He sighed and sat down on the bed and covered his face and tried to calm down his nerves which were running haywire. He didn’t like it when Haneul kept secrets from him and he knew she didn’t like it when he kept secrets from her. That was the reason why he hardly kept anything from her (with his love for her being the only exception) and yet she was keeping what was definitely something big from him. He felt so betrayed. He tried to change the topic and move away from this topic. “Haneul… So how have you been?” He remembered the last time she kept something big from him it went down badly and from then on they vowed to tell each other anything big. Though of course, he already broke that promise by not telling her about his love, but he decided Haneul probably wouldn’t declare that ‘big’ anyways. Softening slightly he asked, “You haven’t been treating yourself… Too badly have you…” He bit his lip at the thought of his best friend and girl whom he loved always suffering and yet he could do nothing about it.

“I just saw you 4 days ago!” Haneul laughed and then became a little more serious, “But actually last night…”

“Yeah?” He asked with a worried tone, having a bad feeling about what it was already.

“I kind of… Had the dream again…” She said, putting emphasis on the word ‘the’.

All the colour drained out of Woohyun face out of worry for her and even the fact that he was supposed to be cross with her for keeping something big from him got pushed out of his mind. “Haneul…” He said softly, “I know I’ve said this many times before, but it’s really not your fault! Please just believe me.” He said as he grabbed her shoulders with both his hands and turned her around to face him.

“It’s okay.” Haneul said softly as she reached both her hands up to touch his hands and gently pulled them of her shoulders, “It’s okay. Really… It’s okay.” She said with a sigh, “I know what you’re thinking. You don’t have to try and comfort me.”

“You don’t know what I’m thinking!” He said in an exasperated voice, “How would you know what I’m thinking when you don’t even know who the girl I like is when it’s so blatantly obvious!” He said and shut his eyes and drew out a long sigh that sounded like it had been kept in for days.

“How can the girl you like be blatantly obvious if even I don’t know?” Haneul said, “One, I’m an IAI agent. Two, I’m your best friend of 10 years. If I don’t know, who would?” She shouted back at him.

He sighed again, still with his eyes closed, “Let’s just drop this. Haneul, Jang Haneul. Let me tell you something. What happened with your sister wasn’t your fault at all. Your father’s just an for blaming his youngest daughter for what happened when he clearly knew how much you loved him. If anything, he should be blaming himself for not being able to protect Han Bi properly. What happened with Han Bi is not your fault, do you hear me?” He said as his hands unconsciously made their way back onto her shoulders and shook her.

“But… If I hadn’t found the book it would’ve all just been fine.” Haneul said as a tear threatened to spill from her eyes which had filled up with tears, “Unnie would still be alive. Father would still be here and mother wouldn’t be suffering heartbreak. If only I didn’t stick my nose into where it didn’t belong, everything would be fine right now.” One tear slipped down her face slowly and her quickly shut her eyes and rubbed it off, “Sungyeol’s fam-”

Woohyun’s face suddenly turned dark, “Don’t mention that boy’s name. Don’t ever mention it in front of me again.”

“Oppa, you know that it’s n-” Haneul got cut off.

“No. He’s a bastard and a coward for running off like that. He couldn’t just deal with it on his own like you did.”

Haneul sighed. Woohyun was always extremely touchy when it came to the subject of Sungyeol. She decided to just let it go and change the subject. “Anyways, Woohyun oppa, do you want your favourite, waffles, for breakfast? I can go and get the waffle maker ready if that’s the case.” She said with a large smile while wiping her tears off her face.

“Alright.” He said, returning the smile and pinching her nose watching her cute reaction, “But Haneul… Can I really not convince you at all to rethink this idol thing?”

“No.” Haneul stubbornly replied and shook her head.

He sighed and knew that when Haneul didn’t want to do something, she wouldn’t, “And you really won’t tell me the reason?”

“I can’t…” Haneul said and began to face downwards, “Sorry…”

“If you can’t tell me now, can you tell me in the future if you ever need help? You have to remember at all times that you can always ask for me and no matter if I’m in the middle of something, I will always come directly over and help you. I don’t care if the IAI throw me in a punishment room for a few days, I will always come over and help you. So please learn to rely on someone other than yourself once in a while, okay?”

“It’s okay.” Haneul aid and smiled up at him, “I have Hwayoung’s help right now. She’s my temporary assistant.”

“Alright then.” He sighed, “But it there is anything that neither of you can handle, give me a call and I’ll be on the next flight or train or whatever over. Promise me you’ll do that?” He said and stuck his right pinky out at her.

Haneul stared at it for a while then sighed and just hooked her right pinky through his, “Fine. I promise.”

