A/N: Sorry, guys, for the long wait! I'll try to post at a 2 week schedule from now on!

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Their behavior was completely different from before. I’d come to know them as hard-working and nice. They had been joking a lot and had given off an easy-going vibe.

Now all that was gone.

They radiated confidence, if not appeal. They looked utterly comfortable standing there in their low cut clothes. I wondered how they felt about all this.

Maybe they thought: “Finally, a concept that I like”. But maybe they thought: “Why am I being reduced to this?”

I really had no idea, I just knew that I liked the concept. I don’t know if that’s wrong, but while deciding all this, I had actually thought of the times they had made innuendos about me and whom I liked. I knew that even though they had been all polished from the outside they were still men.

Although the boss had had selected the concept itself, he’d left the rest to my team and me.

I had to pull my gaze away from them for a while. I had to watch everybody else too, to check if… to check if anything.

Although I had been anticipating and dreading this day, it ended up being very boring. For the most part I was just sitting there and kept watch. From time to time a member of my team updated me on the situation.

It was slightly after noon when the director called for lunch break and everybody got comfortable on chairs and started talking. My assistant brought my own lunch.

The fact that I had my own assistant was still weird for me. It had been me giving everybody their lunch not long ago.

While I ate, I contemplated if I wanted to go talk to them. Officially, I wasn’t supposed to, but… I somehow had to. It felt wrong to be in the same room with people you know and not talk to them.

I got up and told my assistant that I was going to the loo. She was clearly perplexed that I told her. Should I just have left without saying anything? I was still unsure as to how I had to behave.

The hallways were very quiet compared to the big hall. My ears rang with silence.

Looking for their room wasn’t really hard. Most of the hallways were empty and silent, just one room was noisy. I listened to the voices before entering, to make sure no one else was in there. I wanted to avoid any unnecessary meetings.

I knocked.

I opened the door and closed it right after I entered.

“Hi” I said and smiled slightly.

For a second there was total silence, the five people that were sitting on the sofa and on chairs only looked at me and I got scared that they would somehow be angry at me.

I looked at Jaejoong who was standing up and went to stand in front of me. His face was stern and seemed unforgiving.

But then his lips broke into a smile and I remembered how beautiful he was. My heart stopped for a second, then he said:

“Welcome back, Shinae.”

Then he hugged me. It felt so good, like coming back home after a long vacation. I hugged him back tightly. He smelled delicious. I realized that it was the same smell as before.

He still smiled as we parted.

“Hey, don’t act like she’s all yours” said Yoochun and pushed his hyung aside to give me a hug as well.

“Hey you” I said, “so you haven’t forgotten me.”

He let go of me and raised an eyebrow.

“Forget? How can we forget when everyone is only talking about you?”

“What, you mean, everyone is talking about me?”

“Sure, and we’ve been spreading your good points like crazy” said Changmin and also came to hug me.

“Thanks, I guess. Anyways, it’s so good to see you guys upfront again!”

This time it was me who went ahead and hugged Junsu. Then I looked at Yunho.

His face was a mask again. He had a contended smile on his face, supposedly to seem happy to see me again, but I strongly doubted that he really felt like that. I still remembered him telling me to leave. Now I was back, somehow at least.

“Nice to see you” I said to him nonetheless.

“It’s nice to see you too.”

I didn’t know if he wanted to say some more, because Yoochun started talking right away.

“I know that you intended your best, but really, with this hair, I can barely see a thing!” he exclaimed.

I laughed.

“Sorry, there’s been a vote.”

“A vote on my hair? Alright, can’t change it anymore anyway!”

“On the plus side” I added, “it looks very handsome on you.”

He grinned.

“So, how have you all been? I mean, if you’re well and so on, ‘cause I know all the rest.”

Jaejoong rolled his eyes and shook his head and then said:

“We’re fine as long as we’re together. Nothing much has changed except that we’ve been missing having you around.”

“You know how much Changmin misses you bringing us snacks?” said Yoochun.

Everyone laughed.

It felt good. This was right, talking to them. I hadn’t realized how much I’d really missed them. Like a bunch of brothers that annoyed you at times but are deeply missed when gone.

“I’m… okay. A little stressed, but alright.”

They looked at me somberly in silence until finally Junsu said:

“You know, they’ve been saying pretty bad stuff about you. Bullying people, you know, we don’t believe that, but most employees don’t think of you in a good way.”

I knew that. I was eating with Any, the Korean-American that just transferred from L.A. and hasn’t found anyone yet. At first I had been sitting alone in the cafeteria, then I’d taken to eating in my office, but I stopped that, since I didn’t want to look like a snob.

So now it was Any. And no one else ever sat next to us.

“I know” I said, “they think I’m a kiss-up or worse. Heck, half of my team barely listens to me.”

“I don’t know what the boss thought when he put you in that position” said Jaejoong.

“Me neither” I said, resigned.

“I do” said Yunho suddenly. He’d kept out of our conversation until now.

“Either he wanted you to be in exactly this position or he didn’t anticipate this at all. I strongly doubt the last option, so I guess he planned all this. And don’t forget what he made you do before.  He wants something from you, maybe from us. I’d thought you’d at least figured that out.”

He said that last part so condescendingly that I wanted to reproach him, but then I thought about the rest he’d said. The boss having plans for me? Likely. Him planning all this from the start? Possible, but I wasn’t sure yet.

I ignored that last part and asked:

“You think he’d have his entire company question one of the highest employees and potentially jeopardize all of your promotion cycle, just because he has plans for me?”

“I know that he has plans for you and if they are important to him, he’d risk a great lot to fulfill them.”

“But how to know that, who told you­­–“

But before I could answer my phone rang. I gave Yunho an angry look and picked up.

“Where are you?”

That was my assistant.

“I told you where I was, didn’t I? Anyway, I was just heading back.”

I hung up.

“Wow, I didn’t think you had that in you” said Yoochun.

“Me neither, until I realized talking to them like this is the only way to get things done around here.”

I paused.

“We’ll talk later, okay?”

I was almost out of the room when Jaejoong called back to me.

“You can call me if you want to meet up again.”

“Sorry” I said, “they erased your numbers from my phone.”

I left the room with five phone numbers named like girls.

I still grinned when I sat back in my chair and answered my assistant’s questions.