The next morning, my eyes opened to a faded darkness. I furrowed my eyebrows, blinking furiously, but the darkness didn’t disappear. When the rest of my senses came back, I could feel a dampness spread from temple to temple. With a lift of my free hand—the other accompanied by Jongin’s—my fingers came in contact with a rough, lukewarm cloth. The feeling brought back memories of the night before.

After my headache had appeared, I had managed to gain enough strength to make it back to the reception and stop Jongin from getting too terribly drunk, for I definitely wasn’t well enough to go off and drive. Though disappointed that he had to leave, we wished the newlyweds well and went home. It was there that he made me sit on the couch with a cold cloth on my head, leaning against his torso, only covered by his undershirt, in hopes that cuddling would help. It didn’t work very well, but eventually it knocked both of us out.

Now, on top of my bad head, my neck was cramped too.

I removed the cloth from my forehead, rolling the fabric into a ball and tossing it to the side. I slightly lifted my head, catching a glimpse of Jongin, whose arm was wrapped firmly around me, ending with our intertwined fingers. We looked almost identical, the only things of our suits missing being the actual shirt, vest, blazer, and tie.

Still trying to wake up, I reached up and kissed his closed eyelids, making them flutter faintly before returning to their still state. That made me smile as I buried closer to his warm body. With all that had been happening lately, it was hard to remember how lucky I was. Do Kyungsoo, who was once just a loser, an outcast, someone with just school to rely on, suddenly had his life flipped completely around by Kim Jongin. And I didn’t regret a minute of it.

Within a few seconds, Jongin’s eyes opened for good, and a half smile graced his beautiful lips. “Good morning, baby,” he whispered, his voice raspy with sleep lingering. His free hand reached down to caress my cheek, making my cheeks turn hot. That made him chuckle. “Gets you every time.”

He leaned over to bring his lips against mine, our noses brushing before we connected, his fingers running through the hair at the back of my head. Jongin pulled away, quickly kissing me on the nose with a grin. “Do you feel better? You looked like hell last night,” he mumbled, his eyes focused completely on mine. His gaze was both concerned, and, surprisingly, the gaze he gave me every time after we did anything remotely romantic. In love.

I had been so distracted by him that I had almost forgotten about the deep throb in my head, but the thought was enough to bring it back. It was much more manageable, but it still hurt. “I’ll be fine.”

“Good.” Jongin pulled me closer for a hug before taking a glimpse at the clock. We had an hour to be at the SM building.

Just enough time.

My hair, still ridden with gel and hair spray, was beginning to fall. It was no unusual thing for Jongin’s hair to be styled as it was, so he let me have the shower while he ate and got dressed for practice. Our morning routine went as it usually did, and by the time I was slipping what used to be Jongin’s hat over my damp hair, Jongin was shutting off all the lights and we were walking out to the car.

As usual, he drove with one hand, the other mixed with my hand, his thumb running across the skin below my own. The headache was a little less worse, which was just a bit comforting, but the medicine I had forced down the night before hadn’t helped in the slightest.

My thoughts had been pretty blank up until we passed the same grocery store we had just days ago, the billboard still standing strong. The questions began racing through my head, but I calmed them enough to calmly ask one. “Hey, Jongin?”

His gaze didn’t change from the road. “What’s up, baby?”

“Do you think you have the better chance of debuting than I do? I mean, your group formation is something new, and Lee Sooman seems to give the three of you special treatment…” I tell myself to stop as I trail off, knowing that I could get very insensitive very quickly.

Jongin didn’t seem to know how to answer. Instead, he shrugged. “I don’t know. Our treatment really isn’t that different from yours. It all just depends on who they see would make a better profit from the audience. After all, this is just for money.”

That was true. The group’s only chance was if it racked in some good pay.

It was silent after that. I wasn’t really sure what to say anymore, so I didn’t speak. We held a comfortable silence, the only thing separating it from getting it awkward being the radio faintly playing music, and the heater blasting warm air into our faces. It was, after all, December 15^th. It was cold outside.

Our doors slammed shut, my hands finally in both of my pockets. Jongin walked close by, our shoulders touching over the thick jackets both of us had managed to put on. Jongin is a very affectionate boy, despite the shy attitude he usually held. It seems like, when I am around, he isn’t afraid to do a thing. It’s like I’m his boost of confidence, which seemingly boosted my own.

The doors to the SM building automatically opened with a swipe of our access cards, and once we had checked in with the secretary, Jongin and I made our way up the stairs to our assigned rooms. The lobby and halls were basically empty, so he took me to the end of mine and beginning of his before giving me his usual goodbye kiss.

“I’ll see you for lunch, alright?” he whispered, his face just inches from mine. “Do good for me. I want to hear that you danced harder than him,” he teased, his index finger barely touching the dancer necklace he had given me months ago. I never took it off, no matter the occasion. It was my little piece of him. Always.

I nodded. “I will.”

“We can do this, Kyungsoo. This business is ours.” He kissed me one last time as he walked—or should I say strutted—down the hall. I sighed in content and walked into my own, taking off my coat and leaving just a black v-neck on with my jeans.

The instructor wasn’t quite there, so that meant I wasn’t late. Great. The other four boys were crowded in the corner of the room, but they barely flinched when I came in. After all, they were used to my late habits. The only reason that I wasn’t quite as motivated to debut was the members. I had as equal a chance at Jongin did at this point, but I hated everyone but Kwangbae.

A listen on their conversation, though, had me intrigued.

