Chapter 7: Honeymoon.

Daehyun went to Lotte World outdoor section with the castle that looked very Disney-inspired like Himchan told him. Hyoseong and her staff were ready to take pictures. The place was surrounded by lights and cameras. Daehyun’d never seen so many cameras; there were digital cameras, mirrorless cameras, action cameras, film cameras, his inner photographer felt like paradise.

    “So you're the new model, I'm Hyoseong, the head photographer” a woman approached him with a smile.

    “I'm Park Dasom, nice to meet you, noona, I mean unnie” Daehyun bowed to her thoughtfully.

    “You can call me Hyoseong” she looked around for her assistant “Hey, Jongup, come here!”

    Jongup was cleaning the camera lenses, but he left everything and rushed to Hyoseong.

    “He's Jongup, my assistant” Hyoseong introduced Jongup to Daehyun “and she’s our new model, Dasom”

    “Hi” Jongup extended his hand to Dasom; he’d never seen a girl as beautiful as her.

    “Hi” Dasom said with her baby pink lips as she grasped Jongup’s hand to shake it.

    “Let’s get this photo shoot started” Hyoseong said “It’s your first time, right?”

    “Yes, I’ve never done a photo shoot”

    “Nevermind, imagine that you’re having fun in the park, just walk around, smile, admire the landscape, make cute faces… But never look at the camera; we want the photos to turn out casual and smooth”

    “I got it” Dasom closed her eyes and sighed heavily before walking among the buildings in the shape of castle. However, she didn’t get to go too far, because of the heels she fell spectacularly against the ground.

    Daehyun gritted his teeth to keep from screaming in frustration, it was the millionth time he fell thanks to the heels, plus, the dress was too tight and gave him a hard time to move, everytime he made a move, he felt like a robot.

    “Are you ok?!” Jongup ran breathlessly towards her.

    “Yes” Daehyun said, holding back the tears of pain.

    “Take my hand” Jongup offered his hand to a puzzled Daehyun.

    “Why?” Daehyun frowned with suspicion.

    “So I can help you to stand up” Jongup said “It’s the right thing to do, when someone falls you help them to get up”

    “I know right!” Daehyun took Jongup’s hand and he helped him to get off the ground. For a moment they were very close to each other, but Daehyun didn’t feel awkward at all, Jongup was a nice guy unlike Youngjae.

    Everytime Daehyun fell; Youngjae just looked at him with spite, instead of giving him a helping hand.

    “Are you fine?!” Hyoseong shouted from her spot.

    “Yes!” Daehyun shouted back.

    “Let's start over! This time walk carefully!”

After taking pictures outdoors, they went to the carrousel to take more.

    “Where's the boyfriend?!” Hyoseong asked “I'm going to kill Kim Himchan! Where’s the other model?!”

    “Here he is!” Himchan showed up with a giant teddy bear.

    “Where?”

    “Here! Right in front of you!” Himchan said, the teddy bear’s head.

    “Hi, noona, I'm Zelo” the teddy bear waved his hand clumsily.

    “Zelo? Why are you in a costume?”

    “This shoot is about Dasom, Zelo is just an extra” Himchan said “Besides, Ego is endorsing a collection of stuffed animals, so I thought Zelo would look good dressed up as a bear”

    “I thought Zelo would sport a white suit to match Dasom, but you're the stylist” she shrugged and grabbed the teddy bear’s arm and dragged him towards Dasom “Here’s your boyfriend”

    “My what?” Dasom said, opening her eyes wide.

    Daehyun wasn’t sure whether someone was inside the costume or it was just a big toy, so he took a closer look, and the teddy bear shook its hand and said:

    “Hello”

    “You are alive!” Daehyun startled.

    “He, he, he, I’m Zelo, nice to meet you, Himchan told me about you, noona, I’m excited to work with you”

    He called me noona, so he's younger than me. Daehyun was curious about the person inside the costume and he assumed Zelo was an attractive guy, after all, he was a model and all the models were hot.

    “Less talk, more action!” Hyoseong said “Dasom, get on the horse and Zelo, stand beside her with a bouquet of roses”

    Daehyun fought to get on the horse. He felt that the dress was going to rip at any time. Zelo tried to help her, but he couldn’t even move on his own properly. The teddy bear’s head was too big and he had to hold it with both hands to keep it from falling off. But eventually they did the photos and they came out good, and then they headed to the next location to get a few more shots, this time it was a Coffee Shop, Zelo changed into a dog costume with fluffy ears while Dasom changed her white dress for a light blue one. And they pretended to share an ice cream.

    And so on, they took thousands of photos, finishing at 9:00 at night. Himchan and Daehyun came back to the room and the stylist helped him undress and remove the wig and the makeup. Daehyun took a quick shower and got ready to go, but was stopped by Himchan.

