It’s morning again and the camera crews are already here. I sit around waiting for Sung Joon to arrive. I make small talk with staff and PDs there.  

“Jae-ssi, standby.” a PD says and I get up and stand near the door. The doorbell rings and I go to open it, slowly. 

I act surprised. “Oh, Sung Joon-ssi. Come in.” I step back making way for him to come in. The cameras follow. 

“Your place is nice.” says Sung Joon.

“Thank you. Have a seat. Would you like something to drink?” I say, playing housewife. I’m quite enjoying this. I’m not even thinking about anything and just being natural. 

“No, thank you. Have you packed your things?”

“I have. They’re by the door.” I say, pointing to my luggage. 

“Ah.”

I let an awkward silence fall between us before speaking again. 

“Should I show you around?” Sung Joon looks at me.

“Sure. That would be.. great.” he gets up an follows me to the kitchen. 

“Uhh, this is the kitchen.” I move to the hallway and stop in front of my bedroom door. I stand with my back to the door and motion for him to wait. “Let me just check that it’s okay to be seen.” I say, before peeking my head in. I close the door again and signal okay to Sung Joon, who laughs at my acting.  

I open the door and go in, holding it open for Sung Joon to come in as well. 

He looks around as if it’s the first time he’s been there. The perks of being an actor, I guess. 

“Ha. It’s not much.” I say, rubbing my hand on the back of my neck. I watch as he moves over to the photos on my wall. He sees the one with Soo Hyuk in it. I see him raise an eyebrow and he turns to look at me, eyebrow still raised. 

I walk over and pretend to be flustered. “Ah. That’s a picture from London.”

“I can see that. But why is Soo Hyuk hyung in it?” I feel the blood creep up to my cheeks. This is working too well. Sung Joon is genuinely flustered. 

“Oh! Do you know Soo Hyuk Oppa?” Sung Joon’s eyes widen, his eyebrows creeping further up his forehead. 

“Oppa?” he says. 

“Yeah. If he’s hyung to you then of course he’s Oppa to me, right?” I say, trying to brush it off. 

“How do you guys know each other?” he asks, placing the photo back where it was. 

“We’re good friends. I met him in London when he was there for a fashion event.”

“So you’ve known him since before your debut? Or after?” asks Sung Joon. Snap. I didn’t expect him to ask me that.

“Before.” I say. Sung Joon nods slowly. 

“Shall we get going? We still need to stop at the shop for other things we’ll need.” he says, leading the way out of the room. 

The PD calls cut and he sings praises for our chemistry. We thank him and he tells us to go downstairs to load the car, and we’ll commence filming while driving. The staff is busy moving all of their equipment, so when we’re alone by the car Sung Joon hones in on me. 

“You didn’t think it would be good to warn me that you’re leaving a picture of you and hyung on your wall?” he says, gritting his teeth.

“I thought it would be good to add a little drama to our virtual marriage.” I say, playfully. 

“You know, I’m genuinely uncomfortable with how close you and hyung are.”

I look at him but he doesn’t meet my gaze. He stares at his feet which are stretched out in front him as he leans on the car. 

“You don’t need to be. We’re just good friends. He’s genuinely like a big brother to me.”

He doesn’t say anything. 

We don’t say much else until the staff are ready to move. We get into the car and they check the sound and quality levels before giving us the okay to go. We see the red lights on the cameras light up and Sung Joon looks over to me. I glance at him and he leans over to get my safety belt. He fastens it before leaning back and fastening his. I can feel myself blushing at his action and can just imagine how crazy the MCs in the studio will go when they see it. 

I mumble a thank you and he starts the car. 

“Ready?” he asks me. 

“Let’s go.” I say. 

“Is there a certain way you want our house to be decorated.” he asks me as he pulls out of the car park.”

I try not to notice the fact my heart jumped when he said ‘our’ house.

“Not really. I think I’d like it to be simple though. Nothing too fancy. You saw my house earlier.”

“Yeah. I think simple is nice.”

There’s silence again until we arrive at our destination. 

We enter the store and greet the staff that are standing by. 

“What should we look at first?” Sung Joon asks. 

“Umm.. a dining table?” I say, after spotting a table close by.

The day goes by in a blur. The PD asks us to be a bit more playful and pretend to play house as we pick the furniture and we do just that. It was fun and I think the two of us just let everything go and genuinely shopped for furniture as if we were actually married. 

We end the shoot and as the crew are packing away their things Sung Joon approaches me. 

“Good work today, Jae.” he says, loud enough only for me to hear. 

“Thanks. You too.” I leave him to look around for my manager but I can’t find him. I take out my phone and call him but there’s no answer. 

