Night-Owl Romance

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Note: Heya guys ^o^ It's a really short update, however I can no longer write on my story every single day, like I used to. I mean... I could if I was not such a lazy ass, but I am pretty "game-aholic" and need to do my dailies in Blade and Soul (my-obsession). So time for writing is like an all-time low.

The decent amount of content flows out of me during the weekend, but sometimes I write crap LOL.

More than usual nowadays. TwT

And – OH – I have a new job ^o^ Waking up at 7:30 am and coming home 12 hours later. 9-6 official work hours at a desk with nearly 2 hours commute.

Yay meeeee – RIP social life. (I never had one in the first place)

Important note: Anyway, I mentioned before how I made a tumblr account. Well, I recently posted some pointers on how I generally write fanfiction, what I am looking for before I start a story, the research etc. with specific things for this story and MysticMessenger, in general- if you are curious, please check .com.

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Chapter 28: Cold Rift and Bright Red

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"A~~~~~SHI~!", Zen breathed out mid-yawn, taking advantage of the empty room.

The actor was stretching his stiffened limbs and then went on massaging the back of his neck while contemplating the surprising twist this meeting took. He was happy that everything had finally settled inside the conference room, its participants having already gathered their belongings and retreating.

They were all heading towards a restaurant in order to celebrate today's row of successes.

And, as much as Zen would have loved to accept the Director's invitation in joining the cheery group, the young one had to politely decline. The upcoming rehearsals were taking place quicker than the actor had expected them to and he needed to start practicing from that evening.

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His new role had challenging parts which Zen needed to properly reflect on.

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"Hn.", the head producer could only smirk at the young actor's diligence, nodding lightly at his words.

And with the door closing behind them, Zen was finally at ease in darting towards his phone, all thoughts instantly on Mina, hoping to quickly share the good news with the girl~! He was genuinely excited for her reaction. However, the first thing he had noticed was the time – so many hours had passed in the blink of an eye.

"Not good.", he clicked his tongue, hand brushing against the back of his neck again as the young actor's expression turned sour.

'So many missed phone calls from her too...'

Zen was apologetic and hoped Mina was not too upset or worried by his absence. If he knew the meeting would take this long, he would have sent her a secret text message or something. Really, it was entirely unexpected how this entire gathering had somewhat turned into a long script reading soon after the meeting had started, lasting throughout daylight. There were not many breaks held in-between, most of those lasting merely a couple of minutes for quick bathroom runs (literal runs) or snacking. Zen did not even have the luxury to be paying attention to his phone for a second, his upmost attention required constantly.

'It was a tad nerve wracking to be fair... all this attention garnered from these important figures in the business.'

Never had the actor ever been shown so much interest by a movie producer before. Still, it pumped his body with a whole lot of energy, fuelling his internal wheeling.

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'Mina was right.'

'I've been working so hard at my dreams, I deserve to live such a moment!'

'It's my time to shine my brightest in front of humanity!'

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The worry hurdled inside his guts had greatly diminished, the actor trying to see the more positives regarding the new gig. Although, Echo Girl's absence today did strike a bit of concern – her schedule was even more hectic than his own, one of her managers taking the seat at the table and was in charge with the discussions when it came to the idol. The older woman had brought a stack of autographs as a form of apology and had ordered the catering – on the house.

"These are personally signed and the design chosen customized by Echo Girl.", the manager noted, offering a few autographs and a bonus letter in between to a shocked Zen. The silver haired actor was genuinely surprised to receive one addressed to him in particular, hidden in a sealed envelope with a heart sticker binding the paper together. It brought him back into his middle school nostalgia where the students would wrap their love letters in such a manner and would give it to him through indirect means: in his footwear locker, on the top of his desk or through mutual acquaintances. As the gentleman he was, Zen accepted the thoughtful gift without hesitation though the words were a bit too private to read among the others.

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"To my lovely, oppa~!"

"I hope we can experience good chemistry on set and work well together, both online - "

"And especially offline, outside the show~! ^o^"

"Oppa, I am certain we can teach each other a lot of things, so please accept this small gift."

"And the heart sealing these precious wishes with it."