“Did you guys see that billboard on Yun street?” Youngwon, my personal least favorite, brought up. The others nodded. I wasn’t participating in the talk, but I was listening for sure. He sighed once all the nods had come. “This is getting serious, guys. We have to step it up or else they’ll take our deserved spot.”

“s,” Jangsun muttered. “At least the girl is hot, though.”

I had to bite my tongue at that to make sure not a word was spoken. Not only did he just call my boyfriend an , but Youngwon had said that we deserved it more. In all honesty, we didn’t. We were just a mess.

“Hey, can you not say that?” Kwangbae whispered, who had noticed my uncomfort. “Kyungsoo’s… friends with one of the guys in Dynamic and he looks like he wants to punch you in the face.” Kwangbae knew all about my relationship with Jongin, but he was nice enough not to say “boyfriend” to them.

The other three, who barely remembered I was here, whipped around in surprise. Youngwon looked scared, Jongchul just looked downright awkward, and Jangsun snickered. “Friend of the enemy, eh?”

I didn’t say a word. I wouldn’t.

When he saw my silence, that seemed to make him angry, but he let it go, much to my gratefulness. As if right on cue, the dance instructor burst through the door, setting his bag on the couch and setting up. Everyone scrambled to their feet as we greeted him, but he only grumbled in return.

Let the day begin.

~*~

That night, I had gone home first, so that left Jongin to walk. He usually stayed back a couple hours a day to practice, but today he was a little early. Instead of his sweat being manually dried by the cold wind, he looked perfectly fine, like he hadn’t done anything rigorous in months.

I had been curled up on the recliner, headphones over my ears and my laptop sitting on my thighs through a blanket. I saw the door open and shoes flying out of my peripheral vision, and I had slipped my headphones down my neck right before the door slammed due to the wind. Jongin let out a sigh of content. “Hey, baby.”

He stalked over and bent down, planting a kiss on my forehead before taking off his jacket and hanging it on the door. I watched silently as he let out a less than happy grunt when he rummaged through his drawstring that he took to work every day, pulling out a packet of papers and leaving the rest on the counter. As soon as he was situated, Jongin turned around and clapped his hands together. “So how was your day?”

“What are those papers?” I asked, my curiosity peaking, completely ignoring his generic question.

His fake smile fell. “I was hoping you wouldn’t ask.”

I rolled my eyes, his expression making me smile. “You can’t just pull out that packet in front of my face and expect me not to ask. Come on, what are they?” I asked, peeking around his head to get a glimpse of what it could be, my patience slowly running out.

Jongin seemed concerned. “Are you sure you want to know right now?”

Bewildered at what they could be, I nodded.

With a sigh of defeat, Jongin grabbed the papers and walked towards me, handing them and sitting on the arm of the couch. He looked regretful of his decision to pull them out now, but his tone immediately softened as soon as I took a look.

It was a form directed to Jongin. It didn’t seem to have a definite title, except that it involved SM—that much was obvious—and that Jongin needed to fill it out. I turned to look at him. “What is this?”

“It’s… it’s my contract.” He shrugged, looking extremely sorrowful. “They picked us, Kyungsoo. We got the news around five today. The others already signed, but I asked to take mine home to think about it…” he trailed off, the silence making the beating of my heart against my ribs that much more excruciating.

I couldn’t speak. My throat was dry.

Jongin’s going to be debuting.

And not… not me.

“I wanted to bring it home to talk about it with you. This is thirteen years, Kyungsoo. I can’t get out without a lawsuit…” He swallowed. “Are you sure you want me to do this? I can leave right now, if you want…”

I wasn’t exactly sure what to think. Should I be happy for his dream to come true? Sad because my own will not come true? Instead, I settled on what I knew both of us wanted. “Go on. Sign it.”

His eyebrows flew up. “Really?”

I nodded, knowing full well how much he wanted this. “It’s your dream. You’re finally living it. I’m happy for you. I love you, and I want you to be happy, so sign that paper and go make your fangirls scream over your hot body,” I teased, making both of us laugh.

After that subsided, he pulled me into a tight hug, and I rubbed his back with my palms. “Thank you, Kyungsoo. You’re the best. I love you.”

“Love you too.”

I watched as he ran to get a pen, filling out all of the information. I could tell he read it millions of times before he came home, because he breezed through every single question. When he finished, he put it in his drawstring and basically ran to me. I managed to get the laptop out of the way fast enough before he fully pounced on me, forcing his body weight on me and making the chair creak rather loudly.

“Jongin!” I gasped.

He laughed like a five year old, laying across me. “You’re going to break the recliner,” I scolded, but he didn’t seem to care at all.

“I’ll buy a new one with my idol money! I’m going to be rich!”

I laughed. “Slow down, horsey. You’re not there yet.”

He lifted his head a little, looking at me with a devious eyebrow raised, accompanied by a smug looking smirk. “Oh, so I’m a horse now? Does that mean you want to ride me?” he asked suggestively.

“ you,” I teased.

“You know you want to.”

“Oh my God, Jongin!” I gasped, annoyed with how erted he was being.

“Is exactly what you’ll be screaming while I you.”

That was it. “Go away!” I cried, pushing him off and making him laugh. “You go make dinner.”

“Do I get dessert afterwards?” he asked with another smirk.

“No.”

He frowned, but accepted his defeat and left to go to the kitchen. I put my laptop back over me, secretly watching his confused expression as he failed at cooking out of the corner of my eye with a grin on my face.

~*~

Hey, guys! Sorry if this update is kind of lame :/ (also excuse my inner ert making an appearance at the end lol) but everything major going on with the school year is done with so updates should be coming more often. :D

Thanks guys! Please comment and tell me what you think!