“Yah!” Haneul and Hwayoung heard a bright, cheerful and familiar voice call out to them. They turned around to find Eun Ae waving at them in her usual chirpy manner. “Finally the slow pokes are here! Why are the two of you so late?

“Fashionably late, may I just say.” Kiseop commented on Haneul and Hwayoung’s choice of outfit. Haneul simply smiled politely at him.

“Why thank you Kiseop. And sorry Eun Ae. Traffic.” Haneul said and smiled at Eun Ae in apology.

“We’ve been waiting for hours out here in the cold!” Eun Ae exaggeratedly exclaimed at Haneul.

“We’ve only been here for 15 minutes, Eun Ae. No need to exaggerate.” Kevin stifled his laughter at Eun Ae’s hyper self.

“Alright, alright. 15 minutes. But it’s still a long time to be waiting outside in the cold!”

“Yes, you’re right,” Kevin smiled at her, “But today’s not an especially cold winter’s day either.”

“Jesus!” Eun Ae pouted and puffed up her cheeks, “Why are you all picking on me!”

“One: Because you’re amusing to pick on, and two: Don’t say the lord’s name in vain.” Eli said and frowned slightly at Eun Ae.

“Ah!” Eun Ae gasped and covered with her hands, “Mianhaeyo, Kyoung Jae oppa! I forgot that most of you are Christian! Ah!” She turned to Haneul and Hwayoung, “Are either of you Christian?”

“Not me, her.” Haneul jerked her thumb over at Hwayoung casually who just tightly smiled, “It’s okay. I know you didn’t mean harm.”

Soohyun awkwardly cleared his throat, “Let’s just quickly go up and see appa, okay?” He announced with a wide smile.

“Right.” Hoon nodded his head and dragged his luggage towards the doors of the apartment complex.

“Do you want me to carry yours for you?” Haneul heard a sweet voice offer her and she turned to her left to see Kevin smiling awkwardly at her.

Haneul was surprised. “Nah, it’s okay.” Haneul waved it off, “And you’re probably too weak to carry all the stuff I brought anyway.” Haneul said and was about to grab the handle of her huge suitcase when an elegant hand which definitely looked like a piano player’s grabbed the handle of her suitcase and lifted it up with a slight struggle. Haneul raised an eyebrow at Kevin. Hmm… Maybe he’s stronger than I thought.

Haneul followed Kevin into a lift one of the lifts and noticed that he was still holding onto her stuff. Her natural suspicion from being an agent kicked in and she touched the arm that was holding onto her stuff gently. Kevin gave her a curious look as she cleared her through awkwardly, “It’s okay. Really. You can let go of my stuff now. I’m not that weak of a girl, you know.” She gave him a small smile. He looked at her and just laughed.

“I didn’t think you seemed like one, but this is etiquette, you know?” He said and smiled sweetly at her and she felt herself almost being charmed by that smile, “A gentleman can’t let a lady hold her own luggage now, can he?”

Haneul raised an eyebrow at him. “Lady? I’m far from a lady.” She said as she laughed and just gave up on trying to make him let go of her luggage. And Haneul simply thought to herself that if worst came to worst she could just wrestle it away from his grip. But that was only her last resort if anything really bad happened, of course.

Haneul and Kevin stood in the elevator in silence and Haneul realised that whilst she had become closer to everyone else, she and Kevin still remained just as awkward.

“Sunghyun…” Haneul began and he instantly turned to her.

“Yes?”

“We’re still very much awkward, aren’t we?” Haneul continued straight-forwardly.

Kevin paused to consider her point, “Oh… Yes… Yes we are.”

“So I was thinking since we’re going to have to work together in the future, let’s get rid of this awkwardness, okay?” Haneul said, smiling up at him.

“Ah, of course.” Kevin politely replied and then paused to think for a moment. “You have a twitter don’t you?”

