Main Character in the Story:

*Kim So Hyun as "Athena" Myung-hee Park

Minor Character in the Story:

*Robert Downey, Jr. as Himself

*Gwyneth Paltrow as Herself

*Chris Hemsworth as Himself

*Chris Evans as Himself

*Scarlett Johansson as Herself

*Cobie Smulders as Herself

*Mads Mikkelsen as Himself

*Jessica Alba as Herself

*Stellan Skarsgård as Himself

Chapter XVII: Um… Maybe Later.

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I have been sitting at this table for ten minutes, and I haven't had to say a single word to anyone. This is good. This might not be so bad after all. You know, once I get past the fact that every seat other than my own is occupied by a celebrity. I didn't even bother to look at all their faces. The only ones I know of are Gwyneth Paltrow, Chris Hemsworth (who's sitting on my left), and Robert (the annoying asshole on my right).

While all of them are wrapped up in a mindless conversation amongst each other, I stare off into a distant world called my imagination. I watch myself sitting in the Pit of the mall, crisscross position with a notebook on my thigh. My earphones are plugged into my phone, and… no. My Beats are connected to my phone, and Miracles in December by Exo goes on in my ears. My hand flies across the college-ruled paper, the pen frantically scribbling down the words that flow from my heart. I look so… at peace. I seem content. And happy. Why I haven't tried this before?

The entire image vanishes in an instant when somebody waves their hand in front of my face.

I look up with the most and confused expression on my face. "Eh? What?"

Everyone's eyes are on me, staring as if they expect me to do a trick.

I look around, not sure what the hell is going on. "I didn't do something stupid, did I?" I feel my face slowly beginning to get warmer.

"No." Robert answer. "Chris just wanted to know where you work."

After he finishes, it's dead quiet at the table.

I look at Chris, next to me and answer him. "Um, Stamford High School." I figured since I know more about the school than the damn principal, it would be easy to play it off.

Chris smiles. "Wrong Chris." He points to someone across the table.

"Eh?" I raise my eyebrows surprised. When I look, I immediately blush. It wasn't Chris Hemsworth asked. It was Chris Evans. "I. um… I guess that's strike one on names for me."

Everyone laughs quietly at my comment. Judging by how much of it. There are more people here than I originally thought.

I clearly my throat nervously. "But um, yes. Same answer. Stamford High School."

"Oh, what do you do?" Scarlett (as in Jo-freaking-hansson) asks me.

"Um. T-tutoring. I tutor students after classes in the school library."

"What subject?" Evans asks.

I shrug. "Math, English, Music, Creative Writing and Foreign Languages: Japanese, Chinese and mostly Korean."

"You speak those languages?" Evans asks again with amazement.

"Yeah. Of course, I was born in an Asian continent." I smiled at him.

"And music?" Gwyneth says excitedly. "What do you play?"

"I sing."

A bunch of fascinated "oohs" rise around the table.

O Ileon, i salamdeul-eun swibge nollabda. Naneun geudeul-ui ban-eung-i jeongmallo pil-yohadago geoui saeng-gaghaji anhneunda. {My God, these people are easily amazed. I hardly think that their reaction was really necessary.}

"Will you be singing something for us tonight?" Gwyneth jokes (I'm hoping).

"Um… maybe later. I don't think I should disrupt these people's conversations."

They spend quite some time getting to know me; it feels more like an interrogation, realy. Then again, that's always how I feel when I am being asked a lot of questions. They are mostly casual, of course, but that still doesn't mean I like it. Then they hit me with the complicated question.

"Where'd you go to college, Myung-hee?" Cobie Smulders asks me.

I grab my glass of water and take a very long sip to buy me some time to think of an answer. Neoui ma-eum-e gajang meonjeo tteooleuneun geos, Myung-hee. {Go with the first thing that comes to your mind, Myung-hee.} I set my glass down and wipe the corner of my mouth with my thumb. "Berklee." I reply. Jenjang! Naneun NCCe mal haess-eoyahaessda! i munjeleul haegyeolhasibsio! {Damn it! I should have said NCC! Fix this!} "Or," I blurt out before any question about it is asked. Realizing how badly I lost my calm, I clear my throar (like that's going to cover it up). "Or… at least. I want to graduate from there. I haven't been able to apply. Money problems. Getting the education you want is a struggle now-a-days." Sesang-e, geu manghal eumsig-eun eodi issni? Naneun yeogiseo jilsig-e gakkabda. {My goodness, where the damn food? I'm near in suffocation out here.}

"Berklee?" Hemsworth says. "The one in California?"

