Dust || Yoon Jeonghan

Meeting in secret

that wasn't a very good first impression.

they didn't say anything directly but right after the briefing hoshi said he missed the previous director, which was enough of a clue.

honestly, i felt it would be for the better. if the idols don't like me, there will never be any rumors or gossip. good for my mental health.

I made sure to be professional and polite after that but except a few greetings i rarely said anything. the others looked at me as if i was mysterious.

I maintained distance with seventeen too after threatening seungkwan into pretending like we didn't know each other. but he had struck a fair deal.

during working hours he pretended to not know me and in return I met him secretly in the prop room during the break. it was our own little meeting spot. I can still vividly remember the great embarrassment that fell on me when we were almost caught.

"should we hang out someday?" i asked seungkwan. before he could reply someone opened the door.

luckily he was standing behind the life size cutout of huening kai. well forget the 'luckily'. dk's eyes met mine awkwardly. 

"is seungkwan here?" he asked.

"no" i said before he finished.

"umm.. i am pretty sure i heard you talk to someone." he replied.

because of my job, i am really good at getting unscripted moments out of the cast in the name of skits. ironically, i am terrible at bullshitting on my own.

"i was talking to him" i replied.

dk's eyes trembled between me and the person i was pointing too, technically not a person but whatever.

"him?" he confirmed signaling to the cutout.

"yes" i faked my confidence. "he is huening kai." i said shamelessly.

dk was astonished to say the least. i saw seungkwan dying from laughter behind huening kai. 

"i will just .. look for seungkwan" dk said walking towards us. i knew he wasn't going to go away easily.

"i am sorry but you are interrupting our conversation." i said seriously. "right baby?" i smiled at the cutout. as expected dk's steps halted. 

"oh you are dating?" he laughed cringing but still not going out.

"yess." i said starting to panic by now.

"you look good together." he said and left the room, glancing back at me one last time and grinning awkwardly on realizing i was still watching him.

as soon as he left, seungkwan fell on the floor clutching his belly and laughing out loud. my face was heating up in embarrassment. 

"stop laughing or i will kill you right here." 

he sat up but he couldn't stop laughing. "you.. what the fuck!" he said in between his chuckles.

"all thanks to you."

since that day dk acted like he was scared of me. he always stayed as far as he could, laughing awkwardly every time i caught him trying to run away. seungkwan was having a lot of fun seeing that.

I was very happy with my new work. i had cemented clear boundaries and people were afraid of crossing them because they thought i was a weird anti social psycho. that's exactly what i wanted them to believe.

one evening after the shoot, prod. kang proposed to go out on a team dinner to drink and have fun. everyone maintained a poker face and tried to look like they didn't already have plans. 

"I cannot come." i said to the prod. all heads turned to me, I was still unafraid.

"i don't want to come." I repeated myself. "I am not feeling well"

the prod was unsurprised and his next words left the crew dumfounded.

"sure" he said instantly.

at some point people stopped being surprised that mr. kang was lenient for me. they were still curious though. no one understood why i was given special privileges like skipping company dinners and not having to listen to mr. kang's adventures.

They wondered about my secret but none of them knew at the time. except mr. kang, who was closer to me than they realized.

:o Cookie: 4 years later, dk still doesn't know the truth about the cutout.