Stuck In The Sea Breeze

“This is….” I let go of Miss VechNos’s hand, walking around in circles in the full blown temporary-made-AC, cooling her body temperature down from over heating.

“…. turning out to be very awkward.” She agreed at once, facing the cool air brush against her Full-Metaloid fit.

And guess where we are.

At the all year family spot, crowded by food trucks and shades of umbrella.

The place where all girls get their one time crush and never see them again.

Thievery is at high level spree crime, mostly committed by birds, specially sea-gulfs.

One with prior knowledge who would have dressed more appropriately than a full vest suit and a 1800th century old knight.

Yes, we are at the infamous, hereditary-run and generational long ritual shrine:

The beach.

It was decided after the brainstorming meeting that we would take a date theme based on the letters of the alphabets, different for each episode.

The idea was given by VechNos herself.

Afterwards, the producers and their team of delighted and dedicated assistants went on track record to make the most outrageous, diabolical move : to keep it a secret from us.

It’s not a big deal when it came to dates.

Sure, I had some experiences from past relationships and learned that even the biggest hurdle could become a memorable moment to look back.

But, that was normal dating and anything normal could have happened.

This is the fabricated dates created by long hours of sleepless nights by these romance thirsty monsters who are ready to sacrifices their own dignity for their fetish to come to live!

Oh and how could we forget the elephant in between us.

Mr Choi, the enabler of all those single thirty-year-olds, wasn’t the main root of the problem. He was the problem!

Each time me and VechNos would come in contact, he would be there to lecture how a ‘real’ couple would hold hands, how they would hug using me as a prop.

All that sort of problems.

“He’s old. Let that man live out his fantasy! He’s never gonna get this opportunity in his lifetime!” Quynh was way too energetic for this.

Her introverted self was no longer left to exchange cold and dry talks that made me tire myself out.

She was enjoying this way too much.

Same with Lei, her interaction with the staff was way more active and spontaneous.

In between the takes, I called them out on this change of their behavior.

“Okay guys. Cut it out. What’s going on?” I brushed off Mr Choi’s ridiculous demands at the dead of afternoon.

With the staff working on the footage and interacting with the live broadcast, I pulled them aside for interrogation. You could say that I practically and literally pushed and dragged inside the tent under the guise that I need to redo ‘my makeup’.

“Well, we couldn’t keep it in ourselves, seems like we are as bad as Tai when it comes to keeping a secret.” Quynh reluctantly nodded at Lei, who practically jumped up and down with my hands. Making me feel giddy about this new update.

“You guys are going on their world tour : ‘Missy Maroon’?” My jaw stretched ear to ear for their new job achievement. It was their biggest dream to get to see their self designed clothes and makeup on the world stages. Most importantly, these girls are ready to be challenged and come out of their shell, for once. But in the process of congratulating them, I felt a quite sharp emptiness in my chest. Even though I was overjoyed at them embarking on a brand new journey, I felt very exposed. Like i was no longer having a safe place to go back and retreat to heal. It was like I lost a shelter, only to be met with shining bright lights on my path.

“Did you know that Mr C has a wife and a kid?” I spited my drink out.

“WHAT? THAT MAN HAS NO-” Without, thinking I abruptly swirled in her direction, not minding the fact that she had removed her head armor.

But, it was too late.

Her short bob hair was drizzled in glittery neon green and yellow highlights that paired well with her olive skin tone, her hazel eyes were in their brown shades with lingering hints of gray here and there. The narrow eyebrows that were drenched in sweats couple of minutes ago, had their smudged make-up redone by the spare eyeliners in her hand.

Thankfully, her usual black with pink whiskers mask glared back at my reflex action.

“Don’t worry, I am wearing a wig.” My shoulders relaxed at once, before stumbling my way through my on the spot embarrassing apologies in the next couple of minutes. I could hear her light coughs, out of concerned I looked back.

