Chanyeol had wandered around the streets aimlessly for most of the night.  He was cold and tired by the time he got home around 3am, though he didn’t sleep again, it was another night of tossing and turning, scolding himself over and over, with the memory of her bright blue shocked eyes looking up at him. 

Around 7am, his phone beeped, pulling him unwillingly out of what little rest he had been having.  Having a fight with the blankets he searched for his phone, rubbing his eyes, he saw the message was from Jungmin.

‘She text me, asking me to take her to your casting today.’ It read simply.  Chanyeol blinked several times before he understood the meaning of the words on the screen in front of him.

In his fuzzy head, he started to understand, she would be coming.  She’s coming to the casting!  If Hae-soo did her thing and Alex didn’t majorly she would be in!  His misery started to turn into happiness and so texting Jungmin back he told him to do whatever she told him, stay and wait for her all day if he had too.

He then sent a message to Hae-soo and told her the news that she would be there, and she kindly sent a message back reminding him she could only do so much, but she would try her best none the less. 

Chanyeol thankfully didn’t have to be there at all until later in the day, and so with the news Alex was going to be there and forgetting totally about his shambolic interaction with her the previous night he laid himself back into his bed and fell asleep until just after midday. 

He bounced out of bed, starving, intending to order food, and play some games before he had to get ready and go down to the casting room at 4pm.

Baekhyun and Jongin where sat in the living room, already playing games, with two large boxes of food, half way eaten open in front of them.

‘Are you going to finish this?’ Chanyeol asked, not waiting for an answer as he sat cross legged on the floor and pulled a box towards him, beginning to devour the cold chicken.

‘Help yourself.’ Baekhyun laughed at him.

‘How can you sleep so long Chan?’ Jongin asked him, with his eyes still glued on the tv screen opposite them.

‘I didn’t sleep good, where is everyone?’ He asked bypassing the question.

‘Er, Kyungsoo has a schedule,’ Jongin said screaming at the game he was playing.

‘Jongdae and Minseok are around somewhere.’ Baekhyun told him followed by ‘SHOOT JONGIN SHOOT NOW.’

‘Junmyeon?’ Chanyeol asked, avoiding their eyes by focusing his own attention on the games they were playing.

‘Oh, his trip to Japan was moved.  He had to leave early this morning.  He’ll be back in a day or two -’ Jongin told him, ‘BAEK NO GET HIM.’

Hearing the news that Junmyeon was in Japan at least for a few days helped Chanyeol feel a lot better, at least if he was in Japan he wasn’t anywhere near Alex for a few days. 

After playing games for a few hours, Chanyeol showered and got himself to the offices where he had to be there to help cast for his MV.  With nervous flutters in his stomach he sat down with Hae-soo who showed him the head shots of the 5 girls they had narrowed it down too.  He couldn’t take the smile off his face when Hae-soo had explained that Alex actually photographed well, and she didn’t have to do a lot of pushing with their director to bring her back for the second part.  Going over the photographs, all the girls were beautiful in their own way, Chanyeol noted, they all had something about them, and he could see each one of them playing the part, but he only wanted Alex involved no matter what for him, her eyes were the most vivacious, her smile the most genuine, and the fact she was in fact pocket sized in comparison to him only attracted him more. 

‘We’ll bring you out and introduce you to them when we explain how the process works, then we will get them in one by one to do a short take, whatever Mr Kim wants, ok?’ Hae-soo explained to Chanyeol.

‘Can Alex go first?’ He asked over eagerly.

‘Not a good idea.’ She shook her head at him.  His smile faltering off his face, ‘Why?’

‘You want her, so she must go last.  Let the others go first, and be, as unmemorable as possible.  You can help if you don’t show a lot of – chemistry with them in the roll throughs.’ She added in an undertone.  Nodding in agreement he understood then.  She needed to be the most memorable, and he could help with that. 

He had a briefing with Mr Kim, he had worked with him before and knew he was a fair man, and then he was whisked into make up for the casting run throughs, and before he knew it, it was a little after 6pm, and he was being asked to come in and be introduced to the girls.

He walked in and the first girl he saw at the far end of the room was a tall Korean girl, he had vaguely remembered seeing before from another casting, he smiled politely, as his went over each girl in turn, and last, directly opposite him was Alex.  By far the shortest of the girls there, a rosy blush was spreading over her delicate cheeks, making his heart race, and his stomach flip.  It was difficult to remind himself to stay professional, and not linger on her, but it was difficult, trying to keep all his thoughts focused, he didn’t even notice what his face was doing whenever his eyes landed on Alex.  She didn’t look overly happy to see him there, and he guessed she had no idea that this was all for his MV.  Maybe she was expecting some faceless person she wouldn’t recognise.

Prompted by Hae-soo he managed to find his voice, and rearranged his face into a smile, ‘Hi everyone, it’s nice to see you all here.  I hope you have fun today and just relax.  Thank you all for your time.’ He bowed attempting to be polite and looked back at Hae-soo for reassurance. 

Smiling she directed the girls back out into the waiting room and Chanyeol followed Mr Kim and the other staff into the main room, to set up lighting.

The first girl was called in shortly after, the tall Korean girl.  Her eyes were narrow and unfriendly, in Chanyeol’