Krystal totally loved the classic theme for today’s photo shoot that it had her smiling at 6 in the morning. One look at the set that’s perfectly decorated with vintage stuffs, floral wallpapers, and their old school uniform and hairstyles had her falling in love. She has always been a er for the classic. So when they took their individual and group pictures, it did not come out as forced as they thought it would. They even enjoyed the mood of the set as bossa nova floated through the air, settling the staff and the group in a relaxed vibe. They did several costume change, which she did not mind at all because everything is prettily mixed and matched according to the theme, but she swooned for the last one.

She’s wearing an off white, long sleeved shirt with frills paired with cute bleached denim shorts. Her pink hair in a messy braid on the left side of her face and she swore she loved her coordinator so much. Bouncing towards her is the ever-radiant Sulli, who, as always, looked regal and innocent in a simple floral dress that showed off her milky thighs and arms paired with a vintage head band and a pair of big, oval earrings. If she’s only a boy, she would have her knees weak by the sight of her but she’s not and Sulli’s her bestfriend so shesmiled wistfully to herself. There are practically many reasons why Choi Sulli is the face of f(x)(even SM for some instances) and today’s one of them.

“Yah, Jongin’s here,”

Sulli informed her, surprise faintly visible in her tone but with a smile on her face nonetheless. She noted how Sulli comfortably called him by his real name but reminded herself that she’s childhood friends with him so nothing’s wrong.

“Really? What is he doing here?” Krystal asked nonchalantly.

“I don’t know. But he’s prepping up in the dressing room. Is he gonna be a part of the shoot?” Sulli’s question came out more for her than for Krystal to answer.

“I don’t know, you ask him.”

Krystal replied still and let her coordinator take her away for final retouch. The director of photography, Lee Seungeun, announced that the shoot will resume in 15 minutes and she doesn’t know why she felt nervous and fidgety all of a sudden. It was like her stomach will explode from all the fluttering activities inside and so she blamed Starbucks for this weird but warm feeling. It definitely has to be Starbucks.

----

“Okay, Sulli-ssi, Krystal-ssi, now we’ll have the main point of the shoot. As my assistant pointed out earlier, our theme is First Love and you two perfectly fit the bill,”

Seungeun stopped midway as he saw the scandalized look on Sulli’s face so he clarified,

“No, Sulli-ssi, you two will not act as lovers,” he gestured to the two of them and smiled when he saw Sulli’s face relax with a slight blush, “but will act as competitors for—” then he walked in with that bashful face and bowed to everyone in the room,

“his love,”

The photographer dreamily finished and smiled to himself, probably imagining how this shoot will go, considering his perfect models. So does Sulli, who’s now jovially punching Jongin in his arm. He bowed to Krystal and said a polite “hello,” and they exchanged greetings out of courtesy, albeit awkward. But neither of them can actually look each other in the eye—no. neither of them wanted to see each other’s eyes.Sulli and Jong—err, Kai’s interaction is the exact opposite to theirs; stiff and awkward and Sulli can only raise her brow at the two awkward tard but smiled knowingly to herself. Suddenly the studio felt very warm and stifling Krystal might need a gallon of water.

-----

By now, the weird feeling in her stomach intensified exponentially and Krystal just wanted to go home. The first poses were okay since the three of them just have to sit side by side or with the whole group. It was hard to keep a straight face, which is funny because she’s known to be very good at that expression, but she soldiered on because she’s a professional and they’re doing a professional shoot. It would be embarrassing if she called for a break just to slow down her heart beat and calm her spinning senses.

So she released a grateful sigh, which she’s been holding, when Seungeun specifically called for Sulli and Jong—Kai for their couple shoot. She immediately made her way to the dressing room but not before she heard the photographer instruct Sulli and Kai to hold hands. She felt a pang in the gut and blamed it to the stifling heat in her stupid, pretty long-sleeves. It has to be the stifling heat.

----

“Jongin and Sulli really, really looked good together.” Krystal heard Amber say in an exaggerated voice as the remaining f(x) members file inside their dressing room with sodas in their hands.

“Sulli looks good with anybody, always. Even if you put her next to a urinal she’ll still look amazing,” Luna supplied and earned a disgusted stare from Amber and Victoria. “What?”

