“HyeIn..” 

“…” 

HyeIn decided to turn to look at her friend who is boring hole onto her carrot juice glass.  

“Jinju, hey.”

The woman with a black long hair tied up in bun, wearing black hoodie and black jeans, standing in a pair of black Nike sneakers remained frozen in her stance. Her only friend starts to grow suspicious, worried over her almost-30-but-doesn’t-look-near-that-age who were always hyper friend remained silent ever since they step out of their shared house to have their brunch.

“Hey, what’s wrong. You do realize that you wearing all black in spring is making me scared?” 

That snaps Jinju out of her thinking trance.

“HyeIn, you know what I’m working as, don’t you?”

“Yeah. You lucky woman who gets to meet all those gorgeous idols whenever you get to design those rich concert stages. Lee Jinju the stage engineer.” 

Yes, the lady in black hoodie is a stage engineer who had worked with Super Junior, SNSD, Sistar, BEAST and many more and is dreaming of designing concert stage for DBSK, her forever love. She’s the kind of fan who had followed and became a Cassie ever since the day DBSK debuted and cried when they broke apart. HyeIn have seen all of Jinju’s flower , crying looks, all her pretty and ugly moments since the both of them were friends since high school.

“HyeIn, I’m scared.”

‘Okay, Lee Jinju being scared is not a good sign.’ HyeIn pulled Jinju closer. 

“Come on tell me.”

Jinju slouched a bit on her friend’s side. “Starting this Monday, I’ll be working with EXO concert production team as their stage engineer.” 

“…”  HyeIn silent as her eyes plastered to her front, mind blank.

“…”

“Fck what???” 

HyeIn stared at Jinju who’s head inside a bowl of ice. He looked at her friend lazily as she munch on her celery.

“HyeIn help.. I’m scared.”

“Jinju.. Just tell me what are you scared of.”

Jinju pulled her head up and HyeIn put a dry towel on her head.

“HyeIn… It’s EXO that I’m going to work with. Well, although not directly. But, I’ll be designing their stage. And, I gotta make sure everything’s safe. God, what if something went….. Their three million and more fans will kill me HyeIn..”

“Jinju, breath in, breath out.” And, Jinju follows her. 

It’s all started a month ago, when Jinju’s boss decided to call in Jinju in his room personally. 

“Jinju, you’ve done a great job with all of Super Junior’s Super Show concerts, VIXX’s concert and other idols’ concerts.” 

“Well, thank you for the credits, sir.” Jinju smiled sheepishly. Her boss looked at her in adoration. The woman in front of him had basically grown up working with him. She came into the company as an intern who made lots of mistakes but, given her inquisitive traits and highly curious mind, she had grown steadfastly and is very quick and creative in her stage planning approach. After three years, with all stages that she had planned have zero accidents and were considered accurately planned and safe amongst his other stage engineers, he decided to entrust her with the latest concert stage that he had been given by the most leading entertainment company in the country, his old client.

“Jinju, you’re assigned to work with the concert production team of EXO for their EXO’rdium concert for this upcoming month.”

“F.. what Sir?” 

“You heard me. You’ll be working with Shim Jaewon who’ll be leading the team for their concert this time.” 

‘Holy .’ 

Come the morning of the project, she brought along her laptop that contained the plan of the stage that she had designed after she had considered the sketching of the stage emailed to her by Shim Jaewon the director himself.

And to think that it’ll go down perfectly well broke her little fantasy. 

“Your design is perfect but, Miss..” 

“Jinju.” 

“Miss Jinju, haven’t I told you that I wanted to use the pool for One and Only stage?” 

All of the team starts to look in between them to and fro. 

“I know, Sir.” 

“And, why did you change the pool to perforated stage, Miss Jinju?” 

“To reduce the risk of slippage. You see, Sir, I’ve studied their One and Only dance routine and it seems to me that it’ll be quite dangerous for the three who’ll be dancing to it to dance in a pool. Someone will get hurt.” 

“The water will only be up to their ankle.” 

“But, the risk…” 

Suddenly, a man came in and whispered into Jaewon’s ear. He smirked to her before he says, “It’s been approved.” 

