“So is your mood swing over yet?” Haneul heard as soon as she stepped in through the door. Haneul saw Kevin peer at her and the rest of the U-Kiss members to turn around and look at her worriedly.

“Noona! Is everything okay?” Dongho asked worriedly.

“Ah, neh. It’s all okay.” Haneul answered reassuringly then looked at Kevin suspiciously. “How did you know I was coming in through the door?”

Kevin shrugged. “Lucky guess, I guess.”

“Ah, alright then. And yes, Sunghyun, I’m sorry about my previous mood swing.” Haneul said quietly, deciding it would require too much effort to explain and what was the use of explaining to someone who didn’t matter anyway? Soo Jin knew that it was anything but a mood swing and that was enough.

“So what did you say you needed to see me for, Soo Jin?” They heard the president ask Soo Jin.

“Ah! President Kim! Would you like to hear the song that Haneul composed and wrote lyrics for? It’s quite fantastic, in my opinion.”

“Ah, that would be good! Haneul, would you like to perform it for us now?” President Kim suggested

“Now?” Haneul asked, raising an eyebrow. “In front of everyone here?”

“Why? Do you have stage fright?” Eli asked, “You can’t be an idol if you have stage fright, you know?”

“Of course I know.” Haneul gave Eli a look which had ‘do-you-think-I’m-stupid’ written all over it, “I was just wondering why it would be necessary to show you guys my song as well.”

“Haneul…” Soo Jin started and Haneul immediately got the message.

“Alright, alright. I’ll just do what you said.” Haneul rolled her eyes and walked over to the piano and very carefully lifted up the lid. She removed the cloth covering and stared at the piano. It was a plain black upright piano with the letters Y-A-M-A-H-A printed in gold on the inside of the lid. She gazed at the piano and couldn’t help but to remember the day she had a piano lesson with her father teaching her all the notes and her sister standing by and assisting every so often. The piano was a common looking plain one, but she couldn’t help but to feel nostalgia as she looked at it.

“Hello? Going to start any time soon?” Kevin asked, shaking Haneul out of her reverie.

“Sure, sure.” Haneul threw a dirty glance Kevin’s way then couldn’t help but to wipe that dirty look off her face as she softly laughed at Kevin.

Haneul stared at the piano’s keys then pressed the first key and another and another, her left hand steadily playing chords and her right hand softly rolling her fingers between the keys. She let herself get lost in the song’s melody and words, written after none other than her pocket watch. She played the chorus of the song passionately and let a high note belt its way out of .

At the rap section Haneul let Soo Jin rap her heart out. Then Haneul resumed her singing after the rap section ended. Soon the last note of the song was played and Haneul’s fingers lifted away from the piano gently. Haneul stared at the piano forlornly, remembering where the inspiration from that song first came.

She heard clapping and applause and looked slowly towards the source of the noise. She saw Soo Jin smirking proudly at Haneul, knowing they had put on a pretty good performance. She saw the president looking pleased with the song and Dongho cheering loudly. Kiseop with a bright look in his eyes, finally being brought out of his own little universe. Eli, Jaeseop and Soohyun nodding while clapping and Hoon smiling while softly applauding. Then she saw Kevin with a look in his eyes that she couldn’t quite identify, but she was sure had been used for her before.

She racked her brains. Then she remembered the last time she saw it in Tokyo and the young trainee. Admiration. Kevin seemed to admire her. I wonder why someone like him would feel a need to admire me when he’s such a good singer himself. Haneul thought to herself. She personally liked his voice a lot more than her own and it wasn’t like he went off tune either. Haneul wondered why he had that look of admiration in his eyes.

And there was something else in those eyes. Only for a split second Haneul saw something she couldn’t identify, before he blinked and she could only doubt her memory.

“Bravo!” The president clapped, “Well we know what the last track to go onto the mini album is now! You’re such a talented girl for being able to write such an amazing song!”

“Thank you.” Haneul modestly said and smiled a quick smile at the president which quickly slid off her face as she thought about who really wrote the song and felt bad for taking the credit, but it wasn’t like she could say who really wrote the song now, could she? “Really though, I’m not talented.” She continued guiltily.

“No, no! You must be!” The praise continued gushing out while Haneul’s face paled considerably. Nobody noticed this and just thought it was Haneul’s humility. Nobody, except Kevin.

“Haneul-ah… Are you okay?” Kevin asked as he stepped towards her.

“Eh?” Haneul answered and looked up with her pale face and large eyes.

“You look kind of sick.”

Haneul shook her head. “I’m not sick. Don’t you worry about me.”

“Oh really? You just look kind of pale, that’s all.” Kevin said as he continued to worriedly peer at her face. Haneul looked Kevin straight in the eye, knowing that looking away from his eyes would only make it seem like she was lying, but as soon as she looked into his eyes she regretted it. She looked into his worried eyes and memories of Sungyeol tending to her wounds when she was younger came flooding back. She winced slightly at the memory of the first time she broke her right arm and he was patching her up.

