Haerin lifts an amused eyebrow at the sight of Kyungsoo on her doorstep, with Nara’s hand in his.  It was brief; Nara yanked her hand away the moment the door opened, but Haerin could still see the flush in her cheeks when she stomped inside and she could see the satisfied look on Kyungsoo’s face.

“Went well, huh?” Haerin chuckles.

Kyungsoo shrugs.  “Pretty well, considering Nara,” His eyes follow Nara’s back until it disappears behind her door.  “She told me about Jane.  And her past,”

“She did?”

“Yeah,”

“Well,” Haerin sets her hands on her hips.  “I mean—well, wow,” She sighs.  “She really did?”

“A bit,” Kyungsoo tilts his head.  “Just a bit,”

“Hm,” Haerin frowns.

“Anyways, I gotta go.  House’s empty,” Kyungsoo says, patting Haerin’s arm.  “Later,”

“Yeah, later,” 

 

The moment Kyungsoo disappears into the elevator, Haerin knocks at Nara’s door.  “Hey, you wanna talk to me about it?” She says.  No answer.  She comes in anyways.  Nara glowers at her from under her eyebrows and fiddles with her fingers.  

“My tongue slipped,” She mutters.

“Yeah,” Haerin crawls in under the covers beside her.  “Yeah, I heard,”

“He—he hugged me,”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,”

Haerin clutches at Nara’s hand and squeezes it reassuringly.  “Told you it’s gonna be alright,”

“That’s not even the half of it, Hae,” Nara frowns.  “What if I start telling him what actually happened and he starts to let go?”

“He’s not going to do that, Nara, trust me on this,” Haerin runs her thumb over her knuckles.  “He doesn’t do that.  He’s not that kind of person.  He means what he says,”

“I do, I do, I know he—I get it, but it just scares me,”

“It’s okay,” Haerin whispers.  “It’s going to be okay,”

 

In a matter of minutes, Haerin was the only person awake in the room.  She slips out quietly and checks on her brother before settling into bed herself.  Tomorrow’s the 10th.  It’s Nara’s job interview, and the agency is no joke.  She’s pretty worried about her, being in this state of mind and all.  Will she be able to come up with the right answers to impress the agency, tomorrow? She won’t be having eye bags because she’s getting enough sleep; that’s one good point.  But what if she messes up her interview because of what happened with Kyungsoo? Why does he have to ask Nara out the day before her freaking interview, anyways?  “Sleep, Haerin, sleep,” Haerin shakes her head with a groan and tucks herself under the covers. 

 

***

 

The blaring alarm shakes her awake and Haerin rushes to bathe and get dressed before waking up Nara.  Gently, as to not piss her off.

“Nara,” She gently shakes her shoulder.  “Nara, sweetheart, you gotta get up, you’ve got your job interview,”

With a quiet moan, Nara sits up with a sigh.  “Yeah,” She throws Haerin a weak smile.  “Let’s get this over with,”

“Hey,” Haerin chuckles.  “You’ve got snot and drool all over your face,”

“Ugh, shut up,” Nara swings her legs off of the bed.  

“You look like ,”

“Are you going to be an , in the morning, dear manager?” Nara glares at Haerin and Haerin cracks up.

“You don’t look very intimidating in printed pajamas and everything.  Go bathe, idiot, let’s get you all dressed up,”

 

In two hours, Nara is dressed up in a nice, navy blue cut-out dress, hair pulled up into a ponytail, with sparse make up on her face.  “Gotta look natural,” Haerin says.  The two walk out of the apartment building, taking the bus to the agency’s building.  “You nervous?” Haerin asks Nara, who hasn’t said a word since she got dressed up.

“What do you think?” Nara snaps.  “Yeah,” She softens immediately.  “Yeah, I am.  I’ve never been to one of these so I really, really don’t know what to do or say,”

“Don’t worry, just be yourself,” Haerin shrugs.  “I know everybody says that but it really is what you need to do.  No pressure, nothing to lose,” She smiles.

“Really? Do I just say anything like, anything?”

“Yup,”

“Even curse words?”

“You want to get hit on the head?”

“Sorry,” Nara grins.  

The bus hisses to a stop and they both hop off, calling the agency for the appointment.

