Back at the cottage, Hae-soo couldn’t be more thrilled with the footage they had amassed so far.  All the parts with Alex, the flashbacks, feature only minutely in the video, but it was still good to know that they were happy with it. 

Food was distributed to the entire staff and everyone downed tools to eat.  Alex ate with Chanyeol, and the makeup staff, who he had in fits of laughter telling them some story.  She couldn’t help but smile along, even though she didn’t understand.  His exaggerated gestures and facial expressions giving more away than any words ever could. 

Once the food had finished, and the light had dulled outside, Alex was being prodded and poked by the makeup team again and asked to change, but only her trousers, not the baby blue shirt. 

Chanyeol had not changed his clothes, but his make up had been carefully reapplied as they were directed into one of the bedrooms upstairs.  The room was small, with one large single paned window overlooking the sea.  A huge, dark wood, fourposter bed sat in the middle of the room, adorned with frilly blue and white floral sheets.  A faded lavender lounge chair sat under the window overlooking the bed. 

Alex was asked to pretend to be asleep.  Chanyeol would carry her in a fireman’s lift into the room, place her on the bed, and sit next to her.  She was not to open her eyes until the music stopped. 

The camera crew inside the room situated themselves as she stood awkwardly in the doorway with Chanyeol.  ‘Ready?’ he asked looking down at her. 

Her voice had strangely left her, so all she could do was nod mutely. 

He bent, easily cradling her up into his arms, ‘Put one arm around my neck,’ he told her in a hushed tone.  She obliged, though she had touched him a lot today, this was feeling slightly too intimate. 

‘Rest your head into me, and close your eyes,’ he followed, his head turned down towards her.

She did as she was told, finding a crook in his chest she felt comfortable letting herself relax into, sinking deeper into him, and she softly closed her eyes. 

Chanyeol spoke to the crew, and the music started.  He didn’t move immediately, but then slowly, he walked forwards, she lolled with the movements, trying to emulate sleep and be as limp as possible.  She heard the floorboards creak under their combined weight, and then felt him bend, placing her down into the softness of the bed.  Her head lolled in the opposite direction of Chanyeol, but she daren’t move, fearing they would have to do this all again.  She felt Chanyeol’s weight cause the bed to dip beside her, and then a finger trailing over her forehead, and down her cheek.  His hands left her, feeling cold and empty, but the music was still playing, guessing they still needed another shot she kept her face placid, trying desperately not to flutter her eyelashes, she counted down the seconds until the music was turned off. 

She didn’t have to wait long, but with her eyes closed and 10 people around her it felt a long longer.  Opening her eyes to the lack of music, Chanyeol had disappeared from the room, replaced by Hae-soo who told her everything was perfect.

The rest of the afternoon was spent filming Chanyeol only.  Since her parts were more of a ‘flash-back’ thing, he was filmed again, in the same spots that she had been filmed with him, alone, looking sad in the dim late afternoon light.  The whole atmosphere changed with the setting winter sun.  What was bright and clear in the morning, suddenly changed to feel like a Sunday night when you can’t relax because you know you have to get up and start work again the next day. 

Alex was given her hoodie back, so at least she could wrap up and keep warm as she watched them, from the director’s desk where they housed the monitors, filming Chanyeol. 

They started in the living room, he was sat on the sofa, touching the book she had been ‘reading’.  Then filmed in the kitchen, were the cake and tools had been removed, and it just looked bare and uninviting.  Chanyeol’s fingers traced the countertops, as he stepped solemnly around the small area. 

He was filmed back in the bedroom, from the lounge chair this time, staring at the empty bed, and then finally they took him outside where he walked the same length of beach, his hands stuffed in his pockets, occasionally stopping to look out at the ocean, where the sun was gently starting to set on the horizon.  Chanyeol was a true professional, he never looked in her direction once, totally engrossed in the task he had to do. 

They had to wait, for the light to fully disappear from the sky to film the last scene, the one where she was fighting with him.   

‘While we are setting up lighting in here, we want you to go upstairs and practice with him, so when we film no one hurts themselves.’ Hae-soo had explained as she was helping Alex change for the last time.  She was back in the dark blue jeans, but now she was wearing a pale blush pink jumper and given a cream coat. 

Making her own way upstairs, she found Chanyeol in one of the unused bedrooms, there was only one tiny bed in here, unmade, only a bare aging pink mattress on top of a plain wooden frame.  Looking around this room was in much the same state as the rest of the house, peeling white wallpaper, and damp stains in the ceiling.  As the light outside had finally died, this room felt very eerie, a single lamp in the corner of the room didn’t throw a lot of light around, causing most of the room to be cast in shadow.

‘Hi,’ she made her presence known as she walked in.

He looked around at her, waiting for her to continue.

‘Er, they are setting up lights, Hae-soo said I should come, and practice fighting with you.’ She didn’t know why the words tasted so sour on her tongue.

‘Oh, ok sure.’ His face relaxed as he faced her.  ‘Ok, so, um, ‘you’re leaving me’, you are angry with me, and we’re fighting’ he told her, his face giving her a weird look.

‘Um,’ she shuffled, ‘so why am I angry, why am I leaving?’ she asked trying to gauge what kind to angry to be.  He stared at her without saying anything.  ‘If I can understand the concept of it better, I can try and play it better.’ She clarified, clearing .

‘Oh, yeah, that makes sense,’ he sat on the small bed, ‘So, the song is about when you’re first in love, but then you take them for granted, so much so you lose them.  It’s not so much he did this, she did that, just when you forget to love them completely they have no choice but to leave.’ He explained.

Alex knew this feeling all too well, a sense of unwanted déjà vu crept over her, shaking herself, she nodded.  ‘Ok, so we need to be arguing?’ she asked, still rooted to the spot. 

He stood up and walked over to her, too close.  She stepped back, into the dying wallpaper of the wall, he put one hand up leaning against the wall, staring down at her the same way he had when she had shouted at him in the hall. 

‘You want me, you love me so much it consumes you, your entire being.  But I’m such a jerk, such a horrible bastard to you, that love is tainted now, it rips you apart, I’ve broken you,’ he whispered with his head bent so slow next to her face.  She swallowed a hard lump down the back of as his words washed over her,  ‘I don’t understand why you’re so mad, what I’ve done to cause this, so I’m mad too, I’ve been playing games with you, trying, I’m pulling you back, trying to keep you, but the harder I’m pulling the more you want to run, - maybe to someone else who hasn’t treated you that way,’ his voice was so soft, his words so real, like it had already happened.

‘So, when I do this-,’ he bent to kiss her cheek, his lips almost scraping her skin, she jerked back, wide-eyed at him, stepping out of his reach towards the door.  He reached out, grabbing her wrist, tighter than he had touched her all day, his words on replay around her head, she threw his grasp off her like he was a bug she couldn’t stand crawling on her skin.

His eyes were narrowed, like every other time she had seen him back in the apartment block.  The