You know how sometimes you can just sense that something bad is about to happen? It could be twitching eyelids or just a general sense of discomfort. That was what you were experiencing. Since you’d woken up that morning, you’d had a sense of foreboding that made everything feel gloomy. You were out of it the whole morning at work, and your colleagues noticed. You were spacing out and didn’t answer when you were spoken to, and even spilled your coffee on some sheet music. Thankfully, you hadn’t destroyed any electronic equipment, but now you had a coffee stain on your brand new white blouse.

You excused yourself to clean up in the bathroom, and as you looked at your reflection in the mirror, you took a deep, shaky breath. What was it that was unnerving you so much? Your answer came in the form of a text message from Dongwoon.

“Look who I ran into while taking the subway!”

The photo that he’d attached gave you goosebumps. It showed him standing in front of a wall-sized poster, split into four different photographs, each one a couple shot with a different concept.

They were your photos from the Cavalier shoot.

After the photos are taken, the model relinquishes control over the images. The photographer has the power to select which photographs to use, and how they are to be edited.

You knew that. You’d been through enough photoshoots to know you had absolutely no say in which photos came out. However, you couldn’t believe how this photographer had managed to choose the photos with you in the most compromising positions. As if the piggybacking and the almost-kiss weren’t bad enough, the swimsuit photo was a completely un-posed one, where Dongwoon was holding your waist and trying to snatch the beach ball from you. Now you had to explain to your boyfriend why there was not only excessive exposure of skin but excessive skinship. You knew you had done nothing wrong, but you genuinely felt like you were in trouble.

Not bothering to reply to Dongwoon’s message, you stuffed your phone into your pocket and tried to wash the coffee stain out of your blouse. To your frustration, the stain proved pretty stubborn, and despite your best efforts, an ugly blotch remained on the front of your shirt. Giving up, you dried it as much as you could with the hand dryer and returned to the studio. The entire songwriting team was there because there was a lot of work to be done on the boys’ album, and it was especially difficult because Yongguk was a huge part of its production but could only contribute through video conferences for the time being. That meant that everyone was slightly on edge because the process wasn’t going as smoothly as it should. Yet, everyone seemed to sense that something was up with you, and nobody made a comment about your distracted behavior.

You were spacing out again in your chair when your phone buzzed.

It was a video call from Yongguk.

Without you fully understanding why, a sense of panic crept into your system. He never called you during the day because he knew you were at work. Usually, he’d call you when it was morning for him and night for you, because that was when you’d both be free and in your rooms. It was nighttime for him in Washington DC, and you knew it was a concert night. You couldn’t shake the ominous feeling that arose within you. Excusing yourself, you headed for your own office to answer the call. Each step you took down the hallway seemed to take an eternity, but somehow you made it.

The moment you answered the call and saw Yongguk’s face, you knew something was wrong.

“Hey,” you ventured tentatively, giving him a small smile.

He was expressionless. “You free to talk now?”

You nodded. The background was dimly lit, but you could tell that he was back in his hotel room. However, he looked sweaty and had a towel around his neck, and you inferred that they’d just completed the concert and he hadn’t taken a shower yet. “How was the concert?”

“Fine,” he answered flatly.

A moment of silence passed between you.

“Don’t you have something you want to tell me?”

Your mouth felt dry all of a sudden. You your lips and inhaled deeply. “What do you mean?”

His lips set into a thin, hard line for a second. “I saw the photos.”

You didn’t know what to say to that, so you said nothing. The two of you stared hard at each other through the camera.

“You looked like you were having fun,” he said, his voice carrying a slightly accusatory tone.

You sighed. “It was just a job. I did what I was asked.”

“Why didn’t you tell me it was with him?” The last word was spat out with a note of contempt, and it sent a chill down your spine.

“I…”

“You had many chances to tell me,” he continued, the anger in his voice betraying his calm expression. “Why didn’t you? What did you do with this punk that had to be covered with lies?”

“I didn’t lie!” you defended, slightly riled up by his tone.

“Hiding the truth is no different from lying!” he snapped, his façade cracking. You could see now that he was livid, and his jaw clenched as he tried to control his anger. He was probably trying to give you a chance to explain yourself before he blew his top, but it seemed that plan wasn’t going so well.

“I wasn’t trying to hide—”

“Yes, you were.”

“I…” you trailed off and sighed loudly, running a hand through your hair. “It was hard for me to tell you…”

“Why?” he demanded. “What the did you do with that guy?”

“I didn’t do anything—”

“Are you cheating on me?”

“What? No! I—”

“Then why couldn’t you tell me?”

“Listen to me, dammit!” you snapped, raising your voice slightly louder than you’d intended (thank God for soundproof walls). That got Yongguk’s attention and he stopped flinging accusations for you for a moment, although he continued to glare bitterly at you. You took a deep breath to calm yourself. “I didn’t tell you because I knew you were going to react like this.”

