"Ah! Finally!"

Haneul lets her body drop to the cold hardwood flooring of the studio, letting the bass of the music pound on her chest as she gasps to catch her breath.

"That took way longer than I thought it would," Sehun pants along, with some energy to stay on his feet.

"Why did you make it so haaard," she whines, rolling over on her back and taking another deep breath of the warm air that filled the room.

"Because I want to win this year," he huffs, "You know, we could have won if you agreed to dance with me last year."

"Do you see me now?" she laughs at her own state, "I can barely get back up on my feet, what makes you think I would have been able to do this last year?"

He couldn't help but laugh along with her, lifeless on the ground, "At least we got it this year."

"What would you do without me?"

"A lot of things," he answers.

"Yah, do you want me to drop this competition?" she threatens.

"I'm just having some fun with you," he chuckles.

"So am I."

"And this is why we're friends," he chuckles with a hand held out for hers, then pulls her up to a sitting position while plopping down be side her himself, "Man, when i get home, I'm taking a shower then going straight to bed. I am so tired!"

"Same here," she stretches her sore back with a few cracks coming from it, "This upcoming photoshoot is really stressing me out."

"Isn't it your own thing?"

"Yeah," she takes her fingers to massage her temples, "but everyone keeps asking me to put together their pieces for them to make it look good and now everyone's coming to me at the same time and it's just so.. ugh!"

"They just want the best for the shoot," he pats her on the top of her head, "Miss Bae Haneul, the top student of the fashion dept."

"It's not always a good thing," she puffs her cheeks, "I can't even focus on my other classes anymore. I even have to worry about it at home since everyone keeps contacting me."

"What else do you expect?" he scoffs, "You earned your name, of course everyone wants you to make their work look good. You're pretty much like a head of the student body in your department at this rate. I bet that photographer guy you were with wants you featured in his page of that magazine or something."

"Why would he want to feature me?" she asks, but suddenly becomes into the topic, "But someone had to have told him about me, right? How else would he know who I am? He keeps saying it's been a while, like I've met him before."

"Have you?"

"Not that I remember.." she murmurs, looking back into her brain for something to prove her wrong.

"Maybe he heard about who you are since everyone you go to class with practically knows who you are," he reasons.

"But what's the point of being friendly and all that for a feature in a magazine? The school's magazine at that."

"He probably didn't want to be obvious," Sehun tries, but laughs at his own excuse anyway.

"Too late," her chuckles collide with his, "but hey, if he can make my name look good for the school then let the man do his job. We can save the questioning after it's published."

"You do realize that that's only gonna bring more work on you, right?"

It took a minute to sink in, but when it did, she had thrown herself back on the floor with a palm to her forehead, "Ah!"

"Calm down," he places his hands on both of her shoulders, pulling her back up, "at least you're getting a good rep."

"I know, but I just need a break," she breathes, letting her posture drop to a slouch, "and you're not really helping with this crazy piece you're shoving on me."

"Hey, this is important on my call, okay?" he defends, "Be a good friend and support me!"

"You don't call this support?!"

"I love teasing you," he grins with your punch that never affected him even after so many tries, "Do you need a ride home? It's already past nine."

Haneul's steamy expression becomes a smile with innocent written all over it and starts batting her eyelashes at him, "If you don't mind~"

"Of course I don't mind," his tone sounds scripted, "See? Support. Because I'm such a great friend."

"Mhm," she hums, taking his hand and pulling herself up from the ground before heading out the doors, Sehun trailing behind her.

"Are you kidding? Now?!" Jongin could hear his teacher's angry voice echo through the halls as he conversed with someone just outside the door.

The reply wasn't so audible from where he sat, but it wasn't like he could care less about their argument. 

That was until his name was brought into the conversation.

"You take model shots, right?" the teacher peeks his head back into the room, pointing at him. He responds with a single nod and the next thing he knew, he was being called out of the room.