    “Hyoseong invited us to Hard Rock for dinner”

    “Tell her thanks, but I have to go to the newspaper to keep cleaning the storage room” Daehyun said “I organized the newspapers by year last night, now I have to sweep, mop and polish the floor, the walls, windows, door…”

    “You haven’t eaten a thing, stay and have a bite”

    “I’d like to, but can not”

    Himchan sighed as he saw Daehyun leaving. Then Zelo showed up, still in the costume.

    “Himchan hyung, I can’t get out of this, the zipper is broken!”

    “Ha, that’s why I always have pliers handy!” Himchan helped Zelo and they went to the restaurant where everybody was already eating hamburgers and French fries.

    “Where is Dasom?” Jongup asked expectantly.

    “She left for work” Himchan said.

    “She has another job? That’s hardworking” Hyoseong said with admiration “We were looking at today’s photo shoot, there’s a lot of amazing pictures, I don’t know which ones to choose for the website”

    “I’d choose all of that!” Himchan was proud of his creation, Dasom was handsome and photogenic and everybody fell for her.

    “Hey” a male voice said and everybody turned to see Youngjae standing before them.

    “Oh, Youngjae, what are you doing here?” Hyoseong asked.

    “I know what he’s doing here” Himchan grinned playfully “I’m sorry to say that Dasom isn’t here, she hurried to the newspaper, didn’t even eat”

    “What the? I came with my girlfriend; I didn’t even know Dasom was here!”

    “Really? Where’s your girlfriend?” Himchan said.

    “She’s over there talking with her friends!”

    Everyone looked at the giant plant Youngjae pointed at.

    “Your girlfriend is a plant” Himchan made fun of him.

    “Nahyun is behind the plant!” Youngjae said.

    “Join us” Hyoseong said.

    “We already ate, in fact we were leaving” Youngjae said “I just came by to say hi”

    “We were looking at the photos with the new model” Hyoseong showed the tablet to Youngjae.

    Youngjae looked at the photos, his heart beat wildly when he saw the cute faces that Dasom made, but the photos he liked the most were the ones with her laughing. There were pics of Zelo in a tiger costume and Dasom in a white shirt and blue jeans holding hands and skating. Even though Zelo was a great skater, he constantly fell through the ice because of the costume and Dasom laughed aloud.

    “Here’s the list with Dasom’s favorite things” Hyoseong gave Youngjae a piece of paper “We’ll post her profile once we choose the best photos”

    “Favorite food… Cheesecake… She’s so ordinary” Youngjae read the list and sighed “All you people have done a terrific job, order anything you like, it’s on me”

Youngjae took Nahyun home and he set out to go his when he passed a bakery and he remembered Dasom went to the newspaper without eating anything.

Daehyun wore a mask that covered his nose and mouth and submerged the mop into the bucket with hot water and bleach, the storage was the dirtiest place he’d never been before, it was like no one ever cleaned it so far. Daehyun suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder; he turned around to face the intruder. To his surprise, the intruder was Youngjae; they stared at each other for the longest time until Youngjae decided to speak:

    “Excuse me; I thought you were someone else”

    Daehyun moved his shoulder releasing himself from Youngjae’s grip.

    “This is private property, who let you in?” Daehyun touched his face to make sure the mask covered his face enough so Youngjae couldn’t find out the truth.

    “The security guard let me in”

    “He let you in? What the hell? What if you’re a murder or a thief?!”

    “I’m none of those” Youngjae approached Daehyun.

    Daehyun stepped back and pointed the mop at Youngjae.

    “Don’t come any closer; I hate strangers invading my personal space” Daehyun said “One more step and I’ll make you kiss the mop!”

    “Ok” Youngjae put his hands up. One of his hands carried a plastic bag “I came to see Dasom”

    “She isn’t here” Daehyun looked at the ceiling, avoiding Youngjae’s gaze.

    “It’s rude you don’t look others in the eye when you’re talking”

    “You’re rude too”

    “Have we met?” Youngjae stepped forward.

    “I warned you!” Daehyun smacked the mop against Youngjae’s face.

    “You’re crazy!” Youngjae screamed as his face got beaten by the wet and muggy mop, he even swallowed a piece of cloth from the mass of coarse strings.

    Daehyun tried to apologize, but it was too funny, he laughed hysterically while Youngjae squealed.

    “Argh! I don’t even know why I’m here!” Youngjae glared at him “You’re a psycho!!!” Youngjae threw the bag in the trash and left.

    “You deserved it” Daehyun stuck his tongue out and reached the trash and retrieved the bag.

    Inside was a slice of cheesecake, ramyeon and sparkling water.

    “Did he come to bring me food?!” Daehyun said in shock “Now I regret hitting him so hard” Daehyun found a note at the bottom “Good work, you did it very well… Hell… Next time I’ll beat him up with less force”