I wake up in the morning to my phone vibrating on my bedside table. I reach out for it with my eyes closed and slide my finger across the screen thinking it’s my alarm. 

“Hello? Hello?”

I hear the voice coming from my phone and I open my eyes. I stare at my phone as a couple more ‘Hello’s’ are heard. I quickly sit up and grab my phone, holding it up to my ear before whoever is on the other end hangs up. 

“Hello?” I say. 

“Oh. Jae-ya.” It’s him. 

“Sorry. I thought I was turning off my alarm so I didn’t -”

“That’s okay. Are you free today?” 

“Today? I actually have a photo shoot today.” How can he be so casual about all of this? 

“Is it okay if I come over when you’re done? I really think we need to talk.” There’s a knock at my door and I get up to open it. 

“Hang on a sec” I say into the phone. I open the door and my manager looks at me. He sees the phone in my hand and his mouth forms a big O shape. I send him a pleading look and he motions as if to take the phone off me. I wave my hand to say don’t worry and follow him out to the living room. He sits on the couch watching me. 

“Hello?” I say, making sure he’s still there.

“Yeah?”

“Oh. Umm.. yeah, come over tonight.” I look at my manager and he nods. “I think we should talk too.” 

“Okay cool. Send me your address and I’ll message you when I’m on my way.”

“Is it okay if I call Soo Hyuk Oppa over as well?” 

“Soo Hyuk hyung? Umm.. I guess so. It’s your house.” he says before hanging up. 

I look up at my manager who smiles at me. “You did well, Jae.” 

He gets up and pats me on the shoulder as he walks into the kitchen. I look at my phone and dial Soo Hyuk’s number. He picks up almost straight away. 

“Hello?”

“Hello? Oppa, did I wake you?”

“Jae? No you didn’t. What’s the time though?” I chuckle and look at the clock. 

“It’s 6.30. Sorry. I just wanted to call you straight away.”

“Why? Is everything okay?” I can hear the worry in his voice and I smile to myself.

“Everything’s fine, it’s just -” I pause, taking a breath before continuing. “Sung Joon Oppa called.”

“What did he say? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. He wants to talk and you said if I wanted you here then -”

“I’ll be there. What time is he coming?” I can’t help but be touched at the speed of his reaction. 

“Thanks Oppa. He’s coming tonight. He said he would message me when he’s on the way.”

“Okay. What time will you be home?”

“Me? 7-ish.”

“Okay. I’ll be there just after 7.”

He hangs up before I get a chance to thank him again. 

“Don’t forget to send Sung Joon the address.” says my manager from the kitchen. “Then hurry up and get ready. We’re leaving in an hour.”

I send Sung Joon the message and realise that his number isn’t saved. I go to save his number and remember the discussion we had that night in London. I save him as “Bang Sung Joon” and turn the screen off before going to get ready. 

I focused as much as I could on my photo shoot. I couldn’t help but think about what would happen later tonight. I was contemplating dragging the shoot out so that I could postpone the meeting till later but the photographer was being such a sweetheart I couldn’t possibly make him stay longer than he was supposed to. 

On the way home I sent Soo Hyuk a message telling him I was heading home. My manager parked the car in the underground car park and as I climbed out a car pulled into the space beside us. I watched as a man got out of the drivers seat. 

“Soo Hyuk Oppa.” I say, recognising the tall figure. “That was quick.”

He smiles at me as he closes his door and presses the button on his key. We walk up to each other and give each other a hug. 

“How are you, Jae?” he says. 

“I’m good.” he turns to my manager. 

“Hi hyung.” he says bowing slightly. 

“Thanks for coming, Soo Hyuk-ssi.” my manager says patting him on the shoulder. He moves to gather my things from the car. 

“Please, hyung you don’t have to be so formal.” Soo Hyuk says, moving to give him a hand. 

“It’s okay Soo Huyk-ah I can get this.” but Soo Hyuk has already grabbed a handful of things and started walking towards the elevator. My manager and I shrug at each other and follow him. 

The elevator ride is spent laughing as we talk about our days. We finally get up to my floor and Soo Hyuk leads the way to my apartment. He gets there first and has to wait for me and my manager to get there to open the door. I laugh at his eagerness and hold the door open for him. 