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Zen went through the words a couple of times but in the end thought nothing deeper of the letter. The handsome actor believed it had to be something Echo Girl would say as a form of utmost politeness, rapidly dismissing the blunt intentions residing within. He was not interested and meant it wholeheartedly, shifting his attention elsewhere in the room. Besides Echo Girl's manager, many other people from the production team engaged in heated conversation with Director Kwon and were discussing matters as though the acting deal with the silver haired male had already been signed and sealed.

^^;;;;;;

It made the male realize that refusal was not an option he could lightly take without consequences so there was really only one choice Zen could have made. Nonetheless, his heart was less burdened with doubt after the talk he had with Mina, the actor jittering at the thought of the girl's excitement when she'd hear the news~!

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Zen officially had a new acting part~~~!

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And this was happening despite it not being the typical musical played on stage but a movie version set to be released on the big screen. It was not something he had envisioned in doing any time soon or... ever, to be frank. However, realistically, in order to achieve his childhood dreams and reach the heights in his craft that he had always desired, Zen needed to take such a leap sooner or later.

One regret remained.

The downfall was that his musical's lead role was now the responsibility of another, one of his doubles and friends working at the theatre being chosen as the lucky contender ^^ Zen was thankful of the choice; nonetheless, the actor was pretty disappointed that all of his hard work for the musical had succumbed into naught, almost in an instance – not like it hadn't happened in the past since it wasn't a seldom occurrence.

Still, if Zen could choose to participate in both projects he would, but... *sigh* 'It's too late now.'

Another worrisome issue was how narrow the time frame got thanks to this change in his schedule. If things did not go according to plan – and they usually did not – his work could end up clashing with the party date entirely. As such, it would become severely problematic to attend the party and... that would really shake Zen up. The prospect of missing an R.F.A. event, the first one planned after Rika's untimely death was simply terrible even as a thought.

"..."

Zen would especially hate the idea of missing the opportunity to finally see Mina.

Actually... see her.

Properly.

Face to face.

It annoyed him how close he was to her at the theatre, without even realizing it.

However, to miss yet another chance...

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It was an unacceptable future for Zen.

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And the more he lingered over the subject, the more his blood began boiling from newfound irritation. Just imagining how the other R.F.A. members would be surrounding themselves around the frail girl, spending time with her all throughout the night and have amazing fun together, all the while Zen would be away working and missing everything – "Ugh."

In this case, would Mina notice his absence one bit?

Or forget he was even missing thanks to the others' company?

Zen was becoming inexplicably jealous, imagining how everyone would have a picture taken with Mina as memory whereas the silver haired youth would have nothing but mocking photoshopped versions done by Seven, just to spite his ass.

"Tch..."

Zen shook his pulsating head, needing to stop this trail of harmful thoughts right away. 'Well... I just need to keep an open mind.', the actor thought, pondering over the words he expected the party planner to use. Also, speaking of Mina, it seemed that she had left him accompanying messages to those phone calls while he was still caught up in all that business talk.

The actor's greediness wished it was because his jagi missed his presence online terribly~! *heart emoji*

Unfortunately, he did not consider another option that made his cheerfulness fade quickly.

"Shit..."

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~oOo~

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"Heya Zen.

It might sound quite sudden and random, but...

I was looking through the bag I took at the theatre today and I think I've misplaced my USB drive over there.

I can't find it... so I've kind of maybe lost it...? ^^;;;;;

But that's ok, I tend to misplace things and lose them non-stop.

Lose them a lot. -

I'm not entirely sure whether it is there, though.

So, if you are still at the theatre and, by any chance, close to the conference room can you check inside for anything suspicious? ^^;;;;;

I know it's a troublesome request... but, if you can't find anything, then don't worry~!"

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It doesn't have anything important on it~!

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~oOo~

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The guilt was quite pressing, Zen mentally cursing his decision from earlier.

For how long had she been searching for it...?

It must have been hours since Mina had noticed it missing, his skin crawling from the time stamps of those missed calls and his pooling remorse. The actor would have never allowed the girl to stress over her belonging needlessly under normal circumstances but he was rather unsure how to bring it up to her without being bombarded by questions about it.

N-Not to say he was going to hide it forever!

That would be considered theft!

Zen was no longer such a person.

