It was early in the morning when her manager decided to end their recording session. Jieun angrily yanked off her studio headphones and proceeded to toss them carelessly onto the nearest raised flat surface she could find. Rubbing in a dramatic fashion directly in front of her manager to make a point, she stormed out of the room, leaving a tired, frustrated, and puzzled Yongguk behind, who had yet to find out that they were done for the day. Now realizing this all too late, he stole a glance at Jieun's manager, who was clearly irritated, while removing his own headphones. The top half of the older man's body was turned slightly away from him, his piercing gaze fixed on the door that had just slammed shut. Stepping out to where he was, he looked from the manager's sullen expression to the door, then back to him. Cocking his head to the side and pointing to the door, Yongguk began to ask, half-jokingly, "Should I - ?"

"Please," was the only gruff response he got. And that seemed to be enough for him.

He snagged his cell phone from the couch and took off after Jieun. It was well past midnight, which meant that his fellow members would be going to bed soon, if they weren't already knocked out. It had been a long day for all of them, and he wanted nothing more than to crawl into his cozy bed and sleep until Daehyun woke him up at five or six in the morning, but Jieun came before his own well-being. She always did.

Though it wasn't completely dark outside, it was still dark enough for bad things to happen to a lone person roaming the streets at this hour. Yongguk was suddenly overcome with panic, leading his steps to become quicker and more hasty. After continuing at this pace for a good ten minutes, he got down on one knee, his hand resting on the other, as he stopped to catch his breath. Because he was still looking around for any signs of her, he was surprised to see a pair of nice, shapely legs before his eyes. He sighed. "You really shouldn't run off like that." He looked up, not at all surprised to see Jieun looking down at him with a piping hot ramen noodle cup in each hand, the steam extremely visible in the minimal light the dim street lamps provided. She shrugged at his comment before shoving one of the cups towards Yongguk. She didn't say anything until they were comfortably seated at the sidewalk they'd dubbed their "special place," inhaling ramen noodles at monstrous speeds in the chilly air.

"Yah, yah - slow down, will you? Shouldn't you be worried about gaining weight or somthing?"

She took a brief moment to swallow completely, then sharply turned her head to face him. "This is my first meal of the day. I'm exhausted. It's cold. I'm starving. Che, and I had to go do everything by myself, as always. Just wait and see - you'll be the one buying the ramen one of these days." Jieun sniffled and continued eating.

Yongguk chuckled, allowing himself to reach over to tuck some of her turquoise hair behind her ear. A few seconds later, she suddenly felt warmer as something mildly heavy was drapped over her shoulders. Yongguk smiled. "You'll always buy the ramen, and I'll always do this. Deal?"

Jieun scoffed. "Just do what you want."

They did that every few days since they began recording for "Going Crazy." It became a tradition of sorts, and only they knew about it. In times like these - when she was consumed by boredom - she caught herself thinking about Yongguk. They had shared quite a few intimate moments together, and somewhere along the way, she noticed a shift in the way he treated her. Nowadays, he was considerably more kind, more gentle, more smiley - not that he usually wasn't, anyway, but from her experience over the years, she could tell when a guy liked her.

Liked? That wasn't strong enough. Loved? Maybe that was going too far. But then she thought about their collaboration song, and its theme of obsession came to mind, which she decided fit their situation perfectly.

Though he didn't show how much he liked her, he would drop hints here and there, seemingly wanting to test the waters before doing anything too bold. Sometimes she simply ignored these advances, and other times, she would humor him, playing along with whatever stupid game he was trying to play. The poor guy must've been so confused about how she felt about him at this point, but that just made it all the more amusing - at least for Jieun.

She was leading him on, yes, but she didn't really feel guilty about it; it wasn't liked she asked to be the object of his affections. She had a tendency to feign innocence whenever she felt Yongguk's desire to confess inching closer. Sure, he was a great friend whom she liked to be around, but it was wrong to say she felt anything beyond that for him. As his sunbae, she felt some responsibility for him and the rest of the B.A.P members, but love? Please. As if she could ever feel something so strong for someone like him. Or...for anybody, really.