To see her take her vitamins diligently.

Without glancing back, she winked at me via her small pocket mirror before snapping it shut and then in a blink of an eye….

She went full 180 degrees and in full throttle, threw the mirror at the corner of the tent.

Shatters could be heard, as I began to uncurl myself.

Thank to all the existing gods for not making it the punishment for this insolent bastard that is myself.

“I came prepared knowing that my face would be the main attraction point, don’t you, Freddie?” From the smoke and dust, she particularly lifted up a limb of a late mechanical spy robot, the victim of the deadly throw.

“My acquaintance turned rival. He had a crush on me.” My muscles automatically made my head nod, not sure what I should do with this information.

“Due to my rejection, he has made every attempt to find out my face and belittle me on streams.” After tossing the metal waste, she walked over me.

Grabbed a stool and sat in front of me.

Her eyes no longer glittered in hazel, but in hazardous.

I gulped in whats about to come for me next.

“So, now that we both know our enemies… should we form an allia-”

“YES! OF COURSE, MA’AM!” On beat, did I clasped her metallic armed gloves and shook them in agreement.

“Geez! Didn’t think that you would take that long?” Interest piqued her eyes, trying to get a closer look into my mind.

“Because you are one formidable woman. The tyrant who eats egos of a thousand suns…. please you deserve all the credit. Why would I exist to turn down your offer?” I bowed slightly down at her.

Still, despite sitting down, I managed to be taller than her in respect of her height.

In respect of everything in correlations towards her!

“Egos of a thousand suns? Are you for real? You did your homework!”

My hair felt a presence of a demigod’s bestowing her powers onto me via a simple pat on the head. In this game, you have to win by harvesting as many sun as possible to appease the gods. Or you could just fight them.

And that is why her association with the game ‘Egos of a thousand suns’ is a match made in heaven.

Heck yeah, I did!

When all idols would barely pass their school exams, I graduated at the top of my class, of course, in flying color!

Research work for themes and ideas had always been my job.

So, stalking for information wasn’t that hard to master.

Knowing about her stalker did verify all I knew about her was up to date.

The question is : just how many of the spoken truths from her mouth doesn’t come from a place of falsehood?

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Mr. C was bathing in sunshine, letting his most trusted workers take on the editing the footage from the tent.

The tent in which the soon-to-be-couple were resting in.

He forbade any of the cremates from entering that tent and guided them to a new spot for them to catch a break. While others ate their food in glee, his personal armory were working in greed for more drama.

Ditching his usual attire, he wore the very same Hawaiian pineapple pattern shirt he made Lane and YK wear in the last episode.

The coconut water hits right in his mouth, while slipping into a fever dream of his family.

His beautiful home-maker wife.

His Gothic college student daughter.

His dolly, princess toddler girl.

And finally his poodle, Jade. The one he missed the most.

In the traces, he could feel the dog barks and saliva all over his face, as if he was back at home. In the gardens, playing catch and catch with her.

Oh how wonderful that dream is!

If only it was real….

“SNOWY BABY! STOP IT!” That awoke him up from his sleep.

And yet, the drools and the barks never went away.

With one eye opened, he glanced from his sunglasses.

A blueish-grayish pit bull was on top of him, licking the coconut all over his opened shirt. The drools were dripping down his throat to his hairy chest hair.

“SO SORRY, MR CHOI! I COULDN’T HOLD HIM BACK!” In between the panting, the blonde man managed to bow down 90 degree angle in front of the now sat up dog magnet.

“Yutaka? What are you doing here?” Mr Choi inquired while raffling down the dog’s throat. In joy, the doggy flipped over to his belly.

And of course, Mr Choi fell prey to that.

“Why! The advertisement…” The boy slouched over, hitting his head over the sand.

“Drink. Refreshment for you.”

In his free hand, Mr Choi shared his natural coconut drink with the fainted boy.

