Chapter Text
Yu Jimin peers down at the contract in front of her.
“What am I going to do?” She asks her best friend, Aeri Uchinaga, who was busy pouring them two hefty glasses of wine from the kitchen.
Aeri was the only one who knew of her problem.
“You have to say yes. Your agent managed to land you a role on one of the best, if not the best, daytime soaps of the century!”
Jimin deadpans. “You’re only saying that because you have the hots for one of the actresses.” Aeri gives her a scandalized look.
She holds a hand up. “That’s besides the point.”
“Then what’s the point?”
“That this is the best lateral move you can make in your career right now.”
“But—“
“But what?” Aeri sets the glasses down between them. “Are you afraid of what people might think?”
People. If only it was that simple.
Aeri taps her fingers on the table. “Or are you nervous about seeing her again?”
There it was. The elephant in the room making its grand entrance.
Jimin flicks her hand dismissively like it was some type of fleeting thought and not something that had wracked her brain for years. “I doubt she even remembers me.”
Aeri’s eyebrows knit together. “You two were on that one project together for more than a year.”
“Yeah, when we were like thirteen.”
“How would she be able to forget you, anyway? You’ve been in like, a billion major movies in the past decade.”
Perhaps it was wishful thinking on Jimin’s part, to naively assume that she could avoid crossing paths with a ghost from her past forever.
Not when the ghost was Kim Minjeong, daytime television’s most awarded actress of their generation.
“So? She has more accolades than I do.”
“That may be so, but at least you never had a stagnant career.” Jimin’s eyebrows shoot up at that. “I mean, you went from daytime to movies while she never left daytime.”
Jimin scoffs. “What does that say about me then if I sign this contract? I’ll be right back where I started.” She swirls the red wine in her glass. Aeri was already finished with hers.
“Wasn’t that what you wanted? A change of pace?”
“Yes, but did it have to be her show?”
Whatever higher power dictating Jimin’s life was surely looking down on her and laughing at the so called coincidence.
But Jimin refused to be a pawn.
~~
YU JIMIN RETURNS TO THE SMALL SCREEN WITH A GUEST ROLE ON THE CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED SHOW, ORDINARY LIVES.
~~
It was Minjeong’s lunch time in her trailer when Ningning barged in unannounced, like usual.
“Have you seen the news?!”
She had her fork plunged into some cold pasta, not even bothering to look up and address her best friend and costar of many years.
This was a common occurrence. Ningning would always come to her trailer to drop some hot gossip she rarely ever cared about then they would practice their scenes for the day.
Minjeong thought today would be no different.
“No, what happened?” She asks with zero interest in her tone, taking a quick bite of her food because she only had fifteen minutes left of her break.
“The Yu Jimin is going to be on our show!”
As an actress, Minjeong prided herself on knowing how to school her expressions, control how much she wanted to give out or reel in.
All of that flew out the window when she choked on her pasta.
Ningning rushed over to pat her back, slight concern etched on her face. Of all the people Ningning could name from the industry, she wasn’t expecting to hear that one.
“Jimin is going to be on our show?” Minjeong all but whispers. She falls into a dazed state.
Ningning’s gaze narrows. “You say her name like you know her personally.”
“I-I don’t. Not anymore, anyway. We worked together once a long time ago.”
“And you never told me?!” Ningning pouts, crossing her arms. “I cannot count the amount of times I’ve gushed about her to you and this entire time you were holding out on me?!”
Minjeong stares hard into her pasta, Ningning’s voice sounding further and further away.
Jimin. Jimin. Jimin.
She remembers being thirteen and thinking Jimin was not like the others. Special, destined for bigger things in life.
Destined for more.
She remembers feeling an irresistible pull, feeling the need to always be rotating in Jimin’s orbit.
Then one day, it was over.
A rough shake of her shoulders jolts Minjeong out of her reverie.
“Come on, snap out of it! They’re calling us back to set.”
Minjeong stumbles through her cues and lines for the rest of the day, admittedly thrown off from the news. The rest of the cast and crew seemed overjoyed to welcome the guest star.
She didn’t know how to feel. How could she? What she felt when she was thirteen couldn’t possibly be how she feels at twenty three.
Minjeong makes a conscious decision later that night, to be as professional as she can be towards Yu Jimin. To set up a wall, a boundary. It made the most sense.
Right?
~~
“It is my pleasure to welcome Yu Jimin onto our set today!” The producer of Ordinary Lives made a rare appearance just to introduce the A list celebrity. It showed how serious they were about it.
Minjeong hid behind a crowd of the crew members, already making herself as scarce as possible while Ningning tried her absolute best to be noticed.
She only had a few scenes scheduled for today. After the announcement, Minjeong made a beeline for her trailer. She wasn’t quite ready to face Jimin just yet.
One hour of peace and quiet is what she got before Ningning barged into her trailer with a surprise in tow.
A surprise in the form of Jimin.
Minjeong would be lying if she said she didn’t run through a million different scenarios of their reunion. But this was not one of them.
“I believe you two have met!” Ningning gestures fancily, clearly overjoyed with the situation.
Now would be the time for Minjeong to put on the act she had crafted for this very moment.
Minjeong locks eyes with Jimin, exchanging short but polite nods with each other. A smile tugged at her lips with little to no effort. Everything was going smoothly.
Until Jimin began to speak.
Her voice was huskier than Minjeong remembered. It captivated her more than she would like to admit. Jimin’s long, gorgeous, wavy hair was dyed jet black. Her make up was done on the intense side, which was all the more alluring.
Minjeong felt a nudge on her shoulder. “Get it together.” Ningning whispered under her breath while Jimin gushed about how excited she was to start the show.
“I’m fine.” She whispers back.
She wasn’t.
~~
Jimin would call her first day on set a success. She fell into step with the cast with ease and aced all her scenes. But she wonders if that’s only because she didn’t have scenes with Minjeong yet. Not even a group scene.
She was beating herself up over how nervous she felt when Ningning had brought her into Minjeong’s trailer. She was a babbling fool and Minjeong was calm and collected.
How did she do that?
Jimin sighs. Tomorrow was a new day.