�One Shot by Gulb and Duckiez

His Apogee

In the book of Kang Min-hyuk's life, the stars write: his gifts are a tall, lean frame and an eternally boyish smile that makes him appear perpetually youthful; an exceptional sense of rhythm that makes him a charismatic drummer; and an understated amiability that enhances his telegenic looks and makes him endearing onscreen.

He is not given a brother by blood, only an older sister. But he is blessed with three brothers in spirit, who are as precious to him as his real family.

In the book written by stars, Kang Min-hyuk falls in love with a girl who looks only at him--

"A penny for your thoughts?" Lee Hwan-hee snaps her chopsticks together before digging into the container of side dishes laid on the cozy garden table.

"Oh." He smiles. "I'm just anticipating how good these all taste because they all look so good."

"That's sweet of you," Hwan-hee says, making a face, "but don't insult me."

"But it does taste good, Hwan-hee," Seo Joo-hyun cuts in. She glances at Min-hyuk. He understands that she means for him to start tucking in.

"Seriously, Hwan-hee." Min-hyuk swallows his mouthful. "It is good. And thank you very much for bringing us lunch. You sure saved us the trouble of having to cook."

Hwan-hee beams. "It's the least I could do for the pregnant lady."

Min-hyuk pauses on his way to pushing a serving of bean sprouts into his mouth. "So it's for her." He puts the bean sprouts back into the dish.

"Min-hyuk," Joo-hyun nudges him. "Hwan-hee brought it to share. Didn't you, Hwan-hee?" She pours each of them a cup of citron tea. "Hwan-hee's going to Japan for a few weeks of activities. Why don't you catch her up on the movie you'll be shooting?"

Min-hyuk is only teasing, as he always does Hwan-hee whenever the two of them are within spitting distance, and he feels a little put down that Joo-hyun didn't pick up on it just now. He wants to rile Hwan-hee more, but it is a perfect mid-spring day and he doesn't want to upset the five-month-old pregnant Joo-hyun any more.

So he tells Hwan-hee that he is playing a college professor in this forthcoming movie starring a bunch of new acting idols. He asks about Hwan-hee's work in Japan. The rest of the lunch passes that way, in the warmth and geniality of a company of friends.

Much later, as Min-hyuk sticks the last star on the roof of the nursery, he hears Joo-hyun softly call out, "Sorry."

He takes a long hard look at her face--deeply contrite, as if she is about to cry. He climbs down from the ladder and sits beside her on the cushioned bay window.

"I'm no fun, am I? I know you always play-fight with Hwan-hee." She turns to face him. "I don't know why I'm so upset."

Min-hyuk actually knows, but he chooses to simply reassure her with a gentle pat on the arm and "It's just hormones."

She starts sniffling.

"You know Yong-hwa hyung keeps his promises by all means, right?" he begins in a soothing tone, like telling a child a bedtime story. "Today is marked on his calendar. But the typhoon in Taiwan isn't."

She takes the handkerchief he holds out.

Min-hyuk directs his gaze elsewhere to give Joo-hyun some privacy. His eyes land on a caddie with a cartoon design, characters he recognizes from a well-known character company in Japan. He picks it up.

"Seo-hyun." Although they've become really close over the years and the honorifics have dropped, he has never learned to call her by her real name--that is a privilege that has always been reserved for her husband and the father of her child. "What do you want me to do with this? Hang it up?"

She traces the cartoon characters. "These two actually remind me of you and me." She aims a teary smile at him.

Against his will, Min-hyuk's heart skips a beat. "Yeah?"

She nods. "Juri unnie sent this from Japan. She says these characters were really popular way before. A blue-haired boy and a pink-haired girl. She says they're twins, brother and sister. Like us!"

In the book of Kang Min-hyuk's life, the stars write: his gifts are a tall, lean frame and an eternally boyish smile that makes him appear eternally youthful; an exceptional sense of rhythm that makes him a charismatic drummer; and an understated amiability that enhances his telegenic looks and makes him endearing onscreen.

He is not given a brother by blood, only an older sister. But he is blessed with three brothers in spirit, who are as precious to him as his real family.

In the book written by stars, Kang Min-hyuk falls in love with a girl who looks only at him--like a twin brother.

Postcards Swept Away by the Southwest Monsoon Jung Yong-hwa (CN Blue) and Seo Joo-hyun (Girls' Generation)

Unadulterated courage

Jung Yong-hwa knows the only way to overcome a fear is to build his faith such that it becomes bigger than what he is afraid of.

He holds on that principle tonight. “Now or Never,” as the title of one of his career’s earliest releases goes.

“I was once married to a girl I barely knew,” he tells her—the woman he believes is his one. “She’s a beautiful girl with sparkling eyes, and she was pure and innocent an

d lovely.”

“You know we weren’t actually married,” he continues. She smiles at that. After all, the “marriage” was a TV show, for all the world to see, speculate and somehow sink into. “But many times during that time, and in all the years after, it was also really a marriage.”

He picks up her gloved hand. It is the end of winter and the beginning of spring, but neither has completely come into season yet: yet the season of indecision.

“It’s strange,” he says, lacing his own gloved fingers in hers. “The feeling that I have been married before. She taught me things, too, though she often says I taught her. I’ve formed this concept of marriage as a verb, always in present tense.”

He braced himself for the next words to come out of his mouth.

He wishes this isn’t a hastily arranged, last-minute catch-up session at a park in the middle of the night. Would that what he is about to say is said in more conducive (romantic) circumstances.

“But now I’m thinking of it in the future tense.” He turns on his seat so he is fully facing her.

“What I mean is….” He pulls her other hand and grips them both tightly. “Despite that past—will you at least consider to marry me?”

Unwritten letter # 4.9

Seo Joo-hyun signs Kang Min-hyuk’s birthday card. She has greeted him earlier with a phone call: there’s no way to forget his birthday as they shared the day. But there’s still something more lasting with a tangible, handwritten greeting.

The tradition is three years running. Min-hyuk jokes that he’s starting a collection.

Another tradition nobody knows is the letter she composes in her head six days before, her response to the letter she has tucked in her wallet since her once-husband gave it to her embedded in a bouquet of roses.

Sure, Yong-hwa gets his birthday card, too. But while it is year on year filled with warm wishes, it doesn’t approach the passionate sentiments that Joo-hyun can only verbalize in secret.

“1 Corinthians 13 says love is patient,” one of the mental missives says. “Then perhaps this is not love because I find that I cannot wait to know for sure that you will keep your promise. That one day you will make this right, right and real.”

Unpublished liner notes

Their albums contain scant information about the songs and have even deprived the fans of the more personal touch of “thanks to” messages.

That doesn’t mean Yong-hwa doesn’t write his thoughts about songs, though.

When asked, he says “experience and imagination” are his inspirations; when probed, he describes the hypothetical narrative of the song’s persona.

On one track , one year after his hypothetical marriage, the thought on his private notebook reads, “It doesn’t feel like a ‘divorce,’ but a longing and missing that you can’t do anything about. This end of the ‘marriage.’ Is this how widowers feel like?”

Unasked question

Four years after they were on a show together, Yong-hwa and Joo-hyun go on a volunteer mission in Africa. Together with other humanitarians, students and church people, they opened a village school.

Yong-hwa and Joo-hyun, simply as themselves, are music teachers. Yong-hwa extends his hours to the youth who want to learn the guitar. Joo-hyun volunteers to help him. It would’ve been better if there was a piano, which she plays well, but, like Yong-hwa says, she has enough guitar skills to pass on to the young ones.

They spend 10 days working that way—a life away from the lights and the stage and a little somewhat like what they are and what they have been in the program where they were “married.”

“Can we stay like this? Just together, building a life together” is a musing that often passes through their minds and between their eyes.

Unrecorded lyrics

Joo-hyun creates in words.

Her music takes form from vocabulary, not notes or tunes. But she has attempted to set her creations to music. When the studios are on a rare break, she charms the producers and engineers to record some of her pieces, accompanying her poetry with her own piano or guitar.

There is a song she doesn’t dare sing, though. One long morning, between imagination and lucid dream, remembering a White Day ending some five years ago, she articulates, “My heart has your fingerprints all over it.”

Unsent text message # 211

Yong-hwa is human and has limits. He pushes the limits as far as he can, propelling himself with all his being to the star he wants to be.

Nature sometimes takes over, though, and he is reminded of the myth of Icarus that a pretty bookworm once tells him about.

On a day like today, when Murphy works his law on him, he asks to take five and pulls out his phone to type three characters.

Three very important characters in the message field and then her name as the recipient. He stares at them, thumb hovering on the send button.

It’s been three years but the three very important characters never lose their gravity or meaning. They are eternal and timeless, and he knows once he says them, they become promises. It’s been three years and he still is afraid that he is inadequate to the task of making it work with his once-wife.

He erases the message, like he�s always done every time he makes the attempt, and gets back up.

“Okay, let’s do this,” he calls out loudly.

Unfiltered hope

Seo Joo-hyun knows this is different. She knows her faith will be tested more than ever, and that opening her heart will not be a special serendipity but a will

ful privilege she grants.

Because it is what she gives of herself, and rightly so, when he is offering his future and his life.

“I was once married to a boy I picked out from a line-up,” she says, eyes sparkling. “He was handsome and charming and playful.”

She grips his hands, warming his heart.

“Out of five gogumas, he’s a 10. Not all the time, though.” She smiles at him smiling at her. “But even so, he taught me a lot of things—the difference between like and love. Dandelion seeds.”

She pulls her hands out from his hold to take the gloves off. “And I look forward to learning a lot more.” She pinches his nose.

“It will be a pleasure to take care of these dandelion seeds for a lifetime with you, Jung Yong-hwa.”

***

6:25 a.m.

Jung Yong-hwa rains soft kisses along Seo Joo-hyun’s shoulder—their own Morse code, their shorthand of this particular intimacy between husband and wife.

In reply, Joo-hyun turns around and kisses the corner of his mouth. She basks in the brilliance of his smile.

“What time is it?” she murmurs, dewy and nascent like the morning.

Yesterday, Yong-hwa’s bandmates visit her at home after her mandatory sixth-week-later check-up with the obstetrician.

“Well, hope you get back to full strength soon,” her birthday-and-blood-type twin Min-hyuk, ever considerate, offers with his eye-smile.

With the seemingly innocent statement—and Min-hyuk is sincerely saying it innocently, too, Jung-shin nearly burst out in loud laughter that he manages to cover with a coughing fit.

At the exact same moment, Jong-hyun is screaming “You betcha!!!” in his mind. He is also mentally rolling his eyes that manifests as a loaded grin.

His Yong-hwa hyung has nearly clobbered him in boxing the night before.

And for the past month and a half, Yong-hwa has been more intense than ever playing basketball: flitting faster than a fly in a serving of fruits. From the regular once a week with his bandmates, he’s also been joining the other games, playing three more times a week—with Taec-yeon and his other brothers-in-law, with fellow producers and even with the (much, much, much) younger trainees in the company.

Jong-hyun is in the business of minding his own business: if Yong-hwa hyung wants to burn calories, he lets live. But when their leader is not working all hours, he is pulling his weight in the care of his newborn son. And caring for his po

st-natal wife. Though he isn’t married and doesn’t have children of his own yet, Jong-hyun does not need to be a genius to know that Yong-hwa’s extra energy is the by-product of the aforementioned (and his trademark actively passive) consideration for his wife.

Because he isn’t about to let Yong-hwa collapse from dehydration (literally, figuratively), he hatches something of a plan.

But also because he can’t bring himself to do or say something that will, even in the slightest bit, embarrass both his hyung and his hyungsoonim, he pulls in Jung-shin to tell Soo-young to tell someone—their ultimate accomplice to get the ball rolling.

So Tae-yeon calls Joo-hyun one day, asking to “borrow” her son.

“A sleepover?” Joo-hyun confusedly repeats down the line. “Aren’t they too young for that?”

“Pshaw,” Tae-yeon dismisses. “It’s practice for when they grow up. It’s great to start them early.” Tae-yeon’s children are aged three and one.

“And anyway,” she rushes, as she realizes she’s gaining ground. “It’s your son’s thousandth hour on earth. Go see your doctor and you and Yong-hwa get some...rest.”

Thus, Tae-yeon picks up Yong-hwa and Joo-hyun’s firstborn, along with a full-day’s worth of Joo-hyun’s breast milk for feeding. She promptly arrives at sunset, her husband Woo-young at the wheel, barely missing CN Blue, who all ignore Joo-hyun’s polite requests for them to stay for dinner.

On the bed, Yong-hwa’s eyes twinkle with a scintillating light. It is the morning after of a long night before, waiting for the sun to rise (literally, figuratively.)

“What time is it?” he echoes jauntily, a tender mischief punctuating his words. He cradles her against him under the blankets, thumbs feathering her cheek.

“The time is finally, Joo-hyun.”

*****

tars in Their Eyes

“This is nothing special,” he tells her, even as his smile suggests otherwise. He slips a hand-woven, self-fashioned crocheted sunflower ring on her finger. “I had a bit of free time and played with this old knitting skill I don’t know what to do with anymore.” He winks.

A sunflower, she thinks. She plucks the information from her store of knowledge: sunflowers for loyalty and longevity.

The tip of his right index finger now traces the knuckles of her hand resting on the table. His coffee and her tea lay cooling, ensconced from the winter air as they are in a warm alcove for a nightcap.

Jung Yong-hwa is careful. He is as he always has been. He’s freer now, less walking-on-eggshells around her, but he is still ever as careful of the heart he holds in his hands.

And that is why Seo Joo-hyun trusts him. She lets him lead. She’s freer now, more thinking-out-loud around him, but she does as she always has done—hold his hand and let him take her heart for a happy, thrilling, unfamiliar ride.

They are good friends now, not quite the strangers who were once “married” and not quite on the romantic street towards a real marriage yet.

But neither does it mean there is no future or feelings.

“Happy three years, my once-pretend (and would-be real) wife,” Yong-hwa’s grin reveals his snaggletooth in full glory.

“Thank you for three years, my once-pretend (and would-be real) husband,” Joo-hyun’s eyes twinkle with the brilliance of a thousand suns.

The Fragrance of Peppercorns Kang Min-hyuk (CN Blue) and Seo Joo-hyun (Girls� Generation)

Seo-hyun wakes at the barest movement at the door.

“How is he?” She turns automatically to the tall, lanky figure who enters gingerly.

Always, the first thought for each other, Min-hyuk mentally notes and secretly sighs in resignation. “Tired,” he replies instead. “Nothing new. I got him to take a nap, don’t worry.”

The thing about lingering illness is it festers an inexplicable exhaustion. It effects an invisible and inescapable grip like toxic gas, or like a perpetual raincloud that refuses to drop precipitation. Everyone—the sick and the not-sick, is tired, affected and never the same.

“Thank you.” Seo-hyun lights up at his answer. She carefully adjusts herself on the pillow that props her back on the head rest.

“You should be taking that rest yourself,” he gently chastises. He is rewarded with a stubborn shake of the head.

“Will you chat with me a while?” she asks. With her soft smile and the polite request, there is no way Min-hyuk can refuse her. He finishes arranging the curtains to frame the anticipated Busan sunset, and walks to sit himself on the chair beside her bed.

But Seo-hyun shakes her head and pats a smooth spot beside her hip. “Here.”

Min-hyuk’s heart draws a breath. It’s her husband’s place—where he sits when they are in need of pillow talk, the particular spot of the many intimacies he is not meant to share.

Seo-hyun pats it again, and he has no recourse but to park himself there. He arranges his long legs to rest on the floor, turning himself slightly to somewhat face her.

“I’m going to tell you a secret,” she begins. “But I’m going to tell you a story first.” She smiles, almost young again. It occurs to Min-hyuk that the truly beautiful remain beautiful, through age and through sickness. Seo-hyun is truly beautiful and the butterflies in his stomach have never stopped fluttering for more than half a century.

“Once upon a time, there was a pianist. Her dreams of what her life would be came to her very early in life, which fueled her determination and gave her a single-minded focus on her journey. The piano is a lonely instrument—since it was her chosen one, her life looked destined to remain solitary. It didn’t help that she was shy and her determination made her seem aloof,” Seo-hyun narrates.

“One day, the heavens got too angry and unleashed a torrent of rainfall that drenched everything. It was the only day, of all days, that the usually conscientious pianist left her umbrella on the rack at the entrance of her dormitory. She was at the library researching scores and was supposed to be on her way to the studio for an important audition,” she continues. “Luckily, at the top of the library steps, there was a guardian angel. He was, later on, she learned, a timpani player. The happy accident at that moment was that he had an umbrella. Big enough to keep two people from the rain. And another happy accident: he was going the same way. And the most important happy accident of all—remember our pianist was shy, was that he offered to take her.”

It doesn’t take much for Min-hyuk to realize that Seo-hyun was telling their story. His mind wanders back to his 20-year-old self, offering a strange girl room under his umbrella on impulse because the look of her made his pulse race.

“So our pianist and our timpani player became friends. And he kept her in mind for when there was a chance in their orchestra to play with a pianist.” She pauses slightly to catch her breath. “Not long after, the chance came. Our pianist found a world bigger than herself and her piano. But more importantly, I think this tale needs to mention, is that our pianist found people who would be important in her life.”

Min-hyuk gulps.

“Our timpani player introduced the pianist to his best friend, the concertmaster. The pianist and the timpani player were two of a kind. They were both content to be alone. They were both quite not of the world. But our concertmaster. Wow, what a man he was. He was a natural leader, always alive. He was a flame that those with less brilliance gathered around.” Seo-hyun blinks, and Min-hyuk thinks they may be tears she’s holding back.

“Time went on and our pianist, our timpani player and our concertmaster all took to their own paths. Our pianist went to San Francisco to study. Our timpani player found a position in New York. Our concertmaster flew high in Europe.” She takes a deep breath. “I think you know what happened then.”

Min-hyuk does indeed: Jung Yong-hwa, the concertmaster, already starting to make a name for himself at 25, drops one of his dreams and chases another. He hands over a career in the best orchestras of Europe for the hand of one Seo Joo-hyun.

“I promised to tell you a secret.” Seo-hyun looks into his eyes. “The pianist had wanted the timpani player to come for her, not the concertmaster.”

And there Min-hyuk finds much too belatedly the fateful word that decided his life: No.

“Think hard, Kang Min-hyuk,” Yong-hwa tells him on that visit to New York. “You’re smart, and I’m not blind. We both know we are in love with the same woman.”

It is a statement of fact and since Min-hyuk cannot lie, he leaves it to Yong-hwa to supply the words.

“You are the closest thing to a brother I will ever have.” Fire is burning in Yong-hwa’s eyes. “But she is also the only woman I will love for the rest of my life. She

is it for me. Will I have to fight you for her?”

“Yong-hwa and I…we have had a long life together. He is part of me, and I, a part of him. It’s a good life, the best we know how to make of it, and I am happy. I hope I have made him happy, too, because I love him. I took his hand and gave him mine and we never let go ever since.” She finds his hand and holds it with as much strength as she is able to summon. “But you. You are the first one that I dreamed to make a life with. You will always be the first who made my heart flutter.”

Seo-hyun smiles, that one that clutches at his gut, no matter how he wills it not to. “All these years I’ve been married, I’ve always just wanted to confess to my first love. It’s a little silly, isn’t it?”

If it’s silly, Min-hyuk decides, his heart should be rolling in laughter not breaking into little pieces.

“You have never married.” Seo-hyun cups his face. “And you’ve always, always been part of our family.” Her breath hitches. “I just want you to know that you have been loved once, too. That you are loved. Loved that way.”

The morning after, the sun rises but Seo-hyun does not.

Yong-hwa holds her hand in a solemn goodbye. In his twilight years and the fair warning of the months before, he has tried to accustom himself to the idea of her passing. But his acceptance and his feelings have not yet aligned at the moment, and the new widower is drawing a blank on future days without half of his being.

Their two children are in their respective childhood bedrooms, crying into the shoulders of their spouses.

The only thought Min-hyuk has, as eight-year-old Se-kwang, Yong-hwa and Seo-hyun’s eldest grandchild, squeezes the breath out of him and wets the front of his shirt with silent tears, is that whoever said first love never dies is a big fat liar.

***

A Feast of Kites

Seo Joo-hyun is already cradling her hot pink guitar when Jung Yong-hwa walks in.

“Hold on,” he says immediately after exchanging warm greetings with her. He puts down his backpack and Sunburst.

The young man rushes to the kitchen to offer his hands for Mrs. Seo, who waves him away. When he is sure that he isn’t needed, he comes through the door again, smiling to show the little misplaced tooth that is his charm.

“So what’s this song that you want to learn?” he asks cheekily.

“This.” Joo-hyun holds up the guitar song book, opened on the sheet music of a familiar tune. “I know the chords but to play it, but there’s plucking and I don’t know how to pluck yet. Can you teach me?”

It is spring, and things are new again, though both of them hardly notice becaus

e of most of their time is spent doing everything else. They are stars charting quite close but slightly different paths, with schedules working on opposing timetables sometimes. It is a rare day at home, when their trajectories intersect at rest—Yong-hwa and Joo-hyun are not about to let it go to waste.

“Now you’re asking me.” The choding cannot help but tease. Inside, though, he is puffed up like a rooster that swept a four-cock derby. “Not enough teachers around?”

Joo-hyun pauses in her attempt to coax the right note out of her guitar to narrow her eyes at him. “Jung-mo oppa is in the army and Jin-woon is ‘married.’” She exaggerates a sigh. “You suppose Jong-hyun oppa is free?”

He wants to act angry some more but it’s simply easier to give in to the urge to laugh. “The guitar freak is on a bubble tea break with your Tae-yeon unnie and I think I heard mention of pork soup with her and Yoon-ah for a midnight snack much later tonight.” He laughs again. “So let’s get on with it.”

“I think it’s time for a break,” Yong-hwa says maybe half an hour later. Time passes quickly when music and Joo-hyun are involved and he isn’t exactly marking the hours. What he does notice, though, are the etches of red on Joo-hyun’s delicate fingertips from pressing on the strings and frets.

He takes her hand then, and massages it slightly. “Aigoo, our Joo-hyun.” Without thinking, he has her entire left hand quietly ensconced in both of his.

“It’s all right, Oppa,” Joo-hyun says very softly it is almost a whisper. But she doesn’t pull her hand away.

It is moments like this that blur his understanding of what they are to each other. Even with less than stellar scholastic records, Yong-hwa likes to think of himself as pretty smart. He understands broad concepts like philosophy and how things work; he can add and memorize and store general knowledge.

But the matter of one Seo Joo-hyun is always beyond the reach of his mind. Their relationship is somewhat straightforward—they were married on a show. It’s just that they were not playing characters who are married, but they were playing themselves who are not really married. He thinks it’s enough to give Einstein a mind-warp.

And then, suddenly they’re not. They’re off the show and the marriage is over but they’re still themselves. It’s been two years since. He’s not even going to try and compete with Einstein in solving that one.

Once, the topic of the real score between Jung Yong-hwa and Seo-hyun comes up among the band. They are watching a music show, in those days when her group is back and they are waiting a little bit more for their own turn.

“So, Hyung, are you dating?” Min-hyuk asks point-blank. “Because you know, you’re in touch. You’re seeing each other. It’s no longer the show. Isn’t that dating?”

“No.” He faces Min-hyuk. “And yes, I can tell you that to your little, puppy-dog, noona-catching eyes.”

Jung-shin clucks his tongue. “You’re asking the wrong question, Min-hyuk. It’s always semantics with Yong-hwa hyung.” The bassist fixes himself in front of his leader. “Are you in a romantic relationship with Seo Joo-hyun?”

Yong-hwa takes a few beats, a breath longer than his answer to Min-hyuk, but it is still “No.”

“But it isn’t completely not romantic either, eh?” Jong-hyun chuckles.

Yong-hwa is sure Jong-hyun doesn’t mean for the question to be rhetoric, but perhaps his non-answer gives him away.

If he thinks about it deeply, friendship approximates the relationship he has with his once virtual wife. There’s definitely an interpersonal bond, mutual affection, respect, trust, compassion. All Aristotle says, something of it being one soul in two bodies—it all seems right and appropriate.

But then there’s the niggling little dandelion seeds she’s planting taking root in his heart that Jong-hyun’s definitions in the negative are also approximating very closely.

“I’ve read some interesting things lately.” Now he turns her palm in his hand. “If what I read is right, this means you will have a good career. Somewhere along the way, you will change that career, but the second one will still be good.” He traces the lines on her palm with the tip of his left index finger.

He looks up, smiles, and goes back to tracing another line on her palm. “This one…I think, says you will marry a good man, possibly in the same profession as you are. He will be handsome and charming and hard-working. He will take care of you and cherish you and you will build a strong, healthy, happy home with him. I think you will have—hmmm…two children?”

When the opportunity presents itself, he expresses his feelings but does not confess. A confession is a promise, he believes, and it will set them on a path—a path too early for them to take. The path is not yet straight for either of them. If they start too soon, they may end up losing each other along the way.

Joo-hyun rewards him with sparkling eyes and a shy smile. She turns his palm, the one holding hers over. “You will have concerts all over the world, even to the places you have not heard of yet. You will always be with your band. All of you will grow old making music.”

She traces her own fingertip on his lines, tickling him slightly. “I think this means a Billboard No. 1 hit.”

She meets his eyes for a stunning second before she goes back to his palm. “This one,” her touch is light, almost like a breath, “I think…it means you will marry a good woman, possibly in the same profession as you are. She’s likely to change her career sometime, but you will have gotten to know her before then. She is shy and quiet. She will be grateful for you and treasure you in her way, and you will build a strong, healthy, happy home with her. I see a wedding in the winter, or perhaps just before spring. I think you will have—it looks like two children?”

In a minute, Mrs. Seo will, with a grin, pop her face through the open door of the den—the den is Yong-hwa and Joo-hyun’s place at her home much like Joo-hyun and her mother make themselves comfortable in the kitchen at the band’s apartment. The door is always open when Yong-hwa visits.

“Dinner time,” Joo-hyun’s omma will say. “I’ve rung the downstairs apartment for your brothers to come up, Yong-hwa. We’ll have a complete family dinner tonight.”

But not before Joo-hyun holds up her palm next to her blissful face, facing him. “Who do you think will get married first, Oppa?”

“I think we will marry at the same time, Seo Joo-hyun.” He flashes her a knowing grin.

***

Heart Queen + Spade King

Contrary to everyone’s expectation, and thus, much to everyone’s surprise, it is Lee Jung-shin who gets married first.

It happens before he enlists for military service—the brothers’ plans to enter as a band, all together, falls through and they serve in succession, from the oldest to the youngest. By the time he holds his wedding, it is only Yong-hwa back to civilian life. Jong-hyun has a year to go in the front lines at Baenyong Island and Min-hyuk isn’t yet entitled to a furlough, having just entered a few weeks before and is deep in boot camp.

“So you’ll go, right?” Jung-shin exuberantly declares, rather than asks his long-time friend Seo Joo-hyun. He slides the invitation across the table, popping a grin. “You can’t say no. You’re one of the bridesmaids.”

Joo-hyun chokes slightly on her citron tea. “Jung-shin chingoo!” Despite the delicate filigreed vignettes on the edges, she hurriedly flips open the bisquette card stock laid in front of her. “How could you make me a bridesmaid without even asking me first?”

“Enjoy the mangoes!” Jung Yong-hwa concludes his toast with levity. “It is, after all, why our Jung-shin has decided to get married in some tropical island and not because he’s afraid to miss out on inviting everyone he knows if he held it back home.”

The laughter tinkles across the room, as expected. It doesn’t quite erase, though, the pinch he has administered hearts with his earlier sentimental words: “I was kind-of married once, and even if I don’t really feel qualified to give married-man advice—because I’m actually not, I’ll just say, like I’ve said before, that I believe the key to marriage is to do everything for your wife without regret.”

Joo-hyun mulls the sentence over as she twirls her strawberry in the chocolate fondue. “You will grow and you will change. And you will need time apart. The old guy Jason Mraz even talks about that in one of his songs, ‘And when you’re needing your space to do some navigating….’ The point is, you’ll need to grow, or change, or have some time apart. Do it, but always do it together,” Yong-hwa has also said.Because Joo-hyun is not yet done in her musings, she twirls another strawberry in the chocolate.

“A penny for your thoughts?” She almost visibly jumps at the voice that sells many a Gaon top-notcher (and a Billboard No. 1) back in the day beside her. He smiles with that misplaced tooth—the synecdoche of Yong choding, her former make-believe husband.

He is twirling his own stick of bread, but in the pot of cheese, just right beside the chocolate pot.

“It’s a beautiful wedding,” she answers calmly, betraying the flutter she feels is starting to tickle her heart and the edges of her nerves. “That was a good speech, too.”

“Well.” He unbuttons his coat and loosens his tie in the balmy beach breeze. “I did learn how to write a thesis, after all these years. I’m pretty sure I’m still not as good at it as you, but yeah.” He smiles again. “You? How have you been? It’s been, what

, three years?”

Close to four, she wants to say. Three years, 10 months and four days. Why didn’t you call? Instead, she says--she also learns how to divert a conversation nowadays, “You know what? I just remembered, I would’ve been ‘married’ to Jung-shin chingoo, if that prank went awry. Funny how life works, huh?”The years are kind on Yong-hwa, but as its nature, time wears and tears still. Even now, there are faint crows’ feet at the edges of his eyes when he smiles.

It is a dewy one he gives now, one she can’t quite read. “Listen…”

“Oh, there you are.” A voluptuous femme fatale in a tight red dress walks up to them and hands Yong-hwa a glass of white wine. The deus ex machina, like a movie cliché, Joo-hyun thinks, but it doesn’t prevent her from feeling too old-fashioned in her long (albeit soft and flowing, perfect for a beach wedding) powder blue bridesmaid dress.

“This is Park Hee-young,” Yong-hwa politely nods his head towards the other lady. “And this is Seo—”

“Hyun,” Hee-young finishes. “Of Girls’ Generation. Who wouldn’t know?” She extends her hand for a shake. “So, between us girls, ‘cause I know you were ‘married’ to him, what can you tell me about this charming guy I just met tonight?”

Years later, when Yong-hwa’s daughter starts getting an idea of romance, she asks her father how her parents got together.

Yong-hwa sighs heavily and tells her reluctantly, “I saw her at your Uncle Jung-shin’s wedding. We shared a cool drink and talked.” Despite aegyo-filled and goo-goo-eyed prodding, and all her mother’s tricks at softening his heart—and her being one of his most cherished females in the world, Yong-hwa refuses to tell her more.

His wife chides him, “Yong-hwa-ya, why don’t you just tell her? It’s no big deal.”

“It is, my dearest wife,” Yong-hwa says. “I’m still her hero. I don’t want her to realize just yet that I was such a coward and dumbass that Jung-shin needed to be wed or I wouldn’t have made a move to try my hand with you.”

He smiles that smile again, facing her in the dappled sunlight of a Saturday in their kitchen. He takes her hands and puts them in his pocket. “Let her think we’ve always been like this after the videotapes, Joo-hyun-ah. At least let her think that for a little while longer.”

“Just don’t ask me to help dig you out of that hole when the time comes, Oppa.” Joo-hyun sticks out her tongue.

***

Handmade Stars

Jung Yong-hwa pulls the tab off his chilled can of Japanese beer and takes a sip. In his home in Busan, the room is filled with the instruments of post-modern rock. As its only soundscape, his sharp intake of breath is saliently loud.

His father steals a glance at him from the corner of his eyes. The elder Jung is himself nursing a can of Japanese beer, now completing a guided revolution between his hands.

“What’s bothering you, son?”

It is a mother’s special talent to know the needs of their sons, and arranges the best possible solutions to those unanswered—and more often than not, unspoken problems. To solve this case, she fills the ice bucket, puts on a record they both like, sends Yong-hwa in and then his father. And then she closes the door behind them.

“Nothing much, just really tired.” He reassures his dad with a (trying-to-be-genuine) smile. “There’s more legs to go for the world tour and you already know about how I wanted to take on another project but that didn’t work out.”

Mr. Jung nods. He takes a sip of the beer and says, “Maybe it’s just not the time.”

Yong-hwa shrugs. “Yeah. Maybe.” He slides his back further down so his head rests on the coffee table and most of his spine is touching the carpet.

“But there’s something else, isn’t there?” Mr. Jung’s Adam’s apple bobs more beats this time. The swig he takes is longer, more deliberate.

Yong-hwa heaves a sigh. He straightens back up. “I like someone.”

“Okay.” Mr. Jung clears his throat. “And that is a problem because…?”

“You don’t understand, Appa. I like someone. I really, really, really like this girl.” Yong-hwa gestures with his hands, getting some of the beer to foam at the can’s mouth. “She’s really pretty, with this long hair and the bright eyes, and I get her to laugh. We have this—I don’t know, chemistry. I’m really interested.”

“Again,” the older man says calmly, setting his nearly empty beer can on the uncarpeted surface beside him. “That is a problem because of what?”

“Fan backlash, for one.” Yong-hwa deflates and hunches. “Besides, we have a crazy schedule. Sometimes we barely eat or sleep. Where will I even find the time to date?”

The elder Jung steeples his fingers and briefly rests his forehead on them. “Fans will grow up and grow old. Someday, they will have to work and have their own husbands and children. Simply, they will have to deal with life. They will pay the rent and bills, worry about tuition and stay at home on nights or weekends to tutor their kids. They will have to prioritize other things on their budget rather than buying your record for their collection or to come to your concerts to show support for you.”

“That’s not to say they won’t always love you,” Mr. Jung’s eyes soften and crinkle at the edges. “But my point is, they will not always drive your life. Only you will do that.”

“And that other thing,” the senior Jung continues, as Yong-hwa stays silent. “When there’s a will, there’s a way. Because I don’t see the way—I guess it follows I don’t see the will.”

Yong-hwa doesn’t have a good enough answer to that so he confesses, “Well, there’s this matter of a friend.”

Perhaps it’s the alcohol that loosed his tongue, or the fact that he felt he needed to match the amount (if not the gravity) of his father’s words. Yong-hwa says, “This friend, I treasure her very much. I care about what she thinks.”

“She is against this entire thing? This girl you’re interested in?” Yong-hwa’s father fu

mbles for a replenishment to his can in the ice bucket.

Yong-hwa shakes his head. “No. No. My friend and this girl are two different matters. I really, really, really like this girl. It’s a soft and happy feeling. But I think I also really, really, really like my friend.” Yong-hwa bites his lips. “In the way that I think—God help me because I have never encountered this before, I love my friend.”

“I mean, I love my friends, all of them. So she’s not different that way. But it’s also different with her. And it’s not because it’s the giddy-fluttery feeling that I mean, either. Because it’s no longer like that.” Yong-hwa instantly clarifies. Without thinking, he pulls on his father’s can and gulps a shot. “I just—everything feels real with her. Life.”

Yong-hwa blows a raspberry. “I know what you’re going to say: that I should just confess if that’s where my heart lies. But it isn’t really as simple as that. For all the reasons that I said earlier—all the reasons you shot down.”

“Also, I feel our friendship will not survive a confession.” His voice lowers an octave. “I cannot risk that.”

“And it’s—,” Yong-hwa chews on his lower lip. He isn’t so drunk to let all thoughts go.

Yong-hwa’s father smiles. They have covered fans and restrictions and his fears. A name is floating in the air between them but neither one is willing to pluck it down and say it out loud.

“Maybe, just like that drama, it’s not the right time.” Mr. Jung holds up his can for a toast.

Meanwhile, in Seoul, Seo Joo-hyun is on her second glass of warm milk. She walks back to her room after she rinses the glass and puts it away properly.

“Is there anything you want to tell me, child?” Joo-hyun’s mother is sitting on the edge of her bed.

Fathers are natural-born daughters’ protectors. They will fight with fists and fervor, if called upon to do so. But there are battles best won with tenderness and tactics, so Mr. Seo sends his primary support system.

“We will start to be busy again, Omma,” she begins. “I’m a little regretful that I won’t be able to spend time with you and Appa more.”

Mrs. Seo pats Joo-hyun’s head and spreads her bangs more evenly.

“You know your Appa and I are very happy and thankful that even when you’re all grown up, you’re still here by our side, that you like to spend time with us.” she says. “But wouldn’t there even be other people you would want to, as you young people say, hang out with, too?”

“Like boy friends? Or boyfriend, maybe?” Mrs. Seo fishes.

Joo-hyun lowers her eyes.

“You know I’m not blind,” Mrs. Seo tries to joke. “I do see the flowers that get sent here. I know you’re exchanging messages on your phone. And occasionally I do see you with a loopy grin. That can’t be just the girls, or Min or Min-ho or Jin-woon....”

“Omma!” Joo-hyun cuts her off before she names all the males she knows. “What do I do?”

“About what?”

“This.” She draws a deep breath. “This feeling. It’s different and it’s fluttery and I think I like him—the one with the flowers. It’s all new to me. I don’t know what I’m feeling, actually.”

Mrs. Seo tries to sift through the many unexpressed ideas in the statement and finally settles for “How is it different?”

“I like hearing from him, his thoughts. It’s interesting,” Joo-hyun declares carefully after a pregnant pause for what seems like profound thought. “It feels like whatever he does, it’s going to be really cool. Or will excite me or will make me sigh. It’s a little like—I think this is what it’s like to have a crush.”

“If I’m hearing this right, are you saying you reciprocate his feelings?” Joo-hyun’s mother probes. “Do you have a boyfriend?”

“Aigoo.” She breathes deeply. “That’s the thing. I don’t trust these feelings. Because if this feeling is special, I wouldn’t have it with two very different people, would I?”

“Omma.” Joo-hyun scoots closer to her mother, hugging the older woman’s arm. “There were some Tuesdays in one year that I felt happy and excited. Everyone teased me about it, but I really did feel special. I haven’t felt like that in a long time, until lately, with these flowers. And I guess I’m asking myself—perhaps, because I didn’t know how to make someone feel special before, and the chance passed, will I regret it this time, with this person?”

As Mrs. Seo hugs her daughter, she notices the giant bear she hugs to sleep now sitting on her chair. The bear’s arms are covering its eyes and its rump sticking out. It is facing the backrest so that its back is the one visible from Joo-hyun’s bed.

In several years, the Tuesday dates of Yong-hwa and Seo-hyun will have evolved to become Sunday mornings at the park with Seo-hyun’s son and Yong-hwa’s daughter. Joo-hyun will be pushing 40 in a few years, and Yong-hwa will accept that he is on the way to middle age. They will have known each other nearly two decades by then.

“What’s your schedule for December?” Joo-hyun asks Yong-hwa, one eye on the two-year-old girl squealing while chasing her four-year-old oppa.

“I suspect a year-end concert with the boys in Japan,” he replies, following the movements of the children on the grass. “The usual music festivals for the kids, but no appearances for us this year.”

The year before, one of the big networks orchestrates a 20-year retrospective with his band as the highlight. Yong-hwa thinks it�s nice that, in some sense, they�re back to their indie roots but with many years of awards and sales cred to their name. They are no longer competing for chart positions and album sales remain decent and solid.

A breeze flits by, carrying the scent of cherry blossoms.

“Why ask?” Yong-hwa is used to Joo-hyun’s methods of organization. But even then, May is too early to make plans for the end of the year. She usually waits to plan the next half of the year in June.

“Think about it, Oppa.” Joo-hyun’s tone is wistful. “We met in the dead of winter and ended at the beginning of spring.”

Yong-hwa watches the children carefully. Only when he is reassured after one thorough check-up glance back and forth between the two does he spare Joo-hyun a cursory glance.

Joo-hyun is smiling. “What say you to a life beginning in spring and coming to us in winter?”

She meets his eyes and his misplaced tooth makes an appearance. They always joke of Seo-hyun’s son for the boy’s serious demeanor and persistence to do something perfectly and Yong-hwa’s daughter for her exuberance and energy, but in their hearts, each knows they love both equally—parents love all their children the same way.

Now, there’s a third one to nestle in their lives. Their hearts are, seven months before they all meet in the flesh, already making room.

Building a life together makes friendship and teamwork stronger but dulls the fluttery feelings that people describe love with. Yong-hwa and Joo-hyun, truly married for five years, 11 years after they first “married,” are no different.

But there are times, like this moment, when the feelings from those Tuesday dates that are relived for the rest of the world on Saturday afternoons, come to the fore to tickle their hearts again.

“I say,” Yong-hwa grins widely. He pulls her closer and kisses her head. “I’m glad I chose my friend, after all.”

***

The Last in Line

Jung Yong-hwa fell in love with her because he loves shiny things and Seo Joo-hyun�s eyes are the most sparkling things he has ever seen.

He tries to get a glimpse of that as he waits among the (quiet) crowd behind the theater doors after her show, hands grasping the playbill for her autograph.

There�s an orderly manner to theater fans--they stand in a queue, as if waiting for the train, gloved hands pushed into pockets of trench coats in uniform black, gray, camel, brown. He huddles near them, and pushes along his way as the matinee cast file out.

Joo-hyun signs through those who have asked her. There are not so much now, compared to the other days when her hands would shake a bit and her signature screwed lopsidedly because there were simply too many. Her autograph still ends with that flourish of a star, but it seems a little too flashy for a matinee show playbill. She sighs inwardly.

She smiles politely at the gentleman before her, making a little eye contact before signing. He tells her absently that he likes her voice, and he�ll maybe see her headline a musicale in the future.

"Hello, Ms. Seo Joo-hyun," she hears in her native language.

She looks up to see his toothy grin, the misplaced incisor still there.

"That guy before me was as tall as Jung-shin," he says matter-of-factly. But of

course she senses the benign mischief of the jest and self-deprecation. "That�s probably why you didn�t see me."

She laughs. And as if by magic, her eyes light up like the signs of the Times.

