I Returned as a High School Girl

Chapter 222: Imaginary Couple (5)

Kang Ra-Eun went back down to the first floor living room after unpacking her things.

‘This place has the most number of cameras.’

It was natural considering this was the area that they would spend the most time in during their imaginary married life. Ra-Eun’s sharp eyes had already identified the locations of every single camera without Director Joo Seong-Won having told her.

She and Je-Woon would receive the most attention out of the three couples, so they were being given extra special attention by the You’re My Other Half production team. Je-Woon also arrived at the living room and took a seat on the couch that Ra-Eun was already on. He had changed into comfortable clothes unlike Ra-Eun.

He asked, “You haven’t changed yet?”

“I was going to after Director Joo gave us the explanation regarding how the shoot would progress. By the way, are we allowed to talk about stuff like this on camera?”

Ra-Eun wondered if she should refrain from talking about the director and the shoot in front of the cameras.

Je-Woon smiled and then asked, “This is your first time being on an observation show, isn’t it?”

“Huh? I guess so...”

This was indeed Ra-Eun’s first time. After all, she had neither the desire nor opportunity to.

Je-Woon replied to her as if to tell her not to worry, “You can talk about anything on camera. This isn’t a live broadcast, so Director Joo can cut out anything that he doesn’t want aired.”

TV programs, including variety shows, always had a script. No matter how realistic one tried to keep a reality show, it could never be 100% realistic, and the same went for observation shows. It certainly showed how someone usually went about their daily life, but as long as it was a program, they would add some sort of setting. They had also done the same for this imaginary marriage project.

“So you remember Director Joo giving us an assignment to plan a date course, right?” Je-Woon mentioned.

Ra-Eun smiled bitterly and asked, “Did you plan one, sunbae?”

“Just... a draft, I guess.”

“You must have tons of dating experience,” she said just to feel him out.

Je-Woon chuckled. “That’s quite a curveball. You know what’ll happen if I say yes to that question, don’t you?”

“Of course.”

Bex, the boy group that Je-Woon was in, possessed a colossal fanbase. Every single word from his mouth carried a weight heavy enough to cause an enormous wave past Korea and on a global scale. If it were revealed that Je-Woon had a promiscuous past, it would shake the entertainment industry like an 8.0 scale earthquake.

“My friends that have girlfriends recommended these courses to me. Don’t get the wrong idea.”

“Okay, sunbae.”

Ra-Eun giggled and looked over in detail the date plan that Je-Woon had made. The one that stood out among the courses was...

“Rock climbing?” Ra-Eun asked.

“Yeah. I’ve been hooked on it lately.”

Je-Woon had picked up indoor rock climbing for the first time in his life around the beginning of last year, because their fifth album title track Challenge?contained a scene of him climbing. He had come to realize the joy of rock climbing after learning it, and it had become one of his personal hobbies.

‘The climbing gym is... pretty close to my high school.’

Such a thing had not been there during her high school days, so she suspected that it had been made recently.

“Have you tried rock climbing before?” Je-Woon asked.

Of course she had, but not as a woman.

“No, never,” Ra-Eun replied.

“That’s perfect, then. I’ll teach you today,” Je-Woon said confidently.

Meanwhile, Ra-Eun thought of a great idea while she was looking over Je-Woon’s date plan.

“Sunbae. There’s this one cafe that I know near this climbing gym. Why don’t we go there after?”

“Really? Sure, let’s go once we finish.”

“Thank you very much, sunbae.”

“It’s not really something to thank me for.”

Je-Woon didn’t feel like he needed to be thanked for just agreeing to go to a cafe, but that was not the case for Ra-Eun. She would be able to resolve her close friend’s worries just by going to that cafe once.

***

Ra-Eun and Je-Woon discussed today’s schedule with Director Joo. They told him that they would have lunch at home, go to a climbing gym in the afternoon and then spend some time at a cafe.

“What about evening plans?” the director asked.

“We haven’t thought about it yet.”

“Then how about you have a barbecue party on the second floor terrace? Back when we did a preliminary survey of this villa, we talked a lot about how nice it would be for you two to spend some quality time together up there.”

They could picture the aesthetic landscape of Ra-Eun and Je-Woon spending the tranquil evening looking over the city view.

Je-Woon casually asked for Ra-Eun’s opinion, “What do you think?”

“Sounds good to me. We’ll be doing a lot of things in the afternoon, so I think having some quietude in the evening would be good.”

Everything needed a balance in tempo; a harmony between fast and slow. Je-Woon also agreed with her.

“We’ll do that then, Director.”

“Okay. We’ll set up the barbecue, so go have fun on your date.”

“Understood.”

They were once again left alone together after the short meeting. Ra-Eun got up from her seat first.

“I’ll prepare lunch.”

“Let’s do it together,” Je-Woon expressed.

“Shall we?”

