“What?” Hyoyeon exclaimed.

Park Junseo, SNSD’s manager who stood opposite her in the empty third floor boardroom of the SM building smiled and nodded to affirm that all his exciting news was true.

“Junseo… are you being serious?”

“Yes!” he shook his head, amused at her obvious disbelief, “Shouldn’t you have more confidence in yourself?”

Hyoyeon sat on a nearby chair certain that her legs wouldn’t support her if she stood any longer. She was glad the boardroom was empty. as she wasn’t sure she’d have been able to play her usual non plussed self given the news she’d just received.

“Should I call and tell them you don’t want to?” he asked, a cheeky glint lighting his eyes.

“No!” the words were out so fast for a moment she wondered if they’d really come out of .

Junseo smiled, “Shall we go over the contract details then?”

She nodded slowly settling back more comfortably in the chair but still feeling as though she was sitting on pins and needles, trying hard to pay attention to Junseo as he went over the contract terms and conditions but finding her mind wandering.

 Her own endorsement deal! How?

 Her excitement felt as unnatural and unreal as the deal itself, as though she hadn’t realised how much a part of her wanted a different kind of recognition how much she wanted to be known as more than just the funny one with the great dancing skills.

Not once in her four and a half years as a member of SNSD had she been featured as one of the main models in any of the numerous endorsements the group had received let alone been chosen to do a solo endorsement yet now all of a sudden she was getting the chance to model for AmorePacific, a nationally and internationally known skin and body care brand fronting not one but two of their products! It was surreal. It was fantastic. It was scary.

Kim Hyoyeon beauty model, she mused. Ah, that had a nice ring to it.

“You sure you don’t want to sleep on it?” Junseo teased shuffling the information packs sent by AmorePacific laying on the table back into some order.

He picked up the contract and waved it in front of her  keeping it just out of range when she reached for it.

Hyoyeon laughed, “No way! They might change their minds.”

“Ay! There’s no way they’d do that. You should make them sweat a little. Ask for a little more money maybe?”

Hyoyeon took the contract from his hand flipped to the last page, grabbed the pen off the table and after a momentary pause, signed on the dotted line.

“It’s not that I don’t have any faith in myself,” she laughed, “I’m just not taking any chances!”

“I wonder how the girls will react?” Junseo asked absently as he gathered up the documents on the table into one pile.

“They’ll be even more excited than I am!”

“That they might,” he chuckled in agreement.

“I have to admit, I’m a little worried though. I’ve never done anything this big on my own before. The vogue shoot had me nervous but this…this is on a different scale,”

“You’ll be fine.”

Hyoyeon only gave a hesitant nod.

“Besides you won’t be alone, I forgot to mention it but the concept for their new campaign features something of a “lovers” concept, so there’s a male model as well,”

She exhaled loudly cringing slightly at the word ‘lovers’. It had already taken her a good long month to get used to her ‘Dancing with the Stars’ partner and all they were doing was dancing a few somewhat romantically charged dances but now she’d have to immediately jump into lovey dovey mode with some unknown guy?

“You could have mentioned that before I signed. How is that supposed to make me feel any better?”

“Well for one you know the model…” Junseo replied absently.

“I do?”

***

“Wo…sh…shi- Wait,” Hyoyeon closed her eyes, “Wo shi…ah what comes next?!”

“Wo shi Hanguo ren,” Siwon replied.

“Wo shi Hanguo ren?” she enunciated slowly.

“Perfect!”

“How can you be so good at this already?” she asked flopping her head down on the table.

“Because I actually pay attention in class,” he gave the top of her head a gentle tap, “Miss Day dreamer.”

“I pay attention!” she sat upright, “It’s not my fault 'wo han yu shuo de bu hao'. I might like Chinese but it sure as heck doesn’t like me back,” she replied.

 “So how is it that you could say that perfectly?”

“I’ve had to use it a lot,” she pouted.

Siwon laughed. He realised he’d been doing a lot of that lately. And always with her.

He watched as she picked up her highlighter and started marking out some phrases from the giant sized Chinese language phrase book sitting on the table. She had finally gotten over her awkwardness around him after that morning at the language centre. Well almost. He supposed she might have gotten over it completely if he hadn’t constantly been making references to that morning, attempting to recreate the situation in some way. But he couldn’t help it, for some reason he liked seeing her flustered. Correction, he liked seeing her flustered over him. It was like the realisation of the effect he had on her egged him on to tease and flirt with her even more.