Mission accomplished, he thinks.

This. This is what he flew half the world over and waited in line to see.

Up close. Once again.

***

Saint Francis� Holiday

"Oh no." Jung Yong-hwa halts everything and even throws a pencil--he isn�t even using one; he just needs something to clank on the table to emphasize his dissent. "Oh no. No. No. No. No. No."

Seo Joo-hyun looks at him, confused at the response to what she has just told him.

"What?" She resists the urge to scratch her head, but that is exactly what she is mentally doing.

"I said no, Joo-hyuy." Yong-hwa�s provincial accent slips out when his emotions are at its peak. He�s turned around from the song he�s putting the finishing touches on and has now gotten up from his swivel chair to rise to his full height. He�s not considered tall nowadays, in light of kids endowed with overactive somatotropic hormones, but he�s still taller than her.

"But it�s already on the way," Joo-hyun argues. She�s starting to feel disappointed now, when moments ago, counting the steps from the kitchen to his home office, she barely can contain herself with the bubbles seemingly tickling the soles of her feet. "I know we didn�t plan on it and I did think about the timing but since it�s on the way, I�m just...really happy about it."

Yong-hwa heaves a sigh. She looks absolutely crestfallen and he feels like Willy Wonka denying Charlie his winning candy. Another sigh.

"No." Despite a flickering itch at the corner of his heart, Yong-hwa stands his ground. "I said no. Not even if it�s Ginger�s great-great-grandchild-twice-removed. I�ll tell Tae-yeon if you can�t. Or any of them, for that matter. Whose is it this time?"

After breakfast, a practically glowing Joo-hyun announces gleefully that "we will have another member of the family!"

With the history of each announcement of the same nature, the Jung household is now home to one Pomeranian, one Pekingese, two Maltese puppies and a miniature dachshund esoterically named Dhouby Gaut, after a station in the Singapore metro system. "Like the Paddington Bear," Joo-hyun grins at him and just-christened Dhouby Gaut chases his own tail. For all that he�s intelligently named, this one is pretty...not, Yong-hwa thinks.

It may be the morning sunlight but Yong-hwa imagines a tear forming in the corner of his wife�s always-sparkling eyes. He is fighting to stay alive in this game

but he foresees the inevitable surrender in three...two....

Joo-hyun laughs.

"Ooooohhhhhhhh-kay?" Yong-hwa is suddenly on lost ground. "What just happened?"

"Oppa!" Joo-hyun struggles to catch her breath, the giggles coming one after one, rolling off in waves. "If the new member of the family comes from me and you, it couldn�t possibly be a puppy, could it?"

***

The Seven Sins Of Yong and Seo

Lust

“Joo Hyunnie, we need to talk.” To say that Seohyun was surprised when her mother came into the room with that stern look on her face and said those words was an understatement. It wasn’t that they didn’t ever have serious conversations, but it was very much unlike her mother to carefully shut the door behind her stopping to glare at her husband once. It was also unlike Seohyun’s father to sit down and read the newspaper in the evening, especially considering that he was reading it upside down, without his reading glasses.

The sense of foreboding that had fallen upon the two had Seohyun on edge. She had about half an hour before she went to meet Yonghwa and her mother was more prone to complain about her leaving them alone to go gallivanting off than to corner her about serious matters.

She wasn’t going to ask her about marriage was she? Because they may not have been playing around but they also weren’t going to settle down at this young age. He hadn’t even brought up the topic of his enlistment yet let alone talk of marriage and if her Mum was just going to tell her that it was about time she started planning a wedding...

“I know you have a date with Yonghwa in some time and you’re going to go to his dorm to hang out. But I also know that Jonghyun and Jungshin are out and Minhyuk is going to be on set for a few days today.”

How did she know that? She’d always wondered if her mum was telepathic but to know of what all the members of CNBlue were doing when even she herself had no idea beyond the vague knowledge that they were out? That was a new level of the Mum telepathy.

“Seohyun, there’s no easy way to talk about this, but you’re going to be alone with Yonghwa today and...” She trailed off but Seohyun’s brow furrowed, how was the fact that she’d be alone with Yonghwa relevant? “Well I think that since you’re probably going to spend the night with him, it’s time we had The Talk.”

It took Seohyun a while to realise that the hiccup had come from her.

The Talk. Her mother was giving her The Talk now? Seohyun knew that her parents still thought of her as the utterly innocent and pure child that they raised but surely they weren’t under the delusion that this was the first time she’d been alone with Yonghwa, right?

Apparently not, she found, as her mother told her about the different kinds of protection only to insist that abstinence was key before asking her to watch a te

eny tiny little video so that she knew of some of the consequences of unprotected sex and wanted to make sure Seohyun was mentally prepared to go through with whatever might happen.

And if only to console her mother Seohyun watched the video.

When half an hour later Yonghwa opened the door after putting the finishing touches on the lovely romantic dinner he had planned and lighting some scented candles in the house, a unresponsive and dull Seo Joo Hyun made her way into the living room and plonked down onto the sofa. Completely ignoring him she brought the famous stuffed dog with the striped shirt into her arms, gnawing at it distractedly.

Which is when he grew worried.

“Seohyun?” He asked and she swung a vacant stare to his face. “Are you alright?”

“My mum gave me the sex talk and made me watch an informative video.” She said in a plain, even tone that betrayed no emotion.

“What, now? But we’ve been....” Even as he started to wonder why her mother gave that talk now after all this time he stopped, there were clearly more important things to ask Seohyun, like why she was inching away from him. “Seohyun-“He said reaching out with a hand only to pull back when she flinched away from him and screeched.

“Don’t touch me!” He was hurt. She could see that he was hurt but by the Gods she couldn’t get that image out of her head and if she was going to be on edge with fear and sheer unadulterated horror then so was he. Swallowing loudly she prepared to speak. “She made me see a video....of childbirth.”

He sagged in relief and began chuckling and she looked at him eyes alight with an unholy rage. “I thought it was something serious, those are just the normal tactics people use, don’t worry.” He said and relaxed finally turning to look at her and froze. It was the first time that the sparkle in her eyes had scared him.

“Don’t worry? Don’t worry?!”She shrieked, “Tell me Yonghwa, have you ever actually watched such a video?”

“No but it can’t be that bad. Childbirth is a natural beautifu- What are you doing?” Because Seo Joo Hyun had turned away from him and begun browsing through her phone. She finally found what she was looking for and thrust the phone in his face and after shooting a worried look at her he turned to watch the video.

And he stopped. Stopped breathing, stopped moving, he just stopped, transfixed by the screams of pain of the woman on the screen who was giving birth to a baby, an ugly, red wrinkled baby and damn but the process of watching it come out of the woman’s uterus took all the cuteness out of it. There was no way in hell he was babysitting for his cousins after that.

“I’m going to go bang my head against the wall for a while.” He said with glassy eyes.

“And I’m going to go see my unnies and share my pain of having a uterus with them.”

Three floors away Young-Al cackled and messaged Jungshin and the others it was safe to come home. There was no lust residing in their dorm today.

--

Gluttony

Yonghwa sat across the table from Hyun in the CNBlue kitchen. Normally he loved watching her eat, watching her take dainty little bites and manage to drink soup without a single slurping sound even when she was having a noodle soup, was the highlight of his day.

Today was not such a case. Today was her returning home after an intense dance practise for their upcoming comeback. Today he sat with a glass of water and watched her eat from three different plates, one of Jajangmyeon, one plate stacked with rows of Samgyeopsal, one with big fat fried Mandu and a bowl filled to the brim with kimchi fried rice.

And in the middle of it all was his precious Seo Joo Hyun, the same Seo Joo Hyun who’d barely opened her mouth to eat when they’d first met was shoving a whole lot of noodles in her face so fast he was afraid she would choke, completely unaware of the sauce dotting the side of her face and the fact that her hair was actually half in the plate getting the dark sauce all over her clothes in places that he was a bit too polite to point out.

“Seohyun, maybe you should calm down.” He said tentatively.

“I’m hungry.” She said without looking at him, too engrossed in eating, methodically making her way through the spread.

“Yes but...isn’t this a bit too much?”

She stopped eating looking at him abruptly. “Are you calling me fat?”

“What?! No, no, if anything I think you should eat more, just not in one sitting.”

“Well I’m really hungry, our new choreography is hard and it’s wiping me out.”

“It can’t be that bad.” Surely overworking a Sonyuh Shidae member was illegal?

“It is that bad and we have to do it repeatedly so that we can get used to singing while dancing so...”

He rolled his eyes and faced away from her, whispering under his breath, “It’s just a dance.”

Unfortunately he wasn’t whispering softly enough because she heard and she was furious.

“Get up.” She said standing up from her seat and dusting her hands off on her pants.

“What?”

“Get up.”

“Why?” He said a she reluctantly moved away from the table to stand next to where she was in the middle of their living room.

“I’m going to teach you our dance, every single step and you are going to learn it.” The look in her eye when she said that was enough to get him to agree. Besides it was just a dance, admittedly he wasn’t the best dancer but surely it couldn’t be that bad?

Fifteen minutes later when the other three boys walked into their dorm it was to a collapsed heap of a leader who was being poked by Seohyun’s feet.

“Get up.” She commanded the puddle of flesh and bones that was Yonghwa in a tone not unlike an army general. Jonghyun had flashbacks to his judo teachers and shuddered.

“What’s going on?” He asked tentatively and she answered with a beatific smile. It terrified him.

“Oh I was just teaching oppa our new dance for the comeback.”

“I’m dying....” Yonghwa croaked and the three boys rushed to his side.

“You’re so sweaty.” Minhyuk commented offhanded. Indeed, half of his body was drenched as if he had been working out at the gym for a good five hours or so like he used to back in his ‘I want biceps’ days.

“It’s not sweat.” Yonghwa said weakly pulling him down to eye level by his collar and drawing in a shuddering breath. Minhyuk gulped at the fanatical look in his hyung’s eyes. “It’s tears.”

“Oh quit being a baby, this isn’t half as bad as any of the En Pointe stuff I had to do in ballet. I had to balance my entire boyd weight on the tip of my toes for hours!” Seohyun said rolling her eyes and four very scared boys looked at her in horror.

“Umm, Hyungsoonim,” Jungshin said, reverting back to their old form of address in hopes of calming the dragon, “Maybe we should take Yonghwa back to his room? He doesn’t look too good.”

“Fine.” She said with yet another roll of her eyes and the three helped their elder back to his room as he limped all the way, talking about pulling muscles he didn’t know he had.

She went back to the sprawling feast that was still on the table and nibbled daintily at a piece of chicken.

“We need some Soondubu Jigae.”

--

Envy

“He’s very tall isn’t he?” For some reason Yonghwa was torturing himself by rewatching her kiss scene in Passionate Love.

“Yes a bit too much actually. It was very difficult the first few times shooting the kiss scene because I was wearing flats and there’s only so long you can stand on your toes.”

“Yes I noticed that. Still it must have been fun being with someone that tall. He’s very handsome too in the classic yet friendly way, like Jinki.”

“Oppa are you trying to set me up with him? Because this sounds exactly like all my unnies’ talks about Jinwoon back before I met you.”

“NO!” He was taken aback by his own voice and after a second of throat clearing he continued, much more subdued this time, “No I was just saying it must be nice to be able to wear heels around someone and-“

“You don’t see me telling you, oh it must be nice to shoot cfs with girls who are smaller and petite do you?”

“No I don’t. Tell me Seohyun have you ever felt jealous?”

“Yes.”

“Really?” He was surprised. She’d certainly never shown it to him.

“Yes I feel very jealous of Jungshin.”She said with a straight face. “You get to talk about your bromance with him all the time while we date in secret. Sometimes I’m afraid you’ll replace me with him.”

And just like that the cloud hanging over his head turned to cheery blue skies. Seohyun always knew what weird thing to say to make him feel happy again.

“Come here jashik!” He pulled her into his arms and swung her around by her waist smiling when she giggled and reached up to place a kiss on his lips and wound her arms around him tight. They just stood there for what felt like hours staring into each others’ eyes.

“You shouldn’t be jealous of Won Geun-ssi, I think you’re the perfect height for me.”

“Is that so? But I’m not even particularly tall.”

“Which means I can do this,” She kissed him again, “much more easily and that’s very good because I happen to like kissing you very much. Having things within reach for things like this is exactly what I’ve always wanted. ”

--

Wrath

“So I hear you talked about my confession on TV.”

“I would never put our relationship in jeopardy like that oppa!”

“No I mean the one where you talked about the confession you got in your teens and sang that Britney Spears song. Clearly you had to change the stuff around because I only confessed when you were 21”

“Yeah, about that...”

“What? What is it?”

“I wasn’t actually talking about your confession. Mainly because you never actually confessed you just told me ‘we’re dating and that’s that’.”

“Someone else confessed to you?! How dare they? Well at least it wasn’t when you were married to me I mean obviously no one would be stupid enough to do that.” He laughed it off (but a part of him was still going very green with jealousy).

“Yeah, about that...”

And he jumped with a start before looking at her sternly clenching teeth in a sign of anger.

“Seo Joo Hyun who was it?”

“Well, you have to promise not to get mad at him. And really it was just a confession he wasn’t trying to get me to date him or anything.”

“Seohyun no matter how it was worded it was still an attempt to poach a man’s wife!”

“Promise me you won’t get mad at him?”

And he calmed down and put on a placid expression even as he boiled on the inside.

“I promise not to let him know that I’m mad at him. That’s all I can promise to do.”

But it was good enough for her and she shyly said the name. “Jinwoonie-“

“I’ll kill him!”

“You said you wouldn’t get mad at him!”

“I said that he wouldn’t know I’m mad at him, don’t worry he’ll have no idea who killed him, I’ll be sure to mask my identity.”

“Yo-ong oppa..” He calmed down a bit then. It was hard to feel anything as bad as anger when she called him so sweetly. “He didn’t mean to. It was just one of those things.”

“What did he say?” He asked trying hard to keep his nostrils from flaring, having adopted her habit subconsciously. A couple that gets angry together stays together, his mother had told him.

“He just said that even though he knew that I was taken in real life by my virtual husband that he had always adored me and even though we were never going to be together he wanted me to know that I was his first and greatest love.”

“I’m going to kill him.”

“Oppaaaa!”

--

Greed

There was party going on at CNBlue’s dorm for some reason no one knew. It was more of a giant reunion with Changmin and most of Exo, SHINee and AOA already there, F(X) members mingling with them and Eun-Hye and Shin-hye having taken over the karaoke machine and were singing some Kim Jong Gook song. Jessica was already there waiting for the rest of Soshi to come up while fussing over Krystal and glaring at Minhyuk when he dared to shoot puppy eyes at her baby sister.

The ringing of the doorbell announced the arrival of the Nation’s Girl Group and the door was opened by an ebullient Jonhgyun who was pushed back under the deluge of girls.

Sooyoung, Taeyeyon, Sunny rushed in as the first wave followed closely by Hyoyeon, Tiffany and Yuri. Last but certainly not least came the maknaes of the group, Seohyun draped over Yoona’s back in a piggyback. Yoona walked in as quickly as possible and dropped a giggling Seohyun onto the couch much to the surprise of the Exo boys sitting there and with a groan began stretching her back.

“It was her last exam today and she and her friends went drinking to celebrate.” Hyoyeon explained while Seohyun swayed on the couch blinking her eyes and the giggling.

“Hyun, kwenchanayo?” Yonghwa asked her concernedly and she looked up with glassy blo

odshot eyes. He thought she would answer him but instead her eyes travelled to a point behind him and she got up excitedly and ran on unsteady feet like a baby gazelle to where Shin-hye and Eun-hye were singing.

“EONNIE!” She screamed and draped herself over both of them and began crying. “I missed you!”

“Has she ever met Eun-Hye?” Hyoyeon asked confused.

“No.”

“Oh I think we’ve discovered a new level of drunk Seohyun!” Sunny said ecstatically clapping her hands and laughing while their maknae told the two actresses how much she loved them (‘I love you so so so so so soooooooo much Eunsang and Mirae’) and Hyoyeon sulked next to her.

“Damn it she’s our maknae!” The blonde girl said vehemently

They watched as Seohyun got distracted by something shiny which turned out to be the reflection of light falling off Changmin’s watch and onto the wall. Like a cat she began trying to catch it and Changmin was so amused by this that he moved it left and right making Seohyun go all over the place.

Eventually she got dizzy and sat down on the floor blinking her eyes at an uneven pace. Exo members crowded around her helping her up and Minhyuk scowled.

“Damn it she’s our sister in law!”

“Ah Hyun, maybe you should drink some water or-“ Yonghwa began but was interrupted when she got up again with yet another loud ‘EONNIE!’ and moved towards where Jungshin and Jimin were talking only to fawn over Jungshin calling him Yeoshin Eonnie and against their own will the couch erupted in laughter upon seeing Jungshin’s ‘WTF?!’ face.

“Hyun come on now, you’re drunk.” Yonghwa said responsibly.

“I’m not drunk!”

He looked at her blankly.

“I’m really not drunk!” She insisted.

“So you always call Jungshin Yeoshin oennie?”

“In my mind I do.”

“You see you must be drunk then, ‘A drunk man’s words are a sober man’s thoughts’ and all that.”

“But I’m not a man!”

“Yes I kno-“

“No seriously see,” She began unbuttoning her shirt and that’s when he finally lost it but not before wondering to himself why he was even bothering to reason with a drunk person. He picked her up threw her over one shoulder.

“She’s my wife damn it!” He announced to the amused audience and carried her off like a sack of potatoes.

“Sure now she’s quiet, when I was piggybacking her to the cab she wouldn’t stop telling me to stop manhandling her.” Yoona grumbled.

Sunny snorted.“That’s because she was looking at his butt like in a trance.”

“Man we’ve really managed to screw her up nicely.” Yoona was impressed.

“She really is our maknae.” Hyoyeon said proudly

“Our sister in law.” Minhyuk added.

One wall away a young man sat trying to get a wriggling girl to take hangover pills. “My Hyunnie.” Yonghwa said fondly.

--

Pride

He was surprised it hadn’t made national news honestly. It was disturbing and strange and frankly, just plain unnatural. It was especially gruelling for him because he was watching it unfold first hand and despite all his attempts to do so he could not stop it from happening. He had seen its signs, had seen how it was bound to happen really but somehow nothing he did made any impression.

So there she was, Seo Joo Hyun. In bed at 1 in the afternoon. With. The. Flu.

Of course she refused to accept that she was sick. ‘I never get sick’ she said valiantly even though her nose was as red as Rudolph’s and she was shivering so hard he himself had started trembling under the force of her chills. She didn’t just feel warm to the touch but positively volcanic and yet she was preparing to go to rehearsals for their tour all the same.

“Hyun you can’t do this!”

“I’b fide.” She said, the stuffy nose in full effect. “Dot wovvy.”

“How can I not worry when you can’t even say the word worry properly!” Yonghwa threw his hands up in exasperation. “Seo Joo Hyun, you need to get back to bed.”

“Bud I ca’d I have pwactij.”

“I called your unnies, they said if you get your cold on them you’re dead.”

“I do’d have a cowd!” She said and instantly began hacking and coughing and he sighed for the nth time that day.

It was times like these he wished her mother was here. She was the only one who could reason with Seohyun when she’d decided to be stubborn for stubborn’s sake. Unfortunately both her parents were in the country visiting her cousin who’d just given birth.

“Joo Hyuy please, let me take care of you.” He requested her sincerely. It was his secret weapon, not as secret as he’d like it to be considering how much his bandmates teased him about it but secret enough that Seohyun didn’t know he’d use it on her when she was being particularly difficult. His satoori had a curious effect of Seohyun, it made her do anything he liked. If he tacked on a ‘Joo-Hyuy’ to the end of the sentence she was a complete goner. He didn’t have to use it often but when dealing with someone with a will like iron it came in handy occasionally.

“But whad if you get shick?”

“I’ve already taken all my vaccines, please Seohyun stay at home and take rest? Didn’t you want to donate blood next week? It’ll be hard to do that if you’re so sick, just try to get better for now.” She considered his words carefully and finally allowed him to help her back to bed. He whooped internally

He left the house for five minutes just to get her medication and when he came back home it was to a sweaty panting Seo Joo Hyun practising her choreography and singing her parts to their new song.

“Oh come on Joohyun, don’t be like this.”

“I’m fine, I just need to keep moving, that’s all.” She said in between heaving gasps and executed a sharp turn only to stop and sway on her feet.

“Hyun you’re getting dizzy please just sit down.”

“I-“ She gasped again and brought her hand up to her head pausing midway to look at her fingers. “I can see in 4-d!” She whispered breathily and he sighed.

“And here come the feverish hallucinations.” He muttered to himself before putting one hand under her knee and sweeping her off her feet to tuck her into bed. “Now just stay there or it’s going to get worse!”

“What’s going to get worse?”

“Your fever.”

She blinked at him before opening her eyes wide, “I’m sick?! But I never get sick!”

“Well you are sick so just sit back, eat these crackers and take your medication, please.” He held out all those objects for her to take and she looked at them.

“I can’t eat those crackers I’m allergic to them.” She said and he sighed.

“Of course you are.” He sighed. “I’ll get you some toast just take your medicine please.”

She blinked up at him. “I’m not sick.”

‘Here we go again.’ He thought and prepared to go through all of this one more time.

Sloth

“It’s such a beautiful day!” She proclaimed and twirled in the living room, basking in the sunlight streaming through the windows. “We should go out and do something.”

Yonghwa for his part hadn’t even moved. He was curled up on the couch like a cat taking a nap and she frowned when he didn’t even stir.

“Yong?”

“Hmm?”

“We should go out.”

“We can’t be seen together.”

“That didn’t stop you from taking me drinking last week...”

“Yeah but we were wearing a disguise.” He said and shifted away from her settling his face in the seam of the sofa.

“We can wear a disguise now!”

***

Of Confessions and Moves

“I can’t believe you hit him because he said ‘I love you’!” Seohyun shook her head at Yoona.

Yoona had come over to Seohyun’s house for some special girl time and collapsed onto the bed and screamed into the pillow. It had taken a lot of cajoling and two bowls of rice for her to get to a point where she could finally talk and the two maknaes of Sonyuh Shidae found themselves in the kitchen Seohyun perched on the barstool while Yoona sat on the counter swinging her legs like a child. A tub of ice cream sat right next to her and the two were continually dipping their spoons in and out of them in between boy talk.

“I didn’t know what else to do, I figured he was just joking, I mean who says ‘I love you’ to a person they’ve only known well for a year?!”

“A year is a long time.”

“Yeah well it’s not long enough.” Yoona sulked. “I don’t know if I can say it back. Not yet any way.” She whispered as if afraid of saying it out loud and Seohyun rubbed her back soothingly.

“For now let’s just work on you not hitting Jonghyun every time he says ‘I love you’.” The younger girl said tentatively.

“You mean he’s going to say it again!” Yoona looked at Seohyun with something akin to horror in her eyes.

This was the scene that Yonghwa walked into. After a while of living in the same building as Seohyun he’d come to think of her home as his and her parents as his too (much to Seohyun’s consternation, she may be loving and caring but damn it, they were her parents, not his!) and had his own copy of the key and thought nothing of just going in without any warning.

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” He said smugly.

“Yong Seobang!” Yoona said happily.

“Ah you’re here? I thought you were spending the day with Jonghyun today?” He said, his satoori coming out at the thought of being caught trying to get some extra time with his girlfriend in between schedules and flights. When his words caused a sudden downturn in Yoona’s upbeat mood he panicked and started stammering. “W-What did I say -”

He turned a questioning look to Seohyun who had resumed patting her unnie on her back but still managed to shoot him a smile.

“Yong Seobang, you know Jonghyun well right?”

“Of course.”

“So... Oh maybe I shouldn’t...”

“It’s okay you can ask me anything.”

“Well say hypothetically, Jonghyun tells someone he loves them and they respond by hitting them, would he still continue to say it again and again?”

“You hit him?! He’s a judo champion and he didn’t even dodge it? What do they put in the water for you girls that makes you so violent?!” Yonghwa exclaimed, well aware that all of Seohyun’s unnies were prone to hitting people when they were excited and rubbed his head where Taeyeon had smacked him last time for making Seohyun blush.

“I didn’t-" Yoona started and stopped clenching her fists in frustration. "Okay so maybe I did but I don’t know how to react to it!”

“And you came to Joohyun for advice?!” He asked with a snort.

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?!” Seohyun exclaimed, utterly indignant but he just looked at her nonplussed.

“I mean that when I told you I love you started hyperventilating and ended up fainting because you weren’t getting enough oxygen.” He said witha completely straight face and Seohyun blanched before looking everywhere but Yoona and Yonghwa’s incredulous faces.

“Yeah well when I told you that I love you, you started talking in a high pitched voice like you’d just inhaled helium!”

“That was because you were driving at the time and I was scared for my life!”

“Says the man who took longer than me to get his driver’s license.”

“Hey!”

“I’m surprised you didn’t pass out, you were stammering so much I could barely understand what you were saying!”

“Well you understood it well enough to start breathing like someone had just-“

Unbeknownst to the two squabbling lovers (she still couldn’t wrap her head around that, when did her baby Seohyunnie turn into someone who was part of a ‘lovers’?!) Yoona backed out and went out into the hallway and into the elevator. Before long she found herself back outside the CNBlue dorm knocking on the door and shifting from one foot to the other nervously. When the door finally opened, a bruised Jonghyun opened the door with tissues wadded up his nose.

“I don’t remember hitting you on the nose...” She said looking at him strangely.

“De doh hid be whed you thlammed id.” It took her a few minutes to understand what he was saying but when she did she grew even more apologetic.

“I’m sorry I hit you. And that the door hit you when I slammed it. “

“Id’s otay, I wushed you.”

“No you didn’t, even if you’d said that to me twenty years form now I’d still react that way. I can’t say it back now but I feel it. I might not be able to say it though.

And if you said it to me again I might hit you again too.”

“Ah. I’ww invesht in bandagesh and a wiftive suppwy of tigew balm.” This time she didn’t understand what he said.

“What?” She said confusedly and he took the tissues out of his nose with a grimace.

“I’ll invest in bandages and a lifetime supply of tiger balm.” She flung herself onto him and he patted her head and hugged her closer. “So what changed your mind?”

“I saw Seohyun and Yonghwa. Clearly dysfunctional can still be functional.” She pulled him into yet another deep kiss and then grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the elevator.

“Where are we going?” He asked checking his nose in the shiny elevator walls.

“To Hyunnie and Yong Seobang. I have to thank them.” She said excitedly pulling on his hands and opening the door to Seohyun’s home only to stop in confusion once she entered the living room.

“They’re not here. And they left their clothes lying around, why-“

“Ah Yoona?” Jonghyun said nervously tugging her out of the house. “Maybe they wanted to spend some time alone.” She shot him a confused look. “Alone, alone.”

And the confusion cleared up and Yoona looked at Seohyun’s bedroom door, impressed. “Maknae’s got moves!” She said distractedly patting herself on the back for having a part in perverting Seohyun and the two lovebirds left the house.

Only a second later a rumpled Seohyun popped up from behind the sofa breathing hard, one thin strap falling down exposing the little mole on her shoulder. “Think they noticed?”

A tanned arm shot out and grabbed her by the chin pulling her back behind the safety of the sofa and a low raspy voice growled. “Don’t care.”

Because Jung Yong Hwa had moves too.

***

Of a girl and a boy

Seohyun walked through the doors of the MBC building her heart racing as she strode in with the blanket clutched in one hand as the other adjusted the strap of her bag. She shook her head slightly to push her ponytail to the back, the little strands of hair that brushed her neck making her even more nervous and hyperaware and she almost stopped breathing.

It was the first show where she’d be alone, without her unnies to guide her. She was going to be a part of a married couple, a virtual marriage so to speak and she had no idea who her ‘husband’ was going to be. Maybe...

Before she could even begin to follow that train of thought she was through the revolving doors and standing alone in the lobby of the MBC building. The receptionist, a familiar face, gave her a smile and she was encouraged to be a bit more at ease.

“Your husband will meet you in the MBC lobby.” The message had read. Her first ‘mission’, to find her husband.

She sat down on one of the chairs and looked around, grip tightening on the bag that rested in her lap until it grew almost painful. The doors revolved and she got up thinking that it might be her ‘husband’, the cameramen whirling around to capture the shot, only to sit down in disappointment as it turned out to be just Shinyoung unnie hurrying to her recording of Shim Shim Tapa. The comedian who was no stranger to Seohyun gave her a little pat on her head and told her not to worry before running to the studio. Her heart that had suddenly sped up when the doors had revolved grew quiet again, Shinyoung’s words giving her some solace.

Before long Shindong came through the doors, in even more of a hurry than Shinyoung and with a wave and a smile he went off into the building and the weight in Seohyun’s gut grew heavier.

Where was he?!

This time when the doors revolved she was certain that it was her husband, it just had to be! But the four boys, recently debuted as CNBlue, with the famous leader that her unnies regularly swooned over, walked in and she sat down in disappointment again. They saw her and came forward to greet her, she was a sunbae after all. There were two of them of her age, a Minhyuk and a Jungshin, both with some of the nicest shy smiles she’d ever seen and a Jonghyun that she had no doubt was exactly the type that Yoona would talk about all night, keeping her awake. And then there was the leader. He bowed the lowest despite being the eldest and had a snaggletooth grin that was so mischievous she could see the choding in him. It reminded her of her father and she decided in that very second that she liked these guys. They were nice and not the kind of boisterous the other boy groups were that always had her retreating into her shell. They made her want to come up to them and talk to them and she hoped that maybe one of them would be her husband. But alas, it was not to be as they were going to the very same recording that Shinyoung and Shindong had run off to and the PD-nim shook his head at her when she shot him the questioning look.

Her husband was very late.

And then finally, almost half an hour after she’d entered the lobby came the man she was going to be married to, towering over her in all his glory at 6’ 1”, the long hair sweeping over his forehead the way it had been when she’d seen him just last week.

She was relieved and disappointed all at once. On the one hand it was someone she knew well, on the other hand it was someone she knew so well, how could she possibly act like she was married to him?!

Well at least her unnies would get a kick out of the fact that they were right. Jung Jinwoon, one of her closest friends and one of the first men who had proudly proclaimed himself to be her fanboy, was her husband.

They had a good time together just hanging out, chilling as some would say. He didn’t ask her a lot about herself but they were friends after all, he already knew all there was to know. All they could do was talk like any other day but with that undercurrent running through that she tried hard to ignore and he seemed hyperaware of. When they walked out into the rain together and he put his arm around her pulling her under the cover of the umbrella, the ball of lead in her stomach seemed to be turning in knots. She was uncomfortable but she had to adjust.

After all, what was a ‘marriage’ without skinship?

He dropped her off at her dorm building at the end of the date giving her a side hug that she couldn’t quite reciprocate and she rushed up the stairs to find herself face to face with her unnies. After a few hours of questioning her over copious amounts of ice cream they all went to bed. Schedules never wait for girl talk, no matter how important it might be.

But when she went to sleep that night, way beyond her normal bedtime, it was with a weariness that she hadn’t realised she was carrying.

It was only once she went over the rest of the day and found herself remembering four shy but lovely boys and one cheek bursting grin that she could go to sleep.

By the time Yonghwa was drafted for the show the new couple’s show had aired, The SeoWoon couple, the fairer half of which he had already met in the lobby when she was waiting for her husband, had been gaining fans left and right with their awkward yet comfortable best-friends-turned-couple dynamic. His fellow teammates had taken an instant liking to the soft spoken girl, Minhyuk in particular was excited upon learning that they were born on the same day and had taken to saying hello to her when passing by the herd of girls that was SNSD, something he wouldn’t even have thought of doing a few weeks back.

It wasn’t really the type of show that Yonghwa would normally watch but once FNC had started negotiations for him to be on the show he had watched it almost regularly.

He convinced himself that it had nothing to do with the sparkly eyed girl he’d met that day. Yet somehow he found himself more and more intrigued by Seo Joo Hyun as he watched the show. Ga-in and Jo Kwon were wonderfully funny of course but something about Seohyun caught his eye. Perhaps it was the prospect of a girl on the cusp of womanhood, perhaps it was the guileless smile she bestowed upon people so easily, perhaps it was the ‘aigoo’ she let out every few minutes, utterly flustered. Nevertheless he found himself watching her the most, laughing when she made those archaic statements that she did so often, shaking his head affectionately at the innocence she displayed and felt unreasonably proud of the sheer determination with which she tried to bulldoze her way through her hang ups. When she’d asked to donate blood for their 22nd day of ‘marriage’ he hadn’t been able to control himself and had smiled like an idiot the whole day, only stopping once he was told that the negotiations were done with and that he was going to meet his own virtual wife in the next week.

He went on the bus and met Kim Nayoung who tried to convince him that she was his new wife. And just when he was ready for it, just when he’d figured he was ready to be a part of that odd mismatched couple that makes people laugh just by existing she told him that it was a joke and redirected him to the building where his wife awaited. After what felt like a million floors and a million beautiful idols (but was really only three) on each one of them he’d finally found his wife, F(x)’s leader Victoria.

She was pretty of course, beyond pretty if he were to be honest and yet...something felt like it was missing. She made him laugh but it wasn’t the same kind of laugh as...Seohyun? The girl he’d only talked to once? Was he honestly thinking that he knew her just by watching her on the telly? Annoyed at himself he pushed the thought out of his head and continued being Victoria’s husband.

He was going to write Victoria a song, he decided, and not just a parody of Woettoriya like he’d done on their first meeting (Victoria, Victoria, dari diri dara du) but a proper song, perhaps she’d be the inspiration he needed to finish LoveLight.

She wasn’t the muse he’d needed her to be but h finally got that song done anyway. And hey, if that rap in the song made people think of SNSD’s Genie then that only made sense, he was a Taeyeon fanboy after all. It had nothing to do with the maknae of that group and the way she’d given Jinwoon a set of customised guitar picks, a wish and a performance of Genie for his birthday at all.

Time flew fast. One minute he was meeting Victoria for the first time, the next he was going with her on vacations and driving lessons and then all of a sudden he found himself on the bus with all the other couples and Jungshin Chingu (the moniker Seohyun had bestowed upon Jungshin when raising a hand for a hi-five in the hallways of music shows had stuck) for the Chuseok special and in between him chiding Victoria for not tying her hair up practically and Jinwoon being chivalrous to the point of chauvinism, they reached the abandoned school, ready for athletic competitions and if his eyes weren’t mistaken, horror based ones too. No one came to abandoned schools deep in the countryside just for athletics after all.

The competition was mainly between him and Jinwoon honestly, Jo Kwon for all his experience had nothing on the competitive spirit of a Busan namja. And Jinwoon, well, he’d always been the athletic kind. It was no surprise then that between him and Victoria they were racking up points equal to the SeoWoon couple. The wrestling match had come as a surprise though, Jinwoon had a few inches on him (much to his consternation) and Victoria’s healthy stature was supposed to be no match for Seohyun’s willowy frame. And yet somehow it was. When Seohyun had managed to get Victoria flat on the mat within seconds, complete with a million apologies, his first instinct was not to give his virtual wife a hand up but to give Jinwoon’s wife a high-five.

On the other side of the spectrum Seohyun had the same problems soothing Jinwoon on his loss in wrestling. She was hard pressed not to jump up and down when Jinwoon went down on the mat. Competitiveness was good but really, she’d had it up to here with the look of disappointment he shot her when she would lose to Victoria.

And so instead of patting his back and telling him better luck next time when he lost she couldn’t help but return the look of being let down. Never let it be said that she couldn’t be vindictive.

It was during the break when they all sat down to eat before the next event that the two CNBlue boys and Seohyun sat down together. Ga-in and Victoria were the same age and the 2AM brothers stuck together. She sat with the CNBlue boys knowing that of everyone else she’d be most comfortable with them. It was all giggles, jokes and satoori up until Jungshin was called away by the producer to look over some lines.

“Belated Happy Birthday.” Yonghwa told her and her eyes widened comically in surprise.

“Um, you too, it was your birthday on the 22nd right?” And he shot her the cheek bursting grin complete with snaggletooth and she felt a blush burning her cheeks induced by sheer pleasure in a way that Jinwoon’s one sided skinship never did.

“Yep. I guess Jinwoon did something big didn’t he? The episode hasn’t aired yet but he just seems to adore you.”

“Um yeah, he gave me two sacks of gogumas.” If he noticed her blatantly avoiding the bit about Jinwoon adoring her he didn’t say it out loud and for that she was grateful.

“Huh, if I were him I’d give you a goguma field.” He said, half-joking. What better gi

ft to give a girl who loves sweet potatoes than a sweet potato field?

“That’s a good idea, I wonder if I’d like gogumas as much if I knew how much hard work they took.” She looked off into space wondering if perhaps a day spent sweating in a field might dim her enthusiasm for the magnificent root vegetable.

“Probably not. I can’t imagine spending a day planting gogumas would be easy work.”

She hmm-ed in agreement. “Well maybe you can give Victoria-unnie a field for her birthday, she likes growing things, right?”

He nodded and noticed that she hadn’t spoken to him in banmal even once that whole day. Come to think of it she’d never really been informal with him at all, not that she had a reason to but still, it irked him. He wanted her to call him oppa and not Yonghwa-ssi for some reason that he didn’t really want to think too much about.

“You can drop the formalities with me you know.” He said only to receive an utterly shocked face in return. He wanted to laugh at how big her eyes had gotten but it was far more adorable than funny and it was quite funny to begin with.

“I can’t do that, you’re a grown up!” And just like that he dissolved into peals of laughter.

“I’m just two years older than you!”

“But still, you’re not a same age friend, I can’t talk to you in banmal!”

“How about this, if I-, I mean if Victoria and I win the next event, you drop the formalities with me.”

“And if Jinwoon and I win?”

“Well if you win then I...” He thought it over for several minutes before turning to her sheepishly, “Uhm, what do you want?”

“If I win then you cut down the coffee.” She said quickly before snapping her hands over her mouth and he leant back in shock.

“What?!”

“I’ve watched the show, you really drink a lot of coffee. And that’s just what they show on TV, you must drink even more of it off camera. If I win you have to cut down the coffee and just so you know, I’ll get Jungshin chingu and Minhyuk to make sure you do.” She nodded resolutely.

“You’ve got yourself a deal.” He said and put a hand out, part of him giddy with the thought that she watched him, she watched him close enough to notice habits that others would have overlooked. She hesitated before taking it but did nevertheless.

When hours later Ga-in and Jo Kwon were proclaimed the winners the two betting people shared a wry grin.

“So, I guess both of us lost.” Yonghwa sighed as he sat next to her on the bus back. The others were already tired and fast asleep, even the camera crew had retired for the night while Seohyun was bright eyed as if she had just woken up (really how was it humanly possible to have that much energy?) and he had downed coffee just before his run in the haunted house an hour ago just in case she won and he’d have to give up his ambrosia, and found that sleep did not come easily on the

back of a caffeine high.

“Yes we did. So I’ll talk to you in banmal and you’ll cut down on the coffee.”

“Mwo?!”

“Well we both lost the bet, we both pay the consequences. That’s just how it goes. And really all that coffee cannot be healthy please don’t poison your body that way.”

“And no more ‘yo’s from you, banmal only, ahrasseo?”

She made a face but complied speaking in halting and off tone banmal (which was hilarious, something he made sure she knew by laughing after every other sentence she said) and after a while the two nodded off, one dreaming of goguma fields while the other dreamt of a day when they’d speak in banmal....Jinwoon was one of her closest friends ever and if anything their virtual marriage had only solidified their friendship. He’d always seen her as a kind of an angel, someone to admire from afar and while at first he had been overjoyed that this perfect being was going to be his wife, it had faded into much more comfortable warmth at the thought that this imperfect yet lovely person had allowed him to be her friend and confidante. He still adored her of course but it was much more real now, not so much a fanboyish crush, it had become something deeper, tangible. It was love.

So when he saw her giggle over some text that she got he immediately knew something had happened. Somewhere deep in the recesses of her mind, Seohyun’s hormones had been awakened. He had to act now, after all with her activities in Japan picking up around the same time as his promotions they were bound to be ‘divorced’ soon.

“Seohyunnie?” He approached her during one of the breaks in between practice sessions for their special stage.

“Hmm?” She said distractedly, barely looking up from the sheet that held their mashup’s lyrics.

“Can I talk to you? Alone?”

“We are alone.” She said with a tilt of her head.

“You still have you mic on.”

“Oh!” She took the little microphone out of the folds of her pretty blue dress and not for the first time Jinwoon was amazed by her grace. “So what did you want to talk about?” She asked him once she’d untangled herself from the wires.

“It’s just, we’re probably going to end soon, because of our schedules and-“ He was cut off by yet another beep of her phone that she just waved away.

“I’m sorry, you were saying?”

“It’s okay just check your messages first, it might be something important.” She smiled and he swooned on the inside but it was soon replaced by trepidation when he saw her smile in that same way she did nowadays when she checked her messages. It was a big smile, a grin quite unlike the sweet quirk of lips that he usually got and his heart sank.

“Was it one of your unnies?” He asked. Hopefully it wasn’t some guy who made her laugh like that, but as often with Seohyun, his hopes were dashed.

“No it’s just Jung YongHwa-ssi, we’ve been keeping in touch since the Chuseok filming. He thinks that the maknaes of his group are too shy and need some friends and Jonghyun-ssi is completely wrapped up in his guitars so we’ve just been chatting back and forth a bit.”

“Oh yeah, I saw you guys talking about something in the break.” He tried to sound as flippant as possible while burning with jealousy on the inside. “What were you talking about, I wouldn’t have thought you had much in common.”

“Oh we were just....we made a silly bet and you’ll probably laugh.” She hesitated and he forced out a laugh.

