Page 29 of Flip the Script


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“Sora-ya...” Bryan whispers.

“I do remember, okay?” I reply, my voice breaking. “Is that what you want me to say to you? I remember everything. But I didn’t tell you because—because...”

In my peripheral vision, I catch sight of Minjee staring at us. Her mouth is slightly open, like she’s surprised.

I pull away from Bryan and start walking away.

“Kang Sora!” Bryan cries out, stopping me in my tracks. Chills run down my spine. The hair rises from the back of my neck. Nothing feels better than this, than being so completely in the moment with other actors who are putting their all into a scene as much as you are. My skin continues to tingle as he goes on. “Wait. Please, wait. There must be a reason why we remember everything. Why onlyus? Why are we the only ones who remember our past lives? And why did we end up meeting each other again? Out of the billions of people alive on thisplanet right now?”

I turn on my heel and clench my fists. Bryan’s eyes are shining, like he’s about to cry, too. He’sreallygood.

“Only pain and suffering will come out of dwelling on the past. They killed us to keep us apart before. And they’ll do that again without so much as a blink.”

The shock on Bryan’s face is so genuine that it’s like I reached out and slapped him.

I shake my head. “I’ve said too much. Please, if you really care about me, pretend you don’t know me.”

When I turn around this time, I make sure my arm is within reach of Bryan so he can grab it. Without missing a beat, he pulls me close to him in a tight but gentle hug. K-drama cliché number two: the backward pull-hug cliffhanger ending.

I turn around, and for four long heartbeats, we stare into each other’s eyes before Director Cha yells, “Cut! That was excellent! Let’s get in some tighter shots for this scene and then we’ll be all set for today.”

“Boom,” Bryan whispers as we reset to our original positions. He winks at me. “We’ve still got it.”

I smile, more than a little half-heartedly. I’m glad at least one thing stayed the same.

I’m waiting for the bus when someone taps me on the shoulder. Thinking it’s a fan, I plaster on a smile and turn around, only to see it’s Minjee.

“Hey,” she says.

“Hey.”

I try my best not to fidget or otherwise appear surprised. Meanwhile, Minjee’s shoulders are relaxed, but there’s unmistakable tension in her face.

“I just want to apologize,” she says after a long moment of silence. “I should have told you about me landing this role. It all happened really fast, and this is a show I very much wanted to be involved in. I should have told you, but honestly, I didn’t know how. I know how much this show means to you, too. Are you mad at me?”

The moment she asks me the question, I realize I’m not. Not anymore. Her apology seems genuine, and at the end of the day, none of this is her fault. Mr. Kim and the other higher-ups are the ones that devised this whole mess in the first place. They’re the ones who decided that Bryan and I should fake-datewhile alsohiring Minjee behind our backs. How can I be angry at her for just following her passion like I am?

“Nah,” I say. “I was just caught off guard. I wish you’d told me. Even a quick text would have been nice.”

“Yeah... I know. It was so nice to be talking to you regularly again. I guess I was afraid to ruin things.”

Hearing that Minjee likes chatting with me, too, makes my heart squeeze. But no matter how glad I am we’re friends again, I can’t ignore our current situation.

“Honestly, I just find it funny and sad that we ended up together again like this,” I say. “Acting on opposite sides of a show so people all over the world can watch us fight overthe same guy. It’s likeLes Misérables2.0. Lim-seonsaeng-nim would besoproud.”

Minjee grins back at me. Mr. Lim was the highly strict drama teacher we had last year who was notorious for making kids cry for “the good of acting.” He was into critically acclaimed musicals and highbrow cinema, so he’d probably cringe in pain if he saw that his two top students were acting in a messy, melodramatic love triangle on TV.

“Hey, if that’s what the people want,” Minjee replies. “Lim-seonsaeng’s tastes were really boring anyway.”

“True. But is this love triangle really what everyone wants?”

Minjee sighs. “Hopefully. I guess we’ll find out when the ratings come out for this episode. This one premieres next Saturday, right?”

I nod at her, my mind whirring to process the fact that Minjee just questioned the writers’ decision to bring her onto the show in the first place. I hate love triangles, but if I were in her shoes, I would have seized this opportunity without hesitation. Then again, since her family is practically K-drama royalty, she’s not as desperate for roles as I am. That’s the big difference between the two of us.

“Well, regardless of whether this whole love triangle thing works or not, I hope you know that I’m obviously going to do my best on the show,” Minjee says. “I swear, Bryan and I are just friends. So I promise I won’t try to steal him in real life or anything. But inFated Destiny, I’m going to try my best to be the girl that everyone deems to be the better endgame forHyun. It’s nothing personal. Just business. And I expect you to try your best, too. Give me a run for my money, like you did at school.”

Even though I know we’re being silly and that our performances probably won’t even influence what happens in the actual script, the idea of competing against her in our own secret game is thrilling. Suddenly, all the changes don’t seem so scary and big anymore. It feels like we’re back in school, just engaging in some friendly competition.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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