When she showed up with her bob hair, his inner instinct pushed him to make an eye contact with her, as if she was supposed to be someone else for him. He supposed he almost saw someone else in her, because he still clung on that presence. But when she smiled, that thought of him suddenly dropped.

Jieun looked ordinary.

But she drew him attention.

Everyone in the room would stand up to make an applause for the only lady entering in the room, and she never tried to make it extra. She’d always been that humble. The same smile appeared again in her face, just like other times when someone tried to make a joke out of her, either to make it more entertaining or to . Sometimes, he wondered if that was the genuine smile from her or she tried so hard to restrain her true emotions, like she was afraid of showing it.

When Jiyong turned his head to the screen, the image of a silent figure came to his vision. From his side, he only could see half of her face, that he noticed she’d never looked at anyone else but the screen in front of her. He would wonder how could she stay on that same position for hours, with her hand lowering under the table and her legs tightening as if she was in a conference meeting. He somehow could see a visible shield around her, as if she made it herself to frame her inside it.

Just because they were sitting at two ends of the room did not mean he had her in his vision all the time, but his eyes seemed to prefer moving to the right without his recognition. He found it pretty ridiculous, to have something unmoved attracting him that much. Jiyong could suppose that she was kind of peculiar ?!

Her bob hair actually matched her face, and Jiyong almost thought that was her real hair. When someone asked her if she really cut it for the sake of the performance, Jiyong already doubted it because he was sure that she loved that long hair of her. In response, she grinned and shook her head, as what Jiyong had expected.

When Myungsoo left for his opening stage, Jiyong realized that the right side of his vision centered only her. That even made her become more significant in his eyesight, which frustrated him a bit. He tried to distract himself from that right side and look straight to the screen, but something pulled him back.

Jiyong, once again, while telling himself it would be the last time doing this, turned his head this time straight to his right side. From this side, she even looked more inattentive. Her face showed no expressions, or to him, that was the face of non-expressions. While everyone was enjoying the EDM performance (and Jiyong was getting distracted from the performance), she looked extra-uninvolved in the crowd. Perhaps her only being in the table was the reason, but Jiyong felt like that was not the only reason.

Something in her face wanted to express something, but he couldn’t see it. Like always, something in her face told that she wanted to be involved in the crowd, but maybe she was not allowed. He supposed she didn’t allow herself to do that. And when she did, her smile looked awkward, and that could made people misunderstand if they didn’t know her enough.

Jieun was, uncomfortable. Or Jiyong found her uncomfortable, he couldn’t distinct it.

When Jiyong finished his song, he almost forgot about the special stage that they had to be prepared after the third performance. Maybe he was getting the feeling of performing at the very last of every concert, and the fact that he still had to put up with the next concert just wore him out. When she passed by, Jieun made a polite bow to him without any words. She should have said something, but she didn’t. Jiyong bowed back, without hesitance.

But, something inside of him pushed him into words.

“Good luck.”

However, he made it become a less-humble line when he gave her a smirk along. He didn’t mean to do that. He just did.

She smiled again. But, he supposed it was not the same smile that he saw for the last few weeks. But, he denied it, thinking how stupid he was to believe that she gave him a different smile.

When he ran off to change his clothes, he heard her song came up. In a second, not getting able to see her performance did make him feel a bit remorseful. She could do better than the rehearsal itself, and he wanted to see if she would make another surprise to the audience, to the fact he supposed she could threaten his previous stage.

And to that point, when he’d done getting ready and at the same time heard a familiar sound of EDM, Jiyong insensibly smirked.

“She must hate it.”

Maybe he was wrong, but he supposed he could read her mind.

Jiyong found himself unconsciously waiting for her arrival when he impatiently switched from playing games to checking social media on his phone. And when she came, Jiyong tried to become less distracted from his phone. But this time, Jieun politely greeted him, to his surprise.

The room became more crowded and chattering, not of course because of her, but Myungsoo’s jokes. When Jiyong continued some non-sense conversations with Myungsoo, she was getting ready in silence. Somehow, it made her almost become an invisible existence, to the point Jiyong told himself to quit noticing her since she acted that way (and maybe she wanted people to treat her that way). But, in contrast, she only made him wonder more about how she tried to manage her presence that way.

When Myungsoo said some jokes that was not actually funny, she laughed softly and he hated it. He supposed she tried to be polite to Myungsoo while finding it boring like him, but he also supposed that maybe it was the kind of jokes she liked. Then, he decided just to laugh along. She might affect him, or not.

