Chapter 15: Competition

“Naeun ah !”

Eunji shouted when she and Taemin came in the salon to get ready for the grand opening of their boutique. The older girl ran forward and hugged the death out of Naeun.

“Gosh unnie it's only been one week!” Naeun croaked.

“One week since I've see you!”

“You're so weird”

“Do you know how lonely I was!”

“You have Namjoo” Naeun pointed out bluntly.

“But it's not the same” Eunji pouted.

“Sorry to interrupt”a familiar voice interrupted them.

“Suho hyung?” Taemin shouted incredulously.

“Suho?” Naeun's eyes widened when he saw Suho in a suit...that was... hers.

“Is that my design?”

Eunji nodded.

“It looks good on you oppa...wait why are you in Spain?”Naeun asked him suddenly realizing hhis unexpected appearance.

“Well...I was in England for business...and Eunji invited me to come. So I did” Suho explained.

“Ah...I see” she glanced suspiciously to Eunji.

“Come on let's get our makeup done” Naeun managed to mouth the word ‘help’ before being dragged off by Eunji to a backroom.

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“Come out already!” Taemin groaned impatiently.

“Alright, I'm coming out” she called out behind the curtain.

Naeun stepped out of the changing room, wearing a knee length midnight blue dress. Her hair cascading down in her signature wavy locks.

“You-you look- um I mean...” Taemin stuttered.

“You look beautiful as always” Suho complimented her, earning a frown from her husband.

“Thank you Suho” Naeun blushed slightly pink.

“Hyung!”

“What?”

“You have Eunji noona, why must you flirt with my wife?”

“Someone called me?” Eunji appeared giving Naeun a ruby red clutch to hold and chandelier earrings.

“Nothing” Taemin and Suho said in sync, embaressed by the situation.

“Are these earrings or dumbells?” Naeun asked, putting on those dainty looking but actually weight-a-ton earrings.

“Beauty hurts” Eunji waved her hand dismissively.

“Is that why you're so painful to look at?” Taemin asked, earning a deathly glare from her.

“The limos are waiting” Suho proclaimed, extinguishing the tense atmosphere and flouncing Eunji out of the room before she could explode.

It was a short ride to their boutique, on a highstreet near Gaudi's La Pedrera.

Suho and Eunji came out first. But they were quickly ambushed by the press. They made a dazzling couple.

Naeun held her breath as she stepped out of the limo, she was uncomfortable in the limelight.
As she stepped on the red carpet she stood rigidly trying not to blink in the brilliance of a billion flashbulbs. 

When Taemin's hand slipped against hers she relaxed a bit. It soothed her slightly knowing he was right beside her. 

They entered the grand entrance and were surprised to find one of their pictorial pictures on display on large wall, a photo of them in a lovers embrace wrapped in vivid satins an silk againt the dizzying mosaic of Alhambra Palace.

“Damn Jung Eunji” Naeun muttered in embaressment, a light tint flushing her cheeks and looking away from it.

“They turned out great” Taemin chuckled.

She looked around at the attendees, spotting a few people in particular.

“I'm going over there for awhile, be back in a few” she excused herself from Taemin.

Woohyun and Key looked like they were being patronize by Eunji, which Naeun didn't want to miss. Key and Woohyun were wearing matching suits, in their eccentric styles of patterns and bright colours, a stark contrast against each other.

“For the last time, we're in public!” Woohyun groaned.

“What's wrong?”  Naeun asked him whilst Key and Eunji were bickering: nothing new there.

“Oh you know... Key got all protective jealous about that Suho guy, then Eunji got all defensive about it...and here we all are. Hi Naeunnie”he fiished with his devilish flair and sharp wit.

“The pictures came out great by the way” she noted.

“We had a great model” Woohyun grinned, being his greasy self.

“Stop it” She curled her fingers and swatted his jacket.

Eunji stormed off somewhere leaving Key huffing.

“Geez...that Jung Eunji”

“Remind me never to let them ever be in the same room again” Naeun whispered to Woohyun who nodded in agreement.

“Son Naeun, how would you like it if your husband was stolen by a supermodel?” Key snapped walking away aswell in a fury.

“Uh... Naeunnie, not to alarm you...but ” Woohyun glanced to a direction.

Taemin stood, chatting happily with an elegant tall lady, clad in one of their more colourful  grecian style dresses, adventerous comapared to her plain blue dress. Her features familiarly distincted and a hand casually drapped over his shoulder.
And she wasn't just any girl...
She was the model from L.A; 

Krystal Jung. 

