Stirring from his slumber, Kihyun was temporarily confused by the added warmth along his side. As his brain grew more alert, and he chanced the morning sunlight that he knew was shining through the gap in his blinds to crack an eye open, last night began to form in his head again.

You had stayed over.

Although he was still struggling with how destroyed you were all night after your fight with Nina, Kihyun had to admit that waking up next to you could be something he’d like to do more often. A lazy smile crossed his lips as he took in your messy hair, one arm flung over his chest whilst the other was reaching to the headboard. As he worked his sharpening vision down the rest of you until the blankets cut you off midriff, Kihyun started to rely on feel. Your legs were tangled in his, one knee nestling rather close to what he realised could potentially be embarrassing for you to wake up and find.

Sure, it was human biology, but having his girlfriend discover a morning wood before he’d even been intimate with you wasn’t high on his list to tick off just yet. Scooting free from you, Kihyun slipped out of the room and into the bathroom, showering for the day and brushing his teeth before returning to his room. The apartment was still silent, and Kihyun wanted to keep it that way for as long as possible.

For once, he didn’t want to be an idol. Just a guy who happened to have a girl he harboured some really strong feelings for in his bed. Responsibilities and schedules be damned. If he could, Kihyun would stay here all day and just watch you.

Which, with a small chuckle, he realised sounded kind of creepy.

Just as he eased back onto the bed, you stirred, and Kihyun was simultaneously disappointed and anxious to see how you’d react to waking up here. You blinked slowly, stretching your body a little before letting your gaze stop gliding around your surroundings when you found him.

And then you smiled.

“Well, I think I might have just died a little,” he mused, grabbing at his constricting chest as you sat up and patted at your bed hair mindlessly.

“Died?”

He nodded solemnly. “Being the first person to see that smile of yours for the day was an honour. And the fact that you’re wearing my clothes…”

“I swear, it’s too early for you to charm the pants off of me, Kihyun.”

He grinned wickedly. “You don’t have any pants on right now.”

“Sinful man,” you muttered behind a hand that you tried to hide your delight over. Scooting closer to him, you leaned your head on his shoulder. “My head is pounding.”

“That’s what nonstop crying does to people,” he murmured, brushing a concerned hand to your head. “Thankfully, you’re not sick. There’s no fever there.”

“My skin hurts, though,” you confessed with a sigh. Looking at his face, you pouted. “Sorry. I doubt the last thing you want is to hear me complain so early in the morning.”

“The last thing I want is you hurting,” he corrected, brushing his lips against your forehead before reaching for the nightstand. He had fed you a pain reliever before you fell asleep last night, and the bottle of pills and water had remained there. Silently, Kihyun assisted you with taking the medication before scooping you up in his arms.

“I’m not hurting anymore,” you said into his neck, and Kihyun laughed softly. “What? I’m not.”

“Medicine doesn’t work that fast.”

“Your touch does,” you replied, wrapping your arms around him and nestling in. “Thank you.”

“For?”

“Everything you did last night. I… I shouldn’t have called you.”

“No. You should call me. I’m your boyfriend.”

“You’re Yoo Kihyun too,” you whispered, and he groaned internally.

“Still your boyfriend,” he persisted, and you nodded.

“The best boyfriend.”

“Now that I can get used to hearing.”

“How about seeing this instead?” a new voice asked, and you both turned to see Minhyuk standing in just his PJ bottoms holding out his phone. Kihyun took in the pale expression of his friend before accepting the phone he held out.

You went rigid in Kihyun’s arms.

Minhyuk let out a wild laugh. “Yoo Kihyun consoles Starlet’s manager? What a title.”

“How… I didn’t see any…”

“A fan spotted you get out of your car and went to film you. She was going to ask for an autograph until you picked Y/N up and stood there holding her. A whole minute of you just holding her was captured on that film, Kihyun. And then you were caught kissing her forehead too. Dispatch are pissed that some school-aged fangirl got the scoop before they did.”

“This is not needed right now,” Kihyun warned in a strained voice.

You tried to get out of his lap, but Kihyun held you still. “Kihyun, I better go.”

“No, you don’t.”

“You’re in trouble because of me now.”

Minhyuk cursed. “This situation only gets worse.”

