“Welcome back, kids! As you know, for this version, we’ll have more dancing involved, since the last CF had more of a storyline,” Director Jang said.

JunHyung glanced at RaeIn who had just recently walked in. “You’re kind of late.”

“Yes, I’m sorry, my last schedule lasted a little long…”

“Okay, were you two able to practice your dance well?” Director Jang asked.

“Er, I was only able to practice it on my own,” RaeIn confessed.

“You two haven’t practiced together yet?” Director Jang raised an eyebrow.

“Yes, our schedules were both different, but we should be able to do well today,” JunHyung said confidently.

“Why don’t you two practice together a bit in the practice room first? We’ll film the other part of the CF right now while waiting.”

“I think it will be fine also, if we just tried it now,” RaeIn said, agreeing with JunHyung.

“No, it will be better if you two practice together first.” The director was adamant.

And so the two idols made their way to the practice room, first picking up their spare practice clothes from their respective vans. JunHyung reached the practice room first, a bit annoyed that RaeIn was taking a while. Soon, RaeIn rushed through the doors, panting a little.

“Sorry I’m… late… again,” RaeIn said between pants. She stuck out her hands to hold out a bottle for JunHyung. “I bought us pear juice,” she added after catching her breath. “Have you had it before? It’s pretty yummy.”

JunHyung was surprised, but accepted her gift. “Oh, thank you.” She looked up at him and smiled, happy that he accepted her present, which threw him off guard a little. He shook his head. “All right, let’s start.”

First they ran through the steps to their dance by the numbers, as they really hadn’t practiced together at all. They both practiced by themselves. For the first CF, they played RaeIn’s singing in the background, as she was both sub-vocalist and sub-rapper in her three-member group. This time they were accompanied by the fierce and up-beat rap by BEAST’s joker.

“Five, six, seven…” JunHyung counted. Once he reached seven, however, he had to grab RaeIn around the waist. He didn’t realize what was going on until he actually made contact with her, and he jumped back. RaeIn looked at her sunbae, surprised at his action.

“What’s wrong, oppa?” she asked.

“Nothing, sorry, it was my fault,” JunHyung replied. “All right, let’s start from that part again…”

After that, their first run through of the dance ran by fairly smoothly, even the part where JunHyung had to pick her up. Now it was time to try the dance with the music. JunHyung played the song, skipping further along so it was closer to where they start dancing.

RaeIn closed her eyes, and took a deep breath, a bit nervous since this was pretty much the actual thing, and she had never really performed with JunHyung before. JunHyung noticed this, intrigued at how serious this dongsaeng could be when it dealt with work. He smiled to himself, almost missing their cue. The dance started out with RaeIn, with the focus moving onto JunHyung. Eventually, this leads to the part where JunHyung reaches around her waist, where they start dancing together. Finally came the part where JunHyung has to pick her up, bridal-style, a part which for some reason made JunHyung quite nervous.

This was also the part where JunHyung slipped on a towel on the floor… which wasn’t supposed to happen.

“Oppa, are you okay?” RaeIn rushed over to help the fallen JunHyung.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” JunHyung said. He looked at RaeIn, whose face showed genuine concern, amusing JunHyung to the point of laughter. RaeIn’s worry turned into confusion.

“Why are you laughing?”

“Don’t worry about it,” JunHyung said, reaching his hand up. “Help me up.” RaeIn grabbed his hand, and attempted to help him up, though they both knew he could get up on his own.

“This girl,” JunHyung thought as they continued practice. “I can’t believe she was really that worried just because I fell. That’s cute.” JunHyung was grinning, but at this thought his expression immediately changed. He looked at RaeIn, who was currently in her dance solo, then looked down shaking his head, laughing. “Wow, what am I thinking sometimes? I probably need some rest…”

The filming for the 2^nd CF went by surprisingly smooth, considering how JunHyung and RaeIn only had one day to practice together. Again, Director Jang praised the two for their hard work and great chemistry (the latter which RaeIn couldn’t believe at all). After saying her thanks to the director and the rest of the staff, RaeIn found JunHyung as he was getting ready to leave. She tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around and found her smiling up at him.

“Oppa, do you have anything after this?”

“She is very persistent,” JunHyung thought to himself.

“Let’s go get ice-cream! We already finished our second CF and we got our dance down right away!”

“You spend so much on ice-cream, don’t you?” JunHyung stated matter-of-factly. He noticed that RaeIn looked a bit down when he said this, so he quickly gave a chuckle and added, “You’re addicted to it, just like YoSeob. DooJoon-hyung is starting to be like this, too.” RaeIn quickly regained her confidence and started smiling widely again.

“So you’ll come with me?”

