Page 41 of Wish Upon a K-Star

“It’s cute, for a lumpy wombat,” I say to console him.

He shakes his head in defeat. “Maybe I should talk to the marketing team about changing Moonie to a marsupial.”

I laugh at the thought. “The fans might not like it.”

“Well, if my wife wants it, I’d rather make her happy.”

I freeze, remembering we’re filming a show. I let myself become too relaxed in an old familiar setting. I can feel the tension returning to my shoulders as I work hard not to turn to the glaring lenses of the cameras. Thankfully, Miss Ha arrives with a tray of food, setting out the small plates of banchan before giving us each a steaming bowl of kookbap.

“Masitgeda!” I exclaim, leaning in to breathe in the salty broth.

“It’s so good to see you kids again. I’m so proud of you two. You’ve worked so hard and you’re both so talented.”

I grin with pride. Miss Ha was always reliably around with bolstering compliments.

“What is this you’re doing now?” Miss Ha asks, pointing directly at the cameras. I cover a laugh at how little she cares about show etiquette. The unspoken edict is to try to ignore the cameras as much as possible. Though some of the bolder, more charming celebrities ignore that rule. I’ve seen Minseok do it a time or two. Not that I’m monitoring his shows, it’s just when scrolling the feed.

“We’re on our first date,” Minseok says plainly.

I give him a sharp stare. Why isn’t he providing more context?

“Eh?” Miss Ha looks back and forth between us, then breaks into a wide grin. “I knew you two would get together eventually.” She looks directly at Han-PD, clearly marking him as the one in charge, and addresses him now. “This girl had such a huge crush on this boy. Couldn’t take her eyes off him whenever he was around.”

“Ajjuma,” I groan, trying my best not to make eye contact with Minseok or any of the crew. I drop my face into my hands to hide the bright flush that burns my cheeks. It’s bad enough that I’m forced to pretend I like spending time with Minseok, but now the whole country is going to find out about my old silly crush on him.

“Aw, Hyeri-ya, you’ve been pining for me that long?”

I glower at him. “Seriously? Did you forget how you—”

Minseok plucks up a piece of pickled radish and shoves it in my mouth before I can finish my sentence. I am so shocked I almost spit it back out at him. Instead, I glare pointedly at him as I crunch the radish cube.

“What was that for?” I ask.

“Isn’t it supposed to be romantic to feed each other?” he says with a cocky grin.

“Oh yeah? Should I feed you now?” I stab my chopsticks into the head of a grilled fish and pick the entire thing up.

Minseok laughs nervously. “Let’s not get carried away.”

“Yes, yes, eat before it gets cold,” Miss Ha says, waving at the table of food.

“Ne, chal meokaesumnida,” I say obediently, setting the fish back down and scooping up a big bite of kookbap. Even annoyance at Minseok can’t stop me from enjoying this meal.

I stuff myself, completely forgetting my diet in my enjoyment of the comforting food.

“Oof, I’m so full,” I groan, leaning back and patting my stomach after everything has been completely devoured. Then I freeze, eyes sliding to the red light of the camera. I shouldn’t have done that. It’s not very ladylike. And I’m sure the netizens will say it means I’m rude or classless. But it’s already captured and I just close my eyes to hide my embarassment.

“Good. You know I like a girl who eats well.”

I open my eyes to stare at him suspiciously, but Minseok just grins at me.

“Really?” I ask slowly. “I thought that was Jaehyung.”

“Jaehyungie just eats fast. If we took our time, I could eat him under the table.”

Despite myself, a laugh breaks free. “Remember when you ordered a pound of chicken by accident instead of just one serving? We ate the whole thing because we almost never got fried chicken when we were trainees. I thought I was going to explode.”

Minseok laughs at the memory. “Yeah, and we had to eat it fast because we weren’t supposed to have food in the practice rooms.”

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