A/N: I hope I'm still on schedule... anyways, have fun with this :D Ah, and if you knew what I have in mind for all of them... you'd be scared :DD

Next chapter on February 8th :D.

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There was barely anyone talking to me. Most just ignored me, as I did them. I watched the boys shoot in different clothes, different poses, together or in a solo shot. But my mind couldn’t concentrate.

I knew I should be happy that they still supported me and didn’t believe in the rumors. I could even call them now, and I smiled, thinking of how Jaejoong had insisted on giving all of their numbers to me.

How I had missed to be liked, to be appreciated.

But my mind went back to what Yunho had said.

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

Of course I knew that there was a reason for him doing all this to me, but I’d believed he – he what? He wanted to have some fun making my life hard? That he wanted me to be big in his company?

I realized that I had known what Yunho had said already. I had just been hiding from it as good as possible.

So, what now?

Should I just go on like before? Heck, what could I even do? Go up to him and tell him? And ruin my life, getting banned from all major companies?

No, that was out of the question. What then? Just stay quiet? I needed to talk to someone. No, I needed to talk to Yunho. He seemed to be the only one paying attention to that, but since I really wasn’t going to do that, I wanted to talk to Jaejoong.

The plus side was that I’d get to spend some time with him. Of course, I had to be very careful.

As the boss had instructed, I left right as the director called it a day. In front of the building, my team members told me what they’d seen (which was nothing much important) and then I dismissed them.

While the music video shoot was three days from now, tomorrow was the time for last preparations.

I called Jaejoong when I was home. I’d changed into comfortable clothes and was sitting on my couch, listening to the phone dial.

“Hello?” asked a voice, and it took me a moment to realize that his voice sounded different on the phone.

“Hi, it’s Shinae.”

“Well, that was quick, couldn’t wait to hear me again, right?”

His tone was playful, but I wasn’t in the mood.

“That’s right” I said, “I need to talk to you, but not on the phone. Can we meet tomorrow?”

He was taken aback by my seriousness, but he adjusted quickly.

“Sure, of course. I know a place where it’s save to meet. I’ll text you the address.”

“Thanks, Jaejoong. Really, it means a lot.”

“Of course. See you tomorrow.”

I hung up.

I couldn’t sleep that night, so the next day I drank one coffee after the other. I somehow made it through the last meeting and left at exactly 5 pm.

Jaejoong had texted me the location and time, 8 pm. Since I had some time to kill and it didn’t make much sense to go home anymore, I sat down at a coffee shop.

Time crept by, it felt like it didn’t move at all. Finally, it was time to leave.

The place that Jaejoong had selected was… a house. I rang the doorbell and he opened only moments later.

“Hi” he said, “come on in.”

I entered the house and was met with lots of natural colours.  The cupboard to my right was beige, the walls wear not quite white, but I couldn’t really name the colour. He led me into the living room, which housed a light brown couch, brown furnishings and lots of art on the walls.

It looked very… female, if I had to be honest. My friends sister used to have this kind of style in her home.

“Nice place” I said, sitting down.

He grinned apologetically.

“It’s my sisters, actually.”

He sat down on the arm chair opposite of me and looked at me, waiting.

“Right, I should probably start, huh? Well, I’ve been thinking, about what Yunho said. I know that something is not right, I know that I’m playing some kind of role, but I have no idea what role exactly or why. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. But I can’t just go on and ignore it.”

He looked at me, his face serious.

“You want me to tell you what to do?”

“No, I… I just need to talk about it.”

I felt weird, vulnerable. Suddenly I didn’t want to be here anymore, although I trusted Jaejoong, I didn’t want to talk about this anymore. But I had to.

“I think he’s been having fun with you for a long time now” he said.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that from the start on, he never really expected anything from you. He told you to establish a relationship, but after you did that, he didn’t use it at all. He put you in a position you were most likely to fail. But I don’t think you can do anything against it. He’s one of the most powerful people in this country.”

I frowned.

“I disagree.”

“You do? Why?”

