February 10th, 2010

Misaki groaned and rolled over, desperately trying to escape the screaming sound coming from the alarm clock. She cursed Minho in her head. Why had she let him convince her to move the alarm clock away from the bed. She groaned again and cover her face with her hands, desperately wishing that she could just go back to sleep. Her head was pounding in sync with the beeping of the alarm, and she could already feel a headache building up. And it was only six in the morning! She sighed tiredly and rolled over.

The meeting yesterday had not gone well, not at all. And despite her wish to forget that it had even happened, she couldn’t help but remember every little embarrassing thing in excruciating detail. She groaned and forced her face into her pillow. God, why had she gone and opened her big dumb mouth? She had probably managed to up everything that Minho had been working towards for years. Just because she had felt the need to defend her own ing pride. She swore into the pillow, before pushing herself up. She struggled over to the alarm clock, swaying in her tiredness. She slammed her hand down on the alarm clock. The silence was a complete blessing and she stood there for a moment appreciating it. She then turned around and looked at Minho’s mattress. It looked untouched. He must have slept over at Honggi’s place.

She sighed again, but reminded herself that it was no good to dwell on things that she couldn’t change. She trudged to the bathroom, and started her routine for getting ready for the day. She passed on putting on any makeup, who was going to see her anyways? She thought grumpily, pushing her hair out of her face.

Ama followed closely on her heels as she made her way to the kitchen. Misaki as she made her way into the kitchen area. Misaki cooed softly and pulled open the drawer that held the cat food in it. Ama plopped down and waited patiently for the food to be delivered to her dish. Misaki smiled softly a gently brushed her hand down the cat’s back.

Once that was done, Misaki began to dig around for food for herself. Unfortunately, her own quest for food was a lot less successful. Most of their cabinets were empty, and the fridge contained only a small container of an expired side dish (gifted to them by their older neighbor). She swore quietly and slammed the fridge door shut. She mussed her hair up a little out of frustration and made her way to their closet. She haphazardly yanked some clothing out and pulled them on. She ended up with one of Minho’s sweatshirts, but honestly that was probably best with the cold weather and all. She would stop by a convenience store quickly before making her way to the studio. It wasn’t like she had any better options.

She grabbed her worn out tennis shoes and pulled them on. She stood up and grabbed her keys, and then made her way to the door. She slammed it behinds her and yanked again for good measure, as sometimes it didn’t close all the way. She made sure to lock the door behind her, and jiggled the handle to make sure that the lock had stuck. She then hustled down the stairs and out into the front lobby. She nodded briefly to the landlady, who just glared at her in return. Misaki rolled her eyes, and pushed open the door, gasping softly as the cold air immediately created a stinging sensation on her cheeks. She wrapped her scarf closer to her face and hurried down the street to the nearby convenience store.

It was a short stop as she just got what she needed to make a decent breakfast meal. She quickly paid for it, trying not to think too hard about the money. She then hurried back out into the cold and hurried to the studio nearby.

Just outside of the studio is where things went strange. Misaki had almost been inside of the building when she felt her feet slip out from underneath of her. She shrieked and squeezed her eyes shut, bracing herself for her making contact with the cold, hard ground. Only, instead of that, she felt strong arms wrap around her waist, holding her up. She managed to steady herself with the support of her rescuer. Once she was stable the person unwrapped their arms. She stepped forward a little and then turned around. A little too quickly unfortunately, as she slipped again. The person who had originally caught her yelped in shock as he watched her fall again. He attempted to catch her, but only ended up being pulled down on top of her.

Surprisingly, her head didn’t make contact with the ground, as the man had managed to get an arm around her head in order to cushion her fall. Misaki groaned lightly and opened her eyes after a moment. Her (attempted) savior’s face was now directly above hers. Misaki suddenly felt extremely hot. Her face had to be bright red at this point. She deliberately looked off to the right of the man, focusing on his ears instead of his face. She opened , but she couldn’t force the words out.

