When Ria opened her eyes, the first thing she thought was that she was still dreaming. The sleepwalker from her dreams had both of his arms around her, hugging her from behind. His forehead rested between her shoulder blades and his warm breath was blown down her back every time he breathed out. It all felt so real…

It wasn’t until she wanted to sit up, that Ria realized everything was real. For a brief second she panicked. Why was she on the bed? Didn’t she went to sleep on the couch?! She didn’t remember… Another question, possibly the most pressing question, was: Did anything happen between them? To Ria’s relief they both wore their pajamas and nothing seemed particularly odd. Except for the obvious fact of the guy’s presence, of course.

Today was going to be Ria’s first day as a trainee, therefore she needed to wake up early. She looked at her alarm clock. 7:30 am, time to wake up… Carefully she lifted up Dongwoon’s arm that was on her waist. If she went to the bathroom to get washed and dressed first, he could sleep for a little longer. After that, Ria would have to wake him up and tell him to leave.

When Ria came back from the bathroom, he was still there, sleeping on his back with his mouth slightly opened. He looked like a little kid and Ria felt a weird need to take care of him. However, she couldn’t let him sleep, she had to be his rude wake-up call due to her own schedule.

“Wake up~…” Ria nudged his shoulder lightly. It wouldn’t be too nice if she ripped away the sheets, would it?

A protesting groan escaped Dongwoon’s throat as he closed his mouth, his side and pulled the sheets higher up. A stronger determination was needed and Ria decided to just jump on the bed for a moment. Why on earth should she wake him up with total politeness, when he had invaded her goodnight’s sleep, her room and even her bed?!

Within a second she stood jumping next to him, until he sat up straight and started yawning and rubbing his eyes. In the moments that followed Ria could see the magical transformation from the cute boy Dongwoon seemed to be, to the handsome guy he really was. Now this perfect being had turned into a charismatic persona with just the addition of a certain look in his eyes. Ria stood enchanted as she, for the first time in his presence, held her breath and felt her heart skip a beat.

Dongwoon looked around with a frown, before looking at Ria. His eyes grew wide and he stood up from the bed, bowed politely and then grinned sheepishly.

“I’m sorry for being here… I must have gone into the wrong hotel room…” Dongwoon apologized.

Ria was still a little baffled by the whole revelation of Dongwoon’s charismatic side. She stepped off the bed and smiled politely.

“It’s okay, I guess, you were sleepwalking before you, ehm, slept here…” She said and felt her cheeks turn a little rosy.

“Well, this is pretty awkward, isn’t it? I’m Son Dongwoon, by the way. Well, I’ll be going now.” Dongwoon said and bowed once again before turning and walking out of the room.

Ria felt sad that she didn’t even told him her name, he had just walked out and she had been too dazed to do anything more than watch him leave… With a sigh Ria sat down on the bed and thought about the whole episode for awhile. Of course it would have been awkward for him to stay longer, or to have any sort of normal conversation with her, but she wouldn’t have disliked it, Ria realized.

The ticking from the clock reminded her to get going. She didn’t need to use the Park Hotel’s food facilities, since the photographer was going to treat her to breakfast to get to know her a little better and to talk about the when and how of her traineeship.

A delightful breakfast and an interesting conversation with South Korea’s #1 photographer later, Ria was on her way to the real job. She drove in a limo with the photographer, whose name was Baek Joon Gu, to the location of the shooting, which was a large empty sports hall, set up as a huge glamour stage in a colorful spring theme.

“You see the lights there? These are for the general lighting. Now these babies here…” Baek Joon Gu said, while pointing at the huge white umbrellas, “they do the real lighting. They are the ones responsible for that healthy glimmer, that radiating glow on the model’s skin.”

Ria followed him to the umbrellas and took a closer look at the things as Baek Joon Gu explained how they influenced the photo made, when using them.

When it was time for the models to take their places, Ria was settled right next to Baek Joon Gu, so she could see what he was seeing, but also what he was doing. When the first model went to stand on the set, Ria noticed they were going to shoot photos of male models and the theme was rather exposing. The first model was wearing an open shirt with short sleeves and blue denim shorts. The model didn’t need many directions as Baek Joon Gu was clicking away with the camera. Within 10 minutes, the model was done and another took his place. Then another and yet another. It all went very quickly and by the time it was the last few models’ turn for the camera, they were ahead of schedule.

“Thank you, next!” Baek Joon Gu said and smiled while waving his arm in a theatrical movement. “Ria, since we have plenty of time, I suggest you take the photos and I’ll give our next model the directions.”

Smiling broadly, Ria took place behind the camera and waited for the next model to show up on the set. When he did, she thought she needed an eye check. Right before her, bare-chested and in white shorts, stood the guy she caught hanging on the bathroom’s window sill, the guy that crawled into her bed just a mere 12 hours ago… With eyes huge as black pebbles in a stream, Ria stared at him, until he looked back, recognized her and smiled in return. It really was him, after all.

“Ria? Are you going to take photos? Or should I show you another time first?” Baek Joon Gu’s words brought her back to the present and without much hesitation she started the photo-taking.

“That’s right~! Lift your right hand a little higher… Great~!” Baek Joon Gu began actively shouting his directions at Dongwoon, who was enjoying the enthusiastic attention he was receiving.

Ria was once again completely enchanted as she was looking through the lens of the camera, while Dongwoon was throwing all kinds of attractive looks directly towards the camera and thus to her. He even winked and smirked seductively. Ria had to keep reminding herself to keep taking photos, for it became too easy to just stare at him. Suddenly a thought struck her mind… Why was he winking? It wasn’t like a photo could capture it, unless he kept his eye closed for a little longer… Did it mean… he was winking at her?

…And now he was blowing kisses? Ria blinked her eyes to make sure she wasn’t imagining it all. If she hadn’t stopped listening to Baek Joon Gu, she would have known Joon Gu gave him those directions, but that was merely because Dongwoon had created such an atmosphere in the first place.

Blinking didn’t change anything. Dongwoon kept stirring her heart with his playful flirting. It seemed totally out of character, knowing how charismatic he looked before, but he was perfectly capable of being desirable in a playful manner as well.

“Okay, that was fantastic!” Baek Joon Gu wrapped up the shoot and thereby ended Ria’s few minutes of pure enjoyment.

Instead of going right back to the dressing room, Dongwoon stepped off the set, grabbed a bottle of multivitamin juice and walked straight up to Ria.

“I didn’t know you were going to be my photographer!” he said amazed and smiled one of his charismatic smiles, one that suited him best and made Ria swoon on the inside.

“I didn’t know you were going to be my model!” Ria laughed, realizing this was the time to introduce herself. “I’m Ria by the way.”

“Nice to meet you, Ria. Was I a good enough model for you?” Dongwoon asked, sincerely, but still in a light-hearted manner.

“You’re the best!” It was out of her before she could over-think it. “I- I mean, you were pretty good…”

Dongwoon smiled broadly, he had totally gotten her true feeling on the model-photographer relationship. He did well, very well and she was definitely impressed.

“Thank you!” he said and kissed her on the cheek before turning and entering the dressing room.

Ria stood there, frozen, did he just kiss her? On the inside she danced a victory dance and on the outside she had trouble suppressing a huge smile. While on the other side of the dressing room door, Dongwoon was doing exactly the same thing…