lovenovelstory Chapter 18 Coquetry
Chapter 18 Coquetry
Mina sat on the floor of the practice room, leaning against the wall, sweat trickling down her neck and dampening a small patch of her dance outfit's collar.
I practiced the new choreography's movements over and over again, and my legs were so sore that I didn't want to straighten them.
The teammates were scattered around. Lim Nayeon sat cross-legged in a corner drinking water, Hirai Momo slumped on the sofa stuffing potato chips into her mouth, and Yoo Jeongyeon leaned against the speaker with her eyes closed, pretending to doze off. The air was filled with the salty smell of evaporated sweat.
She glanced at Sana Minatozaki, who was not far away.
She started clinging to Hirai Momo again, hanging her whole body on Hirai Momo's arm, her fingers reaching into the potato chip bag, a sly smile on her face.
Hirai Momo hugged her potato chips tightly to her chest, while Minatozaki Sana nuzzled her shoulder with her head.
The person who used her stomach as a pillow last night and angrily called her a "pervert" is now jumping around like nothing ever happened.
Minami looked away and down at the photos that Jiang Yongtai had just sent her on her phone.
Didn't you just have an interview yesterday? You've already started working today?
She smirked.
This idiot doesn't actually think I'm looking for him just to play games, does he? I just want to hear the other half of what happened last night from him.
Her eyes darted around, and she quietly raised her phone, covering the earpiece with her finger, suppressing the shutter sound to an almost inaudible muffled thud.
In the scene, Minatozaki Sana snatches a potato chip from Hirai Momo's arms, holds it up in her hand, and smiles with her eyes curving into two crescent moons.
Minami glanced at the photo, nodded in satisfaction, and pressed send.
……
Jiang Yongtai came out of the bathroom, shook the water off his hands, picked up his phone and saw a photo sent by Mina.
He was stunned for a moment, not understanding what Mina meant by suddenly sending this message. After hesitating for a moment, he sent two question marks.
"Does Yongtai-san not want to watch?"
"Why would I want to see this?" He had no idea what Penguin South was up to this time.
"Doesn't Yongtai-san still have Sana's things? He hasn't even changed the password~"
Jiang Yongtai's brows furrowed even deeper.
"She told you."
"Ugh~ Sana cried so loudly last night that she woke me up."
Jiang Yongtai's brows immediately relaxed.
"Nan-chan, it's not good to lie."
Mina pouted. "This is boring. This person isn't easy to fool."
"Yongtai-san, how did you become a variety show PD if you're so boring?"
"ability."
Mina's lips curled into a smile.
"As expected of Sana's certified narcissist~"
Jiang Yongtai didn't respond to the teasing, but instead asked a question.
"How's your dance practice going today?"
Mina looked at the caring message on the screen and pursed her lips.
Is this what you wanted to hear? Hurry up and keep talking about Sana!
After thinking for a moment, she took a picture of her legs with her phone and sent it to the sender.
In the dim light of the dance studio, a small, faint red mark appeared on my knee from the repeated kneeling motion.
"I'm so tired—I can't even straighten my legs."
"Ask your teammates to give you a massage, and Nan-chan, you really need to wash the soles of your feet properly."
Mina looked down at the soles of her feet; they were just covered in some dust from the practice room, not really dirty.
"Yongtai-san is very impolite."
She typed with more force.
"Nan-chan, it's very impolite of you to send me her photo."
Mina angrily sent a penguin hammer pillow emoji, put her phone aside, picked up her water bottle, and bit down hard on the straw.
Not far away, Chou Tzu-yu and Son Chae-young sat leaning against each other at the other end of the practice room.
Son Chaeyoung was so tired she was almost exhausted. She rested her head on Tzuyu's shoulder, her eyelids drooping.
Tzuyu glanced at Mina, then leaned close to Chaeyoung's ear and whispered, "Chaeyoung unnie."
"...What's wrong, Ziyu?"
Son Chae-young's voice was so weak it sounded like she'd used up the last bit of battery.
"Mina unnie seemed to be chatting with someone just now."
"What's wrong?"
"...It looks like a couple arguing."
"What?!"
Son Chaeyoung suddenly turned around, her shoulder instantly slipping away from Tzuyu's support.
Chou Tzu-yu suddenly lost her balance and fell sideways onto the wooden floor with a dull thud.
She touched her head and sat up again, calling out in a wronged tone, "Unnie!"
"Oh, I'm so sorry, Tzuyu!"
Sun Caiying quickly rubbed the back of her head to comfort her, but the force she used was very perfunctory.
"Did you see clearly just now? Did Mina unnie really do that?"