“Where should I put this?” he asks, standing awkwardly in the middle of my living room holding my things. 

“Just drop them there, I’ll clean it up.” says my manager, dropping the things he’s carrying. 

“Here?” Soo Hyuk asks.

“Anywhere Oppa. Just drop it.” I tell him. He lets go of everything he’s holding and flinches at the sound they make when they hit the floor. 

“Have a seat. I’m just going to take all this crap off my face and I’ll be right out.” I say as I walk towards the bathroom. 

“Jae-ya shall we order chicken?” my manager yells form the kitchen. “I don’t feel like cooking tonight.

“If you want, Oppa.” I yell back. 

I finish washing my face and quickly change into something a bit more comfortable. I head out to the living room where Soo Hyuk and my manager are talking about sport. Soo Hyuk looks up at me as I walk in.

“You’re a lot prettier without make up, you know that?” he says, making space for me next to him on the couch. I feel myself start to blush. 

“I knew there was a reason I hated that stuff.” I say, making the two men laugh. I feel my phone vibrate and I check the screen. 1 new message. 

From: Bang Sung Joon

I’m on the way. 

I look up at Soo Hyuk. “He’s coming.” I say. 

The door bell rings and we all look at each other. “No way.” my manager says. Sung Joon just messaged me. There’s no way he’s here already. He gets up to check the monitor and sees it’s the chicken delivery. We all crack up laughing as my manager goes to open the door. He pays the delivery guy and shuts the door again. He places the chicken on the table and disappears into the kitchen to get plates. 

He comes back and goes to sit down when the doorbell rings again.

“Did he forget something?” my manager says as he stands up again to open the door. “Oh. Come in.” I hear him say. He’s here. 

Soo Hyuk picks up on the situation and gives my hand a light squeeze. I give him a small smile and turn back towards the door to see Sung Joon coming in with flowers. He glances at Soo Hyuk before looking at me again. I stand up to greet him and he hands me the flowers. 

“For you.” he says. 

“Uh.. Thanks.” I say, taking them off him. “Have a seat. We were just about to start eating. Join us.” 

My manager takes the flowers from me and takes them into the kitchen. 

“Hey.” I here Soo Hyuk say as he holds his hand out to Sung Joon. They high-five each other and Sung Joon sits down. 

“You got here quick. I swear you just messaged me 2 minutes ago.” I say, sitting beside Soo Hyuk. I see Sung Joon’s eyes glance between me and his friend. 

“Yeah. I forgot to message when I left the house so I messaged you after parking the car here.” he says. 

“What are you guys waiting for? That chicken’s gonna get cold.” my manager says re-appearing with a drink for Sung Joon. He places it in front of him and Sung Joon says thanks. 

“Eat first. Talk later.” my manager says. 

“You’re only saying that because your drama is on.” I say. 

“Exactly. So zip it.” he says, grabbing the remote and turning the volume up. We all laugh at that and I make a mistake of looking at Sung Joon. I forgot how good he looked. I forgot how cute his smile was. I forgot how the sound of his laugh made tingles travel up my spine. Our eyes met and I quickly looked away, taking a piece of chicken to distract myself. I turn to watch the TV - completely aware that Sung Joon was in the room. 

We eat in silence so as not to disturb my manager’s viewing experience. He is so immersed in the drama that he forgets we’re there when it finishes. “How could they end that episode there? Now I have to wait till next week!” he yells at the TV. We start laughing at him and he turns to look at us. “Oh damn.” he says,  “I forgot you guys were here.”

“Them fine,” I say, indicating the two guys, “but how could you forget that I’m here?” 

“You’re usually in your room.” he says, shrugging. He looks at the table and sees that we’ve finished eating. “You guys can chat now, I’ll clean this up.”

“I’ll help you, hyung.” says Soo Hyuk getting up and taking some plates. The two disappear into the kitchen, leaving Sung Joon and I in the living room. 

“So..” I say, breaking the silence.

“Why is Soo Hyuk hyung here?” he asks, surprising me. I didn’t expect that to be the first thing he asked me. 

“You said it was okay.”

“I know. But I don’t see why he has to be here.”

