----Haejin-----

A week has passed since my meeting with the bosses and currently, I’m continuing with my schedule like any regular artist. My second single ‘Sweet Paradise’ didn’t do as god as my other single, ‘Warning’. It had a nice response but it didn’t reach the top 10 chart. Compared to other rookies, I supposed, I was luckier. Supported by a large company, my songs managed to rank higher in the charts. Higher budgets and prestige of company tends to attract more attention.

Bearing gifts, I consciously fixed my hair. Beside me was my manager, Alex, who hasn’t left my side after hearing what I’ve done. He held the gifts I brought for the idol group. I bought some food and a large bouquet for the boys.

I’m thankful that he wasn’t mad for the stunt I pulled. Rather, he was worried for my future. For me, no one would replace him as the best manager anyone could have.

Taking a deep breath, I knocked on SHINee’s dressing room before I entered. Behind me, my manager followed.

“Hi guys!” I stuck my head in before letting myself go inside. As an artist in their company’s sister company, it was still a little awkward to appear I didn’t want to appear in front of them with some sort of reason to be there. It might look weird to others but at least I had a reason even though it was a dumb one.
 
The first face I saw was Kibum who was already on his way to greet me.

“Finally, I can hug you and not feel bad about it.”Key welcomed me with a bright smile and a hug. Both his actions and words had me grinning like a fool as I returned his embrace affectionately.

Onew and Jonghyun who were still getting their makeup done couldn’t do anything other than to call my name in greeting.

As soon as we separated Taemin surprised me by wrapping his arms around me.  I only noticed then than he had grown a lot taller than me. I squealed in surprise, causing several heads to turn in my direction. Taemin took it as a sign to wrap his arms tighter around me, forcing me to gasp.

“Taemin!” I said trying to scold him.

From the corner of the dressing room with the youngest still hugging me, I saw Minho watching me quietly and met my gaze with a soft smile.

Alex interrupted the happy greetings by clearing his throat. I looked at him guiltily when I forgot about him. He was still holding the gifts I brought for the boys.

Thankfully, Taemin finally released me, letting me breathe naturally. The gifts were a small token of appreciation and congratulations to the group. I approached my manager and took the gifts from him. He smirked at me, fully aware why I prepared the gifts. His eyes wandered a bit in Minho’s direction before looking back at me as if to say he can see everything. My cheeks warmed and lightly slapped his chest.

Minho didn’t seem to notice the exchange.

He thought my reaction was funny and chuckled. I ignored him and gave the bouquet of flowers to Kibum, the oldest member available to accept it.

“My congratulations to SHINee’s career.”I said shyly. It was the first time I greeted them like this.

A short second, I glanced back at my manager and saw him looking at me with approval. For some reason, he thinks I could do worse. I doubt it.

“Thank you Skye. It means a lot for you to say that. After all we’re related in some way.” Kibum accepted the flowers with a shine in his eyes. He wrapped his free arm around me as a thank you gesture.

My manager took it as a cue to distribute the gifts I prepared for the boys. They were miniature figurines of the boys back in their rookie days. The eye-catching and simple attires from their debut was the figurines' design. The shop where I ordered made sure the figures looked exactly like how the boys looked in the past. It took almost a solid month before the personalized figurines got finished.

Taemin immediately opened his and showed off what he got. Jonghyun got curious and checked his. He chuckled and grinned at the little figurine he received. The rest followed their suite and opened theirs. They all had similar reactions. They looked at the gift with obvious delight.

"Does it look like me now?" Onew asked, putting the figure beside his face. He forgot that he was supposed to keep still and the sudden movement caused the stylist getting him ready make a mistake.

The female stylist scolded him and reminded him that it'll take longer if he kept moving. The male idol apologized sheepishly and pursed his lips.

Jonghyun, the other one getting ready chuckled. "Serves you right."

The other stylist couldn't helpt but make a comment, "Like you aren't the same."

Everyone in the dressing room heard it and laughed. Jonghyun's face went beet red.

I couldn't contain how happy I was that they liked the gifts.

Somehow, being able to reconnect with the guys like years ago felt like we were kids again where we dreamed of being idols.


