UNO
She really was a little fox.
Seulgi seemed to have some insight when she first called her that. It's just that her performance was overacted, and looked rather fake. Using such a cliched approach was more akin to the petty jealousies of middle schoolers.
But, perhaps it suited the tastes of certain people.
Irene's feet were throbbing from standing to the side, so she simply found a place to sit, and focused her attention on her script.
Lisa seemed to have noticed the focus of her gaze, shooting her a glance with those pitch-black eyes, before then gracing Irene with an ambiguous smile.
Irene's eyelid kept on twitching.
Was this an omen that she was about to fall out of favor?
Of course, there were no flowers that didn't wither and nothing that lasted forever but to lose at the hands of a little fox-like Karina felt a bit pathetic.
Karina successfully completed her injury act, and finally got her wish when Lisa drove her to the hospital. Only then did Irene stand up to straighten her clothes, she asked the make-up artist for a touch-up and continued to wait for the next scene to start filming.
"Who would fall so easily like that? Was it really just because she lost her balance?" The crew members were inevitably muttered while cleaning up the set.
Some had heard things through the rumor mill, who couldn't help but glance at Irene.
Irene responded to them all with a smile.
As a matter of fact, it wasn't easy to fake a smile, it needed to look friendly and natural without a hint of pretense, which really tested one's abilities. As she only had this one presentable acting skill, she obviously needed to make good use of it.
There were no dates that night, when she went home she was still humming Karina's ballad.
▒ ▒ ▒
When she arrived on set the next day, Karina had unexpectedly gotten there bright and early. Word was that she had twisted her ankle, by all rights she should have taken a break for a few days. But she was afraid to delay the film crew's work and had insisted on coming in.
That's right, a serious injury needed a hundred days to treat, and since that little fox had someone pick her up every day, day in and day out, how could she not come to show off with how clearly smug she was?
Rather, it was Lisa whose thoughts were much more difficult to fathom. She obviously was showering her new sweetheart with attention, but at the same time, she was in no hurry to ditch the old love, Irene.
Was she dead set on embracing someone to her left and right?
It wasn't as if Irene couldn't understand. At times when her thoughts wandered, she would imagine what it would feel like for her to have Karina on her left arm and Seulgi on her right...
As for Lisa? Hmm, Lisa would be in outer space.
For an entire two weeks, other than texts and phone calls, Lisa of outer space, didn't meet with Irene at all. Instead, it was her manager who called her first, telling her to attend a wrap-up party. Kim Ruby Jane, the big shot Director Kim, had won an award abroad for one of her art-house films. As Loud agency had been an investor, naturally they would have to show something on their part. Irene, through Lisa's connections, had acted in one of Director Kim's films before, as a result, she was also invited to join.
As Irene was bored with nothing to do anyway, so she found some time to tidy her hair and then headed out after picking a white dress to wear.
The wrap-up party was in a buffet style, the location was at the top floor of a high-class hotel. The beautiful night view of this city could be clearly seen through the floor-length windows, many guests were decked out in dazzling clothes, luxurious and decadent.
Irene lifted her eyes to take a look around, there were quite a few familiar faces, she could only greet them all in turn as she made her way in. When she had finished, she went to offer her congratulations to PD Kim, who was surrounded by a throng of people.
PD Kim's clothes, personality, and even appearance were all casual, heedless of other people; the only thing that could be said to excite her was probably filming. But she didn't like filming those profitable melodramatic movies; she liked to film that didn't earn much money, lauded by critics, but not by the audience.
If it wasn't Lisa putting forth all this money and effort to help her Atelier production house, then she really wouldn't have been able to make so many films.
Irene had almost screwed up PD Kim's movie before with her acting, which was why as soon as PD Kim saw her, she pulled a face like she was facing her mortal enemy, as if PD Kim was terrified of a recurring nightmare and had to witness that horrendous acting once again.
Such an unaffected person was pretty interesting too.
Irene was rather fond of her, when she offered up her congratulations her smile was much more genuine than usual, making her face look all the more beautiful.
On the contrary, PD Kim did not appreciate her intentions and looked as if she wanted to get away from her as fast as possible.
Irene was inwardly found this hilarious.
At that moment, Lisa walked in the door with her date on her arm. Her date was the radiantly good looking, Shin Seung Ho. His looks weren't strikingly handsome, but the confident light in his eyes allowed his to outshine every other male star there, regardless of their fame.
Even so, the first thing that Irene saw was still the gentle and refined Lisa.
It really was only a single look.
She immediately averted her gaze, took a glass of wine, and quietly retreated to a corner.
Recently, Shin Seung Ho was in the limelight, his duet album with Mina Myoi was selling out, and film contracts followed without end. No wonder Lisa showed up with him in attendance. She had always been able to make the distinction between the ones who were kept around for fun, and the ones who could be brought out to make an appearance.
As Irene sipped the wine she thought, that little fox must be beyond disappointed, that she couldn't come by to join in the fun. Irene was just about to smile when she saw Seung Ho's graceful, lithe form gliding towards her.
Seung Ho was once her bodyguard when she was in her girl group, so they weren't total strangers. Now the two of them were reunited again in the same agency, they were somewhat familiar with one another and able to dispense with much of the formalities.
"Why aren't you dancing?" Seung Ho simply asked. Later, Mina who happened a little bit late, came to greet Seung Ho, and joined to their conversation.
