She’s got long silky black hair that she tucks behind her left ear, when she leans over to jot down notes or solve a quick problem. She sits in front of him, eyes trained ahead as she listens to every single word the teacher says focused only on the lesson till their break.

Jongin doesn’t officially meet her till May 15th of his second year of high school after he had woken up late for school; he had stayed late practicing his dancing with Oh Sehun a hoobae in his school and company. In his hurry to get in before he was disciplined he left most of his books and his pencil case at home. She turns around with a frown on her pink bow like lips and hands him her pink cartoon character mechanical pencil.

“Thanks,” Jongin mutters, looking at the embarrassing pencil in his hand. The second time she turns towards him, Jongin hands the pen back with a hesitant smile and a small ‘’thank you.” Her name is Lee Hyemi he finds out later that day and she looks prettiest when she smiles.

Jongin’s friends laugh at him when he tells them of the girl with the prettiest smile he’s ever seen that sits in front of him. He’s a part of a company with the likes of SNSD, and Boa, so it’s strange to see Jongin get so wrapped in with a simple girl in his class. Jongin ignores them and approaches her, she’s sitting with her group of friends in side their classroom and when she sees him she smiles.

“I’m Kim Jongin,” he introduces himself, fingers playing with his uniform jacket.

“Hi Kim Jongin,” she greets him, eyes turning into crescents as she exposes her teeth in a smile. “I’m Lee Hyemi.”

Jongin first kisses her in front of her house in Itaewon as the summer rain falls down. She had come to SME when he finished practice and they had gone to dinner together before he decided to walk her home watching as the dark clouds covered the setting sun. He had leaned down pressing lips softly against hers, eyes closed and breathing halted. When he had drawn away slightly damper she had smiled up at him, lips stretching wide as rain soaked her making it look like she was crying.

The day he’s rounded up into SME’s office with what feels like a hundred other guys, a few he only knew vaguely like the four Chinese guys that stood at one end of the room, confused and speaking in mumbled Chinese, and people like Kyungsoo Sehun and Junmyeon. They’re told their going to debut in a year’s time, if all goes according to plan. Jongin knows about the kpop groups where members leave a month before debut, and where members join a month before debut and can’t help but wonder who’s really going to debut amongst them.

He tells Hyemi first, and she grins and congratulates him, wrapping arms around his neck to bring him into a hug. They end up sharing a small cake she buys at a nearby café on a park bench. At one point he gets cream on his cheek and she grins up at him wiping the mess away.

“How can you be an idol when you can’t even eat properly,” she teases, giggling when Jongin puts cream on her nose. “Yah take it off right now Kim Jongin.”

“Ara Ara,” Jongin mutters leaning forward and kissing her nose. “There all gone,” he says grinning when she blushes.

The sunbaes tell him that relationships don’t last when you’re trying to get famous. You’re focusing too much on training, because debut is fast approaching. The girls are all new and some are so pretty that you find it hard to stay faithful especially when they’re eyes sparkle when they hear you just debuted. You just get caught up in the fame, that it’s hard to meet with old friends especially old flames. Jongin takes all this in and ignores each and everything about it. He’s different. Hyemi is different, and he has hope for them.

He doesn’t think that they’re going to get married and have children and live in a pretty white house, but he also doesn’t think that, they’ll break up because of something so…petty.

However that all seems to get put to the test, because as date start to fast approach, Jongin finds himself, practicing late, missing classes, and more than often missing time with Hyemi. He moves in to the dorm, and cellphones get taken away, so that communication with the outside world is close to nothing.

Jongin had never really been one