Chapter 5

Taemin strolled down the hall, humming a fine to himself. One hand held a small cup of coffee that came from the vending machine while the other fiddled with his phone. He didn't have much to do today but practice, but being young, he took the liberty in taking a "small" break. It wasn't like anyone watched them anymore now that they were veteran idols anyway. He sighed softly and clicked of his phone before lifting the floral print paper cup to his lips, sipping the warm liquid inside. These days he was beginning to feel quite bored. He didn't have many schedules to attend, no radio shows, no variety shows. Now that he was on hiatus, things had been relatively overly quiet just as he preferred. After drinking the liquid in his cup, he tossed it into the trash bin and turned the corner. A few feet away, he saw a familiar figure leaning over the railing, scanning over the papers in her hands. Recognizing who it was, he smiled a bit and quietly walked over. Taemin looked over her shoulder and glanced over the words before looking over at her.

"Why are you reading?" Her asked. She jumped violently, trying not to drop the papers and turns to him with wide eyes.

"God, what's wrong with you?" She asked holding the papers to her chest. "Don't sneak up on people like that!" Taemin laughed in amusement seeing her expression and nodded towards the papers in her hands.

"You still didn't answer my question." He said with a smug smile. Jin sighed and fixed the papers back into their correct order.

"It's just notes Mr. Choi took earlier. He wants me to look over them and write a summary." She explained. Taemin cocked a brow and took the papers from her hands.

"That's boring," he said flipping through the papers, "what's the use of that?" Jin shrugged and took the papers back from his hands.

"That's what I'm still trying to figure out." She answered. "And i dont need a nosy kid disturbing me." He frowned a but at her tease and clicked his tongue.

"Now that's no way to speak to someone you've just met." He said. "That leaves a very bad impression."

"And so does scaring someone and taking their things with out asking." She rebutted. Taemin glared a bit and huffed softly in defeat.

"Touché." He admitted grudgingly. Jin chuckled softly and eyed him skeptically.

"What are you doing here anyway?" She asked with a cocked brow. "Don't you have work or something?" He shook he head.

"No, I'm on break right now." He told her vaguely. "There isn't much for me to do."

"No work?" She asked curiously. "But there's always work here..." Taemin chuckled.

"Do you still not know who I am?" Jin gave him a blank stare.

"Am i supposed to know who you are?"

"Most people do." He said with a shrug. "I'm pretty well known around here."

"You must not be that popular if i don't know you." She said shifting her weight onto one foot.

"And what exactly make you so important?" He asked challengingly. "I mean, what does it mean if you know who I am?"

"I'm just saying." She said with a soft chuckle.

"Do you really not know who I am?" Jin shook her head.

"Not a clue." A bit disappointed he sighed.

"I'm Tae--"

"Yah, Taemin!" Jin look behind Taemin and saw two guys come from the same way Taemin had appeared from. "You need to come back now. Hyung said-- us this that girl you were talking about the other day?" Jin glanced between Taemin and the two strangers before bowing.

"Uh, hello. I'm Lee Jin, Mr. Choi's new intern." They bowed back at her and smiled.

"I'm Jonghyun and this is Minho. We're Taemin's hyungs." They explained. He nodded and held the papers again her body. She glanced down to her watch and sighed softly.

"I'm afraid i have to go now, alright? I have some things i have to do for Mr. Choi before he--" Her phone went off in her pocket. She pulled it out and pressed the green answer button an held it to her ear.

"Ms. Lee?"

"Yes Mr. Choi? Is there something you need?"

"I need you to come to my office now. I have things i need you to do right now." Jin nodded and gave them a curt smile as she waved at them signaling her departure. Turning, she quickly walked down the hall, her words fading as she disappeared around the corner.

"She's the one that works for Choi?" Minho asked cocking a brow. "She doesn't seem like she has skin tough enough for that."

"She looks too... Gentle." Jonghyun said wrinkling his nose. "Choi can be a heartless maniac sometimes. Does she know about him?" Taemin shrugged.

"I'm going to assume that she does." He said. "I mean... I hope she does." Jonghyun sighed and shook his head.

"I'll pray for her. I hear his last assistant quit the first month she was hired." Jonghyun pointed in the direction Jin had walked towards and gave a straight face. "I highly doubt someone like her will be able to handle someone as conceited and complicated Kim."

"Don't even get me started about the recording sessions." Minho said, thinking back to the countless hours he'd spent in that room. "Just recording with him can be a pain in the ."

"Aye, he isn't... That bad." Taemin said scratching his head. "He's alright after we record with him."

"Yeah, if you like crazy and cocky all at once." Minho said with a short scoff. Jonghyun chuckled and looked down at his watch.

"Come on," he said, "Jinki's probably going insane with only Kibum in there."

---

Jin sat in the recording room scanning over the stack music composition that her boss had left for her. He had a meeting to attend and he'd told her that he wasn't going to be back anytime soon. Instead, he'd left her with a pile of work that he wanted her to look over in case he'd made any errors. It was almost 2 hours ago since she'd started and she'd just finished a little less than half of the work that she was assigned. Jin sighed heavily and laid back onto the rolling chair, glancing up to the clock. 9:38 pm, it read. She groaned and rubbed her eyes, thinking about how much longer she'd be stuck here finishing up his work. Jin sighed and leaned back in the rolling chair, closing her eyes as she listened to the single ticking of the clock. She didn't know if her boss was just playing as a fool by piling up his work on her or if he actually had to do things like this daily. Finding the motivation again, she say up and removed the paper she'd just finished onto the pile of completed work. 

12:39 am and Jin was still at work. Her head laid back onto her chair as she dark hair slowly fell onto her face. The pen that for in between her fingers dangled as she they lie on the arm rests. She'd unintentionally fallen asleep in the recording room while she was working, eventually giving in to the Sand Man. The door opened and the person there stopped in his tracks when she realized who was in the room. Tentatively, he stepped in, closing the door behind him. He slowly and quietly made his wag in, careful not to make any noise, and pulled out the chair next to her. Jongin just sat there looking at her for a bit, taking her in. The years she had been gone, he found her face slowly disappearing from his memory. Her voice had faded into nothing and the one thing he did remember about her changed. Kai leaned back and sighed softly, placing his fist under his chin. If he could spend the rest of the night watching her, he would have. Just watching her would have been enough, even if it was only for a short amount of time. He wanted to take all of her in again, remember all that there was to remember about her, and learn the things he never got the chance to learn when he was with her. After they had parted a few years ago, he realized that even though he knew things about he, he never really was able to know everything there was about her. He didn't even know about her attempts or interests in studying abroad until a few weeks before she was about to go. He decision in not telling his was justified however given the way he treate