She was in the recording studio for the third time this week. Yongguk had stopped coming since he'd finished his parts in "Going Crazy," which was a while ago. Jieun rubbed the back of her sore neck, wanting so badly to go home, but since she was already here, she needed something interesting going on to keep her awake (plus, she had to admit that she kind of missed his company). She was bored, to say the least, and asking her fellow SECRET members to come was so...mundane. Yongguk and s suddenly came to mind, since she knew they had no schedule today. Smirking, she picked up her phone and called Yongguk.

"Oh, Guk-ah." Her tone was playful and she raised the pitch of her voice. "I heard B.A.P has no schedule today. Why don't you guys come by the recording studio? I'm singing a song called "It's Cold" for the Take Care Of Us Captain OST. And we haven't hung out in so looooong ~ " Because she sounded extremely childish, she figured he could probably picture her pouting. "Great! See you soon ~ !" After successful hanging up, she chuckled triumphantly, her back hitting the back of the chair. "This should be fun."

--

Jongup's mood had turned foul as soon as he'd heard the name "Song Jieun."

The rest of the members didn't seem to understand why he disliked her so much. But that was only because they didn't know about Daehyun's secret love for their leader - something he kept strictly to himself. Even Daehyun didn't know that he knew.

It bothered him to no end how oblivious Yongguk could be sometimes when it was so obvious in Jongup's eyes. Granted, he probably stared at Daehyun a lot more than Yongguk did to be able to notice these things, but weren't they all supposed to be close? Shouldn't the others have been able to detect the main vocalist's strange behavior around Yongguk already, or did they not think very much of it? That pissed him off the most - that everyone around him seemed to mock Daehyun. And if he, himself, was feeling like this, how did Daehyun feel?

To emphasize his reluctance, he took agonizingly slow steps towards their van. Of course, Yongguk had been the first to get in and was now telling them to hurry their lazy asses up, his muscular arms flailing out the window of the passenger seat. He rolled his eyes and sighed. Could he be any more obvious? Then again, Yongguk wasn't shy to make his feelings well-known amongst the members.

Himchan, Yongjae, and Zelo - in that order - walked briskly past him and settled all the way in the back of the van. Just before Daehyun could do the same, Jongup reached out to grab the other's forearm, pulling him back as gently as possible. With a slightly shocked expression on his face, the older boy looked at Jongup quizzically. "Hmm?" Those large, clear eyes he loved so much usually showed many emotions, but in that moment, all he could see was sadness.

Jongup swallowed uneasily. "A - Are you okay? You look a little sick." He moved his hand from around Daehyun's forearm up to his forehead. After leaving it there for a few seconds while forcing an expression that made it seem as though he were deep in thought, he removed his hand from the boy altogether. "You know, if you're not feeling well, you shouldn't go. I'll stay with you. I can just tell Yongguk hyung - "

"No, no. I'm fine." He continued eying the boy skeptically. "Really, Jongup, it's nothing." A small smile tugged on the corners of his lips, leaving Jongup breathless for a mere millisecond. But the smile vanished as soon as Daehyun turned away from him.

I wish you didn't have to lie to me, he wanted to tell him. I wish you could love me instead of Yongguk hyung. But, of course, he didn't. Somehow, he'd ended up inside the van sitting next to Daehyun, staring at him as he silently looked out the window while biting his bottom lip in a feeble attempt to stop the small sniffles that kept coming and going.

Still, no one else noticed.

--

The drive to the recording studio didn't last very long at all, but somewhere along the way, he figured he'd fallen asleep. Because as the van came to an abrupt halt, he opened his heavy eyes and felt something warm and firm supporting the right side of his head - Jongup's shoulder.

Slowly coming out of his half-awake state, he sat upright and averted his eyes from Jongup, who must've been staring at him. "Sorry," he mumbled.

"if you're tired, we can - "

Before he could finish, Daehyun shook his head to cut him off. He already knew what the other was going to say, and while it was nice to have someone caring about him, he knew he had to do this.

