Hah she’s not even that pretty

I thought Thunder would always date some innocent quiet girl but she’s so brash totally doesn’t seem like Thunder’s type! >_<

I don’t see why you’re all so worked up Thunder deserves love too…

Yeah but she’s just not right for him!

Hey I like her she stands up for herself!

They should have told us sooner.

She’s probably using him or something or she’ll mess up something for them even though she-

Not wanting to read the paragraph amount of text Sung-hee slammed her laptop shut, sighed, and then groaned loudly in frustration while pulling at her hair.  Nearly two weeks had passed since the announcement and rumors began to spread like wildfire some good but most of them not.  And while some netizens admired her for her frankness most found her unknown status suspicious.  There was only so much that Thunder could do especially with how busy and how far away promotions were taking him.  Sung-hee couldn’t be upset with that though she wanted him to focus on promotions more than anything.  Thus Delphine had become her confident and protector, especially after the loud Japanese girl found sasaeng fans snooping around Sung-hee’s apartment.

“I need more coffee.”  She moaned unhappily already knowing that her mug was empty and she was in no mood to drink the cheap coffee that she had sitting in the kitchen. 

“What you need is to get out of this apartment and face them.”  With a dark glare Sung-hee looked to Delphine and crossed her ankles before harshly bringing her legs down onto Delphine’s lap.  The Japanese girl rolled her eyes and shoved her off before taking a sip of her tea.  Sung-hee had invited her over to break in the new couch but all she was doing was trying to get her out of the house.  “Like Cheon doong said anyone that continues to act this way towards you isn’t a Soonja.” 

The idea of going outside her home was a little scary to Sung-hee.  Fans were dangerous and pissed off fans could be the death of a person, socially or literally.  Rubbing her temples she sighed and shifted on the new couch her fingers picking at the fabric.  “I don’t know.”

“Oh come on just go out there.”  Delphine was really starting to get annoyed by Sung-hee’s worrying.  She knew that Sung-hee could be just as in your face as she was and yet fans turned her into a nervous pile of goop.    

With that Sung-hee glared darkly at Delphine, placed her laptop on the table and shifted to rest on her knees on the couch and scooted closer to the other girl.  With unnecessary force she pointed to her forehead not actually touching the bit of skin and made the classic ‘see!’ face.  “And get another apple thrown at me?  I still have the bruise in case you haven’t noticed!”  The bruise wasn’t as bad as before but there was still a small bump that remained as a reminder of one of the few incidents Sung-hee had endured.  Now she refused to come out for anything besides food and work.

“Oh come on.  Those women are coming tomorrow to finalize the buy and us moving into their company you’re going to have to get out at some point.”

“Then I will come out tomorrow.”

“You are impossible.”

Watching Delphine grind her teeth in such an irritated manner and nearly pull her hair out finally brought a smile to Sung-hee’s lips.  One thing that Sung-hee loved about Delphine was that despite her loud demeanor she knew that in a weird way Delphine meant well even when she threatened her life.  Finally Sung-hee fell back into the couch again and sighed.  “I just want to avoid pissing off the fans as much as possible.  The boys’ time in Japan is really crucial and dealing with upset fans at the same time will be a .”  Delphine suddenly stood from the couch, placed her cup on the coffee table and moved the coffee table back and grabbed Sung-hee’s arm.  With a determined gruff she pulled Sung-hee’s arm and the girl in question fell off the couch with a small thud.

“What the hell!”  Sung-hee hissed trying to pry the girl’s vice like grip away from her arm unsuccessfully.

“You’re getting out of this apartment rather you want to or not!”  Delphine barked as she turned and started to drag Sung-hee to the door.  Her advancing suddenly stopped and she turned to find Sung-hee had her free hand gripping the couch.  “Yah!”  Delphine dropped her arm and Sung-hee started to scramble for the couch but Delphine picked up both her legs pulling against her grip on the couch.  “Let’s go!” 

“No!”

“We have to!”

“I said no!”

“Yes!”

“But I don’t want to!”

“Damn it Park we have to go shopping for dresses!”

