Chapter 4

All of his confusion, all his doubts about her and what he couldn't remember suddenly cleared. The moment her voice hit his ears, the moment she turned and he saw her face, the moment they caught eyes, when he saw her smile, the fuzzy, blurred memories of her cleared. He could hear her soothing laughter ring in his ears again, he could remember the odd little glint she had in her eyes and the way they sparkled under a certain light, how her smile could turn him into a romantic mess. My he only difference was her hair. Her long, dark, waist length hair had been cut off, framing her face delicately. It was short, cut just below her jaw, and was bounced slightly as she moved. But other than that, she was exactly the same as when she'd left 4 years ago.

"No." He thought. "She's even more beautiful now. More than i remembered her to be." He glanced around in that short moment of silence and saw that the puzzle was now clicking in the other's brains too. How they were able to make the connection and realize that this was the Jin they had all grown to care about, the Jin that stole his heart, the Jin that was coincidentally Kris' sister. They all stared at her as if they had seen a alien or something. They had looks of confusion, surprise, and some were still trying to comprehend what and who was in front of them. Before things could get too awkward, Suho cleared his throat and stood up, gesturing for the rest to follow his suit. 

"Hello Ms. Lee. It's nice to meet you." He glanced over to the rear d the boys who were now on their feet and nodded. 

"1,2,3, Hello, we are Exo. Please take care of us!" They chanted. Jin was taken aback by their sudden loudness and bit her cheek in order to prevent herself from laughing at their corny introduction. She smiled again and nodded.

"I will." She said softly. 

"Well," Jinhyuk said with a clap, "now that we've had our introductions, let's get to work, shall we?" 

The entire they were in the recording studio, the twelve had their mind on Jin, who was sitting next to her boss and assisting him with the controls. They sat quietly behind her and observed her every move silently, watching intently to make sure she actually was there. What they didn't understand was why Kris decided not to tell them she was here. Baekhyun, who sat beside Kris, elbowed his slightly in the ribs, grabbing his attention.

"Hyung, thanks for letting us that you sister was in Seoul. It would have been nice to get a heads up about this." He whispered. From his other side, Sehun leaned in and joined the conversation.

"Seriously though, hyung! You could have at least told us instead of surprising us like this!" 

"I knew she was here but I didn't know she'd be HERE!" Kris hissed back at them, his hands gesturing to the room they were in. "She said she was here for an interview for an internship at a university!  She didn't tell me anything else after that! How was I supposed to know she was going to be here?" Kris sighed and looked over to Jin who momentarily caught his eye. She sent him an apologetic look and turned back to her boss who had pointed something out to her. 

"No," he said through the speaker to Kyungsoo who sighed softly. "I need you to put more into it. You need to feel so desperately in love that you feel like you've overdosed on medication." From the other side, Kyungsoo nodded and placed the headphones back over his ears. The RnB tune came through the speakers again and Kyungsoo sang into the microphone with passion. Jin watched her old friend in awe with his deep, smooth, and soulful voice. When she was in high school, none of them told her that any of them could sing. They didn't even hint at it. She heard Kyungsoo sigh again when the music stopped. Jin looked over towards her boss an then to Kyungsoo who was still in the sound booth, trying not to show too much of his irritation.

"I thought i told you already." Taeho said into the mic. "You need to sound desperately in love. You sound like someone ready to leave their girlfriend for some girl you saw on the street. This album is going to sound like crap if you keep giving me crap." Jin cocked a brow at his rudeness and glance towards Kyungsoo who was looking down towards the ground. 

"I know." He said before looking up determindly. "Play it again." The music started yet again and she watched as Kyungsoo sang again with more power and feeling, but she noticed it was slightly off. She looked over to the extra copy of the lyrics and scanned them over with her eyes, comparing the lyrics to the bass of the song. Beside her, Jinhyuk sighed again and stopped the music. Kyungsoo took in a deep breath of irritation and opened his eyes with a slight and subtle glare. 

"It's still not enough." Taeho said. "You need to put more--"

"Feeling, i=I know, but I can't do that because I've never been in love like that before." he said with a sigh. 

