<OST: Orbit - Hwasa>
How Byulyi wished she could say she hadn't thought about him for days, because of how busy she was with preparing for the meeting with Jennie and Yoongi, but in actual fact... she couldn't.
Every waking hour of the past few days, for Byulyi, was filled with thinking about him and reminiscing their good times. It was hard, in reality, to achieve her goal of not thinking about him. And it truly surprised Byulyi, to see the very main character of her thoughts, standing at her door again, that very afternoon.
"What are you doing here again?"
Seokjin held up the familiar-looking diary. "To come return this."
Byulyi folded her arms, eyeing the diary with narrowed eyes. "That guy asked you to?"
"Yeah."
Byulyi peered inside the house at Jieun, who was sitting on the couch, sobbing quietly. She then turned back to Seokjin once more, lowering her voice to make sure Jieun couldn't hear their conversation. "Go back and tell him to keep it."
"He asked me go give it back to Jieun or throw it-"
Byulyi took a deep breath, before looking Seokjin in the eye as she spoke. "Tell that guy, I know he may be hurt by what our Jieun did, but that doesn't mean he can hurt her back again and again by rejecting her. If not, he's just the same. I don't care whether he wants it or not - you tell him, either be a man and read it, or throw it away, for all I care. Just don't ever come here again - every time you come, she'll just get reminded of him, and it pains me to see her that way. Do you understand?"
Seokjin stared blankly at Byulyi for a moment, trying to register that firstly, Byulyi was actually talking to him; and secondly, what exactly she was saying.
"I'm just here to run an errand," Seokjin said with his eyebrows furrowed. "Do you really have to put things in... such a way?"
Byulyi scanned Seokjin from head to toe. "I'm just saying. In that case, if there's nothing else-"
"Wait-" Seokjin didn't give up, as he held the notebook out one more time. "If I don't manage to return it, I'll really have to throw it away. Is that really what you want?"
"I already said, I don't care-" Byulyi said, clearly annoyed. "Also, why should you be the one throwing it away for him? If he really didn't bother about it, ask him to throw it away on his own. If to him, this really is just a piece of garbage not worth his attention, ask him to get rid of it on his own... Why is he acting like some child, insisting on returning this diary to the person who already gave it to him? What is he so afraid of?"
"He said he already read it."
"He did...?" Byulyi frowned. "I highly doubt so. Jieun literally just gave it to him today."
"He read it before."
Byulyi furrowed her eyebrows. "The whole thing?"
"Not the whole thing."
Byulyi shook her head. "Tell him that's not counted. But if he doesn't wanna read it, I can't force him, neither can Jieun... and neither can you."
"So... what now?" Seokjin crossed his arms. "I'm supposed to go home and give him this and pass him your message, even though I came to deliver this to you. What am I now, a deliveryman or something?"
Byulyi raised an eyebrow, cocking her head to one side nonchalantly. "That's up to you to decide, isn't it? Whether you wanna be called a deliveryman... or an errand boy."
"You-"
"My best friend needs my attention and care right now-" Byulyi said coldly. "So if you don't mind-"
Seokjin held the door open before Byulyi could shut it on him. "Wait, hold on-"
"Tsk-" Byulyi clucked her tongue agitatedly as she looked up at Seokjin once more. "What is it now?"
"I... I need to ask you a question."
"What is it?" Byulyi asked, impatiently glancing at the watch on her wrist. "Make it quick please, I don't have all day."
Seokjin's eyes shifted briefly onto her watch, then back up at her, hesitating a little. "Why... Why did you do that...?"
"Do what?"
"Why didn't you tell me anything about Jieun?" Seokjin bit his lower lip. "You... You helped Lee Jieun lie to our JK... and in the process, you lied to me too."
"Oh." Byulyi's gaze fixated briefly on the ground, as she tried to gather her thoughts into words. Finally, after a few moments of silence, she finally looked up. "Jieun is my best friend - I don't know about anything else, but I was only doing my job as a friend to keep her secret from everyone else."
"But..." Seokjin pursed his lips. "You hid that secret from me too."
"I hid her secret from you?" Byulyi scoffed, rolling her eyes before glancing at Seokjin once more. "Why does that sound like I'm obligated to share my secrets with you? Do you realise who you even are, Kim Seokjin? You're Jeon Jungkook's manager - the last person on this planet I could ever share Jieun's secret with."