In a moment all the struggles on Sung-hee’s part ended and she turned her head to Delphine her hands still clutching the couch.  “It’s that close?”  Sung-hee sounded curious, worried, annoyed and nervous as she looked at Delphine who surprisingly didn’t take the chance to yank her off the couch. 

“It’s a week and a half away.”

“Really?”  The shocked and scared look on her face matched her tone; it was amazing how much emotion could be expressed in one simple word.

Delphine stared down at her in amazement before dropping Sung-hee’s legs with a loud thud and ignored Sung-hee’s cries of protest.  Quickly she stepped out of the way as Sung-hee attempted to kick at her as revenge for dropping her legs so harshly.  Sung-hee mumbled something along the lines of ‘ that hurt’ but Delphine didn’t pay much attention.  Instead she shook her head and clicked her tongue twice.  “I can’t believe you.  Your one chance to get yourself acquainted with my uncle and you completely forget?”  Delphine’s uncle was an art collector and painter in Japan. While he wasn’t exactly known worldwide he did have some standing in the artistic community.  He was a very picky man though, only accepting the best in his circle and if Sung-hee could manage to introduce herself while he was in town for a charity ball she’d be that much closer to success. 

“Well can you blame me?”

“Oh hush you could have a migraine and swine flu that has you in bed for two weeks and you’d still remember to get out and go to a shoe sale you heard about a month ago.”  Delphine spoke with narrowed eyes, her arms crossed over her chest and with clear annoyance in her tone.  A blush covered Sung-hee’s face and a nervous chuckle parted her lips.  “You’re more of a shopper than I am.”  Delphine added, almost affectionately.   

“Window shopper,” Sung-hee quickly added, “You know darn well I can’t afford actual shopping half the time that’s all Mee-Yon who uses my brother’s money.”  She waved her hand on front of her face trying to dispel the image of an avid shopper.  Delphine however took the chance to grab her by the legs and pull her over so they were nose to nose.

“Regardless of what shopping it is, you have to come.  Without a good dress and shoes you’ll never make it past the guards, invitation or not.”  After several more smart remarks, chases and small arguments, all of which Delphine realized about halfway through was Sung-hee simply trying to annoy her, they finally made it to the mall. 

While Sung-hee spent half the time on the way there paranoid she finally relaxed as soon as reached the mall.  Though the one they had ventured to wasn’t the biggest in Seoul it would be more than sufficient for their needs.  Linking arms they ventured around the first level completely unsatisfied with each and every dress they looked at or tried on.  Either the price was too high, the fabric itchy, uncomfortable or cheap or they felt they looked too provocative in it.  Delphine had more than one outburst that she hated showing her legs even though Sung-hee complimented her for them over and over again. 

The second level didn’t provide much for them either.  They went through five more stores and finally had to stop on a bench to give their aching feet a rest.  Grumbling that it shouldn’t be this difficult Sung-hee sighed and rolled her ankle around trying to relieve some of the pressure to no avail.  Delphine instead had a map in her hand and was scanning the immediate area, determined to get a pair of dresses before lunch time.

“That’s it!”  Without waiting for a response Delphine grabbed Sung-hee’s arm and pulled her to down the walkway and towards a store off in the corner.  With a wide smile on her face she finally stopped in a store whose name Sung-hee wasn’t able to catch.  Finally Sung-hee yanked her arm from Delphine’s and pushed the girl lightly. 

“Stop dragging me everywhere before I drag you down the stairs by your ankles.”  She hissed her eyes narrowing and grabbed her shoulder rolling her arm around groaning a little as her shoulder popped and nearly she snapped at Delphine again when she just waved the slightly older girl off.  “Yah!  Are you even listening to me?”

Delphine seemed to completely ignore her as her eyes scanned over the store clearly on a mission of her own accord.  Stepping forward Delphine made a beeline for a rack of clothing with Sung-hee still hissing in her ear.  After a few minutes Delphine finally turned to her with an exasperated sigh.  “Yes I’m listening and you’re driving me crazy.  You should start looking this is the place where I bought that dress that I wore that one time.”