"Well isn't that unfortunate for you." Jinhyuk said, clearly showing his sarcasm. "How am I supposed to--”

“Um, Mr. Choi.” Jin cut in with a soft voice. He looked over to her and sighed irritably. 

“What?” he asked. “What could you possibly want at his moment?” Jin cleared and looked his straight in the eye, not allowing him to intimidate her. 

“Well, I had an idea,” she started off. “Well, Kyungsoo… -shi has a very strong, deep singing voice. I think that he should bellow his notes a bit. And I don’t really think that they should sound like they’re in love. Maybe they should sound… mad or fierce. I don’t think sounding in love has anything to do with it…” her voice trailed off as his eyes stared, radiating disapproval. Her confidence in her judgment began to falter the longer she spoke to him. She had assumed that he was one of the types who was open to opinion, but apparently she had judged too early, as did he when he’d first met her. She cleared and diverted her attention as she shook her head. “Never mind.” she said meekly. “Ignore what I said. I didn’t know what I was talking abut.” Taeho pursed his lips and pressed the button for the mic.

“You hear that?” he asked Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo nodded. “Do what she says. Let’s see what happens after that.” Kyungsoo nodded again and cleared his throat as he waited for the music to start up again, singing with the frustration and irritation he had pented up inside. Jin glanced over to Jinhyuk again and watched as he nodded his head a bit to the music.  She rubbed her hands together nervously as she waited for him to say something, her heat beating rapidly in anxiousness. She didn’t know what would happen to be honest. She may have just screwed everything up for herself on her first day on the job. She could feel her palms growing warmer and somewhat clammy in nervousness to what he’d say. Maybe he was thinking about firing her. Maybe he’d already made up his mind in firing her. Her heart felt like it had dropped just thinking about that. It reminded her about the possibility in going back to New York and possible having to go back to school and study for another major, a major she no longer had money for. She was shaken out of her thoughts after she’d heard the music stop. She hesitantly looked up and saw Jinhyuk flipping though a manila folder and writing something down. 

“That sounded better than I had thought it would.” he said to Kyungsoo. “We’ll stick with that, but we’ll need to make a few tweaks here and there.” He let out a sighed and closed the manila folder, looking towards his nervous intern. “You, go out. I need to have a little conversation with you.” Jin closed her eyes and let out a silent sigh before rising from her seat. Her hands rubbed against each other as she walked out, keeping her eyes on her feet as she walked out past the 11 sitting there watching her. She mentally cursed herself as she waited outside for him. She paced back in forth nervously as she continued to rube her hands together, 

“Jin you idiot.” she cursed to herself. “Why do you have to be so dumb and open your mouth? Why couldn’t you just be quiet and let him do as he pleases?” She sighed again and leaned onto the wall and looked down at her feet again. From beside her, she heard the door open. She looked over and immediately straightened herself out seeing who had walked out. She held her hands in front of her a bowed as the person in front of her walked past her. 

“Why are you bowing?” the voice asked. She straightened her back and cleared , refusing to make direct eye contact with him.

“Because you’re a respected senior.” she said simply in a nervous voice. “This is what people do to people above them.” 

“Jin, you already know that you don’t have to do anything like that.” Jongin said as she looked on to her. He scanned over every noticeable feature on her now that she was up close to him. “You cut your hair.” he said as he watched her raise her hand. She the ends of her hair a bit and nodded. 

“Yeah,” she said shortly, “I needed something new.” Jongin hummed a bit and looked back as the door opened again. 

“I thought you had to use the bathroom.” Jinhyuk said to Jongin. 

“I wanted to greet your new intern.” Kai said with a shrug. “Just making some small talk since she’s going to be working with us on this.” Jinhyuk chuckled.

“Don’t worry about that Jongin.” he said. “Now hurry up and go. When you get back, we’re going to record the chorus.” Jongin glanced over to Jin, who still hung her head low, and nodded before turning back to where he had arrived from. Once Kai had left the hall, Jinhyuk turned back to Jin who was still waiting for