Awkward, stifling silence fell over the car for three hours. Three whole hours of silence! Shin Jun had attempted to make conversation at first, but with no response, he too became silent and melted into the seat. He had a hard time staying awake, his eyes would flutter shut for a few minutes at a time before he’d open them again. At one point, he thought there were imaginary crickets singing in the back seat!

He thoroughly regretted listening to his elder brothers and joining the show. He should have rejected them and if his cousin really needed someone then he could be a participant himself if he wanted!

His eyes blinked open once again and he looked at the two men who took turns looking at him suspiciously. One, the driver, from the rearview mirror, while the passenger looked through the side mirrors. Neither would make eye contact, and if they did they would quickly look away as if they were frightened.

Shin Jun looked down at himself and scrunched his eyebrows. Was he really that scary? Maybe they were both just extremely shy.

As if the world was taking pity on him, the car slowly came to a stop on the side of the road in a wealthy, cozy-looking neighborhood. One look at the front yards could tell you a lot about a home, and the yards that he was able to peer into were all neatly cleaned, the grass chopped, the trees trimmed and the driveways were nearly spotless. Professional work.

Shin Jun worked on getting himself together whilst the cameramen set up their equipment once again. He worked his hands through his hair to untangle the spots he had pushed up behind him, styled it lazily, and waited until he heard a little ‘knock’ on the window of the car.

He’d read the filming schedule for day one beforehand. It was the only schedule given to the participants, but it was still not detailed enough to know what was going on that day. He was just told to: ‘get picked up, have an interview, drive to the location, walk into the front doors set your luggage down in the living room, and grab a card. We will check your luggage to make sure you haven’t brought a phone, laptop, or snacks while you’re gone!

PS. All other participants have had a small trailer of their normal life filmed before filming, because you are a late participant we will film yours after filming ends’.

Hence, Shin Jun got out of the car and began walking up the road to the house. There was a small sign that pointed to a driveway. It was a light blue rectangle with a white font that read ‘Path to Love!’, the dating show’s name with a heart as the o in love.

Shin Jun glanced at the sign, then at the driveway to the house, and chuckled. It was a cringe name, but this house really was the perfect location for such a concept.

The driveway itself was like a path to another world with light grey and pink unsymmetrical bricks and white gravel on two sides to separate from the front garden. The front garden, which could be seen by an opening through the flowering blossom trees, had its own small pond and large rocks clearly made to be sat on. Looking straight, one wouldn’t be able to see the house clearly until they rounded a corner.

The cameramen filmed Shin Jun as he took in the scenery with a serene look on his face as he walked at a slow, casual pace. His platinum hair softly fluttered with the wind, but it wasn’t an ugly type of movement. The one holding the camera could already tell… This shot would be in the first episode!

This sketchy man… Why did he have to be so beautiful?

Shin Jun took his time, eventually rounding the corner to show the home. It was two stories high and looked to have a basement that was built into a small hill that led to a backyard garden which he couldn’t see very well from his angle.

He followed the path up to the house and the cameramen seemingly disappeared as he knocked on, and then opened the door. From then on, he wouldn’t see those cameramen again.

Shin Jun glanced around and could hardly see the installed cameras, but he knew they were present. Otherwise, it’d be a show with only the intro and end with nothing spicy inside the house aside from audio from the mics they had on!

The living room was right in front of the doorway so he traded his shoes for a pair of black slippers and went to the room. There were only two cards left on the table with the same design as the sign outside, and it was clear that others had chosen their own cards already. He didn’t spend time deciding, instead lazily picking up the card closest to him.

He flipped it over and read it out loud: “Today is your first blind date, someone is waiting for you at the location down below!”

Shin Jun turned back towards the door and thought to himself: “Will this be my first friend in this house?”