" Move in closer will you?! You guys are supposed to be doing a couple shoot!"

I stifled a laugh as the two people in the center of attention shuffled slowly closer to each other, embarrassed at the director's words. " Okay, that's it! A little closer! A little... there! Okay here we go!" They began to shift around and pose as the lights flashed around them. I watched quietly behind the photographer as he continued yelling orders at the people around him. He stared straight into the lens taking one picture after another.

After a short while of shooting photos and then checking the shots, I heard him sigh in content, " Alright, let's take a lunch break!" He got up and walked to the two models to discuss something which was drowned out by the sounds of the assistants running around and people talking in the background. The two people were nodding at his words and were talking to him as well. They bowed and the photographer smiled, giving them both a light tap on the shoulder. As he left, they turned to each other and began talking and laughing at each other.

" Hey you guys!" I called out.

They turned to look at me. " WOOYOUNG!!" The man called out running to me. He suddenly grabbed my waist and pulled me up into a hug and twirled me around. " YAH, JAEBUM! I'm not a doll or something! PUT. ME. DOWN!"

He dropped me onto the ground. " Dude, where've you been?"

" Just around." I looked at the girl behind him and gave her a small smile. " Hi, Jessica." She waved back and smiled.

“ Jaebum! Can you come here for a second?”

He looked at the director and nodded. “ I’ll be back in a few.” We watched him as he walked off to the monitor.

" How are you?" she asked with a small smile. I turned to smile back at her. " Fine," I answered back, " just, been here and there." She nodded in acknowledgement of my situation.

" What about you?" I asked her curiously.

Her face immediately beamed with pride. " I've been going to a few modeling gigs, and some photo shoots too! It was coincidence that I ended up here today with Jay."

Jessica was, in shorter terms, a " perfectionist". She loved the camera, either that, or the camera loved her. As a teen, she knew she wanted to get into the business, and after numerous auditions, she finally got in. She was all for the challenge of modeling, and would devote most of her time to it. " Don't give up until you reach the top," that was her motto. Her determination, however, had gotten her a bad rep. among the other models.

She sat quietly on the stairs of the office building; she was still clad in a long wedding dress from her photoshoot; her head was resting on the railing. The ruffles of the dress panned out at the bottom of the stairs, and her hair was down in loose curls. It made her look… well, it made her look stunning. But I knew that under all of the clothing and beauty, was a girl who was falling apart at the seams.

“ Jess?”

She looked up, shocked to see that I was there. “ Oh. Oh, god.” She mumbled, rubbing her eyes. She had been crying; tears ran silently down her cheeks.

She moved the dress, giving me room to sit. “ What’s wrong?” I asked. She was looking down at the ground and looking at her hands.

She sighed. “ They’re back again..”

As soon as she said that, I knew what she meant. She had told me near her debut that many of the other female models would harass her constantly. She would be forced to switch companies in a fit to run away from all of the slander, just to get away from the nasty comments, but it would catch up to her in a matter of months.

She hated it.

“... What are you going to do?”

 “ To be honest, I don’t know anymore. It’s getting pretty bad.”

“ Why are you even keeping up with this?”

She gave me a small smile. “ It’s all part of the job. If I want to be successful, I’m going to have to get through this.”

I scaled her up and down to see her condition. Unexpectedly, something had caught my eye. Her arms were dabbed lightly with faint purple and red marks. I pulled her arm up and rubbed at the mark as she stared at me wide-eyed. The make-up covering it eventually vanished to reveal dark purple bruises, along with red lines going up her forearm.

“ Jessica, what the hell’s going on?”

She looked up at me. Red marks were on her face as well, but they were covered up by the make-up as well. I cupped her chin, turning her face to take a closer look. It scaled her cheek bones, and wrapped around her neck. I let go. “ Jessica...”

“ I just thought... I thought I could deal with it.” She turned away from me, “ It’s nothing, Wooyoung.”

“ This is nothing?! Hell, this is abuse! You’re getting hurt, and I’m not going to tolerate this!” I yelled, grabbing her hand to get her up.

