Chapter 5 - August

Yuri and Hyoyeon

A crazy woman bolted into the elevator carrying two dead phones.  She pushed frantically at the Ground floor button with one of them.  Jason backed up right into the other end of the elevator.  Heart pounding in his chest as the woman’s eyes flicked madly between the numbers marking the floors that they passed and the blank screens of the dead cellphones.  His hand slowly crept into the pocket of his slacks, carefully gripping his phone.  Sweat dropped as the woman started muttering.  He pressed up further against the side of the elevator wondering if he was going to have to call security.

“Come on, come on, come on. Hurry! Yuri’s ankle could be broken… Dammit… Dead batteries… Today of all days… Stupid elevator… Hurry! Come on…”

Crazed whispers did nothing to ease the panic of being trapped in an enclosed space with a mad woman.  No matter how cute she was, nor how small.  Still… He coughed awkwardly.

Her wild eyes swung to him.  And he faltered, stutters replaced the careful question he had planned to say.

“Is everything o-okay?”

“Who're you?!”

Jason looked at her bewildered, “Umm, n-no one. I’m from the legal sector of SM Ent.”

“Oh good… Sorry, Yuri, my friend and I were practising, but then she fell and hurt her ankle.  Then we realised that our phones were dead and I have no way of contacting our manager or our other bandmates. And-”

“Wait!” His slammed on the emergency stop button.  The elevator jolted to a halt and the girl pitched forward.  Only Jason's arm, reaching across her to get to the console, stopped her from colliding with the elevator doors.

“WHAT THE HEC-?”

“Your friend is hurt? And you left her???"

"I had no choice! I told her I was running down to reception downstairs to borrow their phone to call our manag-”

“Where is she?”

“I-in a dance studio, 5th floor.”

He quickly pressed the button to start the elevator again, and pressed the button marked with a number ‘3’.  The doors opened almost immediately.

"Come on!”

He grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the elevator.

“What are you doing?!? I have to get downstairs!”

“Your friend needs help! If her ankle is really hurt, it’ll swell up badly without ice. Now, come on!”

The two of them ran hand in hand to the Emergency Exit doors down the hallway.  They ran right into the door and slammed it open.  Without even stopping to explain or apologise to the staff on that floor, they sprinted up the stairs.  Feet echoed off the walls as they pounded on the cement steps to carry them up to the higher levels.

The girl yanked on the hand Jason was still holding.  

“Wait!”

He jerked to a stop and swung around to face her.

“What is it?”

“This is 5th floor exit.”

“Yeah, but we need ice. Follow me.”

Jason pulled her up the next flight of stairs.  Soon they were running again, sweat dripping down their face and on their bodies.  Fine for the girl, she was in exercise tights and a casual shirt.  But for him, the slacks and button up and tie weren’t the best combo.  A quick thought on the other time he was forced to sweat in work clothes, three months ago flitted through his mind.

The pair skidded to a stop in front of a door with a large ‘7’ on it.

“This is the legal floor.  The staff kitchen has a freezer with an icebox.”

Jason pushed the door open and quickly, but quietly led the girl down the hall, past white cubicle offices of workers with their eyes glued to papers and computer screens, and around the corner to a less occupied staff kitchen area.  With facilities for coffee, tea, foods, cups, mugs, plates and the refrigerator that was their goal.

“Just wait here, I’ll just grab what we need and then we can go to your friend. Okay?”

“Sure.”  The girl leaned against the hallway wall, catching her breath as the run took the breath out of her.

Jason darted in and strode to the fridge.  He filled a plastic bag with ice and then wrapped in a tea towel.  Curious gazes followed his actions.

“What are you doing, Jason-ssi?”

A co-worker grabbed his attention before he could leave the room.  Her question garnered the attention of those in the room, just as curious as she was.

“Soomi-ssi. I’m very sorry, I can’t speak right now.  Someone on the 5th floor injured her ankle and needs ice immediately.  If any problem arises, please forward them to me. I will take responsibility, but for now please excuse me.  We really must hurry.”

“We?”

But the question was lost him, as was the sudden widening of her eyes when she caught sight of his companion.  There. Leaning casually in the corridor, was Kim Hyoyeon, singer, dancer and member of one of the company’s top groups, Girls’ Generation.

Soomi spluttered and choked on her tea as Jason casually grabbed the international pop star’s hand and pulled her through the offices and out through the Emergency Exit doors.

Jason and Hyoyeon careened down the steps, a little haphazardly and a little dangerously in their rush to get to level 5.  They pulled the Level 5 door open and sprinted down the carpeted floors of the hallway.  

‘Studio 5B’ the door read.  

Jason barely paid it any thought as he walked straight in and spotted a girl, taller than his temporary companion, but shorter than him.  She was on the middle of the wooden floor. Hands clutched her right ankle in an attempt to ease the pain.  True to the other girl’s words, the injured one, Yuri, hadn’t moved from where she had fallen.