“Yes, yes, we’re in front of the building.  7th floor? Sure, and I’m speaking to..? Mr. Hwang.  Understood, we’ll see you soon,” Haerin hangs up and gestures at Nara.  “You heard the man,”

“Be myself, right?” 

“You got that right, girl,”

 

Haerin waits outside the glass doors as Nara comes inside, siting in front of the man who calls himself Mr. Hwang.  

“So, hello, Nara-ssi,” He smiles at her.

“Hi,” Nara smiles back.

“Did you get a good night’s sleep?”

“To be honest, no,” She chuckles.  “But not because of this.  I’ve been worried about this since, I don’t know, this morning?”

Mr. Hwang laughs politely.  “Alright.  Do you have any experience, in modelling?”

“No, not really,”

“At all?”

“None,”

“Have you ever had part-time?”

Nara almost pauses at the question.  Relax.  Haerin had told her to go through this question smoothly.  “None, sir,”

“Really?”

“Yes, sir.  I’m already doing bad at school, so part-time is not something I can balance.  I’m hoping that with this job, I’d be able to fully concentrate and do my best in one thing and one thing only,”

“You’re doing bad at school?”

“Academically, yes,” Nara nods.  “Non-academically, no,”

“Which means..?”

“I excel at various sports and everything else, except music and academics,”

“I see.  What else are you good at?”

“Public speaking.  I won lots of debates, despite my academic scores.  And I’m also good at social networking.  I know a lot of people, here and there,”

“You’re clever, then, but not particularly smart,”

Nara chuckles.  “You may put it that way,”

“I like you,” Mr. Hwang smiles.  “Call your manager inside, and let’s have a talk,”

Nara grins.  She turns her head and meets Haerin’s eyes, gesturing for her to come in, sneaking a silent thumb up at her.

Haerin comes in and sits beside Nara.  “Is everything going well?”

“Very,” Mr. Hwang nods.  He fishes out a stack of paper from his drawer.  “Here’s our contract and I’m going to give you three days to read everything over before making a decision and returning it to us,”

Haerin dips her head in a polite bow.  “Understood,”

“And,” Mr. Hwang adds, sitting back.  “To be honest, my team really wants you in,” He points at the CCTV camera on top of them and the earpiece latched onto his left ear.  “They like you,”

Standing up to take their leave, Nara and Haerin bows deeply and beams at him.  “We’ll be sure to cherish the opportunity, sir,”

 

And with that, they leave the building, jumping in joy.

 

***

 

“I’m reading here, Jongin,” Haerin swats the younger boy away as he pesters her by table.

Nara is singing loudly to karaoke music and Yunjae is dancing beside her in sync.  The boys are also in the room—except for Kyungsoo because he’s got work—and they’re all either dancing or munching or drinking.  Because Haerin couldn’t tolerate alcohol, they decided to order chicken and soda instead.  

“Aw, come on, you can do that at home,” Jongin pokes her cheek repeatedly until Haerin has to swat him away again.

“Sehun-ah, get this thing away from me,” She calls out.

“Yes, ma’am,” Sehun comes over to pull Jongin away from her into the middle of the dancing crowd.

Haerin throws the protesting Jongin a wink and returns to reading the contract.  She’s glad that the boys are all happy for Nara and she’s glad that they’re so open towards her, despite everything she’s done.  And most of all, she’s glad that things are going well for Nara.  The contract is all good, and the director’s team likes her.  Fortune is finally shining down upon Nara and she thinks that Nara deserves it.  

 

“Hey maaanageeerr~” Nara tumbles down beside her with the mic in her hands, loudly singing into her ear.  “Why don’t you sing one song for us aaaalll~?

“No thank you,” Haerin holds back a smile.

“Pleeeaseee, oh pleeeaseee, manageeerr~” The whole room sings along and finally, Haerin laughs out loud.

“Oh, alright,” She grabs the mic and picks a song.  “Don’t complain if you don’t like it,”

Taeyang’s Ringa Linga blares loudly through the speakers and everybody cheers, singing along.  Haerin dances, arm in arm with everyone else, singing at the top of her lungs.  She’s got to tell Kyungsoo about this.  Nara’s face is practically shining in happiness.  Or maybe….

 

“Hey, Nara!” She calls over the music, grabbing her phone and pressing 3 on her keypad.