“With those shoes and that purse?”  Sung-hee titled her head to the side waiting for a response and Delphine didn’t speak, instead she nodded.  That was all Sung-hee needed to bolt in the other direction towards another rack of dresses and Delphine couldn’t help but be amazing that they could have such a vague conversation and they both knew exactly what the other was talking about.  Both of them felt like they were in one of those silly chick flicks where there was a montage of shopping set to overly cheerful pop music and sweet attendants to help.

Unfortunately this wasn’t some popular movie though they joked about it several times while trying on a few dresses.  Despite the many strange looks they got neither of them paid attention to it, though Sung-hee probably should have noted one girl carefully watching in the corner with narrowed eyes.  But Sung-hee was too focused on finding the perfect non-threatening yet still attractive dress.  After what seemed like another hour of looking, that in reality was only ten minutes, Sung-hee found a blue dress that fell to the floor and was held up by her right shoulder and just a little tight around her bust.  Delphine found an equally long dress white halter dress exposing her back. 

When they both stepped out and inspected each other they were instantly dissatisfied with what they saw.  But by this point Sung-hee had enough dress shopping, she was more of a shoe shopper and for god sake this was ridiculous.  With her brow knitted together she asked Delphine to spin around one more time and then snapped her fingers in realization.  “Switch with me.”  Delphine gave her the classic ‘what the hell are you talking about’ look and Sung-hee waved her off.  “I’m serious switch with me I like that one better and blue always looks good on you.”  Without another word the two of them slipped back into the dressing rooms and shed the dresses before tossing them over the walls into the other’s room. 

Again they stepped out much more satisfied with their appearances and avidly began to ramble about what they were going to do with each other’s hair once again ignoring all strange looks and dissatisfaction on others parts.  The sales clerk gave them sweet smiles placed their purchases in their bags and the three exchanged bows.  All the while Sung-hee couldn’t help but notice that she looked more pleased they were leaving than anything else. 

Shoe shopping wasn’t nearly as difficult.  They simply traveled to a store that Sung-hee frequented enough to know a few of the employees and exactly where the high heels were.  Fishing through each one to find a good pair was a bit difficult but that was to be expected when both of them had such awkward shoe sizes.  But eventually a pair was found for each and a pair of pictures taken by Delphine sure to go up onto her mini homepage. 

“Yah are you sure you can walk in those?”  Sung-hee wasn’t at all surprised by Delphine’s question; she had never seen the older girl in high heels much less four inch heels and Sung-hee had yet to walk in them.  But Sung-hee had an ace up her sleeve. 

She smiled at Delphine, walked over to her easily and slung an arm around her shoulder, “Yes I can.  I was in beauty pageants up until I was fifteen as per the request of my grandmother.  The only heels I can’t walk in are those one you see at fashion shows that no one should be able to walk in.”

“I swear sometimes you amaze me Park.”

A few giggles later, the two found themselves in the food court quite pleased with the outcome of their hour and a half adventure despite all the pain they felt in their legs and feet.  Delphine excitedly explained all the people that would be attending the event.  From fellow artists to businessmen, women and even a few of Delphine’s old class mates would be in attendance.  Though the later, Sung-hee wasn’t too terribly excited about meeting.  While she loved Delphine she wasn’t exactly keen on meeting her old colleges no matter how highly the other girl spoke of them.  Meeting new people had never been Sung-hee’s forte and she knew that wouldn’t change any time in the near future. 

But if it means getting closer to your goal…now that’s just flat out rude and you know it!  Oh pft like they really care or will notice it sheesh.  You’d be surprised.  Oh you’re just a worry wart getting on her uncle’s good side is the important thing.  No I want to- Her rather annoying train of thought ended abruptly with Delphine snapping her fingers right in front of her and barking her name somewhat loudly.  “Yah stop it I hear you I hear you.”  Sung-hee smacked her hand away narrowing her eyes in annoyance. 

“Oh really?  What did I just say?”

