What am I doing here?

You’re doing what you always wanted to do

You never told me this was so huge. The room I’m in is bigger than my apartment. These women have tried three different sets of clothing on me. Your manager forbid me from using social media!?

Yeah, you will have to get used to it.

…

…?

I don’t want to go out of this room.

Did you have breakfast today?

No.

Then you will have to come out have something to eat here, I don’t want you to faint or anything…

What if I people start asking questions?

Why would they? And if they do, just roll with it. You’re smart anyway ;)

I raised my eyes from my phone and stared at my own reflection in the mirror as the styling crew worked around me; this time, they were changing my hair for the fourth time, trying to decide in a rush what hairstyle would suit me best for the photoshoot that was just a few hours ahead.

It was past twelve in the morning, but I still hadn’t mustered the courage to go out of the room, which was completely unlike me. MinSeo would probably be telling me off for being so dramatic. So after what seemed like an eternity and a hundred different hairstyles – before deciding they will just go with the simplest option -, I asked the ladies where the room 3-C was and headed there to grab something to eat. I hadn’t had any meals since the day before and my stomach was growling, there was no point in postponing it any longer out of fear.

With the indications I found the room easily and without giving it a second thought or knocking, I came into the room. It was way emptier that I had expected it to, considering the number of people in the band, but it was already way past lunch time. I bowed to greet the few boys there and headed to the long table where there was still some food remaining to serve myself a plate, then sat in one of the sofas and started eating. The small group of boys there where talking to each other and checking their phones; they occasionally shoot glances at me, which I answered by smiling back, but none of them tried to attract my attention or talk to me. In that moment, I felt grateful for Korean’s social behaviour.

When I finished eating all my food, which was cold but delicious, I left my dirty plate on the tray and was about to claim victory, but in that moment the door opened and a guy with big round eyes and a annoyed expression came in followed by certain red haired boy, who was clearly laughing at him.

“Guys, guys,” Chanyeol yelled, calling for everybody’s attention. “Kyungsoo and I were at our photoshoot and he had to be standing in a platform because he’s so short.” He made a pause to pinch at the other boy’s cheeks. “Then he came down, lost his balance, got a hold of a wire that was hanging around there which was attached to a light. To make it short, he fell and broke the light, all at the same time.”

“I’m still a better singer than you,” Kyungsoo said, taking a seat and ignoring the rest of the boy’s mocks.

Even though the story was just as amusing as any other story in which someone else gets hurt, I found that was just the right moment to scape without Chanyeol noticing me, but the door creaked open a bit too loud for my liking.

“Hey!” I head ChanYeol yelling behind me. “I know you.”

I had no other choice but to turn around and face him with a surprised expression.

“You’re the American girl!”

“Hmm, yeah, I’m American,” I answered, trying to play dumb. “Who are you?”

“I’m Chanyeol! You’re a waitress at the café. You served me a piece of cake the other day, I was there with a friend. Remember me?” Did this boy ever not smile?

“Ah, yes. Red velvet cake and coffee. I remember you.” The rest of the boys were looking at us and listening curiously.

“What are you doing here?” Chanyeol enquired.

“Well, apart from serving cake, I also model in my free time.” I saw one of the boys in the back raise his eyebrows as he looked at his mates, but I didn’t know how to interpret that. “What about you?”

“I also model in my free time,” he answered, looking very proud of himself.

I smiled at him while bowing and then tried to escape again, but the boy who had raised his brows, who also had a remarkably childish face stopped me.

“Wait, are you the model for the photoshoot then?” he asked me.

“I think so,” I shrugged. “My sheet said I would be co-modelling with someone called Oh Sehun. Is that you?”

“No way! I’m Xiumin,” he laughed. “Don’t you know any of us?”

“My manager told me I would be working with a very famous music band, but he didn’t give me any more details. Also, I’m kinda new in the country, so I’m very sorry I don’t know you,” I explained, making a bow.

“That’s okay,” Chanyeol interceded. “Those are Baekhyun, Chen and Lay,” he introduced his mates sitting in the nearest sofa. “The clumsy one is Kyungsoo, D.o., and the older one is Xiumin. And you already know me. Those are just the artistic names, but they might be easier for you to remember.”

I waved at them all.

“My name is Grace. What about Sehun? Should I meet him before we are on set?”

“You already know him!” ChanYeol said. “He was with me that day at the café, do you remember?”

“Oh, yes…”

“Yeah, he wasn’t very nice to you. It had been a tiring day for us and he was not in a good mood,” he went on explaining. “But he’s actually very nice, I don’t want you to be biased for just that one occasion.”

