You Get What You Need, Pt. 3

[akane47]

Previously:
Part One
Part Two

Fandom: True Beauty
Title: You Get What You Need
Pairings: Seo-joon/OFC, Joo-kyung/Soo-ho
Rating: PG

Disclaimer: Han Seo-joon and the True Beauty-verse are the intellectual property of Yaongyi (webtoon) and Lee Shi-eun (drama). This story is based on the drama. V LIVE (the spelling of which seems to vary across all the articles I’ve read) belongs to the WeVerse Company, at least according to the Google Play Store, and the Legally Blonde musical to its creators. I own only Na-bi, her lyrics, and random people and things in this story.

Author’s Notes: Thank you to those who enjoyed Part Two! At long last, here is the conclusion to this story! It took a few substantial rewrites, so I hope you like it.

Part Three

“Hey, you. Are you OK?”

Na-bi hid a smile as she toed off her running shoes. Myeong-joo could be such a mother hen at times. “I’m fine. I just had a hard time falling asleep after getting home so I read a bit and did some work.” It had caused her to sleep through most of the morning and go for a run much later than usual. “Hi, oppa,” she greeted Yoon-jong, who was in the kitchen helping her roommates fix lunch.

He looked up from the stack of bowls he had just put on the counter. “Hey. How did your performance go?”

“It went great, thanks to Myeong-joo and Ji-ra helping me nail the choreography.” Pausing to give Monster a scratch between the ears, she carried a plastic bag into the kitchen. “I bought some fruit on the way back; I noticed we were running low.”

“Leave it here,” Ji-ra said from where she stood by the sink. “I’ll wash some and we can have it for dessert.”

“Cool. Thanks.” Na-bi left the bag at the younger girl’s side and looked around to see what she could do to help.

Myeong-joo waved her off. “Go get changed. You can just do the dishes later.”

In no time, the four of them were sitting down to piping-hot bowls of hangover soup and rice, and an array of kimchi and side dishes that Ji-ra’s mother had sent over. Yoon-jong whipped out his phone. “Wait a minute. I want to show this to the others and make them wish they had come with me, even if they would have had to help cook.”

“Yeah, I haven’t seen you guys around here in a while,” Na-bi remarked as he snapped pictures. “How is everyone?”

“Hey, we’ve been around; it’s you who hasn’t,” he laughed. “We’re good. We’re prepping for a group comeback in April. How’s the album coming along? Do I get another sneak preview?”

She smiled at her fellow rapper. “Sure, I can let you hear some more later, if you aren’t leaving right away. I’d love to know what you think.”
The house had four small bedrooms, which gave each girl her own space and allowed them to have a tiny studio. It wasn’t large enough for most dance practices or properly soundproofed, but it was convenient for quick recordings. After finishing lunch and helping to clear the table, Na-bi and Yoon-jong found their way up there to do some work.

“You’ll have to excuse the decorations,” she said as she booted up her laptop. “Ji-ra did a V LIVE some time ago and we’ve all been too busy to take them down.”

“I’m not surprised by this kind of thing anymore,” he assured her, glancing behind him at the multicolored tinsel curtain, which framed him quite nicely. “So, how are you doing on that song you were stuck on last time?”

Na-bi had finished it, so they started by listening to that. It got a pass and so did the next one, but the one that followed needed some work so they spent some time smoothing out the rough edges. Yoon-jong had always been a helpful sounding board, although she still needed to explain her more female-centric lyrics to him. (To his credit, she needed to do that a lot less after years of working together.)

“Hey, what’s this?” he asked when they had finished.

She looked up from her phone, eyes wide, as another song came bopping from the speakers. “Wait, that’s not for release!”

“Why not? It sounds great!” He bobbed his head to the beat, frowning intently as he listened to the lyrics.

Na-bi managed to grab her laptop and stop the playback, but not after they had heard part of the chorus.

Hands off my man (hands off my man)
Step off, or you’re gonna catch these hands
Hands off my man (hands off my man)
Who are you to say what makes a real woman?

“Why is that not going on your album?” Yoon-jong asked. “It’s good.”

