The popstar had been right, when Yuri and Donghae arrived in the dorm, the lights were down and the entire band was gathered around the television. The movie was halfway over by the time they joined the group, but adjustments were quickly made to allow them to sit comfortably. Yuri had never seen the movie before, but between Dara, Jaebi, and SeungMi she was able to grasp the basics of the plot.

When the movie finished up, YoungJae threatened them with a vague, "You'd better be right on time wherever you need to be tomorrow." He made sure each of them nodded in response to his command and then headed off to bed. The rest of the band excluding YeongSaeng, KyuJeon, Donghae, Dara, and Yuri followed soon after him.

The five were planning on restarting the movie, to let Yuri see it from the beginning. Both KyuJeon and Dara asserted that this was necessary, hearing about the beginning, and seeing it were entirely different things. Donghae relented, but he pointed accusingly at Yuri, saying, "But first you have to take a shower! Dara, how many shops did you manage to drag him through? The perfume smell is never going to come out of those clothes."

He and Dara began bickering about how it wasn't that bad as Donghae pushed Yuri off. She grabbed her pajamas as Dara announced that she was going to bed and then scrambled though her shower. She wasn't sure if KyuJeon was planning on watching the whole movie again or if they were just going to watch up to the part where Donghae and she had joined in. Either way, it would take a while and they had to get up in the morning.

Yuri didn't dry her hair off very well, choosing to wrap a towel around her shoulders and head out dripping instead. She wanted to get the movie going as quickly as possible because she hated the thought of the others just waiting for her. She helped KyuJeon fiddle with the player, getting the DVD to restart from the beginning. The two met fairly easily with success and jumped on the couch to watch the previews as Donghae and YeongSaeng whipped up another batch of popcorn.

"How's MinYeon reacting?" YeongSaeng asked as he leaned over the breakfast bar from inside the kitchen.

Sitting on the opposite side of the counter from him but facing the same direction, Donghae responded, "Reacting to what?"

Jerking his chin in the direction of KyuJeon and Jay, who were involved in a round of rock paper scissors to decide who would get to hold the remote, YeongSaeng clarified, "To this thing you've got going on with Jay."

"What thing?" Donghae asked, genuinely puzzled.

YeongSaeng arched his eyebrow pointedly. "Exactly how much do you have to do for him before you finally realize that you're taking better care of him than you are of yourself?"

Donghae shrugged. "It's not like this kind of thing is news for me. I was worse with SeungMi; do you have any idea how many teddy bears I had to buy before I could get that girl to smile?"

"Did you ever let her on your precious motorcycle? Have you even let any of us touch it before?" YeongSaeng said, counting off on his fingers the times Jay'd been granted the privilege as he reminded, "There was the first day of the music video filming; and the ride home, and you stopped somewhere, so I'm counting that as two; and then there's today . . . Whereas if any of us even looks at it we have to get an earful from you about how it's like your childhood dog or something."

"It's my bike, I don't like you guys messing with it," Donghae responded.

"And he's not one of us meddlesome bandmates?"

Donghae laughed. "Jay's terrified of the thing. He won't go within twenty feet of it if I'm not right there with him. I don't have to worry about him messing it up."

"Uh-huh," YeongSaeng said with a look that spoke volumes. "I wasn't going to mention the hat thing . . . or the coffee and breakfast thing . . . or the staying up late waiting thing . . . or the thing about how you spend more time with each other than you do with your girlfriends . . . but I will if you make me."

Donghae still just brushed him off. "It's nothing. If anything, it's just like how the others see you and KyuJeon."

"That is a supreme failure of an example to prove your point," YeongSaeng said with a grin. "And you know it." He turned away from his best friend as he spoke, prompted by the sound of the beep, to pull the now hugely inflated bag of popcorn out of the microwave.

"If you never tell him anything, nothing will happen, and my point stands," Donghae retorted, leaning over the counter and snatching the bag out of YeongSaeng's hands.

He grabbed a handful of the warm kernels and dumped it into his mouth as he crossed to the common room's little television alcove. Coming up behind Jay, Donghae dropped the bag into his lap. Jay caught it with an excited yelp, pleased that he'd gotten something though he'd lost the duel for the remote.

He and KyuJeon were seated in the dead center of the couch, jostling each other for the best position as they nabbed some popcorn. YeongSaeng took the arm seat on KyuJeon's side and looked expectantly at Donghae as the feature film began to roll. Donghae ignored him and snatched the towel off of Jay's shoulders. "You're supposed to dry off with these," he said, adding, "They don't work well as fashion statements." He ran it roughly over Jay's head, making him fight both KyuJeon and Donghae to see the movie they had suggested he watch. YeongSaeng just watched in open amusement.

Eventually, Donghae was satisfied that Jay's hair wouldn't make him catch a cold during the two hours he would be staying up to finish the movie and took his seat at the couch's other arm. They went all the way through the movie again with no mishap other than a spat of popcorn throwing that spontaneously broke out during the scene where the main characters confessed their feelings to each other. It was a touching scene that no one paid any attention to as they fired off whatever ammo they had in their hands and furiously reached for more. No one was quite sure who started it, and in much the same mysterious way, it ended suddenly and wasn't repeated as the movie rolled on.

