2019

"Kim Jinsol-sunbae, can you tell us again, huh?"

"How handsome was Park Seojun in real life?!"

"Yeah, sunbae! He must've been so amazing up close!"

"I wish to be like you one day, sunbae. So I can meet my favorite actor too!"

Jinsol tucked a loose strand of her brunette hair behind her ear as she looked at the small group that formed around her. She sighed, not really the type to boast about such things. She'll have to knock Haneul in the head for blabbing about how she recently participated in a branded advertisement with the famous actor.

Haneul... why was she running around telling classmates this? At this point, half of the college population knows about her oh-so-glamorous gig. There even had been a couple professors that have come up to her to ask about the rare experience, all of which she had never taken a class with.

Haneul was lucky she skipped her afternoon classes today to attend that NCT Dream fanmeet, she had been looking forward to. Jinsol would have knocked her upside the head if she had been at school today.

"Yes, he's handsome and he's kind. There really isn't much else to it..."

"Did you not get a picture with him? Or an autograph?"

"No..."

"Why not?!"

The batch of juniors before her were in an absolute frenzy and Jinsol tried to maintain her composure. She calmly let her mind bring her to another place. Just a few more minutes... class will start in a few more minutes and everyone will have to get back to their seats, right?

Suddenly, she heard clapping out of the blue, which caused everyone to halt in silence and turn their attention to the perpetrator. Behind them was the senior that kind of scared them, but was well respected.

Jinsol beamed, her savior was here.

"I love Park Seojun as much as the next gal here but I need to ask my partner something about the assignment," Min Nari interrupted as she squeezed between the group and sat down in the empty seat next to Jinsol. The now-fourth-year student gave a stern stare at everyone. She shooed at them. "Go on, now. There's not much else to hear from her."

Disappointed, everyone finally dispersed from Jinsol's table to go to their own. The very girl sighed in relief before turning towards Nari and gave her a loving side hug.

"Yah, Jinsol, you really should be more assertive, more so now that you're doing more things," Nari tsked at her with a shake of her head. "If you're uncomfortable then you should speak up about it."

"Ah, unnie, that's why I have you around though. You protect me so well," Jinsol sweetly uttered, leaning into her shoulder.

Nari scoffed, "I'm not your bodyguard."

"But you do it so well."

With a roll of her eyes, Nari nudged Jinsol off her arm. "Tell your bestie to stop blabbing shit to the whole world, too. As proud as I am of you also, there's just some things you shouldn't be spreading word about. Park Seojun? You're asking for jealousy. The whole Korean population is in love with that man."

"Unnie, weren't you the one that asked me to get an autograph from him the other day?..."

"I said it as a joke!" Nari shot back with a pout. Jinsol giggled, as she opened her notebook in front of her and took out a small picture from its pockets. She slid the photo across the table in front of her. Nari's eyes widened. "No fucking way."

"Go hide it before the swarm returns."

"Did I tell you how much I appreciate you, Jinsol?" Nari chimed. "Because I do."

Jinsol laughed at the older girl's total change of expression. She snapped her fingers when she remembered something from the other day. She glanced over at Nari. "Oh yeah, I heard Taewoon-sunbae signed with MBC for a short-term program! Ain't that amazing?"

Nari nodded her head with a small smile to her lips. "It really is. And the program lets him go abroad for a couple months," she replied, a sigh left her lips. "Which is what he always wanted to do. That loser can get anything he wants except for a girlfriend, it seems."

The comment caught Jinsol off guard, since... the whole mess from last year came back to her mind. "Well, to be honest, I didn't know Mira-unnie was dating someone already either. But, he took it well."

"It was only a puppy dog kind of crush, of course he'd be over it by now," Nari huffed with a roll of her eyes.

"Have you never confessed to him, sunbae?"

A scoff left Nari's lips. "He ain't shit. After all these years of knowing him, I think it would be better if we just stayed really good friends. Don't you worry, Jinsol. I've moved on just fine."

"If you say so. I just don't want you to have any regrets."

"Thanks... really. Me not confessing might seem like one, but sometimes, missed opportunities like that could lead you to something better... like you and how you have a part-time job at Mystic. I'll take this as a hint that there is something else waiting for me." Jinsol grinned over at the older girl, honestly happy she came to that conclusion herself. The two of them really have changed quite a bit in the past year... And just to think they disliked each other before too was such a weird thought now. "Oh, yeah, speaking of, didn't you say you have no work today?"

"Technically no."

"Ooh, shall we go to that one bistro that opened outside of campus once you're done?" Nari asked.

"Sorry, sunbae, but I'm busy—"

Nari then gaped as she remembered. "Oh, wait, that's right! You're flying off somewhere tomorrow." The older leaned back in her chair, arms crossed over her chest. "Unbelievable. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't jealous of you. How do you always get to be a part of such amazing projects."

