FLASHES. |Hwang Hyunjin

Eight.

"You're still awake?" A voice talked from his left making the poor boy jolt.

He looked to find Reine standing at the balcony door of her room. She was wearing a night jumpsuit with shorts than made her look cute. A towel rested on her shoulders as her hair was still a little damp.

"You scared me!" Hyunjin shoved his head away while placing a hand on his chest.

"You are a scaredy-cat. Not my problem." She snorted. She walked in the balcony and pulled the door close behind her. Reine dropped herself in the seat beside Hyunjin while patting her hair with the towel. She eyed the can in his hand and then him.

Hyunjin scoffed. She was really reluctant to ask anything from him. He reached for a can from the package on the floor and handed it to her after he popped it open for her.

Reine received the can and looked at it. Her annoyance from him was coming back. Few people would care to open a can for a lady. Those cans would always break Reine's artificial and sometimes, natural nails. But Hyunjin did that. He was being in his perfect mode again and that was what she hated.

"Stop doing that!" Reine said, looking ahead of her.

"Doing what?"

"Being considerate and careful around people. Around me."

"Why?" Hyunjin scoffed. "Are you falling for me, Re?" He teased.

"No." She looked at him. "I'm hating you more."

Hyunjin flinched on hearing the word. His grin dropped and looked ahead of him, not knowing how to respond. "Alright." He said solidly.

Reine cursed herself internally. She was supposed to apologize and thank him but instead, she was there telling him she's hating him more. What the hell was wrong with her?

She huffed loudly and threw her head back down in frustration. "Look! I'm sorry. Okay? I'm a horrible person. I know you've done nothing bad to me but I can't help it. It was all a childish jealousy and my stupid brain continued to trick me into the hate thing. I just... it was easier to hate on you than to pity myself." She blurted out.

"Then, keep hating on me if that helps."

"UGH!" She groaned loudly, dropping her can to the floor. "I told you to stop doing that." She jumped to her feet as she yelled with anger. "Stop being kind to me!"

"I'm not doing anything, Reine." He yelled back. He too, stood up to face her disposing his can. "I'm just being me. But if that helps you in a way, keep doing it. Keep hating. I don't mind. You won't be the only one. People hate on the spoiled rich Hyunjin, anyways. They've been hating on me since my debut but kept faking their smiles. At least you don't do that and hate on me freely."

"You were a spoiled kid!" She snapped. "You dropped out from the runway preparations just a week before it and went straight to another company. You ditched your own dad!"

"It was because of you." He yelled at her face.

"What the hell? How do I have anything in you going to another company?"

"That day, after the photoshoot. Right after you had your panic attack, you went straight to your room and talked to your makeup artist about how arrogant I am. How I don't deserve my place that I gained because of my dad."

Reine froze. That really happened. She talked shit about him because she was angry he was the one who saw her in her panicked state. She said many harsh things about him. She named him a talentless, spoiled, arrogant, silver spoon and daddy's kid. She vented it out on him and she remembered it clearly.

"I- uh.." She stuttered. "How did you know that?"

Hyunjin breathed in to calm himself down. "I came to your room to check on you and heard you."

Reine winced as if she was slapped. He heard it himself which might have been harsher on the teenager who was just starting to take the first steps of his career.

"I'm sorry." She mumbled. "Really. For all I've done. That was immature. And I kept being immature to you."

"It's okay!" Hyunjin stepped back to lean on the railings while crossing his arms over his chest. "Your words fueled me. I wanted to show people I didn't make it to modeling with dad's help. That's why I dropped out and went to another company. I wanted to be treated fairly. I wanted to test myself and see if I was really talented or if it was all because of my dad's support."

Reine blinked a few times. "How can you do that?" She chuckled. "How do you bring out positivity from literally every and each negativity you face? How do you make everything sound that simple?" Reine was in disbelief. She threw dirt his way but he just brushed it off and turned it into something positive. He challenged himself and became the man he is today. The teenager Hyunjin was much more mature than the adult Reine.

"I think simple." He shrugged. "I don't let my overthinking take the best of me. I don't let negativity take the best of me."

Reine sighed. She turned to lean to the railings just like Hyunjin. "I wish I could do that too."

"You should do that, Reine." He looked at her. "I don't know why you are going hard on yourself but you should go easy. You should be proud of yourself. You worked hard, harder than anyone, to be where you are today. You survived the criticism when you were just a teenager starting your career. You survived living for years in a foreign country with a different language. You came a long way. You are a survivor." He listed calmly.