Chapter Text
Sunghoon takes a deep breath.
His chest rises up and down, thick eyebrows furrow, dark hair a mess. His body tenses up as he tries to externalize the words he’s been wanting to say out loud.
“I can’t count how many sleepless nights I’ve spent thinking about you…”
He licks his lower lip, as if the next thing he says will roll off his tongue more easily that way.
“How many days I’ve spent trying not to think about you. How many hours- Do you understand how much of a torture that I went through just to feel relieved whenever your eyes land on me for a second? But I don’t regret it at all. If I knew I would love you this much. I would have loved you from the very first sight. So you’d better hurry up and love me-”
“CUT!”
Yongsun sighs, “Are you confessing your love or are you threatening the poor girl?”
“If it’s up to me.” Sunghoon scratches his nose and goes over his lines on the screenplay again. “We confess first, and if she rejects, we beat-”
“You’re ONE word away from another explosive scandal, you dumbass. I’ve dealt with enough this year!” Yongsun wishes she could fling himself out of the moving car right now, “And who’s ‘we’? I’m not blackmailing any-fucking-one-”
“Calm down…” The menace under her management conveniently asks for a protein bar from his assistant who just jolted awake by the conversation, “I’m saying theoretically, of course, as we are all aware, I’m 90% gay-”
“ANOTHER BOMB WAITING-” Yongsun’s voice screeches, causing both the driver and the assistant to violently flinch, “No I’m definitely quitting. That’s for sure. I’ll willingly be a housewife, and you know what, I’ll recommend your ass to Seokjin-”
“I’m happy to talk to him about refusing all these cringy ass male lead roles.” Sunghoon says, crumbs of oats and raisins fall on his dark grey hoodie, “Because it’s starting to look like these writers never grew out of their high school delusions. What do you mean a 24-year-old… a CEO of a conglomerate at the same time, has enough time to tail a university student around campus, finds out where she lives and tries to move her into his mansion? Because she is - quote unquote - interesting? Does that not sound like some jail time?”
His assistant turns around from the passenger seat.
“You know what?” The younger guy hands Sunghoon a bottle of water, “I agree.”
“Ni-ki,” Yongsun’s eyes filled with unspoken warnings, “mind your business.”
Sunghoon immediately scoffs, “I am the business.”
People could say he’s a narcissist or whatever they want, but they couldn’t say he’s wrong.
“Okay and?” Yongsun looks out tiredly at the large field running on the other side of the window, “Other people would be over the moon. Being typecast is like an infinite glitch of money.”
“That I have enough.” Which is the only peak of barely regulated child labor. Legend has it that the moment Sunghoon’s face first appeared under the bright surgical light, his parents knew he was going to be someone famous. Films, television, reality shows, advertisements. He’s had a decent percentage of contribution in everything.
The downside? It’d take only a coffee break with a random staff from his company, or the previous film crew, or the show that was aired just last month, to know that he has a reputation for being a total diva. In his own rights, of course. According to most of the population, he's extraordinarily good-looking. According to the critics, he’s decently talented despite the questionable career choices. Then no need to mention what the tabloids say about his personality because it only goes downhill from there.
“... This is where I actually agree with the casting directors.” Yongsun shakes her head, “You’re in serious need to touch some grass.”
Sunghoon glances at the greenery outside the car’s window on his side, then yawns and pulls the hood over his head.
“How convenient?” He mutters, chapped lips frowning, “Exactly where we’re heading.”
With a plan to save all of their asses after Sunghoon got caught publicly swearing at another artist on the red carpet and, Yongsun’s still not sure which one was worse, wrongly accused of mistreating his colleague on set - because out of every single time he unleashed the destructive power of his vocabulary, they chose a made-up one - Yongsun decided that it was time for the divine intervention of a low-drama reality TV show. Low stress, on the other hand, is negotiable because she was afraid that without stress, her relentless artist would go around evoking stress on everyone else.
“Consider this a vacation, essentially.” She tries to comfort Sunghoon who is obviously not enthusiastic about the whole situation, “You get to go to the countryside, far away from the crazy fans and paparazzis, you get to eat delicious homemade food, you get to talk to actual people. Isn’t that amaz-”
“I want a lollipop.”
“What?”
“I want-” The other repeats each word of his demand slowly and clearly, “a lollipop.”
He sounds calm, yet the rest of the group can feel this tension bubbling under the surface.