"As JK's manager, fine, you couldn't tell me-" Seokjin frowned. "But as a cowriter, as a housemate, as a friend, I thought-"
"A friend?" Byulyi laughed cynically. "A friend? Did you really ever see me as a friend? Based on how easily you walked out of my life with no prior warning, I highly doubt it. What even are you, Kim Seokjin? Do you really think we ever had that kind of relationship? The kind of relationship that I was obligated to tell you my secrets and you were obligated to tell me yours? Did you tell me all your secrets then? Can you cross your heart and tell me every single thing you told me was the truth and nothing but the truth?"
Seokjin was speechless for a few seconds. "How can you possibly put it like that? I know I was the one who walked out, but have you thought of it from my perspective?"
"Enough."
"Hm?" Seokjin carried on. "Have you ever tried putting yourself in my shoes? Have you ever imagined what it feels like to be the one watching you-"
"I said enough-" Byulyi intercepted once more, before Seokjin could finish. "The moment you left, I remember you saying that there's no reason why we'll ever need to talk again, or allow our paths to cross ever again. Today, you're here as Jeon Jungkook's manager... and talking to me as Jieun's housemate. Let's keep it that way, Kim Seokjin-ssi. Goodbye."
"Moon Byulyi, you-"
Bang.
And just like that, Byulyi slammed the door right in Seokjin's face.
-•-•-
"Moon author-nim said that she'll be sending us the draft of a few chapters of the script in a week's time..." Jennie thought aloud. "In the meantime, I think we should start casting characters, don't you think?"
Yoongi nodded. "That's a good idea, actually. So you're gonna be the female lead, you said there was someone you were keen on recruiting as the male lead? Who was it again?"
"Ah-" Jennie's face lit up as she moved from the floor onto the couch next to Yoongi, scrolling through her phone for a while for the picture of the guy. "There."
Yoongi took the phone from her hand, carefully examining the photo of an unfamiliar-looking guy on Jennie's phone screen. "Who's this again?"
"Ah-" Jennie smiled as she reached over, flipping through photos of him on his Instagram page to show Yoongi. "His name is Yook Sungjae! Remember when I was supposed to be the female lead of the Cinderella movie I filmed a while back? He was the male lead back then! We're on pretty good terms, and he was affected by the scandal too... I think we can consider casting him."
Yoongi pursed his lips as he looked down at Jennie's phone again, mindlessly scrolling through the photos. "You both are on good terms, huh..."
Jennie watched Yoongi's expression carefully. "He's handsome, isn't he?"
"Handsome?" Yoongi scoffed. "He's just alright..."
Jennie frowned. "I find him pretty handsome though. Maybe your taste is different. I think he fits the CEO vibe though, don't you think? He has a bit of the wealthy vibe too, which fits the character well-"
Yoongi looked unimpressed. "Hm..."
"Why? Is he not a good choice?" Jennie frowned. "You seem like you're not too fond of him..."
"It's not whether I'm fond of him or not," Yoongi lied through his teeth. "I'm just concerned about his acting, you know? We need someone who can portray the role well-"
"Oh, is that so?" Jennie smiled. "In that case, you don't need to worry about it at all! Sungjae-oppa's acting is pretty superb, we had pretty good onscreen chemistry that time too, based on what I remember-"
"Sungjae... oppa?" Yoongi swallowed hard. "Y'all must be close, hm."
"Yeah, I mean-" Jennie shrugged. "We're pretty alright. He was pretty nice to me the whole time, while we were filming. The only problem was..."
"Was...?"
Jennie chuckled. "I mean... it would have been better if he wasn't Joy-ssi's boyfriend. If that was the case, perhaps she wouldn't have gotten so upset with me."
"Wait, hold on a second-" Yoongi blinked his eyes a few time in disbelief. "Isn't Joy one of those bullies of yours?"
"Oh, so you did read the article, after all."
"And you're telling me that even after that Joy bullied you, you're okay with casting her boyfriend as your fellow lead?" Yoongi shook his head, unable to comprehend. "Are you... okay?"
"What?" Jennie laughed. "I had beef with Joy, not her boyfriend. Besides, I'm not even sure if they were a thing... There were rumours going around that they were dating, but from the way they interacted on set, it seemed more like Joy-ssi was interested in him while he wasn't exactly too interested. I think she bullied me partially because she got jealous that he kept talking to me all the time... but about that, I'm not too sure too..."
Yoongi firmly closed the Instagram page with Sungjae's profile on it. "You may not be sure but well, I'm sure - Yook Sungjae... out."
