All eyes were on Min Ho now. ‘Are you okay?’ He asked.
It took a while for her to answer. ‘Me? Yeah, of course I’m okay. Why wouldn’t I be?’
‘You were too quiet. You’re never quiet,’ he smiled.
Shin Hye looked around at her friends who now stopped everything they were doing to observe their awkward conversation. ‘No, it was just… everyone was talking so you know, you shouldn’t be talking when someone else is talking… ha ha ha,’ she lifted her glass and gulped down her drink.
Wow, she’s really bad at this.
For a while, no one said anything so Ha Neul cleared his throat and broke the silence. ‘Ya, let’s play a game.’
‘What game?’ So Eun asked.
‘It’s a drinking game called ‘I’ve Never’. Each one of us has to take turns saying a statement that starts with ‘I’ve Never’, like ‘I’ve never… killed a person’. If you’ve done the opposite of the statement, then you have to drink,’ Ha Neul explained.
‘What?’ Ara looked at him incredulously. ‘Are you sure you know what you’re talking about?’
‘For example, I’ll say – ‘I’ve never…stolen money from my parents’ – if you have stolen money, you drink. If you haven’t, you don’t drink. It’s like a version of truth or dare, except it’s all truth, and we all admit to the same thing. The most important factor in this game is honesty. And everything we find out about each other stays in this circle. Do you get it now? Or do I have to spell it out for you one more time?’ Ha Neul glared at Ara.
‘Arasso, I get it now,’ Ara nodded. ‘Did you guys get it?’
Min Ho nodded along with everyone else. ‘So who starts first?’
‘I’ll start since I suggested the game,’ Ha Neul declared. ‘I’ve never… had the hots for Kang Ha Neul.’
No one moved.
Ha Neul turned to Ara, ‘YA! You have to drink!’
‘AISH!’ Ara threw a straw at him.
So Eun rolled her eyes. ‘You wasted your turn. My turn. I’ve never…been jealous of another actor or actress for getting a part I wanted.’
Everyone drank except for Kim Bum.
‘Ya! You can’t possibly make us believe that you’ve never been jealous of another actor,’ Ha Neul said to Bum. ‘I know you’re nice but no one is that nice.’
‘But I really haven’t experienced that,’ Bum smiled. ‘Your turn, hyung,’ he told Min Ho.
Min Ho looked at Shin Hye who was looking down, trying to avoid his eyes. He bit his lip and thought of a statement. ‘I’ve never…dated secretly.’
They all looked at each other and hesitated, but drank anyway. Everyone except for Shin Hye.
‘You can’t be serious,’ So Eun told her as soon as she put her glass down. ‘Shin Hye, you have to be honest!’
‘I am! I… really haven’t dated secretly.’ She replied, fanning herself.
‘So does that mean you haven’t dated at all?’ Bum asked, squinting his eyes. ‘That’s not possible. I mean, you’re… you.’
‘It’s true, guys. Shin Hye here, is afraid of men.’ Ara told everyone.
Shin Hye turned to her. ‘YA!’
Ara ignored Shin Hye. ‘She puts this wall up, and no guy has ever broken it down. I can tell you how many guys have tried, but she just won’t. They end up being friend-zoned. It’s really odd because, trust me, some of those guys were very hot.’ Ara looked at Min Ho, as if trying to send him a message.
His attention was on Shin Hye now and even if it was dark, he knew she was blushing and still trying to avoid looking at him. It was just right for her not to drink to keep their secret, but somehow, he felt a little hurt.
‘Chincha? I really thought you dated Yong Hwa,’ Ha Neul said. ‘You used to hang out all the time, right? When you stopped, I thought you broke up.’
Shin Hye frowned, ‘I haven’t dated anyone okay? Let’s move on. It’s your turn, Bummie.’ She looked at Min Ho briefly and looked away again.
‘Hmm. I’ve never…regretted not confessing my feelings to someone.’
Ha Neul and Ara drank. They met each other’s eyes as they did, and Ara almost spluttered in her glass. Everyone else was laughing.
‘Oooooohhhhhh,’ they all teased.
‘YA! CHINCHA!’ Ara hit Ha Neul’s arm.
‘WHAT DID I DO? I wasn’t pertaining to you, babo!’