He silently went on rubbing the mini beast belly, Yutaka sat in his flipped chair, regaining his exhausted energy.

“Say, Yutaka. Why are you doing this?”

“You mean the ad? The shooting of the dance sequence just started right now-”

“My apologies for not being clear. I should rephrase my question. Why did you choose to be an idol?”

“So sorry, sir?”

“I mean, you were already a well recognized choreographer for viral dances. You could have chosen to live off of that. But you went ahead and chose to take up the mic. Why did you think this was your calling?”

“Well, sir….. I don’t have the right answer with me right now. Even I don’t know if I made the right choice by leaving behind my country side for the big city lights. I do miss the farming life from time to time, but I remember my passion for creating a new. A dance that no one has sought to create. Something that can be called mine. Not only that, the villagers from time to time brag about me being idol. So, could say making people be prideful of themselves is also my goal for making phonk music and slick dance moves on the spot.”

“Hmm…. I didn’t take you for a pumpkin kid.”

“HEY! Isn’t that a bit rude? Sir?”

“Yes… No offense, kiddo.”

“None taken, sir.”

“Seems like you also got a question for me. don’t you?”

“Seems like I got caught. I don’t mean to pry my nose into anything at all, but why a dating show? ”

Considering this is the first time for Choi Bo-Gum to take on a reality dating show, his previous works aren’t to be taken too casual. Signed with the a well-known independent entertainment company ‘bl0ss0m Films LLC’, he and his co-founded Korean-American studio in partnership has released nothing short of spectacular movies and TV-shows of any genre.

So, in short they might have seen the potential in this show to be marketed and distributed worldwide. At the same time, experiment with it and learn more about directing in this genre of reality show for survey analysis for their viewership.

Or so Yutaka thought.

“I have a family of three little ones. My wife and I are…separated.”

That made Yutaka almost drop the coconut.

“It’s all because of my pursuit for self-satisfaction that I sacrificed watching my eldest daughter grow. I can’t make the same mistake with her sister.”

“And you thought this show might….”

It’s well known fact that Choi Bo-Gum is a man of no limits, and he will stop when he learns everything there is to be learned about that said topic.

“Teach me about love. I want us to be back together as a whole. And as you could have guessed from my sentiment, this will be my final third act.”

“Sir, it is no wonder you’re getting separated.” Yutaka slammed his hands down his mouth. He was not the one who said the quoted line.

Snowy the dog started to growl and stand his ground.

No longer the fluffy baby Yutaka and Mr Choi took turn to coddle with.

“Yutaka, it’s alright. He is one of my newest assistant. But, I didn’t know that eavesdropping was a part of your arsenal, Frederic.”

Out from the setting sun, the loom shadow figure emerged from the bushes and in front of the audience. In tank navy compressed shirt, stood six foot tall ginger man with tattoos on the sides of his Mohawk.

“Aren’t you! Freddier? Rival of VechNos?” Yutaka mouthed his opinion out aloud, finally starting to see the whole picture.

Mr Choi nodded his head down, brushing pass him towards the new assistant.

“Oh my. What a new development!” Yutaka overheard his praises over his shoulder, knowing in his soul he has not right in what goes in the production team.

But, still.

“Mr Choi, if you don’t mind me. Can I please see the footage that got you so hyped up?” Snowy’s tail curled between his legs, signaling defense against the invasion of privacy.

He may not have been so obliged to let Yutaka see the raw footage, but after the vulnerable exchange of confidentiality, he didn’t call him over, he whipped the camera out of the insect’s hands and showed Yutaka personally about his hyung’s situation-ship.

Hold behold….

“They are kissing.”

Mr Choi zoomed in onto the top of the two heads from that particular tent.

“BUT! IT’S NOT EVEN THE SECOND DATE!” He screeched over his lungs over the new development of the situation. 

Or yet, worse when Lane doesn’t know-

“They will be fine. After all, this is happening under my roof. I will deal with it.”