“Park Sunyoung, why mention a urinal of all things?” Victoria asked before spitting out ice into the bin.

“Hey, it happened once before, in Vietnam when we were shooting for Koala. We were taking pictures and she saw a penguin statue beside the sidewalk and crouched in for a picture. Then Soojung noticed it was a trash can. She still looked cute beside a freakintrash can,” Luna smiled to herself from the memory.

“Yeah we know, but have you seen her pictures with Jongin? IfSulli’s not dating Taemin I would really assume they’re together.” Amber said and Krystal did not miss the way her eyes glinted towards her as she said those. “What do you think, Soojung-ssi?”

Amber is all over her in a second, hands outstretched towards her cradling a hairbrush as a faux microphone. Sometimes Amber can be so irresistible. To be stabbed. In the eyeballs.With a rusting ice pick. She continued to dream of ways in torturing the short-haired blonde in her head when Victoria, of all people chimed in. “Yeah, Soojung, they look good right?”

The three of them smirked to each other as if sharing an inside joke and Krystal just wanted to evaporate into thin air. She doesn’t know if being called to the set is a good thing because she can finally be away from these bullies or a bad thing since Sulli just entered the dressing room so it only means—

“Soojung, your couple shoot time.” Sulli winked and she mentally groaned. It definitely has to be a bad(good?) thing. She relaxed her facial muscles in front of the mirror before standing up to leave.

Krystal pretended not to hear as Sulli said, “It’s okay, Soojung, relax. We’ve always known about it anyway,” and immediately(nervously) went to the set.

----

He’s fanning himself when she got to the set. So she’s not the only one feeling … hot?

“Krystal-ssi, before we proceed with the shoot, I’d like to clarify some things which weren’t explained earlier.” Seungeun said and he gestured for the both of them to sit on the couch. The photographer raised a brow at them when they both sat a full feet away from each other.

“Sorry if this question’s a bit personal but, do you... are you two not in, uh, good terms with each other?” he leaned in closer to Kai and Soojung. Jongin flinched at the scrutiny but answered nonetheless.

“N-no,”

“We’re not,” Krystal managed to choke out. Even a small chuckle escaped her lips.

Even though the photographer looked like he bought nothing from their excuse, he proceeded with careful eyes, assessing the two idol’s body language. As a photographer, he must bring out the best emotion to be displayed and he’s not quite convinced with these two.

“Okay…” Seungeun slowly said. Disbelief very evident on his face.

Jongin felt the need to salvage the situation. Whatever happened, he’s still commissioned by his own company to be the male lead for his senior’s album and he can’t bring them down. So he threw away all his inhibitions and scoot closer to Soo—Krystal’s side. In his urgency, he almost knocked her with extra force but thankfully he’s got fast reflex and grabbed her waist in time to save her from falling off the floor. She cleared when he did not automatically release his grip from her waist and murmured a soft ‘sorry,’ before straightening again. He doesn’t know but his cheeks are now as red the button down he’s wearing.

“Okay.” The photographer seemed to be satisfied enough so he continued.

“You know the flow, right? Sulli-ssi met Kai-ssi first, they fell in love, she introduced you,” he pointed his camera to Jongin, who’s very focused, “to her,” he gestured to Krystal, “ but then surprise, surprise, you two fell in love instead!” He laughed to himself and awkwardly calmed down when he noticed the two not joining in his fantasies.

“So you see, Sulli is the innocent face here so her shots with Jongin are softer and more on the wholesome approach,” Wholesome? Krystal forbids herself to think any further. This is a time to be professional because her job called her to. But how can she when this is the last arrangement she’d rather have?

“And it’s not like I want to portray you as the boyfriend-snagging , sorry, but you just have the perfect face and your whole body language shouts y and sin and scarlet—wait, don’t get me wrong that’s actually a good thing here—so I need you to be one and act like you possess him, that you needneedneed him and that you can live without Sulli but you can’t live without him!”

He ended his speech panting, with intense emotions in his eyes and Krystal looked down to her shoelace. Jongin seemed to have heard it all as she observed him from her peripheral vision but made no move. God the guy talks a thousand words per second!

