There are Many Flowers in Seoul

Chapter Thirty-Two

The days which followed blurred together in something of a haze. Rose threw herself into her work, doing everything in her power to ignore Tae-won even when she was supposed to act like they were dating in the photographs. She found that if she pictured him as Yuta or Si-woo it became a far easier task, and resolutely ignored him whenever they weren't required to stand before a camera. It had seemed an endless chore and Rose had begun to wonder if or when they might finish the shots inside of the cramped studio. She knew it was a big campaign – launches always were – and that they were determined to get it right, but Jin-hee and Tae-won must have had other events on their schedules. From what Rose knew of the entertainment industry, no celebrity had just one engagement at any one time. Jin-hee, for instance, would only come to the studios for a few hours, shoot her pictures, and then fly off to some other interview or publicity spot to entertain the public. Tae-won, on the other hand, wouldn't leave even if he wasn't required for the day. Go Deok-su accompanied him when he was able, pushing tablet computers under his nose with filled planners on them, but Tae-won simply shut them down and pushed them away. When his phone pinged or buzzed too often, he would shut it off and leave it in his dressing room. Rose couldn't help but pity poor Deok-su and wondered just how many important people he'd been forced to apologise to on Tae-won's behalf because he refused to do anything but the Silver Lilies work.

'Okay,' Si-woo said at two-pm on Thursday afternoon, 'that's it.'

'What?' Rose asked, leaping up from the rose wrapped swing she'd been forced to sit on for over an hour. 'We're done? I can quit?'

Si-woo laughed. 'No,' he said, and Rose's heart sank. 'We're done with the studio work. We'll need a few days to find the shots that work for the early promotional material, it'll all go through the approval stages and be released, and we'll have location work.'

Rose dropped back onto the swing and groaned audibly.

Locations?

Okay, so it meant she'd get to see more of South Korea which was what she'd wanted when she'd arrived, but the only camera she wanted in her face was her own while she and Hitomi took selfies and posted them all over their social media feeds. It wasn't like she'd be able to enjoy anything if she was being shoved into outfits and preened by hair and makeup teams. They might not even let Hitomi join them, and that would be enormously unfair given they'd wanted to spend some of their time together while they were abroad.

Seeing her obvious disappointment, Si-woo offered, 'I was going to head out alone to a few of the locations to get an idea of the space we'd be working with and any obstructions to the lighting. It might be boring, but you can come with me if you'd like?'

Forgetting that Tae-won could hear everything they were saying – if, indeed, he was interested enough to listen – Rose said, 'That sounds a lot like you're asking me on a date.'

'It does, doesn't it?' he said with a playful smile. 'I'll be in meetings until the end of the day, so how about I meet you at your building in the morning? How does nine sound?'

'Good,' Rose said with a coy smile.

'Ah, no high-heels. There'll be a lot of walking.'

'Got it,' she said, and hurried off to her dressing room with a spring in her step.

Despite all her protestations about dating and not looking for a relationship abroad, Rose couldn't help but be swept away when a man as polite, professional, and kind as Si-woo gave her his attention. During her solo shoots he'd shown her a certain amount of patience but had still expected the best of her. While some women would find it more attractive for a man to pat her on the head even if she hadn't done her best, Rose always felt better when someone encouraged her to exceed her own expectations, and Si-woo had a knack for bringing out the talent inside of people. Not many photographers were able to coax Jin-hee into setting her ego aside so that she might share the stage with an amateur, nor could they order Tae-won around without a care for his sharp tongue and easy insults.