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“Unfortunately in the time you lovebirds were talking, we’d already finished all the pancakes.” Eli said as he leaned back and patted his stomach with a satisfied sigh, “Sorry ‘bout that!”

Haneul raised an eyebrow then just shook her head, “No it’s okay. I’m making waffles for the two of us anyways. Anyway, you guys need to leave by at least 7:25 and it’s already 7:10. Shouldn’t you guys call your manager or something?”

“Oh, no need. He called us already and said he was downstairs already.” Soohyun said as he stood up and walked over to the coat hanger and picked up his coat and put it on, “We’ll be going now though. Thanks for inviting us over!” Soohyun raised a hand at her and smiled. He opened the door and walked right out. Soon the other six boys walked out too calmly san Dongho. Dongho hugged Haneul and then ran out the door happily, almost skipping.

“So what do you lot want to do?” Haneul asked as she turned to the rest of the girls, “You can still stay for a little while if you wish.”

“No thank you.” Soo Jin said as she stood up and swung her messenger bag onto her shoulder, “My younger sister keeps calling me and telling me to go back home to help her with homework. Thank you for the stay though. The food was delicious and it was comfortable staying over.” Soo Jin said then stiffly smiled at Haneul and headed for the still open door.

Eun Ae and Hye Su soon said their respective goodbyes and left. “So what do we do now?” Hwayoung asked Haneul.

“Well first, I’ll make Woohyun his breakfast. After that we can discuss our next line of plan together or we can go to the office and discuss with President Kim.” She said and smiled as she gently held onto Woohyun’s wrist and pulled him into the kitchen with her, “Come with me oppa.”

After Haneul had made waffles or both her and Woohyun and they had completely wolfed it down, Haneul waved goodbye to Woohyun as she had Hwayoung headed out the  door.

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“So. Do you have any suggestion, Jang Haneul the girl who has a business degree?” Kim Nam Hee said as he turned around to face Haneul and Hwayoung and placed his palms down on the desk. “Anything at all?”

“Well, first I think when you are releasing teasers you should make it seem more mysterious which will pique their interest. Like for example, tell them a lot of things, but yet at the same time don’t tell them some of the most important things. Like for example our faces…” Haneul had her eyes closed and was thinking, but suddenly her eyes opened wide, “Ah! That’s a good idea!”

“What is?”

“Keep our faces hidden in the teaser photos and teaser mvs!” She said as she clicked her fingers, “Reveal things like education, stage names, heights, weights, blood types and random details which can pull someone’s attention, but do not reveal our faces at all. It’ll have people guessing what we look like!”

“Jang Haneul, why are you so smart?” Kim Nam Hee said as he plopped himself down into his seat, “That is a fantastic idea. And on your first album we’ll have you girls write some of the songs, hey?” He said and nodded enthusiastically, “Haneul you can compose songs right?”

“Well, yes.” Haneul slowly and hesitantly said, “Why?”

“Would you mind composing a couple of songs and we’ll pick one or two to go on you guys’ debut album or something.” He said and then pulled out his laptop and opened it and started typing things on it. Haneul guessed that they were plans for their debut.

“Well we’re going to have to get all this moving quickly, aren’t we? And I suppose you could get the U-Kiss boys to start help promoting us?”

“Of course.” He nodded eagerly and he quickly tapped away, “I’ll ask Hye Su and Eun Ae to write some lyrics. Eun Ae may seem immature but she’s a really, really good lyricist. Hye Su’s pretty decent too, but not quite at Eun Ae’s level. She’s improving though. And Soo Jin can write raps quite well.” He paused and then looked up at Haneul and Hwayoung, “You know what, we don’t we have it that you girls contribute in some way to every song on the album. We can market it that you girls contributed to the making of every song of the album, which by the way will be totally awesome, and that will make people take notice of you all.”

“What do I do then sir?” Hwayoung said meekly while scratching the nape of her neck, “I can’t really contribute in those ways.”

“Well, we’ll find you something… You can choreograph or something. That sound good to you?” Hwayoung nodded. “Now I think you girls should go practise with the other three girls who should be here already…”

The two of them were quickly ushered out the door and they made their way towards the same practise room as yesterday. They saw the three girls in there and greeted them. They then made Haneul and Hwayoung join then in stretches so they can practise a dance that Soo Jin recently choreographed.

Haneul and Hwayoung quickly warmed up and looked at each other and smiled. The next few hours were spent sweating hard and practising hard. Even though the next long amount of time would be spent with these three girls, tiring themselves out daily, Haneul and Hwayoung were strangely fine with it. And they both had a good feeling about it.

Haneul looked at Hwayoung as she watched Hwayoung smile at Eun Ae who was still hyper even after hours of practise, ""This isn't so bad, hey?"