After a month of overseeing and training at Moon Actors, Sarang was finally able to work on projects. All her projects for the year have been meticulously planned so Sarang can work, study and have enough rest. Now that Yejun is also in demand with commercials and ads, the company was able to squeeze in projects they can work in together.
"Manager, I'm a little bit nervous. This is my first audition in a while. A-and without my mom too." Said Sarang to her manager.
"Do not worry Sarang, Yejun will be on the audition as well. We will pick him up later at the company and we will all go together." Assured her manager.
Somehow the thought of Yejun being with her during the audition gave her comfort. The role they are auditioning in are teen versions of the female and male leads of the story. The story revolves around two young teens discovering young love and being separated as they head towards high school. Reading the script, Sarang could already see that there are lots of scenes where the characters hug and hold hands. For a teen like Sarang, this could be awkward and embarrassing. She hasn't even held another boy's hand even in her previous projects.
It would be nice if I can act along Yejun for the lovey dovey scenes.I can't imagine myself doing it with another. Sarang thought to herself.
****
Sarang and her manager picked up Yejun at the agency and proceeded to go the audition site. There are a lot of teens their age at the venue. There are also teen actors and actresses who are more prominent than her. It made her nervous and almost in a state of panic. She can't believe not having her mom there can cause her to panic.
Yejun noticed Sarang feeling uncomfortable and immediately held her hands. Sarang was surprised and faced Yejun.
"Are you alright?" Asked Yejun in a worried tone.
"Huh? Ah yes. I-I'm alright. Are you ready for the audition?" Sarang responded with a nervous smile.
"I am nervous, but I am also very excited. This is my first time auditioning for a bigger role." Answered Yejun excitedly.
The excitement from Yejun's voice made Sarang feel a little bit better. It seemed like his enthusiasm has affected her in a good way.
****
The audition was done closed door style. Yejun was sad he was not able to see how Sarang does her audition. But of course, he thinks Sarang did well. Yejun also thinks his audition was good and he was reviewing if there are things he can do better in next time.
Yejun and his manager were waiting for Sarang to finish and noticed that she is taking longer than the others. After some time, Sarang went out of the audition room, and everyone was looking at her. It seems like they also noticed that she took longer than anyone else. The stares made Sarang uncomfortable. Thankfully she immediately saw Yejun and their manager. She almost tripped running to them.
"How was your audition Sarang?" Asked their manager.
"I think it went well manager." Said Sarang.
"You were there for almost half an hour. We thought it will go on until an hour." Said Yejun.
"Really? I'm not sure, they made me read a lot of lines."
"Must be a good a sign! Let's go, your parents must be waiting for you guys at the agency.
****
After a few days of waiting, the producers and directors has announced the actors who will be getting the teen roles of the main leads. Unsurprisingly Sarang got the role, and the male lead took another round of audition for the top 3 actors who auditioned. Fortunately, Yejun was one of the top 3 and had to do another audition.
It took another 3 days for the team to announce the teen male and to everyone's surprise, Yejun snatched the role to the other two actors who have more experience than him.
"Yejun! Congratulations! I can't wait to work with you." Sarang said with excitement and gave Yejun a big hug.
Flustered, Yejun was only able to hug Sarang back while his face got all red.
Sarang was not yet able to pull out from the hug as Yejun has been hugging her tightly, but she asked anyway. "Yejun, do you want to practice together?"
"R-really you want to practice together?" Yejun asked still hugging her.
"But you must let me go first. I can't breathe now." Said Sarang while giggling.
Yejun's hug became tighter for three seconds and then he fully let go of Sarang. "Yeah, we should practice our lines for the drama." Said Yejun enthusiastically.
Yejun and Sarang spent the rest of their days together practicing their lines. The little bit intimate scenes are still a little awkward for the teens. Holding hands and hugging were fine but, on the script, there are two times Sarang will have to kiss Yejun on the cheeks and one time Yejun would need to kiss Sarang on the forehead.
