Sleep did not last long for Chanyeol.  He had to be awake for a meeting anyway, so in some ways it was a good thing his sleep was restless, and that he had constantly woken up in a panic.  He hauled himself up and dressed quickly, noticing himself in the mirror, he realised he needed to eat more.  It’s true he was a lot of muscle but when he didn’t take care of himself even for the week or so he hadn’t been, he could see a definite difference. 

He stopped briefly in the kitchen to grab a bottle of water, before putting on his shoes to leave, when Baekhyun tumbled out of his room, fully dressed.

‘Where are you going?’ Chanyeol asked him, knowing the only reason he would be dressed at this time is if he had somewhere to be. 

‘Meeting with Hae-soo.’ He told him.  ‘Remember we’re all going together?’ He grabbed a second bottle out of the fridge and followed Chanyeol outside.  Chanyeol did not remember.  

The hallway was crowded, Jongdae and Minseok were there, waiting for him and Baekhyun.

‘Just us?’ Chanyeol asked looking around.

‘We’re waiting on Junmyeon too.’ Jongdae explained, pointing towards the first door in the hallway, where Junmyeon was just falling out of. 

‘I can’t wait for Sehun to get back.  I can’t wake up at all.’ He chuckled to the rest of them.

Chanyeol frowned.  He could understand Jongdae, Minseok and Baekhyun, but why Junmyeon had to come too he didn’t know.  They all filed into the waiting elevator and Chanyeol gave Alex’s apartment door a quick glance as the doors closed on them.

‘Why didn’t you come last night?’ Minseok asked Junmyeon leaning back into the wall.

Junmyeon grinned sheepishly at him, making Chanyeol’s stomach turn.  Closing his eyes, trying to block out the mental picture that had formed in his mind he took a deep breath as Junmyeon responded with, ‘I was tired.’

‘Sure, you were.’ Baekhyun’s words insinuated something much more sinister at play, Chanyeol’s hands balled into fists as a knee jerk reaction. 

Junmyeon chuckled.  ‘Ok, so I went over and spoke to her.’ His voice was full of delight, ‘Walked her home.’

‘Is she a model then?’ Jongdae asked, sounding only vaguely interested.

‘Oh, this is the model you were talking about yesterday?’ Minseok clarified looking between Junmyeon and Baekhyun.

‘She’s not a model.  She writes.  She’s really smart.’ Junmyeon said breathlessly. 

Chanyeol opened his eyes, biting his inner lip, he stopped himself from shouting at the idiot, ‘of course she’s smart.  She’s a lot smarter than any of us.’ He was met with the knowing eyes of Baekhyun, looking away he pretended Baekhyun knew nothing, though he wasn’t as stupid as Chanyeol liked to believe.

Thankfully the doors opened to the lobby and they all made their way outside, Chanyeol leading, trying to get as far away from the conversation he didn’t wish to hear as possible.  Once he was firmly in the back seat of the waiting car he put in headphones, doing his best to blank out the rage that was building up inside of him.

It didn’t take long for them to pull up to the building where the meetings where being held.  As Chanyeol took out his headphones he was met with Junmyeons tones, still talking about Alex.

He was thankfully separated from him not long after entering the meeting room, Junmyeon having a meeting with a different manager about a different project he was working on, and thankfully there was food waiting for them. 

After filling himself as much as humanly possible, he talked over things for his solo debut with another staff member, before Hae-soo walked in with Baekhyun, Jongdae and Minseok, who all made a beeline for the food. 

‘Chanyeol, you’re looking thin, you need to look after yourself.’ She told him giving him a small bow and settling herself next to him. 

‘I am don’t worry,’ he smiled at her relaxed.  He liked Hae-soo the most out of all the people he had to deal with.

‘So we’ve got the director arranged for the MV shoot in the next coming weeks.  Here is the concept we came up with for it, we just need to cast the love interest role, we were thinking of searching wider than our usual pool of options for this MV.  The casting is set up for tomorrow, so you’ll need to be here from the afternoon onwards’ She began to explain going over the papers she had just handed him.  Out of the blue it became clear to Chanyeol what he needed to do to fix the situation with Alex. 

In a low voice, low enough so the other members who were currently engross in filling themselves with food, he asked her ‘How about someone western?’ His tone told her he didn’t want the others to overhear him, and that he had an idea.

‘Western?  It’s certainly a possibility… Do you have someone in mind?’ She eyed him suspiciously.

‘Sort of,’ he frowned, wondering how this would work.

‘Do you want to come and see the mock ups?’ She asked him completely innocently.

‘But aren’t these?’ He began looking down at the papers in front of him before he understood her meaning.

‘Yeah sure.’ He told her his smile finally returning to his face.  He followed her silently out of the room, down the corridor, to an empty smaller room at the end of the hall.

‘Ok, explain.’ She smiled as they sat themselves down on heavy office chairs.

‘Ok, so there is this girl…’ he began, he explained who she was, how he knew her, what he had done.  He admitted more to her than he had to anyone else up to this point.

‘She’s beautiful Soo.  I’m sure she could do it.’  He finished proudly, his faith in the woman he realistically barely knew totally unfounded.

She frowned slightly, choosing her words carefully. ‘Ok, I tell you what, we can try and get her.  She would need to go through the same casting process as everyone else.  If we can even get her there.  Not just for her sake, but for everyone else’s too, if you don’t want them to know.  I can only do so much to help push her through, but if she really can’t do it, then there won’t be much I can do.’ She explained to him as kindly as she could. 

‘Ok that’s fair.  How can we get her?’ His ears searched Hae-soo face for an answer, some kind of hope. 

‘You say she lives in your apartment building?  Let’s go there now, see if she doesn’t go outside, I’ll just go up to her and ask her if she’s interested in coming to the casting.  But that’s as much as I can do.’ She said trying to sound final.  She was very fond of Chanyeol, he was a good boy, he worked hard, and never before had she seen him this way over a girl.

‘Ok, let’s go.’ He said grinning, his eyes wide and expectant.

‘Chanyeol, are you sure you just can’t tell her?  Just speak to her, and tell her who you are?  If she’s as perfect as you think, surely she will understand?’ Hae-soo begged him.  She knew he was acting insane and needed someone to tell him some kind of reason.

‘She’s been throu