“It feels… it feels like he’s waiting for something. Every time I talk to him he talks to me… weirdly. Like he’s waiting for me to say something specific.”

“Huh”, he half said, half sighed.

He got up and started to walk around.

“So, let’s say he is waiting for you to say or do something, what is it?”

“I don’t know, but I’m sure of it now, now that I think of it.”

“Mh”, he murmured.

I watched him while he was walking and thinking. It was weird, a bit, the route our relationship had taken. Before, I had never had the feeling that we liked each other. I mean sure, I’d had to be close, or seemingly close, to him due to the plan. But in the end, I knew that he was easy to anger and was in a relationship with Yunho.

But that was it. What else did I know about him? And still, now that we met again, it felt like I could trust him. Like there was this thing in the past that made us trust each other.

Suddenly, a phone rang and I winced. It was Jaejoong’s phone, the ringtone some old k-pop song.

He picked it up.

“Hello” he said.

“At my sister’s… I’m sorry. No, I’m with Shinae… We’re just talking… No, that’s not your business! No, you’re not – “

He let his hand down and put the phone on the table.

“Who was that?” I asked.

“Yunho. He’s coming over.”

I frowned.

“Is he jealous?”

He raised his eyebrows.

“Are you a detective now?”

“No, I’m just seeing that he doesn’t like us spending time together. I mean, c’mon, it’s because of him that I just finished the job without waiting.”

He sat back into his chair and chuckled.

“I can’t believe it, but he is jealous. I never gave him any reason to be, but he’s always clinging onto me, asking where I am and with who.”

Now I laughed too.

“Sounds to me like an over-possessive girlfriend… boyfriend, whatever.”

My smiled died as my thoughts dwindled back to our original topic.

“What should I do?” I asked. “I can’t go on like this. I need a plan.”

I looked at him, helplessly and then I saw I twinkle in his eye, like he just had the solution for everything. It wasn’t a solution in the end, but a plan.

“You say he seems to be waiting for you to do or say something. So, do it.”

I frowned again. Soon I’d have wrinkles on my forehead.

“I told you already, I don’t know what it is! I’m totally clueless.”

“Not totally. From the beginning, it was about us, us five and you. Creating a fake relationship… Somehow it all fits together. But for now, you just need to hint at things.”

“What kind of things? That I still love you? I mean, so that he thinks I’m still involved?”

“Something like that. But it has to be subtle, very subtle. A look may just be enough.”

I sighed and it felt like some of the weight had been lifted off of me. There was a plan. True, it wasn’t very planned through or a distinctive goal, but it was a plan.

“So, how’d you get so good at this stuff? Maybe you are the detective.”

He shook his head and smiled.

“I’ve just been working here for some time.”

Just when I wanted to reply to that, the doorbell rang. Jaejoong got up to open the door and came back with a stern-faced Yunho.

I got up and somehow felt the need to give him a slight bow, like his demeanor said: I’m in charge here.

“I’ve been covering for you” he said to Jaejoong, whose face I couldn’t read anymore.

“Thanks… Did everything go well?”

“Yeah, we just practiced the songs some more. Your parts are perfect anyway, so no one went looking for you.

The awkward silence that followed seemed to stretch out into infinity. Since Yunho hadn’t even acknowledged my presence, it felt wrong for me to say something. Like I was breaking a law.

Then finally Jaejoong gestured to the couch and Yunho sat down, pulling his partner down next to himself.

I sat down on the living chair.

“We were just talking about Shinae’s situation” Jaejoong said, trying to break the silence.

For the first time, Yunho looked at me, his eyes saying so you talked to him, huh?

But he didn’t say it, instead he took Jaejoong’s hand and pressed it.

My heart made a jump and I looked away. I knew what Yunho was doing but I couldn’t help myself feeling like I was invading their privacy. I got up and took my bag.

“I should, erm, go, lots to do tomorrow, so I, er, need to sleep.”

Jaejoong showed me out, his eyes apologizing and my head nodding, saying, it’s okay.