Haneul smoothly nodded right away, “Yeah. Eun Ae made it. She was telling me how I totally needed one and how essential and great it is.” Haneul rolled her eyes.

Kevin laughed at this. “That sounds like Eun Ae alright. Always the hyper and excited social networking addict. Anyway, do you want to follow me perhaps?” Kevin said softly, almost shyly.

“Ah, already am.” Haneul pulled out her phone and went onto twitter to show Kevin, “Eun Ae already helped me follow all of you.” She then pushed her phone back into her pocket.

“Ah I see… HaneulJang93? I’ll go and follow it now.” Kevin said and smiled at her as the lift doors finally opened, “Man, that lift ride took ages. I wonder why.” He lifted both his and Haneul’s luggage out of the lift and towards the little gathering of people, which would be their fellow labelmates, outside an open door.

“Ah, the two of you are finally here! What took you so long?” President Kim said to them jovially.

“I’m not sure. The lift sure was slow as.” Kevin rolled his eyes. President Kim just waved the matter aside.

“No matter, no matter. You’re here now and that’s what’s important. Anyway, I’ve gone into the apartments to take a look and I can see that they’re both about the same size so you boys and girls can sort out who stays in which one. There are 5 bedrooms in each, so some of you boyswill have to double up. Right, well the girls are sorted. I don’t want to get in the way of you youngins’ fun so I’ll leave now. The keys work for both apartments, the water, gas and electricity are all working so it should all be fine. There’s no food in the pantries though so I’ve left money on the kitchen counter for takeout tonight.” President Kim paused and seemed to think through his head about whether or not there was anything else he needed to say. “Well I guess that’s about it… Have fun!”

He was about to leave when he suddenly remembered something, “Oh, and girls?”

“Yeah?” Soo Jin, Eun Ae and Hwayoung all said at the same time.

“The video of you girls dancing got a great response. And many people have voted on the poll for your name so far already. Good job!” He smiled at them quickly then turned to leave again.

All of them looked at each other awkwardly until Soohyun decided to take the lead again, “So, which apartment do we want?” He asked.

“Let’s have this one.” Eun Ae said, pointing to the door they were standing in front of.

“Why?” Jaeseop asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

“Because it’s closed to the lifts.” Eun Ae replied and then Hye Su lightly hit the back of her head.

“You lazy girl! We’re taking the other one then!” Hye Su said to the boys and dragged Eun Ae towards the other open door which was a little further down. Haneul and Hwayoung both raised an eyebrow in sync but just silently reached for their luggage to follow.

Haneul’s hand brushed against warm skin and she found that Kevin’s hand was still on her luggage. She raised her left brow at him in a gesture for him to let go. He seemed to have realised that she needed her luggage back so he decided to just give it to her this time, no more talk about being a gentleman.

--------

Haneul had packed away all the clothes that she had brought with her into her closet. She had been given the smallest room since she was the youngest, but she still sighed a breath of relief over the fact she got to be alone. She liked having her own personal space and since she was, well, an agent, she was sure it’d be a lot easier hiding things by having her own room. She then looked around at her room which looked somewhat messy, but perfect to her in its own way. Everything was in a position which would make it easy to grab and utilise for whatever purpose it may serve.

Haneul looked around satisfied and then stuck her hand into her pocket and her hand brushed against the item she had put in earlier. She pulled out a vintage pocket watch with a lid that needed a bit of a struggle to push close and a worn out etching of a tiger lily. She gently pressed on the opening and the lid popped open slightly. Haneul pushed it open to see the still hands of the old pocket watch, still with the hour hand little over halfway between IV and V, the minute hand pointing a little past VIII and the second hand pointing midway between V and VI. So in short, the clock hands on the pocket watch were indicating 4:40:28. Whether it was am or pm though, nobody knew. All anybody would be able to deduce from it would be the fact that it had stopped, and stopped it had been.

