"Oppa..." you called out softly, walking towards the small body of the man curled up into a ball on the bed. Sighing, you sat down as gently as you could unto the bed, trying as hard as ever to avoid waking up the possibly sleeping man. He had been in the same position for the past 2 hours, breaking out into sobs every so often. It was now 2 in the morning, 3 hours have past since he stumbled to your apartment, completely drunk and mumbling some incoherent words. You were dead tired, that feeling multiplying by a hundred times whenever you looked at the clock ticking away ever so slowly. It didn't help that you had a schedule at 10, and standby time was at 7, a mere 5 hours away from now but looking at the fragile man lying on the bed, all of those thoughts disappeared and you would have a strong desire to force out whatever was making him that way and heal him in any way possible. It hurt you to see your senior so broken when he was always the mood-maker of both the group he was a part of and your group.

He never liked to show the serious, or depressed side of him to anyone, even to you, his friend of over 7 years, from when you were both trainees or even his groupmates who have been with him for the past 10, almost 11 years.

Peeping over, you see the man's eyes closed as he took deep breaths, fast asleep. You raised your hand to his head, starting to gently pat his head, touching the hair that he is always so sensitive about, only letting some people touch it, and you were one of those few people, as you thought back to how you got close to this senior whom no one dared to interact with due to his cold and narcissistic image. 

7 years ago,

"Taeyeon-ah," you heard someone call your name from behind you so you turned around, and was shocked to see Heechul, a member of the recently popular group 'Super Junior'. "Oh! Hello sunbaenim!" You greeted in a loud voice, a protocol for all juniors to greet their seniors, not to mention with the perfect folder phone, 90 degrees bow to match. He skipped up to you with a smirk on his face and plopped his arm up onto your shoulder, making you stumble from the sudden weight of him. To be honest, you just felt like slapping him at that exact moment, he could have killed you, especially since you were so clumsy even without the extra weight.

Not knowing where you were going, he dragged you down hallway after hallway of the company, already far from the side of the company with all of the training rooms that you were familiar and comfortable with. After a few moments, he finally stopped at a elevator lobby, arm still on your shoulder. "...sunbaenim?" You said hesitantly, not wanting to sound rude, all you wanted to do was to get away from this weird senior and go for your scheduled vocal practice with your respected vocal teacher. "Oh yes Taeyeon?" He asked, pulling you into the elevator which had just arrived. He pressed the button for the top floor and leaned back against the wall, waiting for you to continue. "Uh... why are we here? You see, I’ve got practice..." you trailed off, hoping that you had not crossed the line and gotten yourself fired from the company. From what you had gathered, he was one of the few people in the company who was able to do whatever he liked and would not get scolded.

As though nothing was said, he grabbed your hand and pulled you out of the elevator once the doors opened, right after you finished talking (talk about coincidental, you hated that lift from then on,). You walked (or got dragged) out into a one-room floor, whereby the entire floor was one huge room, not counting the lobby, evident by the one door across the lift. The walls surrounding the lobby was a vanilla creme colour, one of the colours that you secretly couldn't stand as it got on your nerves. A blood-red carpet lined the floor, cushioning your very cautious steps as the both of you headed to the only door visible. The door was also blood red, with gold coloured lines for the indents on the door which made everything look so grand. You wondered who owned the office, for it seemed far too grand for just anyone to use. Heechul was still holding your hand, tugging on your hand because you stopped to admire the room for a bit. He pulled you till you both were in front of the door and knocked three sharp and short knocks. On his face he still held the smirk, as though he knew something you did not and you were not looking forward to finding out what that was. A deep voice from the room called out, "Come in!"

You gulped, the stern voice sending shivers down your back. Albeit reluctantly, you shuffled in behind Heechul, and the smirk on his face turned into a huge smile, making him look like a kid in a candy shop. He abandoned you and ran up to a man sitting behind a huge desk right in the center of the room and bowed lower than 90 degrees while saying, "Hello seonsaengnim!" With a shock, you recognised the man, he was the uncle of your 2 year old group mate and more importantly the CEO of SM Entertainment. "Hello seonsaengnim! It’s an honour to meet you!" You practically shouted once you saw your CEO, bowing so low that you felt your forehead touching your leg. The said man let out a deep laugh and gestured towards the seats in front of his desk, asking you to sit down as he stood up and walked towards it himself. The very man who brought you here still had the huge smile hanging off his ears and he seemed, how would you put it... proud? Of what? Who knows?

Anyway, he followed the senior man from behind and pulled you along with him to the couches. The CEO sat down at the single seater at the head of the small table while you and Heechul took a seat at the multi-seater with you looking around the room wide eyed. Bookshelves formed the walls of the ginormous room and all of them were in turn, filled up with books from all genres. Your eyes gleamed with joy as they went from one shelve to another, making their way up to the ceiling, which to your relief was a simple clean white. You heard the two men talking at the side but was too distracted by the books to pay attention. Your eyes jumped from one thing to another, making sure that everything was looked at before moving on to the next. Never in your life would you have imagined that you would be in your CEO's office and looking at all of the amazing books here.

If anyone had told you that you would be a leader of a 9 member girl group that was slowly taking Korea by storm in one of the best entertainment companies (back then not now, you thought) in the whole of Korea 3 years back, you would have thought that that person was out of his or her mind. You were just a trainee in a company filled with people way more talented than you, and a nothing in the ranks, ready to be dropped at any time and your dreams of debuting growing further as every progression check passed by.

Finally snapping out of your so-called trance, you looked up as someone called your name. "Taeyeon-ssi?" "Huh? Oh! Yes?" You said, startled by the sudden mention of your name by your CEO. They both laughed, while you were just sitting there confused. "Do you like it here? I see you like books. If you see anything you like, feel free to take it," your CEO said and you had never felt so honoured in your life. You just gently shook your head and decided to pay attention to the two men's conversation from then onwards. "Seonsaengnim, this is my new best friend, Taeyeonie! ... to be honest, I just saw her on the way up so I brought her along... hehe" Heechul said to the CEO, before suddenly turning to you and started saying, "Taeyeon-ah, I’ve seen you on broadcasts and it seems like our personalities match really well!" With this, the conversation continued and that was your first official time that you have talked.

Over the course of the few years to come, hangouts between both grew more common and true to his predictions, both you and him grew to realise how alike you both were, it was slightly scary thinking about it. You were both homebodies, and you both always strived to show the happy-go-lucky side to everyone while keeping the dark, broken side of yourselves from the people you love, in fear of them leaving you. Even as you both talked, you had never seen the fragile side of the older man many times, only when he would go to your house afte