***

“Guys, change of plans.”

All twelve members share a collective groan, knowing that line never meant anything good.

“What is it, hyung?” Surprisingly, it’s mild tempered Luhan that directs the question-statement towards their schedule coordinator in a flat tone.

The entire group was already being over-flooded with all their promotions- CFs, performances at different music programs, fansigns, variety shows, interviews… the list went on and on. They're all exhausted, and dealing with another unexpected change was too much.

The man in front of them clasps his hands together.

“For the Samsung photo shoot later on today, you’ll be working with a female model that was chosen to endorse at the last minute.” He wiggles his eyebrows. “She probably begged them, just to meet you guys,” he continues with a smirk.

They all roll their eyes.

***

Later at the studio, they file in through the rear exit, politely greeting all the staff. A gorgeous girl walks up, decked out in a mini dress that shows off her long legs, and stilettos that make her look taller than she already is. Her makeup is already finished, obviously, and she bats her eyelashes at the twelve hot guys that stand in a line in front of her.

“Hi, nice to meet you guys. I’m-“

“We don’t even want to introduce ourselves, so how can you say you’re meeting us?”

Baekhyun mutters loud enough for her to hear, and drops in shock. Eyes wide, she quickly corrects her facial expression to a pout that does not match her smoky makeup, and whirls around to face the others. But they all either look half dead, or were glaring at random objects around them- not wanting to meet her gaze. Only Suho offers a forced smile in apology, and offended, she expertly turns on a five inch heel and struts away- finally revealing a small, petite-framed girl behind her, who bows immediately.

They all double-take at the sight of her- how could she have remained unnoticed behind the model all along?

“I’m sorry if Ji Hye-sshi annoyed you all, sunbae-nims. I know you’re tired…” She trails off, knowing that was a gross understatement, before continuing without meeting their eyes.

“So please work hard and we’ll finish early,” she finishes, and bits her lip. “I’ll buy you all something from the vending machine,” she offers, and winces at how sad it sounds. They smile, though, much to her surprise.

“Are you her manager?” Chen asks, looking sorry. She shakes her head vehemently. “Thank God not,” she growls, and they laugh lightly. “I’m a stylist intern, but they assigned me to her because I was the closest in age,” she grumbles, and there is a silence amongst the thirteen of them. Then they hastily introduce themselves, and she giggles, already knowing who they were. She introduces herself as Lee Rina, and they all mentally mark her as the tiny stylist with the prettiest smile in Korea.

***

Rina can’t tell exactly which member is which, so in her mind, she resorts to labelling them as the tall one with cool eyebrows or the one with scary dark eyes circles or the short one who looks like a puppy. The tall one with cool eyebrows then clears his throat, and excuses himself to start getting ready. Two others, the one that looks like a panda, and the kind-looking Chinese with wavy hair, mumble something in Chinese and follow him. The one with…bronzed skin nods at her, and the super-nice one leaves with him. The one with huge eyes and the one that looks like a round-faced elementary student depart as well, and five members are left. They introduce themselves- Luhan, Baekhyun, Chanyeol, Chen, and Sehun. Rina wonders what they’re doing standing in the back corridor, and the six quickly head towards the prep hallway.

***

Baekhyun is the first to finish changing, and finds himself wandering towards Rina. She greets him with a smile, and a soft, “Baekhyun-sshi.”

“How long have you been here as an intern?” Baekhyun blurts the question out, desperate for something to talk to her about. She looks surprised that he paid attention to that detail, but answers cheerily nonetheless. “Since May.”

“That’s when my birthday is,” he muses, and she grins. “Good things must all happen in May,” she smirks, and Baekhyun is pleasantly surprised at her playful side. “Cheesy,” he laughs after pouting, giving her a nudge. She finishes cleaning a makeup set, and pushes him lightly into the seat. While another stylist sprays at his hair with a foul smelling foam, she leans down to powder foundation onto his face. He closes his eyes at the familiar feeling, and he feels her breath on him. It smells like mint and vanilla, and unconsciously, he smiles.