Sung-hee swallowed hard and gave a slightly nervous chuckle, “You said that um-oh wait I got a text.”  This surprisingly wasn’t a lie.  Pulling out her phone her smile stopped all questions from Delphine and she almost forgot her presence.  How are you doing?

I’m okay Delphine and I just finished up some shopping.  Sung-hee shifted happily in her seat and crossed her legs not even paying attention to Delphine as she glared at her.  The older girl knew that Delphine hated being ignored but when it came to Thunder she just couldn’t help herself.

For that party you have to go to?  Her smile grew as he showed once again that he remembered the important things in her life even though he was so incredibly busy, much more so than her.  Though she did remember most of the events he would be doing throughout each day.  Like how he had a fan meeting going on in about two hours. 

“Yah!  You punk pay attention!”

Yup ^^

“I’m serious Park or I’ll snatch that phone up.”

I wanna seeeee (:

“Sheesh do I have to tell Thunder not to text you when I’m with you?”  Delphine rolled her eyes in annoyance but Sung-hee still didn’t pay attention to her and continued to type away on her phone happily.  In actuality Delphine didn’t mind Thunder at all it was more accurate to say that Delphine was jealous Sung-hee had someone, especially someone like Thunder. 

Kekek I’ll send a picture when I get home okay? 

“Aish this girl totally ignores her best friend when the boyfriend comes around.”  Delphine slumped into her seat with her arms crossed and pouted at Sung-hee who finally looked up and stuck her tongue out at her.

“You can still carry a conversation if you wanted to.”

She snorted in response, “Oh bs you’re too into that boy to care about anything else.”

As Delphine rolled her eyes Sung-hee blushed and shook her head, “It’s just I never get to talk to him especially lately he’s been so busy.” 

Okay ^^ Is Delphine mad?

“Bah humbug.”

“What are you Scrooge now?”

“Yes.”  Sung-hee raised her brow at Delphine and gave a wry chuckle before pulling out her phone and responded quickly before the feistier girl would be able to make a comment on it.  Sung-hee knew that there was a deeper reason to Delphine’s annoyance but she knew better than to push the girl that confession would come with time.

Oh furious

Maybe I should let you go?

Noooo I don’t want to

“Oh vomit you’re one of those people that make faces while they type?”

“Oh go choke on a lollipop.”

But I don’t want her mad at me ):

She’ll be fine

Delphine didn’t answer for a while but finally smiled and gave a short laugh uncrossing her arms and relaxed in her chair again.  “You’ve learned well Park.  Next time say it with more feeling alright?”  Delphine grinned and winked at her earning an eye roll in response. 

You sure?

“Well I am learning from the best.”  Sung-hee smiled and snatched a bit of Delphine’s ice cream away with her finger, knowing that Delphine wouldn’t get annoyed by it and she had already finished her own ice cream just a few minutes ago.  Honestly the girl’s sweet tooth seemed to have no end to it.

“Maybe you should stop hm?  Innocent Thunder might not be able to keep up.”  Delphine wiggled her eyebrow suggestively at Sung-hee and she blushed while slapping at the air adverting her gaze from her erse friend.

Just as Sung-hee opened to respond a hand slammed on the table and the duo looked up to find a furious girl standing there.  The same girl from the store.  She was tall with short black hair and dark brown eyes a cute baby blue baby tee and skinny jeans.  Her face though suggested that she was a little younger than Sung-hee.  “I thought it was you.” 

Sung-hee raised her brow already annoyed by the girl’s voice and her interrupting the good mood she was now in.  “And who exactly am I?” 

The girl scoffed and came closer to Sung-hee’s face stopping just before their noses touched.  “You’re that that stole Thunder from us and your attitude right here just proves you don’t deserve him.”

Her eyes narrowed and she pocketed her phone for a moment as she glared at the fan.  “I’m sorry I have bad hearing can you say it again a little louder in this ear please?”  She turned her head to the side clearly giving the girl one more chance to revise what she said before Sung-hee unleashed her inner overprotective and pissed off girlfriend. 

“You don’t deserve him.”  The other girl hissed in her ear.