He gets a glimpse of the man his teacher had been talking to: he looked young and way too dressed up to be working here. But then again, he had already seen the people from the fashion department. Yep, he was probably from there.

"There's a photoshoot downtown today and one of their photographers bailed," he explains, "I'll spare you today's assignment if you can go."

"Um.." he hesitates, "I'm not exactly a professional."

"You pass if you know how a camera works," says the fabulous man.

"Fine."

And he was on his way.

Jongin was done. There was no way he could keep predicting anything anymore, because after these past two weeks, nothing had been going the way he thought they would be.

"So.." he starts while rushing down the campus with the man in the lead, "How exactly does this work again?"

"Simple," he throws an arm up but continues keeping up his pace, "a few of our students were chosen to dress up models for this designer's new line, blah, blah, blah, stuff you probably don't care about."

Uh huh.

"They each have a photographer to capture their work but one of them had to cancel and it's too late to hire another one now," he continues, "so as long as you can make the models look gorgeous, you have nothing to worry about."

He takes Jongin's silence as an understanding and continues their way to the building.

"Mr. Sun!" a girl calls, stopping the man in his tracks. He's a teacher?

"Did you hear from the photographer ye--" her tone sounded terrified, but all the shakiness in her voice disappears at the sight of what he had dragged into the building, "Jongin?"

"He hadn't paid any attention to her arrival until now, "Haneul?"

"Oh!" the supposed teacher clapped his hands together while his lips stretch to a smile, "You two know each other? Perfect!"

They both shoot him the same empty look.

"Haneul dear, meet your replacement photographer."

"What?!" she shrieks, but he had disappeared within the crowd at another girl calling him over.

"They got you?!"

Jongin's eyebrows up at her rather frustrated tone, "Good to see you too.."

"Everyone else gets a professional and I get a student? What is this?!" she grunts and stomps back into the room she came from. At this point, there wasn't really much he could do other than follow.

"That's a bit harsh," he starts, "I thought you said you liked my shots."

"I know. I do, I mean.." she sighs as her index finger and thumb massage the bridge of her nose, "I'm sorry, everything is just stressing me out way too much right now."

All he could do was stand still as she breathed out one more time before gathering all of her bags and heading out the door, "Let's just go, okay?"

He makes a small sound of agreement and takes after her out the building. He would have tried to save her the trouble by bringing the bags for her if she hadn't stormed off so damn fast.

The trip there wasn't long at all, maybe about half an hour or so, but it felt like two for him. It wasn't that he was sitting alone on the bus ride that made it feel that way, but more towards the fact that his mind was at it's loudest when no one else was around.

Questions and questions kept coming with every glance he took of her through the rear view mirror. There wasn't a moment through the whole ride where she looked normal.

I've never seen her this stressed out before, he repeats to himself, but thinking about it all, what has she been doing here that didn't surprise him? If only he hadn't feared bringing back what they had because the ongoing list of things he had been curious about seemed endless.

How am I going to do this?

"Jongin!"

"Huh? What?"

"what are you doing? Let's go!"

He hadn't even felt the vehicle stop. The whole process of preparation was going way too fast for him to even begin to explain what was happening at each moment.

"We're in here," Haneul signals to the third studio to the right where a crew of four members greeted them, along with the model whose face was currently in the works and about fifty different outfits that were just waiting to be put on.

"I'm gonna go take care of something with her," Haneul nudges him for his attention, "Go get ready with the cameras or whatever. Make sure you know what you're doing!"

"Yeah, yeah," he shoos her to her own business while he goes to his. At least her tone was getting a bit friendlier again, or else he wouldn't have been able to focus.

Basic things; he already knew how to do all this. Some other guy was in charge of the lighting and another one took care of the props and all that, all he had to do was tell them how to do their job. Nothing challenging.

The shoot really wasn't much of what he'd call "busy work"; not for his part anyway. Although, it looked like hell for the makeup artists and the stylist, who never stood in the same spot for more than five seconds. It took up the next two hours until they had gone through the whole line of clothing for their part, and the last outfit for the day had them all sighing in relief; especially Haneul.

