Work Text:
1.
The first time they drink coincides with the first time they meet.
It's like a rule of thumb for actors. In a profession full of manners, there is just no way you can get around not drinking with your co-stars, directors, and any of the staff. She just didn't expect to get on with Dongwook this way.
"You both like drinking," someone says, and Ji Hyo blushes, flustered, while it's just Dongwook and his stupid, handsome laugh. He sits next to her just like that for the table reading earlier. You can see in the released stills for The Fugitive of Joseon. They stay shoulder to shoulder and that same someone says, "and really, if you think about it, it's the best way to get to know each other. Friends, you know?"
There is nothing particular about this moment though. It's just (from that same someone) "Oh hey, Noona, this is Lee Dongwook-ssi -- aren't you going to be working together soon?" because entertainment and variety are smaller worlds than everybody realizes it. There is the equation: he's handsome, she's bright, and sometimes these things are just written into the stars.
Dongwook will tell you he learned this round quickly.
Ji Hyo really hates drinking games. She never really plays them right anyway.
2.
He decides they need to have noodles. And soju. Mostly, it's the soju.
Of course he buys dinner for everyone on set that night. With Ji Hyo, he shoves a jacket into her hands and grins at her. She's the only one that's changed and ready to go home.
"Down the street," he says.
"You look ridiculous," she mutters, and she's right, of course, but then again there are very people in this world that can pull off wearing Joseon period clothing, a puffy jacket, and a beard that makes it seem like he hasn't showered in months because he's a fugitive and that's the look.
Ji Hyo follows him anyway.
It's a nice walk and a nice night. Their set lives down this dirt road that spreads back into the town that is housing their television drama. She likes doing dramas. They remain consistent and real time. Of course, it's twice the work and twice as tiring because there is an unpredictable timeline and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying. She likes working with Dongwook though. He's charismatic enough to make things bearable and he makes her laugh. It's really important to make her laugh.
"You're a thousand miles away."
His arm drops around her shoulders. She snorts and pushes at him half-heartedly. He's firm and too tall and really, she doesn't care anyway.
"I'm tired," she shrugs. "I start filming Running Man at seven." Her mouth curls. "Thank god, it's spring."
"It's just one drink."
She hits his arm and he laughs. It's the two of them; there's always a smile on her face.
--
It's after two when he asks her about Kang Gary. They nix the noodles after the second bottle of soju (oops) and share seafood and pork belly instead. She thinks she was expecting it because when he leans forward, points his spoon at her, and says, "Kang Gary --" she does nothing but blink.
"What about him?"
Dongwook grins, honestly grins, and takes the last piece of pork belly.
"Do I have to ask the question?"
Her eyes narrow and she bats his hand away from the soup. "That's a choice," she says. "You can always, you know, not."
"But I want to ask." He grunts, then seems shy. She finds it weird. "I should ask, as a man."
"We're not filming," she teases, or tries to tease because that catches her completely off guard. She flushes and blames the soju because then suddenly, too suddenly, Lee Dongwook is in her face and his fingers are pushing back at her hair.
Everybody asks about Kang Gary. Everybody knows that it's variety and variety is all about the unique quirks which, somehow, falls onto her shoulders and Gary's shoulders and neither of them understand why. But Dongwook's fingers linger, they move from her forehead, then the line of her jaw, and she thinks his beard is weird and she might be sort of drunk but she likes how warm his fingers feel against her skin.
So she tells him. And she's sort of honest: "He's just a friend."
3.
There are twenty-three text messages when she wakes up. It's her day off. There are six from her mother, two from a high school friend, seven from a weird combination of Gary, Haha, and Kwangsoo, and the last eight from Dongwook because, well, why wouldn't the last eight be from Dongwook. She is going to kill them all.
She deals with her mother first because her mother scares her shitless. Like spiders. Like mostly spiders. She can jump off buildings, climb across different courses, and try anything once, but her mother, most definitely, terrifies her the most.
i like the show
Her mother never watches anything she is in unless it's a film, but even then it's hard because Ji Hyo is just as fearless in her choices and there are certain things she doesn't want her mother to see. The second and third texts make her laugh out loud, turn under her sheets, and blink a little of her sleep away.
he's handsome
where is your hair the joseon period is rather silly
i think he lives close by
mother is in the same tennis group
And of course, there is Ji Hyo's favorite of the group: should i ask them to dinner -- your father needs a friend because why not marry her off and busy her husband in the same day.