“What?!”

“Someone on the phone wants to talk to you!”

“Who?!”

Haerin hands the phone over and pushes her out the door.  “In silence,”

“Hello?” Nara puts the phone to her ear.

“Nara?”

Flinching, she tosses the phone as if it were hot iron only to catch it again and put it back to her ear.  “K-Kyungsoo?”

“Yeah, and why are you using Haerin’s phone to call me?”

“I-I didn’t, it was—“ Nara glares at Haerin through the karaoke room’s door.  Sighing loudly, she flares her nostrils, returning to the phone call.  “It was Haerin,”

“Oh,”

Silence.

“So..”

Silence.

“You’ve got anything to tell me?”

“Uh-huh,” Nara smiles all of a sudden.  “I do, I do, I do,”

Kyungsoo’s hearty chuckle comes across the line.  “What is it, love?”

“I’m signing a contract with CJ Ent. as a model,”

“Whoa! Congratulations!!”

“Yeah,” Nara chuckles along.  “Yeah, I’m just, really happy that I can, you know, start anew,”

“I’m really happy for you,” Kyungsoo answers.  “How was the interview?”

“The director and his team liked me,” She hums happily.  “They were watching through a camera and listening through an earpiece,”

“High-tech, much?”

“Exactly,” She laughs.  “I told them that I’m really bad at school subs and they’re okay with it.  Plus the fact that I’m quitting, too,”

“You’re quitting school?”

“Yeah, might as well quit,” Nara shrugs.

“Aw,”

“Why?”

“I have less time to see you,”

“Urgh,” Nara cringes, despite the skip of her heartbeat.  “That’s nice,”

“No, that’s bad,”

“That’s nice for me,”

“Oh, really? I can hear a lie even across the phone, you know,”

“Shut up,”

His laugh rumbles through the phone.  “I gotta go though, the staff has a seasonal meeting I have to attend,”

Nara slightly slumps.  “Mmkay,”

“I’ll be coming over to Haerin’s, so I’ll see you soon, don’t worry,”

“I did not ask for that,”

“You are, deep inside.  I know you are,”

“Stop it!”

Laughing, Kyungsoo says goodbye.  “You can hang up now,”

“….You hang up,”

“No, you hang up,”

“Why is it so hard for you to just hang up?”

“Now, now, love, the men have to wait,”

“Ugh,” Nara finally shuts the call and unconsciously had to bite her lower lip to stop herself from letting a grin spread on her face.

 

The moment she steps back into the room, it erupts in applause.  

“Whoo, girl!”

“Someone’s happy!”

“Somebody’s in looooove~!”

“Why aren’t you hanging up, aingg~”

Nara tosses Haerin’s phone back to her and glares at all of them.  “You little eavesdroppers.  Go to hell,” She gulps down her soda.  “Party’s over.  Now scram,” She shoo’s them all out, closing the door behind her.

 

“Hey, Haerin?” She turns to look at Haerin, who’s sitting beside her in the bus.  Haerin and Jongin—who’s taking the two of them home—turns to look at her.  “Just Haerin, please, privacy?” She flaps her hand dismissively at Jongin, who rests his head on Haerin’s shoulder grumpily.

“Yes, Nara?” Haerin chuckles.

Nara glances at the way their hands are intertwined, and notices the way Haerin’s thumb runs across Jongin’s knuckles.  How nice.  “I just really wanna thank you,” She drops her gaze and plays with her own fingers.  “Like, really, really thank you.  For hearing me out.  For not running away on me.  For staying there and for being by my side all this time.  For supporting me and cheering for me throughout all of the steps I’ve taken,” 

“Aww, hey, hey don’t cry,” Haerin reaches out for her hand and sets her head on Nara’s as she snuggles into her neck.  “Hey, it’s okay, I’m staying.  Don’t worry.  You’re welcome, Nara,”

 

“Thanks a lot, Hae, really,” Nara sniffs, gripping tightly at Haerin’s other hand.  “And you should stop being so cuddly with Jongin in front of me,” She scolds.

Chuckling, Haerin lets go of Jongin’s hand and touches Nara’s cheek gently.  “Sure.  You don’t have to be jealous, really, someone’s waiting for you at home, right?”