Ha Na clicked the replay button again, smiling from ear to ear as she watched the commercial ad play again. 'It's perfect! Everything I envisioned came to life.'
Pulling up her email, she fired off a quick message to VI-King's manager to inform him of the release dates and attached a copy of the video. She hoped they were as satisfied with the ad as she was. Her personal favourite was the scene that was added at the last minute – Hao Jie's morning scene.
It was 20 seconds of pure goodness, edited to make females of all ages sigh in appreciation. He opens the scene looking all soft and sweet, that gorgeous back nestled in luxurious sheets. Blinking groggily, the camera zooms in on his sleepy eyes as he nonchalantly messes up his bed tousled hair. They teased the viewers with a one second flash of his chest and abs before he pulls on a T-shirt and stumbles to the kitchen to grab a bottle of the advertised protein drink. Gulping the drink down, he ends with a cute smile, making you feel like a satisfied wife watching her husband eat well.
After the shoot ended two weeks ago, she looked up the parody they had mentioned during dinner where Jia Wei was dressed as the female lead and had to kiss Hao Jie on the cheek. Charmed by the group's camaraderie in real life and entertaining goofiness on-screen, she started watching more and more of their content.
'At this rate, I'm actually just a closeted fangirl,' she thought wryly to herself. It was easy to like them though. Good looks aside, they were humble and down to earth despite their exploding popularity. She had always thought of herself as fairly hardworking but seeing the amount of effort they put into their craft made her think twice about herself. To top it all off, she was a sucker for people who can dance and boy, can they dance.
Thinking of Jia Jia who was currently quarantined at home with a bad cold, she forwarded a copy to her.
Ha Na laughed reading her reply. It was great to have a loyal fangirl who could express all the feelings she could not bring herself to say out loud. Plus, Jia Jia was a walking encyclopaedia when it came to anything related to VI-King.
Once she sensed Ha Na's growing interest in the group, she started feeding her all sorts of trivia about them. Like the meaning behind their name. In English VI-King sounded like 'Five Kings' if you said it fast enough. There were five of them and they were to be the kings of the industry. The 'VI' in their name was also the Roman numeral for 6 which apparently was supposed to be the combination of the five of them with the sixth member being their fans. Personally, Ha Na thought that was a bit of a stretch but hey, marketing was all about how convincingly you package it. The third layer to their name was something their fans came up with. Fans started saying that they really were like the Norse gods of the industry because of their manly image.
She had also learnt that Hao Jie was nicknamed Hao-ge because of his reassuring image both physically and personality wise. Even Su Yang who was older than him often called him Hao-ge. He was quieter than the others but sharp-eyed fans had captured moments of his lowkey leadership style. There were fancams of him helping to wrap Jia Wei's injured ankle during a performance rehearsal, rearranging the group members to make sure all of them were captured onscreen, holding Xiao Bao's trembling hand when he had to dive with sharks in the aquarium for a show. Jia Jia had also sent her a compilation video of Hao Jie's dancing which nearly had her nose bleeding. The way he glides across the floor and moves his hips should be illegal.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, she was reminded of the fact that she had been single for just over two years now. She hadn't bothered with dating because she found the process so very tedious but the one thing she did miss was the simple intimacy of things like holding hands and cuddling. She loved cuddling and it didn't help that Hao Jie looked like a great cuddler.
'Alright, enough is enough. You can't afford to waste time fantasising, there's a million things to follow up on,' shaking off her thoughts, she grabbed her notebook and hurried to her boss's office for an update.
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Shutting the door behind him, Hao Jie immediately turned his attention to the pile of burgers in the middle of the seats. Their manager had learnt by now to always have food prepared after any schedule and to make sure there was ample quantities to feed the whole lot of them. Hao Jie alone was a big eater who could easily take on those 10,000 calorie meal challenges. Add in Su Yang who seemed to have a blackhole of a stomach and the cost of feeding them both could bankrupt a small company. Even the skinniest of the lot, Jia Wei, ate more than the average person.
Once their manager surmised that their hunger levels had decreased somewhat, he passed them the tablet.
"They've sent over a copy of the ad that you guys did the shoot for a few weeks ago. The protein drink."
Xiao Bao waggled his eyebrows, "The one with the cute little representative that Hao-ge has a crush on?"
Hao Jie threw the empty burger wrapper at him, "Shut up. I don't have a crush on her." He grabbed the tablet and held it up before playing the video for them to monitor themselves.
The van was filled with silence immediately. When it came to work, they were intensely serious and focused.
"What do you think, Wen Yi?" Hao Jie asked, acknowledging his interest and growing passion for videography.
"Not bad, the director is pretty good. Everything looks quite natural, even the cuts that I remember feeling a little awkward in," he paused a little, "Yang-ge, I think if we do this concept again you might need to tone down your gaze. It's a little too strong here."
Su Yang grabbed the tablet and replayed the videos again, making indistinct murmuring sounds as he scrutinised his parts.
"There were more close ups than I was expecting, we should have worn our sponsored accessories on the ad," Jia Wei added in.
Nodding, Hao Jie agreed. "Good point, we'll make a note for any other future ones. It's one of our first ads so it's natural that we didn't manage to think of everything. Good work, guys."
They polished off the rest of the burgers and started falling asleep one by one. Hao Jie was the only one awake, browsing through their official social media account. Glancing at him in the rear view mirror, the manager asked in a low voice, "Hao Jie, in all seriousness you really don't have a crush on the company representative right?"
Hao Jie glanced up at the question, slightly taken aback. "No, it was just a joke. Don't worry."
The manager said nothing but noticed the distracted look on his face. Sighing, he started wondering if he should request for a different representative if they worked with that company again. It's not that he was completely against them dating but they were gaining a lot of momentum at the moment and it just wasn't the right time.
Looking outside the tinted windows, Hao Jie started thinking about that little dimple that popped up when she smiled. He wasn't lying when he said it was just a joke but he himself wasn't sure if he was being completely honest whenever he denies having a crush on her. With how busy they've been, he hadn't actually really given much thought about her after the shoot the other day. It was only until someone brought her up that he started to feel that creeping feeling of wanting to see her again.
'But if I see her again, I feel like I'm going to keep wanting to see her more and more.'