Tzuyu rubbed her head, her tone wistful, "I just said it looks like it..."
Son Chaeyoung released Tzuyu and stood up, supporting herself on the floor.
"No, I need to go ask Mina who she's chatting with."
She turned around and walked aggressively toward Minami.
Ziyu sat there, casting a "good luck" look at her retreating figure.
"Mina unnie!"
Son Chae-young stood in front of Mina and called out with her head down.
"What's wrong, Chaeyoung?" Mina looked up at her with a smile.
"Tzuyu said she saw you arguing with someone just now. Who was that person?!"
Mina paused for a moment, her gaze passing over Chaeyoung's shoulder and landing on Tzuyu, who was not far away.
Tzuyu was hugging her knees and waving at her with a silly grin on her face.
Mina's smile deepened slightly. "Did Tzuyu tell you?"
Tzuyu watched the smile on Mina's face and continued waving.
Chaeyoung unnie, if you're going to die, don't drag me down with you!
"right!"
Son Chaeyoung stiffened her neck, and although Mina's smile made her instinctively take half a step back, she still firmly betrayed Tzuyu.
Mina patted the spot next to her.
"Come, sit down, Chaeyoung."
"I...I think I'd better not sit down..."
Mina patted him again, her smile becoming even more amiable.
"Sit down."
"Mi, Mina unnie, I heard Nayeon unnie calling me, I'm going over for a second!"
Mina grabbed her wrist, pulled her down to sit on the floor, and tilted her head.
"Really? I didn't hear that."
His other hand had already reached around Son Chae-young's waist.
"No! Unnie! I was wrong..."
"Too late~"
……
Jiang Yongtai looked at the meme of a penguin angrily swinging a hammer on the screen and the corners of his mouth turned up slightly.
A face peeked out from behind.
Jiang Yongtai frowned instantly, put away his phone, and swiftly slapped it on the forehead with his other hand.
"elder brother!"
Kim Sung-woo covered his forehead and took half a step back, glaring at him accusingly.
"Don't look at what you shouldn't see."
Jiang Yongtai casually uttered a sentence, turned off his phone screen, and strode towards the conference room.
Kim Sung-woo rubbed his forehead and caught up, his face a battle between curiosity and survival instinct, with curiosity ultimately prevailing.
"Brother, are you in a relationship?"
Jiang Yongtai didn't stop walking. "No."
"But I clearly saw you chatting with someone just now, and you even laughed."
"It's perfectly normal to laugh while chatting with friends."
Kim Sung-woo paused for a moment, then chose to continue courting death.
"Brother, that's normal for other people, not for you."
Jiang Yongtai stopped in his tracks, and Jin Chengyu almost bumped into his back before abruptly stopping.
Jiang Yongtai turned around, looked at him, and said in a flat tone:
"From now on, call me senpai-nim during work hours."
After saying that, he turned back and continued walking towards the conference room.
Kim Sung-woo paused for a second, then let out a sigh and chased after him.
"Brother! I was wrong!"
"Cheng Yu, please address me by my professional title."
"...Yes, PD Kang senior."
……
Jiang Yongtai sat in the center of the conference table, twirling a pen in his hand. Jin Chengyu was next to him, going over the script for the upcoming interview again, muttering to himself and occasionally adding notes in his notebook.
There was also a photographer nearby who was setting up his equipment to record the interviews with the guests.
The conference room door was suddenly pushed open, and Jiang Yongtai looked up, his gaze falling on the person at the door.
"Aninhaseyo".
Seohyun stood smiling at the door, alone, without her manager.
The beige knit sweater clung softly to her body, tapering down to her waistline and then set in by a pair of dark high-waisted jeans, revealing her perfect figure.
Her long, dark brown hair was tied into a single ponytail that hung down her shoulders, revealing her hairline and lightly made-up face.
Her face is thinner than it was in her teenage years, her jawline is more defined, and the baby fat that people remember from her childhood is almost gone.
Jiang Yongtai stood up and bowed slightly.
Xu Xian walked in with a smile, returned the greeting, and then raised her eyes to scan the people in the conference room.
"Hello, I'm Seohyun."
Kim Sung-woo and the cameraman followed suit and greeted him.
Jiang Yongtai raised his hand, gesturing for her to sit across from him at the conference table.
Seohyun said thank you, put her bag at her feet in a corner where she wouldn't trip over it, and then sat down, waiting for the other person to speak first.
"Seohyun-ssi, thank you for your hard work. It's so kind of you to come all this way at this hour."
"It's not hard work, it's PD-nim who's really having a tough time, taking on such a tight schedule right after joining the company."
