Disclaimer: Still own nothing, people...

***

Soojung noticed that Minhyuk oppa’s condition didn’t get any better as morning came the next day. Last night, she insisted to keep him company through his last scene despite his endless pleas to make her back to the hotel first. There’s no way she would leave him cold and alone out there while she was sleeping soundly in her warm bed. Scratch that. In fact, there’s just no way she would’ve gotten any sleep at all if she knew he didn’t get the rest he needed. Knowing him, and she was pretty sure that she had known him well enough to tell that he was such a hard-worker, he won’t take any rest until his job done, no matter how much alarms in his body practically crying for him to stop.

Someone needed to take care of him.

And Soojung had pointed herself to do the task. She was very determined with it that she asked the director to moved up his scene, reasoning that it would be a quick one-shot and it would spare them a much much more efficient time to set up for the next scene. The director quirked an eyebrow at this, taking a quick peek at Minhyuk who was deliriously trying to keep his eyes open and his smile intact to convinced everyone that he was fine, and finally consented with her request wisely. They do have more scenes for the next day, and it wouldn’t do anyone good if one of his actors wasn’t on their best shape.

As they were the last group of actors that went back to the hotel together in a rented car, with Park Hyungsik oppa and Kim Woobin oppa in the front seat, and Minhyuk oppa finally relented on the back seat with his head cuddled peacefully on her shoulder—not that she minded. She was thrilled that he trusted her enough to use her as a living pillow regularly, completely ignoring the constant snickering that the other occupants did from their front seat.

She really went over the top as she was also there to open his hotel room while Park Hyungsik oppa and Kim Woobin oppa supported the drunken-like Minhyuk by the shoulders from the car up to his bed. Kim Woobin bid his farewell and went to his shared room with Lee Minho oppa, while she helped Park Hyungsik oppa who happened to be Minhyuk oppa’s roommate to take off his shoes and wrapped him tight with the blanket. She took her time to stare at the sleeping boy—after making sure that Hyungsik oppa had gone to use the bathroom or change his clothes, or whatever—something that she never got the chance (and the guts) to do before. He looked like a baby when he was sleeping; and it took all of her willpower not to climbed up his bed and kissed him right then and there.

She felt like that erted-bad-guy in the movies who was trying to molested an innocent girl. While she was supposed to be the girl.

She shook her head out of her daydream before she caught herself glued to stare at him all night long, then literally running for her life to the front door.

She had no idea how did everything had gotten out of hand.

***

She woke up early, went straight to the kitchen and preparing to cook something for a certain guy who apparently didn’t take his days off wisely. Yesterday was his first day filming after a couple days of bedrest. He was getting better—his temperature had gone pretty high by the end of the day their filming at the camp—but he’s still not fully recovered. She caught him trying to hide a cough once or twice, especially after she was giving him a knowing look that she was not pleased at all.

She was chopping some vegetables when she heard the footsteps from upstairs that must have been her sister, Jessica. Her sister was already dressed in a comfortable outfit, most probably for SNSD’s dance practice. They were having a comeback next year and Soojung felt a slight envy because f(x)’s comeback was still on the waiting list after EXO, Super Junior, and who knew what else. Soojung was known as the girl who couldn’t stay still for a minute; her body’s always itchy to do some work. Well, it’s a good thing that her agency had piled up her schedule with filming, comercial, photoshoot, and SM the Ballad so she wouldn’t be found dead of boredom.

Her sister must have been sniffing her way through the kitchen because the first thing she said was, “Hmm...that smells good...” instead of her trademark “Morning, Jungie-yah!”

So Soojung did her a favour by greeting her sister first, “Morning, unnie!” which was replied with a bright smile from Jessica. Her sister plopped herself down on one of the stool right in front of the counter top, watching the younger girl playing housewife. Unlike her, her baby sister was pretty good at cooking ever since they were young. Somehow their mom trusted Soojung more with the knives and the frying pans and the stove, because admit it, Jessica and the kitchen set wasn’t quite a match.