She shrugged and tried to look casual. “It’s just… something I just wanted to get out of my head, that’s all.”

“But why would you want to write about ‘my man?’” he wondered. Then he sat up suddenly. “Did you write this because of Han Seo-joon? Are the two of you really dating?”

“No.” That, at least, was the absolute truth. “Why would you think that?”

He arched a quizzical eyebrow. “Oh, I don’t know, maybe it was because you two were giving me ‘old married couple’ vibes that day we visited.”

She arched an eyebrow right back at him. “Oppa, we had been rehearsing together for a month at that point. Of course we would be comfortable with each other.”

“Na-bi-ya, if you’re going to get like that with every guy you collaborate with, you’re going to get in a whole lot of trouble.”

“It’s not like that with B-Kwik at all!” she said defensively.

“Ah, so it’s only like that with Han Seo-joon?” Yoon-jong chuckled when she, stumped for an answer, settled for making a face at him. “Look, it’s fine if you like him as long as he’s nice to you, not like some of the losers you’ve dated in the past.”

“That was hardly dating,” she sniffed, rolling her eyes at the memories. “Besides, I’ll have you know that Seo-joon-ssi is the total opposite of ‘those losers’-not that it means anything, since we’re just friends.”

“He doesn’t see you as a woman?”

She shrugged. “I’m a noona to the other Eclipse members, so I must be a buddy to him since we’re the same age.”

He looked skeptical at that. “If you say so….”

Squelching the hope that maybe Seo-joon saw her as more than a friend, Na-bi turned back to her laptop. She didn’t have any concrete evidence, anyway. “There’s one more song you haven’t heard yet. Shall we move on to that one?”
Not long after the stockholders’ reception, Move Entertainment held another, more informal gathering to welcome a popular actress to the agency. Her contract signing did not take place in time for her to make her first official appearance as a Move artist at the stockholders’ reception, but word was that she attended briefly to greet the VVVIPs in a private room. “And this way, Yoo-mi-ssi,” Director Im told her as they waited for their food to arrive, “we still get to hold a welcome dinner for you, which is a tradition here at Move.”

“It is?” Soo-ho wondered from where he sat with the Eclipse members. Besides representing his actor father, who was back in the US, he was attending in his own capacity as one of Move’s songwriter-producers.

“It has been since Director Im took over,” Seo-joon explained.

It proved to be another of her good ideas, too-a quick glance around the barbecue restaurant showed that the artists and staff who could be there were clearly looking forward to the party. Unfortunately, Na-bi and most of 2LOU had schedules that evening and couldn’t make it; but, on a more positive note, Chen was also absent.

“You boys should be sitting closer to where the action is,” Manager Baek suggested as he and Min-woo prepared cutlery and cooking utensils. “Do some networking.”

“We’ll introduce ourselves later, hyung,” Seo-joon replied. “She’s kind of busy with the bigwigs right now.”

At a table in the center of the space, the Move executives and senior artists in attendance plied the guest of honor with all kinds of advice. The pearls of wisdom ranged from the best cafés and restaurants around the agency (besides the ones inside the building, of course) to how to get along with office staff and higher-ups alike.

“If you have any other questions, please ask,” Director Im concluded. “My job is to help you.”

“There is one thing,” Yoo-mi ventured in a soft voice.

“What is it? Don’t be shy. No one here will talk.” The executive swept the room with a warning glare and everyone within earshot suddenly found something very interesting in their drinks or on their phone screens. Satisfied, she turned back to the other woman with a brisk nod. “Go on, shoot.”

“Well….” She looked around uncertainly, her cheeks pink. “I’m kind of… dating someone. We’re trying to keep it quiet, though. I hope that won’t be a problem?”

“Not at all!” Director Im promptly assured her. “There’s nothing against that in your contract.”

“No, but you know how the media reacts when people are seen together in public. I wouldn’t want to cause the agency any inconvenience.”

“You won’t. We’ll discuss contingency plans if you do get spotted, but in the meantime, it should be easy enough to not get caught-you can just date in the office. You can reserve a conference room, order in some food, hang out… simple, right?”

