The journey back to the cottage seemed to take less time than it did to make their way up the beach than Chanyeol would have liked.  He was almost disappointed with the happy ecstatic face of Hae-Soo telling them with childlike excitement how well the shots were that they got from their stroll. 

Chanyeol was thankful at least that it was lunchtime and everyone stopped to eat.  Though he had eaten a huge amount for breakfast his hunger had never been that easy to sedate so he found himself willingly tucking into the none descript boxes of food that had been handed around.  To his sheer delight, Alex was sat with him, and a few of the other staff members to eat.  Although she didn’t participate in the conversation, (where Chanyeol was relaying a story about Baekhyun and a large spider) which he knew she wouldn’t understand anyway, he could tell every time his eyes glanced by her she was enjoying herself.

The day seemed to be flying past Chanyeol at a warp speed he was not particularly fond of.  As they had all finished eating, and the dying winter sun had cast a dark shadow over the day, he was whipped away to have make-up reapplied, and his hair restyled after being in the wind not a few hours ago.   

The next scene was where Chanyeol would be putting a sleeping Alex to bed, cradling her in his arms, as if she had fallen asleep downstairs and he was moving her.  The scene was supposed to convey her innocence, and his devotion but sadness within the song. 

The camera crew inside the room had situated themselves and checked for lighting and god knows what else as Hae-soo explained to Chanyeol the markers he was due to hit.  She told him Alex had been directed to keep her eyes closed as long as possible. 

‘Ready?’ he had asked, as softly as he could owing to the look on Alex’s face.  She had this blank expression as if she wasn’t sure where she was anymore.  She nodded once, keeping her eyes straight ahead of her on the half closed battered door.

Chanyeol didn’t hesitate as he bent down and picked her up as lightly as if he was carrying a very delicate bag of rice.

‘Put one arm around my neck,’ he told her in a hushed tone, feeling how awkward and tense she had become in his arms.  She obliged, though she kept her eyes resolutely focused forward.

Chanyeol on the other hand could not keep his eyes off her as he told her, ‘Rest your head into me, and close your eyes.’ It was easy for him to fall back into this role, and as she followed his instructions, nestling her head into his chest, he thought he may cry at how beautiful she looked as she closed her eyes.

‘Ready,’ he spoke out to the crew waiting behind the door to pull the lever for him, so it would open smoothly, and he didn’t have to push himself in with Alex in his arms in some haphazard fashion.  He heard Hae-soo call for action as the music started, and he counted in his head, along with the beat of the music, moving forward deliberately, looking down at Alex caringly, trying his best not to be his clumsy self and drop her, or worse bash her head against the door frame.    

The dying afternoon light was filtering into the room eerily, making it look like he was putting to bed his sick and dying wife than a lover who had fallen asleep.  The thought, took him back to her apartment after she had fallen on the ice, making his heart feel heavy and wistful.  He placed her down as gently as he could and true to character, she kept her eyes closed easily, not one flutter of an eyelash giving her away as being awake.  Her head lolled in the opposite direction of Chanyeol naturally.  He was disappointed, but he knew Director Kim would love it, as all the cameras were lined up along that wall.  The bed was old and creaky and gave way to his weight a lot more than Alex’s when he sat down next to her, watching her carefully as she pretend slept. He reached over to her face, softly as he could hooking a strand of hair away from her eyes and allowing his cold finger tips to trail down the side of her face slowly.  His hands left her wishing they didn’t have to, he stood up slowly, knowing the camera was following his face and look of sorrow, he sighed longingly before he turned and left, twisting his head once over his shoulder to give her once last lingering look.

As soon as he closed the door over behind him, the music stopped playing and Hae-soo rushed past him into the room with a wink and a thumb up.  A soft chuckle escaped him as he went into the next room to replay the footage with the director.

The rest of the afternoon was spent filming Chanyeol only.  In the ever-increasing darkness that was rapidly stealing the day away from him, he had to recreate a lot of the scenes from earlier.  Though this time alone, sad, and lost.  It wasn’t hard for him to look this way; the start of the day had definitely been a lot more fun playing about with Alexandra the way his heart constantly begged of him.  The greyness of the afternoon felt like slipping back into the misery coma that had followed him since he failed to talk to Alex that morning at the coffee shop and Junmyeon got there first.

Alex had been given her clothes back, since she wasn’t needed again until way into the evening for the final scene.  She sat with Director Kim and Hae-soo behind the monitors watching as they started in the living room where he sat on the sofa, touching the book she had been ‘reading’ earlier in the day.  He smiled subtly at the memory this book evoked from him, remembering how she tasted and the look in her eyes as he took her breath away.  He then forced himself to remember how she looked with Junmyeon draped around her, when Chanyeol was at his lowest point and the pain in his chest became very real.  The sting of hot tears threatening to ruin his perfectly applied make-up, he put the book down and held his head in his hands, forcing himself to think of something else.    