When she moves past his T-line and onto his cheeks, he sneaks a peak at her. Her gaze is filled with concentration, and he can’t help but stare at her pale, makeup-free skin and long eyelashes. She was definitely pretty, even though she was really tiny.

“You have really nice skin,” she whispers, and Baekhyun jumps in surprise. His ears burn and he fights to keep a poker face, hoping the powder covers his blush. She draws back, surveying her work, while Baekhyun forces himself to calm down. She whips out several bottles of concealer, holding them near his face. Her brows are furrowed in concentration. Cute.

***

Chanyeol has a wide smirk as he catches Baekhyun half-acting cute and half-staring dreamily at the cute stylist. He didn’t know that midgets were his type- even though it was a totally attractive midget. But again, Baekhyun was a midget just like her, so he couldn’t really say anything.  Jongin sidles up behind Chanyeol, and his jaw dropped. “That hyung is so fast!” he complains, and Chanyeol fights a laugh. For some reason, after arriving, all of EXO seemed to magically gain their energy back. [A/N: Must have been the work of Lay.]

***

EXO lines up to get their hair and makeup done, and by the time Rina finishes with the eyeliner, most members are watching Baekhyun’s curiously adorable interactions with the tiny stylist with the prettiest smile in Korea- save a few who are sleeping. They know completely well how he only acted cute to the girls he had interest in. But his aegyo was a bit overboard.

***

Baekhyun, sad to say, is too lost in her eyes to notice the sniggers that pass through his group mates.  She stands back to admire his face (he hopes), and beams, giving him a thumbs up.

***

Chanyeol, as the best friend, tries not to laugh as his buddy practically swoons at her smile- although he kind of wants to too. The expressions of his friends say the same.

***

Throughout their fifteen minutes of conversation, Rina learns that Baekhyun likes listening to music and watching movies, his blood type is O, he likes black, white, and grey, and his friend Kai (his name was Jongin, but Baekhyun told her to call him Kai) has a whole bunch of pet dogs. He knows Hapkido, and is besties with the tall one with elf ears- Chanyeol. He is born in 1992, and he is talkative, even if he seems to have a stutter. (That is completely adorable.)

***

Throughout their fifteen minutes of conversation, Baekhyun learns that Rina likes listening to music, composing, all arts in general, her blood type is A, she likes blue, and her friend Ha Eun has 7 cats. She is born in 1995, born in September- two days before Jongdae. She is a black belt in Taekwondo, surprisingly, to the second degree, and she had admitted that she was pretty terrible at cooking. Baekhyun finds himself liking every detail, even the ones she doesn’t mention.

Her eyes are pretty, her nose is pretty, her lips are pretty.

***

During the filming and photo shoot, Rina stands behind the camera, mouthing ‘hwaiting!’ at the members, and the producer is very pleased with their facial expressions. When Ji Hye steps in to pose with them though, they all take a 180 change, leaning away from her, and their smiles automatically turned strained and unnatural. Everyone frowns, including Rina. The show must go on, however (though in this case, the pre-recorded show) and it flows with minimal problems. At the end, Baekhyun barely manages to ask for her cell number, and she gives it to him with an innocent smile. Baekhyun ignores the wince in his heart when she calls him her new friend, and doesn’t show any other hints of liking more than just his friendship.

***

EXO sees right through Baekhyun.

***

Baekhyun curses in his mind when the rest of the members add her number easily, none of them as nervous as him. Chanyeol and Sehun join him. “Too obvious, hyung,” the maknae smiles infuriatingly, and Baekhyun tries his best not to reach for their necks.

***

Baekhyun is the last one awake in their van, kept up with a dilemma- what to label Rina as. Sunshine?  It would be awkward if his friends found that though. If he is just to enter her name, he kind of wants to add emoticons, even though it’s usually Chanyeol who does that. Sighing, he taps in her full name.

***

Suho is aware of Baekhyun’s problem. Of course he was, what type of leader wouldn’t be? He knows most members got her number just because they were interested in why Baekhyun was interested, but it was true that she was refreshing, and yet familiar. He sighs. Who knows if they’ll ever work together again?

