Sixteen Again

25

One night full of turmoil later, Sojung once again found herself making the walk of shame back home.

She moved slowly and thought she had been cautious enough to avoid the other party’s notice, but, unfortunately for her, Soobin had woken earlier than she did.

She didn’t make a single sound as she kept her eyes closed and listened to the rustling sounds of Sojung putting on her clothes. Then the noises stopped as she hurriedly tiptoed out of the room with a pair of braid sandals in her hands.

Soobin waited for a little bit before casually grabbing the shirt she had worn yesterday and loosely pulling it on. Then she got out of bed and stood next to the French windows to look at the empty garden below her.

About a minute later, Sojung appeared in the garden. Like a thief running away from the scene of the crime, she quickly scurried over to her car. She panicked searched for her keys and almost burst into tears of joy when she finally found them in her bag. Then she opened the car door and sat in the driver’s seat.

 I don’t want to live anymore. 

After returning home, she immediately collapsed onto her bed and then beat her pillow with her fists a few times. Then she sat up with a slumped face. She took out her mobile phone and found that  Jiyeon had sent her a dozen messages from 10:30 to 12:30 last night.

   Are you home yet?

Still haven’t gone home yet?

    Hey, answer me! It’s eleven o’clock, you won’t be able to go to work if you don’t come back now.

    Why aren’t you answering any calls?

    I’ve made five calls already. Did you not hear them or did you lose your phone?

…..

Sojung looked at her phone screen in silence. After a while, with a slight flick of her wrist, her phone flew in a perfect arc and landed in the trash can.

Once she had calmed down, she picked up her phone from the trash can and then send a message to Jiyeon.

Jiyeon asked the housekeeper to boil a pot of thick pork bone soup and then another pot of chicken soup. She was going to send these two pots to Sojung in hopes that her friend could recover her exhausted body quickly and fix up those bones that were one push away from falling apart.

After delivering the soup, she packed up and prepared to set out for the variety show. In the morning, she had sent   Juyeon to kindergarten, kissed her daughter on the cheek, and watched as her assistant walked the kid into the kindergarten before leaving.

By the time she arrived, almost everyone else was already there and the show was starting its opening ceremony. About an incense’s worth of time later, Soobin finally gave the order and the filming of the show officially began.

The first segment of the show will begin at a hotel. Although the actors themselves did not live in this hotel last night, it was necessary to create an illusion that they did. Each actor had two cameramen following them who would film and record every word and action the actor made.

…….

Hyunjung 's car was stopped at the back door of the hotel and the car door was unlocked in advance by her assistant.  Jiyeon easily got in when she came running out. The moment she entered the car,  she looked in shock at the small table piled high with hot food in front of her.