Resting my back on the wide wall in front of Studio Three, I prop up my left foot against it, the other one on the ground, supporting my weight. Raking my fingers through my freshly cut hair, I glimpse at my wrist watch: One Fifty Five.

      Five minutes to lunch time, and I had been waiting here for the past ten, tedious after having managed to sneak away from a rambling Seungri. We have been scheduling a series of recording session for the past week, leaving me no time to start with what I had originally planned to do.

      Talk to Dara.

      Nothing fancy, really.

      Just genuinely and legitimately nerve-wracking.

      I rub my palms together and bring it to my lips, biting down on them. Should I have gotten something with me? I think I should have at least gotten her a drink, it is her lunch break anyways. But then I wouldn’t have an excuse for-

      “Kwon Jiyong, right?”

      “Mothering-” I flinch and look up in surprise, my eyes widening when I see who it is. Hurriedly fixing my position, I cough and force out a chuckle. “Sandara. What a coincidence.”

      .

      She raises an eyebrow and shuts the door behind her, and only then do I notice the trainees bowing as they pass by me, awe and confusion on their faces. Stepping back further into the wall, I hide my constricting breaths behind a grimace-like smile and bow back to them, one after the other.

      It helps in hiding my overriding panic from currently scrutinizing instructor.

      “Seeing as you’ve been standing here for,” she looks down on her watch and smirks, “Nearly fifteen minutes, I wouldn’t call it a coincidence.”

      Rubbing the back of my neck, I straighten up and actually look at her. Her brown eyes reflecting the humour her lips were drawing, her cheeks rosy in contrast.

      She was dressed in simple black tights and a low cut beige top, showing off her glistening neck with a trace of a towel covering nothing.

      I gulp, feeling the blood rushing up to my ears and biting my lower lips. I shrug. “I’m not going to elaborate.”

      “So,” she folds her arms under her chest, unaware of the peaking skin underneath her clothes that makes my heart palpitate. “What brings you here?”

      “I wanted to apologize?” What the hell was that, Kwon?

      She raises her eyebrows and I just want the world to bury me alive. “Is that a question or a statement?”

      I take a deep breath and ruffle my hair. “Listen. I just want to say sorry about my abrupt behaviour at the ceremony. It was uncalled for. I’m not usually like that.”

      “That’s not what Yongbae Oppa said.” I grit my teeth – since when are they on ‘Oppa’ basis? Why wouldn’t he say anything to me, that bastard?

      “What did he say?”

      “That’s for me to know and for you not to,” She says, bending down to put her little hair into a tiny wet bun on top of her head. I avoid looking down at her and rub my temples, focusing at Yongbae to keep the blood from rushing more into my face.

      I don’t care if he’s in Singapore at the moment, but I will make sure I give him a piece of my mind later.

      “Is that all?” She picks up a big duffle bag from the ground that had gone unnoticed before, and I just notice she’s getting ready to leave. My eyes widen and I step in her way.

      She’s leaving already?

      So I say the first thing that comes to my mind and try my hardest best not to regret my habit of sprouting out my mind: “Let’s have lunch together.”

      She tilts her head to one side, her eyebrow raised once more. “You seem to have your questions and statements mixed up, Kwon Jiyong-ssi.”

      I scratch my head, coughing and clearing my thoughts. “Yongbae’s my only friend in the company, and he’s abroad. So, I didn’t want to have lunch alone or with anyone who gets on my nerves.”

      “So why me?” she struts towards me, her arms folded once more, “the last time I checked, you were so repulsed you disappeared for three days. It made headlines amongst the staff, you know.”

      I don’t back down and bend down to stare right into her eyes.

      “On the contrary,” my lips curve into a smile instead of the occasional smirk, “the list of people who don’t annoy me consists of four: My dog, my elder sister, Yongbae and you.”

      “A dog is not a human, in case you’ve forgotten.” She scoffs, bending her neck away from me. I take the hint, and not wanting to push the limits, I lift my face back up.