‘I calculated everything for the safety of your performers and you decided to slap on my face?’ Jinju remained calm but, her slightly psychotic twitch came out, “Let’s see what will happen, Sir.” 

By this time, the whole production team that is part of the meeting were feeling slightly cold by her tone of voice. 

And, so, the concert commenced successfully for two whole days out of their six days concert with the pool installed although Jongin slipped a bit on the second night. Jinju remained calm in her stance as she double and triple checked the safety of the stage build. 

On the night before the third day concert, Jinju stood in the middle of the standing zone with a copy of stage blueprint in her hand. She crossed her arms on her body as she stared at the stage and at that moment, she saw Jongin, the lead dancer fell on the stage. She looked around and saw that there were no other members around nor even their manager and she knew, he came alone to practice.  

She ran onto the stage and crouched down his side and saw him grunting in deep pain, tears threatening to come out of both of his eyes. ‘God this is bad.’ 

Just when she’s about to touch the leg that he’d injured himself, he voiced out, voice in pain that she almost cried along with him, “N..No. Don’t touch.” 

Jinju saw him huff out painful breath before he spoke, “Damn I’ve injured it again.” 

‘This is  not good.’ She picks up her walkie talkie that is hanging on the left side of her pants, "Emergency at the stage. Jongin is down. I repeat, Jongin down.” 

Then, she saw him about to sleep due to the internal stress that his body is experiencing. “Don’t sleep, Jongin. I know it’s painful but for your future just don’t.” 

Suddenly, Jongin chuckled curtly, “Miss Lee, you sure know how to make me not feeling the pain. Seriously.” 

Jinju chuckled. “Seriously, Jongin. Don’t sleep.” 

And the security came with the paramedics. It seems like Jongin had injured the same place before when the manager almost barked at the paramedics, frightening us all when he informed the paramedics to be careful of the injury. 

Jinju followed the paramedics to the outside as Jongin just wouldn’t let go of his strong grip on her hand. 

Just after Jongin were drove away in the ambulance, her ringtone blared. She picks it up and heard the alarming tone of Shim Jaewon as he called her in for the emergency meeting. She took off her safety helmet and  her sweating head as she think of what will happen later. Then, she turned around as she dashed to her car, not even realizing the questioning and worried look that the bun-faced and Chinese members of EXO were giving her. Both of them turn to look at each other as she ran pass them with Xiumin shrugs at Yixing. 

As she reached the meeting venue, she saw the CEO was also there. Since it’s an emergency meeting, the CEO kept it short with only giving his decision to change the stage before giving his approval of other immediate changes that is required to be made for that night. At that moment, the doctor’s report came in and it turns out that Jongin’s previously injured muscles were torn when he slipped during One and Only stage. Jinju looked at Shim Jaewon as they both turned to look at each other before she mouthed, “I told you.” Jaewon immediately turned to look at the CEO in regret before he quickly regained his stance as the director of the performance of the most hyped concert in that year. 

That night, the perforated stage was immediately brought in and installed with all this being closely supervised by Jinju. 

The next day, she came early, with newly printed blueprint in her hand as she sat at one of the audience seat as she re-evaluate and revised all the calculations that she had made, not even paying attention to the man who had just finished perfecting his solo dance practice for their Artificial Love intro who is staring at her from the middle of the stage. 

Yixing stared at his phone in his hand in devastation. There were about five hours before the concert, he need to get back to their dorm fast but, their managers were somehow unavailable at the moment. 

“The taxi will take too much time at this hour.” He mumbled to himself. 

Suddenly, he saw someone walked out of the venue fast.  

Jinju was too caught up with her thoughts that she almost late for the preparation for tonight. She walks out of the venue as fast as she can and was about to run to her car when she heard her name being called. Yixing ran to her side to catch up with her as her patience starts running low although her face remained emotionless. 

“Miss Jinju, can you send me back to my dorm please.” 

“If you don’t mind me asking, where’s your manager?” 

“One is looking after Jongin and the rest got caught up at the company.” 

