Third person.
In the centre of the white seamless background with lights aimed at her, Jieum strikes chic poses as a camera takes her from various angles. At times like this, the only thing Jieum is focused on is herself and the bright flashes onto her complexion. Jieum can pull off exactly what the shoot needs.
"One, two! Hold- Beautiful! Exactly what I wanted." Thanks to her, the photographer's work is much lighter. Jieum learns to toss the flowing praises of the team in the same room as her at the moment, but she reminds herself of every single one of their faces to thank them later for boosting her confidence even more.
"Cut! Perfect work, Miss Moon." The photographer finally fixes his camera down from his face, signalling that Jieum's shoot is over.
Jieum's face immediately turns blank and releases the breath she has been holding in. She says her 'thank-you's with a gentle smile to the people who helped with the shoot. Checking the finalized photos of her work on the computer, both relief and satisfaction are plastered across her face. She remains standing while the manager and photographer talk to her as she does nothing but nod and chuckle.
"It was fun, right?" Sakura grins at the girl as they walk into the dressing room.
"Yes, it was. I just had to trust the process of the horrible sounds of my fake laughter but I still looked amazing in the end, didn't I?" Jieum takes her normal clothes from the rack, heading into a changing stall, eager to take off what's been poking her waist.
A dreadful sound of her fake laughter is recorded on Sakura's phone, who reveals the video while chortling.
"Sakura, you did not!" She gasps dramatically and storms towards the older girl's direction, grabbing the phone from her to watch the video of herself.
Excluding the sound, she indeed looks gorgeous with a blow machine muffing her hair in a respective direction nonetheless.
"She's beautiful." Jieum purses her lips at her vain statement, giving Sakura her phone back and goes to change her clothes.
"Ah, that girl." Sakura snickers light-heartedly. Jieum gets too full of herself sometimes, but she never lies.
━━━━━
[Unknown number]
Hey.
Uh...
Miss Moon?
1:30 p.m.
I'm waiting by the entrance already.
Wait, aren't I supposed to pick you up at 2?
Never mind, I can't stay in this driveway.
2:03 p.m.
Where are you now?
Bro what the fuck is that
Oh shit no that wasn't meant for you.
2:43 p.m.
Am I still supposed to be waiting...
2:47 p.m.
Jongseong ????
How the hell did you get my number ?
Oh, yes, hey.
Will be there in a second.
━
The Audi puts on the brakes in front of Jieum. Jongseong gets out and goes over to open the door for her, ensuring that she doesn't have anything to put in the trunk.
"How'd you get my number?" Jieum starts as Jongseong sits back in his seat.
"Uh, well, Mr. Moon gave it to me this morning." Jongseong replies.
'Was this before I tried to have you fired or after?' Jieum crosses her arms.
A stomach growls all of a sudden. Jongseong knew it wasn't his for he had grabbed a sandwich before he came to pick her up. He secretly looks at the rear mirror to find the cause of the angry sound, and he finds her clutching her stomach with a flustered face. Jongseong wants to laugh, but he knows better than to laugh at a hungry woman. Especially Moon Jieum.
"Let's get something to eat. I... have not eaten the whole day since breakfast." Jieum says, her voice merely whispering nearing the end of her sentence.
"What? Why-" Jongseong refrains from asking, assuming he won't be getting a proper answer from her anyway.
"Where would you like to have lunch?" Jongseong asks, looking around the area for a sign of any restaurants.
"Uh, somewhere, anywhere- I don't care." Jieum almost lets out a whine.
Jongseong sighs. He spots a nearby restaurant on the left and decides to make a turn for it. Finding a free parking space was quite tough, but they were able to hop out of the car in no time. Leading the model inside the restaurant, both of them are dismayed by seeing almost all booths and tables occupied. Not even the single tables are available.
"Good afternoon! Would you like a table for two? We only have one left." A server hugging menus draws near them.
"Um, are there no other separate tables for us?" Jieum chuckles dryly, aware of how odd her question might've sounded to the server.
"Um, unfortunately, not at the moment." The lady shakes her head.
"I wouldn't mind if you want me to wait outside, but this place is packed and I kinda think this is one of the scenarios your father has told me about to protect you from." Jongseong scratches the back of his neck awkwardly. Once again, Jieum rolls her eyes.
"Protect, my ass. All I'm gonna do is eat. Ugh, sorry- we'll take the table." Jieum smiles sympathetically at the waitress who must've heard their conversation as well.
Being handed the menus as they sit facing each other, with the round table setting them apart, Jieum immediately scans the distinct dishes thoroughly. She makes up her decision in a brief matter of seconds and uncovers her face as she places the menu down, meeting Jongseong's bored stare at his menu. His two fingers hold his temple as he rests his arm on the armrest of his chair, looking like he's still deciding on what to get when in fact, he's hardly even thinking.
"I'll pay for whatever you want." Jieum says shortly.
"If you opened your phone earlier a while ago you could've asked me to get you some food." Jongseong says disapprovingly.
"Hello? I was in the middle of a photoshoot. Besides, you were an unknown number which only gave me more reason not to make a reply quickly." Jieum replies derisively. She crosses her legs under the table and raises her hand to call for attention.
"One carbonara and a Greek salad, please. And just cold water. Thank you." Jieum simply says out her order to the same server from a while ago.
"And you, sir?" The waitress and Jieum's eyes avert to the man. Jongseong clears his throat and opens his menu quickly, realizing he hasn't picked anything yet.
"I'll have lasagne only with a side of Coke, thanks." Jongseong nods. He listens to the server repeating their orders before she scurries off with a promise that their food will be served in no time.
━━━━━
The level of their discomfiture just increased the moment their food arrived at their table and they began to eat. Currently, neither of them has looked away from the food that they're trying to finish in peace. The food is undeniably great, but it's a shame that they can't savour it when they're more conscious about themselves messing up in front of each other as they eat together.
No conversation has been started since they've said their orders, and it's honestly beginning to bother the heck out of both of them.
On Jongseong's last bite, he takes hold of his glass filled with iced Coca-Cola and unintentionally glimpses at the table behind theirs. With the familiar presence of someone he does not wish to see at this time, his eyes widen in horror. More so, he locks eyes with the person who shares a comparable reaction as him.
Lee Heeseung is amused to see Jongseong here out of all places. However, his mouth drops on the floor the instant that his eyes shift onto who Jongseong's eating lunch with. The long black wavy hair is enough to tell that Jongseong is here with a girl.
A. Girl. Is he on a date?!
Heeseung mouths the question a few times, while pointing directly at Jieum. When Jongseong finally understands him, he chokes on himself and accidentally slams his hand on the table.
Jieum almost drops her fork and frowns at him. She's even more weirded out when she catches him eyeing something, or someone, behind her back, so she tries to go after his stare (which at the same time is when Heeseung gets scolded by his own date, so Jieum doesn't get to see him).
Her eyes match the sight of a girl. Her nose scrunches up and looks back at Jongseong, who still hasn't looked away from the direction Jieum believed she followed. Jongseong eventually brings his gaze to Jieum who sends another pierced glare.
"She's not that worth goggling at." Jieum comments, soft and vague enough for only herself to hear. Jongseong isn't able to properly comprehend what she said since she quickly follows up her sentence with a bite of her pasta.
Jongseong's lock screen lights up on the table with a banner showing Heeseung's name.
[Heeseung hyung]
Jongseong-ie's on a date with someone ~
Wait a damn second.
PAUSE.
YOU'RE ON A DATE WITH MOON JIEUM?
━━━━━━━━━━
Update after 2 months before I
ghost you guys again because I have
exams coming up and right now I'm
on the verge of a breakdown!