It seemed to Seo-joon that the briefest of silences fell over the restaurant at the pronouncement, but when he looked around everyone was chatting and pouring drinks as though nothing had happened. Maybe it was just his imagination.

Then Director Im caught his eye and winked.
“Hyuuuung!”

The moment Manager Baek had dropped off the Eclipse members at their dorm and gone home, Min-woo rocketed off the couch and launched himself at Seo-joon. Unlike the night of the stockholders’ reception, he was beaming with joy. “Hyung, did you hear what Director Im said about dating in the agency?!”

“I should hope so,” Tae-kwang chuckled as he took some beers out of the refrigerator.

“She looked right at Seo-joon hyung after she said it.”

“She did not,” the hyung in question mumbled as he realized that he hadn’t just imagined it all.

“I was wondering why Hee-kyung noona was looking at us while she was talking about that,” Soo-ho observed innocently. The boys had invited him to hang out at their dorm after the welcome dinner. “But isn’t your scandal over and done with, Seo-joon-ah?”

“Yes.”

He shot everyone a warning glare, but his brainy best friend was too caught up in his musings to notice. “I guess she still wanted to tease you about that,” Soo-ho went on as he munched on a potato chip.

“Or…?” Min-woo chortled, scurrying away to the kitchen (and out of hitting range).

“Or….” Soo-ho turned to look curiously at his friend. “Or is this something you’re supposed to know for some reason? Seo-joon-ah, is there really something going on between you and Song Na-bi?”

“We’re friends,” he answered evenly, busying himself with putting the drinks and snacks on the coffee table in some semblance of order. “Not that it matters. We can’t date in our line of work-"

“You know you can if you want to, hyung.” Tae-kwang popped the top off a can of beer and held it out to him. “Especially if you have teammates to help you.”

“And if you’re going to date someone,” PK added, “it might as well be someone who also knows how to play the game, right?”

“But that someone has to be Na-bi noona,” Min-woo declared as he darted forward to grab a handful of chips. “That’s my ship, after all.”

Seo-joon could tell that this was his bandmates’ way of telling him they would support him if he decided to pursue that option, but said option was also a non-starter. “I appreciate the sentiment, guys, but let’s just forget about this, OK?” He subsided among the couch cushions with his beer. “She says this boy-girl stuff will just make things ‘weird.’”

“Which means she has thought about it,” Soo-ho pointed out.

Min-woo looked at him, wide-eyed with wonder. “I hadn’t thought of that. You’re a genius, Leo hyung!”

“I do have the IQ test results to prove it.”

“I can’t believe I’m the one to say this,” Seo-joon broke in irritably, “but can we please talk about something else? We have that competition show coming up and an album to start preparing for, and talking about my imaginary love life isn’t going to help with any of that.”
With Na-bi’s first album under Move Entertainment nearing completion, it was time to finish preparing for promotions. The choreography for “Bet You Can’t Sleep” had since been finalized, so the MV shoot and first few music program appearances were lined up, and that day she was scheduled to shoot photos for the album.

Since she was trying out a more mature, womanly concept, that meant her original idea for the cover would have to wait. “I wanted to be photographed in a bubble bath, wearing a tiara and shades,” she explained to Joo-kyung, who was doing her hair and makeup that day. “But we decided it might be a bit too light and funny for what the music is going for.

“I can do that next time, though,” she went on. “This album is like my debut all over again, so they wanted a concept that would be different enough from Cantarella to catch the public’s attention. But ultimately, I’ll get to try lots of different concepts.” Hopefully she would do them well enough to show her fans that they could be anything they wanted to be.

“That’ll be so much fun,” Joo-kyung said as she began putting Na-bi’s hair in rollers. “We can play with all kinds of hair and makeup looks.”

“I know,” Na-bi agreed, smiling, “so please take good care of me, OK?”

“Don’t I always?”

“How have you been?” she asked Joo-kyung a few rollers later. “I don’t think we’ve seen each other since your wedding. How is married life?”

