Jonghyun entwines his fingers with Hannah’s, holding on to her hand and quietly comment that she is warm as usual. It’s hard to walk in the sand, it’s chilly, but it’s refreshing and calming to walk together and hear the waves hit the shore. “I was scolded yesterday,” Jonghyun starts to say, moving their hands back and forth. “Scolded? By whom?” Hannah asks. She looks down at the sand to see how she places her feet not to fall. She isn’t sure of what he is starting to talk about. “My sister did,” Jonghyun says and smiles at her, then looks in front of them. “She scolded me for being oversensitive with you. When I came home yesterday, she stood in the hall and started scolding me without hearing me out, and after hearing me out she scolded me even more. She said that… among everyone I have in my life, you’re probably the one who understands me the most. And with you taking me all the way out here… I had two hours to remind myself of that.” Hannah glances up at him, biting her lip. “Is this your way of apologizing?” “Don’t make fun of me, Nabi,” Jonghyun is quick to get defensive and she laughs, grabbing his arm with her free hand. “I’m not making fun of you! I’m just asking because it’s not the usual ‘I was wrong, I’m sorry’ but you’re like … explaining it?” Hannah tries to analyse it. “I am explaining it,” Jonghyun nods. He pulls in her hand to shove her closer for him to wrap an arm around her. “I am explaining that my sister made me realise what I’ve not treated you fairly. You looked through your schedule for me and you apologized.” “Your sister is smart,” Hannah agrees and giggles when he squeezes the arm around her. “She is,” he agrees too. “Which is why I listen to her.” “But I was wrong too,” Hannah mentions. “Oh?” She gives him a quick glare at the way he sounds surprised. “It’s not a surprise, Oppa, I already told you I’m sorry, didn’t I? You were super pissed and I was panicking, you know, and … and I didn’t know how to apologize in a better way.” “I know that. I wasn’t thinking straight. Hearing about you fainting… I got upset. You didn’t tell me about it, but after calming down I understand why you didn’t want to make me worry while you were in Japan. That’s why I didn’t think you’d do something like this. You should be home resting.” “I’m fine.” “I’ll drive on the way home,” Jonghyun tells her. Hannah smiles, giggling a bit. She puts her arm around him to walk easier. “It’s okay, I can drive. I dragged you out here, after all.” “But if you’re tired, I’ll drive,” Jonghyun repeats. “Mm…” “Did you sleep alright with the ladies?” he asks. Hannah giggles again, asking if he has wanted to ask that for some time and Jonghyun honestly nods, saying he wanted to write to her all day and ask if she slept and rested. They stop walking to sit down in the sand, Hannah saying she slept well after talking to Emelia last night – it calmed her. Jonghyun fell asleep late, unable to sleep comfortably though he was home. She is leaning towards Jonghyun, staring out at the night and the sea while holding on to his hand hanging down her shoulder. She holds it towards to blow warm air into his sleeve, helping to keep him warm. Hannah likes how chilly it is, she is rarely the one who feels cold. The air feels fresh and clean when it’s chilly. “This is healing,” Hannah comments in a low voice. “Mm. Even when it’s cold, being by the beach alone is nice,” Jonghyun adds. “Ah, I heard you have a meeting tomorrow,” Hannah suddenly mentions, remembering what his manager had told her earlier today. “You decided to go for it after all?” “Yeah… I’ve been feeling down lately, and some friends have told me to talk to someone. After snapping at you for no good reason, the way I felt at that time… I decided I need to do something about it.” “You called a psychologist?” Hannah wonders. “No. It’s through the agency. Kang Junghee. But she is a psychologist, I’ve never met her before though.” “Kang Junghee… I don’t think I’ve heard of her,” Hannah says. “You know, I’m surprised you haven’t said anything, telling me to go talk to someone,” Jonghyun mentions. She tilts her head back to look up at him. “Others have said it, and since you know I have been feeling down, I thought for sure you’d say something. But you haven’t.” “Does that upset you?” she asks. “Hm… no, not really. It’s more like … I don’t know what you’re thinking,” Jonghyun shares, sounding like he is in deep thoughts about it. “You’ve been so focused on going back to work with 5 Pieces lately that I thought maybe you didn’t really notice it. But at the same time we have talked about me feeling down, so you did know. That made me wonder what you were thinking.” “Ah,” Hannah nods and looks out at the sea again. “I don’t really know. I thought … I would be by your side? Hug you when you need a hug, listen when you need to talk, drive you to the beach to clear your mind? Something like that, I guess.” “I like that,” Jonghyun whispers. “I think that’s what my sister meant too. Because others tell me to see someone, I like that I can come home and just regain my energy without hearing you talk about me having to meet someone too.” “That’s what I would want too,” Hannah agrees with his words, “If everyone is mentioning that you’re depressed, it puts focus on it, right?” “Right, right,” Jonghyun nods. He chuckles and kisses her head. “You’re the most healing to me, Nabi. Being alone with you like this, it’s like no one else exists.” “It’s just for a few hours, but it is a small run-away,” Hannah giggles. “We’ll go somewhere better next time.” “I’d like that. When you have the time.” “When we both have the time,” Hannah nods. “I hope it goes well at the meeting tomorrow.” After sitting there for a while, they remember they have food with them. The steamed bun has gotten cold, it’s still delicious though and she shares half with Jonghyun while he eats his burrito.   ++ - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + -+ - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + -+ - + - ++   They came home early in the morning and went to sleep. Jonghyun left first for his meeting in the afternoon and Hannah shortly after. She heads to the festival venue for rehearsals and the performance, going on her own. Julia will arrive later, and Emelia is already there. Hannah is sitting in the van, feeling cold from being at the beach at night so she is wearing a large sweater to a pair of leggings, a blanket over her legs to feel warm. Manager Lee is listening to music on the radio while Hannah is interrupting by warming up her voice. Makeup stylist Chae Hwan is also in the van, sitting next to Hannah and reading a book about dumb people being everywhere around you – a bestseller, apparently. “Woah,” Manager Lee sighs when parking the car along the road outside the festival. A security guard showed them where to park. A lot of vans are at the parking lot and without the help of the guard, Manager Lee would probably not find an empty spot. The van is parked, and Hannah gets out with a bag hanging over her shoulder and chewing gum that she just put in; Chae Hwan asked if she wanted one. She walks to the back of the van, excited for the festival and in a good mood after solving things with Jonghyun last night. And to just be at the beach was refreshing. She lightly nods her head in a plain greeting to the security guards standing around waiting for vans to arrive and keep fans on a distance. One guard, completely dressed in black with a card hanging around his neck to give him backstage passage, walks up to where Hannah is. She recognizes him as one of their personal guards and she greets him politely like she greeted the others. Manager Lee talks to him and shows the way. Hannah and her stylist walk behind them, talking about what makeup style would fit today’s outfit the best. “For hair, I will do natural and straight,” Hannah lets Chae Hwan know. “And since it’s October, I want … some suited for fall.” “I have a lot of new colours that I want to try,” Chae Hwan shares with a cute smile. She is struggling to carry the heavy makeup box so they aren’t walking that fast. “Not too , since it’s for the stage, but I’ll show you.” Hannah nods. “I’ll like that.” They walk down a small street to reach the backdoor to the building, and after going for a few meters there are fans cheering at the end of the street. Close to the backdoor, pedestrian barriers have been set up to let fans know where the line is. A few guards stand there to make sure no one walks around it or pushes it down, but there is a lot of people on the other side currently cheering at the sight of Hannah. She is a bit surprised to see there are people all the way here in the back but hearing them scream hello to her and cheering, her hands flies up in the air to wave to them. Instead of turning left to the door, Hannah keeps going to more steps straight to get closer to the fans. Two at the front are holding a sign with her name on, a lot of the people there starts saying how pretty she is, asking about 5 Pieces, wanting to know about the comeback. “Have you been standing here for long?” Hannah asks. Three hours, six hours, one hour – she gets a lot of different answers and they laugh at the face she makes. Hannah tells them to stay warm and not stand here starving. They cheer at her, the cheer gets louder as if someone else is arriving and after a few seconds of them continuing to scream at obviously not Hannah, she glances over her shoulder to see if someone is sneaking inside without stopping like she did. Her whole expression gets scared for a second to see someone is standing behind her and her legs gives away, making her squat down and end up laughing at the shock to have someone there. “You scared me!” she laughs. The fans are screaming loudly at the scare and from a distance down the street, EXO’s Chanyeol can be heard laughing. The one who had sneaked up behind Hannah stood ready with big eyes for when she turned around. Kyungsoo (D.O) is smirking at the success of scaring her, just to smile widely when Hannah looks up at him. “Too bad I didn’t film your reaction,” Kyungsoo says while chuckling at the memory of her silently getting scared. “It was priceless.” “Not nice, definitely not nice,” Hannah whines with a hand to her chest. She is smiling though, not upset for being scared and with fans screaming on one side and EXO members walking up from the street, she can’t do anything else but to smile and greet them happily. Before heading inside with the boy-group, she waves to the fans. Kyungsoo waves his hand too and goes with her, asking if she is here alone. He greets Manager Lee by the door. “Emelia is already here, Julia will come later,” Hannah answers. “Hannah!” Chanyeol yells and runs inside after them, like a child seeing his favourite classmate after a break. “Hi!” “Hello. How are you?” “I’m good. I saw you getting terrified of Kyungsoo!” Chanyeol is laughing so much that his voice echoes in the corridor. Kyungsoo looks happy over it. “No sound came out,” Kyungsoo comments. “Yeah, yeah,” Hannah tries to wave it off. Impossible. Chanyeol spreads it like a flu, telling his own members, their staff and crew, even re-enacting Hannah’s silent expression and having a blast. Kyungsoo nods to confirm it while Hannah is busy greeting them and catching up briefly. It