"AAAAAAGHHH!"

A wail sounded through the night, alerting the rest of the human population of a mid-sized city in Hebei Province that Wang Ming Yue had just finished a tragic k-drama...

Again.

Sniffling, she wiped her tears away very properly, and calmed herself down before checking the time on the analog clock she had gotten for her birthday.

5:30 AM.

Sighing, she thought to herself that lack of sleep notwithstanding, she had just spent a satisfying night devouring an underrated K-drama and didn't regret any of it.

Squealing over all the eye-candy she had enjoyed on her eight-hour long splurge, she headed towards the couch and turned off all the lights.

Promising she would only sleep for an hour, she fell right asleep.

Only to be woken up by construction sounds coming from next door.

"Ugh, where's my alarm?", she muttered as she checked her phone on the cheaply made coffee table.

"Oh, it's 7:00 am...7:00 AM!", she screamed, pulling herself into a frenzy. In quick succession, she brushed her teeth, put on suitable clothes, patted her face with water, and ran out the door with a zongzi, a Chinese sticky rice dumpling.

Arriving at work, she was greeted by an unenthusiastic 早上好 (Good Morning) from a pair of security guards and proceeded to clock in at 7:30 sharp.

Sometimes it paid riding a bicycle early in the morning. Then she didn't have to wait for the bus!

"Shijie! Over here!", called out one of the other production assistants.

"Yes, I'll be right there!", she said, beaming as she found her way through the various cables splayed in the hall, and dropping it as soon as she thought no one was watching.

"Here, take this and bring it to Mr. Chong over there. He needs at least six of these copied by...well, right now. Can you do that?", commanded one of the more-senior production assistants.

"Of course," she replied, grinning as she took the heavy pile of papers in her hands.

Swearing him out internally, she readied herself for an exhausting day at work.

Ugh. Why had she decided to go on only one hour of sleep yet again? Was she her own worst enemy or what?

Picking up the pace, she dropped off the papers at the copier, and made about ten copies of each document just to be safe.

By the time she came back, the production assistant glared at her, and pointed towards two guests she had never seen before.

"We're low on staff today again. Take care of the VIPs...and don't mess up," he warned.

"Alright!", she cried, presenting a mini salute. Grunting, he raced off to do something else, leaving poor Wang Ming Yue stuck with two gorgeous human specimens.

The one to her right rolled his head up, lowered his sunglasses a bit and nodded towards the coffee machine while simultaneously reading a local newspaper.

"Right away, sir!", she uttered, dashing over to the espresso pot, making herself a cup while she was at it.

One cup wouldn't mess up her diet, right?

"Rookie!", yelled the celebrity to her left.

"Yes, Mister?", she asked.

"Sorry about that, I haven't seen you around here before so what else would I call you? Anyways, give me tea too. Red tea, preferably if there are any left."

Eyeing the empty tea pot, she swallowed nervously, preparing to inform the second celebrity on the team running out of tea, but he noticed the concern on her face and spoke out before she could.

"No pressure! Just bring his coffee over here if you can."

"Oh okay," she exclaimed as she carefully walked over to the first celebrity and placed his espresso on the coffee table.

Motioning to his comrade, the second celebrity stated, "He tends to be a grump in the morning so stay off his bad side."

"I heard that," the first celebrity remarked, taking his sunglasses off completely and revealing Li Jun, a.k.a. Little John, otherwise known as Xiao Jun, the actor/model/singer/rapper who dazzled millions of Chinese fangirls with just the flash of his white pearly teeth.

She was in front of HongXing royalty; however, she did the very best in her power not to gape like a fish.

After all, she was practically there to babysit these VIPs as part of her production assistant duties according to Mister Chong, the resident studio director. Not that there wasn't others whose job was to personally cater to celebrities all day, but it was her observation that special crew at the studio always tended to be hungover after a big party, such as the one yesterday.

That meant that she-a lowly production assistant-was stuck with babysitting duty.

"Is there anything else you need, gentlemen?"

"Gentlemen! You hear that, John? I'm a bona-fide gentleman!", the second celebrity said as he took off his mask, revealing a Chinese idol that was a member of a popular K-pop group, X-PLOSION, referred to by his Korean stage name, Lee Chang-Min.

"And her opinion matters because?" Xiao Jun added, going back to reading his newspaper after sipping only a bit of his cold cup of espresso.

The corners of Lee Chang-Min's lips twitched. "He didn't mean that, really...", he mumbled, looking down to the floor as he seemingly pouted at what his fellow Chinese celebrity had commented.

