RING~ RING~RING~

“Seven in the morning and when I finally am going to get some sleep, here comes a call…” Messing up her hair, Hyorin violently hugs her pillow and reluctantly sits up to answer the call. Without checking the ID, she presses the speak bottom.

“Yo~ How is my Jung-ah doing~? Did you miss your oppas?” A male cheerful voice come out from the phone. Hyorin can easily recognize the owner of this voice with just the first word he says.

“Do you want to hear the truth, Soryong oppa? No, I’m not missing you especially in this early morning. I’ll be officially missing you after 10, is that okay?” Hyorin makes her born husky voice, which is huskier contributed by her crying last night, as normal and mocking as possible to hear.

“Ouch! My sarcastic dongsaeng seems pretty awake to me. Anyway, Daeryong and I are playing basketball. He wants to ask you if you can roll through. You know, we haven’t seen for a while. He misses you a lot.” Soryong is cut off by another voice coming from back, saying “Yah! Don’t use me as your excuse. You were the one said you wanted to see her first!”

“You guys are still the same. Childish and noisy. But thanks. I think I can really use some retreat right now. Where are you?” Hyorin gets up from the mattress after giving her cat a kiss. She at this moment is very in need of some ridiculous jokes from some funny guys. The twins seem to be the best option.

‘Well, at least I find something better than looking down on myself to do…’

“Why is Kris late? We have been playing just two of us for what, an hour?! Where is he?” Daeryong is bored and tired of the game I-take-your-ball-and-you-take-it-back. Basketball game doesn’t work with two players.

“Come on. It’s not that you don’t know what a sleepy head he is. The fact that he is willing to come is a miracle itself.” Soryong leans against the pole, crossing his arms and looking at the entrance.

“Talking behind my back, huh? You guys should learn some manners.” The late boy wearing his player suit approaches the twins.

“Here you are! We have been waiting for you. You are going to buy us lunch as punishment.” Daeroyng gets up from the ground and takes the ball before throwing it toward Kris.

“I thought we agreed on making the loser pay.” Kris lifts the ball and spins it with his index finger.

“Well, how do you know that you won’t be the one?” Soryong takes the spinning globe from him and walks to the center of the court.

“I’ll go get our manager so we can start the game.” Daeryong is about to run until he hears some chatting getting near. “Oh! Jung-ah, annoyeong~”

‘Jung-ah? Who?’ Kris frowns at the unfamiliar name. But it doesn’t last long as he hears the unique voice. And he doesn’t even need to turn around.

“Hey. Long time no see, oppa. Kris?” Meeting their manager halfway, Hyorin enters the basketball court with him. That’s when she sees the tall figure turning on his heels and waving at her.

“Hi. Didn’t expect to see you here.” Kris tilts his head to the right, amused by the way Hyorin’s eyes widen.

“You know each other? Wow, what I have missed here?” Daeryong looks at Hyorin and Kris then back at Hyroin, being completely clueless just as his twin. Before the girl can answer anything, the man next to her cuts her off.

“I just met Hyorin at the entrance. Why do you always ask her for company in your basketball practice? She needs some leisure time too.” Although being their manager, he is like a close big nice brother to them. Nagging at them is one of the way they interact.

“Come on, hyung! It’s not that we can meet up whenever we want to~ Our leader of the hottest girl group is very hard to invite, okay? Besides, I’m pretty sure she enjoys watching us practice, too. Right, Hyojung?” Soryong greasily winks at the girl.

Hyorin can’t really stand the boys’ confidence. They never fail to make her roll her eyes in disbelief. “So confident as always, oppa. What about you let the game begin and let me enjoy it?”

Slowly she walks to sit down next to the pole of the basketball stand. Upon getting comfortable in her seat, a pair of brand sneakers walks in front of her. Lifting her chin up, Hyorin sees a view that she won’t be able to forget in a while.

Kris on purpose smiles at her while the sun ray shines behind his face, making his expression less clear. But still able to make the girl secretly gasp.

“So, what a coincident isn’t it? Are we destined or what?” Kris smirks as one corner of his lips lifts up.

Cleaning and readying her speeding heart, Hyorin wears an obviously fake smile. “The answer is what. As my information, you have a game to attend right now. Am I right? You won’t want to get the twins’ complain started, and believe me on that.”