Ni-ki rummages through his bag, “Pretty sure I gave you the last one this morning…”
“Sunghoon…” Yongsun sighs, fingers running over the hair on her head that would all fall off in the next 3 years due to chronic stress, “you have to-”
“Nice. Very nice.” He groans, “Everyone is allowed to be a dick. The press can shove their cameras up my ass everyday. Fans are allowed to steal my trash. That dumb bitch wanted to blackmail me into sleeping with her. BUT-” his voice grows louder and louder, “I am NOT allowed to talk back. I am NOT allowed to be offended. I am NOT allowed to beat them up. I get sent to the fucking countryside like a prison sentence the moment I do as I wish. I am NOT allowed to even SMOKE because it makes you ALL look bad. So can I just have my fucking LOLLIPOP in PEACE?”
The atmosphere inside the car is so dense after his small mental breakdown episode that Ni-ki imagines like he could use a hammer to smash it apart.
“But…” he mumbles it like a whisper, scared that he would only escalate the situation, “we ran out…”
“Stop.” Yongsun suddenly says. “Stop the car.”
The driver quietly nods and eventually, the vehicle comes to a stop on the side of the road.
Yongsun leans over to grab the handle and open the car door.
“Get out.” She tells Sunghoon, “get the fuck out.”
“... Why?” The hesitation contradicts his earlier rage, “You want to leave me here?”
“Exactly.”
“But-” His confusion seems to be replaced with cautiousness, “why?”
“Maybe I can-” Ni-ki wonders how he could get Sunghoon out of this punishment.
“Nah.” Yongsun interrupts, “Let him go.”
“But where do I go?” Sunghoon insists.
“This idiot…” His manager exclaims under her breath and points out the window at a small house among an overgrown garden with vegetables displayed out front and strings of candy packs hung outside, “That shop over there. Go inside and buy yourself a hundred lollipops or whatever. Ni-ki-”
She stops Ni-ki who is about to get off with Sunghoon.
“If he wants it so bad, he can get it himself.” Yongsun pulls out her wallet and gives Sunghoon some money, “In case your card doesn’t work.”
“... Seriously?” Sunghoon takes the cash and crumples it in his palm, “Fine. Whatever.”
He gets out of the car and slams the door in everyone’s face, not forgetting to flip Yongsun off before walking away.
“What a brat…” The target of the insult breathes.
“Should we be…” Ni-ki asks her, “worried?”
“Fuck it.” Yongsun leans back on the seat and closes her eyes to rest amidst the rare silence, “We’re in the middle of nowhere. What’s the worst thing that can happen?”
Sunghoon looks around with not much curiosity, for the first time taking in the change of scenery around him. Not much is happening, in contrast to the bustling city streets of skyscrapers and moving cars. Mainly trees. A lot of trees. Flowers in the front garden. Ivy climbing over the fence and on the rooftop. Chickens running around pecking at stones and pebbles. A black cat sleeping soundly on the wooden table, next to the variety of fresh vegetables. He could hear the birds chirping from the tree branches high up and the bees buzzing around the wild rose bushes.
“... Hello?” He looks around to see if anyone is there, “Good afternoon?”
As he expects, no one responds to him, except for the friendly cat that just got up and went over to check out the newcomer.
“Hi?” It’s like speaking into the void at this point.
“Fuck...” Sunghoon kicks the rocks under his feet and mutters to himself while petting the cat’s little head, “All I want is a lollipop, for fuck’s sake…”
He stands there without a good idea of what to do next, anything but coming back inside the car and hearing Yongsun’s voice again. At least no one is actively trying to disturb his peace out here, so he stays and watches the time pass aimlessly.
Around what feels like five minutes later, he gets snapped out of his daydreaming by someone coming in from behind him.
“Hi!”
Sunghoon turns around to see the owner of that voice dressed in a rather flashy outfit. A jean matching set, metal frame sunglasses sitting low on his nose bridge, his skin a healthy tan color, a stark difference from Sunghoon’s sickly pale one.
“Oh!” The person is holding a huge box of potatoes, “You’re-”
Sunghoon is about to confirm that he is indeed the Park Sunghoon on TV.
“-not from here!”
His neck stops moving, but after a brief moment, he continues to nod.
“Yes.” He touches his nose awkwardly, “I’m here for work.”
“Oh…” The other guy puts down the potatoes and scratches the black cat’s ears, “The TV show! I never really watch TV in the first place so I don’t know much, but they asked for our help with the accommodation and filming. I mean they pay, too, so...”
Sunghoon has to admit it is a bit refreshing to not be recognized by someone.
“Sorry for the wait.” He takes off his jacket and the tank top underneath revealing the arm muscles one could only get from intensive labor work, “Grandma often takes a nap at this hour. Normally Sun- my cousin would take care of the shop but he obviously neglected his duty… How can I help?”
