Peninsula: Starting with the nation's first love, the white moonlight

Just as pink bubbles were beginning to form in the waiting room, the door was suddenly pushed open, and four beautiful girls walked in, chatting and laughing.

Lee Ji-eun quickly moved to the side, but the unnatural blush on her cheeks had not completely faded.

Bae Suzy walked at the front and immediately spotted the two people sitting on the sofa.

"Ji-eun unnie, what a coincidence! We're using the same waiting room!"

Lee Ji-eun pouted, showing no sign of her best friend's joy, and was clearly unhappy that their time alone had been interrupted.

"Yes, what a coincidence."

Ji-eun's tone was very perfunctory; she couldn't even be bothered to force a fake smile.

Bae Suzy didn't seem to care about Ji-eun's coldness at all. She skipped over the coffee table and ran to Lee Lu-ran.

Suzy smiled brightly, revealing her two adorable bunny teeth:

"Li Luran, what a coincidence, we meet again."

Li Luran quickly stood up from the sofa and responded politely:

Good evening, Suzy.

Sitting next to her, Ji-eun's younger sister overheard their conversation and was so angry she wanted to grind her teeth.

You, Li Luran, stayed at Xiuzhi's house for one night, and now you don't even bother with honorifics when you greet each other?

When did you two become so close? Did something really happen behind my back that night?

And Bae Suzy, she's not even pretending anymore, is she? Please, I'm a living, breathing person sitting right here! Does she think I don't exist?

The more Ji-eun thought about it, the angrier she became. Her big eyes were fixed on Li Luran's back, as if she wanted to stare two holes through it.

Bae Suzy seemed oblivious to the sour gaze directed at her from behind. She tilted her head slightly, her large eyes fixed on Lee Luran, and asked with concern:

"Are you feeling better? You didn't look too well when you went out that morning. You didn't catch a cold, did you?"

Li Luran sensed the murderous aura behind him and awkwardly cleared his throat:

"Cough cough. I'm fine now. Thank you for taking me in that night, and... thank you for the ginger tea."

As he spoke, he carefully observed Lee Ji-eun's reaction.

Sure enough, although Ji-eun didn't lash out directly out of consideration for the occasion, her expression was already extremely unpleasant.

Because Ji-eun heard a key word: "ginger tea".

Bae Suzy is a woman who never lifts a finger, yet she can personally brew ginger tea?

I could believe she could cook a bowl of ramen, but if she could actually make ginger tea, I'd change my name to Lee Ji-eun!

Ugh! Ramen?! Eating ramen in the middle of the night?! Impossible! Lee Ji-eun, don't jinx yourself!

Meanwhile, the other three members of Missa were huddled together, gossiping quietly: "What's going on with Suzy? She seems to be quite familiar with that guy."

"It's more than just familiarity! When did you guys see her getting so close to other guys? I smell a strong whiff of gossip."

"Hey, doesn't that guy look familiar? Isn't he the male lead in IU's hit music video?"

"Now that you mention it, it really does look like him. Wasn't that the photo that circulated online a few days ago also of him?"

At this moment, Suzy seemed to finally remember something and turned to look at the door.

She then noticed that the three unnies from the group were standing not far away, looking at her with gossipy expressions.

Suzy stuck out her tongue a little shyly, and quickly pulled Lee Luran to the front of their teammates.

"Unnies, let me introduce you."

"This is Li Luran, a planner at LOEN Company, and also a good friend of mine."

Then, Suzy specifically looked at Wang Feifei and Meng Jia from the group.

"Fei-ni, Jia-ni, Lu Ran is also Chinese."

Upon hearing this, the two men's eyes lit up.

Wang Feifei proactively extended her hand and immediately switched to Chinese to greet him:

"Hello, I'm Wang Feifei, from Hainan."

"Hello, I'm Li Luran, from Jiangnan." Li Luran shook hands with her and responded with a smile.

Meng Jia also came over and looked at the handsome young man in front of her.

"Oh, we're from the same hometown! With your looks, I thought you were a newcomer from some company."

The three Chinese people chatted in Chinese with great tacit understanding.

"Suzy said you were an international student at Seoul National University? How come you're working at LOEN?"

Li Luran replied with a smile, "I'm just going to LOEN part-time to train."

Meng Jia nudged Li Luran's arm and teased:

"Wow, young man, you've already met two beauties, IU and Suzy, as soon as you arrived at the Peninsula Hotel. Your luck with women is truly enviable."

Li Luran smiled helplessly and didn't explain further.

At this moment, the two best friends, who had been left standing to the side, were completely dumbfounded.

They couldn't understand Chinese at all.

The three Chinese people chatted enthusiastically, occasionally letting out cheerful laughter.

The two Korean girls were like outsiders, only able to stare helplessly.

Lee Ji-eun glanced at Bae Soo-ji with a sullen expression, and Bae Soo-ji happened to look back at her with a resentful look as well.

The two rivals, who had just been secretly competing, now stared at each other, creating a somewhat comical atmosphere.

To cover up their embarrassment, the two sisters had no choice but to get back together and forcefully start praising each other.

"Suzy, I haven't congratulated you on winning the Best New Actress award yet. Wow, our Suzy is amazing! You won an award for your first starring drama. Your acting career is sure to be very successful from now on."

"Unnie, you're amazing too!" Suzy replied with a sweet smile. "I think unnie's acting has a lot of potential. If there's a script that suits unnie, I'm sure unnie can win awards! And unnie sings so well, unnie will definitely win music awards left and right!"

"Oh, Suzy, you're joking." Although she knew Suzy was just flattering her, Ji-eun was still so happy that she couldn't stop smiling after hearing Suzy's compliments.

"No way, I think with Suzy's current talent, winning the top acting award at the three major film festivals is just around the corner. Hey, maybe in a few years, our Suzy will be a leading actress in Chungmuro, and the Grand Bell Awards and Blue Dragon Awards will be a piece of cake."

"Then I'll take your kind words." Suzy winked with a forced smile.

The two best friends seemed to have returned to the days when they could talk about anything. However, while they were complimenting each other, their eyes would unconsciously drift towards the man next to them.

Time flew by amidst the lively conversation.

The loudspeaker in the waiting room corridor suddenly came on.

Staff members began knocking on doors one by one to notify each group of artists to prepare for their turn. The performance portion of the MBC Gayo Daejeon was finally about to begin.

Li Zhi'en felt as if she had been granted a pardon and hurriedly walked to Li Luran's side, tugging at his sleeve.

"Stop chatting and come with me, we need to get ready to go to the waiting area!"

Li Luran apologized and said goodbye to Wang Feifei and Meng Jia.

Bae Suzy also put aside her thoughts and returned to her team, preparing to welcome the New Year's Eve stage tonight.