“It’s okay. We’re all just here to work anyway.”

I heard a chuckle and looked around the room to find the source at Kyungsoo, who was looking at his mates with a strange grin I also didn’t know how to take.

“Don’t pay attention to him,” ChanYeol said, but he was also smiling.

“Alright. I will go back to my room now, I still have some more clothing to try on before the shooting and stuff.” Once again, I bowed at the boys. “Nice to meet you all.”

******

I told you it was going to be fine, no need to lock yourself up.

Did they tell you anything?

Chanyeol has made me play a very long game of Guess Who to have me find out about you, but I pretended to be oblivious.

What about the rest?

They say you’re pretty and look like you have no clue what you’re doing here.

Spot on. What about the shooting?

Rhee will go explain you in a little while, but expect the instructions to come from the photographer. Also, you are going to have to pretend to be in love with me… ~~

What a revolutionary concept in a photoshoot with a man and a woman…

Smart

Just as Sehun told me, Rhee came in when the styling team was preparing me for the photoshoot.

“Well, Grace, this is what we’re doing,” he started explaining. “Your partner is going to be Oh Sehun, I will introduce you both in a while. The whole photoshoot is going to consist in the pretended relationship between both of you, so you’re going to pretend you’re head over heels for him. The first half is more artistic, with you two dancing in a big hall. The second half is more intimate and requires more specific instruction from the photographer. Any questions?”

“When do we start?”

“That’s the spirit. I will be waiting for you to get changed outside, so I can take you to the set.”

I would be having two clothing changes; the first one consisted in a short black dress with a flowy skirt, fine straps and red detailing around the hips, paired with simple high heeled red shoes. My hair was up in a low bun with a few looser strands framing my face. The makeup was simple and fresh, but my lips were painted red. The whole combination made me look a few years older, although very stylish. After Rhee gave his approval, he guided me towards the set. On the way, we passed near the room where the Exo kids rested and walked past Chanyeol and Baekhyun who were talking next to the door. When the first one saw me, he gave me a smile and two thumbs up, which made me feel a bit more confident.

Considering the theme of the first part of the photoshoot, the set was surprisingly small and simple, with a wooden floor, black walls and dim illumination. The photographer, who introduced himself as Dan was explaining to me that such a set was very useful when the photographs were afterwards heavily edited when Rhee called my name from behind me.

“Grace Jeong, this is Oh Sehun. You can spend a few minutes getting to know each other before the photoshoot starts,” he said before leaving us alone to go talk with the other producers who were also in the room.

“You look…different,” he said.

“Is that good or bad?” He just shrugged, smiling. “You look like a more dressed up version of yourself.”

He was wearing black, like me, but in the shape of a formal suit, with the blazer buttoned up over a simple white shirt with no tie. His hair was neatly parted in a side and combed backwards, which made him look proper and suited his face very well.

We did not have time for anything else; Dan came up to us and started explaining again.

“The set is simple, but you will have to play with your imagination a bit. We’re aiming for a fairy tale, but in a modern style, with a lot of movement, a ball where boy meets girl and they dance the night away as they fall in love. Try to look uptight and nervous at first and then more relaxed as I tell you so.”

Then, he guided both of us to the centre of the set. Soft music started playing. Dan returned to the edge of the set, everybody went silent and the lights of the rest of the room were turned off.

“Ask her for a dance,” Dan began instructing.

Sehun had a smile on his face when he bowed in front of me, with an arm behind his back and the other one stretched before me, with the hand open, waiting for me to take it.

“Accept, but don’t give in immediately.”

I took his hand without smiling, but right away, he put the arm he had behind his back around my waist and began dancing in circles around the set in a slow motion, following the pace of the music and the small approval noises that came out of Dan’s throat. We moved in sync along the set, with Dan following us closely, in a sort of improvised waltz, which made me think how appropriate it was that still photography wouldn’t be able to show how much of a terrible dancer I am. Sehun, on the contrary, carried me smoothly, doing all the work to make me look stylish as we danced, but he seemed to be enjoying it.

“Both of you, relax. Smile, Grace.”

Sehun looked down to my face and whispered “red lips look good on you,” which of course, made me smile as I looked down and blush a little. He chose that moment to make me twirl while still holding my hand, but when I came back into position, he decided to abandon the classical waltz pose. Instead, he surrounded my hips with both his arms and made sure my own hands were resting over his chest pulling us the closest we’d ever been, if we let the time I tried to kiss him and failed pass. Dan obviously enjoyed the advances Sehun was performing freely, as the camera snapped like crazy every few seconds.

“Don’t forget that you are starting to really like each other.”

