Ian has been glued to his phone for the past 2 months.

His thumbs are sore from texting.. his wrist feels uncomfortable from always holding his phone up.. he's completely out of stupid funny jokes.. but the truth is, he loves this.

He loves the jolt of excitement he gets from the little buzz of a new message from her. The happy hop his heart makes when he sees that she's typing a new message. And he loves the foolish smile that he can't wipe off his face throughout their conversations.

What a difference Lee Chaerin has made in his life.

Yes they haven't had THE conversation.. and Scott keeps on telling him that he's foolish to not have asked.. but how was he supposed to? She's CL, and its amazing enough that they're even friends.. and it's perfect now! He's not ready for anything to change just yet..

Ian mulls his options as he stares at his phone on the table. He is waiting for Chaerin, who was coming over to the studio so that they could edit the video for 5 Star together. Maybe they could just go for a meal? He knew exactly where he wanted to take her, the cafe that he frequents near the studio. They can take his bike? He wonders if she has been on a bike.. And then maybe he can ask her after dinner?

A little ping sound jolts him from his thoughts. A new message! Yes!

He unlocks his phone in a hurry, only to see a message from Scott that says "Bro you gotta see this", along with a link to a video.

He opens the link, and was greeted with an all too familiar song. 5 Star? Why would Scott send him this? And then he hears it, an unfamiliar voice starts rapping on the beat. Wait what is this? He scrolls down the page and sees.. "Jay Park sings CL's 5star".

He feels.. uncomfortable. To say the least. He furrows his brows in confusion. He didn't know that there were plans for a remix. She didn't mention it.

A tight feeling creeps over his heart. It is stupid he knows, but it feels strange to see their names together like that. He wasn't paying attention to the song that was playing, but he caught some of the lyrics..

Call me up like 2 in the morning
I wanna hear the sound of your breaths
I just wanna love you everyday
I wanna see you everyday
If you're with me then I'll take care of you forever
You're my light baby anytime day or night
Whether you're laughing or crying
I wanna be by your side
You're more important than anything else
Baby I just need to know

Ian was furious. No wait was he? He felt a fire burning in him and a strong urge to punch something, or if he were to be honest, someone. How dare this fool come in and try to.. no! Chaerin is his. Well she's about to be so these other men can kiss his ! The audacity...

Asking her to call him at 2 in the morning?? Please, the only person that Chaerin will be calling at 2 in the morning will be Christian Yu thank you very much. Everyone else can go fu..

Ian let his thoughts run wild as he sulks. He scrolled through Instagram, Twitter.. all while thinking of a certain someone. Has she heard it? What does she think of it? And the truth is.. he-who-must-not-be-named took the words right out of Ian's mouth.. It was exactly how he felt about her and deep down, he was envious of Jay's ability to lay it all out like that.. He wishes he could write her a song too. Tell her how much she means to him. How she brightens up his world.

Ian lets out a sigh and slumps in his seat, wallowing in the complex multitude of feelings that the song has stirred in him. He's angry, annoyed, frustrated, upset, surprised, and sad, all at once. Is this what they call jealousy? It's no wonder that it is one of the seven cardinal sins, with the way that he's feeling like a character in Dante's Purgatory right about now. The hoodie that was keeping him comfortably warm all of a sudden feels unbearably hot.

Just then, a knock at the door interrupts his thoughts.

He hastily puts his phone down, straightens up and moves his mouse about to wake the monitor. "Come in!"

"Hey! Sorry I took so long.. what are you up to?" Chaerin enters the studio with an effervescent smile and plops down on the empty chair beside his.

"Hmm.. nothing much, just.. thinking.." Ian let the corners of his lips lift up in an involuntary smile as he kept his eyes on the computer screen. He takes a furtive glance at her by his side. She was in a comfortable hoodie, looking intently at his screen and trying to figure out where he was at with his current project. The faint smell of shampoo and fresh linen wafts in the air. She smells heavenly, he thought, and he almost forgot all about the cursed J word until..

"Hey bro did you see my message?" Scott burst into the room without as much as a warning. "Oh, hi Chaerin.."

"Hey Scott"

"Yeah I did Scott, but let's talk about it later?" Ian raised his eyebrow and hopes Scott got his message. Chaerin was oblivious, and was still looking at the footage on his monitor.

"Yeah sure catch you guys later, I'll just.." Scott starts to back out of the room.

"Oh wait! Scott! Since both of you guys are here, there was something that I wanted to get some advice on.." Chaerin said as she turned around to catch Scott before he could make a timely escape.

"Oh?" Scott asks.

"Yeah, I've just received.. some offers? To remix 5 Star and I wanted to see what you guys think? It's a good business decision but I'm still thinking about it," Chaerin said as she folded her legs on the chair.

Ian and Scott exchanged glances. A remix..? It can't be..

"Well it depends on who's gonna be on the remix.." Scott countered.

"Hmm yeah well Jay Park sent me a verse last night."

