The Accidental Star

THE BEACH

ANNE

Sometimes I hate myself.

And today was one of those days.

I pointed my flashlight to the forest trail that led to the sea. The trek from our compound to the beach was only fifteen minutes, during the day that is. But tonight when everything was dark and the only source of light was coming from my mini flashlight, it might take me hours to find the beach.

I should have been sleeping peacefully now. I should be skipping breakfast and oversleeping until Riwa finally wakes me up to get ready for departure.

But no. I was in that eerie forest trying to figure out the fastest way to get to the beach.

Why can't I just keep my mouth shut? I groaned silently as I started to walk the trail.

Why didn't I just nod and let things slide? Chang was obviously teasing and it wasn't like I could really beat him at his game. He'd been training for years. Practically everyday of his life since he became an actor. Tony pretty much knew his combat strengths and weaknesses; they've probably trained together for I don't know how many years.

And have you seen his glorious abs? Nobody gets that kind of a body overnight.

So what has gotten into me to actually challenge him like that?!

I heard the crackling of dried leaves and twigs under my foot and I cringed. Here I was trying to entertain myself with thoughts of Ji Chang Wook and his marvelous abs so I won't have to think about how eerie the trail looked at night. But Mother Nature didn't want to cooperate. Her underlings needed to make those creepy noises to scare the hell out of me.

Ignoring the fear that was gnawing inside of me, I took out my phone to make sure that I was on the right track on Google Maps. And that's when I saw the time.

3:20 AM

Ugh, how crazy am I to be trekking the forest at this unholy hour?!

I went back to my villa an hour before midnight. The festivities were still ongoing but I think most have gotten themselves drunk. So I thought I'd make an earlier escape and get a few hours of sleep before meeting Chang at the beach.

Well, that was the plan. But I couldn't sleep. I tried closing my eyes but my mind kept on running with random thoughts. So I lay down on my bed, stared at the ceiling for hours until my alarm clock finally went off at three.

I hurried my pace when I saw the time. I didn't think I was going to be late but I'd prefer to get there first before Chang did.

Aargghh. Stop it, Anne! This absurd competitiveness is going to get me in trouble!

I checked the map again and was told that my destination was just ten minutes away. I quickly pocketed my mobile and focused my eyes on the trail. I walked briskly yet carefully. The trail wasn't clear of random trunks and piles of dried leaves so if I wasn't careful, I might just trip over something and hurt myself.

Again.

I grimaced at the memory of my training injury.

It was our fifth day in the compound and into our third day of stunt training. I have a fight scene in the film where I have to climb on a cargo truck and fight with two villains on the roof while the vehicle was moving. To my credit, I perfected the moves on my twelfth attempt.

On my thirteenth try, just when I was about to do a high kick, the vehicle suddenly jerked forward. I lost my balance and fell off the truck.

Apparently, the truck driver that they hired had a little too much to drink the night before and was on a drunken stupor.