We hadn't worked for more than thirty minutes when Zoey said: 

"I feel brain dead." 

I looked at her and noticed her rubbing both sides of her temples with her eyes closed. This thing was really getting to her, and a lot faster than I thought. I had a feeling it was going to get to a whole lot of us too. 

"Should I get you some water?" Jongup asked. 

"Ya, I really need it," said Zoey as she dropped her hands. 

"Stop getting so stressed out, Zoey," said Christine as Jongup got up from the floor and headed for the door. "We're all here to help each other out, you know." 

"No, I think it must be the chocolate dip doughnuts," Zoey gave an embarrassing smile. "I must have had too many of them." 

"Well, who loves doughnuts now?" Christine asked with her eyes fixed on me. 

"You do," Daniel and I said at the same time. The two of us looked at each other and smiled. 

Christine looked downcast and said nothing more. 

"I thought you were getting stressed out for sure, Zoey," said Yong-guk. 

"Nothing stresses me out that easily," said Zoey with so much enthusiasm. 

"Really?" Himchan asked, looking up at Zoey from the paper he was holding in his hands. 

"I wouldn't believe her so easily if I were you," said Mike. 

Zoey threw Mike a look. Uh-oh. Now isn't the time to start arguing. It would just eat up time. I had to do something before Zoey utters a single word. 

"Zoey, calm yourself," said Yong-nam, seated beside me, beating me to it. "Just ignore him." 

"Ya, whatever," said Zoey, this time, calmly as she averted her eyes away from Mike. But I could still see that look. This was far from over. 

I turned to look at Yong-nam and wondered how he was able to calm Zoey with only a few words. Zoey isn't an easy person to deal with. Even I've difficulty with her sometimes. 

Yong-nam must have noticed my eyes on him because he quickly turned to look at me and I quickly looked at the paper in my hands, pretending to be going through B.A.P's lyrics. 

Even though B.A.P's song is in Korean, Yong-guk and Young-jae helped translate it to English. And so far, the lyrics were well and good. But just like us, they were struggling to come up with more. This is why we were all here together to work it out. 

A pencil lay in front of me on the table, and I took it, twisting and turning it around as I thought. Their song is an inspirational one, the kind that lifts people's spirits up and encourage them to move on in life no matter what they're going through. I had to admit, I hadn't written such in a long time. Coming up with these lyrics may seem easy, but it's actually a whole lot difficult. 

"Any ideas, sis?" Daniel asked. 

I looked at him and wondered why he said that. "Huh?" 

He pointed at the pencil in my hand and I hadn't noticed that I was still turning it around with my index and middle fingers. I stopped and shrugged at him, still not getting what he meant. 

"Whenever you do that, then some kind of idea is brewing in that head of yours," he said. 

"Not quite," I said. "I just realised that I haven't written this kind of song in a long time." 

"Well, that head of yours better be working," said Zoey with her eyebrow raised at me. "You don't want to go back to the hotel without any progress. Lee won't give us our reward." 

I almost blurted out that the reward Lee was talking about is Daesung's invitation for a movie night; but I quickly stopped myself, knowing that I would only ruin everything. 

"Oh, ya, the reward," I said trying my best not to sound annoyed by it and at Lee for somehow using it to her advantage. 

"What do you think it is?" Young-jae asked who sat at the other end of the table. 

"I don't know," said Mike. "I just hope it's something fun." 

"I hope it's some delicious Korean cuisine we've never tried before," said Daniel as he quickly his lips. That sent everybody laughing. 

The door flew open and Jongup came in with a plastic bag full of bottled water. I noticed him pause after he closed the door, looking on at us. He probably wondered why we were all laughing. 

"Did I miss something?" he asked as he approached. 

"Nothing special," Daehyun answered. "It was just to ease off the tension." 

"Well..., I want to laugh along too," said Jongup as he took one bottle and gave it first to Zoey. "Here you go." 

"Thank you, Jongup," said Zoey as she took the bottle from him. "You're a life-saver." 

"I asked these guys what they think their rewards is," said Young-jae. 

"And all my brother could think of is food," I continued. 

"You're always such a hungry boy, aren't you?" Christine asked. 

"Not really," Daniel said, looking up at the ceiling, trying to avoid everyone's eyes. 

Jongup distributed water bottles to everyone else and he sat back on the floor next to me. 

"Okay, guys, let's get back to work," said Yong-guk with a smile on his face. "Anyone come up with an idea yet?" 

"We should be the ones asking you that question, hyung," said Zelo. "You're the song writer." 

"And I'm lucky that I'm not the only one." 

I felt people's eyes on me and I tried not to look back at them as I twisted the pencil around with my fingers. 

"I'll admit, this is starting to wear me down," said Zoey after she drank from her bottle and placed it on the table. 

"You aren't the only one," said Zelo as he lay back on the floor, but soon sat up again. 

"Well, this is disappointing," said Daehyun as he ran his hand through his face. 

"Hear, hear," said Christine. 

I started to tap the end of the pencil on the paper in my other hand. I wasn't even aware of it until Yong-nam held my arm. 

I turned to look at him, surprised. 

"Are you okay?" he asked. "You look like you were about to murder that paper with the pencil." 