“I promise I won’t laugh.” But I just might cry, he thought.

“We just bet that if he won in the haunted house thing that I would drop the formalities and talk in banmal and if I won then he’d cut down on his coffee.”

‘If I won’ she’d said, not ‘if we won’. It was driven into his mind then and there that Seohyun had never considered them to be a unit, a team, that he was never going to be anything other than a friend she worked with.

“But it’s just something silly and we haven’t even managed to keep to our promises, he hasn’t cut down on his coffee much and I still can’t drop the ‘yo’s.” She continued and shook her head before looking at him. “Anyway, you were saying something?”

“Seohyun, I like you. A lot. And when this show ends I’d like to date you for real.”

She was taken aback and shifted away from him and he knew without a doubt what her answer would be. “I didn’t...I didn’t think you were serious about it, I mean I know you’ve said it on occasion but I just thought that...an ideal type is just an ideal, you know?”

“I’m not trying to force you to make a decision or anything, I just wanted you to know that...I’m here, if you want me. Maybe when the show ends...”

“Jinwoonie I’m just not grown up enough for this kind of thing. I don’t know if I’ll ever be honestly. You’ve taught me so much, I cannot thank you enough, but I’ve got a long way to go before I can consider dating somebody. It’s not something I would do lightly and right now when I’m so young and I have so many things I want to do, it just wouldn’t be fair to make a commitment that I would not be able to give my all to. Especially when I don’t see you that way.”

“Oh.”

“I’m sorry if I made it seem like I was leading you on-“

“You didn’t, don’t worry about it, I just needed to get that off my chest you know.”

“You wouldn’t like dating me any way.” She tried to joke but he already knew that he would. He’d liked, no, loved ‘dating’ her for the past few months after all. But if she still didn’t realise that this was dating then she really wasn’t ready for a relationship, not the way he was. “I’d annoy you after a while. You’d be tired of teaching me things if this was real.” She said seriously and he finally began listening to her.

“What do you mean?”

“It’s easy to be easy-going when there are a million people around acting as buffers but would you honestly have the patience to deal with having to teach a person the difference between ‘like’ and ‘love’? Especially if you had to deal with it all the time, not just when we’re filming. Jinwoon off-screen you’re my friend and I treat you like that but if we were dating I would still treat you the same because I don’t know any better and you can’t honestly tell me that it wouldn’t be frustrating.”

She made sense. He hated that she made sense.

“I have a lot of growing up to do and it wouldn’t be fair to leave you dangling like that while I do that.” She sighed and put a hand up on his shoulder and squeezed awkwardly in a gesture reminiscent of his hyungs as if trying to make him even more obvious to the fact that she was definitely not ready for a relationship.

He really hated that she made sense.

“I hear it was your last day of shooting WGM yesterday.” Yonghwa’s voice filtered over the phone and she sighed in relief. Part of her had been worried when the phone had rung, thinking it was Jinwoon. He was taking it better than she’d expected him to and certainly better than her unnies had expected him to but she was getting really tired of that sudden rush of guilt whenever she saw his name flash upon the screen of her phone. She was glad that their ‘marriage’ had ended, it would take both of them some time to acclimatise to the cloud hanging over their friendship.

“Yup, it’s the end of an era.” She answered flatly. Beside her unnies only Yonghwa knew of what had transpired between Jinwoon and her. Most of her friends outside of her bandmates were his friends first and she dreaded to think how they’d react to her rejecting him like that. She shook the thought before going back to the call. “Our schedules were getting too hectic and since I’m going to be in Japan a lot this year we decided to get ‘divorced’.” He could almost hear her roll her eyes at the last word.

“And the entire nation will cry over the loss of such an illustrious, beautiful and tall couple.” He said dramatically before ending in his typical kekekeke laugh that never failed to exasperate her.

“You laugh now but when your turn comes to end your stint I’ll be the one laughing.” She said sulkily.

“Well you won’t have to wait long, the Yongtoria couple is coming to an end too.”

“What?!” She squawked into the phone. “What do you mean Yongtoria’s ending?”

“Well I have a drama to film and F(x)’s comeback we don’t have time to film for WGM either. Not without me making yet another round of the hospital at least.” He laughed again and she could almost see him flicking his hair away from his forehead while grinning like an idiot.

“Don’t joke about that, really you should go get a check up, it cannot be that healthy to have that much coffee!”

“Hey I’ve cut down a lot since we made that bet!”

“But not enough, Victoria-unnie was telling me how you spend most of the time when you’re not filming in the bathroom.”

He began spluttering and flailing, “Why would she tell you- You have an unnie complex, you know that?!” Somehow Seohyun managed to be the apple of all of her unnies’ eyes.

“Better than having a coffee complex.” She said smugly not even bothering to deny that. But really some people were Mamma’s Boys*coughYonghwacough*, some were Daddy’s Girls *coughTiffanycough* and Seo Joo Hyun was an Unnie’s Girl through and through.

“So we’re both getting divorced.” He said and a moment of silence followed.

“Both divorced.”

“Yup.”

“That’s so...strange.”

She hmmed in agreement and they sat silence again before she broke it. “You know what’s even stranger? That is doesn’t really seem that strange. I don’t know about you but it feels like it’s been a long time coming.”

“Yep. I’ve felt that before, when a relationship is just dead and no one’s trying anymore and all parties involved are almost anticipating the end. Only none of us were ever trying to begin with.” He paused and considered what he’d said. “Well, except Jinwoon.”

She groaned and he could hear the sound of springs squeaking and realised she had just thrown herself onto her bed. He shook his head to get rid of the image it conjured even as she shrieked and he was reminded of seagulls.

“Don’t remind me, I still feel like I’ve killed a puppy or something when I look at him.”

“Why’d you say no to him anyway? Yes, yes, you’re not ready for it and you don’t want him to just wait for you, but why? He doesn’t mind, you need the practise, why not just give it a go?”

“Because...do you know the number of times I’ve just forgotten that he exists? How many times I’ve just forgotten that I was a ‘married’ woman and my unnies had to remind me of that when someone on a show asked me about him? I mean I know it wasn’t real but still he just...slips my mind so often! I don’t want my first love to be so easily forgotten. And I’d also like my first love to be my only love and I can’t even see that happening with Jinwoonie. He’s like a brother honestly.”

“Ugh, I can already tell you’re going to be that kind of woman, the one who’ll lead a guy down a garden path and then say ‘Oh I only thought of you as a brother!’.” He was just joking and even though she knew that she couldn’t help but take offense at that.

“That’s not true, I’m not the kind of person who’d lead a guy on!”

“Really? Name one guy you don’t think of as a real oppa, one guy whom you don’t think of as a sibling but who sings praises of you calling you an angelic princess. I already know that all your SM oppas have watched you grow in front of their eyes and you don’t have any other friends so-”

“I don’t think of you as a sibling!” Even as the words left her mouth her eyes grew wide and she knew that was not the right thing to say. Not now anyway.

“....What?”

“I-I just, I mean- it’s not-” She sighed, frustrated and silently cursed herself while he just sat frozen on the other side of the phone. Seohyun took a deep breath and got it all out in one breath.“I don’t see you as a brother. I never have.”

I’ve already put my foot in my mouth, might as well chew it, she thought to herself with a shaky breath as she realised she had all but confessed to him.

“You don’t see me as a brother.” He repeated as if having a hard time believing it.

Were it someone else saying that he would never have given it a second thought. But this was Seo Joo Hyun. Every conversation with her was like a lesson on subtext, she said more with her silence than with her words.

“Joo Hyun?”

“Hmm?”

“Give me two weeks.” That said he cut the call leaving a confused Seohyun staring at her phone.

“Parking Lot.10 minutes.” The message from Yonghwa read, and a confused Seohyun looked at the clock to see that it was one in the morning. Nevertheless she stood and wrapped a dressing gown around her and put on her glasses and made to walk out the room she shared with Hyoyeon when the other girl woke up.

“Where are you going?” She asked blearily and Seohyun wordlessly passed the phone to her so that she could read the same message. Hyoyeon was soon wide awake and scrutinising the maknae. “If you’re not back in half an hour I’m coming down with manager oppa.” She said simply and pushed the younger girl out the door. With those words of encouragement Seo Joo Hyun fisted her hands in determination and made her way to the parking lot where a certain Jung Yonghwa was presumably waiting for her. It did not escape her attention that it was two weeks since he’d cut the call on her.

She walked out to see him practically quivering in excitement, fidgeting to the point where she was surprised she could see him at all when he really should have just been a giant blur. ‘Choding’ she thought to herself smiling wryly at the dashing figure he cut in the impeccable grey jacket and was suddenly very conscious of the fact that she was horribly underdressed in comparison.

“You look like you just got away from a schedule.” She remarked as she drew closer.

“I did. Today was my last day of filming WGM.” The significance of what he said leapt to her mind but she told the happy voice in her head to be quiet.

“I didn’t realise that was today.”

“It was.”

They stood there looking at one another and then looking away when it got too intense.

“Soooo...” She started, hoping that he would take the lead and ended up rolling her eyes when he just fidgeted some more. “You called?”

“Ah yes. Last time, you said you didn’t think of me as a brother.”

“Yes, I remember that.”

“Well, I just wanted to say...Me too.”

“You don’t think of me as a brother?” A million words to write songs and yet all he could say to her was ‘Me too’?

He opened his mouth as if to say something and stopped. He closed his eyes tightly as if gathering his courage and stepped closer to her when he finally opened them. He put his hands on her forearms and drew her closer before sliding his hands down to her wrists and holding them gently and she gulped.

“Seo Joo Hyun, I know you’re still not ready and still have a lot of growing up and maybe even some growing down to do since you’re practically a halmeoni in a twenty year old body,” He teased and tightened his grip on her wrists just in case she decided to hit him.“And we’re both too ambitious to really commit to anything when we have our careers to distract us, but I don’t want to look back four years down the line and think we missed out on the adventure of our lives just because we couldn’t get our timing right. I know that I can’t be your boyfriend right now and you can’t be my girlfriend, but I’d like to be in that place in between friends and more than friends that doesn’t really have a label. So what do you say? Want to be my ‘more than just a friend’?”

She looked stunned. He looked nervous. From where Hyoyeon was hiding behind a car nearby with Jessica close behind, the two were like statues, they were standing so still until finally Seohyun moved further into the circle of arms he had created around her and his nervous smile grew into a cheek bursting grin.

“Okay.” She whispered but the sound resonated in the practically empty parking lot and the two who were in the almost embrace could see fireworks while the two curious girls watching from their vantage point smothered whoops of triumph and happiness.

“So what does this mean?” She couldn’t help but ask.

“Now,” He said leaning closer to her nose almost touching hers in a sweet little Eskimo kiss, “Anything could happen.”.

***

The one with all the rain.

The scratch of pen on paper and turning pages filled the air. He unconsciously hummed the tunes of the songs he was writing down and she sighed when something profound in the novel touched her heart. They were both seated opposite one another at the little window ledge turned seat lost in their own world, feet almost touching but not quite. It was their Sunday although it was actually a Thursday, but any day when they were both happy to laze around, that burning ambition in them taking a back seat to lethargic happiness was considered a Sunday by them.

And then the almost silence was broken when without any warning rain began splattering the glass pane and with the most enchantingly breathy sigh, she closed the book making a mental note of the page number and turned to watch the rain create patterns in water on the glass with a smile.

‘There’s some weird radar in me’, he thought to himself putting the pen away to watch her watch the rain, ‘it always seems to know when she’s smiling’. But then again she was always smiling when it rained, he reasoned while watching the water patterns on the window throw shadows on her face. He’d seen that same dreamy face in their Sangdo Dong home on the many occasions when they’d both arrived hours before filming began just to savour the silence and the company.

“You really love it when it rains don’t you?” It was a rhetorical question, if anyone

spent even half the time he did with her they would know the answer to that one. “Why do you like it so much?” Were he a more egotistical person he would say it was because it rained when they first met.

She turned away from the pane, the dreamy smile never quite leaving her face. “I don’t know why I like it so much, all I know is when it rains everything just feels...complete. Good things always happen when it rains.”

“Really?”

“When the final line-up for Sonyuh Shidae was announced I was so nervous, I kept on wondering, what if we don’t get along, what if we can’t stand each other, but then it rained and I just knew it would be perfect. It’s my happy omen”

“It rained when we met too.” He offered with a smile.

“I know. I was nervous then, it was awkward and I was so scared but then it rained and I knew we’d be okay. It just kept on raining every time we met even through all the.... and I knew, I knew we were going to be fine.” She went back to looking out the window the smile deepening ever so much.

“We’re more than just fine.” He protested just for the sake of it, edging closer to her and she pulled him closer resting her forehead on his. Because she loved watching it rain but she loved him more.

“We’re perfect.”

***

The one with all the death talk.

For the second time in his life Yonghwa found himself at the hospital. This time it was serious, he had caffeine poisoning made all the worse because of the sudden onset of a caffeine allergy (“How can you be allergic to the food of Gods?!” he had asked the doctors miserably) and for the second time in his life he found himself on the wrong side of Seohyun. He had been home for hours but she refused to pick up his calls or reply to his texts. One might think this had all to do with the fact that it had only been twelve hours since he’d last seen her, after all she could be busy but he knew for a fact that she was pissed off at him.

After all she had been the one to look up all his symptoms and try to categorise them even putting forth the theory that he might be allergic to coffee but he had laughed her off and taken an even bigger gulp of his Americano ignoring the knots forming in his stomach.

And now he was languishing in pain thinking he was going to die all while she was still angry at him.

“You’re not going to die.” Jonghyun said feeling fairly annoyed. It was after all the fifth time he’d heard the same story while keeping a watch on his hyung like the doctor had told them to. He couldn’t wait until it was Jungshin’s shift, then he’d have to deal with the blathering idiot who was so convinced he was going to die.

“Yes I am, I’m going to-,” He paused and closed his eyes willing the nausea to disappear before continuing, “I am going to die all alone with only my band mate for company, all because Hyun is being stubborn and refuses to see reason.” He said misera

bly.

“Hyungsoonim was looking out for you and you laughed in her face, if I were her I wouldn’t answer your calls either. In fact if I were here I would break up with you right now.” Jonghyun said snapping at the man, no, boy he called leader. It was pathetic, it was the fifth hour of the same thing over and over again all while there was a guitar just calling out to him saying ‘play me play me, leave that man alone and play me!’

In return Yonghwa shot him a horrified look. “You think she’s going to break up with me?!”

Jonghyun was saved from answering when Jungshin popped his head in. “Are you guys okay?” The maknae asked and Jonghyun threw him a wicked smile before pulling him in and leaving.

“He’s your problem now.”

“Jungshin, Seohyun is going to break up with me and I’m going to DIE!” Yonghwa said with wide eyes, the fever muddling his head and Jungshin backed up until he’d reached the door.

“Can somebody please call Seohyun?!”

Somewhere not so far away, in the very same building in fact, a girl named Seo Joo Hyun was pacing the floor.

“He always does this you know,” She said angrily turning to her where her Mum was calmly reading the newspaper. “He never listens!”

“I know that dear, you’ve told me so many times already.”

“I say, ‘Maybe you should cut down on the coffee’, he laughs, ‘I say ‘It sounds like you have an allergy and that’s why you keep on having these sores’, he laughs. Every single time-!” She threw her hands up in the air before settling them onto her hips and tapping her foot in consternation. “Why won’t the man just listen?!”

“It’s because he’s a man that he won’t listen. If you wanted someone who’d listen to you, you should have gotten a dog.”

“Yes well-“She was cut off by the sound of the phone.

“Is that him again?” Her mother asks peering over the edge of the paper as her only daughter looks at the screen of her phone with a furrowed brow.

“Mum I have to go, Jungshinnie says Yong is scaring him.” She said and ran off in a flurry of hair and flashing eyes.

“Imagine my surprise.” Her mother scoffs to the empty room. Her daughter never could quite stay away from that boy.

“What happened?” She asks the boy with the smile lines who visibly perks up upon seeing her.

“He keeps asking for you and talking about how you’re going to break up with him and he’s going to die.” He says practically pushing her into the room and suddenly she finds herself face to face with Yonghwa.

He’s blinking a lot eyes going from side to side, stopping only to moan when he gets dizzy and talking randomly. At first he doesn’t even notice her presence but wh

en he does he practically leaps off his bed only to sit back down again clutching his head and she follows.

“Oww.”

“Sit down before you hurt yourself.” She chides and he grins like an idiot.

“Hyun you’re here! You’re not going to break up with me after all!” He says excitedly, with the dazed, strange, unaware lack of filter that comes from being horribly sleepy yet unable to sleep before he wilts again. “I’m going to die.”

“No you’re not.” She tells him in a matter of fact tone and wipes the sweat off his face with her sleeve gently.

“Good because I have to live to be at least 113 years old.” He says staring into her eyes straight before closing his eyes with a groan as another quake shocks his system.

“Why do you have to be 113 years old?” She asks even as she rubs her fingers on the side of his head soothingly. She may have been worried but she was always curious.

“So that I can tell people who ask me how old I am that I’m still a teenager.” He says solemnly and she barely stops herself from slapping his shoulder. Really the man had the strangest of ambitions.

“Really oppa no one’s going to believe you’re a teenager when you’re obviously a choding.”Tags:

***

The one with the flat tire.

It was a beautiful night to go on a long drive, the kind where the moon gleamed at them through the sunroof, the kind where even the crickets chirped in a decidedly harmonious manner. But all was not harmonious in the car. Neither of them knew why, but there was this strange undertone to the silence it was not comfortable at all. She kept on shifting in her seat and looked out of the window, at the dashboard at the mirror but not him and his hands kept on clenching on the steering wheel, he tugged on his seatbelt and a muscle in his jaw kept on twitching.

A sudden popping sound and the consequent drag in the car alerted them to the fact that one of the tires in the car had blown and he pulled over to the side of the road and got out to inspect the damage.

“Stay here okay?” He said distractedly ignoring the raised eyebrow to go around the car. The tire was dead and there was no way he was driving on it any further and putting either of their lives in jeopardy.

“You need to replace the tire.” Her voice startled him out of his thoughts and he stumbles glaring at her mildly before taking his phone out and she looks at him, confused. “What are you doing?”

“Calling Minhyuk to see if he can come pick us up.” The unsaid ‘duh’ at the end of the sentence did not go unheard and she narrowed her eyes at him.

“We have a spare tire for exactly these reasons you know, stop calling him, all we need to do is change it.”

“Do you know how to change a tire? Because I certainly don’t.” He was loathe to admit it but even though he’d had the car for ages now, he hadn’t driven it as much as he should have and had never really learnt how to change a tire.

She just huffed at him before making her way to the boot and taking the spare tire out of the boot along with a jack and a wrench that he didn’t even know were there and proceeded to unscrew the bolts even as he stared at her with an open mouth the phone in his hands forgotten.

Just as she began tightening the bolts on the new tire Minhyuk finally picked up the call that Yonghwa hadn’t even realised was still going on.“Hyung?”

“Huh-“ He said distractedly, “Uh yes, I was going to tell you to come pick us up. We had a flat tire and-“

“Sure where are you exactly?”

“Um, yeah, it’s okay, Seohyun just finished changing the tire.”

“Did you by any chance get into an accident when that tire went flat and hurt yourself on the head?! What do you mean Seohyun is changing the tire, that can be dangerous if it’s not done properly!”

“No I know-but- just a second,” He said into the phone before turning to Seohyun who was still kneeling on the ground. “Seohyun are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

“It’s the first thing Dad taught me after I got my license. He says there are two things a girl needs to know, how to change a tire and how to throw a punch.” She said succinctly and got up dusted her knees and picked up all the equipment to put it back into the trunk.

He watched her walk and it made his mouth go dry, the sway in her hips more pronounced as she tried to keep her side from touching the tire and his hands scrambled to find the ring he’d been trying to give her for ages now but could never quite find the perfect timing for.

“Marry me.” He said holding the box out in front of her the second she had closed the trunk so she knew it wasn’t just a random remark he was making.

“Again?” She teased but he saw the gleam in her eyes, she was going to say yes to him. “Well.... maybe if you learn how to change a tire.”

“I’ll have it done by next week.” He said and they both got back into the car all the stiffness from before gone and put their seatbelts on stopping only to shoot each other a grin and just as he was about to turn the key in the ignition he stopped and turned to her. “Do you really know how to throw a punch?”

She raised an eyebrow. “Do you really want to find out? A black eye won’t look that good in the wedding pictures you know.”

“Oh Seo Joo Hyun,” He said finally starting up the car again, “Anything that has your hands on me is a good idea.”

***

The one with all the rain.

The scratch of pen on paper and turning pages filled the air. He unconsciously hummed the tunes of the songs he was writing down and she sighed when something profound in the novel touched her heart. They were both seated opposite one another at the little window ledge turned seat lost in their own world, feet almost touching but not quite. It was their Sunday although it was actually a Thursday, but any day when they were both happy to laze around, that burning ambition in them taking a back seat to lethargic happiness was considered a Sunday by them.

And then the almost silence was broken when without any warning rain began splattering the glass pane and with the most enchantingly breathy sigh, she closed the book making a mental note of the page number and turned to watch the rain create patterns in water on the glass with a smile.

‘There’s some weird radar in me’, he thought to himself putting the pen away to watch her watch the rain, ‘it always seems to know when she’s smiling’. But then again she was always smiling when it rained, he reasoned while watching the water patterns on the window throw shadows on her face. He’d seen that same dreamy face in their Sangdo Dong home on the many occasions when they’d both arrived hours before filming began just to savour the silence and the company.

“You really love it when it rains don’t you?” It was a rhetorical question, if anyone spent even half the time he did with her they would know the answer to that one. “Why do you like it so much?” Were he a more egotistical person he would say it was because it rained when they first met.

She turned away from the pane, the dreamy smile never quite leaving her face. “I don’t know why I like it so much, all I know is when it rains everything just feels...complete. Good things always happen when it rains.”

“Really?”

“When the final line-up for Sonyuh Shidae was announced I was so nervous, I kept on wondering, what if we don’t get along, what if we can’t stand each other, but then it rained and I just knew it would be perfect. It’s my happy omen”

“It rained when we met too.” He offered with a smile.

“I know. I was nervous then, it was awkward and I was so scared but then it rained and I knew we’d be okay. It just kept on raining every time we met even through all the.... and I knew, I knew we were going to be fine.” She went back to looking out the window the smile deepening ever so much.

“We’re more than just fine.” He protested just for the sake of it, edging closer to her and she pulled him closer resting her forehead on his. Because she loved watching it rain but she loved him more.

“We’re perfect.”

***

The one with the abundance of hamburgers.

It wasn�t everyday that Seohyun stomped into their dorm and forced Yonghwa to call for a giant order of takeout hamburgers offering no explanation when all of CNBlue (and their manager) dropped their jaws before asking her if everything was okay.

It was just today.

"Hyun are you okay?"

"Hmm? I�m fine now come on oppa are you going to place the order or do I have to?"

"No no, it�s just," He paused and looked at her confusedly going so far as to put his hand on her forehead to check if she had a fever. Her temperature was fine but her temper was not as she shoved his hand away and snarled at him, "Are you sure it�s okay? Hamburgers are very unhealthy you know." He echoed her words at her.

It made no difference.

"I want hamburgers NOW!"

No it wasn�t like Seohyun at all. She held in her temper, she didn�t let it radiate from her quivering form. She also didn�t shout. Yes, something was very, very wrong. He just couldn�t figure out what.

And so he gave in to her request *coughdemandcough* and placed the order and watched her pace the room angrily.

"How long is this going to take, I thought it was supposed to be fast food?!" She snapped at him. He would have been a bit peeved at her tone but he was just too worried.

"It�ll be here soon, just relax, why don�t you go to my room and read until it gets here?"

"Do you even have any books?" She sneered but reluctantly went away once he reminded her of the one she�d left behind last time.

"Hyung?" Minhyuk said seemingly terrified. "What�s going on?"

"Seohyun wants hamburgers." Yonghwa said in a dazed voice.

"What�s going on?" Minhyuk repeated while Jungshin and Jonghyun just looked at the door that had been slammed by her a few seconds past (another very un-Seohyun thing, she never slammed doors) with wary expressions.

The phone ringing startled them and Yonghwa who was closest to it picked it up only to fumble with it.

"Yonghwa, is that you?" Seohyun�s mother�s voice filtered over the phone and he sighed in relief.

"Yes it is Mrs Seo." Because for all her insistence that he call her Mum, he just couldn�t do it. Not yet anyway.

"Is JooHyun with you?" She inquired worriedly. "She just stormed out of here and Hyoyeon says she isn�t at the dorm."

"She�s here, but....did something happen? Because she-" He suddenly found himself unable to complete the sentence. "She just made me order hamburgers for her."

"I should have known she would do something like this." She sighed and he could almost hear her shaking her head at her daughter�s antics."This is just like when I told her not to read in the car or she�ll get motion sickness."

"What happened?"

"Well she had a checkup recently and the doctor told her to cut down on the gogumas." It took Yonghwa a while to realise that the gasp had come from him. "It�s been three days since she had any and she just blew up today and started ranting about how the world is topsy turvy, gogumas are unhealthy and hamburgers are not and she just went on and on until she finally took off."

And then the words finally sunk in his head. This was a goguma deprived Seohyun.

She was showing goguma withdrawal symptoms.

And then the laughter started. He didn�t mean to laugh, not really, but his Hyun was lashing out because she couldn�t have her precious sweet potatoes!

"She can�t have gogumas!" He told his bandmates in between chuckles and they didn�t really understand why he was laughing so much. "Maybe she�ll have to go to Goguma rehab." He said and laughed even harder as hey continued to look at him like he was crazy."They�ll all sit around in a circle and discuss their feelings about gogumas."

The bell rang just then and the hamburgers they had ordered had arrived. Yonghwa was laughing so much it was entirely up to the exasperated manager to take the parcel.

"Hyun, the food is here." He announced once he was calm.

A twitchy Seohyun walked out of his room and made a beeline to the plastic bag on the kitchen counter. She was even walking funny, he thought and stifled a chuckle when she moved uncomfortably, limbs akimbo.

All this because of a root vegetable.

She stared at the bag and finally took out the hamburger and they watched with bated breath as she took the first bite and swallowed making a funny face and shuddered.

"Are you okay Seohyun?" Yonghwa asked, voice tinged with amusement.

"I�m fine." she said throwing him a glare before eyeing the many hamburgers in front of her determinedly. And then proceeded to slowly but steadily eat them much all to their horror.

"Wow."

"I have never seen anyone eat that many hamburgers!" Minhyuk said in a tone of awe.

"Sooyoung unnie can eat more." Seohyun said blithely before slapping a hand over her mouth while making strange noises.

"Are you okay?" Minhyuk asked her while Yonghwa hid behind the counter so she wouldn�t notice him laughing.

"I think I�m going to throw up." She rushed to the bathroom.

"I�m going to go check on her." The CNBlue leader said after he�d managed to control himself.

"So she got sick because of hamburgers that she ate in a fit of Goguma deprival." Minhyuk said slowly, trying hard to ignore the sounds of retching coming from

the bathroom.

"Sounds like something a fan might go through. Get it, hamburgers and gogumas?!" Jungshin said excitedly and the others groaned. Clearly Yonghwa�s sense of humour was rubbing off on the maknae.

***

Of not so suicidal boyfriends and long due confessions

“So she wasn’t nervous at all?!” Seven girls crowded around the second maknae of the group while their actual maknae was away...actually where had she gone?

“Nope.” Yoona said popping the last syllable impudently.

“You’re telling me that Hyun interviewed Yonghwa and there was no awkwardness there at all?!” When Yoona nodded everyone starting throwing questions at her all at once until she couldn’t distinguish between the voices anymore.

“Yah maknae-ah!” The sudden exclamation drew attention to the fact that Seohyun had returned to the waiting room...and she hadn’t come alone. “Jung Seobang!” Tiffany yelled before clapping hands over her mouth and he chuckled sheepishly in response.

“It’s good to see I haven’t been forgotten.” He said while Hyoyeon eyed the two strangely.

“Aren’t those two standing a bit too close?” She whispered to Jessica without taking her eyes off Seohyun and Yonghwa and her eyebrows flew into her hair when they moved even closer.

A few minutes of the usual chitchat about both the new albums continued and even though all of Seohyun’s fellow members were giving the right reaction, laughing at all the jokes and smiling graciously when the CNBlue album reached their hands, they all had a look in their eyes.

A sudden awkward silence descended upon all of them. While this might not have been unusual three years ago it was quite unusual now. It only grew more unusual when he turned to Seohyun and they had a miniature conversation with their eyes that the others couldn’t follow, all they could tell was that Seohyun was nudging him about something.

Finally he sighed and turned to the herd that was eyeing him sceptically and let out a big whoosh of air. “We have an announcement to make.”

The silence grew tense. And continued. For far too long.

“It might help if you actually made the announcement instead of just telling us that.” Taeyeon said sharply.

“Well what I’m trying to say is....there’s no real way to put it but....” He stopped and took a deep breath and began all over. “The thing is-“

“We’re dating.” Seohyun burst out. “It’s been going on for the past few months but we didn’t

know how to come out and say the words.” She went on and looked around to find Yonghwa looking at her, utterly aghast. “You were taking too long.” She whined and he spluttered.

“Then why’d you tell me that I had to tell them?!”

“I thought you’d be able to do it better because they’re closer to your age!”

“Not everyone only ever has friends the same age as themselves,”He said pointedly and she rolled her eyes at him, “I am perfectly fine talking to people of all ages.”

“Yes that was obvious from the way you said ‘what I m-mean is’.” She said sarcastically.

“This is not happening.” Hyoyeon said, her mouth dropping to somewhere near the vicinity of her waist and the couple suddenly remembered that there were others in the room.

“I’m afraid it is.” Seohyun said.

“How long....?” Sooyoung said, suddenly unable to use whole sentences.

“Has this been going on?” Yonghwa said guessing the rest of the sentence correctly. “Since the Twinkle-“

“WHAT?!” Tiffany’s sudden exclamation brought the girls to life. “Are you telling me that the two of you got together while Seohyun was promoting with us, hosting MuCore with us spending almost every waking minute with me and Taeyeon and we didn’t realise it?”

“And I thought you two were supposed to be observant.” Hyoyeon shook her head.

“I tried so hard to make it obvious and none of you noticed!” Seohyun said almost pouting. “I was being shifty and hiding my phone and even manager oppa kept on dropping hints.”

“I thought you were working on a project for school!” Tiffany said confused.

“Okay in hindsight, you were being very obvious about it.” Hyoyeon admitted.

“I was!” Seohyun said stomping her foot. “I even told you all about it when we went drinking and none of you remembered the next day!”

“I remembered.” Sunny said serenely.

“Then why didn’t you say something?!” Hyoyeon yelled at her and the shorter girl just shrugged.

“Wanted to see how long it would take for her,” she pointed at Seohyun, “to break. It was fun”

“You-!”

“More than eight months, I’m quite impressed with your patience maknae.” Sunny choked out even with Hyoyeon’s hands wrapped around her throat. It was a surprise that the newly revealed couple even heard it considering the chanting from the other girls egging Hyoyeon on.

“And this is why I didn’t want to be the one to tell your unnies.” Yonghwa said as Seohyun watched them with an expression of utter horror. After a pause he continued, “You know, that,” He pointed at Sunny who was slowly turning blue although it wasn’t

clear whether it was from all the evil laughter or the choking, “ is going to be you once it all sinks in.”

“You know I’m thinking we could use this opportunity to tell the rest of CNBlue about us too. Maybe I could come over to your dorm tonight so we could tell them together?” she had the most beguiling smile on her face, her eyes radiating hope. How could he say anything but yes?

“Nope.” Well apparently he could say anything but yes. “Your CNBlue chingus already know.” She rolled her eyes at his jealousy. Even though he’d said over and over again he didn’t mind that he didn’t get a mention in her Thanks to, the sulky face had stayed for days. “This bag of crazy is all yours.”

“Save me?” She said hoping a direct plea would appeal to him.

“I love you Seohyun.” He said staring deep into her eyes. “But I’m not suicidal.”

She heard those words and sighed. He was right. Her unnies wouldn’t kill her. Tease her, make fun of her, start planning the wedding, maybe snigger every now and then, but they wouldn’t kill her.

But he would be crucified.

“Had to try.” She shrugged and he smiled down at her.

“Maybe next time.” He said leaning down and kissing the top of her head before waggling his eyebrows at her suggestively. “Although if there was any other reason for you to stay over at the dorm-“

“Jung Yong Hwa.” The words were said so coldly by Sunny a chill ran down his spine. “Please refrain from perverting our maknae in front of us.” An aura of death emanated from the eight girls and Yonghwa sighed and stepped away from his girlfriend before perking up and shooting them a mischievous grin that had them all on their guard.

“So I can pervert her when you’re not around?”

“YA JUNG YONG HWA!” Nine voices screamed in unison and he ran out of the dressing room as fast as he could.

***

Of wedding questions and suitors� lists

“Seohyun! You must be really happy right now, less competition.” Sunye said happily, the ever glowing bride as she hooked her arm through Seohyun’s before the photo shoot.

“Competition?” Seohyun asked bewildered before combing some of Sunye bangs that had gotten out of place. “I don’t think you getting married makes the Wonder Girls any less of competition unnie.” She said surprised that Sunye would make such a statement , it sounded a bit arrogant to say that without you your team would fail and there were many things that Sunye was and arrogant wasn’t one of them.

“Not like that silly, I mean for Jung Yonghwa!” And the younger girl’s heart clenched and Tiffany who was standing closest gave her a concerned look. That name hadn’t been used around the maknae for a long time now. “I still remember that time Taeyeo

n said he was taken when I said he was my ideal type, I was almost scared at how fierce she sounded.”

“Actually Yonghwa-ssi and I aren’t really....” She let the words trail off and the smile on Sunye’s face disappeared.

“I’m sorry I didn’t realise.”

“Forget about it, this is all about you anyway, you’re finally married unnie!” Seohyun squealed and smiled a bit too wide and laughed just a bit too brightly to distract Sunye and got the bride to smile again. And then the time for reminiscing was over and they had to pose for the cameras and the camera-ready grin automatically formed on her face and soon it was turn to leave as the next guests came up to meet the bride.

“Maknae, are you okay?” Tiffany asked concernedly the minute they left the stage.

“I’m fine unnie, look there’s Jinwoonie!”

She was intent upon ignoring the issue, Tiffany realised and sighed and messaged Taeyeon. They needed to have one of their meetings again.

“Seohyun-ah, I’m sorry for what happened at Sunye’s wedding." Taeyeon said the minute they were all back. “Tiffany told me what happened. I never should have said that in the first place.” She chided herself and even the subdued Seohyun couldn’t help but give a big hug to the shorter girl.

“What was that for?”

“For caring. It’s okay that you said that you know, as long as we mean what we say and say what we mean we can never go wrong. And you meant what you said.”

“At the time I did but now...”

“Still, don’t worry about me unnie, I’m fine. In fact I’m better than fine, I am amazing.”With one last squeeze of the leader she flounced off leaving Taeyeon in deep thought. Hyoyeon was definitely rubbing off on the maknae; it was growing easier for Seohyun to look at the lighter side of things by the second.

But it was time for a certain phone call to be made, Taeyeon decided and resolved to do the same.

“Jung Yonghwa-ssi?” The tentative voice of the Tiffany surprised him when he picked up the phone on one of the few days off in the promotional cycle. Tiffany was a lot things but tentative was not one of them.

“That’s me. What can I do for you Tiffany?” It couldn’t really be a social call, those were the ones that Seohyun made. Then again he hadn’t really gotten a social call from Seohyun in a very long time, he thought with a pang. No more monthly calls asking how he was doing, how everyone else was doing whether he had limited his coffee intake or not. He’d never admit it, being the Busan man he called himself so often, but he missed those calls.

‘Well then maybe you could have taken the initiative and called her once in a while too’ a treacherous part of his mind whispered and he suppressed it and repeated his question.

“Oh hello Yonghwa-ssi,” This time the voice was of Taeyeon and all of a sudden he was made aware of the many whispers flying around in the background.

“Am I on speaker phone?!”

“Yes well everyone wanted to listen to this conversation.” Taeyeon answered and even more sounds of shuffling and shushing were heard.

“By everyone you mean?-”

“Everyone except for Seohyun who is out with her friends.” Hyoyeon was the one who answered.

“Yonghwa-ssi, I think you might have guessed that this is not a normal call.” Taeyeon said (not before quietly telling Hyoyeon it wasn’t her turn yet). “We need to ask you about your feelings regarding our maknae.”

“Joo Hyun doesn’t know that you’re calling me does she?”

“Of course not!” Hyoyeon interrupted with a snort and this time no one told her to be quiet.

“That was a stupid question Yonghwa-ssi.” Taeyeon reproached him. “Now if you will please answer our questions.”

“Which question?” Playing dumb was all he could do right now, his feelings for Seo Joo Hyun were a mixed bag of crazy that had no label attached to them.

“Do you have any feelings for our maknae of the romantic kind?”

“I don’t-“

“Or even those that might turn into the romantic kind?”

“I don’t know how to answer that.” He said cautiously.

“That’s enough of an answer for us, Jung Yonghwa you are now officially off the list.” Hyoyeon said tartly. “Now if you could please pass the phone to Minhyuk.”

“Wait what? What list? And why Minhyuk?”

“The list of bachelors eligible to vie for maknae’s hand. To be honest you have been weaving in and out of the list for ages considering that you don’t really seem to care for our maknae but since we wanted to make another addition to the list we had to remove one as well.”

“Wait what do you mean don’t care for her? Of course I care for Hyun!” The minute the words left his mouth he took a sharp intake of breath. It wasn’t his intention to slip up like that but he still called her Hyun in his mind and lately all their interactions had only been in his mind.

“It’s a mutual road to having a relationship, any kind of relationship you know. She can’t be the only one who makes the phone calls wondering how your life is, there has to be some reciprocation.”

“She hasn’t even called in ages!” He said and rubbed his thumb over his head. Somehow these conversations with the entirety of SNSD always made his brain hurt.

“So maybe she got tired of having to be the one to do everything, you know Minhyuk and Jungshin have no issues taking the initiative and making the first call.” Hyoyeon said smugly and he remembered exactly how easily Seohyun had smiled and waved at her same age friends.

“I’m not Minhyuk or Jungshin.” He said with just a tinge of anger in his voice that went completely ignored if Taeyeon’s next words were anything to go by.

“Yes, we know. So if you would please give the phone to Minhyuk?”

“Not until you tell me why.” He was stubborn. Almost as stubborn as their maknae the girls thought on the other end of the phone.

“Minhyuk is the candidate taking your place on that list of course.” Hyoyeon said maliciously and he felt the ground pull out from under him.

“What?” The words were croaked as the images of a happy and perfect Minhyuk-Seohyun couple flashed through his minds. They’d nag each other happily, clean up the whole world’s mess, never get the other angry, never forget to call each other every day, do magic tricks together, they’d save the world with their shiny perfection. In other words they’d be everything he and Joo Hyun would never be.

No, Hyun and he would fight all the time, he’d be a choding, he wouldn’t listen to her just to get her mad and she’d never let him get his way, she’d nag him until even his precious coffee would lose its flavour. He’d forget to call she’d never let him forget it and he’d spend his entire lifetime writing letters to her.

‘Did I just think of lifetimes?’ he thought and realised that he did. So maybe his feelings for Seohyun were not entirely as shrouded in mystery as he thought they were.

“Hey hyung!” Minhyuk said as he and Jungshin entered the living room and began working their shoes off and stopped upon seeing the dazed expression on his face. “Who’s on the phone?”

“It’s from the Soshi dorm-“

“Seohyunnie?” Minhyuk asked casually and his ears pricked up.

“No it’s actually Hyoyeon.”

“Oh yeah, she probably hasn’t reached her dorm yet.”

The frown on Yonghwa’s face spoke of gathering storm clouds. “What do you mean?”

“I mean we just separated half an hour ago she can’t have reached her house by now.”

“You were meeting with Seohyun?”

Minhyuk nodded. “Yeah.”

And the voices that had been listening in on the conversation on the other end of the phone erupted in whispers.

“You see Yonghwa-ssi it’s better that you aren’t on the list, now if you could please give the phone to Minhyuk?”

“Over my dead body.” Yonghwa growled into the phone after one second of stunned silence and cut the call immediately.

(In a dorm where certain eight girls were gathered around the phone chaos reigned as one of them sulked angrily. “You didn’t ask for Jonghyun’s number!” Yoona pouted.)

Yonghwa gritted his teeth determinedly before dialling a familiar number on the phone.

He had a runaway ex-virtual-wife to catch after all.

***

Of Violins, TV shows and stupid men

“This is your revenge isn’t it?” Yonghwa said miserably while they sat on the couch watching the SNSD episode of Star King.

“What?” She said turning to the man who kept his eyes trained on the screen where the violinist had now put his arm around Seohyun and begun playing the instrument skilfully while she blushed and hid smiles and touched her hair in that signature sign of nervousness.

“This,” he said and pointed at the screen. “And the whole thing with the pianist and the hug. It’s your revenge for my Star King episode with the two girls last year.”

“Oh?” There was something in her voice that grabbed his attention and he finally looked away from the screen.

Only to see her smiling a fake smile while her nostrils flared to the size of pennies.

“I had forgotten all about that actually.” She said through gritted teeth the smile never leaving her face and he knew he was in big, big trouble.

In retrospect it was plain stupid of him to bring that up considering the silent treatment he’d gotten for weeks after the airing of that episode.