‘I wasn’t either, but you’re making them misunderstand!’
Ha Neul and Ara bickered some more, while everyone listened in.
‘Shin Hye, it’s your turn,’ Min Ho suddenly said. He was very curious about her statement.
She closed her eyes and tilted her head. ‘I’ve never…’ she fluttered her eyes open and looked at Min Ho. ‘…fallen in love with a co-star.’
Without taking his eyes off her, Min Ho drank, so did Bum. Shin Hye hesitated, but took a sip.
‘Wait! You said you haven’t dated!’ Ha Neul told her.
Shin Hye put her glass down. ‘Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I’ve never developed feelings for anyone,’ Shin Hye replied.
‘But you didn’t regret not confessing your feelings, right? You didn’t drink on that statement either,’ So Eun added.
‘I didn’t regret it because, well, there was nothing to regret. You know how complicated stuff like that can be. Sometimes, some things are better left the way they are,’ Shin Hye explained.
‘But sometimes, things are worth a shot,’ Min Ho interjected. ‘If you’ve really fallen in love, don’t you think you owe it to yourself to be happy?’
Shin Hye looked at him, while everyone fell silent, waiting for her response. ‘I know what you mean. But timing is important, too. At that time, I just wasn’t ready,’ she told him.
Min Ho’s heart sank when he realized she wasn’t talking about him. It took a while, but he responded. ‘Let’s say you fall in love now, but the timing isn’t quite right… and you feel you’re not ready, are you just going to turn your back on it? Like you say you did before?’
He knew it was a loaded question, and he could feel everyone else looking at the two of them, trying to understand what was happening. But he didn’t care. It was the first time he found out Shin Hye hasn’t dated before. While he should be happy, he was suddenly scared.
Shin Hye sighed and looked him in the eye. ‘If I didn’t act on my feelings before, then that means even if I felt something for that someone, it wasn’t enough to move me. I’ve never been in a relationship, it still scares the hell out of me… so I can’t answer you about what I’m going to do if I fall in love now. Because that really depends on how hard I fall,’ she replied sternly. She paused, before continuing. ‘The only sure thing I can tell you is, if I finally decide to be in a relationship, then that means I’ve fallen deeply in love with that person, and I want to be with him badly – enough to forget timing, my fears, or whether or not I’m ready.’
No one said a word after that. Shin Hye’s friends seemed to be waiting for someone to say something, and didn’t want it to be them. Min Ho bit his lip and nodded, sipping his drink.
‘Your first boyfriend is very lucky, then,’ he smiled. He saw Shin Hye smile right back – the first real smile she gave him that evening.
‘Wow,’ Ara blurted out. ‘Well, that was intense. Ha Neul, let’s quit playing this game before we find out our deepest, darkest secrets and there’s no turning back.’
‘Oh? Yeah, let’s just drink peacefully,’ Ha Neul said, shifting his gaze from Min Ho and Shin Hye, then back at Min Ho. ‘You know what, this is exactly the kind of thing that made all of us think you two were dating,’ he pointed at Shin Hye and Min Ho. ‘Why don’t you guys just go for it? Chaebal? Save all of us from this… this tension.’
‘Eh?’ Shin Hye turned to Ha Neul. ‘Stop making up stories,’ she reached over Ara to hit him.
Ha Neul stretched his arms. ‘The whole bar can feel the tension between the two of you. This is exactly the same tension we felt every single day during filming. It was suffocating,’ he said. ‘Please. Just date, you two,’ he pleaded.
Min Ho broke into a chuckle and looked around to see Shin Hye fuming, and everyone else nodding. ‘Ya, I told you not to joke about that,' he told Ha Neul.
‘You know, Min Ho hyung has footage of Shin Hye dancing—‘ Kim Bum’s sentence was interrupted by a hand covering his mouth. Min Ho laughed, ‘he’s drunk already.’
‘Pyeontae!’ Ha Neul teased him.
‘Shin Hye totally confessed to me that she thinks Min Ho oppa is hot,’ Ara told everyone. ‘Oh wait, I think her exact words were ‘Min Ho oppa is too hot he's unreal’.
Everyone laughed as Shin Hye shook her head and buried her face in her hands.
'I think you're hot, too,' Min Ho said to her, smiling.