She nods. “You guys are so dedicated with your performances.” 

“What do you mean?” 

“What I’m saying is, I admired you guys’ dedication in perfecting your performances. I’ve worked as stage engineer for few years and I’ve seen many idols who’d always practiced alone at the concert venue before the real performance. It’s amazing, really.” 

Yixing smiled, slightly proud that people of the same job as his being appreciated, deeply. He knew their fans loved them and admired their dedication but, he knew only few gifted people that are able to see the meaning of this job and what they’re doing to their life. 

“I saw you ushered Jongin to the ambulance last night. We got the news this morning that he injured the same place again.” 

“Ah that yeah. I was just at the venue, re-analysing the stage for safety when he got into the accident. The injury is pretty bad.” 

“Yeah. We heard that’s why they changed the stage to the punctured one.” 

“Should’ve used that one from the beginning. It’ll reduce slippage as it won’t hold water like the pool when you guys perform One and Only.” 

“You knew our performance sequence?” 

“Gotta know everything to reduce the risk during the performance. After all, no one would feel happy if there are any more accidents especially when you got six days of 30 songs to perform and that was like 180 times of performance to be done. Everybody will be tired at the end of the day but nobody wants anyone to get caught in an accident were they?” 

Yixing chuckles. “Yeah.. true.”  

The whole ride to the dorm became deep in silence as Jinju was focusing on the road as her brain still thinking about her work, unbeknownst to her that Yixing been observing all the time. Suddenly, a thought came to his mind. His curious side taking charge, just wanting to see other reaction out of the ever serious stage engineer. 

Once they reach in front of the dorm, Yixing voices out nonchalantly, “Can I kiss you?” 

Jinju who was about to say that they’ve arrived immediately went quiet. “I got lots of work to do and you decided to play around with me at this kind of moment?” 

“What kind of moment?” Yixing’s eyebrows rose. 

Jinju stared at Yixing’s radiant face as she thought to herself, ‘this man is ing sly. He asked me that kind of question when my mind is racing with work stuffs with that innocent look of his.’ 

“Are you trying to around with me? I kinda grasp the idea of how busy your celebrity life is given that you’re a healthy grown up man who might not be able to get laid but just to let you know I don’t appreciate myself to get ed before I get married.”

“Thirty years old and you’re still a .”

She snaps at him curtly, “I’m not thirty. I’m twenty seven.”

Yixing smirks at her, “Still older than me.” 

‘ this little .’ 

As she was still in her disbelief trance of encountering such a bold, and sly idol right before her eyes, he pecked her lips before he spoke, face right before hers, “You are talking a lot because you’re nervous.” 

Jinju was stunned. Or maybe more than that. 

“Can I have your number?”

‘Okay that’s enough.’ “What no!” Jinju pulled her face apart from Yixing’s. “I only give out my number to those who work directly with me. And I don’t work directly with you. So no.” She explained as if it’s a matter of fact. Well, to her it is. 

Yixing saw her phone at the bottle compartment. He took it and brought it away from her when she tried to reach for it. Feeling angry at the intrusion of her privacy, she used her martial arts skill that the phone got thrown towards her and she smiled when the phone fall into her hand. When her focus was on the phone, he pulled Jinju’s head with one hand and crashed his lips onto hers while the other hand making miss call to his phone in his pocket.. When he heard his ringtone, he let go of her and swiftly steps out of her car.

Jinju who was still catching her breath picks up her phone that was lying pathetically on the seat that is still warm from Yixing’s body heat reaches for it when the notification tone blares. 

Thank you for the ride, Lee Jinju 

Jinju’s head fell on the steering wheel and accidentally hit the honk that she jumped in her seat. “” She said as she breathed in annoyance. 

That night, she oversees the whole performance from the observation deck. The whole time, both she and Shim Jaewon stood with their arms crossed on their chest as both were nervous and hoping for the smoothness of the night’s performance.

Finally, it reaches their ment session and she watched as the staffs were busy wiping the punctured stage to ensure that it’s perfectly dry for their next performances.