Irene winked, and answered in a sincere tone, "If I were able to ask for a handsome man such as you as my dance partner, I'd be willing to, even if I broke my leg during the dance."
Hearing that, Seung Ho laughed, "Don't mind if I smoke?"
"Please, help yourself."
Seung Ho tapped out a cigarette from his case, lit it gracefully, and took a slow, languid drag. He looked quite cool with his eyes half-closed.
Irene admired this type of man the most. If she liked men, she would definitely choose someone like Seung Ho.
Mina saw that Irene was staring at Seung Ho, so she poked him and then waved the cigarette case in his hand, "One for you too?"
"No, I don't smoke."
"Ah," Mina nodded knowingly, and said with a smile, "Lisa-ssi doesn't like the smell."
Irene's smile was full of hidden meanings.
It was fine even if she admitted it, she had in fact figured out every single one of Lisa's preferences and was careful at all times in her everyday lifestyle
"You get back what you give," Mina measured her up from head to toe, "No wonder Lisa's so taken with you, she's already helped pave all the roads for you."
"How could I compare to you, Miss Myoi? No one set up any bridges or paved any roads for you, and you're still so popular and famous with the world at your feet."
All women loved to hear flattery, and Mina was no exception. She sipped her drink, turned her head to look at Lisa who was mingling with the guests.
"You've been by her side for so long, were you never tempted? Rich and young, and her looks aren't bad. Most important is the kindness and the consideration, the generosity, and the ability to give you both the fame and the fortune...with someone like that, it's very easy to fall for her." Mina smiled a bit.
Irene didn't know if Mina was one of them.
She followed her line of sight and looked at the gently smiling Lisa, without a hint of hesitation, her answer came immediately, "Those are just false pretenses."
Lisa saw them from a distance, she raised her wine glass to them and made her way over in large strides.
Seung Ho then ended this subject and turning to making some small talk. After Lisa joined them, the four of them talked and exchanged a few laughs, then Seung Ho and Mina quickly made their excuses and left.
Irene touched her cup to Lisa's, and trotted out her prepared opening, "It's been a long time."
"It's only been half a month, is that supposed to be a long time?" She then asked, "What were you talking about with them just now?"
"I wanted to ask Seung Ho-ssi for a dance, but I didn't succeed. Mina-ssi also didn't look want to dance."
"Hmm, her physical conditions lately won't allow her to dance, she..."
"Bzzzt..."
Lisa's sentence was only half finished when her phone began to ring. She gestured towards Irene, pulled out her phone and pressed the accept call button, and walked out of the clamorous venue as she talked into the phone.
Irene lounged nearby holding her wine glass. She waited for almost 20 minutes before she saw Lisa come back in. She thought that the other would return and continue the previous topic of conversation, but Lisa instead simply came to a stop, leaning against a wall and a somewhat tired furrow in her brows.
Tired?
Not long ago, her face was full of pleasant smiles, and now after taking one phone call, she was already this tired out?
At that moment, someone made a ruckus telling PD Kim to take the stage and make a speech about winning an award. PD Kim could hardly refuse and went up to say a few words. She had never been the eloquent and articulate type and ran out of words only a few sentences in, so she ended up anxiously asking Lisa to save the show. Lisa took a deep breath, straightened her dress, braced herself, and took the stage.
Irene attentively listened to every sentence out of her mouth.
From beginning to end, there were in total three mistakes. Twice she forgot her lines and zoned out, once a mispronunciation. For an occasion like today, Lisa would definitely have prepared ahead of time. How could someone like her, who demanded perfection in all areas, constantly make mistakes? Then tonight...wouldn't this be the chance of a lifetime?
Irene felt her heart jump erratically, her palms were a bit sweaty.
She slowly lifted her head, staring for a while at the sparkling chandelier attached to the ceiling. And then she took the opportunity while everyone was enthusiastically applauding to slip quietly out of the banquet hall.
When Lisa came down from the stage, she just happened to glimpse Irene's back as she was leaving.
She did have a few things she wanted to say at first, but she really was tired out, so she didn't try to call out to Irene to stop her.
After she drank a few more cups of wine, she could feel her temples throbbing, and a dull pain began to spread to her forehead. Anyway, this wrap-up party didn't really need her for anything else, Lisa thought to herself, and following Irene's example, left the venue early.
▒ ▒ ▒
The night breeze of autumn carried with it a slight chill.
Blown about by the wind, Lisa's headache grew even worse. She saw that her car was waiting for her in front of the doors, so she pulled open the door to the backseat, waved her hand.
"Home." And she closed her eyes amidst the sound of the car's engine starting.
The streets were deserted, with only the neon lights by the road still glowing. Lisa closed her eyes for a moment, and she vaguely felt like she had fallen asleep. When she awoke the car had already stopped. She lifted her head to look out the window, but it wasn't the doors to her own home.
"What's wrong? Did we break down along the way?"
The inside of the car didn't have any lights on, and in the dark, only a vague figure of someone in the driver's seat could be seen. The driver who usually responded promptly to all questions actually didn't even make a sound. Lisa finally noticed that something wasn't quite right. Tonight, her frame of mind hadn't been good, and she had missed a lot of details.
When she got into the car just now... it seemed like she hadn't gotten a good look at the driver's face?
― 7 ―
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