“It’s nice,” the makeup artist replied, her cheeks turning pink. “It feels different from living with my family, but Soo-ho and I are enjoying being together.”

“Who makes dinner?”

“Well, we cook together most nights….”

As they chatted about Joo-kyung’s newlywed life, Na-bi glanced around the studio. The feel of the place was not unfamiliar-racks of costumes, the photographer and her assistants checking lighting and angles, and her favorite music playing to help set the mood-but it felt very different this time around. This wasn’t a temporary solo job, but one step closer to officially launching her career as a solo artist.

Joo-kyung picked up a can of hairspray. “Close your eyes, please.”

“All right,” Na-bi answered, obliging. She heard the spray can hiss briefly before it stopped, but she kept her eyes closed. Surely that wasn’t all the hairspray she needed… but minutes passed and it didn’t seem as though any more work was being done on her hair. And why did it sound as though someone in the room was running?

“Hello, we’re Cantarella!”

“What-?!” Na-bi’s eyes flew open and her jaw dropped when she saw Myeong-joo and Ji-ra bowing to the room at large. Joo-kyung wasn’t styling her hair at all, but standing by the other girls with a pleased look on her face. “What are you doing here?”

“We came to wish you luck, of course!” Myeong-joo answered. She and Ji-ra struck playful poses with the bags and cartons they both carried. “And we brought some treats for everyone.”

“Are you surprised, eonni?” Ji-ra chirped.

“I am very surprised!” Na-bi leaped out of her chair and ran to her friends, arms outstretched to gather them into a group hug. “I can’t believe you’re here!”

“We weren’t going to just let your first solo album photo shoot pass without doing anything!” Myeong-joo told her, hugging her back.

“Well, thank you. I was just thinking it was really weird that I would be doing this all by myself now.” The very idea of that, coupled with the emotions over the surprise visit, made her voice catch a little bit at the end.

“Ya, don’t cry! Your eyes will be all red!”

Na-bi had to laugh at that. “I think I was going to, but I won’t. Come, let’s give out these things to the crew. Eonni,” she called to her manager, “could you please help us?”
The drinks and pastries that Myeong-joo and Ji-ra had brought were happily received, and the surprise guests decided to hang out for a while after the photographer said everyone could take a break to enjoy the goodies. “But you had better behave,” Na-bi warned as they settled into chairs near the makeup area. “If you distract Joo-kyung-ssi and she messes up my makeup, I’m holding you both personally responsible.”

“When did I ever?” chorused the others, even the makeup artist.

The girls chatted lightly while Joo-kyung worked. After promising not to divulge anything about the photo shoot, Myeong-joo and Ji-ra looked over the outfits that had been prepared and, once Na-bi’s makeup was done, took selcas with her that they would post online.

Na-bi opened her mouth to ask if she looked OK, but Ji-ra headed her off. “Yes, eonni, I cropped out your rollers and anything that might spoil the surprise,” she assured her, showing her the edited photo as proof.

“Good,” she replied. “Thank you.”

Joo-kyung chuckled as she drank some pink lemonade. “It’s nice to know you three will still hang out together like this from time to time, even though you’re not promoting as a group anymore.”

“We still might from time to time,” Myeong-joo said, exchanging smiles with the other Cantarella girls. “You never know.”

“I heard Na-bi-ssi could have used your support the last time she was at our salon,” the makeup artist went on.

“What? What happened?”

“That Chen girl showed up there and said some dumb stuff,” Na-bi said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “Nothing worth remembering.”

She hoped that would be enough to satisfy everyone’s curiosity, as it wasn’t anything she cared to relive, but of course it did not. “What kind of dumb stuff?”

“If you must know, she went in on my looks and talked about how I was always lumped in with the guys at the idol athletic competitions. As if that made me ugly or something.”

“Ugh, that girl,” Ji-ra sniffed. She frowned over an urgent message from her manager and began texting back briskly. “They asked her to be my understudy in Legally Blonde and had the nerve to say she would do the musical, but only if I was her understudy! I hope you set her straight, eonni.”

