As the flight soared toward Korea, Nichkhun couldn't ignore the palpable unease emanating from Victoria. He glanced at her, trying to assess her state of mind. The wisdom imparted by Mama Song's advice to subtly and genuinely learn to read her, played out in Nichkhun thoughts, contrasting it with the results he had gotten so far made him doubt the efficacy of the strategy he’d been employing to woo her.

Victoria's apprehension about returning to Korea, the hotbed of criticism and negativity surrounding their partnership, weighed heavily on her as she sat beside Nichkhun. She was normally not affected no matter how nasty netizens became but she had to admit that she had recently become more sensitive to hate comments. The relentless schedule that had taken a toll on her physically now affected her mentally as well.

“Hey, wanna see a video of Jinjer dancing? Her favorite is BTS Butter nowadays” Nichkhun offered Victoria, in an attempt to lift her spirits.

“She’s an Army not a Hottest?” Victoria giggled as the video played.

“Sadly not. But she’s a Me+U originally, like her mom.” the 2PM visual winked at her.
The shared laughter managed to put a genuine smile on Victoria's face, a momentary reprieve from the looming anxieties. “She’s so cute. Looks so much like Cherreen…and you actually.” Victoria commented, studying his face.

“Thank you. I’ll take that as you admitting I’m cute.” was Nichkhun’s playful response.

The banter continued and a sense of nostalgia filled the air, reminiscent of their carefree youth as well as of the summer they spent filming “Heart Ramble”. Victoria found herself relaxing, caught in the comforting familiarity of their togetherness and even unconsciously fed him from her meal. Nichkhun gently brushed off stray crumbs from her cheek, a simple and nostalgic gesture that further bridged the gap between them. As he adjusted her hair, a wave of nostalgia swept over him, memories of simpler times flooding his mind.

As Victoria drifted off to sleep, their proximity sparked an impulse within Nichkhun, an urge to close the distance between and claim her lips. Yet Nichkhun’s restraint held firm, despite the absence of Xiao Li's intimidating presence; Victoria's manager would follow later on Tuesday to Korea since she had to stay back in China to tie loose ends caused by yet another unforeseen shift in commitments just because higher ups insisted, wanting to milk this sudden Khuntoria popularity. He resisted the temptation, choosing instead to tuck her in with a blanket, his touch gentle and affectionate. The plane hummed steadily and at one point, her head found a resting place on his shoulder. Nichkhun tried to distract himself via a feeble attempt to tame the flutters of temptation racing through him; delving into the monotonous task of counting sheep until finally, the flight descended toward Incheon Airport. It was the most number of sheeps he'd ever counted in his existence.

Upon learning that no hotel was booked for Victoria, Nichkhun automatically offered his apartment for her to stay in as they waited for the two handlers that went with them to collect their luggages. However, Krystal was already expecting Victoria at her place for it was a kind of law, albeit an unspoken one, that non-Korean native f(x) members would camp at the maknae’s apartment whenever they would visit. 

As the f(x) leader settled in for the night after catching up on Krystal and how her script reading was, she remembered feeling reluctant to part with the Thai Prince at the airport. She was suddenly feeling an unexplainable preference for being in close proximity to the man she wanted to avoid only a few days ago. "No, it's just the enticing scent from his perfume!" she denied. Well that and the fact that Mr. y was keeping his hands to himself but instead sweet and attentive to her. Her head was becoming muddled by the stress from her current jam-packed work schedule and the budding anxiety from being in Korea, where the most prominent and nastiest bashers were coming from.

Case in point: while they were having breakfast, Krystal suddenly became quiet and pensive and the reason behind was that she saw the articles about Khuntoria arriving at Incheon airport yesterday and they were already teeming with outright crude comments from netizens.

"Ah jinjja! These good-for-nothing people! They have so much idle time on theit hands why don't they just think of something productive to help with the economy?!??" The f(x) maknae burst out.

"Kwaenchanha. I'm sure there's nothing there I haven't seen or heard before." And Victoria continued to dig into her steaming bowl of haejang guk, normally a hangover cure but she suddenly craved for it so they ordered one. Being back in Korea was sure to bring nostalgia. Plus she needed all the energy from the hearty meal to face the challenging days ahead with the promotional commitments.