Then off to bed it was with an early morning wake up call.

It wasn't too bad; Yuri was able to wake up at her regular time without any problems. Donghae met her in the café and the pair grabbed enough coffee to wake the other members of Action up before seven. JongHyun and Chansung woke up easily and were perfectly awake with the administration of caffeine to their systems. YeongSaeng on the other hand, was resistant to the prodding of the others.

Since KyuJeon didn't need to wake up until noon, he'd stayed up extra late with YeongSaeng. This wasn't an insurmountable problem, but it meant that no one was willing to let YeongSaeng drive. JongHyun took the role, mentioning that his car had enough room for the five of them. Chansung was more than willing to let him drive, but he brought up that room for five was hardly necessary as Donghae would be on his bike.

"And Jay'll be with him," YeongSaeng added with a smirk.

Donghae ignored his friend and slung an arm around Jay's shoulders as the group made their way out to the garage. "You never know, he could be fed up with the thing. So, Jay, wanna ride with them? Or on the bike?"

"The bike's good," Yuri replied, ducking her head a bit. She wasn't sure who was being teased here, as YeongSaeng's smirk seemed to be directed at Donghae, though his was clearly directed at her. The motorcycle was still terrifying to her, but her crush on Donghae was getting worse, and it was now strong enough to over-ride the fear for the most part.

Yuri had to ride on the back of the motorcycle this time, because driving with her in front was doable, but not particularly easy. In the traffic of rush hour, it was safest to let Donghae have all the control he could get over the behemoth.

He'd been right though, the variety show was fun. It was literally a full day of games. One of them was a bit nerve wracking, the punishment for losing a round of 'Catch the Rat' being that one of the other band members got to make a cut in the loser's T-shirt. Donghae's abs were exposed, JongHyun's back, YeongSaeng's shoulder and collarbone; and Chansung lost both of his sleeves and the entire lower half of his T-shirt because he was really bad at the game. Yuri managed to scrape through unscathed by sheer will of concentration that the MC, Kim DaeSung, was massively impressed with.

Overall though, the set-time during the week of shooting was nothing but laughs. Between the games were mini games that went like questions and answer sessions, but if one of the other members thought you were lying they would press a button and water would shoot out of the floor at you. There were also a few, slightly more serious question and answer rounds, but only one a day. They shot four episodes, and two mini episodes, of the show Sunny Dae. Each episode took a full day to film, but the mini ones only took half the day.

Their first half day off came after two full days of shooting. They were released into the pretty Seoul sunlight at just after two, which unfortunately didn't coincide with any of the other groups' allotted free time. They managed however by playing in street fountains that wouldn't fit more than the five of them comfortably. Chansung managed to find a vendor that sold containers of bubbles, which amused them for the hours until the girls got out of their filming session.

Though the band's different factions certainly saw less of each other during the week spent in filming the variety shows, it wasn't like they never saw each other. Though they had feared there would be no contact between subgroups, they all still slept in the same dorm, regardless of how late some got in. While they had been working to promote some of their solo stuff, certain members had gone to Japan or China for a full month of not seeing the others. This was infinitely preferable.

The girls came home and went for a mid-evening stroll of the park behind the dorms with the guys of Action. YeongSaeng and Donghae spent the walk teaching Jay how to be a better boyfriend and criticizing how he was doing as they flirted with Dara. SeungMi and Jaebi were off in their own little world; a world that somehow involved ice cream, though Yuri was sure no vendor they had passed in the park had been selling any. JongHyun and SooHyun were talking about leaderly things that no one else was even remotely interested in, though MinJi tagged along regardless.

That left Chansung and JiEun to their own devices. Yuri couldn't help but notice how attentive Action's lead singer was to Sweet's lead dancer, especially as his actions were occasionally cited by YeongSaeng or Donghae to show Jay what he was doing wrong. And MinJi, Yuri noticed, was keeping well out of their way. She even joined up with the group critiquing Jay on his boyfriend behavior, though she knew perfectly well that Yuri didn't actually need any advice on the subject.

Because of this, MinJi was the first person Yuri went to when they went inside for the night. MinJi decided that vanilla yogurt made for a good before bed snack and Yuri joined her in the kitchen as she was mixing in some chocolate chips. It actually sounded pretty tasty, so Yuri whipped up her own batch as she broached the subject.

She didn't tiptoe around the issue at all. "What's with Chansung and JiEun?"
"What?" MinJi asked though a mouthful of yogurt.

Yuri pressed, "You were awfully keen to stay out of their way earlier."

"Oh, that," MinJi squeaked, blushing a bit. "Yeah . . . they're sort of together, but not really. It's kind of like understood that they're a couple, but no one's allowed to talk about it because it's technically not official."

"Like Jaebi and SeungMi?"

"Sorta, but not really," MinJi replied looking out into the common room where SooHyun, SeungMi, and JiEun were on the couch watching as Dara helped DongHae cheat at some card game the guys had started on the floor.

"What do you mean 'not really'?" Yuri asked, her interest officially piqued.

MinJi took her time in answering. She wanted to accurately relay the nature of the relationship without sparking another matchmaking incident. "They've been like that for years, but it's not so much a shy, crushy, like - like kind of thing, as a we've-been-friends-forever thing that's sorta spiraled away. They don't actually know how much they really like each other."

