Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Aera, admittedly, felt a little more confident as she finished the short walk to work that she had left. It gave her time to reflect, and pick up an iced coffee (one so strong it easily matched several of her coworkers' hair colour), before arriving at the building for which her work had taken her away from for several days now.
It was something about the idea of Jaehyun caring so much. She had plenty friends - so many she was practically overwhelmed - but she didn't have anyone who cared that much. There were so many opportunities for him to leave, but he didn't take them. Despite the fact that he was an idol and in times as busy as those couple months (free time was considered rare and he had quite the busy schedule), Jaehyun had stayed.
Not only had he stayed, but he had taken care of her when she was sick, stopping her hair from getting vomited on, making sure she drank water and didn't collapse on the stairs up to her apartment, getting her to bed without causing her harm. And then when the morning came, after sleeping a night on her sofa, he had cooked her breakfast, procured her a hangover drink and walked her as far as he could to work.
It just wasn't something he was expected to do. He and Johnny had taken Aera and Miya out for dinner, their treat, and then he had simultaneously taken care of her whilst making sure neither his groupmate nor her best friend ended up harmed after drinking. They had ensured that their time would be enjoyed and well spent, after all.
"You look happy," Hyewon commented, standing up and looking over the edge of her cubicle with her hands full of material samples. "Why are you so happy and drinking coffee that looks like it will keep you up for three days?"
"She's hungover." Arinya guessed. Aera's eyebrows raised as she made her way to her own cubicle, dumping her bag and her coffee before looking up to find that both girls had followed after her. "That's where Miya is, I called her earlier to ask if she would pick up something for the kitchen and she sounded like she had been dragged through some sort of bush. She mentioned you."
"Yeah, I'll thank her for that." Aera hummed a reply, taking a seat and reaching for her notebook. "So, what has everyone been working on whilst I was gone?" She flipped through the pages to try and find a schedule, only to receive the odd sensation that she was being stared at.
And she was; both Hyewon and Arinya were leaning against the top of her cubicle. "What?" Aera sat back, returning their gaze. "...What is it?"
"We saw some of the shots. In fact, we saw all of the shots." Hyewon said. "You know how magazine sometimes send a file if they're nice enough to allow your work in your portfolio? It appears that W approves of this."
"What Hyewon is trying to say..." Arinya cut into quickly, smirk growing on her lips. "We think you're insanely lucky to have seen that. And to get so up close and personal as well."
Aera paused. "What?"
She got to her feet, chair scraping unceremoniously against the floor beneath her as she hurried to follow Arinya and Hyewon to their desk. There, one of the girls opened said file and there, sandwiched between Jaehyun and Johnny as they stood in the corner, Aera was ironing their blazers. Her face was obscured, and Johnny was partially hidden by Miya stood nearby, but Jaehyun was in perfect vision of the camera. She supposed it was taken for behind the scenes purposes, but she wasn't sure where the sight of the idol smiling down at the girl in front of him in a way that seemed so much more then just commonplace politeness towards stylists but rather something friendly, something meaningful, would come into a behind the scenes segment.
"Yes?" Aera questioned. "What about it? I was just preparing them for the shoot."
"He then invited us out for food and guess who took a certain drunk stylist home?" A fourth voice joined the array and they straightened up to find Miya stood behind them, dark bangs brushed over her eyes and completed by a large pair of sunglasses.
Hyewon's brow crumpled, Arinya's jaw dropped. "No way." The younger apple, eyes wide. "You went home with him?"
"Keep it down!" Aera hissed. "Besides, she's missing the bit about how he left her and Johnny alone." She returned the favour of exposing and shrugged in the face of Miya's accusation. "What? You did? I heard it all from him this morning."
"He stayed over?" Hyewon's eyes flickered between the girls. "What the hell is happening."
"Beats me." Aera held her hands up in the sign of mock surrender. "I think we should come together at some point to talk about plans for SuperM and NCT2020 at some point today, yes?" Around her, the group of girls nodded. "Okay. I'm going to be at my desk, drinking coffee and trying not to fall asleep."
But before she could leave, she took a quick picture of the image brought up on the computer screen and, smiling to herself, Aera typed out a small message and sent it to the relatively new number in her phone.
And Arinya, Miya and Hyewon all shared a knowing smile.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
