“Ah can’t believe that guy.  How could he turn me down?  It was such a good offer too.” Jiyeon muttered in disbelief.

She was making her way back to practice, kicking rocks as she did to show her displeasure.  “But I guess it’s better for me.  I can’t stand breathing the same air as that jerk.” Jiyeon muttered, her cheeks puffed out like a pouting child.  “I can’t imagine having to work with him.  We’d probably kill each other before any work gets done anyways. So really, that jerk did me a favor.”

Jiyeon was surprised and somewhat angry about Kevin’s refusal to work with her so she was trying to come up with excuses to comfort herself, trying to get rid of the desperateness of wanting to work with him.  “It wasn’t like his songs were any good either!” She exclaimed as she slammed the glass door open, garnering some wary glances from some passerby’s.  “Aish!  Who am I kidding?” Jiyeon exploded, slumping down on a nearby chair.  “I needed him!”

 “Needed who?”

Surprised by the voice right next to her ear, Jiyeon jumped out of her seat.  “Ya! That’s not very ladylike, sneaking up on people like that Eunjung.”

Eunjung, a fellow trainee alongside Jiyeon laughed as she took a seat.  “It’s you who isn’t ladylike.” Soyeon, another trainee, said. “Keeping secrets from us.  So who’s this guy you’ve been secretly seeing?”

Jiyeon was taken aback.  “Wh-what?!  I’m not seeing anybody!”

“That’s what they all say.” Hyomin teased as she slung her arm around Jiyeon’s shoulders.  “This is so cute!  Our little Jiyeonnie is all grown up!”

Jiyeon’s cheeks pinked as she shook her head.  “No you guys are all wrong!” Jiyeon insisted.  “I’m not seeing anyone.  You’ve misunderstood.”

The other girls exchanged disbelieving looks.  “Alright.” Eunjung said, though she gave Jiyeon a look that said that she didn’t believe her one bit and that the conversation wasn’t over. “The day isn’t over yet, so let’s get back to practice.”    

Jiyeon was glad for the change of subject as she followed behind her unnies, ignoring the giggles and blatant looks she was receiving from them.  She may have been the youngest but they were acting more childish than she was.  Jiyeon shook her head at her unnies.  Even though Jiyeon had her showcase already, the President had insisted that she keep her practice the same as before and to continue her training along with the others for another month.  The girls walked into the practice room where four other girls were waiting.  “You’ll never guess what Jiyeonnie has been hiding from us!” Hyomin exclaimed as she bounded over to Qri.

“Unnie!” Jiyeon cried, stomping her feet in annoyance.  “I told you already.  It’s not like that!”

Boram and Hwayoung glanced up in interest as they gathered around Hyomin, the gossiper.  Throwing up her arms, Jiyeon went and sat in the corner as she attempted to disregard the tale Hyomin was spinning with Eunjung and Soyeon inputting their own tales on the lie.  The practice room filled with happy shrieks as soon as the storytellers finished.  Jiyeon glowered as she usually did, with her cheeks puffed and arms crossed pointedly across her chest.  She had long gotten used to her unnies teasing since they have been training together for quite sometime.  As trainees they put a lot of work and time into their training so the girls rarely went out and had fun.  If it meant being the of the jokes and teasing, Jiyeon didn’t mind because she knew that out of all the people in the world, it was her unnies that deserved some fun. 

Jiyeon stood up, heading over to the music player.  “Is it time for practice yet?” She asked, desperate for the teasing to end, as she was sure all the blood in her body has rushed to her face.

The girls smiled slyly at each other one last time before taking their place in line.  As soon as the music began to play, their expressions turned serious.

After an hours practice the girls decided to take a short break to recompose themselves.  Jiyeon wiped the sweat from her brow as she calmed her racing heart.  The others were scattered around the room in a similar state as Jiyeon. “That was a good run but Jiyeon, you’re coming in half a beat late.” Soyeon informed as she downed a water bottle within seconds.

“Okay, I understand.” Jiyeon said, standing up once again.

She stretched out her limbs as she prepared to go through the routine to fix her slight mistakes. “Take a break Jiyeonnie, rushing into practice won’t help. You’ll get it soon enough.”

Jiyeon stubbornly shook her head. The others didn’t know her situation with the company or how desperate she was. “I’m fine, I’m not tired at all.” Jiyeon assured.