A sudden stab of uneasiness filtered through her. The supermodel leaned in to whisper something to her husband and who laughed softly before smiling at the girl.

Woohyun patted her shoulder in a not-so-reassuring way that made her tense; she did not want to be pitied.

But it was certainly there, blossoming in the pitt of her stomache, making her clench and unclench her hands: she was actually jealous.

The intangible knot in her stomache came undone in the pitt of her stomach and she found herself marching to this self imposed lady.

“Hello” 

“Ummm hello” she replied in english with a slight accent. Taemin coughed and turned to look at both of them.

“Krystal, this is my wife”

“Oh my god, jeongmallyo?!”

“Nice to meet you Krystal ssi”

“You too Naeun, Taemin invited me to the wedding but I was shooting in New York”

“He did, did he?”she sideways glanced to him suspiciously.

“Oh yes me and Taemin go WAY back, he used to walk me home everyday!” she fluttered.

“He did?” a pang of jealousy hit her hard.

“Yes, you married a good man, he carried my books and everything!”

“Wow...you guys really do to back, in high school I guess?”

“Way before that... we've known each other since we were kids!” Krystal beamed.

“Krys...” Taemin nudged her seeing his wife frown like something was bothering her.

“You must know a lot about him” Naeun said green with envy.

“Haha, does he still drink banana milk?”

Naeun silently wondered if she knew him aswell as Krystal did. They were childhood friends. After all, they had been coerced into this marriage...

“Krys!!!” Taemin groaned.

"And you said you never dated" Naeun whispered her eyes casting down. Taemin sensed her distress and reached out for her hand before Krystal could inflict even more collateral damage.

"Naeunnie" he cajoled her.

“There you go again Krystal, your mouth running wild” a guy with a cute eyesmile came over, handing Krystal a flute of champagne, cathcing her off guard.

“Thank you Minhyuk oppa” Krystal smiled appreactively at the guy.

“Guys this is my boyfriend, Kang Minhyuk” Krystal introduced him.

Well THAT was unexpected.

She suddenly felt silly over her out-of-place jealousy and hate.

Minhyuk was cute and fresh faced; looking dapper in a navy suite from one of their previous collections.

“Nice to meet you, you're the designer right? Son Naeun? You're prettier in real life” he smiled at her,making her heart skip a beat.

“Deh...Thank you... It's nice to meet you Minhyuk ssi” Naeun blushed whilst twirling one of her locks with her fingertips, her mood instantly uplifted.

Now it was Taemin's turn to frown.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“You were soo jealous!” Taemin shouted as they entered their room.

“Quiet down, it's a hotel” Naeun shushed him and sat facing the dressing table taking of her heels and tossing them aside carelessly. Then carefully dismantling her intricate earrings and religiously removing her makeup with wet wipes.

“Are you mad at me?” he asked, loosening his tie.

“Who said I'm mad?” she brushed him off coldly and sat on the bed pretending to text Eunji.

“Naeun” she ignored him and turned away.

“Naeunnie...”he called out softer and sat on the bed next to her, placing his hand on her shoulder.

She turned away again, ignorant of Taemin's imploring voice and pleading eyes.

“Were you that jealous?”

“Ofcourse not” she denied, not daring to look at him.

He pulled her close and turned her head to kiss her. She suddenly felt lowered onto the bed sheets and him hovering above her; a squeak escaping her lips.

“Damn you Lee Taemin” she relented to his attempt to apologize.

“You're cute when you're jealous” he grinned and pinched her cheeks.

“Ofcourse I was jealous! She was a freaking supermodel!” she exploded and hit him on the chest.

“Don't be jealous, you're the prettiest of them all”

“Now you're just being cheesy” she said as he slyly leaned in to kiss her again.

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A/n:

I'm soo soo sorry !
Ive been really busy so I can't update as often as I want to!!! It's a stressful year for me since there's loads of exams....(that constantly change format) T_T and they're throwing loads of hw at me!! And I have to deal with all the es at school...
(peice of advise: DON'T go to an all-girls school. It's like HELL ON EARTH. TRUST ME)

Gah....I feel like dying.

I'm sorry for that impromptu rant. as a straight A student there's a lot of pressure on me to maintain my grades....and I have no way to outlet my stress...so I write and write and write.. A lot....

Thank you to my lovely readers that still support this ff and never complain of my OVERLY LONG AUTHORS NOTE.

Saranghe~
And plz do leave a comment! It would really brighten my day.