And, that was when Yixing decided to open his mouth, blabbering about the punctured stage that was used, indirectly teasing her as he uses emphasized some technical jargon that she might have accidentally mentioned as she told him about it last night. She almost choked when he suddenly mentioned about how genius their concert production team is and all these were spoke in perfect Korean that their members and fans were amazed by him and they couldn’t stop praising even until the concert ends. 

And thus, whenever her works done she didn’t stay for long and had went straight to her hotel room, feeling grateful that the concert had went smoothly. 

“Sehun, can you help me?” 

Sehun looked at Yixing. The latter guy is always wanted perfection with his performance almost similar to Jongin’s traits which resulting in the both of them having the most injuries out of all of them. And this time, although it wasn’t that bad, the doctor had to detained him in ward for a night when his injury nearly affected his previously injured knee during their performance at SMTOWN V in Osaka a day ago.

He looked around. ‘He must’ve not wanting the manager to know of it.’ 

“I’ll try. What is it?”

Then, Yixing took out a piece of small paper with a phone number from underneath his pillow and hand it to him. “Can you please call this number for me?”

“Whose number is this hyung?”

“..It’s my cousin’s. She’s the only nearest one at the moment.”

Sehun caught his initial hesitation before he spoke. Sehun knew the injured man is sly, heck both Jongin and Yixing have almost similar slyness in them and the rest might not be able to see it unlike him and Baekhyun thus, making them to be able to see each other’s hidden colour easily without anyone realizing it. 

Sehun took the paper from his hand and kept it in his pocket. 

“I’m bored Gosh” ‘When will she come? Did Sehun really call her?’ 

Yixing sat up on his bed. “I better walk outside.” 

Just when he’s about to close his door, he saw the woman that he’ve been waiting for walking down the hallway. He smiles to himself.

“Mom.. where’s your roooom” Jinju sang to herself. 

Just when she’s about to reach her mother’s room, she was pulled into a room and was kissed by someone. ‘What the ..’ 

Just when she realized what happened, she felt her back on a smooth surface. Realizing this, she immediately pushed the man that is hovering above her, ‘Yixing?’

“Stop stop stop.” 

Yixing who was still drowsy from the electrifying feeling that he felt whenever he kissed her pushed himself a bit. “What’s wrong?” 

“You are asking me what’s wrong? How the hell did I ended up like this? And what am I doing here?” 

“What do you mean? Didn’t Sehun called you?” Yixing asked.

“What…. I came here to see my mom who had been hospitalized last night and she happened to roomed at the room at the end of this hallway.” 

“Your mom?”

“Yes my mom. Who else’s mom that I took the earliest flight to come.” She said as she rolls her eyes before she continues, “I still got Sistar’s concert to plan in Korea.” 

Yixing stared at her as he looked at him blankly. Suddenly, he drops his head on her neck and he chuckled. “You… Woman… Is making me go crazy.” 

“Then you should go to see a psychiatrist since you’re already in a hospital.” 

Yixing guffawed. 

“Mental problem is not a joke okay. Go and get a check up.” 

Yixing tighten his hold on her as he heard her caring voice. “I heard a tone of someone being caring.”

“I’m a respectable human being who cares about other human being. Can you get off me? I hate when my neck is getting hotter.”

Yixing immediately sat up as he laughed till he cried. “My God you’re so.. God..”

Jinju get off the bed as she look at Yixing. “Now you’re crying. You’re so bipolar. Should I set a meeting with one of my psychiatrist friend? Maybe she can help.”

Yixing wipes his tears at the corner of his eyes as she tries to control his laughter. “No need.”

“Okay whatever.”

Just when Jinju was about to turn around, he took hold of her wrist, “can I come with you to see your mom?” 

This girl turn to look at him weirdly, ‘Just up to what level of weirdness can this man go?’ 

And so.., Jinju brought him to see her mother. Once she steps inside, she greets her mom with a big hug while her mother’s eyes stuck on the man that is closing the door of her room. Yixing slowly approaches them and just as he reached in front of the mother and daughter, Jinju turned around. Her mother asked her, “Who is this?” 