Yuri jolted up in surprise.  Only to hiss in pain.  She clutched her jarred ankle all the more tightly.

“Hi, I ran into your friend on the elevator. Yuri-ssi, right?”

“Y-yeah.”

“Can I take a look at your ankle?”

“Um… Okay.”

She gingerly let go of it to give Jason a clear view of the damage.  There were no marks on the outside save for white finger marks where it had been held so tightly.  However, it was at the very least inflamed. A little pink and swelling slightly.  He very carefully ran his fingers over the joint, trying to find any particular sources of pain.

“Here. Call your manager.”  Jason tossed his phone to Hyoyeon, before turning back to Yuri.

“I have ice, would you like me to put it on? Or would you rather do it yourself?”

“I can do it. Thanks,” she shot him a grateful look as the cool ice somewhat soothed the inflamed area.

Jason grabbed a chair from a corner of the room and brought right beside her ankle, “Can you lie down?  We need to raise your ankle.”

Very slowly Yuri eased herself on to her back, watching worriedly as some handsome stranger very gently lifted her ankle to rest on the seat.  The two of them could hear Hyoyeon’s voice as she spoke to their manager.  A slightly awkward silence fell.  Two strangers meeting in a strange twist of events hardly made for easy conversation.

“Is it feeling any better or worse, Yuri-ssi?”

Yuri hummed in thought. Eyes closed as she tried to assess the state of her ankle.

“It’s not worse.  I think it’s a bit better. The ice is numbing it a bit.”

Jason sighed in relief.  

Yuri shifted slightly to place a hand between her head and the hard wooden floor.  Only to wince in discomfort as it didn’t afford much cushioning and it jostled her injured foot.

“Here,” Jason took of his jacket and bundled into a makeshift pillow, “Lift your head up a bit.”

“Ah, no, don’t worry. It’s oka-”

“Please?”  He smiled softly.  His hand reached under her head and raised it slightly, before laying it on his jacket.

Warm fingers ran through her dark hair as he pulled away.  A blush covered her cheeks and she squeaked, “Thanks.”

A cough grabbed their attention, Hyoyeon stood there smirking at the two.

“Manager-oppa is on his way.” She returned his phone, “Thanks for that.”

“No problem.”

He glanced at his phone. 13:18, the clock read.

“Dammit!”

The two girls jolted.

He glanced at them before striding to the exit, “I’m sorry, but I can’t stay.  I have a meeting to attend to.”

Jason bowed his head to Yuri, “I hope your ankle heals quickly.”

She smiled at him, “Thank you.”

He turned around and opened the door.

“Wait!”

Hyoyeon pointed at Yuri’s makeshift pillow, “What about your jacket?”

Without breaking stride, he called back over his shoulder, “Leave it at reception. Tell them someone from Legal will pick it up later. Sorry, I have to go!”

Jason all but sprinted to the elevators to get to his meeting just in time.  His growling stomach reminding him that lunch would have to wait for another 2 hours or so.  

Girls with twisted ankles took priority over hunger it seemed.

He opened the door to the room and bowed deeply, “I’m very sorry, an incident arose that needed my attention.”

From there the meeting went smoothly.

Studio 5B

“Can you stand, Yuri?” her manager asked.

“Yes, oppa.”

With Hyoyeon and his help, she made it to her feet.  The three of them walked, or limped, to the elevators.

“Don’t forgot the jacket, Hyo.”

Hyoyeon snatched the jacket from the ground, “Yeah, yeah. I’ve got it. Your boyfriend’s jacket is safe.”

“Boyfriend?!”
“He’s not my boyfriend!”

Yuri and her manager interjected together.  Hyoyeon snickered at her blushing band mate, “Yes… But you thought he was cuuuuuute~!”

“Shut up! He was just very helpful, so I was grateful.” Yuri turned her flaming face away from her teasing friend.

“What?” Their manager looked back and forth between them, completely lost in the conversation.

“Don’t worry, oppa. I’m just playing.  This jacket belongs to the guy who helped us out, he gave ice for her ankle,” Hyoyeon explained, “He asked us to leave at reception for him to pick up.”

“Do you know his name? So you can tell reception whose it is.”

Yuri and Hyoyeon looked at each, “Errr… No.”

He quirked an eyebrow in disbelief.  And the pair hurried to explain themselves, “He didn’t say his name! He just said was from the Legal Sector in SM!”

He shook his head fondly, but exasperatedly.  At least it wasn’t someone likely to be leaking out damaging stories about his girls or the company…

Manager-oppa left his two charges to their thoughts.  Thoughts filled with a young man with short tousled dark brown hair and rectangular glasses that framed his warm brown eyes.