“My work starts when yours ends.” Hwejin smiled despite heavy eyes. She was already sleepy and tired for keeping track of SHINee’s preparation the whole day. She’s working harder than ever. This is considered as her biggest project ever – knowing the Australian Producer wants to target the “whole world” on this one.

“How about just dinner?” Onew leaned forward and placed his elbows on Hwejin’s table as he tried to take a closer look at her face. She looked up to meet his eyes and smiled.

“You know I can’t. This is due tomorrow.” She repeated what she said earlier. “You should go with your members and have fun eating outside. If you want, you can drop me by some snacks after eating out. I love apple pies so…”

“Sure I’ll get them for you.” Onew smiled in content. “But I was thinking of having a drink tonight…”

“No problem! It’s good to have some drink once in a while and you’re in a foreign country so grab the chance!” Hwejin happily said.

“But we’re supposed to go with you and suddenly you… hay… I would rather not go with them.”

“Oppa should go since he’s the group leader.” Hwejin chuckled. “And I’m perfectly fine. You weren’t this worried before.” She pouted.

“I am worried ever since. I just didn’t show it.” He said and stood up properly. “I’m going and I’ll call you from time to time in case you might feel bored, and if you want me to bring you something just give me a call, okay?”

Hwejin nodded and Onew leaned in again to give her cheeks a goodbye kiss.

He was walking on the hallway when he saw a very familiar face – someone that he couldn’t stand seeing in fact.

“How was the recording?” Haiden asked when they path finally crossed.

“Great.”, was what Onew could only reply. For once he was in deep thought, until he looked at Haiden again, “Do you want to grab some dinner with us? I mean… if you just want to.” He said.

“Onew ssi sure is polite to the people older than him.. though I think I’m just older than you by 1 or 2 years.” Haiden smiled. “Are you sure you’re inviting me over? I was never trained to say no to an invitation.” He assured.

“If you could drive us to the coolest bar around the area.”

**** **** ****

It was a bar obviously for wealthy people. The rich bachelors gather inside and tonight, SHINee was included including Haiden Kim.

“Nice place.” Key, who’s obviously into socializing, praised as they occupied a very comfortable table on the side. Minho, Jonghyun, and Taemin kept on looking around and they liked it as well.

They skipped meal – as Key didn’t like it but drunkards (not really) Jonghyun, Minho and Onew insisted to go straight to the bar. They will just order light meals there before drinking.

“Why are we with him?” Minho elbowed Jonghyun and whispered. “He’s supposed to be someone who never has to be with hyung… why is he here?” He asked.

“I dunno. Hyung probably invited him over.” Jonghyun simply answered.

“I swear I’ll puke the hell out of me if that Haiden really is a gay.” Minho whispered and sighed.

Haiden ordered some alcoholic drinks for them to share. The six started drinking. It was cool at first, until the four realized they seemed to be out of placed on the drinking session.

“So you were really eyeing on our Hwejin even from the start.” Onew said and placed the glass on the table. He crossed his legs and arms as he looked at Haiden.

“You can say that.” Haiden, on the other hand, drank it oneshot – it was whisky, for the record. “She was the cutest girl I found roaming around the campus not knowing where to go.” He chuckled.

“You saw her on the first day?” Onew frowned to which Haiden nodded.

“So technically… I love Hwejin for almost five years now as well.” Haiden said. “It’s just that… I decided approaching her five years after I started falling in love.”

“If you don’t mind… can we excuse ourselves for a while?” Jonghyun said and patted Key’s legs to stand up with him. Minho and Taemin also followed though they were clueless about why.

“Hey, what if the two suddenly fight?” Minho said when they were already far away from the two. “We shouldn’t have left them. They are starting to get drunk already.” He said.

“They won’t fight. It seems to me that they are having a peaceful conversation. Enough for us to leave them and give them some time to just talk one on one.” Jonghyun uttered.

“What if Haiden suddenly confessed to hyung? I swear hyung will not control herself. He’ll surely punch Haiden on his face.” Key said rubbing his palms together in worries.

“Aish Kibum can you please stop that Haiden-is-a-gay issue!” Minho shouted out of nowhere. Some people heard him and he was embarrassed as they looked at him as if they were judging. “Oh no, sorry. Haiden is a real man. A 100 percent straight man.” He smiled awkwardly and showed them two thumbs up.

“They couldn’t understand us, pabo.” Jonghyun said. “We’re speaking in Korean. They just looked at you because you shouted.” He said and shook his head.

They decided to take another table and just chat there. Almost 2 hours later… Taemin stood up. “I’m going to pee.”

He was about to go to the restroom when he came across Onew and Haiden’s table.

“Eh?” He stopped when he saw someone else with Onew. He walked closer – but not to the point where Onew could see him.

Haiden was gone, and beside Onew was a girl wearing a very short cocktail outfit – with a very exaggerating cleavage exposure.

It was weird enough to see Onew with a girl like that… but what surprises Taemin more was to see the girl’s arms lustfully wrapped around Onew’s neck. The girl seemed to be a little Korean – though. She has some features.

Then Taemin saw Onew taking some money out of his wallet and giving it to the girl. Taemin even frowned. The girl shook his head and Onew took another sum of money to give to her.

“They should know about this!” Taemin told himself and went back to their table.

“Hyung! Hyung!” He said and immediately sat and they gathered together forming a circle as if their plotting something against their hyung.

Taemin told everything he saw to the members and they all started to be in panic. “This is probably Haiden’s plan because Onew hyung is a little drunk now.” Jonghyun uttered and shook his head. “Have you seen Haiden around?”

Taemin shook his head.

“Gosh. This is … what if other fans saw it, too?” Minho said worriedly.

They were discussing the thing about Onew when he suddenly appeared out of nowhere. “Guys. It’s getting late.”

// And CH stands for Cliffhanger.