----Minho---
Haejin's surprise visit was shorter that I would have liked. Despite seeing each other not long ago, I already missed her. I missed being close to her without fear of being seen. My hands itched to touch her as I would have, away from curious eyes. I wished I could hug her in front of everybody but that wasn't possible. I'm supposed to be Skye's sunbae and a friend while she is Skye; a rookie singer and Nichkhun's girlfriend.

We might be committed to each other in private, the public doesn't know that. They know what the company wants to tell them.

I don't have a say in it. Hell, the company doesn't even know that Haejin and I finally got back together. If our relationship gets out, for sure that would be the next scandal everyone would be worried about. It would get ugly and could ruin our careers.

A disappointed exhale sneak up to me as I looked at the dressing room door forlornly. Too caught up in my thoughts, the sudden slump of my demeanor was quickly noticed by my co-members.

"Missing her already?" Jonghyun grinned mischievously at my obvious expression.

Normally, I would have denied it but I know I've worn my heart on my sleeve these couple of days. It was almost a miracle that reporters haven't caught wind of it yet. Probably because they still thought that I'm involved with Suzy.

"Yeah, so? It still doesn't change anything. She's not here and I can't do anything about it." I frowned, expressing my obvious disappointment. I didn't mention her name, knowing it could cause trouble. Even though our stylists work for the company, they still gossip. 

"Now I'm jealous. I want to find a girl that would put that kind of look on my face." Onew sighed dramatically while taking note of his stylist's scolding earlier. He's the oldest among us and yet he's as inexperienced as Taemin and Key. For some reason, his luck with girls are not good and we would often for it. Thankfully, he never got mad at us.

Taemin wrinkled his nose and pretended to shiver in disgust to my admittance and Onew-hyung's words.. "Eew~ so cheesy. Hyung you guys are becoming nauseating." He couldn't help chuckling at his insincere words.

"Why don't you call her back? I'm sure she would be happy to come back. Kibum joined in and ribbed. " Should I call her?" He started dialing a number and at that point I knew the joke had gone too far.

My expression darkened and my voice dropped a notch lower, warning Key. "That's not funny."

Key raised his hands in mock surrender and awkwardly smiled in a way that acknowledge his mistake. "Oops. Sorry."

I shook my head and sighed. "Just watch your words. You might slip and say the wrong thing. When that happens..." I paused for a moment letting it sink in, not only for Key but the other members as well. "You won't be able to take it back. It'll be trouble for everyone."

From the silence I received as a response, I knew they understood what I meant.


Before the silence lengthened longer than necessary, our manager's timing was perfect.

"Boys we're going live in 10 minutes. Let's head out and wait for our turn by the stage."

Onew took the lead as our leader and smiled, pumping us with energy enough to make us forget the earlier atmosphere. "Let's do this!"

Like magic, his words made us smile and joined with a cheer of our own.




“So… you’re telling us that you’re the dead girl that Minho dated?” Taecyon clarified in behalf of his group who still looked baffled with Haejin's revelation except for Nichkhun. He had known earlier as my girlfriend told be just before we came to 2pm's dorm.

Haejin nodded, confirming her identity to the idols that she spent months with as a dancer and a trainee.

I let myself watch her quietly as she handled the questions thrown at her. They were mostly about how she survived and what she did after the incident. I listened too as there were still things that I didn't know.

I discovered that she mostly did part-time jobs in order to finish high school and took a GED exam. She never went to college, too busy to think about her expenses.

We sat side by side while I held her hand. No one seemed to notice just yet. They were too focused on Haejin's story.

“Daebak! It sounds like something from a novel.” Junho said in awe.  Chansung nodded his head, looking like he was thinking the same thing as he munched on his popcorn he brought somewhere during the middle of her story.

Minjun or better known as Junsu also agreed but expressed his own disbelief. "Are you sure that we aren't being pranked for a show? There aren't any hidden cameras, right?" He looked around the room, wondering if we were putting an act.

It almost made me laugh but thankfully I held it in, not wanting to offend anyone. The older idol had a point. Her story and mine sounds like fiction.

