Chapter 15

"You must only speak Korean when you're here so that Ryan can improve. It's because he and his brothers kept getting embarrassed whenever we spoke it in public that they can't speak it now," his mother mused.

"Umma," Ryan growled.

"No, I'm being serious. We were so embarrassed the last time we went to Korea," she continued. "He couldn't say a three word sentence without adding an English word and to top it off, he spoke the few Korean words he knew with an English accent." She tut-tutted. "It was so bad."

"Umma, I was only 10 then."

His mother nodded enthusiastically. "Exactly. So are you trying to say you're better now? Don't you know that you're worse these days?" She frowned. "You don't believe me? Okay, say, 'the rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain' in Korean."

I laughed when I saw Ryan shake his head and take a bite of his roll.

We were at his place to continue with our film and I hadn't even been there for an hour when Ryan's parents called us in for lunch. I'd already eaten at home but his mother wasn't interested in hearing that.

"If I only speak Korean, how will Ali understand?" I wondered.

Ali shrugged and looked away.

Ryan's father laughed. "It's okay. Ali should give her jaw a break every now and then."

"Uncle! I really don't talk that much. I don't know why you always say that!" she whined.

We all laughed and fell into conversation. Even though his parents were speaking Korean, Ryan replied in English.

"Ryan, why don't you just speak Korean?" I asked after a while.

"Because I want Ali to understand," he snapped back.

"Don't worry about me," Ali said as if it was a huge sacrifice. She picked up the bottle of Diet Coke and poured herself a fresh glass. I held out my glass for a refill.

"He answers in English because he can't string three Korean words together," his father reiterated in Korean. "How is the movie coming along?"

"Appa, we've only just started so there's a lot of work to do."

His father nodded. "That's good. It's good that you can learn how hard it is to make a movie. Or do you think that those directors get paid millions of dollars for nothing? And I hope that this will help you finally get this filming nonsense out of your system. Su Jin ah, don't you think it's a shame that someone as smart as Ryan, someone with such a scientific brain doesn't even care about his gift?"

Hoping it was a rhetorical question, I didn't reply.

"I remember how happy I was when he took apart his older brother's broken camera and fixed it. I thought it meant that he was going to be an engineer or become some kind of inventor but instead, he decided to use it to tape us wrapping Christmas gifts. What did he gain from that? What is so special about wrapping gifts? Wasn't it pointless?"

Ali gave me a look and when I glanced at Ryan, his face was devoid of emotion. I scooped a spoon of rice and tried not to think about it. But I couldn't help but feel sad when I thought about how often he had to hear his father's annoying little speech.



***



"Action!"

I looked into the camera and tried to remember my lines. "Umma, I'm so happy!" I jumped to show my excitement. "I can't—"

"Cut!"

I groaned. "What now?" We'd been trying to film our second scene of the day for the last thirty minutes and had yet been able to get through the first minute. The stupid guy really thought he was Woody Allen or something. Did he think that the film was going to be screened at Cannes?

"Just chill a bit on the happiness, okay? You sounded like you'd just inhaled helium. The idea is to act like you're happy and not stupid," he said condescendingly.

Okay, what was his problem? Did he forget that I was taking time out of my precious Saturday to act in his stupid film? "Look, if you're going to call me stupid, just forget about it. It's not like I'm actually gaining anything from this!" I yelled before I turned around to make my dramatic exit.

But before I could take a step, he quickly caught me and turned me around. "Okay, I'm sorry. Let's just do this one more time but can you tone down the happiness a bit? Just a notch?"

I looked over at Ali who was staying off frame in preparation for her part. She'd been mumbling and pacing around as if she was practicing lines which made no sense as she had none.

"Ready?" our director asked.

I frowned. "Okay, ready," I said grudgingly.

"1, 2, action!"

I smiled into the camera. " Umma, I'm so happy! I…," I began. The whole idea was to go on and on about how happy I was and get so caught up in it that I wouldn't notice the pedestrian (Ali) bump into me.

"Cut."

I groaned loudly. "What now? I thought the scene was going perfectly."

"Ali, you're supposed to hit her. Just now, it looked like you just walked by her. The audience is supposed to notice you bump into her even though she doesn't flinch."

"Look," Ali said in a bored tone, "I only have about twenty minutes before Kevin arrives so let's get this over and done with, okay? If the bump isn't great you can fix it in editing or whatever."

Kevin was the guy she was currently going gaga over. According to her, he was the hottest guy on the planet which was something I could agree with if I completely disregarded his face.

"Alright, let's do this again. Remember, you must bump into her. Okay? Ready. Places, ladies! Action!"

"Ouch! ALI, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!?! OUCH! Ouch!!" I yelled a few minutes later. Ali had done as Ryan requested but when she'd hit me, I didn't even get the chance to pretend that I couldn't feel it because she sent me flying about two feet. I rubbed my butt furiously and checked to see if I'd grazed my knee. It hadn't been a pretty fall as I'd landed on my knee and when it couldn't support me, all the weight had pushed me on my as.s. Dang.