"You take things too seriously, Chang-Min. Get a backbone, like this assistant over here. You don't see her complaining of all the mistreatment she gets cuz you see women like her are grateful for any job given to them," he declared as he pointed in her general vicinity with his hand, leaving Wang Ming Yue mortified, and the rest of the production staff cackling at her expense.

"See? That's what happens when you try to get close to the stars," whispered a female producer.

"Yeah, who does she think she is? Stick to where you are, peasant," spat out one of the female models, chuckling at her 'joke'.

Practicing a few deep-breathing techniques, she backed away from the two stars, and quietly seethed in front of the water cooler.

"That piece of...", she started as she turned and tripped over an unexposed cable.

She didn't even get a chance to yell for help before an outreached hand yanked her so she could land on her feet.

"Look where you're going, jeez," quipped Li Jun as he passed by her, on his way to the makeup department.

As a result, a Korean actress, who was also headed to hair-and-makeup gasped, and said, "****."

Running up to her, Lee Chang-Min wheezed. "Don't mind him!", the not-so-spoiled celebrity asserted. "He's always like that...to everyone regardless of...well anything really." Shivering from being under an air conditioning vent during his 'talk', he ran to make it to hair-and-makeup on time.

Glancing back at the idol, she thanked him silently for not being a douchebag, and walked towards Mister Chong who was tapping his foot waiting for her.

Funny that in a Chinese music video directorial shoot, the only person that didn't speak Mandarin, the language, fluently was the Chinese-Australian director.

"What was that?", he questioned.

"I don't know what you mean, sir," she answered, hoping he didn't find out about what had happened yesterday regarding a certain monkey and his 'specialized' diet.

"What did I say about interacting with celebs?" Exasperated, he folded his hands, proclaiming in English, "I don't run a charity here. Either stop sticking your nose where it don't belong or you're out of here. Capiche?"

"Yes, Director Chong."

"Good, now where's my models? And why aren't they here yet?", he spoke the last part of the sentence more to other producers than her, but she could still feel the threat resounding in her ears.

"Fired, fired, fired, fired, fired...Fired," another production assistant echoed, making her swat him just so he would stop.

Out of nowhere, a producer called her out to hair-and-makeup to fix a problem.

To her surprise, once she got there, a new outfit was presented to her, and a makeup artist started placing powder on her face.

Pushing her brush away, she gestured around her and inquired from the producer, "What is this?"

"Oh, one of the stars complained about the lack of professionalism on this set so the director took it upon himself to make sure all the staff looked proper. Upon reviewing..."

Looking up and down her current clothes, "your outfit, we deemed it ill-suited for this workplace."

"Then what am I gonna wear? A skirt?"

"Ooo...good idea. Rico! What do we have in the back?"

Rico, the Australian tailor responded back, "There's the outfits the models discarded from that business-casual shoot for that designer company? Maybe she could fit that, what size is she?"

Letting herself have a total makeover, she found a very different Ming Yue staring back at the mirror.

"I'm wearing makeup," she said out of pure astonishment.

Rico took her face in his hands, telling her that, "Yes and it definitely covers up those pores. What have you been doing all these years to your skin, girl?"

Not knowing what to say to that, she was tossed out of the makeup department as fast as she had entered in, only looking a bit hotter than she came in.

"Weird thing for the director to care about, I mean I did come in nice pants and clean shirt so...what gives?", she pondered aloud.

"Do you always talk to yourself?", asked Lee Chang-Min after he came back from them doing his hair.

"No", she confessed.

Honestly, this day was turning out very different than she expected.

1. She had met not one, but two famous celebrities.

2. One of them had been extremely rude to her, but that wasn't that unusual by itself.

3. That same celebrity, Mr. Grumpy Grump, had saved her from falling...and insulted her at the same time.

4. She seemed to have befriended the other celebrity.

5. Her boss was being very difficult on her today, much more so than usual.

6. Her co-workers, and the other models were acting like...jealous women and complaining she hogged the celebrity's time?

7. An actress insulted her directly, (read 'cussed her out'), after the fall for no reason except that she was in Mr. Grumpy Grump's vicinity.

8. A full-on wardrobe change and makeover out of nowhere?

9. Since when was this clumsy? There's a reason she wore sneakers to work!

10. Talking aloud her thoughts? She had never done that before!

Having only one hour of sleep must be really messing with her mind because she swore some of these events sounded like tropes right out of one of the favorite k-/c-dramas!

Nah, it must be the lack of sleep talking. This was real life-not a drama.

Although real life could be stranger, there was no way in...

"Is your phone ringing?", queried Lee Chang-Min.