“I was just-“

“That’s not my revenge at all. If it was my revenge then I’d have done a bit more than just smile awkwardly.” Finally the smile turned into a smirk and the eyes grew a bit heavy lidded. She leaned in towards him and was rewarded with a dropped jaw. “If I really wanted revenge then I would have hugged the pianist back properly or run my hand down his arm. And maybe leaned back towards the violinist and closed my eyes while he serenaded me and then looked into his eyes deeply. Everyone said that the violinist and I, we had...a spark, you know? Chemistry. ”

The picture was painted so vividly in Yonghwa’s eyes that he paused for a second while the images rushed through his head. His Seohyun with those strange men?!

While he contemplated it and his inner choding spluttered and cried at the same time she whipped her head away from him and went back to watching the show.

“Seohyun-ah......”

“I’m just saying that if I wanted revenge that’s what I would have done.” She shrugged and he continued to stare at her trying very hard not to imagine it. “Then again maybe I actually did that and they decided to edit it out. These things happen you know.”

“Seohyun.” He said gravely and pulled her face away from the TV to look at him. “I’m sorry for....you know.”

She just hmm-ed noncommittally and twisted her face but at least her nose wasn’t f

laring any more.

“I mean it.”

“I know.”

With those words he considered himself forgiven and went back to watching the show.

“You’re not the only one who has to flirt with people for the camera�s sake after all.” She said when he was finally relaxed enough to drape an arm around her waist casually.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” He was back to being tense and she just shrugged her shoulders causally and headed off to the kitchen under the pretence of checking on the gogumas. “Seohyun? Seohyun! What’s that supposed to mean?!”

***

Of rainy days and Italy

“I thought that that was you.” Yonghwa said and sidled up next to Seohyun. It was a rainy day and even with her umbrella she was slowly getting drenched walking up the streets of London to the station where her train was waiting for her but she stopped to stare at him in amazement. “You know we really should stop meeting like this.”

“How did you-“She started off but stopped and shook her head laughingly, hair dancing on her shoulders and looked up and smiled at him. “Need shelter?” She said pulling the umbrella over his head as well and they started walking down the street in perfect synchronisation. It wasn�t a very big umbrella so both of them were getting slightly wet now but at least now neither of the two would suffer from hypothermia.

“Where are you headed?” He said practically shouting to be heard over the sound of the downpour lashing on the plastic surface that protected them. “You in a hurry?”

“I have to catch a train to Italy.” She said and glanced at her watch. “It leaves in less than an hour.”

“I’m headed the same way.” He said and pulled her closer under the umbrella taking it out of her hands when she shivered (although for an altogether different reason than the cold) and huddling even closer. “You know Seo Joo Hyun-ssi you really shouldn’t be wandering around alone in a foreign country.”

“It’s okay I’m meeting my fiancé here.” And the cheek bursting grin on his face fell.

“Fiancé?”

“Well I did plan on surprising him by proposing and then I figured we could run off to Italy and elope.”

“Do your parents know about this?” He asked sternly and the absent minded smile on her face dimmed a bit.

“Well I thought if I told them that it might go against the whole concept of an el

opement so I called his parents instead and then they told my parents and I got their indirect blessing via my hopefully soon to be in laws. It all depends upon whether or not he accepts my proposal after all.”

“That seems like a very complicated thing to do.”

“I just didn’t want to cheat on the whole elopement thing. My unnies tell me that the whole point of an elopement is that it’s a secretive thing.”

“I hope this man’s worth it.”

“Sometimes he makes me think otherwise but for the most part he is.”

“Does he make you happy?” He asked a strange tightness around his mouth.

“He does” She said softly. “He’d make me even happier if he agreed to marry me though.”

“There’s just one problem.” He said and she looked up suddenly panicky.

“What?”

“I hear you’re already married to this guy you’re proposing to.” He said and smiled a most beatific smile and within seconds it was reflected on her face as well. “It was a virtual marriage but apparently he takes these things pretty seriously.”

“We can always renew vows can’t we?”

“Yes we can.”

The sound of a train broke the magic spell that had wound itself around the two and they looked around surprised.

“We’re at the station already,” He said before turning back to her. “So are you ready to be Mrs Jung Yong Hwa?”

She scoffed good-naturedly. “Don’t be silly, I did the proposing so you’re the one who’s going to be Mr Seo Joo Hyun.” She ignored his squawking and moved into the train awaiting them. “Ten years into our relationship and you’re still getting surprised by my events. How’d you even get to the station so fast, I thought I’d have to wait for you for a while?”

“Magic.” He said and splayed his fingers teasingly. She raised an eyebrow and he put them down again. “I left a few minutes after you did. Can’t sleep without you.”

“Aww.”

“Yeah the sudden silence when I couldn’t hear you snoring anymore woke me up.” She punched his arm and he yelped in mock pain. “Fine I won’t give you your present.”

“Present?”

“Hmm.” He said noncommittally before pulling a little velvet box from his jacket pocket that had her gasping even though she’d just asked him to marry her (albeit in long confusing way) and he waved his hands around. “I mean I was going to propose to you but then you went and ditched me in the hotel and l was left all alone in our room with a train ticket to Italy on your pillow which was a horribly ambiguous message to leave by the way.”

“Oh my God!” She said and tried to reach out to the box with shaky hands but he snap

ped it away from her reach just as her fingers touched the box.

“But now that you’ve already proposed I guess we won’t need this old thing.”

“Oh my God!” She said like a broken record still staring at that little box that made their upcoming nuptials feel incredibly real.

“Oh fine I guess you can have it.” He said and opened the box and her hands flew to her open mouth. “But this means you’re Mrs Jung Yong Hwa.”

The words had her glaring at him. “And you’re still Mr Seo Joo Hyun.”

“It’s too sunny to wear a disguise people will be suspicious.”

“It’ll be fine come on!”

“I just want to lay here forever.” He said happily, a little smile on his face. When she caught it she smiled too but then she looked out and realised she would rather go out and have some fun.

“Oh come on Yong you can lie down whenever you want, when else will you get a day as beautiful as this?!”

“No I think I’ll just sleep.”

He was so easy going today that he wasn’t even annoyed by her constant nagging. All he did was shift a bit and then block her out much to her consternation.

She huffed and left the room fully expecting him to follow her when he realised she was angry. Fifteen minutes later she came back in with a frown on her face, he hadn’t even noticed her go!

“Come on Yong, we can even get a couple’s massage you’d like that right?”

“Hmm.” He just went on sleeping with that big grin.

“Look there’s a sale on sneakers!

“Nah I have too many.” He said in a tone so hazy she wondered if he was high.

“Yong, you really just want to sit inside and sleep the whole day off?”

He sighed and sat up but instead of getting up and leaving with her he sat down on the floor and patted the space next to him.

“What?”

“Just lay down here for a bit and then we’ll go out.”

She did exactly that and he closed his eyes while she pouted. Seohyun couldn’t understand why he loved to sleep so much, there was a world to see and instead he was just...lying there. She sighed and looked up at the ceiling. It didn’t have the cloud pattern that their Sangdo-dong home had but it was still pretty. The sunlight shining through the curtains was throwing patterns on it. The wind blowing it about had the shadows swaying softly and she was mesmerized. It was a quiet day and she could hear the distant chirping of birds. She exhaled and relaxed completely as she became aware of his warmth next to her and as she did so she began to feel soothed.

The steady throb of the air conditioner, the hum of his breathing and hers seeme

d to merge with the sound of her heart beat. She could hear it, accented as it were by the whoosh of her breath and the sigh in her chest that rose and fell, rose and fell.

“Okay so, you ready to leave?” He asked her and all she could do was hmm in satisfaction. Without a word he sat back and relaxed, ready as always for a lazy day in.

***

Of frustrated members and Snowboards

Authors note: I imagine Seohyun and Yonghwa have this will they, won’t they dynamic that drives their group members mad. They remind me of Castle and Beckett sometimes.

“Hyung, you have a new message. I think it’s from Seohyun.” Jungshin says, barely looking up from his own phone. All the CNBlue boys knew their former sister in law had a special ringtone and they had only to hear the sound of birds chirping to clear out of the room and give him some privacy and get the glasses at the door as soon as possible.

It was frustrating for them to see the two moving at the snail’s pace they did. Even one year after their ‘marriage’ ended they continued to deal in subtext, never really coming out and declaring that they were together, not even admitting that they liked one another as anything more than friends. It was a concern shared by the girls over at Seohyun’s side as well .There had been many an argument held between the members whenever Seohyun was in the balcony answering a lengthy call from her ex-virtual husband (‘But she hasn’t given him any clues whatsoever’ ‘This is Seohyun, she doesn’t even know how to give him a clue!’) and a private chat room that Seohyun had no idea about between them, discussing the YongSeo couple.

But of course the two remained oblivious. They seemed immune to all the rolled eyes, the innuendo heavy suggestions, the many attempts to get a reaction from them by shoving the other’s scandals under their nose.

Nothing. In their own world, the two continued talking about chords, song writing, politics and their fans.

“It must be worse for their fans though.” Tiffany once pointed out. “At least we know. At least we get to see for ourselves, we know YongSeo is endgame. They just get to hope.”

So they decided to let it be until the next time Seohyun starts singing CNBLue’s songs in the shower, and the next time Yonghwa comes home and starts talking to the giant stuffed dog and jewelled spider.

“Daebak!!!!” The loud yell comes from Yonghwa’s room and Jungshin gets up to see what happened. No doubt Yonghwa would want to show off whatever it was that Seohyun had said that got him so excited.

“Hyung?”

“Seohyun went snowboarding with her unnies and managed an S-turn!”

Jungshin’s smile lines appear again, “You were right she really is a genius. This is what, her second time snowboarding?”

“Third but it’s the first time after we went snowboarding together.” Yongwa never takes his eyes off the screen, where Jungshin sees a video playing of a girl in a bl

ue outfit snowboarding while a girl in pink ski gear cheers her on along with the one holding the camera who sounds a lot like Hyoyeon. The one on the skateboard completes the S turn perfectly only to be squished into a hug and the video ends with the sound of girls squealing.

“Wow.”

“I know.”

“You know hyung, that might have been someone else for all you know. She was covered from head to toe you after all.”

“That was a Keroro snowboard.” Yonghwa deadpans and Jungshin laughs brightly.

“That’s definitely Seohyun then!”

A moment of silence follows and he can almost hear the grin on Yonghwa’s face widening as he replays the video.

“I’ll be going then.” Jungshin says closing the door behind him as the leader watches the clip on loop.

They may not be dating, they may not even admit to liking each other but those two made each other happier than any couple he knew, so who cared?

***

Of polite rejections and strange unnies

“Oppa?”

It was the first time Seohyun had called in quite a few weeks, not counting the obligatory birthday call. He saw her name flash on the phone and picked up after the second ring in an attempt to not look too eager but grew worried at the sound of sheer bloody panic in that one word.

“Hyun!” He slips back to the nickname he used when they were still married and a tense stillness took over before she continues, apparently deciding she has other issues to deal with.

“Oppa, how do you reject a person without hurting their feelings or ruining your friendship with them?”

“You make it sound like Jinwoon just asked you out or something.” He says with a laugh only to realise that she wasn’t really denying it. “What?!”

“I just got confessed to via voice message and I don’t know what to say. He said that he’d harboured the biggest crush ever for the past four years and that he knew I’d want to think it over and he hopes for an answer when he comes back from Madagascar and that he’d like to see me as more than just a friend.” Rapper Hyun emerges only to calm down slightly after saying it out loud. Explaining things concisely always made her feel more at peace, talking to Yonghwa only more so.

“......How did you not know that he had a crush on you?!” He says as he squeezes a stress ball tight.

“Well he never said anything about it...”

“He said it all the time! He’s been saying that he adores you to an entire nation! When he looks at you it’s like he’s wondering what names your children would have!”

“He says that on TV and on radio but he’s never said anything of the sort to me. Do you know how many times I’ve seen people talk about someone as their ideal on TV only to flirt with the backup dancers backstage and not give a second look to their ideal type? Words said in front of a camera mean nothing unless said in reality as well.”

Read in between the lines, she seemed to say. Seohyun doesn’t mention him outright but he got the feeling he was lumped along with those people as well and it surprised him how much it hurt even though he understood where she was coming from.

“Okay so why not just...think about it, like he said?” He has to force the words out of his mouth.

Yonghwa does not want to help the guy out, not when the prize they were competing for was Seohyun, but he had to give credit to the courage Jinwoon had shown. ’Which isn’t much really considering he didn’t even say it to her face’ says a voice in his head and he holds back a snort of laughter.

“But I don’t like him like that.” She says in a small voice and his heart soars. Yonghwa grins so widely he’s certain she can hear it over the phone.

“How time flies, the child that once asked ‘What’s the difference between like and love?’ is now aware of the different ways you can like a person.”

“What do I say? You’re the only one I can ask!”

“What do you mean I’m the only one you can ask?”

“Well I have two close guy friends, one is Jinwoon and the other is you and I can’t exactly ask him.”

“What do your unnies have to say?”

“I didn’t tell them. If I tell one then I might as well tell them all. The only other person I can ask is Nicole and I can’t ask her!”

“Why not?”

“According to Hara, Nicole has a crush on Jinwoon.”

“Wow, this should go in a drama.”

“What do I do? Surely you must have been rejected at some point in time.” Yonghwa had had his ego deflated many times in his life but not once had it flat-lined so easily nor quickly. “Ye Jie unnie said you did.” For the nth time he wonders what in the world had possessed him to introduce her to his friends.

“Yes but we didn’t stay friends after.”

“Ottoke?!!” She whines.

“Hyun just tell him the truth. Don’t beat around the bush too much and just tell him that you just see him as a friend. There’s no nice way of putting it, but hopefully he’ll see that you still see him as an important person in his life.”

“Okay. Thanks Yo-ong.”

“Bye Hyun.”

It is hours later that he realises that she called him Yo-ong.

“So how’d that conversation go?

He tried telling himself it’s not his place to ask. He tried to keep himself from calling her just to ask what she told Jinwoon. For five days he succeeded and then he snapped. When he switched on the TV only to find a 2AM ad playing, he took it as a sign and picked up the phone to call her.

“What conversation?”

“The one with Jinwoon of course.”

“He was nice and understanding and said he was almost certain I’d say no but he that just had to make sure and not have any regrets.”

“Ah, so he bows out of the competition gracefully.”

“What competition?”

“The competition for Seo Joo Hyun’s heart.” He says in a cheesy DJ tone and she shrieks into the mouthpiece. “Why do I hear seagulls all of a sudden?!”

“Ah Cham! So who’re the other competitors for my heart then?”

“Well if reports are to be believed there’s Junsu, Minho, Kyuhun, JungMo, Leeteuk, Changmin, Luhan and closer to home there’s Jungshin and Minhyuk although they seem to have given up ages ago.”

“I wonder why?” She says even as her tone seems to mean otherwise. “So those are all of my fanboys are they?”

“Well I might have missed out on a few.”

“Is that so?” She laughs and the sound is clear as bells.

They were flirting, he realises. The awkward couple were actually flirting and he almost wants someone to be there and bear witness to this most smooth banter that they were engaging in. Before he can say something more, Jungshin charges into his room.

“Hyung, Hyoyeon noona wants to talk to you...” He holds out his phone and Yonghwa makes a mental note to ask Jungshin exactly when he had become such close friends with Hyoyeon.

“Seohyun I’m going to call you back in a bit.” He says before turning to the phone that Jungshin had handed him gingerly.“Yobeosaeyo?”

“Yah Jung Seobang, just ask her out already!” It almost surprises Yonghwa that she could translate such loud exclamations into a whisper. Almost.

“What?!”

“We’re all listening to our maknae being coy and it is freaking us out! Just ask her out and put a stop to all this nonsense!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The sounds of the phone exchanging hands and whispered ouches fill his ears and he wonders what exactly Seohyun’s unnies were up to.

“Yonghwa-ssi.” Taeyeon’s calm voice sounds. The leader had taken matters into her hands. “You should know that we have been listening to both sides of the conversation. Just a heads up, when Seohyun says ‘Is that so’ what she really means is ‘Say that you’re on that list of guys too and ask me out right now before I pick Kyuhun as the one who gets to wine and dine me’.” She had just managed to say her piece when the clang of doors being slid shushed her.

“Unnie? Why are you all in my closet?!”

“This is for your own good Seohyun-ah!”

“Just ask her out!!!” Hyoyeon yells, before the line goes dead.

“What kind of family did you marry into Hyung?” Jungshin asks, clucking his tongue as leaves his dumbstruck band leader alone.

Fifteen minutes later Yonghwa leaves the dorm wearing his ‘I don’t want to be recognised in public’ disguise. From where Jungshin is seated, he heard random mutterings of ‘Kyuhun’, ‘Like Hell’ and ‘Over my dead body’.

“I’m going out. Don’t wait up.”He yells out one last time before storming out the front door.

Meanwhile Jungshin texts “Plan B: success” to the lead dancer of a certain nine member girl group.

Because those two really needed that push.

***

Oh I love you, love you ,love you

Author�s note: Apparently when you can�t sleep you write stuff and then have no recollection of it. A late,late post about Hyun�s reaction to the Juniel MV.

With an impish smile on his face Jung Yonghwa hits speed dial number 2 on his phone (his mum is obviously first on his speed dial) and waits for the caller tune of Lovelight to fade into her voice.

“Yoboseyo?”

“So did you watch it?”

“Watch what?”

“My MV with Juniel! Don’t tell me you’re too jealous to watch it!” He snickers and across the ocean Seohyun rolls her eyes. Once a choding, always a choding.

“Actually we’ve been practicing non-stop here. We’re taking a short break, and then it’s back to rehearsal. I haven’t had the time yet but I’ll make sure to watch it the mi

nute I open my laptop. Oppa fighting!” She ends cutely and through the phone Yonghwa hears a man’s voice saying ‘Thank you Seohyun?’ and listens as she laughs in return and explains she’s on the phone with someone.

It’s his intention to make her jealous and maybe hear her blow air through her nose over the phone, instead he finds himself turning green, envious of the oppas over there with her who get to make her laugh even when she’s so busy that she doesn’t have the time to check out his video.

“Seohyun-ah who exactly are you rehearsing with?” He asks, his Busan accent coming out and a small part of her brain whispers ‘Yong-choding!’ and gushes. She would never admit it but she loves it when he gets jealous and loves it even more when he speaks in satoori.

“Just Changmin-oppa listening in on other people’s conversation.” She says pointedly enough for him to realise that it is directed more towards the infamous evil maknae than him. He remembers the TV show he had watched a few days ago and how she had fed the aforementioned Changmin oppa and chosen him in her list of ideal types and jealousy rears its ugly head again. “But I’ll make sure to watch your MV okay! Hyoyeon-unnie is probably going to shove it in my face anyhow; look there she comes with her iPad. Oh she wants to watch it together, I’ll call you once we’re done watching it okay!”She says and cuts the call.

He spends two hours waiting desperately for her to call again. It isn’t that long a clip anyway, he can’t understand why it’s taking her so long to call. Finally he falls asleep with his phone in hand on the sofa clutching the dog they bought together in his arms.

“It’s not fair!” She says hours and hours later when she finally calls from the airport at LAX and his brows furrow in confusion.

“What?”

“Your MV.I watched it. Why is it that when you sing with Juniel they just think ‘Oh she’s such a good singer and he looks so handsome and hot!’ but when it’s me with you ‘Oh she’s a slut and people need to stop connecting the two of them together’?” He can hear her pout through the phone and he wonders if he should be happy that she wants to be connected to him or sad that she has nothing to say about the actual video.

“It’s always difficult to accept that your idol has a deep and meaningful connection to someone that you cannot compete with, at all. They’re threatened by you but Juniel is just a girl from the same company so...” She doesn’t seem convinced but he’s far too impatient to know what she thinks about him.”So what did you think about the MV?”

“Ah jeongmal!” He imagines her crossing her arms as she sits on an airport seat and smiles. She may be the SNSD member who has changed the most, but she’s still the same in so many ways, it amazes him.”I didn’t like it. The song was so soft and the imagery was so rough. Trucks on a hot sunny day when you’re singing a light, light song about love? The video doesn’t fit it at all. And I’m from SM, I know all about videos that don’t fit the songs.”

“Really, that’s all you noticed? The fact that the video didn’t fit the song.” He says disappointed and unknown to him, she starts grinning brightly knowing that he’s looking for praise for his increased ‘hotness’ or at least a brief mention of his arms.

“Well Hyoyeon-unnie thinks you worked out so much and now you look like you want to be a 2PM member. Then Sica-unnie said that it’s not just 2PM members who have good bodies but 2AM members also and that if I wanted a beefcake boyfriend I shoul

d have just gone for Jinwoon. Sooyoung-unnie thinks your back looks much more sexy now, Yuri-unnie wants to know what your exercise regime is, Yoona-unnie says that Jang Geun Suk-ssi can’t look at the video without laughing and Sunny-unnie, Fany-unnie and Taeyeon-unnie all looked like they want to do things to you.”She says all that in one breath and stops to catch her breath while trying to imagine what his face might look like. It takes a few minutes for it to register in Yonghwa’s mind that she had mentioned everyone but herself.

“And what about Seo Joo Hyun? What does she think?”

“Well...”She leans forward in her seat and her voice gets huskier and Yonghwa find himself gulping ,“She thinks she’s already seen much more than that so it’s all very nice but nothing new.”

Back in Seoul, the CNBlue members enter their dorm only to find their fearless leader red-faced and tugging at the collar of his shirt.

And so it happens that he starts to count the hours until she’s back home.

***

Weddings,wallpaper and non-goguma cake.

He stares at the picture from her newest CF,one where she�s dressed up as a bride and looks just as stunning as she did that winter day when he first saw her in a wedding dress.

"One day you’ll be wearing a wedding dress again and it won’t just be some rental but something that’ll hang in our closet for years until our daughter grows up and you show her your dress and she oohs and ahs while we tell her the story of how her parents met."

"Really?"

"Yup I have it all planned out" He says smugly, knocking their shoulders together and she holds back a giggle raising her eyebrows as if to say �Oh really?�.

"Is it a spring wedding or a fall wedding?"

"Winter of course, on the anniversary of the day you first wore a wedding dress." He says with relish.

"What flowers are there? There are flowers right?"

"Roses.Definitely roses, they�re more wedding-y.Lilies belong in funerals."

"Is it in a church or an outdoor location?Is it going to be a small wedding or a big one, oh oh what are our vows going to be?! Will they be the traditional ones or are we going to write them ourselves? Who’ll be the best man and the maid of honour?" She quizzes him and he is reminded of a day when she had a million questions to ask him written down in that white diary of hers.

"Yah it can’t just be me deciding everything. The bride has to have some input too!"

"You mean you don’t know?" She whispers in mock surprise and he leans in closer, grinning wide when he sees her blush.

"Know what?"

"Well we have a big fight over what to paint our new home of course. You want it to be gold and silver and luxurious and I want a pastel coloured house that doesn’t hurt our daughter’s eyes when we first bring her home. So we decide that you get to pick eveyrthing for the wedding and I pick the house." She says and he just knows she�s seeing it in her head so clearly .His grin widens to a point that it�s almost painful because when Seo Joo Hyun sees something in her future so clearly it will surely happen.

"As long as our bedroom has leopard print bed sheets."

"Two sets of sheets.The ones underneath shall be pale pink and the ones on top leopard print." He bites his lip, holding back the innuendo that was raring to tumble past his mouth and when she blushes a few seconds later he knows that she�s realised it too and it feels so good to have corrupted the most innocent maknae so.

"Deal."

"Oh and this time you can’t be there when I pick the dress. Apparently it’s bad luck to see the bride in her wedding dress before the wedding. The last time we picked out the dress together we got divorced a few months later."

"Okay but then no goguma wedding cake. It’ll be chocolate and coffee flavoured instead. But instead of the bride and groom toppers we have a pair of goguma shaped toppers where one wears a bowtie and the other wears a veil." When she lifts an eyebrow incredulously he pouts, leaping to his own defense. "Whaaat?! We can really do that, I saw it on a TV show once!"

"This’ll be the best wedding ever."

"So tell your unnies and clear your schedule for January 2017.We have a wedding to go to."

They exchanged giddy smiles imagining their impending wedding,but Seohyun�s grin suddenly turned mischievous.

"Okay but you do realise that the day I first wore a wedding dress was more than six months before January, on the album cover for TRAX. I guess we won�t be having a winter wedding after all."

"YAH!"

***

The strange things that happen when Seohyun can�t sleep

Author�s note: It started off as I grew increasingly confused by the schedules that Seohyun had, because one minute there�s a TV show with her on it, the next she�s at San Francisco airport, I cannot imagine how tiring that must be and I had just about finished writing it when I found an adorable fan cam from SMTown LA with Minho and Seohyun in it and could only imagine how Yonghwa would react to it. Please forgive if it feels choppy and confusing but do not forget to mention if it does. If I�m going to write Yongseo I might as well do it properly, after

all.Oh and to all the people who commented on the earlier posts, thank you so much! I would reply to them but I get a bit wonky when conversing online and have promised to abstain from it.

Face scrubbed bare, lime green glasses resting low on her nose and lips devoid of the lip-gloss she’s so fond of she stands on the path along her beloved Han river, looking tired as hell and not even the most dedicated fan would have recognised her to be SNSD’s famous maknae Seohyun. But he isn’t a fan, he is Jung Yonghwa, singer-songwriter, guitar player and boyfriend extraordinaire, and he thinks she looks lovely even as she’s close to tears.

“I can’t sleep.” She says and the distress in her voice tugs at his heart as he pulls her into his arms.

She cries exhaustedly and in between hiccups tells him how she’s so tired it hurts but she just can’t sleep and he pats her head, swaying her gently. In no time at all the sobs die down, the quiver in her body stills and he realises he has an armful of adorable, sleeping Seo Joo Hyun. A voice croons in his head saying there were many men in the world who could lead her in a choreographed number with her but only one who could slow dance her to sleep and he smiles proudly. A passerby looks at him strangely only to smile as Seohyun sighs and cuddles deeper into his embrace but it is enough to tell him that it is time to leave and he bundles her across his back, piggybacking her to the car.

He straps her into the passenger seat and drives to her parent’s home only belatedly realising he has never met her parents before and to do so in the middle of the night while she was dead to the world in his arms was not an ideal situation. When he presses down on the bell he thinks it would have been a better idea to call Hyoyeon instead but by the time the thought has been registered the door swings open and a man who could not have been anyone but her father with those eyes, stood there staring him down. Yonghwa stands there for a whole minute without realising that he should probably hand her over to him and almost throws her towards her father in panic, jolting her briefly awake from her sleep.

“Huh, wah?” she says softly but falls back asleep when she sees her father there.

“Please, sit.” Her father says moving to allow him into the house and even though he wants to run away(or at least wake up Seohyun) the tone brooks no argument and he sits on the couch like a chastised puppy while her father moves Seohyun to her room.

It is a quiet, homey house and the slight clutter is a reflection of their former Sangdo-dong home. On the end table are sheets of piano music and he sees that one has Seohyun’s own scribbles on them and just knows that she is writing a song, she’s been humming an odd tune for days now but before he can take a closer look though Seohyun’s Dad comes out. His palms are almost as sweaty as they were when he asked Seohyun out for real and he wishes she were here to ease his nerves.

The stern countenance he was expecting never appeared. Instead Seohyun’s Dad smiled slightly at him and he was shocked by how much like her he looked.

“She has your eyes and smile.” He blurts out and lowers his head immediately, chiding himself in his mind.

“You’re not going to tell me that my eyes sparkle are you? I like whatever I’ve heard about you so far but my affection does not stretch that much.”

Yonghwa laughs and finds the cloud hanging over his head gone replaced by giddiness instead. The fact that Seohyun talks about him to her parents is enough to send him to cloud nine and it is with a giant grin he faces his former father-in-

law.

“She talks about me?!”

“She talks about you lot. At first I was surprised that rapper Hyun really existed. And then there are the bits I hear from her sisters. Hyoyeon especially had a lot to say.” He starts to say but notices that Yonghwa’s eyes keep on straying to the music sheets. “Ah yes, my daughter has taken up song-writing. But you can imagine her mother’s dismay when she tries it out on her guitar rather than the piano.” Yonghwa knows he’s talking about the guitar he gave her on their last day on WGM, the deep pink guitar she could never use in front of her fans but plays all the time nonetheless.

“It would probably be better if we met again while my wife and daughter are both awake at a more formal setting don’t you think? I would ask if you would like to have something to drink but I expect you have to leave soon. Not to mention I need to go back to sleep as well.” As if sensing Yonghwa’s restlessness, he gives him an excuse to leave and Yonghwa all but leaps at the chance.

“Ah-yes, of course! I’m sorry for imposing like this.”

Her father walks him out the door.“Next time just remember the spare key is under that fire extinguisher” he says, pointing at the red device in a box on the side, “ and the pass code is Seohyun’s personal phone number. You already have that I’m sure.” With a pat on the back, the door closes and Yonghwa finds himself alone in the hallway. He checks if the key is really there and walks all the way back to the car in a state of bliss.

“Why is he so happy?”Jungshin asks Minhyuk, the two of watch from the sofa as Yonghwa waltzed into the dorm humming ‘Love girl’ under his breath, practically skipping into his room.

“He went to meet Hyungsoonim today.”

“I guess he hasn’t seen the SM Town fan cams yet.”

“Why?”

“Minho and Seohyun had a moment in the finale.”

“Really?”

“Yup, he messed with her hair and she messed right back. It was nauseatingly cute.”

“Huh.” Jungshin thinks it over while Minhyuk continued staring at the TV. “You don’t think it has anything to do with her saying that he isn’t the only one with cute label-mates is it? When he started being a choding and teasing her because of the Juniel MV?”

“Probably.”

“How long before he finds out?”

“He’s probably looking her up as we speak.”

“So, half an hour?”

“Less.”

A few minutes later Yonghwa’s curses fill the dorm.

“Told you.”

***

The Invincible youth of Hyun and Yong

They don’t expect to meet so soon after having mc-ed together not so long ago. In all honesty even that one chance was strange and unexpected, honestly who would have thought they would be reunited again, especially on a channel that was most definitely not MBC.

Nonetheless, there they stand in the windy, fishing village hiding behind a screen, waiting for their name to be called out.

“So, who invited you?” It was invincible youth’s friend’s special and she was there by invitation of Hyoyeon who guilts her into it saying she missed her, but it was difficult to figure out what connection he had to any of the girls there.

“Suzy called. Minho is busy preparing for the Japanese tour and I’ve been involved in so many scandals it’s almost safe to invite me.” He says with a wry grin on his lips. He would have said a bit more were it not for the mics that were already fitted onto them. So Yonghwa just watched her consider his statement with all the stillness in the world. “Plus I’m the only one who was free.” he says reminding her of the fact that he was in the middle of a much overdue vacation.

“That makes sense.”

“I just hope they don’t give me the cow punishment again.” He shudders at the thought of the tongue creeping around his head and she suppresses a grin. Jungshin hadn’t been able to sleep that night and the two had drowned their horrors in coffee (tea for him).”Or make me do fieldwork. That one time planting and harvesting gogumas was enough.”

She nods in agreement. Hyoyeon had made many a seemingly idle threat to turn her into cow fodder if she sang in the car again and Seohyun did not want to give her a chance to carry it out.

“They sure are taking their own sweet time calling us out.” By the sound of things Hyomin was making a fuss over Sunny getting her name confused with Hyorin who was laughing her butt off.

“I bet you two gogumas they are going to edit it to look like we were taking our own sweet time here so they can use it to make a love line later on.”

“I bet you five gogumas it’s actually going to be a love triangle between Suzy, you and me. Just like that episode of Family outing with Fany-unnie, Yoona-unnie and Taecyeon-ssi.” She says with an excited clap and the ponytail she has her hair in swishes. He looks so good in the white shirt and jeans her very being sings and her cheeks are stained so red from all the blood rushing there, not even the make-up manages to cover it. Her heart is in her throat and an adrenaline rush sweeps through her and she feel like she’s on stage again.

They put their pinkies together like they did the day they first met and the staff listening in on the conversation wondered where the awkwardness they had been hoping for had gone.

“I saw the episode with you and Jungshin-chingu. You both got raped.” Her eyes went so wide he couldn’t help but smile. “The other members now think that Suzy makes me look normal.”

“Nothing will ever make you look normal Hyu-un.”

She pouts, he grins and a silence takes over.

“Want to pull a runner?” He asks like a child wanting to play truant, when the silence and the wait gets to him. His eyes shine the way he claims hers do when she pretends to think it over.

“Your fans might think I’m kidnapping you.” She says honestly and a part of him thinks it might just be true, but before he can say anything Shinyoung calls out Seohyun’s name and she walks away with a whispered ‘fighting’ that’ll probably give him a week of giddy happiness.

“I owe you five gogumas.” He sits down next to her during one of the breaks, hoping the presence of her unnies around them will deter the comments from flying. She was right, under the writer unnies instructions Shinyoung makes those insinuations about Suzy, Seohyun and Yonghwa but between the shared pretence of obliviousness the two girls manage to stump all possibilities of love lines. When at one point they link arms and tell Hyoyeon and Yonghwa they’re exchanging partners, he ruins the entire scene by laughing at the one writer who starts gnawing at the script in her hands angrily. It makes for a better show then they expect and the producer has a ball of a time working with the girl power concept they have going on, drawing comparisons between him and Boom both being unwanted, that should make his ego hurt but has him laughing instead and he realises how much he misses filming with her.

“Plant them in a goguma field again!” She laughs. “My birthday’s coming up!”

“So is mine.”

“Oh, what are you doing for Minhyuk’s birthday? He says whenever he asks you that question you all start laughing weird.” She imitates the khekhekhe laugh he used to do whenever he had a surprise for her and grabs the attention of Hyoyeon on whose shoulder she had been resting her head.

“I want in on it.” Hyoyeon chimes in and just like that the three Soshi members gang up on him and déjà vu strikes. Sunny is scary enough to make up for the loss of Taeyeon and Tiffany and when Shinyoung joins in, he thinks it might just be a replica of the day they moved into their Sangdo-dong home.

Soon all the G8 and their guests (or is it G6? He can never tell when girls are in a herd like this) join in on the conversation and the cloud of awkwardness that had been hanging over the set broke.

A voice in his voice croons proudly that it was the awkward couple who broke the strange feeling in the group and his smile grows into the cheek bursting smile he was known for.

When the PD pairs Hyoyeon, Suzy, Yonghwa and her on one team it takes her all the mind control in the world to stop herself from rolling her eyes at him and instead grabs Suzy by the arm while Hyoyeon and Yonghwa brag about all the killer intent oozing from their team and boo the rest. They play charades and between exclamations of telepathy and unfairness, bulldoze the competition .All four are in sync and in a single moment of excitement he grabs her hand jubilantly (her heart stops) and realise the hopes of the writers.

“Ya, here we all are trying to play games and you two are being lovey-dovey and holding hands!” Boom exclaims and Shinyoung and the rest join in with the ribbing.

“Since they got divorced they manhandle each other more easily.”Sunny says shaking her head disappointedly and Suzy leaps to their defence.

“You and Bora were the ones manhandling him last time trying to get his pants off!” Boom shifts away from Shinyoung remembering the last time he had been violated.

“Aniya, uri maknae would never marry a person with such crazy hair, this is some other Jung Yonghwa.” Hyoyeon says poking floppy mop of hair Yonghwa boasts, ignoring his protests. Only when Seohyun reminds them that there is a mission to be fulfilled do they stop dilly-dallying and rush to the semi that they are supposed to take to the next location written on the mission card (it takes her less than one minute to figure it out) and when the driver takes his own sweet time to start the truck Hyoyeon pushes him over one seat and tells Seohyun to take the wheel.

“I can drive trucks too.” He whines only to be ignored while his ex-wife drives with expertease amidst Suzy’s exclamation of how cool her new unnie is.

“I’m a truck driving Busan namja too...”He mumbles in satoori and the only one to catch it is Seohyun who laughs and looks at him, sulking in the corner looking like the Yong choding she knows and loves.

And just like that the hands driving the truck go into auto-pilot while her brain pulls the proverbial brake. The thought of loving Jung Yonghwa comes out of nowhere and shocks her and she wonders how she missed that little fact. True, her unnies have been trying to push this down her throat for ages but she hadn’t thought it possible. Jung Yonghwa and Seo Joo Hyun were friends. Very good friends but friends nonetheless. Only now when she looks back upon their many interactions with the new found knowledge that she loves him does she realise the copious amounts of subtext they were dealing in.

The light bulb goes off and she decides then and there to put all the cards on the table. After all how hard can it be to confess you love someone?

Apparently very hard, she realises as the two stand facing each other in the car park of her parent’s apartment, where she asks to talk to him once filming has ended. In fact the words don’t leave her mouth at all and the strangled sound she makes worries him and he asks if he should call her parents.

“No, no this is between you and I. Us. We both. The two of us. Jung Yonghwa and Seo Joo Hyun.” She says trailing off at the end and her heart leaps up into her throat again. “We are friends. Good friends. Technically there is no us.” She chokes out before hyperventilating a little bit. It doesn’t help that he runs his hand over her back patting gently in concern. She breathes out deeply before saying it the best she could. “So I think I might like you a lot.”

“I like you a lot too. That’s why we’re friends.” He ignores the little voice in his head that says they could be so much more.

“No I like you like you. The way married people like each other. Well happily married people at least.” And the cheek bursting grin comes back in full force and the light-headedness that she experiences has nothing to do with the fact that she’s holding her breath and everything to do with how happy he looks, thank God!

“I like you like you too.” He says and all is right in their Gochun world.

***

Gifts and Threats

“Annyeong Yong-nampyeon!”A giggle bursts out from one mouth while a grin settles on the other.

“Annyeong Hyun-buin!”

It was customary to greet each other by the monikers they had used during their marriage when they were alone. Yonghwa was happy again to see the cheerful girl he knew rather than the respectful woman she has to be when eyes were on them.

“So are you finally going to see me in concert?” She teases even though she knows he probably wouldn’t be able to.

“We have to. We can’t miss out on a good friend’s concert like that now can we?” He said with that glint in his eyes that seemed to resurface around her so much. “Besides, CN Blue has tickets to SM Town courtesy of Lee Jonghyun’s budding bromance with Kim Jonghyun.”

“Eyy...” She drags out that word and her nose scrunches up a bit before relaxing again. “So did you get me anything?”

It was one of the things he had learnt about her. She loved getting presents because they were some of the few things she owned. Most of the time the things SNSD used were sponsored, in all honesty she owned very few things except pyjamas and the gifts the fans gave them. Even then most things were shared with her eight unnies, the only things off limit were the things given to her by her Yong Nampyeon.

“’So did you get me anything?’ ” He imitated her in a high pitched voice only to be hit on the shoulder. “Yah! And they think I’m the choding.”

“And what you did right now proves that you aren’t?” She says almost falling over in laughter. “Now come on hand it over.”

“What my heart? But you already have it...” He said in a tone dripping with cheese and fluff and the things dramas are made of and watched her nose crinkle and her hands curl up. “He pulls out

And this is from me.”

A small box filled with a packet of oolong tea, a plastic dragon (they never did stop collecting things for their avatar theme) and a quill pen.

“Now you can pretend you go to Hogwarts.”

“Ha, shows what you know. Dragons aren’t allowed to be kept as pets in Hogwarts, Yong!”

She flailed her arms around happily and he laughed.

“So...”

“So...”

“How is your guitar practice coming along?”

“It’s good. Jungmo oppa said that he’s going to teach me Tool’s Schism before he enlists.”

“Yah!”

“What? I can’t very well bundle up and sneak out every day to get guitar lessons from you now can I.”

“You learn from Jungmo hyung every day?!”

“It was just a figure of speech!”She pushed him with her hip and the hand on her shoulder gripped tighter. “Look at you all jealous. It reminds me of the time Jungshin was teaching me how to play the bass. You were so cute all huffy and weird like that!”

“You think that’s cute huh?” She just giggled a bit more. “There I was nervous as hell because I just realised I liked you and all of a sudden there was Jungshin with his cool bass and pretty, pretty Jonghyun and Minhyuk with his eye smile, all of them stealing your attention away from me.”

“Well I think guitar is cooler than bass, pretty is overrated and eye smiles, well after living with Tiffany for years you become a bit immune to them.”

“Hyun when did you start liking me?”

“When you got me my first guitar. And I didn’t even realise it until much later on, when you started your mildang. Then I swore a lot. It took a lot of convincing to stop Jessica-unnie from storming over to your dorm and essentially beating you up.”

“I knew I was going to be a bad influence on you.” He said once the shock wore off.

"Kanpeki no bad girl yo"

“The twinkle, twinkle.”

“That’s Fany-unnie’s line.”

“But I only ever hear you.”The cheesy tone was back and got a laugh in return.

“So I hear you’re producing a song for FNC’s newest prodigy. Should I be worried?”

“Worried?” Jealous would be better, he thought, watching you blow air through your nose makes me want to hug you and make it all better.

“Well going from past experiences you tend to start dating co-workers that you write songs for.”

“That’s just one experience. Besides which, I don’t know if you heard but I was married to that girl.”

“I hear that was a fake marriage.” She stage whispers leaning closer to him and it takes all the mind control she tells him about to stop himself from pulling her into his arms.

“You sure hear a lot of things.”

“One of the many perks of being in the same company as Heechul and Key oppa.”She says in that omniscient manner he has become increasingly familiar with. “I also hear

that there are some toned arms and truck drivers involved in the MV.”

“How do they know all this? But yes there are toned arms,” He ran his hand, childishly proud, over an arm clad in the plain black sweater his mother had knitted him (‘To go with the grey scarf you made’ she had said) “And yes there is truck driving.”