Sunghoon was just distracted by comparing his own muscles to ones he is seeing and questioning if he should spend more hours in the gym, then now is a little self-conscious to ask for something as childish as a lollipop.
“I-” He stutters and looks to the side, “Can I- Do you have some… lollipops?”
The guy blinks at him.
“I mean- I um- I’m trying to quit smoking, so I need something in my mouth to lessen the- why does it sound weird like that? Anyway-”
His messy explanation gets cut off by the laughter.
“No, I get it.” The person in front of him says, “I resorted to that, too, once upon a time. Can you believe in the end I got cavities from all the sugar? But that’s surely better than lung cancer…”
He brings over the box of lollipops found on one of the shelves behind him.
“Pick which flavors you want. My treat.”
Sunghoon doesn’t really care and just picks two random ones on top.
“Thank you, uh-”
“Jay. You’re welcome. I bet you’ll have a great time here.”
“Hahaha…” Sunghoon chuckles dryly, “I bet…”
Jay excuses himself to go inside after while Sunghoon thinks about how long he will get scolded for taking so long only to get two lollipops. He peels off the wrapper of one lollipop, drops the other into his pants’ pocket, then almost spits it out after the extremely sour flavor of lemon dominates his taste bud.
“Perfect…” He complains, “What’s next?”
An overwhelmingly loud honk answers his question immediately.
“What the-” Sunghoon jumps at the noise, “a… duck?”
The intimidating growl comes from a big, white duck. On her very long neck ties a baby pink bandana. She stands proudly with two feet wide apart, in between him and the car outside. The feathers fluff up as if she is ready to pounce on him at any minute.
“You.” Sunghoon points at the duck, “You don’t bite, right?”
The duck opens her beak to hiss at him, and Sunghoon couldn’t remember if a duck looks like this in the textbook because he’s barely touched a textbook thanks to, again, child labor, but there are these sharp, pointy teeth in between her jaw.
That’s no duck. That’s a descendant of the dinosaurs.
“J-Jay?”
He doesn’t hear a reply. So he carefully takes a step forward.
The duck also takes a few steps closer to him.
“That’s not fair? You’re only supposed to take one!”
As soon as he sees its pace quicken, Sunghoon’s survival instinct kicks in and he runs for his life. Which he probably shouldn’t do, because he gets chased around the front garden right after. The faster he bolts, the faster he feels the little devil behind him also becomes.
“AHH WHAT THE FUCKKK??” His screaming overlaps with the angry honks, “WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK???”
After the second round, he manages to break out of the circle and heads for the car.
“OPEN THE DOOR!!” He screams at the people inside, “OPEN THE- OH MY GODDD!!!”
He senses a pair of teeth coming for his right calf, and the skyrocketing sense of panic makes him take a sudden left turn. The car is now too much of a dead end and he can’t afford to count on anyone inside the car.
Thus run he does, further and further away from their car. The window rolls down a few seconds later, revealing his assistant’s frightened expression.
“Did we just… lose him?”
The manager, on another hand, is enjoying her new found peace a little too much.
“Do you know pigeons can fly home from a distance of 2000 kilometers?” She says, eyes still squeezing shut, “He’ll come back.”
Sunghoon is unable to tell how long he has run, since everywhere he looks, he sees the same thing - the endless road ahead of him and a lot, a lot of trees. No one in sight to help. Whenever he turns around, he is still being followed by that same vicious white duck. He is absolutely desperate for some kind of spiritual intervention or divine timing, or whatever they call it, to take place because his legs are worn down and he is getting slower by the second.
“Elizabeth!”
In the haziness of the chaotic moment, a high-pitched voice joins the chase, “ELIZABETHHH!! STOP!! BAD GIRL!! ELIZABETH!!!”
But he doesn’t look behind and keeps forcing himself to move forward.
“HEYY!!”
Sunghoon ignores the voice.
“STRANGER!!” The person starts running after him, too, “YOU CAN STOP NOWWW!!”
Sunghoon’s mind is still on high alert, yet a part of him is subconsciously reassured by that voice. He slows down and eventually, his feet give up. He doesn’t care about anything anymore and falls directly on the empty road, trying to catch his breath among the lightheadedness, blurry vision sketching the face of the person holding the duck, crouching down in front of him.
“Are you okay?” He asks, voice filled with worry, “I’m so sorry! She’s never attacked anyone so I didn’t think-”
Sunghoon is speechless. In the worst way possible.