“So Jungie-yah, what’s for breakfast today? It smells really good from upstairs...” Jessica propped her chin on her hand with her elbow on the counter, trying to figure out what’s their menu for today, only to given up a second later since she couldn’t name half of the ingredients.

Soojung answered shortly without looking up, “I’m making a jeonbokjuk for breakfast and samgyetang with dumplings for later,” she said, folding the dumpling with expert hand and stirring the porridge like some kind of multitasking queen.

Jessica blinked by hearing jeonbokjuk, “Is someone sick, Jungie-yah?” She leaned closer to get a better look at her sister, “But you look perfectly fine...”

The younger girl released a heavy sigh, which was not gone unnoticed by the older one, “It’s not me who had gotten sick, unnie...” Jessica strained her ears because she knew there’s something more she wanted to say. Soojung finally looked her in the eye, even for just a second, and she went back to her task, “It’s Minhyuk oppa. He’s been sick for almost a week,” she said casually like it was nothing. But Jessica knew better.

“Oh! Minhyuk was sick? Is that why I haven’t seen him these days?” Jessica asked, she was actually curious because he used to sent her sister home, but lately, it was her manager or sometimes it was Jessica herself who picked her up if she happened to be around the set.

Soojung shrugged her shoulders lightly, “It’s nothing, really. Just a common cold, I think.”

Jessica gave her a stern look, prompted her to emphazise. If it was really nothing as she said, then why went through all of this trouble?

“So...” she inquired carefully, “Is all this food for me or for Minhyuk?” Of course, she knew the answer already, jeonbukjuk was actually a porridge that you made specifically to help someone recovered faster, and Jessica wasn’t the sick one here. But she would eat everything that Soojung’s made, because her little sister’s was actually that good.

Soojung finally showed some emotion with an annoying look in her eyes, most likely tired from pondering Jessica’s questions, “Don’t worry, unnie, I’ve made enough for us to eat. You can actually warmed up the samgyatang once you came home from practice.”

“And you’d still have enough to bring some to the set?”

Soojung’s confirmed her answer with a breathy sigh, then went back to the task at hand. Sica unnie could be so noisy sometimes.

But Jessica wasn’t going to stop there. It had been bugging her ever since Soojung had her filming, at first she thought that the rumour would dissipated by itself, only that it didn’t. Her SNSD’s members had asked her about it, her manager had been concerned, even Heechul oppa had warned her to keep an eye on Soojung. She needed at least a confirmation of what was actually happening.

“Jungie-yah...” Jessica tried an extra caution to approach her sister, observing every tiny changes in her face so that she wouldn’t miss a thing, “Are you dating with Kang Minhyuk?”

Soojung snapped immediately at her sister, “What? No!” Jessica noticed that Soojung now stirred the porridge a little bit too rough than before, but at least, she knew that she answered the question truthfully. “Gosh! I’m so sick with people asking me these questions,” she chopped the chicken into small chunks like she was murdering it, “Not you too, unnie. I’ve had enough with people on the set teasing me and Minhyuk oppa about this. We’re not dating, okay?” she said with a rough edges in her tone that were almost turned into a yelling.

“But you do like him?”

The question hung in the air with a loud echo in Soojung’s ears. Jessica now watching her sister freeze like a thunder had struck her and stopped her to do whatever she was doing just then. The knife on her hand was released from her grip with a loud clank, her face contorted into something like a guilt, eyes staring straight through the chicken that was laying lifelessly there.

And she knew it.

Call it some kind of sister’s instinct, but Jessica finally had her answer.

Jessica jumped from her seat and craddled her sister in a big hug. Her poor baby sister. She didn’t have to tell her specifically about her feelings to him—and yes, she didn’t even have to ask who was him—she’s already knew by the way she was talking about him, the sparkle in her eyes everytime he sent her home, and how tight she hold that roumang doll to sleep every night. She was kind of hoping that it was just a crush that would end as soon as it was begun, but looking at how her sister’s was sobbing on her shoulder right now, she knew it went deeper than just a summer fling.

