Ji Young's POV: 

     "That was bad..." Jonghyun says softly. I can feel his breath on my hair, and then feel his chest rumble on my back as he laughs. 

  We had jumped into the van with as much strength and speed as we could muster, and without knowing, I had landed back against Jonghyun. He had been holding his jacket above my head as we had ran, to shield me from the continuous flashes of the multiple cameras that had seemed to be everywhere I looked; everywhere I turned. I hadn't even thought about it at the time; I was just too panicked. 

  But now I am aware of it, so aware that I feel a sudden rush of blood flow to my face, and I sit up as fast as I can, shuffling my bottom to the corner of the seat, farthest away from Jonghyun as I can manage. I don't look back at him to see what expression he holds. 

  The two of us had been the first inside of the van, so we had scrambled towards the back seat, while Yonghwa and Minhyuk-sshi fell atop the two middle seats. 

  Minhyuk looks back at me now, speculation in his eyes. He probably wants to know what kind of relationship I hold with Jonghyun, why I was with him and Yonghwa at a restaurant, why Jonghyun had seemed so protective of me while we ran from everyone. But if he wants to say something, he holds it in, just giving me a reassuring smile, which I am grateful for. I smile back. 

  The rest of the ride consists of Jungshin cranking up the radio and coming very close to running a stoplight, and then a very heated argument between him and Yonghwa and Minhyuk. Nonetheless, I am grateful for the ruckus, for that means that Jonghyun and I won't have to speak to each other. 

  "We are not going to a bar," Yonghwa says for the twentieth time. "We don't want to see you in that state again." 

   From the back, I can see Jungshin's shoulders slump. "Just when I was finally having some fun on my free day, you want to go home and rain on my parade?" 

  Minhyuk makes a noise that sounds intimidatingly like a growl. "There must be about a hundred photos and videos of us on the Internet right now, and somebody must be already typing up an article for your little parade." He spits the words out like they're poison. "If we're seen again at a bar right after, imagine the kind of we'd be in!" 

  Jungshin just whines some more until he finally gives in and he turns the van on the way to their dorm. 

   I have to speak up. 

  "Ah, Yonghwa-sshi," I say hesitantly, tapping him on the arm. "My home is around - " 

  "Ah, mianhaeyo, Ji Young-sshi," he says, looking back at me with an apologetic expression, "I'm afraid you're going to have to stay with us for tonight." 

  My eyes widen until I feel like they're just ready to pop out of my head. 

  "B - bwo?!" I say incredulously. 

  Minhyuk looks back at me with the same expression as Yonghwa. 

  "Mianhaeyo - is it Ji Young-sshi?" I nod, still dumbfounded. "Letting you go home now would be very unwise. There could very well be a car that's trailing us right now, so if we drop you off at your place, there could be hundreds of papparazzi storming it in the morning, and we don't want that for you. And I bet that you don't as well, am I right?" 

   I nod again. "Deh, I understand," I say stiffly. Suddenly Jonghyun's prescence beside me is very distinct. 

  Imo's face flashes through my mind, telling me how lovely Seoul would be, that she was sure of it. I bury my face in my hands. 

  Imo, how wrong could you be? 

Jonghyun's POV:

  We arrive at the dorm. No one else has come either - thankfully. I glance over at Ji Young nervously. Yonghwa is leading her inside, talking to her with an easy, calm demeanor. Only a person that really knows him well would notice how tense his shoulders are, and how his eyes flick from side to side restlessly. 

  Manager-nim will be furious with us. He'll want to skin us alive, hollow out our bodies, then stuff them with feathers and let those  things perform on stage instead of us. Our number one rule that he had given us since we first debuted was to not draw attention to ourselves and cause a scandal. 

  And now, Ji Young is going to stay here with us in our dorm. Like I don't have enough to stress about already. 

  "Where's she going to sleep?" Jungshin asks. He's already settled in completely; all he'd done when he came in was grab a stick of celery and chomp on it before throwing himself on the couch. "Is she going to sleep here?" He pats the cushion next to him. 

  "No, we're getting her a bed," I say immediately. I'm not going to let her sleep on the couch. I see Ji Young look to me out of the corner of my eye, but I don't look back.

   Jungshin turns to me. "Then whose bed is she going to sleep in?" 

  "I don't mind - " Yonghwa starts. 

  "She'll sleep in my bed," I say, only feeling a small amount of guilt at interrupting him. "I'll sleep on the couch." 

  Ji Young finally speaks up. "Oh, no," she says, waving her hands in front of her. "I'm good with the couch."

   "No, you're good with my bed," I tell her. Before she can argue with me, as I know she will, I point to the bathroom door. "You can wash up in there. I'll knock and bring you a set of clothing for you to change into later."

   And then I turn around and go into my room to ready it for her.

Ji Young's POV:

  There are only male hair products in this bathroom. That's what I notice when I'm in the shower. 

