After the shoot with Vick, Jiyong had little time to rest with a nonstop schedule of meetings and last minute preparations for his first exhibition in Korea tomorrow. When he finished for the day, he walked upstairs from the studio to his apartment dragging his feet along the way. It had been an exhausting week and all he wanted to do was change into pajamas and curl up on the couch with a nice cup of hot tea, which is exactly what he did.

He opened the door, walked down the hallway and placed his computer bag and camera on the kitchen table. Once he changed, he made his way into the kitchen to start making his tea. He had put the kettle on the stove and decided to sit down on the couch to wait for it to heat up.

As he was starting to nod off to sleep, he heard his phone vibrating on the coffee table beside him. He stared at it deciding whether or not to pick up, thinking it might be Seungri with another last minute detail change. But after a couple of seconds the phone stopped vibrating as if the person decided to hang up. He shrugged, thankful that he didn’t have to move to answer, however a second later he heard it buzz again. He saw the little notification light blink signaling he received a new text message. After staring at the light for a minute or two he finally decided to reach over and pick up the phone to see who it was.

He first saw that the number was not one he recognized, but as he opened the message, he jumped about 5 feet in the air as the tea kettle started whistling. He dropped his phone and scrambled to grab it before it hit the floor. But he reflexes weren’t fast enough because of his exhaustion, and his phone crashed on the ground face down. He leaned down to pick it up and as he turned it over he let out a sigh of relief because his phone did not break. Setting the phone on the coffee table, Jiyong moved to the kitchen to fix up his tea.

As he walked out of the kitchen he decided not to bother with his phone or the message because he didn’t know the number. If someone really wanted to get a hold of him, they could do it tomorrow. He finished his tea and retired to bed, wanting to get some sleep before his Saturday photoventure tomorrow morning and the exhibition opening later that night.

By the time Jiyong woke up and went out to take photo’s, he had forgotten all about the text message from last night. He spent a good 2-3 hours just walking the streets of some random part of town and let the flow of people guide him around. Eventually Seungri called him telling him that it was getting close for them to meet up at the gallery to do the last touch ups before the event tonight.

On his way home he stopped at Something More Café for his usual pick-me-up. As he was waiting for the drink to be made he looked up on the TV and saw some random celebrity news show playing. He didn’t really pay attention to it until he heard a familiar name being discussed.

“And last but certainly not least, we have the latest news on the one and only Vick, the man who is continually breaking barriers for young Korean actors. With the success of his newest overseas film, a Japanese clothing line chose Vick to be their model for their latest line. This past week Vick spent time in Japan going over details with the company heads.” As the host continued talking about Vicks trip to Japan, they started showing clips from the press conference.

Jiyong watched as the clips passed by on the screen and remembered how a week ago today he worked with him. He thought back to the photo shoot and how the man on the screen now, and the man from last week were two completely different people. It got him thinking of what really made Vick tick. Vick had told him about his past with his parents but for some reason he wanted to know more.

The TV showed some older photo’s of the actors talking about his growth in the industry. But one photo, a close up where Vick was staring straight at the camera, took Jiyong off guard. The photo was stunning and he could see how a lot of women would fall for him. As he stared at it his heart started racing, it was almost like Vick himself was looking right at him. He flashed back to when they were alone in his studio and how Vick stared at him then too, he felt his stomach do a little flip just like it had done that day.

All of a sudden a drink appeared in front of him. “I’ve been calling you for the past minute,” said a voice to his left.

Jiyong looked over to where the voice was coming from and saw Soran staring at him. She looked from him, to the TV and back to him, causing a slight blush to appear on his cheeks. Raising her eyebrow she said, “Wow, even Jiyong can’t hide his attraction to the captivating mystery that is Vick.”

Jiyong went bug eyed and tried to stammer through some sort of retort in his defense but it was too late. Soran had read right through him, as she always does, and she just waved off his mumblings as she sat across from him.

“Don’t try to deny it. I saw how you were ogling the TV. But never mind your celebrity crushes, I just want to know how fancy this gallery exhibit opening thing is going to be tonight.”

Jiyong started to calm down from his fluster that was cause by Soran. He had forgotten that he invited her and the other employees to tonight’s event.