“Well, I don’t doubt that. The two are the experts of complaining. But again, I can always beat them in basketball.” Kris shrugs his shoulders in pride.

Hyorin doesn’t even try to hide the ‘tch’ that comes out of . “Really? I doubt that though. They’re practically the perfect team, you know? It’s in their gene.”

“Maybe. But you haven’t seen me play.” Kris presses his lips into a thin line and messily puts the towel hangs on his shoulder on the ground next to Hyorin. Then he looks back at her. “Teamwork doesn’t count when there’s an outstanding one.”

Dropping that line and the girl’s chin, the giant boy goes back to his basketball crew who have been yelling and calling him to come.

For the next couple hours, Hyorin has been watching the four running and throwing the ball here and there. Sometimes she gasps at Kris’ skill when he successfully steals the ball from the other team, and sometimes she laughs at the twins’ clumsy as they trip each other while trying to catch the ball flying toward them. First time in a long time, she doesn’t worry about anything or have the thought of him passing through her mind.

‘And here I make myself think of him again… after what happened… Great, Kim Hyojung. Just great.’ The smile on her face now has gone. Within a second, her smile suddenly dies down and of course the certain someone sees that.

Closing her eyes, Hyorin forces the sad thought out of her mind with a sigh and resumes her watch of their game, just with a more motionless face now. She hugs her legs to her chest when the group decide to take a break and begin to walk to her.

“How was that? Oppa is amazing, right? My basketball skill is no joke!” Daeryong sits beside Hyorin with his legs crossed before gulps down his ice water.

“Yeah, oppa. So who is the winner?” Hyorin crooks her necks and looks at the four men who strangely but cutely sit all in a neat line next to her. Like they’re lining up for concert tickets or something.

“We never really count the points. We always say that we are going to make losers buy winners meal, but we never do. It’s like we don’t have the spare attention to pay on remembering the points. Just focusing on the game.” Soryong lifts up his fist and Hyorin can even see the fire burning in his eyes, even though he is single-eyelidded.

“Yeah! It’s all about having fun~” Daeryong wraps his arm across his brother’s shoulders and grips on his arm a little. “YAH! Get your sweaty hand off me! It’s so disgusting!”

As he gets out from his twin’s too-warm hug, Daeryong as well gets up and runs after his twin shouting “Come on, bro! Give your twin some hugs~”. Soryong is running at light speed, trying to shake off the weird one who keeps chasing him. “Get away from me!!!”

This entertaining sight is very enjoyable to the audience, especially to the girl. And the view of her laughing her heart out is more pleasing to the giant sitting next to her. The thought that he kind of likes her smile makes him smile, too. Then the next second he is completely confused. ‘Why do I feel happy when I see her happy? Well, people say happiness inflects so… It’s normal, I guess.’

“Yah! You two! We have to get you ready for the recording.” The manager shouts at the boys who are crazily chasing after each other. “Bye, Hyorin. And you too, Kris. I hope to see you again in next game. Guys, let’s go now!”

After the cheerful twins bid their goodbyes to Hyorin, Kris speaks first. “So…you cried. Why?” Kris can tell that the girl has cried because of the redness around her eyes that hasn’t fades, even though it is quiet invisible. Plus her sudden silence and missing of her smile are making the assumption only clearer. He can be a good observer if he wants to.

“Uh?? I didn’t. What are you talking about? Ha ha…” Hyorin can’t believe that he just see that. She thought that she did the pretending well. ‘How on earth does this guy know?’ She awkwardly laughs and turns her head to the opposite direction, avoiding Kris’ eyes.

“Maybe you can lie to the twins, but I'm not going to buy this. I’m not that stupid. I can see it from your face. Something must have happened. What is it?” Kris isn’t planning on giving up on this topic. He doesn’t know the reason but he knows that he is curious and wants an answer.

Hyorin feels a little offended when someone she doesn’t know for long can get to know what is going on with her with such an ease. She feels like an open book to him.

“Whether there is a thing happening or not, what does it have to do with you? Who are you to care? It’s not your business so just stand out of this and pretend that you didn’t see anything. Now shall we drop out of this topic?” Hyorin doesn’t find out that she has raised her voice until a couple seconds of silence passes. Suddenly she feels so embarrassed for taking out her anger on someone innocent. She is never the kind of person to do that for she herself hates the behavior the most.

