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I always pictured my honeymoon as this idyllic getaway with just me and the man of my dreams. Alone all the time. Just the two of us. I never thought we’d invite a camera crew along.
I just realized how weird that sounds. I didn’t mean anything dirty by it!
Maybe I should edit this part out.
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Letty waddled out of the ski lodge in her ankle length, padded white coat that reminded her of an uncovered duvet comforter. She felt like the abominable snowman. Only three days of filming remained, and the production company was going all out for the band’s faux honeymoon at a swanky ski resort outside of Seoul.
Her boots crunched against the winter snow as she walked over to where the film crew was setting up. Ben was talking to the lighting director so she didn’t bother him. She watched as he pointed down at a heavy piece of equipment Letty now knew was called a dolly. The two men struggled to lift the unwieldy cart onto a metal track laid out in the snow. When they finished aligning the dolly, the lighting man clapped Ben on the back.
Letty felt in her pockets for her gloves and realized she must have left them with her regular coat. She turned to retrieve them but Director Cho called her name, so she stopped. He and Ben walked up and she was filled in on the shooting schedule.
“Today each B4U couple will be spending alone time together before meeting up at the lodge to have dinner in the main restaurant. You two will start on top of that hill.” Ben pointed in the distance and she could see lights already set up on the gentle slope. “You’ll stand at the top and Ki Tae will come racing by on a snowmobile.”
Letty glanced around at more lights they were placing around them. “So why are you setting up down here at the bottom?”
Ben translated her question to the director, and he answered directly to Ben.
“I’ll be directing the crew at the top,” Ben said. “They will film your big romantic meeting.” Ben used air quotes again. “And you’ll climb on with Ki Tae and ride down the mountain to the bottom where you’ll instigate a spontaneous snowball fight.”
“Spontaneous, huh?” Letty’s mouth quirked.
“Completely.” Ben’s ironic expression mirrored her own. “Are you afraid of snowmobiles?”
“Of course not!” she scoffed. “My family and I take a ski trip every winter. I’m used to all sorts of equipment.”
Ben told the director what she said and turned back to Letty.
“Could you pretend to be a little scared anyway?” He cringed as he asked her. “I think he wants the whole girly-squealing-in-terror-as-you-cling-to-Prince-Charming’s-back thing.”
Letty rolled her eyes in response.
“I know.” Ben scrunched his mouth in sympathy. “But the viewers love it.”
“How about I give him girly-squealing-in-ecstasy-as-I-cling-to-my-ultimate-bias-of-all-time thing? That I can do.”
“That I can accept.”
They grinned at each other, and Ben walked away with Director Cho. He returned a few minutes later with a set of keys.
“Come on, I’ll give you a ride to the top of the mountain.” He held up two hands in self-defense. “Not that you aren’t a liberated, intelligent woman that can drive yourself.”
“I didn’t say anything,” Letty said with an innocent look on her face.
“Uh-huh.” Ben led her over to a black machine and climbed on the back. “Get on.”
Letty didn’t move.
“What’s the matter? Think a player like me can’t be trusted?” He popped the collar of his coat with a wag of his head and gave her a theatrical stare.
“You’re not a player,” Letty said in all seriousness.
“Don’t tell me I convinced you at last!” Ben continued his overacting by throwing a startled hand to his forehead.
“I think I’ve been around you long enough to see that you’re kind to everybody, men and women both—always complimenting them, giving them a pat on the back. It’s like you can’t stand for anyone to be unhappy around you. You want to leave everyone feeling good about themselves.”
Ben averted his eyes and cleared his throat. “Whoa. Big, deep conversation all of a sudden. Where did that come from?”
“From the bottom of my heart.” Letty placed a hand over her chest and grinned. “Just like your hot pack present.”
Letty hiked her long coat up a little and straddled the seat, but just stared at his back once she got there. “Uh. I know this is a stupid question, but am I allowed to wrap my arms around you? The rules about this kind of stuff are different in Korea.”
“I think people would be more worried about you falling off and hurting yourself than whether or not it’s proper. They don’t want you suing the company.”
