"Admit it! You two made out while you were alone!" Chung Ae pestered, her face remaining emotionless as the stylists worked on her makeup. Otherwise she would be grinning like the Cheshire Cat. Frowning at her reflection, August pointedly ignored Chung Ae and stared rigidly into the mirror as the stylist brushed out her hair. It was a huge pain having to sit here and wait for them to do all the makeup, hair, and clothes, but the end product was entirely worth it. At least until you threw a mischevious Chung Ae in to the mix. Then a threat from the devil wouldn't have gotten her in that dressing room.

Unfortunately for August, the Girls Dead Monster manager was ten times scarier than any devil.

Letting out a slow, annoyed sigh August thought back to the previous day. Once the production crew noticed she and Minho had been gone for a few hours, and once the rain let up, they had gone out in search of their two missing idols. Apparently Naomi had been the first one to come across them, with Chung Ae in hot pursuit. When they found Minho and August peacefully sleeping it had been too hard to contain themselves and they let out shrill, fan girl-like shrieks. Worst. Alarm clock. Ever.

Once they were awake Minho and August quickly seperated, practically flying to opposite sides of the pagoda, but the damage had already been done. Since then August had found that Minho was avoiding her, fleeing at the mere sight of her. Whatever had happened there, she had obviously screwed it up. Just thinking about Minho avoiding her was painful, and it made August grimace. Chung Ae picked up on this and backed off a bit, but her curiosity hadn't been sated yet.

"So if you didn't make out, what did you do?" Chung Ae continued questioning, attempting to talk while the stylists applied lipstick to . This resulted in a long streak of deep red running from the center of Chung Ae's lips down to the bottom of her chin. The stylists were horrified, but Chung Ae couldn't help but laugh at the tribal-esque look.

"Nothing. We did nothing" August insisted, her eye flickering over to Chung Ae for a half-second long death threat glare. Chung Ae ignored her.

"So then why was he holding you like that? Come on, at the very least you have to admit that Oppa was hugging you"

"It was cold, alright?! We were freezing our butts off while you guys sat around in the Bahamas, so we decided to try and keep warm!" August snapped a bit too quickly, her face flushing red from more than just the blush. No matter what August said, though, she was curious about the way Chung Ae and Naomi claimed to have found them. Naturally August had no clue since she was either sleeping or attempting to travel at the speed of light. In the moment of her awakening things had been way too chaotic for her to make sense of the situation.

Maybe they had done something. Well... Minho had done something. August was positive she had been sleeping the whole time so she was totally innocent. And Minho wouldn't do anything weird while she was sleeping. He just wasn't that kind of a guy. No question about it. Frowning, August gently touched the top of her head and stared into the mirror, not really focusing on her reflection but instead on the dream she had. It was very faint, and it took all her mental power just to bring back whisps of it. More like a feeling than a memory. A warm, secure feeling that made her heart flutter just thinking about it.

A movement in the mirror caught August's eye, drawing her rapidly out of the painstakingly recreated dream she had been experiencing and into the real world. As she watched, the door to the dressing room opened and the manager slipped in, closing the door quietly behind him.

"Are they almost ready? We'll need to finish up filming-"

"Manager-oppa! You can't just walk into a girl's dressing room like that! What if we were changing?!" Chung Ae shrieked playfully, spinning around in her chair to face the startled manager. He was at a total loss for words, standing there with his mouth open like a blowfish. It was a funny scene, and August haad to quickly cover her laugh as a rather frightening cough. The manager's reflection glared in embarrassment at her before he regained his senses.

"Sorry. Now, as I was saying, this is the last day of shooting so we need to get the rest of the shots in. Keep that in mind and try to get things done in one take, okay?" he instructed, keeping his eyes focused straight ahead so that he didn't have to look at either one of the girls.

"Yes, sir!" Chung Ae saluted him sharply, straightening up to attention while the stylists tried to get her to turn back around so they could finish their job. August really felt bad for the poor ladies, having to get Chung Ae to sit still. Even if she was seventeen years old, she didn't often act like it.

