Chapter 18
HJ’s been hectically filming for the last two days, and he could only take short naps in between filming.
This is his first drama, there are a lot of different things he has to learn, and he is under tremendous pressure.
Extremely mushy scripts, physically exhausted, those are difficult but he could bear all these. He wants to know what the outcome would be after putting in all his effort.
In the morning of the MBC entertainment award, he attended the rehearsal, but his schedule is so packed that he is only allowed to run through two times, don’t even have a chance to say a word, and then he has to rush back to the filming location.
She would help to arrange the rest, he thought.
Again, after another set of shooting is done, it is about time for him to prepare to attend the MBC Entertainment award night.
From the rundown, HJ and HB will walk up the red carpet together.
But HB is not yet there when he arrived at MBC.
HJ sent her a message, “Where are you?”
A quick reply from her received shortly, “I’m on my way, got into a traffic jam.”
While he is waiting for her in his car, he takes out and uses the hand warmer she gave.
Now, like what she said, everyone in the location got a hand warmer set.
He still clearly remembered how unbelievable their expressions were when he gave these warmers to Kim Joon Hyung, Min Ho, and Bum1; they probably were shocked that he would do this kind of stuff, giving everyone a New Year gift.
It is true that this is not his style, but he feels good doing it.
He received another message from her awhile later, “I’m almost there, but I haven’t changed yet, couldn’t walk up the red carpet with you.”
“Okay, understand.” He replied.
He waited until he saw her car drove by and watched her running to the side door, she still got her down jacket with her. Then, he got out of the car and walked towards the red carpet.
Facing the brilliant flashlights, he stood still, presenting his regular post and showing his standard smile. Meanwhile, he concisely answers the press on their brief interview. He is so familiar with this sort of things that he could do it instinctively without thinking.
He arrived in the backstage, bowing to all the Sunbaes he met on the hallway. He goes directly to her waiting room, knocked on the door.
He saw her got changed into the evening gown when he entered into the room. She is now putting on her make-ups, and her hairdo is not done yet.
“Why did you come so late?” HJ asked.
“I went home to get something, didn’t know I would stuck in traffic.” HB replied.
“What is it that you have to get it yourself?”
This is not her style, she is always punctual, he often feels inferior to her timekeeping.
“……hmm…… nothing much” She hesitates.
Since she is unwilling to talk about it, he stopped asking.
Then his attention focus on her gown, it’s a long black gown. Although it is a tube top, but there is a thin strap goes around the neck. This is the style he likes, It is appropriate and not too revealing,
“The gown is very pretty.” He said.
She turns and takes a look at him, “Oh, Thank you.”
“Hyun Joong, you don’t seem too good, are you sure you could make it?”
“No problem, I had Samgyetang already, how could I dare to faint today.” He smiled.
She still has the worry look on her face,
“Here listen, besides the performance, we have to present the award once; and to receive the award once; then, we have to be there when they announced the Best Couple award, other than that, you could rest in the waiting room.”
“But that doesn’t seem right, all the Sunbaes are present and I’m absent resting in the waiting room.” HJ said.
HB asquint look at him, says “It isn’t the time to worry about this now, you just followed me when I gets up, understand?”
He can’t hide his smile, she always understands and cooperates with him, she always seeks his opinion never forced him to do anything (except forcing him to wear couple tee). This is the first time she is this strict to him just because she’s worried about him.
“Okay” He said.
Afterwards, people are coming in one after another to greet and chat with her, and he doesn’t get any chance to talk to her. Therefore, he goes back to his waiting room, and tries to get a little rest before the show start.
When the award night is about to start, he was asked to be seated. HB & HJ are sitting with Macro & Son Dam bi couple and Fany & Hwayobi couple. He hasn’t met them since the Ant tour. Although he is not too familiar with the other two couples, he still greets with them one by one.
As soon as he finds his seat, he found out he is not sitting next to HB, their seats are between the two couples on each end. This is such a strange arrangement, he thought while glancing at HB. She seems to be puzzled too, takes a look at him before she sat down.