When she stepped out getting ready for the stages, he realized that her hair was no longer short. Weirdly, he almost thought it was a wig, despite the fact he had seen her long hair for a long time and in many occasions, either in photos or in reality. Maybe, the image of short hair became too familiar to him, and maybe when she was with her short hair, his inner mind had thought about her (not Jieun) and mixed the feelings, which he knew it was so wrong to have such a thought like that.

Before making an entrance, Jiyong decided to make the atmosphere less awkward, although he never did think it was awkward. Maybe he did think that she thought it was awkward.

“Let’s do well.” He put a small smile with a small sound from his nose.

She smiled again. And.

This time, Jiyong was sure that it was the same smile before, the smile that he thought he was misapprehending it.

She managed to stand out in her own way, despite the fact that this song was not hers. Jiyong was never being biased, but he could tell that she nailed it. But, it was no surprises either. She was one of the most recognized artists, so he supposed the performance’s reaction was expected.

“Good job, Jieun ah.” When the words came out of his mouth, he expected a pure response (a blush) from her. Because, shouldn’t every girl be flustered if they got called by their real names?

But, to his surprise, she only smiled.

“Thank you, sunbaenim. You did well too.”

And, she quickly escaped from his vision. Not that she moved, but he just passed by her as quick as he could.

Jiyong supposed, maybe she just did it in her own way and he just didn’t give her the chance to do it.

All the seniors were having fun at the after-party while Jiyong was trying to get uninvolved in the crowd getting crazy and having fun. Despite the pulls from Kwanghee, and sometimes from Youngbae, and sometimes from many other seniors, Jiyong felt like he didn’t fit it this atmosphere. And maybe, because he was sitting next to her.

It was a big table, and the fact that she sat next to Hyukoh, and Zion.T and him in the other side, with her face being uncomfortable (or less than before since the camera was off). And, she would only (or maybe just most of the time) talk to Hyukoh, the one she claimed she was his band’s fan.

But at the moment when they stopped talking, Jiyong felt the urge of starting a conversation, just a normal one.

“Jieun ah, did you have fun?”

When he spoke up, she suddenly turned her face completely to him, to which he felt like the table looked like it had split into two groups: him and her in one group, and the rest in another.

“I did. It was fun. And you, sunbaenim?” She relaxed her words and he found it more comfortable to look at her.

“It was.” He cut his answer short, was afraid if he looked like he was too interested in this conversation.

Then he thought, that was going to be the end of it. This conversation and their interaction.

“Sunbaenim… must be busy, then?” She continued, with a five-second pause.

“Hm?” He lifted his eyebrow, as a part of the question, despite it was not really a question.

“BIGBANG… you guys still have tours, right?”

He paused to look at her. Jiyong almost forgot that she had a huge crush on his best friend, who was having fun over there with the seniors (or being forced to stay there by the seniors). And, she was known for being a BIGBANG’s fan. She did say that to him, but maybe the fact that she had managed to rise into the same (or almost the same) level of him (or BIGBANG) had temporarily erased things on his mind, things like she was a fan of his band and things like she used to adore Youngbae so publically.

“Ah yeah. We still have until next year, I guess.”

“Your album is really good, sunbaenim.” She gave him that smile again, and he wondered what was the real reason behind it. “I enjoy it really much.”

In a second, receiving a praise from someone like her made him proud, but then he told himself to quit it since she was in fact just being a fan.

“Thank you.”

He managed to end the conversation because he wanted to take a rest from thinking about this whole thing, and just to leave. He supposed that he had put his guard off pretty far from where he had never done it anyway. He supposed these things would soon fade away, just like other times.

“Sunbaenim, do well on your tour.” She leaned her head on the left to her shoulder, when Jiyong straightened his back, getting ready to leave.

He paused to look at her, thinking it might be a serendipity to have a wishing note from someone like her, a successful artist. And, he found her words somehow introspective.

In the end, without any words, he just smiled, and left right away.

He was sure that was the end. He supposed that was the only time that they did pass by each other. They had done it before, encountering each other in other events, but maybe that was the only one time that they did have an interaction that left him some feelings, either good or bad, either positive or negative, he didn’t want to confirm. But he had never thought of, even in the deepest of his inner mind, that they would again be crossing paths and meeting each other again.

Maybe life was unexpected. Maybe things happened when you least expected.