Alex cursed loudly into the darkness when her alarm clock rang out breaking her comfortable sleep.  She had maybe 3 hours sleep, after she tossed and turned trying to switch her brain off and find unconsciousness. 

It was 5.30am, still dark outside, and cold.  She heaved herself up, dragging herself into the shower, so she could be ready to go downstairs at 6.30am.  Hae-soo had told her they would have a wardrobe for her, and make up, so she didn’t bother thinking too hard about either.  It was too cold to really think about her clothes, so throwing on a warm pair of black sweats, a black top and an oversized hoodie she left the tiny room.  Chanyeol was stood outside his room, leaning backwards, with his leg raised on the door when she entered the non-descript hall way.

‘Morning,’ he chirped a little too brightly. 

Alex didn’t have the energy to decipher what he was doing out there, so yawning she replied, ‘morning.’

‘Tired?’ he asked her, taking in her unusually, overly casual appearance.

‘Didn’t sleep so well.’ She told him grudgingly.

‘It’s pretty early, but these things tend to have to be.  It’s going to be a long day.’ He said as they began walking towards the elevator together. 

As Alex rubbed her eyes she noticed Chanyeol was dressed pretty casually too, same kind of over sized hoodie that swamped his vast frame. 

She grunted in reply, desperate to get some coffee down her neck as he chuckled at her.  She gave him a glare, who was this Chanyeol and why had she never met him before?

‘We can eat downstairs, then they will drive us out, we’ll do make up and wardrobe at the location.’ He kept talking, explaining things. 

‘Is anyone actually here, in this hotel?’ she asked him grumpily.

‘No.  It’s just us.  They are all at the location already.’ He smiled.  He was a puppy again, and she felt the need to reach out and pat him, mostly though, to tell him to be quiet.

‘Is there coffee?’ she asked, leaving the elevator.

‘Yeah,’ he laughed, his face breaking into a wide toothy grin.  It was the Chanyeol she had expected to have met, but who had been hiding so far. 

She followed him down the hall way into a tiny room.  On a huge white table opposite, there was a buffet breakfast laid out, everything from Kimchi to bacon, and most importantly, a pot of coffee waiting to be drank. 

She followed Chanyeol as he picked up a plate and began piling food up high.  She paused as she watched him cram unbelievable amounts of food into every bit of available space on the plate. Sensing her gaze, he stopped, looking innocently down at her.

‘What?’ he asked incredulously.

‘That’s a lot of food.’ She told him eyeing the food.

‘It’s going to be a long day, you should eat a lot too.’ He smiled returning to the heated serving dishes.  It looked like Chanyeol had some of everything they had to offer, and then more. 

Alex looked around the room, there were not many tables, maybe 6, all adorned with perfectly pressed white sheets and rickety chairs.  Chanyeol already had two plates and had sat down on a table not too far away.  She picked up a white circular plate and picked up some eggs, bacon and tomatoes.  She couldn’t really eat a lot in the morning, this was already more than she was used to and of course, a big cup of coffee.  She turned from the buffet, not really sure if she should sit next to Chanyeol or one of the other conspicuously empty tables around him.  She had taken one step forward towards a separate table when Chanyeol pulled out the chair next to him, clearly indicating she should sit there. 

Thankful she didn’t have to think about it she sat down, though not in the chair next to him, but in the chair opposite.  He gave her a strange side look and shrugged as she began stirring sugar into the coffee instead of eating. 

‘Are you nervous, about the shoot?’ he asked, his words muffled by the copious amounts of food he was shovelling in.

Frowning at his table manners she sipped the coffee, instantly feeling life being awoken inside her.

‘A little,’ she pushed the food around her plate.  ‘I haven’t done any modelling, or acting, or anything before.’

‘Yeah, neither had anyone else before they started.’ He told her, washing his food down with a tall glass of orange juice.

‘I guess.’ She mumbled as she started to eat through the food.  Looking at the time, it was 6.35.

‘Aren’t we supposed to be leaving?’ she asked him.