"Ah," Yuri said nodding. After pouring rather than spooning a large portion of her wonderfully tasty snack into her mouth Yuri mumbled in a questioning voice, "So what they need isn't so much a shock or even a push, they need a nudge."

"Please don't say you have an idea," MinJi whimpered.

Yuri scraped out the last of her yogurt and popped the spoon into her mouth, her lips pressed together in a smug smile. She looked at MinJi in silence that spoke volumes of what MinJi did not want to hear.

"You guys have to wake up early tomorrow, right?"

"Maybe," MinJi said slowly.

"That's all I needed," Yuri said sweetly. She threw her yogurt cup away and skipped off to JiEun's room. Her plan was actually made all the easier for her by the person who would be subjected to it. JiEun stored all of her shoes on the shelves at the top of her closets, places she couldn't possibly reach without the aid of a stepstool which was placed conveniently in the center of each closet.

Without touching anything, Yuri slipped back outside and then into her own room. After grabbing her pajamas she took a quick shower and headed over to watch the card game. She was watched closely by MinJi, SeungMi, JiEun, and SooHyun. Dara sidled up to her and slipped an arm around her waist saying. "You're scheming, aren't you?"

With Donghae watching to make sure Yuri performed the appropriate reaction, Yuri couldn't push Dara away. Instead she slung an arm around Dara's shoulders, whispering in her ear, "Maybe . . . Don't worry, it's nothing. In fact if something actually happens between those two because of this, I'll be very surprised."

"Because of what?"

"You'll see," Yuri said, releasing her with a wink that Donghae highly approved of.

Yuri kicked YeongSaeng and JongHyun aside so that she could join the circle. She was directly across from Donghae as they dealt her in. The five girls watched her nervously the entire time, but eventually they had to go to bed, as they needed to get up really early in the morning.

Once they were safely away, Yuri asked, "Hey Chansung, what kind of coffee do you want tomorrow? It's so annoying trying to figure out what you want because you can't wake up and get it yourself!"

"What's this 'can't wake up' thing? I simply choose to stay in bed and let you and Donghae fetch me caffeine," Chansung countered.

"Really? Prove it!"

"How?"

Yuri smirked. "Get up before me, and bring me an iced mocha."

Chansung considered the proposition carefully for a minute. "When do you get up?"

"Five."

He balked. "That's almost as early as the girls have to get up!"

"So?" Seeing him about to refuse, Yuri added, "Beat me to caffeine this once and I swear I'll never complain about your sleeping habits again." This was enough to tempt him, but not quite enough to get him to take the deal. "If you don't beat me I'm gonna complain everyday and never get you coffee again, and I won't let Donghae get you any either."

"Fine, I'll get your stupid mocha," Chansung relented.

Playing her last card and successfully ending the game, Yuri said, "I'm looking forward to it. Anyone up for another round?"

Chansung was out. He made his way to his room grumbling about how he had to get up so early for such a stupid reason. JongHyun was out too, but he went to bed because he usually turned in earlier than most of the others.

That left YeongSaeng to shuffle, Donghae to lose every round, and Yuri to win. Overall, it was a very predictable bought of card gaming, but it was still fun. When the appeal of card game was beginning to wane Yuri decided to make hot chocolate. "Do you guys want some?"

When they nodded she headed off to the kitchen. Pulling three mugs out of the cabinet and putting just enough water on to heat up, Yuri mixed a bit of coffee creamer into the cups after she dumped in the packets of powder. Premixing with cream always made the mixture taste better. The wait for the water to heat up wasn't too long, but it was still boring, and Yuri jumped gratefully into action when the timer dinged.

The fruits of her patience nearly tumbled to the kitchen floor when she turned around to meet Donghae, bent down to stare her in the face with an adorable smirk. "You're scheming," he said as he watched Jay fight to keep the three mugs perfectly level as he reeled from Donghae's sudden nearness.

"What are you talking about?"

"That thing with Chansung." YeongSaeng appeared on Yuri's other side and she again had to fight gravity to keep the hot chocolate inside the mugs. "You're perfectly fine ordering coffee for him, and he really doesn't care what you get him. And you know all of this."

Yuri grinned at him. "Yes, I am scheming, to get him out of bed more than ten minutes before filming starts."

"There is definitely more going on here," Donghae said, reaching around her to grab one of the hot chocolate mugs.

"What makes you say that?" Yuri retorted, handing YeongSaeng his mug.

As Yuri sipped at the beverage left in her hand, YeongSaeng asked, "Why are you up so late?"

"Why are you up so late?" she countered.

With a shrug, YeongSaeng replied, "No reason."

"Other than that you're waiting for KyuJeon to get home," Yuri mentioned.

"Am I?"

Yuri nodded. "You like him," she said slowly, wondering how far she ought to push this. KyuJeon had expressly said he didn't want her to tell YeongSaeng of his feelings, but this wasn't about KyuJeon at the moment. And Yuri was curious . . . and it was successfully distracting the boys from her plot with Chansung.

Luckily, YeongSaeng didn't get mad at her for figuring it out. Actually, he was quite impressed; Jay hadn't seemed the type for close observations or deductions. But he wasn't willing to admit everything just yet. "And how do you figure that?"