“ Wooyoung,no. Wooyoung, listen to me. You have your own problems to deal with already. You don’t have to worry about mine.”

That stopped me cold. I looked back at her. “ Taeyeon told me before that she was planning to take a trip, but I didn’t know she was going to leave for so long. And I especially didn’t know that she wasn’t planning to tell you.”

It already had been about 8 months since she left. There had been no word from her, and I missed her dearly. I shook my head, getting the thought out of my mind. “ This isn’t about me and Taeyeon. This is about you, and your welfare. You’re getting hurt out there!”

I pulled her hand again, but she kept fighting back. “ JESSICA!”

She stopped, frightened that I had raised my voice. I let go of her hand. “ I am not letting you do this to yourself. You are not going to get hurt just because of a stupid job, and there’s no way in hell I’m going to stand in the sidelines and let them hurt you. You are my friend, and I’m not going to let that pass. So for once, just listen to me, alright?”

I placed my hand out. She looked up at me, her eyes filled with hesitation.

“ Jess. Come on...” Reluctantly, she gave in and nodded, grabbing my hand for support to get up.

“ That’s it. Let’s go, okay?” She stumbled as she walked, and tripped. I looked at her and she gave me a small glance of embarrassment. I grabbed the bottom of the dress and lifted it up to her knees, shocked at what I saw. I realized that her feet and legs were blistered and bruised. Red marks and swollen bruises marked her slender legs.

With a sigh, I bent down lower to her level. “ Hold on.” She nodded silently, and her arms s around my neck. I grabbed under her knees and lifted her with a great swooping motion.

As we were about to reach the door to enter the building, Jessica quietly mumbled into my ear, “Are you sure this is going to work?”

I looked at her, trying to muster all the courage I had. “ It’s worth a try.” I gave her a reassuring smile, and into the building we went.

" Hey!" Jaebum popped in, draping his arm around Jessica's shoulder. " Stop trying to seduce my girl!"

She turned to look at him with a glare, " Your girl? Park Jaebum, we're not even dating!" she retorted while pulling his arm off her shoulders.

He turned to her, giving her a greasy smile, " But we will be." he added with an eyebrow wiggle.

That notion had earned him a playful push on his shoulder, “ I’d rather date Wooyoung than you, Jay.”

“Pft whatever, Jess. I know you want me.” Jaebum scoffed.

Park Jaebum was a huge flirt. That was it, he was a flirt. Everyone knew it, even Jessica. That’s why even if he was being completely serious, people would take it as a joke. He, however, would always hide his true colors around others. On the inside, he was a love-sick romantic who demanded attention.

He was big in the modeling industry alongside Jessica, in fact, that was how they had become friends in the first place. The only difference was he wasn’t really mistreated as a newbie. He had many friends, specifically girlfriends ( and I mean friends that happened to be girls), but among all of them, Jessica was the one who caught his attention the most.

He knew of what had happened to her, and would constantly go to her defense, as he was never really hated among most. He helped comfort her, meanwhile calming down the other party, till soon, she was accepted for who she was. Over the time he was helping her, he ended up developing feelings for her.

The funny thing though was that he decided not to confess his feelings to her.

“ I don’t want to tell her, Woo.” His voice piped up in the receiver of the phone. “ It would be awkward.”

“ Why not? It’s not a big deal, Jay.” I mumbled as I rubbed my eyes. I looked at the clock and in bright red colors, the numbers, “3:42” flashed repeatedly at me, blinding my droopy eyes.

“ Haven’t you heard?” he asked curiously.

“ What?”

I heard him sigh. “ When two people date, they may have all the feelings at first, and all of that romantic, lovey-dovey crap, but it can go away just as fast! I just don’t want to lose her and become strangers. She’s too important.”

“ Well, you might end up married. Have you thought of that?” I replied, yawning.

“ I don’t want to risk it.”

“How the hell are you going to know if you don’t try?” I asked, slightly irritated.

“... I don’t know.”

“ Exactly. Now, I’m going to hang up. Don’t call me.”

“Wait! But-”

Click.

