Italics for conversations in English.

October 1: 7:03am, Common Ground’s Home, On The Coast of California

“Congrats!” Hayaley exclaims as soon as she sees Jae Joong’s face on the screen.

He grins. “Thanks!” He has been quite pleased about winning the ‘Top Excellence Actor Award’. “Congrats to you too. Your new album got released today.”

Hayaley beams. “I haven’t even checked the charts yet. Hope it’s doing well though.” She crosses her fingers and winks at Jae Joong.

“Wait! Your hair.”

She grins. “Do you like it?”

“Edgy. And all those red and orange. You look fierce.”

“Channarong had wanted to make it blonde with pink streaks but I said no. Can’t have both of us walking around with blonde hair.”

He laughs. “Why not?”

“Ah…Nope.” She hates seeing couples who intentionally try to look and dress identical.

They have decided to skype every day at this time. With the time difference, there isn’t much of an option.

“Are you ready for today?”

“I’m not sure. I think so. Just a little nerve-wrecking to have to open up our private spaces to the world.” Today is the first shoot for the MTV Asia reality show. Hayaley is usually quite a private person. In fact, all her band members are with the exception of Shawn so this is going to be quite an interesting shoot. Who thought about this? And why did they agree to this?

They chat some more about Jae Joong’s day. He has had a full schedule today and it’s midnight in Seoul. He is quite worn-out but still tries to sound upbeat. Hayaley could tell by the weary face and tired eyes.

“You should go rest. I’m going to have to go get ready.”                                                                               

“Okay. Remember, I’ll be in Busan the next two days. I might not be able to skype.”

Hayaley nods. “I’ll be busy too with the shoot.”

They hang up shortly after.

Just as Jae Joong predicted, they didn’t get to skype the next two days. He was out late each night with Gun Hyuk and other friends. So they resorted to just texting. But even that was scarce since Jae Joong didn’t want anyone suspecting that he’s doing anything out of the ordinary. He will have to explain it to Hayaley when he picks her up from the airport.

October 5: 7:12am, Hayaley’s Home, Cheongpyeong

Jae Joong stirs the seaweed soup on the stove. He has tried to explain to Hayaley yesterday, not once but twice, about his lack of communication the last two days but she had basically either changed the subject or told him he didn’t have to explain. He’s finding her reaction unusual. He’s not used to this. The other women he has dated would have already brought it up before he could or would have given him a hard time about his ‘excuses’. He’s not sure what to do about this. Should he just let it go? Somehow, he feels they need to discuss it.

“Good morning,” Hayaley greets him chirpily and heads straight for the fridge.

“Good morning. I made soup for breakfast. Are you still going to have your orange juice?”

“Of course!” She flashes him a big smile. “But the soup does smell good. Thank you for breakfast. Just so you know, I don’t normally fix breakfast.”

Jae Joong laughs. “Are you trying to tell me not to expect that from you when we are married?”

Hayaley chokes on her juice and feels herself blushing.

Jae Joong quickly says, “Just joking.” He didn’t know why he even said that. “It’s ready. Let’s eat. You have to be back in Seoul soon.”

She sighs and sits down on the dining table, which Jae Joong had already set. She sees ahjumoni’s side dishes on the table and quickly snags a bite of the white radish kimchi. Jae Joong places the bowl of soup in front of her, which she quickly devours too.

At dinner last night, Hayaley had lamented about how upset she was with Director Yoon Seung Hoon. She had given Brian strict instructions about the type of speakers and how she wanted them set-up. When she got to the concert site, Brian had explained that Director Yoon felt that her set-up was too complicated and had told her crew to stay with the existing set-up from the previous concert held there. She got into a huge argument with Director Yoon. He finally agreed to let her change the set-up as long as she can get everything up and going before the rehearsal. She’s glad she had brought in two additional staff knowing that she was not going to be around when they started setting up.

Seeing that she’s almost done with breakfast, Jae Joong asks, “Hayaley, can you please let me explain?”

“About?” She knows what he’s referring to but would really prefer to ignore it.

“I didn’t call or text because I was with friends an