March 2018: Hayi

Hayi was finally ready to start thinking about music and her career once again, all thanks to the talk with Hanbin that night. She decided that there was no use for a prolonged grieving period; everyone in Shinee moved on from Jonghyun's death, so should she.

So when Hayi returned to her apartment after that talk with Hanbin, she cleaned up her unit and open the blinds to let in some sunlight after 3 months. She picked up the trashes of liquor bottles and empty bags of chips from the floor and threw them in the trash. She vacuumed the carpet floors until there were no visible crumbs, and she washed the pile of dishes on her sink that she had been ignoring for weeks on end.

The next day, she started to send messages to her friends and mentors -- Tablo, Lydia, Dean, Airplay, and Rovin -- telling them she was ready to make some music.

When it came to music, Hayi had all the help in the world from all her musical friends. One person she never thought to ask help from was Hanbin.

Hanbin always asked for her opinion when it was him in the studio, but Hayi never once sought help or opinion from the tall boy. She had no trouble asking for help from her other friends, but when it came to Hanbin, she just couldn't bring herself to ask him without entirely understanding why.

So this time, she decided to send him a message on Kakao Talk. He did say he would always help if I asked, right?, Hayi thought to herself.

Right, she answered her own question. So she started typing a message for Hanbin.

Hayi: Hanbin, your studio at midnight?

Hayi put her phone back down. This was the first time she asked to meet Hanbin; usually it was Hanbin who would ask her to meet him at his studio. And she felt nervous about this for some reason. What if Hanbin says no? 

Five minutes passed and she still received no reply from Hanbin. She went back to cleaning up, trying to take her mind off her phone, but the second her phone vibrated, she turned off the vacuum cleaner and quickly ran over to the table where she placed it.

It was him.

Hanbin: Can't, Jaewon's using my studio tonight. 

Hanbin: How about a midnight walk at Han River park?

Hayi stared at Hanbin's message. Hanbin asking to meet outside the studio? Well that's new. Hayi and Hanbin have hung out plenty of times, for hours and hours on end, but of all those times, they never met outside Hanbin's studio.

She wondered what it would be like to meet Hanbin outside the studio. Everytime they saw each other, they both wore the least appealing outfits they had to offer and had no makeup on. One time, Hanbin even went 2 days without showering before meeting her.

And at the studio, the environment was always the same; they would both sit on office chairs facing the computer. They could swivel their chairs to face each other, but they rarely ever did. Hanbin would be fixated on his computer while Hayi would play around with the rubber balls lying around in the studio. Sometimes she would even bring her slimes with her and play on Hanbin's studio table while they talked.

Hanbin would often fall asleep on the sofa and Hayi would clean up the trash piling up on every corner; it really bothered her. 

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