They followed this scene with a recreation of the kitchen scene, the natural decaying light made the room feel abandoned and sad, as he slowly took controlled steps around the bare kitchen, tracing his fingertips over the countertops.  His mind wandering to Alex’s apartment, when he was cooking for her, waiting and checking every 6 seconds for her to wake up from her fall.  He concentrated on how his heart ached for her to wake up, so he could see the gleam of life in her blue eyes and channelled that feeling onto his face.   

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, this time alone, capturing the moment the sun finally set on this rollercoaster of a day.  He stood on the side of the ocean, allowing the salty air to fill his lungs, staring out into the abyss of orange, pink and muted blue.  Unwillingly an image of Junmyeon and Alex playing around in the same way they had earlier began to form in the forefront of his mind.  Becoming angry and feeling the familiar weight of misery around his shoulders, the sharp tears that had threatened to escape finally fell from his eyes slowly, stinging at each point as they slid down his face.  He meandered his return to the cottage just enough to pull himself together and force the unwelcome thoughts from his mind.

Once back at the cottage, Hae-soo was there to wrap him up in a large padded jacket, with a hot cup of sweet tea.

‘The tears in particular were spectacular,’ she whispered in his ear as he sipped on the tea.  He offered her half a smile as she appraised him with sad eyes.

‘You need to tell her soon.’  Hae-soo implored him again.  He could see the concern there, knowing she knew exactly what was in his mind.

‘I will.’  He breathed, wandering back into the cottage thankful to get out of the cold.  ‘Where is she?’  He asked, taking a quick look at the empty chair she had been occupying all afternoon.  

‘She’s being manhandled by the make-up team and changing into the last outfit.’  Hae-soo told him in an undertone so no one else would hear her. 

‘Now, we need to rearrange in here and take some practice shots, I suggest you take your tea, change your shirt, and wait in the small room upstairs, I will send her up to practice this scene with you.  Think you can handle it?’  She asked giving him a sever look.

‘I’m a professional Soo.’ He grinned all teeth and fake happiness at her. 

‘Uhuh.’ She grunted back at him as he shrugged himself out of the padded coat and took off up the stairs. 

Chanyeol changed into the last outfit for the day, a simple dark pull-over and the same jeans as before.  He hung about in the tiny room, turning on the only available light source in the room and pacing himself trying to visualise the fighting scene and how it needed to look on camera.

‘Hi,’ Alex’s small voice came from the doorway as if she was unsure if it was safe to enter.

Chanyeol turned to look around at her.  She looked sweet in dark blue jeans and a pink jumper, he was momentarily mesmerised by her being close to him again.

‘Er, they are setting up lights, Hae-soo said I should come, and practice fighting with you.’ She frowned as she explained her reasoning for being in his space.

‘Oh, ok sure.’ His face relaxed as he faced her fully, pulling his mind back into reality. 

‘Ok, so, um, ‘you’re leaving me’, you are angry with me, and we’re fighting,’ he told her a little too quickly, the words he was saying felt strange and alien to him, clearly, he was unhappy with this scene with her.

‘Um,’ she shuffled nervously, ‘so why am I angry, why am I leaving?’ she asked seriously.  He stared at her stupidly as if he didn’t understand her.  ‘If I can understand the concept of it better, I can try and play it better.’ She clarified, her eyes darting around the room, clearing .

‘Oh, yeah, that makes-sense,’ he sat himself down on the small bed, wringing his hands together, ‘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 as best he could, though he didn’t really feel this about his song.  He felt it was more like, the love was too intense, maybe he loved too intensely, and instead of managing that balance he became overbearing, and therefore the fight that ensued was because he could not understand why his love didn’t feel the same.

Alex shivered a little as she nodded.  ‘Ok, so we need to be arguing?’ she asked, she still hadn’t moved into the room much. 

Without thinking he let the emotion of the song take over him as he attempted to show her what he meant.  She took a small stepped back, leaning into the wall where he put one hand up to steady himself as he stared down at her.  His mind exploded with all the emotions he was feeling. 

‘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.  In some way he was telling the truth, he had tainted what could have been pure love if it wasn’t for his own idiotic tendencies.  ‘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, breaking almost as the image of Junmyeon formed in his mind. Laughing at him.

‘So, when I do this-,’ he bent to kiss her cheek without thinking, his lips almost scraping her skin, she jerked back, wide eyed at him, stepping out of his reach towards the door.  He reached out instin