“Yawn…”
Reporter Yeom Seong-ah yawned as she scratched her head. Among her matted hair, something that could be either dandruff or dust stuck under her fingernails.
Judging by her shabby appearance, she looked no different from a homeless person at Seoul Station. Only the large DSLR camera in her hand hinted at her profession.
Click.
Taking advantage of the darkness, her camera moved like a CCTV. Wearing a large raincoat even though it wasn’t raining, she could easily be mistaken for a ghost from a distance.
People don’t call her a reporter. They just call her a “paparazzi,” which means “a swarm of mosquitoes” in Italian.
Click.
But she confidently called herself a reporter. After all, she had a press card issued by a media company in her wallet, and her official title was an investigative reporter.
Her job was simply yet complicatedly defined: to investigate public figures or social corruption.
Click.
She was monitoring a filming site from a distance. Although it was the early hours of dawn shrouded in darkness, the filming site looked like broad daylight due to numerous lights.
In the direction her camera was pointing, there were a young man and woman.
“Are they really dating?”
She had been on stakeout for several days, and after a week, she stopped counting the days.
The agencies of the two people denied the dating rumors, saying they were “baseless,” “just colleagues,” or “oppadong (oppa-dongsaeng).”
But the reporter’s intuition told her otherwise. They were definitely dating. If not, they were at least flirting. One of the two.
“Yawn.”
She yawned again. Having not captured a single incriminating photo after more than a week, she began to doubt her intuition.
Of course, there were several scenes where they seemed to hold hands or hug. However, these interactions happened among the staff, so it could easily be dismissed as a rehearsal.
“Maybe it really is just a rehearsal, tsk.”
After all, who would blatantly date in front of the staff without losing their minds? As evidence, the staff were passing by them as if nothing was happening.
Other paparazzi, no, “reporters,” had already withdrawn. This was after a commotion involving the police responding to complaints from residents who reported a group of homeless people gathering nearby.
Even amidst such chaos, Yeom Seong-ah stayed steadfast. Then, her large cellphone rang loudly.
“Darn it, I should have put it on vibrate!”
Worried that others (specifically, the filming site) might hear, she hurriedly pressed the call button. The scene looked like a North Korean spy receiving a secret message.
- “Hey, you crazy bastard, who the hell goes on a two-week business trip without a word!”
A voice filled with expletives shot through the brick-like cellphone. Yeom Seong-ah held the phone away from her ear to let the tirade pass. How much time had passed? The person on the other end seemed to be catching his breath from the strain of shouting.
“Geez, why are you calling at this hour? I’m on a stakeout right now.”
- “Stakeout, my ass. You’re not some detective! And didn’t I tell you to drop the Jang Youngguk case? There’s nothing more to find there! We’re already short-staffed, and you’re just playing around in Busan, aren’t you? Get your ass back here!”
“You said you’d give me anything if I could just get something on Jang Youngguk…”
- “What did you just say? I heard that! No more excuses; get back here now. The Shin Jungsoo case just broke!”
“Singer Shin Jungsoo? What case? What could he possibly have done? I staked out his house for a week last month and found nothing…”
- “Drugs! He’s causing a ruckus at a Gangnam club right now, according to a tip!”
“Damn it!”
She had been staking out her prey for a week, only to lose it right in front of her eyes.
Reporter Yeom Seong-ah quickly gathered her camera and stood up. The editor’s angry voice continued to blare from the still-connected phone.
“Oppa, is this really okay…?”
Yeonsu spoke in a somewhat worried voice, her expression matching. She looked as uneasy as a puppy that needed to pee.
That description might be a bit harsh. To put it more gracefully, she looked like a lost puppy drenched in the rain. Well, that doesn’t seem right either.
Anyway, the point is, she looked cute like a puppy right now.
“It’s okay.”
I held Yeonsu’s hand. We were at the filming site where staff members were bustling around. They occasionally glanced at us but passed by as if nothing was happening.
Everyone already knew that we were dating.
“There might be a paparazzi…”
“It’s okay, let them take pictures.”
If Yeonsu’s agency president heard this, he’d probably explode in anger. But it didn’t matter. Our roles in the drama were lovers anyway.
Even if photos of us holding hands in such a busy area were taken, we could just say it was during a rehearsal. Moreover,
‘I’m even thinking of telling the truth.’
I hated lying. When I said it was baseless, it was because we weren’t dating at the time.
