Using Ravi’s computer to edit the music video was probably one of the worst ideas I’ve ever had. For one thing, their office was essentially Leo’s bedroom, and despite being a pretty neat and tidy guy, it certainly showed. At first, he did his best to leave me alone, sitting on his favorite couch with headphones on. The most disruptive he got was when he would start to sing along, which I can’t say that I minded. But then the nosy newts started hanging around. Ravi had the reasonable excuse that it was his computer. I had never seen any of them use any of the expensive looking PCs, in fact.

Each of them found an excuse to sit in there with me, but I mostly ignored them as I worked, happily splicing together bits of footage or putting together the green screens with the CGI I had been sent. It was difficult to find a good balance between the dramatic storyline we had come up with and the actual performances. I sat back for just a split second to think, when a voice cut through the quiet.

“Are you done already?” it was Hyuk’s voice. I slowly turned around, my face contorted into the most dubious face I could make. It had been an hour.

When I turned around I saw that all of them, in face, had edged closer, trying to get a peek at my progress. Leo tried to play it off, his headphones still on, but he had migrated from his home-couch and was on one of the rolling chairs just like the rest of them. I couldn’t help but laugh, looking at the clock, “Are you guys serious? It’s been an hour.”

They all looked at each other quickly “This is the one thing we’re never involved in,” Hakyeon finally admitted after a long silence. “So we have no idea.”

I sighed a little, leaning back in the chair a little bit, running my hand through my still unfamiliarly smooth hair. I had been keeping it down for now since it was still so nice from the stylist. Looking at all of their curious faces, I shrugged, “Alright, well do you want to watch for a little while?” Of course, a little while turned into the whole day. They all crept closer, most of them in office chairs, all peeking over my shoulder as I cut and clipped footage together to create the video. I actually did the dance version first, since I had less options available to me.

At the end of the day, I had made some acceptable progress, but I wanted to keep working. “Mira,” Hakyeon said with a little yawn, “I think you should get some rest.”

I turned, catching his little smile, “You guys go sleep; I’m going to work a little while longer.” They all shuffled out and I swiveled back to my work. And then I remembered that this wasn’t simply an office, so I glanced over my shoulder to see Leo standing awkwardly by the couch, looking as if he were having a debate with himself. I spoke up, “I can leave-“

“I can go sleep with Ravi,” we spoke at the same time, but he stepped forward, “No, no, I’m not going to pull you from your work.” He moved to gather this things.

Tugging at my hair just as usual, I thought quickly, “We both can stay,” I blurted out, “If you don’t mind the light of the computer, we can both stay,” I said a bit slower this time.

He turned to look at me, clearly considering the idea, “Then,” he trailed off for a few seconds, “Can I still watch?” his dark hair flicked slightly as he nodded to the monitor.

“You’re not tired?” I asked as I sat back down into the chair.

“Of course I am,” he said simply, swinging one of the empty seats around before settling in it, “But so are you,” he pointed out as he rolled up next to me, his pale face suddenly illuminated by the light of my monitor.

I simply watched him silently for a moment, just watching him. “Alright then,” I conceded, looking back to the screen, “Well I have the very beginning done, I think,” I spoke as I scrolled through the introduction of the video, before the song even began.

“That turned out well,” he moved, pointing at the screen when the line of their heads on robot bodies showed up. I chuckled a little, moving on. The hard part started then. I wanted to feature their interactive choreography for the intro of the song itself, but also Leo’s singing. I didn’t want the video to have too many cuts, so I needed to find a balance. I nudged my headset so it fully covered my ears while I needed to hear the music properly. I got back into my little world, completely forgetting the world around me.

In order to make the video flow a little bit smoother, I created a sort of timeline for myself. A rough draft, if you will. I was reviewing all of the different footage to make a decision on what set I wanted for the end of Ravi’s rap and I ran into a clip I was sure I hadn’t seen before. It was Leo’s part, of course, in his ‘robot’ makeup, already green screened on to his fake body, and the camera had zoomed on his face just as he turned to face it, his left eye mostly covered by his swept hair. Despite that, his right eye caught the light and he stared directly into the lens, those pale circuit contacts in stark contrast to the usual coal black his eyes normally were. It lasted just a second, but it was mesmerizing. In my editing software I was able to endlessly replay it, noticing some new minute detail every time.

