Winter Hearts

Coming Down

They reached the clocktower and walked a little way down a large stone stairway towards its base. The clock had been built atop an outcrop of rock that jutted out of the deep valley that ran alongside the eastern boundaries of Arachova and down under the town towards the olive groves below. The town itself seemed to be suspended above the valley, but in truth it seemed so because of the depth of the valley that fell away beneath it.

The clocktower itself was not beautiful, in fact it was a rather utilitarian square brick building with a clock on each side. Its charm lay in its location and how it stood away from the rest of the town and offered a view of the entire valley and the mountain face opposite.

As they approached, Siana saw the main road which snaked its way out of Arachova towards Athens split into a stone road that traversed the lower face of the mountain and had been built into a row of shops that were faced with stone arches. The shops stood under the main road and created a picturesque piece of real estate that made a beautiful background to the clock tower.

She could see a bus load of asian tourists had already spent some time there and were making their way back towards the main road junction.

"It's going to get crowded soon if we take too long," she mentioned, her logistical instincts kicking in after three years of helping her dad arrange outings for their guests. If the tourists headed towards the clock tower, they could crowd the base or someone might recognise the boys. The probability of them being recognised was higher, though she knew they had pockets of hardcore fans around the world.  Kkomae nodded, herding the boys ahead along up the stairs towards the base of the clock.

As they stepped out onto the small area at the base of the tower, they could see why the site was chosen for the drama's location. The views were pretty, but they could imagine how beautiful it would look from the air or from across the valley.

"I wish we had the drone camera here," murmured Min Seok.

"We should get some footage," Min Seok said, as Kkomae unpacked one of the pro cameras on its stick. He pulled it out to full length and gave it to Ken.

"360 please, and make it cheery, thank you," he instructed.

Ken dutifully looked into camera, blinking and puffing out his cheeks with the obligatory cute poses as he waited for Hyuk and Ravi to crowd around him. Then he started a slow turn, and as the boys got in sync with him, they became more animated, smiling, jumping as they turned and calling out greetings and laughing.

They slowed to a stop, excited from the effort, and passed the camera back to Kkomae, who turned to N.

"You know I get dizzy doing that," N said.

"Then check your hair for two minutes as usual," Kkomae replied.

Hongbin stepped in close, turning to look for Leo and tugging his sleeve to get him in shot.

N began a non-stop introduction, firstly with their greeting, and then about where they were, and Siana marvelled at how he was able to keep a smooth flow of talk whilst saying very little. When he stopped talking, Hongbin picked up just as smoothly, putting in a little info here and there about what they had done that day and how happy he was that he could share his journey with starlights. Suddenly, he turned to Leo, and he and N waited for a beat as Leo looked unblinkingly into the camera, then turned to each other to continue talking.

As they did, Leo looked off camera to Siana and turned up the corner of his mouth in a smirk.

She pursed her lips. Shouldn't he be concentrating? Wouldn't fans be wondering where he would be looking when they saw that onscreen? She could also see that they were very smooth, even when things looked like they were going wrong. She supposed they had been doing this for many years and would have good dynamics on camera that allowed them to be free and easy with each other whilst mentally ticking off a checklist of things they had to fulfil during filming.