Eunjung shrugged her shoulders while the others sighed. They knew it was hopeless to get Jiyeon to change her mind. Jiyeon was a determined girl and when she has her mind set on something there was no way she would back down. The girls were in the middle of watching Jiyeon practice solely when there was a knock on the door. Since Jiyeon was preoccupied, Eunjung answered the door. “What is it?” She asked as she swung open the door.

“Ahem.” The person on the other side of the door, coughed awkwardly into his hand. “I…ah…they told me that I could find…er…Park Jiyeon here?”

Boram and Hyomin who overheard the guest became curious as to why the stranger was asking for their little Jiyeonnie. The two gathered behind Eunjung, peeking over her soldier to see someone unfamiliar. “Could it be…” Eunjung leaned forward until she was only inches away from the person’s face, analyzing the stranger carefully. “That you’re Jiyeonnie’s boyfriend?”

The guest was stunned into silence as a look of confusion overcame his features. His lips were moving but no words were coming out. Unfortunately his reaction only made Eunjung believe that her assumption was true. The trio squealed, catching the attention of everyone else but Jiyeon who was still practicing hard. “Who are you?” Soyeon questioned as she joined the others.

“He’s Jiyeonnie’s boyfriend!” Eunjung answered before the stranger could. “He came looking for her!”

Kevin shook his head, his eyes wide with surprise. He attempted to speak up but he only managed to sprout out incoherent words. Before Kevin could clear up the situation the girls surrounded him, their expression stern and no longer humorous. Surprised by their sudden change of behavior, Kevin glanced cautiously at each of them, a gleam of panic in his eyes as he took a few steps out, trying secretly to escape. That didn’t work because the girls him out of the door. “Now look here buddy.” Eunjung growled as she roughly poked Kevin in the chest. “I don’t care who you are but if you ever hurt Jiyeon in the slightest bit, we’ll make sure that you will regret it.” 

Kevin gulped, his eyes searching for an emergency escape route to no avail. “Jiyeon is a strong girl herself but because we are her unnies, we do everything that we can to protect her.” This time it was Soyeon who spoke up, her eyes glaring threateningly.

In the meanwhile Jiyeon had just finished practicing and had finally noticed that she was the only one in the room. Turning off the music, Jiyeon glanced around the empty room before curiosity took over and she went looking for her unnies. She noticed them just outside of the practice room door. “You do know that our Jiyeonnie is a third degree black belt in taekwondo don’t you?” Hyomin stated, leaning against Kevin’s arm in an attempt to intimidate him.

It worked as he let out a nervous laugh. “I understand but, er, I think you’ve been mistaken.”

“Unnies, what are you doing?” Jiyeon asked as she came from behind.

Kevin let out a sigh of relief as soon as he spotted Jiyeon. “Oh thank goodness. Tell them that we’re not seeing each other.”

“What are you doing here!?” Jiyeon exclaimed as she pushed through the circle and stood in front of Kevin.

“I came to talk to you.” Kevin explained then pointed his finger accusingly at the girls behind Jiyeon. “But than they came and threatened me.”

Jiyeon raised a questioning eyebrow at that. She glanced back at her friends but they shrugged like they knew nothing of what he was talking about. “Why’d you go and say that we were dating?” Kevin blamed.

Jiyeon flushed red at the news, as everything seemed to come together. She shoved Kevin down the hall where it was safe from the others. “I didn’t say anything like that!” Jiyeon hissed, glad that she was facing Kevin’s back as she didn’t want him to see her embarrassed face. “Now why are you here?”

Kevin halted, forcing Jiyeon to stop pushing him, and turned around. “I’m here because…” Kevin hesitated. “To see where you work.” He lied. “I have a friend who would pay me anything to get your autograph.”

Jiyeon rolled her eyes. “If that’s so, I’ll be leaving now. I was in the middle of practice.”

“Aish, wait!” Kevin called out, his hand gripping onto Jiyeon’s. “I was kidding. I’m here because…I want to work with you. You said you needed a songwriter right?”

Jiyeon tilted her head, her eyes carefully analyzing Kevin. “Why the sudden change of heart?”

Kevin looked away from Jiyeon’s scrutinized gaze. “It doesn’t matter. You need a songwriter and I so happen to compose songs. There’s nothing trivial about the matter.”

Jiyeon was about to question him further but then she noticed the pained look in his eyes and decided to drop the matter, for at least the time being. “Okay.” She said.

Kevin looked relieved at her reply. “Alright then. So it’s set. We’re a team?”

Jiyeon nodded her head in confirmation. “Yes, we’re a team.”