Narrator’s POV

“Shin? Why are you calling so early? Did something happen?” Jonghyun asked as soon as he picked up. For Shin to call him during the day… it probably wasn’t something trivial and  Jonghyun felt his chest tighten in anxiety.

“Good morning, Kim Jonghyun-ssi.” Shin didn’t forget to greet politely before answering the questions. “Umm, not exactly… It’s just that there’s something I haven’t told you because I didn’t want to upset or worry you.”

For a moment Jonghyun’s thoughts reeled trying to figure out what Shin was hinting at but then it dawned to him.

Ghosty…

He swallowed hard.

Into what mischief had that idiot gotten now?

“What is it?” Jonghyun asked in a pressed voice feeling more and more unsettled by the second.

“Do you remember that guy with the sports car that I told you about? The one Ha Neul left with on the day you departed for Japan?” Shin asked back and Jonghyun felt his whole body tense up at the memory. Why was Shin bringing that up?

“Yes.” He replied slowly.

“Well, that man, he…” Shin started but then trailed off again as if he was still not sure whether to really tell Jonghyun.

Seriously, he was about to lose his mind here and that guy was taking his sweet time? Jonghyun snarled. “He did what?”

Finally, Shin got to the point. “He has been bringing Ha Neul home every evening since then. And well, it usually gets quite late, too…”

What? To say that Jonghyun was stunned was an understatement. So, as soon as he was out of the country she showed her true colours and started going out with men every day? And even until late at night?

For some reason his blood was boiling. His grip around the phone tightened and he balled his free hand into a fist.

“But I don’t think he’s a bad guy!” Shin hurried to relativize the situation. “And Ha Neul seems to enjoy his company quite a lot. It’s the only time when I see her smile, actually…”

Right then something snapped inside Jonghyun. Like a switch had been flipped.

He jumped up from the chair and gritted his teeth; he simply couldn’t sit still anymore. He was breathing heavily and the blood was rushing in his ears. He felt so angry he wanted to punch someone. Anyone! But then he remembered that he wasn’t alone and he suppressed the urge; his fist shaking from the strain of doing so.

This all hadn’t gone unnoticed by s and they glanced at each other with shock, worry and confusion in their eyes. Because Jonghyun wasn’t someone to get angry easily. Sure he had quite a temper, but for him to get seriously angry it usually took quite a lot.

And right now, Jonghyun wasn’t just angry; he was furious.

“Yah, what happened?” Taemin unsurely whispered to Key. “Hyung looks like he’s about to kill someone!”

However Key didn’t know either and besides, he was speechless; he had never seen his hyung behave like this.

“Who is he?” They then heard Jonghyun demand. His voice sounded strained as if he was trying to keep it calm and steady with all his might.

But apparently the person on the other end of the line didn’t know. Because the frown on Jonghyun’s forehead became even deeper.

“Then go and find out, aisht!” He growled. “His CV, his family background, anything you can find! E-very-thing!” He had to take a breath. “And get me a picture… Get me a goddamn picture of that bastard!” He yelled and hung up.

s looked at him with wide eyes. He had his hand still raised as if he wanted to throw his phone elsewhere.

But then he pocketed it and whirled around. He was almost at the door, when Onew had finally broken out of his numbness and had caught up to him.

“Where are you going?” Onew asked and grabbed his arm stopping him.

“Teaching that damn son of a b!tch what his place is!” Jonghyun answered without thinking. There was a frightening glint in his eyes.

Onew had to swallow once before he spoke up again. “You can’t just run off! We’re in the middle of a shooting, Jonghyun!”

Jonghyun just hissed and pushed Onew aside. “Pikyo!” (A/N: ‘Pikyo’ means ‘move’.)

But Onew grabbed his arm again. “We’re in Japan right now, Jonghyun! In the middle of our promotions tour!” He grabbed Jonghyun’s shoulders and looked straight at his eyes. “We have important public appearances every day and a concert only two days from now! If you just disappear right now, don’t you know what will happen?!” He said urgently.

Jonghyun stared at Onew for several seconds before he finally closed his eyes and pulled away from his friend’s grasp. But to Onew’s relieve he now went back to the others.

He sat down on his chair again and covered his face with his hands. Key who was still sitting nearest to him wanted to compassionately place his hand on Jonghyun’s shoulder. But he quickly retracted his it again when Jonghyun shot up again; racking his hands through his hair and banged his fist against the wall behind him, cursing.

He took his phone out again and dialled a number. But like all the times before, no one picked up and Jonghyun cursed. “Aisht! Just who does that person think she is?! Not picking up her phone for days and not even listening to her voicemail! How can that person do this to me?! Aisht!”

Finally, it went to the voicemail again saying that the memory was already full and Jonghyun had no other choice but to hang up. Of course, it was none other than him who had filled her voicemail. But that didn’t calm his anger in any way.

The hand holding his cell phone was shaking and this time, he really threw the phone.

With a clanking sound it hit the floor and broke. The case split off, the battery fell out, and the display split into a thousand pieces.

Startled, everyone turned around to see what had happened but Jonghyun didn’t even notice. He just sat on his chair and let his head hang, not even caring about his cell phone anymore. He felt powerless and at the same time he was angry at just about everyone and everything.

Just then, Jin, SHINee’s manager who came to get the boys, walked in. And seeing everyone looking at Jonghyun and the broken phone on the floor in front of him, he quickly asked Onew what was going on. But since the latter didn’t want to tattle on his best friend and just shrugged his shoulders, Jin had to walk up to Jonghyun.

