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Chapter 14
IT’S BELOW FREEZING WHEN I LEAVE MY APARTMENTon New Year’s Eve, which puts me in a crabbier mood than usual as I ride the bus to Namsan Tower. While on the bus, I can’t shake the feeling that someone’s watching me.
At first, I think it’s just my paranoia. But then I start to notice things: The man in a brown coat who’s been sitting silently behind me for this entire bus ride. The woman who has her phone by her ear but is only occasionally talking—way too infrequently to be having a real conversation with someone. The most tell-tale sign that I’m being followed is the guy with a DSLR that stares at me while adjusting his lens, occasionally snapping pictures when I look away.
Word must have gotten out that Bryan and I are going on a date. But how? Did someone tip off the paparazzi?
I send Sophia a text.
Hey, I think I’m being followed. Do you know if there’s been a leak?
Dots appear as Sophia types up a message only to disappear again. I wait for a response, but none comes. Knowing her, she must either be busy dealing with one of her other clients or trying to gather more concrete information before she replies to me.
Well, I think.I guess I’m in this alone for now.
Sophia said they’d have more security on-site for the actual date, but I hoped I’d also have some peace and quiet by myself beforehand. I guess not.
As the bus approaches the stop at the base of the mountain, I rack my brain for my different transportation options. I was originally going to walk up the trail to the tower, but that’s definitely not an option now. Getting tailed by paparazzi as I huff and puff my way up a mountain? No thank you. I can always make a run for it, but that’s a worst-case scenario.
There’s also a cable car that goes up to the summit, but I’d have to time it right. From the bus stop, I’d have to run to the elevator that goes up to the cable car platform and, once I’m up there, wait in line to buy a ticket before I actually get in a car. Any wrong move and I could end up stuck with the journalists in either the elevator, the line, or the cable car.
I look out the window. We’re fast approaching the stop, and then I’ll have to somehow get out of the bus and beat everyone to the cable car platform. Unfortunately, the bus is pretty packed, and I’m sitting toward the back.
I probably won’t make it, but I have to try.
The moment the bus comes to a stop, I bolt out of my seat, bowing and apologizing to people as I push forward to the front.
“Excuse me! Pardon me! Sorry! Coming through!”
Please... please!I get a lot of glares and mean looks, but I pretend not to see them. Elbows and backpacks shove into me as I press on. It gets claustrophobic and I’m gasping for air when finally I reach the sidewalk below.
A loud commotion comes from behind me on the bus.
“Coming through! Coming through!”
“Hey, watch it!”
“Get out of the way!”
I dash forward as fast as I can. I’m almost to the elevator when I hear cameras going off behind me. I curse under my breath and slow down. As desperate as I am to escape, the last thing I want to do is end up on the front page of the entertainment news looking like a hot mess.
Fortunately, the elevator door slides open just as I reach it. A stream of people exits and walks past me. I shift my weight from one foot to another as I wait for everyone to get off.Come on... Come on...Most of the people in the crowd are taller than me, so I can’t look over their heads to see how close the journalists are.
As soon as the last person gets off, I push forward so I’m the first to get on the elevator. Aggressively shoving through people like this would be considered really rude back in myquiet Floridian hometown, but here in a bustling capital city like Seoul, it’s pretty normal, so no one gives me a second glance.
The more non-journalist people that get in the elevator, the more I find myself relaxing. And when the elevator closes without any of the paparazzi getting on, I breathe a deep sigh of relief.
The elevator is unfortunately see-through, though, so I see the journalists catch up just as we start moving. A few bang the doors of the elevator, earning dirty looks from the other people inside with me.
My heart still pounding in my ears, I watch the paparazzi get smaller and smaller as the elevator slides up to the cable car platform.
When I reach the line for cable car tickets, I see Bryan and two security guards, surrounded by a small but rapidly growing crowd of fans. I’ve never felt so relieved to see Bryan’s face.
“There you are,” Bryan says. “I was beginning to wonder if you’d make it. My team reserved a cable car for us so we could go up to the tower in peace. Come on.”
Once Bryan and I are alone inside the cable car, I press my forehead against the cold glass wall, watching the snow-covered trees on the mountainside shrink as we slowly move up. I hadn’t noticed how fast my heart was beating before now, and I close my eyes for a bit and take a few calming breaths.
I don’t know how Bryan and other celebrities can live like this. I know this is something I have to get used to, especially if I want to keep pursuing my career as an actress. But I wish I could have eased more into it first, instead of getting thrown right into the deep end.
