It hurts 
It has shattered and no one would be able to mend it except you.




Everyone thought Jung Ae Lyn was calm and composed, that no single thing could rattle her. However, here she was biting her lips, afraid of embarrassing herself in front of thousands. She was sitting on the sofa situated on the left side of the room, fidgeting. She was to model the De Beers diamond encrusted bracelet for the auction that they planned months ago. 

She was a musician and she had played on stage for her recitals but she never got rid of the anxiousness.

She stood up, peered outside the curtains to the crowd below. The dinner was going well. The food was wonderful, the wine, flowing freely. The servers blended well with the ambiance, the huge ballroom of the hotel shining and sparkling holding Korea's best of the best. 

She walked back slowly to the backstage, watching the flurry of activities. 

A voice beside her spoke. 

"Don't worry. You won't slip or fall or do anything to embarrass yourself later. I'm not sure about me though," the husky voice said. 

She gasped silently, startled. She turned her head, a hint of red appearing on her cheeks seeing the face possessing the husky voice. 

It was Lee Jinki. 

"You've been walking little steps forward and then slowly step backward, then you wring your hands every five seconds," he chuckled. 

Her face turned scarlet from embarrassment, her hands wringing, not knowing what to do. She clenched and unclenched her hands and there were butterflies in her stomach. Now, two things were in her mind: standing in front of a crowd and Lee Jinki. 

"See? You're wringing them again. It's okay. Nothing to be afraid of," he said now laughing at her.

"I.. I don't know. I'm afraid," her useless hands finally covered her face from the sheer embarrassment of it all.

Somehow she knew she was going to embarrass herself, fall off the stage perhaps despite her wearing her most comfortable pair of stilettos. 

"How long have you been playing the piano?", he asked randomly.

She stared at him, unsure if she heard him correctly. 

"I'm sorry. What?", she asked, dumbfounded for a second. It was asked so out of the blue that she wasn't sure if she heard him right.

"How long have you been playing the piano?", he asked again, chuckling. 

Lee Jinki loved to chuckle, that much she can see. He should smile more often, she thought. 

"Ever since I was four," she said, her voice soft. 

He looked at her expectantly, waiting for her to continue. She looked at him and turned her head to look at something on the wall since he wasn't saying anything. She felt him staring at her. She felt so awkward. 

"And?", he asked prodding her to continue.

"I liked it so I'm still playing it..?", she said, her voice slightly rising, unsure of what he meant by his question. 

"You're supposed to tell me the whole story of how you fell in love with the piano. But okay never mind. You seem unwilling to tell me," He laughed again.

He asked her questions randomly and she was enjoying herself. Jinki was polite, proper and so accomplished. But he was also naturally funny. She found herself smiling at his anecdotes. 

She found herself so comfortable with him that even if she wasn't saying anything, she forgot about her fear of standing in front.



Lee Taemin sat in the hood of the car backstage, a few meters away from his brother. Adorning his frame, was a white knitted sleeveless top and on his hands were silver bracelets and a black band. The table the car was on would move up the moment the item would be up for auction. He was going last. The car he was modeling was the Lamborghini LP640 Coupe. It was a limited edition luxury vehicle and only someone like him could model it. The organizers know for sure it would rake in the big bucks for the auction tonight and they knew it would rake in even more because it was Lee Taemin's. 

His mind however, was not on the car but on the girl sitting on the sofa with his brother. She saw her cover her face in embarrassment and then he heard her soft laughter, smiling about something Jinki said. 

He gritted his teeth. 

He was possessive. 

He wanted to be the one to make her laugh, to make her smile, to be the one to comfort her. He wanted to be the only man she could see. 

'Are you blind woman?,' he thought to himself. Ever since they first met at that dinner, he noticed her presence so much more. Each time she would pass by his classroom to get to her classes, he would feel her, that tingling feeling that he thought he would never get the chance to experience. So jaded was he that when he experienced it, he decided to embrace it. When she would go to the library, he would see her through the windows as he and his gang chilled on the south side of the school. 

He was attuned to her presence. Every move she makes, he could feel it. He found his gaze following her each time she came within his line of sight. 

However, he realized that embracing the feeling was a mistake. It was too much.

He felt like he would cave in from everything that he was feeling. It's been three months and yet he couldn't say anything. He felt like he was shoved in a corner, suffocating with no one noticing his pain. He was drowning, drowning for her. 

A harried looking lady came in the room, an earpiece attached to a mike near . 

"Ladies and Gentlemen, we go live in five seconds."

Taemin's head turned and he swore. He hated being able to sense what she was feeling. 

And he felt her smile because his brother's hands were entwined with hers.









The footsteps approached closer and closer to the bed. She squeezed her eyes shut, pretending to be asleep.

Hoping that she was really asleep and that she wouldn't wake up anytime soon. 

She heard the heavy thud of his belt falling on the floor and she felt the covers being lifted. 

She knew better than to scream.