“Jonghyun, are you alright?” He asked. And when the addressed person didn’t reply: “Jonghyun?”

Finally, Jonghyun’s head snapped up and he hissed. “What!”

Startled, Jin took a step back. Including him, all the staff members were quite shocked by the expression they saw on Jonghyun’s face. With his jaw set and his eyes blazing he looked rather frightening.

“Jonghyun, what’s wrong?” Jin tried to ask again from a safer distance but Jonghyun just kept quiet. Jin sighed and turned to the staff. He bowed his head and apologised for the inconveniences.

Luckily no one really minded except that now it would be quite difficult to finish the shoot. Because since Minho was practically done, there were only Jonghyun’s pictures left to take. But the way he looked right now, the pictures would turn out rather weird. Usually the models in Christmas Specials were all laughing and happy.

Still, the photographer decided to at least give it a try and had Jonghyun pose with the props. But of course it was a complete mismatch.

“Erm, please smile?” The photographer thus tried to ask.

“Do I look like I feel like smiling right now?” Jonghyun replied through gritted teeth and the photographer suddenly felt a little uneasy under Jonghyun’s glowering stare.

But strangely, after the first moment of surprise, instead of feeling scared he felt almost excited. Sure, at the first glance Jonghyun’s intimidating look may seem completely out of place among all the kitsch. However, if done smartly, it could become a rather original and unique picture. One that might be even better than the stereotypical and already overused one.

Especially, since after a closer look the photographer noticed that Jonghyun’s expression didn’t seem to depict with difficulty controlled rage only. Beside the anger, somewhere underneath it, there seemed to be yet another feeling. And if the photographer wasn’t gravely mistaken that feeling was hurt.

And after he had taken the first picture, he was surprised to see what emotion his camera had captured. It was neither anger nor hurt. No, it was jealousy.

An excited glint passed the photographers eyes; now, his interest had been piqued.

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A day later back in Seoul at dawn.

“They seem to be having a technical problem with the equipment in Japan and they asked me, if I could come and fix it. Because apparently it’s got something to do with the stuff they brought along from here. But as you can probably see from the things piling on my desk it is a little difficult for me to leave right now, so… would you mind going in my stead? Of course, the company will pay for all the expenses!”

Such had been the request of Ha Neul’s uncle as soon as she had entered his office this afternoon. And like she had already been all day after those news, she was now staring into space blankly while her thoughts just wouldn’t settle down.

Hyo Rin who, like the night before, was sitting on Jonghyun’s guest bed and facing Ha Neul took in the latter’s expression with a certain satisfaction. It seemed like her plan worked so far.

Last night, when Ha Neul hadn’t been paying attention for a moment, Hyo Rin had secretly ‘stolen’ the phone number of Ha Neul’s uncle from her cell phone. Then, this morning she had called him and had asked if he could meet her for a short while, saying that it was about Ha Neul. Luckily he had agreed and Hyo Rin had then somehow convinced him that the only way for Ha Neul to recover her happy mood was to send her to Japan. And that an order at work would be the perfect method for that.

And as if decided by fate, Ha Neul’s uncle had then revealed that there indeed was an opportunity for sending Ha Neul to Japan to the staff of idol group SHINee.

Hyo Rin smiled a little upon remembering. Heh, she must be a genius for coming up with such a smart plan! But then her smile wavered a little. Now came the most difficult part of the plan. Convincing that idiot of actually going, that is!

Though even after half an hour of discussing back and forth, Hyo Rin had still not succeeded. Ha Neul kept wavering between the two options but never really deciding on one. She was tempted to go but kept finding excuses as to why she couldn’t: “And what about Shil Hye? Who’ll look after Shil Hye while I’m gone, huh?” Ha Neul shook her head. “No, I’m staying here.”

“I can look after her…” Hyo Rin offered shrugging and tried to keep a serious expression.

Ha Neul narrowed her eyes at her best friend. “You planned this, didn’t you? Don’t try to hide it; I can already see the giddy smile tugging at the corners of your mouth!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Hyo Rin still denied it. But she couldn’t look into Ha Neul’s eyes anymore and had to purse her lips to keep from smiling.

“Hah…!” Ha Neul said triumphantly. “You can’t fool me! If I really gave you the keys to Jonghyun’s apartment, you’d be dancing on the bed right now!”

Hyo Rin decided to switch tactics. She pouted and put on her puppy eyes. “So, you’re not giving them to me? But who’s going to look after poor Shil Hye then?” Blink, blink, blink.

“Aish.” Ha Neul sighed and looked away. “I’ll just tell my uncle I can’t go.”

Finally, Hyo Rin dropped her act altogether and sighed. “Ha Neul,” she then said earnestly. “Just go. Your uncle will have something less on his busy schedule, I will be one lucky gal because I’ll get to enter Jonghyun’s apartment whenever I want – and I promise I will behave – and, most importantly, you will finally stop being so depressed.” Hyo Rin gently grabbed Ha Neul’s hands and searched her eyes. “Come on. Pull yourself together and do what’s best for everyone. Oh?”

Ha Neul bit her lip and stared at the bed covers for a moment. But then she raised her head and looked at her best friend, taking a deep breath.

“Fine. I’ll go,” she said and the corners of turned upwards into a tiny smile.

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Btw, I will update/rewrite my prologe. I really think it's too long and doesn't really reveal anything about the story. But I won't change the content! (Though, I think I'll reveal the names... hehe ^^)