiny on the Eve of Its Premiere
Why Fated Destiny Starring Tae Kim Is THE Biggest K-Drama of 2022
From the way the press is writing about it, you'd think Fated Destiny was a one-man show. But I'm glad it's at least on everyone's radar. Even now on the bus, I overhear conversations about our show.
"I'm so excited to watch Tae's new series!" says a middle schooler who's sitting a few seats behind me.
"I'm for sure going to watch it after I'm done with cram school. "I'm just going to watch it on my phone. The tutors don't care about what we do as long as we finish our work anyway'
"Really? Mine are super mean and take our phones away."
"Oh. huh. I always assumed they don't care, but maybe I'm just too sneaky for them to notice."
They laugh, and I'm still smiling to myself when the first girl says, "Wait, speaking of Fated Destiny, did you see the girl Tae's co-starring with? What's her name again, Kang Jennie? Kim Jane? How did a complete nobody like her land that role?"
I bite my lip to stop myself from correcting her, it's Kim Jennie!
The other girl shrugs. "I think I recognize her from Superstar League. Didn't she play the foreign exchange student from America? She was pretty good."
"She better be to star with our Tae."
"To be honest, I hope she sucks. Celebrities end up dating their costars all the time. We can't lose Tae to someone like her!"
Resisting an urge to sigh, I navigate to one of my playlists on Spotify, which is a collection of kick ass girl power anthems from my favorite K-pop singers. I rap on a song by Skye Shin, who just debuted this year but is already topping the charts. Skye's Korean American like me, so I relate to a lot of her songs.
As I Listen to her strong, confident voice, I feel my shoulders loosening up.
I'm not naive enough to think that people will be watching the show for me. I know that most of the world will watch our K-drama out of morbid curiosity, since it's the show that's supposedly so good that Tae turned his back on music at the peak of his music career for. But I'm determined not to get outshined by him. Not when I have so much riding on this show.
Just as I get off at my bus stop, I get a call from Sophia, my manager.
"How are you holding up?" she asks me in English.
After a whole day of speaking Korean, hearing English is admittedly comforting. I may look like I was born and raised here in Korea, but I'm from New Zealand. I grew up splashing around in the warm turquoise waters of the Pacific Ocean, not looking across the Han River like I am now.
Since I've always spoken Korean with my parents, I'm fluent, but i'm still more at ease with English. Meanwhile, Sophia was born in Korea but hopped back and forth between here and the US throughout her life, so she's perfectly good at both Korean and English in a way I can only aspire to be.
"I'm fine." I say. "Okay, that's a lie. I'm terrified, but I'm trying to chill. I just overheard a bunch of middle schoolers trash-talking me."
"Nerves are understandable. But try to enjoy tonight as much as you can. You earned this big debut. And remember, good or bad, buzz is buzz. Tonight's premiere is going to be huge!"
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Flip the Script - Jenlisa Adaptation
Romance*This was not written by me, the original author is Lyla Lee, the only thing I changed by was the names of the characters.* THE FIRST RULE OF WATCHING K-DRAMAS: NEVER FALL IN LOVE WITH THE SECOND LEAD Jennie knows this. She's been consuming K-dramas...
Chapter 1
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