And then my knee hit the back of the desk, knocking me out of my stupor. I had been inching forward, apparently. I started to mutter to myself, when I made a very different realization. Very slowly I turned my head, horrified to find Taekwoon simply looking at not the monitor, but at me. “Did I make a mistake?” he asked me innocently, but his mouth was curled into a tiny, smug smile.

The room was mostly dark now that night had fallen, but the light from the monitor was enough to light both our faces as I narrowed my eyes slightly at him. “No,” I replied simply, searching his face for more information. He had caught me staring at him, if in a more indirect way, “I needed to make sure I didn’t mess up your makeup again,” I decided to try and cop myself out. His smile didn’t move, and I saw his dark eyes flicker between both of mine.

Finally, he retreated just a fraction of an inch, but it felt like a mile. He didn’t say a word, he just looked back to the monitor, clearly waiting for me to continue. I took a deep break, for a moment regretting not being more honest with him. But it was too late, so I pressed forward, making a concerted effort to spend just as much time on Ken’s close-up when it was his turn. All of them looked good, if I were being honest. Some of the outfit choices were questionable and it hurt my heart every time I added a clip of Ravi wearing that ‘hat’ but in general, I was happy with the aesthetic. I continued working in relative silence, only fielding questions from Leo every once in a long while.

At some point I was staring at the sliders for the various channels I was working with, and my vision began to blur. I blinked it away, sitting up in my chair to stretch. I glanced to Leo, who had fallen asleep, his head resting on his arms atop the desk. Once I had completed my embarrassingly large yawn, I shook my head a little, trying to clear the fog from my mind. When it persisted, that was my cue that I couldn’t push myself any longer. I saved my work and shut the program down. I turned to the man next to me, contemplating what to do with him. He would wake up in a world of hurt if he slept the whole night like that.

It was not exactly an easy decision to make. I could just leave him, I could wake him up, or I could try to move him without waking him. I huffed a little to myself as I thought. “Taekwoon,” I tested quietly, hoping maybe he was just lightly sleeping. But of course not. Not even a twitch. “Leo,” I raised the volume of my voice a little, reaching out to touch his shoulder. It was akin to waking up that old family cat. You were never sure if it was going to purr or hiss once it woke up. While maybe not literally, I knew Leo was capable of both, and I wasn’t sure if I had the energy to properly handle an angry Leo.

When he was still unresponsive, I once again entertained the idea of just leaving him there. He did look relatively comfortable with his head cradled on his arms like that. No, no, that would just not be nice. With a deep breath, I finally stood up from my chair, tucking it neatly under the desk. I simply stared at the tall man hunched over the desk, still seated in the roll-y chair for a long while. It’s not like I didn’t know what I needed to do, I was just stalling, hoping for him to miraculously wake up somehow. But he didn’t. Giving up on my pipe-dreams, I manned up and just grabbed Leo’s shoulders, trying to pull him off the desk. It was much more difficult than expected, given he had slouched too far forward. Not to mention he wasn’t exactly a small guy- he was both tall and had broad shoulders. Holding the chair still with one foot, I heaved until he finally started to move.

Thankfully, he instinctively began to move on his own once I had him back in the chair. Still asleep, he curled up on the chair itself, despite being quite a bit too big for it. With a relieved sigh, all I had to do was drag the chair across the room. It was actually impressive that this process didn’t wake him up. I kept having to jerk the chair as I had to repeatedly stop and re-grip the armrests. The wheels were not smooth enough for me to easily drag that amount of weight. I got him close enough to his home couch to be satisfied, and let go with an exhausted breath. Adrenaline must have been what was keeping me going, because almost immediately I felt my head spin. That had taken a good amount of energy, combined with the fact that I was already exhausted meant that each step I took felt heavy and off-balance. Being that tired was slightly akin to being drunk- except that you knew exactly how impaired you were.

With a sigh I eyed the other couch in the room. Normally I would have never considered staying the night there, but there was also no way I was making it back to my room in one piece. As I felt the dull throbbing of an oncoming headache begin to pulse in my temple, my decision was made. I flopped ungracefully onto the couch, briefly noting that it was quite comfortable. Under normal circumstances I would have searched for luxuries like a pillow and blanket, but I just didn’t care anymore. Almost as soon as I had pulled my legs up to my chest on the couch, I was asleep.