Nodding, the manager hurried out of the dressing room before Chung Ae could say anything else. A few seconds later the stylists stepped back from August to let her see herself fully. It was amazing how an hour of makeup and clothes could totally transform her. A light blue eyeshadow had been sparingly placed on her eyelids, accenting her blue eyes perfectly, and a brown mascara had been chosen to blend with her natural lashes color. She had no idea what they had done with her skin, but somehow it seemed to glow like you saw in magazines. Grinning, August jumped to her feet and turned slowly so that she could see herself fully. On either side of her the stylists watched proudly, their smiles radiating even more than August's.

"You should have totally been a model, August!" Chung Ae complimented as she glanced over at August's mini-fasion show. Now embarrassed, August shook her head sheepishly and rubbed the back of her neck. "Why not? You have long legs, a skinny waist, nice face, and you have that foreign charm. You're exotic" Chung Ae continued, pursing her lips as she critically looked August up and down. Now August felt like her face would melt off from how warm it had gotten, and she had to quickly turn her face away from Chung Ae's honest gaze. Flattery August could handle, but when the person dishing out the compliments so strongly believed they were telling the truth it was hard for August to not get flustered.

"Now is the part when you say thank you" Chung Ae stage whispered, smiling expectantly. Nodding, August turned to face her stylists and deeply bowed to both of them.

"Thank you so much for your hard work. We'll do our best to show off your skills" August said, only just managing to keep her tone serious. Dissapointed, Chung Ae pouted and turned away from August. Smirking, August shuffled over to Chung Ae and bowed to her also. "And thank you for the compliments, Chung Ae. They are greatly appreciated"

"Girls. Ten minutes" the manager's muffled voice was accompanied by a gentle knock on the door. He apparently didn't want to repeat the earlier incident. After she had straightened up August and Chung Ae replied in a sing song variation of okay. Nodding goodbye to Chung Ae, who couldn't speak anyways as lipstick was reapplied to , August hurried towards the door.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One of the stylists was handing out frost covered bottles of water, fresh from the coolers that had been jam packed full of ice. Since they would be spending the whole day out on the shooting site in order to finish up filming, the production crew had just bought lunch, as well as some extra things, and crammed them all into coolers that were then brought up further into the mountains. As she passed August reached out and snagged one of the water bottles from the girl's arms, smiling thankfully and nodding her head. The girl returned the gesture before continuing on her way, slowly making her way towards the director and other three members of Girls Dead Monster, all who were eagerly discussing the upcoming scene.

August had already finished all of hers, albeit the final scene where all the girls posed and the camera pulled away dramatically. That they were saving for the final shot, in order to bring the whole thing to a close. Kind of melodramatic for August's tastes, but the director seemed to love the idea. Since the director was in charge, his opinion was a bit more loud than the lowly girl who had been forced to act under the blistering heat. Even if it was her song that was putting money in his wallet.

Pushing aside her criticism, August crossed the dirt filled clearing to the cracked stone steps that led up to the shooting site, a traditional Korean home. It had been amazing to see a piece of the country's history up close, especially since SHINee, with the help of Chung Ae and Eun Mi, had been able to give them a tour and explain things. That had been before Minho started to avoid her.

Frustrated, August jerked open the lid to her waterbottle and sent the contents spilling down the steps, creating dark patches wherever the liquid touched stone. Pursing her lips irritably, August quickly righted the bottle before everything spilled, managing to preserve half of the bottle's contents. It was like that saying about people who see the glass half full, and people who see the glass half empty. Right now, with the blistering sun beating down on her, August was feeling like a half empty type of person.

Sighing, she guzzled down the remnants of the water. Regardless of how much was in it, it was still very refreshing. Managing a small smile, August replaced the cap on the bottle and stood up. It had been a brief respite from movement, but now she need to go in search of a trash can. She couldn't remember if they had even brought any trash cans. Hopefully they had, otherwise she would have to give the production crew some grief.

Gently beating the empty bottle against her thigh, August played along with the music videos song as it began to play, giving whoever was filming their cue. Pretty soon August was doing a little dance and singing along with the music.