“He’s like my moral support.” I say, not meeting his eyes. I hear him sigh. 

“Fine. I didn’t think meeting me was such a hard thing to do.”

I could feel anger start to rise in my body. 

“You didn’t think meeting you was such a hard thing to do?” I repeat his question. He looks up at me a bit shocked at the rise of my voice. “Do you have any idea what I went through because of you?” 

“Then do you think it was easy for me?” he says, raising his voice as well. 

“If it wasn’t for WGM would you have even called me?” he looks away, not answering me. “That’s what I thought.”

“You’re right. That’s why I’m here. We need to work through our issues if we’re going to be able to be on WGM without raising suspicion.” 

“It’s going to take a while to sort out our issues.” he sighs again. 

“How did this happen?” he asks me.

“How did what happen?” 

“This.” he says raising his arms as if indicating my apartment. “How are you even here? In Seoul. As a singer. Is it maybe...”

“Don’t even think for a second that I’m here because of you.” I say, cutting him off. “You are not the reason I became a singer. Yes you’re the reason I came to Seoul because I bought tickets to surprise you on your birthday over 2 years ago. But by the time your birthday came around you weren’t talking to me so I just came for a holiday. That’s when I got casted.”

“Then why didn’t you come and find me when you first got here?”

I scoff at his reply. “Why would I do that? It had been months since I last heard from you. Why would I go looking for someone who broke all their promises?” I say, intending to hurt him. 

I see his eyes flicker and I feel a tiny bit of satisfaction. But I’m also ignoring the internal war going on in my head which is telling me to forgive him and to kiss him right here. There’s no way I will give in to that voice in my head. 

“I’m sorry.” he says. “There’s a reason for all of that-”

“I don’t want to hear your excuses. If you really are sorry, why are you only here now? I debuted a year ago.” I can feel tears starting to form in my eyes. I force myself to hold them back. I don’t want him to see me get emotional over this. 

“I saw you’re video. The one before you debuted.” Damn. I knew what video he was talking about. The video where I sang John Park’s ‘No More’. That song was meant for him. It was a way for me to put this all behind me. “That song. It was meant for me, right?” 

I stand up and go to the window. I knew I was being dramatic but I couldn’t sit so close to him anymore. “What makes you think that?” I knew I was being childish but I couldn’t help it. 

“Come on, Jae! The lyrics of that song plus the fact that you cried after singing it.” he was almost yelling now. 

“Fine!” I say yelling back. I turn to see he’s standing as well. “That song was for you! I sang it to put all of this behind me and now you’re here and we have to pretend we’re married on that damn TV show!” I can no longer hold back my tears and I see that Sung Joon is taken back by my sudden burst of emotion. Soo Hyuk runs into the room and hugs me, trying to comfort me. He looks over at Sung Joon. 

“That’s enough Sung Joon-ah. Maybe you should go home for today.”

“How the hell are you two so close?!” Sung Joon’s yell startles me. I look up and see him watching us with eyes wide and fists clenched. 

“Sung Joon-ah.” says Soo Hyuk calmly. 

“Let her go hyung.” Sung Joon says quietly, almost menacingly. 

“Sung Joon-ah, it’s not what you think.” says Soo Hyuk, loosening his grip on me. 

“How could you do this to me, hyung?” says Sung Joon, it sounds like he’s about to cry too. 

Soo Hyuk lets me go and I all of a sudden feel cold. 

“Sung Joon-ah.” 

“You know how I feel about her. You all know. Yet you still met her behind my back. You think I don’t know that you guys met up after she debuted?” he runs his hand through his hair. “Damn it you guys probably met when she came to Seoul huh?” 

“Don’t make it sound like you’re the victim here.” I say, finally finding my voice back. “You came here to sort out our issues, leave Soo Hyuk Oppa out of this.” 

“Now you’re even taking his side?” Sung Joon says, turning his gaze to me. 

“Soo Hyuk Oppa has been by my side more than you have. He didn’t throw me away like you did.” 

“Jae-ya.” says Soo Hyuk.

“You don’t know the whole story Jae.” says Sung Joon. 

“Why don’t you tell me then?” I say, my voice slowly rising again. “This whole time all I wanted from you was an explanation. Why you ditched me the way you did. You said you would make us work. I thought we were doing fine until I started hearing from you less and less. At first I just thought you were busy and then eventually I gave up.” 