At first she scoffed at everyone’s overreaction about this because she thought Minhyuk was a sweet guy, and she certainly wouldn’t mind with the idea of her sister liking him, but now that she get it, somehow she wished that he wasn’t that sweet just so that she would have an excuse to told him to stay away from Soojung without being an evil big sister.

***

Kang Minhyuk had made a sort of list in his head of the things that he had observed to distinguish Jung Soojung from Lee Bona. These were a few of it:

Lee Bona was a talkative person; while Jung Soojung was actually on the quiet one. In retaliation, Soojung was actively on the move, you could literally saw her jumping from room to room, greeting and making fun of everyone she met on the run. It’s not a rarity to see her asking a few people to do some dance moves with her or her running around chasing the other casts. He was pretty sure some of it had been captured on the camera and he couldn’t wait to see her reaction if any of it ended up in the BTS sequence.

Lee Bona was kind of impulsive, she said everything she was thinking and you could tell everything she was feeling like an open book; while Jung Soojung loved to held it all in. The only time he had ever saw her getting mad was that time when she was giving him the silent treatment, even then she was smiling and acting almost normally around him that no one else even noticed that they weren’t talking at the time. Minhyuk was having a hard time on guessing her mood simply because she wore the facade perfectly. The only way he knew how to cracked that mask of her was by teasing her. He could see a glimpse of her true feeling shortly after the blood suddenly rushing up to her face: if she was laughing or yelling at him or smacking him with a force that means she was in a good mood. Otherwise, if she was giving him a minimum reaction like smiling sheepishly or hiding her face with her hair or shutting him out completely, that could only meant that she didn’t want any of your crap right then.

Another thing that he had noticed was that Lee Bona was innocent. He didn’t say that Jung Soojung wasn’t either; but while Lee Bona would shy away from any physical contact even with her boyfriend, Jung Soojung seemed like she didn’t mind with it. Especially once she felt comfortable enough with that person. There were times when she get embarrased while they had a scene with his arms around her, instead of leaning away and letting him go, she would practically hid her face on his chest, or shoulders, or arms, or even on his back. There was one time when she was almost tripped at the scene where Lee Bona was running away from Yoon Chanyoung after the broadcast, and she got very red in the face that she turned back to him and about to buried herself in his chest, only then she remembered that the camera’s still rolling and she saved herself in the nick of a time and bent over in front of him instead. That would be his favourite scene of all, for sure.  

One thing of Lee Bona’s trait that he really liked was: she only had eyes for her boyfriend. She was very dedicated to Yoon Chanyoung, only craved for his attention and would do anything to make sure that it was all on her. It was hard to find that kind of girl in real life these days—the one that could be cute-charming-clingy type of girl, not the annoying-overreaction-clingy ones—and he wondered if Soojung was one of them.

But one thing that he absolutely loved about Jung Soojung was: her determination to take care of other people. It was like her own heart couldn’t contain that much love that she needed to share them to everyone around her so it wouldn’t bursted out of her chest and get wasted. And Minhyuk felt so lucky because he was one of those people who could enjoy most of it on a regular basis. Even if it was just on the set. Even if he was only her on-screen boyfriend—he could only imagine what kind of attention she would give if she ever had a real boyfriend, and immediately tossed it to the bin inside of his head before he snapped at something. Soojung had become his own personal haven, the one person who would nagged him endlessly if he didn’t do exactly what she had suggested him to.

That made him reminded of another Jung in his dorm, “Soojungie, are you sure you didn’t have any kind of family relation with Yonghwa hyung?” he asked as he scooped a spoonfull of jeonbokjuk that looked and smelled amazing he must be drooling, “I swear that both of you had that similar persuasive personality trait that none of the other family had.”

She looked at him with that warning look in her eyes that he found adorable rather than intimidating, “Just eat your jeonbokjuk, oppa,” he could see from the corner of his eyes that she was scrutinizing his face expectantly as he chewed down the dish.

