"She's not even pretty, why did Yong Junhyung choose her?"

"I bet she used underhand methods or something."

"The SNSD girls must feel so insulted losing to someone like that."

Eunji listened to the comments and her head slowly drooped down. She bit her lip sadly as she took it all in, trying not to cry.

She knew she wasn't that pretty or whatever, but when people said you were ugly, it's definitely going to hurt. She had started to take pride in being Junhyung's model even though no one knew about it, even her family. Now she was being insulted at her position and it's bound to hurt.

Before she knew what was happening, tears were trickling down her face. She wiped it away and hid behind Junhyung, not wanting to show her weakness to the public.

She clutched at Junhyung's suit and felt his grip on her hand tighten. All of a sudden, he yanked her with him as they began running.

Logic flew out of Eunji's mind. Why were they running? What are the consequences? All she knew was that she needed to get out of there and Junhyung's warm hand was leading her out.

Both of them ran and dodged the reporters, leading the whole swarm out with them. The other guests of the event, including the top models were looking on with curiosity and envy.

Key frowned slightly when he saw how close those two were together, while Hyejin stomped her feet in jealousy.

Junhyung pulled Eunji with him as they ran without any direction in mind. He glanced back and saw the reporters still hot on their tail. He cursed inwardly and kicked a table in their direction, sending a few of them toppling over.

He glanced back at Eunji who was panting a little and trying to catch up. "Come on Kang Eunji." he urged her, sending her a small smile.

Eunji nodded and ran as fast as they could.

It was unbelievable the two of them could lose the whole bunch of fifty men strong reporters, but they did. Amazing really.

They hid behind a bunch if discarded cardboards while the reporters ran past them. Junhyung held Eunji close to him, wrapping his arm round her waist as they crept away.

Soon, they arrived at a dump that was vacant since it was already night. Both of them collapsed on the grass and panted, catching their breath.

Eunji's gaze was constantly directed to the ground and she sniffled softly. Now that the excitement was over, the hurt she felt from the ball was returning.

Junhyung softened and went to sit beside her. "Yah Kang Eunji. Don't cry." he muttered. Eunji looked at him tearfully, and Junhyung sighed. "Please?" he added.

Eunji's bottom lip trembled and tears began flowing down once again. She shut her eyes and squeezed them, but the tears just wouldn't stop. "I can't." she croaked.

Junhyung reached out to her and brought her head to his chest as he wrapped his arms round her tightly. He rocked them both in a slow comfortable fashion.

"Don't mind what the others say, Kang Eunji." Junhyung muttered, his face hard. "They don't know a single thing and they don't understand. Don't let their words get to you."

Eunji sniffled. Was Yong Junhyung comforting her?

"Is this the reason why you didn't want people to know j was your model?" Eunji asked, her voice breaking.

Junhyung nodded and sighed deeply. He her hair absent-mindedly. "I know what they'd think." he confessed. "I knew you wouldn't be accepted, because you weren't some rich heiress or a top model. That's why I don't want to let them make judgement until they see my paintings. Too bad it's ruined by that bastard Key now."

*I didn't know Key oppa was so mean. I'm sorry I didn't listen to Junhyung oppa in the beginning.* Eunji buried her face in Junhyung's chest.

"But what are we going to do now? Can you even continue painting?" she asked softly.

Junhyung looked down at her and tilted her face up to face him. "I can practically paint you without opening my eyes now. It's not a problem." he smiled softly. "But you..." he cupped her cheeks and searched her eyes.

Eunji's heart thumped loudly in her chest and she desperately tried not to blush, and failed. "This is going to tough times for us, Kang Eunji." Junhyung told her seriously. "A lot of people are going to judge you even though they don't know a thing about you. It's unfair, and it's going to be difficult to stay optimistic all the time as well."

He wiped a tear away with his thumb and caressed her geeks gently. "But I want you to remember this," he whispered. "You're the first model Yong Junhyung appointed himself. You're the one I chose. Don't care about what they say, because it's my choice that matters, arraji?"

Eunji broke into a small smile as she nodded. "Arraso, Junhyung oppa." Junhyung smiled and drew her close again, hugging her tight and never letting go.

It was the most unromantic place one could ever think of. In the middle of the night, by the dump where the air's stale and stinky.

But that was also where Eunji felt the sweetest in her life.

With the memory of that night by the dump, Eunji managed to survive the next few weeks. Barely.

Junhyung was forbidden to meet her at all, courtesy of his dear mother. He was dreadfully reprimanded by his company for choosing someone with no commercial value. His artistic talents and flair, especially his artistic eye was starting to get doubted.

Eunji got tons of hate letters from Junhyung's fans. They felt insulted that their idol chose someone so common to be featured on his holy canvass. If someone had to be paired up with such a godly figure, it had to be some sort of goddess.

And Eunji wasn't.

The people at school avoided Eunji as well, and jealousy was at it's peak. Junhyung had all his lessons timetable changed and was transferred to a different class from Eunji.

Sunhee, Beast and MyName were shocked to know Eunji was Junhyung's model at first, but they soon got used to it and defended her name.

"HEY WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!" Sunhee demanded. She looked back at Eunji up and down. "From what I see, Eunji is prettier than any of those top models you stated, and there shouldn't be any reason why Yong Junhyung shouldn't chose her!"

The girls yelped in fright and scampered out of the way. Kikwang rubbed his girlfriend's back in a soothing circular manner and pinched her cheek. "Chill babe." he cooed.

Sunhee took deep breaths. She huffed under her breath. "Those girls are es." Chaejin nodded in agreement. "I know."

Eunji just hung her head, trying not to make any eye contact with anyone around because that would just cause them to glare at her passionately. It's getting a little tiring, trying to stay happy, trying to smile, trying to pretend it doesn't matter.

The two kingka groups walked Eunji to her locker, making a fine scene. Eunji opened her locker, an immediately took a step back.

As expected, a whole mountain of hateful letters came crushing onto the ground that Eunji was standing on seconds ago. Eunji sighed and picked the whole chunk up, heading to the rubbish bin to dump the letters.

Seyong picked some up for her and peeked at her. "You okay, Eunji?" he asked, concerned.

Eunji sent him a smile. "I'm fine, Seyong oppa." she assured.

Seyong nodded and met eyes with Insoo. Insoo felt completely bowled over when he first knew Eunji was Junhyung's model. The first thing that came into his mind was Junhyung painting pictures of Eunji and he wanted to charge all the way to Junhyung's house to yank his head off.

Fortunately, his anger had subsided when the truth between the two was finally revealed to him. He could see that Junhyung loved his sister dearly, and the way he had protected her when those reporters attacked his sister made him feel slightly relieved.

"Eunji ah," Yoseob pouted at the hate letters as he finished reading one. He rubbed his eyes to cleanse himself of the vulgarity present in the few pages long hate letter and sulked. "How can you tolerate all this?" he asked, gesturing to the hate letters.

Eunji blinked at him.

Yoseob sighed. "I mean," he shrugged. "Besides Beast and MyName, everyone hates you now. The  girls especially, and you're on the news almost everyday. Just because you're hyung's model, and you've become a hot topic. There must be a lot of frustration, but I see you smiling everyday. I can't understand how you do it." he asked puzzled.

Gunwoo and Doojoon nodded, both of them curious to know as well.

Eunji giggled lightly and smiled. "Well," She smiled wistfully. "Let's just say...I know I'm who he chose."