"It's pretty obvious," Yuri said with a shrug.

Donghae laughed. "Lookie here, folks. He's not as dumb as he looks!"

"Hey!" Yuri protested swatting at him.

He fended off her playful strikes with his hot chocolate mug, saying, "I told you that people were going to start figuring things out if you weren't careful."

"Even you would never have guessed that it'd be Jay," YeongSaeng countered.

"I take it that you're not gonna try the whole deny everything route," Yuri commented.

"What good would that do me?"

Donghae added, "Jaebi and SeungMi took that path, and just look at what you did to them! I don't think anyone's foolish enough to try that with you again."

"Hey, they ended up happily together," Yuri protested.

"KyuJeon's not like that, like either of them, he wouldn't react in the same way," YeongSaeng said softly.

Yuri groaned. "Has it ever occurred to anyone that the reason I did what I did with them was specifically because they would act that way? Or that I did it with them because only they would act that way? Everyone's different, which means that everyone falls in love differently, and everyone has to be pushed to admit it differently."

Donghae grinned in a particularly mischievous manner that made Yuri smile too. "Got it, so what's the plan this time?"

"And what does Chansung have to do with it?"

"Chansung has nothing to do with anything related to you," Yuri said definitively.

"JiEun," Donghae caught on. "You're planning to set them up somehow, aren't you?"

Yuri gave him a sideways glance. "It took you this long to figure that much out?"

YeongSaeng shook his head saying, "Will you at least give us a little bit of a heads up? I don't want to have to get mad at you again for no reason."

Yuri drained the last of the hot chocolate from the mug in her hand in one huge, straining gulp. Placing it in the sink, she said simply, "If you want to watch the show you'd better get up early."

She went to her room and sat in the dark for an hour as she waited for Donghae and YeongSaeng to go to bed. Once she was sure they were at least in their rooms for the night, she slipped out and into JiEun's room, the closets, more specifically. She pilfered the step stools from each of them and slipped out after making sure that the forward thinking young woman hadn't already taken down a pair in preparation for her early morning. Then just for good measure, she slipped into the rooms of the rest of QuaszauR Sweet, stealing any stepstool she could find. The fruits of her late-night labor made their way under the bed of YoungJae, who was thankfully quite the heavy sleeper as his door creaked despite Yuri's efforts to keep it quiet.

Donghae, who was watching the proceedings from the perfect vantage point that was just inside his bedroom door, couldn't for the life of him figure out Jay's plan. Wondering seriously if he should put a stop to the plot, Donghae saw Jay slip back into his own room, appearing to be ready to stay there for the rest of the night. He did not want another incident, as much for Jay's sake as for his own. Regardless of how things had turned out in the end, everyone had dealt with a pretty heavy emotional blow, and Jay had faced the back lash of all of it.

It would probably be best to stop this before it got out of control, but Donghae wanted to wait a bit longer. Jay had after all gotten Jaebi and SeungMi to be happily together, and now they were so significantly relaxed that the stress they had been feeling leading up to the catharsis was even more obvious. Jay's actions had been good for them in the long run, so just maybe the same would hold true for Chansung and JiEun.

However, Donghae wasn't planning on just letting Jay run this scheme without any kind of supervision. He went to bed only after setting his alarm to wake him close to the ridiculously early hour the girls were getting up at. One night with hardly any sleep wouldn't be too bad; while they were promoting, such was the daily routine and Donghae had long gotten used to it.

Of course, being used to suffering through the early mornings didn't mean he liked them. He woke bleary eyed and slightly less than coordinated a mere four hours after having finally turned in. On a normal day he would have made the quick walk over to the coffee house to get some caffeine into his bloodstream, but he didn't want to interfere in Jay's little charade. Crashing down heavily at the breakfast bar, he watched though sleepy eyes as the girls rushed back and forth in various stages of ready.

"You're up early, considering that you don't have to be anywhere for hours," SooHyun mentioned, sitting down beside him as she began to unwind some curlers from her hair.

"Aren't the stylists supposed to be the ones that mess with your hair?" Donghae said, choosing to ignore the implied question rather than address the issue she was trying to get at.

The leader waved his confusion away. "We aren't on a variety show that's filmed in a studio, we go places like day cares and hospitals and other places that would be inconvenienced by an army of hair and make-up artists. We have to wake up early enough to do it ourselves. You have the luxury of sleeping in. And yet here you are."

"I was wondering why you girls had to wake up so early!" Donghae replied, stifling a yawn, "I wanted to watch the show."

SooHyun contemplated trying again for the subtle approach, but she decided that she didn't have time for that. "This is about Jay, isn't it? What's his plan this time? You know, JiEun was tossing and turning all night with worry. I used half a tube of concealer covering up the dark circles under her eyes!"

"I've heard that surprises work better when less people know about them," Donghae commented. "But it seems like the only person who doesn't know is Chansung."

"Sorta, I mean we know that something's up, but even we don't really know about the surprise," YeongSaeng jumped in. He leaned over the breakfast bar from the kitchen side, practically laying on the countertop so that his shoulders came right between those of his two bandmates as he fought the urge to close his eyes and go back to sleep where he stooped.

