"A duet?" 

Seohyun looked a bit taken aback by KangTa's words.She averted her attention to Kris, who unlike her, hadn't seemed as surprised. His expression was the same as ever. His lips pursed into a thin sullen line, his eyes bearing no form of emotion whatsoever.

"Why are you so surprised Seohyun-ah?", KangTa raised a brow at the younger. "You've done countless of duets for the past few years now. If anything, I expected Kris-ah to be a bit taken aback", he let out a small smirk when he turned to look at Kris. "But then again, he's the same as ever"

"Why us?" Kris finally voiced. "As you said, my main position is of a rapper. I don't have the strongest vocals so why-"

"That's what you think", KangTa interrupted him. "Isn't that right Seohyun-ah?"

But he didn't wait for her to reply and continued. "It's one thing to have as you say, a 'strong voice' - however, in a duet it does not work that way. Your voices need to compliment and strengthen one another's. Not overpower each other's"

"And the reason why i'm telling you both this is because I heard you", he swivelled his pen around at Seohyun and Kris, and continued. "That night, when you sang here together. I'm correct aren't I? It was you two who sang, was it not?"

This time, both his juniors shot at him with surprise. "You were listening..?" Seohyun murmured, red in the face. KangTa nodded and stood. "It was coincidence really, since I was just passing by. I'll leave the song selection to the both of you. Something appropriate for this season. You've done this alot with Kyuhyun-ah haven't you Seohyun-ah? I'll leave it to you. Let me know by tomorrow"

Kris heaved a heavy sigh as their senior had left. "So those were what those vocal lessons were for", he thought silently. He peered over at Seohyun, who now faced the piano, thinking deeply of KangTa's words. "You"

She jumped a bit and looked up at Kris, who leaned against the piano and pressed the same key repeatedly for her attention. "Now what?"

She took a seat in the chair in front of her and contemplated. "I'll have to think about this a bit more... Do you have any recommendations?"

"Not really" 

An awkward silence shortly ensued their short-lived conversation, and both ended up drifting away from the task at hand. But Seohyun was now used to the stillness in the air, and felt it reminiscent of when they first met. 

She realized how much has changed since then. It seemed almost vague and impossible how he had called her 'sunbae-nim' at first, and how formally he had spoken to her. There was an obvious difference in his speech now, as he eased into informal speech, and how he always called her by the word "you".

"You...?" the word silently repeated over and over in her head, only realizing it now. 

"You!"

She stood high on her feet, finger pointing straight towards his face. He instinctively took a step back and looked at her in confusion. "So this is how it feels like", she chuckled in satisfaction and retracted her finger. 

"My name is Seohyun", she went closer to him, reiterating it clearly for him. "Seo-hyun"

"It's one thing that you speak informally to me, but how can you just refer to me as 'you' all the time when i'm your sunbae?" She enjoyed how bemused and cofnused he looked, the first time ever to see that kind of expression on his face. "Call me-"

"Seohyun" 

He glanced at her, this time her face a bit surprised. "Seohyun-ah", he called once more. 

She felt his faint Chinese accent play through her name, yet his deep, tender voice calling straight for her. She felt a bit jittery, unknowingly averting her gaze and turning a light shade of red. "No-no. Sunbae-nim. I'm your senior-"

"Seohyun sunbae-nim", he voiced obediently.

He watched her amusingly as her eyes darted back at him, clearly taking note of his little game. But even still, she couldn't help but shift.

"I'm tired", he suddenly yawned, and walked past her heading for the door. His tone reverted back to it's usual coldness, as if he had not enjoyed that little game with her just a second ago. 

"Wait! We need to think of a song at least! We don't know when we will be meeting KangTa subnae-nim", Seohyun's eyes were back to her furious glare, daring him not to leave. She definitely was not the type to be tardy on any given tasks. Even he knew that.

But he remained unfazed and just walked up to her. "Your phone"

She just stared at him, completely confused. His actions were always so unpredictable. Just a minute ago, he had been enjoyably picking on her, and now his face turned blank yet serious. She held out her phone for him, and watched him typing away.

"It's late. Go home", he said sternly. "Don't overwork yourself"

She noticed a small glint of sincerity in his eyes as he spoke, which remained firmly even as his eyelashes fluttered. She found herself nodding, and to that he left the room. She looked down at her phone, the contact list still open, and read her new contact.

"Kris"

---

The next day was a busy one. For Seohyun, she spent less time than usual for practice for her musical, and went straight for her other practice session early that afternoon. She checked her phone from time to time, but it was always clear and blank. She thought of Kris at that moment, and wondered if he thought of anything for their duet. 

Kris exited the studio from yet another photoshoot, and headed for his usual afternoon practice. Since they had been promoting actively for the past few days, practice hadn't taken that long for them. A week and a half was all it took for them to perfect their performances, so most of their spare time was used for endless, repetitive dance rehearsals. 

"Kris-ah", one of their managers stopped their practice and motioned to his phone. "You have a call"

Kris walked over and picked up his phone. "I didn't think of a song-"

"Kris-ah"

He paused when he realized who it was, now recognizing the unsaved number, which was also foreign. "Mom"

"Kris-ah, i'm sorry I can't make it to your concert. I received the ticket you sent me but something came up"

"Okay"

"I know you'll do-"

"Mom?"

Kris looked back at his phone, and noticed the call had ended. He called once more, but only succeeded in reaching a dead line. But his phone immediately vibrated once more, and he quickly answered it. "Mo-"

"Kris-sshi? My practice has just ended. I have a couple of songs in mind. Can we meet up to discuss it?"

"Oh yeah", Kris replied rather hazily. 

Seohyun stayed silent on the other end, suddenly letting the silence sink into their call. "Is something wrong?"

"No. Be there in ten minutes"

She stood there a couple of minutes, even as he ended the call. She decided to dismiss it, and got ready to collect her things to leave, heading straight to the SM building.