“Oh um, it’s actually a black tie event. Not my doing, but the galleries’. So I would say wear-“

“Ok that’s all I wanted to know,” Soran said cutting him off.  “You can now go back to your little dream world of Vick,” she smirked, hopped up from her seat and skipped back to the counter.

Jiyong sat with his mouth hanging open as he watched her go back to work. Soran glanced over at him and gave him a mischievous wink. She was lucky that he thought of her like a little sister because not every could get away with the comments she just made.

He slouched down in his seat with his mind running wild from what she said. ‘Even Jiyong can’t hide his attraction to the captivating mystery that is Vick.’ Was that it? Was he attracted to Vick? No he couldn’t be. Vick was a complete jerk. But that was just his first impression, right? Vick showed a whole different side to him when they were alone. He became vulnerable, gentle, a different person.

Jiyong heard the echo of Vick’s soft laughter from that day in the back of his mind. His heart skipped a beat and he in a breath.

In that moment he realized Soran was right. He was captivated.

He felt his phone buzzing in his pocket and fished it out. Looking at the caller ID he answered it as he started moving to the door to leave. “Yes Seungri, I’m almost there.” He turned to wave goodbye to Soran and walked out. “Ok, I know. Just grab my suit from my closet and have the car ready to go. I’ll see you in five minutes.”

The exhibition was going perfect as far as Jiyong could tell. This collection was one of his simplest, being comprised of photos from his point of view of coming back to Korea. Even though he has lived in big cities such as New York and L.A., Seoul was completely different. He wanted to capture the beauty of the mixture of traditional Korean culture and a metropolitan city. And from how everyone was reacting, he had accomplished it.

All the art critics, celebrities, socialites and other photographers were here. Some of his favorite models, makeup artists, and even old friends from America had showed up. Every one walked around the gallery with champagne in hand, observing his work. He was always one of those artists that liked to hide away in a corner until the event was over with, but since this was his first showing in Korea, he had countless interviews to do and people to meet.

2 hours into the showing, Jiyong found himself finished with the last interview and decided to take a walk around the gallery. People stopped, congratulated him and gave him words of praise for such a beautiful collection. He walked passed Seungri who was chatting up some of the models and shook his head. Leave to Seungri to always find the pretty girls and talk their ears off.

He continued toward the back of the gallery wanting to get away and have some time to himself. Finding an empty chair he sat and watched as everyone had a good time. After a while he could tell that the event was winding down as the crowd became thinner.

Jiyong saw a familiar face walking towards him and he smiled as he stood to greet her. Soran smiled back , giving him a slight hug and said, “Jiyong, this is beautiful.”

“Thank you. Glad you enjoyed it.”

“Well of course I did. I’ve always been curious as to what you did over in ‘your lair’ in the café. And now that I do…” She paused looking around at all the photos, then continued, “They’re simply amazing.”

He chuckled, a little embarrassed. He wasn’t used to getting this much praise.

“Again, thank you.”

Her phone beeped and she dug it out of her purse to read the text message. After a second she looked up and said, “I should get going, the other girls say they’re almost done. And besides the shows almost over, right?”

He looked at his watch and realized that indeed his was almost time to start shutting down for the night. But before he could say goodbye, he heard some sort of commotion coming from the front of the gallery. Both of them looked at each other, Jiyong scrunched his eyebrows and Soran shrugged her shoulders saying she didn’t know what was going on either.

Together they walked toward the entrance and saw that the people who were still around were forming a small crowd. Jiyong spotted his assistant and asked, “Seungri what happened? Is someone hurt?”

Seungri shook his head and replied, “I don’t know. I just heard it too.”

Jiyong saw that the crowd was starting to dissipate as a tall figure moved from the center of it. Soran moved closer to Jiyong and whispered into his ear, “Is that who I think it is?” When Jiyong didn’t respond, she looked at him and saw that his mouth was slightly opened in shock. She tapped his chin and whispered again, “Jiyong, I know he’s breathtaking but keeping your mouth open like that might scare him away.” Jiyong snapped out of it and glared at her because once again he couldn’t believe the things that came out of her sometimes.

Once the man was close enough, he spoke in his deep voice that Jiyong knew far to well and asked, “I’m not too late to see the exhibit, am I?”

Jiyong stared at him for a few seconds until he felt Soran elbow him slightly in the ribs. His throat had dried up the moment he saw him, but somehow Jiyong found his voice and muttered, “Um… No Vick. It’s not too late.”