Chapter 40

The weeks quickly passed and Kris and I couldn't have been better. However, we both have been nothing but busy from last minute preparations as SM began their promotions for EXO's next concept: Mama. With him, stuck in the pratice room, and me stuck in the recording room, at work we'd spend most of our lunch breaks together, and in the halls and I'd give him a peck on the lips and keep moving; or he would come over after work and we'd fall asleep on the couch together after watching hours of nothing on TV. Or we'd occupy our time doing other things /wiggles brows, cough coughs. {LOL}

It's 9 am and as I'm clocking in, I noticed that ChanYeol clocked in literally a few minutes before me. *I need to talk to him... Maybe I can catch him if I hurry.* I quickly swiped my card and punched in my code, and hurried through the door. Just as I opened the door to the "magic rooms of SM," I saw ChanYeol heading into the locker room. 

"ChanYeol!" I called out for him and he whipped his head back, nearly breaking his neck. "Don't snap something, hehe." 

"Jesus, Bre, you scared the life out of me. Why are you yelling so early in the morning?" 

"My bad," I adjusted my folders in my hand, "I just wanted to get your attention before you went in." I nodded to the locker room. 

"Well, you got it. What can I assist you with this morning?" 

"Actually, I wanted to talk to you when you have some time. It's nothing big, I just wanted to talk to you about some things." 

He nodded as I finished talking. "Yeah, sure. I have to go and get ready now, but we can talk later if that's okay with you." 

"Yea, of course, just come and find me or I'll find you, whatever happens first. See ya." He waved and I headed to get Ha Na's morning coffee, then to her office to see if she was in. Sure enough she was, and already working. "Morning, boss." 

I sat her coffee on her desk and immediately began giving her the papers she needed for today's work. "Here are the final stats for the last teasers and What is Love. Apparently, everyone liked Kai, LuHan and SeHun's teasers more than anyone elses. Why is that? Did SM out some kind of illusion in their teasers to make people fall in love with them more?" 

"Now, Bre, that's foolish talk..." She relaxed in her chair. 

"Whew. That's good to hear-" 

"They put them on all of the teasers." 

"What?! You're not serious, are you?" *Dear God, what have I gotten myself into!* 

"Chill Bre~ I was only kidding." She doubled over laughing as I stood there looking like a two year-old pouting. 

"That ain't funny, Ha Na. That ain't funny at all." 

"Aw hush," she composed herself and cleared , "So have you talked to any of the members yet?" 

"I ran into ChanYeol after I clocked in. Why, something's going on?" 

She shook her head. "Not really. SM's having a little party for Xiumin's upcoming birthday. I thought the boys would try and convince you to go with them before the other one did. You know, being the super early bird." 

*They never told me about Xiumin's party. I wonder why...* "Ani. I knew it was his birthday soon, but I didn't know anything about a party." 

"Maybe they don't want you to get drunk again and start calling them strippers." She laughed again, almost falling out of her chair. 

"That's what you get. I'll be back later." I left shaking my head and headed for the studio room. 

"Xiumin's having a party and no one told me about it?" I thought to myself outloud, "is it because of the strippers thing? They could be a pair of strippers, though, the way those jerks danced on me-" 

Randomly, a pair of hands grabbed my waist and stopped me in my tracks. "Still think of me as a stripper?" 

"What the- Who the hell-? What are you doing?!" 

"I'm being your stripper, baby." He whispered to me. I wacked his hands off of me as he laughed. 

"Har har, that's really funny of you, Kai." I looked around to see if anyone else was with him. "What do you want, disrupting my thinking?" 

"Do you always think of us 'strippers'? Or is it just me you think about?" He wiggled his eyebrows at me. 

"Kai, really, you're making my brain cry. Stop it, please." I laughed at his reaction to my words. 

"Kris has you hooked, don't he?" He put his hands on his hips and shook his head, "Pfft. Wu fan's effect on girls, I swear." I smacked his arm and we shared another laugh. 

"Really, though, what's up? You need anything?" 

He shook his head again, "Nothing. We're on break and I thought I'd see what you were up to." 

"Well, I have to head to the studio now, soo" I trailed off as I began to walk away. 

"I guess I'll come with you." He followed me to the studio and watched me as I set everything up and placed everything where it belonged. I leaned over the sound board to make sure everything was properly plugged in. "Wow." 

"Kim JongIn, you better not be looking at my . I swear, I'll kick you in the face." 

"Well that's not fair. Kris can look, but I can't?" I turned and threw my pencil at him. "I'm kidding, calm yourself woman." I sat down in my spinning chair and spun around to face him. "I was just admiring the way you work. It's so... perfect-like, if that makes any sense." 

"It's doesn't, but I think I know what you're trying to say." He rolled his eyes and I chuckled. 

"Anyways, as I was saying, I don't unserstand how you have time to maintain a relationship and work the way you do. Do you ever take a break sometimes?" 

I sat back in my chair and thought before I answered his question. "I don't know, Kai. What would you consider as a break? Now?" 

"Oh no no, of course not now." My eyes widened at how he rejected his time with me so fast. "Not like I wouldn't like to spend my break with you, I just... it's just that... I wouldn't consider this a... I'll just shut up." 

I cracked. "It's okay, Kai, I don't like you either." 

He rubbed the back of his neck. "You know what I mean~ I'm talking about a real break." He stretched his feet on the lounging couch. "Just a day to yourself, or to you and a significant other." He wiggled his brows at me making me laugh. 

"C'mon, Kai. You and I both know how busy you guys are. Kris and I spend enough time together. We have our time together when it's meant to come... later." 

"Oh no... you're becoming 'that girl'." He made air quotes.