The two of them practiced diligently but skips the cheek and forehead kisses as they are not yet comfortable. But they promised that they will do it on set.
Weeks came by and it is now the table reading. Yejun and Sarang met their adult counterparts and had their photos taken before the table reading. The producer and director have nothing but praises for the two young actors. It was undeniable that Sarang is still a natural talent. As for Yejun, his training under Jin Woo has obviously paid off.
Following the table reading, Yejun and Sarang started to get busy. They had a magazine photoshoot for the series promo and had to attend interviews as well. With their schedules overlapping, Yejun is very much pleased. He gets to see Sarang almost everyday and be together with her all day.
Everyone expected that the more Yejun hangs out with Sarang, his crush might dwindle down, but it was going the opposite. With the months that Yejun has been with Sarang, his crush only grew. He could not go a day without seeing Sarang. He acts like a lovesick fool when he could not hear Sarang's voice. And only Sarang could lift his spirits up when he is in a bad mood.
But Yejun was not greedy. He knows they are still young, and he knows that the company is prioritizing Sarang's well-being. He maybe young but he knows that there is something wrong with Sarang's relationship with her mother. He wants to know more but he does not pry. He is scared that Sarang would stay away from him if he asks about the issue, so he just keeps quiet about it and swore to wait until she speaks up about it herself.
Two weeks after the table reading, shooting has finally begun. They must shoot the teen's parts first. Sarang and Yejun agreed to go to the shooting site earlier so they can greet the cast and crew. The crew seemed pleased with how well mannered the two are. But Yejun was thankful Sarang suggested to be early as he managed to score brownie points from the staff. Even their company president sent a snack truck in support of his two artists.
The day was going well, until some mean kids started talking and whispering among themselves.
"Who is this guy? He is just a nobody but how did he snag the role?" Said the girl who was casted as Sarang's best friend.
"I know right, Suho suits the role more than him. He looks better with Sarang." Snickered another boy who was part of the cast.
Sarang recognized them from her previous projects. She has worked with them from before, but she never got close to them as they are obviously obnoxious just because they are called teen stars. Sarang could not stand them talking about Yejun like that and butted in.
"You know if you could just practice your lines during breaks, maybe we could lessen our overtime. I am worried the director would be a little tired." Sarang delivered a savage line, but her tone was really sweet, and her face looked really innocent.
Yejun could not help but laugh making the other gossiping teens more embarrassed. Yejun grabbed Sarang's hand and left them with their mouths gaping wide open.
Yejun was still laughing but still managed to say "Now I know why you don't have any friends."
"Shut up! I just can't stand gossiping don't think I was because of you."
Yejun pulled Sarang in a tight hug and said "Thank you. But don't do that in the future, I don't want others hating on you. I will handle it next time. So, stop pouting now."
The shoot that day and the coming days went on peacefully. Sarang has not heard the other teen cast be mean to Yejun. Now everything is in place with their shoot.
The day for the forehead kiss scene came. Sarang thought it would take them an hour to shoot the scene but to her surprise they only had three takes. She noticed the first time Yejun touched Sarang's cheeks for the scene, his hand trembled tremendously that it would be easy to catch it on camera. The crew did notice as they had to cut the scene and repeat.
Sarang did not know what came to her but the moment they stopped filming her hand went to Yejun's cheeks and she said "Its okay. Yejun its okay you can kiss my forehead. Don't be nervous and we can get through this."
Yejun became wide eyed but stayed quiet. Seemingly taking in what Sarang said. The five-minute break was up, and they had to shoot again. This time, Yejun was more confident and no hand trembling now. The director was so impressed they had to do another take to check which footage is better.
The next day was Sarang's cheek kiss scene. She was nervous the night before and could not sleep. Even greeting Yejun was hard for her. She hid in her car so Yejun could not see how embarrassed she is. But Yejun managed to find her.