“I really wanted to, but we were in public.” In the mirror, Na-bi spied Myeong-joo’s lips curve in a small smile and shot her friend a warning look to say nothing about what she had clearly heard from Yoon-jong.

“Chen was probably lashing out because she feels insecure,” Joo-kyung said, taking another thoughtful sip of her drink. “She has liked Han Seo-joon for a very long time, so I can imagine that your dating scandal really bothered her.”

“A very long time, you said?” Myeong-joo asked casually. She caught Na-bi’s eye in the mirror and Na-bi dropped her gaze to the peach-mango juice she was drinking. It was suddenly very hard to find the straw.

Joo-kyung nodded, mercifully unaware of the silent exchange. “Ever since he was still a trainee. She was always hanging around the practice rooms hoping to get to talk to him.”

“Sounds like something a stalker would do,” Ji-ra remarked, still preoccupied with her phone.

“Yeah, I remember Seo-joon saying something like that,” the makeup artist recalled. “The other trainees would tease him about already having a sasaeng fan even though he hadn’t debuted yet. And for that fan to be a celebrity like Chen…!”

“I guess that’s quite an achievement,” Na-bi remarked, “especially for a trainee.”

Joo-kyung wrinkled her nose. “He never saw it that way. Sasaeng fans are scary enough in themselves, and as you all seem to know, Chen’s not the nicest person. It’s not exactly a winning combination.”

Myeong-joo shifted position, giving Na-bi’s chair a discreet kick in the process. “So… Han Seo-joon doesn’t like her?”

“He can’t stand her. It’s kind of sad that she’s still after him even though he’s made that clear to her many times already, but at the same time… just get it through your head, you know?”

“You can’t force this kind of thing,” Myeong-joo agreed gravely.

Just then, Joo-kyung’s phone buzzed. Her face lit up when she looked at the screen. “Oh, it’s Soo-ho. Would you excuse me for a minute?”

“Of course,” Na-bi answered, smiling. She was amused by the makeup artist’s smitten expression, she told herself. That was all. “Take all the time you need. A lot of the crew is still eating, anyway.”

Silence fell over the Cantarella girls as Joo-kyung left to take her husband’s call. Myeong-joo nudged Na-bi’s chair again but said nothing, only smiling in response to the other girl’s warning look.

Surprisingly, the reaction came from Ji-ra. She edged closer to Na-bi and, without looking up from her phone, whispered, “Did you hear that, eonni? That means you and Han Seo-joon can get together for real after all.”
The basketball sank into the net, signaling the end of the game. Glad that it was finally over, Seo-joon joined in the scattered applause and made his way around the Move Entertainment gym’s half court, congratulating the other players. “Nice game… congratulations, nice game.”

“Nice game, hyung,” B-Kwik congratulated him. “Your last basket almost tied everything up.”

“Almost,” he replied ruefully.

PK, together with the 2LOU members who were also broadcasting the game for their fans on V Live, caught up with the players on the sidelines. “We’re here with the players of the three-on-three game between Eclipse and 2LOU,” he announced to his phone, and turned to Seo-joon. “Your thoughts on today’s game, leader-nim?”

He chuckled at the bass player’s sportscaster impression and obligingly slipped into the role of star athlete. “It was very well played,” he answered in his “radio voice.” “Both sides played hard.”

“And best of all, we got to have fun and hang out,” B-Kwik chimed in.

“It’s funny, isn’t it?” 2LOU’s leader added. “We’re all in the same agency, but since our teams have our own schedules, we don’t really get to hang out.”

“We should change that,” Seo-joon suggested. “In the new year, let’s make more of an effort to have a meal together from time to time, or something like that.”

There were agreements all around, though he knew that everyone was wondering how to make it happen, given the two groups’ packed schedules. Still, it was something to hope for and, judging from the reactions bubbling up on the phone screens in front of them, the fans were really into it.

They had finished the broadcast and were cooling down when the door to the women’s locker room opened and Na-bi emerged, dressed for a workout and chatting animatedly with a couple of trainees in street clothes. Spotting them, she waved cheerily while the trainees bowed. Seo-joon managed a casual wave in return.