I decide to wait near the exit for him to come and find me. I watch as the staff start to clear out. Pretty soon I’m the only one there, and I still can’t get hold of my manager. I start to worry, maybe something happened to him. 

A black van pulls up at the door and the door opens. I’m pretty sure my van is white, so I take out my phone and try calling again. The door opens and out comes Sung Joon. 

Oh great. 

He walks back into the building and approaches me. 

“What are you still doing here? I thought you left ages ago.”

“What about you? Why haven’t you left?”

“Me? I was talking to the director about our next filming. Plus he’s also the director for the other show I’m appearing on this week so I was talking to him about that too.”

“Oh.”

“Where’s hyung?”

“Good question.” I thought I said it quietly, but it was loud enough for him to hear. He takes out his phone and tries calling someone. I hear the familiar woman’s voice telling him that the person he’s calling is unavailable right now. 

At that time a small black car pulls up behind Sung Joon’s van. A man comes out from the driver’s seat and runs through the doors, looking around. 

“There you are.” I watch as Soo Hyuk approaches us. He taps Sung Joon on the shoulder when he reaches us and smiles at me. “Sorry I’m late. Hyung sent me to get you. Something came up and he had to leave. He told me to be here earlier but I got caught up with my interview and - yeah. Enough of that. I’m here now. Shall we go?”

I just stare at him still trying to process what he said. 

“Why didn’t he just tell me to take her? I’m already here.” Sung Joon asks. Soo Hyuk shrugs. 

“He probably thought you have another schedule after this.”

“I wonder what happened.” I say, wondering what in the world caused my manager to call Soo Hyuk to pick me up. I shrug. “Oh well, he’ll tell me when he gets home. Let’s go Oppa.” I turn around to Sung Joon. “See you next week.”

“See ya.” Soo Hyuk leads the way out and I follow him, leaving Sung Joon inside. 

“Do you think he’ll get mad?” I turn my head to look at Soo Hyuk. 

“Who?” 

“Sung Joon.” Okay, now I’m confused. “About me taking you home?”

“Oh. Nah, he shouldn’t be.”

“He is the jealous kind though.” 

“Yeah, I know. He told me he’s uncomfortable with how close we are.”

“Really? Why didn’t he say anything to me?”

I shrug and turn my head to look out the window again. 

“It doesn’t matter if he’s uncomfortable. He’ll have to learn to accept that we’re friends. If he’s going to misunderstand us all the time the only one that will get hurt is him.” I say. I hear Soo Hyuk sigh and the rest of the car ride home is quiet. 

“Do you want to come in?” I ask as Soo Hyuk parks the car. 

“No thanks. I should probably get going. I start filming tomorrow. We’ll get together with the others some time soon though.” I wait till he drives off before heading to the elevator. I get off the lift at my floor and walk towards my apartment. As I get closer I realise the door is slightly open. I stop and freeze. I take out my phone and try calling my manager, in case he’s the one inside and has left the door open. No answer. I try calling my landline in case his battery died. I can hear my phone ringing from the hallway and no one picks it up. I walk slowly towards the door, trying not to make any sound. 

My phone vibrates and I jump, startled. I look at the screen and quickly answer the phone. 

“O-Oppa.” My voice is shaky. 

“Jae? Jae-ya, what’s wrong with your voice?”

“Oppa. C-Can you come p-please?”

“I’ll be right there.”

The call ends and instead of going closer to my house, I decide to turn around and take the lift back down to the car park. I pace up and down in front of the elevator waiting. 5 minutes later the car I’m waiting for pulls in, he roughly parks and jumps out of the car. He runs over to me and grabs my arms, bending his knees to look me in the eyes.

“What’s wrong? Why are you shaking?” I look up at him and I can feel my heart racing.

“S-Sung Joon Oppa. I think someone broke into my house. The door was open but I didn’t try going in.” I speak very fast and Sung Joon pulls me into a hug to stop me. 

“Where’s Soo Hyuk hyung? Weren’t you together?”

“H-He just d-dropped me off.” I was now gripping onto Sung Joon’s shirt, hands trembling. 

“Okay. Shh. It’s okay. I’m here now. Let’s go check it out. Hm?” I nod in to his chest. We walk into the elevator, Sung Joon’s arm around me and me still gripping his shirt. “Keep your phone out. Have it ready to call for help, just in case. Okay?” I nod and grip onto my phone tighter with the hand that’s not holding his shirt. 

We reach my floor and as the door opens I grip Sung Joon’s shirt tighter and move closer to him. He rubs my arm to comfort me and takes the first step towards my apartment. As we get closer I realise something is different. Sung Joon stops a few feet from the door and looks down at me. I look at him and then back at the door. The previous slightly open door is now shut tight.