Night with a Girl, Part 2
Hollywood and paparazzi shared an inseparable relationship. They were like mosquitoes, driven mad at the mere sight of a human, regardless of whether it was day or night. Paparazzi were people who held cameras for their livelihood, relentlessly chasing their target celebrities day and night to snap photos. The celebrities caught in their crosshairs reacted by getting angry or reporting them, but because of their status as "public figures," the paparazzi rarely faced actual punishment. If one had to sum up their existence—willing to commit all sorts of illegal acts for money—it could be called Hollywood's original sin. Especially in the sense that they ought to disappear, but never could.
Chasing after "celebrities whose photos alone equaled money," invading their privacy, and snapping pictures. Naturally, Sion Lee was one of their most lucrative and useful targets.
Especially back when he was filming Deadly Summer Camp, the paparazzi specializing in Sion cheered daily. Almost every day, he drank and caused all sorts of trouble, causing public interest in him to shoot up like a surging stock chart.
The good old days.
A man who had suffered the ultimate "Hall of Fame" paparazzi experience: a drunk Sion snatching his camera and smashing it on the ground. He smiled wistfully, fiddling with the new camera Sion's agency had bought him as compensation. The paparazzi, who had followed Sion like a shadow for a long time, was drunk on nostalgia like an old novelist longing for the '80s.
How much longer can I keep doing this?
An old Honda sedan. He had been staking out Sion's house in it for days. Countless female fans desperately contacted paparazzi just to get a single photo of him. Thanks to this, he made a decent living by printing and selling Sion's photos at a premium to a few obsessive fans he knew personally.
But recently, Sion had become boring.
Instead of speeding down night roads on a motorcycle, he watered flowers in his garden at home. The obsessive fans loved those photos, calling them "refreshing" and buying whatever they could, but the major newspapers—where the real money was—expressed reluctance. What was so interesting about photos like this? So even if they bought them, they were always sold for dirt cheap.
Of course.
Until last year, even unprincipled paparazzi would swarm and compete to get a single shot of Sion, which sold no matter what. But not anymore. Everyone had left his side.
Will those days ever return?
Even so, Sion's dedicated paparazzi still waited for him.
So please, punch someone. You weren't always such a good boy. Please, go wild like the brat you are.
It was Sion's day off, right after he finished an external shoot. The paparazzi hoped, of all days, Sion would go out today. He hoped he would attend a party, drink, get flirted with by women, and take them to a hotel.
And did his prayers work? Not long after, Sion came out of the house.
“......”
But Sion, staring intently at the Honda sedan, went back inside. Seeing him dressed up so well, the paparazzi's expectations soared. Shortly after, the garage door opened, and a silver convertible emerged.
Whoa?! He's driving that car?! Finally! Finally! Are you going to a party?!
A weekend afternoon. It was barely past noon, around 2:00 PM. But the paparazzi's eyes gleamed with anticipation, thinking there might be a secret party held at such an hour. Sion drove down the road in front of his house, heading somewhere, and the sputtering Honda sedan trailed behind him.
Sunny Hollywood was packed with people, and Sion's car kept moving. The place he finally arrived at was Bel-Air, where only the super-rich celebrities of Hollywood lived. It was an area filled with massive estates controlled by private security guards and gates.
Sion stopped in front of one of these mansions, got out of his car, and rang the doorbell. The paparazzi parked his Honda sedan, highly excited, and readied his camera.
And the person who came out of the house was...
E-Elena Asimov...!
Dressed in a neat white blouse and an H-line long skirt, she approached Sion Lee shyly and cautiously.
Oh my god!! Oh my goood-!!!
A massive scoop! Lost in a happy dilemma of how much to charge per photo, the paparazzi kept clicking the shutter. A date between the male and female leads currently starring in the same movie, who were famously known among insiders to have a terrible relationship! One was Hollywood's wild brat! The other was the daughter of the prestigious Asimov family! Where would they go now? Did they rent a private venue?
Elena got into Sion's car. The paparazzi followed them again. Feeling the thrill of a lifetime, he kept driving in a state of pure excitement.
After even running a red light to keep up with Sion, the place they arrived at was the Los Angeles Children's Hospital.
“......What the......?”
He looked again, but it was definitely the Los Angeles Children's Hospital, not a Los Angeles hotel. Seeing the two of them walk inside as if it were the most natural thing in the world, the paparazzi was utterly dumbfounded.
Do people hook up in hospital rooms these days...? Is that some kind of roleplay?
Meanwhile, behind his illegally parked car, two traffic cops were approaching.
Elena Asimov looked a bit deflated.
“......Is this a date?”