Jinsol sheepishly glanced over at her, "Hey, you've been a part of amazing projects too."

"Working behind the scenes for a news station is boring as hell."

"I'm sorry, sunbae."

"No no, I understand. I was mostly joking!" Nari gave a smirk. "You live quite on the edge nowadays, huh, Jinsol? But, this is an experience you can't pass up."

Oh, for sure, she couldn't.

"Just promise me you'll send me the notes I need once I come back from my trip."

"Yes, yes, Kim Jinsol-sshi," Nari responded in a joking tone.

At that moment, their professor finally walked into the classroom, grabbing everyone's attention. Jinsol could only shake her head at how hectic her life had really become, it still didn't sound real to her when she recollected what she done in the past year.

Her Youtube channel rose a substantial amount, her video of the Garden of Morning Calm from last year gaining a shocking increase of views. The webdrama she had been a part of have also gotten quite the impressive amount of views when it released with praise of storyline and quality. So the Mystic YouTube channel have launched with a successful start. From then on, as Park Myungsook hired Jinsol to be an official employee for her, she had been able to participate in many more projects, which only lead her to much more unique opportunities... like this upcoming one.

It had felt all her dreams had come true before her, Jinsol would be satisfied to live like this the rest of her life, as she is doing what she loved to do.

Along with her muse too.

. . .

"Okay, is everyone from our team here?" Director Park Myungsook called out, her eyes scanning the packed room. The woman counted the heads of her production team "I counted 24 people, that should be it for us, alright. Let's head into our flight everyone!"

Kim Jinsol was trying to calm her breathing for the past hour. Now that she was about to step into the plane, it finally hit her that she was going out of country for this project her Mystic team had the honor of being hired for. Her heart was dancing in her chest. She was so excited to arrive to the new country and see all the scenery and record it into her trusty camera.

She followed after her seniors into the awaiting airplane, with her carry-on slung over her shoulder. From her plane ticket, she squeezed down the aisle of the plane and finally reached the row where she would be sitting... which was odd because most of her team were further back of the plane.

She bid her goodbyes to her coworkers as she settled herself into the aisle seat of Row 11. Merely, a few minutes later, a new wave of people entered the plane, and Jinsol finally understood the seating arrangement.

The tall, older man, squeezed past her to the window seat after putting his carryon in the compartment over their heads. Jinsol stared at the man besides her with a stern glare. The very man that made this whole project possible for the small Mystic production team.

"Jinsol, sweetie, I'm really not appreciating the cold greeting."

"It's like you're trying to showcase to everyone, we're related, oppa," Jinsol hissed at him, as she slumped down in her seat, in hopes no one from her team could see them.

"How many times do I need to tell you that we didn't hire you because of our connection, but because we were impressed with your productions? We'll have much more people we're working with once we get to Ukraine, so I doubt there would be any other instances with us being around each other." He reached over and ruffled the top of Jinsol's head. "We would have hired Mystic no matter the circumstance, whether or not you were a part of the team, okay?"

Jinsol frowned at him, but nodded nonetheless.

"Besides, everyone knows."

Eyes widened, "What do you mean everyone knows?!"

"That you're my sister-in-law, it's seriously not that big of a deal."

"Seokju-oppa!"

Sometimes... Jinsol truly does question why her sister married such a guy, when he had no sense.

About a few weeks prior to this, there had been a meeting about a sudden collaboration. Someone had contacted Director Park about this opportunity to film something with a high budget. Director Park had told the rest of her team in detail about the project they were offered to take. And the more Jinsol had listened to her, the more it sounded like nonsense to her ears.

SM Entertainment had approached Mystic Entertainment for this project.

A music video for one of their boy groups.

And SM's representative for the project was none other than Jinsol's brother-in-law, Han Seokju, an important man in the company that oversees a lot of their artists' activities.

Jinsol was already in shock hearing his name pop up multiple times from the meeting.

But it didn't prepare her for what was actually about to happen. Was all the good karma she had until now finally catching up to her? Was this the universe saying she had it too good and was trying to balance it out? This was far too dangerous for her own good.

And yet... she still agreed to participate in the project. Why else would she be in this plane?

After a few minutes of the plane leaving the ground, a flight attendant had come up to Jinsol and Seokju.

"Hello, Han Seokju-sshi, as one of our loyal passengers, we would like to offer an upgrade into the next class up. There's one extra seat there if you would like to move there," the flight attendant told them.

Jinsol side-eyed her brother-in-law and scoffed, "Wow, perks of being quite an important man, huh, oppa."

Seokju smirked and gestured over at Jinsol to the attendant. "I am quite comfortable where I am but this lady right here is free to take the seat if allowed, she's my family."

"Of course we can."

Jinsol whipped her head towards the older man, her mouth agape. "What?! I can't just take a fancier seat from you. You're the priority, after all, oppa."