Wait a minute, last night? They were texting last night? Once again, Ian felt the stirrings of anger that he thought had died out. He leaned back on his chair and looked at Chaerin, who has clearly not read the room, and was looking expectantly at the pair for their responses.

With just one glance at Ian, Scott knew that it was high time for him to get out of that room. He did not want to be around for what he knows is about to go down.

"Hmm maybe we can listen to it later Chaerin? It'd probably be good to listen to it before.." Scott trailed off as he locked eyes with Ian. Whoops, that was definitely not it. Time to go!

"I have a meeting with Cream now though, let's talk about it later yeah?" Scott said as he rushed to open the door.

Ian had turned back to the monitor and was quietly browsing through his footage. Chaerin thought he was being uncharacteristically quiet.. and she gave Scott a puzzled look as he made his exit. Scott then made a cutthroat motion with his hands and signalled a big X to her with his arms just before he disappeared behind the door. At this point, Chaerin was utterly confused.

What is happening? What did Scott mean? Why is Ian being so.. moody?

"Hey.. Rom.. are you ok..?" Chaerin tentatively asked, making sure to use her special nickname for him.

"Yeah I'm fine," he retorted, but he refused to look at her. His eyes stayed fixed on the screen as his hand moved the mouse around purposefully.

He was most definitely not fine.

"No you're not," Chaerin replied. "What's wrong?"

What's wrong? Did she really not know..?

"Hmm.. no it's okay," Ian replied. "So what did you think of the verse Jay sent you? Was it any good?"

He was still focused on his screen and refused to even spare her a glance.. Chaerin knew that something was off, but what exactly is the problem?

"It was.. ok I guess. Pretty good actually? He sent it at 2am or something so I haven't really had a proper listen.. I was thinking we could.." Chaerin trailed off as she came to a slow realisation of the current situation.

"2am huh?" Ian muttered under his breath.

So, he's jealous! Chaerin stifled a giggle as she observed the man in front of her. He was pouting ever so slightly, and was still stubbornly ignoring her! Chaerin hid a devilish grin behind her sweater paws. She was definitely going to have some fun with this.

"Actually, the lyrics are.. kinda sweet? I wasn't expecting that," Chaerin said.

"Oh really?" Ian retorted as he raised an eyebrow at her. "How nice."

"Yeah, I mean, we've been friends for so long.. and he did congratulate me on the new songs.." Chaerin briefly turned to the left and stole a glance at him. He had stopped moving his mouse. And is looking at her! Yes! The game is afoot.

"Oh did he now?" Ian was fully and properly annoyed now. He was sure of it. There was nothing else that he would rather spend less time talking about.

"At 2 in the morning too?" Ian countered.

Chaerin could barely hold her giggle in, but she managed to keep a straight face before answering, "no, I think we were talking at about 3pm? Or something like that, he texted me right after the release."

"Right, and we're talking about this because..?" Ian has had enough!

"Well, I just wanted to get your opinion Rom.. I mean.. it is our song," Chaerin said as she leaned on his shoulder, keeping her eyes glued on the screen.

"Our.. song?" Ian stared at the gray haired girl on his arm.

"Yeah, I was going to reject him because it felt.. weird. Wrong? To share the song with someone else."

"Oh," Ian was still processing it. Did she really say our? "No wait, why are we talking about this then?"

"Because.." Chaerin was finding it increasingly difficult to hold in her giggles, and she let one or two of them escape as she replied, "it was fun to see you jealous?"

"Jealous?? Whaa.. Oh, it was fun for you wasn't it?" Chaerin was full on laughing now! Her loud, infectious laughter erupted in the studio.

"That's it, you're in the doghouse, we're not doing any more Tik Toks in here, nope," Ian replied as he let an involuntary smile bloom. He quickly put on a straight face as he felt her stare.

"No, are you serious? Come on... Rom! No we have to do more!" she whined as she hung on to his arm.

"Nope, you're mean, so, nope," Ian kept his eyes on the monitor, but his entire arm was now being held ransom in her arms. She hugged it tight and leaned in close to him, her face practically right in his.

"You're not serious are you? You can't do this! You have to.. it was fun right?" Chaerin said as she stared into his eyes.

As if he could ever say no to those puppy eyes.

"We'll see..we have to focus on editing our video now.." Ian returned.

"Oh you mean, our video for our song?" Chaerin teased.

It was so silly but Ian would hate to admit that those "our"s were currently making his heart dance a happy tap dance. And are those butterflies he's feeling in his stomach? Oh gosh, he was so far gone for her. His foolish smile grew into a full-fledged grin. He could hide his heart and butterflies, but he could never hide those smiles.

"Yes, now focus, and stop wasting our time!" Ian chided.

"Well, what are our plans after this though?" Chaerin replied with a giggle.

"I was thinking, dinner?"

He had made up his mind, it was time to make it official.

Notes:

Nothing like a lil visit from the green monster to get things going!

For the purposes of this story, let's pretend that Jay uploaded his verse before 5 Star's MV was released :)