To Nichkhun’s pleasant surprise, Victoria seemed glad to see him later that day when they met at the studio and it was her who first held his hand as they walked into the set for the interview with WGM’s Park Mi-Sun. The veteran host was elated to see them again and blurted out: “ I just have to say this: looking at you now, you definitely belong with each other and my shipper heart would like to hear good news from you in the future. Ok, sorry. I’ll stop there!”. Nichkhun just sat listening to Mi-Sun, smiling from ear to ear, his brain having seemed to stop functioning, while Victoria turned to him and proceeded to fan his bright red ears, to keep busy in order to combat the butterflies in her stomach.

They proceeded to start their rehearsals at the JYP building for the Tango number. The version they were going to perform turned out to be the Argentine version, less fast-faced than the usual, but way more sensual and close. It goes without saying that Nichkhun was delighted at the prospect of skinship but he stayed within appropriate boundaries with his touches since the choreographer was with them in the room as the latter taught them the routine. He would observe the subtle catch in Victoria’s breath whenever the form required an intimate embrace that brought their bodies close, with almost every inch pressing. She must be feeling the same way as he was. Being the talented dancers that they were, they learned all the steps very quickly. The choreographer declared that the only thing needed was to add their own story to tell as a finishing touch to complete the performance, and they could practice on their own from now on.

As they wrapped up for the day, Nichkhun’s phone, which he unknowingly left on the couch when he stood to go to the restroom, started vibrating. It startled Victoria. She had observed since they landed yesterday that Nichkhun’s phone seemed to go off ringing a lot and through today as well; so much so  that he had to turn it off temporarily during their interview with Mi-Sun earlier. Apparently, he had turned back on now.  “A lot of people seem to want to get a hold of him. ” curiosity took her over and she turned the phone up, which was lying face down not far from her side, to see who seemed to have an urgent need to speak to Nichkhun.

There she saw, flashing on the screen “Ji-Hye ^_^ yaong [meow]”. Stunned as if an electric shock had just run through her body, Victoria just stared frozen at the phone until it stopped vibrating; the caller seemed to have given up. She quickly put the gadget back to its face down orientation and left the practice room in a hurry. A knot started to hitch in , she felt that familiar heat  in her eyes as tears threatened to fall, and she knew this feeling all too well: she was jealous. She finally calmed after a tall drink of water in the empty cafeteria, where she found herself going to for refuge and returned to the practice room to collect her bag. She was collected enough that when Nichkhun, now also back in the room and holding his phone, tentatively and worriedly asked her if someone called him while he was away, she was able to answer him with a nonchalant “huh?”, complete with a convincing shrug followed by “Let’s get going, I’m tired.” underlined with a smile that made Nichkhun forget what he even was thinking of and he just trailed her happily down to the parking lot where their handlers and their respective vans waited for them.

Victoria, before going to sleep, decided to give Nichkhun the benefit of the doubt that perhaps it was one of his female friends trying to get a hold of him now that he was back in Korea. He was known to be very friendly, having a number of female platonic buddies and as for herself, she also had her fare share of friends from the opposite -- Kyuhyun, Changmin, and Leo Luo YunXi, to name a few. In fact, she had YunXi's contact on her mobile phone as "lion king" (he was of the Leo zodiac sign). If she could have a male friend's contact saved as a cat -- a lion was a also cat after all -- in her phonebook and it was innocent then Nichkhun also had all the rights in the world to have one on his. However, she woke up the following Tuesday morning even more worked up with that nagging feeling that the half-girl half-feline, Ji-Hye, as suggested by the contact name, shared something more than innocuous friendship with Nichkhun.

“What’s bothering you?” Xiao Li, who had arrived that morning at Krystal’s apartment, asked Victoria pointedly.

Luna, who had also arrived a few minutes after Xiao Li, was also there eating lunch with them. “You've been pushing food around your plate all this time, unnie.”

Krystal, who sat beside Victoria, rolled her eyes and matter-of-factly stated “Ex-appa must have done something to make her mad again."

Innocent until proven guilty; that was what people said. Victoria knew she needed to confront Nichkun and give him a chance to explain. However, her emotions and mind were at war, wreaking havoc within her: she woke up very annoyed, calmed down a bit and back to her usual self as she took a shower, and then seethed in anger as she brushed her teeth at the thought of Nichkhun cheating on her, but then, merely seconds after, burst out whining like a little girl just when she realized it couldn't be called cheating when they weren't officially even togther yet. Victoria admitted she could give in to jealousy at times but not to this level of her becoming a total mess, like she wasn't even in control of her body anymore, and she wasn't liking it.