“If I told you would you forgive me?” 

“It’s a bit late for that don’t you think? It’s been almost 3 years since I last heard from you and now that you’re here I’m supposed to drop at your feet?” 

“No but-” he takes a step towards me and I step back, instinctively, behind Soo Hyuk. “Hyung.” says Sung Joon, looking at the two of us. 

“Sung Joon-ah, give me a sec.” Soo Hyuk says as he turns around to me. 

“I don’t want to be in the middle of this, Jae. He’s my best friend.” he says to me, quietly enough that Sung Joon can’t hear. 

“I know, Oppa. I’m so sorry.” 

“It’s fine.” he says, giving me a quick hug. “But I think you should hear his side of the story. I know it. Which is half the reason I wanted to be here. To make sure you hear it. Don’t hate him too much, Jae.” I nod. 

“Good. Now I’m going to leave you two alone again. Is that okay?” I grip his arm and look up at him. “I’ll just be in the kitchen with hyung. If you need me just yell, okay? I hate seeing Sung Joon in this position, he’s misunderstanding us right now.”

I look over his shoulder at Sung Joon, who’s looking at the floor. I nod and loosen my grip on his arm. He pats my arms and walks over to Sung Joon. He whispers some words to him and gives him a squeeze on the shoulder. 

“Thanks hyung.” I hear him say and then Soo Hyuk disappears into the kitchen again. 

“Will you come and sit down, Jae?” Sung Joon says to me. He shouldn’t use that tone of voice with me. It’s making me confused. It makes me want to forgive him and forget the whole 3 years of nothing ever happened. I wrap my arms around my body, hugging myself and move over to the couches. I sit on the single armchair as Sung Joon sits on the couch, on the end closest to me. He leans forward and I lean away from him slightly. He notices this and sighs. 

“Jae,” I flinch at the sound of my name on his lips. “I’m sorry. There was a reason I stopped contacting you. There’s a reporter who was following me around at the time. Somehow he got a hold of my phone and found my messages to you. They couldn’t find out who you were of course but they could tell by your number that you were Australian. He was going to go and find you.”

“Is that all?” I say. He stops talking and looks at me.

“What do you mean is that all?”

“Why didn’t you just tell me? I would have stopped contacting you for a while and once the reporter stopped digging I could have called you again.” 

“I-I wasn’t thinking. I just wanted to protect you-”

“Don’t give me that. Sure let’s say at the time you were protecting me. Thank you. What about after that? When you knew I was here in Seoul why didn’t you come looking for me then?”

“I wasn’t confident I could face you.”

“I can keep doing WGM as if nothing happened between us.” I say. 

“Jae...”

“What did you think, Oppa? That if you came here and apologised we would get back together? After all this time?”

“I-I still love you.”

No. Don’t say that. Why is he making this so hard?

“You know it’s harder for us to meet each other now that we’re both celebrities. It was actually easier when I was in Aus.” There’s a long pause.

“WGM.” he says, looking at me.

“What about WGM?” I say. 

“We can date through WGM.”

“Oppa-”

“Think about it. We’ll have to act like a married couple anyways, why don’t we just date through the show.”

“I can’t just pretend like everything is okay.”

“I’m not asking you to -”

“Yes you are. I don’t hate you Oppa. I actually want to forgive you and forget all of this ever happened but I can’t-” my emotions get the better of me again and tears start flowing down my cheeks. 

Sung Joon moves from his seat to kneel in front of me. He takes my face in his hands and wipes the tears away. I try to move out of his grasp but he doesn’t let me. He leans up and hugs me, patting my hair gently.

“I’m so sorry, Jae.” he whispers into my hair. “I’m so, so, sorry.”

I wrap my arms around him, holding him close. I know I shouldn’t let him off so easily but his hugs are so warm and the moment he wiped my tears all the feelings I had for him from London rushed back, making it impossible to be mad at him anymore. 

A/N: So sorry it's taken me ages to update this. I've been working on another fic and kind of got carried away with it. I don't know how to end this one yet so but I'll do my best to update some more chapters this week. :)

xo