“I’m sorry,” you said, and both men looked at you incredulously. “I’m not trying to make you annoyed with me for apologising like some weak little victim. I didn’t think about the consequences last night when I called you. I didn’t think to wait until we were somewhere private. After everything I’ve been taught about idol—”

“You know the tiest part about all of this?” Kihyun interjected, still staring at the video on the screen. “It’s not that I’ve been caught in a scandal. It’s that they think so poorly of you. That you’re Starlet’s manager. If that ain’t the kick in the gut of it all.”

No one said anything after that.

The scandal was handled swiftly by the company. Some excuse was given that didn’t sit well with Kihyun, and he had endured more than enough screaming from higher-ups to make him numb inside. The only thing that mattered was that he had been told to avoid you at all costs.

It didn’t sit well with him.

Still, he knew he had to ride out this storm, and giving more ammunition to the firing squad would be foolish.

When the door to his studio opened, Kihyun looked up desperately. “Did you get to see her?”

Changkyun nodded. “She’s… coping.”

“Tell me the truth.”

“Terry laid into her. Nina looked scared but was silent when he did so. Y/N is accepting all the blame. I have no idea how she’s going to cope tonight when she has to go home with all the pain from the scandal on top of the Nina stuff.”

Kihyun groaned loudly and slammed his hand down on the desk beside him. “I was the one who knew better. I should have just got her in the car and left.”

“She was crying. You acted like a man in love first,” Changkyun replied, and Kihyun glanced up at him through his tired eyes. Changkyun’s jaw was tense, but he didn’t avoid his gaze. “Last night was hard for me.”

“Hard how?”

“I’ve known that you love Y/N for some time now. Probably longer than you have. But since that day with Terry and I punched you, I don’t know. I’m a little too invested in Y/N. It’s not the same as how you feel. You don’t have to worry about that. I think it stems from Hoseok-hyung. I couldn’t – we couldn’t – do anything to help him. Even when I fought and tried to get management to listen. Watching them be shady with Y/N always makes me want to shield her.”

“We all want to.”

“Yeah, but Nina isn’t a bad person and yet last night I associated her with the likes of Terry. For the things she’s been thinking and saying to Y/N. She has feelings too. God, we all know I’m sensitive to others and how they feel. Yet I didn’t care for her last night. It was hard for me to let you be the only one to fully comfort Y/N.”

Kihyun smiled sadly. “You just went now and did what I can’t. You’re going to be the one protecting her for some time. You heard that they’ve banned me from even going to a toilet near her department.”

Changkyun grimaced. “I got kicked out when Terry spotted me. He went off at me for being there to cause more trouble. I uh, might have told him to go himself.”

Kihyun didn’t stop the laughter that erupted from his hollow chest. Instead, he reached out and fist-bumped Changkyun before going back to the one question he couldn’t seem to answer.

What now?

“Today’s your lucky day,” Joonhyung said to Kihyun when he walked into the main Monsta X studio, smiling at him broadly.

Kihyun didn’t understand how it could be. He’d been on a communications lockdown with you for three weeks now. If Minhyuk hadn’t managed to get Nina’s phone number the other week, he would have gone completely insane. Knowing that you were doing as best as you could and that things with Nina had been spoken out and mostly resolved was the only thing that kept him going right now.

“Lucky how?” Hyungwon wondered, shooting Kihyun a worrying look.

“Management has decided on a duet for Kihyun and Starlet.”

Jooheon spluttered out his drink. “What?! How does that even make sense? Sure, the scandal has mostly blown over now, but putting them together again doesn’t sound right.”

“I don’t care,” Kihyun said, standing up immediately. “I get to see Y/N, right?”

“Well, not unsupervised. It’s just for planning and recording. I doubt you’ll have overlapping sessions if Terry has anything to say about it.”

“As long as I get to see Y/N,” Kihyun repeated, picking up his coffee cup and gesturing for the door.

Joonhyung told him which studio to head to, and he briskly made his way there, his heart thudding in his chest. Kihyun didn’t understand how he could go from uncaring to this alert so fast, and it was somewhat overwhelming to bounce back from the emptiness he had been experiencing of late. He hadn’t been tardy or thrown a fit once. Instead, he turned up to every schedule and did what was expected of him. Nothing less, nothing more.

Fans had noticed, though. He wondered if they had petitioned over you and him as they had with Hoseok.

Knocking on the door, he waited for it to open before entering, his gaze darting around the space until he found you. Stopping mid-step, Kihyun raked his gaze all over you. Whilst he hadn’t expected you to look a mess, he was surprised to find how well kept you were too. It was almost as if you had the same response as he had for all of this. To give no one room to fault you on anything else.

