"They think we're dating." I tore my eyes off the words printed on the A4 sized piece of paper and laid them on the fine man in front of me with raised eyebrows. "Who?" I asked casually flipping the pages. The files were so poorly made and there were so many errors. And so I called in my new assistant. 

"The fans." Kai answered and placed a warm cup on my table. I snorted and shook my head at the absurdness. But I was not surprised. Kai and I had been on the articles for so many times for being seen together almost every day. Of course they would think we're together, I would too.  

"I wouldn’t date you even if it's to save my life." I snorted, throwing off the poorly written files on the desk. I looked up at him and saw how a his eyes turned almost sad for a second before covering it with a fake scowl. He messed up my hair and I kicked his shin, with my heels. I wouldn’t care if my hair is messed up but I tied it into a ponytail that day and now I had to tie it over again all because of him.  

"Yes, Miss?" My new assistant showed herself up with her hands respectfully intertwined together in front of her. She bowed slightly once she arrived in front of my table, next to Kai.  

She was a very nice girl and pretty one, too. She does her work well and I've been thinking of keeping her as my assistant. She matches with my personality and that's important. One word and she could already know what I wanted.  

"Who did this?" I showed her a file and threw it on the table, closer to her. "The new intern, Yerin-sshi." She answered and I nodded. "Well, fire her and ask someone else to fix this--- wait ,you know what, just throw this and make a new one. I want this on my table by tomorrow. 

Kai's gaze followed my new assistant until she's out of his sight. He pointed his thumb at the door and an eyebrow. "Who's that?" 

"Don't bother her, she's too nice for you." I answered as I took a sip of my chai latte and stood up. He made himself comfortable on the couch and placed his legs on the coffee table right in front. Once again, I kicked his legs and he groaned in pain. "Can you not?"  

I scoffed and sat next to him. "Don't put your legs on the table, how many times do I have to tell you that?"  

Ignoring the look I gave him, he lazily threw an arm around me. "You'll come to my concert, right?" 

I shrugged off his arm, "I don’t know. I'm not really fond of standing and get my ears bleed with your fans screaming around me." 

"You do know that I've reserved a seat in the VIP corner for you, right?" I looked at him and he was boring a hole into my soul with his stare. I groaned  and let my head fall on his arm that was on the backrest of the couch. "Fine." I huffed out a sigh. With his fingers wrapped around my wrist, he pulled me up. "Let's go for lunch." 

As expected from a top star, our lunch was not quiet. At least they didn’t come up to us for a picture or something. But still, the cameras and phones up our faces were not that comfortable. I swear to god, I feel like these people have a radar to track Kai or something, like ...  they're everywhere. 

"Let's go somewhere private next time, like a hotel or 5 star restaurant or something." I grumbled under my breath but I still kept a smile on my face. They were holding cameras, surely I'll be in it. I had to put up an act as the kind and polite heiress. 

Kai's sweater around me looked so out of place when I was wearing an elegant one piece white dress underneath. But he wouldn’t take no as an answer and forcefully made me wear his jacket. "It's too cold." He argued when I kept on resisting. But he was the one who was wearing a thin v-neck.  

"I'll call you." He briefly said as I got off his car. Kai suddenly got a phone call from his manager saying that he has a schedule so he was rushing. I replied with a hum and closed the door.  

He waited until I got in the company before speeding off.  

"He's fine." The photographer and my 4-year-long friend, Minjun Lee said, checking out Kai's back view as he strode off to change his clothes. I scrunched up my face in disgust and pushed his head slightly, "He's into girls, Jun." 

He scoffed and fixed his hair. "You mean, he's into you." He corrected my choice of words. Once again I pushed his head but this time I didn’t hold back, almost knocking him off the chair he was sitting on. "That's just disgusting. We're friends."  

Jun stood up and made sure if his camera was okay whilst glaring at me. "Well, that's how everything starts." I opened my mouth, to give him a piece of my mind when Kai came and casually slung an arm around me. Jun cocked a brow, giving me a knowing. "Totally into you." He mouthed and I grit my teeth in annoyance.  

"Where's Suzy? She's late again?" I grumbled, shrugging Kai's arm off. We were having a photo-shoot that day and of course, we've been waiting for the main girl for almost 2 hours and that's just unacceptable. I would've fired her by now and find someone else but we already signed the contract. 

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." A girly voice could be heard from far. As I turned around, I saw Suzy, bowing to the staff. She seemed to be wearing her stage clothes and still wearing her stage's make-up. She bowed to me countless times, apologizing for her tardiness.  

As usual, I put up an act and smiled at her, "It's okay, Suzy-sshi. You're busy and all, we understand that. But you're not the only who's busy, right? Keep that in your mind. All of us has so much more important things to do." She bowed once again and I pointed to the waiting room. "Go and change, quickly." 

"Look at your smile. Aww, that's the first time today." Kai said, no, he coo-ed. At me. And that felt so insulting. "Shut up."  

"Put your hands around her, Kai." I said but he was being weird and making it all look so awkward. Jun showed me the picture he just took and I groaned. "Kai, can you just-- it's not like you haven't done this before." Kai unnaturally put his hand on Suzy's shoulder but it hung an inch above it--manner hands is what they call it. 

I sighed in frustration and made my towards the couple. "You're being dumb, Jongin." I muttered, calling him by his real name. I guided his arm on Suzy's shoulder, making it as if he's just lazily slung it over her shoulders, just like how usually does to me. 

"Intertwine your fingers with his, Suzy." I suggested. I pushed Kai slightly, making him lean on the girl and I took a step back.

"Great." Jun voiced out.  

"Look at the camera, Kai-sshi." Jun remarked, making the latter tore his eyes off me. "Great, great. Handsome! You guys look so good together." Jun seemed so delighted to see them trying out different poses, looking like the best couple of the year. 