She ignores the high school friend and passes on Haha and Gary and Kwangsoo because it's about her and then not about her and there is a filming speculation since guest stars and Twitter are usually a terrible idea anyway. She ignores Dongwook's too and turns back on her side, rubbing at her eyes. She pauses and considers her options. Her fingers are moving without her and she calls him, sleepily waiting for him to answer.
"Yah," she mutters. Her sheets are twisting around her legs. "Just come over. I'll feed you and then we can talk about -- what was her name again?"
"You didn't read it," he says, amused, and there's misdirected anger in his voice. She smells break up and remembers that he had a girlfriend once and that they talked about it; she just never met the other woman. That's fine too.
"Fool," Ji Hyo yawns, "I'll see you soon."
They both know he was going to drive to Ilsan to see her anyway.
--
He shows up at her door with ramen and soju and she rolls her eyes, smacking his arm because she knows she's going to be bloated in the morning and her manager is going to kill her. (He can try.) Dongwook looks confused and tired and when she steps back, it takes him ten more seconds to find the kitchen and start cooking.
She takes a seat at the kitchen bar and keeps watching.
"You had a girlfriend?"
Her eyes open and flutter close. She leans into her hand. She's curious, not jealous (maybe a little), but that's weird anyway.
"Was she pretty?" she asks sleepily.
He scoffs. "Beautiful," he says. "My parents almost liked her."
"They met her?"
He shrugs.
"Did they," she asks, "or didn't they -- your parents can't like her when they've barely met her, or didn't meet her..."
He laughs and his voice is kind of dry. "Yeah," he rubs the back of his head, "they sort of did meet and --"
Her eyes open. She looks surprised. She watches the corners of his mouth twitch and turn.
"My mother surprised us." Ji Hyo laughs, delighted. She covers her mouth when he glares. "We were going to go on a hike," he says. "She liked the outdoors -- or, well, as it turns out, didn't like the outdoors but wanted to be seen with me. And my mother has the uncanny ability of smelling a liar six cities away. Or across the world, if you really want to get serious."
It's open ended and ambiguous, but she doesn't press. There's a lot there and she's not sure if she's in a place to ask yet. She pushes herself up to stand and moves to the cabinet. She finds two mugs and shrugs when he looks at her, grabbing the bottle of soju. It cracks when she twists open the top.
She offers him the mug first.
"Sucks," she says, uses her English, and he laughs right through it, taking the first drink. "Dating is the worst."
He hands her the other mug. "That's why I like to work." The ramen is boiling next to him. He leans against the counter. "Tell me something about you I don't know," he says and he hits his mug against hers before they start to drink.
"Give me a minute," she says and she thinks, "I mean, I like to drink."
He laughs and by now, it's a joke between the two of them. She's comfortable when he teases. She also knows that he likes to be handsy when he drinks. It's his fingers on her face, his arm around her shoulder, and you know, there was that one time where his mouth brushed her ear and he said song ji hyo, we should be closer and it wasn't cheesy enough to not make sense.
"I know that, idiot."
Her finger taps her chin. "I like to curse --" he laugh and she glares, "And if you tell anyone that, I will deny until the grave while revealing all your secrets, Lee Dongwook-ssi, and believe me the one about you and your --"
His hand covers her mouth and she laughs, pushing her lips against his palm. He glares and her eyes are bright.
"I get it, I get it, I get it," he manages, and she squirms, giggling, actually giggling as he reaches an arm around her waist. He's pulled the soju from her hand (because, really, who wants to waste alcohol even if it is convenience store alcohol) and it skids against the counter. She's ticklish and that's too hard to hide. His fingers dig into her side and she's full on laughing now, half-bowed over his arm as she hits his chest.
You'd think he'd kiss her here.
(He doesn't.)
4.
He does five episodes of Running Man. The second go around, she doesn't jump off a building in Macau even though she would so do that again because it was fantastic and she is afraid of a lot of things, but heights have never really been one. ("You're insane," he had told her after that, in this weird, somewhat breathless awe as he held onto her tightly. They're in front of everyone and that's a rush on its own.) They meet in Pohang instead and she's delighted, really, truly delighted because there is something about her hometown and the genuine, bright smell of the sea.