Slowly Sung-hee nodded and on her teeth slowly now more pissed off than ever with the girl daring to speak to someone older than her in such a manner.  “Yup that’s what I thought you said.”  Quickly she typed a response to Thunder a little too angry to go into detail about it at the moment.  Looks to me that your fan is more upset…  “But what I don’t understand is why you bothered to follow me around only to tell me something that so many girls have already told me.”  Sung-hee dared to move closer to the girl her eyes narrowed dangerously and she stood not quite meeting her height but looks were more important in this matter, and Sung-hee’s was killer.

The fan’s face turned a bright red and she stepped closer trying to tower over Sung-hee to no avail.  As Sung-hee’s phone went off she didn’t even look, instead she handed it to Delphine who had kept quiet not wanting to get in the middle of it and cause a bigger problem.  Delphine took the phone quickly though she wanted to tell the younger girl off more than anything.  Sung-ah can take care of herself she’s a big girl.  “Because I have the guts to come find you.” 

“Oh please you’re not the first.  What makes you so special?”  Sung-hee wasn’t sure where this sudden confidence to face the fans was coming from but she liked it.   Possibly from the playful banter she had with Delphine before or how upset she was her pleasant mood had been broken. 

Delphine on the other hand was trying rather hard to not pay attention and after getting over the slight awkwardness of holding Sung-hee’s phone she checked the message.  What?????  Dutifully Delphine stayed out of it and answered Thunder quickly and made sure to hold onto the phone in case he responded again.  She’ll text you in a minute.

“You stole oppa away from me!  I was going to audition next year we’d meet and fall in love and you ruin it!”  With each word her volume increased until Sung-hee felt her ears ring a bit.  Thankfully not many people were concerned with the pair, except a few boys hoping a cat fight would break out.  The insolence of the girl was enough to make Sung-hee want to do something but the second she laid a finger on her to shove her back that was the final straw. 

Brushing herself off Sung-hee pulled the girl down by her shirt and brought her to her eye level.  “One if the only reason that you would audition is to meet Cheon doong then you obviously don’t know what it means to be an idol and J. Tune would never accept you.  Two, I didn’t steal him he was never yours.  I love him and have no intention of letting him go because a few obsessed fangirls are pissy why don’t any of you get that?”  Sung-hee didn’t pay attention to the others around her who were now captured with the small show or Delphine as she stared at her as well.  Pushing the girl back a bit Sung-hee grabbed her bags and purse, her heel and walked away.  A few seconds later Delphine followed suit handing Sung-hee back her phone.  Still angry Sung-hee through a quick series of messages explained to Thunder what happened and that she had handled it. 

The entire walk and bus ride was silent.  Not awkwardly but Delphine wasn’t entirely sure how to calm Sung-hee down and Sung-hee wasn’t in the mood to pretend that she was in a better mood.  Conversation picked up a little as they got off the bus but sadly before any real progress could be made Delphine got a call to go to work in a few hours early.  After a quick good bye the two parted ways and Sung-hee was a little upset with the sudden departure and the fact she would be alone in her apartment without Thunder to text since he was now in practice. 

That was until she reached the lobby.  As soon as she stepped inside the revolving doors her bags nearly fell from her hands, her jaw dropped and a cold shiver ran up her spine.  Sitting on the couch was a man she’d recognize anywhere.  Sure he had aged quite a bit, lost most of his hair but his stance and aura was unmistakable.  Without a second thought she broke out into a run and repeatedly called for the elevator.  Just as she stepped inside he noticed her presence but couldn’t catch it before the doors closed.  She made sure to press a button a few levels above hers and slumped against the wall her heart racing and hands clammy.  What in the hell is he doing here?  Him out of all people?  And to come after I get a little spotlight?  I don’t like it. 

As she stepped out of the elevator she checked to make sure the coast was clear before making a mad dash for the stairs and practically jumped down them and ran to her apartment her entire body shaking with a mixture of rage, shock and sadness.  The second she was inside her apartment she slumped against the door and pulled out her phone.  “Oppa?  We have a problem,” she paused a lump stuck in and with great difficulty swallowed it before uttering the two words she dreaded.  “He’s back.”