"Awesome, now quickly and change your clothes." I ordered Suzy and she immediately ran off to her stylist. I took the coat and shirt from Kai's stylist and went up to him. "Take it off." He cocked a brow and narrowed his eyes at me. "We're in public, Ae. You could've waited until we get home, I mean." 

I groaned, "Can you not? We need to hurry." I lifted up the hem of the shirt, revealing most of his chocolate abs. "Do it yourself." I pushed his stomach, making him stumble back.  

With much difficulty and going through Kai talking about how irresistible he was, the photo-shoot continued on. Both of them did well, compared to the first times and both Jun and I were satisfied. I looked at my watch. There were still half an hour left till my meeting starts and the photo-shoot still has more than 4 scenes left. 

"You can go, I'll send you the pictures probably by tomorrow, yea?"  Jun nudged my elbow.

I side-hugged Jun and said 'thanks' for him to be so understanding. I waved Kai goodbye and bowed to the other staff. "Work hard, everyone." To which they bowed back. 

As soon as I stepped outside, the freezing wind hit my bare stomach. The humid surrounding inside where the photo-shoot was made me forgot how cold it was outside. Till now I wondered why the hell did I chose to wear a cropped shirt.  

"And I parked at the corner of the block, damn." I cursed under my breath. With both of my hands rubbing on my arms, I walked as fast as I could to my car. I don’t know if it was because of the other one's fault or I need to get my eyes checked but the next thing I knew, I was stumbling back, almost making my bum hit the ground. 

Thankfully though, the other person caught me in time. "I'm sorry. " He apologized and I despised how familiar the voice sounded. No way. 

But there I was in his arms, looking into his eyes. I cleared my throat and pulled myself out of his embrace. "Watch it." I hissed, walking to the side trying to walk away. But exactly how we first met, he held me back, keeping a firm hold on my wrist. 

"You are Aerin." It was more of a statement rather than a question. I furrowed my brows, trying to act as if I was confused. "I'm sorry. I think you got the wrong person." I shook my head and harshly pulled my wrist from him. 

Not even 3 meters away, I heard Kai, calling me out and apparently confirmed Baekhyun's thoughts. "Aerin-ah!" I bit my lips in frustration but I didn’t turn around. I stopped for a few seconds before walking again.

Kai could've just called me if he needed to say something. 

"Oh Baek, you're here." I heard them talking. "But hold on a minute. Aerin!" I heard his footsteps getting nearer and nearer. "Did you not hear me?" He asked with a pout on his face as he stopped right in front of me, making me halt in my steps, too. 

"What do you want?" I asked impatiently, it was too cold. Kai smiled and put his coat around me. "It's cold, silly." I felt warmth immediately filled inside me, liking how attentive he was being. I pulled the coat tighter around me. Kai blew his breath on his hands and straight away put it on my face, warming my cheeks up. "You're freezing, geez." 

I was too caught up with Kai that I didn’t noticed a confused pair of eyes, staring at us. "You better go, . Jun's going to be angry."  

He nodded and waved me goodbye, ruffling my hair after that. "Alright, I'll call you later." 

"You guys seem close." Baekhyun pointed out and that was the last thing I heard before running off into my car. 

And from then on I prayed for my encounters with Byun Baekhyun to stop at that. But apparently my prayers were left unheard when he constantly showed up since then. Well ignoring him will be hard if I'm still friends with Kai since he was the main reason why I met him outside the photo-shoot in the first place. 

"I'm pretty much sure you remember Baekhyun since you've talked to him in high school." Kai said, hugging Baekhyun with an arm. I bit my lips and looked at the oblivious Kai. Did he not know about the rumors going on in school? I'm pretty much sure everyone knew why I left. 

I shook my head, "I don’t think we've ever met before in school. Baekhyun, right? Nice to meet you." I put up that nice-and-polite-Aerin façade and smiled. It seems like Baekhyun still remembers the y Aerin when he stares at my outstretched hand in wonder.  

So I sighed and wiped the smile off my face. He has already seen the worst side of me --well most of it--- so why waste energy trying to be the nice one.

I raised an eyebrow and scoffed. "Well, then." 

"I'm going to go and get a drink." I wrapped my fingers around Kai's hand and squeezed it once before walking away. I won't be working early tomorrow, might as well get wasted. Baekhyun's appearance was making me feel stuffed and frustrated. "Stupid s." 

It was Kai's birthday party and he was celebrating his 26th at a bar, crowded with famous stars. I would've fangirl inside if it weren't for the fact that I only know Wonbin and the ever so hot Hyunbin. But I did let out a very unintentional squeal when I spotted Woobin when he suddenly appeared right in front of me. I've never seen a walking masterpiece up close.  

And now I have. 

"Are you not going to ask about Minkyung?"

It took seconds for me to figure who Minkyung was. "Ah, that girl?" I snorted and gulped down my 3rd glass for that night. I turned to the ever so stupid Baekhyun, "I don’t even want to know if she's alive or not." It would be great if she's not, though. 

I thought I made it clear that I didn’t want Baekhyun to be near me but he's just that stupid. "She went through a lot these past years." He didn’t need to tell me that. I know that. I'm the one who made her like that. It put me at ease and makes me sleep a lot more easier to know that she's suffering to survive in life. 

"And you're telling me this because?" I poured more drink in my glass and downing it all at once afterwards. 

"You're her best friend." Baekhyun came close. Too close. I pushed him away and dangerously glared at him.

"Best friends don’t stab each other behind their backs. So don’t tell me these bulls." I stood up and grabbed my handbag. 

"And please, don't ever show up in front of me. It's making me want to throw up."

wow u guys are quiet