“Hmm. So who did the driving? As I recall you failed the test many, many times and barely got the license. So who’s really doing the driving there Yo-ong oppa?” She ends her sentence with that teasing lilt that he has come to recognise as her aegyo. A cheek bursting smile appears on his face knowing that he was the only one who ever would and she giggles as if she can read his mind.

“No but seriously how bad is it going to be. Last time Sunny unnie was going to stab you just because you said you wanted to get to know Suzy better. And that was after she calmed down!”

His sisters in law were crazily overprotective of their maknae he knew, but nothing had prepared him for the aura of doom that had surrounded Sunny when she cornered him after the shooting of Invincible Youth but it was probably that very overprotective shield that had kept their youngest the innocent she was so he was thankful at the same time.

“It’s going to be bad enough. If it makes them feel any better Juniel is in a committed relationship, as am I.I wish they would remember that.”

“My unnies have seen enough of this world of entertainment to know not all is what it seems. They shall be suspicious until you put a ring on my finger. Actually I think Taeyeon unnie might be suspicious even after that.”

“Such little trust in Yong Seobang.”

“Probably the reason why I’m not scared about you and Juniel. You don’t go through all the trials set by my many unnies and Leeteuk oppa,” She continued ignoring the proclamation of ‘ajhussi’ badly disguised as a cough “only to ditch me for a person you could have been with all along. That would be a stupid thing to do.”

“And I’m not stupid.”

“Neither am I. Oh and if you give me a reason to be worried, they will never find your body.”

“What?!”His mouth falls open and he laughs again. The innocent maknae of Sonyuh Shidae, threatening to kill him.

"Kanpeki no bad girl yo"

***

Of wives, ex-wives and award shows

“Yonghwa you are the luckiest man in the world.” The abrupt statement was not the best thing to wake up to. Well it was but perhaps if the voice had been sweeter, more feminine, perhaps calling him oppa in that voice he had grown to love it would be but not when it was Lee Joon aka Changsun calling him up to tell him that at eight in the morning after late night band practice.

“What are you talking about?” He said blearily yawning, still half asleep and got up only to flop back down on the bed again. It was way too early for this.

“Your wife dude!” And he was up in a second.

“What wife?”

“Your wife, Seohyun remember.”

“You mean ex-wife.”

“Yeah her, she is so amazing!”

“She is but how do you know that?” Yonghwa asked suspiciously.

“We just had our first rehearsals.”

“Rehearsals for what?”

“We’re hosting the MBC awards together remember!”

“When did this happen?”

“Ages ago, you really need to keep up with the news, don’t you keep an eye on your wife?”

“Ex-wife.”

“Yeah yeah whatever, but seriously man she is so gorgeous.”

“Aren’t you the one who is married right now?”

“Even my Haetnim would try her luck if she knew she had a chance with someone from the Soshi.”

“...Your Haetnim?”

“Yeah... uh.... well it’s like-“

“Oh I can understand what it’s like.” Yonghwa said with a grin that his friend could hear in his voice. “Just take care of her okay?”

“Which her are you talking about?”

“My ex-wife. If I have to tell you to take care of your own wife then that marriage isn’t going to end well.”

“You mean like yours ended so well? Tell me did you even ask her out when your stint in WGM ended?”

“That’s none of your business Changsun.”

“Well maybe I want to try my luck with her, is it my business then?” Yonghwa knew he was just joking but his hackles rose nonetheless.

“If I get the slightest inkling of anything between you and Seo Joo Hyun your Haetnim will be the first to know about, now she’s supposed to be a bit scary isn’t she?”

“Relax I’m just kidding.” The man known as Lee Joon trailed off at the end. “Unless-”

“Don’t even go there.” Yonghwa said sternly melting a bit when a clearly female, clearly tired form made its way into his room and settled down into the crook of his

neck with a sigh. “Just a second.” He said shifting the phone so it couldn’t listen in on the other conversation. “You okay?” He asked the person who was splayed out on him with dark smudges under her eyes. He couldn’t tell if it was makeup or she was just tired.

“I’m fine. Just tired. What about you?”

“I’m fine, did you have fun?”

“It was fun but it’s a big event I don’t know if I can handle it. I’m glad the others are to help me out. Anyway I can’t be as bad as you were.” She said smiling mischievously at her last words and peeked through one open eye to see his reaction. He huffed and puffed jokingly but dropped a kiss on her forehead.

“Go to sleep.” He whispered into her ear and she closed her eyes and snuggled deeper and he went back to the call. “Hello?”

“Where did you run off to?”

“I’ll have to call you back later Changsun, I’m a bit busy right now.” Just before he cut the call though he couldn’t help himself and added something to warn the other man off, just in case. “By the way, Seohyun says she had fun too.”

Ignoring the squawking at the other end Yonghwa cut the call and leaned back against the pillow.

Life, he decided, was good.

***

Of co-stars and ink stains

“Hey Hyoyeon, is Hyun here?” He said sinking into the couch at the Soshi dorm with a sigh when Hyoyeon nods and goes to get the maknae.

Jung Yong Hwa was having a bad day. His new song got rejected by FNC for sounding too generic, Jungshin and Minhyuk were fighting over the high score in the video game and the argument had blown into a full scale fistfight, Jonghyun was sulking over the fact that his new guitar’s neck had snapped because of some problems while in transit back from Japan and Yonghwa hadn’t seen Seohyun in weeks because she was too busy with her drama with Jinwoon and Changmin! He darkly wondered what genius had thought to pair those three together and conveniently forgot to add him.

“Yong?! What are you doing here?!” And all of a sudden there stood his precious Seo Joo Hyun, a vision in..... two tightly braided pigtails, strangely askew red glasses, ink stains on her face(how did they even get there?!) and a pen stuck behind her ear?

“BWAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA!!!!!!” All of a sudden all his problems disappeared, an untidy, ink stained, pigtailed Seo Joo Hyun?! That was fricking gold!

“Unnie! You didn’t tell me it was Yong oppa, I thought it was Jinwoonie or Changmin Oppa!” She screeched at Hyoyeon who had taken her cue from Yonghwa and begun laughing as well. Seohyun ran off into her room coming out soon with open hair, contact lenses and a clean albeit red face.

“You caught me at a bad time.” She said sheepishly once Yonghwa had stopped laughing, but that one look was all it took to set him off into peals of laughter, even Jessica had woken up and come out of her room to see what the commotion was. Once she saw him laughing so hard he had managed to somehow roll onto the floor while Hyoyeon grinned like the cat that got the cream and Seohyun looked on exasperated she left the house as quickly as possible, she did not need to around for this!

“Glad you’re enjoying yourself.” Seohyun said sarcastically once he wiped the tears of laughter and sat back onto the couch next to her and drew her into his arms much to the consternation of Hyoyeon who was on the other side of Seohyun. She rolled her eyes and left the two lovebirds alone muttering darkly to herself.

“Oh Seo Joo Hyun, what would I possibly do without you?” He said and kissed her noisily on the cheek and she narrowed her eyes wiping her face brusquely.

“Choding!”

“Says the girl who wore pigtails.”

“Aish that was only because I wasn’t expecting you!”

And with those words he sobered up. “Ah yes, what’s this I hear about Changmin and Jinwoon coming over to see you?”

“Not to see me, to practise our lines, we are acting in a drama together you know.”

“I know, and you were okay with them seeing you like that but not me?”

“Well, yes, I’m not dating them after all.” And he thanked the Gods for that every day.

“Oh Joo Hyun-ah, don’t you know?” When she looked at him inquisitively he leaned in further. “I’m the only one who gets to see you like that. You can’t let strange men see you in your most natural state, that’s a husband’s right!”

“Is that so?” She says impudently an eyebrow flying up into her bangs and he’s enchanted once again.

“Yup.” He says and leans in for a kiss only to fall over when she gets up and moves away , “And just where are you going?” He grabs her arm and pulls her back onto the couch.

“I have to go get all dolled up of course, I can’t let them see me like this, come on oppa, you can even help me pick which clothes make me look the best for Changmin oppa and Jinwoonie.” She smiles impishly.

“Yah, SeoHyuy!”

***

Seo Joo Hyun�s Diary

Seo Joo Hyun’s Diary

Day 1

1. Leave for SMTown concert

2. Read English book on flight.

3. Make notes on differences in translated Korean verion

4. Ask Tiffany-Unnie to help in pronunciation

5. Land at airport

6. Rehearshals

7. Call Yong Oppa before sleeping

8. Sleep

Day 2

1. Brief rehearsals

2. Socialize during breaks

3. Try to talk more to Exo members

4. Lunch with fellow performers

5. Perform/Celebratory dinner etc

6. Call Yong Oppa and say sorry for not calling last night. Cite time zone differences/jet lag as a reason.

7. Sneak out for with Tiffany-unnie to buy presents

8. Sleep

Day 3

1. Think about the time zone differences

2. Rehearsals

3. Lunch with SMTown members/Practice chords

4. Perform/Celebratory dinner

5. Try to catch Yong Oppa’s new MV

6. Die from overexposure to Yong Seobang’s hotness (Unnie stay away from my diary!)

7. Keep Hyoyeon unnie from writing things in diary

8. Call Yonghwa Oppa to discuss aforementioned MV

9. Pack Bags

10. Sleep

Day 4

1. Wear sunglasses at the airport to hide dark circles caused by watching MV on repeat all night long

2. Prevent Unnies from reading diary and making comments about other things that happen all night long

3. Whine about MV to unnies while waiting for the flight

4. Think about Yong during flight

5. Lament loss of a day due to time zone differences upon landing

6. Sleep

Day 5

1. Go visit Mum and Dad

2. Answer Mum and Dad’s questions about Yong

3. Whine about how they only ask about him now and they’ve forgotten about their daughter

4. Call Yong

5. Make Yong talk to Mum and tell her that he’s fine

6. Laugh when Mum teases him about his new MV

7. Wonder why Yong showed up at parent’s place out of the blue

8. Recover from shock of being asked to marry him

9. Recover from the ear damage when Mum called the unnies and they all squealed like crazy people

10. Recover from Dad’s lecture on how Yonghwa is a good guy and he’d be okay (not happy, no man is ever happy to give his daughter away) if he had to to give you away to him.

11. Try to sleep

12. Fail to sleep and blame it on Yong

Day 6

1. Call Yong

2. Tell him yes

3. Act surprised when he shows up at the dorm

4. Call every single person on contact list and tell them of the upcoming YongSeo nuptials

5. Live happily ever after

***

Of 1000th days and sly husbands

Hyoyeon stomped into Jessica’s room, dropped onto the bed next to the girl who was calmly colouring her nails and screamed into the giant pillow.

“They’re still being nauseatingly cute huh?” Jessica asks holding her hands at a distance to see if the colour looked good. It did seem to be a bit too pink though.

“Oh, it’s gotten worse, they’re singing again, it’s like a musical!” She scowled and lowered her voice trying to imitate their erstwhile brother in law’s singing, “Seo Joo Hyun please come out quick!”

“At least the guitars aren’t out yet.” Jessica comforts her nudging the smaller girl to put her hands out so she could paint them as well.

Soon enough Taeyeon and Tiffany entered the room and for those brief moments when the door was open they heard the sound of strumming guitars drifting through. The door was shut with a thud and the two girls sat down with a huff next to Hyoyeon while Jessica wheeled around on her computer chair.

“And now the guitars are out.” Hyoyeon sighs and leans back to skulk. Just when she thought things couldn’t get any worse.

“Ooh I want that nail colour.” Tiffany says eyes gleaming at the newly painted nails and Jessica knew then that it was far too pink. She exchanged a glance with Hyoyeon and the two set out with the remover while handing the enamel over to Tiffany.

“Kill me.” Taeyeon says knowing she was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

“Why are you all in my room though?” Jessica asks when one by one all the other girls also run into her room at the speed of light. “We have a living room the size of a soccer field remember?”

“We can still hear them there!” The YoonYul duo say in chorus.

“And in my room too.” Tiffany pouts while Taeyeon drops her head into her knees with a groan.

“Lucky Sunny, leaving before the love fest began,” Sooyoung grumbles.“Yours is the only one far away enough from them.”

“You guys really want to complain, I have to actually share the room with her!” Hyoyeon sobs and the others shoot her a sympathetic look.

“Want to go hang out at my new place?” Jessica says blowing on her nails distractedly only to look up when she felt the weight of seven pairs of eyes staring at her.

“YES!” They all said simultaneously and showered her with hugs and kisses of gratitude.

“Unnie?” Seohyun says softly as all of her sisters begin wrapping themselves up in coats and tugging on their shoes, clearly preparing to leave and go off somewhere.

“Hyun-ah, we’re just going to Sica’s place, we haven’t been there in such a long time, there’ll probably be a thick layer of dust on everything.” Hyoyeon said only to get shoved away by Jessica. “You two stay here and have fun, okay!”She continues brightly and before Seohyun could respond they were all out the door except for Jessica who stayed behind earning a fist bump from Yonghwa and giant hug from Seohyun.

“Happy 1000th day, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” She gave the maknae one last squeeze around the shoulders before leaving with a wave and smile.

Her Yong Nampyeon turned to her with a smirk. “I told you I could get them to leave us alone.”

Seohyun blinked wondering how such a ridiculous plan worked. Her unnies had refused to let their precious maknae alone with Yonghwa once they caught the two making out heavily in her room, not wanting him to ‘taint their baby girl with his wicked ways’. Apparently all it took was being horribly cheesy and romantic and having Sica unnie offer to take them away to get them to leave the two alone, who knew?

Well except Jung Yong Hwa of course.

“So,” Yong continued a lopsided grin taking over his face and on instinct she smiled too throwing her arms over his neck and pulling him closer.

“Happy 1000th day Yo~ong.

***

Of airport games and curious maknaes

It was a game they began playing once they began spending more and more time at the airport than anywhere else. A beep of the phone notified him of the text he had just received.

YN,

Landed at Incheon. Executive lounge, Second floor, First row, Third seat.

XOXO

HB

A grin broke out on his face and the long flight they were due seemed instantly more bearable.

“Passengers are requested to please switch off all mobile devices and await further announcement.” The short announcement was just in time now that he knew what was waiting for him upon arriving home. The grin grew wider and next to him Jungshin clucked his tongue in mock disapproval.

“One of these days you’re going to get caught Hyung and when that day comes I’ll be one of the many who said I told you so. Stop making it so obvious, last time you pulled your disappearing act when both of the groups were at the airport at the same time, all of the YongSeo fans went wild with speculation. You’re lucky they’re so discreet.”

“Oh my poor Jungshinnie, you have no idea what it takes to keep a relationship alive.” Yonghwa says, patting the maknae’s head patronisingly even as his mind ventured to thoughts of a different maknae in a different continent all together. “So how much time do you spend in all the fan forums?”

Jungshin skirted his eyes away clearing his throat before arching eyebrows disbelievingly.”I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh come on kid, you said it yourself, our fans are really discreet. So how did you come across this gem of a piece of information then?” The cocky statement accompanied by his signature khekhekhe laugh earned Yonghwa a scorned glance.

“Somebody had to make sure you don’t ruin our image.” He mumbles and another laugh is sounded. Jungshin hushed his leader, looking around to see if anyone had been disturbed.

“Don’t worry Goddess Jungshin, we don�t let anyone else in on our game.”

“Good.” He said sulking at having his scolding turned against him, taking the phone out of Yonghwa’s hands with a brief line about wanting to play Angry Birds. By then they were high over a wide blue expanse of ocean and the leader was distracted by the light pouring in through the small window.

‘So easily distracted, I bet if a penny dropped he’d be fascinated by how shiny it is’, Jungshin thought his hands flying over the screen, unlocking it only to find the last text showing on the screen.

“What’s the B and the N for?”

“Huh?” The great CNBlue leader turned away from the window at Jungshin’s query.

“The B in the HB and the N in YN, what does it stand for?”

“Buin and Nampyeon, of course.” He says as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world turning back to the view outside.

“So what was it last time?”For some reason Jungshin felt the need to have the leader’s attention all on himself and not on an ocean. Maybe it was the closed space, maybe the strange feeling of breathlessness from the thin air, or maybe he needed the distraction from the airhostesses whom he could hear discussing what conditioner the ‘tall, pretty boy’ uses.

“Hm?”

“The last time at the airport, when you got caught played hide and seek with the managers, what did she give you that ti-”

“Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We will be passing through an area of turbulence in a while, all passengers are requested to return to their seats immediately and observe the fasten seatbelt sign. We apologize for any inconvenience caused. Thank you.”

And their conversation was cut short as they scrambled to put the seat belts on again.

It was hours later when the plane was nearing the landing stage that Jungshin remembered that his question had gone unanswered.

“So what did she leave you the last time?”

“Last time was my turn to leave a little present for her.”

“What present?” Intrigue coloured Jungshin’s voice. Usually it was the other way around with the Girl’s Generation maknae leaving notes for their fearless leader who was distracted by anything and everything shiny.

“Just a little card.” He shrugs casually, unaffected by the intense curiosity Jungshin was displaying.

“Card? For what?”

“It was her mother’s birthday.” He says like it wasn’t that important, like it was everyday that you played games in an airport and left birthday greetings for your girlfriend’s mother.

Then again knowing how cheesy and sentimental Yonghwa could get, he probably did.

“So this time it’s...?”

“Her turn.” The smile on Yonghwa’s face comes unbidden at the thought of his Hyun Buin’s surprise waiting for him. This was their way then, of keeping the spark alive, their way of making up for the many dates they couldn’t have, all the anniversaries they could celebrate together. And it came from the very place that separated them so many times.

And then before they knew it they were on familiar ground and after a brief excursion (under the watchful eyes of an exasperated manager hyung of course) Yonghwa returned with a grin brighter than all the suns combined. They waved and grinned at the crowd awaiting them, the fans under the impression that the giant smile threatening to take over Yonghwa’s smile was because of them but his band mates knew better. When they caught him looking at that little scrap of paper with musical notes written on it (it was SarangBit Minhyuk realised as he read the neat handwriting over the leader’s shoulders) they exchanged knowing glances, knowing that he would be lost to the world for the next few hours replaying the chords in his mind over and over again.

It was good to be home.

***

Of Continents and serenades.

‘There is no better way I could have spent this day’, Yonghwa thought to himself while sitting across his parents and brother at the small coffee table in the secluded villa that they were vacationing in for the week of his birthday. It was just like all those family vacations he’d been on when he was a kid complete with whinging when his parents dragged him out to all the trails and the little ‘experiences’ that all hotels had to offer, all he was missing was the four unruly cousins who would pull sleeping bags from out of nowhere and jump on the mattress like kids. It would have been a perfect vacation really, ‘Except if Seohyun was here too’ he thought with a sigh that earned him an exasperated look from his mother.

“Didn’t you just talk to her? I swear one of these days I am going to get sick of hearing you pine for your girlfriend.” She said, peering over the cards she held as

they played the traditional vacation game of Uno.

Was he really that obvious that all it took was one look at him to let his mum know that he missed Hyun? He never could hide his emotions, probably the reason why his mum laughed at all his dramas and appearances on TV shows. ‘Mothers always know when their sons are lying’, she had said to him when he pouted at her and pinched his cheek like he was four years old all over again. So it wasn’t that surprising when she predicted that he would bring that ‘girl he was married to on that show’ to meet her one day when the cameras weren’t rolling.

“Back in Seoul it would be her birthday.” He said shifting the cards around, sorting by colour and numbers.

“But she’s not in Seoul is she.” She said knowingly lifting an eyebrow while throwing down a card that had his brother grunting and picking up four cards in consequence.

“No.” Because that was the bit that was bugging him the most, that she was on the same landlocked continent as him, relaxing after the SM Town concert held the day before, she deserved the vacation but, “I just wish I could have wished her a happy birthday in person.”

“You’re twenty eight years old and you’re still cribbing about birthdays?” His brother piped in, grumpy about the fact that he was losing.

“It’s not his birthday we’re talking about, it’s hers.” His Mother says with a glint in her eye that was usually associated with mischief. Come to think about it so did his Dad and brother, they all seemed to be hiding smiles around him.

“Are you hiding something from me?” He said suspiciously to be rewarded with some eye widening from his brother and a bit of deflecting from his Dad. Only his mother remained calm and serene and lovely, although that little twinkle in her eye was more pronounced than ever.

“You’ll just have to wait and see.”She said slapping down yet another card on the table. “I win.”

The grumbles of three Jung men filled the room.

A strange tap awoke him from his slumber. He checked the clock next to his bed only to find the numbers flash 12:30 in bright green . Yet another tap sounded, it was the sound of little stones being thrown at his glass balcony doors.

Had the fangirls found him?, he thought, entering into a sudden state of panic. It couldn’t be them surely, he hadn’t been the ‘It’ boy long enough to have lost the truly maniacal fans although there were still the handful left that had the abilities to track him down. Another tap of stone on glass jerked him out of his thoughts and he leapt off the bed heading to open the window and tell whoever this person was off only to find himself looking at his favourite face in the world.

“Hyun?” He said, bewildered, while she continued to smile up at him with those sparkling eyes, pulling the guitar strap forward and began strumming it opening her mouth to sing, never really taking her eyes away from his.

“Moon river wider than a mile I�m crossing you in style someday You dream maker, you heartbreaker Wherever you�re going I�m going your way

Two drifters off to see the world There�s such a lot of world to see We�re after the same rainbow�s end Waiting �round the bend My huckleberry friend, moon river and me

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” She whisper-shouted, cupping her hands around her mouth cutely.

‘She’s here, she’s really here’ the thought broke through the shock and he grinned down at her from his balcony.

“Are you coming down or should I sing another song?” She teased him and the grin on his face grew wider if that was possible.

“Sing me another song!” He threw her teasing words back at her and she breathed heavily through her nose before looking up at him impetuously tossing her hair back and putting the guitar down.

“I know just the song, Juliette! Ho~! Yeonghoneul bachilkkeyoJuliette! Ho~! Jebal nal bada jwoyo-”

“Stop, I’m coming down!” He said with a laugh when she began dancing to it, replacing the S-line gesture with straight lines that made it look like she was directing traffic.

He took the stairs two at a time in his rush. At the door he found his Mother watching him like the cat that got the cream. He planted a sloppy kiss on her cheek before going out to meet his ‘Romeo’, the last thought filling him with indignation and giddy happiness both at the same time. This was the third time she’d serenaded him, but the first time doing so without cameras to document every second of it and just like he had in the previous times he fell a bit more in love with her.

But it was his turn to surprise her now, he thought fingering the little box in his pockets.

“Surprise!” She said admittedly belatedly.

“Where are your unnies?”

To which she frowned. “I come all the way over here and serenade you in the moonlight and all you do is ask where my unnies are?”

“We’re right here.” Hyoyeon voice sounded from behind her, where all eight girls had appeared seemingly out of nowhere. For the noisy herd of girls that they were, they were really quite good at being sneaky.

“B-but, what are you all doing here?!”

“Weeeell Jung Seobang may have found out about your surprise and then planned on surprising you as well.”

“You knew?!” She exclaimed turning to him.

“Not that you were going to serenade me in the middle of the night but I knew you were planning on travelling all across the continent on your own, on a bus! How could you think for one second that I would let you do something that dangerous?”

“I had Manager oppa with me, but now you’ve gone and ruined my surprise!” She pouted and he held back a smile, mock glaring at her instead.

“Fine, I was going to propose to you but...”

“What?!” In all of a second she went bug-eyed and her mouth dropped so far open it was all he could do to stop laughing out loud, especially when he noticed that all her unnies had the same expression on their faces.

His mother on the other hand didn’t hold back laughing brightly from where she watched the proceedings leaning against the door. Their eyes met for one second and she nodded in approval of what he was about to do as if she had known far before he had. Knowing her she probably did.

Now Seo Joo Hyun on the other hand, had yet to close her mouth and when he finally lifted his hand to her chin to do it for her a strange noise emitted from the back of her throat. The noise escalated to a shriek when he pulled the velvet covered box out of his pyjamas’ pocket.

“Hyun, we already got married once in front of an entire nation and then some, I think it’s about time we did that in front of a priest and take our vows like the husband and wife we are.”

“Nnng...”

“I’m assuming that’s a yes.” He said pulling her hand away from where it clasped over her mouth and put the ring onto her finger and then patted it awkwardly. He could see the other Soshi girls clinging to each other and crying (in the case of Hyoyeon, outright sobbing) and ducked his head shyly, hiding a cheek bursting grin.

“Our baby is getting married! For the second time!” Hyoyeon said between noisy sobs.

“At least it’s to the same guy.” Yuri made that observation out loud and earned a hit on the shoulder by the Ice Princess Jessica.

“I haven’t said yes you know.” She says later on when she’s finally over the shock and they’re having a mini-party crammed into the living room watching while his brother grows more and more enamoured with every story that her sisters pour forth, his Dad grows further impressed with Tiffany’s ability to handle her drink and his mother talks on the phone with hers, planning out wedding details with a fervour that makes them both shiver.

He leans in with all the confidence in the world and steals a kiss, ignoring the catcalls to stare at her blushing face with a smile.

“You have.”

*****

Show me

Yonghwa lied down on his bed. He was tired of sleeping in strange beds, in hotel rooms that were ornate and sophisticated and pastel, so unlike his own bed with the leopard print sheets. His thoughts flowed in a jumble of three languages and he couldn’t even discern them, all he could do was sigh and settle into the pillow and turn his face to the side, eyes wide open, breathing heavy and slow.

His gaze settles on the stuffed dog lying to the side in its striped glory and his mind begins to clear and a single coherent thought enters his mind.

‘We haven’t spoken in weeks.’

He had so much to ask her about and so much to tell. What has she been doing? He knew about all the public events of course, he knew how busy the S.M. Art exhibition and the concerts and the ambassadorship had kept her. He wanted to know how her pet project of learning to cook form her mum was going. He wanted to ask her if she finished the song she had begun writing months ago, that she refused to show him because it was still a work in progress.

He wondered what new song she’d learnt to play on the guitar. Had JungMo hyung helped her out this time too? She was thinking of progressing to the electric guitar, did she like how it sounded more or less?

Was she happy? Was she growing up like she said she’d wanted to on that night of white day last year?

“Hyun, do you want to go out with me?” He says the day their marriage ended. She gave him a confused look and he added quickly, “Like on a date. Do you want to give this relationship a shot in reality as well?”

“I...” The look of sheer terror growing on her face is enough for him to slouch and shove his hands into his pockets with a sigh.

“Never mind I... I’m just talking crazy right now.” He turns to leave and is stopped by the soft hand on his back.

“I do want to go out with you. I want to know what we might be like in reality without cameras rolling, without missions and backroom talks.” She says all the right words, all the words he wants to hear but there is that unknown ‘but’ lingering in her voice that stops him from bursting into a grin. “I’m just not grown up enough for it yet.”

He feels light and heavy all at the same time. At least she wants more, she just isn’t ready yet.

But that little voice in his head that had told him he’d never make it as a singer in the real world, that he’d never be anyone but that guy who played the guitar on the streets, started whispering again. Why is he ready and she not? What if she grows up and decides she doesn’t want him anymore? What if she grows up into a person he doesn’t want anymore?

What if.....

“I’m so sorry Oppa!” She says eyes glistening with tears unshed, her hand curled over her mouth daintily. A pretty picture even as she dashed all his ambitions and left him with the faintest of hopes lingering.

“I’ll just have to ask you again some other time then.” He draws her close and gives her a shaky smile and sets off with an Annyeong whispered into her hair.

Was she thinking of him on this night, the one year anniversary of the time they sang together on that stage in Japan? The night he almost asked her that question again.

That little bump into each other as soon as the darkness fell upon the two was all the nudge that Yonghwa needed .It was a sign that they would be together one day and he couldn’t help but think that that day is today.

He sets off at once, as soon as their performance was done heading to where he s

aw the familiar crowned knot of hair head only to stop blank at the sight he saw.

Seohyun smiling up at Jinwoon, that lovely smile she had for her friends and the boy looked at her smitten. She still didn’t realise that the boy adored her, how could she possibly be ready for the question he wanted to ask her?

He feels tired. He can feel the blood rushing to his head, hears it throbbing in his ears, like he’s running a great marathon and this is it, he’s hit the wall. He’s going to have to wait some more to get to end, but he won’t give up now. Not when he’s so close to winning the prize.

“Oppa!” She says when she turns to see him once Jinwoon has left, a shy smile she only ever saves for him and he smirks back at her, finding his signature grin too hard to pull off at this time.

“Hyun, good work with the duet today.” Her brow furrows and she grows confused.

“You looked like you wanted to ask me something right now.” She prompts and instead of taking that chance he backed away lightly. She thought she was ready but she wasn’t really. It was for her own good, he told himself.

“Oh it was nothing, I just wanted to ask you for your number. I lost my contact list a while back.” He lied exceptionally well for a man who wore his heart on his sleeve. His eyes spoke the truth to her though, ‘Show me, show me that you’re mine.’ they said and her hesitation was all the answer he needed.

“Oh.” She says and rattles off the number he already knows by heart.

The bow and walk opposite ways, word unsaid filling the air they left behind.

Did she miss him?

Did she even care?

In the dark of his room a sudden blue glow appeared and he picked up the phone not bothering to check who it was. He was too lost in thoughts of her to care.

“Yobeoseyo?”

“Yong?”

She did the asking that night. And he said yes.

***

Oppa, can I do it?

‘Well what have we here?’ A plain black iPod he recognised as Seohyun’s, dropped out as he shook out his blankets.

After four days of Minhyuk nagging him to clean his room, Yonghwa finally decided he should. This of course had nothing to do with the fact that Seohyun was coming over that evening.

He picks it up and puts it on his desk, forgotten until he was done cleaning his room. Once all the clothes had been picked up from the floor and put into hampers and the food wrappers ahd been binned he sat down at his desktop with a whoosh .He could do with some soothing music, he decides and connects Seohyun’s iPod to the speakers and puts it on shuffle, expecting the sound of birds chirping and waterfalls to fill his senses.

What he does not expect is to hear moaning and sex noises. But that is exactly what he hears before E.Via starts rapping. Because of course Seo Joo Hyun, most innocent of all maknaes, listens to this. Of course she listens to a song that has the words ‘Oppa, can I do it?’ said in the most sexy way ever.

“Hyung what the-”, Jungshin charges into his room, Jonghyun and Minhyuk not far behind him. “Hey isn’t that Seohyun’s iPod? Wait she listens to stuff like this?”

Yonghwa finds his wide-eyed expression reflected in all their faces and quickly lowers the volume.

“Nngh!” He opens his mouth to speak but no coherent words come out.

“She’s going to be here anytime, you’d better regain your composure or at least the ability to use words.”

The bell rings at that very second and the Minhyuk and Jungshin make their way to the living room to open the door while Jonghyun gives his hyung a pointed look.

“Oppa?” Seohyun’s voice drifts from the passageway and a strange strangled noise makes its way past Yonghwa’s throat. His band mates exchange a look and pick up their coats from the various places they were stored in and waved their hyungsoonim goodbye, hurriedly making their way out of the dorm.

“It’s always the quiet ones.” Jonghyun says hopping around trying to tug his boots on while the two maknaes had already escaped. “No wonder they soundproofed the bedroom in the Sangdo-dong house. Playing music loudly my ass.”

“Oppa?” She says and this time she’s leaning against his doorway with her head tilted while Yonghwa struggles to get his mouth to form actual words.

“Hyun!” His voice is low and raspy in the aftermath of hearing her call him oppa right after hearing that song and an oblivious Seohyun frowns.

“Do you have throat problems again? I had hoped you learnt your lesson after dealing with those vocal nodules you know.”

He clears his throat and does his best to push all dirty thoughts aside. “I’m fine I was just....I found your iPod, actually.”

“Finally decided to clean your room huh?” She says with a laugh and makes her way into his room sitting down on his bed, hand outstretched asking for her iPod and he hands it over to her meekly. “Hey, were you listening to it?” She turns to the most recently played song and the lightest shade of pink appears on her cheeks momentarily before she pushes her hair aside and tucks the device into her purse.

“So that’s what Seo Joo Hyun secretly listens to huh?” Yonghwa says teasingly.

“It’s a bit lewd I know, but for some reason I can’t stop listening to it.” She says with a shrug before turning to him with a glint of her eyes, lowering her tone of voice deliberately, leaning towards him just that little bit. “It’s just so...Hot.”

He gulps and sends a silent thanks to his bandmates for clearing out.

"Hyun!"

***

Of Disney and Waltzing

“I told you we should have watched some other movie,” he says pausing only to shove food into his mouth as Seohyun stares at him with disgust on her face. “I had the weirdest dream last night and it’s entirely your fault. Enchanted is a chick flick and I’m a Busan man, I don’t watch chick flicks.”

“You should have thought of that before you said ‘I don’t know, you pick’” She says lowering her voice to imitate him. “So what was this dream anyway?”

They were video chatting from two different corners of the same country, such were their schedules. At Seohyun’s request Yonghwa had sat through an hour and half of a plucky Disney princess bursting into song in Busan while hearing Seohyun’s giggles and oohs and ahs over the phone as she watched the same movie in Seoul. Apparently her unnies had told her it was a fun thing they saw on a TV show once.

It was not fun.

“I dreamt that we were waltzing around that ballroom from the movie while Jonghyun, Minhyuk and Jungshin sang. It went on for hours and hours, we just kept on spinning around in circles.” He says putting his hands in the air and flailing, in a pathetic imitation of a ballroom dancer that made her giggle.”I woke up feeling so dizzy.”

“That is weird.” She says and he is surprised to see her agree. She often told him about how she kept on dreaming about whatever new choreography she had to learn. “I’ve seen you dance, and you will never be able to waltz like that.”

His look of pure indignation, her into peals of laughter even as he splutters. Her laughter grows again as she goes out of his sight, almost falling off the edge of her chair and he just knows she’s remembering his Genie dance.

“I guess I should learn to dance, huh?” He says as he hangs his head sheepishly.

“You’ll have to learn for our wedding any way.” She says waving her hand nonchalantly and the minute the words leave her mouth, she freezes with eyes wide as hell.

‘I cannot believe I said that!’ she thought to herself, glancing at the screen only to see Yonghwa’s mouth had fallen open.

“I think Hyoyeon-unnie is calling me, I’ll talk to you later bye!” She says quickly, cutting the call then proceeding to unplug her laptop, put her mobile on silent mode and diving under the covers with the speed of a cheetah.

Barely five minutes later Hyoyeon comes into the room only to find a quivering Seohyun shaped lump on the bed that made whining noises and flailed with a little cry every few seconds.

“Hyun-ah?”

“I was sleepy so I went to sleep!” Seohyun says in a high pitched tone that the girl

s recognise as her attempt to lie.

“Did Yonghwa say something to upset you? That boy, I’m calling him right this second....” She is cut off by Seohyun leaping out of the bed and clapping her hands on Hyoyeon’s mouth.

“NOOO! You can’t call him!”

“Then tell me what happened.”

“I mentioned the ‘W’ word.”

“Hyun have you been hanging out Tiffany again? What the heck is this ‘W’ word?”

“Wedding!”

The confusion expression Hyoyeon sported seconds ago melts into a face that says ‘Are you freaking kidding me?!’

“So you mentioned marriage to him, so what, you’ve been married once already! You’re both old enough to be wondering where this relationship is going you know, it is okay to have such discussions.”

“It wasn’t a discussion; it was a slip of tongue! We were just talking and then I said ‘But at our wedding....’ and now he probably thinks I’m an overly attached girlfriend!” Seohyun drops onto her bed with a whispered ‘ottoke?!’ and smothers her face with a pillow.

“You really have to stop talking to Tiffany.” Hyoyeon deadpans. “Okay first things first, stop listening to Tiffany.”

“But she’s the only one out of us who has a stable relationship.”

“Okay first of all, way to remind me that I’m still single. Secondly, her stable relationship is not with Yonghwa, so she has no idea what she’s saying when she gives you love advice.” Hyoyeon sits down on Seohyun’s bed and plucks the pillow out of her hands. “What did he say?”

“He didn’t say anything, I just cut the call and-“

“So you didn’t even bother to see what his reaction would be like?!”

“You should have seen his face, his mouth was wide open and his eyeballs were coming out of his head! How am I supposed to face him after that?”

“Just talk to him.”

“I can’t!” Seohyun whines and upon hearing it Hyoyeon’s face hardens and her inner mom comes out.

“If you don’t then I will.”

Seohyun pouts in hopes of convincing Hyoyeon otherwise but she stays firm. She picks up the phone with a sigh of resignation to find four missed calls and a text message all from Yonghwa.

‘I’ll learn to dance if you master the guitar, so if you want us to dance at our wedding, you’d better start studying those chords or you’re going to stand in that panjjak panjjak wedding dress watching as I make Yoo Jaesuk look graceful.’

It was consequently of little surprise to Hyoyeon when their Maknae launched herself at her ex-virtual-husband and dragged him into their room the second he stepped into their dorm after a week of being apart. She couldn’t say the same for the Sooyoung, Yoona and Yuri as they stared at the closed door with wide eyes for what seemed like ages before Sooyoung broke the silence with a loud cry.

“WHY AM I STILL SINGLE?!!!”

***

What it means to be a friend.

They were friends, best of friends really. He wanted to be more, much much more, but he was too afraid of losing what they had, too afraid that outside of the parameters of a TV show, they would fail. So he never told her of the crush he harboured. He never told her when that crush turned into love. His songs grew deeper and more broken hearted but he stayed cheerful. ‘Okay so I may not get the girl of my dreams, but I have so much more than everyone else it wouldn’t be right to complain would it?’, he thought, proving to himself what great influence she had on him that he was able to see the bright side even when locked in an unrequited love.

And then the news broke. SM’s maknaes had indeed gotten together. Some fans raged and others fell in love with them. Every single paparazzi photo looked like a photo shoot, but it was the candid few that caught Yonghwa’s eye. She was smiling so brightly at Kyuhyun it hurt. It was a different smile than the one she gave Yonghwa, wider and infinitely more shy.

They asked him about it on radio and TV shows and he told them the truth, that he had known of them of course, he was good friends with Seohyun as he was with Kyuhyun. Yes they did look good together, no he wasn’t jealous of Kyuhyun but he wished he had someone to date too, he was just happy for them. He lost track of the number of times he said ‘Seohyun and I, we’re good friends.”It was surprising then that Kyuhyun’s fellow SM members came out and admitted that they had often hoped that Yonghwa and Seohyun had been together, that they were closet YongSeo shippers too. But it felt good to know that what he had experienced with her on the show hadn’t been all in his head, that there were others who had felt the magic just as he had. If only Seohyun had felt the same.

But he was just the friend. The friend she called up to ask what to get for her boyfriend on their 22 day, the friend she called to ask what kind of food she should make for Kyuhyun as his birthday gift. He was the friend who heard her rant on and on about how Kyuhyun doesn’t take care of his health when her boyfriend ended up in the hospital for the nth time. It was Kyuhyun this, Kyuhyun that but he endured it all, because he was a good ‘friend’.

Yonghwa couldn’t help but ask though, why was it that she would always turn to him instead of her unnies and her other ‘friend’ Jinwoon. He couldn’t help but smile a sad smile at her answer.

“You taught me about relationships and so I feel like I should ask you. My unnies wouldn’t take me seriously and Jinwoon is just...Jinwoon. So I ask you. But if you don’t want me to, I can stop.”

And he assured her otherwise and accepted his place in the friendzone, her own knight in shining armour hidden in the shadows of the SeoKyu couple.

And then they broke up. Suddenly he wasn’t dealing with a perpetually happy Seohyu

n who wished to show her adoration for her boyfriend, but a close-lipped one that always seemed to have sad eyes. Amidst all the commotion that surrounded their break-up the two maknaes continued to hang out together dismissing all rumours that it had been a nasty break-up.

Seohyun appeared on Yonghwa’s doorstep one day with eyes shining with unshed tears and he offered her sanctuary. He learnt things about the perfect couple that no one else knew. Like how they’d been fighting for days and days and even when they didn’t, there was always this awkward silence like they had nothing to talk about. And that maybe the breakup wasn’t as mutual as he thought it was because she was the one suggested it in the first place. Somewhere in between the many hours they spent discussing her relationship she began crying and he inadvertently made her stop by having a panic attack when she started sobbing. And then Yonghwa said that he always knew his inability to deal with crying females would come in handy one day, and she stopped crying and started laughing instead. It made him happy when she left the dorm with a smile, the strain of the past few days ordeal having disappeared.

Life went on. People grew less interested in the fact that Seohyun and Kyuhyun weren’t together anymore and more interested in the fact that Yonghwa and Seohyun were closer than they had thought them to be. It grew common to see the two of them hanging out together at award shows instead of just waving politely at each other like they did before.

“Hyung, why do you do this to yourself?” Jungshin said when they returned home from another concert where the CNBlue leader had spent most of his time talking to SNSD’s maknae in the hallways. The staff members had gotten used to seeing them together as had the other artists. Even Kyuhyun smiled and waved at the two when heading to Super Junior’s changing room.

“Do what?”

“Torture yourself like that? We all love hyungsoonim but you have to get out there and start dating. How do you expect to get over her when you’re not even trying?”

“Jungshin, you still call her hyungsoonim have you ever asked yourself why you do that?”

“It’s a habit.” Jungshin says with a shrug, not realising Yonghwa’s point.

“And Seohyun is my habit. I’ll try to get over her the day you stop calling her hyungsoonim.”

But Jungshin’s words kept ringing in his head until it got to a point where he asked Seohyun about it.

“Do you think I should start dating again?” He says when he’s having dinner at his dorm with Seohyun when the other boys are busy with their schedules. She freezes with the spoon inches away from her open mouth and gapes.

“What?”

“Jungshin and the boys, they think I should put myself out there and get a life, maybe ask a fellow idol out. What do you think?” He asks hoping for some reaction. ‘Come on Seohyun throw me a bone here.’ he prays silently.