SooHyun nodded. "I think the only leg up we've got on this one is that we know what Jay's capable of," she admitted with worry, her thoughts clearly where everyone else's were, on his stunt with Jaebi and SeungMi.

"He won't do something that dramatic again," Donghae said with certainty. "He doesn't want us to get mad at him again more than we don't want to get mad."

"Let's hope so," SooHyun said quietly as Jay wandered into the common room wearing a sleepy expression and a dingy sweatshirt four sizes too large for him.

Even as the situation they were facing was grave, Donghae found himself unable to resist the smile tugging at his lips as Jay rubbed at his head with a hand encased in the sweatshirt's oversized sleeve. The young singer mustered a smile when he found SooHyun, YeongSaeng, and Donghae sitting at the breakfast bar. The leader got up as he walked over, saying to her sleepy companions, "I have to finish getting ready; try not to break anything." Even in their tired state, the boys didn't miss her meaning.

Jay took the leader's newly vacant seat, and sleepily propped himself up on the breakfast bar looking towards the door. "Has Chansung left yet?"

"He wasn't in his room when I checked," YeongSaeng mentioned, his grin spreading when Donghae tried fruitlessly to get the collar of Jay's sweatshirt to sit on his shoulder instead of hanging halfway down his arm. Underneath the dark grey of the sweatshirt, paler grey material of some sort of T-Shirt was exposed, along with the even paler color of the skin wrapped around Jay's strikingly delicate collarbones.

Donghae quickly gave up trying to get the sweatshirt to sit properly, seeing as the enormous sweatshirt could easily fall off both shoulders if it felt like it, and settled for combing out the worst of the knots in Jay's hair with his fingers as he said, "You've got us all so excited about this little scheme, even YeongSaeng's up early."

"And still without caffeine, I might mention," YeongSaeng grumbled.

"Not to worry, I've got your usual, right here," Chansung said with a chipper grin as he waltzed in. He not only had the iced caramel latte that YeongSaeng had grown attached to recently, but also the mochas Donghae and Jay favored. And he'd picked up some caffeine for the girls too. Sipping triumphantly on his frappechino, Chansung passed the rest of the drinks out; leaving JongHyun's icy treat on the counter, knowing he'd be up soon enough.

He saved Jay's mocha for last, placing it in the sleepy singer's hands with a smug smile. Jay took the hint, saying, "I bow down before your morning managing abilities."

Chansung was about to reply when a frustrated JiEun stormed into the common room, towing a very confused Jinki by the ear behind her. "SooHyun-unnie! He won't tell me where he hid them! They aren't under his bed like last time!"

"Calm down," SooHyun soothed, as she tried to wrestle Dara's hair into what she considered an acceptable up-do. "We don't have to leave for another half hour and it only takes you a minute to get your shoes on. I can help you in just a bit, but I have to finish Dara's hair first. You're ready to go otherwise aren't you?"

JiEun nodded, reluctantly releasing her grip on Jinki's ear. Donghae arched an eyebrow, he'd forgotten the time Jinki had stolen all the step stools. By the looks of the amused, and definitely surprised, smile Jay was wearing, he hadn't intended to blame the vanishings on Jinki.

For his part, Jinki was still too asleep to really process any of what was happening and proceeded to stumble back to the relative safety of his room when JiEun released him.

Jay didn't let JiEun flounder for long. "What's wrong?"

Suspicious of Jay's motives for anything at this point, JiEun warily answered, "Jinki stole all the step stools again, and now I can't reach the shoes I need."

"I'll see if I can help," Jay said immediately sliding off his seat at the breakfast bar. JiEun gave him a suspicious glance, but he responded only with a cheerful smile so she led him towards her room.

When he was halfway down the hall, he turned back, calling, "Morning Master Hyungnim! You're tall, you should come too, I might not be able to reach the right ones."

It was a well played move, Donghae thought to himself as Chansung hurried to JiEun. Amid the teasing from Jay and the eagerness to help JiEun, there hadn't been any room in Chansung's unsuspecting mind for doubt of the younger boy's intentions to settle.

Yuri was thrilled that this was working so well, she'd been sure something would have gone wrong by now. Though, she would have to remember to make it up to Jinki later, she hadn't known the trickster had done something like this before.

Her next move was pretty easy. JiEun pointed out the shoes she wanted, Jay showed that he couldn't reach them, and Chansung stepped into the closet to replace him. It went without a hitch and Yuri slipped out of the small room just as Chansung wrapped his fingers around the desired box. A second later the pair inside the walk-in closet realized that the door had been closed, and that it was impossible to open.

Yuri sat with a smug smile, balanced on a chair that had been leaned under the handle at such an angle so as to successfully jam it closed while there was weight on it. The whole 'stick a chair under the handle to blockade the door and then just walk away' thing may have just been something seen in the realm of cartoons, but the physics of how to make it work for real was something Yuri had learned in her first year of University.

As Chansung struggled against her lightweight figure as it pressed a chair into the door and the friction of the carpeting, Yuri said in a tone of the most obviously fake concern, "Oh no, it seems the door has jammed. Whatever shall we do?"

