Necklace
Necklace
It was dark overall, but the light aimed directly at me nearly made me squeeze my eyes shut.
I managed to hold them open, though, and flashed a bright smile.
"L-like this?"
"The photo just now was great! Just hold it like that going forward!"
"That's the hard part..."
The number of commercials I'd been filming with A-ra had increased a lot lately, so my days had been busy.
Not just ads through social media or Qtube, but commercial video shoots that would air on cable TV, too.
Come to think of it, I'd filmed that hanbok ad and a phone ad before as well.
Back then it had been comfortable, but this shoot required a lot of footage, so it was a little tough.
"Shall we take a short break?"
"Th...thank you."
I grabbed onto the director's words without hesitation.
No matter how much footage there was, I'd never imagined we'd shoot takes back-to-back.
For typical commercial shoots, even if there are consecutive takes,
they normally rotate to other models' takes out of consideration for the model's stamina.
But this time, because my portion was so huge, even when they rotated the takes,
my turn would come back around so quickly it became absurdly grueling.
"Haa... I'm exhausted."
Still, thinking about the money that would be deposited later, I could endure it somehow.
I wanted to save up some money this time and give A-ra a present.
I looked around for a suitable spot to rest and spotted a chair sitting all alone in the corner.
Since no one was sitting there and there were no belongings draped over it, I figured it was empty, walked over, and sat down.
When I looked up at the ceiling, the air conditioner cooling the hot studio was blowing out visible vapor.
In movies, there were plots where that vapor turned out to be toxic gas, not steam.
...I had no idea why that thought suddenly popped into my head.
"Seong-hwan-ssi? Would you like some cola?"
"Thank you... I'll enjoy it."
I looked up at the person who had handed me the cola.
It turned out to be Kim Jae-min-ssi, who was under our agency and had come
to shoot this commercial together with me and A-ra.
He was a young entertainer working as an MC at various broadcasting stations, a genius broadcaster with talents all over the place.
Other than musical ability, he was on par with the genius A-ra.
"Jae-min-ssi, how many takes do you have left?"
"About two. What about you, Seong-hwan-ssi?"
"Uh.....11?"
"...How many have you done so far?"
"Maybe 15...?"
Part of it couldn't be helped since I was the main model. In my case, the takes were split into a lot of short little bits
and also included many long ones, so it was different from the other models.
Well, what was the point of complaining now?
It was a job I'd taken on.
"Anyway, doesn't A-ra-ssi ever get tired?"
"Haha... Noona has always been a stamina monster, you know."
"You really can't underestimate idol stamina."
Being a woman had something to do with it, but A-ra had overcome hellish schedules, so a few commercial shoots were nothing to her.
The same went for Eun-ji, Ye-ji, and Hwa-young.
"Jae-min-ssi, you've got some stamina yourself, haven't you? I saw the photos posted in the community."
"Ahaha, that's a little embarrassing."
Things like him challenging triathlons or marathons,
or often posting videos of running along the Han River all day.
Maybe because of that, I'd heard he was popular with women who liked exercise.
"Wow, time's really gotten away from me... I'll be heading off now."
"Work hard. I think I need to get some more air conditioner breeze and rest a bit longer."
"If you sit in the air conditioner breeze too long after sweating, you'll catch a cold."
Jae-min-ssi gave a wry smile and fussed over me.
Still, it was hot, so I sat directly in the path of the air conditioner's breeze and wet my throat with the cola.
*
How much time had passed?
The shoot continued, and as I repeated the cycle of filming and resting,
my remaining takes gradually dwindled.
And when only about three were left, the sound of applause came from the area where they'd been filming A-ra's footage.
"A-ra-ssi, thank you for your hard work."
"Thank you for your hard work~"
Having finished all her takes, A-ra greeted everyone with a bright smile.
Then she spread her arms wide and slowly approached me.
Every single one of those actions was cute, but I was too exhausted to stand up.
No, I could stand up, but it was just too much of a bother.
"Seong-hwan-a~ The director's going to call you over soon."
"Ugh... I'm tired..."
I expressed my desire to rest just a little longer with my expression.
Even so, since she was my wife, seeing her husband worked to the bone might make her let me rest a bit more.
"How many takes do you have left?"
"Two left..."
"That's not many. Go on, do your best!"
Damn it.
Come to think of it, wasn't A-ra the wife who tormented me from morning till night at home?
Lately, I'd been seriously sleep-deprived because of nighttime activities.
As I kept sitting in the chair without getting up, she smiled brightly and placed her hands on my shoulders.
Then she lifted me up like pulling out a radish.
Easily hoisted into the air, I flailed my feet, asking to be put down.