She puts the spoon down and crosses her arms looking up sharply at him while breathing through her nose.

“I think you should ask me out.” She says biting her lip a bit, clearly nervous but

never breaking eye contact with him. He can see her arms shaking slightly as she waits for him to say something and the slow cheek bursting grin growing on his face should tell her what he thinks of her suggestion, but he figures he might as well say the words out loud.

“Seo Joo Hyun, would you please be my girlfriend?”

The sparkling eye smile she gives him answers his question, even as she opens her mouth to speak.

“I thought you’d never ask.”

***

Of reaction videos and WGM marathons (Part 1)

“Is it recording?” A soft, feminine voice said and a face suddenly showed up on screen. The man checked his face in the screen, flicking his hair a bit and broke into a snaggletoothed grin when the same voice chided him, “Ah cham, you’re checking your hair?! Come on now, we have hours of TV to watch!”

“Ahrasseo , ahrasseo.” He said and shifted the camera and sat back. The two sat next to one another on a yellow couch that had indubitably seen better days and as if one person they sighed. They looked at one another in surprise and broke into giggles.

“Oh we need to introduce ourselves.” She said

“Ah yes, Anyeonghasaeyo.”

“Hello.”

“Dajiahao.”

“Konichiwa.”

“Sawadikap. I’m Yong-”

“And I’m Seo. Together we are,”

“The Yongseo Couple.” They chorused.

“You’re probably wondering what we’re doing right now. As you might know this is the fourth anniversary of our run on the show We Got Married.”

“So we decided to watch our whole show and make a reaction video for it.”

“You know a lot of fans have done those kind of things, they watch and give a live commentary.” He said to her.

“I know, and they always look like so much fun too so here we are.” She said brightly.

“We’ll be watching the first episode now, please watch over us.” He said with a nod and the screen filled up with a split screen as their first episode started playing.

“Hello I’m SNSD’s maknae Seohyun.”

“Oooh the backroom interviews, can’t believe it’s been so long.” Yonghwa said and a montage of SNSD’s Oh! Performances started playing as part of her intro.

“Oh how embarrassing! Look how young I was!” She shrieked and fell onto his side in laughter and he playfully glared at her.

“You’re still young, besides if you’re not young anymore then what am I, a senior citizen?”

“...I was shocked that I’m twenty, I’m not young anymore.”

“Your obsession with age is weird.” He remarked and she crinkled her nose at him.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean this whole thing where ‘Ooh I’m twenty I’m not young anymore’,” He said in a falsetto to imitate her and she smacked his shoulder,

“And even the whole same age friend thing where you call Jungshin ‘chingu’, you’re so strange.”

“Fine, since I’m too concerned about age, I won’t call you oppa anymore, you’re just going to be Yong-goon.”

“Yah!”

“Seriously oppa, it’s like you live in another country, you know age and seniority is a big thing in Korea.” She couldn’t even stop herself from calling him oppa when chiding him.

“But what’s the point of this over the top respect in a marriage?”

She smiled sweetly. “But you forget, we were still just an engaged couple when this was shot. Now can we move on please!”

“Fiiiine.”

The scene shifted to a van where TaeTiSeo sat eating bananas and returning from a schedule.

“You guys were just fated to be in a sub group weren’t you?” Yonghwa remarked and she shushed him.

“Shh, your favourite SNSD member, leader Taeyeon is on the screen.” She continued ignoring his splutters of indignation.

“I did start praying for you future husband though.”Tiffany announced in the van.

“Ah thank you Miyoung, those prayers might have been the only thing keeping me alive through this stint.” Yonghwa said gravely before bursting into cackles at the glare Seohyun shot him.

“Shut up.” She said weakly.

“...If you end up with a pretty boy husband, as a member I’ll be happy for you but to the WGM staff, ‘What about me?!’” Taeyeon said.

“Ah your unnie must have been very annoyed with the WGM staff then.” He said smugly.

“Not really.”

“What?! But she said-”

“Yes but you’re not that pretty so she didn’t think much of it especially sicne we’re form SM , home of the prettiest boys ever. I mean better you than Hyung Don-oppa but still he’s pretty funny.”

“You just think I’m some sort of consolation prize don’t you.” He sulked.

“You’re not consoling me much at the moment, so no.” She stuck out her tongue at him and he snorted.

“Jashik.”

The scene changed from van to the MBC building where a radio recording was going on.

“Oettoriya, Oettoriya Dari diri dara du!”

“Oh my God it’s CNBlue! With their amazing, handsome, multi-talented leader Jung Yong Hwa!” Yonghwa said excitedly.

“You just love watching yourself on the TV don’t you? Vain, vain, vain.”

“Hey I’m not the one who stares at herself in the mirror for hours!”

“You know I’m practising different expressions for acting!”

Her only reply was a snort.

“Oh look they’re zooming in on Jinwoonie to see his reaction.” She said.

“If there was ever a hangdog expression, that is it.”

“Oh they’re teasing him so much, I feel so bad for him.”

“In their defence that boy has an encyclopaedic knowledge of you. It’ s actually really creepy.”

“Just because you had no idea who I was before we were married.”

“Hey!”

“I think our first meeting is going to be really awkward.”

“You got that right 20 year old Seohyun.” Yonghwa told the screen and she rolled her eyes.

“Of course it was going to be awkward, we’d never met each other before this!”

“If you like him....then shout out the name of your favourite food, goguma.”

“Ah yes the start of the goguma era.”

“Now I feel bad about not eating more gogumas lately.”

“You should have developed an allergy to them by now, you’ve had so many fo them.”

“No I haven’t!” He just looked at her in disbelief. “Yeah okay you’re right.” She finally ad

mitted.

“Dude you should pretend you’re me.”

“Ah my poor Jungshin-chingu getting bullied into pranking me by his hyung like that!” She said and he grunted.

“He’d probably be ecstatic to be married to you.”

“Well atleast someone would then.” She side eyed him.

“Oh come on Hyun!”

After many wrong calls it was finally Seohyun turn to walk through the door and after their little game of ‘Pick the husband’ they were finally introduced to each other and were soon in the car.

“I wonder what my new bride must have thought of me.” He pondered out loud.

“Nothing really.”

“Really? Nothing? Okay then, tell me what you thought of me after our talk, I mean interview, in the car.” He teased her and she scrunched up her nose at him in response.

“I just thought that you take your music seriously. You didn’t fall into it like me you really went after it because you loved it. I thought that was admirable.”

“That’s not what I expected.”

“Well it is, do pay attention Yong, I know what you were thinking when we first met. Tch, so disappointed.” She said mockingly.

“Really now,” He said turning to face her properly with an amused glint in his eyes. “Tell me Seo Joo Hyun what was I thinking when we first met?”

She turned stern and puffed her lips out trying to imitate Yong and he laughed even as she talked. “I thought I was going on We Got Married, not We Need A Baby sitter!” She said in a deep voice trying and failing to imitate him and he nearly fell off the couch in laughter.

“....Since I faced the world at an early age....I was able to overcome these struggles by reading books, I want him to learn what I learnt.”

“I never got the point of that. I always told everyone about my struggles and that’s how I dealt with them so what’s the point of me reading those books?” He asked, now reclining so far back he was practically lying down with his feet up on the table.

“I just wanted you to know how I see the world, my point of view, that’s all. Like when you made me watch the documentary on The Beatles and all those rock bands to show me your inspiration.” She shrugged.

“Aww, you wanted to share your world with me, soooo cute.”

“Don’t make me regret it.” She threatened.

They were watching themselves attempting to interact in the practice room where he used to spend most of his time pre-debut (and then some).

“I don’t know how I didn’t just die from exposure to awkwardness.”

She shrugged. “You get used to it, I mean that’s how I spent most of my life, as the painfully shy kid who doesn’t say anything and then all of a sudden I had to go on a show with a stranger without my unnies. I cried so much when I went home that day.”

“I’m not that scary.”

“It wasn’t about you just that...I didn’t know if I could handle it. It was all that pressure that I’m a member of SNSD I have to do well on variety shows because we’re so funny.”

He patted her back consolingly.

“Let’s drop the honorifics.”

“Go ahead.”

“Let’s drop it.”

“I can’t do it.”

“Ah, the start of the banmal era.”

“I thought it was the goguma era, now suddenly it’s the banmal era?”

“Every second spent with you is some kind of epic era Hyun.” He replied seriously

“It’s like she’s never seen a guitar before.” Misun said back in the studio as Seohyun ran her fingers over the strings of the guitar.

“Yeah why were you so fascinated by the guitar any way?”

“Because we were going to get to know each other very well and you’re the only one I knew who played the guitar.”

“Liar, you know Jungmo-hyung,” He mumbled grumpily, “You kept on talking about him a lot at least.”

“Actually I didn’t even speak to him before you gave me the mission to learn the guitar.”

“...Seriously?”

“Well yeah, I didn’t have anything to talk to him about. But then you wished for me to learn how to play the guitar and then I asked him for help, we got to talking and that’s how we ended up being friends. If it weren’t for that SM wouldn’t even have put me in the TRAX video or their album covers.” She said in a matter of fact tone and he silently seethed.

“So if it weren’t for me, I wouldn’t ever have gotten a reason to be jealous.”

She turned to him sharply. “I thought you said you weren’t jealous.” She teased.

“What? No, I totally wasn’t.”

“But you just said-“

“Let’s just watch the show.”

“I’ll eat it first to see if it’s sour or not.”He said peeling the tangerines.

“Okay.”

“Eat it.”

“I can be so sweet sometimes.”

“It was pretty cute of you to do that. Like being a personal Food taster to check if things are poisoned or not, I hear royalty used to have such people.”

“I was just being thoughtful and sweet.”

“...Learnt it from an ex did you?” She said suspiciously.

“What? No! No, no, no, that would be...” He trailed off as she raised an eyebrow. “Yeah I did.”

“See now it just seems greasy.”

“Damn it I shouldn’t have admitted that.”

“What’s the difference between loving someone and liking someone?”

“This is my biggest achievement to date, making a person realise the difference between love and like.” He boasted and she looked at him blankly.

“Yeah I totally understand it now and I didn’t give an answer that my unnies gave me because they knew you’d ask me if I understood that later on.” She said with no inflection to her voice whatsoever.

“Wait did your unnies give you that answer?”

“I just said that they didn’t.”

“Yes but it sounded like you were being sarcastic.”

“I don’t understand jokes remember.” She sniffed.

“Ah seriously, you’re still hung up on something I said a month ago?! Come Seohyun you know I was just teasing!”

“Sure, I believe you.” She said in a tone that implied that she did not believe him at all and he groaned.

“You’re cute.”

“Aigoo, thank you.”

“What the...? Why did you sigh?”

“Quit playing games with my heart, my heart I should have known from the start,” Yonghwa began singing the Backstreet Boys song with gusto and she rolled her eyes at him.

“Choding.”

“Do you like gogumas?”

“What?”

“I really like gogumas.”

“I swear I felt like I was in the Twilight zone when you asked me that. I think this might have been even more shocking than when you asked me the difference between love and like.”

“I was just completing my mission and telling my unnies that I like you.”

“Yeah but come on, if I suddenly asked you ‘Do you like spinach?’ you’d just think I’m some kind of strange person.”

“So you thought I was a strange person?”

“Hyun, I still think you’re a strange person.”She pouted in discontent. “But you’re my strange person.”

That earned him a smile.

“Right now, what we need the most is to be comfortable with one another. So yeah I hope we’ll be comfortable soon. If she felt any sense of ease after our first meeting then I think I succeeded that night.”

Seohyun burst into tears then.

“I miss it so much!”

“You miss being awkward with me?” He joked in an attempt to make her laugh and stop crying. It didn’t work and so he just put an arm around her in a hug and eventually she was down to small little sniffles.

“No, I just miss being on the show which is stupid because I still meet you all the time, especially now that we live in the same building.”

“It’s not stupid Hyun it’s just nostalgia, trust me if we were still shooting the show then you’d wish we could meet without cameras always being there.”

“Ah I’m sorry the focus was on me, only half your face came.” They laughed as they saw the fail of a couple picture.

“Vain as always.” She tsked, now having stopped crying altogether.

“And that’s the end of the first episode.” He announced to the camera before turning back to her. “So what do you think Hyun, does this couple have any potential or are they just going to be awkward for the rest of their run?” He asked playfully.

“I don’t know Yong, we’ll just have to wait and see.”

Of reaction videos and WGM marathons (Part 2 and 3)

“Time for Episode 2.”

“Yeah!” Yonghwa drawled out completely ruining her perfectly said announcement with his ‘street cred’ and she rolled her eyes. They had come better prepared this time round, a bowl of popcorn for Yonghwa and lightly spiced puffed rice for Seohyun. She glared at the buttery heap he had half consumed already and in response he stuffed his face until he resembled a chipmunk.

“Just play the video.”

“Do you know of any famous street vendors who make good ddukbokki?”

“...Sin-“

“Sin?”

“Sindang-!”

“Keep going, what’s after that?”

“Dong?”

“Dong! Singdang-dong. You haven’t been there before right?”

“Yes.”

“You’ve never been there?! I’ve only been there once.”

“Is it good?”

“I ate so quickly I don’t remember.”

“Do you want to go there later today?”

“Today?!”

“My managers and unnies were so mad at you then.”

“What?! Why?”

“We’d only just met and you were convincing me to stay out with you late at night!”

“I never thought of it that way.”

“The guy’s shoulder should get wet.” Jinwoon said as the studio discussed the angle of Yonghwa’s umbrella.

“If it was Jinwoon, then his clothes would be drenched!” Misun said slapping the young man’s shoulder jokingly.

“If it was Jinwoonie he’d kidnap you.” Yonghwa sulked.

“Ah really, people need to stop ragging on Jinwoon just because he’s actually nice to me. Unlike some people.” She said pointedly.

“I’m nice to you all the time!”

“I never said you were the some people.”

“It was implied!”

“Have you ever wandered around in the middle of the night?”

“No.”

“Not even once?”

“Yeah.”

“Really? I mean you’re twenty now you’re an adult.”

“You really hadn’t wandered around? Not even on any shows with your unnies?”

“Well that’s not wandering, that’s travelling at a late hour with a set destination.”

“Nerd.”

“So this is what ramyun with ddukbokki looks like.”

“You know the minuet that was set down in front of us I was just thinking that the amount of sodium in that was o high, I was sure I’d be icing my face to make it less puffy the next day.” She confided.

“Aww you should have said something.”

“Are you kidding, I was feeling so nervous the fact that I managed to say ‘yes’ and ‘no’ was a miracle!”

“Don’t you think we’re comfortable with one another now?........When we first met, I really didn’t know what to do. But now I’m already comfortable with you.”

“You still don’t know what to do, it’s still awkward mainly because it’s still only been two hours since you met you twit!” Yonghwa yelled at his onscreen self and turned to find Seohyun staring at him. “What?”

“Nothing, I agree with everything you just told your past self.”

“Sorry it’s just hard to believe this is me, and this was us because we were so....and now we’re so....”

“I know what you mean Yong.”

On screen Jinwoon was again being teased.

“Ah seriously, they keep on showing Jinwoon all the time, it makes me feel so bad.”

“And they keep on comparing me to him!” Yonghwa complained.

“This...is a letter containing my resolution.” She said stoically.

“Ah really, you just had to say that when I was eating didn’t you.”

“Oh they edited it to make it look so natural, they never showed the part where you choked!”

“I brought some stationary.” Seohyun urged him to write her a letter.

“Tell me the truth,” He said seriously and she turned to him with a questioning look. “You carry a stationary shop in your bag don’t you? That’s why it’s so heavy.”

“Ah cham!”

All of a sudden they were standing there looking at their 2000 won engagement ring.

“Ah the couple socks, couple cups and couple rings, tell me Hyun before that did you have any couple stuff with anyone? Oh, of course, you’d never dated anyone righ

t?”

“I had that stuff with my unnies.”

“Really?”

“Yup.”

“Did you and your unnie-deul have couple rings?”

“Yup.”

“Couple socks?”

“Yup.”

“Couple-“

“Yong, if I was to count everything I did with my unnies as a couple thing then there is probably nothing I have not done.”

“Nothing?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?” He said and waggled his eyebrows.

“Let’s not go there.”

“What?!”

“I tend to lose things easily, so I can’t take off this ring. That’s why I have to wear it always. So ever since I bought it that day I haven’t taken it off, I was wearing it even when I was taking a shower.”

“Oh boy.”

“What?”

“Nothing just...remembering what my unnies said when they saw that.”

“What did they say?”

“Umm I don’t know if I should.....”

“Oh come on, please?”

“They said that the ring had gone places....where I should have.”

Stunned silence followed that statement.

“I have SUCH perverted unnies.”

“I had a good time.”

“Me too.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Kamsahamnida!”

“Bye. And what are you going to call me?”

“Yo-ong!”

“Ah yes the first time I dropped you off at your home.”

“Haven’t had to do that in a long time now.”

“One of the many joys of living in the same building.”

“I miss it, chivalry is dead.” She complained.

“I walk you up to your floor don’t I?”

“Its’ not the same!”

“Women.” He rolled his eyes.

“Annyeonghasaeyo.... Yo-ong.” She said when they met at the TV station and behind her Yoona and Sooyoung erupted in giggles and shrieks and ran off.

“Your unnie are really something.”

“Yup.”

“Is this what they were like with everyone else’s boys?”

“Well technically you were my fiancé and that’s a completely different thing.”

“Of course.”

“Oh oh oh, look at you boasting to everyone now that I showed my ring on TV!”

“Yeah I got made fun of for so long for that.”

“Well I think it’s sweet.”

“Yeah but you only showed it once, I showed the ring so many times.”

On the screen Rocker Yong was in full on mode making so many hand gestures she thought it was Sunny on screen doing her million expressions in seconds.

“You know now when I watch you show off your ring in that performance, all I’m really thinking is, ‘Man Jonghyun looks like a rocker’.”

“What?”

“Well he looks all distressed and tired and world weary.

“That’s what you’re noticing while I’m trying so hard to show off my ring?”

“Well now I am, I’m sure when I saw it on the day of I only noticed y-”

“Shh your reaction to my gestures is coming up.”

This part of the video was overwritten with another part.

“Where did that footage go?!”

“Oh man it got recorded over with something else!”

“Now I won’t know how you reacted!”

“And I don’t really remember what happened!”

“I really want to know!”

“Me too!”

“Hey maybe your unnies remember.”

“Yeah, I don’t remember how I felt but they will.” She said sarcastically.

“Well maybe you have some kakaotalks saved or-“

“Wait, Jessica unnie would always be taking secret videos of us in the waiting room!”

“What kind of videos?”

“Well just stuff you know, general stuff or sometimes when we’re changing and she thinks we look pretty-“

“WE NEED TO GET THAT PHONE!”

“I was thinking about it all the time. I thought to myself, ‘Can she see me doing this properly, can she see this’”

“Aww you couldn’t stop thinking about it, that was so sweet!” She said when the video ended. “But that was a bit too short, should we watch another episode?”

“WE NEED TO GET THAT PHONE!”

She sighed.

“Time for episode 3,” She said brightly and turned to Yonghwa, “So Yong, you think you can stop being a pervert for this one?”

“I wasn’t being a pervert your Sica-unnie was!”

“No she was not, she was just-“

“A pervert!”

“You’re the pervert Yong!”

“Oh sure, she takes pictures of you changing and she’s just somebody who appreciates when you look pretty but when I want to see those pictures that she took, I’m a pervert!”

“I’m not talking about this anymore.”

“Hey guys what are you doing?” Tiffany said as she entered the room and noticed the camera. She stood in fort of the camera and checked her hair before turning to them. “Are you making some kind of weird tape?” She waggled her eyebrows.

“You see, it’s your unnie-deul who’s perverted not me!”

“Who’s calling us perverted?!” Soon Tiffany was joined by Sunny and Taeyeon. Even Jessica followed after tossing her newly coloured hair with ease.

“We’re watching our episodes of WGM and making a reaction video.”

“Ohh, can we be apart of it too?” Tiffany said excitedly. Taeyeon and Sunny had already taken a seat on the couch, settling in between the couple with a glare to the CNBlue leader.

“You’re sitting a bit too close to our maknae.” Sunny said from next to him and Taeyeon on her other side threw herself over Seohyun as if protecting her.

“Oh hey I haven’t watched the episodes in forever too.” Jessica announced and sat in between Sunny and Taeyeon further widening the gap between the YongSeo couple. Tiffany settled on the other side of Seohyun and soon the couch was filled to the brim.

“Aren’t you going to play the video?” Jessica asked Yonghwa with the eyebrow of scepticism up and about and he grumbled to himself and hit the play button.

“Why isn’t he coming? It’s cold.”

Jung Yonghwa walked up to the bus stop where she was, humming a jaunty tune.

“Ah really what’s wrong with you, making a girl wait in the cold for so long?” Taeyeon asked Yonghwa and he sunk further into the couch.

“It was my fault unnie, I was so nervous I went to the shoot an hour in advance, the cameras weren’t even set up then.”

“You see how nervous you made our baby.” Sunny scolded and he rolled his eyes.

“They look good together.” Misun said in the studio.

“”Yeah...they do look good together.” Jinwoon agreed a bit sadly.

“Aww!” Jessica, Tiffany, Sunny and Taeyeon chorused.

“Yeah they do look good together.” Yonghwa mocked the younger boy before sulking.

“Self-improvement genre section.”

“I can’t believe you actually went with her to a bookstore.” Tiffany said.

“Yeah we learnt not to do that within a week of knowing her.” Jessica added and it was Seohyun’s turn to sulk.

“Well this is five days since we met so...” He trailed off when Seohyun gave him a hurt look. “But I love going to bookstores with her and getting books to read.”

Jessica took out her phone and messed around with it, soon the sound of a whip resounded from it.

“Whipped.” Tiffany reiterated and the dangshin duo hi-fived.

“Are we buying too many books?”Seohyun asked once they had a pile of six books between them.

“Yes.” This time everyone except Seohyun said those words and she began pouting.

“Since you like to read many self-improvement books...I’ll choose Dating and Love Humour genre.

“You know she read them quite diligently.” Sunny said informatively.

“Yup even asked us for help when it came to certain sections she didn’t quite understand.” Taeyeon added.

“She took notes.” Jessica grumbled.

“It was worse for Hyoyeon, apparently maknae would read the book out loud all the time.” Tiffany said.

The couple on screen was now making a shared membership card.

“28th June.” Seohyun said informing him of her birthday as they filled out the form.

“Oh that’s pretty close to mine.”

“I started planning out the birthday gift right then you know.” He leaned forward to catch Seohyun’s eye and she smiled at him before Sunny and Taeyeon respectively pushed them back.

“There is no Seohyun card!”

“How can this be? Don’t tell me this pack doesn’t have it either.”

They went through both packs but no photo cards of Seohyun emerged.

“You know I exchanged those photo cards to get one of you later.”

“Really?”

“Yep some of the boy groups were hanging out and-“

“Which boy groups were these?” Jessica asked vehemently.

“Which ones asked for our photo cards? Are they single?” Sunny added and got a slap on her back from the Kid Leader.

“What are we, Pokémon?” Taeyeon scolded.

“Hey your company is the one making these things!”

“Did you really prepare these fruits?”

“Pears, persimmons, apples.”

Over the shared box of fruit they looked up to suddenly find themselves locking gazes.

“Oh my God so cute!”

“They’re going to the amusement park now right?” Sunny asked.

“Yeah we-“ Yonghwa started only to get cut off by Jessica.

“They’re going to do that couple-y headband thing now.”

He threw his hands up in the air.

“We should go to Lotte World sometime soon.” Taeyeon said

“Yeah once the comeback starts we won’t have any free time.” Jessica agreed.

The Yong and Seo of the YongSeo couple just sank back wishing they were alone again.

“Ooh they’re on the teacups now.”

“Oh man remember last time, Jessica threw up so bad!” Taeyeon laughed while Jessica glared at her.

“I’m surprised they let you on the ride, isn’t there a height requirement for rides?”

“This seems scary.”

“I’m not scared at all.”

“Mommy!”She whined.

“Uagh!” He screamed and leapt behind her.

“Why did you get scared?!”

“You didn’t see it?”

“No.”

This time they were laughing so hard they had actually fallen off the couch. Taeyeon was on the ground and Sunny was clutching her stomach while Jessica chortled delicately. Tiffany was laughing into the maknae’s hair and Jung Yong Hwa was practically flat on the couch, he had sunk down so low.

“Oh my God the way you were holding on to Seohyun like she was a teddy bear was just hilarious!”

“He was practically climbing on top of her!”

“I know, it reminds me of that time Yoona put fake cockroaches in Yuri’s room!”

They continued laughing. Seohyun however took advantage of their now tentative positions to scoot on the couch until she was right next to Yonghwa. The girls returned to the couch without realising something was wrong and the couple grinned at each other with glee.

Throughout the next few minutes they stayed quiet not wanting to draw any unnecessary attention to them lest her unnies realised they were sitting next to one another.

“Oh look at the force with which that drop tower ride takes off.”

“I’m surprised Hyunnie’s shoes stayed on.”

“They almost flew off but I clenched my toes hard.” She said and even as she said it her eyes widened in anticipation but her unnies never realised her new position, engrossed in the show.

“Oh wow that dolphin scream is almost as high as yours’ Sica.” Sunny said.

“Ahh it’s Oettoriya!” A random bystander screamed.

“I’m a loner now?” He said.

“Not anymore.” He told the screen happily and then the episode ended.

“Aww it’s done already?” tiffany said.

“Wait a minute.” Sunny said suspiciously. “Were you sitting there the whole time?!”

“See you next time!” Seohyun waved at the camera while Yonghwa ran, chased by her unnies.

***

Of dolphin girlfriends and old legends

It was when her high pitched breathy giggles started up for the fifth time that he really got annoyed.

“Seo Joo Hyun, if you’re going to watch the video just watch it! Stop pausing it and giggling every time you see him!”

He never thought he could be so jealous of a man that was such an utter legend and so utterly...old. The man in the video was after all old enough to be her father, hell he was the musical icon that Seohyun’s Dad had shared with her as their own personal secret, he was probably old enough to be her grandfather.

And then she giggled for the sixth time and he just could not take it anymore, old man or not David Bowie was going down, he thought and got off the couch with a growl taking her hands in one of his his and pressing the play button and shushing her complaints and pouts with the other hand. Not for the first time he thanked the Gods for making her so small and so easy to hold (down).

“Now just watch!” He said and she narrowed her eyes at him before going back to the screen, her secret obsession, well hers and her Dad’s, was on the screen and she could not take her eyes off him.

The video played and even Yong was transfixed, forgetting to hold her down but it didn’t matter, she was just as lost as him. And then the final moment went by and they sat there in silence for a few seconds before a dolphin sound that even Jessica would not have been able to emit sounded from his dearest girlfriend and he flinched at the sudden lack of feeling in his ear drum.

“Seohyun-ah -“ He said wiggling a finger in ear vigorously trying to regain some hearing.

“He’s so cool!” She ignored him and suddenly got up and ran around every room of the house skipping in joy and shrieking the whole way. Part of Yonghwa laughed at the childish, hyperactive display of fangirlism.

The other part was brooding in sheer jealousy.

She never got that excited about any of his videos.

And then she was done christening every room with her screams of joy and stopped

in front of him panting heavily with excitement, clear eyes gleaming like she’d just been given the sun and she swept down and kissed him hard on the lips, pulling him into it further by tugging on his hair beguiling him to respond and he did. They pulled apart once air became a necessity and the silence was punctuated by their heavy panting breaths.

“I’m so happy!” She shrieked and pulled him into another kiss and this time he was ready for her.

Well maybe some good did come out of a fangirling Seohyun.

***

In which birthdays are celebrated and frantic calls are taken.

“Tell us what to do!”

The frantic voices of Seulong and Jinwoon cut through the sounds of laughter and party horns that surrounded Yonghwa. It was an early birthday celebration at the dorm and everyone important was there.By everyone important he meant every single SNSD member who didn’t have a schedule, the boys of FT Island and Lee Joon, even his mom and dad(and Jjing) via skype had joined in.

So when the call came, Yonghwa assumed it was to wish him a happy birthday, maybe apologize about not being there and switched it to speaker phone upon seeing Seulong’s name on the caller id, only to be yelled at instead.

“What?”

The party dulls down a bit just as he switches it back to hand phone mode and walks into his room for a bit of peace and quiet, only to be kick started again by Tiffany yelling “DJ, put it back on!”

He turns back to the phone and finds that Seulong was still talking.

“Nickhun-hyung has turned into a zombie!” Jinwoon says, cutting through Seulong’s word vomit.

“What?”

Seulong sighs and starts talking in a dramatic tone, enunciating each word. “We were watching the repeat of the 1 vs 100 episode with Luna and Victoria and Nickhun got all proud talking about how that was his wife right there and then Taecyeon butted in saying ‘Dumbass you got divorced more than a year year ago’ and he turned pale and has been a zombie ever since!”

“We thought he’d snap out of it but it’s currently day six and there are no signs of any changes.”Jinwoon added.

“He keeps on looking at old photos of them together and re-watching episodes.”

Yonghwa cut through the babble before Jinwoon could continue the rant. “That’s distressing and all that, but how can I possibly help with that? I barely know Nickhun!”

A silence follows only to be broken by a sheepish Seulong “We figured you went through something like this with Seohyun so...”

The door opens with the person in question poking her head in, a slight frown marring her brow. “Is everything okay?”

“Is that Seohyun?!” Jinwoon says , his inner Seohyun radar tuning in on the softly spoken words and Yonghwa’s eye begins twitching. This is not the turn he expected his day to take.

“...Yes.”

“We could always use a female perspective.” Seulong says and Yonghwa swears he can hear Jinwoon nodding along through the phone.

“They want to talk to you.” Yonghwa says in a flat voice and hands the phone over to her, reclining on his bed to look at her as he once did from a yellow sofa and Seohyun rolls her eyes at him even as she listens to Seulong diligently.

“I don’t know what to say, why don’t you just tell him to call her?”

“For some reason he’s chosen to be stubborn now, and insists on waiting for her to call.”

“That sounds familiar.”She says staring right at the birthday boy who was making kissy faces at her from the bed, tapping his foot to some unknown rhythm. “Just call her from his phone and then hand it over for him to deal with it once the call starts ringing, that’s what my unnies did.”

“What?!”

The exclamation comes from both sides of the phone.

“Yes, apparently they got tired of me going around with an aura of doom and despair and took it into their own hands. It worked. It was sneaky and underhanded , but effective. Tiffany unnie said that if that hadn’t worked their next idea was to plot with CNBlue members and lock us in a closet together, you can try that if you want.” She says casually with a shrug and Yonghwa hears the steady chant of ‘No no no no no no’ coming from Jinwoon and bites into a pillow to stifle his laugh.

Embarassed on behalf of Jinwoon and still reeling from the thought of Seohyun and Yonghwa trapped in a tiny space together, Seulong ends the call with a distractedly uttered goodbye and Seohyun sinks into the bed next to Yonghwa with a whoosh.

“Soooo. That was dramatic.”

“You didn’t make that first call?”

“I had already decided to call you but they thought I was being too chicken about it and took the initiative after I sat there staring at the phone for an hour willing myself to dial the number.”

“Hmm. That’s a no.” He wilts only to get no reaction.

“We should get back outside.”

“I guess we have to.” He sighs. Somehow the thought of being quiet in here with her was suddenly more appealing than going out there and facing the good natured ribbing that was bound to follow. He got up with yet another dramatic sigh and starts tugging on the door only to find it locked.

“What the-?”

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY YONGHWA!” Tiffany shouts from outside the door and various giggles ensue. They had been locked inside.

“Seohyun tell them to open the door!” He yells, still tugging on the door.

“Do you think they’re going to listen to me?!” She starts hunting his room for a key or even a pin to pick the lock with. “I should have known this would happen. Fany-unnie was really disappointed when she didn’t get to lock us up together.”

“Why are your group members so crazy?!”

“Why are your group members not unlocking us?!”

“You can stop trying to open the door, it’s not going to open unless we want it to!” Comes yet another cackle from Tiffany. “Seohyun and Yonghwa sitting in a tree!”

“This is madness!” Yonghwa shouts back at her.

“THIS IS SPARTA!”

“And that is why you should not give Fany-unnie all that sugar.” Seohyun says sinking back onto the bed.

“I haven’t even opened my presents yet.” He whines, pouting. “They’re still sitting on the table in their pretty wrapping paper.”

“You’re locked in your room with a pretty girl and you’re complaining about your presents?!”Sunny yells and Jonghyun chimes in.

“Don’t worry hyung, we’ll open the presents for you.”

The sound of ripping paper and oohs and aahs fill the room outside while Yonghwa’s pout deepens into a scowl.

“If you open Hyun’s present for me I’ll make life really difficult for you all!” He yell only to frown at Seohyun’s flustered expression. “You did get me a present didn’t you?”

“If she did, it’s not here!” Tiffany yells and Yonghwa turns to his girlfriend with puppy eyes that filled her with guilt.

“I did but... it broke.” She twiddles her thumbs looking genuinely sorry and he wonders if she’s just acting (she’s even better at it now than she was during their marriage) or it really did break. “Really, I ordered it online the minute I saw it because it was just so totally perfect for you, but when it arrived in the mail last week it was broken. I called the company and they’ll be sending a replacement but it’ll take another week or so.”

“This is possibly my worst birthday ever.” He deadpans and buries his head in his pillows sprawling out on his bed face down.

“Don’t say that! I’ll make it up to you, I promise!” She squeezes his shoulder reassuringly, not moving her hand away even as he turns to look at her.

“How are you going to do that? Soon I’ll be off to Manila and you’ll be off to Hong Kong and then Beijing and our schedules don’t have any free days that coincide for ages!”

“Ah oppa-“ Seohyun starts only to stop and look away with a frown. “Wait, do you hear

that?”

“I don’t hear anything.” He says, grumbling a bit as the topic shifts away from his birthday gift.

“Exactly, there seems to be no one outside!”

“You mean they locked us in here and left?!” They both stand up and rush towards the door to find it open and walk out into a living room devoid of any life.

“Where is everyone?”

A pinned note on the fridge reads ‘Went back to the dorm, took the boys with us’

“Your members got kidnapped by my unnies.”

“Lucky bastards! Hey, there something written on the back.” He says and turns the note around.

‘Now you’re finally alone, so go get some but don’t forget to use protection!-Fany’

“Wow.” Yonghwa says, seemingly incapable of looking away from the note. “Your unnies are real perverts.”

“I know we’re finally alone and that we could just do our...private stuff, but this time could be utilised better.”

“Better than ...private stuff?” He says sceptically. There was little in the world he liked better than... private time with Seohyun.

“Revenge. They just opened all your presents. And by the looks of it they took them too.” She says and the shine in her eyes scares him rather than filling him with the usual awe and butterflies. It was bordering on maniacal and while it usually accompanied her many requests for him to read the self help books she kept on ‘lending’ out to him, this gleam was somewhat dark, dangerous almost malevolent.

Hot.

It wasn’t until in Manila that he realised he just spent most of his pre-birthday birthday, making evil plans.

One week later

“Yonghwa, one of the SNSD managers passed this on to me.” Says his Manager hyung and he just knows it’s Seohyun’s gift for him.He rips the pretty wrapping paper off and finds a deep blue box with a swan motif and the word Swarovski written on it and with a note attached.

‘For my dearest Yong Choding. ’

In the pretty box lay a crystal rocker duck, pout and all.

“Mwoya?!”

“Hyungsoonim got it all wrong.This duck is way more a rocker than you are.”

***

Cyrano Dating Agency- The YongSeo files

A/N: So is anyone else watching Dating Agency:Cyrano? Because I am and I love it so much and I couldn�t help but think what would happen if Yonghwa happened to be one of the clients and madness ensues, it would just be sooooo much fun (especially when you consider that Shinhye played the role of one of them in the movie and then Sooyoung played that same character in the drama, the meta-ness of a YongSeo-Cyrano crossover is AWESOME!). But I know that some of you have probably not seen it so I�m adding a little intro with a character profile of everyone in the agency so you don�t get confused and have some basic idea of the people there but if you�ve been watching the show then perhaps you�ll recognise some of the little inside jokes inserted her and there.

Members of the Cyrano Agency:Seo Byunghoon: Cranky man, brains of the operation, has a little thing going on with Minyoung. Runs the dating agency for the money so he can pay off debts and revive the theater.

Gong Minyoung: Utter romantic, wants to give people their happy ending. Mainly drives the car.

Moojin: Genius engineer, kind of emotionless, works the gadgets and occasionally does the recoinassance.

Arang: Nineteen year old actor, always smiley.

***

Chapter one: In which Yonghwa finally seeks the help of....professionals?

“It’s been four weeks since our last client.” A tall skinny girl complained as two youngish boys lazed around her, one playing with a rubix cube and the other looking out the window with a dreamy smile.

“As our most social member you could try doing some actual advertising of the Agency Gong Minyoung. So far you haven’t brought a single client. Even Moojin brought us that quiet boy while you were off on your family vacation. Which reminds me, where are my figs? I saw you give a bushel to ‘Master’ but none for us?”

Minyoung tchh-ed and was just about to reply when someone entered the abandoned theatre.

“Is this the Cyrano dating agency?” A heavily disguised man asked. He had a heavy scarf wrapped around his neck even in mid-April and giant bug sunglasses perched on his nose covering the half of his face that the scarf didn’t, a cap hid even his hair. All in all he looked like a crazy man. A crazy man from Busan, Seo Byung-Hoon thought noticing the slight satoori colouring the man’s words.

“Oh good, a new client!” Gong Minyoung exclaimed and Byung-Hoon fought the urge to press the bridge of his nose in annoyance. That girl was going to be the death of him. “You’ve definitely come to the right place Mr - ?”

The leader of the troupe watched as the heavily layered man took off the glasses and unwound the scarf. From the sharp intake of breath and dreamy sigh Minyoung had reacted with he could tell that this was probably a man he should know of. “Annyeonghasaeyo, I’m Jung Yong Hwa.”

An idol, Byung-Hoon thought and scoffed, the overly bright tone was something he heard often nowadays while flipping through channels.

“Um I heard of how you helped Ray get the girl. I was hoping that you could help me with...you know.”

“Yes of course, why don’t you sit down and tell us about it.” Minyoung said guiding the pretty boy to the table and looking at him with wide puppy eyes. Even Moojin sent the man a slight smirk and Arang, well the smile had never left his face in the first place.

“Thanks, hey has anyone ever told you that you look like SNSD’s Sooyoung?” The boy named Jung Yong Hwa told the girl and she nodded abstractly before a gleam came into her eye, one that was wholly uncharacteristic for her.

“Some people tell me I look like Park Shin Hye though.” She said coyly with a Cheshire grin that really was more of Byung-Hoon’s style than hers. He recognised both those names though and made a note of how Yong Hwa stiffened when the second name was said.

“Um, so where do I start?” He asked and Byung-Hoon sighed in annoyance.

“You start with the name.”

“Ah, de. Umm So I was on this show called We Got Married with her, her name is Seo Joo Hyun.”

“Sonyuh Shidae’s maknae?!” It took the stoic man a while to realise the happy exclamation had come from him. But really he would be an idiot if he didn’t know of the pretty young girl from the nation’s number one girl group.

“Um yes, so when we were on this show I thought things were pretty good between us and we were, are, still good friends after the show. But I just don’t know how to tell her I’m interested in her, you know? She’s so focused and ambitious and every time I try to get romantic she thinks I’m just joking around because of the show.I just want you to help me prove that I’m serious about this. I don’t care if she says no I just need to know...I don’t think I’m explaining it too well, am I?” He laughed at himself and Gong Minyoung swooned, the hand under her chin moving up to her cheek. Not that Byung-Hoon noticed that.

“We’ll need to check out the target. And I want to know everything you know about her schedule.”

“It’s probably up online already bu-“

“Not her work schedule, her personal schedule. What grocery stores she goes to, which restaurants she frequents, what stop she gets her cabs from, what gym she works out at, little things like that.” Byunghoon sighed. This was going to be difficult.

“Ah, de, I’ll do my best but right now she’s in America and she’ll be there for at least a week. And then I think she’s flying off to Japan next week.”

“The girl doesn’t even stay in the same country as you half the time and you’re trying to be in a committed relationship with her?” Byung-Hoon said raising an eyebrow smugly and Minyoung shot him a glare.

“After the Japan thing she’s going to be in the country for two months at least, she said she wants to focus on her studies now that exams are coming up.”

“Hmm. Aright you can go now, we’ll take care of the rest.” Seo Byung-Hoon says coldly and with a big smile Jung Yong Hwa begins to rewrap the scarf around his face only to stop mid motion.

“Just so you know, if I find out that any of her, mine or our personal information is shared by any of you, if there’s the smallest of leaks, come hell or hordes of angry fan girls, I will find you and I will kill you.” All four in the agency were taken aback by the sudden dark aura that emanated from the idol as he said the words only to revert back to the happy snaggletoothed and smiley persona he was before. With a wave and a tug on the cap he left the theatre.

“This case....” Byung-Hoon said pensively moving towards the window looking every part the tragic misguided hero only to fling his arms up in the air ecstatically, “is going to get rid of all my debts!” The leader of the troupe laughed to himself while the other three looked on.

They worked for the strangest of men.

Cyrano Dating Agency-The YongSeo files (Chapter 2)

In an abandoned theatre named Cyrano, the members of the dating agency were all gathered along with Yonghwa and Byung-Hoon was rubbing the bridge of his nose for the umpteenth time, wondering if perhaps this case wasn’t going to be the one to settle all his debts.

Certainly not considering the dunce of a client they had.