"There were various things in the space between the two of us.
Our hobbies are different, so we won't clean up together.
"You're the one better at cooking, so you should do it."
You give me those one-sided orders.
The day when a couple like us
Can smile and get past that will come someday"

"You didn't get my favorite DVD
And went and brought back something for yourself again.
In return, I'll take your almost-cleared game
And overwrite it at Level 1.
We just always repeat this kind of thing
And both lose out in the end"

The words were pretty much like a script for the director, so the music video followed them exactly. The instrumental beginning did a panoramic view of the surrounding mountains and the house, before zooming in on a window that had herself on the opposite side as she sang about her messed up relationship. Then it pans to Chung Ae in the kitchen with Taemin, who orders her to cook for them. Once he leaves August enters, still singing about the relationship. In the second verse Jonghyun comes back from shopping and tosses the bag to Naomi, who goes through its contents, only to discover her DVD is not there. As revenge, she turns on the Wii and erases his game data. And, as would be expected, August comes into the room singing.

She couldn't tell if it was really good that she had memorized the entire plot of the video, as of now, or really bad. Either way, it was a rather interesting plot that would hopefully drum up some fans for Girls Dead Monster. At least that was what the manager hoped for, August just hoped the video wouldn't get ripped apart by any critics. Between the director, production crew, and Girls Dead Monster a lot of time and effort had been put into this, so having it be picked to pieces would be a heavy dissapointment.

"Go ahead, become an idol! Then everyone will hate you!" August cringed at the sudden memory of her most recent phone conversation. Even if her sister had given up on August, August hadn't given up on her sister. How could she? This was the girl who had taught August everything she knew. She was also the girl who had abandoned August to the wolves. No, not abandoned. She had forcefully pushed August into the path of the wolves and then run off cackling mercilessly.

And still August couldn't hate her, even if the hesitance wasn't mutual.

"Do you understand?" Without even realizing it August had wandered over to the director and was now standing a few feet away and within earshot of the conversation. Refocusing her attention, she looked over to see the man with a plan had been explaining things to Minho. "Minho-ssi, do you understand?" The director repeated patiently, waving his hand in front of Minho's eyes, which were focused on August. She could tell by his body language that he wanted to flee, but because he was working he couldn't.

"Yes. I understand" Minho replied, not once taking his eyes off August. Glancing over his shoulder, the director noticed August standing there and smiled tightly. Whether the fact she was a foreigner gave her 'exotic beauty' or not apparently didn't matter to all Koreans. The director was one of many who did not approve of an American coming in and stealing away an idol position for a hard-working Korean. Forget the fact that she had lived in Korea for three years, spoke the language, and knew most of the customs. She didn't look Korean.

With the director's attention off him, Minho rushed off into the midst of the camera crew, creating a barrier of flesh between himself and August. Enough was enough. She just needed to give some generic apology, since she still wasn't sure what she had done to offend him, and get the air cleared between them. It was a pain having him run off at the mere sight of her, and it was also painful. She had thought they were making at least a little progress, but now it seemed like she had been dead wrong.

The muscles in her legs protested the sudden burst of pressure she was putting on them as August sprinted through the crowd of staff, nudging people aside as needed. She was an awful long distance runner, but when it came to sprinting you wouldn't find anyone faster. No matter that Minho's legs were a heck of a lot longer than hers, August would still catch up to him.

Breaking free of the now irritated camera crew, August glanced around quickly to find Minho while barely slowing her pace. Once she had spotted him she doubled her speed, practically flying across the ground as she rushed to catch up to him. Glancing over his shoulder, Minho stopped suddenly when he saw her. Not expecting this, August didn't have enough time to throw on the brakes and ran straight into Minho's back. Bouncing off, she felt the ground rush out from under her feet as she started to fall backwards. Before she could collide with the unforgiving earth, though, Minho's arms s around her and caught her inches from the ground.

Suddenly nervous and at a loss for words, August couldn't help but notice that his face was only inches from hers. Never before had she been so tempted to bridge that short distance and kiss him. She probably would have, too, if Minho hadn't quickly helped her to her feet and taken several large steps back. Maybe he could read her mind and knew all about what she was thinking, back at the pagoda and now. August wouldn't blame him for being terrified if that was the case.