Ali ran over to help me but Ryan cut in front of her and pushed her away. "Su Jin, are you okay?" he asked worriedly as he crouched down in front of me and began to brush off my sandy knee. "Are you okay?" He rubbed my knee but when he started to massage my calf, I didn't know why but I just had to stop him. "Are you okay?" he repeated as I tried to get up.

I nodded. His closeness was throwing me off but I tried to ignore it. It was no big deal - I was probably only just realizing that I really loved my personal space. "I'm okay," I said as I let him help me up. My butt was still on fire but I knew I'd live. He held on to me tightly as he walked me to a nearby bench. "Let's take a five minute break and Ali, please remember that this isn't the freaking WWE!"



***



"Hey, can you hold the door open?" Ryan called as he climbed down the stairs. We were done filming for the day and since Ali had already gone off with Kevin, I was waiting for my brother in the make-shift studio.

I jumped off the couch and did as he asked and watched him walk through the door with an electric keyboard in his hand.

"What's that?"

He raised his brow. "What does it look like?" He walked over to a corner and set it up on one of the tables. He dragged a random chair in front of it then sat down and tinkled with a key to test the sound. "Cool," he said, nodding contentedly.

"You play?"

He nodded. "For a few years now." Then he titled his lips and stretched his face unsurely. "I've got the craziest idea."

I walked over to the keyboard and played 'Mary Had a Little Lamb'. That and 'Doe A Deer, A Female Deer' were the only tunes I knew and I made sure to play them whenever I saw a keyboard.

He put his hand over my mine to stop me from playing. I couldn't pretend that I didn't feel the tingle so I immediately took my hand back and went back to sit on the couch. Okay. What was that?


"Su Jin, what do you think about doing a song with me?"

I turned to him. "Meaning?"

"Well," he said, nervously, "you have a good voice and I was just thinking that if we're going to make a movie, we might as well come up with an original song – like a soundtrack or something."

I chuckled. "Is that necessary? I don't think they expect the movie to be that professional." Jeez. What was the boy on?

"But if we're going to do this, shouldn't we do it right? If we are going to make this movie then we need to put in our 100%."

I shook my head. "Ali practically had to beg you to enter the competition but all of a sudden, you're so into it that you want to put in your 100%."

He rolled his eyes. "So what do you think? Do you agree? I'll compose the song – all you'd need to do is sing it. I'd have sung it if I didn't sound like a frog."

I shuddered at the memory of him singing at our choir auditions.

A song, huh? I'd always had my little fantasies of singing in front of a crowd of people yelling my name and throwing their bras at me. Okay, not their bras but who hadn't fantasized about winning a Grammy award and thanking all the little people she'd had to step on to get to number 1?

It did sound like fun. "Okay, show me your skills. Play something for me."

As he played the tune, I couldn't help but acknowledge that he was actually quite good. He was no Mozart but he certainly understood his music. I bumped my head along with the music till I recognized it and instinctively started singing the lyrics. "She's so lucky, she's a star but she cry, cry, cries…" I turned and looked at him in dismay. "Britney Spears? You like Britney Spears?" I fell back on the couch and burst out laughing. I was practically rolling all over and laughing my ass off because it was just plain ridiculous. He loved Britney? Okay, so in my youth, I'd loved Britney but he loved Britney? I had to hold my tummy to keep it from bursting as I laughed harder.

"No! No!" he protested.

I looked up and saw him waving vehemently in defense.

I sat up, frowned then folded my arms. "You don't like Britney but you know her song? And can play it on the piano?"

He tinkled a few keys and shook his head. "I had a thing for this girl in 7th grade and she was such a huge fan of hers that I got it in my head that if I could play the songs for her, she'd be impressed and maybe like me too," he said with a shrug. From the faces he was making, I could tell that it wasn't something he was proud of.

I laughed some more. "And was she impressed?"

He scrunched his nose. "She transferred schools before I even got the chance to show her."

And that just killed me.

After recovering from all the laughter, I said, "So you know all her songs, huh? Okay, play this one…." I paused to catch my breath then started singing the lyrics to Stronger.

He shook his head. "She left before I could learn that one."

I chuckled. "Okay, what else can I sing? Every time I try to fly I fall…"

He shook his head again. "Not that one either."

I growled. Jeez. This guy was really killing my mojo. I wanted to sing something! "Okay, how about this one?" I cleared my throat and began, "I don't wanna be so shy, huh-huh, but every time that I'm alone I wonder why…"

He wrinkled his forehead. "Sounds familiar. Keep singing."

"… I hope that you will wait me. You'll see that you're the only for me."

He smiled and nodded before placing his fingers on the keyboard and playing the tune.

After singing one more line, I got off his bed, pretended my fist was a microphone and started singing and dancing. He sounded quite great and I felt like I was performing at Madison Square Garden.

"Sometimes I run, sometimes I hide. Sometimes I'm scared of you but all I really want is to hold you tight, treat you right, be with you day and night…."



Baby all I need is time.

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