"Huh?" Jennie frowned. "Why? I told you his acting was good! He's handsome too, and tall... and our chemistry is really no joke, I'm telling you-"
"He's out," Yoongi insisted. "I don't want you caught up in that messy relationship again. That whole incident caused you so much pain. Never again."
Jennie didn't know why she couldn't stop smiling after she heard Yoongi's words.
"What about this guy?" Jennie held up her phone a few moments later. "He's even more good-looking, isn't he?"
Yoongi gave Jennie a weird look before taking the phone from her hands and scrutinising the photo she showed him this time. "Oh- this guy-"
"You remember him?" Jennie smiled as she leaned closer to Yoongi, peaking at the photo of Taehyung over his shoulder. "His name is Kim Taehyung."
"I remember him," Yoongi said quietly, highly focused on the photos. "He's that other guy who was also on Love House."
"Oh-" Jennie gasped. "You remember! Yeah, it's him. He's not an actor... but he's super popular nowadays. That could bring in a whole special demographic of viewers, am I right? What do you think?"
Yoongi remained silent as he kept scrolling and scrolling, under Jennie's careful watch.
"I almost forgot you've seen him in real life before!" Jennie chuckled. "What do you think? Pretty good, huh? His proportions are pretty good, his voice is nice and deep, his visuals are amazing. I think appearance and vibe wise... he passes the test. He also acted in CFs and music videos before and so far, my observation is that he's pretty good at it! Actually, also-"
"Isn't he also the same guy who had that dating scandal with you?" Yoongi interrupted abruptly, glancing up at Jennie all of a sudden.
"Huh...?" Jennie raised her eyebrows and pursed her lips, surprised by the sudden unexpected question. "Oh... um, well... yeah, but like we already clarified that time, it was just a groundless rumour..."
"I don't think it's appropriate," Yoongi said simply. "People might not like it, and the press might also make a big deal about it."
"Isn't that the point?" Jennie chuckled. "Good noise marketing for your debut drama."
"It's gonna make you look bad, Jennie-ya. Good noise marketing? More like bad noise marketing."
"Well, bad or good, it's still noise."
Yoongi shook his head firmly. "No, I'm not gonna allow it."
"But we've already clarified that we aren't actually a couple, haven't we?" Jennie frowned. "People are going to hate anyway, so let's just let them hate. Besides, the fact that I'm willing to take on this role so openly just shows that I have nothing to hide."
Yoongi hesitated. "What about JK-ssi? Have you ever thought of his position on this?"
Jennie's expression darkened. "Well..."
"He's not gonna like it, is he?" Yoongi made a clever guess. "Based on some of the footage I reviewed while I was on the Love House set... the two don't seem to have the best relationship."
Jennie nodded slowly. "Yeah, they don't."
"And you're still gonna pick him?"
"Mm-" Jennie nodded, looking extremely sure of her decision. "I'm gonna do whatever I want. People are way too hard to please nowadays. One is my friend, one is my fake boyfriend. What am I supposed to do? Just because they don't like each other, I'm supposed to pick one and push the other away? What kind of logic is that? Jimin-oppa doesn't like you either, but I still hang out with you both, anyway."
Yoongi raised his eyebrows.
"Yeah, he doesn't like you-" Jennie repeated in a rather matter-of-fact manner. "I'm sure you must have noticed by now."
"Actually... yeah."
"So... I don't care," Jennie declared. "I'm gonna go with Taehyung-oppa."
Yoongi stared at Jennie for a few seconds.
"Why?" Jennie challenged him. "Are you gonna say no again? Not Sungjae-oppa earlier and now... not Taehyung-oppa too? If you keep rejecting my suggestions, I'm gonna start thinking you're jealous, Min PD-nim."
It took Yoongi three whole seconds to process that, and three more seconds to jump to his own immediate defence.
"What...? Jealous...?" Yoongi spluttered. "I was just giving my honest observations and opinions about the two of them, from a professional standpoint. Jealous...? You must be kidding me. Anyway, I've given you my opinions, ultimately if you still think that one of them is still the right choice... go ahead. If you call them down for an informal audition and I pass their acting... I'll acknowledge their talent."
Jennie grinned from ear to ear as she whipped out your phone. "Great. Taehyung-oppa it is, then. Let's meet him... tomorrow. I'll text him right now."
Yoongi was stunned by Jennie's efficiency.