Ordinary / Any World Is My World

Chapter 6: Prisoner

There was a knock on Sungmin's dressing room door.

He sighed.

It was too early in the morning, he was already all made-up for the filming to start today, and it looked like he would be sharing the privacy of this room with Yeeun in the foreseeable future.

Who else would come here at this time?

Assistant Choi had left to attend a technical meeting not too long ago, she couldn't be back already. And the rest of the key staff was probably at that meeting, too.

Not that he minded Yeeun's company, it was just... he yawned, really early.

"Come in, it's open!" he shouted.

The door was pushed open timidly, and when Sungmin lifted his head, he was greeted by Ma Hana's bright smile reflected in the mirror in front of him.

He startled and immediately put his feet back on the floor. He didn't need Actress Ma to tell on him for resting his feet on the make-up table.

"Oh, it's you!"

He quickly flattened the woolly jumper that was part of his new costume, and got up.

"I'm sorry, I forgot that you'd pass by to practice, Actress Ma. Please... have a seat, I'll be with you in a-"

Actress Ma held up her hands and grinned.

She always grinned.

It was unnerving.

"Sungmin, please," she said, "didn't we agree to be friends yesterday? Stop being so formal. I'm not here to practice. I just wanted to have a chat with you."

A chat?

With him?

True, he had shaken her hand yesterday when she had offered to be friends, but he hadn't expected her to mean it.

"Ah, ah... I understand," he stammered.

He didn't understand, but he didn't want her to see how flustered he was.

The problem wasn't that she was so famous, Sungmin had been friends with a few high-profile actors and idols since his military service. He wasn't fazed by celebrities.

Ma Hana, though... she was both hyper friendly and hard to read. It was unsettling.

That was the problem.

"Do you want something to drink? I'm afraid I can only offer water... or if you want to try my coffee... I made cold-brew americano at home overnight. But fair warning... I like my coffee strong and dark. Yeeun is the only other person I know who can bear it."

"I'll try it," Actress Ma, no, Hana, said cheerfully.

"Alright, then."

Sungmin took his time to rummage through his backpack and pull out the thermos.

Should he discourage her more?

What if drinking that coffee made her nervous and they messed up the scenes?

That would be her own problem, then, wouldn't it? he reasoned with himself, and poured just a little sample of his americano into one of the clean glasses on the coffee table. He filled the lid of the thermos for himself – he'd need it after this – and took a seat opposite of Hana.