Inside, the well-lit closet was large enough for Chansung and JiEun to lounge in complete comfort. This wasn't some ill-devised scheme to force them into an awkward situation. Rather, the hope was that knowing that Jay had been the one to design the set-up, after having meddled in a similarly audacious way with Dara's photo-shoot, and Jaebi's relationship with SeungMi, that they would at least begin to connect the dots.

JiEun, having already known that Yuri was plotting something, was already figuring it out. "Jay you idiot! It's not like that at all, now let us out!"

"I can't, the door is clearly stuck. This is a circumstance well beyond my control," Yuri replied, again way overly acted.

Chansung gave one last push against the door, one that very nearly toppled Yuri from her perch, but when it ultimately failed to wedge the door open, he gave up with a heavy sigh. "Why on earth would Jay do something like this?" He wondered loudly, "Doesn't he know you have somewhere to be soon?"

"Since when has Jay obeyed the status quo? All of his stunts have been completely off the wall!" JiEun mentioned, her voice giving away that she was much more stressed than the obvious situation warranted.

Chansung noticed the strain and was instantly more attentive. "Don't worry, he won't make you late, and SooHyun will have him scrubbing floors for a week for making you worry like this."

Outside, Yuri rolled her eyes. "Why doesn't it ever occur to people that I do things for a reason? Hmmm? Things would be so much simpler if people realized that there's a point to everything." This statement got Chansung thinking, as Yuri had known it would. She hadn't really meant to push them like that, but it didn't seem like it would be too catastrophic. Still to prevent her from taking things any further she said, "I'm gonna go get some help for this door thing, I'll be back in a few minutes."

She waited a moment to see if Chansung would try the door again, knowing her resistance would be gone. When he didn't immediately jump to open the door, she slipped back into the common room where YeongSaeng, Dara, and Donghae were waiting for her. JongHyun had woken up too, though he was busy helping SooHyun finish up getting the other girls ready.

"What happened?" Dara asked immediately.

"Nothin'," Yuri said with a grin.

"Where are they?"

"Nowhere." She added with a glance at SooHyun, whose eyes were on the common room clock, "I'm gonna just go outside for a bit. If SooHyun starts freaking out about how late it's getting, you should probably go let JiEun out of the closet."

With that she walked off leaving her audience a bit dazed. As she slipped quietly out the door with her mocha in hand, she heard YeongSaeng say, "He locked them in the closet?"

Yuri wandered around outside, sticking to the small park in front of the dorms, rather than heading out to the one a block behind it. That one would distract her from the time and she refused to make everyone worry because she'd gotten lost again. While she was waiting for something to happen however, she pulled out her phone and began texting her brother.

His phone was still off and it was much too early to give his hospital room a call, but doing something was more fun, and less nerve wracking, than just waiting around. After a little while, a commotion at the building's doors caught her attention. Yuna was leading the girls out to the van they were taking for the day. JiEun was very bubbly, Yuri noticed. SooHyun spotted her across the little park and heaved a sigh. The leader was very frustrated with Yuri's actions, but she couldn't find a way to be mad at the girl and went back to helping Yuna get the girls of Sweet into the van.

Sticking her phone back into her pocket, Yuri stood, stretching as the van pulled out of the loop in front of the dorm building. She was about to head back up when she spotted Donghae walking towards her. "If you want to go up now, you do so at your own risk. Chansung's a bit . . . peeved."

Yuri sat back down.

Donghae laughed. "Don't worry, he's not really mad. You just surprised him, that's all. He's not sure yet if he likes this new spin on his relationship with JiEun."

"Does that mean . . . ?"

"They aren't officially together, if that's what you're asking," Donghae said. "Not yet, at least."

Yuri nodded, she hadn't expected revolutionary change. "JiEun looked awfully happy, though," she mentioned.

"Yeah, but JiEun isn't the one you're going to have to spend the rest of the day with," Donghae countered. "Have you eaten breakfast yet?"

Yuri actually had to think for a second before she remembered that she'd made Chansung get the coffee this morning and therefore hadn't gone to the café yet. Donghae didn't give his bandmate time to answer, heading off towards the parking garage and towing Jay by the arm behind him. "Do you have decent clothes on under this horrible sweatshirt?"

"Just a t-shirt," Yuri said, stumbling along as she was towed backwards by Donghae. "Where are we going?"

"We're getting breakfast," Donghae replied, grabbing Jay's helmet from the box beside the motorcycle. The machine had come with two sets of safety gear, but Donghae had never used the silver helmet before he'd started letting Jay ride with him so it had lived in the box it had come in. Now though, as he was using it more and more frequently, Donghae was thinking that he might just throw that box out and hang Jay's helmet from the handlebars with his.

His thoughts didn't distract him from Jay's voice as the younger popstar complained, "But we walked farther to get to the stupid bike than we would have if we walked straight to the café!"

"We aren't going to the café; you need a better breakfast than that. It's the most important meal of the day, hasn't Yuri ever told you that?"

As Jay grumbled incoherently, Donghae fixed his helmet in place and then helped Jay with the straps on his. Then, pulling the helmet's dark visor down over his charge's face, he let Jay hop on in front of him, citing that traffic this early wouldn't be too bad. "So where are we going?" Yuri asked, nervously settling herself on the seat.