“She’s really something, isn’t she, hyung?” B-Kwik murmured after Na-bi had moved on. The trainees lingered as a few more of their number began to come out of the locker room.

“Hmm?” Seo-joon asked. “What do you mean?”

“You know….” The younger guy chuckled self-consciously. “Nice personality, pretty smile, all that.”

“It’s definitely a gift,” he grunted, beginning to pack up his gym bag. As wrong as it felt to listen to some other guy mooning over Na-bi, there was no arguing with the points being raised.

“People really like being around her, too.”

“Yes, that’s true.”

“The agency’s really big on her,” B-Kwik said proudly as he, too, began putting away his things. “I heard they’re going to give her a really big push.”

“Aren’t they doing that already? They wouldn’t be making all this effort for her solo album if she didn’t have the skills, which she does.”

“Huh?” The younger guy looked perplexed. “Hyung, I was talking about Tasha Kim, not Na-bi noona.” Just barely suppressing a goofy grin, he glanced again at the group of trainees who were now filing out of the gym. One of them made eye contact as she passed and blushed prettily.

“Oh.” He vaguely recalled hearing that the blushing girl was going to debut as an actress in the coming year. “Well, good for her!”

“Not that Na-bi noona isn’t pretty awesome herself,” B-Kwik went on. “But I don’t really think of her as, you know, a woman.”

Seo-joon stole a quick look at Na-bi, who was now doing some warmup stretches by the weight machines under the eye of one of the in-house trainers. The younger guy was clearly blind, but he wasn’t going to say that. “You had better not let her hear you say that, Byeon-sang-ah,” he warned instead.

“You know what I mean, hyung. Noona’s great, but she’s like a sister to me. I don’t like her in that way.” B-Kwik zipped up his gym bag and stood up to head to the showers. “That would just make things weird.”
Have you given the cookies already?

Just about to, Na-bi texted back, rolling her eyes and typing in jerky, exasperated motions.

Without waiting for a reply, she picked up the pretty, polka-dotted carton that had been sitting in her practice room for most of the day. She had heard noises coming from next door for some time now, so she couldn’t put off the errand any longer.

“Why are you making such a big deal out of this, anyway?” she mumbled, posing the question as much to herself as to Myeong-joo, who had sent her off to the agency with said cookies that morning. Her friend had gone on one of her baking binges the night before, and Na-bi had already brought some to her manager and Director Im. She had one last box to give away, that was all.

She marched determinedly out of her practice room and knocked on Eclipse’s door. As luck would have it, Seo-joon answered. “Na-bi-ssi,” he greeted her with a smile. “Hi. Come in.”

Although she had intended to just leave the cookies with whomever answered, Na-bi allowed herself to follow him inside. (It would have been more awkward to make excuses about why she couldn’t stay, she reasoned.) “Where are the others?”

Besides Seo-joon, the room was empty and just one light was on over the piano. It was doing double duty as a table that day; she could see a stool standing near it, and there was a laptop and some sheet music strewn across its glossy black top.

“Min-woo is sorting something out for school,” he replied, pulling up another stool for her. “Tae-kwang and PK have an interview with Guitar Player.”

“That’s really cool. So, you’re rehearsing by yourself?” she asked as she sat.

He nodded and took his own seat. “For now, yes. But they’re all meeting me here once they’re done. Is there anything I can do for you?”

Right. The cookies. “You can take this off my hands,” Na-bi told him, presenting him with the box. “They’re cookies. Myeong-joo suddenly felt like baking last night and she always makes enough for an army, so… we were hoping you guys could help keep us from eating them all.”

“We’d be glad to,” he assured her with a grin. “Don’t worry about that.” He admired the cookies through the see-through panel in the lid.

She was wondering whether the food would distract him enough for her to make a graceful exit when she heard the door open, and Chen chose that moment to sashay uninvited into the room. “Hello, what’s going on here?” Her pretty face crumpled into a disapproving scowl when she spied the box. “You’re not eating those, are you?”