‘Yeah at 7.  I told you 6.30 so you would eat first.’ He grinned, his mouth full of Kimchi.

Frowning at his trick, she didn’t comment.  He was in such a good mood, and she had to play nice with him today, causing an argument wasn’t high on her list of things she had to do today.  She got back to eating her food in silence, while Chanyeol noisily bull-dozed his way through his.

‘Where is the – location,’ she chose her words carefully.

‘It’s about a 15-minute drive from here, an old house on the beach, they’ll be setting it up right now.’ He told her.

‘Oh ok,’ she mumbled finishing the food she had picked up and getting back to the coffee.  Chanyeol was just finishing his second plate. 

‘Ummm, nice,’ he threw his head back, closing his eyes and rubbed his stomach.  She giggled at him, for the first time, she felt really comfortable with his weirdness.  He opened one eye at her giggles and grinned. He looked at the watch on his wrist and asked her ‘Are you finished?  We should go outside.’

‘Yeah,’ placing the coffee cup back on the table, she stood and followed him out into the cold. 

She hadn’t realised it, but the hotel was over looking the ocean, the sun had not risen yet, but it was trying, light breaking unevenly across the water.

‘Oh wow,’ she breathed into the cold morning air.

‘It’s nice huh.’ He told her looking out himself.

They didn’t have long to stand around and ogle the beautiful scenery before the same driver as the night before pulled up, and Chanyeol opened the door, indicating Alex should get in first. 

He was right, it was a short drive, they wound along the empty coastal road, and pulled up to a very old looking house.  She was taken back by it, it looked almost like a typical English thatched cottage.  Not at all what she was expecting to find in Korea.  Outside was littered with people, cameras, equipment, lighting, things she had no name for, and the nerves of what she was expected to do started to find their way up . 

Chanyeol jumped out first, waiting again for Alex with his hand outstretched for her to steady herself.  He walked off up the path, saying hello brightly and bopping to bow to everyone he passed, each person stopping their task to bow deeply towards him.  Alex followed like a lame puppy, smiling and nodding awkwardly as the staff took her in, bowing towards her too. 

As she got up to the main entrance of the cottage, she noticed the details of the building, the faded blue colour of the paint outside was peeling off, revealing a light grey, crumbling, concrete underneath.  The door was old, wooden, painted an equally diminishing yellow, with brightly coloured panes of glass at the top.  The whole place smelled salty, and damp. 

She stepped inside after Chanyeol, and was greeted by a bubbling excited Hae-soo.

‘Alex, how was the trip?’ she asked, without pausing to hear an answer, she directed her through the hallway of the house.  The decorations were fading, a floral wall paper beginning to peel away from the walls as it opened into a large kitchen at the back of the house.  It reminded Alex of something you would find in the country, broken grey stone floor, wooden white wash cabinets, and a huge table.  ‘So, you’re doing make up here, and then upstairs they have wardrobe for you ok?’ she explained, pushing her into a chair.  Two women busied themselves around her, pulling at her hair, bits of her face to apply make up as Hae-soo handed her a sheet.

‘This is the filming order, the way we are doing the scenes, study it.’ And she left leaving her to be feasted on by the make up women. 

Looking over the sheet, it was written, and there were some sketches.  They were doing filming inside the house at first, on the sofa, in the bedroom, even in the kitchen.  She looked over at where there was a stove, a sink, and noticed food and cooking equipment.  She was to be reading on the sofa, and Chanyeol would take the book from her and tickle her, in the bedroom, she needed to pretend to sleep, Chanyeol would hold her and place her into the bed, and lay next to her, and in the kitchen, it looked like they had to been cooking together, but get – well – messy. 

She swayed feeling nervous.  There were timings for everything, including breaking for lunch, and filming into the evening.  The evening filming was where they would fight, and she would run out of the house.  There were big breaks in filming, for her, where obviously they were going to take Chanyeol only. 

Hae-soo came back not 30 minutes later and explained how the filming would work.  Most of the camera angles were designed to highlight Chanyeol, obviously, so