***

Baekhyun struggles for 63 hours and 14 minutes, trying to decide whether to text Rina or not. Everyone else rolls their eyes whenever they seem him staring at his phone screen in between practices and performances. It is all too obvious what’s paining him.

***

That day, Kyungsoo pats Baekhyun on the back. “Just text her. Man up and stop waiting for her to make the first move.” If you don’t, we’ll text her for you, he adds silently with a grimace. Jongdae, who had been too nice to ignore his buddy’s predicament, comes up as well, nodding. “Don’t worry, Byunbaek. She’ll be happy to receive a message from you.”

Baekhyun has never wanted to hug a person this much in his life.

“If you don’t, we’ll text her for you, since we’re all dying from your sighs and kicked-puppy glances at your phone.”

Baekhyun takes that back. Immediately.

***

To: Lee Rina

12-15-2013

Hi, this is Baekhyun. We met at the CF for Samsung a few days ago.

Sent 2:08 PM

Baekhyun spends an entire agonizing minute in full-blown anxiety, and the rest of EXO starts to regret meeting the midget. With the prettiest smile in Korea, of course.

From: Lee Rina

Heyy! Don’t worry, of course I remember ^^

Sent 2:09 PM

Baekhyun melts, all anxiety disappearing. Even Yixing shakes his head.

***

They text very often, much to Baekhyun’s joy and everyone else’s chagrin.

***

“Look at the picture she sent! It’s a new eyeliner under L’Oreal!”

“That cupcake looks so good! She made it!”

“Sehun! She’s so adorable, oh my gosh. That hat is perfect on her.”

“HYUNG. JUST ASK HER OUT AND STOP ANNOYING US. GEEZ.”

“Yah, Oh Sehun!”

***

One day, Kris has enough. He takes Baekhyun’s phone while he’s at vocal training, and the rest of EXO crowd around his phone. They giggle uncharacteristically as the duizhang opens up Baekhyun’s messages.

Umma

Lee Rina

Hyung

Yeollie

They raise their eyebrows, but refuse to comment.

To: Lee Rina

12-24-2013

I like you. Meet me at Namsan Tower. 6:00.

Even Suho nods approvingly at the bluntness of the message, and a loud ping draws their attention to the phone in the tall blonde’s hand.

From: Lee Rina

Ok

They delete the messages from the thread. 9 smirks, 1 blank expression, 1 poker face- and yet Baekhyun doesn’t notice a thing.

***

Chanyeol tells Baekhyun to meet the rest of EXO at Namsan Tower at 6, since Baekhyun, Kyungsoo, and Jongdae have extra practice. He just nods blankly, wondering why Rina didn’t contact him at all.

***

6:00, Namsan Tower

Baekhyun, strangely enough, can’t find his friends. He arrived with Jongdae and Kyungsoo, but they have disappeared too, leaving Baekhyun by himself. He wanders around the plaza at the base admiring the enormous Christmas tree strung with decorations- until he freezes in place.

Lee Rina.

Her wavy hair spills over her colourful scarf, her large eyes framed with a hint of makeup for once. She has a cute pea coat on, over a pink dress and white stockings. Her fur boots look like children’s shoes, and Baekhyun can’t move. She then turns around, and Baekhyun swears there’s this glow to her and her lips and nose are adorably pink and-

“Baekhyun-oppa, merry Christmas,” she says, and Baekhyun runs over, enveloping her in a hug. “I like you,” he says in a breathless rush, and immediately, his cheeks practically burst into flame. I like you because you’re so nice. I like you because you bring out the best of me, whether the others agree or not. I like you because you’re you.

Baekhyun is so lost in his thoughts, he doesn’t notice Rina speaking until she pokes him in the cheek. Her lips form a smile.

“I like you too.”

***

EXO, hiding behind the ticket booth, all want to cry in relief. Finally.

***

[A/N: This is where the mini-convo takes place.]

Chanyeol: “Baek, I can’t believe you like midgets.” Cue the giant’s eye roll.

Baekhyun: “She’s not a midget! She’s just… fun-sized!”

***

Thanks for reading! Comments? (◕‿◕✿) How can I improve my writing style?