Lina gave an exhausted sigh. The models were very kind when she arrived to the venue where the fashion show was taking place. They mostly kept their distance aside from Stephanie who greeted her excitedly. During dress rehersal, the outfits that the fashion designer chose for Lina, fit her perfectly it made her excited for tomorrow's events. However, a man known to her ears as Park Il-Woo had been picking on her. Even the designer was at a loss of words towards the man. Park Il-Woo was in charge of the whole fashion show and was supposed to make sure nothing, not even a hair, was out of place. Unfortunately for Lina, she was the hair that was out of place.

"Lina-ssi, Park Il-Woo is asking for you to return to the runway."

Lina sighed and nodded. She had already stripped out of her fashion clothes and now dressed in her casual clothes she had arrived in, she exited from behind the stage and entered through the back of the runway. Down, sitting along with other empty chairs for tomorrow's event sat Park Il-Woo. A short, chubby man with a balding spot on the top of his head. He gave Lina an empty smile as she entered the stage.

"Yes sir?" She asked.

"Lina, I don't like the way you walked. You looked like a man in heels making your way down the isle and I don't need you to be messing the show with your weak visuals." He snapped with a nice tone that caused confusion and hurt to spread throughout Lina's emotions.

"I'm sorry sir." She bowed.

"Don't be. I just need you to practice more. Please walk up and down the isle until I feel the walk if perfect."

Lina had no choice but to do it. Going against his orders would cause her to get in trouble from Director Kang and she was too much in debt to risk that. So for the next hour, even after all the models had left, she continued to strut up and down the isle with heels. Manager Kang was desperate but he knew better than to go against anyone with a superior status than his.

"You're still walking like an ape. You're going to throw the whole show off with the way you're walking." He snapped.

Lina was on the verge of crying but she refused to give him that benefit so she stuck her head high and made her way down the isle like Dong Hyun had taught her to. She felt like she did an amazing job but him stopping her and yelling for her to start again made her lose confidence in her walk.

"Il-Woo-ssi,"

The pair of eyes turned to the entrance of the venue to see a beautiful tall lady wearing a dress that would pay off all of Lina's debt. Behind her stood Stephanie who had an unimpressed expression plastered on her face. The lady in front of her looked less than pleased to see that he was here forcing Lina to walk around.

"I think it's enough." She says in a monotone.

"Why would it be enough? Have you seen the way she walked? It's as if she's a man rather than a lady." He snapped. "You have no business here, so leave."

"I have no business here? I'm Lee Hyori!" She snapped. "I have every right to be here. You want her to take advice on how to walk like a lady from a man who resembles a pig more than a human. Jump off your high horse. You were probably staring at her ass." She snapped flipping her bangs out of her face. "Steph, go get her down from the stage."

"You'll be hearing from the higher ups!" He snapped.

"Why wait? I'll call them now and let them know you kept a model two hours after everyone else left. Against her own will." Hyori said pulling out her phone. "I should of got rid of you the first time I laid my eyes on you." She snapped.

As his eyes shined with understanding of what the reality was, he shook his head. "I'm sorry."

"Not to me, to Lina." She snapped.

He hesitated but turned to Lina when Hyori showed her finger hovering over the call button, just waiting to press it and get rid of him.

"Lina-ssi, I'm sorry." He apologized.

Stephanie glared at the man but helped Lina off the stage. Together they walked her to the elevator in silence while she tried her best to hold her tears back. If Su Bin was here, she'd be kicked out for destroying private property but Hyori handled the situation in a way that Lina never thought it could be handled. The modeling industry is definitely on a different level.

"I saw your road manager down here and asked him about you. He said that you've been here for almost two hours after rehearsal ended. I immediately called eonni to come and rescue you." Stephanie says.

"I'm Lee Hyori, not the singer." She smiled, a complete different person from the one who threatened to call higher ups herself. "Steph has told me a ton of things about you. I don't really hear a lot about people unless Steph is very interested in them. I'm surprised you've made a huge impact on your brief meeting."

Despite being told such kind words, Lina ignored it. "Thank you, for what you did back there. I felt like he was going to make me do that forever." Lina bowed.