“Sorry, I was a bit carried away, ‘coz you know, this project is really amazing and you two are just perfect so, yeah. Hehe,” he apologetically smiled to the spit-covered teenage in front of him and motioned for them to stand up, “Enough blah blah, let’s start!”

As they were preparing, Amber, Victoria, Luna, and Sulli passed by the set and Amber shouted, “Just be natural, you two!” before being dragged away by a laughing Sulli.

Kai smiled and mentally thanked Amber for the bro support even though he doesn’t need it, not now when he’s found the courage to do what he’s always wanted to do. He smirked and looked for his pink-haired target.

----

Seungeun wanted them to sit side by side, psh that’s chicken, Krystal mentally pep talked herself. No one’s gonna suspect anything anyw—wait whut? She argued that he’s only being professional when he gently pushed her head to rest on his shoulders, carefully touching her cheeks in the process that sparked a thousand live wires in her veins.

It’s okay, he gently squeezed her hand, hoping in vain that his message will be relayed and smiled when she did. She snuggled closer to his shoulder and linked their arms together as if it’s the most natural thing to do.

“Good, very good!” the photographer exclaimed with glee as he took pictures after pictures.

Yep, he’s being a pro, Jung Soojung. Pro, pro, pro… nothing to worry about.

She willed herself to calm and followed his actions. Nothing will be unnecessarily spilled today if she just follow him.

Just be natural,

She remembered what Amber said and found herself finally relaxing to this when Kai buried his face on the top of her hair and felt his lips tug on what could she could only guess as a smile.

“This is just perfect guys! Go on, very good! Yep, like that, uh huh,” Seungeun’s very hyper now. Not minding one bit if he must drop on his knee or squat, anything just to capture such beautiful moments from two beautiful creatures.

“Just don’t mind me here. Act as if you’re the only people in this studio,” he instructed further and Kai is more than willing to comply. They were previously sitting on the couch, Krystal’s back on him when he grabbed her elbow and guided her into a standing position. It was the first time that day when their eyes met and when they did, Krystal finally let go of the reins. It’s not like they’re admitting to anything with their actions, right? They we’re only following what the photographer’s telling them to do. She smiled and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer.

Both Kai and Krystal did not hear what Seungeun said after that. It was all a blur of ‘wows,’ and ‘oohhh,’ and ‘perfects,’ and they don’t give a anymore.

All Ka—Jongin can feel is her arms perfectly wrapped around him and all Krys—Soojung can smell is him, with his signature scent she will eternally be attracted to. When Seungeun instructed to ignore everyone, they literally followed the advice since it wasn’t that hard to do so, considering that they’re each other’s favourite person.

Soojung tiptoed so she can snuggle closer to Jongin’s ear and whisper but the damn boy is still too tall for her that she only ended up until his neck. She accidentally breathed in Jongin’s sensitive neck that had him tightening his grip around her girlfriend’s waist. She yelped in surprise and they both laughed. Soojung buried her face in the crook of Jongin’s neck when she remembered that they can’t laugh in the photos.

“Stupid,” Jongin whispered against her hair and she tightened her embrace. Suddenly, all those months of painful encounters in the company, in music shows, in the hallway, that’s only meant for courtesy’s sake is clawing up on the forefront of their relationship. All those moments where they have to pointedly ignore each other at all costs to avoid speculations, all those times when they can’t speak to each other, even stare at each other in fear that someone might tell in on them. She felt tears in her eyes so he snuggled closer to him.

“Hey, don’t cry.” He pushed her back a little to see her face. “Soojung, what’s the problem?” she saw worry in his eyes and she don’t want that. So she smiled through tears and said,

“I just miss you,” in her small voice. She’s just so adorable in his arms, eyes lined with tears, and he doesn’t think it’s impossible to fall just a little bit more than he already is.

“Soojung, I’m sorry,” he whispered so low because it’s only intended for her. “Sorry if you have to go through this, just to keep this relationship together. But just remember, I don’t and I won’t ever regret confessing to you,” she smiled because she felt the same way, “and I love you, Jung Soojung.”

They can only pray Seungeun didn’t hear the last part.

2541 word vomit of feels and I'm not even sorry. lol

let me know what you think through comments. please? thanks!