And he was indeed planning to talk to Mina about the USB that was found by that Mr. Lee guy soon after his meeting had ended anyway. That was a plan from early morning as the silver haired male thought he would be less busy afterwards and ready to answer any curiosities. Also, he could apologize honestly for his forgetfulness about mentioning it the other day – the party planner's request with the guests' questionnaires had completely wiped out his memory about it.

And...

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Those were actually some poor excuses, right...?

Zen knew the real reason he had not brought up the subject to Mina even in the form of a text message. He secretly wanted to gaze at the girl's pictures some more and prolong the experience since he did not have the heart, nor courage, to save his favorite one into his phone gallery. The temptation was overwhelming to do so, Zen was not going to hide this feeling – but, he knew his boundaries.

He wanted Mina to send him the picture herself. ^^;;;;;;

It was a silly thought...

One he knew he should not be having...

But there was something about the girl that just...

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Captured his interest so much!

And so rapidly, it was insane!

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Zen's attempt at calling Mina had been rendered void, the curses being audible with each failed attempt – as per norm with her, not picking up when emergencies happened. The actor had no other option but to come clean in offline messages, revealing the story on how he had actually received the USB drive from Mr. Lee himself, right after yesterday's rehearsals. The man knew of their R.F.A. link and was convinced that they were close enough to meet outside the group... ^^;;;;;;

"It was also the last piece in pinpointing your true identity."

"Then, Seven came with his bullshit and pissed me off."

"And... sigh."

"You know the rest."

He apologized for not mentioning it to her right then and there though if Mina desperately needed the item returned, the actor wouldn't mind meeting up for an exchange. "Properly this time~!" *wink emoji* Zen teased, despite his intuition having the girl's response balance more towards the rejection side.

The actor did not lose his hope, though~!

If anything, the coordinator seemed to be warming up to the male rather quickly in fashion, as well. Their nightly encounters were definitely making her more comfortable around him in the chat room, their messages more frequent with each passing day.

Heck... Zen's heart beat was rising with such thoughts.

The silver haired male might actually be able to convince her to meet up –

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*BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ *

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– or not, his expression dropping.

"No worries. You can give it back to me at the party venue. Thanks."

It was unnaturally frank and short, compared to the other moments when she'd message him. Zen was unsure if she was upset or not, trying to play it cool either way. "It's really not a problem for me, jagi ^^~! I can spare some time to have it returned to you fast!"

"You have it so it's not lost anymore. That's everything I wanted to know."

"Are you sure? Seriously, if you're worried about my schedule, it's fine~!"

"I'm sure, don't worry."

"Plus, a walk out in town won't hurt me or my newest schedule" *sparkling emoji*

"I got the part in the end~!"

"Nothing important I need on it, no worries."

"Congrats on your new role by the way."

Zen was lost and puzzled by her short answers in addition to the lack of excitement contained within them – lack of any kind of emotions, actually. He would appreciate a scolding by this point than what he had received so far. Gosh...This is why the male disliked chat rooms as a concept because he could never really tell what a person was feeling just by the way they were typing and the emoji used. The actor loved watching other's expressions while they were talking to him for their micro gestures spoke to Zen ten times louder than anything coming out of their mouths. He could read people more easily and carefully, molding his personality according to the situation at hand.

Through messengers, it was so difficult to achieve the right angle.

But, even so, Mina could still be read in a way, the actor comparing her words with those she'd sent in previous texts. The difference was completely staggering, these recent ones appearing so lifeless and impersonal.

Rushed.

Like it was a hassle to send anything more to him.

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The actor felt quite the chills when she congratulated him! TwT

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What's more, Zen wasn't an expert on the girl or electronics but Mina's USB held some pretty damn important-looking content that she'd just dismissed as not being 'important' material. He clearly remembered the abundance of paintings and images she had done herself, apart from real life photos that Zen had shamelessly peeked at without restraint.

'Nothing important... what the f- these seemed, if anything, extremely vital to keep around.', Zen bitterly thought, wondering if anything happened today while he was trapped in the conference room. "Jagi, Are you sure...?"

"Yes."

"I have to go now."

"It's not problematic for me~! ^^", he pressed enter seconds after she had sent her farewell and disappeared offline, Zen more certain than ever that something was hugely bothering Mina at the moment. And he was going to get to the bottom of this, logging into the app for updates.

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Zen saw bright red.