Chapter 27: Birthday (Part One)

  Recently, I've been having a bit of trouble typing, and updates have been scarce. The situation where I update every two days will continue for over a week. One reason is that I'm stuck on a certain part of the story, and another reason is that it's the end of the year, so work has been keeping me busy. I hope you can understand!

  This time, I'm really stuck, and now I can't even get into Korean entertainment news...=_=!

  Thank you for the rewards from seven classmates: Fan Yanxi, YauHang, Mo Yu Wuyan, Jingzi Sishen, kiss2008, hadesisme and hjcm. Thank you also to classmate Jingzi Sishen for the update votes...

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  Living in the entertainment circle, ambiguity is a means of attracting exposure and increasing popularity, but if it provokes a group of anti-fans to boycott, it's not worth it.

  She withdrew her gaze from afar and glanced at Liu Min, who was still showing a hint of envy, considering whether to remind her. However, thinking twice about it, she figured that the other party had been in the circle for several years and should be able to grasp the situation, so she didn't say anything more, lest she do good but end up annoying people.

  More than 20 minutes of rest time passed quickly, and the recording was about to continue, but the fans surrounding Ahn Jun-hee had not yet dispersed. It wasn't until the program team sent someone over to urge them that, combined with Ahn Jun-hee's gentle persuasion, those fans reluctantly returned to their seats in the audience, by which time another 10 minutes or more had been wasted.

  "I'm sorry to have delayed everyone's recording time, I really apologize!" An Junhe said with a slight bow, apologetically addressing the guests and staff waiting on and off stage, his attitude humble and sincere. Due to the large number of guests, it was necessary to coordinate everyone's schedules, so the randomness and preciousness of X-man's recording time were great.

  He knew he had wasted time and naturally had to keep a low profile at this moment.

  Liu Zai Shi and Jiang Hu Dong waved their hands indifferently: "Never mind, hurry up and join the team!"

  Others see MC biased towards him, of course, they won't say anything openly, and they all say it's okay, the scene is very harmonious. As for how to secretly resent or envy, that's something outsiders can't know.

  What others think in their hearts, An Junhe can't interfere with, he just followed his own way of doing things, sincerely apologized one by one, and then returned to the team. After everything was ready, PD ran onto the stage again to strike a board, and the recording of the show continued.

  The fully enclosed studio made it impossible to perceive the passage of time through changes in external light, and by now, outside, the sky had already entered dusk.

  ……

  The last vestiges of dusk finally moved away from the west-facing window, and the room darkened at an alarming rate. The small dormitory had water stains and signs of wind erosion on the ceiling, which seemed to twist and writhe in the changing light, making me feel a little scared when I occasionally caught sight of them while lying in bed.

  Early spring in March is still cold, and the dormitory without conditions is really not warm at all. Lying down feels icy, unless wrapped in thick quilts and holding a Pea doll tightly to absorb some temperature.

  Taeyeon turned over, her small hands tucked tightly into the corner of the quilt, not letting the warmth that had accumulated with difficulty in the quilt dissipate. Then she stared blankly at the opposite side.

  A girl was lying on the bed, but unlike her, she was diligently and seriously flipping through a dictionary, silently reciting words, looking at the mouth shape, as if learning Korean.

  This is her new roommate, a girl from the US who has been living there since she was little. The girl looks a bit silly, but she's pretty when she smiles. However, Taeyeon isn't too pleased - she thinks she's unlucky to be living with another foreigner for the second time, and this one is even worse than the last. Her previous roommate was at least Chinese, and although they struggled to communicate in Korean, they could occasionally exchange a few words. But this girl... doesn't speak any Korean at all, or rather, she uses an English-Korean dictionary to string together nonsensical sentences that Taeyeon can't understand. Similarly, Taeyeon's own awkward Korean-style English is also lost on her roommate.

  This makes Taeyeon feel very sad.

  "I'm still a girl, I need to communicate too!" Taeyeon thought with a childish complaint, feeling the taste of loneliness slowly and firmly surrounding her again.

  It seemed that she had heard her sigh, the girl opposite looked over curiously, saw that she was also looking at herself, the girl's eyes curved into a smile, very cute, and then spoke in a slow tone, one word at a time.

  Taeyeon struggled for a while before understanding that the girl was roughly asking: "What's wrong with you?"