Jinju sat beside her mother on the bed. “A friend who somehow is hospitalized a few room away from yours, wanted to see you and insisted in bringing two oranges for you.” 

Her mom laughs before she asks Yixing to sit on the chair beside the bed. 

“Mom, I’ll go find something to cut these oranges, okay?” Jinju said before she rose from the bed, kissed her mother’s temple before she left them. 

Just in time as Jinju came back to her mother’s room, she heard Yixing asking her mother, “Can I date your daughter and marry her later?”

Her jaw drops as she opens the door wide enough for her and her mom saw her look. She smiles to herself before saying, “Why don’t you ask the person yourself, sweetie?” 

Jinju was beyond surprised. ‘Since when did mom call him sweetie. She never called someone she just met like that.’ 

After placing the prepared fruits on the table, she pulled Yixing out of the room with her.  

“Seriously. Are you even real?” 

Yixing took a step closer to her. “What?” 

Jinju look at him straight into the eyes. “Is it common for you to meet someone’s mom for the first time, got her to call you sweetie in just a few minutes of meeting her and asked her permission to date her daughter?” 

He took another step forward. “Can’t help it. She’s the one who called me like that and I like it. And..” Another step closer, “I like you. I want to date you. Is it wrong for me to ask that from your mom?” 

Jinju palmed her temple as she pushed a few strands of her hair back. “Dear God please. Did you even think of the repercussion of your action?” 

“I did and it’s not uncommon for idols to date other people and marry them.” 

Jinju leaned onto the wall in devastation. “Look. You don’t understand the underlying things here.” 

He took another step forward, trapping her in between him and the hospital wall. “Make me. Enlight me.” 

Then, he challenged her. “Make me understand you.” He knew she’s the kind of woman who hates to be challenged for she wants to win. He sees it in her since the first time he met her during their team introduction and when he heard the whole story about the stage for the EXO’rdium from their manager who is dating one of the production team member. 

Jinju  her dry lips. She gives him the same challenging look that he gave her. “Why do you want to go to such extend? I’m not worth your understanding, Yixing.” 

He smiled at her. “That’s where you’re wrong.” 

“..Huh?” 

“I’ve willed myself to understand you since before. With my whole heart.” 

“…” Jinju remained quiet, face growing hotter from the nearness of his face and the feeling of his breath on her face as she starts to feel suffocated but in a pleasant way. 

“…” Yixing kept quiet as he waits for her reply, heart almost leaped out of his chest as he stares at her flawless face. He saw that she’s not the kind of beautiful like his fellow celebrities but, there’s something inside her that she exudes that is pulling him towards her and not to be forgotten the electrifying feeling that he got when he held onto her wrist before and he knew she felt the same too. 

“I’m a workaholic .” 

He smiles. “Been living the rest of my life that way. Can totally relate. I won’t mind.” 

She pouts a bit and he saw it. He knew she’s trying to deny his effect on her. “I’m nearing the end of my twenties and you’ll be my first experience in dating and I don’t even understand why am I being totally honest with you whom I just met few months ago.” 

“May this.. be your first and last one. Hm.. I don’t really appreciate the idea of watching you dating someone else.” 

“What even..” 

He chuckled till his dimple shows that made her heart skipped a beat. And at that moment, she didn’t even realize her face is blushing hard. 

“Is that a yes?” Suddenly, she heard Yixing asks. 

“I didn’t say anything, did I?” 

“Your face says so.” 

“Did you learn to read people’s face?” 

He bit a grin from forming on his lips, “Nah.. Just your face is too easy to read.” 

Her eyebrows rose in surprise. “Really? People always said that I always had this face on the entire time and is so hard to read.” 

“People always said Sehun always had this look on but he’s not that hard to understand.” 

“Wow. Are you a psychic?” 

Yixing laughs. “My God you’ll be the death of me.” 

Jinju’s jaw drops. “Wha.. don’t die because of me..” 

And he pulled her to kiss and for the first time after his many attempts at kissing her, she finally responded back and he smiled before he look into her eyes, both of their eyes twinkling as they shyly smiled at each other.