Filming has concluded and Ji Hyo is busy catching up on texts from her friends, sitting on the steps when a dark shadow blocks the blinding flood lights. She looks up with a scowl to find her muscled friend crouching down beside her.  

"Hey", he greets with a goofy smile. She watches the light glint off the gold "R" ring on his finger. He must be still giddy from their win.  

She debates whether which character to assume--Mong Ji from Running Man or Song Ji Hyo from reality. She decides to go with the former. She may be a moody at times, but she's not a total as to ruin his chippy mood.  

"Hello", she responds, still staring at her phone.  

"Hey", he asks again.  

There's a pregnant pause as Ji Hyo waits for him to continue.  

"Hey, are you listening?", he pries again.  

Impatient as always. Ji Hyo rolls her eyes before setting her phone down and glares at him. She gasps when she finds him sitting right beside her. He's definitely too close for comfort. She can count the wrinkles around his eyes and the beads of sweat along his hairline.  

"Now that I have your attention", he continues, "have you seen my bowtie? I think I left it at your place last time."  

Ji Hyo looks away and swallows hardly. Yes, Jong Kook. I did see your bowtie, and I wasn't the only one. She chews on her lip to prevent herself from exploding all over him with an angry rant of tears and guilt-tripping.  

"Yeah, it's at my place. Sorry, I forgot to tell you." The collar of her turtleneck suddenly feels maddeningly suffocating. She shrinks back into herself.  

"Awesome! Do you think I can come to pick it up today?"  

She blinks in shock. Her room is still in disarray. She hasn't had the energy to tidy up or wash away the evidence from her pillow cover. The actress hopes he can't see the fear flash in her eyes. "Can't I just bring it for filming tomorrow?"  

"You see", he begins, scratching the back of his neck, "I need to get it dry cleaned with my suit tomorrow morning. I was hoping to get it tonight so I won't have to make the extra trip."  

She an eyebrow at him, unable to comprehend his control freak ways. 

He takes her silence as reluctance. 

"My manager can drive us both to your apartment and drop of off there", he negotiates. 

His pleading eyes get to her and she reasons he's been nothing but good to her all this time. No need to shoot him down. 

"Ok, I'll just go up to my apartment and grab it for you, alright?" 

"Thanks so much!", he beams back, giving her a much too strong pat on her back that sends her flailing for balance. 

Ji Hyo sends a text to her unnie before walking towards Jong Kook's waiting van. Her friend is already sitting in the middle row, and he smiles brightly at her as she steps into the vehicle. Her eyes glance between the empty back row and the open seat beside Jong Kook in the middle. 

Oh, to hell with it. She's tired of overthinking things. She takes a seat beside Jong Kook, wanting to relive the old days when nothing came with strings attached. 

As the van hits the highway, the atmosphere falls into silence, save for the splatter of heavy raindrops. There's really nothing much Ji Hyo wants to discuss with him. She doesn't usually talk to him deeply anyway and with recent events, she's afraid of meeting a dialogue trigger that would open the floodgates to all her internal struggles. Instead, she busies herself with observing the world outside her seat window. 

Jong Kook takes a shy peek at Ji Hyo. The woman sat beside him! He feels the heat rush to his cheeks when he studies her features glancing out her window. He's grateful she's leaned far over to the window away from him, so she couldn't see his schoolboy reactions from her peripherals. 

He notices her thigh is a hand's span away from him. Her left hand grips her inner thigh as she sits contemplating. He watches as her hand slides up

and down her inner thigh as she sighs deeply and resitutates against the window. It's almost as if she's teasing him. 

Almost, but not quite, because the mood is anything but playful. Her brows are furrowed and her eyes look lost. And there's a perpetual faint frown against her lips. She hasn't spoken to him much since the initial greetings and light chatter about filming. She's so confusing and he hates that she feels like a stranger now. 

She's still so beautiful in all her sadness. "Ji Hyo...", her name slips from his lips before he even realizes. 

She jerks in surprise. "Hmm?", she turns away from the window and towards him. He swears he sees tears in her eyes. 

"How have you been doing?" 

"Fine", she responds without hesitance, still with her head down. 

Jong Kook catches eyes with her when she looks back up at him. They stare at each other in silence before he watches her lips move to utter words, but there is no sound. Then they stop and she's looking back at him again. 

"Are you okay, Ji Hyo?", he softly asks. 

He notices her eyes dart to his manager in the driver's seat. Jong Kook reaches towards a button between their seats, and a panel rises to the car ceiling to separate the two rows. 

Ji Hyo looks so small now that it's just the two of them in the enclosed space. 

"Yeah, I'm fine", she croaks out meekly. 

"Are you sure?" 

She nods immediately. 

Jong Kook may be a fool towards women, but he's not completely stupid. "You know you can tell me the truth, right? You trust me, right? You know I'd never do anything to hurt you. I'm your friend." 

She looks back at him. His words seemed to have touched her. He watches something flicker in her eyes for a few moments. His breath stills in suspense, trying to coax the words out of her. Those brief moments pass and her eyes return to its blackness. The hope is gone just as quickly as it came. 

"I'm doing fine." 

"Okay, if you say so." 

She doesn't respond. 

"You know I'm always here if you need anything", he says. He watches her shifting toward her window again without a word. He's losing her again.

They sit in an unsettled silence until reaching her apartment. He watches her look through her window at the surroundings before sprinting to the building lobby. It's only a few minutes before she is back in her lobby. He notices her glancing at the surroundings again before pushing open the door and rushing into his open car door to toss the bowtie into his lap. Breathless, she bids good night with a wave and dart back into the building without looking back. 

He finds her behavior very strange, but he knows better than to pry. Was she running from him or herself?

Ji Hyo comes late to the next day's filming. She hears the buzz surrounding the members and the entire crew as she walks in from afar.  

Despite the anger boiling within him, he can't forget the melancholy in her eyes. He wishes she would tell him what's wrong. He wishes she would give him a chance for once. He isn't asking for much. Just to be the shoulder to lean on. It's okay not to be invincible. There's beauty in the broken.