Once again, Sehun was looking at me, but without smiling, as his face was showing a captivated expression, which somehow looked so natural, that I tried to replicate, while his eyes travelled from my eyes to my lips, and strangely enough, to my collarbones. I smiled at him as I bit my bottom lip, in an attempt to look sensuous that made him laugh and that would stay forever recorded in Dan’s camera. Once again, and still chuckling, he made me twirl, but this time he managed to position me facing the camera, as he approached me behind my back, with his arms still around my waist, holding me close as we swayed in the spot. With a serious complexion again, he lowered his head so that his lips rested above my head and I could swear I heard him inhaling the scent of my hair.

“Okay, that’s enough for now.”

In that moment, Sehun stepped away from me and I felt cold without his body surrounding mine.

“You two are doing so well, this is just what we were looking for,” Dan congratulated. “Now go change for the second shooting, hurry up.”

I came back in almost no time, wearing a white robe the ladies in the styling team had provided for me. My hair this time was down, styled in the loose waves the bun from before had left. The makeup still looked the same, except for the red lipstick, which had been wiped away, leaving my lips more swollen and rosier than they would have been had they not been scrubbed to get all the pigment off.

When I arrived at the entrance of the set, Rhee was waiting for me and guided me again to a different set. This time, the set was also small, but looked entirely different from the set before, as it resembled the inside of an apartment, completely furnished and with a small balcony that I was able to observe, was fake. It was built inside the floor, positioned towards the skylight that was in the middle of the building, so the lightning it provided to the whole set was natural, the soft warm sun from the middle of the afternoon. The “apartment” itself was decorated simply but cosily, with a fuzzy carpet covering most of the floor, a sofa and a couple of armchairs, a low table, lamps, paintings on the wall, etc. It looked just like a real apartment, except for the fact that the background, which seemed to lead to a different room of the house was also fake.

Shortly after I had inspected the whole set, Sehun arrived, wearing grey jeans with the top button undone, a white t-shirt and a pair of socks in his feet. His hair was tousled around, as if he had just woken up. Seeing him wearing so many clothes made me feel self-conscious about my attire.

“Okay guys, so this time the concept is entirely different,” Dan started explaining. “You have to pretend you are a young couple living together. It’s your job to make us believe you are comfortable and at ease being here, but also that you feel passion at each other. We are going to start with both of you sitting on the floor, next to the balcony, Grace will be the closest to the window and Sehun will be behind her. You can hug, kiss, talk, tickle, whatever you want, but making us feel all of that, is that ok?”

My body tensed up when I heard Dan mentioning kissing, but it was nothing compared to the moment in which I had to remove my robe, to reveal I was wearing nothing but my underwear and a white button up oversized shirt. It could have easily belonged to Sehun; it was very large for me, reaching halfway down my thigh and forcing me to roll up the sleeves in order to use my hands, but still, it was way more revealing than what I thought I would be wearing. Sehun seemed surprised as he took a glance at my whole body, with his eyes lingering specially in the parts of skin that were uncovered. Then, he turned around smiling and sat on the floor, motioning for me to do the same.

“I’m going to play some music for you, but you don’t have to follow along this time, okay?” Dan said.

I sat in front of Sehun, with my back him, and he stretched his legs around me. I crossed mine and could feel his eyes focused on the back of my neck as Dan’s camera started snapping pictures again. I looked around me and saw a book that was resting in a chair beneath my reach, so I took it, placed it between my legs and started looking through it. It happened to be a book of fabric samples, including the kind used in the curtains of this fake home. Meanwhile, Sehun, who had been playing with my hair, pulled it behind my ear to come closer to me and have a look at the interesting book as well over my shoulder.

“Can I tell you something?” I heard him mutter.

“Sure.”

“I never thought you would be as good at this as you really are.”

I looked at him smiling widely, as if he had said the most charming comment ever, and shrugged playfully. He came a little closer and rested his chin over my shoulder.

“I meant it as a compliment. Considering the part I enjoy the most about my job is dancing, photoshoots are quite boring, but you’re making me at ease, I’m almost having fun,” he went on, with a low and soft voice tone. “Besides, I think I could get used to seeing you with that little clothing on…”

I bit down on my lip and pointed out a piece of fabric that had an especially ugly pattern imprinted on it.

“Why don’t you laugh as if this was the funniest thing you’ve ever seen?” I suggested.

Immediately, he shoot his head back with his eyes closed and laughed out loud as I looked at him smiling, earning more sounds of approval from Dan. When he finished laughing, he looked back down at me, biting his bottom lip, which to be fair, looked far more sensual in his face than on mine.