“I’m sorry, I’ve got practice. Don’t you have practice also? I heard from hyung MAKIKO is starting to film their music video soon.”

“Oh, right!” RaeIn’s eyes widened with shock. She quickly checked her watch. “Oh, no, it’s almost time for practice! Thanks for reminding me, oppa! We’ll get ice-cream another time!” RaeIn quickly grabbed her stuff, and left to meet up with JulSu and KaHee at the CUBE practice rooms. JunHyung watched her run off awkwardly, shaking his head and smiling in amusement.

——-

JunHyung’s plan was to head back over to the dorm so that the BEAST members could ride to practice together. Once JunHyung reached the dorm, he greeted the members he saw first, which were KiKwang and YoSeob, and quickly ran into his room to grab his glasses. However, they weren’t on the table he thought he left them on. He walked out and found KiKwang and YoSeob again.

“Have you guys seen my glasses?”

“Mm, nope, I don’t think so,” KiKwang said, looking around as he thought.

“I haven’t either,” YoSeob said, putting on his shoes. “Maybe ask DooJoon-hyung? He’s in the living room.”

JunHyung nodded and headed towards the living room.

“Hyung, have you seen…” JunHyung walked into the living room to find DooJoon sitting on the couch, holding up two necklaces. DooJoon noticed JunHyung enter the room so he turned around to greet him.

“Oh, JunHyung, you’re done filming for today already?”

“Yes, actually we finished the whole thing today.”

“That’s great!” DooJoon said, supportively. “So what were you saying earlier?”

“Right,” JunHyung said, remembering. “I was wondering if you saw…” JunHyung’s words trailed off again as the light brought back his attention to the two necklaces DooJoon was holding. The two necklaces were identical with pendants shaped like two eighth notes. The curious JunHyung asked, “Hyung, what are those for?”

“Oh, these?” DooJoon asked, gesturing to the necklaces. “I bought them for RaeIn’s and my 100 days. Look!” He held up one of the pendants to show that they had inscriptions. “‘D’ for DooJoon and ‘R’ for RaeIn!” He smiled.

“That’s cool. When’s your 100 days?”

“It’s on September 3.”

“HyunSeung’s birthday?”

“Yeah,” DooJoon laughed. “I’m going to give it to her at his party. But don’t worry; I won’t give it to her in front of everyone. I don’t want to steal attention away from HyunSeung. And this is between RaeIn and me anyway. The necklaces look all right though, right? I’ve been staring at them, trying to see if they’re good enough.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“Really?” DooJoon’s eyes lit up. “Do you think she’ll like them?”

JunHyung laughed. “How would I know that?”

“Come on, you’ve filmed with her a lot, so you’ve gotten to know her quite a bit right? Other than you, KiKwang’s the only other one who has spent time with her, but I don’t want to ask him because he might tell KaHee and I want to keep this a secret. So do you think she’ll like?”

“Yeah, I guess so.” JunHyung didn’t really know what to say, but decided to just go along with it. DooJoon smiled again, content with JunHyung’s answer. “Oh hyung, by the way, have you seen my glasses?”

“They’re not in the room?” DooJoon responded. JunHyung shook his head.

“HyunSeung-hyung is here!” YoSeob and KiKwang interrupted, sticking their heads into the room. “Let’s go!”

——-

“Ah, it’s really dark outside,” RaeIn mused, looking outside the window. She looked at her watch. 1:43AM. “JulSu and KaHee are probably asleep since they’ve got that radio show in the morning. And SaRang-unni is probably asleep also…”

She rustled through her belongings and found her cell phone, immediately calling DooJoon. “I really don’t want to walk back by myself…”

MAKIKO had been practicing their dance for their music video filming. They weren’t sure when exactly filming would start, but it was going to be sometime within the next couple of months. SaRang wanted to make sure they had their dance down early on anyway, since this song would probably be their follow-up song. JulSu and KaHee had left the practice room early, though, since their schedules for the next day started pretty early. RaeIn however took this opportunity to stay later and practice for both the music video and another special performance they had coming up, for JulSu’s birthday.

“Ahh, he’s not answering his phone,” RaeIn said glumly, canceling the call on her yellow Samsung Corby. She brought it up under her lip to think. She glanced at the door of the practice room and walked over to open it. She took a peek outside and realized there was no one there anymore. “Wow, creepy…” she whispered in the darkness, quickly closing the door and walking back to the middle of the lit-up practice room. She looked at her phone again and dialed DooJoon’s number. Still, he didn’t answer.

“Hmm,” she mused, scrolling through her phonebook on her cell phone. “JulSu & KaHee are sleeping, but maybe I should give it a try… no, they have a schedule, and it’s late. I can’t do that to my group members.” She gave a frustrated sigh. She kept scrolling through her phonebook when suddenly she came across the name “Yong JunHyung.”

