“Hey…stop that,” Hyoyeon laughed pushing against his chest.

They were seated in the living room at their dorm, their books spread out on the low table in front of them, their attempt at studying had been abandoned half an hour earlier but with the books out they could at least pretend they were being somewhat serious about their school work.

Siwon only held her tighter against him, “Stop what?” He pressed a kiss to her neck and then on her cheek, “I think I should be the one telling you to stop…”

Hyoyeon drew back a little, “Oh?”

He tugged her forward, his eyes focused on her lips, “How am I supposed to concentrate on reading when you’re being so…” he kissed her, “Irresistible.”

“Uwah, so cheesy,” she giggled.

“Me? Cheesy?”

“Totally cheesy,” she pressed closer to him, running a hand through his thick dark hair, “But, I love it!”

Siwon’s eyebrows rose, “What else do you love about me?”

Hyoyeon felt her face grow warm. With his gaze fixed on her, studying every expression and every move, it sometimes felt like he could read her mind. His intensity was overwhelming but at the same time it was enthralling, she was really certain, clichéd as it sounded, that she could stare into his eyes all evening and still not have enough.

“Hm?” he gave her a little squeeze to urge her on.

“Your hair.”

Siwon’s hold around her waist loosened, “My hair?”

“Mhm, your hair,” she reached both hands up to ruffle his hair playfully.

Siwon let her have her way for a moment before grasping her wrists and pulling her hands away from his hair and holding them against his chest, “Just my hair?” he asked and there was something in his tone that gave her pause.

“There’s more…” she replied quickly.

“Tell me.”

“Hm?” she stalled.

 “What else…” he whispered.

Why was he being so persistent? She had a million things she adored about him but saying them out loud, to him was…Yet a part of her wanted to let him know what she felt.

‘Start small,’ she thought.

“…I love your lips,”

He smiled, “And?”

She felt a little bolder, “The way you kiss me,”

“And?”

“The way you hold me so close it feels like…” she stopped.

‘Ah I can’t say it!’ she thought looking away.  The temperature in the room seemed to have shot up a couple hundred degrees.

“Feels like?” he tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear and let his hand trail along her jaw to her chin before turning her head so that she was facing him again.

“Feels like I’m a part of you…”

He raised her hands to his lips and pressed a kiss on each, “And?”

“How patient you are with me and how comfortable I feel whenever we’re together…well, except for right now of course,” she laughed nervously.

“And…” his voice was little more than a seductive purr.

Before she could reply she was once again held tightly in his arms, his lips pressed against hers occasionally drifting to her neck and the sensitive skin on her collarbone, hot and soft and yielding and making her feel all sorts of things and wanting more…so much more. Then he was on top of her, his weight pressing down against her and his leg wedged in between her thighs driving them farther apart, his hands were on her bare skin caressing away all rational thought.

“I want you,” he whispered into her ear, grinding slowly against her, “Now.”

“Hey kids, where are you? I brought some spring rolls from that restaurant you guys like!” their managers voice cut through the haze of blissful pleasure like a hot knife through butter.

In an instant they separated, straightening clothes and hair and grabbing their pens and note books. By the time their manager walked into the sitting room from the foyer, they looked every bit the model students they were pretending to be.

“ Korean kids sure are different,” their manager muttered coming into the room, “You can’t be reading all the time,” he continued setting the packet of spring rolls directly over their copy of Chinese Idioms for Beginners.

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Hyoyeon shook the memory from her head as she stepped out onto the photo shoot set. She gathered up the fabric of the sheer lacy gown she was wearing and walked carefully to the centre of the set followed closely behind by the makeup and stylist team.

‘Focus,’ she ordered herself.

The first set of photos were individual shots where she posed with the different products held in her hand as well as some close ups. Gentle beauty was the campaign's theme, so her expression had to be happy but not really smiley and so she had to keep reminding herself not to smile even when the photographer’s comments and poses as he took the shots threatened to make her burst out in laughter.  

“Our Hyoyeon is totally making love to the camera” he cocked his hip out to the side, leaning forward so much that he looked like he might fall over.

 “This is how it’s done!” he squatted down and shot one leg out to the side.

“Great! Lovely!” he shifted stance and shot out the opposite leg.

After a little over an hour the individual shoot was done and Siwon appeared on the set.

‘He looks great,’ much like the first time she’d seen him up close the thought popped into her head before she could stop herself.

He walked over to her a small smile playing at the corner of his lips and the look in his eyes as he looked her up and down seemed to say, “You’re mine.” She wiped her damp palms over her dress. It was going to be hard to play the cool calm and collected heroine but she had no choice. She bowed slightly in greeting when an appropriately nonchalant greeting failed to come to her.

‘He’s just a guy like any other,’ she told herself. ’Just a guy.’