"You'll see," Donghae said mysteriously. He didn't wait to see if Jay was going to reply and kicked the beast to life and roared out of the parking garage as his passenger clutched in panic at one of his arms. The overly long sleeves of Jay's hoodie were just long enough to whip against the top of his helmet in the wind, and just short enough to allow Donghae to see as he drove.

Yuri managed to get herself under control fairly quickly, sitting in front on the beast definitely made her feel much more secure than sitting behind Donghae. Even so, she kept one of her arms wrapped around Donghae's, knowing that she could get away with it. She was really crushing hard on him at this point, but allowing herself a little treat was the most she could do about it.

When Donghae brought the bike to a stop, Yuri looked around confused. They were parked in a neat little shopping district, with no restaurants to be seen. "What's this?" she asked, pulling off her helmet.

"I'm school friends with the woman who owns this store," Donghae said, leading Jay inside the ultra-chic clothing store. "HeeJin-sunbae!" he yelled when there was no one to meet them at the door.

In a moment or two a honey-blonde young woman in a flowy knit poncho waltzed into the main room of the store cupping a mug of tea in her hands. "What kind of idiot comes here so early? I don't have any appointments for at least two hours," HeeJin said looking them over. "Donghae, what have you dragged in here?"

"Sunbae, this is Kim Jaebeom," Donghae explained. "He's not allowed in the dorm at the moment, and we have filming today, so I can't just let him wander around looking like this. And you were the first person that came to mind when I was thinking of who could help us out with the situation."

"Well, I'll see what I can do," HeeJin said, looking Yuri over closely as she sipped her tea. "Do you have a particular look you're going for?"

"Not really, we've just got an episode of Sunny Dae coming up today, so I'll leave it up to you," Donghae said, passing custody of Jay over to his senior by literally pushing him across the floor towards her.

Yuri struggled to keep her balance as HeeJin told her, "Come with me, we'll get you all fixed up."

Donghae watched to make sure that Jay went with HeeJin before he stepped back into the entryway to make a few phone calls.

Staring over the racks of clothing, HeeJin waited until Donghae's phone had been pressed to his ear for a few moments before she turned with conspiratorial delight to the person her junior had hauled across town in the early hours of the morning. "Why exactly does my little Donghae think you're a boy?"

The question caught Yuri completely off guard. "Um . . . what?"

"I'm not surprised that you've managed to fool him, he's not exactly the quickest on the uptake, but why would you want to? A pretty girl like you should want to get his attention, you know?"

"That's . . . a long story," Yuri responded, remembering the excuse Dara hand used on Heo-ssi at the salon. It felt like ages ago.

HeeJin wasn't satisfied with that as an explanation, but she switched to a related topic rather than continuing to pursue the base of the story. "I see he's gotten a new motorcycle, did he bring you here on it?"

"Uh, yeah," Yuri mumbled.
"Now that's interesting," HeeJin murmured, glancing over the clothing racks at Donghae again. He was still absorbed in his phone call. Slowly, and keeping her eyes on Donghae, she said, "I have a sundress that would look absolutely gorgeous on you, but something tells me you'd rather go for the jeans and a jacket look. I think I have something for you to try."

HeeJin led a trek though the store, picking up an article of clothing every once in a while as she made her way to the dressing rooms in the back. "Try a few different combinations of these and come out wearing your favorite, I'll be with Donghae by the mirrors near where you came in, got it?"

Yuri nodded. As HeeJin turned to leave, she called quietly, "You aren't going to tell him, are you?"

"Of course not, love," HeeJin said with a nonchalant sip of her tea. "I won't tell him anything."

As Yuri gave a relieved smile, and headed into the dressing room where HeeJin had tossed her load of clothes, the older woman murmured, "But I might make him tell me a few things."

Heading slowly over towards where Donghae was standing, she heard him say, "Yeah, I got it. Thanks for dealing with him, YeongSaeng. I'm sure he'll be fine by the time you head out for the studio. We'll see you in a few hours."

He hung up, but began dialing again right away. "Hi, this is Hwan Donghae. Yes, I'd like to make a reservation. Private room, sky-scape please. One of every breakfast food you have. We'll be there in twenty minutes."

This time when he hung up he slid his phone into his pocket and stepped back inside the store. His eyes met with HeeJin's curious stare and he gave a sideways grin as he walked over. "New clothes and a breakfast buffet? You're being awfully nice to this kid."

"Jay's my new SeungMi, my latest little project," Donghae explained. "I'm not sure how well I'm doing with it, though. He just seems to keep making more trouble for himself, and he still won't tell me anything."

"Ah, and you've decided to pull out all the stops? Is that why you let him ride your precious motorcycle?"

Donghae ran his fingers through his hair. "YeongSaeng was picking on me for that too. What is so special about my bike?"

"Donghae, I've been asking you that for years, and you still haven't let me ride it," HeeJin replied dryly. "How long have you been letting Jay?"

"It's just more convenient this way," Donghae said with a shrug. "He keeps getting lost and it's faster to get him with the bike than with YeongSaeng's car."

"Why not just buy a leash? No one would put it past you and you know it," HeeJin said with a grin.

Donghae returned her smile. "That is an awfully tempting idea."