"I've been up there plenty of times before for work. You can go ahead and experience it, Jinsol," Seokju told her.

She pursed her lips. "Are you sure?" Jinsol questioned.

"I'm sure." He suddenly leaned in closer to her and whispered into her ear. "Just don't do anything that would get you in trouble, okay?" As he pulled away, he gave an innocent smile and ushered for her to go ahead. "Go. You're missing out."

With a sigh, Jinsol gathered her things and stood from the seat. She shot one last glance over at Seokju. "Just thank me later," he seemingly mouthed over to her before she continued to follow the flight attendant to the next compartment before them.

Jinsol kept her eyes ahead on the floor as she walked through the aisle.

They stopped at Row 3. "Your seat is right here, miss," the attendant said. "Enjoy the rest of your flight." With that, she left her alone in that aisle. Jinsol peered up to find the seat next to the window was occupied. Her new seat neighbor had their hood up and earphones on, their head turned towards the window.

Jinsol pushed down her nervousness and squeezed herself into the seat, trying not to make too much noise so to not disturb them. She had to admit, she did like the instant difference of foot space at this new seat.

Alright, she was elated. She'll have to thank Seokju one way or another for letting her have this seat.

Let's just forget the fact she questioned her sister's taste in men.

"Jinsol?"

The very girl flinched at the unexpected voice calling her name. She turned her head to the right, to the seats across the aisle. Immediately, she was met with two very familiar faces.

"Oh!" She squeaked out in shock, gawking at the to boys. "Yangyang, Dejun!"

Before she knew it, her eyes were covered from behind.

It all felt familiar. She turned her whole body back around to the once mysterious seat neighbor.

Her heart felt like it was about to burst.

Today was the first time she was able to see her boyfriend in about 2 months.

"E-Eh, wait, are you crying?" Kunhang reached over and swiped at her now-wet cheeks with his thumb. "Why are you crying?"

"I knew I'd be able to see you during this but... it's been way too long," Jinsol sniffled, as she relaxed to Kunhang's touch. "I thought you all were coming on a later flight too!"

It truly wasn't easy being able to see her idol boyfriend.

"They changed our flight last minute so we got on an earlier one... Seokju told me about it last night."

"Last night? And you bothered not to tell me about it?"

"I was going to message you earlier about it but we were kinda running around getting things together," Kunhang replied. He gingerly grasped onto Jinsol's hand and pressed his lips on it. "Be easy on me!"

"Did you know I was going to be seated next to you?"

"Not really, but I think your brother-in-law may have hinted at it, now that I think about it."

Jinsol let out a groan. "Han Seokju is much more sneaky than I thought. I should've listened to Jiwoo-unnie when she mentioned it," she murmured as she sat back in her seat. Her eyes drifted back to Kunhang, she couldn't contain her excited smile. "We're going to be stuck on this flight together for a while, huh?"

"Seems like it," Kunhang beamed.

"Oh, is that Jinsol?" The girl heard a bit behind her.

Jinsol craned her head around and grinned at the other familiar boys. She replied back in her broken Chinese, "Hello, nice seeing you all again! It's been a while, hasn't it?"

The rest of the WayV members waved over at Jinsol.

"Your Chinese is coming along, Jinsol!" Kun replied with a thumbs up.

"It sounds good," Sicheng added.

"Thank you. I worked hard in the Chinese classes I took last semester."

"Ah, love is quite an interesting thing, huh," Ten uttered, a shake of his head. Jinsol could feel her cheeks flush. He then switched back to Korean for her. "We're all cheering for you."

"Thank you, seriously."

Jinsol was then pulled back down into her seat from Kunhang. "If any of them start asking questions, you don't have to answer them," he told her in a low tone. Jinsol chuckled as she relaxed. "You know what I just remembered?"

"What?"

A knowing smirk pulled on Kunhang's face, "Remember the day we all started filming for your project last year? We were talking about our dreams and what to do, you with your filming and me being an idol. I said that maybe we can work on a music video together."

Jinsol blinked, the faint memory coming back to her. "Oh gosh, you're right. You did say that, didn't you?" She clapped her hands together as she remembered. "I can't believe it. Maybe we're psychics!"

"Or... we're just destined to be together?"

"Shut up!" But it didn't wipe away the goofy smile on her face as she gazed at her amazing boyfriend. "But I do think you're right."

For the rest of the flight to Ukraine, Kim Jinsol and Wong Kunhang enjoyed their company together (along with the rest of WayV). This was the sparkling light that cut through the darkness for them, as her being a production assistant  and him being an idol were keeping them way too busy for personal life. While this was still work, Jinsol and Kunhang didn't think of it as such. Working on the music video only reminded them of that fated film project from a year ago.

Jinsol and Kunhang could only hope to continue working on these productions together.

It just somehow became their thing.

A/N: Ending note is next~
—Bianca