Haneul gently brushed her thumb over the cold, smooth surface of the clock face and sighed. She placed it gently on the smooth, veneered surface of the desk in the room and snapped the lid closed. She stepped out to find that no one else was in the living room yet. Her eye caught the money left on the counter and counted it. 200,000 won. A note was left next to it. Haneul picked it up and read it.

“This money is for all of you. Spend it wisely.” Haneul mumbled out loud as she read it. Haneul looked at it again and blinked a few times in thought and then announced out loud to no one in particular, “Well nothing’s wiser than cooking your own food, is there?”

“Nope, nothing’s wiser.” She heard from the door which connected the two dorms and was previously closed. She peered to her left to see Kevin leaning on the door frame. He smiled at her, “Fast un-packer, are we?”

“I suppose.” Haneul returned his smile politely which caused his smile to falter slightly. He frowned slightly at her smile. Haneul gave him a strange look, but continued, “You too?”

“Yeah.” He nodded and silence fell between them.

“So… Are you sharing a room with anyone?” Haneul asked as she started to fiddle with the edges of the note awkwardly.

“Actually, surprisingly no.” He said, returning to his bright self before he saw Haneul’s smile and went strange, “Considering the fact that I’m the second youngest, I’m quite surprised that I didn’t have to share a room with anyone.”

“Then who’s sharing a room?” Haneul asked as she stopped fiddling with the paper as she felt less awkward now.

“Dongho and Soohyun are sharing a room and Hoonmin and Jaeseop are sharing a room. They get the bigger rooms and I get the smallest room, but hey, I’m not complaining. At least I get my own room, right?”

“Ah, same with me here.” Haneul smiled at him with a smile that was slightly more genuine than the last one and Kevin relaxed a bit more, “Who cares about room size when you have privacy?”

“So right.” Kevin rolled his eyes, “All of them like to hug me too much. I love them all, but sometimes I just need to stop being the teddy bear around here.”

“I’ve noticed.” Haneul laughed.

“You noticed? How?” Kevin furrowed his eyebrows.

Haneul paused for not even a second to think before she went straight on to speak, “I’ve seen pictures. You’re the one kid that everyone seems to hug.”

“So you a kissme?” Kevin dropped the question casually on Haneul.

“Nope. I’m a B2ty.” Haneul replied with a smile.

“Because your cousin’s Jang Hyunseung?”

“Exactly the reason.” Haneul laughed, “Also Gikwang’s one of my best friends’ boyfriend.”

“He’s dating someone?” Kevin asked, “Never would’ve guessed it.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t think he’s telling anyone so he can protect her from the fangirls.”

“Ah, makes sense.” Kevin nodded and silence fell between them again.

“Hey Kevin what are y- Oh hey Haneul!” Haneul saw Soohyun’s face pop around the edge of the door with his usual friendly smile, “Did I interrupt anything?”

“No, you didn’t.” Haneul politely smiled back at him and notice Kevin frown slightly again, “I was just going to go and ask you all what you’d like to have for dinner when you came. Well this makes things more convenient, why don’t the two of you go and ask the boys what they want for dinner and I’ll go ask the girls?”

“Sure thing.” Soohyun smiled and he dragged Kevin back into their dorm with him.

“Hey guys!” Haneul called out loudly to them as she went over and closed the door behind them, “What do you want for dinner?”

Eun Ae shot straight out from her room, “Curry, curry and more curry! I want curry!” She shouted excitedly.

“Alright… What type?” She asked as she walked towards her room, prepared to go grab a bag and go out.

“Beef curry!” Haneul heard Dongho’s excited voice come from the door which she had just shut.

“Alright then… Anything else?” Haneul called out as she entered her room and grabbed the nearest messenger bag which was the bag she brought with her there initially.

“Just that will be fine thanks!” Dongho called out.

Haneul walked over to kitchen counter and pulled a key off the large keyring there and then moved on to attach it to her own. She had just left the apartment when she heard someone call out, “Want me to come with you?”