He hears her murmur a "finally" under her breath as she neared him to watch the model at work, and he makes a noise to go along with the smirk that had come to his face.

"What?" She already know that was meant for her.

"I didn't say anything," he scoffs, then continues to snap pictures of every pose.

Just a couple more and.. "That's it!"

A few people in the room applaud, the model bows and another heavy sigh escapes Haneul's lips, this time with a smile.

"Let me see, let me see," she nudges him out of the way of the camera and starts flipping through the pictures for herself, "Woah, they look really good!"

Her whole expression lit up and now there was a gigantic grin across her face.

"You know," his brows furrow, "you are really really confusing."

"What?" her pitch was high.

"You're speaking to me now like we're friends," he explains, "when you sounded like you wanted to beat me with a bat this morning."

"Oh," a nervous giggle slips out, "I'm sorry, this shoot had been driving me insane for days and I'm just so glad it's done."

"Mood swings or are you really like this?" he teases and she rolls her eyes.

"You're just catching me at a bad time," she clarifies, "Let's start over. Hi! I'm the totally normal Bae Haneul!"

He couldn't help but laugh at the childish aura she had just released, why not play along?

"Hi, I'm the totally confused Kim Jongin."

"That's not how it works," she glares.

"Fine, fine," he caves, "I'll be normal too."

She returns to her sighs once more, "Ah, I'm finally free from all of this!"

"That happy about it, huh?" he jokes.

"Obvious?" she smiles.

"Enough to call for a little celebration?"

She gives him a look with an idea, but raises a brow just in case.

He shrugs his shoulders at her expression, "What? You don't want to hang out with me that bad?"

"It's not that," she coughs, "it's just.."

He waits; the longest seconds of his life spent once again wondering what was going on through her mind.

"Nevermind," she forces a grin, "a little celebration sounds great. It's my turn to treat you this time, right? Hmm.. then is ice cream good? I know a good place back home!"

"Are you sure?"

Don't push it, Jongin.

"Yup!" she chirps and pokes at his arm, "better take the offer while I'm being generous."

"Taken," he says, "just because you're being generous."

Beep, beep. 

A text message calls for her from her back pocket. 

From: Sehun     3:45PM

Hey friend, you forgot to take your iPod from my bag last night. Picking it up when you get back? Look, I'm such a good friend helping you :))

Her thumb hits the reply button.

To: Sehun     3:46PM

Alright, meet you back at the school in an hour, I'll text you~ 
And give it up LOL I'm already getting used to the piece, I can't drop it now so you're a lucky one hmph

Another couple of beeps call for her again a moment later.

From: Sehun     3:48PM

Good girl :D

"Everything alright?" 

"I just gotta pick something up when we get back," she nods, "It won't take long, I promise."

He gives her a straight okay and they were back to wrapping everything up to go back. 

Jongin had gone back to the bus first since his job was done. He spent a few minutes with earphones plugged in the same way he spent the hour on the way here. When the others started to board the vehicle, he adjusted himself for more comfort on his seat and prepared for spending the next hour in the same position.

He was almost at the point of being completely into the music when the cushion of the two-person seat sunk on his left.

"Yes?" he questions, tone sarcastic.

"You looked lonely before so I'm here to save you," she sticks her tongue out at him.

He pulls out an earphone and adjusts his seating again, "Out of pity or are you actually being a friend?"

"Why does everyone keep doubting my friendship?" she slumps back on the seat and throws her arms across her chest.

"Who's everyone?"

"My stupid friend," she pouts, "I know he's just kidding but it's kind of annoying sometimes. I can be a good friend, you know!"

His heart sinks. Yeah, I know..

"I'll take your word on that," he masks his emotion with a smile good enough for her to fall for. 

Haneul's words had gone when he shot her that smile. Oh, she definitely fell for it.

"You okay?" his hand was waving in front of her eyes now.