“I sure am,” Seo-joon told her, opening the box and helping himself to one. He took a bite and nodded approvingly as he chewed. “I have to make sure they’re safe for my dongsaengs to eat.”

Na-bi chuckled at the show of defiance and Chen rounded on her. “Are these from you, eonni?” the younger singer accused. “I thought you were all about being healthy and all that stuff! Why are you feeding such unhealthy things to our boys?”

“A little treat now and then doesn’t hurt,” she replied pleasantly. “Would you like one?”

“Absolutely not! I need to watch my weight.” Chen smoothed her hands over her slender hips with a superior air and pranced to Seo-joon’s side. “Oppa, why don’t you ditch these nasty cookies and let me treat you to some coffee?”

“No, thanks,” he replied flatly, and smiled at Na-bi as he polished off the cookie. “This is really good, Na-bi-ssi. Please thank Myeong-joo sunbae-nim for us.”

She returned his smile, taking some petty pleasure in his friendliness toward her compared with the way he was treating Chen. “She’ll be glad to know you like them.” Myeong-joo would definitely be less glad to know that Chen had called her baking “nasty,” but Na-bi was looking forward to the fireworks when she told her.

“But, oppa, when will we both have some free time like this again?” the younger singer cooed, taking his arm. (Na-bi’s eyelid twitched; she hoped that no one noticed.)

“Technically, I’m not free,” Seo-joon told her, sounding unfriendly again. He shook himself free of her hold and got off his stool to put some distance between them. “The rest of the band is coming back anytime now, and in case you didn’t notice, I have a guest.”

“A guest?” She turned to Na-bi. “Eonni, you can spare Seo-joon oppa for a while, can’t you?”

Na-bi crossed her legs and leaned on the piano. “I came to hang out with my friend, and I just got here.”

“Come on,” the younger singer pressed, pouting prettily. “Can’t you hang out later, for me? Pretty please?”

Chen was clearly expecting to get her way, and Na-bi wasn’t inclined to be nice and give that to her. Finally fed up, she hopped off her stool and gave Chen her best warrior princess rap battle staredown. Things had finally come to a head, and they were going to end right here, right now.

“Seo-joon-ssi said no,” she told her, “and I said no. He’s going with you over my dead body. Back off.”
“What did you just say?!” Chen squawked in disbelief. Seo-joon, too, wondered if he had heard correctly. He felt as though a balloon was cautiously inflating inside of him.

“You heard me,” Na-bi said. “Seo-joon-ssi said no. You can’t have him. So beat it.”

She turned to him, jaw set in determination, and grabbed the lapels of his jacket. “What are you doing?” he asked.

“Making things weird,” she told him just before she pulled him in for a kiss.

It took Seo-joon a moment to process what was happening, but when he did the balloon inside him exploded in a riot of glitter. His eyes drifted shut and he wound his arms around her waist. She melted into his embrace with the smallest of sighs, the generous curves of her lips softening beneath his.

“YA! What do you think you’re doing?” Chen demanded, glowering, when he reluctantly opened his eyes again and acknowledged that there was a third person in the room.

“What do you think we’re doing?” Seo-joon retorted.

She gestured wildly at them. “Does this mean you lied about there not being anything between the two of you?!”

He glanced at Na-bi (who, he noticed, still had her fingers curled tightly in his jacket). “There wasn’t anything until a moment ago.”

“So, Hee-sook, I guess this is actually all your fault,” Na-bi added.

A laugh sputtered out of Seo-joon at that. She looked up at him and they smiled at each other, more than a little shyly.

For Chen, it was the last straw. “Ooooh!!!” she growled and, with a final stamp of her foot, flounced out of the room.
They watched her leave. “I’m really sorry about that,” Na-bi sighed as the door swung closed. “She was being a pain, and I was sick of it.”

“There’s nothing to be sorry about,” Seo-joon told her. “She was being a pain and I’ve been trying to get her off my back for ages.

“Unless you didn’t mean what you said just now,” he added uncertainly. “You know, that ‘over my dead body’ stuff.”