Because Yongguk had asked him to come.

He thought that if he spent more time with Jieun to really get to know her, he would see why Yongguk was so head-over-heels in love with her. He already knew his hyung liked pretty girls, but since it was made clear that this was not simply a matter of physical attraction like it had been with his past girlfriends - if one could even call them that - there had to be something about her that made him human, as the other members put it. As one, two, then - eventually - four hours zoomed by, he could see why she'd managed to capture Bang Yongguk's heart.

She was kind. She was gentle. She seemed very down-to-earth. She had a nice smile. She was funny, too. And she was very talented. What was he? All he saw when he looked in the mirror was a pale, skinny, expressionless boy with full lips he'd always hated. Why would a sane Yongguk ever choose someone like him over someone like her? Plus, he was pretty sure his hyung wasn't gay or even slightly bi-curious.

His stomach decided to make a dying whale sound, causing everyone to stop chatting animatedly. Everyone looked at each other until their eyes finally settled on Daehyun, who desperately endeavored to hide his flushed face. He hastily wrapped his arms around his torso and swallowed nervously. Suddenly, deep, throaty laughter erupted from Yongguk, who was right next to him. "Yaaaah, I guess someone's hungry." He checked his watch. "Mmm...it's about the right time for us to eat. Jieun needs a break from recording, anyway." He threw an arm around Daehyun's shoulders and roughly pulled him closer. "What do you want to eat, dongsaeng?"

"..." Daehyun turned away from Yongguk. With his shoulder and back pressed against the older's warm and firm chest, he was reminded of the feeling of resting his head on Jongup's shoulder. Of course, hyung's more comfortable... What he failed to realize, though, was that it was actually the other way around.

--

Jieun wasn't stupid, especially when it came to love and relationships. She could spot those types of things from miles away, and to her, Daehyun was being painfully obvious.

She had to admit she was a little shocked at first, but his pained yet somewhat happy smile whenever Yongguk touched him, his flushed face whenever he looked at him, and his shy manner whenever he spoke or smiled at him all confirmed it for her. She observed the interactions between the two while the members conversed amongst themselves. She heard Himchan calling her name a few seconds later than she would've if she hadn't been so busy staring at Yongguk and Daehyun. "Hmm?"

Himchan had something like awe written all over his face. "Woooah! I guess Yongguk hyung isn't all talk after all!" He leaned forward, moving his face closer to her ear. "You were staring at him just now, am I right?" He wiggled his eyebrows, certain that he was right in his conclusion.

Not in the mood to argue, Jieun forced a small smile and laugh, trying her best to look embarrassed. "Oops. I guess you caught me, haha." Though snapping at him would've been so much easier and more satisfying, she refocused her attention on Yongguk and Daehyun before Himchan could say anything more. Her jaw visibly tightened when she noticed Himchan looking from her to Yongguk and back with a scandalized expression. Calm down, Jieun-ah. Don't lose your temper.

"Yah, Himchan-ah. Can I ask you something?"

Said person nodded eagerly. "What is it ~ ?"

Jieun jutted her chin in the direction of the two men seated directly across from them. "Those two seem especially close nowadays. DId something happen?" It had been a while since she last saw him and Daehyun together, and she didn't remember him being quite as close to Yongguk as he was now.

"Oooh! How did you know? They've been spending a lot of time together lately. Yongguk hyung really enjoys his company."

And with that, an idea was planted into Jieun's mind.

A/N: Thanks so much for reading and subscribing, everyone! I also really appreciate the comments you left ~

I'm sorry I took so long to update this, haha. ^^; School got in the way and I had writer's block halfway through this chapter. It was so bad that I had to delete it and start all over again. xDD

In the end, though, I'm more satisfied with this version, so I guess I did something right ~ x3

Orz, I always make my characters suffer - for a little while, anyway. OTL

Poor babies! T ^T

But LOLOL, it seems like everyone is rooting for daejong. |D

Anyway, the next chapter should be up soon since I'm already halfway done with it. ;D

Hope to see you all in future chapters!