A Week Later

Lina was slowly starting to get used to this life. She woke up every morning to do gym, and then headed out to her schedule. For the past week she had been able to get sponsors from little clothing shops to sponsor her when she's out and about. She so far had to get one for sports wear, casual clothing and out and about clothing. The out and about was much harder to get a sponsor in so they pulled a few strings while using the YGK Plus name to retrieve what needed to be done. Lina has never seen this much clothing before. She had to make a separate rack for them because she still had to return them at the end of the day.

Lina and Daesung ate together every night. After they would eat, they would take strolls in the park while being covered up completely from the snow. They had become closer, and Lina even felt like he was her real boyfriend. Throughout the week, they would walk with space between them, talking and slowly they ended up walking shoulder to shoulder. Now, they even gotten to the point of holding hands but Daesung would tell her not to misunderstand him since it was to help President Yang. Lina just smiled and agreed with him, telling him that it was better that way.

"How are you doing Lina?" The CF director asked. His name is Oh Ji Goon and he was well known around the CF world.

"It's good but do I have to eat all this fried chicken?" Lina asked. All she could see was Daniel forcing her to run the extra calories that she ate. She was willing to eat it, in fact she was almost to the point of salivating the moment she heard it was fried chicken she was advertising. "My exercise trainer won't be too happy." She says softly while eyeing out the chicken.

Ji Goon, the director chuckled. "Don't worry, you're going to eat one drumstick for the shoot, just for show and then you can spit it out after."

"That's horrible." Lina mumbled. "Is running worth fried chicken? Is fried chicken worth running?"

Min Soo, Lina's manager sat on the side, instantly reading her eyes. "Lina, you need to spit it back out." He said from off the screen.

Lina let out a very realistic puppy whimper and pouted. "Okay."

"Alright, so you're going to be flying in an air balloon. We're going to shoot you for a few seconds until we cue you about the second air balloon. So just across from you is going to be another air balloon with a table and a bucket of fried chicken on it. I need you to act desperate when you see, as if you've been starving for chicken. Then when I shout cue, I need you to start acting like you're chasing it and the CG will do the rest of the work." The director called out. "Then the last scene will end with you floating in an air balloon, eating a bucket of fried chicken."

Lina nodded. When the director shouted cue and she began acting as if she's floating around, looking at the scenes around her. Wind was blowing through her straightened hair, just as if she was actually floating around in the sky. Then the director yelled cue and then a propped air balloon just like the one she stood in came up to the side of her. Lina tried her best to act as if she was shocked to see it floating there and then she began pulling on the fake strings of the prop air balloon to make it as if she was heading towards it. Her free hand reached out and tried her best to reach it. She did this four times before the director called cue and she finally took hold of the bucket. Then the director called cut.

Lina made her way to Toni and Yoojung who wanted to touch up on her hair and makeup. The amount of wind blowing in Lina's hair made Toni nervous because she didn't want any of her hair out of place or something more like re-straightening it. Yoojung was just touching here and there with a small powder pad to make sure her makeup didn't fly off with the strong wind.

"Korea has some weird commercials." Toni says shaking her head.

"You have no idea, it's such a popular industry. Yet everything is so weird. Even Koreans think it's weird but we love it at the same time." Yoojung says. "There are much weirder commercials in Korea than this one."

"Lina, we need you back on set!" The director shouted.

"Okay!" Lina looked to Toni and Yoojung. "Thanks guys."

Lina made her way onto the set where the table with a bucket of fried chicken sat. She looked over to the director who stood next to the main camera, awaiting instructions.

"Alright, we're going to take a video of you eating the chicken. Try not to take a big bite so we can continue to use the same chicken if we plan to shoot again with different changes. I need you to make it seem like eating this fried chicken is a bliss. I want pure and beautiful satisfaction. Your facial expression needs to express the pure love you have for fried chicken." The director explained.

Lina smiled. "No acting needed."

"Make sure you spit out the chicken when the director yells cut. Don't you dare swallow it." Min Soo says from next to the director.

Lina sighed but nodded. Soon the director yelled cue and Lina took a bite from the chicken almost moaning from the taste she had in her mouth. It's been almost five months since she had eaten anything fried and she almost died from tasting it. It was like a drug addict relapsing into the stuff that made them feel good.

"Cut! That was good Lina but you can't close your eyes. You need to make eye contact with the camera." The director said.

An employee walked up to Lina with a bucket and spit out the chunks of chicken she at. Lina nodded, giving a thumbs up to show she understood.

"Okay cue!"

Lina took another bite from the chicken, chewing on the crunchy goodness. She made eye contact with the camera, showing her very satisfied face from taking a bite from the chicken. After a few more pointers, more chicken being spat out, and more bites into drumsticks, the director finally yelled scene, letting them know that they were done.

The director thanked Lina for working so hard. Lina apologized to the worker who had to hold the bucket of spat out fried chicken. She was so close to just swallowing it. She could already imagine the vein in Daniel's neck popping out as he scolded her while she was running on the treadmill, tears rolling down her face. The image of it that played in her head felt too real that it made her flinch.

"Let's go Lina. You can take your makeup off and change in the van."

Lina nodded while following her management team to the van.

...................

He sat behind his desk, straightening out his tie. The men around his room were there for his protection. If anyone tried anything funky, they would jump in to save him. Their leader. They usually waited outside but he was waiting for his order to arrive. And when it did, the man was followed by one of his underlings.

"Everyone leave." He said, causing everyone to bow in unison and leaving all together. "Mr. Lee, please take a seat." He ordered.

"I have what you asked for." Mr. Lee pulled out a white large envelope. "For the past three weeks Hong Bin-ssi."

"We'll see if this is correct or not."

Hong Bin poured the content from the envelope. It was photos of both Daesung and Lina together. There was a photo of them together in a car with Lina smiling. One picture made him upset and it was of the two holding hands while strolling the park. Lina's head was down but their hands were intertwined while their shoulders bumped together. They were dressed in snow coats and they were cozing up together.

"Is this good enough sir?" Mr. Lee asked.

"I want them followed and I want updates." Hong Bin ordered in an

Hong Bin's teeth were gritted shut with his jaw noticeably flexing under the pressure. Seeing Lina happy with another man made him angry. He didn't know what to do with his emotions. The photo of Lina and Daesung holding hands in the park was slowly being crushed by Hong Bin's hands as they turned into fists. He was already debating on what to do to ruin Lina's career to make her return back to him like she always did.

Last time Lina went independent, working for a fashion company, he influenced a few of her thoughts. He told her that she wasn't getting anywhere in the company and was only there to receive money. He continuously manipulated her into thinking that the CEO of that fashion company, who she had claimed to be good friends with her, would throw her away the moment she knew Lina was only trying to get money out of her and he did that until she was convinced he was correct. Then the inevitable would happen where she would return back to him, making him out to be the hero in all her situations.

Now, it was different. Now, she had Daesung.

.......................

I'm so sorry for not updating in so long!! I've been super busy but I hope you guys are happy with this update.