“Miraaaaa,” A voice came to me, muffled and far away. I became aware there was light beyond my eyelids, instinctively curling up a little tighter to make it dark again.

“My goodness she’s cute when she sleeps!”

“She’s going to be angry when she wakes up.”

“Nonsense, Bean, our Mira noona would never be angry at this face.”

“Let her sleep,” this low voice came from much closer to me, causing me to stir, my mind finally able to process what was happening. I let my eyes crack open, the light sending a brief jolt of discomfort through my head.

“Yah, Ravi, you woke her,” It was Hongbin’s voice now, that much I could process now. I blinked, and three faces came into view- Ravi, Hongbin, and Ken were all sitting on the floor next to the couch I was laying on. Ravi had his chin resting on the cushion right in front of my face.

I groaned, flexing as many muscles I could, glad to find I wasn’t terribly achy. “Good morning,” I grumbled as I began to sit up. I glanced over to the other couch, finding it and the adjacent chair to be empty.

“He’s already up, getting ready in our room,” Ravi whispered to me. My eyes snapped to the face in front of me, and he had a kind and happy smile on his face. No smugness or teasing, just kind. He knows.

I didn’t have time to think or say much of anything, as Ken sat down next to me as soon as I was upright, a dramatic frown on his face, “I can’t believe you had a sleepover and didn’t invite me!” Hongbin settled on the other side of me, simply giving me a little smile as a hello.

I laughed quietly, rubbing at my eyes, “Sorry Ken, I just worked on the video until I couldn’t see anymore.”

“I thought we discussed that was a bad idea,” a voice came from the doorway, and I swiveled quickly to see who it was.

“Taemin?” I practically jumped off the couch, leaving an open spot for Ravi to promptly steal.

He grinned at me, stepping forward to give me a quick hug, “Hi Halley,” he greeted, “I wanted to stop by and say hello.”

“Well, last time I saw you, you looked like you were dying,” I pointed out, “So it’s good to see you well.”

He sighed, rolling his eyes, “I have been texting you every day, as promised,” he whined like a teenager arguing with his big sister.

“Thank you,” I said happily, ruffling his hair slightly. “I’m glad you have a little break, at least.”

“We’ll be busy soon, too!” Ken called from the couch, clearly doing his best to keep my attention.

I laughed a little, “It’s true, I’m almost done,” gesturing to the computer, “Editing the video now.”

Taemin raised his eyebrows, looking at me with a little smirk, “Am I invited to the comeback stage?”

There wasn’t an answer that I could give, so I looked to the couch of three. “I’ll make it happen,” Ravi said confidently, “As long as you’re not just as busy.”

“Oh come on, Wonsik,” Taemin huffed, “I wouldn’t miss it.”

Ravi looked a little guilty. I’m sure Taemin didn’t realize what exactly he had said considering Ravi didn’t make it to his performance. “Ah,” I spoke up suddenly, “You know, I should probably get back to work,” I looked back to Taemin.

He smiled a little, “Yeah I’d better go,” he said his goodbyes to the VIXX members, giving me a little wave as he made his way out.

Hongbin stood from the couch, “Can we hang out in here again?”

“Yeah,” I took the opportunity to stretch my arms, still a little cramped from my awkward sleeping arrangement, “Let me go get cleaned up and changed first. I’ll be back in a little bit.”

As promised, the VIXX members all hung around the office while I continued my work on the video. They became pretty disenchanted with the process after another day of it, but they did an excellent job of keeping me company. At least one of them was in there with me at all times. I managed to make it back to my room before sleeping most of the time, but every now and then I found myself asleep on the couch again, already pre-outfitted with a blanket just in case.

