2018

Myungsoo stared at Jieun with a look full of love. He held her shaking hand in his and rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb. They were sitting in the Woollim company van as it took them to the location.

"D- Do you r- really think it's time?" asked Jieun. She squeezed Myungsoo's hand tighter. Myungsoo removed his hand from Jieun's tight grasp and wrapped his arm around her. He took her hand again with his other hand and pressed a kiss to her temple.

"We don't have to do this if you're not comfortable." Jieun turned her head to look up at Myungsoo.

"I want to. I'm just... scared."

"That's natural."

"Remember what happened last time?"

"That was five years ago, baby." Jieun nodded absentmindedly and stared out the tinted window at the flashing cameras and red carpet. "Who should step out first?"

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2013

After they both calmed down, Jieun and Myungsoo sat in the livingroom cuddling and catching up. Myungsoo telling Jieun about all the places he visited so far and Jieun telling him about her album.

"Ah! I have one for you." Jieun jumped up and rushed to her room coming back with a packaged album. She handed him the album and snuggled back into his side. Myungsoo scanned through the list of songs.

"Featuring, SHINee Jonghyun?" Jieun picked up her phone and found the song on her playlist.

"He wrote this, isn't it nice?"

"No no no."

"Are you singing A Pink?"

"Shush. Why didn't you get me to feature?"

"Well, the company got everyone else who featured. Jonghyun oppa-" Myungsoo cringed. "-showed me his song a while back and I really liked it so I asked if I could have it. After that he asked me if I wanted him to feature and I said 'yes.' Plus, what would happen if you featured on my album? That would be pretty suspicious."

"And Jonghyun sshi featuring on your album isn't?"

"I've been seen talking to Jonghyun o-"

"Call him Jonghyun 'sshi.'" Jieun scoffed.

"I've been seen talking to Jonghyun sshi and people know I'm friends with him. With you, the only thing that I have done is the Elite photo shoots. Believe me, I would love for you to feature on my album. If we want this, we have to slowly reveal to the public that we're friends."

"Jieun ah."

"Hmm?"

"I want to reveal our relationship." Myungsoo could feel Jieun tense. He pressed his lips against the side her of head and sighed. "We never talked about this before, I know. It's just I've been thinking a lot about this since my tour started. At first I wondered why so many other idols have problems with keeping their relationship a secret. But being away from you for so long... I feel like people around you don't know that you're available so everyone wants you." Myungsoo smiled softly when Jieun snorted. "See? You have no idea how attractive you are to the rest of South Korea. Your humility is very charming."

"Oppa-"

"Call me 'baby.'" Jieun covered her face and squealed with embarrassment after just thinking about calling him that. Myungsoo chuckled and squished her closer to him. "You call Jonghyun sshi, 'oppa,' so it's not special when you call me that anymore."

Jieun cleared . "... baby." Myungsoo bit back a grin and tried to not make a big deal about it. "Is this what you really want to do?"

Myungsoo nodded.

"I know it's not the time to reveal our relationship right now. So how about we wait until we're both where we want to be in our careers. Once our dream has been completely fulfilled, we reveal it?" Jieun thought about it for a second and nodded with an assuring smile.

"Okay. Let's do that. I want all your idol fan girls to know your mine and they can't have you," said Jieun with a pout. Myungsoo's face was hurting from smiling so much. "You better work hard to achieve your dreams, Kim Myungsoo."

"You too, Lee Jieun."

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2018

Myungsoo got out of the van first. He waited in front of the door for Jieun and offered his arm.

Cameras flashed as usual. No one thought anything of them arriving together. After their talk that night five years ago, they slowly started revealing their 'friendship' to the public. They would casually mention one another during interviews. During award shows they would sit next to each other and joke around. They eventually started getting offers to be on variety shows together.

Myungsoo would accidentally show affection to Jieun by hugging her or putting an arm on her shoulder. That got a lot of attention at first because Jieun usually looked awkward with skinship. When Myungsoo continued to do the skinship, everyone brushed it off as Myungsoo being his usual clingy self.

Fans had issues at first due to jealousy but they soon learned to just brush it off.

Myungsoo noticed Jieun calmed down from her nervousness.

"Jieun ah," Myungsoo muttered.

"Hmm?"

"I'm gonna do it."

"Don't tell me when." Jieun whined a bit and Myungsoo laughed.

"Okay." The two started walking down the carpet arm in arm when Myungsoo put his arm around Jieun, dipped her, and leaned in for a kiss.

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"In all my ten years of being in this industry, I have never been this flustered," Jieun told SHINee's Taemin backstage. The two were getting ready to perform. The award show organizers thought it would be a good idea for the two '93 liners to celebrate their tenth year since debut together with a special stage like they did during their fifth year.

Taemin looked down at his phone in shock.

"What? What? What are you looking at?" Jieun leaned towards him to get a good look.

"Yah, Lee Jieun. You're dead." Jieun punched Taemin's arm.

"Ohmy- They already posted it?!" Jieun shouted seeing a fan's video of Myungsoo kissing her on the red carpet.

Someone knocked on their waiting room.

"Come in!" called Taemin. Sungjong peaked his head in and grinned at them.

"Hey, guys." He got a seat and pulled it up to them. "So... Whutcha doin~?" Sungjong nudged Jieun.

"She's freaking out over what happened on the red carpet." said Taemin, replaying the video over and over again. Jieun's face was burried in her hands but careful not to smudge anything.

"Myungsoo hyung is giddy. It's pretty gross. I had to get away from him."

"Myungsoo hyung? Giddy?" asked Taemin, disbelieving.

"You do not want to see that." said Sungjong and Jieun at the same time.

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The MCs had Jieun standing in the front with them at the end of the award show. Myungsoo quickly scanned the crowd looking for his girlfriend and planning his next stunt.

Jieun felt a hand slip into hers. She could hear the idols behind her gasp and the fans scream louder.

"Seriously, Kim Myungsoo?" Jieun muttered. Myungsoo just grinned cheekily as he waved at the fans making sure to emphasize their connected hands by swinging it. Myungsoo pulled Jieun's hand so she would stand closer and whispered in her ear,

"You just had a stage with Taemin, I need to show that you're mine again." Jieun rolled her eyes and laughed. Myungsoo smiled, proud of himself. Jieun had to wipe that grin off his face so she turned to him and kissed him on the lips.

The idols behind them gasped once again.

"I'm so dead tomorrow," Jieun muttered.

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LOEN Press Release:

'Ms. IU does not tell us anything, she does what she wants. You will have better luck getting information from Woollim.'

Woollim Press Release:

'It is true that Infinite's L is dating IU. They have been dating for six years and decided to reveal it now. L has also asked us to reveal to the public that they are now engaged and are planning to be wedded in the summer of 2019. Please give them your support.'

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A/N: Uh... Pwahaha. I don't know. When writing, the spirit that is the cause of Woohyun's greasiness possesses me. During the rereading process, I always laugh at myself wondering ‘where the heck did all this fluff come from?’

Thank you so much to everyone that subscribed, commented, read, and voted for 'When in Doubt.' I hope everyone enjoyed reading this story as much as I did writing it.