“You know what people say?” he asked rhetorically as he pulled from the collar of my shirt. “A man’s shirt in a woman’s body is like a flag in a conquered fortress.”

“Then we are lucky this is not really your shirt, aren’t we?” I snapped back, smiling.

But all the sassiness I was feeling was wiped away when he placed his index and middle fingers in the soft spot of skin behind my ear and then glided them down my neck until my collarbones. The softness and intimacy of his touch sent shivers down my spine and I started to feel confused.

“We can pretend for a little while,” he whispered against my hair.

Both his hands then travelled down my arms to my hands, which he grasped tightly as he lifted one of them up to caress his own face with it.

“Just play along.”

Without knowing exactly why, I agreed by nodding. In that moment, he put his arms around my waist and dragged be backwards, to lay me down in the carpet, as he sat beside me. The whole set was silent, watching him act, probably wondering just as me what the hell was going on. The truth is I forgot about them all when Sehun put his fingers on my neck once again, and began sliding his fingers down, touching all the soft skin on my chest he was able to before the buttons of my shirt closed the way. Then, his hand travelled up to my face, he traced along my hairline, my ears, my under eyes, the tip of my nose, and finally my slightly open lips, all while looking mesmerized at the places the tip of his fingers grazed.

I closed my eyes and started enjoying the sensation when that same hand went once again down my arm, reached my waist and then moved downwards, tracing my figure and making pressure over the skin that was covered by the shirt, until it reached the bareness of my thighs. By this point, my whole body was covered in goose bumps, but those weren’t caused by the low temperature in the set.

I opened back my eyes when I felt him stop once his hand was at my knee. He looked into my eyes for a while as he played with my hair, which was spread over the carpet, and seemed to be hesitant for a moment. But he easily brushed that hesitation away when he laid down, not besides me, but on top of me, making a place for himself between my thighs and balancing himself by placing his arms at either sides next to my head.

His lips were bolder than both of us, and they found their way to the same spot his fingers had started caressing a little while ago. When his lips touched my skin, I stopped hearing the music and the snapping of the camera. I closed my eyes again when those same lips started moving down my neck, not kissing, just touching softly the skin they could reach. I whimpered quietly when his mouth got to my collarbone and nibbled at the bone. He raised himself up a bit to look at my eyes, and what he saw obviously granted him permission, as he continued his game feeling the skin in my jawline with his lips.

My hands, which up until that moment had been resting limply over the carpet, came back to life and I found them travelling up his back, under his shirt, grasping every square inch of skin they found in the way and being far less delicate than his. I was surprised when I found his back and arms were much more muscular and stronger than what I had expected.

I raked my nails slightly down his back, which made him gasp and grab a fistful of my hair in the top of my head. Then, he buried his face in my neck, this time with his lips fully open and ready to take a spot of my skin between them, skin at which he began hard enough to probably leave a mark. The heat that had been slowly creeping around my stomach up to my chest suddenly burst up and down into my whole body, colouring my cheeks and my lips an even deeper shade of red and making me pull up my legs to wrap my thighs around his waist. This movement seemed to encourage him even more, as he passed his arms behind my back to pull me off the floor while he sat kneeling, placing me on top of him. His head was at the same level of my chest, which he was intently staring at, and considering the position we were in, he probably could see more than everybody else thought he could. I swallowed hard before putting my hands at each side of his neck, to make him look up at me, but once again, I was interrupted.

“Jmm, guys,” Rhee’s voice too quickly took us both out of our fantasy. “I appreciate the effort, but we were looking for un-innocent pictures, not a session of softcore ,” he said jokingly.

People in the set laughed at his joke, but I jumped of Sehun’s lap and stood up, pulling down from the hem of the shirt. I frantically began looking around for my robe, put it on as fast as I could and bowed muttering apologies. Meanwhile, Sehun was still kneeling at the same place I had left him, unspoken, looking like a deer in the headlights.

“Don’t apologize, because this is gold,” Dan tried to soothe me. “Probably the company will choose to keep the most toned-down pictures, but you two have been so good.”

“It’s just that we weren’t expecting you to click that fast and that intensely…” Rhee went on.

“Okay, I’m glad to know that’s what you were looking for.” Sehun had finally stood up and was looking at the photos Dan was showing through the screen of the camera, but he didn’t look at me and I didn’t dare to look at him either. “So, if I’m not needed here anymore, I think I should be leaving.”

I bowed at everyone in the set as I rushed to my room which was luckily empty. I took off the shirt and my underwear, locked myself into the bathroom and took a coldish shower, rinsing the makeup and products off my face and hair, thinking whether and when we might have stopped pretending for the camera during the photoshoot.