“Haneul?” Soo Jin asked, with the tone of worry that was so rare in her voice, “Are you okay? Did you just… wince?”

“No.” Haneul denied and shook her head even harder, “Anyway, what are we doing to do now? What were you saying about last track?” Haneul quickly changed the topic, although the look of concern never left Kevin’s eye.

“Well, actually we’ve got all the songs ready already. We just need to record you girls singing it and all. Here, I’ve got the sheet music and lyrics for it and also the CD for the instrumental recording.    It hasn’t got your song on it, of course. I reserved the spot just for yours. There are 5 songs on that and we’d like you girls to pick two of them to. Two songs have already been set and chosen, your song’s definitely going on and I need you girls to pick another two.”

“Which two songs have been chosen, sir?” Haneul asked.

“Tracks 1 and 2. I need you girls to choose which song won’t be on the eventual album out of the last 3 tracks.”

“Appa! Can we help choose too?” Dongho asked with shining eyes.

“Of course!” President Kim chuckled, “But these girls still get the last say, okay?”

“Of course!” Dongho nodded his head eagerly and then snatched the CD away from President Kim and headed to the CD player. The president shook his head and just handed the manila folder with the sheet music and the lyrics in it to Haneul. Haneul peered at it.

“Who wrote and produced these songs?” Haneul asked curiously.

“Soo Jin here wrote all the raps, Hye Su wrote some of the songs and Eun Ae and Hye su wrote the lyrics to one each and one of the songs here is both of their collaboration efforts’ fruit. That song with the collaboration efforts is one of the set songs.”

“Which one is it?” Haneul asked as she rifled through the sheets in the folder and read the song names.

“No more.” President Kim replied, not taking his eyes off Dongho.

Haneul quickly pulled out the respective sheet music with the lyrics on it. She raised an eyebrow to the small text underneath the title. “It’s the main song?”

“Yes. The song you’ll be promoting on music shows and stuff.” He said and yawned as the first beat of the song came on. “Ah, that’ll be ‘No more’ right there.” He said and left the room while rubbing his eyes.

“Man he looks tired.” Jaeseop commented as he left the room.

Haneul studied the lyrics and the sheet music for the singing part. She saw that they had already been assigned parts. She listened to the backing track carefully. It started off slowly then slowly built up. At the chorus she could almost feel like the girlfriend was screaming at her boyfriend, telling him with desperation in her voice. Haneul could feel it in the lyrics and nodded her head. She began humming and singing along softly, quickly getting the grasp of the music.

{Remember that bold words are English}

“This is the last straw
I can’t take this anymore
You betrayed my trust
I can’t take this no more”

“Waah, I love noona’s voice!” Dongho clapped all to himself while everyone stared at him strangely. “What? It’s the truth!”

“Whatever.” Soo Jin sighed and yawned.

The boys and Haneul and Soo Jin spent the next 30 minutes just listening to all the tracks on the disc. Haneul and Soo Jin both agreed that they liked tracks 3 and 4 better than track 5, though their reasons differed greatly. Soo Jin was thinking more for the greater good of the group and equality whereas Haneul just didn’t want to have a duet with Hye Su and have the spotlight shone on the two of them this early on.

“So what do you guys think?” Haneul asked of the boys’ opinions.

“I think that Haneul and Hye Su noonas should have the duet! Because I like Haneul and Hye Su noonas’ voices the best.”

“Yah.” Soo Jin snapped jokingly.

“Ah! But I like Soo Jin noona’s raps the best!” Dongho quickly added in.

“Sure you do.” Soo Jin muttered sarcastically with a scowl on her face which quickly slid off as she knew obviously he’d have to like Soo Jin’s raps the best as the only other rapper was Eun Ae who was a less serious rapper.

“I think it’d be nice for you girls to have a duet too.” Hoon nodded and Soohyun nodded along, agreeing.

“But I think that things such as duets or solos should be left for a full album.” Kevin said, adding in his opinion.

“Why?” Haneul asked, out of curiosity.

“Because one, you have more space and two, it’ll seem less like they already have the main people they’d like to promote the most this early on in the game.” Kevin said and crossed his arms as he looked at Haneul, knowing that she clearly was a favourite of some sort.

“What?” Haneul asked, annoyed at his strange looks at her, “What’s with that look?”

“Oh, nothing.”

“What? Don’t ‘nothing’ me! What exactly do you mean by that look?” Haneul’s voice was steady but her face showed an obvious frown.

“Seriously! Nothing!” Kevin argued back, annoyed.

“Okay, okay. You two, no more couple fights right now.” Soohyun said to the two of them, attempting to calm them both down before they got into another fight.

“What coup-…” They both began before they were cut off again.

“Dude just shut up.” Jaeseop muttered, obviously annoyed at the both of them. Haneul glared at Kevin who rolled his eyes and they both turned away from each other.