***

“The things I love about Kim Hyoyeon,” Siwon read aloud as he wrote.

He scribbled out the line immediately and crumpled up the paper into a tiny ball before shooting it into the waste paper bin near the door.

 It had been a week since the “spring roll incident” as they had nicknamed it and he couldn’t stop thinking about her words. He had meant to tell her what he loved about her but somehow, he smiled, instead of expressing himself using words he’d let his body do the talking.

No moment in the past week had really seemed appropriate to bring up the topic so he’d decided on writing her a letter telling her just what it was that he did love about her but now that he’d sat down to do it, the words just wouldn’t form. She was beautiful but that wasn’t really why he liked her as much as he did.

'It certainly helped though,' a sly voice in his head noted. But there was more…

He had dated other girls before her but thinking back to his time with them now, despite the feelings he’d had for them, he could barely remember any more about them other than their names and one or two scattered memories of a few good times. But she was different.

He grabbed another sheet of paper and started to write.

“Ah way too cheesy,” he sighed reading over what he had written.

A knock sounded on the door and he was thankful for the temporary break a visitor would offer.

“Come in!”

Hangeng walked into his room, balancing a tray of snacks in one hand as he opened the door with the other. Siwon quickly placed the note under the sheaf of papers on his desk before standing to help him.

“I was walking through _Street and saw this Korean grocers had opened," Hangeng pointed to the plate of little flower shaped biscuits and the cans of sikhye on the tray, “I bought some yakgwa, I remember you said you liked them,”

“Oh! Thank you,” he reached for one of the snacks, “I love these,” he sighed, “It’s like a little taste of home,” he popped the biscuit into his mouth.

“Where’s Hyoyeon? I bought enough for all of us to share.”

“She went out with the manager a couple of hours ago, window shopping for souvenirs."

 “More for us then!” Hangeng beamed.

“She really likes them too so we should leave a few,” Siwon said.

“Ah, right we should.”

Siwon ignored the knowing smile that lit his friend’s features.

“What were you up to today?” Hangeng asked.

“Nothing much, just a little reading.”

“Do you ever stop?” Hangeng laughed, “Its Saturday, you should have gone out with Hyoyeon. Beijing is the city of love you know?”

“I thought that was Paris,”

“No, I’m pretty sure it’s Beijing,” Hangeng replied with a wink.

Siwon threw a long suffering look at his friend, “I’m beginning to regret letting you in on our secret.”

 “Too late to take it back now!”

He glanced back at his desk, debating on whether or not to ask Hangeng for some advice on the letter he wanted to write to Hyoyeon. They were good friends after all and Hangeng seemed to know a lot more about girls than anyone he knew and was also the only person he could really talk to safely about that kind of stuff anyway.

“What were you hiding earlier?” Hangeng asked.

‘Is he a mind reader?’

“Nothing,” he replied much too quickly. It would be way too embarrassing to let Hangeng read what he’d written earlier.

“Eh? From the look on your face, it doesn’t seem like nothing.”

Siwon popped the cap on the can of sikhye and took a long draught.

“A letter?” Hangeng guessed.

‘This guy is a total mind reader!’

“Oh…I was right,” he laughed, “What kind of letter?”

Siwon ran a hand through his hair, “A none of your business kind of letter.”

Hangeng paused for a moment, then perked up, “A love letter!”

Siwon feigned a nonchalant expression and shrugged, “I wouldn’t call it that exactly…”

“If it’s a letter to someone you like then it’s a love letter.”

He remained quiet. He could already feel the heat rising up his neck. It really would be too awkward to talk about his feelings for Hyoyeon with his friend, despite how close they were.

‘Please let him lose interest.’ He prayed.

No such luck. Despite his protestations, Hangeng insisted on seeing the letter. He seemed to read it for an eternity before finally looking up at him. He was quiet for a drawn out moment.

He then waved the letter around, “Definitely a love letter.”

 “It doesn’t sound weird?”

“Not unless it was addressed to me,” Hangeng laughed.

“I thought it sounded a little cheesy though…”

“That it definitely is. But girls like that kind of stuff.”

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Beautiful, didn’t quite cut how Hyoyeon looked.

Siwon walked towards her, his movement a calculated swagger. After her playing-it-cool ‘Why would it suit us?’ reply earlier he was determined to play it cool too. She bowed slightly toward him her hair tumbling over her shoulders as she did so. The blond strands catching the light from the  lights illuminating the set and reflecting silver and pale gold. Beautiful really didn't cut it.

‘Keep cool,’ he ordered himself.

He bowed to her but instead of “Let’s do a good job together” the words that came out were, “You look amazing.”

He cursed his tongue.

“…uh…thank you. You…you look good too,” she replied hesitantly, not meeting his gaze.

That was curious...she was blushing. Maybe playing it cool was the wrong way to go about it?