Sun Ae glanced at her watch quickly as she raced home. There was an envelope with the developed photographs from a few days ago in her backpack and she only had 20 minutes to make sure her apartment was neat and ready for when Jong In would come to pick them up. With that thought in mind she pedaled the bike harder despite the way the muscles in her leg burned painfully. She finally got to her apartment, chained her bike, and ran upstairs quickly.

Her phone rang as she walked into her apartment and she placed her backpack down and quickly tried to clean up the small space.

“What?” She answered quickly as the phone rang again as she hurriedly stuffed some dirty plates into the dishwasher and cleared the counter.

“Are you busy?” Taemin asked from the other side.

“Yup I sure am! Can I call you back?” She asked quickly, shutting the dishwasher and running to grab her pajamas from the hallway floor.

“Sure, but don’t forget!”

“Bye” She quickly as the old doorbell made a strangled sound through her walls.

She really needed to get that fixed she decided as she ran to the door, pausing for a moment in front of the mirror on the hallway and trying to fix her messy hair. She caught herself by surprise and shook her head. Even as she told herself to stop she ended up fixing the last messy strand and quickly grabbed the envelope with the photographs.

“Hi” She said with a bright smile as she opened the door to find Jong In standing there with his own smile.

“Am I too early?” He asked politely as he straightened out.

“No you’re just in time actually” She said as she handed him the envelope, “I hope you like them. I got them developed as fast as I could”

“I’m sure you did a great job” Jong In said, stalling as he glanced behind her and held his breath. He could leave now, but… “Can I come in for a bit? Uh just to take a look at the photographs”

“I don’t mind, but my apartment… it’s really old” She said with a cringe, imagining the face he would make when he really saw it.

“I’m sure it’s fine” He said as she stepped back and let him in. He took in the cracked wallpaper and scuffed floors, but smiled regardless at the small touches she had added to make it homey.

“It’s nice” He said as he walked further in and placed the photographs on the counter.

“You’d feel even worse if you knew what I went from to this” Sun Ae said as she shut the door and tried to push away her embarrassment.

“Should I take a guess?” He said as he walked further in.

“Sure go for it” She replied, wondering if she should say something along the lines of hey, how come you’re so comfortable with someone you just met?

She glanced at the pictures on the counter and foolishly decided to go along with it even though that small voice at the back of head that was almost always right about nearly everything, told her to hand him the pictures and simply say goodbye.

“Alright, I’m seeing a very fancy place” Jong In joked closing his eyes and placing a fingertip on his temple as if he was having some sort of vision, “Hmm definitely some upstairs floor maybe…. yes, I see it….an elevator?” He asked, opening an eye and peering at her with a smile on his face.

“Wow, that only describes nearly every apartment in the city! Since when have you been psychic?” She said through laughter.

“It’s a gift” He said, collapsing back onto the couch before she could warn him otherwise.

The old springs from the worn down couch she had gotten from her parent’s storage locker groaned from the sudden unexpected pressure as the seat collapsed in on itself. Jong In swore in surprise as his legs went flying up and he found himself semi stuck in the metal contraption. He looked up at Sun Ae, who had a hand over in surprise and she looked over at him suddenly finding the image of him stuck there hilarious as she burst out in laughter. Jong In chuckled as he silently pleaded with himself to stop embarrassing himself in front of her every single time. First the broom and now this?

“I’m sorry, but you just look so…” She cut off, laughing more as she walked over to him.

She grabbed his hand and helped him pull himself out of the broken down couch. He laughed as he turned back and stared at the hole he had left and she took that as cue that she was allowed to keep laughing. He moved forward and she finally noticed that he hadn’t let go of her hand yet. Her laughter faded away, replaced by innocent nerves as she stared at their hands. Jong In heard her laughter fade behind and with a start realized that he was still holding her hand. He let go quickly as he laughed awkwardly.

“So how much do I owe you for the broken couch?” He said lightly, trying to do everything to take attention away from what had just happened.

“Um… no nothing” She said quickly snapping herself out of the daze, “Trust me this couch thanks you for putting it out of its misery”

Jong In laughed and found himself staring at the ground. Sun Ae glanced at him and fought the urge to smile at how ridiculously cute he happened to look.

“So, maybe you should look at the photographs away from the dangers of my apartment” She said instead.

He masked his disappointment with a light laugh and went to grab them from the counter.

“I guess I’ll do that. I’ll give you a call when I submit them to my entertainment company to let you know what they think” He said as he turned just in time to catch a strange look flash past her.

“That’s right, you want to debut as an idol right?” She asked quietly.

“Yeah, it’s been my dream for a long time” He replied excitedly.