  I recognize Jonghyun's favorite one immediately. Unconsciously, I pick it up and sniff at it, letting the scent wash over me. Jonghyun's scent. And then I realize what I'm doing and set it down quickly, like it's on fire. I grab another shampoo bottle, squeeze a glop of it on my hand and begin to scrub at my hair. It smells masculine, but clean, nonetheless. 

  When I finish my shower, I see that there's already a towel hung on the rack next to the sink. The first thing that I noticed when I walked in the bathroom was that it was clean - too clean to be a bathroom that's used by four boys. But then again, Jonghyun also lives here, so it's only reasonable that the bathroom should be in this state, I think, thinking back to the times when he would come over and unconsciously start clearing up my bedroom messes. 

   I wrap the towel around me and wring out my hair into the sink. The mirror is cloudied, so I wipe at it with the corner of my towel  and survey my face. It looks abnormally pale, but that's how it always looks after I shower. My eyes are tinged pink. 

  I jump when a hesitant knock sounds at the door. 

   Heart racing, I open it just a crack to see that Jonghyun is there, face turned slightly to the side, a small blush coloring his cheeks. In his hands is a bundle of clothing. 

  There's a pause. 

  "I can use my own clothes," I say to him. 

  He's still not looking at me. "It might be better if you use cleaner clothes. Yours got dirtied earlier." 

  It's true. While he was pulling me away, food from different tables had chafed at my pants and shirt, and there was also the dirt from the parking lot as we ran. But I didn't know that he had noticed. 

  "I don't need them," I say, and I'm about to close the door when his foot catches on the bottom. 

   I look at him, surprised. He stares back pleadingly. "Just wear them, Ji-ah," he says softly. I think back to the time when he would just casually lend me his clothes when I came over to his place, because mine got drenched when we ran home in the rain. We would always forget our umbrellas. All Jonghyun did was hold his jacket over me, protecting me. Like he did today. 

   Something, I don't know what, makes me take the clothes and softly shut the door. 

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

   "Again, I'm sorry about this, Ji Young," Yonghwa tells me, eyes saddened. "But we really had no other choice, if we wanted you to be safe."

  I shake my head at him and smile. "It's fine, really, Yonghwa-sshi," I reassure him. "Thank you for thinking of me." 

   We say good night and he leaves to go to his room. Maybe it was just my imagination, but it looked like he had been blushing as he spoke to me. 

Jonghyun's room is as clean as a monk's. I swear, there's not even one small crinkle on the bedcovers. 

  Three guitars hang on the wall, shining as if they were just cleaned minutes ago. The floorboards are made of an iridescent wood, and the dressers seem to be made of a chiseled mahogany. All in all, it's a moderately sized room, just the slightest bit larger than the one he had back home. The clothes he'd given me are too big; they hang loosely around me like curtains.  

   I have the smallest urge to go and look through his things, but I restrain myself. We're not like that anymore, I remind myself. We're ... 

  What are we? 

   I lie down on the bed and look up at the ceiling. What is Jonghyun to me now? I picture his face after I'd told him how I had felt for all those years. It was pained, and hurt, and confused. Not at all how I'd expected it to be. Not at all. 

  There's a blanket laid out on the side of the bed. I pull it up and shake it out so that it falls over me. It smells like Jonghyun.

   Jonghyun... I fall asleep wondering. 

  I wake up to a grumbling stomach. We hadn't eaten at the restaurant; Jungshin and Minhyuk had forced us to run out before we could be served. All the excitement from then had erased all of my thoughts of food, but now it's undeniable. I need food. 

  Hopefully, Yonghwa-sshi has the same thoughts as I and is up as well. Then maybe he could help me find something to eat. 

   Making the least amount of noise as I possibly can, I push off the bedcovers and make my way over to the door, letting it creak open softly. Yonghwa had lent me a pair of slippers, so I shuffle my way out of the room with them on.  

  There's already a light on in the kitchen. Already smiling, I enter the room to see the refridgerator door open, with someone rummaging inside of it. 

  "Yonghwa...?" I start to say. 

   But instead of Yonghwa, Jonghyun's head rises up from behind the door. My breath falls and I look down. 

   There's a silence. 

  "Uh..." Jonghyun says. "You're...up now?" 

   I glance at him once and nod. "Yeh," I say. "I was just feeling a bit hungry."

  He smiles. "Just like before, huh." Then he takes something from the fridge and sets it on the table. It's a bowl, its top covered with saran wrap. "I thought you might be hungry, so I went out to buy you some miso soup. You used to always order it when we ate at that Japanese restaurant, remember?" He doesn't wait for me to answer. "You were asleep when I came back, though, so I just put it in a bowl and set it in the fridge." He looks at me. I stare back. "But you're awake now. I thought you might wake up, so I was just about to leave out the soup and go back to sleep." 