He couldn’t help holding his breath, bracing himself for what might be her answer. She had told Chen to get lost and explicitly stated that she was “making things weird,” and then there was that kiss…. His lips were still tingling a bit from that last one. Surely she wasn’t about to claim temporary insanity and take it all back?

Na-bi glanced away for a moment before squaring her shoulders and meeting his gaze head-on. “Yes, I meant it. What about you? Did you mean what you said to her, that ‘until a moment ago’ thing?”

“I did.” It was clear from how rigid she felt in his arms that it was taking all that she had for her to keep looking him in the eye. He felt the same way, but he knew better now than to dissemble-that had never worked. “But….”

Her eyebrows shot up. “But…?”

She began to push away from him and Seo-joon tightened his hold around her. “But now that I think about it,” he went on, his own eyebrows rising and a smile tugging at his lips, “it feels like there was something between us long before a moment ago…?”

That got her to stop struggling. “Oh.”

“Well?” She was blushing again, and this time he felt at liberty to lean down and press a kiss to her cheek. “Was I wrong?” he asked, breathing in the scent of her perfume.

When he raised his head, he saw that Na-bi’s lips were curved in a small smile. “You know, I wasn’t going to Im Joo-kyung’s wedding at all,” she told him as she reached up to twine her arms around his neck. “Until you asked me to perform with you.”

His smile grew into a grin as her meaning sank in, and he drew her closer.
“So, we’re really doing this, huh?” Na-bi commented, reluctantly disentangling herself from Seo-joon several moments later.

She couldn’t help holding her breath once the words were out of her mouth. It was a dumb-maybe even disastrous-question, but what else could you possibly say after admitting to someone (in a roundabout way) that you liked them?

To her relief, he readily told her, “I’m game if you are.”

“Yeah, I’m game. We can make this work.”

She spoke confidently despite her shy smile, knowing from her friends’ experiences that it was possible if both sides truly wanted to be together. She wanted to add that her friends could help, but the other girls’ relationships weren’t her secrets to tell. He would learn about those in time, if they let him.

“My bandmates will help.” He chuckled. “At least Min-woo won’t have to think about crazy schemes to throw us together anymore.”

“He was doing that?”

“How else do you think I ended up third-wheeling with you and Byeon-sang at the hotel party?”

Na-bi laughed. “You were not a third wheel, and I’m glad to know the Eclipse members have good taste.

“But do you think Chen will tell anyone?” she wondered then. It was nice to think that there were many people who would help them, but there were also those who were definitely not on their side. That was one problem her friends hadn’t had thus far.

“Probably-once the idea occurs to her, anyway.”

“Then I guess we should tell Director Im, hopefully before Chen has a chance to spread the word around.” She wrinkled her nose at the thought. They had to do some real damage control this time. Would she also have to let her manager in on the secret? “We are going to be in so much trouble.”

“It won’t be so bad,” Seo-joon assured her. “Director Im’s cool. It’s because of her that contracts don’t have things like no-dating clauses anymore, and she’ll definitely listen to our side of things.”

Na-bi nodded slowly at the certainty in his voice. “Yeah, she will, won’t she? Even after everything she had to do about that dating scandal?”

He grinned and leaned towards her again. “Because of that, I’m sure she’ll tell us that she totally saw this coming.”
“Daeeeeebak.”

“Ya.” Tae-kwang pulled a gawking PK away from the practice room door. “Let’s give them some privacy.”

“Shouldn’t we stay here and stand guard?”

“That would tip off anyone that there’s something going on inside that they shouldn’t see,” the guitarist pointed out sensibly. “As it is, there are hardly any lights on so no one will probably take a second look. Come on, I’ll treat you to some snacks at the convenience store.” He took the younger guy’s arm and started towing him towards the elevators.

At the promise of snacks, PK went willingly. “Min-woo is going to be so mad when he finds out he missed this,” he snickered. The drummer had messaged not long ago to say that his errand at school was taking longer than he had thought.

“Who knows?” Tae-kwang grinned. “Maybe they’ll take so long that he’ll walk in on them, too.”