He looks around, the other WGM couples are sitting at the table nearby, and he saw Andy and Solbi couple are sitting the same way as theirs. Since both of them are nominated to the Best Couple award, are they arranged this on purpose?
Since his debut, he only been attended the music award, this is the first time he attended the Entertainment award. A lot of the celebrities attended tonight are the sunbaes that he only seen in TV, it’s so different and exciting.
Subliminally turns and glance at her, she seems to be close to a lot of people.
She is the most peculiar person he ever known. No matter what age group, either man or woman, she could naturally get along with them. Once you get to know her, you could feel the sincerity from her which is so irresistible, the sincerity that you can’t endure to break.
She gets up not long after the show starts; he remembered what she said, he gets up too to follow her to the backstage. She looks back found out that he follows her, she starts smiling at him. They went to the waiting room together. He sits on the sofa, finding a comfortable position to lean towards the armrest.
“You could take a nap, I will wake you up when it’s time for us to present.”
“Ne”
He closes his eyes. He could relax awhile, although he couldn’t fall asleep. She is right, his body is reaching the limit. If he continues to sit stiffly on his seat, he doesn’t know if he could carry on. After awhile, he could feel someone gaze at him, he opens his eyes, it just happened that they looks into each other’s eyes. There is compassion in her gaze, he could see and feel it.
He reassuringly smiles at her, “I am okay, I could carry on.”
She turns away her gaze rather uneasily. He closes his eyes again, and his body starts to relax.
He didn’t know how long it passed, he seems to hear her voice from a distance.
“Hyun Joong, Hyun Joong……”
Slowly opens his eyes, trying to focus, finally saw her calls his name in front of him. He gets up,
“I fell asleep?”
“Looks like it, it’s our turn now.”
He stands up and stretched his body, quickly waking up. Right now, this kind of nap is a good help for him to regain strength.
“Let’s go”, he said to her.
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End Note:
1 F4 Member – Kim Joon, Kim Hyun Joong, Lee Min Ho, and Kim Bum are the F4 members in BOF.
Chapter 19
Actually, presenting the award is quite simple, not too many special thing needed to pay attention, as long as you read it correctly.
According to the instruction, HB and HJ will briefly chat before presenting the award.
So HB asked, “How have you been, Shilang? Since it’s been a while, do you think I changed in some way?”
HJ couldn’t hold and said, “I think you got whiter than before.”
She probably brings to mind the teasing he made during their practise, she is trying really hard probably using all her strength to hold back her laugh, even her voice shifted, he also finds this funny.
At last, they finally presented the award and get back to the backstage.
“Yay, what are you doing, you still joked around in such situation.”
HB stared at HJ, but HJ is playing innocent, “I didn’t, I’m just telling the truth. Besides, if you want to laugh, just laugh, why are you trying that hard holding back?”
She still stared at HJ for a long while, but at last she couldn’t hold her laughter anymore.
“We are going to perform soon, let’s get changed.” HB said a bit later after holding back her laughter.
HJ got back to his waiting room, got changed, adjusted his make-up, and then went back to her waiting room again.
HB changed her clothes, she’s now adjusting her made-up. He made a sigh, she wore long pants, and he’s relieved that it’s not the short skirt. He’s sitting back on the same sofa, looking at her. She’s done tidying up, turned back and facing him.
“What’s wrong?” HB asked.
“I still think this style fits better to Tecktonik.”
“Really?”
“Yep, tight pants fit better than short skirt.” HJ said.
She glanced at him, didn’t continue the topic.
“Who do you think will win the Best Couple Award?” HB asked.
He considers a bit, “Andy Hyung and Solbi nuna.”
“I think so too, I never thought that we will get nominated.”
“Yep, it’s quite lucky.”
Although the crews told them that Ssangchu couple got a high chance for it, HJ never thought of winning the Best Couple Award, this is the first time he participated in this kind of variety show, it is nice and lucky enough to get nominated.
They practiced the last time before the performance. Soon after, they were told that they will be the next to perform, asking them to get ready at the backstage. Before they stepped out on stage, HB looked at him, cheered him up with the “fighting” sign. And HJ nodded to HB.