  "Ah, I told you and you won't understand anyway, this is grown-up stuff, don't be so curious!" Taeyeon said with a smile in Korean, not caring that she wouldn't understand.

  As expected, the girl still had a crescent moon-shaped eyes, with a soft smile, but couldn't stop the confusion at the bottom of her eyes.

  This gave Taeyeon a kind of wicked pleasure - bullying foreigners is really comfortable, at least she won't argue with you.

  But then again it's a bit sad, have I already sunk to the point where I'm taking advantage of foreigners to comfort myself?

  Alas!

  Sighing softly, Taeyeon emerged from the warm quilt and pointed to the simple bathroom in the dormitory opposite the girl, then gestured a few times to indicate that she was going to take a bath.

  However, it's just past dusk, and taking a bath at this time seems a bit early. Normally, she would be having dinner at the company cafeteria around this time, then practicing until 8-9 pm, before returning to her dormitory to finish her homework, with the remaining time left for washing up and rest.

  Today's schedule should be the same as usual, but she wants it to be a little different, doesn't want to go to the company for practice, doesn't want to do homework either, just wants to quietly lie in bed and give herself a day off.

  The girl opposite obviously didn't understand what was wrong with her, and after understanding the gestures, she just nodded blankly, then looked at her packing up her clothes in a daze, slowly walking into the bathroom, and soon the sound of water splashing started.

  The bathroom was very simple, with no bathtub and no heating. After taking off my clothes, I would be frozen to the point of goosebumps all over my body. The water from the showerhead was also cold at first, and it took a long time to warm up. Then, a faint mist rose with the temperature, and the chill was finally driven away.

  Under the dim yellow wall lamp, Taeyeon bathed in the gradually warming water flow, closing her eyes slightly, feeling it wet her hair, washing over her skin, brushing away the weight and emptiness of the day, her body feeling a kind of lightness and refreshment for a while.

  But what about the heaviness and emptiness in my heart?

  How can I wash it off?

  In the midst of misty water vapor, the girl listened to the gurgling sound of the water, quietly savoring a certain complex flavor in her heart. At one moment, she heard that outside seemed to be the dormitory door being knocked on, and her roommate Stephanie timidly asked in unfamiliar Korean.

  Taeyeon turned off the showerhead, and the sound from outside immediately came in clearly. It was YoonA's lively and optimistic response: "It's me, YoonA! Open the door quickly, open the door quickly!"

  "Got it! Wait a minute... Stephanie..."

  "Huh? Wha...what..."

  Stephanie definitely didn't know who Yoon was, stuttering and speaking incoherently about something. Taeyeon was thinking about how to tell Stephanie to let Yoon in when she heard another person outside the dormitory door responding in fluent English.

  She remembered clearly, it was Soo-young's voice.

  It's indeed much smoother with communication. Before long, Stephanie let them in. As soon as the footsteps were clearly heard outside the bathroom door, Yu-ri's loud banging and her discontented humming came: "Taeyeon, why are you taking a bath now? We still want to go out and play!"

  As soon as she finished speaking, Xu Zhu Xian's soft voice was heard: "Sister, you should call Tae-yeon sister."

  "Hey, little devil, do you want me to call your sister too?" It's almost possible to imagine Yoon-ah biting her lower lip and giggling mischievously as she playfully pinches Soo-young's chubby cheeks. Amidst the faint sounds of struggle and protest, Tae-yeon hears her continue to chuckle and say: "Hurry up and wash, I'll treat you to barbecue later... Oh yeah, happy birthday!"

  "Haha, thank you!"

  Taeyeon thanked her with an unchangeable smile, and listened carefully to the murmurs of conversation moving from outside the door into the dormitory. The footsteps were very disorderly, and there seemed to be many people, but after careful distinction, those footsteps were all light and agile, mostly girls. She could almost say exactly which ones - in the company, her friends were only YoonA and others.

  There was no heavy and familiar footsteps as expected. The smile slowly faded away, and the shower head was quietly reopened, allowing the warm water to pour down from above, Taeyeon lifted her head up, unsure if she was afraid of water getting into her nose or something else, having difficulty breathing, feeling a bit suffocated in her chest.

  Her hands stroked her long, dripping hair, and the water droplets squeezed out sparkled on her lips, very bitter, mixed with the suffocation in her chest, suddenly feeling very sad.

  Today is her birthday, but the person she's been waiting for doesn't have time to come...