"Yes, I think," she hesitantly vocalized. Picking up the phone, she answered, "Wei?", and was barraged by a constant attack of insults at her character.

"You bad girl! How can you claim to be our daughter when you don't even call home once a week? We only get to see you once a year, and then you refuse to be in the family business! What's this I hear about you owing debts and working long hours? Do you need money? Are you even dating? Do you want to remain a spinster forever? Are you gonna leave your mother old and grey without grandchildren? Do you wanna see me die unfulfilled?", ranted her well-off mother.

Wait, since when was her mother prone to calling her, let alone during work hours?

"What do you want?", she postulated, exasperatedly trying to hide her frustration.

Taking a deep-breath, her mother responded, "Well, your father wanted me to tell you that the family dinner that's coming up, you have to be there."

"Dinner?"

"Yes, we're gonna present to you your fiancée!"

Almost choking, she repeated, "Fiancée?"

"Yes! The one you were arranged to marry since birth? That one!"

"Wow, did your face turn pale," Lee Chang-Min noted.

"Who's that? Have you met him yet? Oh, that would be so great if he introduced himself to you already! No need for formal courtesy and then our families would be united under contract!"

"Mom...we talked about this, I am not gonna marry someone I have never met," she whispered.

"Your mom is making you do what?", Lee Chang-Min asked.

"By the way, your landlady called. Apparently, we're your emergency contacts and she just tossed out your stuff as your rent is overdue."

Overdue rent? She always paid it on time! Next thing she would say is that she had outstanding debts...wait.

"Mom? What day is it today?"

"The fifth. But remember the dinner is this Friday, the 8th? OK? Bye!"

Hanging up her phone, Lee Chang-Min faced her with trepidation, saying, "Maybe I should have stepped away for that call."

You think?

"I think what?", Lee Chang-Min asked, clear confusion written on his face.

No, no, no, no...this can't be happening!

"What's happening? Is there a carnival? Honestly, you could say anything at this point and I'd believe you. Since birth...man."

Testing out a theory, she reached for something out of her grasp, and fell, bringing a small table with a flower vase down with her.

"Oh...that's gotta hurt," observed the comic-relief sidekick best friend.

Was that his role? Watching DramaWorld had made her think all the male characters would automatically catch the leading lady...oh wait.

"WANG MING YUE!", yelled the director as the shoot had stopped when everyone got distracted by the table crashing on the ground.

Bracing herself, she heard the words, "You're fired," and made sure to clean out her locker in a jiffy.

Running to the door, she bumped into a hard object, and would have almost tripped if it wasn't for Wally, the human wall.

Otherwise called Xiao Jun.

Man, did that man have rock-hard abs. A douche, but dedicated to working-out, she could respect that.

Okay, what else had she missed?

11. Her mother called which she never did that, and told her to get married of all things.

12. A contract marriage? Scheduled Family dinner?

13. She got fired after something happened that wasn't technically her fault.

14. And now she meets Mr. Grumpy Grump again.

What was her life turning into?

Could it be...no way, her life was not turning into a...

"Are you obsessed with me?", Li Jun, at this point she was refusing to call him by his stage name out of irritation, asked.

"What?"

"Get out of the way. I'm trying to get a decent cup of coffee, which you failed to provide by the way."

Clamping down her scream, she made off with her purse and ran half the block till she couldn't take it anymore.

Shrieking out of frustration, she realized that all eyes on the street were on her and added another cliché to her retinue.

15. Female lead has public breakdown.

Very original, right?

Whatever was happening, she figured she better pick up the things her landlady tossed before the rats got to them first.

Then she would ask for help from the only person who could help her at this point.

A fortune teller.

She would not die in this drama if she could help it.

Not without having her fortunes told anyway.

_______________________________________

Chinese vocab notes:

Zongzi-Chinese sticky rice dumpling, the wrapping reminds me of Puerto Rican pasteles but triangle-shaped

HongXing- Red Star/Hot Film Star (top celebrity)

Shijie-Older Sister, Older Female Senior/Disciple, used Respectfully and to give deference, do not have to be related to call someone that

ZaoShangHao早上好-Good Morning, from 6 am - 9 am (sometimes from 5 am)

Wei?-Hey, greeting that is said on the phone

Extra Author's note: Wally, the human wall is a reference to ImagineDragonflies16 's Wattpad Cliches and Tropes story.

Author's note: This chapter was originally a bit longer, but well...I might trim it down a bit in the morning. I'm exhausted. So what do you think? Is she really living in a drama now?

https://youtu.be/R9cDZq4AFnk