Deep down, he has the full acknowledgement that he is looking like a complete idiot, but on the surface, his eyes cannot help but widen, his jaw cannot help but loosen, mouth agape. He gawks at the other guy, his pink cheeks and face consisting of only curve lines, full, pouty pink lips frowning. The front pocket of his overall is stuffed with ripe peaches. When he takes his straw hat off, his light brown eyes sparkle under the sun like the shiny pebbles Sunghoon used to obsessively collect when he was six and bored around the film set.
“I-” He murmurs in between his ragged breath, “If I…”
“Yeah?” The person leans closer.
Everything else had left his temporary memory. Everything but one single line from that shitty script he read out loud thirty minutes ago.
“If I had known I would love you this much, I would have loved you at the very first sight…”
A minute of silence passes by them with the wind and the other guy just barely recollects himself from the shock.
“Give me a minute…” He holds his menace of a duck with one hand and whips out his phone with the other.
“... Jay?” He spoke into the phone, “Can you come over here real quick? My goose chased this guy down the street and now he is-” he lowers his voice and whispers, “kind of unstable, like he’s imagining things, I fear-”
“...Goose?” Sunghoon mumbles and automatically takes the peach handed to him.
“Yeah.” The other flashes him an apologetic smile, “We’re like 300 meters away to the left. You’ll see us right away. Okay…”
“Alright, help is coming!” He concludes after the phone call, “I’m Sunoo, in case you wanna sue?”
“Sunghoon…” It’d been a long time since he had to introduce himself twice in the span of an hour, “Definitely. That… thing you have-” his chin gestures at the goose restrained in Sunoo’s arms, “illegal.”
“Sung…hoon?” Sunoo gasps, “Wait! You’re-”
Sunghoon’s head moves up and down slightly, “-not from here-”
“-the dickhead on TV!”
“... Dickhead.” He reiterated blankly.
“Not you!” The other guy instantly corrects himself, “Sorry, your character. Though sometimes you play him so well I start doubting if you’re also like that in real life. No offense, my grandma is a huge fan. She has to see you every Friday at 8 o’clock.”
“None taken.” Sunghoon found it ridiculous how he was having a casual conversation with someone in such a strange circumstance, “People say I'm a dick in real life, too.”
Sunoo burst into giggles, tips of his fingers gently brushing the goose feathers.
“You don’t seem like one to me.”
Sunghoon leans back and leaves all the weight of his body on his two palms pressing on the dirty road, looking at the blue sky above their heads.
“It’s because you don’t know me yet, Sunoo…”
“Well then, Sunghoon,” Sunoo’s laughters are soft and melodic, like a breezy summer afternoon, “I’d love to.”
Sunghoon is still debating with himself whether this is flirting or not because, as another handsome fellow, he is aware that everything coming out of their pretty mouths often sounds like irregular excitement and special interest, when he sees Sunoo cheerfully waving his arms at the mini truck coming their way.
“Hello again!” He finally sees Jay in the driver seat when it arrives, “I thought for sure that was you!”
“...” So the whole ‘have a great time here’ was just for show.
Ni-ki is on level 5 in the mobile game he downloaded twenty minutes ago and Yongsun is texting Seokjin about how the actor she’s in charge of got chased away by a goose when the truck that just passed them comes back in the opposite direction.
“Yongsun, look!”
She glances up at the perfect timing to catch Sunghoon in the back of the minitruck, among the mountain of potatoes. He has half of a juicy peach in his mouth, middle finger up while he glares at them in the eyes as he glides by in slow motion. Whoever is driving him seems to be having so much fun, the joyous chatter reaches them all the way through the closed windows.
“Did we just lose him again?” Ni-ki truly doesn’t know what else to say.
Yongsun’s phone pings, notifying her of the new message.
“See… What the spoiled brat needed was never a lollipop.” She straightens the wrinkles on her dress and taps on the driver’s shoulder so he follows the minitruck ahead of them.
That peach is the best thing Sunghoon has eaten all year, which causes him to wonder where the company staff often buy their fruit, because even though those things look perfect on the outside, shiny green muscats and bright red apples, the taste is often one-dimensionally sweet and bland.
Understandable. Nothing can replicate the taste of biting into a pink, juicy peach in the back of a moving truck while all the wind and dirt of the countryside hit you in the face. The air smells like - he doesn’t have a specific word for it - some freshness from the growing plants and coolness of the abundant water, plus the chicken poop that makes him scrunch his nose every five minutes.
Jay said he knew where they were all going, so Sunghoon took his words and hopped on the back of his truck. It totally wasn’t because of his pretty cousin with his pocket full of peaches and the crazy murderous goose now suspiciously behaving herself at all.
Sunoo turns around from his seat and says something against the wind that Sunghoon cannot catch on the other side of the dusty window. Their eyes meet and he giggles, smiling eyes shaped like half moons.