Yonghwa read over the script that Byung-hoon had prepared only to look up in badly disguised horror and pushed it away. “I can’t say this stuff, it’s completely unrealistic!” Seo Byung-Hoon felt a headache coming on and rubbed his eyes. Between Gong Minyoung’s ecstatic screams over having met the famous Jung Yong Hwa and their client’s refusal to go with any of the plans they’d set up for him, citing that they were either unrealistic, way too complicated or his personal favourite, invasive of their privacy (really what the hell did the Busan boy expect when he was paying them to interfere in their lives?!)

“Ah this kid really, he writes a few lyrics and thinks he’s an expert on scripts.” He complained to Minyoung softly. Can’t offend the client after all. Well, not until the payment had cleared.

“Actually he’s written up to 46 songs all within a span of three years.”

“Why do you know so much about him?” Minyoung had been spouting Jung YongHwa factoids the whole day, complete with deep breathy sighs, swooning fits and sometimes even blushes. It was distrac- it was annoying.

She gave him a look that clearly said �you’re an idiot�. “You told me to do the background checks.”

“And what have you found out about Seohyun?”

“Straight A student, she’s currently studying at Dongguk university with a major in Acting, sh-“

“I know all that,” Byunghhoon said ignoring the raised eyebrow that Minyoung shot at him. “But what about her personal life?” And Minyoung sighed, deeply, heavily.

“I couldn’t find anything about her dating or even showing any interest in any guy e

ver. I searched everything, from old Cyworld entries to possible posts in any online community anonymous or otherwise, if there was anything indicative of her dating history it’s been wiped clean by her company. The only thing I could find was this post from a guy who claims to be the one who confessed to Seohyun when they were thirteen but I’m not so sure we can go by it, it could just be a fabricated story based off her Radio Star interview.”

“It’s the only lead we’ve got, who’s the guy who confessed?”

“It’s some guy named Dan Zhang-Choi. He was a transfer student from America and she was one of the few students who didn’t make fun of his pronunciations or his heritage and he says she helped him with speaking Korean so he asked her out but she rejected him really nicely and they still talk occasionally.”

“What’s he like?”

“Well from what I gathered from his Facebook and his cyworld entries, he’s nice, doesn’t use social networking websites too often and likes books. He’s currently volunteering for a group that sends people all over the world as teachers and is not in the country at the moment.”

“So he’s a male, non celebrity version of Seohyun.”

“Yep and as unlike Jung Yonghwa as day and night.” The two looked over to where Yonghwa was sat trying to figure out the most natural way of saying the words Byung-Hoon had penned down for him occasionally pausing to respond to the incessant noise of notifications from his Kakao talk. Unfortunately his idea of natural was to talk loudly and with his mouth half open.

“Did he say how she rejected him?”

“Apparently she said that between training for her debut and maintaining good grades she barely got to see her parents let alone see anyone on a date.” Minyoung suddenly sighed then. “If she’d have said yes she might not have debuted even, they could have just lived happily ever after.”

“Yah Gong Min Young, don’t you dare deviate from the plans, remember this is about Jung Yonghwa and Seohyun not Random Guy who asked her out years ago and Seohyun.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Okay then what about-“ Before he could finish the sentence Moojin, having just returned from his stint as the new manager for SNSD had a somewhat distressed look on his face (you had to look real hard).

With his entrance the drama that was omnipresent in the room swelled up and everyone stood up as if to prepare themselves for the words that were sure to come from him.

“We have a problem.”

Seo Joo Hyun was not a suspicious person by nature. Slightly paranoid perhaps but not suspicious because no matter how worried she was she’d never actually figure out what she was supposed to be looking out for. She was just hyperaware of the world around her and something was wrong.

Something in her world was off, that much she knew but she just couldn’t figure out exactly what it was. Last time it was the colour of Tiffany unnie’s bag (really that drab grey was so uncharacteristic of her bright and cheerful and pink loving unnie that it was throwing off everything, she had sighed a deep breath of rel

ief when it had finally been matched up with a pair of ridiculously pink gloves) so it could have just been something small.

Like this car they were being driven around in, it was new. It was bigger too, not the size of a bus but certainly not the sleek van they were used to. Perhaps that was throwing her off. Then again Hyoyeon unnie was listening to uncharacteristically deep and introspective slow songs, perhaps it was that? Or maybe she was just tense because of the exams coming up in the next few months and she’d been dealing with crazy schedules for most of the time. Or maybe it was the new manager/driver they had been assigned. Yes, at barely 26 Moojin-ssi was uncharacteristically young. And as a ridiculously gorgeous pretty boy he was even stranger as a manager/driver. Not to say that SM didn’t have its fair share of ulzzang-ish managers but that those pretty boy managers were never assigned to the boy-crazy herd of SNSD *coughSooyoung unnie and Sunny unniecough*.

And this new manager was undoubtedly the prettiest of all they had ever seen. He was horribly new but quiet and almost robotic, he made her ‘Seobot’ self look like an emotional mess. And he seemed to send Sooyoung unnie the deepest and oddest of stares often calling her Minyoung by mistake only to have Sooyoung pout prettily and bat her eyelashes at him. Yes it was probably the new manager. Every time Seohyun looked at him he seemed to be in the process of looking away from her. Sooyoung had complained about Seohyun getting all the pretty ones once they were in the privacy of the dorm while simultaneously praising the maknae for snagging a cute one.

So it wasn’t just her then.

But maybe it was something else? There was the cagey way Yong Hwa was asking about her. Really did he think that he could just ask her mom in her house what she did in her free time and where she went when she felt like hanging out and she wouldn’t find out? That boy....

But, oh that boy. He drove her nuts really. Not as nuts as she already was and not half as nuts as she thought the new manager to be but still he drove her nuts all the same. But why was he asking around about her schedule?

When she asked her unnies about that they said they had no idea beyond that he was clearly interested in her which Seohyun refused to believe, there must have been some other ulterior motive that she didn’t realise. She did notice the way the new manager frowned when Sooyoung unnie brought up Yonghwa’s odd behaviour in the car though, another point in the Moojin-ssi is possibly a stalker column.

She was right then. Something very odd was going on and it had all to do with the pretty boy manager....“You asked her mother?!”

“Well what was I supposed to do, she doesn’t live in the dorm with her unnies anymore she lives with her parents and I live in the same building and I talk to her mom often so-“

“Do you want to date her or stalk her?!”

“Date her obviously but-“

“Then stop acting like a creeper! We don’t want to scare her off.” Byung-Hoon sighed and turned to Moojin. “What exactly did they say?”

“She said ‘Ah but unnie Yong doesn’t think of me like that!’ and then they giggled and poked her and one of them, I’m not sure which one, said ‘Of course he likes you why else would Yong Seobang ask your mom what you do in your free time!’ and then they sang Seohyun and Yonghwa sitting in a tree and she shrieked and hid her face when they started the K I S S I N G part.”

Byung-hoon threw his hands in the air and walked away and even Minyoung looked at Yonghwa oddly.

“Why does she think that there’s no way you’d think of her like that?” She asked him as he sat on the couch with a hangdog expression.

“That’s what I can’t figure out, I’ve made it so obvious to everyone and their mother but the girl herself refuses to take the hint.” Yonghwa said gesturing wildly with his arms before finally pouting and settling his chin on his fisted hand.

“No but it’s like she’s decided that there’s absolutely no way you could like her, even after all you’ve been through. Even if that show was only half real there’s obviously something between you two but somehow she just outright denies it all.” Minyoung observed distractedly.

“Minyoung’s right.” Byunghoon said suddenly surprising all in the room with his statement.

As he strode towards Yonghwa, Minyoung in the background confusedly turned to Moojin and Arang and asked, “You heard that too, right?” The engineer and young student nodded, just as shocked as she was.

“Minyoung, I want you to get as close to Seohyun as you can, we need to find out what’s going on in her head.”

“And just how are we going to do that?”

“Well Yonghwa said it himself didn’t he, you look just like Sooyoung.” He was looking at her with that creepy glint in his eye and she hoped he wasn’t saying what she thought he was saying but the next words drove all hope out of her mind. “We’re going to pull a switch.”.

***

which (confused) looks are exchanged.

“Unnie did I say something wrong to YongHwa?”

“I don’t think so, why?” Taeyeon said concernedly looking in between the maknae and CNBlue’s leader.

“He keeps on glaring at me!”

“Well he’s not glaring at you now.”

“Really?!” Seohyun excitedly turned her head just a a bit to look at where Yonghwa was sitting on the table opposite theirs at a party but the second she turned he went back to ‘glaring’ at her. “No, he’s still glaring.” She said to Taeyeon and sagged in disappointment.

“He’s not glaring, he’s just....narrowing his eyes whenever you look at him.” Seohyun lifted her head from the pillow of arms she was buried herself under to glare at her unnie. “See the way you’re looking at me now is a proper glare.”

“Narrowing your eyes at a person is a sign of anger.”

“Why don’t you just go talk to him and ask him if you’ve done something wrong?”

“Should I? But what should I say, how should I phrase it?”

“Well I think saying, ‘Yonghwa, you’re glaring at me from across the room, did I do something wrong?’ sounds pretty good.”

“It does? Okay then, here I go. Wish me luck!” Seohyun said and got up from her perch to make her way through the crowds to get to her ex-virtual-husband.

By the time she finally reached him, several people calling out to her and various others trying to engage her in conversation and drinks, he wasn’t alone. Hara was right next to him and by the looks of it they were deep in a conversation. She felt bad interrupting them so she didn’t, instead choosing to pick up a drink from the trays circulating in the room and sitting down next to him listening intently to the two.

“Are you sure Junhyung didn’t say anything?” Hara was asking Yonghwa almost frantically. “You guys were promoting at the same time though, and you didn’t see anything?”

“Is something wrong Hara?” Seohyun asked, concerned that Jessica’s fave dongsaeng was this close to tears and Hara turned to her with a sad look in her eyes.

“Junhyung left me a voicemail some days ago and I just wanted to make sure he was doing fine.”

“When we visited the MBC studio last time, he was fine, not ecstatic obviously but he was still responding to jokes and all that. Don’t worry Hara I’m sure he’ll be fine but even if he isn’t we can’t always feel responsible for other people’s actions.”

Hara sighed and started again, “I know but-“

“No buts.” Yonghwa interrupted. “Joohyun is right Hara, you can’t control people’s actions or feelings, just let it go.” He said firmly.

“You’re right, you’re right. Well I’ll get going then, that’s all I wanted to know and I’m sure you guys have things to talk about.” If Hara and Junhyung’s breakup was the elephant in the room being pointedly ignored then the dynamic of Yonghwa and Seohyun was the unicorn in the room that everyone felt the need to nudge and wink at.

They sat there in a silence for a while and then as Yonghwa began narrowing his eyes at her again she had an outburst.

“Yong, did I do something to piss you off?” Judging from the sudden drop in Yonghwa’s jaw and the wide unblinking eyes she guessed he did not expect her to say that and he confirmed her guess with what he said next.

“Why would you say that?!”

“You’ve been glaring at me the whole time!” She said with a frown and a pout thrashing her arms around disarmingly.

“I haven’t been glaring at you!” He spluttered and she took great offense to that.

“Yes you have, you keep on looking at me like this!” With that she imitated his narrowed eyes and slightly sulky face.

“I wasn’t-I didn’t..No I wasn’t glaring at you!”

“Then what do you call that look?!”

“I was trying to throw you a hot and sultry look!”

Before a part of her could rejoice in the fact that he wasn’t angry at her at all but was instead trying to seduce her, a question burned in her mind.

“How the hell is that hot and sultry?!”

“The photographer said that in the last photoshoot and I just...never mind.” He sighed and went back to his pouty choding face.

“See now that’s a seductive look!” She exclaimed. The two were so lost in their own world that they didn’t notice the people around them start to stare at the couple who was throwing words like ‘hot’, ‘sultry’, ‘glare and ‘choding’ around like they belonged in the same conversation.

“How is that a seductive look?”

“Reminds me of all the times when we were married and living together, if you want to seduce me then just make that face!”

“You’re crazy!”

“Says the man who tried to seduce me by looking at me like he was planning my assassination.”

He pouted again and this time she let the little swoon she usually suppressed when he did that show.

“I love it when you do that.”

Even though his plan had backfired Yonghwa wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the face. He leaned in closer until they could feel each other’s breath on their face.

“What if I do this?” He asked bringing a hand up to cup her chin, smirking when her eyelashes fluttered in response.

“What if I do this?” She pulled him close by his collar and kissed him hard.

One hand wrapped around her waist to pull her closer while the other rested slightly on her neck angling her head the way he wanted to so the kiss grew deeper and she moaned in the back of her throat.

They finally parted and found themselves suddenly facing a million whistles and catcalls. Back at the table Seohyun had left moments ago Taeyeon and Tiffany exchanged money as bets that had been made ages ago finally got settled.

“I wouldn’t mind doing that again.” Yonghwa said through a grin and she was overwhelmed by the urge to wipe it off his face and give his mouth something else to do.

***

Of Harmonies and Jigaes

“Hey Seohyun!” Henry Lau smiled at her and she couldn’t help but smile back. He was just so nice to her she couldn’t help it, not to mention she had long outgrown that

shy phase when she couldn’t really look any guy in the eye without her face going into what Jessica unnie called a ‘bitchface’, her version being a bit more blank and a bit less....bitchy. But she wasn’t Seobot anymore, she was Seolady and she smiled back at Henry as they settled down in the practice room.

“So, we’re going to record Trap right?”

“Yeah a violin and piano version, I’ve already put the sheet music at the piano when you’re ready we can start practising.”

“Thanks.” She smiled and took her place at the piano seat and settled in, adjusting little things before playing it, eyes firmly on the sheet of music in front of her. Soon her fingers flew over the keys notes falling as she read them and faintly she was aware of Henry’s eyes taking in her form with a small smile and by the third time she played the entire piece she felt sure that she had all the notes in her head perfectly enough to start harmonising with Henry’s violin.

“Shall we try it together?” He asked and she nodded with a soft ‘Ne’. After a second of silence the sound of the piano filled the room like pearls falling and then Henry joined in with the violin but they timed it wrong and exchanging laughing glances they started again. The second time the tempo on one of the other portions was off by just a millisecond, something that their trained ears noticed immediately and they stopped to start all over. It took quite a few tries before they managed to play it together to the degree of perfection both aspired to and once that was done they just practised it again and again wanting to make sure not a single thing was off when they recorded the video, that it wouldn’t need any more than one take to get the perfect recording.

“Took some time but it was worth it. Perfection takes a couple of tries doesn’t it?” Henry laughed and Seohyun agreed on the outside.

On the inside she wondered if it was always that difficult to harmonise with someone. It didn’t take her that long to get it right when she was playing with her Mother or any of her unnies.

And then remembered a time when she played with another guy, one from Busan and perfection had been achieved even though they weren’t even trying for it they were just having fun, jamming.

She wondered what Jung Yong Hwa was doing right then. Probably schmoozing up to her Mum trying to convince her to give him some of the Kimchi jigae she’d made without even realising that Mum only made it for him in the first place. Dad only liked Sundubu jigae and she had to stick to a specific diet because she had a comeback to prepare for.

She sighed as the make-up artist added a dab of concealer before declaring her done and Henry nudged her.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, just wondering what my Mum’s made for dinner today.”

He laughed. “Yeah my Mum’s probably sleeping right now.” He licked his lips in a nervous manner and was just about to ask her something when they were told that the camera was ready for them.

They got it done in one shot but Seohyun wasn’t entirely satisfied, one segment she felt like they weren’t matching tempo the way they should have but the person in charge of the video waved off her concerns and said they did fine.

“Umm Seohyun?” Henry finally got the chance to talk to her.

“Yeah?”

“I was wondering if maybe you’d want to go out sometime.” She was taken aback.

“Um Henry I’m actually seeing someone.”

“Really?” He looked surprised and that surprised her. How could he be a close friend of Kyuhyun’s and not know that?

“Yeah we’ve been together for the past three years actually, didn’t you know that? I thought Kyuhyun would have told you for sure or at least Donghae....I’ve been with Yonghwa ever since we finished on the show.”

She didn’t really need to tell him how long they’d been dating but she told everyone, it was a (bad) habit. She just loved rubbing people faces in the fact that she’d been in a happily committed relationship for ages now, her, the one people had called an unfeeling robot.

"Oh, congratulations then." Henry smiled again, this time less blinding and more platonic and inwardly seethed.He was going to kill Kyuhyun.

“Dude, you never told me Seohyun was dating Yonghwa! I just asked her out and felt like such an idiot when she had to turn me down like that.” Henry told Kyuhyun, sulking over alcohol and slowly scratching the label off the bottle in his hand and Kyuhyun shot him a laughing look.

“What are you talking about, I told you that the minute you asked me if Seohyun was single.”

“You said that she was married to Yonghwa I just figured you were joking about that show they were on, you didn’t say they were dating.”

Kyuhyun cackled and threw an arm over the younger man’s shoulder. “That’s because what Yonghwa and Seohyun have is not dating it is a marriage.”

And even though the two in question were off in a building far away and didn’t really hear what had been said about them, as she nagged him about his bad habits and he made her laugh with the stupidest of jokes and force fed her Kimchi jigae regardless of her diet, they could not agree more.

***

he Kissing Scene Dilemma.“You have a kiss scene?!” Yonghwa yelled in the hallway outside his dorm as they waited for the elevator.

“Yes I have a kiss scene, it’s all chaste though, first kiss and all that.”

“But you’re only there for four episodes and you die, is a kiss really necessary?”

“It’s the tragic first love and they need to show the depth of the relationship within four episodes so yes, I’m kissing him.”

“I don’t know it’s seems a bit much though.” She sighed dropping her shoulders, utterly exasperated.

“Oppa, make me angry and I’ll turn that innocent peck on the lips into a hot and hea

vy French kiss, just to get back at you.” The minute those words left her mouth he did a complete 180.

“Oh how lovely, a kiss scene, those are my favourites!” He said, a fake and bright smile on his face. It turned real when she glared at him (she was so cute blowing air through her nose like that!) but slipped off when the glare turned into a mischievous smile.

“It’s a pity that you’re so bad at your favourite scenes. And since we’re not going to be practising them any time soon,” Yep, he was in the doghouse, “I guess your kiss scene in Future’s Choice is going to be quite bad.”

“Aww come on Hyun.”

“No way, I’m actually afraid to be seen with you because people have seen your kiss scenes and know how bad they are, they give me pitying looks because they think I’m stuck with a bad kisser.”

“Funny, they give my pitying looks because they think I’m stuck with a prude.”

They were facing one another noses almost touching both with their hands on their hips trying to outdo one another.

“I get told I’d be better off dating a Minion than you.”

“I get told I’d be better off dating Shin Hye than you.”

“Oh please when it comes to real people I’m asked why not Jinwoon or Jungmo or Minho or Kyuhyun or-“

“I get it, I get it.” There was really no winning with Seo Joo Hyun she was lucky he was such a gracious loser.

“Now come on, Mum said not to be late. Last time we were late Dad killed you because he thought we’d been up to something less than innocent.” She pushed him into the elevator unable to keep her hands off him even when angered.

“We were up to something less than innocent.” They’d been making out and lost track of time. The mussed hair and smudged lipstick made it very obvious and her mother had stifled laughter while her father had invited Yonghwa to look at his gun collection.

“Yes but do you really want Daddy to know that?”

“Fine.”

“Fine.”

Silence reigned as they waited for the elevator to ding and indicate their arrival on her floor on opposite sides of the metal cab, arms crossed under their chest in consternation. He stole looks at her when he thought she wasn’t looking and she did the same and they caught each other’s eyes, timing their secret looks wrong and turned their faces away coughing awkwardly. When they were just one floor away from reaching their destination the elevator lurched and the fighting couple came towards one another in panic. The lights flickered and went off and soon they were left staring at the walls nervously in the dim glow of the emergency lights.

“Are you okay?” He asked her.

“I’m fine what about you?”

“I’m fine, don’t worry we can just use the emergency phone in here to make the call and they’ll get us out of here don’t worry okay?” He said and picked up the phone to make a call to maintenance.

“They said it’ll take half an hour to get someone to fix it.”

They slid down the walls and sat there next to one another knees pulled up.

“So.” Yonghwa said in an attempt to break the silence. He didn’t do well in quiet, enclosed spaces.

“So.”

“Want to make out?”

“You’re not just saying this because you’re feeling claustrophobic?”

“I am but I also want to kiss you.”

She thought it over a few seconds before shrugging.

“Okay.”

When they finally got to her parent’s place for dinner an hour later, her hair was dishevelled, lipgloss spread half on Yonghwa’s mouth and half on hers and her Dad was back to trying to kill him....“Are you jealous that I got to kiss your husband?” Yoon Eun Hye teased Seo hyun when she secretly dropped by the set of his drama later.

“Are you jealous that I got to ride a bike, sing at a noeraebang and had a picnic with Kim Jong Kook-ssi?” She referred of course to the love-line that had been formed between her two sunbaes in a show years ago called X-Man.

“Ouch, Yonghwa you better watch your girl, she’s got quite a tongue to her.”

“And she does amazing things with it too, there was this cherry stem-“

“JUNG YONG HWA!” Both blushing women shouted.

***

Of odd smiles and Death

They were watching her drama and while Seohyun was taking mental notes on what to improve in her next venture (really, she should be better at showing outrage especially considering how many times her unnies and Yonghwa have made her feel it) her unnies were crying and for some odd reason Yonghwa was smiling. Grinning, in fact, like an utter idiot. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem because he had the tendency to do that (grin like an idiot she meant) whenever he saw her however this time was different.

This time they were watching her panic in the car and then subsequently die. There were many things that it was, heart wrenching(if she said so herself), sad and melodramatic however funny it was not. So taking care not to attract any atten

tion from her unnies on the sofa she leaned closer to her boyfriend on the loveseat they were sharing and for once his usual reaction of running his hand up her shoulder wasn’t comforting but creepy.

“Why are you smiling?!” She whispered as softly as she could but Sunny who was on the sofa closest to them turned to glare at her before going back to sobbing into a handkerchief.

“What?” He said not bothering to whisper and the entire couch turned to them and as if in one practised motion eight girls raised their fingers to their mouth and shushed them. “Sorry, what?” He whispered this time. This time Sunny moved from her seat with a huff, settling down on the floor in front of the others quickly and a glazed look took over her face as she was sucked back into the drama that was Passionate Love.

“Why are you smiling? This isn’t exactly a funny or even particularly happy scene!”

“I know but..." He hesitated knowing that there was no way she was going to like what he had to say, "You’re going to get mad.”

“No I won’t.”

“Promise?”

“Well,” She couldn’t really lie and Yong did have the ability to piss her off when no one else could, “I promise I’ll try not to be angry.” Mind control was still one of her superpowers.

“It’s just, you know how we haven’t been able to spend a lot of time together recently what with our schedules and then the drama shooting and press?”

“Yes you pouted a lot when we couldn’t spend our anniversary together.” Their Japan trip was special to them and the fact that they hadn’t been able to spend that entire week together let alone the day because of her drama press con and other activities had made him unbearable to live with.

“Well I was just thinking that I’ve never been happier for an onscreen death than right now.”

She gasped her eyes turning so big, fishes would have been jealous.

“You were smiling because I died?!” She said horrified.

“No no no, I was smiling because Han Yurim died.” He was mocking her just a little bit she knew and it only made her steam further. That was exactly what she’d told him about the kiss scene, ‘I’m not kissing him, Han Yurim is kissing him.’ Or ‘I’m not getting shy because of his abs, Han Yurim is.’ And then ‘I only locked arms during the press conference because of Han Yurim.’, Han Yurim this, Han Yurim that, he was getting very angry with this doppelganger of his girlfriend who was going around kissing people and getting shy around boys on TV and frankly he was actually very happy that Han Yurim died. “Now come on let’s watch this quietly before your unnies kill us.”

He said and pulled her into his arms wrapping himself around her like a blanket and sniffing her hair. That way she wouldn’t see him smile when Han Yurim came to (hopefully) a gruesome death. And then soon on screen when Han Yurim’s eyes closed for the final time he grinned again and Seohyun in his arms let out a breath of air, clearly pissed off. He cowered as she turned to him eyes ablaze wondering what the hell did he do now?!

“I can feel you smiling into my hair, Jung Yonghwa!”

And again as if one person, the eight girls turned to them in anger.

“SHHHHHH!”

***

What ho? A foe?

It occurs to me that this is a LiveJournal account. A LiveJournal. It stands to reason that I write a journal like entry then. Considering that I have written pages and pages of stories about people that are relative strangers to me and on other websites, pages and pages about people who do not even exist, I should be able to write a semi-decent few pages about myself. Perhaps about the past year in reflection, after all December is upon us and then soon it will be New Years. Makes sense, that.

But I know that I’ve never been the best at writing journal-esque entries, my experiment in 9th grade in writing an account of my day turned out to be an exact account of the mischief people had gotten up to in class (complete with time and date logs) and how I wished them dead because frankly their stupid and loud chatter was killing me and my precious brain cells slowly. And the other attempt at maintaining a diary turned into rambles about the societal pressure the youth faces and a discourse on the lack of sustainable development. I highly doubt my ability to be honest even to myself given my tendency to use humour to deflect from my personal dilemmas.

However, given that I am fond of organization I have decided to ...well organize. Organize my thoughts that is, so here goes my first ever attempt at an open letter to myself.

Dear Self,

You have not come a long way this year. Frankly your alarmist tendencies have only multiplied and your insistence on the fact that the world shall end soon due to the imbalance it has been thrown into due to a growing population pressure and harmful human activities have gained a maniacal tone.

On the other hand your insistence that the world is ending soon had led to a lessening in the tension with which you hold yourself. Your lack of care is obvious in the way you say ‘Screw it we’re all just going to die anyway.’ which is an improvement over ‘Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God, we’re all going to DIE!’.

You have also grown to love yourself a bit more this year. But don’t think I haven’t noticed that that has resulted in some remarkable arrogance as well. Admittedly the arrogance is in your blood given how high and mighty most of your predecessors are (except for Mum but she’s the family oddball for a reason you know) so it wasn’t completely unexpected. At least you still know a few people who are more narcissistic than you, however, when you surpass them, know that you have gone too far. Read this letter and realise that a bit of self deprecation would not be amiss.

I am however surprised by the new habit you have gained of singing randomly. While you have a lovely singing voice, singing in the middle of a horror film is not really appropriate. Especially when you’re not even singing the Jaws theme song. And your other habit of narrating your every move and thought is also quite annoying. Remember, a monologue is only really acceptable when it is in the form of internal monologue.

You need to learn to stay in contact with people more often. Use Whatsapp more, it is currently your only true form of communication with people now that you’ve decided Facebook is stupid and that back reading Twitter is too Herculean a task. No, playing Ruzzle and Quizcross does not count as a proper way of socialising.

And yes you are smarter than a great deal of people but informing them of the fact is just plain rude. Not to mention you take all the fun out of it, let them at least try to figure it out for themselves would you?!

In conclusion, you need to get a life. But on the whole I love you just the same.

Sincerely,

***

Of long drives and sunrises

Yonghwa stood there awkwardly at a wedding, the wedding of Nicole and a very nice man who was a guitar teacher at FNC. She was only the second idol of their generation to get married after Sunye, a feat that had been seven years in the making. The glowing bride had yet to walk down the aisle as the church pews slowly filled up with guests. No one he knew was here, most of his guy friends were completing their military service while he had enlisted earlier in an attempt to escape the monotony his life had become and the few girls he was friends with were either not invited or busy with their professional lives. He stood there awkwardly until he saw a familiar back that connected to a familiar head of wavy hair in a dress that bared a shoulder with a mole that he knew well.

“Seohyun?” He had walked over the minute he’d seen her there, a lot of the people there were unfamiliar faces (unfamiliar to him that is, they all knew who he was) but even then he hesitated before walking up to her. She turned in surprise and a megawatt smile took over her face when she saw it was him. “I thought you’d be part of the ceremony.” He said nudging a shoulder in the direction of the Kara bridesmaids in their burgundy dresses that were milling about with the guests.

“Nope I’m just a simple guest unfortunately. Or fortunately the way you look at it.” Already she had heard of five instances where the bridesmaids had had to rush over and smooth things out, different situations that ranged from drunken uncles to babies who would not stop crying and even had an instance of Jinwoon bursting into tears. Seohyun loved Nicole but there was no way she was going to handle a crying Jinwoon for her.

He sat down next to her and she was surprised because there had been a distance growing between them for years now and it seemed odd to her that in this singular moment it should all come to head and without a single segue they should go back to a friendship that last seen had been hanging on tenterhooks. But she accepted it without question because he had once been one of her most precious people and a return to form filled her with sheer joy, she’d never liked leaving any of her friendships hanging the way it had done with him.

He shifted in his seat and a nearby gaggle of ajjhumas started pointing and whispering and an awkward silence descended upon the two until she decided to break it.

“No Shin Hye unnie?” She asked in whispers.

“Shin Hye and I have broken up.” The unsaid ‘again’ was felt in the air. “And this time I don’t think we’re getting back together.” He said grimly.

“Are you sure? Maybe you will, wasn’t there that time in between when you both took a break and began seeing different people for a while? You were with that normal girl, Mi Hyun or something? You got back together after that too.”

“It was Misun actually. But this time it’s permanent.”

“The end of an era.” She said poignantly. “It’s a pity, I always thought you two would be together forever.”

He hmm-ed but didn’t say anything but the air between the two had changed. It wasn’t awkward anymore, it was just a comfortable silence while they people-watched the guests until the time came and with a knock of the big wooden doors of the church everyone was made aware that the bride was about to walk in. A hushed silence took over and Nicole walked in radiant as ever and the ceremony began.

By the time they were finished with the vows Seohyun, like most of the female population in the church(and Jinwoon) had begun crying. Before Yonghwa could offer her a handkerchief with a grin she took one out of the tiny little purse that seemed to hold the secrets of the universe itself.

“I knew I was going to cry.” She said in a muffled voice which wiping her face and he smiled as she contemplated if blowing her nose would draw too much attention.

“Really?”

“Yeah I was there proofreading her vows. She didn’t want to be a blank paper Nicole on her wedding day.” The words said in that offhanded honest manner had him laughing silently, unaware of the lady in the pew next to him who was glaring.

“Oh Seo Joo Hyun, you haven’t changed a bit.”

“Yes I have!” she said in adamant whispers as the ceremony began to drag on a bit.

“I guess you have, Changmin said that you finally became interested in men and even began dating.”

“He...he told you that?” She said hesitantly.

“That you were dating some guy seriously and keeping him a secret? Yes.”

“Oh. Convenient how he forgot to mention that he was the guy I was dating.”

“What?!” While he had tried to control his voice it was heard by a few too many people around him and he smiled sheepishly at the few who turned to look at him annoyed. “Why didn’t he tell me?! For that matter why didn’t you?”

“Changmin Oppa always had this weird thought that you and I had something. I’m guessing that was his way of checking out how you’d take it.”

“Huh, you and Changmin. Changmin and Seohyun, Seohyun and Changmin. It’s just strange.” He shook his head hoping to shake that thought off along with it.”So why isn’t he here with you?”

“We broke up.”

“What happened?”

“And unstoppable force met an immovable object. Then they fought too much and decided they were better off as friends.” She said with a shrug of her shoulders looki

ng straight forward, a strange tightness to her.

“I’m sorry for you guys- Wait, did you just quote Batman?” He was dazed and confused. And a little bit amused too.

“Actually I was quoting The Joker. I’m getting my inner villain ready for the flower bouquet toss. Wish me luck!” She cracked her fingers and made a ready to fight gesture as the ceremony drew to an end and a horde of women began to gather around the bride who was just getting ready to throw the yellow rose cluster into what was sure to turn into a feeding frenzy. She got up to join them and he followed, ignoring the looks they were getting from the many that recognised them.

“Ouch, best be careful,” He said with a wince even though the cheek splitting grin on his face said otherwise. “These girls can be vicious.”Sure enough everyone was eyeing each other with a competitive glint in their eye, even Seohyun.

“Oh don’t worry about me. I have my super sharp elbows of doom.” She waggled her eyebrows at him and he laughed. Seohyun walked into the crowd emerging fifteen minute later with the bouquet clutched victoriously in her hands.

“Ha!”

“Why did you want to catch the bouquet anyway?”

“It’s a good omen. It means that I’ll get married next. My unnies and I have a bet going on about who’ll get married first. This,” She waved the bouquet in his face and he took a small step back as the smell of roses and gardenias tickled his nose making him sneeze, “gives me gloating rights.” He laughed at the triumphant look on her face.

That was how the entire evening went laughing and joking, they even went up to take the photos with the bride and groom together which was when Nicole pulled her aside.

“Hyunnie, what are you doing?”

“What do you mean?”

“I just don’t understand why you two are acting like you’re best of friends again after everything.”

“We’ve always been friends, maybe not the best of friends but still.” Joo Hyun said earnestly.

“I just hope you know what you’re doing.” Nicole stopped to think it over. “Unless you’re using him as a rebound to get over Changmin in which case go ahead and use him all night long.” She said with an impish grin and a wink that had Seohyun blushing.

Before Seohyun could vehemently deny it the next guest were lined up and Nicole had to rush off for more pictures leaving Yonghwa to find a spluttering Seohyun and lead her away.

“That girl!”

“She just got married, I think it’s okay to call her a woman now.” Yonghwa said amusedly.

“She’s just...never mind. So what’s next?”

“Nothing, we’re done for the day.” It was strange how neither of them found it strange to refer to themselves as a ‘we’. They hadn’t been a ‘we’ in a very long time after all. “Unless you have a schedule?”

“Nope, no schedule. Just driving back to an empty home.” She said with a sigh.

He looked at her morose face and wondered if maybe she was taking her breakup a bit harder than she’d made it seem. It was never easy giving up someone you care about, he knew that better than anyone. He hesitated a while before making up his mind as they approached the doors and made their way into the hall outside to leave.

“I hate how tiny the portions of food are at these classy weddings.” He complained and she looked at him with a lilt to her lips.

“Really?” She asked, amused.

“Yeah, I don’t think I’m going to be really full until I eat some more. Maybe have some ddeokbokki ramyeon.” He quipped.

“In Shin Dang Dong?” She played along.

He faked a sigh and made a show of rolling his eyes at her. “If you insist, I guess I’ll have to.” She laughed and his snaggletooth made a reappearance. He’d missed that sound. “Besides you look like you need some fattening up.”

“Really?”

“Yup.”

“So we set off to Shin Dang dong?” She asked with barely veiled excitement and he was ridiculously happy that she wasn’t sulking anymore.

“Kaja!” He said and with a laugh they took off.

It was when they were outside waiting for the valet that reality sunk in.

“We aren’t really going to go there right?” She asked hesitantly and he shrugged.

“It would be a scandal honestly but I really am hungry.” A grumble from his stomach made his point obvious and she bit her lip hard to stop herself from laughing. “Besides,” He continued in a softer tone, “I’d like to catch up with you Joo Hyun.”

It was the first time that night he had used her real name and she was struck. After all these years of indifference that they would go back to being that close again, it seemed like something out of a book or a movie. Then again she really did like books.

“We could drive around.”

“Oh and drop by Minhyuk’s Dad’s restaurant, I’m sure we can get something there!”

She furrowed her eyebrows at him. “Wow you really are hungry aren’t you?”

Before he could answer her car was brought to the front and he was struck by the fact that he was being driven around by her again.

They were barely in the car for a second before her voice chimed.

“Seat belt please.”

And just like that he was taken to the first time they met.

-----

12th February 2010

It began with a reprimand:

“Seat belt.”

He remembers the words spoken hours ago and pulls the belt across his middle. Even through the annoying feeling of being constricted, he smiles. If that’s an act then she must be a very good actress indeed he had thought.

But she wasn’t acting after all. They had stood at the glass doors of her apartment waiting for the coordinators to disentangle them from the mics that would be a part of every one of their interactions from now on, waited for the PD’s feedback and smiled awkwardly to each other.

“So are you really a Ban Ki Moon fan or just ...?” He had asked, dying to know if any part of what he had heard was true.

“If I was pretending to be someone else then that’s a very strange person to pretend to be. Well that’s what my unnies say at least.” She says with a nervous giggle.

“But it’s the strange ones that get all the screen time.”He quips. Surely someone would have noticed and pushed the 4d personality to the front. He’d seen it in the forms of Heechul and Hongki.

“You didn’t even know my real name until today. I was just Seohyun, SNSD’s maknae wasn’t I? Probably still am.” And he smiles a sheepish smile and she smiles knowingly. “Annyeonghasaeyo I’m Seo Joo Hyun.”

“Annyeonghasaeyo I’m Jung Yonghwa.It’s nice to meet you.” They bow to each other and laugh. “So...Is there really such a thing as a self-improvement genre?”

-----

“You know when you asked me the difference between ‘like’ and ‘love’? That’s still one of the most shocking moments of my life.” He confided and without taking her eyes off the road she answered him.

“You didn’t understand what I meant with that question but I don’t think I did either.”

“What did you mean to ask then Seo Joo Hyun?”

“For all the talk everyone does about their first love, how can it have been the first love and not like when it isn’t their last love? If it didn’t last then why is it ‘love’ and not ‘like’?” Trust Seohyun to think about things and see underneath everything to shock him once again.

“Just because things don’t work out don’t mean that they are any less important. What about your first love? Would it be okay to call it like just because it didn’t work out?” Because whoever her first love had been he clearly wasn’t around anymore, not if she was driving him around whilst dealing with the aftermath of a breakup.

As the car ambled down the side of the Han river she sighed.“I don’t know if I ever got over my first love. Maybe that’s why I don’t get it.”

“What does that mean?”

“I think....” She was quiet for a while struggling to find the right words. “I think love is only love if it’s for forever. And since I’m still in love with my first love doesn’t that mean that so far at least, it has proved to be true?”

“You said that you understood the difference between ‘like’ and ‘love’.” He said quizzically. He’d never seen Hyun have to try so hard to be articulate.

“I do but I’m just wondering if perhaps what I understand it to be is somehow different from what everyone else thinks.”

“Does it matter? You know what you believe in.”

“I guess, I’m just wondering. That was a loaded question I asked of you.”

“I’m surprised I was still standing after that.” He laughed and the heavy feeling that had draped over them vanished.

After the second time his stomach grumbled she laughed and unable to take it anymore he gave her the directions to get to Minhyuk’s Dad’s restaurant. She parked a couple of alleys away and Yonghwa dashed out returning a few minutes later with an armful of parcels.

“How many people did you expect to feed?!” She asked, laughing, and opened the door for him as he struggled to get a hand free.

“His mother was there and when she heard I was with you she gave me more and more, telling me to make sure you get some food inside you.”

“Moms always do that don’t they?”

“Speak for yourself, my mom tells me I look like a fat little boy and makes me eat more veggies every time I drop by."

“And how is your mother doing?”

“She’s fine, she wanted me to thank you for the flowers you sent after her hip surgery but I didn’t have your number.”

His mother adored Seohyun and Seohyun adored her right back. It was sad for him to think that Seohyun and his mother had spoken more often than he and Seohyun had. This, being alone with her after all this time reminded him of a talk he and his mother had had a day after she’d met Seohyun.

-----

1st December 2010

“I like Joo Hyun.” His mother said happily from all the way in Busan and he opened his mouth to say something and stopped.

“Mom, you know it’s not real....right?”

She laughed but there was a hint of something there that he couldn’t quite recognise and he frowned. “I know it’s not real, I know you’re not really married to Seohyun-ah but that doesn’t change the fact that I’d like to be.”

“Mom, you-“

“Look Yonghwa, I’m not getting any younger,” She ignored his sudden protest and barrelled on, “And I’d like to be there for a lot of your big life moments but at the rate you’re going it feels like it’ll be decades before you get married for real or have your first child and have all those big landmarks of life. I know you have to sacrifice some things to have all the other things, I know that your ambition would never have taken a backseat to your personal life the way I’d have liked it to be but that doesn’t mean you can’t try to treat them both with the same amount of priority. You have to live life to actually write songs about it you know.”

“I don’t see what it has to do with Seohyun but-”

“Yonghwa do you know when I last saw you this determined and this patient? It was when you were learning to use the guitar, it was the only time I’ve seen you take your failures in a stride and work even harder towards what you wanted to achieve.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying that there the only thing you’ve ever wanted as much as you want her to trust you was your music, now that you have one don’t let the other slip from your grasp.”

-----

“The stars are bright tonight.” She said softly looking up at the sky in front of them. After driving for hours they’d finally wound up at a park and were now on the car’s hood, Yonghwa lying down fully while she sat with her knees drawn up. The food had been devoured ages ago, most of it by Seohyun much to Yonghwa’s surprise. He’d laughed at her but then gotten into a childish fight over the ribs only stopping once she broke into a heartfelt ‘Aish, Yong-choding’.

He’d spent ages trying to shake off that image and be seen as a cool rocker but he couldn’t deny how right it felt to be called that. But somehow it had only ever felt right when she’d called him that, otherwise it felt like people were intruding on their inside joke.

“Do you miss her?”Seohyun said and he didn’t need to ask her which ‘her’ she was talking about.

“No, but sometimes I wish I did.” He looked at the crescent moon. “And you? Do you miss Changmin?”

She smiled at him indulgently and he just knew that while Changmin was not the one she missed there was someone else. He just didn’t know who.

It occurred to him then that there was a great chunk of her life he’s missed out on. There wasn’t anyone else to blame but him really, after all she knew his life well enough. But he hadn’t been lying during their run as husband and wife when he’d said he wasn’t the type to call and it had resulted in this gaping hole in his knowledge of Seo Joo Hyun. It was a pity because there once was a time when he’d known her inside out.

“I’m sorry for not keeping in touch.” He said so softly she thought she’d imagined it.

