Her breath hitched as her eyes locked to his. He was looking at her differently now, none of the playfulness that usually was present was there. His brown eye’s seemed even more piercing to Jessica now and she couldn’t look away.

She felt his arms drop and landed on her waist. For a second, she was caught out of her trance but then one of his hands reached to her cheeks and cupped it, turning her face in his direction.

He started leaning in and Jessica was sure of what was about to happen but he stopped when their foreheads touched. He ran his thumb in circles on her cheeks and his touch left a feeling alien to her on her skin.

“Thanks,” he whispered after a few seconds. Jessica, whose eyes had closed unconsciously, opened them to see that Jiyong’s were also closed.

“Huh?”

“Thanks, for lifting my mood,” he responded, his eyes still closed.

She laughed quietly, “I didn’t even do much.”

He shook his head against hers, his hand still caressing he cheek. “You did a lot, and for that I wanted to say thanks.”

He started to move again and Jessica grew rigid. She wasn’t ready for whatever may be coming. She didn’t want to kiss him but she didn’t want him to let go of her either. Selfish, she knew but she was inexperienced in this field so she didn’t want to go to fast. She had only started to open up to Jiyong without thinking of what happened in the past so to Jessica it was going too fast.

Jiyong opened his eyes and smiled at Jessica, “It’s alright Jessica I won’t do anything you don’t want me to do.”

Caught off guard she looked up into his eyes and she knew he was sincere. That just made Jessica wanting Jiyong to kiss her. Or maybe it was the fact that he was still cupping her cheek. She didn’t know since she had never felt like this before. It was all foreign language to her.

“Thank you,” she said at last but didn’t let go of his hold yet. She looked to him and he was smiling again. It wasn’t a sad smile or a confidant smile but a smile that Jessica could only describe as sincere.

Before pulling away Jiyong came closer and placed a light kiss on her other cheek. He took his hand off Jessica’s cheek and she was already missing the feeling of it being there.

“Let’s get these measurements done?” he asked and she smiled up at him.