Xu Xian shook her head slightly, her gaze falling on Jiang Yongtai.
Jiang Yongtai raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised.
I just had an interview with tvN yesterday, and the replacement role for "Heartbreaking Trip" was only finalized this morning.
She actually knew he was a new PD, which shows that Seohyun has connections within tvN and someone must have spoken to her beforehand.
"That's how it is when making a TV show." Jiang Yongtai didn't continue the topic, but smiled and said, "Let's begin."
Seohyun smiled and nodded, placing her hands on the table in a ready-to-go pose.
Kim Sung-woo pushed the interview script over, and Kang Young-tae opened it and asked questions one by one according to the procedure.
Seohyun's answer was polite and considerate, but it was not at all "reserved".
She would proactively expand the conversation, occasionally throwing out a joke, and laughing out loud herself when she got to something interesting.
This was somewhat different from her previous impression, which surprised Jiang Yongtai.
The last and only time he saw Seohyun in person was at the Music Bank concert, the last time Girls' Generation made a full group comeback.
At that time, she was standing in the corridor backstage of the music show, holding a mineral water bottle in her hand, being pushed along by the members. She spoke softly, and when the camera panned to her, her first reaction was to step aside.
The label of "upright girl" is not without reason; she is quiet, serious, and makes no mistakes.
But frankly, this kind of personality isn't very appealing on variety shows.
"Seohyun has always given people the impression of being 'upright' during Girls' Generation."
He put down his interview script, considered his words carefully, and asked a question that hadn't been asked before.
"This special episode of 'Heartbreaking Trip' only has a two-day, one-night schedule, requiring a strong variety show presence. Do you think you can create chemistry with the team?"
Seohyun glanced at the script he had put down, realizing that the question wasn't on it. Her gaze fell on Kang Youngtae's face, and the corners of her mouth curved slightly, as if she had been asked a question she had wanted to discuss for a long time.
"Actually, when I was at SM, people didn't call me 'Upright Girl'."
She paused for a moment, then said, "It's called 'Boring Girl'."
Jiang Yongtai paused for a moment, and she so readily labeled herself as "boring."
"Because the unnies are all amazing," she continued to explain.
"Sooyoung unnie, Sunkyu unnie, and Yoona unnie are all people with great variety show skills."
With so many unnies above, I don't need to do these things.
My role has always been very clear: the youngest member. I'll quietly stay on the sidelines, and if I'm occasionally mentioned, I'll just smile and say something—that's enough.
After she finished speaking, her expression turned somewhat nostalgic, and she reached for the paper cup in front of her and took a sip of water.
"So why did you agree to participate in this variety show?"
"I want to show everyone who I am now."
She placed the paper cup back on the table, her fingers gently twirling along the rim.
"After leaving SM, I became a person and had to do everything myself."
Before, I always had older women (unnies) taking me everywhere I went, but now many of the staff around me are younger than me.
She looked up at Jiang Yongtai, a hint of a smile in her eyes.
"PD-nim, excuse me for asking, but you must be younger than me, right?"
"Yes, I was born in 1993."
Seohyun nodded thoughtfully, then smiled.
"Then it's me again, but it's really impressive that you became a PD at such a young age."
"Thanks."
Jiang Yongtai picked up his pen again and asked a question that wasn't in the script.
"Does Seohyun-ssi think that the current you and the previous Seohyun are the same person?"
Seohyun blinked, then suddenly laughed, as if amused by Kang Young-tae's inexplicable remark.
"PD-nim, this is a bit philosophical." She tilted her head and looked at Kang Young-tae. "Will this scene be edited in?"
"It will be edited in; Seohyun-ssi now is very different from the impression she gave before."
Jiang Yongtai smiled and nodded, "These answers are very appealing."
She smiled and gently thanked him, accepting the compliment.
The interview process was completed at 9:30.
Seohyun got up to say goodbye, and Kang Young-tae also got up to see her off to the elevator. The cameraman and Kim Sung-woo stayed in the conference room to pack up their equipment.
There were only the two of them in the corridor, and the night view of the Upper Cave was spread out as a blur of light spots on the glass windows.
Xu Xian stopped at the elevator entrance, pressed the down button, and the elevator indicator light slowly ticked. She turned to look at Jiang Yongtai.
"PD-nim, there's something I'd like to ask you."
Jiang Yongtai paused for a moment, thinking that she had forgotten to mention some of the guests' requests during the interview.
"Please speak."
I'm currently filming a TV series.
She paused, as if choosing her words carefully.
"Could you briefly mention that I'm currently filming a new project during the opening recording?"
Jiang Yongtai remained silent for a few seconds.
