'This isn't happening, i must be having a nightmare now...' Jiyun muttered furiously under her breath as she squeeze her eyes tightly in fear. 'Please wake me out of this nightmare as soon as possible...'
 

"Miss Kim?" A soothing voice appeared beside her ears. A hand made its way up her back as it rubbed her back softly up and down, calming her down instantly. She slowly opened her eyes to look at the direction where the voice appeared.

"Yoochun..?" She asked with a weak voice. 'I knew it, it was a nightmare.'

He frowned. It was seldom that he could hear her call him by his name. "Jiyun..." He whispered softly by her ears, "Are you alright? You're trembling..."

She shook her head, turning her head to meet his gaze directly. "It's ok, i was just having a..."

And she saw her. Again.

"Jasmine! I knew it is you that i saw! Oh my gosh, fancy meeting you here!" The lady in front of her started blabbering enthusiastically, "It's certainly been a long time!"

She stared back at her with a look full of disgust.

Yoochun nudged her, asking her if she was feeling alright. She nodded with a weak smile.

"Hye Jin, do you girls know each other?" Yoochun suddenly asked, making Jiyun turn her head towards him at top speed.

"She's Hye Jin? The female lead?" She whispered towards him. He nodded and turned back to Hye Jin once again.

"Of course! We were friends, weren't we, Jasmine?" Hye Jin replied cheerfully, sending a very sweet smile at him.

'Friends, my foot. Friends don't feed false information to each other, neither do they steal away their love life.' She thought. The memory alone was enough to make her face scrunch up from disgust.

But she knew better than to create a scene in front of so many irrelevant people. Hopefully.

"Ah, Mary, is it? Sorry, you do seem familiar to me..." Jiyun replied with the sweetest smile that she could muster up before speaking with a softer tone nearer to her, although it was still audible to almost everyone else in the room, "Did you do something to your face? You look pretty different as compared with my memory from university."

Hye Jin reacted with a mortified look. "Well, i'm known as Hye Jin now." She stuttered.

'One for Jasmine, zero for Mary.'

"Miss Kim, you girls were in the same university?" Yoochun asked, interested to know more. He wanted to know more about the younger Jiyun.

Jiyun nodded grudgingly.

He grinned, "Hye Jin, how was Jiyun like in school?"

"Oh, she was a nerd! She wasn't interested in fashion or anything, so she's practically a wallpaper." Hye Jin squealed happily, excited that the famous Park Yoochun had initiated a conversation with her that easily.

'Say all you want, it's not like i'm living in the past anyway.' Jiyun thought, although she was unconsciously starting to grab on Yoochun's sleeves. She rolled her eyes and turned to look away. That's when she saw Shaun walking in their way. 'Great, here comes the ex boyfriend.'

"Mary, is that you?" Shaun stuttered. "It's been a long time..."

"....Shaun, she's known as Hye Jin now. A new pretty name to match with her new pretty face." Jiyun interrupted, unintentionally adding sarcasm to her words. She couldn't help it.

"Yun/Miss Kim..." Both guys gave her a warning look.

"Ah fine..." Jiyun rolled her eyes, looking back at Yoochun's file while continuing to listen in on their conversation, which was mostly consisting of dissing her.

The world is turning its back on her.

Not wanting to listen to any of that crap anymore, Jiyun stood up with every intention to move seats.

"Where are you going?" Yoochun asked, gripping onto her wrist as he looked up at her. He did not notice the look on her face. One that just wants to run away, far away from her as if she is a H1N1 virus.
 

"Moving seats?" Jiyun replied truthfully. "It seems that you guys are talking so happily here and i'm just hogging up this seat. Might as well move and get some work done..."

"Stay." Yoochun commanded, loosening his grip on her wrist and sliding down to interlock his fingers with hers. He pulled her back down to her seat effortlessly, with him bringing their interlocked hands to rest on his lap. Jiyun felt the colourful butterflies in her stomach fluttering.

Hye Jin and Shaun looked at the entire scene silently, not sure of what they should say or do.

It was Yoochun who had broke the ice.

"So, did our Jiyun have any suitors back in university?"

Hye Jin shook her head cutely as she inched nearer to Yoochun with the famous 45° angle look, making her eyes look more charming. Supposedly. "None. She was a wallpaper."