"I'm really sorry if I offended you somehow" August apologized, going from vertical to a ninety degree angle at lightning speed. "I know I acted kind of coldly to you at the pagoda, and I'm sorry. I'm also sorry you had to come looking for me because I was stupid and got lost. And I'm sorry about falling asleep on you and creating an awkward situation" she rattled on, dissecting every possible bad point of yesterday's events as it replayed in her mind. Swallowing nervously, she snuck a glance up at Minho to see what his reaction was. Only problem was, Minho wasn't there anymore. Gaping, August watched as he bustled away from her.

"Minho! Get your back over here!" She roared, quickly closing the distance between them and wrapping around his arm. He dragged her along for a few feet before she had finally built up a sufficient mound of dirt with her heels to stop him in his tracks. As her grip tightened around Minho's arm August buried her head in his arm, leaving only the top of it for Minho to see. Once he looked down at her, Minho tried to break free once more.

"Will you just listen?! I don't know what happened all of a sudden, but I'm sorry!  I'm sorry about what happened at the pagoda! I'm sorry about everything! So can you please just forgive me so that we can go back to being normal?! Even if I get flustered around you and don't know what to do with myself, that is still twenty bajillion times better than having you ignore me! I like you! I like you a lot more than just being a fan girl! And because of it I can't stand having you ignore me!" August choked out as hot tears began to well up in her eyes. She was frustrated and sad and crushed and everything hurt. Especially her heart. Like the melting spring ice had suddenly given way and pierced her heart with it's jagged shards.

It took her rational mind to force it's way through the sudden flooding of emotion, but once it did August froze in horror. She had just confessed. She had honestly just confessed to Minho. Somehow, she hadn't imagined feeling so terrified after doing so.

"August? Um... I... er... English..." Minho mumbled as August quickly detached herself from his arm while she replayed the last few minutes in her mind. When she became so worried about losing Minho like this, she had blurted out everything in her mind. By some miracle of the Gods, August thought in English.

"I'm sorry. I'm really, really sorry if I offended you. Please forgive me" she summarized, leaving out the more embarrassing parts, while she brushed away the tears from her face. When she was sure she was calm, August looked up hesitantly at Minho. This time, he decided to stick around and actually think about her words. For a second their eyes met, and August could see that Minho had been feeling just as guilty about what had happened as she had. Even though there was nothing to feel guilty about.

Once more the faint dream started to build back up in her brain, causing August to blush. She hoped there was nothing to feel guilty about.

"Yeah" he managed to breathe out, like he was releasing a huge weight from his shoulders. Grinning, August resisted the urge to hug him tightly and instead satisfied herself with a quick handshake. Behind them, the director could be faintly heard calling for Minho. Nodding goodbye, he hurried back to the shoot, leaving August to sort things out on her own.

Except she wasn't alone. Behind her, a slow clap started up as soon as Minho dissappeared from view. Spinning around, August's eyes widened in horror as she saw Naomi and Eun Mi watching her from behind a few wooden crates. Naomi was the one clapping, while Eun Mi was just beginning to put her phone away. Smiling, Naomi came out from behind the crates and wrapped an arm around August's shoulders.

"You got close, kid. You almost had it" Naomi encouraged, clapping August on the back warmly. Ah, yes. Naomi understands English.

"Close? What do you mean close? And who are you calling kid?! You're only a year older than me!" August snapped back, speaking in Korean for Eun Mi's sake, but the fire had been taken out of her temper. She was too busy trying to make repairs to her poor heart after that confession had nearly stopped it.

"My English is good, August. I understand you and Naomi" Eun Mi spoke up, her voice only showing slight traces of an accent. August was honestly surprised that someone as quiet as Eun Mi could speak such near flawless English.

"So... what I was saying before?" August hesitated, biting her bottom lip nervously. Eun Mi shook her head in response as her shoulders rose and fell helplessly.

"Too fast. Too much slurring of words" Eun Mi explained, folding her arms over her chest to give them something to do. August nodded, relief flooding over her, as Naomi began to push her in the direction of the shoot.

"Now come on, Taemin's been looking for you. He wants to get some tutoring in before we pack up" Naomi ordered, gesturing for Eun Mi to follow them.

Chapter 10 Note: 

Song:

23:50 - Girls Dead Monster

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vpujl_aIKQ