"Uwaaaah...!"
"Does it hurt? Sorry."
It didn't hurt; it was just scary.
Did she know how frightening it was to suddenly be suspended in the air with nowhere to plant your feet?
She slowly set me down and gently rubbed my shoulders, then secretly kissed me on the cheek.
It seemed she'd made my shoulders hurt just so she could kiss me.
In short, it was a diversionary tactic.
"You only have two takes left, right?"
"Yeah... Just sit and wait for me a minute."
"Come back safe."
Then she brought her eyes level with my seated face and kissed me on the forehead.
It tickled for a moment, but thanks to the affection and love A-ra gave me, I felt like I'd gained enough strength to move.
***
"So? What was this shoot for?"
"Curious?"
"Of course I'm curious. It's a commercial A-ra-nim filmed."
"Hey, I filmed it too, you know?"
As expected, Lee Min-ho showed more interest in A-ra than in me.
He was so consistent about it that it was less hurtful and more just bewildering.
That evening, after I'd finished the shoot and come home,
Jeong Hwan-yi and Lee Min-ho suddenly asked to see me, so I went out and was dragged to some upscale restaurant.
A-ra said she'd watch Lil' One and Pipsqueak at home
and was going to order delivery food for the first time in a while.
Actually, I hadn't wanted to let her eat delivery food,
but A-ra said she really wanted it just this once, so I had no choice but to nod along.
Anyway, there I was, dragged to the restaurant,
being interrogated by the two of them about what kind of commercial I'd filmed.
"Why are you like this? This is confidential, you know?"
"Confidential, my foot... We're not gonna go buy stocks or something?"
"No, I am gonna buy some."
As Lee Min-ho urged me to spill, saying he wouldn't leak it anywhere, Jeong Hwan-yi dropped a bombshell while popping a lettuce wrap into his mouth.
So, he apparently intended to pry information out of me and use it to buy stocks.
"Anyway, I already know what kind of ad it is, Jeong Hwan-yi."
"What?! And you kept it a secret from me all this time?!"
"Because you've got such a big mouth, you'd go blabbing to all your seniors and juniors. And the Director told me not to tell you."
"Ugh... What on earth is that noona going around saying about me... She's practically treating me like some kind of economic criminal."
"It's because you have a prior conviction."
It was Lee Min-ho who'd previously heard some nonsense, bought stock in a weird company, and had it completely blow up,
so I could understand the CEO's warning.
That guy's problem was that he'd run wild in some strange direction and leave behind the worst possible results.
In that case, he shouldn't even be given a chance.
For the record, the thing that went bust after being leaked to Lee Min-ho before was a game.
They'd done the game ad and even received all the payment,
but the game company blew up in a massive scandal and shut down the service within a week.
"Anyway, what ad we filmed is a secret. The launch announcement hasn't even been made yet."
"Tch... Can't be helped..."
As if giving up, Lee Min-ho picked up the chopsticks he'd put down on the table and shoved meat into his mouth.
Seeing that, I put some meat into my own mouth, too.
"So? Is that why you called me out?"
"Oh, as if."
"Are we the kind of relationship where we only meet if there's a reason?"
"That's not it."
We'd only known each other for about a year and a half — it was probably rare to get this close that quickly.
I wanted to keep these two in my life for good, too.
"It's nothing special, but the semester starts soon, right?"
"Ah... I didn't want to think about that..."
"No matter what you do, the start of the semester is a fixed event, you know?"
As Lee Min-ho despaired, Jeong Hwan-yi delivered a pointed remark.
Since it was already the last week of August, the semester did start next week.
"I told you before that I was looking at used cars, remember?"
"Yeah, no way, you bought one? I thought you were just testing the waters?"
"My mom chipped in a bit, so I bought a decent one."
"What is it?! What is it?!"
He wasn't exactly a car nut, but Lee Min-ho was dying to see Jeong Hwan-yi's car and shoved his face right into his.
It was a scene anyone would find creepy, but Jeong Hwan-yi just grinned and pushed Lee Min-ho's face away.
"Curious what it is?"
"Curious."
"I'm a little curious too."
Jeong Hwan-yi, who earned good money, lived in a nice home, and yet had held out without buying a car — wasn't it only natural to be curious what kind of car he'd bought?
After we'd been asking and pestering him for a long while, Jeong Hwan-yi finally opened his mouth.
"Chevrolet Camaro."
"Seriously...?"
"What's that, what car is it?"
I poked Lee Min-ho in the side as he stared at Jeong Hwan-yi with envy.
Was I the only one out of the loop?
I would have had to be really into cars to know that.