He smiled knowingly, and you mirrored it.

“Terry’s running late,” one of the staff member’s mentioned, glancing to the other in the room. “I reckon we ought to get some coffee, so he’s not raging when he gets here. You two will be alright for five minutes, right?”

Kihyun grinned and nodded once. There were some hidden gems still working for this company, after all.

Once the door was shut, Kihyun placed down his coffee and took a step closer. “Can I?”

“Why are you even asking?” you breathed out quickly, falling into his arms that you beelined for.

It was so familiar and foreign at once to take you in. Holding you as tightly as he could without harming you, Kihyun inhaled your scent, refamiliarized himself with your soft curves, and noted the subtle changes to your body. You felt rounder than the last time he held you, and he was relieved not to find the opposite. You’d also cut your hair, and he liked the change.

Mostly, Kihyun just liked holding you where you belonged.

“I was told today would be the only session I have with you,” you mentioned into the skin on his neck and then sighed. “The rest will be with Nina.”

“What?”

“The duet will be a live performance,” you continued, and he pulled back to take in your bleak expression. “The most you’ll see of me that day is waiting for you behind the stage.”

“Do you feel as if Terry scheduled this to punish us? Because that’s what I’m starting to think.”

You shrugged, attempting to smile. “Hey. At least we’ll record a song together. And if this works, I’ll get more duet opportunities. Sewoon will be screaming from the rooftops in euphoria.”

Kihyun shook with laughter. “As long as I get the first one.”

“You’ll always be first to me,” you told him, diving back in for another hug before stepping away.

You were both a picture of complete professionalism when Terry walked into the studio and remained that way for the whole planning and recording session. As you had mentioned, any follow up moments were recorded separately, and then Kihyun was scheduled time with Nina to set up the atmosphere of the performance. The song, Out Of The Shadows, which he felt was ironically named, was a power ballad that highlighted both his and your singing strengths. Outside the pressure of everything going on around him, Kihyun loved it. He’d listened to it more times than he cared to announce and couldn’t wait to unleash it on the world.

At least, the digital version of it.

Because it was a ballad, there wasn’t much need for practising with Nina. He would have his spot on the stage, and she would walk out to meet him just after the first chorus. It was mostly him teaching Nina how to look absorbed in him as they sang, the right way to act during the song, and when to allow the music to overwhelm her. She also had to appear as if she was the one belting out that exceptionally high note with him before the last chorus.

And so far, she had failed every time.

“It’s not that hard, is it?” he wondered, and Nina glanced at her feet before nodding.

“I don’t know what it would feel like to sing so boldly. Most of those moments in our songs are the ones I don’t perform.”

“But surely you know how it feels to belt out a note or two, Nina. You auditioned to be a singer.”

Nina chewed on her bottom lip. “I’m tone-deaf, Kihyun.”

“So?”

“So, I can’t sing.”

“You can sing,” he remarked, and Nina shot her wide-eyed gaze to his face. “Everyone can sing. I bet you sing in the shower.”

“Well…”

“So just belt it out.”

“What?”

“Right now. I’ll replay it. Just sing it out loud so you can feel how it overtakes you,” he urged, and Nina shook her head. “Why not?”

“Ever since I got told I’m a horrible singer, I don’t do it out loud anymore.”

“I’ll kill him,” Kihyun muttered, referring to Terry, before going over to Nina’s side. “Don’t let anyone tell you that you’re horrible. We all have the ability to learn. To improve. Instead of being told what you’re good and bad at, Terry should be encouraging you to try. But because he’s an , allow me to be the voice of reason. You don’t deserve to sit in the mold he put you in. Yes, this industry is cutthroat, and I’ve heard and been told things that are soul-destroying. I was useless at dancing, did you know? I’m still not the strongest in my group, but I’ve improved because I tried. Now, you try.”

“This will be embarrassing,” she admitted but nodded once. Kihyun went over to replay the song and pointedly closed his eyes, so she didn’t feel any scrutiny on her when she started to sing.

He worked on keeping his face schooled to neutral as her voice cracked offbeat but opened his eyes to watch Nina take the note. She threw herself into it, and Kihyun grinned. “That was a perfect reaction to how you should hold it on stage. Let’s work with this, shall we?”