They took out the aprons that the staff members had prepared. They were matching couple aprons, both light blue with the same pattern on them.

“I’ll tie it for you,” Je-Woon remarked.

Ra-Eun was more than capable of tying an apron herself, but Je-Woon personally stepped up to tie it from the back. Such scenes were necessary since they were an imaginary couple. However, Ra-Eun was worried about one thing.

“Your fans won’t curse me because of this, would they?” she asked.

She was worried, considering how loyal Je-Woon’s fans were to him. However, Je-Woon thought otherwise.

“You remember the drama that we had filmed together, right?”

He was referring to the drama Reaper, where Ra-Eun had played Jin Seo-Yu, and her co-star had been Je-Woon.

“Back when we did that pretend kiss scene, no one said a word of complaint about it. Rather, they were saying how great it would be if we actually dated.”

“Really?”

Ra-Eun was not one to go out of her way to search the internet for responses since the result would appear in the form of view ratings. She also did not search for hate comments, so this was her first time finding out about such reactions from the public.

“It still comes up among fans, so I wouldn’t worry about it. In the first place, we wouldn’t be allowed to do something like this together if there was a problem.”

“In that case, what a relief,” Ra-Eun responded.

She felt as if she had been acknowledged by Bex fans.

***

Ra-Eun and Je-Woon’s schedule had been hectic the entire time because they had to unpack during the morning and then be explained all sorts of things from staff members. Hence, they decided to keep lunch simple and go with a sandwich and warm milk. They were both so accustomed to controlling their diets that they had no complaints about such a simple meal. After they had finished their meal...

“Should we head out now?” Je-Woon suggested.

“Okay, sunbae.”

The production team had prepared a car for them in advance.

“Is this the sponsored car that they had mentioned?”

The program had been hit by a massive wave of product placement requests from famous businesses after it had been made officially public that the two top stars would be experiencing life as an imaginary couple. The kitchen tools that they had used to make lunch were also mostly sponsored.

Je-Woon grabbed the steering wheel in excitement. “I’ve been wanting to drive this. How perfect.”

“Can’t you just buy one, considering your level of fame?”

In terms of income purely through one’s entertainment career, Je-Woon would place within the top three. It was almost impossible, even for entertainment reporters, to calculate his net worth. However, Je-Woon was unexpectedly the frugal type.

“I don’t really have a strong greed for cars. I grew up poor, so the need to save money became an unshakable habit. Does that make me sound cheap?”

Ra-Eun shook her head. “No. Rather, it makes you look cooler.”

Je-Woon smiled in embarrassment from her honesty. Ra-Eun felt like she was learning more about her partner Je-Woon through the program You’re My Other Half. She wondered if this was one of the good things about this show.

***

They arrived at their first date spot, the climbing gym. There was a diverse spread of routes, starting from beginner, advanced, expert, and many more.

“Which route do you usually take, sunbae?” Ra-Eun asked.

“I usually go for advanced. You... said you’ve never tried rock climbing, right? Then I guess the beginner route would be best for you.”

That was logically true, but Ra-Eun already had several occasions’ worth of rock climbing experience from her past life.

“I’ll take the advanced route too.”

“Are you sure? It’s really difficult.”

Ra-Eun decided to let her actions speak for herself. There was an ideal way to get up every route. Ra-Eun placed her left hand on the start hold and immediately searched for holds to place her right hand and leg on.

Leap!

Ra-Eun climbed toward the top at an extremely fast pace. She had even managed to pass the crimp hold[1] region in the middle of the route and the crux[2] as well. Even the instructors were impressed by how fluid and natural her movements were. There was a region where she had a bit of difficulty, but she managed to reach the finish hold.

Ra-Eun safely landed on the mat after fulfilling her objective, and was showered with applause soon after. Even the staff members that were looking over them cheered while applauding her. Je-Woon couldn’t help but acknowledge her skills after being shown such a performance.

“I thought you’d never climbed before?”

“I’ve watched a ton of videos on ArcaTube.”

Ra-Eun couldn’t be called anything but gifted to be able to display such skills just from observational training using videos. Then, Je-Woon gave her a suggestion, both to keep the show entertaining and to discern her climbing skills a little more.

“Then why don’t we make a bet?”

“A bet?”

“Yeah. The loser has to do one thing the winner asks them to do. What do you think?”

Ra-Eun happily agreed since there was something that she had wanted to ask Je-Woon to do.

“If I win, you have to model for the product that my company will be launching next month,” she said.

“Okay, got it.”

It was now Je-Woon’s turn to set his condition.

“If I win...” Je-Woon said with a smirk. “You have to call me ‘oppa’ for the next three days.”

“...”

It was the worst possible condition for Ra-Eun.

1. Crimp holds are very small holds that are only big enough to be held by the fingertips.

2. The crux is the hardest section of a rock climbing route.