"Hold my hand,
Come and lean on me,
I'll always be your strength!"

Eunji dragged out the last chord as they finished up with the recording of an acoustic version of one of their previous hits "NoNoNo." The guitarist strummed the final chord and put his guitar down as the six girls applauded.

Sitting in front of them was a camera crew, with the director smiling and clapping along, and the rest of the crew also had smiles on their faces. The director called a cut and stood up as they turned the cameras and sound equipment off. The girls stood up and bowed, thanking the crew for their hard work.

Eunji looked up and spotted Hyunseung leaning against the door of the practice room used to film the short music video. As the crew dispersed, the rest of the girls also noticed their senior's presence, and Naeun and Bomi went over to greet him. Chorong stayed back with Eunji, giving last greetings to the VJs. 

Naeun made her way back to the two. "Sunbae wants to see Eunji."

"Me? Why?" Eunji asked.

"I'm not sure," the younger replied. "He just wanted to steal you away to give you a message."

Eunji nodded. "I'll go meet him then."

Bomi nodded at her as she made her way to the older man standing by the doorway. He greeted her with a smile. "It's been a while."

She smiled back. "It has," she agreed. "What brings you by, sunbae?"

"Nothing much," he said. "I didn't get the chance to congratulate you since my schedule's only just freed up, so I thought I'd drop by and wish you well."

She bowed, beaming. "Thanks for the good wishes, sunbae. They really mean a lot."

"And also, your manager asked me to pass on a message before she needed to leave," he said. "I met her while I was coming up, so she asked me to tell you that you have an important shoot in three days and to call her as soon as possible."

She nodded. "I'm free, so I'll call her now." 

"Do that," he said. "She seemed to be in a hurry, though I don't know why." He wished her good luck once more before greeting the rest of the group. He then left as he had a recording after which he was to fly once more to Japan.

The life of an international star...

Excusing herself from the rest of the group, she went into a corner and dialed her manager, hoping that something bad hadn't happened. Her manager was one of the sturdiest people she knew, even during a crisis she was known to keep a cool head. If she was in a hurry, it wasn't a good sign. 

"Eunji-ah, you called!" She sounded out of breath.

"Unnie, what happened?" Eunji asked.

"Nothing you need to worry about," she said from the other end of the line. "I had some family trouble so I needed to abandon you. Sorry about that."

"It's fine..."

"Anyway, I wanted you to call me because while you were filming, I got a call from Dispatch magazine."

"Dispatch? Why?"

"They're doing a segment on idol couples. And they want to cover you and Suho-shi."

Eunji paled slightly. "So soon?" she asked. "It's barely been two months since we started dating."

"This means you two have done well," her manager said. "You've struck up enough buzz for a magazine to want to get the inside details about your relationship."

"But we have no inside details..." Eunji sighed. "Everything is out for the people to see."

"You know the way the media works, don't you?" her manager reminded. "It's part of the burden of being an idol. You and Suho-shi have made waves with your interactions, and they will stop at nothing to get some juicy gossip. Better to just give it to them."

"But-but-what should I say?"

"That you should discuss with Suho-shi.  You two are the ones who'll be giving the interview. Best to have your stories straight."

Eunji exhaled. "Sure," she said, kind of pale. "I'll do that..."

***

She didn't know when the right time was to call him.

Sure, she had been busy. After the video they shot for the fans, Apink had a recording. Once done with that, they had two consecutive live stages, both having different concepts, both taking nearly six hours. Then they had to go to the recording studio to assist in the writing of their new single.

She had crawled into her bed, tired, exhausted and drained. It wasn't like her, so she surmised that the news had probably taken a lot out of her.

She didn't expect it to be so soon. She was just getting comfortable with him.

And if she was honest, she was getting used to it, and didn't want anything in their dynamic to change.

But she should be calling him. 

Would he still be awake? It was pretty late.

He did mention that EXO usually stayed up late. Maybe he was still up.

It wasn't even midnight yet. He'd definitely still be up.

But would he even pick up? What if he was in some dance practice or something?

Then he'd probably call back, wouldn't he?

Sometimes...she really hated that humans had intelligence...

She sighed, picking up her phone and dialing his number. Well, better now than never, huh?

He picked up on the second ring. "Hello? Eunji-shi?"

"You picked up surprisingly fast," she commented.

"I wasn't busy." She could almost hear him smiling.

"No dance practice?" she asked. "Are EXO going to dip in quality now that you're slacking off?"

"Trust me, my fans won't allow that," he chuckled. "What's up?"

"It's about the interview," she said.

"Huh..." he sounded impressed, or shocked, she couldn't tell. "It took you long enough to call. I got the notice this morning."

"So did I, but I was busy," she explained. "I had a schedule the whole day."

"I was waiting for you to call," he said, surprising her.

"Me? Why?"

He chuckled nervously. "Well...I thought it might be weird if I called you out of the blue. And you've always been the one to call first."

"Isn't that a bad thing?" she asked. "Doesn't it mean that I'm more interested in you than you are in me?"

"Not for me it isn't," he said. "I've just been seeing it as our thing, you know? Like the taxi fare."

She felt herself smile at that. It seemed a lot of things had become their things. "Okay, I'm sorry i didn't call you sooner."

"Don't apologize," he said. "Now that you've called, we can actually start talking about the real deal."

"Ah, the interview," she sighed. 

"Are you okay?" He sounded concerned after hearing her sigh.

"I don't know what to do," she admitted. 

Knowing him, if she had denied it, he'd continue to press on and on until she'd give, like what he'd done once when she'd hurt her voice and still showed up to their date. That day, he had bought her cough medicine and got her to keep quiet, instead doing all the talking for the day. 

He breathed. "To be honest, I'm at a loss too." 

She sat up in her bed. "You've never had an interview with Dispatch before?"

"I have, but that's not it," he sighed, like she had. "It's just...this is our first actual public appearance together. We're going to officially be in the spotlight after this."

"Yeah..."

"I'm worried we'll be bombarded wherever we go. I'm worried we won't get to spend time together like we do now."

"Are you referring to the saseangs?" she asked, something clicking in her mind.

He hummed in agreement. "Not entirely, but yeah, they're always there. I'm worried they'll target you for being near me. I'm also worried people and normal fans won't leave us in peace after this interview."

She took a deep breath. "Seems both of us have the same idea," she said. "But I think we should trust our managers. They won't let us get into trouble, right?"

"Yeah, hopefully," he didn't sound too convinced though.

"Anyway," she changed the topic, "we should think up a story."

"We should," he agreed. "Do you have any ideas?"

***

A/N: The ending was completely intentional. It's supposed to end weirdly.

And I am enjoying sneaking in BEAST cameos in this story. I don't know why, since I'm not even a fan, but they're cool. (You guys should listen to Fiction if you haven't heard of BEAST yet)

The beginning was inspired by Apink's performance of NoNoNo and Luv on Yu Huiyeol's Sketchbook, where they started out with this ballad version of NoNoNo. I decided at that point that I need a pure acoustic version of NoNoNo in my life, just a simple guitar and these fabulous girls with their pure voices.

I'm getting on a roll with this story. Hope you guys are too.