Chapter 7

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SEPTEMBER 16, 2019

What I encountered during that night in July grappled with my conscience so much that I scheduled a private consultation with the property engineer the next day. Without necessarily revealing anything, I merely said I was a light sleeper and that the sounds coming from the other unit were disturbing me.

"Disturbing". I had to laugh at the irony and mentally slap myself as I read the engineer's email detailing the work that had been completed on my apartment. While the ruthless paparazzi would make a feast out of the sounds and images I was afforded by faulty construction and unexpected events, and while any ordinary fan would, for the lack of a better term, be "titillated" at the thought, I was caught in a tidal wave of emotions that at times felt like a violation of whatever I could not even bring myself to describe. And yet, I was still like a moth to a flame.

Bullshit. I was a shipper!

It was a quiet Monday morning at my Palo Alto office so the downtime afforded me to read some entertainment news. Having accepted that I was a shipper of the two now known affectionately as "BinJin", I caught some snippets of them at the airport. They were on their way to Mongolia to shoot scenes for their new project.

Some fans pointed out his need to wear his cap low, bow his head down, and cover his mouth with a mask. And yet. at the same time, he still waited for her van to arrive. The videos and photos had the thread of an online forum dedicated to shipping them smoking with theories and a unanimous conclusion of his feelings for her. He could have just proceeded on his own to check in without waiting for her to arrive, right?

Argh. If only you girls and guys knew. If only you knew.

________

DECEMBER 10, 2019

December rolled in and I was back in Seoul. I wanted to see how the Christmas holidays looked like at this part of the world. As luck had it, a project involving a yet-to-be-identified Asian client that was based in Seoul had the sales and marketing team tell me to be on standby as they're close to finalizing the huge deal any day now.

Because I had convinced myself that it was more thrilling to not hear or see more than what I bargained for, I happily settled in my home office chair and browsed news of the press conference for Crash Landing On You (CLOY)

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Because I had convinced myself that it was more thrilling to not hear or see more than what I bargained for, I happily settled in my home office chair and browsed news of the press conference for Crash Landing On You (CLOY). From what I heard, photoshoots and interviews for the show had already been done so it was a matter of time before those were released to attract viewership.

But what caught my attention was how they answered questions re their dating rumors. In the past, it was their respective agencies that were left to explain on their behalf. The released statements, especially that one about them getting seen in LA, were comical at best and did absolutely nothing to kill the dating rumors.

And now it's December. As what I, along with legions of fans, saw though, their body language during the presscon quietly screamed of the words "real-life couple". It was the first time that they spoke of the rumors, themselves, with him saying:

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