HeeJin was going to tease him a little more, but the girl he called Jay was making her way out to the main shop floor. She was wearing light-washed jeans and a white faded print t-shirt under a back vest and a white suit jacket; she was a presentable boy, albeit quite the skinny fellow.

"He needs a hat," Donghae said after a moment of consideration. "Do you have any fedoras lying around?"

HeeJin nodded. She headed into the backrooms of her shop as she called, "What is it with you and hats?"

"Grab a few necklaces while you're back there, too, will ya?"

An incoherent shout, presumably of compliance, drifted back to Donghae's ears. He ignored it as he tweaked the way Jay's new clothes were sitting on his slim frame, he was just so skinny. Yuri was glad for his help; she was wearing a lot of fabric in order to hide her shape and arranging it all in a presentable manner was a tricky task to pull off alone.

A moment later, HeeJin returned with the hat Donghae had requested and an assortment of different necklaces. Yuri spotted one she liked immediately; a thin but durable silver chain connected to a locket in the shape of a gold heart with a silver padlock on it. Her eyes went wide at the sight of it sparkling in the sunlight pouring in from the floor-to-ceiling windows that lined the shop.

She wanted it.

She really wanted it.

But it was far too girly for Jay's tastes, and therefore she couldn't ask for it.

Instead, she picked up another pretty and unique item. Three different chains, of varied type, gauge, and length, looped through a silver rhombus which, though no more than three inches across, had the intricate design of a fleur-de-lys standing out in silver against a milky-white backdrop. It was certainly pretty too, but it was much less girly.

Donghae liked her choice right away. Taking it from her hands and sliding it over her head, he said, "There we go, that looks much better. Kihun would approve."

He noticed however that Jay's eyes kept flitting back to the spread of necklaces HeeJin had brought over, particularly to a very sparkly locket. It wasn't HeeJin's best work, or her best choice for Jay; it was a fairly basic heart shaped design, very feminine, with crystals thrown in for no artistic purpose other than to induce random refractions of light at any angle it was held. Jay's eyes followed the sparkling light as if he had never seen anything like it before.

Picking it up, Donghae inspected it. It was certainly sparkly. And Jay was obviously utterly in love with it. If that didn't prove the singer was ADD, Donghae didn't know what did. "Well, why not?" he said, slipping the sliver chain over Jay's head.

"Actually, that one is part of a set," HeeJin said, lifting another off the spread. The silver chain on this one was slightly more robust, trailing down to connect to a silver key decorated with gold detailing. "If you look closely, the gold ribboning on this one matches the silver details on the heart. And the pattern in the gold on that one mirrors the silver etching on this one. They're a one of a kind pair, I made sure of it; so you can't take that one without taking them both."

Donghae gave a wry smile, taking a hold of the chain she was dangling before him. "Fine, you scam artist. But this one doesn't match what Jay's wearing."

"But it suits what you are," HeeJin mentioned. "And the silver's been specially mixed with a few secret ingredients, you could go swimming with those things on and they still won't tarnish. Oh, and we just got in some new flat-caps, if you're interested, none of my design but they're pretty nice. Take these with you if you're going, they're in the back."

"Making your patron do all the hard work?" he said ruefully with an acknowledging nod. Then Donghae looked to Jay. "I'll be right back, Sunbae probably won't bite, so don't worry." He took the necklace tray from HeeJin and headed deeper into the shop.

The moment he was gone, HeeJin questioned in an excited whisper, "What exactly did you do to make that boy so attuned to a girl's love of sparkles? He usually has trouble picking out something for MinYeon's birthday, even when she comes with him! But he picked up on your little favorite right away."

"What?"

"How'd you do it? I've been trying for years to get him to learn how to take a hint!" HeeJin explained, not alleviating any of Yuri's confusion.

The store owner was about to go on, but just then Donghae popped back into the picture. The key necklace was hanging around his neck and on his head was perched a new plaid flat cap that honestly looked to both Yuri and HeeJin exactly like at least a dozen that he already had.

Waving his credit card in front of HeeJin's face he prompted, "We have reservations, remember."

"Right, wouldn't want to make you late for your little breakfast buffet," HeeJin said, taking the piece of plastic from him and walking over to a counter with a cash register. "Don't you have any real work to do today?"

Donghae slung his arm around Jay's shoulders saying, "Yeah, but thanks to someone, we got up way too early, and got kicked out of the house. So we still have a few hours before filming starts."

Handing Donghae back his card, HeeJin asked, "I don't suppose you want a receipt, or a bag, or anything, do you? I'll send someone to your dorm with Jay's clothes later."

"Thanks Sunbae, we'll drop by again soon," Donghae said, steering Jay out of the shop.

"You'd better!" HeeJin called after the pair.

As she listened to the roar of the motorcycle starting up, she wondered if she'd ever get to properly meet this girl who had taken over her junior's focus so entirely. As it stood, she didn't even know the girl's real name. HeeJin felt like she owed the girl somehow, for getting Donghae to smile like he had when he'd chosen the heart necklace. It was such a rare expression for him to wear, that kind of genuine happiness, and HeeJin was supremely satisfied that he seemed so comfortable with experiencing it. Before he would force himself to be happy, but HeeJin had never once seen him wear such an easy smile; at least not since he'd debuted as a pop star. It was a very nice change.