Chapter 7: Falling in Love

The time Kim Soo-jin woke up, morning had arrived. After waking up, the first thing she did was make a vow. Realizing that her parents would never accept her, she decided that they did not deserve her. If they wouldn't recognize her as their daughter, then she didn't want parents like them.

"I have suffered enough humiliation and disregard for what I have not done. From this day on, my only objective is to get out of this family and start a new life."

To get out of this family, I need to become richer and more influential than them. There is only one way to become rich and influential in a short time, and that is by becoming a celebrity. Let's take this acting course seriously from now on.

After making the morning breakfast for the family, her father's voice could be heard. It was solemn and deep. Sitting at the dining table, he said, "I heard you were late coming home from university, and you didn't cook last night. Even after calling multiple times, you didn't open the door."

As the intense gaze of my father fell upon me, I trembled in fear. The fear this man instilled in me was not gone in just one night, but I dared to speak this time.

"My apologies, sir. This won't happen again."

This was the first sentence I had spoken to my father in a long time. Until now, he was the one giving orders, and I was obeying.

As I spoke, every maid and servant looked towards me because this was the first time they had seen me speak to the master. Previously, I was not even able to apologize properly. They all had expressions of surprise.

Even my parents were astonished, but no one here realized I didn't call him "father" but "sir," except my younger sister, who looked at me with a complex expression. She definitely noticed what I said.

"If you want this month's allowance, go and clean every toilet in the house."

After he had decided my punishment, my sister started to defend me. "Father, please forgive her. It's not her fault; I was the..."

Before my sister could say anything, she was cut off by my father.

"Hye-jin, if you defend her once more, I will increase her punishment."

As she heard these words, she looked at me with an apologetic gaze. She wasn't able to help, and I reassuringly smiled, thanking her for her efforts.

When Kim Hye-jin saw my smile, she was shocked because, every time I smiled in the house, it was forced. But this time, my smile was genuine, as I appreciated her kind intentions.

In the whole house, Kim Hye-jin is the only one who is kind towards me. In the past, I hated her every time she wanted to help me. I hated her more because she was getting the treatment that I deserved from our parents. That's why in the past, I hated her very much.

But last night, after thinking through everything, I realized how wrong I was. In this whole family, she was the only one who treated me kindly, and I was hating her. Not this time. I will make up for it and fix our relationship.

Cleaning the toilets as soon as possible, I arrived at university on time. The first class was of Professor Lee. The class went smoothly. As the bell rang, marking the end of the first class, Professor Lee told me to come with him for a second, so I obliged.

While we were standing facing each other, slightly away from my class in the corridor, I could see the nervousness on Professor's face. As he didn't speak for a while, I spoke first.

"What happened, Professor? Why did you call me out?"

When he heard my voice, he looked down. I had a bad feeling about this, as I thought. Then he started to speak.

"Um... you see, yesterday I got a notice saying that the film club I oversee is going to be taken down because of a lack of members. So, well, that's why I submitted your and Kim Joon-ho's names for the club."

Clasping his hands and bowing down, he spoke once more.

"Please help me out. I don't want to see the club being taken down. It has a lot of memories for me. Please help me out and don't leave the club."

As I heard him, I got flustered because Professor was bowing. I hurriedly told him to get up; professors shouldn't bow to students.

"Professor, please stand straight. You shouldn't bow to a student."

"Then can you please join the club? I won't leave until you say yes."

As I had no choice, before anyone could see the situation here, I needed him to stand straight, or else rumors would fly. So I decided to say yes.

"Okay, fine, but can you please stand straight now, or else someone might see us."

When Professor Lee heard my response, he smiled brightly and, grabbing my hand, repeatedly thanked me.

"Thank you, Kim Soo-jin. Thank you, thank you very much. That club means much more to me than you think, so please take care of it. And one more thing."

As I heard "one more thing," I had a bad feeling once more.

"Can you please convince Kim Joon-ho? He will definitely say no and leave the club if I tell him this. But if it's you, then he might consider it. So can you please help me out with convincing him to stay?"

Having no choice, I sighed and nodded, thinking, Will Kim Joon-ho be angry? And how am I suppose to convince him.

---

In the Present

"Yesterday, huh..."

As I heard these words and nothing more, she was taking too long of a pause to answer. Thinking my question might have been wrong, I repeated it in my head. It was something like, "Did you arrive home safely yesterday?" Yeah, something like that. Repeating it again in my head, I found nothing wrong with my question.

When I looked at her, she had a relieved smile. It was as if this was her true self, her real and genuine expression. It was like the cheerful and dazzling smile was just a pretense, a mask to hide herself from the world, and in this moment, she had removed every guard around me. That's the feeling I got from her revealing smile at this moment as she spoke.