“Yeah,” she said and went back to measure his arm once again since she forgot the number.

~~~

A week had passed since the date and Jessica hadn’t had much time to be with Jiyong. She had to work on the project and Jiyong had modelling jobs left and right.

They sometimes saw each other during dinner or in the morning but that was it. Jessica spent the whole week at the company working on the outfit, practically living there. Jiyong had asked if he could come and help her out but she had refused. She wanted the clothes to be a surprise even if he had seen the sketches. She had made a few changes here and there so it wasn’t completely like how it was before.

Today was the day before the project was due and was going to make the final changes to the outfit. She had told Jiyong to wake up early since they both had to go to the company together.

“When can I see the outfit?” he asked during breakfast.

“Right after we eat breakfast,” Jessica answered and Jiyong started eating faster. She laughed at his actions which caused her to choke. She started to cough and Jiyong reached over to pat her back.

A few seconds later she stopped coughing and heard Jiyong laughing at her. She glared at him which made him only laugh harder.

She finished the last of her toast, grabbed her purse, and walked to the front door. Soon after, she heard Jiyong following her.

When they got to the company it wasn’t empty like the last time they had been there. In fact, every corner was taken up by people but Jessica led Jiyong around to an area that had a sheet of paper with Jessica’s name on it. Jiyong looked around and spotted more papers with names. His eyes landed on one of them and when he looked back up he saw the person smiling in their direction.

She started to walk closer and he tried not to groan since he wasn’t up for talking. “Hi,” he muttered.

“Hey!” Tiffany said and went to hug Jessica who was getting her stuff set up.

“Hi,” Jessica replied and when they let go she caught eyes with a familiar person. “Joongki? What’re you doing here?”

“Hey there gorgeous,” he said and stepped closer for a hug that Jessica wasn’t expecting. She went stiff and Joongki chuckled. “Just doing this to make him a bit jealous, you know?” he whispered.

She laughed and pulled away, “You still haven’t answered my question. What are you doing here?” She looked between Tiffany and Joongki while trying to not catch Jiyong’s eyes. She didn’t want to see how he was reacting to the hug.

“My original partner got sick a while back and so I needed to get a new one. There were no models left so I had to find a person for myself and I chose Joongki,” replied Tiffany.

“And you couldn’t have chosen a better one?” Jiyong muttered and it was pretty obvious that it wasn’t meant to be heard but everyone did. They looked at Jiyong then back to each other and shook their heads.

“Well, we better get going, gotta finish this project,” said Tiffany and Jessica nodded. “Good luck!”

“Thanks, good luck to you too!” Jessica exclaimed and turned to Jiyong. She shook her head again and giggled.

“What?” he asked and walked closer to her.

“Nothing,” she said and handed him some clothes. “Here, change into these.”

He looked down to the clothes and then around the room, “Where?”

“Oh yeah,” she looked around as well and then pointed to the corner of the room. It had dividers set up so it was closed off and made a perfect impromptu changing area. Since he was a model he didn’t really mind changing where he was but he didn’t think Jessica would appreciate that.

He came out a few minutes later wearing a plaid flannel shirt under a dark  racing green cardigan, a pair of blue jeans, a brown and green scarf, and a pair of ray-bans. Jessica studied him for a bit and thought that there was something missing from the outfit.

“Did you really make this whole outfit yourself?” he asked, breaking her out of her thoughts.

“Huh? Oh, no I didn’t. I found out you were only supposed to make whatever you could and then look through the library of clothes for more. I just fitted them to the right size.”

He nodded and Jessica went back to thinking what was missing. Then her face brightened up and she raced towards the far end of the room where Jiyong could see a bunch of clothing. She sifted through the clothes and came back holding something in her head.

She walked closer to Jiyong and lifted her hands. Then she took the dark green beanie that was in her hands and put it on Jiyong. When she was happy with the way it looked, she stepped back and smiled widely.

“Now it’s complete,” she said and then furrowed her brows again. She went up Jiyong and motioned for him to take his cardigan off. After doing so, she grabbed a few pins and turned him around. She pinned the back of the shirt to make it fit better.

After she was happy with how the shirt she told Jiyong to put the cardigan back on and fixed his scarf. Then she dragged him to the full body mirror located at the side of the room.

“Wow, Nice,” he marveled, nodding at the look. “I’ve never actually worn this colour before.”

“Yeah, I know. I wanted to try to make something that isn’t like what you already own but you own so many different things that it made it hard. So I resorted to thinking about the colours, I thought the green would contrast well with your light skin tone and the brown’s would give off a fall type look.”

Jiyong was amazed at how much detail she put into this project. “You’re going to make a wonderful designer, you know that?”

Jessica smiled, “Thanks, but I have a long way to go. I have to pass this evaluation first and then I can say I have a chance.”

“You’ll get in, that’s a definite.”

~~~

When Jiyong said that it was definite for Jessica getting accepted for the internship, she didn’t believe him, but maybe she should have.

Monday was the day they had to hand in their projects and Jessica was a nervous wreck. She really wanted that internship and hoped that what she created was good enough.

The plans of the day were the final twenty contestants would get their models for a runway and the judges would mark down their results as the models walked by. Jessica had never seen a runway show and she was looking forward to it and since Jiyong was going to be in it she was anticipating it even more.

They got led down to the room where the judging would take place and one by one the models started coming out. Some looked really good while others were a bit off and had something missing from their design. Joongki came out and Jessica instantly knew that Tiffany was going to make it through.

“He looks great,” Jessica whispered to Tiffany who grinned in return.

“Thanks.”

After a few other contestants it was finally Jiyong who came out. It was obvious he was a model because of the way he walked. Jessica had noticed that some of the people walking the runway weren’t actually models because of just the aura that they excluded; when models walked it was obvious that they were models. She didn’t know what it was but it there and Jiyong definitely had that aura.

As he was walking back he caught Jessica’s eyes and winked. Jessica couldn’t contain the blush that rose to her face and was further embarrassed when Tiffany noticed.

“Awww,” she cooed and started laughing afterwards. Jessica jabbed Tiffany with her elbows and glared at Tiffany but it didn’t work since she was smiling.