He didn’t really want to ponder the reason for his sudden rise in his awareness of her. Keeping it simple was his motto. He watched as her eyes narrowed in concentration, her lips forming the words of a phrase as she read silently, her soft dark hair falling over her shoulders, the flash of pale white skin revealed as her loose top slid off her right shoulder before she quickly tugged the fabric back up...

He cleared his throat. Keeping it simple was proving harder than it had before.

“Should we take a break?” he asked.

“Huh?”

“A break. I’m tired of studying.”

She smiled, “You and me both!”

Despite being so far from home and their friends and family, the freedom that they had in China almost made the separation worth it. Their Chinese manager was much easier going than any of their handlers in Korea, he didn’t see the need of following them everywhere they went and they were free to come and go as they pleased, within reason of course.

“We could go to the park,” Hyoyeon said.

Siwon shook his head, “Too far.”

“Window shopping downtown?”

“Mmm…”

“Park?”

“You already suggested that silly,” he laughed.

“Mmm, let’s get something to eat then,” she sighed, “Sweet and sour pork!”

“Ay! We have to do something grander than just grab some Chinese food,” he posed with his hands behind his back and in a serious tone added, “This isn’t just a break we’re taking, we’re making memories!”

“You try coming up with something then,”

“How about a movie?”

Hyoyeon stared blankly at him before she burst out laughing, “I really thought you would come up with something more adventurous than that with the way you were talking,”

They stood at the bus stop a few yards from their dorm, dressed warmly against the late afternoon chill. Deciding to take a break was easy, deciding what to do on said break was a little harder.

“Food and then a movie,” Hyoyeon suggested.

“Dinner and a movie? I like that.”

Hyoyeon laughed, “ Sounds like a date,” then paused her eyes widening as she realised the implication of her words, “Not that it is a date…or anything,” she added quickly.

“Are you trying to say you wouldn’t want to go out on a date with me,” he asked intentionally misunderstanding her words.

“No…it’s just when you say…”

“So you would go out with me?”

“Yes...I mean no…”

Ah, she was blushing again.

For the first time since that morning at the language centre, he took hold of her hand.

“I’ll just go with the yes,” he said pulling her towards the bus that had just pulled into the bus stop.

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And just like that his keeping it simple motto had been thrown out the window. They’d moved past that invisible barrier between friends and…something more. The transition had been surprisingly smooth. There was no awkwardness between them as he held her hand throughout their ‘first date’. No awkwardness  when their conversations became more personal, when they confessed their secrets to each other, when he'd held her close or when they had kissed. He sighed. Especially when they had kissed.

She still blushed and became tongue tied when he complimented and but it was different from before, more natural somehow and he realised that the only reason she had been so awkard and flustered around him when he before was because she thought she was the only one who wanted more from their relationship. And now that she knew she wasn't the only one whose heart raced when they were together or whose mood lifted when they saw the other...it was just perfect.

Everything had been perfect. Until he’d gone and let his head rule his heart.

***

“That’s great! We’re done with the test shots. We start with the promo photo shoot next week Monday.  Filming in Jeju will be on Friday. Everyone got it?”

Hyoyeon nodded as the marketing director from AmorePacific gave the breakdown of the filming in Jeju.

The test shots had been easy. The actual male model signed on by AmorePacific had been busy with another schedule and a stand in had been used in his place. She had been smooth and professional and had been praised endlessly by the photographer and the marketing director. Oh how things would change once the actual photo shoot took place.

No, she thought. I’m not going to let anything ruin this. I’m fine. We’re fine. It won’t be awkward. And even if it is, I’ll it up. I am Kim Hyoyeon!

“Ou!” she balled her fists up and let out the unconscious cry drawing strange looks from the people gathered around for the final briefing by the MD.

“That’s the spirit I’d like to see from all of you,” the MD said nodding in approval.

If she hadn’t been so worried, she would have laughed as everyone around in an effort to show their “spirit”  and please the MD went “OU!”

Note

Wo shi Hanguo ren- I am Korean

wo han yu shuo de bu hao- My Chinese is bad