I shut my eyes and pulled the blanket over my head. Suddenly, the phone vibrated. I ignored it for a while, but after hearing the constant ringing of the phone, I grabbed it off the bedside table and brought it into my view. To my surprise...

(13) Text Message from: Jay Park

“ AISH!” I yelled, and I threw my phone down onto the bed. “ I GIVE UP. PARK JAEBUM, YOU ARE HOPELESS!!” I yelled into my pillow.

" HOPELESS!!"

I stared at them as they playfully argued and nudged each other, smiling to myself. They were so close, as if they were brother and sister. It was slightly hard to believe that the midget had a slight infatuation with the short-haired brunette.

Suddenly, I felt something lightly hit my foot. I thought it was just me for a second, until I looked down. The sight of it scared me out of my wits; it was yet another one of her yellow envelopes, my name printed on it.

She was here.

She had to be, there was no denying it. I looked around, but to my own pure disappointment, I found nothing. There was no trace of her even being there.

I bent over to pick it up, and cradled it in my hands as if it was the most fragile thing on Earth.

I had to- no, I needed to see what was on that tape. “ Is something wrong?”

I looked up from the envelope to see that Jessica was staring me down curiously. “ Yeah, you alright? You look kind of sick.”

I shook my head. “ It’s nothing.” I faked a smile.

“ Good! I was going to show you my favorite restaurant, we’re all going there now. Do you want to come?” Jaebum replied happily.

“ Sure, I’ll wait for you guys here.”

“ Cool! Be back in a flash!” With that, Jaebum playfully skipped to one of the changing rooms and disappeared behind the curtain.

I looked over to see Jessica staring curiously at me. “ Something’s wrong, isn’t it?” I knew if I had said yes, I would’ve made her worry more. “ Nah, it’s nothing. Just go get changed so we can eat. I’m starving.”

“ Mmh, if you say so.”

I quietly sighed to myself as I watched her walk off to the changing rooms, relieved she didn’t figure it out.

Now, all I had left to do was hear what was on the god damned thing.

-Hours Later-

I sat quietly on the edge of my bed, staring blankly out the window.

It had been about an hour since I had gotten back, and I hadn’t even touched the envelope; it now laid limply on the edge of the mattress. Was there really any point in listening anymore?

I sighed, and ripped open the envelope.

Photographs.

Sometimes, I think it's just so plain ironic. The purpose of photos is to capture the moment, so we can relive it forever, but what if we revolted at the mere thought of it?

I wanted to burn every single photo I had. I wanted to erase everything. I felt sick to my stomach. Watching it burn in my mind, it gave me a sense of relief... but I just couldn't bring myself to do it.

Within the instant she had mentioned the photos, I glanced at the one perched on my bedside drawer. It was a picture of us, a black and grey photo of our anniversary. She smiled so innocently that it was hard to believe that she had all of those emotions bottled up inside her.

Why couldn't I see it?

Sigh. I told myself I would. I don't want to see my father smiling so happily knowing his body is now rotting in the ground. I don't want to see my mother who I know is filled with grief. I don't want to see your face staring back at me, tempting me to come back into your arms when I can't.

You always could, I'm still waiting, I thought to myself.

I just don't want to see the smiles of everyone when I know how they truly feel. I just don't. I don't want to see my face smiling up back at me as I flip through these pages filled with photos.

My smile was nothing but ordinary.

Oh, you couldn't be more wrong.

Now that i'm sitting here all alone in this room, I don't know what to do anymore. Maybe... I should just...

Click.

The tape had ended, with no indication of where to go next. I ruffled my hair in frustration. How could she just leave it at that?! With no other way of tracing, I was going to go nowhere.

" What am I going to do now?"

A/N: -GASP-! Dun dun dunnnn!! LOL. sorry if it seems abrupt but like I said this was going to be a slightly smaller fanfic than most, and plus it would last only through the summer ( which I broke cause I have school now). Also.. I'm running out of people to put in here T^T. I'm crying in shame at this awkwardness >__<. even so, the end is coming near, and I hope you'll like it :).