Unlike his aloof impression, he really likes soft and cute things like liquid monsters. But there was a time when he grumbled that the agency told him to restrain himself because it didn’t match his image, and also because they kept receiving liquid monster gifts which were difficult to deal with.
“I have to manage my image, you know. Last time I got scolded for pressing ‘like’ on a liquid monster giveaway.”
“You have it tough too.”
Lee Yeonun dejectedly fidgeted with the liquid monster, then said as if something came to mind.
“By the way, you’re doing it with Hong Woonhee this time, right?”
“How do you know everything?”
“I got cast first.”
Lee Yeonun said so and shrugged his shoulders.
“Do you know her?”
“Hmm…… She’ll definitely like you.”
Lee Yeonun, who had acted like he would tell me in detail just moments ago, suddenly smiled awkwardly as if it was difficult to say, and didn’t answer properly.
“Yeonun-ah, who are you doing it with?”
“I’m with an actress who was a child actor.”
“I see.”
“Honestly I don’t want to do it. But the agency kept saying that since it’s the first student edition of <We Got Married>, it will definitely plant an innocent image, so I came out.”
“I wish I could keep filming with you.”
I was also gloomy at having to film <We Got Married> with someone I don’t know. When I said that, Lee Yeonun teased me calling me ‘baby,’ then said with a somewhat regretful face:
“Right. We only meet as a group today and from now on we each film with our own partners, so it is a shame. Let’s definitely film together later. It’ll be super fun.”
“Yeah yeah.”
When I was Cha Hohyeon, even though I had many acquaintances of the same age, the relationship wasn’t as light and refreshing as with Lee Yeonun. That’s because I met Lee Yeonun at school so the feeling of being real school friends was strong, but Cha Hohyeon couldn’t do that.
Perhaps because I debuted at such a young age, during my early debut there were almost no same-age peers, and later when I established my position somewhat as Fort, everyone my age was only rookies. Also, whether the rumor spread that I was a pushover, even though they were the same age, there were many people who acted rudely toward me even though I was their senior.
“I should go now. Want to go together?”
The filming location in the distance became noisy. I nodded at Lee Yeonun’s words, went to the filming location, and greeted all the staff. In the meantime, other celebrities must have arrived because it suddenly became extremely noisy. We kept greeting people busily until the set arrangement was finished.
“Hello.”
“Hello.”
When we awkwardly greeted Hong Woonhee, who was the same age, Lee Yeonun chuckled next to me.
“Everyone.”
At that moment, the PD clapped to gather attention. In his hands was a box, and there were slips of paper.
“We’ve arranged these slips in order so they won’t get mixed up. Everyone just come and listen to the explanation of what you need to draw!”
“Yes.”
Since it was a live broadcast, we decided to draw only looking at the order without any marks on the slips, saying it could be exposed on broadcast.
We would accumulate points through games done on the broadcast, and people with higher scores could draw slips in order to choose partners. Since only the games were real, we all had to know our slip order.
“If this happens……”
“Ah, yes. I understand.”
And we were also briefly familiarizing ourselves with how to deal with situations that could occur during the live broadcast.
“Are you by any chance nervous?”
“I really can’t do this kind of thing.”
“Pfft.”
I don’t know where the Lee Yeonun who was fidgeting with the liquid monster earlier went, but a trembling Lee Yeonun stood close by my side.
Across from us was a really pretty actress who was a former child actor, and she was probably Lee Yeonun’s partner. Next to Hong Woonhee was a female idol who seemed very shy and didn’t speak at all except when greeting.
“Hello.”
“……”
Besides that, there was also a male actor on our side, but whether he had a high nose or was annoyed, after a light bow, he didn’t try to mix words with us.
“It’s a scripted 3:3 meeting?”
“Right.”
As they meticulously planned our movements, Lee Yeonun and I whispered.
After the long rehearsal ended, it was finally time for the live broadcast. Even though we left early in the morning and came here, we hadn’t done anything but greet and rehearse, and it was already 5 PM.
“We’ll start right when I say one, two, three.”
“The room is already open from 5 minutes ago, so we can start right away.”
“One, two, three!”
“Hello!”
The broadcast began.
As rehearsed, we all wore blindfolds and stupidly waved our hands vigorously. We couldn’t make voices. That’s because we had to infer our partners through touching faces or scents, excluding voices.
“Ah, what a shame!”
Like that, we listened to the partners’ works or songs according to the scripted scenario to infer who they were, and naturally had skinship too.