Letting out a sigh after calming down herself, Hyorin frees her lower lip that she is biting and looks into Kris’ eyes. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what has gotten to me… I just… I’m-”

“No, it’s fine. Everyone has stress that doesn’t want to tell. I can understand that.” Kris simply shrugs his shoulders, reacting rather cool as a man who just got scolded for nothing. “But in return, I want you to play basketball with me. As an actual apology, you know.”

His request makes Hyorin widens her eyes and look at him shocked. “What? Me?! But I can’t… I don’t even know how to play!” Sure she can shoot, but it’s only when she is playing a basketball machine though. “I know nothing about the rules and how to dribble and-”

Fond of the way that Hyorin panics while requested to do something she is not good at, Kris interrupts her. “It’s okay. Just like Dae said: It’s all about having fun. You can’t expect you to be good at everything. In addition, I can teach you. From what you have seen, I believe that you can see I‘m a pretty good player.” Kris stands up from the ground and grabs the ball. “What do you say? Are you coming?” He hands out his hand and looks down at the girl who is still hesitating.

‘Why is he like this? Is this his true personality? How he treats people?’

“Fine. It’s game on then!” Hyorin smirks at him. The moment she stands up, instead of his hand, she takes the ball he is hugging in his arm away. Approaching the basket, she tries to throw the ball into the net. But from the male laughing voice afterwards, you can know that the girl fails.

“I guess I’ve got a lot to teach.” Kris smiles and shakes his head, running to help the girl get the ball back.

They keep playing for the next hour. Kris demonstrates and teaches Hyorin how to precisely shoot the ball and where on the backboard she should aim to do a bank shot. “Why does my ball always fall down on the halfway?” Hyorin asks while pouting disappointedly.

“You shouldn’t hold the ball like that. Put your right hand at the bottom of it.”

“Like this?”

“No, in the middle.”

“Here?”

“No. Here. Let me show you.” Kris walks behind Hyorin and puts his hands on hers.

The unexpected closeness makes Hyorin jump a little and without her knowing, her cheeks turn into light pink. “Wh-What are you doing?” “Teaching obviously. Concentrate. Now you should put your hand here, and the other slightly cups the ball and uses it to aim.” Kris says with his can-not-be-any-lower voice.

Hyorin rolls her eyes and looks to another direction for a second. When she turns back, she finds that Kris’ face is already right beside hers.

‘Well, fine. I understand that you are much much taller than me and you have to bend down to match my view height. But do you have to be so close?!’

“Now use your right arm’s strength. Lift the ball in front of your forehead. Imagine a parabola and throw the ball toward your target.” Kris speaks non-stop, staring intensely at the basket. “Ready? On three then throw it, okay?”

Hyorin obeys and nods. “One. Two. Three!”

With his hands covering hers, Hyorin jumps a little and shoots. She excitedly looks at the ball smoothly break through the net and make the noise of scoring.

“SCORE! Did you see that? It didn’t even touch the hoop!” Hyorin stumbles her feet like a child entering an entertainment park. “Kris!”

What she doesn’t know is that when she jumps up, the back of her head hits right on Kris’ nose. The pain makes the man hiss and fall down onto the ground.

“Oh My God! I-I’m so sorry. Are you okay?” Hyorin quickly rushes to Kris’ side and grabs on his arm, shaking it violently.

“I’m fine. I’m fine. Stop shaking me like that. You’re going to make me throw up.” Kris raises up his left hand to gesture that she really has to stop worrying about him.

Seeing the deep frown on Kris’ face, Hyorin can’t help letting out a ‘puff’. She quickly covers with the back of her right hand but it’s too late. “Are you laughing at me?” Kris looks at her red face, which her trying to hide her giggles leads to, unbelievably.

“He..Hahahaha! Haha!” Hyorin can no longer hold back her laughter. She begins to laugh her heart out and joins Kris on the ground. As unique as Hyorin’s famous laughing sound, Kris too starts to feel the corners of his lips inattentively being pulled up. “Seriously, what are you laughing about?”

“Then why are you smiling?”