The Los Angeles Children's Hospital, cutely decorated for kids. She had wondered what they would do since he called it a “date,” but they had ended up in a completely unexpected place. She couldn't hide her bewilderment, while Sion nodded with an indifferent face.
“Yeah.”
“Is this normal?”
“It is.”
“In what way?”
“In the sense that you're trying to win the other person's favor. Guys often plan dates like this.”
“......”
“So, do you hate this place?”
“No.”
Elena replied curtly, acting a bit standoffish. In fact, she was famous for frequently volunteering with her parents. She was just caught off guard; she actually enjoyed being here. After all, they could bring joy and hope to sick children.
The two continued their conversation while waiting for the nurse's guidance. Sion asked in his characteristically casual, swaggering tone,
“What did you tell your parents? Did they say it's okay to go on a date with a guy like me?”
“Of course I didn't tell them.”
“Oh, unexpected.”
“......What did you expect?”
“I thought you'd confess everything honestly, cry, and get grounded.”
“I'm an adult now. I have the right to do what I want.”
“While getting their permission to withdraw money from their account.”
Elena glared at him.
“Whoa...... don't give me that look in front of the kids. It'll shatter their illusions.”
“Of course. Do you think I'm you? Anyway, it'll be easy to make an excuse. I told them I was going out for a movie shoot. If an article about volunteering comes out, I can just tell them it was for image-making.”
Elena nodded, looking relieved. A moment later, guided by a hospital nurse, the two began visiting the wards.
“The children will love this. Especially Mr. Lee, you have so many fans here.”
And she was absolutely right.
“Kyaaaaaah!”
As soon as they entered a ward filled with teenage girls, the screams were deafening. It felt like the windows might shatter.
“Sion! Sion is here!”
“Sion! I love you!”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa! A real angel has come! Am I about to die?!”
“Sally, I told you not to make those kinds of jokes in the hospital,” the nurse cautioned, making the girls burst into giggles.
Sion smiled brightly, walked over to them, and greeted them one by one.
“Hey, I'm Sion Lee. ......But of course, you all know that, right? It's my first time doing something like this, so I'm a bit awkward.”
“Even your awkward face is handsome!”
“Oh, thank you. What's your name?”
A ward with six patients. Sion and Elena conversed with the young girls sitting on their beds. For them, it was a dreamlike moment. The girls, who had posters of Sion's face stuck to their headboards and had watched many of his movies, smiled brightly for the first time in a long while at the visit of the actor they adored and loved.
The two took photos with them individually and together, and signed autographs wherever they wanted.
Then, the second ward.
“Oh! I know that older sister! She was on TV before!”
“Unni, when did you grow so big? I'm still small.”
“......They must have seen the children's show I did a long time ago.”
Smiling playfully, Elena sang the song she used to sing on the children's show for them. Her voice was calm and clear. Children under ten sang along with her, creating a warm and harmonious atmosphere. Watching this, Sion found himself smiling brightly without even realizing it.
Not bad.
To be able to use the influence he had as an actor in this era in such a positive way. No matter how much he avoided trouble and said only good things, his deeply rooted "brat" image would have only generated cynical speculative articles if he had done this alone. So he had kept putting it off.
But with Elena, who was famous for being a well-behaved young lady, joining him, he was completely freed from that problem. The reporters would assume Elena had dragged Sion along, rather than Sion visiting the children's hospital on his own.
For now, that's enough.
Just like he had been doing, he could change things step by step. Above all, putting aside those calculations for a moment, it was incredibly enjoyable to interact with the children who were so happy to see a celebrity they had only ever seen on screen.
During the hospital visit, which lasted until dinner, Elena felt a strange sensation. She realized her negative thoughts about Sion Lee were gradually changing.
“Did you see the Batman movie?”
“Uh...... that, the Joker was too scary.”
“Pfft! I'll tell the Joker exactly what you said!”
“N-No! The Joker will come!”
“No way~ That's the best compliment for the Joker. He'll think you're adorable and will never hurt you.”
Sion got along incredibly well with the kids. Since he had only built a filmography targeting teenagers until last year, the very young children didn't really recognize him. Even so, after just a few words, any awkwardness vanished, and they were completely excited, laughing and chatting. It meant Sion's attitude approached them warmly, not as a celebrity, but as one human to another. Of course, his handsome looks, which easily drew attention and won favor, played a part.
Watching these moments unfold, Elena couldn't help but feel her initial impression of him fading.
Huh? Elena Asimov? Ah, right. Asimov's daughter. Well, let's do a good job. Don't go acting up just because of your family background.
When they first met, Sion had a somewhat intimidating impression. His eyes were dead, and he exuded a dangerous vibe, as if he would bite anyone who crossed him. His characteristically decadent looks synergized with that vibe, amplifying it. And somehow, it felt like he was desperately sharpening his edges to hide some weakness and emptiness he didn't want to reveal.