      “Well,” I shrug, “It is a living being. And, I’m sure you’ll agree with me on this one, is better than humans in many levels. It’s my number one on the list you see.”

      “Nice to know the other three are regarded less favourable than a dog.” She rolls her eyes, her grip on her bag falling. My heart beats against my chest so loudly, I’m surprised she can’t hear it. “Really flattering Kwon, thank you.”

      A plan forms in my head.

      “Life’s a ; sometimes you just have to take what it gives you with open arms and a wide smile with cherries on top.”

      I snatch the weight on her shoulders from her and sling it on my own, ignoring her loudly expressed complains and heading to the elevator. I hear her sneakers echo throughout the floor as she hurries after me. I shake my head to chase away the rowdy laugh at the back of my throat.

      Keep your cool, Jiyong. Girls like composed men.

      Wait. Do they? , I should stop listening to Seunghyun’s nonsense. He’s beginning to infect me with his disease, whatever that thing is.

      “Kwon, Stop!” And I do, but because I’ve reached the elevator, and turn to look at her as she stands next to me, her hands by her hips and panting as if she had just run a marathon. “So you’re just going to demand me into having lunch with you and then leave with my bag? Such a gentleman.”

      Her cheeks were flushed red behind her creamy complexion, and her bun losing its structure a little as it frails at the back of her head, a couple of locks loose from the tight hold.

      She looks kissable.

      Every single inch of her does.

      I my lips and bite the inside of my mouth, holding myself back from doing something stupid.

      “I know a secluded bathroom at the top where you can change.” I point at her duffle bag with me and my head at her. “Or do you intend to go out like this?”

      The doors open with a ding and I go inside, her following me right after.

      “What’s wrong with me going out like this?” She challenges me.

      I allow a chuckle to escape my lips. A small one. “You have a way with missing the whole point of any conversation, don’t you?”

      “You didn’t answer my question.” She ignores me and pouts in her own Dara way. Her lower lips out slightly more, her eyes softening like a child grounded on a Christmas morning and her cheeks puffed enough to make her sharp jaw rounded.

      “I personally don’t mind,” I gaze right into her eyes, her rounded one staring back at me in patience. “But you going out like that, is as good as you holding a flashing sign saying ‘Kiss me and hold me and have your wildest fantasies with me’.”

      She gasps. “I’m engaged to be married you know.”

      To Choi. I ing know. I strain the muscles in my jaw and fight the urge to roll my eyes. “Yet, you’re not wearing a ring.”

      It’s true.

      I’ve noticed it before.

      Her bare fingers.

      “Still, you can’t go around saying things like that.”

      “And you can’t go around wearing things like that.” Or I won’t be able to hold myself back from devouring you. We don’t break eye contact at first, and I see a faint blanket of red covering her cheeks. Anger, or embarrassment, I would never know, and I don’t get a chance to before she diverts her eyes onto her shoes.

      We fall into a silence of sorts. Not comfortable but not awkward either. Something was just there, lurking in the silence. Our breathing, our thoughts. The elevator doors open on the eleventh floor, a secluded maintenance block right bellow sajangnim’s main office.

      I don’t wait for her and immediately leave in the direction of the sole washroom in the entire building that is not hoarded my mindless teenagers. I don’t have to worry about her though, for she follows right after in silent steps.

      “Here it is,” I mention to a large white metallic door like the ones you see at a hospital and offer her the bag. “No one comes here often other than the cleaners, so feel free to be comfortable. I’ll be waiting outside.”

      She mumbles a thank you, grabs the duffle from my outstretched hand, and without a small glimpse of acknowledgment, she walks by me into the freshly sanitized washroom. When the door shuts behind her, I let out a breath I never knew I had taken in.

      It was going so well and I just had to mess it up. When don’t I mess things up?

      I ruffle the side of my head and kick the air under my left foot.

      Rot in hell, Kwon.

      Just rot in hell alone, will you?

      Half an hour passes, and with a second cigarette lit between my li