"Sorry, I.." she snaps herself back, "I-I just spaced out for a bit there."

"Is the stress still getting to you?" 

"Yeah, sure, let's go with that," she shies away, rushing to find another topic; any other topic to go with for the ride back. 

He brushes off her rather uncomfortable response and keeps up with the next topic she could come up from the top of her head. Anything to keep this conversation going, he says. He didn't want his mind to take over again.

"I'll be really quick," she points to the direction opposite of where he had parked, "do you want me to just look for your car?"

"No it's okay," he says, "If it won't be long then I'll just follow you so you won't have to get lost trying to look for me."

"How nice of you," she smiles and makes her way to the side of the building.

"There's a door back there?" he questions the unexplored area behind the fashion building.

"Yeah. It's where I always go out," she shares, "it's closer to my class and there's a parking lot back there where my friend usually picks me up."

Huh. Why hadn't he thought of that?

At the second corner turn, the smaller parking lot had become visible with only one car parked. And by the car stood a guy with a familiar build, and an attire more similar to his. It had gotten a bit weird not seeing overly dressed people today.

Must be the same guy from her studio, he voices in his head.

"Hey!" she greets him, almost running to where he stood the moment they turned.

"Hey," he greets her back with a usual smile for a casual hello, then his eyes come up to Jongin's presence. He keeps the smile and nods to acknowledge his being there, but his expression wasn't all too welcoming. He didn't look like the type to be openly friendly anyway. But he guessed he tried.

He pulls out the iPod from his bag, which she takes in her hands and shoves in her purse.

"Thanks," she hums, "Sorry, I totally forgot about it after being so tired yesterday. But I'm done! Finally!"

"No worries," his smile becomes warmer when his attention returns to her, "Now you can practice more with me, right?"

Even from the sight of the back of her head, Jongin could see her bright expression drop to a vicious glare.

"Yah, give me a break," she punches him, making him laugh like it always did, "I'm committed already, okay? Don't push it."

"Okay, okay," he pulls her in for a hug with one arm, "I'll stop."

She brings her arm to his waist to return the hug, then jumps back up to her feet, "Oh, right--"

Haneul spins to face her attention back to Jongin, "This is my friend, Sehun."

"Nice to meet you," his smile looked a lot warmer now as he looked back at him, and this time, with a hand out.

"You too." Automatically, Jongin's hand reaches out for the common handshake as the introduction went, "I'm Jongin."

Almost instantly, the bony hand he had been shaking turns into stone, and a moment flashes through Jongin's eyes wondering what had just happened to this guy. Sehun's improved expression upon meeting him cut right back to the cold aura he had on just minutes before, except now there was something.. threatening about it. Daggers. Daggers looking right at him, right into his eyes.

"Woah," Haneul spat, "are you okay?"

So he wasn't the only one who noticed.

"Y-yeah, I'm good," Sehun breaks the tension in the air, but not his stare. Jongin could only keep quiet, not knowing what could possibly say after that.

"You scared me for a second," Haneul exaggerates a breath, and finally his eyes turn to her.

"Are you done? Do you need a ride back?" he speeds through his words.

"Oh, no," Haneul starts, "we're going for some ice cream now, so I'm alright. But thanks."

"You're going with him?"

This left Jongin on the edge, as if he wasn't ready to fall over already. He was just a friend, right?

"Yeah, I kind of owe him a treat now," she laughs it off, "but I'll text you later or something, okay?"

She turns to head back the way they initially came from, and only reasonably, Jongin follows. But before he took that turn, his glance met with Sehun's once more. It was still there, the daggers.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

AHHH. This was a messy messy chapter but I needed something before I moved on, so this is what you get for now ;~; you can say that the only terribly significant part was the ending askjd I'm sorry I'm so bad at this /cries

I noticed I always update these late, because it's 2:20AM right now and here I am like the usual, half asleep. 

Anyways, I hope you guys had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's celebration and may 2013 be good to all of us! 8D ehmehmcomebackehm