Chanyeol slept well, waking up early like a kid on Christmas morning too excited for the day ahead.  He woke up and took a shower, feeling good in his entire body for the first real time in weeks.  At 6.25 he left his room silently, waiting for Alexandra, leaning against his door casually for her. 

She emerged a few minutes later, looking tired but charming in an oversized hoodie similar to him, and no makeup at all but still looking radiant.

‘Morning,’ he said brightly at her, unable to control the smile on his face. 

‘Morning,’ she yawned back at him.

‘Tired?’ he asked her, looking down at her as they made their way together through the hallways to the elevator. 

‘Didn’t sleep so well.’ She told him with an edge to her voice.

‘It’s pretty early, but these things tend to have to be.  It’s going to be a long day.’ He told her, trying somewhat to reassure her.

She grunted back at him solemnly, clearly, she was not a morning person, and her grumpiness made him laugh.  She threw him a glare as they got into the elevator.

‘We can eat downstairs, then they will drive us out, we’ll do make up and wardrobe at the location.’ He kept talking to stop himself from laughing at her grumpiness. 

‘Is anyone actually here, in this hotel?’ she asked taking him by surprise.

‘No.  It’s just us.  They are all at the location already.’ He smiled at her coyly.  He hoped she didn’t ask why.    

Throwing him an odd look of affection that he didn’t expect, she asked, ‘Is there coffee?’ as they left the elevator.

‘Yeah,’ he laughed, his face breaking into a wide grin with her innocent question. 

He led them both into a tiny room laid out with white basic table cloths on each of the 6 tiny tables, were the buffet style breakfast was waiting for them.  Chanyeol did not hesitate picking up a plate and filling it to the brim with everything that was on offer.  He was starving, and it was going to be a big, exhausting.  Sensing Alex’s eyes on him as he turned to look at her.

 ‘What?’ he asked her innocently.

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

‘It’s going to be a long day, you should eat a lot too.’ He smiled returning to the heated serving dishes and piling as much on as he could physically get.

He sat down with his two plates and began to dig in.  He knew she was taking her time, but then  it occurred to him she might feel uncomfortable sitting with him.  Pulling out the chair next to him he clearly signalled that she should sit next to him.   

Alex joined him within seconds, but not in the seat he had pulled out for her, but the seat in front of him.  He eyed her for a second, before accepting that she had actually sat with him and leaving it there. 

‘Are you nervous, about the shoot?’ he asked feeling more comfortable with her than ever as he ploughed his way through the mountain of food.

She sipped on her coffee before telling him, ‘A little,’ and pushing the miniscule amount of food she had picked up around her plate.  ‘I haven’t done any modelling, or acting, or anything before.’

‘Yeah, neither had anyone else before they started.’ He responded, hoping it made her feel better.

‘I guess.’ She mumbled as she started eating.

‘Aren’t we supposed to be leaving?’ she asked him, frowning at the time.

‘Yeah at 7.  I told you 6.30 so you would eat first.’ He grinned coyly through his Kimchi stuffed mouth.

There was a small frown playing around her lips at his answer, and he had to smile that she was mildly annoyed, though it wasn’t his intention to annoy her.

‘Where is the – location,’ she asked quietly, eating her own breakfast, her eyes trained on her plate.

‘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 had just finished demolishing both his plates of food. 

‘Ummm, nice,’ he threw his head back, closing his eyes and rubbing his stomach.  She giggled at him, for the first time, a real giggle, he opened his eyes instantly at the noise and grinned back at her.  ‘Are you finished?  We should go outside.’ He told her with a quick check of the time.

‘Yeah,’ she placed the coffee cup back on the table.  He stood up first, leading them both out to the front of the hotel.   

‘Oh wow,’ she breathed into the cold morning air taking in the sunrise over the beach for the first time.

‘It’s nice huh.’ He told her looking out himself at the pink sky.

Unfortunately they didn’t have long to admire the beautiful sunrise as the driver pulled up in front of them.  Chanyeol opened the door for Alex, with a smirk he indicated for her to get in first. 

It didn’t take long to arrive at the cottage that had been arranged for the shoot.  Chanyeol got out first, offering his hand to Alex to help her out again, and made his way inside, politely bowing to all the staff he encountered on his way in as he usually did in these situations.

Hae-soo gave Chanyeol a brief look of amusement before taking Alex in her arms and whisking her away to the back of the house to sort her out with make-up and hair and give her a proper run down of how the day would go.  Chanyeol was directed into the front room by another member of staff, who got to work on his make up and kept talking to him animatedly about the day and the shoot. 

Chanyeol was also approached by Mr Kim, who stopped to talk to him about the angles, the theme and the general way the day of shooting would be going.  It was all quite normal for Chanyeol and he soon relaxed easily, laughing with the staff and feeling confident again.

Hae-soo came to talk to Chanyeol as he was getting changed into his first outfit.

‘So how was the drive?’  She asked him looking over her clip board.

‘Good mostly.’  He told her vaguely.

‘Did you tell her the truth yet?’  She asked him with a raised eyebrow.

‘Not yet.’  He sighed heavily.

‘Chanyeol . . .’ she began.

‘I know, I know. But we are getting along better, don’t worry it’ll be ok.  I will tell her soon.’  Chanyeol implored her.

‘Ok, ok, I trust you.’  Hae-soo told him, leaving to go and set up for the first shot.

Chanyeol had been put into light jeans and a large cream turtle neck jumper.  He was warm, and his hair had been fluffed up softly.  The staff brought him back down into the living room where they were almost ready to start, the film crews were checking lighting, and everyone around him was busy with something.  The make up team fussed around him, making last minute touch up to his lips and skin after he had changed, when Alexandra walked into the room. 

Chanyeol couldn’t help but stare at her as she walked in.  She looked better than ever with what the make up team had done to her.  She still looked like her, but some kind of angelic version of herself.  They left her hair alone mostly, softly curling it a little to give it some movement, and they had placed in her similar clothes to him, a soft wide knit white jumper and blue jeans.  She padded in apprehensively bare foot, taking in all the people and equipment.

Hae-soo brought her over to Chanyeol and explained what they wanted the pair of them to do.  Telling them to look in love Hae-soo’s eyes lingered on Chanyeol, who had to suppress his giggle at her.  Alexandra sat herself down on the sofa, curling her legs up underneath her and opening the book they had given her to pretend to be reading.  As she settled herself, her hair fell into her eyes, hiding her beautiful face away from him.

‘Hey,’ Chanyeol slipped up the couch towards her, reaching out his paw like hand, he brushed the hair from her face behind her