“Any excuse for a backhug.” Letty wrapped her arms around Ben but it felt more like hugging a marshmallow with all the padding of their two insulated coats stuffed between them.
He started the engine and put a pair of goggles on his face.
“You ready?” he shouted above the noise.
Letty gave him a thumbs up and they took off. As the machine climbed the slope at full speed, Letty slid back a little and she wrapped her arms tighter around Ben’s middle. The longer they stayed pasted together, the more she could feel the heat from his body. She could definitely get used to this. She always did love toasted marshmallows. They reached the top of the mountain entirely too soon for her liking, and she sighed in disappointment when she climbed off the snowmobile.
“What’s the matter?” Ben asked as he pulled off the goggles.
“Huh?” Letty tried to come up with something less embarrassing than I just really like hugging you and hate that it’s over already. “That was fun. But way too short.”
“Tell you what,” Ben said. “If there’s any extra time after the shoot ends, we can go for another ride. I’ll even get you a snowmobile of your own.”
“Oh, don’t go to any trouble!” Letty said a little too loudly as she waved her hands. “I don’t mind sharing.”
Someone came up to hand Ben a clipboard and Letty turned away to fan her face.
“Idiot!” she whispered. “Could you be any more obvious?”
She spun back around and waited in silence as he gave a speech to the small crew at the top of the hill. He tossed the keys of the snowmobile to a staff member, who took it back down the mountain, and pointed Letty to a bench in the distance.
“You’ll sit there and wait for Ki Tae to come riding up on the same machine we used. Then you’ll climb on behind him, and the two of you will go careening down the mountain, while you squeal in glee. Think you can do that?”
“Wrap my arms around my favorite pop star and squeal?” Letty smirked. “Oh yeah!”
“Uh-huh.” Ben looked at the clipboard in his hand. “Once you get to the bottom, you’ll climb off and start the spontaneous snowball fight.”
“So spontaneous that it was scripted three weeks ago?” Letty snarked.
“Welcome to reality television,” Ben said without looking up. “After the snowball fight, you’ll go in the ski lodge and share a cup of coffee by the fire.”
“I don’t like coffee.”
“What’s with the prima-donna act today?” Ben looked up with a teasing glance.
“Do you really think my energetic personality needs caffeine added to it?”
“Good point. We’ll change it to hot chocolate.”
Letty stuck her tongue out at him but jerked it back in her mouth before it turned into an icicle. She put her hands to her face and tried to warm them up by blowing into them.
“Where are your gloves?” Ben stuck the clipboard under his arm and grabbed her hands.
“I left them in my other coat. I’ll be okay. I can stick them in my pockets.”
Ben rubbed her fingers a few seconds, not that Letty could feel much, they were so numb. But the thoughtful gesture made her stomach do flips and spins worthy of any gymnast. He pulled the gloves off his own hands and started slipping them on hers.
“Wait!” Letty said. “You don’t have to do that. It was my mistake leaving them behind.”
“We can’t have the star of our show getting frostbite.” Ben adjusted the oversized gloves on her hands and took out his clipboard again.
“But what about you?”
“I’m a manly man.” Ben smiled as he quoted her reality husband. “Want to see my six pack?”
“Not in this cold,” Letty said. “You might catch hypothermia. But I’ll take a raincheck.”
Ben mimicked the same move Ki Tae had done by crossing his hands over his chest and wagging a finger at her. “You Americans are so shameless!”
“Like you have room to talk.” Letty gave him a playful shove and he just grinned back.
They heard some throat clearing and turned to find Ducky standing behind them. He held out her mic pack and earphone at arm’s length. Letty struggled to grab it with her hands covered in Ben’s gloves but managed to take hold and Ducky retreated without a word.
“Here we go again.” Letty unbuttoned her coat, and the frigid winter wind hit her in the chest as she reached inside to clip her pack to the back of her belt.
“Ready to squeal like a girl?” Ben asked.
“It’s a sacrifice, but someone has to do it.” She finished hooking up her microphone receiver like an old pro and looped the cord with the speaker around her neck. “Ready to whisper sweet nothings in my ear?”
“Anytime.”
He’d better be careful what he was offering. Letty just might take him up on that.