So at first, out of her natural innocence, she thought, He must have a lot of scars, and wanted to approach him. But his reckless behavior, constant scandals, and unprofessional attitude made her give up on that and bicker with him at every turn. She had genuinely detested him—a successful actor of her age who wasn't serious about acting. And those thoughts still influenced her to this day.
But that impression...... had faded just a tiny bit.
“You said it was for the money, right?”
At a private restaurant near the hospital where they had dinner, Elena mustered the courage to speak about her changing thoughts.
“What, acting?”
“Yeah. I think I might have misunderstood what you meant.”
Elena forced a clumsy smile. Rarely having conversations like this with actors her age—or rather, with "people"—she was highly conscious of how her words would sound. She worried there might be a misunderstanding. Feeling slightly anxious, she carefully continued.
“You gain fame, and by earning money with it, you can do good things.”
“......”
“Was showing kindness to the staff in that same context?”
“No. I did that to buy stocks.”
“......?”
“Microsoft and Apple. I'm still buying them whenever I have spare cash.”
“You...... when someone is trying to speak well of you, you just have to......”
“I'd prefer it if you didn't think of me as a good person. I'm a dangerous man, Ellie.”
“I-I told you not to call me Ellie!”
Shouting suddenly, Elena gasped and covered her mouth in surprise. Expressing her emotions so intensely in front of someone else was a rare occurrence for her.
Seeing this, Sion chuckled softly and asked, “Isn't it fascinating?”
“W-What is?”
“Emotions you can't control suddenly popping up, not as acting. That's how relationships between men and women are. Going on a date always makes it that way. It's like every single sense in your body becomes hyper-sensitive. And it seems the more repressed a person usually is, the stronger the rebound. Celebrities like us are especially prone to that.”
“......I-I don't know.”
“Well, you might not know yet.”
Whether it was because of the date or because she cared about his inner thoughts, Elena denied the jumbled emotions that had been confusing her all day.
“But that's how it is. Before you know it, you're acting like someone you're not. You become strangely impulsive, behave like a child. Sometimes you feel a sort of parental affection, and other times you force yourself to change just to please the other person. You become desperate because you can't have them, can't touch them. The deeper you fall, the more you ride between heaven and hell as the price. I think love is riding that emotional roller coaster, which is hard to feel in daily life, and adapting to it.”
“Erotic love?”
“Yeah. Love between a man and a woman, not between parents or friends. One that presupposes sex. You can feel it indirectly through movies or novels, but the reality is a bit dirtier and messier. It's thrilling enough to make you blindly let go of everything. It's even worse when you lack self-control. Anyway, it's not purely innocent.”
Contrary to his rough words, Sion was smiling brightly. Staring at that "handsome" face, Elena couldn't formulate a response.
After their dinner, which lasted about two hours, Sion politely drove Elena home. Not much conversation passed between them in the car on the way back, and Elena kept trying to analyze the emotions she was feeling in her head. Just like she usually analyzed scripts.
They arrived in front of her house.
“How was the date today?”
“......I'll go. Get home safe.”
“Ah, is your room on the second floor?”
“Yes, but why?”
“Look out the window as soon as you go in.”
“Huh......?”
Though she tilted her head at his mysterious words, she left Sion behind without getting a proper answer and walked into the house. Normally, she would have had a long conversation with her parents before going up to her room, but because her head was filled with questions, she brushed past them half-heartedly. Sion's words kept bothering her.
As the only daughter of the Asimov family, she was doing things she would never normally do. She went up to her second-floor room, cautiously opened the window, and what greeted her was......
“Jump. Today's lesson isn't over yet.”
Sion was standing on the hood of his car, looking like a rebel from a late '80s romance movie.
“A-Are you crazy?”
“Originally, relationships between men and women only work when you're crazy.”
“Even so, you want me to jump from the second floor?”
“If you don't want to, don't. But I bet you want to. Didn't you say you wanted to be a good actor?”
“I-If we get hurt, it'll affect the movie......”
“It's fine. I'll catch you properly.”
“I really hate touching your body though......?!”
“In the movie, we'll hold hands, press our lips together, and do everything.”
“Ugh......!”
“Well, if you hate it, that's even better. It means it's not acting, right?”
Sion smirked and spread his arms wide.
“Do it. And feel it. Feel yourself doing something crazy that the usual you would never do.”
Romeo and Juliet, Wuthering Heights, West Side Story, Rebel Without a Cause, Dirty Dancing. Scenes from all kinds of love-themed movies flashed through Elena's mind and then vanished.
She closed her eyes tight and threw herself over the window railing.
It was, truly, a crazy thing to do.
Under the beautiful name of youth.