Yu Minha

"He actually ran away?"

The guy who was supposed to kowtow had vanished, and the verification post I uploaded had somehow turned into a town square. In that short span of time, the upvotes easily surpassed 50, and it pulled off the feat of hitting number one on the Best Posts list.

What should I do about this? Should I just acquire Every Universe too, like I did with Leonplay? No, even I have to admit that's a bit much. As I pondered various options and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠kept refreshing the page in case a belated verification post popped up...

An official announcement already? Bewildered, I clicked the post. Attached to the body was a link to the teaser, with my face plastered right on the thumbnail. Holding my breath, I gently tapped the link.

Dun-dun! With a grand sound effect, the screen transitioned.

Along with the show's logo, my bedroom, study, dressing room, and foyer were broadcasted in a four-way split screen.

The camera panned from the entrance of the house, moving past the foyer and leading into the living room. The addition of tense background music heightened the suspense.

My all-too-familiar living room flashed by, heavily color-corrected. Seeing it on screen made it feel entirely different.

Accompanied by the cast's gasps of awe, the panoramic view unfolding through the floor-to-ceiling glass windows swept past with dynamic camera work. They really know how to shoot a good insert, I thought, quietly marveling at Hye-yeon's skills once again.

Wait. What is that? As the camera panned over the furniture, captions popped up next to them like price tags. I gasped in horror.

The cast's exclamations of wonder erupted. Their jaw-dropped faces flashed across the screen one after another. I felt a wave of secondhand embarrassment.

Then, the screen swept rapidly through every nook and cranny of the apartment, accompanied by captions loaded with flowery adjectives, creating an intense sense of speed.

A sparkly, glittering effect played alongside a sound effect that belonged in a magical girl anime. Behind that cheesy transition was...

"What the hell?!"

There I was, in my pajamas, face swollen from just waking up, scratching the crown of my head and yawning widely. Right after, the cast's boisterous laughter erupted.

"Ha... haha...!"

Is she revenging herself on me just because I made her pull an all-nighter? I hurriedly checked the comment section.

The response was explosive. The only problem was that the embarrassment accompanying this explosive reaction was entirely mine to bear.

I replayed the video and rewound it to the problematic scene. Hearing the cast's laughter again and seeing myself reduced to a laughingstock made my head spin.

Even now, the video's view count was climbing at a terrifying rate, quickly breaking into the top 100 trending videos.

From people turning my yawn into GIFs to comment sections being flooded with them, almost every online community was in absolute chaos.

"My... my first impression..."

Now, whenever viewers see my face, they'll immediately think of that yawning GIF circulating the internet. If I'm replaying that cursed scene in my head every minute, how much worse will it be for them?

And what infuriated me even more... was that even I let out a chuckle every time I saw it.

"Pfft!!"

This was completely unavoidable. It wasn't something she could hold back even if she tried. She had already laughed her head off watching this scene during the studio recording of Na Honza Sanya, yet...

"I swear, this gets funnier every time I see it."

Kim Sung-woo was sitting cross-legged on his bed, yawning so wide his mouth looked ready to tear. His hair was sticking up in a messy bedhead as if kneaded with wax, his nostrils flaring as he scratched the crown of his head with one hand.

Hye-yeon Unni had zoomed in to emphasize the already hilarious scene, almost as if she had done it on purpose.

"YS University..."

He had said that was the university he was currently attending. It was also the university she attended.

"He definitely said he was single...!"

The day she had been called over by Hye-yeon Unni to stop Kim Sung-woo's erratic behavior. To be honest, she had fallen for Kim Sung-woo at first sight. So, using the show's progression as an excuse, she had asked him all sorts of self-serving questions. When asked if he had a girlfriend, he had looked flustered and firmly declared he was single.

"Hehe, now that the teaser is up, I guess I can post this too?"

She pulled out her phone and scrolled through her gallery. Going past a mountain of selfies, she finally found the photo she was looking for. A two-shot with Kim Sung-woo, taken under the pretext of wanting to post it on social media. Every time she looked at him in the photo, her heart fluttered.

"Gosh... how can someone be this handsome?"

After grumbling to herself for a while, she did some light editing and posted it on Instagram.

Tap.

Ignoring the flood of notifications that immediately started chiming as soon as the post went live, she leaned back on the sofa. She had worked with countless male actors throughout her acting career, but had her heart ever raced like this? The more she thought about him, the deeper her feelings grew.

But she wasn't particularly worried. It didn't matter if he wasn't interested in her right now. After all, even a tree will fall if chopped ten times. If ten times isn't enough, then a hundred. If a hundred isn't enough, then a thousand. She had absolutely no intention of putting down the axe until he fell.

"I want to hear his voice, but would it be rude to call?"

She muttered while looking at the contact info they had exchanged on the day of the shoot. She wanted to call him right away and act close, but it was too obvious, so she dismissed the idea.

Ugh... Looking at her last text exchange with Kim Sung-woo made her sigh in frustration. In a fit of heat, she sent a text.

"What am I doing..."

After sighing and mocking herself, she looked back at the screen and saw the unread marker had disappeared.

"Oh?! He read it?!"

She sat up straight and stared intensely at the screen, waiting for a reply.

Ding!

Thump-thump.

Just exchanging a few texts made her heart race. She must be seriously lovesick.

It was impulsive. She originally planned to just chat using the connection of being from the same university. But what could she do when her heart moved faster than her brain? He would obviously reject such a random request, right?

Ding!

"Kyaaaaah!"

Stomping her feet, she hurriedly replied.

Her face in the mirror was as red as a ripe tomato.