ten.

Once they had entered the building and Hyorin was able to reunite with her date, she couldn't find it in herself to forgive for what had taken place earlier. Even though Donghae continuously mentioned how it wasn't that big of a deal, she still felt bad. If anything, it should have been Donghae who had escorted her inside, not Kyuhyun (even though she had been able to break away from that potential catastrophe in time). Currently, they were standing around, greeting others from an assortment of companies.

"You're the woman from the video," one person proceeded to point out as he held his hand out for Hyorin to take. "And may I say, you're really pretty in person?"

"She's quite gorgeous, isn't she?" Donghae broke in as he smiled down at her. With her stomach growing nauseous, Hyorin was able to successfully force a smile onto her face as she thanked the man for his generous compliment.

"Your girlfriend is quite the actress," the man's date added as she bowed her head in respect. "It's like she was born for the movie screen."

"Oh, we're not dating but I hope that someday I can accept that compliment with ease." The husband and wife duo only chuckled as they brought their glasses of champagne up to their lips. Tapping his shoulder lightly, Hyorin was able to grab Donghae's attention as she tilted her head towards the furthest corner of the room. "If you'd excuse I and my date, I think we'd like to try to find our seats now."

Picking up their pace, they found themselves standing in the empty corner in no time. Instantly Hyorin's stomach settled as she found relief in knowing that they were indeed alone without any person around to point out where they'd seen her before and so forth. Staring down into her face, he noticed the fatigue look in her eyes and the way the bridge of her nose displayed perspiration whilst inside a cool room, "Hyorin, what's wrong?"

"What?" She uttered as she brushed the curls from her face for the umpteenth time that night.

"You look ill," Donghae muttered as he placed a hand against her forehead. "Would you like to call it a night and return home for the evening?"

"And ruin your night out and everyone else's?" she squeaked in horror. "No way! I just got here!"

"Okay, fine but the moment you start to look as if you're about to pass out, I'm escorting you home." He retorted as he crossed his arms over his chest, "I don't know what it is about you Hyorin, but I have the strongest urge to protect you from every kind of harm including vomit. Please do not be afraid to lean on me if you need to."

"Donghae—" she spoke up again only to be cut off.

"Promise me," he interjected as his brows kissed at the center of his forehead. "Promise me and I will never bring it up again."

"Fine," she breathed out as he pulled her into a hug. The warmth that radiates from his eyes to his smile was surrounding her at this very moment. The way he could make her feel at ease with just a sentence or two was much more considerate and endearing than when Kyuhyun half-assed it. But despite half-assing it in comparison, Hyorin couldn't deny the way her heart often skips a beat whenever he's in her presence. I'll just have to work harder to get over you. 

Pacing themselves throughout the room to the table reserved just for the six of them, each couple focused on the task at hand: making sure Soyu gets to the destination safely without anyone clumsily colliding into the woman and her extremely large belly. Once that was settled and Soyu was sitting comfortably, Hyorin focused her attention on the waitress filling their glasses to the rim. It was the same woman who had poured them glasses of soju the night she had met Jessica and Jay for the first time (again) but before she could say anything, the waitress ran off to the next table. 

Whipping her head in the direction of the mysterious lady, Hyorin was able to spot the women from Jay's video set who had gushed over her being apart of the video. It's such a shame that she had never caught their actual names but she was sure they didn't know her name either. Tilting her head towards them, they returned the gesture as genuine smiles broke out onto their faces.

"Don't be so stiff Hyorin," Soyu warned as she tipped her glass of orange juice to her lips. It amazed Hyorin that she was able to hear the woman's warning having been seated between both males according to the reservation place cards with their names scribbled on it. Naturally, she felted vexed about the entire seating chart; just why were they seated like elementary students? Could she not have chosen her own seat at the same table without having to be placed beside the proudest man in all of Seoul? 

Unfortunately, she hadn't done a good job of keeping her temper under control when Donghae reached over and placed the pad of his thumb in the middle of her eyebrows. Slowly, he rubbed the area as he related a sweet message, "stop thinking such negative thoughts. You are way too beautiful to be sporting such a sour expression."

Gasping, she shrunk back from his touch as she shifted her eyes to the table cloth before her, "I hadn't realized. I'm so sorry."

"Well praise the Gods for such observing guests," Kyuhyun bit out. Sending an aggravated look his way, she quickly adverted her attention back to Donghae as he gazed upon them with interest. 

As the tables continued to fill up with guests and food, the doors were soon closed to the public, forbidding entrance to anymore. Just then the lights shut off and a special spot light was aimed at Jay and Jessica as they appeared before a platform positioned at the center of the large room. Romantically, they were holding hands with one another as they greeted guests with killer smiles. Suddenly, Jessica pushed a microphone up to as she let out of sigh of relief while relaying a greeting to all before them, "welcome to the promotional party of Park Jaebeom! We are so grateful for the turn out of supporters that I've felt have always had our backs in the past."

Grinning towards his fiancée, Jay too lifted his microphone as he looked out into the crowd, "I know I've made a few mistakes in my past but I've promised to come back with a new, mature side of me and I believe this is a great start for me, for my fiancée and for all of you who have stayed by my side." Cheers erupted through the room as Jay leaned in to place a chaste kiss on Jessica's temple. "Since this is my first official promotion after all, we'll allow the JP team to take over as well as the staff who's worked so closely with me these past months."

At that moment, the wardrobe and make-up employees as well as a few others gathered up on the stage with their own microphones in tote. Descending down the ramp, Jay and Jessica made their way over to the reserved table as Donghae stood to pull out a chair for the lady of the night. Jay took his place beside her as he sent a satisfying grin to each person at the table including Hyorin as his eyes widened a bit at her choice in gown. Laughter sounded throughout the audience as one of the staff members cracked a joke about Jay being a grouchy morning person and his demanding need of caffiene.

As the minutes ticked on, each speaker had had their fulfillment of congratulating, humiliating and plain out cheering for the man who had 'made such a difference in their lives'. Many clips of Jay was displayed on a projection system as well as many photos of Jessica standin