"Honest, Junsu-hyung it's the truth. She's not lying about it." I assured the older male.

He looked at me, trying to see if I was lying. I didn't look away, letting him slowly let the words sink into him. If I wasn't part of Haejin's past, I can see myself reacting the same way as him and the others.

“Who else already knows?”

I pointed to Nichkhun, who was smirking at the others. "He knew long before I did."

He grinned, looking happy that he was part of a secret where his fellow members weren't. But I knew him, he was only able to smile like that because the secrets weren't weighing on him anymore.  “It wasn't all fun and games, you know. We had to pretend dating each other and stuff. It's hard to pretend especially when I treat her like a younger sister. The whole thing just feels wrong.”

“Wait. The dating thing wasn't real?” Wooyoung's eyes looked at Nichkhun before he saw my hand wrapped around Haejin's.

I almost wanted to roll my eyes that it took far longer than I thought it would for someone to notice.

He pointed at our hands which I replied with a kiss on the hand that I held. Haejin was awfully quiet and I could guess that she was shy and embarrassed about it. She wasn't the type to show off relationships from what I remembered. Or maybe she had just gotten used to keeping our relationship secret. We had grown a couple of years but in some way, our standing was still similar. Our relationship was still a secret except for those people closest to us.

I was smirking at Wooyoung-hyung who was speechless for how expressive I am acting. It has been far too long since I was able to act like this. It felt nice.

Nichkhun threw a pillow in Wooyoung's direction, hitting the male on the back. He shook his head at him. “That’s a publicity stunt and damage control.”

Wooyoung frowned. “Still…I think Khun and Skye look like a lovely couple.”

For a second, I thought he was against me until I saw the smirk he was trying forcing not to show.

“Hey! Her boyfriend is sitting right here!” I made an exaggeration of protest when I saw through his act. I wrapped my arms around Haejin and pretended to glare at him?

“Sorry.” Wooyoung apologized even though his expression didn’t look apologetic at all. He still has a mischievous glint in his eyes as if challenging me to do something.

With a playful glare, I moved from my seat and jokingly approached as if I wanted to kick his . Wooyoung-hyung thought I wasn't pretending anymore yelped and moved to back away. Instead of giving him a light punch, I pinched his nose before I moved away and returned to my place beside Haejin.

Everyone laughed, seeing their friend getting scared for no reason. Whether it was shock or fear, he didn't move. He finally laughed at his own reaction when he saw me smiling.

"You're one mean bastard." He chuckled, shaking his head, seeing how funny it was.

"You guys really have it rough huh?" Chansung commented.

I stopped laughing and looked at Haejin, who looked back at me, knowing we have the same thought.

"It's all worth it though." I said without looking away at my girlfriend.

I think I heard the guys making puking sounds of my cheesiness while some teased us. Right then, I couldn't care less what they thought. Seeing my girlfriend beside, nothing else mattered.



“Where are the guys?” I asked Haejin when I came back. I just went out for a moment to make a call to Onew-hyung telling him that I’ll be spending the night in 2PM’s dorm.
 

It surprised me to see that there was only Haejin in the living room.

“They wanted us to have some alone time. The guys kinda got the idea that we don’t get to spend much time together.” She shrugged, comfortably at home on 2PM’s couch. “We should use this opportunity right? We don’t know if we can get another chance soon. I heard that you’re going overseas next month. That means we won’t have many opportunities to hang out for awhile.”

“You’re right about that.” I sat beside her and without prompting she leaned her head on my shoulder.

I automatically linked my hand with hers. Our hands have changed a lot. Mine showed veins bulging underneath the skin while hers are weathered with part-time jobs throughout the years.

My lips formed into a smile, unable to contain the happy feeling I felt even by sitting like this with her.

“It’s a nice feeling isn’t it?      To be ourselves without fear…”

I could feel her nodded. “I still can’t believe we’re talking like this.”

“Trust in fate.” I chuckled because we were thinking the same thing. We didn’t trust in fate and yet it brought us back together.

“Yeah, right?” Even though I couldn’t see her face, I could see her rolling hers.

I laughed.