Let Me Count The Ways

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

"Thank you," she said softly. This time, the small shy smile she sent him was genuine.

He basked in it. Because really, what else could he do when she smiled at him like that?

And then the assistant director called them to proceed to their marks at the other end of the hallway to begin the shoot. So Lee Minho handed her coffee to her assistants in case she might still need to take sips of it throughout the day. Then he followed her quickly to start the shoot of one of their longest days in filming.

They've had eight months of these and although he could feel it wearing them both down, he hadn't lost the fire that had started in his belly from the first moment he was told he would be working with Kim Goeun. Standing by her side now, he watched her as she shook off the sleepiness from earlier as if it was just a warm weighed blanked around her shoulders she could slide off any time she wanted. Assistants swarmed in around them for last minute touch ups to their hair, make up, clothes, and fake blood to make sure they still looked like Lee Gon and Jeong Taeeul from last night. One by one they flitted out and he was left with her, poised and ready for the scene.

Then he caught a playful spark in the corners of her eyes as she spotted his hands and mimicked the way he held them up and away from his body. As always, she had a way of moving that showed him exactly what she wanted him to understand. So without any word passing between them, he started humming the opening theme to Dr. Romantic, a drama about surgeons.

Delightedly, she threw herself into the role of one.

"Scalpel," she said in mock seriousness and then laughed at herself afterwards because it was the only thing she knew that surgeons said.

And because he liked hearing her laugh some more, he racked his brain for another medical term just to extend the moment.

"Suction," he said and she gamely did the motions, even making sound effects for it. And as they laughed at their silliness, he realized that Kim Goeun had never played a doctor in any of her movies or dramas. He wondered if she had already picked her next project after this.

The thought of all of this ending after a month's time squeezed at his heart but luckily, the director chose that moment to begin rolling. They are instantly pulled back into the world where there are two Koreas and he doesn't have to think about waking up one morning and going to work without Kim Goeun by his side.

For now, all he had to do was carry her. And so he did, from one end of the corridor to the other in three different takes and two camera angles. And then he had to carry her some more— through the double doors and into Lee Gon's bedroom.

He carried her so easily now that it almost felt like floating on water when she was in his arms. But all that carrying around without any actual lines to say made Kim Goeun very sleepy. The coffee, if it had any effect at all, wasn't much help. While the staff rearranged the lights and reflectors around Lee Gon's bed, her eyelids tried to fight off their losing battle against gravity.

Helplessly, Lee Minho watched her. Because really, when wasn't he watching her?

"Just go to sleep," he whispered lowly. "No one will notice anyway. You're practically just a prop now."

Kim Goeun forced her eyes wide open at him. "No," was her short, stubborn reply.

And then they started rolling and she had to keep her eyes closed during the next few scenes. That wasn't hard to do. What was hard was keeping the sleep from becoming too real.

She drifted in and out while the director and Lee Minho discussed which angle the forehead kiss should be shot from; even while Kim Youngok as Lady Noh and Lee Minho rehearsed and shot their scenes. At one point, Kim Youngok's sudden sneeze in the middle of a take was the only thing that saved her from completely falling asleep during a particularly long lull. She had jerked awake then and the sudden movement made Lee Minho look at her with furrowed brows.