Shin Hye laughed, remembering how it was like when she first attended college. She was as excited as them to find out that a lot of celebrities were actually enrolled in her department. Shin Hye gladly obliged when they asked for photos and autographs. After a quick pep talk, she left them giggling and spazzing to themselves.
Her phone rang just as she was about to reach for it to call her manager. She planned on having coffee at her favorite cafe near the campus before asking him to fetch her. As soon as she saw the screen, her expression brightened.
‘Oppa,’ she tried to sound as nonchalant as possible, but she knew that her excitement must have been evident in her voice.
‘Have I ever told you that I find college girls the most attractive?’
She grinned. ‘No, but that should probably worry me since there are thousands of college girls in South Korea.’
‘But none of them are as pretty as you.’
Shin Hye winced. ‘Is this how you’re going to woo me? With greasy lines?’
‘Why? Is it working?’
‘Well…’
‘See? You know you love them,’ he chuckled. ‘But seriously, I don’t know how anyone can look so good wearing just a lousy grey shirt and jeans.’
Shin Hye looked down at what she was wearing: a lousy grey shirt and jeans. Her eyes widened as the realization hit her. She made 90-degree turns, scanning all corners of the campus she could lay her eyes on to find where the sneaky and ever-so-careless man was. She did a double-take when she spotted a tall man wearing a black hoodie, zipped so high up it covered his neck and his chin. He was wearing thick black shades but it wasn’t hard to tell that his eyes were smiling, amused at the sight of her flabbergasted.
She had enough sense not to come near him, knowing that some of the students who flocked her earlier were probably still looking. Oddly, instead of anxiety or anger, all she felt was happiness. It was the first time they were actually seeing face to face since Jeju. It was a misplaced reunion for sure, and she will have to hound him later on the dangers of his unwise yet sweet gestures, but for now, she’s glad to see him. Ecstatic, even.
She frowned visibly, making sure he can see her expression even from afar. ‘You, on the other hand, look like one of those pervert-ahjussis who secretly stalk female students. How in the world did you get in here without being stopped by campus security? Your appearance is highly suspicious.’
He threw his head back, and Shin Hye heard his laughter through the line. ‘As usual, you hate my surprise event. Why do I even bother?’ He lifted his left hand, and only then did Shin Hye notice that he was clutching a brown paper bag. ‘I brought lunch. Care to join me for a campus picnic?’
Shin Hye smiled to herself and started walking. ‘Does your manager know about this?’
‘Know about it? He encouraged it,’ Min Ho replied smugly and started walking opposite her, but toward the same direction. He made no attempt to come near her either. ‘He’s now this relationship’s biggest supporter.’
She stopped walking. ‘What relationship?’
‘I mean courtship. Courtship,’ he backtracked.
‘Alright, that’s more like it.’ She continued walking until she reached the end of the building.
‘Where are we going?’ Min Ho asked.
‘Since you insist, I know where we can have that picnic. But you’ll have to settle for somewhere indoors. It’s too hot out here anyway. Do you see that building?’ She pointed to a three-storey structure across the grassy field. ‘At the rightmost corner is a mini-theatre. I’ll talk to Miss Han and get the key. We can probably have it to ourselves for an hour. Sounds good?’
‘Perfect.’
Min Ho waited by the door of the mini-theatre, looking down to hide his face whenever anybody passed by. He was still feeling a little sore from his heavy morning workout, but he couldn’t waste this opportunity to see Shin Hye, especially since this was her only free day that coincided with his.
He couldn’t help but feel a tad nostalgic while he was in Chung Ang’s campus, basking in his surroundings. He remembered his own college days, when schedules were less hectic and he could actually go to his classes with ease. Of course back then, his work commitments were few and far between.
And then came that turning point that led him to take several breaks from school, causing him to still be degree-less to this day. Sometimes he wished he could go back to when life was simpler, when he was still studying to be an actor. But what was the point, when he has achieved now what majority of his classmates who have already graduated would never be able to achieve in their lifetime? A degree will just be a formality.
Still, it was nice to just be a student, and he understands well why Shin Hye chose to enroll again.
‘A penny for your thoughts?’
He realized he was playing with his feet, when the familiar sweet voice interrupted his musings. He turned to his side and Shin Hye was already smiling at him widely. She slid the key into the hole and opened the door. Min Ho followed her inside.
There was a small stage in front and around fifteen rows of seats. It looked older than most of the rooms in the campus, but it certainly gave off that artsy theatre vibe.
‘We come and hide here sometimes,’ she spoke. ‘Back when we were still freshmen. Our classmates treated us differently, so we naturally gravitated toward each other. And because we were already celebrities, the school janitor would let us sneak in, in exchange for autographs for his daughter,’ she chuckled.
She sauntered to the stage, and Min Ho followed silently. He imagined a younger Shin Hye spending her days in that empty theatre, probably talking about her dreams and aspirations with her friends.
‘I think I remember Bummie talking about this place,’ he said, still looking around. ‘You must have had fun times here.’
Shin Hye turned back to him and smiled. ‘Yeah, we did.’ She reached for Min Ho’s hand and took it, pulling him up with her. She walked to the middle of the stage and sat down, her feet playfully dangling over the edges.
‘Ha Neul would come up with a drama scenario in his head and start casting us as characters,’ she recounted, tapping the empty space beside her. Min Ho sat down and his eyes turned to the empty seats. ‘He also has dreams of being a screenwriter, you know. So we followed along, and we’d act out some of his stories. Ara would bicker with him when it came to directing; that was her role – devil’s advocate to Ha Neul’s ideas. I think she liked it a little too much, fighting Ha Neul just to get a rouse out of him,’ she laughed. ‘My favorite was that story he came up with about a heavily drug-addicted man who falls in love with the purest, loveliest girl in the world. Of course Bum was the addict, and I was the girl he fell in love with,’ she nudged Min Ho’s arm with her shoulder and gave him a wink. ‘It was actually really interesting.’
‘So what happens in that story?’
Shin Hye shrugged. ‘Who knows. We were just playing around, so Ha Neul never finished it. He probably never felt the need to. But judging from his personality, it would have been a tragic story with a sliver of hope. So it could either end in the drug addict’s death, and the girl moving on to better and brighter things while carrying his memory in her heart, or the girl’s death – causing the drug addict to reform himself and change for the better.’
Min Ho studied her face as she reminisced her early college years. Something about the way she was telling the story sounded sad and pensive.
‘Did you have a hard time as a student?’
‘Hmm,’ Shin Hye tilted her head as she thought about it. ‘It’s not so much the schoolwork, really. The hardest time for me was when one by one, my friends stopped attending classes to work,’ she looked down, her voice dropping slightly. ‘Bum and So Eun were busy with Boys Over Flowers. Ara was cast as lead actress in the drama with Yoon Kye Sang sunbae. Ha Neul was working on two musicals. We were inseparable for a while, but slowly, our little group became just… me.’ She looked up at Min Ho and sighed. ‘I was young so naturally, I felt left behind and alone. It was hard talking to them after that. I couldn’t even go into this theatre without feeling pathetic. Unlike them, I couldn’t get the parts I wanted. I haven’t worked in a drama in two years, and I thought it was the end of me as an actress. I suffered a bit of a depression back then.’
His heart felt a piercing ache hearing Shin Hye recount such painful memories. Min Ho took her hand and laced his fingers between hers. ‘How come you never told me this before?’
Shin Hye smirked and drummed her fingers on the back of his palm. ‘Maybe because we were too caught up in our whirlwind romance?’