Sunghoon catches himself smiling back and only then does he remember to spit out the seed in his mouth.
“Damn it…” the muscles on his face fight hard to push the stubbornly raised corners of his mouth back down, “I’m really just a man…”
Yongsun and Ni-ki follow Jay’s minitruck straight to the supposed meeting site for the whole crew, which is surprisingly convenient. When they pull up at the front yard, the staff are already waiting for them outside the cultural center building - decently sized considering the remote area - and inside the hall with all the filming equipment.
“You have five minutes to authentically express your feelings. All the nastiest words you have, you must spill them out now.” AD Jeon - or Jungkook, the only person who has enough connections and faith in Sunghoon to invite him on the show - tells him as soon as he arrives without questioning the method of commuting, “I see you’ve already met your short-term landlord.”
“Who?” Sunghoon’s shirt gets stuck on the corner of one of the potato boxes as he tries to get off.
“Good afternoon!” Jay comes out to help him.
“Good afternoon!” Jungkook shakes his hand eagerly, “Sorry for the trouble.”
He glances at Sunghoon with a lot of implications.
“Don’t worry about it.” Jay says good-naturedly, “A worthy investment. I’ll need his help in the future, won’t I?”
“With what?”
“Of course! Though I’m not sure who’ll help who in the end.” The AD shrugs, hand cupping his mouth to hide the whisper, “This kid is absolutely spoiled.”
“I can hear that.” Sunghoon’s eyes shift back and forth between them like he’s watching badminton.
“Sunoo was the same-”
“Hey!” The person finally speaks up upon the mention of his name. He still sits inside with the goose wrapped in a towel on his lap, head peeking out the window.
“Now he’s used to it.” Jay sticks his tongue out at him, which childish behavior takes everyone but his cousin aback. “Can’t say he’s exceptional, though.”
“Not with the way he’s handling his… exotic pet.” Sunghoon, at last, finds a way to include himself in the conversation.
Sunoo rolls his eyes among the laughter and Jungkook’s confused expression.
“Good afternoon!”
Yongsun and Ni-ki finally catch up with the big bags and heavy suitcase.
“Why though?” Jungkook is puzzled by the scene. Ni-ki has no free hand left on him to even shake.
“Ask him.”
“Okay, you have three minutes.” The AD repeats before he gets called inside by another staff member.
“Kid,” Yongsun says all of a sudden, hand searching for the business cards in her purse, “do you want to be famous?”
It takes Sunghoon a second to understand she isn’t talking to him, but the guy in the truck.
Sunoo’s long eyelashes flutter, “No, thank you.”
“No?” She sounds disappointed, “You won’t change your mind?”
“Ever.” The sternness in his voice negates the constant sweet smile on his face.
Yongsun huffs and returns the judgmental look from the rest of the group, “At least I tried?”
She introduces herself and Ni-ki after. Nothing much to say, only two amateur trouble cleaners for the professional troublemaker standing over there with yet another peach in his possession.
“Can I have one, too?” Ni-ki is curious.
“Yes.” Sunoo tosses one into the hood of his jacket, “Don’t forget about it.”
“What do you do here?” Ni-ki asks him while Jay explains to Yongsun the crew’s arrangement.
“A lot.” Sunoo pets the goose’s head with the back of his palms, “But at the same time, it feels like I’m doing nothing.”
“How come?” Sunghoon takes one of the bags from his assistant and pulls the strap over his shoulder.
“Umm…” Sunoo pretends to contemplate, “You won’t understand.”
“Excuse me?” The other jokingly gasps and walks closer to the truck window, one arm resting on the edge, “You don’t know that!”
Ni-ki’s eyes twitch as he watches the pair in front of him going back and forth and thinks to himself that he’s playing the perfectly invisible assistant role. The bantering only stops when Elizabeth pecks on Sunghoon’s hand for some extra chaos.
“I’ll take them back to my grandma’s.” Jay says when Jungkook calls them in, “See you later.”
Sunoo has to hold the goose back from her aggressive honking at Sunghoon when he walks away into the crowd of people with Yongsun and Ni-ki.
“What’s wrong with you today?”
He unties the bandana on her neck and redoes the knot. The goose nuzzles her head in the nook between his neck and shoulder and, just like that, every wrongdoing is forgiven.
Jay gets in the driver seat and turns on the engine.
“Interesting people, huh?” He fixes the mirror.
Sunoo’s lips quickly curl into another frown.
“He doesn’t remember me.”
His mumbling disappears into the deep rumbling sound, “Dickhead.”