If this is a rom-com, kill the director | Jenlisa

Interview Day

Interview day dawns with the sound of rain hammering down on Lisa's hotel window. As far as she's concerned, it's pathetic fallacy and a sure sign that getting out of bed would be a really bad idea. When her alarm goes off, she shrouds herself in her duvet and covers her head, wondering how long she can put the real world on hold.

Having just starred in a popular movie and about to start shooting one of the most anticipated films of the year, Lisa's agent has her booked for numerous interviews, and in an attempt to get them all out of the way, it was arranged that they would all be done over one day. It's going to be a very long day, and Lisa is determined to leave her bed at the last possible minute.

She loves her job. She loves acting and doing film work and meeting fans. But interviews? Interviews are another story. It might be alright if she was a guy, in which case she would get all sorts of interesting questions about the characters she plays, but since she's female, all she gets are questions about how she stays thin and whether she's got her eyes on any men or women. It's as excruciating as it sounds, and she is not looking forward to a whole day of this.

When she takes a seat and waits for her first interviewer, she braces herself for the incoming questions and practises her camera ready smile.

A woman takes a seat opposite her and looks at her with a gentle smile, and Lisa finds herself smiling back, thinking to herself that maybe this wouldn't be too bad.

"So, you look beautiful in every photograph. How do you maintain that?" the woman says.

Spoke too soon. It was going to be a long day.

"Is there any romance on the horizon for Lisa Manoban?" her next interviewer says.

Lisa flashes him a tight-lipped smile and wonders how many times she's going to have to answer this question in the next few hours.

"No," she says, and hopes that her voice doesn't sound too sharp. "Romance isn't on the cards for me for the foreseeable future. I'm only interested in my work at the moment."

"So, we're not going to see anything between you and Jennie Kim?" the man asks.

Lisa decides she hates this slimy man and tries not to gag at his question. When did this universe decide that it was their business to pry into the private lives of celebrities? Even if she was interested in dating, it wasn't anyone else's business. She doesn't even know how to respond.

"No," Lisa says, sharply.

It isn't at all eloquent, and her agent is probably not going to like it, but she doesn't care. She's done with all of this, and if she gets anymore suggestive questions about Jennie, she's going to punch something.

"So, your Juliet is being played by Jennie Kim. What's it like working with her?"

"Uh," Lisa says, frozen for a moment. On the tip of her tongue are all the things she wants to say about Jennie. She wants to talk about her crass manners and her insufferable dry wit, but she's a professional first and foremost, and she's not vindictive enough to slander Jennie in front of a camera. Not to mention that her agent would murder her.

"I haven't really had the chance to work with her yet, we've only just started the production. She's a great actor, though," she ends up saying.

As much as it pains her to say it, Jennie is a fantastic actor. If it were anyone else, she'd be psyched to work with such talent. She's just not psyched to work with her. The clock gradually ticks on, and after question after question about Jennie which steadily rankle Lisa, they eventually wrap themselves up and she is free to go back to her hotel room.

Lisa's mood is sour by the time she's back to her bed. She's ready to lie there in her pyjamas, eat crappy food and watch Netflix, but her plans are interrupted by her cousin banging on the door.

"What?" she says, unable to keep the annoyance out of her voice when she lets Rosie in.

"Okay, whatever is going on here, has to stop," Rosie says. "You need to get dressed and come to the bar with me."

"That's like, the opposite of what I want or need to do right now."

Rosie stops in the middle of the room, glancing at Lisa and raising an eyebrow. "Clearly, you haven't had a good day. Moping around ain't gonna solve that – exactly why you should get dressed and come out with me, right now." She pauses for a moment. "Also, one of the camera crew is really hot and I need my wing woman."

Lisa snorts at that and sighs. "Okay, then. For you. Let me get dressed."

Rosie won't tell Lisa which member of the camera crew she had been referring to – "How can I be a wing woman if you won't tell me who it is?" Lisa had said – but they do meet a camera woman named Jisoo, who wears entirely too much eyeliner which somehow only serves to make her more attractive. Both Rosie and Lisa were gawking a little bit when they saw her.

The three find a table, and immerse themselves deep in conversation in only a few minutes.

"It's just so stupid," Lisa says, slightly tipsy. "Why is everyone so obsessed with whether or not I'm with someone? No one even knows what my type is."

"Oh, really?" Jisoo says, quirking an eyebrow and cracking a smile. "What is your type?"

Rosie grins. "She's really picky."

"Well..." Lisa says, drawing out the word. "short, but not too short. They can't be my height, that'd just be awkward. I don't like those who are too thin, it just looks like they're made up of bones. Ugh, I don't know. Someone who has got captivating eyes, I guess."

Rosie's eyes sparkle as she smiles. "Feline eyes are pretty captivating. And, who do we know has feline eyes?"

"A lot of people have," Lisa says, turning to glare at her cousin.

There's a lull in the conversation while the three of them sip their drinks.

"I won't get a boyfriend or girlfriend," Lisa says, sinking into her seat. "Or at least, I won't get one until they stop acting like dirt."

The girls laugh at that and continue their chatter, the topic moving elsewhere, away from discussions about romance.

All three of them are too engrossed in their conversation, none of them noticing Jennie scraping her chair back a few tables over, leaving her half full glass. When she leaves the room, none of them see her.