The Bouquet

Chapter 4

You felt your heart freeze in your chest as he pulled you into him. He was playing around with you now, right? Taehyung knew everything that would make a woman swoon, as it was part of his job, and he never forgot to display those gifts for you. But you knew that where working with him would send your career rocketing to new heights, falling for him would be its death sentence. You knew it was selfish to think like that, but you couldn't afford a loss that great when you had already sacrificed so much.

A sharp knock to the door had you jumping, trying to pull away from his secure hold. But he didn't move an inch, his dark eyes trained on your shocked form as he refused to release you. There was a part of you that was enamored with Taehyung, but also a part of you that recognized his strange mannerisms. Like for one, how he had been overly affectionate with you from day one.

You recognized the lilt of your agent's voice as she called through the polished wood of the door, "You're needed on set guys, let's get a move on!"

The silence after she spoke was brief, a few moments later she was pounding on the door with a newfound fury. That was her, impatient, cranky, and always aware of your whereabouts. You let out an amused giggle, raising your chin to get a look at Taehyung, and immediately you felt your heart drop. You had never seen him like this before: infuriated. His jaw was locked, shoulders tense, and his hands were shaking. He looked like he was on the precipice of snapping and for a moment you felt genuine fear.

"Tae - Taehyung?" You asked, snapping him out of his terrifying stoic stance. It was like a switch had flipped, a bright smile cracking through the dark exterior he had built. What had happened just then?

"Let's go." He simply said, his previous demeanor completely disregarded as his large hand encircled your wrist and tugged once more. The more time you spent with him, the more he led you around like this, the more you began to feel like a dog being guided by its leash. You were given the freedom to wander some but were always snapped back to his side the moment he called.

You would soon come to learn that Taehyung was as controlling as he was beautiful, and that was a violent blend.

Something to know when filming for a show or a movie is that scenes are never filmed in the same order as the timeline of the work. Sometimes the first thing you film is the ending and the last thing you film is the beginning. That was something that always amused you in this world captured by cameras, time had no construct unless it was pertaining to deadlines. From what you understood, this was not Taehyung's first day of filming, but it would be his first day of filming with you. He had completed some of his solo scenes, scenes you most likely wouldn't see until the show premiered. That excited you, leaving some ambiguity to the show despite having read the script over and over again in preparation.

Today, you were filming the two of your character's first meeting. You had noticed your co-star had made some changes to the script after the two of you had met, and in a strange way, it reminded you of the first time the two of you had met in person. But, there was not much time to dwell on that when the director called out that familiar word: "Action."

A practiced smile graced your painted lips as you held the hands of the sweet fan in front of you. She shook with excitement as her eyes fluttered around, not sure where to fix her gaze to. You squeezed her hands lightly as your smile widened, coaxing her to ask the question she had been so timid to ask. You did everything right, the way you had been trained to. You gave gentle smiles when needed, flirted when necessary, and signed what was given to you. You loved your fans more than anything, the fleeting seconds you could spend with them meant more than they could know, but you were tired. Trained eyes could see it in the slight discoloration under your eyes, the gentle sag of your shoulders, and the strain of your smile.