Finally, the day had come—’Stars in My Ordinary Sky’ Episode Seven was going to be released!
Jinxie had set everything up. She knew it was only going to be a short episode, but she had a whole meal prepared.
She wasn’t the only influential person prepared to watch the show, though.
Ian, who was currently on a break after filming ‘Code Black,’ had also fallen into the hole that is Zeno’s latest short series. Manshik PD, Chaewon PD, and Ari Bae had also started tuning in after it trended on Sigmoid.
Somehow, the short series captured the heart of the public, especially the younger generation.
Jinxie found that the story wasn’t only intriguing, but the actors did a great job compared to the other Story Lab productions. She even found herself admiring Shelly, whom she only knew through Kim Kim.
She almost contacted Kim Kim to get Shelly’s number, but she decided to get it herself in the end.
Three minutes before the premier of the seventh episode, the waiting space had garnered a hundred thousand spectators and counting.
Jinxie clicked her tongue and then proudly smiled. “Is this the influence I hold?” she subtly boasted.
“Oh, it’s here!” she exclaimed when the countdown finally started.
Finally, after sixty seconds, the first scene was showed, and the audience tuned in.
Sohee stared at her notebook, gripping her pen so hard that her fingers began cramping. The formulas swam around her, but she refused to give up.
“Don’t do it for me. Do it for yourself.”
Jake’s words echoed in her head. At first, she wanted to study hard because Jake promised to give her a reward if she achieved above average marks for their finals. However, she realized now that she had to do this for herself.
Sohee buried herself in her notes, reviewing the same problem over and over until it made sense. She scribbled, erased, sighed, and then tried again. She had never worked this hard in her life.
She lost track of time, and before she knew it, an unfamiliar voice broke through the silent library.
“Miss! The school’s closing soon!”
Sohee jumped, knocking over her pencil case. She blinked at the security guard standing at the door.
“What?” she blurted.
“The school is closing,” he repeated, eyeing her like she was dense.
Sohee scrambled to check her phone. 9 PM?! When did it get so late?
She shoved her books into her bag and bolted out of the library. As soon as she stepped outside, she froze.
She was met with heavy, unforgiving rain.
Sohee groaned, pulling out her phone to text her friends about her situation.
She stared at her screen, waiting for a reply or for someone to come.
– I have a bad feeling about this.
– Rain is always a signal that something is going to go bad.
– Is she going to get kidnapped and then turned over to the black market, where all of her fresh organs are going to be sold to a bunch of rich people who have no conscience?
– I don’t think this is that kind of drama. It’s nice that you have a wild imagination, though!
– Someone’s coming! Someone’s coming!
From a distance, a young man drove a rusty, old bike through the rain, pedaling as hard as he could that it was almost pitiful.
Jinxie covered her mouth in shock when Zeno’s face was finally shown on screen. The pity she felt for him was through the roof. If she could go inside the screen and save him, she would.
Jimin arrived in front of the shocked Sohee, a hopeless expression already seen on his face.
– This is the bad feeling I was talking about.
– Please! Please! Please! Choose him, please.
– But Sohee and Jake are starting to get along better.
– Jimin has been there since the very beginning, though! And he never did anything to hurt her.
Jinxie glanced at the progress bar and saw that there were only seven minutes left of the episode. She couldn’t help but feel melancholic.
However, the moment Jimin asked Sohee to come with him, the sadness she felt couldn’t be compared to the day she was almost canceled on Tick.
His face had captured the hopelessness of someone who had lost his first love. It was even sadder for the audience because, suddenly, his actions from the former episodes began making sense.
He liked Sohee very much.
The car pulling up behind them was the cherry on top.
“I can’t watch this!” Jinxie exclaimed as she slightly obscured her eyes like she was watching a horror movie.
At that moment, Zeno’s face was shown again, and she couldn’t help but gasp.
Ari Bae, who was having a hard time writing her new script, also slowly closed her laptop to watch the scene on the television better. It hadn’t been that long since she had watched Zeno act in real-time, but it felt like he had improved to a great extent.
She felt herself getting choked up despite being an unemotional person. She took pride in her tough personality, but this one scene made her feel soft. It wasn’t even that sad if she thought about it! It was just a high school boy getting rejected by his first love.
A lot more devastating things could happen.
However, the simplicity of it made it feel authentic.
Ian, on the other hand, didn’t bother hiding his emotions. He was the type of person who could cry easily, which also aligned well with his profession. Still, he didn’t expect to cry over a 12-minute YouWatch episode!
Jimin exhaled, shaking his head slightly. “Go.”
That one word was filled with anguish.
Sohee hesitated. “Jimin—”
“He’s waiting.” Jimin forced a smile, though it didn’t reach his eyes. “You’ll be warmer with him.”
“But—”
Jimin looked down and tried to get back to his bike, but he struggled to place his feet on the pedals.
Jinxie couldn’t help it now. The tears streamed down her face. Zeno appeared so pitiful in this scene that her heart couldn’t take it.
Then, the final statement—the one that made the internet burst into tears of sympathy finally arrived.
“You belong in his car more than you do on my bike.”