"I think she means the College of Music."

That voice, that heavily-accented Danish, catches my attention in a split second. I turn my head to the direction it came from.

Sitting only two seats away from me is the Mads. Mikkelsen.

"Sin-ui Geolughan Eomeoni. {Holy Mother of God.}" I say automatically. As soon as the last word leaves my mouth. I cover it with both my hands. I look around with a panicky expression on my face, which only adds to the craziness of my current image.

Everyone watches with creeped-out looks of confusion.

My eyes widen as an owl, I begin my recovery before bad impressions are made. Maybe I should try… honesty. Just a little bit. I bowed a biy hysterically to Mikkelsen and the rest of the celebrity people in front of me. "Jeongmal mianhae—I mean—I am so sorry. I… um. I-I don't exactly have dinner with favorite actors every day. It, it just slipped out." I can feel my cheeks burning already. Great. That sounded like I was kissing up to them.

I receive silent giggles a reply. I wonder if they even remember what it was like to be a hardcore fan of something or someone.

"Don't even worry about it." Jessica Alba says. "Sometimes, I feel like I'm still getting used to it."

"Yeah." Hemsworth agrees. "Hell, I'm still waiting for the day I meet Jack Nicholson."

"And I would love to meet Victoria Justice." Scarlett jumps in. "I think her voice is amazing."

"And me meeting the Korean boy band's Big Bang." Evans also jumps in. "I would be so hyped if I ever meet G Dragon or T.O.P. Are you a fan of that band? Since you are a Korean, right?"

I nod with a smile. "Yes. I am a major fan of Big Bang. They are honestly the Legends of Kpop. I tell you."

"Oh Yeah." He nodded with a grin. "The best song I love the most is 'Fantastic Baby'."

"Oh me too." I excitedly smiled more. "Do you know G-Dragon's insane song "Crayon"?

He laughed. "Oh yeah. That song is dope."

"God, you two are such a bunch of hardcore fans of Kpop. I can imagine Elsa would do the same if she's here talking about that." Hemsworth chuckled at us.

After I was done chatting with Chris about the famous Korean boy band. My mind was lost at the moment. Hearing these confessions changed my thoughts of these people quite a bit. I have no reason to be jealous of or hate celebrities. My idea of then was that they believed themselves to be above us, above those who don't get love from all around the world almost every day. Maybe they really are "just humans." They just get paid more than the rest of us do.

While I was putting all this together, I hadn't even realized our dishes were being served. Some took a couple more minutes to finish what they were saying. Others just dug right in without another word.

I didn't really do either of those. I took my time by my own choice.

"How are you doing, Little Myu-Myu?" Robert asks me quietly. "Not still worrying about the outburst, are you?"

"You didn't tell me Mads Mikkelsen really was here."

"I didn't know. Apparently Stellan brought him. And I'm glad we didn't know. That reaction was priceless."

I clench my teeth and kick the side of his leg hard. Thanks to my early two years of training in Jujutsu, my fists and feet can do anything hard like I recently did now with this asshole.

He grunts with pain, yet still manages to keep a straight face. He casually reaches down and rubs the spot I kicked.

"Screw you." I say low enough that no one but Robert can hear.

As I eat my sushi with the chopsticks quietly, I keep my sight on the table. I don't want to talk anymore. I have a strong twisting feeling of guilt in my stomach right now. I am here trying to befriend these people and let them get to know me, and I am straight up lying to them. I can't help that, obviously. They don't even know they are dining with a seventeen-year-old. But that doesn't mean I have to feel okay about it. They are so much kinder than I expected. And not all of them are "care-free" as I would having actual problems. Family problems, living space problems, problems with finding other jobs. I never thought I would hear an actor say something like that. It's strange and… sort of cool.

All that's left for me to do now is survive until the end of the night.