“Err, JunHyung-oppa,” RaeIn thought. “I wonder if he’s awake. Ah, but why would he give me a ride? He’s always so mean to me. Then again, lately he’s the only person I’ve been in contact with other than DooJoon-oppa, JulSu, KaHee and SaRang-unni.” RaeIn paced the practice room, deliberating in her mind. She checked her watch again and noticed 20 minutes had passed. It was getting later, and she needed to go home and rest up soon.

“It’s worth a shot!” she decided. She dialed JunHyung’s number.

“Hello,” JunHyung said sleepily.

“O-oppa,” RaeIn said timidly. “It’s RaeIn. I’m sorry were you asleep?”

“Yes, of course I was,” JunHyung paused to glance at the clock. “Why are you calling?”

“I’m still in the practice rooms… it’s really late and I don’t know how to get home…”

“Why don’t you call DooJoon-hyung?” JunHyung sighed, waking himself up, putting a hand on his forehead.

“Well, I tried calling him, but he’s not answering his phone…” RaeIn started.

“Where are JulSu and KaHee anyway?” JunHyung interrupted, sitting up in bed now.

“I told them to leave early since their schedule starts early in the morning,” RaeIn explained. “I wanted to stay longer to practice, but I didn’t notice the time, and now there’s no one else here.”

“What an idiot, staying there by yourself so late at night,” JunHyung said.

RaeIn quickly replied, “Ahh, nevermind then. I’m sorry for waking you up, you can go back to sleep, I’ll try calling someone else. Or I’ll try to go back by myself…”

“Idiot,” JunHyung sighed. “Don’t go anywhere. I’m coming to pick you up right now. So stay where you are.”

JunHyung quickly hung up the phone, not leaving any room for RaeIn to reply, so she stood in the practice room just staring at her phone for a while, feeling both shocked and relieved.

“He’s really going to pick me up?” she thought. When she finally came back to her senses, she shoved her phone into her back pocket and gathered her things. She sat down on the floor of the practice room and waited, anticipating the possible awkward atmosphere between her and JunHyung.

Suddenly the door shot open, and in walked JunHyung.

“JunHyung-oppa!” she greeted, as he stood by the doorway, wearing his pajamas.

“Hurry, let’s go. I want to get back and go to sleep.”

“Yes, I’m sorry again for troubling you,” RaeIn said, scooping up her belongings and scurrying after JunHyung. They turned off the lights and turned into the hallway. JunHyung looked over at RaeIn from the corner of his eye and saw that she was sort of struggling with the two big bags she was carrying, so he grabbed them both and slung them over his shoulder, once again taking RaeIn by surprise.

“Oh,” she looked at him with big eyes. “Thank you.”

“You looked like you were having a hard time,” JunHyung coughed, trying to play it off, and added, “So you don’t slow us down.”

“Still, thank you,” RaeIn said, smiling now. They continued walking through the building and when they reached outside, RaeIn saw how dark it was, thankful for JunHyung’s company. Once they reached the car, JunHyung opened her door to place her stuff inside, then he left it open for her to get in before walking around to the driver’s seat. RaeIn muttered a quiet “thank you” before getting inside. JunHyung started driving, and the two were met with a few minutes of silence before RaeIn decided to speak up again.

“Thank you again for picking me up, I know you were sleeping and it’s really late.”

“Yes, you’ve thanked me enough already. It’s fine. DooJoon-hyung wasn’t even home yet when I left, so who else would’ve picked you up?”

“DooJoon wasn’t home yet?” RaeIn repeated, looking down glumly. JunHyung took a quick glance at her before returning his gaze to the road.

“Yeah, he’s probably filming for something. Varieties love him.”

“That’s true,” RaeIn agreed. Suddenly she remembered something. “Oh, JunHyung-oppa, are you free on September 3? It’s JulSu’s birthday party. I’d really like it if you could make… especially now that you went out of your way to pick me up.”

“September 3… that day sounds really familiar,” JunHyung said, only paying half-attention.

“It’s HyunSeung-oppa’s birthday also. JulSu’s is the day before, but I think we’re all celebrating together on the 3^rd since it’s so close together.”

“No, I remember HyunSeung’s birthday, but it sounds familiar for another reason also. I think I may have a schedule.”

“Really? Even though it’s HyunSeung’s birthday?” RaeIn asked disappointed.

“Yeah, I’m probably going to be busy.”

“Oh, I see.” And for the rest of the car-ride, the two remained quiet. That is, until they reached MAKIKO’s dorm, in which RaeIn relayed another “thank you,” bowing slightly before exiting the car.