Bubble

36. Kindred Spirits

Four Years Ago

"Oh, what are you doing, Bonita?"

Standing in the hallway of Starbright Entertainment, Bonita felt as if she was about to either pass out or throw up. As she moved to lean back against the wall beside the conference room door, she was beginning to debate whether it was possible to do both. Internally coaching herself to calm down, she put her big girl pants on and entered the conference room.

She needed to pursue her dream. It was all she had left to keep her going.

Entering the room, Bonita was surprised how crowded it already was. Even though she knew it wasn't the case, she felt like everyone turned their heads to look at her as she entered. Making her way through the room, she moved to stand against the back wall. Standing a few feet away from her against the same wall was a man that looked to be about her age with a stoic face. Even though he looked as if he could kill you just from staring at you, Bonita couldn't help but to think he was attractive. Bonita hadn't been meaning to stare in his direction for that long, but apparently it had been long enough for him to realize that she was looking at him. Without saying a word, he turned to look at her, locking his eyes on her.

"I...um...sorry..." Bonita uttered in apology as she quickly looked away with red cheeks.

A flicker of a smirk traced itself across his lips before he looked forward again as an executive entered the room. Reading off a clipboard in his hands, he did attendance on all the interns before pairing them off. Bonita watched as the man beside her was named Lee Know and was led towards a small group of interns by the window up front.

'Lee Know,' thought Bonita as she looked after him. She felt for some reason like he was a kindred spirt behind whatever wall it was he put up, but also ultimately knew that he was way out of her league.

---

Eighteen Months Ago

"I don't even know why this company bothered to hire someone like you!"

Lifting his head, Minho looked up from the meeting he was having with some of the showrunners of 'Blades and Glades', the show that he had been assigned to help assist as intern. His eyes were riveted to the ongoing scene, watching as Lucien, the star of the show — who had arrived almost a half hour late to set — was yelling at another intern who had their head down. The intern was trying frantically to pick up the papers they had dropped when they had accidentally collided with the star, muttering apologies while the other continued to yell abuse.

Minho saw that the intern that was currently being yelled at was Bonita. Even though he hadn't directly interacted with her yet, he had been keeping his eyes on her ever since they first met. By the way she carried herself, he could see that some sort of grief shrouded her too, finding a kindred spirt in her because of it. A lot of the interns around him felt so fake, but even though Bonita seemed to hide her pain behind a smile, she was real and he couldn't help but be attracted to that.

"Look what you did! This was cashmere!" continued Lucien as he looked down at his white shirt that was now spotted with brown coffee splotches.

"I'm so sorry..."

"Sorry doesn't fix this you..."

Minho sighed, watching as Lucien was attended to by his assistant in order to try to calm him down, much like one would try to console a whiny two-year-old.

"I want her fired!" shouted Lucien. "I want her fired or I won't be in this show!"

'All this whining over a shirt? Really?' thought Minho with a tsk.