“What did you do?” he repeated slowly, clearly trying to calm down as well.

“Nothing!” you insisted. You hated how he always assumed the worst of you and would jump to conclusions without giving you a chance to explain. “I just thought you’d go crazy if you even knew that both of us were working together for a couple shoot. And obviously, I was right.”

His eyes were so dark that you almost regretted adding that last bit. “When did you know that you were working with him?”

“I swear, I only found out at the shoot,” you replied, your tone almost pleading. Were you pleading? Perhaps you were. You were pleading with him to understand. “I meant to tell you as soon as I knew…”

“But you didn’t.”

“I know,” you said softly. “I’m sorry.”

You stared at each other in silence for another long moment.

“What am I supposed to feel?” he asked, almost painfully. “What did you expect me to do when I saw these…”

He trailed off, and you knew he had the photos right in front of him. He looked so disgusted that you wished you could stop him from looking at them. You’d do anything to tear his eyes away from the image that was hurting him so much.

“I don’t know,” you admitted truthfully. “But you have to understand, there’s absolutely nothing more than what you see in those pictures.”

“What I’m seeing is a whole lot.”

You sighed deeply. “You should know better than anyone that a public persona doesn’t reflect who a person really is.”

“You forget that I know the real you,” he countered. “Can you honestly tell me that you didn’t enjoy yourself playing around so intimately with that man?”

You felt your irritation spike at the words he was using against you. “I’m not saying I didn’t have fun at the shoot, but was I wrong to enjoy my job? We weren’t even ‘intimate’ in any way.”

“How can you say you were not intimate?” he demanded, anger apparent on his face again. “He’s touching you all over when you’re barely wearing anything at all! And what I’m seeing is just one shot. Who knows how much else has happened?”

Your brows knitted together and you felt your head starting to throb. “Can you be reasonable?” You hated arguing with Yongguk when he was too pissed to see reason. He always ended up making groundless accusations and his imagination would just get from bad to worse. Nothing you said could change his mind, and it really frustrated you.

“Oh, sure. You’re the one who’s cheating on me with your ex and I’m unreasonable for getting angry.”

“I’m not cheating on you!”

“Please explain to me how much more intimate you must get with him before it counts as cheating,” he said caustically. “You’ve already gone as far as you can without getting your ad banned from public view. Anyone who sees these photos would think I’m a ing idiot for letting another man touch my girlfriend like that.”

“Anyone who can see sense would agree that you’re an idiot, but it’d be because you’re being completely crazy right now,” you retorted, your voice raising. “Everything that you see was strictly professional.”

Yongguk scoffed. “Am I supposed to believe that you can both be ‘strictly professional’ when you used to date? He’s a man. There’s no way he could have looked at you in that bikini and not thought of the last time he had that body to himself. Don’t expect me to believe that what you were doing was completely innocent.”

You felt an insane urge to smash something, but you remembered you were in your office. Instead, you gripped your pencil so tightly that your knuckles turned white. “I can’t speak for Dongwoon, but don’t you think that as my boyfriend, you should trust me?”

“How can I trust you when you deliberately chose not to tell me about this?” he spat out bitterly. “Who knows what else you’re hiding. You could still be seeing him for all I know.”

You threw your pencil against the table and it made a loud sound as it bounced off the hard wood. “Bang Yong Guk, if you honestly think that I am cheating on you, I have nothing more to say to you. I’m not going to sit here and let you talk to me like I’m a ing criminal when I’ve done nothing wrong. I’m hanging up.”

“How convenient,” he sneered. “Are you sure you’re not hanging up because you’re running off to see Son Dongwoon right now?”

You could hardly believe the words that were coming out of his mouth at that moment. How could this be the same loving boyfriend that was whining about how much he missed you just a couple of days ago? This wasn’t the man you couldn’t stop loving no matter how many times you tried; this was the boy you’d left four years ago. He clearly knew that you were at work, but he was saying all these ridiculous things to provoke you.

Fine. If he wanted a reaction from you, you were going to give him one.

“Yes, I’m off to see him,” you said shortly. “Don’t call me until you’re capable of talking sense.” With that, you hung up on him, expecting him to lose his temper and call you back immediately. Indeed, it barely took two seconds before your phone buzzed with an incoming video call from Yongguk, which you promptly rejected. He wasn’t the only one who could throw a tantrum.

You leaned back in your chair, silent for a minute as you tried to calm yourself down by taking deep breaths. You had to get over the fight before you rejoined your colleagues. You couldn’t let Yongguk’s immature antics affect you too much while you were at work.

Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.

Letting out a growl of frustration, you swept your arm across the table, sending stacks of sheet music and lyrics fluttering to the ground.