Soon the all the models had walked the runway and the judges started talking. The contestants were led back to the main room and they sat down. The models also reached them and everyone waited for the judges to come back.

Around twenty excruciating minutes later, the judges appeared and passed a note to Amanda, the representative.

“So I’ve just gotten the results of the ten people who made it to the internship. If you don’t make it this year that doesn’t mean to quit on your dreams, you got this far and if you try your best then you can try again next year. Don’t lose all hope.” Amanda tried to sound encouraging but it made Jessica that much more nervous. If she didn’t make it this year then she most likely wouldn’t come back next year. It was now or never.

Jiyong noticed Jessica’s anxiousness and grabbed onto her hand. Startled at the contact, she looked at Jiyong who smiled at her encouragingly.

“You’ll make it, don’t worry,” he assured. She nodded and tightened the hold on their hands.

“Now on to the contestants who made it: Hwang Tiffany…”

Jessica looked at Tiffany and grinned, “Congrats!” Tiffany looked at Jessica and was about to say thanks when Amanda called out Jessica’s name.

At first she thought she had heard wrong but when Jiyong whispered a congratulations into her ear, it clicked in. She turned to Jiyong who would’ve been sitting too close for comfort on normal days but today she didn’t care.

She even decided to close that gap and wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him. He was not expecting the hug but after a second he wrapped his hands around her while chuckling.

“Oh my God, I actually made it!” she exclaimed.

“Yeah, I did tell you that you would make it, right?”

She pulled away and grinned, “That you did.”

~~~

After Amanda had announced the winners and told them what the next step was, they had gone out to celebrate. Jiyong and Joongki still wore the clothes the girls had designed for them.

The clothes were actually meant to be returned but since Jiyong’s a Kwon and could potentially run the company one day they let him keep the clothes. He even requested that Joongki be able to keep his as well which made Jessica happy.

They had decided to go out for ice cream and invited Seunghyun and Yoona along. Tiffany had suggested going out for drinks but since Jiyong had given up drinking and Jessica doesn’t drink they decided against that. So, the alternative was ice cream because who doesn’t like ice cream?

They all arrived at the parlor and ordered their ice creams. When they all went to pay for their treats Jessica butted in and told them it was her treat.

“All of you guys have done so much for me in all your own ways and the least I could do after getting into this internship is to treat you all.”

They all tried to say that they would pay but she wasn’t having it and paid for everyone.

“I would’ve bought more if I knew you were paying,” Jiyong joked and got a smack on the arm in return. He turned to Tiffany and scowled while rubbing his arm. “What?” he whined. “This is exactly why I don’t hang out with you, you’re so violent.”

“It’s your fault; you do things that make me hit you. Do you ever see me hitting them?” she pointed at the others. “No, right? That’s because they don’t say stupid things.”

He turned away and sat down. Jessica slid in right next to him and shot him a smile which he returned a second later. The others sat down as well and dug into their ice creams.

“Can I try yours?” Joongki asked after a bit. All eyes turned to him and he looked around, trying to act confused by the reaction when he knew exactly why everyone was acting that way. “You can try mine as well.”

Showing that he was serious he took a spoon of ice cream at held it out to her. Just when Jessica was leaning forward Jiyong put the spoon into his mouth.

He sat back and nodded in approval, “Nice.” When nobody stopped staring at him he raised his hands and shrugged his shoulders, “What? I thought it was an open invitation since you didn’t mention who you wanted to have it.”

Then he waited a few seconds before saying, “Oh, you wanna try some of mine too? Here you go.” He grabbed a spoon of his own ice cream and held it out to Joongki.

Jiyong didn’t expect Joongki to actually take up the offer but a second later Joongki had eaten the ice cream.

“Hmm, tastes good but I still like mine better.” Joongki said.

A few seconds later Yoona burst out laughing and then everyone followed, filling the ice cream parlor with sounds of laughter.

~~~

Saturday, July 18, 2015

Heyy! Hope you liked the chapter :D Also thank you for your suggestions, I'm still thinking about the new story right now and I'm not sure when it's gonna come out because though it is the summer I'm still relatively busy and then it's my first year of