“It was bound to happen Yong.” His reaction to her usage of that name was visceral, he felt his stomach churn, his heart in his throat and as if struck by lightning he sat up suddenly but she wasn’t looking at him. “You can’t go from seeing a person once every few weeks to seeing them a couple of times a year and expect the same closeness. And we were only friends because we were forced into each other’s proximity without that...” She trailed off and finally looked at him to give him a sad

smile.

“I think we would have been friends otherwise.” He said defensively.

“I think so too but we won’t really know will we? We weren’t allowed to grow into it free of outside influences.” And he grudgingly gave her that point.

Yet, he thought there was a completely different reason why they’d lost each other because they had tried to keep in contact really. But there was a sense of finality that had descended upon the two after the Niigata duet and all interactions had been that restrained after that. Exactly as Tiffany had said, there was no beating that epicness, and it had marred all conversations with a strange awkwardness that Seohyun didn’t understand but Yonghwa recognised as the calm before the storm. Something was bound to happen and he knew it, but just didn’t know what. And then SNSD’s comeback preparations distracted them from figuring out just what had changed and the Yongseo they always thought they would be turned back to Yonghwa and Seohyun.

“When was the last time we talked like this?” Yonghwa said. He’d missed this. Somehow he always found himself growing and learning from her.

“I think it was that party.” She didn’t elaborate but she didn’t need to. He had been awful that night, the kind of awful that had him cringing now. The kind of awful that came after ages of stagnating thoughts and the disillusionment that affected everyone in the music business at least once.

-------

14th February 2014

He was out on the balcony at a valentine’s bash held by some celebrity whose name he couldn’t recall. Yonghwa looked out at the city sprawling out in front of him and took out a cigarette from his pocket igniting its end in a flash with his lighter. Before he could take a long drag of it though, the clicking of heels sounded behind him and Seohyun came out bundled in a sweater and shot him a smile that slid off her face when she eyed the burning end of the cancer stick held loosely between fingers.

“So who broke your heart this time?” Seohyun said and he was shocked for but a second before recovering and took a deep lungful form the cigarette before blowing the smoke in a thin stream away from her. He knew she couldn’t stand the smell of smoke, it always nauseated Joo Hyun, but for him it was calming to see the smoke dissipate into the cold night. It was only when he was a bit more relaxed that he registered what she had said.

“What do you mean?”

“I’m just asking because I know you tend to take up bad habits when someone breaks your heart.”

“Really? Have you been keeping count? Stalking me now Seohyun?”

“No, my Mum tends to worry about you, you know.” She laughed and looked away from him at the gleaming lights of the city as they stood away from all the festivities inside. He remembered now how he always talked to Mrs Seo in the elevator or when she came by with food to make sure the boys were doing well and how she’d always get him to spill his secrets, something about her soothing him just like his own mother did. “She said that when Shin Hye unnie broke up with you the first time was when you became the alcohol monster and then with Haneul unnie it was video games and now you’re smoking, someone must have broken your heart again.”

He smiled bitterly. “She’s right, this time it was Shin Hye again.” How the two of them had become the biggest joke of the entertainment industry he just couldn’t fathom. They were both good people but they brought the worst out in each other and were too used to each other to let go.

“Mums are like that. You wish they weren’t right but they always are.” She turned back to him. “Can I...can I ask you a question?” She said hesitantly and his hackles rose even as he nodded in agreement. He was still pondering the first question she’d ever asked, what’s the difference between like and love, only God knew what she would ask him this time.

“Go ahead.” He said sensing that she needed some encouragement.

She opened her mouth before closing it again and tugged on her hair nervously before she managed to get it out. “Who was the one who drive you to your coffee addiction? I figure she must really be something to still have you drinking it.”

He laughed but it was an ugly harsh sound and she flinched. Finally, he thought, a question from her that he could actually answer. “Life was the one, she broke my heart and mind and body and drove me to coffee Seo Joo Hyun. The biggest bitch of them all.”

----

“I was drunk that day. And heartbroken.”

“No, really? I had no idea!” She said sarcastically and he snorted, scooting up the hood to sit next to her. “Do you still smoke?” She asked looking at him from the side of her eye as if afraid of his reaction.

“No. Well only when I’m really stressed which is once a year I guess.”

“Ah.” He could tell by her tone that she wasn’t really happy with that but as far as he was concerned it was a great feat.

“We can’t all be perfect like you Seo Joo Hyun-ssi.” He teased and she elbowed him. He clutched his middle dramatically making loud noises and she giggled. “So that’s why they call it the Elbow of Doom!”

“Oh you haven’t really faced its wrath, you should ask Taeyeon unnie, she tells horror stories about my elbows, literally. Last time she made us switch off the lights and got a torch and shined it right in her face and talked about how I hit her mic in the middle of our choreography.”“I haven’t seen her in two years. Except on television of course. She’s really gone on a hiatus?”

“Her and Sica-unnie, they’re travelling the whole world.” She said wistfully.

“You want to be there with them?”

She tilted her head and in the dark of the night with her big shiny eyes and pale skin she looked like a snowy owl.

“I want them to find whatever it is that they’re looking for.”

“So deep, Seo Joo Hyun.”

“Well there’s a reason why my unnies call me a halmeoni.”She joked before turning serious again. “They’ll be surprised, I think, if they find out that we’re talking again.”

“And a bit annoyed too.” He offered recalling how they weren’t the most forgiving of people.

“And a bit annoyed.” She agreed

-----

28th October 2011

“What are you doing Hyunnie?”

“Shifting laptops, I have to arrange all my files, unnie we take too many videos.” She told Tiffany who rested her chin on the maknae’s shoulder and peered at the screen in front of her. There were seven hundred and thirteen video sin total and none of them organised. Tiffany could see why that would irk Joo Hyun, she had never come across a mess that she didn’t want to clean up. “I’m arranging them by the people in it.”

But to figure that out she had to watch all the videos and the two sat on the bed watching the home movies they had taken, laughing and crying as they remembered all those occasions of their life that they’d shared. One particular video of all nine of them hanging out with Sooyoung at the hospital after her car accident had the two dissolving into tears and giggles so loud that Hyoyeon and Jessica, the only others in the dorm at the time, joined them. Two was company, three was a crowd but four was a party and soon they were all sitting down with snacks going through their memories suspended in time like they were in a cinema.

But then there was a change as the next video came onto screen. It was one of Yonghwa and her during the filming breaks back when they were harvesting their sweet potato crop. The crew had left them behind to talk to the owner about something and the cameras were being charged, so the two sat there alone and Seohyun had taken charge of the camera for once.

“Make a pretty face!” She barely managed to say through a bout of laughter that had the camera shaking hard.

“How dare you Hyun?! I’ll have you know all my faces are pretty.” He said huffily and pretended to tuck a curl behind his ear and stuck his nose in the air haughtily earning another laugh from her.

“If you say so.” She said patronisingly and he mockingly fumed before making a duckface at the camera. “Oh my God that’s the funniest thing I’ve ever seen!” She said through shrieks of laughter and he used the opportunity to take the camera out of her hands and suddenly she was the one on screen, wisps of hair coming out of her sensible ponytail while her face was flushed and glowing.

As abruptly as it began the video ended and then there were four, three of whom were looking at their youngest who sighed a sigh of pure nostalgia as if it had been decades since she’d been that happy and it hadn’t even been a year. Hyoyeon dropped a sympathetic kiss upon her head through her shock. They’d known that Seohyun was close to Yonghwa they just hadn’t known how close. It was a puppy crush in their eyes yet from the looks of that video it was much, much more. Because they knew their maknae and knew that she would never smile like that, as if she’d come home, to anyone she didn’t love.

And a Seohyun in love, let alone in an unrequited one wasn’t something they knew to handle.

------

“I think I got caught up in the drama of my life.” He offered as an excuse. She shrugged it off.

“I’m not capable of drama.”

“No?”

“It may sound arrogant but.... I love myself. And more importantly I like myself too. So when something bad happens I either fight against it or move on. I deserve that much at least. It’s silly but the thought of rot in a negative state of mind just doesn’t appeal to me.”

“Is that what drama is?” He asked with a hint of amusement.

“I think it is. I have a friend whose boyfriend of six years cheated on her with her best friend and then she lost her job all while her mother was battling from cancer. It sounds dramatic doesn’t it?” And he nods in agreement waiting to see where she was going with it. “But it isn’t really. She moved on. She got another job, a better one in fact, and she told her ex to return everything she’d ever given to him, sold it all off and used the money from that to pay off a part of her mother’s hospital bills. And now she just got a promotion and has gotten engaged to a church oppa of hers. All of this because of the sheer pride she had in the person she is. Drama is for people who don’t believe in themselves. I believe in me.”

“That’s nice.” He said softly before breaking the philosophical and heavy atmosphere. “Even though you’ve pretty much implied that I have no pride, self belief or confidence.”She laughed while he tried to suppress the smile. “It’s okay Seo Joo Hyun, I’ll learn to love myself too.”

“And I’m going to enjoy laughing at you while you try.”

“So mean!” She looked away and was jerked out of her laughter when she spotted the time on the giant watch in the building across the street.

“Oh! It’s four in the morning!”

Time had flown. It felt like it had been only fifteen minutes since they’d found each other in that crowded church. Like it had been only a minute since he’d come running back to her car arms laden with food.

But they got up and got into the car. She switched on the radio and Hyoyeon’s voice filled the car.

“She’s the radio show host.” Seohyun said proudly as Hyoyeon gave love advice to the people calling in. When her unnie lowered her voice to make something sound particularly greasy she cringed smiling nevertheless.

“She practiced that on me!” And Seohyun’s smile caught his eye. It was the same smile she’d been bestowing upon him the whole night.

-----

7th April 2012They were reading the scripts for their MC-ing segment on Music Core and Yonghwa was getting more and more nervous. Times had changed since he was a host for a music program himself, he wasn’t quite sure how to go about it and there was very little space to adlib the way he sometimes did with Jo Kwon and Sulli, it hadn’t even been a year but things had changed so so much and he could only be glad that they debuted when they did.

At least he was hosting with people he knew though, he thought to himself and looked to the side where his ‘ex-wife’ and former ‘sister in law’ were getting their makeup touched up. Seohyun had joked and laughed the whole way and he had been forced to reconsider his idea of her that he’d been carrying around for the past few years. This was no shy girl afraid to say the wrong thing, sighing in nervousness, this was someone else entirely, a butterfly showing off her wings and flitting from person to person making them love her in a way that was entirely unique to her. He wanted to think that he’d had some hand in helping her blossom into this person, he hoped that her time with him had left some lingering effects on her and when she gave him a smile unprompted and her face lit up he was convinced that he had a hand in her newfound confidence.

But right behind her was her favourite unnie and Hyoyeon was giving him the most curious of looks as if she was angry at him but not really. It unnerved him and he was again glad for Seohyun’s presence, and to the PDs who’d made sure he was standing next to Seohyun at all times, it was just easier to look her in the eye even as he said lines that were written for him by others, easier to smile without coming off as a nervous sweating buffoon when she took the pressure off by giving him his cue and before he knew it, it was all done and the show was wrapped as the three stepped out of the lights and began chatting as themselves again.

“Ah really with this script I might as well have not been there.” Hyoyeon complained good naturedly and Seohyun threw her arms around the shorter girl’s shoulders in a back hug that was so heartfelt and so easy that Yonghwa only now realised how she’d been forcing herself the whole time before.

That brilliant smile she’d thrown at him had been calculated to make him feel like she was fine and they were the same as before but they weren’t. It was only now when he saw the two almost-sisters interact that the smile slid off his own face and he was filled with unease over the thought that the very same Seo Joo Hyun he had once been ‘married’ to and he had grown apart to the point where she’d had to force the breezy demeanour with him.

It hurt him in a way he didn’t realise he could be hurt. Perhaps the distance that had been growing between them couldn’t be shortened after all.

------

And yet here he was. In her car at so late an hour it would have been inappropriate for them to be seen together. Playing with the little bobble head figurine of Seohyun in her Genie outfit that was placed on the dashboard, clearly a gift from a fan.

As the streets passed by he took a deep breath inhaling the soft scent of oranges and apples emanating from the car freshener and looked at her. She looked on straight ahead but the smile playing at the edges of her lips spoke volumes to him.

“So where should I drop you off?” She asked and he was jerked out of his content state.

“You know the building we both used to stay in?”

“The villa? But I thought you moved of there?”

“We did, we usually move every year or so because of the fangirl situation but my parents bought that place for me even though I told them not to. They said they’d use it too if they ever came to Seoul and it’d be nice for my brother to have a place to stay if he ever flew in. I haven’t really been there since but now is as go

od a time as any I guess.” He shrugged.

“I still live there. We live in the same building.” She sounded shocked and he couldn’t blame her. To be so close and yet so far was just so....cliché.

But luckily for them it was also very convenient. So she parked the car and forgoing the lift for once he decided to walk her up the stairs to her floor. He owed her that much at least. They walked slowly prolonging the walk up the stairs for as long as they could, every movement heaving down upon their minds. But it wasn’t that long a walk after all and soon they found themselves on the landing on her floor.

They dithered for a while but then before he could decide on what to do she sat down on the staircase leading up and patted at the empty space next to him. He broke into a grin then and with an ungraceful whoosh landed next to her in a heap of bones, flesh and snaggletoothed grin.

“Deja vu.” Was all he said.

-------

14th March 2011

“So.”

“So.”

It was the last day of filming their virtual marriage. The goodbyes had been said on camera, gifts had been exchanged, tears had been shed and now they sat next to one another on the stairwell outside her dorm.

“This is it, the end of an era.”

“You’re going to be Yonghwa-ssi, no more Yo~ng or Hyun anymore. And I’m going to be SNSD’s Seohyun again.”

“You know Hyun,” He said and she turned to him surprised by him calling her that name again. He had that look on his face as if thinking of something deep and thought provoking,“I think in another time we might have been real.”

“Maybe, maybe not.” She was nonchalant about it even as her voice was heavy after crying. “Maybe if I was a bit more grown up and interested in boys. And maybe if you were a little less interested in a certain girl.” She smiled and bumped his shoulder with hers.

“Such complications.”

“Well you’ll have one less complication from now on. The contract’s done with now you’re free to date anyone you want and I’m guessing there’s a certain someone you want to call right now.” She was nudging him to call Shin Hye just as she had been ever since his crush on the actress had been made obvious to her.

“It would be a bit rude don’t you think? Calling her while sitting outside the dorm of my ex-virtual-wife while my ex-virtual-wife sits next to me.”

“Actually that was your cue to go home and call her, I didn’t mean for you to all her at this very second you know.” She deadpanned.

“I know.” He said, his snaggletooth making a sudden appearance as he grinned. “You cried.”

“It’s okay I’m going to make sure that when you cry Jungshin Chingu tells me about it.” She said and sniffed still feeling the after effects of the little sob fest. “You should go. Tell me how it goes with Shin Hye-unnie later, okay?”

“Ahrasseo Seo Joo Hyun. What am I ever going to do without you?”

“Probably drink a lot of coffee.” Finally unable to take it she physically pushed him away. “Go! You have to go get the girl, remember. No more being Shinwoo.”

“Alright alright, I’m leaving.” He stood up and suddenly bowed to her deeply. “It was nice knowing you Joo Hyun.” With those words he rushed off taking the stairs two at a time.

“It was nice knowing you too Yonghwa.” She said to the empty space where he had been, the smile slipping off her face and she blinked furiously to stop herself form crying. Within seconds one by one all her unnies came out of the dorm.

“Are you okay, Hyun-ah?” Hyoyeon asked rubbing circles on her back while Seohyun sighed and they all looked at her with nothing but sympathy and love.

“Not really.” She said and girded herself flashing a watery smile at them all. “But I will be.”

------

“At least you’re not crying this time.”

“I wasn’t crying for you, I was crying because I’d miss the writer-unnies and PD-nim and the cameramen and the-”

“Who’s the choding now?” He taunted and earned himself yet another elbow but this time before it could make contact with his stomach he caught it there, looping his arm through hers. They were sitting in just the right place to see out the window in the wall opposite them and through the glass the world was coming alive, streaks of light colouring the sky in mauves, oranges and the deepest of pinks.

“I can’t believe it’s taken so many years for us to finally see the sunrise.” She referred to their mission at the beach back when they were married. If anyone had asked him about that part of his life at the start of the evening he would have said it was a lifetime ago. And yet here and now, barely a few hours later, it felt like it was just yesterday that they had slept off in that cafe, like it was only yesterday he’d taught her the strings of a guitar, like it was....

Like it wasn’t a lifetime ago but a part of his life now.

But he had so many questions for her. How far had she come in her guitar lessons? Had she written any new songs? Who was that boy she missed so much? Who was the first love she talked about? Why did she and her unnies have a bet about who was going to get married first? How did she manage to have such deep thoughts? How did they always manage to laugh so much together?

Did she miss him?

And it was this last question that had him interrogating himself.

Because why did he care how far she’d come in her guitar lessons? Why did he want so badly to hear her compositions? Why did he want to know who that boy she missed so much was? Why was he so damn angry with Changmin for not telling him about dating Seohyun? Why did he want to know all her deep thoughts?

Why did he hope that she’d missed him?

The answer to those questions though, he knew. Perhaps he’d always known but never admitted to it. For now though, he’s settle for asking a completely different question.

“What are you doing this Friday night? Will you go out with me?”

And he received the answer to that in the slow steady smile growing on her face in the light of dawn.

***

In which Mission Impossible is the theme song of the day.

“Wake up!”

I am jerked out of my peaceful slumber when bony hands dig into my side and shake me like a rag doll. When I look up I see two giant eyes staring at me and open my mouth to scream but quick as a flash, the owner of those eyes moves the aforementioned bony hands from my waist to my mouth and shushes me loudly.

The two eyes move back and I realise that it was just Yoona. Those beautiful doe eyes that have men swooning and bestowing the title of Goddess upon her are not pretty when they’re millimetres away from you in the middle of the night. Then they are just floating eyeballs attached to a ghost.

“What?” I whisper as I sit up in bed. I would grumble and complain about being woken up so early but instead I am too busy trying to figure out what exactly had Yoona looking so terrified that she had to wake me up even though we have early rehearsals for our concert tomorrow.

Some of my friends are jealous of me because I get to live the dorm life. They say it reminds them of all the secret parties they’d have in the college hostel and all the fun times sneaking down the drain pipe to avoid the warden of the boys dorms but honestly, this part of the dorm life I could do without. The waking up at ungodly hours because somebody is hungry, the random limb that hits you in the face when you all decide to crash in front of the TV together, the opening the door after a frantic text at four in the morning by Hyoyeon unnie who’d been out clubbing all night and only just returned.

A girl needs her beauty sleep!

“Can you please come with me?” Yoona says softly looking so, so scared that I instantly agree without even asking where she wanted me to accompany her to.

And that is how I find myself in front of the building where CNBlue resides, hiding behind a car in a hoodie, surgical mask and yoga pants next to Yoona.

“Why did I agree to this?!” I say throwing my hands up in the air and Yoona shushes me and pulls me down. It wouldn’t do for a fangirl camping overnight outside the CNBlue dorm to recognise us.

“Shh, we can’t let anyone know we’re here!”

“But why are we here?”

“I sent Jonghyun a message.” She said hesitantly.

“And?”

“And it’s not the kind of message I want him to read. I was about to send it to....to you actually.”

“And?”

“And I was angry at him yesterday so I wrote all sorts of things mean things, horrible horrible things and then...dirty things. Things I’d like to do to him if you know what I mean.”

“I wish I didn’t. Thank God you sent it to him and not me!” She glares at me but then goes back to scoping out the surroundings.

“But I sent it to him instead and I need to get in and delete it from his phone before he reads it.”

“Okay,” Surprisingly this isn’t the craziest thing I’ve ever done in my life. Over the course of the past few years, having eight unnies who have all had varied personal life issues has lead to a myriad of things that I have done which are probably illegal.

Actually scratch that, one of them involved hotwiring a car. It was Hyoyeon-unnie’s car and she wouldn’t have pressed charges but I’m sure that’s illegal.

We had a tough job ahead of us if we wanted to sneak into CNBlue’s dorm. First there was the gate that we’d need to get through, then the security guards who would probably start asking for autographs if they realised Yoona was there and then enter the special pass code to the elevator that would take us to CNBlue’s floor but those were all things I could handle easily. My mom went over there to give them home made food all the time so I could just text her and ask her about it, the fake nose I carried with me at all times would disguise Yoona unnie pretty well and I always wear a surgical mask when out in public as Seo Joo Hyun. But before doing any of that, there was a hurdle that both of us were terrified of.

“Fangirls.”

Maybe to someone else it would have sounded silly the way we said that word in that mixture of reverence and horror, but to those like us who had seen firsthand the Power of the Fanclub, this was no small deal. One single toe out of line and they would pounce upon us like a pack of lions on a wounded wildebeest, savage in their hunt of their most favourite prey, the Female Idol.

We had to be cautious that we were discreet, but not too cautious because that would set off their alarms. A fine balance had to be attained if we were to get inside the dorm undetected. This would much easier if Sunny-unnie was here.

“Why didn’t you get Sunny-unnie?” Really that would have eased the burden like nothing would. I could just have been ‘spotted’ at a nearby park and the fangirls (they hated me so so much) would come to me leaving them ample time to break into the building. But Yoona, beautiful, lovely goddess Yoona wouldn’t be able to handle this on her own.

“I tried but no one else would wake up.”

“You tried to wake up everybody else before me?! Now I’m just insulted!”

“Yah keep your voice down!” She said and we ducked again, hoping no one had seen us. “We need a plan.”

It comes to me within minutes really, the perfect plan. I’ve never been the type to believe what people say about me (really, I think I know myself better than random strangers) but in that moment I was willing to agree with everything that my fans said about me.

I really am a genius!

“Oh this is just annoying!” Yoona says while we put my plan into action. It’s a very simple plan really, we dress up as delivery men from Minhyuk’s Dad’s restaurant and get inside the building with ease. It didn’t take much, all I needed to do was sweet talk Minhyuk’s dad into lending us a scooter by telling him it was a matter of love (really, Dads could be the most romantic people ever, I think it’s all the grovelling they have to do when they piss off Moms) and we were set. I always carry a fake nose in my bag and between that and the stick on moles we got from a shop around the corner, it was easy to disguise ourselves as men. The only hard part was the bit we were currently undertaking, strapping down our ‘assets’.

I don’t know why Yoona was complaining though, I was the one who couldn’t breathe.

“I mean seriously, I know I don’t have the honey thighs that Yuri has or Sunny’s voluptuousness up top but it should not be this easy to attain a boy’s figure!” She squawks.

Sadly for Yoona all she had to do was wear a couple of sweatshirts and she was ready. I on the other hand was having a much harder time, sports bras can only do so much to flatten you out, and consequently I now had eight shirts on and looked like a person made entirely of lard.

Oh well, at least I actually looked like an ajjhusi who might do the delivery instead of a flower boy shooting a drama. Yoona makes a very pretty boy especially now that she had the fake nose on, it added character and a strong hawkishness to her that was very attractive. If bad comes to worse I’ll just make her flirt with the fangirls while I sneak in and delete the message.

Of course this was assuming I didn’t asphyxiate to death. Or fall over while moving, five shirts and the few jackets I had on made using my arms rather difficult. The things we do for love!

Nervously we made our way down the street, now with helmets on and on a rickety scooter, ready to take on the fangirls. We passed the barricade without anyone stopping to question us although there was that one fan who shot us that look. But she fainted within the next few seconds and a few girls crowded around her talking about how she hadn’t eaten anything for ages and had been sitting there for hours. It must have been the smell of delicious barbeque that got to her.

That was one hurdle that we had conquered but there were still many others. Like the security guards who were standing in front of us.

“And who are you?” The younger one asks, slapping the baton down in his palm over and over again threateningly.

“Uhm, I’m Kwon SeoJun, this is my son Joon.” I say in my man voice before cringing. It does not sound convincing. Maybe I should have practised that instead of putting the fake mole on my forehead.

“Uh-huh and why are you here Mister Kwon?”

Luckily for me Yoona pipes up instead of me. She had much more practise with her man voice.

“Yah, can’t you see the name on the scooter, we have a delivery to make!” She says sharply.

“And this delivery happens to be to the CNBlue boys does it?” The other guard says sweetly.

“Um yeah.” The words are out my mouth and I realise that my man voice had failed me terribly because that just sounded like Seohyun of Sonyuh Shidae and not like the delivery man named....

Wait what name did I give him?!

This wasn’t going to end well, I just knew it wouldn’t. We were going to be found out, the press would be called and it would make headlines, ‘SNSD maknaes, innocent or perverts? Caught sneaking into boy groups dorms at unearthly hours.’, it would read, our faces would be plastered all over town, we would lose all our CF contracts, all the other idols would be forced to shun us so they wouldn’t get caught up in our scandal, our enchanted lives would fall into shambles.

Not to mention what my parents would say about this.

I closed my eyes and waited for the verdict.

“Ah, I see, you can go ahead Seojun.” Funny that Jun sounded a lot like Hyun the way he said. “And you too young Yoon.” Now the Joon sounded like Yoon too. Either the guard had a speech impediment or he was aware of exactly who we were and letting us sneak in. The second is definitely more likely.

“Thank you.” Yoona said in her man voice and we rushed to the elevator. Before I could press the button though one of the guards called out.

“Wait!” I turned slowly not yet ready to face my doom. Every step he took towards us resounded in my heart and the boom, boom of my heartbeat grew louder. Maybe he had changed his mind and wanted to take proof pictures to show the press and skewer us in the eyes of the public? “You forgot to take the parcel.”He said with a smile and dropped the bag of ribs into my arms.

“Uh...thank you.” This time I remember my man voice. Not that it made any difference. He just smiled at us knowingly and let us go.

“This usually works better in dramas.” I offer up as an excuse for my failure of a plan. We were getting in not because of my sheer genius but because the guards pitied us. I’m not a genius after all. That’s just plain depressing.

“It got us through the fangirls.” Yoona consoled me.

A shiver goes through me every time I hear that word.

Fangirls.

So creepy.

It was pretty easy after that, all we had to do was get off at the right floor (you laugh but when you’re nervous, mistakes happen) and then entering the code that Mom texted me at the door and we were in. It was like a bank heist movie, like we were part of the Ocean’s Thirteen gang (wait would it be Ocean’s fifteen now that we were both in it?) and had gotten into the vault. Now the next part, finding Jonghyun’s phone and erasing the message.

“Where does he keep his phone?” I whisper to Yoona.

“That’s depends which ‘he’ you’re talking about.” Someone says and the lights go on in the kitchen behind me. It is not Yoona’s man voice, even she isn’t so good at imitating that masculine timbre, besides which I would recognise that voice anywhere. I was married to the owner of that voice for a year and hear it sing to me often.

We turn around and find ourselves staring not only at Yong but also Junsghin-chingu, Minhyuk and worst of all, Jonghyun. Now there’s no way we’ll manage to erase that message.

“Ah shit.” Yoona says. Although I wish she hadn’t used profanity I cannot help but agree with the sentiment.

“Why are you sneaking around our dorm in the middle of the night?” Yong asks me silkily.

“It was her idea!”

Not to be a tattletale but it’s not like anyone was going to believe that I was the one who wanted to sneak into their home. I’m the Angel Maknae Princess.

“It was her plan!” Yoona rats me out.

“It didn’t even work, do I really need to take credit for it?!” Okay so I’m whining, I just don’t want my perfect record marred, is that too much to ask for?

“Well it got you this far, so, congratulations!” Yong said smugly and broke into a slow clap. Jungshin and Minhyuk looked on laughingly while Jonghyun looked at Yoona with the strangest look on his face.

“Is that a fake nose?!” He asked and Yoona ripped it off and smiled at him awkwardly.

“Uh yeah.”

“So, mind telling us what you’re doing here?” My ex-hubby said.

“But before that could you give us the ribs please?” Minhyuk said and I passed on the parcel wordlessly. He and Jungshin sat down at the table and began munching on the food as discreetly as possible.

“Well?” Yonghwa repeated.

“It was my fault.” Yoona said stepping forward. “I accidentally sent Jonghyun a message that wasn’t meant for him and I thought I could sneak in and delete it.”

“I already did that.” Yong said. His evil voice is surprisingly hot. Not as hot as his satoori but still, right up there next to it.

“Why would you do that?” Jonghyun asked his hyung as Yoona danced in joy. I did not have such a nice reaction.

Because I woke up in the middle of the night, snuck past fangirls, stuffed myself inside layers and layers of clothing for nothing?!

“It was obviously meant for Hyun to read, there’s no reason why you should care so much.”

“Oh thank God.” Yoona said.

“You,” Yong rounded up on Yoona, “You snuck into our dorm over that message?! Where are your priorities woman?!”

“I-I was drunk when I sent that text.” Yoona stammered even though Jonghyun tried to defend her. No one is a match for stern, evil Yong.

“Oh please, I read that message, Joo Hyun sends me worse texts when she’s sober!”

Wow, that must have been a really weak text.

Wait a minute, not only did I wake up in the middle of the night, dress up as an ajjhussi and deal with fangirls for a text that was already deleted, I did it for a text that wasn’t even that bad?! Aww, maaaan!

“And you,” Yong said to me, apparently it’s my turn to face the firing squad, “What were you thinking when you agreed to this mess?!”

“Umm, that I was already awake so I might as well as go with it?” If the look on his face was anything to go by, he was not happy with that answer. “And I also missed you.” I say in the sweetest voice I can manage.

He looks at me for a few seconds before bursting into a grin. “Oh come here you!” He opens his arms and I rush into them for a hug.Minhyuk and Jungshin do not share the sentiment as they burst into laughter (which is eww because chunks of barbequed half eaten meat are flying everywhere) and begin singing. “Another one bites the dust.” Over Yong’s shoulder I stick out my tongue at them.

“Just because you’re jealous.” I start but Jungshin starts laughing wildly again.

“Oh please, we spend the whole day with Yonghwa we wouldn’t be jealous of you at all.”

Everyone shoots him a look. “I meant jealous of what we have, not of me specifically.”

“Oh.” That shuts him up pretty well.

And Yong wonders why I’m suspicious about his bromance with Jungshin.

“Well I guess since we’re done here we should get going.” I say and Yoona nods but Jonghyun stops us.

“Wait a minute I want to know what was in the text!”

Yoona hesitates before eliciting a promise from him to not judge her on the basis of it and when he agrees she whispers it into her ears. When she is done Jonghyun’s eyes nearly pop out of his skull but instead of giving Yoona the look I thought he would he turns to me instead.

“And you text Yonghwa worse things?! When sober?!”

I think I may just have lost the title of Angel Maknae Princess. Oh well, Maknae Princess is a pretty decent title too.

***

Of Sandcastles and Fate

“JooHyuy, annyeong.” She would never really get used to how he always, always addressed her in his satoori. He said she would get used to it but she rather hoped she wouldn’t, getting those chills down her spine when he said her name was the best feeling in the world.

“Oppaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!” She shouted yet somehow whispered at the same time and he cracked up.

“What was that?!” He asked between bursts of laughter.

“We were watching Reply 1994 so I was imitating Ara-unnie, she’s so cute in the drama! I’m learning how to speak in satoori from her.” She said excitedly. It was one of those secrets that everyone close to her knew, Seo Joo Hyun had a fondness for imitating accents and voices. Every time she heard something she had to try to say it as well, when she’d watched Brave it had been hell trying to understand her English when she spoke with a Scottish accent. If it weren’t for all those Beatles interviews and documentaries he’d seen he’d have given up then and there.

“Ah I haven’t had the time to watch it.”

“When you live with eight girls you make the time.” She tried to speak in Go Ara’s accent. It was actually quite good until she burst into giggles. “So what’s going on?”

“Ah nothing much, we’re taking a break from rehearsals, I thought I’d call you. I just opened up your twitter and saw your childhood picture.”

“Wasn’t I cute?” She said excitedly. She loved going through childhood pictures and making oohs and ahs. Last time his mother had shown her some very embarrassing pictures of him and it had made her cry with laughter. It hurt his pride a lot, no man wants his girlfriend to laugh at his butt, albeit his two year old tushy.

“Ah yes so cute, I just wonder where did it all go wrong, when did that tiny little sulky princess grow up to be a giant piggy nosed weirdo?”

“Yah!”

“Actually that picture reminded me of this little girl I once played with. She was from Seoul and had come to Busan with her parents and cousin and I was allowed to go to the beach for the first time with just my brother. He was supposed to feed the seagulls with me but instead he ended up flirting with the little girl’s cousin and so the two of us made sand castles, I just can’t remember her name and her Dad only ever called her Cheonsa. You know I never got to feed the seagulls until we went there. My parents never allowed me, saying I was so small that I would be taken away by the seagulls and then I went off to Japan so...” He sighed and on the other side of the call Joo Hyun was remembering her own times at Busan.

“You know I went to Busan once when I was five. I don’t really remember it but this boy helped me make a big sandcastle. It was even bigger than me.” She said proudly and he grinned.

“Really?”

“Yeah. I couldn’t swim so I stayed on the shore and my parents just kept an eye on the two of us from afar. I think they were treating it like a second honeymoon.” She confided.

“You didn’t happen to be there with a cousin did you?” He joked, thinking it would be the most ridiculous thing ever if that little girl from that day of pure awesome in a summer that had been idyllic turned out to be her.

“I did actually.” His heart skipped a beat. “But she was a big girl so she went off to swim and I played in the sand.”

“Huh. And did you by any chance get the name of the little boy who helped you.”

“Not really he was older than me and I was too scared to ask. But I have a picture of us and the sand castle we made, I think.”

“Could you do me a favour and send it to me?”

“Right now? I’ll have to search for it though.”

“Oh it’s okay, I just had this thought and-“

“I’ll look for it but no promises.” She said and after a few more minutes of sweet talk they cut the call as his break approached its end and he was back to rehearsals.

When hours later he received a message with a scan of a photo clearly from the 90’s (ah the nostalgia) he was shocked to his core.

Because there it was, a childhood picture of him and Seohyun arms thrown over each other’s shoulders and grinning like there was no tomorrow while standing next to a sandcastle on the beaches of Busan. The castle was standing smaller than he remembered it (things always seemed so much bigger when he was a child) but in that one moment Jung Yong Hwa began to believe in fate.

***

Of 2000 won and finales

Yonghwa didn’t really watch their episodes of We Got Married. Not because he didn’t want to but because he didn’t need to, Seohyun and he had long since surpassed the point where they couldn’t talk about their problems themselves and needed others to do the talking for them. Besides, every time he watched himself on the TV all his CNBlue brothers teased him calling him a narcissist and needled him to the point where he changed the channel to something else.

But today when late at night he couldn’t really sleep because he needed to get this song complete but the lyrics just weren’t writing themselves the way they usually did, he went out into the living room and watched the reruns. It came to the point where he was watching the finale episodes at the edge of the seat, out of the blue noticing things that he hadn’t before when he had been there because he’d been too focused on making sure to keep up a happy face.

He was suddenly very much aware of how the smile had dropped from his face when he’d opened the mission envelope only to find the words ‘Final mission’ written on them. The sad background music they were playing wasn’t really needed at all, the tension was etched into his face as he mulled the thought over. It felt stupid to say that he hadn’t expected it to ever end, but he really hadn’t, not just because it was part of a schedule but because it was just so easy. Once a couple of weeks he got up and saw Seohyun and had a grand time with her, came back home and then proceeded to text her and call her until the next time they met. It wasn’t work, it was never work because there was nothing professional about the way he felt about her. Admittedly he didn’t act on any of those feelings because they were fine where they were, as friends and nothing more and he had ambitions and dreams to fulfil that took priority but those feelings were still there, they didn’t go away just because they weren’t on a the show together.

So all things considered he shouldn’t really have been surprised when he saw her cry in the backroom interviews. But he was. It was only one of the many firsts he’d share with her.

It was as he was contemplating this that the rest of CNBlue entered the dorm, noisy as ever, hopped up on ramen and ice-cream. When thye saw how quiet he was though, they became quiet too. One by one they filtered into the living room and saw what was on the screen. They realised then exactly what he’d been watching and instead of teasing him like they normally would, they settled down onto the couch to offer their company.

“Are you alright?” Minhyuk asked and Yonghwa nodded distractedly.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” He said before looking at the screen and suddenly rushing into action.

Right now he had more important things to do. His dongsaengs watched as he hit speed dial number 2 (1 was obviously his mother) and in the silence they could hear the song ‘Kissing You playing as her caller tone. They sat still and waited with bated breath, wondering what deep talks they were going to have now that Yonghwa saw how she had cried.

She finally picked up the call and when they heard the whispered ‘Yobeosaeyo’, unknowingly they leant forward, eager to hear the conversation. Yonghwa, on his part, didn’t even notice.

“Hyu~n, I saw the finale episode.”

“Oh.” Her voice dripped with apprehension and they edged closer, Jungshin almost sitting on top of Minhyuk in his zeal to eavesdrop.

“Joohyuy,” As if one entity they held their breath. ‘He’s using satoori!’ Minhyuk thought, ‘this must be serious’. “You owe me 2000 won!” He exclaimed and burst into giggles.

“Aww man, why did you see that episode?!” She groaned on the other side and now the three faces fell into a state of confusion. What was going on?

“You cried, you cried,” He sang and Jonghyun waved his arms about in utter bewilderment.

“What?” He said in a ridiculously high pitched voice and Jungshin and Minhyuk echoed his sentiments. This time Yonghwa finally realised that they were listening in and turned the phone to the crook of his neck.

“She bet me 2000 won that I would cry in the finale and I bet her 2000 that she would. She lost but conveniently forgot to mention that.” He said the last sentence into the phone pointedly.

“Ah really oppa!” Came her voice clear as bells.

“Don’t ‘oppa’ me, Seo Joo Hyun, you lied!”

“I didn’t lie, I just withheld information! There’s a difference!” She said and he strode into his room chattering away into his phone as the argument continued and three dazed boys sat on the couch staring at the screen paused at Seohyun’s face as she wiped away a single tear as if in a drama and they turned to see Yonghwa’s couple sock clad ankle disappear as it entered his room and the door slammed shut and Jungshin finally spoke.

“How did they manage to turn into an old married couple after they got divorced?!”

***

Of a wedding

Today was her wedding day. She stood in front of a mirror as her mother dabbed her eyes daintily and fixed the veil on her loose wavy hair with a pretty hair clip she’d been saving for exactly this occasion.

It was her wedding day and she was just so excited. Here she stood, in something old and borrowed, (the little filigree wrought haircomb her mother was still fussing over), something new and blue(the delicate sapphire bracelet her unnies had gifted her) and with a bouquet of apple blossoms she could not stop smelling.

She looked like a marshmallow, she thought to herself with a laugh. The big poofy dress with its bright and blingy bodice was not something she would have chosen for herself. When she dressed herself it was pretty and neat and structured, it was to give herself that feeling of being in control, of being happy and of being confident.

She didn’t need that right now. Today she would be walking down the aisle to the man she was going to spend the rest of her life with. He was going to look at her like she was the sun just like he always did and she wouldn’t need any confidence booster at all. Today she was going to come home to the man she loved and he was all she had ever needed, wanted and prayed for.

So maybe it wasn’t exactly how she’d imagined it to be when she’d day dreamed as a girl who had never really known love. It wasn’t a quiet dignified affair. Her Dad wasn’t giving her a big speech about how odd it felt to give her away because he liked her husband to be a bit too much to think of it as giving her away. Instead she got a speech on how he was happy to gain him as a son-in law, she had eight maids of honour who were so loud she felt like all of Seoul was there and her soon to be husband was probably rocking a leopard print bow-tie.

But she hadn’t expected this uncontrollable happiness radiating from her. She didn’t expect to be so excited to be walking down the aisle to him that her cheeks didn’t even hurt from all the smiling she’d been doing (and she’d doing a lot of smiling). She didn’t think that when she’d stand with her Dad’s arm locked with hers as they walked down the aisle that she’d wish the music was faster because she just could not wait! She could not wait to begin her life with this man she loved so very much. She didn’t think she’d be bouncing on the balls of her feet itching for the wedding officiant to say ‘You may now kiss the bride’. She didn’t think she’d giggle when he dipped her as if in the middle of a dance to kiss her soundly on her lips. She didn’t expect to take wedding photos of him piggybacking on her back or smearing cake all over each other’s face and then pulling each other into a closet to clean it off.

“Joo-hyuy..” He said and that smile that hadn’t left her face grew so wide he wondered how it was possible that the sun was considered the centre of the solar system when it was clearly this girl who he stood next to who outshone all the stars in the universe.

“Yo~ng...”

“I never thought I’d get married to the same person twice.” He confessed happily and his cheeks rose so high.

“I never knew it was possible to feel this happy!” She proclaimed and he fell in love with her all over again. “So I win!”

Maybe it wasn�t the Happy Ending she thought her fairytale would have but it was even better. Because what she got was the Happy Beginning with no end in sight.

****

In which there is a phone call

“I don’t know why you’re complaining, I’m the one who has to kiss someone I think of as a brother.” She faked throwing up over the phone as he complained about her kiss scene for the millionth time and he laughed, his worry lessening by the minute.

She’s right, he thought, it’s just Kyuhyun, now if it was Dong-woon or that Vixx kid or any other one of her million fanboys then I should have been worried.

But then another thought occurred to him, Kyuhyun wasn’t the only guy playing the role of the prince, there was another actor there after all and they would be switching between the two during the run of the musical.

“What about the other guy?”

“Uh um, I’ll talk to you later bye!” She tittered and suddenly the line went dead, he knew he was dealing with yet another fanboy then.Great, now he knew what to expect when he got home.

‘I wasn’t kissing him, Yeonwoo was!’

This was like Passionate Love all over again, he sighed.