I found myself enjoying my one on one time with the boys more than when it was all of them. Even groups of two or three were nice. Perhaps it was because the end of my time with them was finally in sight so I wanted as lasting of an impression as I could manage. Regardless, it was nice. Hakyeon generally was pretty quiet, giving me my space, but when we did talk, it was generally meaningful discussions about VIXX as a whole or what the company had lined up for their future. N seemed to prefer when it was just the two of us so he could shed his leader persona, even if it was just for a little while. I didn’t blame the guy for wanting a little break now and then. Leo was generally silent, but he was the one who maintained interest in the editing process the whole way through. He would sit in the chair next to me, simply watching my process, throwing out a question every once in a while. It didn’t matter too much, however, considering Leo’s silences were always comfortable. Ken was like the comic relief of my life during my time. If he was the one spending time with me, it was pretty certain that I would get very little done, but I would at least get some smiles and giggles out of it. Ravi was probably the visitor that spent the most time with me. In fact it was almost always Ravi plus one for company. It was always nice to have him around, since he had a good mix of distracting me while also curious about the video process. Surprisingly, Hongbin was probably the second most common visitor. We worked out a system where he would practice guitar as I worked, and every now and then, I would take a break to help him out. It was comfortable, and was a good way to break up my screen time. Young Hyuk would never stay for very long, but would visit often, greeting me, asking about my progress and my general state, hanging out for a few minutes, and leaving when he was satisfied.

October arrived, and I was very nearly finished. “Guys I think I’m actually done,” I muttered in pure amazement to my audience of Ravi and N, who had been playing a casual game of catch with a tissue box for the past several minutes.

“What?” Ravi looked up once he caught the box again, “Are you serious?”

“Yeah,” I scrolled through all my channels. All of the post-processing had been done, the music synched and all the cut effects added. “Both versions,” I added, remembering that I had actually finished the dance version a while back.

“It’s done?” Hakyeon jumped to his feet, quickly pulling a chair up next to me. “Can we see?”

“Of course,” I quickly loaded up the rendered edition, ready to play both versions.

Ravi stood between our chairs, “Wait,” he stopped me, placing a hand over mine on the mouse, “Let’s get everybody in here.”

I twisted to look up at him, but nodded quickly, “Good point.”

Ravi quickly rounded up the rest of the members, and they all pulled up chairs or stood behind, just as they did on my first day of editing. “It’s finally done?” Ken questioned as I pulled up each video.

“Yes,” I said simply, “Which one first? Official or Dance version?”

“Official,” they all agreed, eager to watch.

With no trace of nervousness this time, I hit play and sat back, allowing them to watch it in full screen on the rather large monitor I had been working on. They reacted as the video hit each transition or special effect, as if they’d never seen such things before. I couldn’t help but smile a little, especially when Ken gave a wolf whistle at the bit where Hongbin takes his shirt off. Shaking my head very slightly, I watched along with them.

“Wow,” Ken spoke, “Nice job, Binnie,” I heard him clap his friend on the shoulder.

Hongbin only laughed nervously, “Good job, Mira,” he was deflecting.

“I can’t believe you let Ravi wear that stupid hat,” N muttered.

I glared at him, “It was your idea to just let him go with it!”

“I thought you’d edit it out!” he retorted quickly, a frown creasing the tanned skin of his face.

Rolling my eyes, I looked to Ravi, who was only grinning silently. With a sigh, I spoke, “I would have if I could, but he wore it for most of the footage.”

“It’s a nice hat,” Ravi countered calmly, “Can we watch the dance version now?”

The dance version was much the same, but with the acting bits cut out and more of the choreography visible. Most of the sequences were the same, in fact. Still, I much preferred it. Not because I didn’t like the story, but because I generally enjoyed watching them sing and dance over anything else.

“I like this one way better,” Hongbin said with a little chuckle, clearly relieved to not be forced into watching his own acting.

“So what now?” Hyuk asked me quietly.

I thought for a moment, “Well I’ll send it to your management, and then it’s out of my hands,” I admitted with a shrug.

“They’ll make a teaser,” N mused, “Probably in about a week or so. Then they’ll release the video when we can make the comeback stage.”

“Oh we should rehearse with Mira for the performance,” Hyuk piped up again, leaning over my chair to see me.

“We’re actually doing that?” I asked, looking back at him.

Ken laughed, “What you think we’d forgot something like that? We’ll have our photoshoot, too.”

With a sigh, I nodded, “Alright well, whenever you guys want to that, it’s not like I have anything to do anymore.”

The room grew a little quiet. I supposed I should book my flight back home as soon as I got the schedule from management. But that was a conversation for another time. Instead, I simply closed the videos and the software before loading the finished files as well as the channels to the producers.