The man’s ears were also turning red, but he seemed to at least able to function. He began to pull his hand out from underneath her head, allowing her to hold it up herself. He then began to stand up, offering a hand to Misaki once he stood up. Misaki accepted the hand and allowed herself to be pulled up. She still did her best to avoid eye contact with the man, instead attempting to find the plastic bag that held her food. It was a little was off from where they were. Thankfully, it looked like everything was intact.

“Thank you.” She mumbled, tucking her hair behind her ear. Misaki could feel the heat radiating off her ears. The man grimaced, looking embarrassed.

“No problem.” He said sheepishly. They stood there for a few more moments, not sure where to go from there. The man cleared his throat and held out his hand to her.

“I’m Daehyun.” He said. Misaki hesitated briefly before placing her hand delicately in his. Her small hand was dwarfed by his. Despite the weather they were very warm.

“Misaki.” She said quietly, finally working up the courage to make eye contact with him. The thing she noticed was that he was very tall. And handsome. If Misaki had to be honest with herself. She blushed again and pulled her hand out of his. They stood there awkwardly for a few moments, before Daehyun cleared his throat and gestured towards the door.

“Shall we?” Misaki nodded and carefully made her way to her food, before making her way towards the building. Daehyun made it to the door before her and held it open for her. Misaki softly thanked him and made her way inside. The warm air washed over her and she sighed in relief. Daehyun followed closely behind. They both made their way to the check in desk, awkwardly keeping pace with each other.

The receptionist couldn’t hide her amused smirk as they made their towards her. Misaki distinctly got the impression that she had witnessed the whole fiasco outside. Misaki didn’t manage to hold back a blush, yet again. But, she did her best to ask for a room without looking completely stupid. She quickly slapped the money down on the counter, desperately wanting to be done with this whole thing.

The woman continued to smirk, but handed over a key to a room without giving her any trouble. Misaki grabbed the key, though maybe a little more roughly than she intended and made her way to the room. She barely managed to remember to give Daehyun a polite bow. She hurried down the hallway and slammed the door shut. She sank down into the chair and put her head in her hands.

“Oh my god.” She whispered. When was she going to stop being such an idiot!? She sighed and yanked her various tools out of her bag. At least she also had food to comfort her. Now all she had to do was to forget about all of that nonsense from before.

Once the food was gone and her stomach was full, she was ready to get to work. She took a deep breath and clicked her pen. She had to do and she couldn’t afford to be distracted by trivial things. She had songs to write and demos to record. Hopefully, She would be able to record a tentative demo for the company. Something that would give them confidence in Minho’s group.

No, her group.

*****

Minho sighed as he slowly came into awareness. The early morning sun was streaming through the two large windows in the room. Minho squinted towards the light, confusion coming over him. His apartment didn’t have uncovered windows. Did it? Did it even have any windows? Suddenly, her couldn’t remember what his apartment even looked like, mainly because he was severely hungover. He grimaced and slowly pushed himself up from the bed. He glanced around at the bedroom. What he saw confused him even more. This was way too nice of an apartment to be his. Or even Honggi’s. What in the hell was even happening? What did he get up to last night? He fought of the instinctual urge to panic and run out of the apartment. Instead, he carefully sat up and slid off the bed. He then began to look around the room, hoping that his clothes were somewhere nearby.

Thankfully, they had been placed rather neatly onto a chest at the end of the bed. He grabbed them and quickly yanked his clothes on. His nose crinkled slightly at the day old club scent that was lingering on his clothes. He patter his pockets looking for his phone. He pulled it out of his back pocket victoriously. Surprisingly it still had a decent amount of battery left, and no missed calls. He frowned slightly before shoving it back into his pocket as he slowly made his way out of the bedroom. He paused at the door and prayed that whoever this apartment belonged to had gone to work. The last thing that he needed right now was an awkward morning after encounter.

