It was like the air from the night had escaped Alexs’ lungs when her wide eyes met Chanyeol’s dark hostile ones. 

‘Chan, where are you going?’ Junmyeon broke the silence first with his easy-going tone.

Chanyeol’s eyes shifted to him, as if he had only just realised Junmyeon was there.

‘Hungry, I’m going for food, and a walk.’ He muttered, barely intelligible. 

Junmyeon guided Alex out of the elevator, with his arm still around her shoulders, as Chanyeol made his way inside, brushing the fibres of Alex’s coat as he passed her.

‘Well be careful, it’s cold out there.’ Junmyeon smiled at him with what seemed like genuine concern.

‘Yeah I will.’ He muttered back.  ‘See you at the weekend, Alexandra.’ He added in a faint voice, his eyes piercing her from under his floppy black hair. 

His words shook Alex out of her bubble of romance with Junmyeon, somewhat bringing her back to reality.  For a second, she stood at the entrance of the elevator, taking in his bowed head, with his puppy dog eyes completely forgetting the video shoot was this weekend. 

As the elevator doors closed, Junmyeons arm weighing a lot more around her shoulder than it did a few seconds ago, he said to her, ‘Oh that’s right, you’re going to be the girl for his video.’

Blinking up at Junmyeon, at his kind eyes, she found her voice ‘Yeah, yeah I am.’

‘I forgot to ask you about it, but Chanyeol told me they loved you down there.  That’s really cool.  I told you, you could have been a model.’ He bumped her side playfully.  He seemed thrilled for her, really sincerely happy she was going to be doing this.  Something about that made her feel heavy.

‘Yeah, I don’t know about model.  Someone approached me on the street and said come down to the casting, so I thought alright then.  I didn’t expect to get it really.’ She mumbled her last sentence to herself, shrugging her shoulders. 

‘Are you joking?  You’re gorgeous!  I wish I could come and be there, support you, and Chanyeol too,’ his head half turned towards where Chanyeol had just left.  ‘But I have to be in the studio this weekend. He’s a good kid, he’ll look after you though,’ He pouted at her as they reached her door.  She wasn’t sure what she should do here.  A few minutes ago, she didn’t want the date to end, and would have gladly invited him in without thinking of the consequences, now she wasn’t sure, and she didn’t want Junmyeon to get the wrong idea. 

‘That’s – ok,’ she told him unsure of her words. 

His arm had slipped from her shoulders, rubbing up and down each of her arms as they stood awkwardly outside her door. 

‘I had a really good time with you, tonight,’ Junmyeon told her, his voice turning low and silky.  She looked up into his eyes, dusky and wanting, looking back at hers, she fell a little bit back into the romantic bubble with him.

‘Thank you, for the whole night, it was- it was much more than I expected.’ She fumbled with the words in her mind, tripping over them as they came out . 

He sighed a smile down at her, moving one of his arms up to her jaw, he trailed a long finger across her chin.  The power of his gentle touch like a bolt of electricity somewhere deep inside Alex. 

‘Thank you for humoring my romantic side,’ he breathed out moving a fraction closer to her.  He bent down, placing a very delicate kiss on her lips.  It was softer than the last time he had kissed her, there was more control, less urgency. 

He stepped back after a second, the pad of his thumb still on her cheek, he sighed, in frustration, in happiness Alex couldn’t tell, but her breath had been stolen from her for now, all she could do was blink back at him. 

‘I will see you soon.’ His low voice vibrated through her, a slight smirk played on his lips where her red lipstick had left its mark.  With a subtle wink he dropped his hands, whispered, ‘Get some sleep,’ and made his way down the hall. 

It made Alex smile, as she let herself into her apartment, the coffee maker and slid out of her leather trousers, that Junmyeon didn’t expect to come in.  His words from earlier in the night rang in her head ‘I want to make up for my ulterior motive.’  Although he didn’t have to make up for anything, she appreciated the sentiment.  He had worked hard to show her he wasn’t interested because she was on the same floor and let him kiss her after meeting her only once. 

After sipping the coffee while wiping the makeup off her face, she climbed into bed, determined to think about the night with Junmyeon and not the look on Chanyeol’s face that kept trying to force its way into the forefront of her mind. 

The next day was Friday, and after not going to the gym all week, and the impending dread of being in a music video clinging to her insides, made her want to get up and at least feel a little better about herself. 

Dragging herself up out of bed, throwing on her gym clothes, she made her way down to work out. 

She was halfway through her running, slightly too fast on the treadmill, out of breath, when Jongin walked in alone. 

She could see him reflected in the ceiling to floor mirror that was in front of her, giving her a side glance and making his way over to the weights. 

She tried to ignore him, absentmindedly pressing the button to increase the speed a little too much, before she knew it she was running way too fast, fumbling with the buttons to try and ease the speed. 

Out of nowhere Jongin was in front of her, with his manly hands pressing the controls to help her. 

‘You need to be careful, you’ll fall off if you go any faster,’ he grinned at her, his full lips stretched back to reveal a set of perfectly straight white teeth, his eyes turned downwards.

Panting she dabbed her face and neck with her towel.  ‘Thanks,’ she felt stretch returning his smile. 

‘Do you always just run, and step when you’re in here?’ he asked her, holding out his hand to help her shakily step off the machine. 

‘Mostly, I like the tempo.’ She told him releasing his overly large hand from her own minuscule. 

‘The tempo?’ he asked, a cute confusion clouding his face.

‘Yeah, you know you get into a rhythm.  It helps me think.’ She told him.

‘Have you ever done any weight stuff?’ he asked falling into step next to her as she directed herself over an empty cross trainer. 

‘No, I didn’t want muscles.’ She felt the need to poke his large arms but managed to hold herself back. 

‘Come on, you won’t get muscles, I’ll spot you.’ He grabbed her hand before she could reach out to the cross trainer, the warmth in his grasp surprising her. 

‘I-but- ‘she spluttered.

‘It’s ok, I’ll help you, I won’t give you anything too heavy.’ He strode over to the weights, sitting her down on a weight b