“Mmm! Woah this is really good, Soojungie!” Minhyuk appraised her sincerely and she beamed at him. “I don’t know that you’re this good! You should’ve cook for me more... I really wouldn’t mind,” the blushes on her cheeks were absolutely worthed it as he winked at his own suggestion.

“Actually, I’ve made you some soup and dumplings for lunch...”

And it was just made him blown away he grinned so wide his cheeks hurt. He sling his left arm around her, then pinched her cheek out of joy, “I must be the luckiest man in the world. I should’ve keep you as my girlfriend after this.”

Soojung seemed like contemplating about his idea carefully, only to came up with a mischievous smile, “Then you should’ve started treating me really good.”

He saluted her with his hand that still holding the spoon, accepting her challenge, “As you wish, Princess...”

They stayed at the set until late night to shoot the party scene where everyone’s gathered and every couple in the drama had a romantic scene. Kim Jiwon had gotten impossibly red in the face since she had a kissing scene with Kang Haneul. They were the new teasing target and for once, Soojung and Minhyuk were off the hook.

Minhyuk was actually felt bad towards Soojung because he had to kiss her while he wasn’t fit, he just didn’t want her to get some contagion from him.

“Let’s try to shoot both of you taking a selca while Minhyuk-ssi kissing you and see if we can get it in one-shot,” the director ordered them.

But of course it didn’t. The first try, the camera didn’t even capture their whole faces, only their eyes and above. They were laughing hysterically at that, and try for the second time. Again, it was a little bit over to Soojung’s side and Minhyuk’s face were cut off. The director helped them on positioning the camera for the third and forth time, only the pictures came out slightly blurry. For their last times, the director told them to take some selcas first before they shoot the whole scene. The resulted pictures weren’t exactly the same with how it came out in the scene, but that’s the best they could get.

“I’m sorry, Soojungie... I didn’t want you to get sick too, but I’m at one-shots.”

“It’s okay, oppa,” Soojung tried to reassured him, “People said that I’m the healthiest person they’ve ever met. A little germs won’t make me sick.”

“Aigoo...” Minhyuk pinched her nose lightly, “Don’t you know that you can’t brag about somethings like that? They said that once you did, it would backfired at you.”

Soojung took his hand out of her nose and pouted slightly, “What is this? Do you really want me to get sick?”

“Of course not, gorgeous,” he quipped back playfully, pulling her hand to follow him out to the changing room, “Kajja. Change your clothes. I’m going to take you home.”

“What?” Soojung halt her steps that make him turned around with a questioning look. “You don’t have to do that, oppa. Sica unnie would pick me up.”

Minhyuk sighed, he knew that she was going to be difficult, “It’s past midnight, Soojungie. It’s not safe for you or for your sister to stay out this late. Besides,” his tone had turned softer, “It’s the least that I can do to say thank you for taking care of me. Okay?”

“But, you’re also tired, oppa,” she whined once more, “What if something happened on your way back—“

“—ssshhh,” he shut her off by placing a finger on her lips and their faces were so close she could feel his breath on her face. He looked at her deeply in the eyes, trying to let her see that it was him who should be worried about her, not the other way around. Although he admitted that he was flattered to see her rambling while worrying about him, but he wasn’t going to back down on this. “I’m fine. Just let me take care of you for once, okay?”

He could see her resolve finally crumbling down litle by little, before she nodded her head slowly. Minhyuk smiled tenderly at this, he lowered down his finger from her lips then once again took her hand.

“But oppa...”

Oh God...

Minhyuk stopped on his track so suddenly that Soojung collided into his back. He turned around and once again looked her deeply into her eyes, only that there’s more determination in his than before. It seemed that he needed to put all the stop to make her relented. He leaned his face forward to hers even closer than before, and without his finger between them, he couldn’t help but to take a peek on her lips, that looked so soft and inviting and he wondered how it would taste like to put his lips on hers—

Instead, he whispered in a very low tone, “If you said one more word, I swear to God I’m really going to kiss you, Jungie-yah...”

***

A/N: Should he or should he not? >.<