Jiyun almost threw up her meals from seeing the horrendous act. Her breakfast. From two days ago.

"Really?" Yoochun asked, looking back at Jiyun with gleaming eyes, not noticing Hye Jin's flirting.

Jiyun looked down, holding their intertwined hands even tightly. "Can we move on to other topics..." She whispered to herself under her breath.

"Not really..." Shaun muttered, staring right at their locked fingers in jealousy, causing the three of them to look towards him. "At the very least, i was interested in her. Was and still am."

Jiyun felt Yoochun's grip tightened.

"Oh yes! Shaun, you had this extreme crush on Jiyun, weren't you?"

Shaun nodded.

Jiyun felt her head spin. Why were they talking about this as if it was a normal thing to discuss? What's this about Shuan liking her... back then?

Yoochun noticed that Jiyun was confused. He was confused as well. "What do you mean?" He asked. ‘From what i know, Jiyun got rejected by him. How is it possible that he likes her?’

'That's what i want to know as well...' She thought.

"Doesn't matter..." Shaun replied. "As long as she accepts me now, that's all it matters."

Yoochun stared at Shaun, his eyes filled with fiery blaze. "And what is that supposed to mean?"

"I confessed to her just recently." He replied, a face full of triumph.

And their intertwined fingers loosened.

Jiyun looked up at Yoochun. There was no expression on his face.

"Mr Park..." Jiyun tried to explain, but got interrupted by her boss.

"Ok, now that everyone is here, let's start the script reading. Get seated fast."

Saved by the boss. Or so she thought.

"Don't go... i beg you, i need you."

She scoffed. "One minute you tell me you need me, the other minute you throw me away? Am i a recyca-lable item?"

"Wait a minute. Hye Jin, can you repeat the last bit again? Pronounce the word clearly." Jiyun requested, looking towards her with a serious expression.

"Huh? Ok." Hye Jin looked at her with a pissed off expression. "Am i a recyca-lable item?"

"No... no..." Jiyun sighed. "Please repeat the word. Recyclable."

"Recyca-laple..."

"No, that's not it. Please do it again."

"....."

"Cut her some slack. You're too harsh on her. Hye Jin looks like she's about to cry..."

Jiyun turned towards Yoochun. Did she hear him correctly? Was he defending her?

"Mr Park, i wasn't 'too harsh on her'. It is my job to make sure that the script is smooth enough to enunciate. You don't want a filming day full of NGs, do you?"

"But still, your tone on her is a little too harsh."

"No, it isn't. Just continue with the reading." Shaun interrupted. With that said, he threw an assuring wink at Jiyun, telling her that it's alright.

"Outsiders shouldn't even be allowed here..." Yoochun mumbled under his breath, although he is probably burning up inside.

Jiyun glared at him. "For the love of dramas, your salary for this drama comes from this outsider. So don't be rude to Shaun."

"Oh yeah, your lover boy." He muttered icily.

‘Lover boy? Is that how he sees my relationship with Shaun as? Is that the reason why he is acting like a spoilt brat? Is he an idiot?’

Jiyun felt her heart clench up.

“Defend your lover girl instead, it's going to get worse. There are harder words behind.” She looked away and took a deep gulp on her water. “Aish, had i known that she is the actress, i could have prepared an elementary standard script instead..."

"Stop being rude, she's my female lead in the drama. At the very least, she's a proper actress." He replied in defense.

"Oh yeah, and i'm the script writer." She retorted, pulling up the stack of scripts and displaying them in his face.

He pushed the papers away, revealing an upset looking Jiyun. Whatever hurtful comments that he had thought up of disappeared in an instant. However, he was not going to back down that easily. "You're unreasonable." He finally uttered, looking away.

"Speak for yourself." She replied, crossing her arms and looking the other way.

"You may have some personal problems with Hye Jin, but please try to be professional during work." He muttered, his tone softening up a little.

"If you have any issues about my professionalism, i'd suggest you back out of this drama or have me taken out of the entire production. My boss is right over there, you can let him know right now."

"Well, well..." Jiyun's boss interrupted. "There's no need to make a big fuss out of it do we?" He produced a forced smile. "We are just trying to be professional in our own ways. Yoochun, she's not trying to pick on Hye Jin. It's her usual work pattern, i can vouch for it."

Yoochun slumped back into his seat silently.