"Please address me normally. If Stephanie likes you, there must be a reason." She smiled. "Don't worry, let's go and eat something. You need to build your strength for tomorrow."

That night, Lina felt a smile creep it's way up to her lips. Hyori is the definition of Ssenuni and it showed through the way she carried herself into the restaurant. Stephanie, despite her bubbly personality, is extremely smart. They all seemed to instantly click and she had a feeling that Su Bin would get a long well with them. They had this swag that made everyone look their way when entering a building. It was unbelievable.

They couldn't eat too much because of their show tomorrow so the night ended quite quickly but even if it did, Lina had to be honest it turned out quite well. She had a blast with Hyori and Stephanie.

As she entered her dorm, Lina sighed with relief when she took the heels off. Her feet had slight blistering to them and she could only imagine going to the show tomorrow with aching feet but she willed herself not to feel the pain because she needed this. She needed to get her life back on track. When she was ready to enter her room, the doorbell to her dorm rang. She went to the screen to reveal Daesung outside her dorm. She walked to the door and opened it, not even answering him through the screen.

Daesung's hair wasn't fixed and he wore sweats with a simple blue sweater. He smiled upon her opening the door, revealing the beautiful dimples on his cheeks. Lina couldn't help but smile as well.

"Hello." Lina says, moving to the side for him to enter.

"Hey. I hope you don't mind me being here." He says slipping his shoes off.

Lina waved him off. "Of course not. Are you alright?" She asked following him into her living room.

"Yeah, I wanted to see how your day went with rehersal and all. I thought in person would be better than a text."

Lina smiled, feeling touched by his concern. Not even her brothers were this caring towards her. They always had this thing where they only cared about themselves but were too prideful to admit it. The only one who showed how much they cared about Lina was Tae Woo who was arriving early tomorrow to make it on time for Lina's show.

"Thank you. I was just going to go shower. After a long day, I feel like relieving myself with a warm shower." She smiled.

"Oh. I'll get going then-"

"No, stay." Lina said before she could know what was coming out of her mouth. "It won't take long. I promise."

"Alright." He smiled and nodded.

Daesung watched as she made her way to her room when he noticed her stepping was weird. He waited to ask her about it. After twenty minutes of waiting in the living room just playing games on his phone, Lina returned wearing her round rimmed glasses, her hair up in a messy bun and a sweater that stopped mid thigh. He noticed her face was clean of any makeup, but it didn't stop her from looking any less of a goddess he felt like she is.

She was still walking weird.

"Why are you walking strangely?" Daesung asked.

Lina chuckled but it held no humor in it. "I was walking down the isle for a total of six hours. All with heels. It has it's toll on the feet." She says.

Daesung nodded understandingly. He stood up and without a word left Lina's dorm. She stood in her living room confused as to why Daesung just left without saying a word. She wondered if he got annoyed when people's feet hurt. That couldn't be it. That was too specific of a reason. After shrugging off Daesung's suddenly odd behavior, she sat on the sofa and hugged her knees to her chest as she began massaging the soreness on her feet.

It was about ten minutes since Daesung left when he finally returned. He was out of breath and Lina raised her eyebrow at his odd behavior.

"Daesung, what's wrong?" She asked.

"I have a paste." He says walking towards her.

"A pepper paste?" She asked.

Lina watched wide eye as Daesung sat on the floor before her. He reached for her feet and Lina couldn't fight him off because she was too shocked. He uncapped the paste and began rubbing the small blisters on her feet. He did it so gently, Lina couldn't help but hold her breath in awe. She didn't want to compare Daesung to anyone, but not even Hong Bin had done things like this for her and she knew him for most of her life. He was more of the physical type than the caring type like Daesung is.

"As an idol, dancing for hours also has it's toll on the feet. I have a paste to help ease the pain so you can walk perfectly fine in heels tomorrow. Trust me. It would be like you didn't even have blisters in the morning." Daesung says blowing lightly over the sores.

Lina could feel herself tearing at such a thoughtful gesture that she hid her face behind her knee. The worst part was that, Daesung didn't even know of the emotional impact that he was doing to her.

......................

Ssenuni is a slang which means
cool/strong/amazing eonni. It's two Korean words combined.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Tell me what you guys thought.