3 Years and Forever [EN- Jay X OC] [EDITING]

Chapter 11: Realization

Haneul ran out from her room, looking for Jongseong.

"Jongseong?" she went to the living room but he was not there. "Jongseong?" she entered the greenhouse but he was not there. She peeked into the library. "Jongseong?"

"Yes?" he looked up from reading a book at a reading nook there. He fixed his glasses.

She approached him. "Have you looked at the sample pictures Team Leader Kim sent?"

"Team Leader Kim?" he took his phone and checked. He did receive an email from her.

Jongseong looked at Haneul, worried, after he had checked the email.

"You received the same thing?"

"Yea" she looked away, embarrassed.

"This is too..." he once again fixed his glasses, obviously feeling uncomfortable.

"...Sensual?" she chuckled. 'Boy this is going to be awkward!'

"You're okay with this?" he cleared his throat. "I heard your dress will be too revealing later"

"To me, anything besides the way I dress daily is too revealing" she chuckled nervously. 'WTF am I saying?!'

Jongseong scratched the back of his neck. He stole a glance at her. "You want to practice this with me?" 'God that sounds so weird!'

She followed him to sit at the alcove bed by the windows. He took a deep breath. "But first I'm sorry this photoshoot will require us to make skinship which we don't want"

"Yea I know this is kind of an emergency...??" she smirked. He nodded and chuckled at both of their awkwardness.

He opened the first image and it was immediately a picture of a couple kissing. They both looked at each other. He raised an eyebrow. "This is too strong for a starter"

Haneul nodded. He scrolled to the next pictures only to show more intimate poses with lots of skinship.

He sighed, almost giving up. She saw him and immediately scrolled to the pictures before. It was a picture where the female model had her arms around the male model's neck and the male's hand around her waist. They held each other so close.

"This looks kind of familiar" he said. She nodded, her cheeks began to warm at the thought of the pool incident.

"About that day, I'm sorry" he said. She looked at him and nodded. "It's an accident anyway no big deal"

He smiled at her.

They were staring at each other. No one uttered a word. Jongseong inched closer to her. She held a tight fist as he did. Nervousness began to build up. She could feel her heart pounding. Or is it the sound of his heart pounding?

"Sorry" he whispered and reached out to hold her waist. His hand slowly wrapped around it. Her heartbeat quickened. She froze.

Jongseong lowered his head to look at her. "Is this okay?"

She nodded. Now it was for her to hold him. But she couldn't. Her mind recalled the bully article she read. 'He's that type of person? The type of person that I hate so much? I should run away from this guy! Is it okay for me to do this?'

"Hey" he called softly. It was like he knew her mind went into overdrive. His voice brought her back to reality. The reality of them being too close together.

"Sorry" she replied.

"It's okay" his hands on her waist shifted. "We can do this the other day if you're not okay-"

"I'm- I'm okay" she tried to breathe.

"Haneul" he called that made her look into his eyes. Sitting in the dimly lit room with light from the outside illuminates them, making her feel funny in her stomach.

"Trust me" he said. "Just for a short while"

She did not know how much time had passed that she stared into his eyes. A surge of calmness washed over her.

'Trust him...' slowly she closed her eyes. She leaned a little closer to him. Her arms reached out before wrapped around his neck. She inhaled the scent of his cologne and breathed it in.

Slowly she opened her eyes. A smile appeared on their lips.

"We did it" he whispered.

She suddenly groaned.

"Why? What's wrong?" He panicked.

"My stomach feels funny...I don't like it"

He chuckled. "Me too. It's weird though"

They exchanged smiles, while being so close to each other. Deep down, he was so grateful that in front of him right now was Haneul. Because at that moment, he felt that all too familiar but foreign feeling. He knew he would never fall in love with someone else. From now on he wanted to love her.

"Haneul, I -" he was cut off when she picked up the phone to look at the other poses.

"But how about the kiss? Should we do the same just like on our wedding day?" she asked. He swore her big eyes looked too pure and innocent for the things they were doing right now. And now definitely not the time for him to say anything in his mind right now. Maybe later.

"Umm, yeah..." he said, trying to find the right words. This was hard. She seemed really excited. He felt a knot on his throat, knowing this whole thing was pretend.

"I can make it real if you're okay with it" he looked at her, waiting for her reaction. She thought for a while and nodded. "I mean it's just for the photoshoot, no big deal"

"You sure?" he began to lessen their gap. Haneul instinctively moved back until her back met the wall. "Jongseong..."

She did notice something was different. The air shifted. But most importantly, his gaze. It was alluring. Like he was mesmerized by her. Like he was looking deep inside her soul. She felt uncomfortable to say the least.

He leaned it, eyes still locked on her. Their forehead met. He held her face. "Is it like this?" he asked.

"What?" she was confused.

"The pose"

Ah! He was referring to the picture.

Haneul glanced at the picture on his phone and nodded. "Seems about right"

Jongseong was staring at her while she was busy looking at the photo. 'You don't know how much I want to kiss you right now!'

"Jongseong..."

He looked at her. Her face was already red. "Can we stop for now?"

Only then he realized he was still so close in front of her. Jongseong quickly gave her space. "Sorry"

"It's okay" she cleared her throat. She tried to distract her mind by scrolling through the picture.

"Looks like the female is the lead here. I mean from what I see from the pictures. She's looking at the camera most of the time" she said.

"And she leads the man most of the time" he added.

She sighed.

"What's wrong?"

Haneul scratched the back of her neck. "I don't think I can do that..."

"Don't worry I can do it for you"

She turned to him. She then smiled sheepishly. "Tones of dating experience right? You must be an expert"

"Yah" he snorted. "Did you forget about your list of exes?"

She rolled her eyes in annoyance. "You really have a way to roast me!"

He laughed when she joined. 'Maybe I'll tell her later. I don't want us to be awkward again'