“I’m not!”

“Yes, you are! I saw it!”

“No, I’m not.”

“Stop lying!”

“Stop laughing!”

Both of them just keep on talking back to each other. And of course so does their laughter. When the two feel tired of messing around, it suddenly starts to rain.

Hyorin gasps at the cold drip that stings on her skin. “It’s raining. Let’s leave.”

“Are you kidding me? One more thing that you should know about basketball: playing in the rain is more fun! Come on!” Kris stands up and waves his hand calling her to join him.

“Are you sure? What if we get a cold?” Hyorin watches him grab the ball and begin to dribble around.

‘Is he serious? Did I really hit him that hard?’

“Don’t worry about everything and just live once. Besides, it’s only drizzle.” Kris opens his palm to let the water land on it. “What? Are you afraid of losing?”

‘Oh, he did not just show me that smirk…’

“Fine!” Hyorin gets up and opens her arms, posing to defense. “No crying after losing, okay?”

Kris doesn’t expect her to really be simulated by him. ‘If she really wants to.’

The rain doesn’t stop and it even gets worse when they finally decide to leave. Luckily, the place is pretty remote so nobody sees them playing and, more importantly, how exhausted they look with their hair and cloth all soaked. They are in the condition that will ruin every fine image their companies have built for them as an idol.

And somehow miraculously, Sunggy’s face hasn’t appeared in Hyorin’s mind since she starts to battle with Kris. She doesn’t know that herself but Kris can see from her smiling face that she’s been really carefree and happy for the last couple hours.

“Not bad. I am being a pretty good teacher I think.” Hiding from the sudden heavy rainstorm in his car, Kris dries his hair with the towel in his right hand. He doesn’t realize until now that a girl’s hair is going to take a long time to be dried. Though Hyorin doesn’t seem to be worried about that, he puts the cloth on her head and begins to, as carefully as he can, squeeze the water out.

Feeling movement on her head, Hyorin open her tired eyes and looks up at the man who is drying her hair. Puzzled, she murmurs a quiet ‘thank you’ and awkwardly takes over the towel. “I think you’re right.”

“Hmm?” Kris leans back against his seat.

“It was fun, especially in the rain. I have never been so free in my whole life.” Hyorin puts down the towel and continues. “Never worry about other things and just … play. I’m really envious of you, you know? That you have such a secret retreat can make you forget about the annoying world.”

Kris nods in agreement. He knows that as an idol, having a shelter like this and being able to enjoy his own leisure time is beyond lucky. “Well, I think you don’t have to envy me anymore.”

This confuses Hyorin. She raises her eyebrow and turns to face Kris, giving him a better view of her what-are-you-talking-about look.

“You can come here if you want to. I don’t mind a little sharing of my secret retreat.” Kris plugs in the key and starts the car. “Plus, I doubt that if there is another place like this in Seoul anymore. A little time of driving and you can be an ordinary person again.”

“Really?” Hyorin’s eyes sparkle in excitement. “But will the twins agree? Isn’t this place their secret playground, too?”

“No, they only come here when I call them. If it wasn’t for their manager, they don’t even know the route to get here.” Kris shrugs and shakes his head. “I’m pretty surprised when I see you here, actually.”

“So I kind of barge in your secret place?” Hyorin timidly asks.

“Sort of.” Kris says it on purpose to make Hyorin feel a bit sorry. “But it’s fine. As long as you keep it as a secret.”

“Like you say, this place can make you forget. Come here if you want to forget about something.” Kris gives her a short glance then turns back to pulls the car out of the parking space.

“It’s a secret between us from now on then.”

“Yes, it is.”

A long~~~ update. Well I think it is for it takes me a long time to write it and finish it completely.

I think of splitting it into to two parts but end up giving up on that. It will be more complete this way I assume.

Sorry and I appreciate your waiting. Hope you enjoy it!

I might make Kris too mischievous but... who can resist a big boy like this?! Beside of his cold image, I have always liked his boy side more.^^

Hyorin finally has her own instagram!! She seriously is getting more and more beautiful~ Don't know if she will release her second sols album this year?

There are so many rumors about comebacks in 2015 and it's only getting started now~

Alright, I will end my nagging now. 

Lots of Love by, LinYooJung.