"Superficial XY chromosomes. Only thinking of defending the perfect XX chromosomes..” She mumbled under her breath.

"I heard that, Miss Kim. And i know what you mean...”

"Yoochun, don't fight with Jiyun over me. It's my fault for not being able to pronounce the words properly..." Hye Jin's squeaky voice stabbed right into Jiyun’s ear drums, causing her to cringe.

Jiyun rolled her eyes and sat back. 'We weren't fighting because of you. It was just an excuse.'

"Jiyun, what happened to you? You almost lost your calm just now..." Her boss asked, walking over to her seat right after the script reading session ended. "Luckily, this is a closed session with the usual guys..."

"Sorry boss, guess i got up from the wrong side of the bed." She replied, glancing at Yoochun who was currently on the phone. Hye Jin was openly staring at him from a few steps away, as if she had made him her next prey.

In fact, she was 100% sure that Hye Jin had her eyes locked on Yoochun.

Her boss traced the direction of where Jiyun was glancing at, revealing Yoochun. 

"It's him again, huh?" He sighed. "Want to talk about it?"

Jiyun shook her head and smiled. "It's really nothing. It's not the first time we have quarrelled anyway."

"But..."

"Yah." An all familiar voice sounded. "Jaejoong wants to talk to you." He continued, shoving his phone in her face.

Jiyun stared at him. From her peripheral vision, she could see a fuming looking Hye Jin. She was still unable to strike a conversation with him after the reading session since he had been on the phone. She inwardly snickered before picking up the phone.

"Yes, Jaejoong?"

"Jiyun! Why didn't you pick up your phone when i called?"

"I was having a script reading session just now. I'm sorry?" She continued, taking a quick peek at Yoochun and realising that he has been looking at her. They looked away from each other.

"Oh well. It's good that both of you are at the same place."

"I wonder."

"Why?"

"Nothing. Anyway, why did you call me?"

"Oh yes! You're done for the day right? Come over for dinner, i've cooked a spread using the foodstuff you got for me!"

"Dinner? Now?" She looked at her boss. He nodded, indicating that she should go, and that he will take care of Shaun instead.

Hye Jin looked, well... like a volcano that was about to erupt any time soon.

"Yes, with Yoochun and me! Don't you dare reject me! Think of the kids in Africa who are currently starving..."

"Jaejoong...” She replied with an exasperated tone, before lowering her voice to a whisper. “...we had a fight. Yoochun and i. Do you seriously think that we can survive a dinner peacefully together? You have experienced that before, remember?"

“Again?! Oh my god. How many times do you guys want to fight?” He asked, his voice a little raised due to the unexpectedness.

“He started it.” She said in a monotone voice, staring right at Yoochun who was trying to avoid her eye contact.

“It’s ok, i’ll be the middle person then. Let’s get you guys patched up during the dinner!”

“I don’t know, Jaejoong. I am really very tired. This whole day has been too overwhelming for me...” She sighed, her fingers covering her eyes so that she can find solace in the temporary darkness.

"I don’t care. Just come, RIGHT NAO.” He said in a slightly louder voice before hanging up the phone call.

Jiyun stared at the phone, speechless.

“So?” Yoochun mumbled as he made tiny steps towards her, all the while looking at the floor. Raising his head a little, he asked, “Are you coming?”

“Like i have a choice.”

“Let’s go...?” He asked in a soft voice, unsure about what he should be saying at that current point of time. Out of habit, his hand reached for Jiyun’s.

Jiyun took a look at him and then at their hands. “What are you doing?”

“We are going to Jaejoong’s right? I’ll drive us there.”

Jiyun was about to soften down and accept his ride, but Hye Jin had to interfere at that exact point of time.

“Yoochun, can you send me back to my management company? My manager isn’t here with me so i’m alone...”

“But...” Yoochun stuttered, “I... Miss Kim...”

“It’s ok, Mr Park. I drove today. I’ll make my way there on my own.” Jiyun replied, emotionlessly. “You should live up to your ‘perfect co-worker’ status and send your new female lead to wherever she wants to.” She said, emphasising on the words ‘new female lead.’

Before Yoochun could react to it, Jiyun had turned around and walked out of the conference room.
 

A/N: Updated because it's such a good day today! LONG LIVE JYJ INDEPENDENCE DAY! <3