“Good luck with that I hope you debut soon” Sun Ae said as she looked up at the good looking man in front of her, “And… you don’t need to call me unless something is wrong with them” She said awkwardly, immediately regretting what she said.

Jong In raised an eyebrow in surprise at her sudden change. He opened his mouth to say something but instead said nothing as he felt the sting of a small rejection that had come without warning. He wanted to ask why, but he decided to stay quiet instead.

“Thanks for the photographs” He said as he waved the envelope lightly and walked out confused and disheartened.

After she shut door she smiled at the nostalgic feeling of liking someone. The declaration came much smoother than she anticipated and it made her feel better. She knew it wouldn’t work out. She knew she would never ever act on it. But admitting it to herself, that did no harm, and it calmed her in a sense. She went over to the small space that barely qualified as a living room and sat next to dented space on the couch. She glanced over at it and laughed despite the feeling of regret at sending him away without saying anything else.

If he wasn’t going to go into that business they might have had a chance, but fame changed people and she was determined not to let herself be hurt like that again.

She just wanted a normal guy.

~~~~~~~

“What happened to your couch?!” Taemin asked as he walked in with a bag of food in one arm.

“An asteroid crashed” Sun Ae said with a smirk as she took the bag of food from him and eagerly looked through it.

“Of course why didn’t I realize! No, seriously what did you do?” He asked as he brought paper plates out and placed them on the counter.

“I sat down and it just gave out” Sun Ae aid with a shrug deciding at the last minute not to say anything about Jong In coming over.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have brought any food” He teased, sliding the food away from her.

“Are you saying I’m getting fat?” She asked with a scoff as she slid the food bag closer to her.

“You’re the one that broke the couch….” He said with a smirk, placing a burger on a plate and giving it to her.

“Oh shut up and eat before I kick you out Taemin”

He laughed as he bit into his burger and watched her do the same. His nose crinkled when he tasted pickles despite the fact that he had explicitly told the man at the counter no pickles. He placed his burger down and carefully picked the green little bastards out of there and casually placed them on Sun Ae’s plate. She stopped and stared as he put the last of his pickles on the edge of her plate.

“Stop giving me all the pickles!” She suddenly snapped.

“…I don’t like them though…” He replied easily, an innocent pout in his face as he looked over at her.

“You’re such a baby” She muttered as she moved her plate out of his reach,

“You’re coming with me to dinner at your parent’s right?” He said suddenly remembering the invitation.

“Nope” She said stubbornly.

“Why not?! I can’t go by myself!”

“Why? They love you sooo much apparently. God, you’d think you were their son and I was the family friend with how much they support you” Sun Ae said annoyed.

“They always thought we’d end up together so they treat me like a son” Taemin replied quietly and watched as she stopped eating.

“But we didn’t. We got over it, why can’t they?” She asked as she looked away.

Taemin shrugged and took a sip of his drink. He looked back at his food, no longer hungry as her words echoed in his mind. Did they both really get over it?

~~~~~~

Taemin walked aimless through SM’s building when he spotted Jong In. Being careful to not spill any of his drink, he ran over to him.

“Jong In! Do you want me to get those photographs Sun Ae took of you?” Taemin said happily as he met his friend.

“Nah I already got them actually” Jong In said.

“Oh you already picked them up?” Taemin asked in surprise.

“Yeah I went over to her house and got them” Jong In said with a grin, “I also accidentally broke her couch, she didn’t complain about it did she?”

“…No…. she didn’t complain at all” Taemin said as he stared down at his drink.

“That’s great, I was really worried she secretly hated me for it” He said in relief.

“Why?”

“At the end she was kind of weird with me, but don’t worry you know me, I’m not really one to give up” Jong In said with a laugh.

“Give up… give up at what?” Taemin asked.

“Should I just say you were right?” Jong In said with a smirk.

“Right about what?” Taemin replied, a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.

“Right about her. She’s really incredible. I find her interesting and funny and…. there’s just something about her” Jong In said, with a small smile.

“She’s really stubborn” Taemin said, blurting out the first flaw he could think of and Jong In laughed.

“I can kind of tell”

Taemin laughed along though there was nothing funny about the situation to him. He could have said something, but the words died in his throat. Why hadn’t she casually mentioned the fact that Jong In had come to pick up the photographs. People who didn’t care, didn’t care enough to lie about stuff and she did and that worried him. Instead he felt a crazy urge to suddenly scream at his friend. Scream and let him know that Sun Ae wasn’t someone Jong In could simply like. It wasn’t right, she was his ex-girlfriend, his best friend….

She was the girl he was still very much in love with.

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I'm super determined on getting my updates out in time and I'm succeeding! Hahaha, I'm turning a new leaf of responsability to my fanfics. Plus I have a cold so I've been writing a lot ^^'

Anyways as always, thanks for reading! :)