Let Me Count The Ways

If Today is the Only Day We are Allowed to be Scandalous (Part III)

It was the one kiss that mattered.

Kim Goeun had a talent for finding the secret corners of a set and making herself as inconspicuous as possible in order to steal naps. One such corner was at the end of the hallway outside Lee Gon's study that led to nowhere. After picking her spot, she immediately sat down on the dark wooden floor but was careful not to smudge the fake blood on her hands. Then she rested her back against the pillar and her head thumped back sleepily as her eyes drifted shut.

The Busan shooting schedule had been brutal and long, wrapping up almost always before dawn. But now, after having finished Lee Gon and Jeong Taeeul's bloody reunion at Busan last night, they had moved over the country up to Yongin City in the Gyeonggi Province where all the built sets for the interior of the Corean Palace were. Since they were on a tight schedule, they would be cramming a lot of scenes for the next two days that they would be hunkered down in the small and unassuming Ischia Hotel.

At the thought of the soft, fluffy and freshly laundered bedcovers waiting for her back in her hotel room, Kim Goeun groaned softly.

Lee Minho had a talent for finding Kim Goeun wherever she happened to be on the set. At any time that she wasn't by his side, his skin would prickle as if to alert his brain that something wasn't quite right. His eyes would scan the room and force his neck to twist and bend just to search for any sign of her ponytail. It would be tied haphazardly, Taeeul style, but it would smell like the floral shampoo she had used back in the Ahopsan Bamboo Forest shoot. Sometimes, it would just be the lithe sound of her laughter rising above the racket of a busy set that would tell him where she was. Then his feet would turn restless and refuse to quiet down until he could be where she was.

One such moment was when an assistant form the props department was touching up the fake blood on the back of his hands and he had to stand still as he watched Kim Goeun walk down the hallway and turn a corner. When the props lady was done with him, he went off in search for the corner Kim Goeun had disappeared into.

"Goeunssi...PD-nim said that you will be needed on the set in 15 minutes."

The timid voice of one of her assistant might have broken through her sleep but it was the touch of something cold and wet on her forehead that jarred her awake. When her eyes were fully opened and could properly focus, she saw Lee Minho peering down at her with a badly concealed smirk. He was also holding a bottle of Craft Black Georgia Coffee over her head.

Grumpy from her interrupted nap, she frowned up at him and said, "You stole a prop to wake me up?"

"I didn't wake you up," he said with an amused and slightly smug smile. Then he pointed at her assistant and said, "She did it. And I didn't steal anything. We always get a free case of this every shoot. Here, drink a little of this."

She looked at it askance and was about to reject it when he made a disapproving sound and said, "You're running low on energy and I know you didn't eat breakfast so you're still operating on last night's fumes. So either you get some real food for fuel or you drink this. And we both know you're not going to do eat."

She wrinkled her nose up at him. "You sound like an ahjumma," she said but was already grudgingly reaching out for the bottle of brewed coffee when she realized that she still had fake blood on her hands. "Ah—"

She then frowned at her hands and wondered how she was going to drink the coffee. With her lips curled up in annoyance, she held her blood-covered hands up to Lee Minho, wordlessly asking for his help. He didn't have the fake blood all over the palms of his hands like she did. As an afterthought, she flashed him what she hoped was a sweet smile.