Since it was all known and scripted, the key was how to act more naturally, but everyone did so calmly and well that I just went with the flow.
“Take off! The blindfolds! Please!!”
“Wo.o.ow.”
My bad acting, close your eyes.
Finally the blindfolds were opened and Lee Yeonun and I stared at our counterparts. We greeted awkwardly and bowed our heads as if seeing each other for the first time.
It was true that we met for the first time today, but we didn’t see each other’s faces for the first time at 6 o’clock now, so we greeted with an unnecessarily embarrassing feeling, went into our assigned rooms, did interviews about who we hoped to be paired with, then waited for the final lottery order.
At that time, a staff member holding a box with drawing papers entered the filming location with the proceedings, and really quite embarrassingly.
“Are you okay?”
“Thank you……”
They came carrying it and completely tripped and fell.
Lee Yeonun and I reflexively jumped out quickly to help the staff up, and the staff also hurriedly put the slips that fell on the floor back into the box.
‘This is bad.’
The face of the staff member who was hastily putting them into the box turned pale.
At the same time, Lee Yeonun and I also belatedly realized something and our faces instantly turned pale like the staff member’s.
‘What was the order again?’
Because the staff member fell, the order of the slips scattered on the floor became jumbled up, and as a result, we no longer knew our slip order.
“Th, then shall we start the lottery?”
But since it was a live broadcast, there was no time to hesitate any longer. The celebrity who was the MC was reading the given script for now, but he too was clearly flustered.
“The lottery is…… mixed with males and females, so if done well, a male-male couple or female-female couple could be born…… they say……”
That was definitely a comment inserted as a joke, but if we were really unlucky, it could actually happen.
In the distance, the PD whispered to another staff member, “That’s why I said let’s separate males and females and draw separately!” but the staff member retorted, “But bromance and such are trending these days, and we did a lot of promotion with this!” They probably promoted <We Got Married> saying chemistry between same-sex couples like the trending bromance or girl-romance could be born.
“Starting with, with first place Lee Yeonun-ssi.”
The PD, staff, and all the cast members looked at Lee Yeonun with tense faces. Lee Yeonun, who had won first place in the game as originally promised, was to do the lottery first.
Lee Yeonun, a natural-born celebrity, looked like he was dying but smiled brightly when the camera came in, but he couldn’t hide his hands and drew a slip with trembling hands, and we all gulped and swallowed.
“What will the result be―!!”
Sound effects rang magnificently throughout the filming location, but everyone couldn’t laugh. Lee Yeonun’s expression, who saw the slip that was opened first, contorted.
“I, well.”
He looked at the staff with a face begging to be saved, and the staff standing on Lee Yeonun’s side saw the slip contents first and were likewise shocked.
But the live broadcast was already running and couldn’t be stopped. Netizens were making a fuss telling them to hurry and reveal the slip, and among them, there were many comments hoping Lee Yeonun and I would become a couple.
‘What do we do? Do we just reveal this?’
‘Just do it……’
Lee Yeonun, who looked at the staff, hesitated asking if they were really revealing this, but when the instruction to reveal it finally came down, he immediately stared at me.
‘Why?’
And soon I knew the reason he was shocked.
[Ka Jerim]
“Huh?”
Like that, starting with Lee Yeonun, all the planned couples of <We Got Married> became completely twisted.
* * *
As soon as filming with Lee Yeonun was confirmed, <We Got Married> went into emergency mode. Not just Lee Yeonun, but the other couples were also paired completely opposite to what was originally decided. Among them, the biggest problem was actually something else.
“They were in a relationship?”
“To be precise, they ‘were dating.'”
The cast members and main PD who gathered separately in the meeting room all looked back and forth at a male-female pair with flustered faces. The female actress who was supposed to be Lee Yeonun’s partner made a “hmph” sound and glared at the man sitting next to me. The man flinched at that gaze, then bowed his head deeply and mumbled.
“I’m sorry.”
“You’re sorry but you came on this show?”
“But you wouldn’t even answer my contacts……”
“Bullshit.”
The female actress with an extremely pretty and elegant appearance bitterly mocked the man mixing in all sorts of curses.
I was flustered because she was so angelic on broadcasts, and Lee Yeonun, who almost became her partner, was beyond surprised and had his eyes wide open. After cursing for a while, she looked at us frozen and smiled benevolently.
“I couldn’t control my anger, right?”
“N, no.”
“Please keep it a secret.”
“Yes, yes.”
When we nodded like crazy at the angelic her, she smiled satisfactorily looking at us, then glared at the man again.