  I don't answer. 

  He clears his throat. "Well...I'm going to go back to the couch. Just warm the soup in the microwave.When you're done, just leave the bowl in the sink, and I'll wash it in the morning." He opens a cupboard and takes out a spoon, sets it beside the bowl, and starts to leave. 

  "Wait," I say. 

  He stops and turns back. His hair is mussed up, and his clothes are rumpled. They're still the same from afternoon. He probably didn't have the chance to get clean clothes, since I was sleeping in his room. 

  "Yes?" 

   Why did I stop him? 

  "Jonghyun-sshi," I start, formally. He shows no expression. "You..." 

   "Yes?" he says again. 

   I purse my lips and tear my eyes away from him, then set them on the soup on the table. "Jonghyun..." I say. "Do...do you remember what I told you back at the restaurant?" 

   A pause. "...Yes," he says. 

  Another pause. I can already feel the frustration building up inside of me.

   "Well?" I demand. "What do you have to say? If you have anything to say at all, I'm listening."

   He just stares at me.

   "Aren't you going to say anything?" I say. There are tears b in my eyes, but I won't let them fall. I won't.

   "Ji-ah," he starts.

   "Don't call me that."

   "Ji-ah," he says again. "Ji-ah, all those years ago, I looked for you. I really did look." He starts walking towards me, but he stops when I take a step back. His face crumples. "Ji-ah, you have to understand. There were some really difficult circumstances at that time. And I had such a huge schedule, and you were so hard to find..." He throws his hands up and lets them fall to his sides. 

  I wait for him to continue. When he doesn't, I say, "So...because of these...circumstances. You left to become some huge star after we promised each other that we would debut together. Then you never saw me or spoke to me ever again. I was difficult to find because you had a huge schedule and you didn't have time. Is my summary correct?" 

  "What? No, Ji-ah - " 

  "I told you not to call me that!" I yell at him. 

  "Yah, what's going on over here?" Yonghwa steps into the kitchen, eyes red and groggy.

   "Nothing," Jonghyun says.

   My anger flares once more. I look at him. "Deh, it was nothing. All these years, all the times that I worried, and hoped, and waited...it was all nothing, was it?"

   Jonghyun looks exasperated. "No, Ji-ah - Ji Young-sshi, that's not it - "

   "That's okay," I say, looking away from him and stepping towards the kitchen door. "It doesn't matter anyway. Even if I waited..." I look him right in the eye. "I would have been disappointed if you had come back."

   And I leave.

Yonghwa's POV:

   "What happened?" I demand Jonghyun, facing him. 

   He looks stricken, like he'd just been punched in the face. 

  "I...I don't know," he says. 

  I sigh. "You should have explained it to her!" I scold him. "Then she would have understood. Then she would have forgiven you! Why couldn't you just do that?" 

   He wipes a hand down his face and shakes his head, holding the edge of the table like he's keeping himself from falling. "Yonghwa, I ..." He shakes his head again and sits down at one of the chairs. "When I look at her ... my mind just blanks. I don't know what to say to her anymore. I think too hard about what I should tell her, I practice the words over in my head like an idiot, but when I do open my mouth to actually say them to her, something completely stupid comes out." 

  I sigh again. "Jonghyun-ah..." 

  Suddenly, the sound of the front door shutting raises both of our attention. 

  Jonghyun's face whips towards mine. 

  "That couldn't be..." 

  "Ji Young," I finish for him. 

  When he tries to puch past me, I hold out my arms to stop him. 

  "Jonghyun," I say. "I'll get her. It's already bad enough that there are pictures of the two of you eating together at the restaurant. We can't let that get any worse." 

  "That doesn't matter!" he yells at me. "Ji-ah's horrible at navigating. And what's worse, she'll be all alone in Seoul, at night!" 

  "Jonghyun!" I yell at him again, shaking his shoulders. "She won't be far. She probably isn't even out of the building yet; we're pretty far up. I'll get her and talk to her. Besides, I think it'll be much better if I explain things to her instead of you. It'll probably make more sense through my mouth. Believe me, she'll understand." 

  The fright is leaving Jonghyun's eyes and his shoulders are relaxing. Then he nods his head. 

   "...Okay," he says slowly. "But if you're going to catch her, then you have to go now. And fast!" He pushes me towards the door. 

  "Okay, okay, arrasso!" I say, then I look at him. "Just leave it all to me, Jonghyun." 

  He nods again and makes a desperate shooing motion. 

   Grabbing my jacket and slipping on my shoes, I rush out the door. 

Thank you for reading the tenth chapter! Exams are killing me right now AARRHH I should be studying >_< But updating always relieves some stress for me, so that's what I decided to do :) 
   pLeAsE lEaVe A cOmMeNt AnD sUbScRiBe If YoU cAn!

                                                                                ~xoLeeJonghyunxo~