"Oh." I must have spaced out a little, thinking of lyrics. "Sorry, I guess the song is getting to me too." 

There came a long silence as we all nervously looked at each other. We all just sighed. 

"This is awful," said Zelo as he fell onto the floor like before. 

"Tell me about it," said Christine as she slumped in her seat. 

"What are we going to do?" Himchan asked. "It's not like we can go on a break or anything." 

"Can we?" Zoey asked. 

"Well, am your time keeper and I can surely tell you that you guys haven't even worked for half an hour," said Yong-nam. 

I saw Daniel and Mike give Yong-nam depressed looks. 

"Are you kidding me?" Mike asked raising his arms in frustration. "I feel like we've been at it for an hour." 

"You know what, a break sounds very tempting right now," said Daehyun. Then he turned to look at Yong-nam across the table with a pleading smile. "Don't you think so?" 

The whole room fell silent, and this time, we all had our eyes on Yong-nam. He didn't say anything as he first looked at his watch, then at the rest of us. 

"Fine, five minutes," he said. 

The rest of us all sighed in relief, and those seated on the couch easily slumped back, trying to relax. Some of us seated on the floor joined Zelo, sleeping our bodies down. 

I lay down with my eyes closed and for a moment, I felt like I could easily drift off to sleep. But then, something jolted my brain and my eyes flew wide open. 

I quickly sat up and Jongup seated beside me looked concerned. 

"Hey, are you okay?" he asked. 

"Ya, I'm fine," I said as my eyes flew to the recording booth. I looked at Jongup and asked, "do you guys have instruments in there?" 

My finger pointed towards the booth as I asked. Jongup didn't have to look. 

"Ya, we do," he said. "Do you need one?" 

"Yes." 

"Okay, let's go," he said with a smile. 

He quickly stood up from the floor and before I had the chance to stand, he held out his hand and I took it. He helped me up and we soon headed for the booth. 

"Hey, what are you two kids up to over there?" Zoey asked. 

"Just relax," I said as Jongup opened the door to the booth. "We aren't doing anything suspicious." 

"Oooh, suspicious," said Christine, obviously mocking me. 

Jongup led the way in and I followed. The lights in the booth were on and there were a whole range of instruments all lined up along the walls. The recording microphones and headphones were in the middle of the room. 

Jongup stood while I went around looking through the instruments until I found exactly what I wanted. 

I pulled out an acoustic guitar by the neck and I put the strap over my shoulder and held it in position. 

"You wanted a guitar?" Jongup asked. 

"Ya, it's my favourite instrument," I told him. "I play it really well, actually." 

I slowly strummed the strings of the guitar and I felt my body relax as I took a deep breath in, and slowly out. I hadn't noticed that I was smiling until Jongup did the same at me. 

"What?" I asked him. 

"Oh..., you were smiling at yourself and seem quite relaxed," he answered. "For a moment you looked like you were in your happy place." 

I chuckled. "I was. Come on, let's go back. I've a feeling Zoey and Christine will say something about us being in here." 

Just after I said that, Mike and Daniel came rushing into the booth, and by doing so, the two almost got jammed into the door, wanting to enter at the same time. 

"What are you doing here?" I asked them. 

"We've been given a five minute break so we wanted to come in the booth," Daniel answered as they got through. 

I gave them a straight look, not wanting to know what they were really up to. 

"Anyway, don't break anything," I warned. "Collins won't hesitate to cut out from your paycheck." 

"We're not five year olds, Sam," said Mike. "We're very responsible." 

"I'll agree if you stop acting like little kids all the time. You'll find us with the others." 

Jongup and I left the booth. Just when we stepped out, I noticed Zoey, Christine and Yong-guk by the multi track console. I stopped to look at them, and so did Jongup. 

"What are you guys doing?" Jongup asked. 

"Relaxing," said Zoey as she looked through the window on top of the console, into the booth. Mike and Daniel were going through the instruments. 

"It doesn't seem like it," I said as I walked away. Jongup followed. 

"Oh, you got a guitar," said Young-jae. 

"Yep," I said as I settled on the floor with the guitar on my laps. "Playing a little eases off my stress." 

"I would like to hear you play," said Zelo as he sat up from the floor. 

"Okay," I said, smiling at him. 

I strummed the guitar strings and started to play a simple melody. It's one of the melodies I love to play especially when I'm trying to relax after a stressful day. It calmed me immediately, and for a moment, I got lost in the tune. It's like everything around me suddenly vanished and I was in a calm, serene place of my own. That's just the power of music. It always takes you places, to a utopia in your own mind. 

As soon as I was done playing, l looked up from the guitar and found the other B.A.P members looking at me. I couldn't read their faces, so I got confused. 

"Umm...., was it that bad?" I asked. I don't know why, but I felt a little embarrassed. 

"That was wonderful," said Jongup who sat beside me. I looked at him and the look in his eyes made my cheeks blush even more. 

"Tha-thanks," I stammered as I looked away. 

"You really are good with the guitar," said Daehyun. "That melody you played took me places." 

"Like I said, I love to play when I am under stress." I chuckled as I scratched the back of my head. 

"Well, its relieved us as well," said Zelo. 

"I'm glad." 

"Well, your five minutes is almost up," said Yong-nam now seated on the couch. "I really wonder what those guys are