He looked at the guest's materials and knew what she was referring to when she said she was filming "Private Lives" on JTBC, with Seohyun playing the female lead.
However, JTBC is a direct competitor of tvN. The relationship between the two stations is not exactly tense, but it is certainly not good enough for them to help each other promote their services.
Giving up a competitor's drama on a tvN show, even if it's just a vague mention, is not something a newly hired PD could casually agree to.
"Seohyun-ssi, I need to discuss this with the main PD."
After hearing his polite refusal, Xu Xian did not give up immediately, but instead stared into Jiang Yongtai's eyes.
A few seconds later, she laughed.
"PD nim".
She leaned slightly towards him, maintaining social distance, the neckline of her knitwear swaying gently with the movement.
"I won't say the title of the show or the broadcasting station, it's just..." She drew out the last syllable, her ponytail sliding down her back to her shoulder.
"Just mention that I'm filming a drama series, and the PD will definitely find a way to help me, right?"
She didn't deliberately use that cloying voice; she just tilted her head slightly, looked at him, and made a small request on her lips.
Jiang Yongtai understood the meaning behind her sudden coquettishness.
It wasn't pretentious or calculating; it was simply that a woman who had been in the entertainment industry for over a decade knew exactly how to use a small "reward" to deal with a "boy" who was two years younger than her.
He knew a little about Seohyun, the maknae (youngest member) of the national girl group Girls' Generation.
There's a saying in Korea: "The pinnacle of success is Girls' Generation."
But no one can stay at the top forever. Girls' Generation members have reached a stage where they are all transitioning to different paths, and Seohyun has chosen the path of acting.
Unfortunately, SM Entertainment isn't a company that excels at securing film and television resources. Furthermore, besides her, there were other "competitors" above her, and these competitors were none other than the other members of her groups…
Therefore, she, Tiffany, and Sooyoung all chose to leave SM Entertainment in search of better opportunities.
However, transitioning from idol to actor is an extremely difficult path in the entertainment industry, and not every idol can have the luck of Bae Suzy.
It's been almost three years since Seohyun left SM Entertainment, and with the addition of "Private Lives" which she's currently filming, she's only landed three roles in total, making each step a struggle.
So Jiang Yongtai understood why she suddenly "acted coquettishly," and he also knew that she had spoken up even though she knew it was a competing platform. It wasn't that she didn't understand the rules, but that she really needed to seize every opportunity for exposure.
Actually, Seohyun's request wasn't impossible to fulfill. As long as the specific drama title and broadcasting station weren't mentioned, simply saying "I'm currently filming a new project" would be considered a normal update from the cast, which is perfectly reasonable on the show.
After filming is finished, there may be some communication required when reviewing the final product, but it's still within a manageable range.
Thinking of this, Jiang Yongtai nodded and did not continue to refuse.
In the entertainment industry, mutual help and maintaining and building new connections are essential for long-term success.
"If it's just a simple mention without any specific information, I can help you try to get it approved, but whether it passes or not is not something I can decide on my own."
Seohyun's smile deepened, and she nodded.
"Thank you, that's fine then."
She paused, then naturally shifted her tone to another direction.
"By the way, PD-nim, we'll be filming together soon. If it's convenient, you can call me Noona, it'll be more intimate."
She tilted her head slightly. "After all, I'm two years older than PD-nim~"
Before Jiang Yongtai could say anything, the elevator doors opened with a ding.
Zhao Meiyan and her agent appeared in the elevator.
She had clearly just come straight from the practice room; she had minimal makeup on and was wearing a black baseball cap.
When Xu Xian saw that others had appeared, she put away her previous expression, straightened her shoulders, and resumed her composed and upright posture.
Zhao Meiyan looked up and saw the person standing at the door. She was stunned for a moment, and then she sprang out of the elevator, bending over more deeply than ever before.
"Hello, senior!"
Seohyun glanced at her, her face showing the warmth of a senior.
"Hello, are you Miyeon from gidle here for the pre-interview?"
Zhao Meiyan nodded quickly.
"Yes, senior! I'm Cho Miyeon from Gidle."
"Perfect timing, my interview is over."
Seohyun smiled and nodded. "Miyeon-ssi, see you on set in a couple of days, Fighting~"
After she finished speaking, she stepped into the elevator, turned around, and pressed the button for her floor.
Before the elevator doors closed, she looked up and smiled at Jiang Yongtai.
Zhao Meiyan watched the elevator doors close before she dared to relax her shoulders.
She took a breath, turned her head, and looked at the person who had just been standing next to Xu Xian. She was instantly stunned.
"PD-nim?! What are you doing here?!"