Of course, if Yeonsu’s agency president knew this, he’d probably grab me by the collar.
“Oppa, honestly, I’ve never been this happy during a drama shoot.”
Yeonsu confessed. I felt the same. Was there ever a time in Korean drama history when staff so unanimously supported the main actors’ relationship?
Most of the staff secretly gave us thumbs up, congratulating our relationship. The costume director was already busy picking out couple outfits for us to wear in the drama.
Just then, another supporter appeared.
“Hey, you guys are going to fuse your palms together at this rate.”
It was PD Kim Woo-hyung. Despite being a PD who should be sensitive about the main actors’ relationship, he supported us.
- “It’s good for me, too. As long as there’s no news, it’s fine. But if there is, the ratings will go up!”
Even though he said that, I knew he genuinely supported us. Though he still teased us.
Just like now. Kim Woo-hyung narrowed his eyes and even poked his finger between our clasped hands to see if they were really stuck together.
With our hands seemingly glued together, Kim Woo-hyung sighed and said,
“Sigh, what am I doing this for? Some make money while dating, and some will live alone forever.”
“PD-nim, you have someone too.”
“What? Me? Who? Is there someone claiming to be my girlfriend without me knowing?”
“Writer Min. You two seemed like a perfect match when you were working on that big project together. Are you secretly dating?”
“…!”
It was just a joke, but PD Kim Woo-hyung didn’t deny it. Instead, his face turned red, and he stammered before quickly turning away.
At that moment, Yeonsu and I exchanged glances. We both said the same thing at the same time.
“No way.”
“Scene 37, kiss, no, kiss!”
PD Kim Woo-hyung, looking at the screen, furrowed his eyebrows. It wasn’t because he was unhappy with the footage.
Rather, it was because the two actors were performing so passionately that it was an eyesore.
“Kiss!”
“Kiss?”
“No, kiss! I told you, when people who like each other kiss. Like this!”
Smooch.
Han Myojung (Yeonsu)’s lips met Lee Soo (Youngguk)’s lips with a sound. It was the season for their emotions to ripen. But Lee Soo tilted his head and asked Myojung.
“But why do people kiss when they like each other?”
Having lived his whole life in the underwater Dragon Palace, the mermaid prince Lee Soo didn’t understand the ways of the land.
The mouth is for eating, isn’t it? In the Dragon Palace, such behavior was unheard of. In fact, they were careful with their mouths, especially since some sea predators had very sharp teeth.
“Sigh.”
Myojung patted her chest several times to calm her frustration.
He was her first boyfriend. Though many men had approached her during her college years, she never accepted anyone’s confession.
It wasn’t that she wasn’t interested in men, but no one met her standards. Even the second-generation chaebols seemed like idiots to her.
“What did I do in my past life to deserve this!”
“Past life? What’s that? Can you eat it?”
If she didn’t know Lee Soo was a mermaid prince, she might have taken him to a mental hospital.
She wouldn’t have believed it if she hadn’t seen him diving without an oxygen tank and freely talking to fish.
“Lee Soo, haven’t you ever kissed in the sea?”
“No.”
His firm response annoyed but also relieved Myojung.
It was obvious. He was her first boyfriend and her first kiss. If he had dated someone else, she would have felt cheated. It was a business mindset.
“Wait, then how do you express affection in the sea?”
“Do you need to express it if you like someone?”
“Huh…?”
Myojung felt like cold water was poured over her head. Lee Soo’s words made sense. He continued with a victorious expression.
“See? You always act smart, but you’re being a ‘fool’ now! In the Dragon Palace, we know if we like each other without expressing it. Kissing? That’s unimaginable in the Dragon Palace!”
“Wait! Then how do you have kids? If you don’t express it, how do you have kids? Telepathy?”
“Myojung, you really don’t know? Do I have to teach you that too?”
Lee Soo squinted his eyes and smirked, saying, “Myojung, you’re a ‘pervert’,” in land terms. Then,
“Come here! Come here! You’ll get a lighter sentence if you kiss now!”
“Lighter sentence? What’s that… Mmm!”
Smooch!
Smooch!
Smoooch—
Myojung pulled Lee Soo’s shirt collar and kissed him repeatedly. The cinematographer smiled contentedly at the scene of the couple kissing passionately.
And from beside PD Kim Woo-hyung, the art director quietly commented,
“That’s not acting, right?”