He peeked out the door, keeping an eye out for the owner of the apartment. When the coast seemed clear, Minho pulled the door open just enough for him to squeeze through. As he slowly made his way down the hallway he couldn’t help but notice how nice the apartment really was. Everything felt incredibly over the top and fancy. However, it was also extremely sterilized as if it was barely a home.

Minho thought about his and Misaki’s apartment. Though it was small and dingy, they had done their best to make it seem like a home. Something that they both desperately missed having. They had pinned pictures on the wall and filled the studio with their hobbies. And before they knew it, the apartment was filled to the brim with their personalities. A wave of homesickness swept over Minho, and suddenly he missed it more than he ever thought he could. Even though he had just been there the day before. He really should have just gone home last night, but Misaki hated when he drank. So he wouldn’t have been able to release any stress if he had stayed home. He really didn’t didn’t want to think about that disaster of a meeting.

Minho sighed tiredly, so caught up in his own thoughts that he wasn’t able to stop himself from careening straight into another person. In his distraction he hadn’t noticed the owner of the apartment coming out of the kitchen area. He slowly glanced up at the person in front of him, cursing to himself. This was exactly what he was trying to avoid. But now the awkward morning after encounter was a go. He flushed lightly and did his best to backpedal away from the man. All the while avoiding eye contact. The other man laughed lightly and moved closer to him.

“Morning.” The man said, as Minho leaned away from him. The man smirked, as if pleased by the flustered reaction.

“Good morning.” Minho mumbled back, glancing around for an exit. He hoped that the other man would just allow him to leave. He pulled out his phone and looked for a distraction. Just at that moment his phone lit up as an incoming call came through. He in a startled breath as he realized who was calling. He immediately picked up, taking several more steps away from the man.

“Hello!” He said, forcing his voice to sound level.

“Hello.” Came the polite tone of Minwoo’s secretary. “The CEO has scheduled a meeting for tomorrow with you and your group. His instructions were to have the debut song ready.” Minho released a breath.

“Yes, I understand.” Minho said.

“He also said and I quote, ‘this is your last chance, don’t it up.’” She said, her tone not changing at all.

“I won’t, thank you.” Minho said, just as the woman hung up on him. He groaned quietly.

“Oh me.” He hissed under his breath. Now he had to do work today, instead of falling into bed and sleeping off the hangover. Plus, his head was still throbbing! The other man laughed lightly, stepping closer into Minho personal space again.

“If you’d like.” He said, a cocky smirk crossing his face. Minho’s ears went hot. He glanced up at the man, a look of anger and embarrassment crossed his face. The man looked a little caught off guard. He leaned away from Minho, giving him a once over.

“Is there something wrong?” He murmured, Minho looked at him carefully, not sure if he trusted this person at all.

“Uh, there’s nothing wrong.” Minho mumbled, he really needed to leave now, but the man was still blocking his way. “Actually, I really need to leave. Ya know, work to do.” He said quickly, stepping to the side in an attempt to get around the other man. Only, the man blocked his path again. Minho was now starting to panic a little.

“Really? No time for breakfast?” The man asked, sounding a little disappointed.

“Uh, no…sorry.” Minho said, trailing off awkwardly.

“Uh, well, I could always give you a ride to where you’re going!” The man said, a little thrown off by Minho’s reaction. Minho grimaced. It didn’t feel right to ask the man to chauffeur him thirty minutes out of Seoul. Also, he didn’t know the guy. But, he needed to get back as quickly as possible, so that he could work on a song with Misaki. Plus, he was hungry…it couldn’t hurt?

“Well, I appreciate the offer, but I really couldn’t ask something like that of you.” Minho said, “It’s a long drive.”

“Oh!” The man exclaimed, before a pleased smile crossed his face. “I don’t mind! We can stop for food on the way!” He said, smiling warmly. Minho stared at him a bit caught off guard by the enthusiasm.

“Uh, you know what? That’d be great.” He said tiredly, running his fingers through his hair. The man was pra