"Yes, I arrived home safely, Joon-ho. Thank you for worrying about me."

---

After seeing my own mother, my own flesh and blood, not calling me her daughter and calling me a maid, an outsider, but seeing an outsider, not my family, being kind and worrying about me, my mask broke, and I genuinely smiled from the bottom of my heart to thank him for his caring words. It might have been mere words for him, but it meant much more to me.

---

As I heard her calling me "Joon-ho," I was momentarily frozen in time. My heartbeat roared faster than a Formula 1 racing car, the gears in my head stopped, not knowing how to start.

It took me a long, long time to recover, and everything we did for that moment was just looking at each other, no one speaking, both with their own thoughts, looking at each other.

At this moment, I realized I have really, really fallen for her very, very hard. I imagined marrying her, having two beautiful kids, one daughter and one son, both beautiful and cute as her. We would cook together, and shower our kids together, as we wash them I would throw a little water on her face while washing to annoy her, and she would get angry. We would have pillow fights, watch movies, walk in the garden. She would be the only one in my life whom I will love till death parts us apart.

As I woke up from my delusions, I decided she is the only one for me, and I will definitely win her heart. When I saw Soo-jin waving her hands in front of my eyes, I snapped out of it.

"Hey, are you listening? Are you daydreaming again?"

As I heard that embarrassing sentence again, I said with a straight face.

"No, I am not. Will you stop that waving now?"

"Okay, but tell me the truth, you were daydreaming, right?"

"No, I was not."

Walking inside the film club room, I spoke in a low voice.

"Um, by the way, can I call you Soo-jin too? You see, calling each other formally is hectic. You know what I mean, right?"

When Soo-jin heard that, she flushed red. Fortunately, Joon-ho wasn't looking at her. Joon-ho missed a great chance to see Soo-jin embarrassed as she recalled what she had said earlier, calling Joon-ho informally. She flushed even more and said,

"Ah, yeah, you are right. Calling each other formally every time is too hectic. Um, you can call me Soo-jin, no problem."

As I heard that, I danced with joy in my mind, and a smile formed on my face that wouldn't go away. When I saw the inside of the film club room, it was utterly abandoned. Dust covered everything, and it looked like no one had been there for ages. Even a storeroom would look better compared to this. I questioned Soo-jin.

"Are you sure we're in the right place?"

"Yeah, the sign in front of the door says it's the film club room."

"Sigh, so we have to clean this up."

"Probably."

"I should leave. Call me when you're done."

As I pretended to leave, she grabbed my hand, and I heard her tearful voice.

"You cannot leave; you promised to be in the club."

What the heck, when did I promise that? As I heard her tearful voice again, I wanted to laugh out loud.

"Are you going to leave a beautiful and helpless girl to do this cleanup on her own? How heartless of a man you are."

When I saw her wiping her fake tears, I replied, clapping.

"Wow, what an awesome actor you are. You will definitely win an Oscar for that."

"Thank you, thank you."

As she bowed, acting like she received an Oscar, our little play was over. Opening the windows, we started to clean up the room.

There were a lot of props and many tools used to create films lying around. We even found a decent-looking camera but don't know if it's working or not yet. It took two hours to clean up the room and make it look a little nicer.

While sitting on a chair near the table, dusting my hands, I asked her in a tone that indicated I was not willing to join the club.

"Soo-jin, when did I promise to join this club?"

"Are you going to leave this incomparably beautiful girl here alone, are you?"

"Narcissistic, are we?"

"What narcissistic? It's called faith. Have you ever seen a beautiful girl like me anywhere else?"

My mouth gaped open at her narcissistic remark, thinking she's a lost cause. As I touched my forehead, I heard her once more.

"And isn't a certain someone earlier called me incomparably beautiful? I was just stating facts."

Coughing lightly, I said,

"I'll go out and bring some water for us. You must be tired from all this work, right?"

As I started walking a little faster, I could definitely hear laughter from inside. It was none other than Soo-jin.

This girl, does she really love to embarrass me, or what? When I brought back the water, I saw her packing to leave.

"Hey, Soo-jin, here, have some water."

"Thanks."

When I glanced at the clock hanging on the wall, it showed 4 o'clock. I thought, why is she leaving so early? There's still an hour left.

Today there were only five periods, so lectures ended an hour early, and I met Soo-jin after class ended without any waiting. So she must have also had five periods. Then why is she leaving so early?

"Are you leaving? We still have one hour left."

"Yeah, I need to go now. Today, I will be fetching my younger sister from school, so I need to go early."

"So, you have a younger sister too, huh?"

"Yes, then Joon-ho. Let's meet here after class tomorrow."

"Wait, what about the short film script?"

"Let's talk about that tomorrow."

"Sigh, fine. Okay, bye. Go home safely."

"Yes, bye."