They don't win the cooking competition because that goes to Kim Jong Kook and Jong Kook oppa will never let any of them live it down. But it's fun, it's always fun, and at the end, the crew and the members have dinner elsewhere, in a little hole in the wall restaurant with an ajumma who makes the best food for this kind of January weather.
Of course, Jae Suk corners them first.
"Yah!"
Ji Hyo is startled. She hits Dongwook's arm, who isn't any help because he goes and laughs.
"I've prepared my intentions," he says to Jae Suk, who grins gleefully. He loves a good loveline, he always says, kind of like how Jong Kook has a hard time letting go of wins. Ji Hyo wants to hide under the table and glares at them both because this is so not the place or the time or mostly the place for any of this.
Jae Suk trains a gaze on her. "You didn't tell him anything," he says and she groans, dropping her head against her arms. "Song Ji Hyo! I expected more of you especially since he's brought his intentions. So you're basically already dating."
"Oppa!" she glares. "This isn't fair."
Jae Suk waves a finger at them both. "Tricky, tricky, tricky, Song. Ji. Hyo. I know a lot of your secrets." He pauses and pushes the soju closer to Dongwook. "Careful, she cures a lot when she drinks."
Dongwook grins widely. "Oh, I know."
"Totally dating," Jae Suk sings.
Ji Hyo decides she's going to kill them both. And get away with it. She's persistent enough to try.
Jae Suk's laughter carries away from their part of the table because she's still beet red. She tries and waves him off to pretend like she's won the conversation but Dongwook is still grinning. He joins the conversation with one of the PDs next to her. There are bottles of water and alcohol and tons and tons of food because what family doesn't eat as much as they do. The atmosphere is wonderful though and it's one of those moments that she has where she knows just how lucky she is, to be successful and to be around people that she loves just as fiercely. She isn't good with having moments because she keeps expecting something else, something bigger to happen and maybe that's why she works twice as hard and doesn't hiding any part of who she is.
"You're not drinking," Dongwook teases, pushing the bottle back, and she's startled out of her thoughts, blinking when he pushes a glass to her. He dares her and her eyes narrow. "And you're thinking too deeply."
"Don't make me swear," she says and he laughs, actually laughs too loudly and mostly everybody turns and watches them.
It's Kang Gary that finally says it because why won't it be Kang Gary that goes and starts something. He's serious, frowning, and leans across the table with his elbows.
"Hyung," he says to Jae Suk, "there are a total of five people that I would gladly give Ji Hyo away to --" and he says it in that way where you don't know if he's joking, half-serious, or even a little bit of both -- the real definition of their relationship anyway. "I would totally hand her over to Dongwook-ssi, no doubt," he finishes.
Dongwook starts to laugh again.
She swears her face is on fire.
--
But before that, there is Pohang and the crew has to change the tape a couple of times because no one really prepares for the wind by the sea especially since it's January and calling for snow.
They sit together by the water (she knows they know later because of the film she sees) and they're talking about what he wants to bring back for his mother since, like Ji Hyo, she might love alcohol just as much and not admit it either. It's the first time they've been out together and it's not really, obscenely late or stupidly early because of their jobs and as friends of the same job, it's the only time that they get to see each other.
"You look tired," he says.
Her lips curl. She shrugs and inches closer to him in the sand. Her legs stretch out and the heels of her sneakers kick a shaky line to the water. She laughs a little.
"I'm fine," she says and she is. It's a new year and there are new promises. She looks forward to working and family and friends; she looks forward to just trying to enjoy things more. "Just thinking about all the good memories I have from here."
"Do you still have family here?" he asks and means to ask, looking at her curiously.
"Mm. Grandparents," she answers. "A few others," she says too but doesn't elaborate. It's not important.
She turns to look at him. He's already watching her, watching her face, then suddenly smiles like he's discovered something. She does too, is always discovering something, like the lines of his mouth and the wrinkles that come and go and gather at his eyes because he's laughing too hard and doesn't care to hide it back.