feels like too long since she saw EXO, making her stand by their room and talk until hearing it is time for rehearsals and she has to quickly stop by her own dressing-room to leave her things. After rehearsals, it only takes a few minutes in the dressing-room for Emelia to ask if she has solved everything with Jonghyun. Apparently, Hannah’s good mood proves it. It’s obvious, Emelia and their stylist Yong Hyun says. Hannah doesn’t mind, she admits she is in a good mood. She is chatting away with everyone, being surprisingly social today. Hanging out with their stylists, with Julia and Emelia while getting ready for the concert, then talking to the other members of the Musketeers as well as EXO and so on. It’s a good day. “Are you listening?” Julia asks. Hannah glances without moving her head, smiling widely when turning her eyes back to Chae Hwan who is fixing her makeup. “I’m listening. Just hard answering with hands on my face,” Hannah says in a light tone and smiles at the makeup artist who reaches her tongue out at Hannah for mocking her. “So what do you think? Chae Hwan, what do you think then?” Julia tries to have someone answer her. Julia is already done with her makeup and is sitting on a chair next to Hannah while checking out all the makeup they have on the table. “Go for it,” Chae Hwan says. Both Julia and Hannah look surprised at the younger one and Chae Hwan starts blushing. She pauses her hands in the air. “Should I go for it?” Julia repeats and turns to Hannah; whose eyes widens to get the question. “I don’t know!” Hannah hisses. “You decide. Or talk to him about it.” “Now that’s silly. I can’t just go up and say, ‘what do you think of me liking you, is it a bad or good idea?’ I can’t do that.” Julia rolls her eyes. “No, wait,” Hannah says and leans forward, keeping her voice low, “just say you want to talk in private, then ask what he thinks of you and explain how you feel, and ask-” “Hannah,” Julia quietly interrupts while shaking her head, not liking it one bit. “Alright then, just … go kiss him. That idea is so much better.” It is Hannah’s turn to roll her eyes at what Julia said she’d do. Julia had a summer fling with their backup dancer, Shiwon. And apparently, that fling is not over. Hannah knew it, the ladies have all talked about it and Julia has said many times there are no emotions in it. Until now. It seems she has been thinking it over lately, and is curious of how it would be to date the playful dancer. Carolina was against it, saying the mood will get too awkward if it doesn’t go well. Maria said like Chae Hwan; go for it. If it’s love or attraction or something else, go for it. What’s the worst that could happen? And that’s what has led them here, to Julia talking about the man who is joking around in another room while waiting to perform. “Aish,” Julia sighs and rolls her head around. “I don’t know what to do…” With her troubled mind, she says she will go see if someone else is bored. Hannah gets alert right away. “Who will you go see?” Hannah asks. Julia clicks her tongue and leans next to Chae Hwan to give Hannah a smile. “Why? Who do you want to see?” she teases. Hannah frowns and mutters no one, focusing on getting her makeup done and Julia stays still, wondering why Hannah suddenly got excited. “No, tell me. Now I’m curious. Who could it be? Jonghyun isn’t here… no one from SNSD either… Not FT Island… Then who could it possibly be…” Chae Hwan giggles at Julia teasing Hannah, and the stylist suggests that maybe Julia is going to see her crush. To that, Julia panics and jumps away from them, shouting out; “No freaking way! Ya! You, I’m not in a hurry, okay? You’re both crazy for thinking that.” She is definitely overreacting and it’s not just Hannah and Chae Hwan who starts laughing at it. Though others in the room haven’t listened to what they were saying they definitely reacted at Julia’s overreacting and flustered words. Julia quiets down and holds on to her cheeks when sitting down on the chair, pulling it with her feet to be closer to Hannah and Chae Hwan. “Is that what you were thinking too?” she asks Hannah. Her imagination of whoever Hannah had thought of from the beginning feels ruined if it was just Shiwon. Julia wanted to change the topic, which doesn’t happen. They go back to ask her what she will do.   Once Hannah is done with her makeup, she goes with her arm linked around Julia’s to go check on the other artists (which is an excuse to stop by their dancers). They just exchange a few words before going to the bathroom. The concert has started but it is still a long time before they will head up on stage. “That’s one noisy room,” Julia mentions and nods over to one of the dressing-rooms. “Mm…” Hannah distantly says before giggling. “You like him, don’t you?” Julia looks shocked to have Hannah suddenly bring that up again and is about to completely deny it, because Hannah makes it sound like she likes him a lot. Then she gives out a sound and hugs on to Hannah’s arm, whispering that she likes him. Hannah giggles like a school-girl and Julia joins in. As they come closer to the noisy room, certain voices stand out. Julia starts pulling in Hannah’s arm when heading towards the room. “Hey Joon!” she calls out and comes inside to a room crowded with people. Compared to the happy and social Julia who seems friendly with the people in here, Hannah leans back a bit when seeing how crowded it is. She has no idea of who Joon is either, until seeing BTS’s Namjoon (RM) greeting Julia. Joon as in Namjoon. “Is this where the popular kids gather?” Julia asks as a joke. She lets go of Hannah to greet everyone. BTS, members of EXO, there are others i