The music started, he devoted himself to this performance. From now on, He and She are no longer Shilang and Hwang Buin, but Kim Hyun Joong and Hwang Bo Hye Jung. This probably is their last time performed together as Ssangchu couple on stage, he understands, and that’s why he treasured it so much. He put in all his strength, he could feel his heavy legs towards the end, he lean on her, and not allowing himself to reel.
After the performance, she went to get changed.
And HJ also went to his waiting room, when he sat down, his legs are shivering a bit uncontrollably. He rested for a while, thinking she should almost get changed already.
He gets up, and walked back to her waiting room, he feels most relaxes staying with her.
He knocked the door, and walked in. The time when he saw the gown she wore, he stared at it for so long and could not say a word. He has to admit that the gown is pretty, but not only is her whole back exposed, the gown is really short too.
“What’s the matter?” She looked at him, “Not feeling well?”
Of course, REALLY not feeling well, ABSOLUTELY not feeling well.
“Th, this…….” He said, pointing at her gown.
“You mean this gown? I brought this awhile back, and thought this is pretty. But this is not something I could wear in normal day, today I finally got a chance to wear this.” She explained.
“But, this gown is too……”
She interrupted, “I know what you gonna said, leave it alone for now, I have something for you.”
HJ still tightly stared at this beautiful yet eye-poking gown, until she put a vacuum bottle on his hand.
“Hmm? What’s this, Samgyetang?” HJ asked.
“Bingo.”
A quick thought came in HJ’s mind, “This is the thing that you rushed back home to get, and almost got late?”
“Eat it while it’s still warm.” She gives him a spoon.
“Why aren’t you giving me earlier?”
“If you ate it before the performance, it will upset your stomach.”
He opened the bottle, sipping slowly, the light warm aroma slips in his month soothing down his throat until it reaches the bottom of his heart.
They went back to their seats after HJ finished the Samgyetang. He uneasily looking at her all the time, making sure her gown is staying the way it supposed to be.
Before the performance, he working hard to make himself concentrated, now the performance is over, he started to loosen up, his mind started wandering and a bit absent minded, he felt like he is in a dream.
All couples in WGM won the Best Brand of the Year award, receiving this award is much relaxed, since there are a lot of people, he doesn’t need to talk much.
After receiving the award, HJ smiled at her. There’s nothing else for them, as long as they stay and appear when they announced the Best Couple Award that will be it. Although he is sitting stiffly on his seat, his mind is actually wandering around, really doesn’t paying attention.
While he’s still daydreaming, he suddenly hears their names. The Best Couple, got almost 80,000 votes, He looked at her in disbelief, and she got the same expression.
With a bit shock, they walked up to the stage, and the two also got confused doesn’t know where to stand, really, they even have the same strange instinct to this kind of situation!
He is empty-minded, absolutely not prepared emotionally, he didn’t even have his speech ready. He didn’t hear what she said, he hardly remembers what he said, and these moments are so blurry in his mind.
When they got back to the backstage, this is the time they finally starting to realize that they really received the Best Couple award. This is a Very big surprise for them. Looking at each other, HJ and HB speak at the same time
“Congratulation!”
And then they smile at each other.
MH comes over, and reminds HJ that it’s about time to get back to the filming location.
“I have to go now, Bye.” HJ said to HJ.
“Bye.” She waved at him.
When HJ gets in the car, looking at the two awards he received tonight, he thought,
‘Year 2008 is really a very special and meaningful year for me, not only found my Happiness, but also obtained my luckiness.'
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End Note:
This is the second half of the MBC entertainment award, please don't be too picky to the details in the award, I know a lot of you asked why HJ is so expressionless in the award. really, I think his expressionless only happened when HB wore the beautiful but eye-poking gown(of course in HJ's mind only, for me, it's absolutely beautiful and sexy).
I received quite a few PMs asking me to post the fanfiction to joongbo.proboards.com. I would love to do so, but I think I will have to wait until I finished translating. It's quite hard for me to maintain two Thread at the same time. This is my first attempt doing translation, and I did devote a lot of time on this, hope you all could understand.