He keeps it simple. There is no what happens next and to put it simply, it's more like what no one doesn't see. Even though there is a camera crew and a group of PDs somewhere up the beach trying to figure out the next filming situation. He reaches first. Then his fingers are at her mouth, his thumb brushing against the long, wet line of her lip. She's biting at it. Her nervous habit, he tells her. Or those times where she's trying to be sly and fast and has a secret to the game that only she can win.
"I like you like this," he says and it's so much more than saying something like you're beautiful because, she thinks, it might go and ruin any sort of feelings that she's started to come to terms with. They're there, you know, and they've been there for awhile. "You're you, you know," he says, his mouth brushing over her forehead and she feels her heart ready to jump out of her mouth too. His lips drag lightly against her jaw and his fingers tuck underneath her chin. She thinks he's going to kiss me and there's something really honest and frightening about that thought. It makes everything between them slow burning and real and honest because it's been going that way for a very, very long time.
"So kiss me," she says. He laughs and she grins into it, his mouth grazing hers. His mouth is warm and he smells like the sea. Her fingers are digging into his jacket a little tighter. "And do it right, okay?" she sighs, shifting closer.
Neither of them know how to hide, you know.
5.
The next time they drink is another one of those times they have alcohol, but aren't really drinking because sometimes, god, they both need a break, you know?
They are on the floor of his kitchen. His parents are upstairs. She should have gone home but it's too late to drive back and they both are filming in the morning. And anyway, it's not like this the first time she's used the guest room; his mother is delighted. His head is in her lap though. She combs a hand through his hair and the bottle of soju is somewhere between his legs and her knees because it would really be a waste.
"Should I do Roommate?"
She laughs, startled. "Are you asking me about variety?"
"Yes." He tilts his head back. His mouth touches her fingers. "How do you feel about lovelines?"
Ji Hyo rolls her eyes. She gets it. There are always problems when one actor dates another actor (it's still a little weird, she thinks, dating between the two of them) or when an actor just dates. It's a little sad that they all, at one point, feel like they have to ask the question because it's not just any kind of question.
"Work is work," she says, shrugging, "and you and I both know that it's also a business and it's good to be good at business."
He chuckles. "So you're okay."
"I'm okay," she says, brushing his hair back. She grabs a few strands and pulls playful and he's whispering loudly, "Yah! Yah!" because she has to prove his point to prove her own.
She flicks his forehead too.
"Don't be stupid," she says, "just like you tell me -- my mother will come and find you and kill you too."
They both shudder. Then they laugh. He reaches up and covers her mouth with his hand. Her eyes are bright and he rolls his as they both listen upstairs for the few footsteps that come and go and remind them that his parents are nearby.
"But remember," he teases, "I have Kang Gary's permission."
She hits his arm.
"I guess," she says and there's a long suffering sigh. She looks down at him and he's smiling, watching her openly. His gaze is bright and they are both still flushed from dinner. She should really go to bed, she thinks, but she's comfortable and she's warm.
He twists and almost startles her. She watches him dig into his pocket and then switch whatever it is between both of his hands. He holds his hands out in front of her.
"Which one?"
They feel like teenagers this way. She sighs, rolling her eyes.
"What do you mean?" she asks and she really hates stuff like this. Even though, okay, she might be convinced to sort of like it. "I'm so bad at guessing games."
"Just guess," he pouts, "please --"
The lights are low enough for her to guess because she leans forward and brushes her lips against his right hand. She smiles against his skin and he makes a low noise, somewhere between a sigh and a laugh.
"This one," she says.
Dongwook snorts. "You're terrible."
"I told you."
His left hand opens and a small bracelet drops through his fingers. It's gold and the charms are bright: a dancer, she thinks, or pretends to see in the dark, and then there's a ball because he likes that she really likes a lot of sports. It takes her another minute to realize that her heart is pounding and one more that he's waiting for her to reply to him because it's not a couple's ring but a bracelet and jewelry is even more serious than everybody thinks.
She takes the bracelet quietly, seriously, and turns her wrist as he sits up, starting to put it on. He stops at her and says nothing, putting the bracelet on himself. The charms jump and dance together and she shakes her wrist, laughing just slightly because it's beautiful and it's more than just a small surprise.
His mother finds the unopened bottle in the morning.